001All right, let's see. Is everybody online? Chairwoman Parade, are you on the line? >> Yes, I am here. >> Awesome. I think looks like there's quite a few folks online, so hopefully we have a quorum. Let's see. Do you >> I count seven board members online. >> Okay. Yeah, we have a quorum. Um Oh, good. Mr. Sharm was on. He was okay. Go with the meeting recording and everything. Let's see here. I think I said Yep. Deb, are you all set? >> Um, I guess I will press record just to be on the safe side. >> Oh, my hair. >> It's showing recording. Yeah. So, I'm not sure. >> Oh. >> Um, is it? Yeah. Yeah, I see it as recording. >> Okay, then I will assume that she's Yep, I see it as well.
002All right. Well, >> okay. >> I am I couldn't get the microphone to work. Yes, I'm recording. I'm all set. >> Thank you. >> All right. Um then I at this point I would like to call the February 23rd, 2026 meeting of the board of education, Newington Board of Education to order. The time is 7:01 p.m. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Deb, would you please call the role? >> Yes. Mary Beatric >> here. >> Sean Hollerin >> here. >> Marissa Lensing >> here. Timothy Newton >> here. >> Sam Sharma >> here. >> Brianbo, >> Dr. Gail Stanley >> here. >> Jessica
003Weaver >> here. >> I have everyone in attendance except Mr. Skebo. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. At this time, I'd like to open up to um for public participation on any matter related to board responsibilities. Um if you're in the Google Meet, you can raise your hand to be recognized. I am not seeing any hands. So we can move on to the first item on our agenda which is our budget workshop. Um I'll turn over to Dr. Bremit. Thank you very much. So I have prepared a um some updates to the slides that I've been doing all the way through our budget process. So, let me get that on and um hopefully everyone can see that the screen that now has questions, clarifications from February 18th and followup questions. Um does that show
004to the board? >> Yes. >> Very good. Um I do have at the request of some board members I did invite um AD Meyers to the table this evening just because there had been some questions arising about athletic fees. Um so I'm going to turn it over to him for some initial comments. Um some of the things that the board asked for information about we cannot access remotely. So, some of these may have to be tabled till Wednesday evening, but there are a fair number of things that we can at least try to clear up tonight. So, uh, uh, Mr. Myers, if you wouldn't mind speaking to athletic fees and where they go to and, um, we'll start from there. >> Of course. So, um the athletic fund is a part of the student activities
005fund. Um and more or less that's where our um fees from families go to. Um game tickets go to um where you know we have our um ice hockey program which is a co-op. So payments from the other towns goes into that fund as well. Um, and we use those fees to pay for our officials, um, supplies that aren't provided by the board of education. Um, you know, and other costs that that come along our way, game workers. Um, and these are things that more or less come in and go out. Um, just to make sure that our daily operations can take place. Um, one of the reasons that, you know, we looked at a slight upgrade, um, last year was, as you know, if we hold on to a standard participation fee for seven
006or eight years with inflation, you know, the a large portion of our of these costs go to things that are rising every year. Um, so officials fees, we have to go off of what the CIC established fees fee rate is. Um, so we are obligated to pay those fees as they go along with the equipment that that adds into that. Um, so you know, the the fees come in, we use those um we use that revenue to pay for um the things that the athletic department needs outside of what the board provides. >> Thank you. Does that um does anyone have any follow-up questions on that piece? U Mr. Newton? You unmute Tim. All right. Well, we can go to Miss Weaver and then Mr. Newton when he finds a mute button. Yeah, thank you
007for that. Uh, Chris, appreciate that. Yeah, I think we just wanted to know um given that we we increase the athletic fees. Um, we were wondering too just not all games we noticed like obviously basketball or football have those game entry ones and if you know $5 you do it, you know, you could get a good amount of of you know, especially given if we're really good like we have been, uh, getting some good amounts of dollars from those. And we were just wondering just from like a budget perspective. Um we know that those sports also have concessions and those ones goes to the boosters. No problem there. Just wondering too, especially when it's like, oh, the cheerleaders are at football or at basketball. Um is that going to just solely like the officials or
008is it going to basketball boosters or those kinds of things? Like where is that money going? because we know not all sports have the same requirements for um charging at at games and then also attendance and then also the kinds of officials because I know even like for for swimming like they're going to have some CIA people for diving but they're not charging and so we just didn't know if that was like a sport byport decision obviously just want to be equitable about whatever but specifically the um like the $5 entry free ones we were just wondering if that went to boosters or for covering operating stuff >> no so that none None of the fees go to boosters. Um those are fees that return back to the athletic department. Um and again pay for
009our game workers, pay for security, pay for um you know additional coverage that we need. The >> the concession stand is run by the boosters. Um that is something that we do not um take over. So we do allow for for those individuals go. But, you know, again, the the sports that we do choose to to charge for um evening events, um you know, after 5:15 is usually what we go with. >> Uh you know, that is again, every district looks at things differently. Some districts charge for volleyball, some districts charge for everything after 345. So, you know, I mean, some districts charge $10 and $5. Some districts, you know, so it's it's kind of a district-to- district decision on, you know, what what kind of stance we want to take right now where football,
010um, wrestling and basketballs. Um, and those are those are the contests that we do charge for. Um, again, that that's something that can be discussed. If it was something that, you know, the district decided that we wanted to raise more revenue from ticket fees, from gate fees, that is something that we can, you know, dive into. Um, but it's always kind of a juggling act of, you know, trying to be responsible, but then also trying to make sure that we're gaining the funds just to make sure we're staying at status quo. >> No, absolutely. And honestly, we more were like, okay, how much it comes from those two because we also know, you know, obviously we don't want it to be kind of a a double hit on a lot of the parents that are,
011you know, having to pay for our our budget in terms of their taxes and then also doing that. So, more just was wondering kind of what that led to, but the security and and all those kinds of things. Helpful perspective. So, thank you. >> Thanks. >> Just answered it. >> Miss Oh, okay. Yeah. So you're all set. >> Okay. >> Um I guess so. Yeah, I think one of the just the question that we had based on the raising the athletic fees. So that um last year we did that. So that is going into the activity fund. So it's not part of the operating um budget which is um I think we should have known that last year. We probably did. But just that um was it helpful? Well, I guess my question to raise
012them, are you finding that you're in more of a like better position with funds that are required across? >> Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, we're meeting we're meeting expectations and again the the the challenge and the and the one thing you you never know is what you're going to get in regards to, you know, you mentioned the ticket revenue. Um, you know, you can do well some years, you can do terribly others. A lot, you know, a lot depends. We had I remember back to the triple E days when we when we had to have our football games right after school and and there was really no revenue coming from those contests. So um you know the what the what the increase does help with is you know the supplies and things that that
013do come about outside of what the board is able to provide. Um unfortunately stuff just costs a lot and and our officials are getting an increase um every single year and that's that's not something we can control. So, um, you go to like a swimming, I mean, again, we're getting three officials per event, right? And there's no revenue really coming in for those other than the participation fees that are used to pay for that stuff. Um, but, you know, the goal is to try to make sure that everybody can, you know, have a experience that they can enjoy. Um, and and again, it does help meet those expectations of what we need while also being responsible with the money that we do spend. >> Okay. Yeah. And maybe worth a look. Not obviously it won't
014impact the budget currently, the operating budget that we're working on now, but maybe take a look at um you know what sports are using cuz you know football refs probably cost more and you need the athletic trainer and you need the EMT there and police presence. Um so football is obviously more expensive sport so it makes sense to charge there. you know, is is wrestling one that you know, is it just because of the meat time or is it because you have big tournaments like that, you know? So, I guess just um maybe just may like at some point like a look of the different sports we have if we do or do not charge admission fees and and maybe if there's a sport that's not charging it, but they have more expenses, then you
015know, I'm sure you've looked at it, but like just kind of reassess. >> Yeah, it's it's very challenging. Uh I mean again um we had charged uh for volleyball. At one point it was brought up that that it was felt that we shouldn't be charging for volleyball so we stopped. Um you know again it's we can go many different ways. I guess it's it's what what um what everybody would feel comfortable with charging um or charging for and then looking at you know what that revenue might offset. Um, you know, a lot of our I mean, again, um, wrestling has just been a, you know, an evening event. 6:00 meets kind of the standard. Um, we don't make a ton of money on those on those meets. Um, but it's it has been something that
016historically we have charged for as a district. So, um, you know, we would kind of have to decide, do we is it something we're looking to add to, subtract from, um, is there a standard that we would want to, you know, to follow? Is it is it any event that begins at after a certain time do we charge for? >> Um, you know, I guess that those are the questions that I I'm more than happy to to take on guidance and go from, but every district kind of manages it >> differently. There's really no set standard of um of where it is and especially now you're seeing you're seeing different um entry fees. Um, you know, we've gotten all the way up to where some are it's $10 for an adult and $5 for a
017student. Um, and that's just, you know, um, that's kind of seems the direction that schools might be going, but again, that's a direction that they're comfortable with. So, um, I'd be more than happy to to speak at, you know, a later date if it's something that we would want to, you know, venture into as to what we would want to add to or subtract from, uh, if need be. >> Okay. Yeah. Yeah, we can talk further. similar to how um sports are divided into seasons and and as Chris and I chatted about it over the weekend um it does vary district to district. So Newington may want to start looking at a different way of going about it. Um and um there were questions too about the uniform replacement cycle and Mr. Myers shared that
018due to bathing suits are covered by individual students because it's not something we can share yeartoear. Is that a is that an accurate statement, Mr. Myers? >> Yeah, that I mean that's been historically at the schools I was at previously in the last you know 15 years I've been here um that has been a historical uh practice for swimming just because it's a very personal item. So it's not something that would be carried year over year. Whereas the uniforms that we purchase are come back to the come back to our program and then are reused um you know after being cleaned obviously. Yeah. >> By individuals after >> the other question and by the way I apologize for the re readability of this slide. I have to I was editing it right up to the
019last minute. I will I will format it better but it has been edited quite a bit today. Um Mr. Mr. Myers, can you also speak to there was a question raised about line 119, which is the salary line for coaches. It's gone up significantly over the past few years. You and I spoke about it and certainly every year our coaches get raises in accordance with the teachers contract. Um, we're not particularly competitive coach salary wise. We're on the lower end there. But I also in a meeting I had um after you and I spoke with um CFO Bol, we realized that the athletic trainer has now been included in that line. Does that probably speak to some of that uptick? >> If that's if that's where uh that those funds were placed, it definitely should
020be. Um you know, again, I mean, our coaches, we do have um 63 paid staff members. Um, so just so there's we we do have four steps on the coaching scale. Um, you know, as they move up those steps, those are a little jump increases along with those that are on the top step also get the raise um that the contract calls for. Um, so that will definitely account for a portion of the raise. Um, Miss Boy will probably be able to speak to a little bit more on the opposite side of the exact position that might impact it. I don't have the exact um difference from one year to the next but that is something that you know just looking over the number of positions and what could be impacting that could that's definitely
021going to impact an increase in that line >> and a more detailed look back and that's why it's highlighted in yellow we need access to some district-based reports that we can't get remotely so to look through that with a more fine tooth comb which we can do but we would need access to our our uh board of ed technological accounts but um safe to say we have not added coaching positions at all. >> So these are just the the impact of contractual as well as we believe the inclusion of the athletic trainer who used to be a contracted service which fall fell into another line. Um I'll turn it your board chair. >> Um yeah, Miss Weaver, you can go ahead. >> Thank you. Yeah, I think we were just trying to figure out we
022were like, "Oh, like you know, you see just bigger numbers and we were like, "Oh, this just seems like a driver." Um, but no, the the explanation too of um I don't know why I wasn't thinking that they're part of the contract as well, just because I'm thinking they're getting stipens and not salaried. Um, so yeah, we were saying in the past like two three years it's gone up 120,000 and this year it would be like another 28,000 or something. Um, and so we were just trying to figure out and then we were doing the math and we were like, "Okay, so that's an average of like 7,000 per coach." And we're like, we know some of the coaches, but we knew there were steps in between. And we were like, "This math is not
023mathing the way we were thinking." Um, but it's helpful to know, too, because if you did it over and you divided it, we were looking at like 475 per year of raise, but that's also if they all made the same. So, totally understand, too, that some are we knew that there were steps, but just weren't sure about which steps um there were. And then having that actual like salary position in there also seems to be >> the big jump is going to be the trainer position for sure. >> That's like a large portion of that. Okay. >> Yes, that's that's going to be the that's going to be a big jump. Um when we made that decision to which has been a tremendous decision and thank you to the board. Um, it is really the
024the the gold standard in athletic training and high school athletics right now is having a athletic trainer that services only your school district because it is there are plenty of schools out there that do not have service right now because they're just don't have access to it. So, um, but that is definitely a leading cause to that huge rise the year before. The 28, um, is probably part, you know, he's got a larger salary, so the any raise that would go would probably be a little larger. And then when you spread that across, you know, 63 different positions, um, you know, the the small increases will will contribute to that. >> Yes, it we were like, okay, that makes sense now, but also helpful to to know the the contractual obligations as well. That's just
025good clarity. So, thank you for entertaining our lovely questions. >> No worries. I promise I'm not I'm not adding anything. We're not suggesting anything. >> I'm not giving people roles. I promise. >> No, no, no, no. We were like, we know like oh these are certain. We were like maybe we should be coaches, but then we were like, okay, we know these coaches are not making that. Um, and they we know plenty do this out of the goodness of their heart. So, we appreciate all the coaching that is done. Thank you for the clarification. >> Yeah. Can you just clarify when we started budgeting for athletic trainer because I thought it was last year that he came? >> He started last December. >> Okay. >> So, it was after the budget was created >> that
026he started >> 204. >> He was not in last year's budget. Um in that line he we were still using contracted services. >> Okay. That explain Yeah, that explains because we had allocated I looked back. We allocated 366 but we actually spent 393. So that makes sense that he was um not in the budget when we initially requested it. Okay. And then I just have another side question. Um, and again, we can look at it like when Alio's available, but um, are there are there any coaches that coach more than one season and are they getting um, two essentially two salaries of coaching? >> No. So, so again, uh, the one the one that does kind of roll over and have multiple seasons is cheerleading. Um, and we have one one set stipen. Um, looking
027at surrounding school districts, everybody kind of does it differently. Some do a two season stipen, some do a one season stipen. Just so you under know, we we actually pay it in half. So, we pay the first stipen at the end half of the stipen at the end of the fall and half the stipen at the end of the winter. That's just how it has been, you know, in process. Um, you know, again, our our our salary scale for our coaches is on the lower end um for the CCC, but when you go look at like, you know, the contracts are accessible. If you go look at other districts, if there's a two stipen um or if it's a full stipen, the the the dollar amount equals about the same as to what we're compensating
028um in in relation to our coaching stipens. We just happen to list it as one. We could split it into two um and have it separate. We do pay it that way. Um but so if we wanted to make it clear, I don't know because it's in the contract. I don't know what um impact that would have. But you know, we we could we could e just so you know, we do pay it half and half just to make sure that the coach isn't waiting in, you know, seven months um to receive their stipen. They do get half uh and half, >> but it's it's one stipend over two seasons when all other coaches is is one stipen over one season. Same amount, same dollar amount. >> So So yeah. So if you but if
029you look at it like relative to um if we were going to compare a cheerleading stipen um to to other surrounding districts, the the total amount coaching the two seasons is is relative um relatively the same. Um like you might see somebody like where our stipen is I think it's 64 or 65 somewhere around there. Um we might pay it you know 34 and 3 you know three or whatever. Um other districts might just list that as a fall and a winter or they might just list one cheerleading stipen. So it it kind of just depends on how we would want to go about listing it in the contract. Um, but just so you're aware, we do pay it twice. We do pay it in separate installments for the benefit of the coach. >> Okay.
030Yeah. I just want to make sure because the time and effort a coach puts into a season is obviously, you know, a lot and then for it to extend two seasons and then I was, you know, if they're only getting one statement, then maybe the cheerleaders only have to pay one athletic fee if it's considered the same. But no, I'm just kidding. Um, but okay. Yeah, thanks for um explaining that. And yeah, once um we'll just I think we do have the question just to look at the by sport the stapins but um but that won't affect um it won't affect what it is currently. So >> right >> it would have to come into play during budget uh I'm sorry contract negotiations >> but that is certainly a viable area to look at for
031the next teacher negotiations. >> Okay. Which will be this summer right? It will be. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So maybe just before then have that information provided. >> Um >> there's a question on the table. >> Oh sorry Mr. Sharma. >> Yeah I just had a quick question. Um I know like each each district is different but could you just paint a picture for us about I mean which um which sport like which coach are probably at the higher end getting a stipen what that is and and which sport would be on the lower end in terms of the stipens. So, um, the all this, so the stipens are in the contract and our highest stipen would be our, uh, football position. Um, and it's, you know, a lot of it's looked at just length of
032season. Um, and then it breaks down. I I I don't have the contract in front of me, but you can see all of the individual stipens um, that break down in the in the contract. Um, and that is something that's negotiated, you know, via negotiating process. Um, >> Oh, yeah. So, it's available in in the contract. Okay. So, each district. Okay. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> All right. Any other questions? >> I can have the board I can send the board the the salaries for coach stipens as a followup just so they have that. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. If I'm not mistaken, uh that are those are all the athletic director questions we had this evening. Um unless there are others, I figured as much as uh Mr. Myers enjoys our budget meetings,
033he doesn't need to have the entire experience. >> Always a pleasure. >> Thank you for joining. We appreciate it. >> Thank you everybody. Have a great night. >> Thank you Mr. Myers. Much appreciated. >> Take care. Um, so moving along with the other questions and again uh apologies for the formatting. Anything in highlighted yellow we're going to need more time for because of our access to the appropriate databases. So that would include the special ed tuition 5-year look back um the realized savings from last year. What really contributed to that? Um we we did have a discussion about that this afternoon and we did look in the benefits line last year was overfunded. So that was one of the pieces. Um but anything more in depth than that besides what you already knew about paras
034unfilled parah positions. Um we want to do a deeper dive so it can be an accurate reflection. Um budget drivers same thing. Someone wanted me to send that list or create the list and I it's in my PowerPoint but it's blank. They need the access to the district databases to create the budget drivers uh accurately. Um year-over-year spending on outplacements. Actually, it looks like I wrote that twice, so covered that. And same with the pie charts. um to get those done by school actually requires Tom Santoro, our uh data um specialist to create reports that would allow us to do it school by school. So that we would need a little more time to do that. Um today no one was in the office so he was unable to work on that. Uh looks like
035there's a question. >> S did you have a question or was that from before? his hand had been raised. Um, >> all righty. Um, the other items getting back to the top of this list is the impact on the non-lapsing fund or impact on the budget if the non-lapsing fund were to increase from 1 million to 2 million. Um, I'll get into that in just a minute. Um, we did we did put a question out to Janet um the the uh town finance director to ask her whether the non-lapsing fund is an interestbearing account. We have not heard back from her yet. Um, there have been no updates from our health insurance. Sadly, I don't think that's going to happen until uh after this budget season has concluded for the board. Um, so those are
036the questions that we recall from meetings and follow-up meetings. Um, if what I'll do now is tap into the budget reconciliation um to just show you the impact of the non-lapsing fund being increased. Um, let me get this tab here. If we increase the non-lapsing fund by another million dollars, our budget would then be at 5.53%. And that includes everything that's above here. All the cuts that were made the other evening as well as the um insurance for paras and rbts being included, reducing the time work bonus and reducing four building subs. That leaves us with an increase of 5.53%. Um so that is the impact of another million dollars. Um, we don't know yet what our reliance this year will be on the non-lapsing fund. As a review, um, it was in a previous
037board meeting that we showed what our non-lapsing fund balance is. So, currently it's at 3.898 million. If we were to plan for 2 million of that going to next year's budget, that would leave us 1.89 million for any short falls this year. So that is um something that the board can um be you know right now there would be a balance in there to cover any shortfalls from this year. Um we would go ahead. >> Sorry. Can you just um remind me what our anticipated reliance was for this um current budget? >> I can. I believe it was 2.7 million. >> Okay. So, we expected to use 2.7, but we we don't think we're going to use. >> We do not with our current look at the budget. While we think there could be some
038need to tap into the non-lapsing, we absolutely don't think it'll be at the $2.7 million level. Uh otherwise, I would not um I would certainly caution the board that that could be a decision that would not be a good idea. I I would caution them against any more utilization because this, as we know, there's pros and cons to using the non-lapsing fund. at some point a funding cliff does arise. Um, but I just wanted to show that remind the board of this current snapshot of the non-lapsing fund and then the impact of adding another million dollars of non-lapsing fund offset. So there were um I also wanted to show the board. I created a few other slides and unless the board chair wants me to go in any other direction, I have a few more
039slides to show the board. >> Um no, you're talking about the the correction that we need to make. >> And then also the grants. There was a question about grants. Um, maybe. Yeah, go to the grants first and then >> you got it. >> Yeah. >> Sorry, I'll get here. >> All right. Where did the grants go? Oh, I put them. My apologies. I added them to where the grants already are. Here. Here it is. This is what the board already knew that grant utilization for salaries. The board already se has seen this slide. I gave it a little more detail with the help of my business uh uh office that certified teacher salaries uh include offsets from open choice the seed grant which is a two-year grant and it's going to be in year
040two next year title one and Perkins. Now, Perkins is a very small grant and all it does is provide for some stipens for some of our um CTE teachers at the high school for some of the extra responsibilities they have. So, that's 21.3 positions and a few stipens over all of those grants. Um the idea grant helps to offset one administrator, a special ed administrator. The specialed paras are also offset by both the idea grant and the seed grant for the uh one particular program. Our chief uh of strategy innovation and culture for equity is offset by the open choice monies. So that this number has not changed from the other night. I've just simply added more detail. So about 55 sorry my eyes are going bad here. 53.3 positions are grant offset to the
041total of 2.7 million. Where we added an additional slide is here where we use some other offsets. So the effective school solutions program uh has a $100,000 offset from IDA. Medicaid reimbursement is charged to the 599 line at an offset of 55,000. The excess cost grant is applied to the outplacement line at 1.7 million. So these additional grants not for positions but to offset um programs or lines is 1.855 million. Um, and as the board is aware, we we did lose some grant funding this year for the uh social emotional learning counselor at the high school and the school-based health center grant. Those grants both sunseted this year. It's important to note too um that while title monies have more than just what you're seeing here, we don't use them as offsets to the budget.
042rather those in charge of the title grants such as Miss Freeman and Miss Lawrence, they use that money to pay for different supplies and trainings and we never put them in the board budget at all. We just say we know that this title grant will offset some of the cost of um not even offset will cover the cost of these trainings. Therefore, they never make an appearance in the board budget. they're just written into the grant typically reading trainings and um other things, ML trainings. So, those do not make their way into the board budget because they're simply written to be paid for out of that grant directly, if that makes sense. >> Okay. Are there questions on grants? Uh, Miss Vus, >> um, just a quick question about the the Medicare reimbursement of $55,000.
043Could you elaborate a little bit more on that, please? >> Sure. Um, there are some services provided by special education staff that we can bill to Medicare. That includes uh speech and language services, psychology services, um, OTP services. So we bill we use a an outside vendor to assist with this. It's a very cumbersome somewhat rule laden process. So we bill it up to uh a association called Kenny Associates. They do all the numbers for us, send it in, and from that entire process, we net $55,000. Unfortunately, the state takes a huge chunk of that and there are a lot of rules. We are exploring. One area that we have not typically build for that we are going to run some um simulations to see if it would be worthwhile is transportation. Some special ed
044transportation can be build back to Medicare. Um so it's it's a small pot of money but 55,000 is um close to a teaching position or a parah and a half. So, we feel it's worth um worth the effort to move forward with it even though we we bill for a lot of services but get this small portion in return. >> Great. Thank you so much. >> Um Lynn, did you have something to add? >> Yes. I just wanted to clarify it's Medicaid, not Medicare. >> Medicaid. >> Okay. Um Sam, do you I just want Do you have your hand up? >> Oh, sorry. I I forgot to dig it down. >> Okay. Um Miss Weaver. >> Yeah. Thanks so much for this. Really appreciate um just giving that. Um and just to clarify, the seed
045grant is not necessarily guaranteed. I know it's kind of by the legislature and a new kind of thing, but um we are anticipating it this year, but not necessarily guaranteed next year. Is that correct? >> That's correct. We're advocating for additional resources, but this is only guaranteed for one more year. >> Um >> thank you. Just want to clarify. Appreciate it. >> Absolutely. Do you have an um anticipated um reimbursement amount for billing Medicaid for transportation? Like do you have any like is it going to be another like $20,000 or could it be like significant? I know we were going I don't know if Marilina's on the line or not. Um Lynn and Marilina were going to work together to kind of run some simulations to see if the net was worth what because we
046would have to now have bus drivers document routes. Lynn or Marilina, were you able to begin that process or you're still pending? >> That is still pending. >> Okay. >> So we didn't what we've put in here is an offset that is what we know to be true for the services that we've built for this year. it there could be if if transportation works out and we will keep the board posted. We we there may be opportunity to see some more resources there. >> Okay. Yeah. I guess I just like without any information like it's kind of it's a it's a great idea and I think definitely pursue it and see what the um thanks Gail um see what we can get from it and yeah if it makes sense netwise like if it's >>
047right >> much effort then we're getting for it but >> we did talk to Dean Barnes about it and he feels his drivers can handle it. Um the there's some challenges with um Oh, you know what? Let me let Marilyn explain it. This is her area of expertise. >> Hi everybody. So um there is there's two parts to the Medicaid reimbursement. One is the actual billing. Then there's something that is called the random moment study. and the district is um penalized if our staff doesn't answer this random moment study within a certain amount of time. Our bus drivers have such wonky hours. You know, they don't have a computer. They don't look at their emails like we do. So, we're looking at a system as like how can we alert them that they have to
048check their emails, they have to answer this random moment because if we're making money on one end, but then we're going to get dinged on the other end for not answering this random moment study, we don't know what that what that's going to do to us. So, we're working on number one, finding out how many Medicaid eligible students we have. Number two, if we could do kind of like a pilot and see, you know, what our return on investment is going to be and if there's a way that we can work on um notifying them so that they're aware of this random moment study and that they have to answer um that those questions um and if there's, you know, a way that we can be alerted at the same time that they're alerted so
049we can let them know. Um so yeah, so we're working on it. It's it's taking a little bit of time on the back end of it um to get it up and running. Um and I do want to maybe reach out to some other districts who are doing it to see if maybe they have a good system in place. The difference is is that we have our own transportation company. So they might be able to do it through a third party. Um so we will uh definitely we're looking into it and and might hopefully we'll have some information for you very soon. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, Miss Petus, >> uh, Marian, you may have touched on the question that I'm actually going to ask is whether or not that would require any additional um,
050training, staffing, or um, equipment resources that we might have to spend on to meet the requirements of that grant. >> Yes. And and it's not it's mostly time and uh, because there's no extra um, you know, resources. I don't know if the if the um bus drivers get laptops so that we would just have to make sure that they would have when they come back to the busard they would have access to a laptop because the random moment study needs to be answered 48 hours after you get the email. So they would most likely be in the office within those 48 hours. we might just have to have a couple of computers set up for them so that they can go in and they can um just check their emails, you know, on a on
051a weekly basis or something like that. >> Okay. Yeah, we look forward to hearing more about that. And do you have any sort of like are we talking another 20,000 or like what? You have no idea. >> No, I honestly like Dr. Brumit said the the money maker is the state. >> Yeah. Um, so if you look at what we bill out and what we actually make back, um, it's it's it's >> it's a it's a very small portion. Um, and transportation is such a small like transportation happens daily, but you know, within Newington, it's a couple of miles. So, um, it it'll it'll be interesting to see how the numbers um will uh pan out. Like I said, I want to talk to some other districts um to see if they already have those
052numbers um to see if it's something that, you know, is worth investing our time and energy in. >> Okay. Yeah. No, that's interesting. Thank you for >> taking that on. Okay. Who is um >> Brian? Henry, >> was that you, Tim? No, it's Brian. Brian pick him out on a name, but Brian's been online. He's trying to ask a question. >> Okay, go ahead, Brian. >> Or maybe he's just letting you know he's there. He just came. >> Yeah, Gail, put it in the chat. >> 7:39. Okay. Don't want to. >> Don't want to question. >> Yeah, I don't know. If you have a question, go for it. If not, we can move on. Mr. Hollerin, thanks. Do we know when these grants might realize themselves throughout 26, 27, beginning of the year, end of
053year, midyear? Um, is there any delay in these grant monies? Um right now when in terms of the federal government grants, >> yes, >> we have been alerted that they are coming in at or slightly above what they were this year. We do not anticipate any delays. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Should I proceed to the um slide about the the error from last evening uh the last board meeting? >> Yeah. >> All right. So, at the end of last board meeting, it was brought to our attention uh Karen Seir with her very good eagle eye noticed that when we were when the board was looking at a final figure, what happened was that a an item was added back into the budget as a duplicate versus taken away. So, it's a good error.
054It's not making our budget higher, it's making it lower. But what the board voted on the top bullet of 97,69843 was a 6.64% increase. What it should have been was 97,682153 or a 6.62% increase. We noted that an item was duplicated. It's um $16,250. It's team stipens in informal and formal mentors module readers and contracted services. So the formula that we have on that reconciliation page added it instead of subtracted it. So luckily it makes the budget slightly smaller but we the board was actually voting on the wrong amount slightly wrong amount but still accuracy is very important. >> Yeah. So, I think um just to keep the records straight and clear, we should um make a motion to correct the adjustment. So, essentially, I guess would would the emot would the motion have to
055say lower that previous um request by 16,250 >> or even just a correction? It it's >> okay. >> Same exact items. It's just a correction. Okay. Okay. So the so correct the because this is when we cut the um when we cut all those items that were on the sheet correct presented. Yeah. That's correct. >> So go ahead Miss Weaver. You want to make the motion? >> Yeah. Go for it. Motion to correct the adopted budget for 2026 2027 to the from 97,69843 a 6.64% increase to 97,682153 or a 6.62 increase. >> Second. And um just for clarification, it was the budget that we um like the cuts that we were making to the adopted budget. I don't know if that needs to be specified. >> It was just the initial budget. >> It was
056the No, it was the cuts that we made. >> It was inclusive. >> It should be that it's just it's still our adopted budget. So, we're just adjusting our adopted budget right now. Right. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Okay. So, we have a motion in a second. Is there any discussion? Okay. So, we're voting to make the correction that's presented on the screen currently. Please do a roll call vote. >> Mary Beus, >> yes. >> Sean Hollerin, >> yes. >> Marissa Lindsay, >> yes. >> Timothy Newton, >> yes. >> Amy Paratt, >> yes. Brian Skibo. >> Uh, thumbs up. >> Um, Sam Sharma, >> yes. >> Dr. Gail Stanley, >> yes. >> Jessica Weaver, >> yes. >> The motion passes unanimously. 90. >> Okay. For the record, name not available is Brian Skibo. Thank you. So,
057what I did in light of that um change, but also just so the board can see the progression of the budget that they've been working on and adopting. Um when the board took over the budget the other evening, it was at 7.23% which included the PAR impact after all of the cuts and adjustments made at the last meeting of February 18th. And now this is the correct figure. The the budget has now reduced to 6.62%. And this this slide just shows you the progression from when we first started at the superintendent administrator level to present. Um so I just illuminated that for the board. >> Okay. And um really now I'll bring this up for let me see if I can get to this. The really the next thing the board can look at is
058the impact if they so choose of the non-lapsing fund. I've put up the reconciliation chart um which puts in blue what the additional use of the non-lapsing fund would do to the budget. So, a million-doll offset. Um, it appears we would probably offset the big five programs, the academic big five salary programs, and it would reduce the budget to 96,682153 with a 5.53% increase overall. And this, if you're curious as to how this compares year to year, Miss Ba put over here in in the white section that last year's budget ended at 91,61371 and this year would be 96 million 682153. It's a 5 million 68,782 increase or 5.53%. So, I will turn it back over to board chair for any further discussion on the budget. >> Okay. Um, so just before we talk about
059this, I I did also just want to bring up the fact that we don't know or we won't know until after um April if the schoolbased health center is going to be included in the budget and or sorry if we're going to get the grant for the schoolbased health center. Um, Mr. Turko has uh requested funding through the state um legislation. Um so, but he's not sure if it will happen. If he does succeed, it will be for this year only and we'd still have to find funding um for next year. Um so, that's something that I would like the board to consider including in this year's budget just so we can guarantee that we'll have that open for the community. um cuz we saw the benefits of it and it is servicing a significant
060number of students. Um and then the other um that the other thing that we've talked about is the Nor Easter Academy where we have a grant out and we don't know if for $100,000 and we don't know if we'll get that again till after the budget season is over. Um, so those are two things that I would like to just open for discussion if we want to um think about adding that in. And we could do it one of two ways. We could increase just the ask from the town or we could um as long as uh Dr. Braummit and and Miss B um think it's appropriate we could take an additional is it two 270 >> 260,000 to run the school-based health center as it currently runs and to have the noraster academy funded
061at $100,000. If that were to be added to the board's budget, it would put the budget up to 5.82%. to add $260,000. >> Um, >> yep. So, board budget or um utilizing additional non-lapsing >> that would put another 260,000 non-lapsing offset. >> Um, so are there any comments, Mr. Hollerin? If we were to add the health center and the noraster academy into the budget and those grants do come through, is there a way to return some of that funds back to the town? Is there a mechanism for that at all or is that just going to go in the non-lapsing? >> We can do whatever we want. If we if we want to give it to the town, we can. >> Once they allocate it to us, it is ours to keep. Now, the board
062could choose to return it at the end of the year if it remains unutilized. That might be where the um the non-lapsing fund um option may be a little bit cleaner. But um again, we won't I believe from our conversations with Representative Turo as well as my understanding from the budget um the grant that would would offset the Nor Easter Academy, we're not going to have information on that till April, May or June. >> All right. Thank you, >> Dr. Dr. Stanley, >> I don't know. I feel like I have to speak for the student health clinics. Um, I think they're incredibly valuable uh for our students and getting in ensuring access to care um that they need and hopefully getting the immunizations uh like a flu shot um making that easier and removing barriers.
063Um and so I really want us to at least support the student clinics. Um I'm not against the Nor Eastern Academy. I just need some more information about utilization. Um, but I would not be opposed to funding both for this year. Um, and then having information about uh how much the non-lating or how much um the student healthcare clinic actually gets and and what our what our responsibilities are for the nor easter um they seem like minimal asks um but with high impact um for our students. >> Thank you. U Mr. Ann >> um I just want to say that I think that we need to have the you if that money comes back we get the grants why can't we pigeon hole that in the non-lapsing fund for next year knowing that we have
064it for next year and we wouldn't have to be drawing again this year if they get the grants that's 200,000 150,000 whatever the doc gets you know we're saying Sean said return it I'm saying keep it and we keep it for next year if the same situation comes up. Is that possible? >> Yeah, I think if we got the if we got the grants, it would just go into our um our operating fund and then we there would be that money that we'd have to reallocate and potentially reallocate it back to non-lapsing. >> Okay. Thank you. Yep. Miss Petus, >> just really really quickly, I second everything Dr. Stanley said. I think it's a really really important service um that we provide to our our community um that keeps everybody in our buildings as healthy
065as possible and and ultimately in class as as um you know and learning um instead of out um due for things that may uh be a little bit preventable. So I agree fully with Dr. Stanley would, you know, like us to consider keeping it as a as an item. >> Go ahead, Dr. Stanley. >> Just to clarify, are these like one-year grants that we're applying for? >> Yeah, the um what Mr. Turo is working on is just a allocation from the state like included in the budget, not guaranteed. Um and it would be a he indicated it would be a one-time funding. It's not sustainable. Um the Nor Easter Academy grant, Dr. Brema, you you've applied for it last year and this year and potentially is ongoing, but you have to apply every year. >>
066I have been applying every year. We've been successful um for the last >> oh cycles. >> So, we're fingers are crossed. We did a submitted it. Quick quick update on impact. At least 30 students per year participate in the Nor Easter Academy. These are children who are young adults who have anxiety or um school avoidance. They're not special education, but they're kids who do struggle with attending school for the full day for a host of reasons. And it does provide them with very intensive small group instruction. And it's it's completely run by our own NHS staff. I shouldn't say that. A couple of middle school teachers also work in that, but they're all certified in the area in which they're teaching. There's a social worker on site, so they're getting a lot of very supported
067services um during that afternoon hours. The the program runs 2:30 to 5 um Monday through Thursday. And some of the more costly items, frankly, are the transportation because the kids have their own bus run at the end of the day. um they're transported in um in an afterchool run and some kids are able to do both the regular school day for part of their day but need that nor easter academy for some of their coursework because they can only tolerate a portion of the day. Um so I would at least 30 kids um on average they're earning 60 credits a semester and it is really helping these students to graduate on time and meet with some success where previously these are students who were behind on credits and the more behind kids get on credits
068they're at risk of dropout. >> Thanks Dr. Stanley. That was my question, Meen. Uh, if you had a general sense about how often these patient or patients Oh my gosh, I'm still at work. I'm so sorry. How often these students are graduating uh if they're successfully completing these this academy and it sounds like it is a good success. >> They are. We've had kids who have given us testimonials that without this they would not have graduated on time. Um, so I would say it's capturing some of our most atrisisk kids but are not special ed. >> Yeah. Um I it's a it's a program near and dear to my heart. I do think it's a good program. I just uh just was putting it out there as not in the budget right now just because
069we were trying to put forth a reasonable budget. But um certainly I support this program very very highly as do our high school folks. Yeah, I think it's a great thing to include in our budget and then if we get the grants back um move those funds to the non-lapsing with potential to use that as a more sustainable way to fund it the next time. But those are just my thoughts. >> Okay. So, your suggestion is to add it into the budget, ask for that from the town. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Miss Weaver. >> Yeah. Yeah, I was just going to I think echo those sentiments. Obviously, really impactful ones. And I think how much was the utilization for the schoolbased health center? I know we I asked that and I got the answer. I
070think it was >> I I would need to get you the most current, but I will tell you that um the the four days a week that the social workers there and two days a week the APRN is there. They are non-stop um busy. So, they are fully utilized. But I do our our agency that we work with who IHC integrated health services they oversee it. They can get me some current statistics. Um and when I told them that the board was considering putting it in their budget, they were elated. So I will see if I can get some statistics for the board in time for Wednesday night's meeting. >> That would be great. Yeah, I just know um you know, we obviously hear about it, but from anecdotally, but it's always good just to
071put some numbers to that. Um and yeah, I would echo that. I think yeah, these are impactful programs. Um though I do really like this number. Uh I think just wanted to say thank you once more. Uh while I'm on my soap box here of um getting it down to that and looking at the actual budget increase of the 5,68,000 that's 1.6 of that is the PAR benefits. >> Correct. So that I'm not saying, "Oh, that's not whatever, but to do that and have it less than last year, but still adding impair benefits is um definitely something uh I support um as well." So using more of the non-lapsing for that, but then also making sure that we're continuing current programming um I would think would be great. Um so yeah, just wanted to echo
072those sentiments and appreciate that. And one further question on that too was I know um from a space standpoint, we're fine at the high school. I know we had talked about even expanding that, but that obviously has some considerations. Was just curious though, are we in contact with DPH about this because I know there's like a schoolbased health center network or advisory council and all these things. Um, that seems to be kind of very hodge podge here. There's, you know, Madison and then Waterberry and then Brford and Hartford. Um, so it doesn't seem like it's necessarily a urban suburban divide, but was just curious to um if we're a part of that network too and if DPH was looking to put funding in or if you'd heard anything on that. >> Yes, DPH absolutely is
073involved because they had to give their blessing to approve these clinics, both the mental health component and the u medical component and integrated health services is on all of those boards. So we have met with them. I meet with them monthly to continue the discussion about funding sources and it's a great group of um leaders from integrated health services. They've been unbelievable to work with and uh we put our heads together all the time. So there's still besides what Representative Turko is trying to accomplish, we are still looking at under every possible avenue for funding. So, as always, I'll keep the board fully informed if we are able to tap into any other funding opportunities. >> Thank you, Mr. Hollerin. >> Yeah, I just want to say that I agree with Dr. Stanley. I think
074especially the health center is a vital service. Um, and I think the Noraster Academy serves a population of students who might otherwise not be able to graduate. And you know that does meet our mission um as MPS is to make sure that we are looking at every student and providing every opportunity and giving them opportunities to do so. So I would be in agreement with putting them in the budget and if we get the grants even better but I think we should make sure that we count on those services. >> Thanks Miss Lindsay. >> Yeah I heard so many good things about that. I know it came in just after my child left and my child definitely would have been benefited from it but yeah that program is amazing. I definitely think we should be
075funding it. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Yeah, I mean it does seem it's the sustainable way to to budget for them. Um we have the money in our labs but we may not always have it. So, I think if that's um something that that we're all in agreement with, we can we can um put that motion on the table. Um I guess my question is we have one more meeting um before we have to officially transmit it over to the town. Are there any other things or questions or anything that's prohibiting us from doing that tonight or is there a possibility we should like just I guess I'll open it up again. Is there anything outstanding still that we're thinking might impact some changes that we would want to make? Um, oh, Miss Freeman. Hi
076everyone. Uh, Dr. Brummit and Miss Ba, I apologize that I have not gotten in touch with you, although I just sent you an email. Um, I just got off the phone with Sarah Whan, who's the coordinator of ELA. Um, it's not enough to buy a bus, but um, there can be a reduction in supplies between reading and ELA for a total of 23,935. Um, I don't know if um, you want me to just I sent a Google doc to Dr. Brummit, uh, Miss B, and Miss Seir. I don't know if you want me to display it on the screen. so people can see where that that money is coming from. >> You're on mute, Marine. Hold on. >> Let me pull it from my email. I just saw it come in. >> Perfect. Thank you.
077>> Thanks, K. >> And I apologize for the last minute. >> No, no, keep them coming. >> Yeah. Yes. You could find money, then we will gladly consider it. >> I'd love to tell you that my phone continues to ring off the hook, but no. >> Um, Miss Weaver, while she's pulling it up. Yeah, I was just going to say maybe just wait for a couple of the last minute questions. I just want to make sure staff has that. Um I I would be good with adopting night, but I also I feel I don't know. I feel wrong like doing it in person sometimes, but I want to make sure too. Um in light of recent late breaking events, there's some time too. Just want to put that out there. >> Yeah. Um, I think,
078um, and I just wanted to clarify too with folks where their comfortability was at with the addition of the of the two programming that we're supporting. Would that be out of the non-lapsing or out of the or adding it to a 5.8, but then that number would be move actually because we're going to decrease? >> Yeah, I think um yeah, a few people have said um out of the >> non-lapsing. No, no, not the non-lapsing. the budget, put it into the budget itself, so increase our ask. That way, it's more sustainable for next year. It'll be already in there. >> Okay. Yeah. I just want to give staff more time if there are any available more cuts just given some of the questions um on that. Just want to make sure we have all of
079the answers before and want to respect that. Um there's a lot of mountains of snow out there that are preventing uh any final ones, but um yeah, would love to decrease again. This is great. Thank you to our staff once more uh with late breaking but I am amendable to if folks want to do other things >> and you're right. >> Yeah, I know we don't want to um we want to make sure the calculations are 100% too. So, if we maybe take this, add it to the spreadsheet and then vote on it um next time and then we can have each line item as well for the the schoolbased health center and the Nor Easter Academy um funding that we talked about. >> Very good. We'll come prepared with those components and some appropriate
080motions. And as always, you never know what's going to happen between now and Wednesday. It seems like this late breaking news. >> Say thank you to Sarah, please, Kristen, for us. Thank you. >> And I do just want to um I don't know if we stated it in in the meeting. I don't Well, we didn't because it came up last meeting, but um Dr. Bummit. The there was talk of reducing contracted services if we have PAR educator B um benefits in the funding, but the recommendation is not to reduce that any further or not to reduce it at all just because we don't know for sure exactly what is going to um happen and we want to make sure that um we're able to get paras needed. did um just to support our students, especially
081the those with those IEP requirements. Is that correct? >> That's correct. Um you know, we we certainly are behind the eightball here in Newington without benefits, but statewide paras are always hard to come by. So, we don't want to limit our access to contracted services um as it still might become a need even with um the PAR benefits. So, we would appreciate leaving that item um line item whole at this time. Okay. Are there any other comments or questions to discuss tonight? I think we'll just hold off on the additional um changes and we'll do that hopefully in person on Wednesday. Hopefully there's no more snow. You're on mute, Miss Dr. Bummit. >> Please don't jinx us, Amy. >> I was saying some prayers with when I was muted about no more snow. >> Um,
082some on Wednesday morning, but >> Okay. >> All right. Uh, here we go. Okay. So, I'll turn it back over to public participation. If there's anyone in the Google Meet who wants to speak on any matter related to board responsibilities, um, please raise your hand to be recognized. >> Mr. Phelps. Hey, Amy. Thank you. Um, my name is Mike Phelps. I live at 108 Tmont Street in Newington. I think one thing I was um looking to ask and I know it's typical not for response but I didn't see the um the budget worksheet or the the workbook published with this year's budget online. It was last year. I will say it's helpful to look through and kind of ask questions on or get a lay of the land uh with that very very large document
083that outlines all of the expenses um and you know meeting format. So I was hoping that would be still be made available this year and uh I I think with in regards to the the PAR presentation like I am in support of um you know giving benefits for for paras I I think that would be a great adjustment. I I thought there was uh quite a bit of work done to show the differences among several districts. Um, I think one thing I was kind of curious on and I didn't see it explained in an earlier meeting was how exactly the benefits coverage was determined. Um, because I I know it was referenced in the presentation and then it was on the there was some highlights on the 4th uh the February 4th meeting. But is
084that it seemed different the amount different is um I want to say was like $1.68 $68 million difference for the budget with and without PAR benefits, but the spreadsheet outlining the cost of the benefits said it was 1.4. So, I wasn't sure what the difference in that was. And I think that's it. I thank you all for, you know, volunteering and spending your time this. I know it's a lot of it's a lot of work and it is it is your time is appreciated. So, thank you. >> Thank you so much. And yeah, we'll get you answers to your questions. >> Thanks. >> I believe we have your email. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay. Remarks by board members. Miss Weaver. Obligatory gratitude for all of you guys. Thank you so much. And obviously working through
085literally I mean sleep, rain, snow. um as the post office goes, so do our school administrators and our staff. So, thank you for um continuing to um find dollars. Um appreciate that and continue gratitude for uh my fellow board members for us to continue to um look at this budget um with a lot of granularity and being able to try and find more dollars um wherever we can find that. and especially to our our wonderful CFO, Lynn. Um, thank you for finding all of the margins uh that I think are are very much necessary. So, just want to say thank you again. I'm looking forward to um you know, of course, hearing I'm sure we'll find another couple um just given the efficiency of this team lately. Um but looking forward to Wednesday um and
086working with everyone to um pass on our final budget request on Wednesday. Thank you guys. >> Thanks, Mr. Hollerin. >> Same. I just wanted to express my gratitude for everybody who's uplifted in this even late breaking 23 grand we're able to find which is pretty amazing. I know these nights can be long and there there's a lot of them and I miss our student reps right I do I'd like to get back to quote unquote normal board meetings after budget season. Um, but thank you to everybody in central office uh for all the hard work that we've done and asking for all of our crazy requests and digging deep and looking back at historical use versus actual use and the actual budget. It is a lot of work and I think that just goes to
087show that it is a very hard balance to strike between being responsible with the town's money um but also giving the students the support that they need um to be successful and to maintain our high level of education. Um, and somehow we we try to find that way every day. We're not done yet. Still we have to reconcile after it goes to the town. Um, so we got work ahead of us. But, uh, I think this is, uh, been a pretty unified board. Um, and just want to thank everybody uh, because it is a new board and I think we've really had some good discussions and really find some common ground um, to do the right thing for the population that we're elected to serve. So, thank you everybody. >> Thank you, Dr. Stanley. Uh,
088I just want to say thank you Meen and Lynn and everybody else uh on the administrators for working so hard on answering most of our questions. Um, I know it was short notice um from the weekend and everybody is home. Um, and so I just wanted to uh show that I appreciate everybody um doing such hard work uh on this um blizzard day and I appreciate all of our discussions on the board and I think we've made some wonderful progress and I'm just so grateful to be a part of this board. >> Thank you Mr. Sharma. >> Hey, I just want to thank everyone um Lynn Moren, everyone for the great work. Um I mean just looking at the budget book um I remember previous years used to be like a humongous book and now
089it's like so you know it's concise and you know it's more efficient. So thank you so much and you know appreciate all the hard work >> Mr. Newton. >> Yeah like Sam said uh this is not my first run. I haven't been here a long time but this is by far the most transparent budget I've seen and I and I think it's important like Mr. Phelps requested that we post it online when we have the finished product maybe so that the citizens of our town know where it's going and know what we're spending and know why we made the decisions we made and the more transparency just helps us all in the long run. So I want to say thank you to everybody especially the board for the work they did. Thank you >> Miss
090Beatus. >> I also want to thank Dr. Braum and Lynn and your teams for giving us the tools that we need to um put forth a responsible budget. One of the things I'm most proud about though is that we are recognizing our paras and the immense contributions that they make to the success of our students. Um, so it's it gives me great pride to um put a budget together that does recognize the incredible hard work that our staff does and that doesn't um in any way compromise the uh wonderful education and and support that we give to our students. So, thank you to Dr. Bromett and your administrative team and also to the board as a whole. It's it's really been a pleasure to work with you on this and and hoping we can go
091forward um with this budget as it is. Thank you. Yeah, just I'll echo what everyone else has said, but especially the collaboration um with administration and and with the board members. I think just all of us have um really worked well together and hopefully Wednesday is uh just a cut some, add some maybe and then and then pass it along. But um but a very very good um it's been really collaborative and I really appreciate the work that everyone has put into the process so far. Um we will have to have probably some tough conversations moving forward once we hand it over to the town, but we'll take those as they come. Um and then just want to say that unfortunately we have another snow day tomorrow. Um, we will be setting graduation date on
092Wednesday, still TBD, but um, but as of now, our last day of school is Monday the 20 something of June, which is unfortunate. >> 22nd. >> Um, I know there's a lot of chatter online and and people um, you know, worried about summer camp and that stuff. Um, but Dr. from it. I had asked her to she had a call out already, but to reach out to Parks and Wreck and Parks and Rec will work with the school schedule and and make the necessary changes so that everyone will be able to benefit from school and summer camp. So, um just wanted to put that out there, but hope everyone enjoys the snow day tomorrow and hopefully that's the last one, but I won't. Oh, not good one. Motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> All right,
093we have a motion, a second. Any discussion? All in favor to adjourn? >> Thanks, Brian. All right, have a great night, everyone. Thank you. >> More. Thanks, Dan.