001Hey, >> good evening. I'd like to call this meeting of the Newton Board of Education to order for Wednesday, February 18th, 2026. The time is 7:01 p.m. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. 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. >> Would you please call the role? >> Mary >> here. here. >> Here >> stay >> here. >> Thank you. At this time, I'd like to open up to public participation on any matter related to board responsibilities. There's no one in the room, but if anyone online wants to be recognized, please raise your raise your hands. Seeing none, go to our first item on the agenda which is budget workshop. Good evening
002everybody. Um I'd like to start off with if it's all right with the chair to review the questions that the board had posed at the end of the last meeting. >> Absolutely. We've uh my team and I have spent time kind of researching all of that. So hopefully we've come tonight prepared to share our findings. So I'm going to go right to the page that has the questions on it. All right. There we go. All right. So there was Thank you. Thank you for always helping me stay on track. Um the transportation budget detail was a request and also in the course of these review of these questions. Um Miss B is going to also chime in as to whether this analysis led us to recommend any cuts. So that will be part of our
003discussion tonight because I it was our understanding that the reason behind some of these questions is are there any room for reductions as a result of these analyses. So, one of the first uh questions posed by the board was our current transportation budget and whether or not there are any indicators here that we can reduce based on experience. So, I'm going to turn it over to Miss B to discuss her findings. >> I went through the budget and looked at all the line item. >> You have to put your mic on. >> So, sorry. Um when I went through the budget and looked at the line items, I did a comparative analysis over the years and saw that we have not been using all of the um budget we've been asking for for gasoline for
004regular ed and special ed transportation. When you look at it, we've been very lucky um piggybacking on the town. So we're purchasing it from the towns. We're not paying as much instead of when we were buying it from the retailers because they're for profit. The town's not. So I would recommend that we cut both of those lines which is 270062630 and 270062671 each by $46,000. So I color coded it red if it can be cut. I will also after these questions and answers um are concluded, we've created a reconciliation document for the board to review which kind of shows luckily the downward trend of the budget um based on the findings of of these analyses. So now I'll go back to are there any questions on that particular analysis? Um, is this just because we're
005getting a a cheaper rate as you said by going like partnering with the town? >> That is correct. Thank you. >> All right. The next area we looked at was the maintenance budget detail and Lynn created a very nifty spreadsheet and it analyzes actuals uh for the last 5 years as I believe we were asked to look at a 5-year look back. So I will turn it to her to explain what this analysis showed us. In looking at the figures, it seems like since the MDC has reduced its rates, we didn't reduce our budget. So, I would recommend that for Egreen Green, we reduce our budget by $3,661. Anna Reynolds, we we reduce our budget by $6,661. Ruth Chaffy, we reduce our budget by $6,661. Um, John Patterson, we would reduce by $6,661. Martin Kellogg,
006we would reduce by $20,876. The total reduction in that line would be $44,520. And if I'm not mistaken, at the very bottom, you notice some inind services >> is the inind services could also be cut, but I did not get a chance to put those onto the um the cut sheet. >> Okay. So, just to explain that to the board, um we share obviously this building with the town. We occupy the top floor and the way we offset payment for things is through inind services. So we get a credit for things that um on their side and vice versa. And what we noticed is we don't really have to outlay any money for water or sewer. Lyn, I should say Lynn noticed that. So that is where she recommended uh completely eliminating funding those lines
007in addition to those other cuts. So, we'll show you that sum total minus the $10,000 which hasn't come out yet or I'm sorry 11,108, correct one? >> 11,108. >> So, that won't show up on the sheet tonight, but the other cuts will just for board consideration. Okay. We were also asked to look at a 5-year look back of the technology maintenance repair budget. And this actually revealed that we typically do use or sometimes overspend in certain areas. >> So sorry. Um this shows that well let me have Lynn explain it based on her uh talented eye, but I'll let you go. >> Okay. the um if you look at the the chart up there, it shows the five-year trend along with what we have available and encumbered and what we've we've actually spent year to
008date. Um I would not recommend cutting this budget because if one server goes down, that could cost us $20,000 to replace and we wouldn't have any money to replace it. So for this one, I would not recommend a cut. >> Okay. So any questions on that analysis? All righty. And next, >> Miss Weaver. >> So when just say like none of those funds are used, are they in the same line for technology or where do those kind of go if we're >> it's in the technology budget. So if they did not use these and they needed them in another line, they'd be transferred to that other line. >> Just within the technology one, though. >> Correct. Thank you. All right. The next area uh that we looked at was non-certified staffing by school. I will
009say that um for other than for office professionals or administrative secretarial that number is typically very stable. um paras registered behavior technicians open choice paras uh that varies actually could even be daytoday but um this at least gives you a current snapshot well a snapshot of whenever Lynn pulled this data it could have already changed because literally paras come and go on a daily basis but what you can see here is uh each school from um you can say by school Anna Reynolds Chaffy Patterson They each have two office professionals. The two middle schools each have two and a half, which essentially is a part-timer, two people, and then a part-time person. The high school has nine. The reason they have so many more in addition to having a bigger population of students is that
010every they're divided into houses and every house has secretaries. The counseling office has secretaries. So, there is a lot of um operational things that require more secretary support. That's actually where our residency um central registar is located. So there's a lot of services going on at the high school that make that a more um active place for secretarial support. Transition academy located here does not have a secretary. The finance office has four at central office. The curriculum department has two. Our edtech technology and operations they split the same person three ways. Um, security has u one secretary, but that person is located at the high school. Uh, transportation has a halftime secretary. Food service has one. Nursing has a halftime person and special ed has two. Uh there's also I don't know if it's reflect.
011Here it is. There's also um a floater that's located at central office. Unless there is a secretary out on long-term medical leave, then that individual floats. Or if we have a vacancy that hasn't been filled right away, which is the currently the situation, the floater is now at the high school because we have a vacancy in the special ed secretarial office. So total of 32 unionized secretaries and two that are not. Typically our part timers are not unionized. That's true for bus drivers as well. This is the more volatile line. This is the parah line which as you know we do receive a lot of questions about it es especially this year with asking for benefits. But this line represents all the positions that should be there. Some of these are currently vacant, but as
012you can see, it varies a bit by school. Reynolds has a couple of specialty programs there. They've got some preschool classrooms and a K4 extension program. Chaffi is a little bit of a smaller school, but they do also have some specialty programs. Green has prek and some a K4 extension program. Patterson has the specialized um behavior program there as well as three four preschool classrooms. Um and then Martin Kellogg has some developmental programs that are above and beyond what the other middle school has. But John Wallace also has a specialized connections program and the high school as you might imagine has the the most pairs because there's the most students there in terms of special ed support. But that also includes two classrooms for developmentally delayed students as well as pairs that support um other
013students within the classroom environment. Our transition academy has eight pair professionals. They typically run almost a onetoone program down there because these students who are the 18 to 22 year olds, they go out into the job market. Uh and when they go out, they have to have the parent with them for coaching and support. So that is why that is a heavy amount of paras for that program. And then registered behavior technicians are are paras but they have a higher level of training. They've had to pass what's called an RBT test which also includes some um oversight by BCBA. So they do make a higher pay. They're also a bit more skilled. So they do provide um more um support behaviorally. They take a lot of data. they know a lot more about data analysis
014and data collection. You can see those vary by school and it largely has to do with student need. But in some cases when we were having trouble filling with paras, we did opt to hire an RBT because they were easier to fill and they can they're actually a little bit more talented in terms of their service provision. um in those cases we might forego two paras for one RBT for the cost comparison. So these are the totals um at every school based on paras RBTs and then the grand total and that salmon color and then um just for the rec for board um information every school has vacancies and you if you recall from my report um that Mr. Frey put together there were 25 vacancies in December at the time that he wrote that
015report about our difficulty recruiting and retaining pair professionals. But you can see right now going down the list that each school has at least one pair of vacancy except for the transition academy and most have multiple pair of vacancies. So in in years past, we've shared with the board that that's a a line item that we often have some money left at the end of the year because a lot of those positions go unfilled or filled unfilled filled unfilled filled throughout the year. We also have to provide these services because as many of you know these are special education students. The pair professionals typically listed in their IEP. So we have to have these folks here. Um, we sometimes use a contracted agency like Delta T as one example and they are able to provide
016us with a PAR. Unfortunately, it's a much higher cost whereas our pairs probably cost the district about $24,000 annually. These agency pair professionals can be 40 50 $60,000 because those are forprofit agencies. So, they need to take their cut and in some cases they pay benefits. So that's even even higher um outlay of money. So you can see by school each school has some pair of professionals who are contracted. Um and Lynn, remind me what the purple pair professional contracted that we pay. What is that? >> Those are the ones that are out that we had to fill that we are paying for right now. So, we're using the money from the open positions to pay for these contracted positions for jobs where we absolutely have to have a human being helping a child. So,
017those purple are all we're paying for them at the really high price. It's usually two for one. Two of our pairs equal one of theirs. And the ones in blue, those are the ones that are open choice. So they're they come Hartford provides them for us. Crack provides them. >> We don't >> we do not we get charged but we get reimbured. >> We do get charged but we're reimbursed. Sorry Mr. and >> quick question not to digress. Do RBTs get medical benefits? >> No. >> They're considered Paris. Okay. >> Yes. >> Just curious. >> Um sorry. Can you just column G is the number temporarily filled by contracted staff is what is that versus H. >> G versus H. >> G is the total of all >> that are >> okay. Purple plus blue.
018Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So that's our snapshot. Uh there's totals at the bottom. So we have Yeah. Yeah, we have a lot of vacancies. Um, so to these are the grand totals at the bottom and um, obviously our goal is always to hire our own staff because we can do it at a cheaper cost but in recent years that's been very challenging to do without some reliance on those agencies. These are so all in all we if we were to offer HAR benefits we would not have to worry about crack because they take care of that. But the total staff on these pages would would be eligible for PAR benefits if that were to be be approved. >> Miss Wever. And just for clarifying, um, so when we're talking about adding their healthcare, we
019already saw the budget impact. Um, just to give more clarity on this, how much is that perah? >> It's 17,500 and that's for a single coverage. >> So even so, if we're doing the 24 + 17, it's likely less than a contracted. >> So just to show the cost differential there as well, >> right? And that's an excellent point. And the other point that I failed to make was um we've also hired more permanent subs recently to also help us with par short falls. Those are slightly easier positions to fill. We're up way up on that line because of our PAR challenge. So if this uh PAR benefit package were to be approved, we anticipate being able to reduce some of our permanent building subs. as well as I as I mentioned during my original
020budget presentation, something called the time work bonus. That is something that um allows some of our paras to get additional money at the end of the year if they've got strong attendance. We would make it a mandate that if you are getting the fairly significant benefit of medical insurance at 17,500 per person that you would no longer be eligible to receive the time work bonus. However, there would still be a cadre of paras and tutors that would not need or would not take the benefits. So, they would still be eligible for that. We anticipate or calculate that we could reduce the budget by $200,000 in permanent building subs and in the time work bonus if this were to be funded through the benefit program. Um, we could reduce those two lines. Um, I just have
021a question on how you get to the staffing numbers um required at each school. I know that there's some IEPs that specifically say you need a one to one. Um hopefully there's no two to ones, but um as far as like um as far as the like in the prek classrooms or the um what are the K4 extension is there like a like how many are one to ones versus um just classroom staff? I'd probably have to do a deeper analysis to to show you that particular data. I would tell you that we've got at a minimum one classroom parah for every prek program and then generally if it's um in in any of those pre-k programs there's typically at least a student that requires a onetoone parah more so in the intensive prek that's
022housed at Patterson where those children are you know not sometimes not mobile non-verbal um and as I mentioned at the transition academy there's just about all oneto ones in that program. When you get into the uh other schools, it's a combination. Uh not every ch while every par is noted in the IEP, it might not be a onetoone. It might say para support during reading instruction, par support during math instruction, para support for behavior management. So it's partial paras. So that one parah may be assigned to several different students throughout the day or in a classroom where there are four or five students who all have some sort of support with a parah on their IEP. You know obviously onetoone parah is a very restrictive um service. We we don't want kids to rely on
023paras. A lot of times it is though a safety situation. In some cases students require hygiene support. So those are all things that a parah would do during the day. Some of our children need help with feeding. So there's a wide range of things that our paras do. Um so that's why um it would be a combination of oneto ones as well as folks that provide support to numerous kids throughout the day. >> Dr. Stanley, >> thank you. Um when we estimate, so for the budget, we are trying to present something that fills all of the empty positions. Correct. >> That's correct. >> And so when we generate this estimate, are we estimating at the higher cost of contracted parents or at or MBS cost? >> We are doing both. We have this because we're
024not sure if the PAR benefits will go through. We did leave a pretty um comparable contracted services um budget line in the budget right now. Um, that is probably something that we could look at as well. If the PAR benefits are funded, but we couldn't take the chance that if that does not happen, then we are more likely than not going to need contracted services next year. Similar, we would not probably be able to produce our um permanent building subs and the time work bonus because that those the time work bonus is one of the few benefits that our uh folks get. So these are all that's what makes this budget uh budgeting for this particular group a little challenging right now because there's some unknowns. >> And then a final question. So despite these
025openings and despite us using contracted services, we're still not filled to capacity, right? >> That's correct. Um, and so what happens at the end of the money that is realized savings for the positions that we don't fill >> at the end of the year if after we've balanced our budget and there's everything is balanced then that money can be used for uh the non-lapsing fund transfer to non-lapsing fund. Um, that's typically what would happen. Or, um, in some cases last year, correct me if I'm wrong, Lynn. Did we use any realized savings last year for a bus or part of a bus? Because we didn't get funding for buses last year. >> We paid for the entire bus and a piece of the other one. >> Okay. So that's um we kind of make up
026for uh >> ultimately though there are two buses not pieces but um yeah some some of that is real we reallocate the resources to pay for things that weren't funded but more often than not um at least in recent years we would transfer some of that money into the non-lapsing fund >> and and some of the money too from last year went back to the town as well. We did because at the end of last year we did not yet have approval for a 2% non-lapsing fund. So therefore we had to transfer I believe it was $600,000 back to the town. Um we call that declaring a surplus but this year we've since the board is aware have now approval for a 2% non-lapsing fund. So, if this um were to happen this year, we
027would be allowed to transfer up to 2% of any monies left over at the end of the year. If we were to for some reason exceed that, then we would have the same dilemma as we had last year where we'd have to send money back to the town. >> Dr. How do we decide where that money goes? So, I hear that we used some of our realized savings for buses, but was that um a decision by the superintendent or was that presented to the board or >> uh that was something that I decided in con conjunction with the business office? The board is apprised of the the balance at the end of the year. The board is apprised of um the determination about use sending it to the non-lapsing fund. But once the money is
028allocated to the board there, we have the discretion to spend it even if it's not in the same line item that it was assigned to originally. >> Thank you for the clarification. >> Sure. >> Um and I just have another back on the number of paras. Um the is so right now we are in compliance with all IEPs, right? is because that's legally our obligation. So, the reason that we have some still unfilled is because those are are those extra not extra because I know we need them, but are they paras that are supposed to be in like a preschool classroom that might already have a parah in there? Um, so I guess how is that determination made? And I just want to make sure we're in compliance even though we have vacancies, but we
029really could use >> the full support, >> right? I mean in currently if the paras are absent we don't have a subp para poolool so we're out of luck there the principal may be would assign a permanent building sub to be a parah for the day um they the special ed teacher may be spread even thinner than they already are to make sure those hours are provided by a teacher versus a parah um sometimes our um tutors leave their post and become paras for the day so yeah we've You know, there's kind of a Rob Peter to pay Paul mentality that principles have to do every day if they know that they've got a high need student who needs absolute supervision. Um, sometimes we can go without it for a little bit, but it is
030very challenging and it's a frustration among our principles that they have all these uncovered positions and they're trying to figure out what to do. I you know I will tell you it does impact the students too cuz even if we are able to fill it with a permanent building sub or you know the tutor comes down and becomes a pair for the day which they don't particularly like um you know it's not the same person that they're used to and and that does impact children in terms of their adaptability. So there are a lot of um challenges when we're not fully staffed. So yeah we do everything in our power to be in compliance. There are days when it's very challenging. Um, but I know the principles do the best they can do to reassign
031people um to support positions. We do get also just probably just ended recently when kids are on um winter break from their universities. We have a cooperative agreement with central. So in the month of uh January, we're pretty flush with uh paras because they are coming in from central or neighboring schools and they can fill those voids. So January is a good month. Um once those kids all go back to school, which has happened, then we're back to kind of where we always have been. >> Yes. I know a preschool teacher who takes advantage of those essential students. >> Yes. Yes. We they're they're very they do great. It's great. It's a great relationship and always hoping a couple of them want to be teachers down the road. >> Thank you. Any other questions on
032this piece? >> The next area was the dues and fees. Um I'll let Lynn speak to this in terms of whether there were any substantial findings of um trends that you noted. When we looked at all of the dues and fees, the accounts are pretty much in alignment with what we've been spending year-over-year. Um, we have already reduced prior to you even seeing the budget anything that we found that was a duplication because there were some. So, we we had cut them out already, Karen. Um, and I when we went through the budget. So it I I believe that everything is in alignment and and it is what we need. So there's a multitude of organizations that we belong to. Um I don't know if there's any questions about that. NASDAQ does our enrollment studies.
033Casbow's the business manager uh group. Partners for Education is a superintendent that that I belong to. Um, school music license a few years ago. We adopted that. It allows us to use music of our choice for productions without being in copyright violation. So, we have found that to be a very important tool to make sure our music program can be robust. Um, so I don't know if there's any particular questions about what what we belong to, but you know, many many or if not all of these are recognized organizations that support our variety of uh employees to they give them professional development opportunities. Um, it is I think a very important thing to have these organizations available to our staff. Okay. So, no cuts recommended there at this time. All righty. So, then the next
034area that we were asked to look at was IT repairs. And I will let Lynn speak to her analysis there. >> We did that one. Oh my gosh. Okay, there was a question about um special education about whether or not our current um expenditures warrant us to look at what we've requested for next year. I will tell you um this year we requested 4,785 in our budget for and this gets into mostly tuitions either an outplace school or the money that we need to pay for kids who are in magnet schools that require special education services. Currently, we are anticipating, again, if no one else hasn't um need to go out, but there are a few on deck. Um we would look at potentially a $1.2 million balance, but I want you to know, and
035we're probably the only I would venture a guess that this is a pretty rare occurrence. We are asking for a lower amount this year based on our experiences. You don't often see that. A lot of my colleagues are going much higher in special ed expenditures and I think a lot of this has to do with our careful cultivation of IND district programs. So we are asking for about 6 million not 6 million uh $600,000 less than we did last year. Um we also that number can also be slightly reduced for next year because of our anticipated excess cost offsets. And as a reminder, excess cost is the grant that we get from the state for any of our students that are uh costing the district more than four and a half times the regular per
036pupil cost. And we're anticipating um Lov Do you recall the anticipated? >> So $1.7 million is anticipated and we bake that right into the budget as an offset. So those are the um analysis that we prepared for the board this evening. I would like to show the board what um where we were and where we are. So prior to this evening or as we enter the discussions this evening, the reductions that have been put into play thus far have been the um what I presented already is the buy ahead, anticipated buy aheads, the use of a million dollars in non-lapsing resources, and we had initially not put in um $185,000 in seed money. So, at the start of uh tonight's meeting, we were at 5.48% not counting the PAR benefits, which brings us up to
037uh at a $ 1.6 million expenditure at a one then that would result another 1.75% increase for a grand total of 7.23 as of right now before anything changes. What we'd like to recommend or consider for the board for their consideration are the following. Okay, so we did cut um lensure. I forget if that was a duplication or just um an unnecessary expenditure. So that was 7100 and that put us at the same basically the same thing 5.47. But here is a laundry list of what Lynn has uh extrapolated from the budget um through a that careful analysis. Um most of it resulted in recommendations for reductions. One of the things that I we did look at is telephone and that actually caused us to take pause and say we're under budgeted for telephone at
038the high school. So that was an ad back in of 14,000. But you can see a fairly significant reduction in um again analysis of the workers's comp insurance was another thing that we talked about 20,000 reduction can be done. Property insurance, water and sewer as Lynn outlined uh earlier with higher amounts at our bigger schools. Telephone services were overbudgeted except at the high school. We felt we could reduce those um DW telephone services DW districtwide. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um rubbish at the high school was over. We thought we could reduce that. That's like collection services. Uniforms. That's for generally our um custodians and in some cases it um we talked about the gas reduction of $46,000 for both regular gas and gas for the special ed routts. Um we are now wanting to calculate
039in although I've already explained it the the cost of the pair of benefits will be 1.6 million. So when you add add and subtract with what we're recommending, this brings our total ask down to 6.91 and that it does include the paratutor benefits. If the town does fund those, you can see that we're able to recommend a reduction in the time work bonus, a reduction in building subs, and this actually came in late late night edition here, 16 250. Remind me what that is, Lynn? >> That was um it was a double posting of salaries. They were I budgeted for the salaries and they annually were budgeted in services. We cut that. >> Yeah. And that I mean I I would highly recommend not doing the reductions for time work bonus or um the building
040subs until we know that the benefits are going to be funded. I believe we can look at that HDD contracted services and put that um under that. >> Yeah, if you could move that up so we get a clearer picture because the rest I think need to be pressed pause until we know where we stand. So when we um like tonight we'll kind of take over the budget from you and then we will um discuss these cuts and and any others that um people might have been thinking of. Um but when we transmit to the town ultimately wouldn't we I guess are we transmitting two versions or are we transmitting the version that we want which is with PAR benefits? >> I I only did two versions just to show this significant impact on our
041budget to include those benefits but I would I would absolutely recommend that the board transmit that as a a total a package. So I think that when and we can discuss too um but when we do that we would have include the PAR benefits reduce the line items that can be reduced if that goes through but then when we present to the town council um in 3 weeks or so we would say if you know if this doesn't go through we're not reducing we can't reduce the budget by 1.6 million. we'd actually be reducing it by whatever the the net is. So when we right so when we present it's going you can cut it by 1.6 but then we have to back it we have to add back in according to what this says
042you know >> that is correct. So it's either you know leave that 1.6 million in and we can take out $25,000 for the a net increase I guess of 1.4 4 million or 1 point >> like Yeah. So if they couldn't cut 1.6 they'd have to cut that 1 >> 395. >> That's correct. >> If they wanted to if they didn't want pair benefits it would be 1.395. I think we just have to spell that out for them because include all of this in >> our request. >> And I would definitely do a graphic showing the reductions. Um and obviously as as the board hopefully can tell by our analysis between last meeting and this um we have been a you know sharpen on our pencil and our eraser to look at uh what we
043can reduce and actually uh Mr. Das did do a little analysis of printing that kind of came up as well. I don't know if you want to speak to that. Both uh he looked at um adult ed and then he looked at the um census that we take annually. Um not a big find, but just kind of a quick explanation of what you saw on that. >> Yeah. So, we did look into that request if we just um did apartments for the coming year for the preschool census. Um, so we did get an estimate around $2,400 for that, but that wasn't including postage. We spent about $9,500 last year doing homes and apartments. So maybe a savings about $4,000 uh if we cut that. The challenge would be um just being new in the role,
044what are we going to get accurate data for a preschool census? We don't include homes this year. So just just consider that in that decision that if we do we could do apartments one year, homes and apartments every other year. I can't predict the impact yet and how accurate our data would be if we did that. >> And we do get um as I mentioned earlier, we subscribe to NASDAQ and they look at our birth records. That's part of their service. So, they give us a general um you know, as accurate as that can be. You're born in New England, you might move. Um but that gives us another data point about how many kids we can anticipate um at preKK level. Um and then your analysis of adult ed basically. >> Yes. So there
045are there are there are mandates on certain courses that we do have to send out. So we could potentially try to reduce and maybe do a one pager and put a QR code for other courses um if we wanted to do that. But I want to say we we talked about being grant isn't that a grant as is? It's mandated by the state of Connecticut that we have a certain amount of money. The state gives us money and we have to provide the rest and we have to provide the budget that the state tells us we have to spend on on adult education. >> So that might not be worthwhile pursuing. The other one is a judgment call. As Mr. I said, "You might save about $4,000, but we might have a less accurate pool
046of data." Um, it's just as as with any of these decisions, there are, you know, cautions. So, that concludes my um >> update. Oh, pardon me. So, I'll go back to All right. Okay. So, I would suggest that we adopt the budget as ours. So, how it works is we kind of we just take it over as ours and then we are able to um Dr. Brumit and her team obviously are not done, but um but they did took it as far as they can go and then the rest is um for us to make the make recommended changes or if we have other thoughts on um what to do with the budget. So the first thing to do is you have the motion. >> It's on the screen. >> Oh, perfect. Which number? Um
047>> Oh, I Oh, that's a good point. Um we would do the I guess >> we're going to we're going to combine them. Uh >> are these are these the superintendent cuts still or are we adopting them? >> We're going to we're not going to do the we're not going to vote on the cuts yet. We're going to do what it is currently today. >> So that would be this um chart right here. >> Yeah. 448. >> So the the two together, the parent budget as well as the operating budget combined would be the request of 98,233771 or a 7.23% increase. >> All right, go back to the motion. Just want to note for those at the board table, voting yes on this does not mean you're approving the budget. You're just accepting it. Just
048a clarification. Okay. Move the Newington Board of Education adopt the Superintendent of Schools proposed budget for the 2026 2027 year of 98,233,771 or 7.23%. >> Second. >> Thank you. Oh, we have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? And like Miss Weaver said, this is not the final budget. Obviously, we still have our work to do, but this is just giving us the opportunity to make changes. >> Roll call vote, please. >> Mary, >> yes. >> Don, >> yes. >> Amy, >> yes. >> Briano, >> yes. Yes. >> Yes. >> Wever, >> yes. >> Thank you. Yay. We have a budget. Um, okay. So, then I guess I'll just open it up for discussion or questions or comments or anything that anyone is um like what's on what are we thinking? Miss Weaver.
049Uh, just want to say a huge thank you, Len. This is awesome. Start once more. Um, well, not start, but but just as we we look at, thank you for going through this um with a very fine tooth comb. Appreciate it. And finding all of those um those detail and those finer points. We appreciate the work. Um, seriously, thank you. Um, so I would just say I feel really good about um adding those cuts and endorsing those cuts and also um feel very strongly about the PAR benefits. I know we've kind of discussed this around the table, but I think just wanting to reiterate that I'm fully for the PAR benefits and I think um that will give us a better sense of um honestly just for planning purposes as well. Um I think this
050has been a real hard thing to budget for and we only see the um cost and the need continuing to rise um particularly when we look at our numbers too um for special ed. So, um I would I would hope that we tonight at least could um accept the recommendations. Uh I fully endorse those from the CFO um as a great start. So, just wanted to put that out there. Um and I I think for for now I think that would be a great option um that we take in but also then taking in the um adjustment for the paratutor and RBT insurance um to do so. have other thoughts. I just wanted to say thanks >> Mr. Hollerin. >> Yes. I just want to thank Lyn as well for finding based upon our questions
051uh $136,000 um to pull from just from the water um in gas budgets. I thought that was an excellent find and thank you for being able to realize some of that savings. Um the increase is high because of the Paris. Um especially considering that this is the year that the town's going through reevaluations as well. I think it's going to be very tight for the town um to pass a budget. I would expect to have some quite a bit of reconciliation after we get um the final answer from the town. Um, but I think we've done a great job um of really trying to dig deep um the links the superintendent and her staff have, but now we've got to try to figure out where else we can whittle away on that too because that
052is a it's a 7% is large. Um, so we should expect that we are going to have to find somewhere somehow to try to get that down where we can without impacting our students. And I think that that's kind of a reminder of what we're here for. We're here to advocate for our school system and our students, try to be responsible with taxpayer money, but at the end of the day, too, um we shouldn't be doing a disservice to those that we have been elected to serve. Um uh you know, this is a great different approach to the budget this year. I think it makes it easier for me to kind of figure out where possible wiggle room might be. Um but it's just getting started. Another question. Um, Dr. Bremit, did we I see
053buses at the bottom there. Did we talk about what you heard today? Do we I mean, we don't have to >> Yeah, we don't have to. Yeah, let's just talk about buses for a second. >> Sure. Of course. So, um the uh town manager reached out to me earlier today to to inquire as to if he were to cut our uh capital ask for the buses down to $800,000, what would that do in terms of ability to purchase buses? Um Lynn looked at it quickly because this came in later later in this afternoon. Um and we're projecting five buses. Uh however, I've asked Dean to take a look at it as well because obviously he would need to prioritize the buses that are in most urgent need of um you know at their ready to
054con out so to speak. So uh we anticipate $800,000 would allow us to buy five to six buses of various sizes. So that was one of his questions. Another question he posed is, would it affect our ask at all if the paratutor uh RBT insurance was only offered to folks who are full-time? And I analyzed our paratutor list and all but five of them are full-time anyway. So, it was a very small impact uh to just isolate, but I think it's certainly appropriate to not offer benefits to someone who's not working for us full-time. So that is makes perfect sense to have that criteria. Um but I reminded him that if this were to go through that we could cut the budget um in the time work bonus and in the permanent subline. So he
055is aware of that. I also said the board would be having a work session this evening and there may be potentially other reductions. He did not mention anything else in our exchange. Um, I appreciated the outreach, appreciated the collaboration. He did express that, um, you know, as to several board members this evening, it's a re-evaluation year and that will have an impact on our community. So, they're under pressure to consider all stakeholders, but um, that's pretty much the extent of our conversation. We'll probably circle back tomorrow after tonight's meeting, but that's, uh, kind of where we landed. And I believe we mentioned earlier um last year we only received funding not even for one full bus. So we backfilled the the b the the budget was part of the to backfill for one budget or
056one bus rather and then um Dean was just very concerned about another bus being needed. So we were able to reallocate some realized savings to bud to purchase two buses. I think I did share with the board. I'm certain Dean has in his presentations that the ordering time on buses right now is extraordinarily long uh and variable. So some buses have been on order for over a year and then even when they arrive they need to be um treated with certain um add-ons like radios and things that are specific to us. So the uh lead time on buses is is a a concern. You know it will take anywhere from 6 months to two years to get a bus. Um, and they're not getting any cheaper. They are going up every year for a variety
057of reasons. >> Um, and just to clarify or just I'm for me to clarify the we asked for the 1 was it 7 million for buses? >> 1.5 million I believe. >> And that would have been to purchase. How many did we need this to buy this year? Was it seven? >> It was seven and then the bubble issue. then the bubble issue. So, >> um so with this $800,000 um cut and obviously we don't really have control over what what the town side does, but with that we would be two buses short for this year and not accounting for the bubble issue for future years. Miss Yes. Go ahead, Lynn. >> The um buses might not all be fullsize buses. I know today we blew the transmission on one of our vans and have
058to get that replaced. So, um it might be some of the service vans, too. >> Okay. Mr. in. >> Would it be too crazy to uh offer the town say just throw an idea in my head, we'll give you 250,000 from our non-lapsing to get us up to that million dollars we need for the good purchase of a bunch of buses. Only if they approve the 800, though. I don't I'm not into giving them money. Then they say, "Oh, now we're going to give you 600." >> I'm saying, you know, is it unrealistic? The board could choose to make that determination at the end of the year. Say we either have realized savings or we don't have to dip into the non-lapsing fund this year. The board could say we know we're only going to
059get 800,000 from the town. Why don't we use some um non-lapsing fund resources to uh balance what we need for buses, especially in light of the transmission issue that I didn't even know about. So um that's absolutely a possibility. Thank you. Um and then just a clarification on the the tutor um sorry the parah insurance that 1.6 million on the screen and then the two reductions the 1.6 million is that not including the five part- timerrs? So would we be able to reduce that by >> or that is already accounting for the >> we already shaved off a little uh from that was >> yeah we was it 80,000 you said >> 80 okay cuz I thought it was like 1.7 so that was >> was 168 >> okay perfect so that's already off there
060>> that's considered yes >> and then the time work bonus is that 105 >> correct >> is that and then the bu permanent building subs is 100. >> We anticipate that would cover about four. >> And then we talked also about contracted services. Is that another line item? >> It could be. Yes. I could have Lyn Lyn and I spoke of that earlier this evening part of the meeting about we've left the contracted service line pretty stable because we didn't know whether um the PAR benefits would be funded. We could look at that with a sharper eye and see kind of to the extent that we've done on line 59 and 60 here. Could we reduce that with the commitment that the uh insurance is funded? Um, you know, we're we're gambling a little bit
061by saying we're assuming, but I think it's a reasonable assumption that once we get benefits, we're going to keep people or attract more people. So that would reduce our reliance on those uh contracted services. Um so we can look at that and see if there's any type of analysis we could do that would be safe. Um but again contingent upon because we can't give up those items and then not get the benefits because we'd be taking a huge step backwards. >> Yes. Then we would include if there was another line item that could be reduced or that line item that could be reduced, we would then bundle that together and make it when we present to them, we would say that this is the actual >> um cost of par insurance after considering the cuts
062that we we made. Okay. >> And um to the other questions about Mr. Helen indicated any more cuts. You know, Lyn and I were meeting earlier today. We can continue to look at our projections, look at our trends, and see if there are other areas that we'd be willing to recommend um knowing what our experiences are this year. Unfortunately, we will not get any further updates about insurance um until April. So, we've we've kind of had to leave that fully funded. Now, you know, April, unfortunately, our budget's already said and done by then. Um, another reason why we sometimes have realized savings because we have to put in the full amount and then sometimes it scales down by April. This year it's kind of been scaling more up than down, but um, you just never
063know. It's just all about experience and claims and and those sorts of things. So, I don't know if you wanted to add anything, Lynn, about our ongoing analysis. When I was looking, while you were speaking earlier, I was looking at some of the lines and I found an additional $39,77 that could be cut. >> Oh, no big deal. Perfect. >> That's great. It's just the the the savings you spoke of earlier for the um in kind services. >> I went >> Oh, that's right. We didn't put that in. >> We did not. And I I just went through and found those. So, that would give us another 39,000. >> 39,000. Even >> $39,77. I can put it on the spreadsheet. >> Okay. >> Just just let us know if you find anything else. Um go
064ahead, Miss Weaver. >> Yeah. I mean, I think one of the things obviously we kind of talked about in the last ones as we we grilled was just how it looks the the um appropriated versus actuals and obviously uh Lyn and I were discussing before the meeting the frustration of the timeline like has it always been this way that we pass a budget before we know all of the things that >> um and I know other towns like some we were saying some do it in February. Um >> it makes it very difficult to to do this. Um, even so, like, uh, I think I've prefaced this before, but obviously putting the budget into the town council as really a request and then they'll come back with a number, but we don't know about until
065a month later that we we do this. Um, it just becomes it becomes inefficient, I think, and and difficult to to try and capture, I think, what we're really trying to capture. Um but yeah, anywhere I think where we can find um more of the um actual expenditures that are trending in a certain way that may have a significant difference, I think is really where we'll get um some of I think the the more significant con and obviously we know that there's going to be differentiation particularly with the special ed things. Um but was just curious on that line. I know that was one of the first slides you gave the um encumbrance versus the year-to- date. Um and just curious I don't like touching the special ed uh given where we're at. Um but
066just would be curious to there's any wiggle rooms on those ones. I know many have um gone before the appropriations committee this morning and this afternoon to talk about the governor's budget when it comes to um some of our education fund spending especially at the state level especially in this area. Um but yeah just curious so the year-to- date expenditure we're still anticipating that account balance to reduce further is that correct? It could, as I understand it, after meeting with um our special ed director today, there are several students that may require a higher level of care. Again, that's being monitored. Um so that could affect that $1.2 million. We can certainly apprise the board of that in the coming budget sessions to see if there are any changes there. But, um, that's always a
067the the money that we just so the board for our newer board members, the money that we requested for next year, the $4.1 million, that reflects currently known students who we know will likely continue in a special education outplacement next year, as well as placeholders for five additional students. Um because you can't not expect I mean people move in and they need something very significant. It happens several times a year. Um it's happened very recently actually. So this is a volatile area. We're still doing I think very very well here but it can turn very quickly with um those sorts of things. And I want I also wanted to mention to the board with legislative um you know contacts and and current budget um deliberations at the state level that we currently in our budget
068do not have the schoolbased health center at the high school or the noraster academy. both of those I've I've written a grant my with my team for the Norre Academy and then um we've been working with our legislators to ask for funding for the school-based health center as well as grants. So those if none of that comes through we have those two programs would likely go away. Um I want to make sure I said that publicly. I do know the board's aware that I did put in the the budget request for the um mental health counselor at the high school given all the discussion we've had at the board table about the value. I mean, not to say that those other programs don't have value, but um you know, the schoolbased health center is about
069$175,000 a year to run and then our Easter Academy, the grant that was written is for $100,000. So, they're they're both fairly pricey endeavors. Miss Vietus. >> Um just a quick question. We've talked a lot about our non-certified staff. How are we with certified staff? Do we have any positions that need filling or are we okay um going into the next year? >> It was green. >> We are in good shape right now. We have filled um a recent special ed vacancy. um where our work will be or Mr. Diaz in his office's work will be as our retired folks um we have about six folks retiring um in the certified arena but uh we've had good fortune that that um we tend to fill our positions pretty pretty uh not easily but we work
070hard at it and get good people. Um so the retirees once the budget passes we'll start that process um as soon as possible. So right now we're in good shape certified. Who >> was first? >> Miss Weaver, are we having the same question? Are we are we anticipating hiring at a lower step? So any realized savings on that front? Are we budgeting for that? >> I would have to defer to what Lynn put in the budget. Um these days it's really hard to hire people at low steps, but I'll defer to Lyn about that. For any of the shortage areas, I budgeted at a very high step because they tend to come in at a high step. For um general education teachers, I budgeted at master's step five. >> Oh, okay. Yeah. And I would
071say I know some people that are coming in at step four is from their >> Yes. Most with no teaching experience. Yeah. Okay. That's a good time to be a teacher. And the followup would be were any of them getting the retirey credits or things like that there would >> we did one of the questions that came out in a previous board meeting was a teacher at Egreen is going to start on the retirement increment um I don't know how many others we have currently Lynn that are in the increment program >> that's factored into the budget um okay >> the one that caught everyone's eyes when we did a building by building you saw that one stick out pretty pretty vividly. >> It's factored into the budget and we also factored in additional monies
072in case anyone else did because they have until June to tell us by contract. >> Mr. Hollerin, >> yes, that was in fact the question I was going to ask because we've been surprised this year. We actually did hire at lower steps when we weren't expecting to. So, it's a possibility. Um but I think um another question I might have maybe an ask and we might already have this. Can we based upon the budget that we just adopted would it be possible to see a breakdown of what expenses are either legally or contractually obligated that we don't have any wiggle room with? Just sum it up and make it simple like by percentage and dollar amount if we don't have it already. >> Um >> yeah the blue pie chart, right? Yeah. >> Yeah. >>
073Oh, there it is. Yes. >> But this might also >> Yeah, that's what I was thinking. >> That's required. >> But there didn't you have one that had like the percentage of the budget impact? >> Yeah, I was looking for it. I didn't see it though. >> Let me let me this one. So this is, you know, regardless of this is the um what our impact is just from contractual obligations. So that's $2 >> $1 million plus the unfunded mandates. Um and then obviously the we have to provide benefits. Um, and that was a huge um, 18% leap this year. I know there was a pie chart on that. >> Usually you have like a budget drivers. >> Yep. Here it is. >> Yeah. >> Uh, so >> 63%. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> So,
074those are all just mustdos. >> Yep. >> Uh, transportation is a must do. It's a mandate. Um, and special ed is a must do. I mean, that's why one the many of the things that Lynn referred to this evening were operational expenses that you know, you got to heat your building, but maybe you could look at whether it needed to be as high as it was. So, those are the things that we looked at with with a real uh critical eye, especially looking at the 5-year look back. It did give us some good good information, and we can continue to do that. >> Yeah. >> For areas maybe that we haven't already talked about. roughly as it is now that's about 72% of the budget is pretty much mandated contractually obligated um yeah okay thank
075you >> Mr. Sharma. >> So just a quick question out of the the ask that we have right now, right? What percent of that ask would be contracts would be I mean roughly about three was it 4% 3% or >> oh of the total budget increase >> like if you're asking like 7.3 with the benefits what percent is just contracts and you know >> well 1.7% increase is for the PAR benefits. Um, Len, I'm not sure if you'd be better suited to answer that question. >> Talking about just the contract salaries or sub, what percent of the ask would that be approximately? >> So, total salaries is about 5.5 million. So, >> more than total ask because we have the NLF that we were utilizing, >> right? A million dollar offset there. But, uh, so
076if we take a million off of that, it's still 4.5 million. Um so what percentage of our budget is contractual obligations? Probably 2% of it >> from this from the ask right now. 7.5 2%. >> Actually probably more than that actually four out of the 5% I mean very little of it is not part of as you know our it's our b biggest expenditure our biggest piece of the pie. um is salaries and benefits that makes up 3 + 19 is no big ask 84 80 >> 82 I guess 82%. And then special ed as well that's all mandated. So that brings you up to 88%. So all you know these are just and then transportation obviously has to be in. So very little of our pie here is not mandatory. I mean operational expenses
077as I mentioned is an area you can look at but at the end of the day you do have to make sure your buildings are open. Heat I mean as the board knows I sent them an email yesterday. We had a minor flood at Wallace. You've got to take care of that. you've got to pay for the water extraction and the fans that are going and the things that need to take care of that. So, those are things that come up that you don't always know are going to happen. >> Mr. Ska, >> yeah. Does the need for special education teachers keep going up every year? >> Yes. >> So, there's more So, the percentage of students is there's more kids that need special education every year. There's >> Yes. It's a national trend right
078now. >> Is something in the water or >> you know I'm on a committee that's analyzing that. Um I think it's a combination of factors. Certainly we're seeing kids come in with extreme needs extreme. But there also is probably um other factors that come into play. Certainly um Connecticut's way of doing special ed business. But if you look even at this chart here, in the last 7 years, we've gone up almost 5% in special ed. So that's um you know, 4%. It's a pretty significant uptick. >> So you need more you need more special ed teachers then. >> Yes. I would say um the only real uh position we're recommending to add this year is the uh occupational therapist because the students are coming in those that individual would work almost exclusively with special needs
079students um who have you know fine motor needs or other adaptability needs. So that is one of the few positions that we added this year is is um the OT because of special education issues. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Are there any other questions? Anything that we need um Dr. Breett and team to look into for next time >> about that. Um I was actually going to propose not meeting tomorrow. Um, we do have Monday scheduled and next Wednesday scheduled. Um, next Wednesday is the day that we would need to transmit like vote to transmit the budget to um the town. Um, but then we also have Monday. And so if there was anything um urgent, we would keep the meeting, but if there's nothing urgent, then I was going to propose to cancel for
080tomorrow and then meet back up on Wednesday. Go ahead, Mr. Holler. Yeah, I'm actually in favor of that. I'm not officially making a motion, but just my two cents is that I would like a little bit of time to do my homework and go through. I don't know how much of that I'll accomplish in less than 24 hours between work and sleep which I'm not going to sleep. It's fine. Um, but I think that is a good idea. So, do we need to officially make a motion? >> Yeah. >> I move that we Uh, I move that we cancel the board of education meeting tomorrow, February 19th. Um, that's it. >> That's it. >> Second. I have a motion on table and a second. Is there any discussion? That's what you were. >> Yeah. I
081feel like I'm going to have I have a couple questions that might take the weekend. So, I just want to make sure like I >> send those off to you guys and then it's not going to be 24 hours for you guys to answer these. Um, so I just want to make sure you have like the weekend and then we'll come back meet Monday and Wednesday. Um, I feel comfortable enough with that but open to others. >> Did you eventually >> I did a discussion of it discussion. >> I think we all need sleep. I've been up since three since three. >> Um Tim doesn't really get a vote. Let's call a roll. >> Yeah, we can go. Yeah, call >> Mary Patrick. >> Yes. >> Sean, >> Yes. Amy Karan, >> yes. >> Ryan
082Evo, >> yes. >> Dr. Gail, >> no. Next week doesn't work as well. Tomorrow would be better, but >> Okay. >> Yes. >> 71. >> Um, just to catch Mr. afternoon. If we cancel tomorrow's meeting for the budget, just cuz if we have questions, it would be >> we have to have a chance to digest what we said. >> That's just to be clear, we're not adding any meetings. The meetings for next week, so already >> Monday's our next meeting. >> Yes. >> Okay. I got it on the schedule. >> Um, Miss Weaver, just another question. I know we we talked about this and stuff, but I just couldn't find it again. Um, do we have a list of the breakout? I know we are 48,000 less on the grants. Um, but just if we
083have a breakout of each one that we're anticipating and then if we have um with the ECS, just curious too. Um, just so we know the ins the inputs so to speak that would be helpful too. Thank you, >> Mr. Chararma. Just so for the next meeting, can you just have maybe um an exact breakdown of like what percent of our ask is salaries, contracts? >> Yeah. I think um like in the past presentations, we have the pie chart this time, but in the past there's been like the total number of incre like the total increase and then the percentage that it accounts to. Maybe just add that >> add that slide or put on the pie chart. That would be fine too. Mr. Newton >> question. And I like that pie chart that broke
084out the salaries and the benefits. Can it be broken out into all eight areas such as your each school, each what each school's salaries and benefits are, board of ed, you know, high school, just so we can get a picture of everything >> because I get that >> for each school in well each area we do board of ed too. So thank you >> Dr. Stanley. >> Thanks. Um, I would also like to propose or get what it would look like for a percentage increase if we actually keep our reliance on the non-lapsing fund similar to what we have in the past years. Um, since um, the information that you showed um, earlier is we haven't actually dipped into the non-lapsing fund in several years. Um, it just seems like this percentage increase is not
085sustainable. Um, and so I would like to see what it would look like if we relayed or relied on the non-lapsing fund since we haven't actually done that. So like increase instead of the B lines being 1 million make it to or >> the 3.2 million which we've done budgeted in for this previous year. >> Okay. >> Do we have any other questions? Obviously, email um works too if we're not ready currently. >> Oh, sorry. >> Yes, go ahead. >> Um I was just going to ask with the um the uh accounted for versus the actuals and stuff, we're doing those on a monthly basis, right? Is that correct? We do those on Okay. So, uh it won't be till next month, so never mind. But I think would be curious um the other question
086I had was um for the benefits side of things um that's already been accounted for in terms of with our agent of record. So that is kind of a nonchanging one is what we're saying. Okay. Just want to clarify like that one is a number we're not changing. Those are the other numbers we're not kind of changing. >> And that isn't there's no way it will go down or are we waiting to hear still and we won't hear until after? >> The next time I'm scheduled to hear is April. >> Okay. >> Attempt to see if we can get the information sooner. I make a phone call tomorrow. >> I mean, yeah, if you >> We're at the shot, but >> thank you. Okay. So, I guess I'll just put it out there. Do we
087want to make these cuts presented currently or do you want to just wait until Monday and then we can just do them all together? Because I think there's a couple outstanding questions um proposed or we can do what was presented today and then I guess it's up to anyone. >> Go ahead. >> Oh, I think we're pretty much in agreement. ever proposed to go ahead and make the cuts um that were pro that were presented um this evening. Uh although I would keep the um printing in the adult education and the printing for the um I proposed to keep in the cost as it was in the original for um getting the data for the kindergarten enrollment and the printing. I think those were pretty nicable offsets. >> Yeah. Yeah. And those were not listed
088on this um recommended cut. >> Correct. >> Yeah. >> Mentioned but not listed. Okay. >> Did you have something else, Mr. Hollerin? >> So this is >> So if I could just clarify for the board if they're going to make a motion. The combination of all the reductions we've made this evening, but inclusive of the PAR benefit package, the board would be reducing the budget to 97,903 403 or 6.87%. Which is um line 61 on this document. >> Can you just >> Oh, wait. 61. >> Is that correct, Lyn? What about the time work like 65? >> Did you want to include the cuts to the time work bonus in the building subs or no? >> I I would recommend waiting on that until we know where we stand on the benefits. Um >> then
089you are absolutely correct. It is line 61 6.87%. So I'll put my cursor. Well, I think that we I think that we can include them, but but what I was saying is when we talk to the board, the town council like we have like a asterct and says that if you were not willing to fund PAR benefits, then we would require these dollar amounts to be added back. >> I see what you're saying. >> Yeah. So, they couldn't just be like, we're cutting it by 1.6 6 million. They'd have to be like we would they would cut it by they could only cut it by 1.4 whatever the the Yeah, because then we have it just it's all clean cuz if we don't do that then we'd have to go back. Oh, just kidding. We
090don't need that 200,000 >> in the final amount. But I but I think like I know what you're getting at and we need to make sure that >> we account for that. Yeah. >> So I think we can reduce it by that full amount. So that 6.64 um or reduce it by whatever the total is. And um but then we just have to >> make sure that the time council understands that. And then if there was that other contracted services line item on Monday that we reduced and that would be included as well. >> Yeah, Dr. Stanley, go ahead. If you have it, >> I have the I have the numbers if you want. >> Okay. >> Because we have to do it. Sorry. This is getting a motion. >> Can you just put back
091the motion? Are you doing all of the accounts and the or just as I would say as presented by the CFO? >> Okay. Um, we don't need the percentage on this though, right? >> No, you need the total. >> Just the total. Okay. Okay. So, it's going to be move the 2026 2027 board of education budget be adjusted by the subtraction of $535,368 as presented by the CFO recommendations. >> Second. >> Yeah. Can you just go back to the spreadsheet? Lynn, do you agree with that number? >> That's the 98. >> Can you say one more time? 35 368 that's it may be it probably be wise to >> sum up um >> put the total budget ask at that at this point with the percentage increase just to make it a complete package. >>
092Okay. So, >> I will amend my motion to move that the 2026 2027 board of education budget be reduced by $535,368 resulting in a total budget of 97,698,43 as presented by the recommendations of the CFO. >> Second. Okay, we have a motion, amended motion and a second. I think we just have to sum up column D. Um, >> it's actually increasing because we're adding the 1.6. >> Yeah, that's true. >> It's not a decrease. Well, we started at 98 because we didn't actually start with a 5.4. We started with a 7.3. >> Got it. >> But that wasn't in the what was presented. >> I don't believe that was in what was presented in the superintendent's budget. The 1.6 million was not there. >> It was separated. >> Yeah. But we >> That's what we
093accepted as the budget. >> We accepted it as with the 1.6. Yeah. >> Yep. >> Sorry. >> No, you're fine. I was thinking of something. Don't worry. I know having >> this is what it looked >> like versions is confusing. >> Yeah, that's what we accepted the 98 223 and then we cut it. >> Yes. >> Yeah. 233 >> 23371 >> the 72.6. >> Okay. >> Yep. So just for clarification, we're cutting 535,368 which will result in a budget of ask of 6.64% or 97,69843 um from the superintendent's budget. >> That is correct. >> Okay, perfect. And um is there any discussion or further clarification? again. Yes, we still have Monday's meeting to do more. Um, but for now, this is where we are. A work in progress. >> Yes. >> Yeah. So, is there
094any discussion for the motion? Okay, we can got a vote, please. >> Yes. Yes. >> Yes. >> Motion pass. >> Thank you. >> Um okay. Any further discussion or questions on the budget? Miss Lindsay, could we get um I would like a copy of possible your your uh slideshow, a copy of it. Do we have that in our emails? I don't remember seeing it. >> I can resend it. >> I would appreciate that. Not a problem. >> Absolutely. >> Can I get a printed copy, too? I like print. Sorry. The spreadsheets are in the drive too if you see in Yeah. So like >> Okay. Um and then we don't have to do anything for the buses. I think that was just a heads up for now that that's what he's looking at. And we
095can >> just to clarify that's not in the operating though. >> Yeah. >> Absolutely not. No, that's >> don't look at that person. That's not >> it's a conversational component, not in the operating. >> Not that 7. Don't look at that. That's not there. Thank you. Okay. >> Don't want confusion. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Then it looks like we're back to public participation on any matter related to board responsibilities. And we need to modify our agenda to start saying four minutes, >> right? passed. >> That policy passed. >> Um, if there's anyone online who would like to speak, you can raise your hands. I am not seeing any. >> All right. Remarks by board members. Bless you. No, Miss Weaver. Just want to say thank you again, Lind. That was It's so exciting. I
096love just like if you find a couple other hundred thousand, it's always good. Um, but no, appreciate the work already. Once again, thank for the staff. Thank you again. Thanks to board members for continuing to ask questions and apologies in advance for my emailed questions. Um, but excited to see you guys next week. >> All right. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Second. Motion a second. All in favor? Any opposed? Meeting adjourned. 8:31 p.m.