001Okay, we're good. >> Good evening. I'd like to call this special meeting of the New England Board of Education to order for Monday, February 9th, 2026. I'm sorry. Is this a special meeting? No, regular meeting. Regular meeting. Just kidding. Regular meeting. February 9th. I had the wrong agenda open. Um, 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. >> Order for Monday, February 9th, 2026. I'm sorry, this is >> Thank you. >> Je, would you please call the role? Um here >> I'm in 7:01 p.m. Please rise for pledge of >> allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag. >> I removed
002it. >> I was She's in the room. >> No, she's That was me. Like that was me talking. >> Yeah, >> I did mute. Yeah, that's why >> she's muted now. It's fine. Um, >> okay. >> Beatress >> here. >> How >> Newton >> here. >> Amy Parad >> here. >> Sam Pharma >> here. >> Brian Stebo >> here. >> Dr. Stanley >> here. >> Jessica Weaver >> here. >> I have everyone here except Mr. Chararma. >> Thank you. At this time, I'd like to invite any m member of the public to the table for public participation on any matter related to board responsibilities. Um, if you're in the room, you can come to the end of the table. If you're online, you can raise your hand to be recognized. >> Good evening, members of
003the board of education, superintendent educators, and members of our community. My name is Jennifer Rodriguez, 71 Northwood Road. I am one of the parents of the students who helped organize last week's peaceful assembly. I want to begin by saying thank you to the many members of the public who spoke in support of our students right to peacefully assemble. The purpose of the assembly was simple. It was to give students a space to gather peacefully to remind one another that they are not alone and in a world that is increasingly filled with hateful rhetoric. And to those who are uncomfortable with that message, I would say this. Discomfort often comes from a place of privilege. The privilege is not having to worry. But we have children who do have to worry. We have first generation Americans,
004students who are immigrants and whose families, parents and grandparents are immigrants. Our student body is approximately 50% students of color. They are afraid for their family members and their friends. And that fear is real. And this group of students wanted them to know you are not alone. It really is that simple. So I ask, how can we stand here and not be okay with that? The children in our community are afraid and instead of responding with anger and disruption, these students chose peace, solidarity, and compassion. Unfortunately, what followed the event was misinformation, accusations against teachers, claims of indoctrination. Those claims could not be further from the truth and quite frankly are tired responses. My son is a student of Newington High School. He is a Latino. He is of age. And he is deeply aware
005of what is happening in our country, in our state, and even just a mile away from his school where an ICE raid took place. These are not abstract ideas for him. They are his lived experiences. And in our home, our evenings are filled with hard conversations helping him navigate concerns and questions. He carries his papers with him to prove that he's a citizen when he runs or drives because there's a real fear of being racially profiled or detained by ICE. That fear did not come from a teacher. It comes from the world he lives in. They come from facts. 70% of those detained have no criminal record. Many being detained are US citizens that are racially profiled. As parents, we taught him that if you stand up, you do so peacefully and for those who
006can speak speak and for those who cannot speak because if we do not allow young people space to express themselves peacefully, they will learn from bad actors on how to express themselves non- peacefully. So let me be clear about the facts. This event was student organized. It was their idea. Administrators ensured safety and order. Teachers remained in their classrooms. No academic instruction was missed. Participation was voluntary. Our students showed up showed us what peaceful civic engagement looks like. They showed courage. They showed empathy. And they showed maturity. That is something we should all be proud of. I want to thank our administration, security, and Newington PD. Thank you for your time. If and I'm off to hopefully catch him break a record for Newington High School uh in an indoor track event. So, I'm going
007to be jutting out now. So, thank you for your time. >> Anybody else would like to participate for public participation? >> Good afternoon. My well, good evening. Uh, my name is Jamie Lorero. I am the mother of a Newington High School student. Um, I did have a really nice speech put together. However, over the past few hours, I find out u I found out some more information. And so some things changed. So I kind of just jotted some things down I wanted to talk about. I am very angry that I at first I didn't think this was orchestrated by the school. I now believe the school helped to orchestrate this. There were police officers there. There was uh excuse me if I'm saying this wrong. Tinyakos who works for Newington not for Newington High School
008is there with his political agenda teaching my daughter things that I am against. I'm not against ICE. I married an illegal immigrant. He's legal now because he did it the right way. I have friends who are illegal. Why don't we teach these kids when they're instead of going out to protest, how to look up laws, how to find legislature, how to change bills, how to fight for things the right way so they can I'm so mad. I'm sorry. You put our children at risk. Number one, you don't know if there's some person mentally unstable in that school who was against this and would have come out and hurt any of our child, your children, my child. You don't. It happens all the time in school system. Um, I want to talk about um, most of
009the students who walked out, I probably talked to 40 students had no idea what was going on and said that they kind of just wanted to get out of class or just followed the other kids, which is appalling. So, you don't even know what you're standing outside, what you're fighting for. talking about immigrants. Why don't we talk about the last administration who let a whole bunch of people without IDs, without anything, just come into our country to using our funding and things we need for children, for their mental health, for education, for everything. Why don't we teach them that so that they can change the future and understand why we are where we are today? That's all I have to say. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay. Seeing no other Oh, okay. >> Jason Hip,
01054 Woodmir Road, Newington. Um, Lake and Riley. Lake and Riley. You can go ahead and say her name. The thing is is she was murdered and raped by an illegal person who ended up coming from V Venezuela. I know that there has been laws passed in her name because of that. The thing is is whenever you have people after uh after Joe Biden's administration um Trump ended up getting in office which you know the vast majority the electoral college and the popular vote ended up going for him. So even though that we do live in a blue state, the thing is is the philosophies of the blue state are in the minority of the United States right now. The thing is is that ICE is actually doing what they were what Joe or what President
011Trump was voted for. Uh it's deboarding illegal immigrants who want to do harm to US nationals. The thing is is whenever you go and orchestrate a a protest uh where there's high school students going out there protesting against ICE, you're sending the message that the children want to have murderers. They want to have rapes and they want to be maliciously violated by illegal immigrants. The thing is is, you know, if if town council or administration in Newington here on the board of ed helped orchestrate it and facilitate that, it's abhorrent. It's a waste of my taxpayers money. You know, I'm paying for my children to go and get an education. And sadly, in the past seven years, you know, this the school scores have been decreasing. So, what's going on here? You know, the kid
012should be in class. If they're outside, it's a hazard. I would assume that Mr. Alu, you know, it would be an insurance hazard if there would have been anything that ended up happening to the children. Luckily, nothing did end up happening. I don't agree that the administration facilitated these or these demonstrations during school time. If they wanted to go ahead and do it on their off time, they can go ahead and do that. But knowing that it happened during school time, it put them in a precurious situation outside. And then not only that, but it was a complete waste of my taxpayer money. You guys should be in charge of, you know, the money uh and the people that are getting paid to go and make sure that the children stay safe inside the school
013system and school buildings and not on a frolic. So, I'm very disappointed. Thank you. Seeing no other participation. Oh, Miss Delino Delbuno. Go ahead. >> Hi. Good evening. This is Beth Delbuno, 327 Walsh Avenue in Newington. Um, I just wanted to first I'd like to acknowledge Miss Rodriguez's comments um and say that I know that it's real that there are students out there that are experiencing um fear and uncertainty because of their own personal experiences and I'm not taking anything at all away from that. That is very real and I understand that. Um, you know, as many of you know, I do work in a school myself. Um, what I do have an issue with though is that the board is not following their own policies. There's an attendance policy in place for a reason.
014Um, it's policy 5113.2. If any of the board of ed members haven't looked at it, I would say take a peek at it. Um, and if this is misinformation, then I apologize, but I was told that the um, students are being given excused absences. And if you read the definition of an excused absence, protesting does not fit that definition um, as far as I can see. Um, so I'm just curious how these um, absences were excused. I think I I absolutely am a proponent of peaceful protest not during the school day, not during school hours, and not when we're paying for our students um educations to be in school, assuming that we're adhering to a prescribed curriculum that has been decided by a body of people and not by our own students deciding what to
015do during the school day. Um so I have a problem with the fact that it was during the school day. I applaud their efforts. I applaud the fact that our students want to stand together and make each other feel more comfortable. I don't agree with it happening during the school day. Peaceful protest. If I did that at work, if I walked out to do a peaceful protest during work, I would either be fired or disciplined for sure. So, I don't understand how the school is condoning it as an okay action. That's where I am stuck. Um, I appreciate you taking the time to hear my comments. Thank you. >> Thank you. and Miss Havens. Miss Havens, are you muted? >> Oh, I don't see her. >> Can you hear me now? >> Yes. Go ahead.
016>> I unmuted myself. Sorry, Dana Havens, 113 Stoddard Avenue. Um, I just wanted to say that I would hope because in the uh little bits of the videos that I saw from the walk out, I noticed some misinformation being exposed. Today, I heard some misinformation being exposed. So, I would really hope that after all this uproar that the school would hold an assembly with, you know, both sides presenting the facts. Um, and just to be sure that our students do know exactly what's true and what isn't true. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh, Miss Delon, can you please lower your hand? And Miss Havens, I'm not seeing any other hands raised. Okay. All right. Um, so at this time, we'll move on to our new business portion. So, we are reviewing the instructional programs for
017the 2627 budget. I was wondering um if Karen could do a quick overview of the budget book. We never did do that the previous evening. >> Um it's changed a bit and I want to kind of have you highlight those changes. >> Sure. So this year the budget book is presented by school which the board of ed has asked for. So you will see there are tabs for each of our schools in the system plus an administrative tab and the transition academy. Um behind each tab is the um the detail of the the the um budget that each of the schools is requesting. You'll see the different programs within that budget. And underneath each program there are three-digit codes which are object codes which are spelled out there for you. If you have any questions
018or salaries is like a 111. Um supplies is 61 611. Behind that budget you will see we have provided you with budget details. It gives all the information that you can find that represents the numbers in your first page. So if you have any questions you can go back to the the budget detail page and get all that information. We've also included any significant cuts in that program or the the school itself. And we've also listed in the back of your book, you'll see under program details, since we have changed from a programbased budget to a building based budget, we've also included the different programs and the details of those programs. So, if you wanted to know about the art program, you can find it all in the back of your book. Any other questions?
019Stanley, >> thank you for the overview of the organization. Um, when I was reviewing it, um, there are some lines that there's a zero under the budget and for and then it's not included the number code. We don't get the details for what it is and occasionally we get most of them are in the cuts and you can follow them, but there are a handful that I was highlighting um that we don't have details on. Um, how do we get that information? >> We can get you that information when we're talking about it if you want to just let us know and we can look at that. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> All right. Well, thank you, Erin. And Karen was not here last week, but I want to thank her publicly um for
020her contributions to this budget book. It is quite a heavy lift. Uh, in the front of your book is just an overview of my proposed spending plan. um it most of which was included in my presentation last week, but I always include a cover letter and you'll also find just notices for the upcoming board meetings. Um and the overview of the budget um is at the back of where those agendas are providing the board with the um grants that we use. you know, more of an explanation of grants and other key program updates, uh, portrait of a graduate, some of the things that we're um, spotlighting tonight. But I think when you hear our administrators speak this evening, they will illuminate what are the key expenditures. We do have them focus in on what are
021the key changes this year, notable increases, notable decreases. You'll hear tonight an explanation about some of our positions got reclassified because we're going building by building versus program. As the night unfolds, hopefully that will make sense to you. And primarily our speakers will be our director of special education, Marilyn Julioso, Beverly Lawrence, and Kristen Freeman. Um our administrative team is here should any questions be asked. However, they may have to get more information for you if they don't have it at their fingertips. Um, after they present, I do have some follow-up questions that were posed at the end of last meeting that I will update the board about the capital plan, the non-lapsing fund. So, I will uh plan to update the board on that after our um administrative team presents. So, unless there are
022any questions, I'll turn it to you for questions and then I can just introduce folks. No questions. >> No questions. All right. So, number one will be Marilyn Julioso. She's going to talk about our transition academy, which is considered its own school. For those of you new to the board, it's located here at town hall and it serves children or young adults who are post high school but not uh finished with school. Typically, they have special needs and they stay with us till they're 22 years old for additional training um and linkages to outside resources. So, I'll kick it right to you. We're on the yellow tab. >> I think what I'm going to do is just pull up a chair so I don't have to keep walking back and forth. We're gonna have to
023keep going back for it. But you you probably should just come on over. >> One second. But just before we start, could I ask just to clarify? I know we said 1822. We are obligated to >> Yes. >> So people don't have a misconception where like >> Yes, that is a a state and federal law to educate uh special education students should they require it. Not every special education student requires it, but those students with more significant needs um are legally we are legally obligated to educate them till 22. >> All right. Thank you. >> And it used to be 21. >> It did. >> And and the way that the um school year runs is that if the student birthday falls during the summer months and it's after July 1st, they actually can be
024here almost to the age of 23. So, um, again, one of those unfunded mandates, um, that we have not talked about, that we've talked about, not talked about, and can't fund them. But with that said, um, we're also looking at an increasing population in the transition academy students who typically would not be your transition academy candidates, but now we're getting students with mental health issues, who are just not ready for that next step, who are now requiring some additional services. Um so our transition academy in general we're might need to look at how we're structuring it and and the students who are we are now servicing um our enrollment is going to continue to go up. So just something for the future but for tonight's budget very straightforward. Um we have a a very small
025supply budget. Uh we use um uh we our students participate in like cooking activities. So they go to learn how to do budgeting and they go to stop and shop and they do um they learn how to make meals. So there is some purchase food um that we have that is part of their budget because uh grant funds you can't purchase food. I found that out when I wrote up my grant and I kicked it back and I said no no you can't buy food. So their food is in our budget. Um and we just have again u just some simple supplies. Any questions? Right. And then for their nursing supplies, same thing. We have um nursing who obviously provides support. We don't have an on-site nurse, but we do have um nursing who uh
026will consult and be um available to the um to the facility so that um those costs are there as well. Just restocking items very small. >> Quick question. And how many students are we talking about >> Currently >> I want to say we have 11. >> And you somebody said I thought I heard the projections were that it was increasing. What do you think it's anticipating it increasing to? >> I think we're looking at an additional five next year and we are only losing two. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Is there a max capacity for like is there a ratio that we'd be concerned about or building space? It it really has to do with safety and space. That's that's our tipping point. >> Any other questions for Transition Academy? No. >> All
027right. Well, Marilina can stay put because she's going to talk about what we've done now with our building based um presentation here is uh Miss Lawrence will now talk about Elizabeth Green and some of their highlights, but that will also include special ed services at Elizabeth Green. So, all you've heard about so far are the special ed services at the Transition Academy. Now, you're going to hear all things Elizabeth Green. All right. Um, so if you don't mind, I do have all the all things all elementary school if that kind of helps. Um, just because um we can we can kind of bounce back and forth. Um, but I'll I'll lead with um first I believe that I'm a storyteller. Um, so there's a story I would like to tell you about elementary and I
028do have our elementary colleagues um online as well. Um, so in preK through grade 4, our students build the foundational literacy and numeracy and social emotional skills that set them up for long-term success. This includes daily instruction in reading, writing, and math, as well as rich rotation of specials, wellness, library, media, art, music, and educational technology. These experiences help students discover their interest, develop creativity, and grow as whole learners. A major focus of our work continues to be the implementation of benchmark advance which we launched in 2024 to meet the state's right to read requirements. This curriculum is rigorous, aligned, and designed to ensure that every child becomes a competent, capable reader and writer. To implement it with fidelity, our teachers need access to highquality materials, books, manipulatives, hands-on tools, and classroom supplies that allow
029students to engage deeply with the content. For those of you who don't know, we are also expanding our play-based learning access to all of our early grades. Play is not just fun. It is a powerful driver of cognitive, social, and language development. But it requires meaningful play, which requires intentional materials such as blocks, Play-Doh, math manipulatives, sensory tools, dramatic play items, and other resources that help ch children explore, problem solve, and collaborate. The differences that you'll see in our budget from school to school vary based on the number of students per school. So I have a lot little bit more to my story to tell. Um but I will jump a little bit ahead around some of the things that you might see as far as differences. Um so all of our schools are pretty
030much operating um utilizing the same materials. Um but it varies from school to school because of the sizes. Um so our playbased numbers um might look different because one school has a larger population of students than another. Um there's been some changes. For example, E Green um last year um not really realizing the needs of supplies. Um so our principal had to make an adjustment this year um because he was in need of more supplies because he did not order as many as he needed last year. Um being new, he sort of left things status quo and then realized these are some of the items that I need. um primarily because they opened up a third K classroom and so he had to fully supply that classroom as well as replenish any materials that were
031wear and tear. So I'll stop there with E Green and I'll pass it off to Marilena if there's or I can keep going with my wonderful story here. >> So I sorry so I similarly um did all things elementary. So what we can do is we can go through um school by school but I definitely have highlights at different schools. So my story our story is that we offer a continuum of services. We are very very proud of the elementary programming that we have and that includes prek programming which has been expanded over time um which has actually opened up our doors to a lot more of our community and we've been able to do um more um early intervention with families. Um it's an incredible opportunity for us to get to know the families
032earlier on. So every school has about the same um personnel. Uh our number of teachers vary at schools because of the programming. And so I'll just highlight the programming. We have K4 extension programs at Ruth Chaffy, at Elizabeth Green, and at Anna Reynolds. Thank you. And um so that is serving a significant population. And again, sticking with um the going across all elementary, we were able to um we believe realize 1.9 million in savings with the seed grant that we were offered. Um last year we had an influx of families who have moved into the district and also students who required this high level of need and our um K4 extension numbers were busting and we were seriously looking at just again for safety do we need to outplace some of these students and without
033that C grant we never would have been able to um accommodate for those students. So we they are successfully thriving in one of our new programs, but that costs money and it costs services. Um SLP services we've had in the budget for an increase um in SLP services. We have an increase for an OT. So all of those um services come with um with us being able to provide our student services. So those are some of the increases you're going to see in the special education budget. Miss Petus, >> I have a quick question about the seed grant. If I heard correctly when we met last time, that grant is ongoing, correct? We are not It It's not impacting us negatively for this budget that we're talking about. Correct. >> It's going to be offered
034for one more year. >> Right. >> After that, it's unclear, but I had it's been included in the governor's budget for next year. Um, beyond that we cannot know at this point. >> Mr. Hollerin, >> thank you. In terms of the special education uh program budget, um, under item 599, other purchase services, we allocate appropriated $97,000 last year and that was $284,000. I know you had spoken to some of the increase that seems pretty steep, but I know education costs are rising, but I wonder if you could maybe shed some light on that a little bit. >> Perfect question. So, again, this is going to span throughout my entire budget, but we can absolutely start uh addressing it here. Um the I believe the fund 999 really works looks at the our um PAR educators
035and specifically our par ed our open choice para educators. Um so what what you'll see is you'll see some we've had an increase of students at Elizabeth Green number of students who are attending um who are open choice. Then we've had some students who transitioned from the elementary to the middle school. So you've seen a decrease in some of the schools, but then when we get to the middle school, you'll see an increase. So there's some attrition there with the students who have moved or transition transition to have moved from school to school. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> And this question might be better directed to Miss Lawrence. Um, under education technology, the appropriated amount last year was $87,000 for salaries. Um, item 111 and it's decreased to 65,000. Is that just due
036to attrition or >> it's a 6 FTE? >> My guess would be that it's a you can see that it's a 6ft FTE. They're probably anticipating for next year based on sizes of um the schools of students that they might be shifting um the percent of that FTE at the school. >> That makes sense. It's like half the salary. So that makes sense. Thank you. >> Well, there schools, >> Miss Petus, >> I thought you >> just one more quick question. Um, at the end of the e- green tab, it it reflects a significant change from last year in consultants. Can you explain a little bit more about what that means? >> That was my next bullet point. Perfect timing. So, we have to um we have to contract out with consultants for things that
037we can't do. Um, one of the things, um, it's called an IE, which is an independent educational evaluation, is probably one of the biggest, um, increases that we've seen. So, we do our best to work with families and to conduct evaluations. There is a law on the books that allows parents to ask for an independent educational evaluation. We do not necessarily have to grant that, but we do have to look at the the veracity of that um, request. If we find that that is something that we need to um say that we're going to do then we can we the parents have a right to choose an evaluator. We try to have a mutually agreed upon at as much as we can but sometimes they will find an evaluator and those costs have skyrocketed. our
038um our typical evaluation $2,000 $3,000. We had one evaluation that was $9,000 and that did not include the um clinician's participation in the PBT. They charge us um travel. Um so it's a huge expense. So we and again we'll talk more about this when I go over my 30 account, but that is what is um accounting for the that that jump in the consultants. Thank you. >> Sure. Hey guys, good to see you. Thanks for doing this. Um question on your line of course Marina because this is where um things are for the um BCBA and the OT and the PT. Um just trying to add the math. Are we doing a total one person across four schools or is it >> That's a good question. I believe that they are distributed. So they have
039schedules. So I think we look at their schedules because we have two PTs. So it could be that they they have to split the seven schools. So you'll see the two BTS across seven schools. >> Okay. And for clarification, we're incre we're adding the OT. >> We are. >> And then the BCBA is steady. >> Steady. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Welcome. >> Dr. Stanley. >> We'll just stick in special education um because I have two questions. But I noticed that the parrot educators on line 112 I believe. So they're they're increasing the salaries increasing 19% for the ask this year. Is that that seems like a significant raise or are we hiring new new staff? So again that might be contra not contractional because we're not contracted. Is that the built-in for I don't
040I don't I don't have the answer to that question. So that might be >> Yeah. >> It says 14 PAR educators and two RBTs. Is that like a just a higher number than last year >> or this year? >> What school are you at? >> Green says 16. >> 16. >> 14 plus two. Yes. I was looking on the detail page. It's 14 pairs and two RBTs. So perhaps there was less errors this current school year. >> Oh, you know what that might be? I know. Or at least I think I know. Um, Elizabeth Green, we had uh we have a the extension program there and I believe that there was there were there was an additional RBT that was added and there's one additional RBT and I believe one additional PAR that was added.
041>> Okay. So maybe we can get the differential for how many staff was there was last year? >> Last year. >> Um and then sticking with E green just for the art. Um so for the salary it's a little over half of a FTE so 6 um which is also a 16% increase from last year um so that's a significant jump and then if that is just a little over half a salary that means our art teachers are being um paid 160k is that right? Not typically, but they if they if they go to two schools to you know Yeah. then it's probably showing two different. >> Yeah, I understand that. So if this is about half of their salary which is 849 that's 160,000 for an art teacher. >> I don't think it's >>
042unless they were significant. So, we're showing a point 0.6 art teacher at Egreen Green for a salary of $84,000. It could be that that is a top step teacher. >> It is. >> So, a teacher who's making, you know, they're very far along in their career and are making at the top step, that could be a little less than half of their salary. Yes, a little more than half rather. >> But also like why did it increase 16%. Yeah, >> there are a few teachers there's a couple steps in our teachers contract in which teachers take a pretty huge leap. I can't explain that 100%. We can do a little bit more research on that. >> So I don't we let's double check that it's 16% for that particular individual. um also >> their salaries
043also include any um program leader stipens if they're program leaders. It also includes their um longevity if they're if they've been here quite a long time. And usually when they're at the top step, they have been here quite a long time. So it's not just the step increase or the the that salary. It is the total package of their salary. We might want to check to um Lynn that might be a teacher who's getting an increment in which they're in their last three years that that adds a huge number to their salary. >> That is correct. >> Okay. >> So that that could easily account for 15% more. >> But we'll verify that for sure. >> Um do you have a question? Dr. Stanley. >> Um, is this the right um time to ask about
044maintenance, too? >> Jenny Green. Yeah. >> Oh, is that tomorrow? Just kidding. No. >> Highlight it. Highlight it. >> Thank you, Chair. Jason Plum will be here tomorrow evening to fill in the blanks on maintenance and facilities. >> Okay. >> So, we'll just continue on with like the rest of my story. >> Keep telling your story. jump into our next schools. Um, so everything that you've heard so far, um, so all of this, our core curriculum, our intervention, and our enrichment services, our specials, and our play-based learning depends on having the right tools in teachers and students hands. To run our curriculum smoothly and meet the diverse needs of our learners, we must continue investing in classroom resources, consumables, textbooks, literacy manipulatives. For those of you who don't know, that means magnetic letters, letter tiles,
045picture cards, much more, and math manipulatives, dice, counters, base 10 blocks, faction strips, etc. These are not extras. They are essential components of highquality instruction. Our educators plan every day with purpose. They design learning that is relevant, responsive, and aligned to the needs of our diverse student body. The elementary budget ensures that we have what they need. they have what they need to do the work well so that every child from the moment they enter our schools is supported, challenged, and set up for success. When we talk about the elementary bud budget, we're really talking about our commitment to giving every child the strongest possible start in their NPS journey. Our philosophy is simple. When students receive a highquality curriculum paired with strong intervention services in the early grades, they are far less likely to
046need costly supports later on. Investing early is not only the right thing to do for children, it is also the most responsible use of our district resources. And so with that being said, I'll then jump over to Anna Reynolds and some of the changes that you might see there um in their increase. And I will say some of the decreases that you are seeing is because we are or we were left with a a credit from um a couple of our vendors and so we've been able to use our credit instead of put those things in the budget. Um but some of the increases that you might see, for example, um can um Anna Reynolds had to open another K classroom. Um and we need to re we had to replenish um we will need
047to replenish additional supplies for that classroom. Um we borrowed um from other schools this year, but we'll need to make sure that we replenish um that classroom classroom for next year. um specifically to support um the the center and station work uh meaning like the the play area, the woodworking area uh manipulatives again that students will need for um that additional um gay classroom. So I'll stop there with Anna Reynolds and then I'll pass it on to you. >> Can you just clarify? We added or we will be adding a kindergarten classroom but not adding a kindergarten teacher. No, the teachers are it's said because we had to add one this year past we we borrowed from just needs to now it's thank you. Thank you. >> Okay. So moving on um because we know
048special education is ever encompassing um so it also we also have psychological services um speech and language services um as well as um our BCBAS and and OT's and PDS are all kind of um embedded in this as well. So if you look at oh and um in our um nursing budget as well. So, we'll start with the nursing budget because again, very straightforward. Um, everything that we have in the nursing budget right now is just to replenish our um our supplies. Uh, we've done a really good job of, you know, using up all of our um uh PPE that we had left over, but now we're at that point where those dis disposable things like the gloves and the band-aids and all of those kinds of things um just need to be replenished. So
049the um the budget for the um and we have to like reccalibrate autometers and you know beyond my scope um and all of those kinds of things. So those that that is what is built into the um into the nursing budget. The psychological services uh basically you're looking at our tests and protocols all things that we absolutely require um in order to do our jobs. Um so we have really looked at our other supplies um and really cut as much as we can. Um as you all know teachers especially behaviorally based um professionals uh will always spend their own money to buy incentives to buy uh manipulatives to buy um you know squishy balls for kids. Uh we want to support that as much as we can. Um so we but we did go through
050the budget and we did cut as many of um the non-essentials as we could and the same goes for the um speech and language when you look at what is in their budget it is their SLP subscriptions um they need to keep up with CEUs and so on and so forth. So it's much better for us to um purchase those uh types of subscriptions so they can access their uh professional development. So, we're not, you know, sending them off to um to conferences and and such. And I believe, oh, and then in the um special education supplies budget, we also again cut everything that we could that wasn't absolutely uh required for programming. Um, and one of the things that we were able to do is we were able to consolidate some of the ongoing
051things that we need like Velcro dots, gloves, um, wipes, and we're going to work with central purchasing because when we did a comparison and we were looking at like a box of gloves was like $12 or you can get a case of gloves for 20. So, why aren't we doing it that way? So, we worked with Lynn. We're going to work with Central Purchasing. So, we make sure that we have those um essentials for our staff, but we're going to do it a little differently. Any questions, Miss Weaver? >> So, just clarification on those um particularly those other purchased services, the 599 line for each special ed and um speech and hearing, those significant drops. We're not losing any Okay, just clarifying. Um >> yeah. And then um could you just um enlighten on the
052purchase services side the I think it's 330 um is this anticipating a student it's the I'm sorry under special education under 300 purchase services professional 330 um there's just a $10,000 uptick just curious is that dependent on student need. >> Yeah if it has to do with those evaluations. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Dr. Stanley. >> So, um just to clarify what, um Miss Weaver was saying, so these are evaluations that we know we need to pay for or this is just um sort of earmarking anticipating that we might need it. >> So, for the most part, we we when we do our budgeting, we look at what our past um practices have been. So it is a very um and I think it was Miss Weaver who said it last time
053we're very latigious right now. So we want to make sure that we have planned for those um if those um it is a it's very conservative. We have 704 students in the district. I think we have budgeted for seven seven to 10 of so very very small percentage. And then in any vows per school no it's $10,000 per school that you divided it for. >> Right. So it's about $5,000 to $9,000 per evaluation. So it's one evaluation for the elementary schools and the and the middle schools and I believe we budgeted for two at the high school. >> Mr. Hollerin >> under special education uh line 611 the increase in supplies is that kind of going hand inand with the professional services as well. >> So again it's I a lot of that is the
054testing materials and um the elementary I'm glad you brought that up because that was in my notes and I didn't um and I didn't uh highlight it. The K4 programs have um identified a curriculum that all three programs are purchasing and that's $3,000 per program. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> I'm sorry. Which line are we asking about, Mr. Holler? 611 >> on Anna Reynolds special ed because it's zero. Yeah, >> it's this the initial request was 7,000 but then it was cut to zero. because she put I'm sorry because she under I and it's for whatever reason it's under 617. >> Oh, that one's cut too. >> Oh, so I'll have to look into that. >> Yeah, >> it could be uh Marilina that that is earmarked to be a buy ahead. >> Okay.
055Could be the real light savings. >> Yes. >> Okay, wonderful. I will double check my >> double check that, but I'm pretty sure that's what happened. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Yeah, I was just noticing that it's not okay listed. Um, and just while that came up, since that came up, um, Dr. Brown, would you mind explaining what that means for those of us who may not know? >> Absolutely. One of the ways we try to bring in a lower budget ask to the board is to look at items. Well, we look at our budget as it currently sits. And I believe, as I mentioned uh at our last meeting, we are currently in a very good position. So, at the time of um the as we call it the slicing and dicing of the
056budget, uh we identified that we could probably cut items out of the budget and plan to buy them with this year's realized savings. So, you will see um and I don't think we specifically called this out for our newer board members. At the very back of each section, you'll see reductions by superintendent. Um, and some of those may actually be bought this year but not bought next year. Therefore, they're not in next year's budget. Um, it doesn't seem like that applies here to what um was just being discussed about the curriculum, but for things that we um can do either do without or buy ahead this year, they go to the cut the cutting room floor undercut items. >> And I would just kind of add to that and maybe just for consideration, Dr. from
057it is we probably don't want to buy ahead things that will be year over year over year ass right it's like supplies make sense or you know a one-off um situation but we don't want to um take something out of the budget that then next year it's going to look like a 100% increase because we have to still fund it next year. So, as you're going through the buy aheads or the potential buys, are you making sure that it's not like a repeating cost? >> Whenever possible, we've done that. We may have not. We may have done it in some instances. So, the board always has the prerogative to put that back into the budget if it's something they prefer to handle that way. Um, but by and large we do try to buy things
058that are not going to be recurring costs, but I can't say that we did that unilaterally. >> Okay. So, yeah, I mean, we'll just as that comes up, we'll just kind of think about that because if it's something that we can just move a line item, therefore the ongoing cost is still in the budget, but a one-off could be um done as a buy, that would be preferable. same net results. Oh, >> Miss Weaver, u Miss Lawrence, could you just go over for uh under social studies the supplies? Um it does know in the back it's playbased learning supplies. Yes. >> Is that um just to clarify, is that spread across the different disciplines as well? Is it possible if we could get just like all of the >> No, it's primary. It's p when
059you say spread across the disciplines. It it in most cases it falls under the social studies >> under social studies. You may have some sprinkling here and there in science. Um but it falls under it actually is a part of our benchmark advance too which as you know is social studies science related um to it. So it allows for that fluctuation in both reading social studies right content um during the reading block um but then it's primarily during our extension blocks. >> Okay perfect. Thank you. Dr. Stanley. >> So under special education for there's an administrative staff um 118 um there's 0.25 divided um between all the schools. Um what is that assistant director? >> So we have three assistant directors. >> Okay. >> So we have one who oversees the elementary school >> each
060four schools. Okay. And so in total they would get 160K for assistant director. >> Is that right? >> Well, that's the their salary plus all whatever steps or um all of that. Yeah. >> Yeah. And then last question, um, under the special educations for item 112, was there a bunch of, um, new PAR educators or RBTs that were added? Because that's a significant jump between last year and this year's request. >> I mean, >> from 309 to 536 for item 112, >> 12 PAR educators and five RBTs. >> When we got the I was trying to look for it, but I I couldn't find it. When we got the staff allocation, does it break down um like parent educators by school? >> It the report that Mr. Fest did a few weeks ago. No, that's
061certified. But it sounds like we folks are >> clearly asking around the table for an accounting of this year by school and next year by school. >> So non for non-certified. >> Yes. >> Okay. Yeah, we could get that. Yeah, because I just wonder if our student population is not going up or fluctuating, what the ask is for more paras. But >> it could be student IEPs or you know like who like a fourth grader moving to middle school or >> anything like that like but yeah I think that would be we'll get that report >> ju just to be clear um either Karen or Lynn does any are any of these increases attributed attributed to the crack paras or they were factored in last year. >> No, this is strictly the employees of the
062district. >> Okay. >> So, we would have to look to compare what's for this year last year and compare them to next year. >> So, and I don't know if this would um would play into it it it would play into it or not. Um but we are as you have heard from our last time we were together at the table, we're having a really really tough time filling our um PAR educator positions. RBTs are a little bit more expensive, but they're a little bit more um accessible and we tend to keep them a little bit longer. So, we may have traded um an a uh some PAR educators for RBTs. Um and that's why I think you see five at Anna Reynolds um because I think that there might have been um some we
063have, you know, a program there. That's one of the schools that has a program. So, they would require the RBT to be there. Um and then we may have um added some RBTs because of the PAR shortage and that might be the difference. Oh, and preK too, right? >> Any other Anna Reynolds questions, Miss Speaker? These are just more confirmation questions. So, apologies for repetition, but um under reading the 600 supply line, the 611. Um it says for like chair pads. This is for the new classroom. >> Say that again. >> That's for the new K classroom supplies. >> Yes, some of that is some of that is just replenishing wear and tear material. >> Perfect. Thank you. Any other questions? >> Are you providing headphones for all students or is it just like a
064small amount of >> It's probably just a small amount from what um or a lot of our testing um for some students does allow them allow it to be read to them. Um so they're in need of headphones. Some schools I think ordered plenty enough last year um and don't need to replenish and then there were some that needed to replenish. >> Okay, >> Miss Weaver. Yeah, sorry y'all. Um multilingual learner for our um multilingual tutor. Is that that one's not unionized position, right? That's >> No, it is. It's a teacher. >> It is. Okay. So, it's subject to the same sal. It's in the same salary. Yeah, they're part of the NTA contract. Perfect. Thank you. >> My story is just about over. Um and the last two schools that we have um are
065John Patterson and Booth Chaffy, but I'll start with Booth Booth Chaffy um who had minimal changes um because I think a lot of those supplies were uh purchased um last year because there was a new um or should I say it was brought back again the K to4 extension um program. So there's minimal changes in the supplies um that uh Ruth Chaffy needs. Um and the changes that you do see again are just to replenish those materials that have suffered some wear and tear >> and I have no more comments. >> And then last but not least, John Patterson. Um we did open up a second um full day prek program there. Um and our prek students are are need lots of materials and that was a program we had um pretty much just offered
066um to our parents. Um and it was sort of last minute. Um so we are trying to make sure that they have um all of the supplies that they need in order to ensure that it is developmentally appropriate with tons of uh play-based learning opportunities. Um, but if you haven't had a chance to walk into a prek classroom, um, I hope that you do one. Um, so that you get a chance to um to see them in action, but it a lot of it does require a lot of um, manipulatives and resources. Um, my favorite is the um, kinesthetic sand. Um, so if you've never touched that before, I invite you to maybe purchase some or go to one of our prek classrooms and play with some um, for just a tad bit. Um, it
067is quite fun um, and quite addicting, too. Um and so um not a ton of um changes um there as well. Um but they needed to budget some things for their student council that they did not budget in um last year. And again, replenishing materials that have experienced some wear and tear. >> I've been in a preschool classroom. It is so fun. >> It is fun and run out. So but yes, >> and I think I've covered most of our programming. So unless there's anything um specific Mr. Hollering. >> Um, nothing specific. Just looking at the cut items, I just have to ask for my own understanding for uh Ruth Chavey. >> What's the Latin percussion? Tito Fuente. Is that a a book a course? >> Music equipment. And yeah, it would just be equipment
068for the um music program. >> Okay. >> It's a drum of some sort. >> Thank you. >> No drums. Question allowed. >> Oh, did we cut a person or Oh, I see it. >> Sequin sensory wall frame. >> Yes, we are. >> Oh, sorry, Miss Weaver. I'm going to all these things. >> We're not getting >> um Sorry, Bev. uh for this one um for reading under Ruth Chaffy. Yes, >> for salaries. >> Yes, I was going to bring that up as well. >> Are we adding I know this covers, sorry, let me just flip back. It covers one reading consultant, two reading teachers, >> and you are under which >> reading uh just the 111 just salaries on that because it goes from 191 to 319. So at Chaffy, we have two >> reading
069interventionists and um I believe >> the literacy consultant may follow. >> In the back it says that. But is this an ad? >> Say that again. >> Is this an addition then? >> Nope. >> No. One. We had a retiree. >> Okay. >> Um and we just replaced not replaced but >> Okay. >> We we added a we didn't add a new position. She took the position of the person that retired. So there isn't the only thing I can think of is that they may fall under that same salary increase if that's why you see a big change in price but the number is the same. There was three last year there's three >> when um the person was retiring it was budgeted at a lower number anticipating someone coming in at a lesser amount
070but the person that came in came in at a very high amount >> due to uh scarcity maybe. >> Yeah. >> It's the certification. Mr. Marciano, >> yes, I can answer that question. She was a teacher that transitioned into the role of reading interventionist. So, she wasn't a new hireer, so she was probably at the step that she was working. And we're split. We have one reading interventionist that and then another reading interventionist that works um three days at uh Ruth Chaffy and two days at Anna Reynolds. Did that answer your question? >> Can you hear me? >> Yes. Thank you. >> So, just to be clear, the appropriated amount 191, we're actually our actual this year will be much higher than that. We just don't have our actuals yet, but next year we'll see
071actuals as at a higher amount. >> Thank you. Believe that concludes anything else that are elementary of elementary issues. >> And I guess since it was a story, you can say the end. >> The end. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Miss Lawrence. >> Thank you. >> All right. So, now we will let Marilyn, I guess, to say where she is. She'll be joined by uh Kristen Freeman, who will begin to address our middle school story. Um so, I will kick it over to you, Miss Freeman. Um so, similar to what Miss Lawrence did, I'm going to give you an overview of our middle school programming. You'll hear a little bit about differences um between the two middle schools and then I'll highlight uh for you the major increases and decreases and then
072welcome any questions. Um John Wallis and Kellogg middle school serve as a vital bridge for our students in grades five through eight. In grade five, we prioritize a smooth transition from the elementary school where most of our students are going from a single teacher and when they get to the middle school, most of them have two teachers unless they have an odd number of grade five teachers. We have a group of students this year that um do have a singleton teacher. Um this year we are successfully implementing benchmark advance for the first year. Um, so we're following suit from the elementary level and we also nearly doubled the instructional time in ELA. We also added time to our math blocks from 55 to 70 minutes. So the thinking behind that is when you look at
073all of the research as 10-year-olds in grade five, students are still building the foundational skills in literacy and numeracy and that requires the additional instructional time. As our students progress through grades six through eight, their learning environment does diversify into at least four core subject teachers. And we are uh continuing to innovate with our schedule. If you haven't heard by now, in grade seven, there's going to be a bridge to algebra program as part of our encore cycle. So, we're excited to have that um opportunity for all of our seventh graders, not necessarily just our seventh graders um who uh might be looking to take algebra 1 as an eighth grader. Uh bridge to algebra will replace library media. The next question on your mind might be, uh oh, are we getting rid of library
074media? The answer is no. Uh library media is best taught when it's taught in context. So if students in a social studies class are doing research, that is the time for the library media specialist to be providing direct instruction in best research um procedures when it is connected to something that um kids are doing. In grade 8, uh we have two opportunities for students to earn a full high school credit. One is through algebra 1 and the other is through a world language program. At both schools we offer Spanish. At John Wallace we also offer Italian. You might be wondering why only at John Wallace. Uh we got really lucky this year and we were able to hire a new world language teacher who is also certified to teach Italian. So we decided to give
075it a go. We opened up a couple of sections um and students seem to be enjoying that. Especially for our students who are uh first language Spanish, it's silly to take a Spanish class. So having Italian um being able to to be afforded to them um has been a really great boost to their academic program. Students can also earn a half credit in digital citizenship through our educational technology program and that goes for their health and safety uh credit when they get to Newington High School. A hallmark of our middle school programs are themies. At John Wallace, we house the aerospace academy and at Martin Kellogg, we house the biomed academy. Finally, speaking of, we are so proud of the success of our uh bilingual program at John Wallace Middle School. Even though we have
076had schools that have been mandated um to have bilingual services, this has been the first year that we were able to hire a certified bilingual um teacher. So, the program is much more robust. She had to build it literally from the ground up. Um and we're seeing great successes with that program currently. Um this year Martin Kellogg does not qualify as a bilingual school. However, any um multilingual student whose first language is Spanish um is offered the opportunity to enroll in John Wallace to be part of that bilingual program. Next year, both of the schools will be um designated as bilingual. So, some big changes that you're going to see in the budget. I'm going to start with Martin Kellogg. Um there's an increase in the ELA in the testing, a little over $4,000. Um
077and that is to pay for the Aadian testing materials last year. We weren't quite sure what materials we were going to use. Um but Miss Whan and her team did some action research, decided on that, and so you see that um reflected in the operating budget uh request for next year. There's an increase in reading as well. For the reading intervention program, there's an ask for an additional Sunday system and that is used for our grade five students in intervention. 5678. I was looking at Miss Whale over there at Martin Kellogg. There's an increase in the multilingual supplies. That's an error. Mine um it should be over at John Wallace. That increase is to support the materials for the bilingual program. So this time last year when we were asking for a certified bilingual teacher,
078we didn't know if we were going to get one. So it was really hard to predict how much should we put in supplies for a program that didn't quite exist. So everything that Miss Jimenez has been using this year, uh we've been purchase we've been able to purchase with realized savings from last year. Um and we've pulled a lot of money from grants. So now we just wanted to commit to that being part of the operating budget. Unfortunately, I just coded it in the wrong school, but I'll Karen will fix it. We'll be honest. I'm not gonna do anything. I'm not gonna fix anything. Um, and we also see an increase in library media. Um, and that is an ask from the program leader and Miss Whan to continue to diversify all of our text
079selections. Um, and also as we continue to weed out texts that are obsolete or falling apart, we have some decreases too in Martin Kellogg. There is um a big drop in mathematics. Last year there was $8,000 um in mathematics at Martin Kellogg and that was dedicated to the bridge to algebra program that was to be but never came to fruition. So that 8,000 would have been for um creating the curriculum, paying the staff, that would have happened. Um so what happened with that 8,000 this year that was used to do a little bit of curriculum writing for the um accelerated seven that we ended up offering and we diverted those funds to um supporting some curriculum development in other le levels particularly in grade five which continues to be an area of focus for us.
080You'll see a reduction in science in Martin Kellogg. Last year we purchased lab school lab stools. This year we're not. And finally, there's a reduction in school counseling at Martin Kellogg. Um the school counseling uses school links program as a way to manage student success. >> I was almost there. student success plans. We haven't gotten rid of it. Um last year in the budget, it was divided up among Martin Kellogg, John Wallace, and Newington High. When we get to Newington High, you're going to see that number jumps up. We just put all of the money at Newington High. It it's really considered for the district. So instead of separating it out among the three schools questions in Martin Kellogg. >> All right. It's another Marilina one. >> All right then. Never mind. It's not um
081just the school counseling. I don't think it's showing it back that far. So it's not showing a reduction. Just FYI, the purchase services though is the appropriated is just it's still higher. >> That's what we passed last year. >> year. >> Yeah. So now this year it's >> it's zero. >> Zero. >> So right. So la last year there was 3500 in the in the operating rate. Any other nonsp specialcial education questions regarding Martin Kellogg? >> We only want to go to special ed. >> Do you want me to just finish up with John Wallace because I know that Marilina's she'll kind of do bulk of um for special education uh for for both schools. >> Um so what I wanted to point out in John Wallace, >> a lot of the same. increase in
082ELA's for those reading assessments. Um we see an increase in reading for that Sunday system for the reading intervention materials. Um the reduction in supplies for math for a different reason. There are no more workbooks that we are ordering or distributing to students. Um we do see a reduction in the music supplies. Um we did see that in Martin Kellogg too. There's a subscription that the music teachers use and we've put that all into the 30 account. 30 is administration because in um it's just being something adopted districtwide. So, it just was silly to break it up among all of the schools. Same thing for the reduction in school counseling for the school links. I don't know if there's anything else that I missed. You want to go right to special education, don't you? >>
083Actually, Miss Freeman, Miss Favor, I'm >> sorry. Go. >> Can you speak to the the reading um for supplies 611? >> Yes, that is so in the reading program in 611. That would be the purchase of the Sunday system >> at both schools. this way back. >> So, just clarifying on the um I don't know, am I skipping over to the multilingual? There's still a line here in John Wallace. So, just to clarify, there should be no line in the Kellogg one or >> or the bilingual. So, okay. So when Martin Kellogg, you see the 30 the 3,300 um that is that should most of that should be over at John Wallace. And I think at John Wallace it might say zero. >> Yes. >> Yep. >> Okay. Oh, so it's just that line, not
084the >> correct salary. Not not the salaries. No, just the supplies. >> Okay. >> Um and and multilingual program. Um that's another one where um sometimes I have to put big in air quotes because they really have a tiny budget. Um so some of the years they have no more tests um available that that they use to assess newcomers. Um and then other years like this year they have so many of them they didn't need to order them. So that's a budget that kind of fluctuates year to year. >> Thank you. Do you say Martin Kellogg will qualify for like the is it the 20 students that speak the same language? >> Correct. So for everybody at the table, uh the state statute is that when you have 20 or more students whose first language
085is all the same except English, that school qualifies as a bilingual school specifically for that language. So for next year it will be John Wallace, Martin Kellogg, and Newington High School. And what's even uh stranger about it is it goes by the number of kids this October. So everything in the state for grants always works a year behind. I don't make up those rules. We just follow them. >> So are we are we not we don't need to add a position? >> Listen, if you want to give me another teacher, folks, I will take it. >> Um so so no. So the way that we'll meet the requirements is the bilingual program will uh be maintained at John Wallace Middle School. Students in Martin Kellogg will be um continue to be afforded that opportunity. Um
086this first year we had maybe one or two Martin Kellogg students that decided to participate. A lot of that came down to um that that kids were already part of the Martin Kellogg community. they had worked with Miss Hera for sometimes two three going on their fourth year and rightfully so the families they didn't want to leave something that was familiar with them but we think that as um students metriculate up to Martin Kellogg we'll see probably more students participating at John Wallace >> okay so like fourth graders will go to >> Wallace we have a Yep we have a protocol in place that um any rising fifth grader on the Martin Kellogg side of town Um Ava Jimenez reaches out to those families to let them know that they qualify for bilingual. She'll talk
087to the parents in Spanish, which is fantastic. Um and just talk to them about what the program entails. She does assessments on the students to determine if they are a good fit for the program. So really works um very closely with the families so that they're making an informed decision. >> Okay. Miss Weber, >> does that impact bus and all that kind of jazz like So it doesn't it yes it's going to impact a bus because uh Dean just has to reroute a bus but we didn't have to like pay for an additional bus for those number of >> economic impact. >> So right so so this past year he was able to do magic and there was very little impact >> I trust the dean magic. Thank you. >> We do have students in
088the Kellogg district going to Wallace and vice versa for themsies anyways. Yeah. >> Okay. Are the sorry are the students at Kellogg who don't participate in like that don't go to Wallace missing out on obviously they're missing out on the bilingual program but they're still receiving >> so state law we have to provide multilingual services to any student who is um multilingual um what's unique about the program at at John Wallace what's unique about a bilingual program is that um students who are just um beginning to um acquire their skills in the English language. Um the instruction begins like 80% Spanish and 20% English. And then you would see that transition throughout the school year. More and more English is used and less and less Spanish. Um it's much easier for students to learn a
089second language when they can leverage the language that they already knew. So if you um if we asked Miss Faul to come up and she just began to teach you all Portuguese, but the you had to learn it in Portuguese and she said nothing in English, you can imagine how difficult that that might be. So that was that's what makes the bilingual program unique. Um right now we have a bilingual tutor that is at Martin Kellogg and if we can keep that bilingual tutor, it's not the same as a certified staff. Um but it would certainly support the number of Spanish speakers we have there. Okay, thank you. >> All right, there. Much anticipated. I was just taking a little nap over here. Just kidding. Um, all right. So, same thing. I love our middle
090schools. They're wonderful. Same continuum of services. Um each middle school has one social worker, one school psychologist. Um there's a difference in the numbers of teachers because of the the programs that we have in each school. Uh but one SL 1.0 SLP and so that our again our services can be um you know pretty stable across both middle schools. Um, what I really want to focus in on is the 599 account. Um, because the 599 account includes our ESS clinicians. Um, so so important. ESS is in the budget. Um, I can't stress enough um how that needs to stay in the budget. We uh I meet with ESS clinicians um every other week. I meet with the ESS um administrative team at least once a month and we are tight tight tight on our kids
091and our kids are doing beautifully who are in the program and we did a report card analysis. So for the new board members, welcome and I can't wait to be sitting here to um go over the uh report card. We usually do that at the end of the school year. There was a little bit of a of a a glitch last year. So, we actually did it at the beginning of the school year. But what we will do is we will present a report card. But what was very striking about the report card last year is that between the middle school and the high school, we identified 13 potential outplacement candidates. If it wasn't for the services provided by ESS, we were actually we we approximated a $1.3 million in savings to the district. The
092services that ESS provides pay for themselves. They are an incredible service to this district. Um psychologists, uh if you notice there's a decrease in psych in the psychologist. We had to um contract out for a consultant uh because again our numbers are just what our numbers are. We'll talk more about that when when we go over the 30 account. um but we were able to um reduce that consultant but we did add a 1.0 school psychologist and she is phenomenal. We are so happy to have her on board. Um and again within the 599 again it's embedded in there but what you will also see is that um transition of students who uh in open choice who the par educators are no longer with them at the elementary school but now those students are attending
093middle school. So, uh, part of the the jump that you see in the 599 account, um, is attributed to that and that again is across both schools. And again, cut as much as we could in supplies. Um, if there could be some realized savings that would be great because like we said, a lot of times those little things are what comes out of a teacher's um, pocket. Um I have a just a question on the cost of ESS overall and I believe was it last year we still had some remaining grant money to use. So this year it's 100% in the operating budget or what's no >> still offset by the IDEIDA book >> it is okay. So is it it's looks like 430 per Well >> so no >> just kidding right >> cuz
094there's the other >> correct >> can you tell me how much ESS is costing us and we're saving one point >> I don't have that with me but I can get that for you >> okay thank you >> Sure >> for the high school too just when we get there >> yes thank you >> and we did they did allow us a um uh insurance credit so there was a a a little bit of an offset with the insurance credit and we also offset it with the IDU. >> Okay, so for billing students insurance, >> correct? Okay, perfect. >> Also, I love that program and I don't want to cut it. >> Go ahead. So, if I'm calculating, I think that's 39.9% of the increase on whichever school I'm looking at right now. John Wallace.
095Um just curious to um if we could get this is more just as we're looking cuz I know we appropriated so to your point Marilina on those um assessments and evaluations that um 330 line >> um so we appropriated a th000 last year but we've we actually spent 8,000 the year prior. Are we looking at the same actuals this year? >> So that's why I you know we went with the 10,000. I don't know why it went down to a,000. And I have to be honest with you, I was I wasn't here last year if you guys remember. >> Um so how would that $1,000? I'm not really sure. Um but that is absolutely not realistic. Um I don't think there's any of that out there that cost $1,000, but um so yes, that $8,000
096much more realistic. And with the >> and we're on track to do the same. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um Dr. Stanley. >> Um, for the administrative staff under the special education uh, line 118. Um, so if you split their salary between the two schools, that's only a 21K. That's quite the price differential between these assistant directors. Um, so for elementary it's 154K. For NHS, it would be 70K and then the middle school only gets 21K. Does that doesn't seem >> accurate? that um salary is offseted by the grant as well. >> Gotcha. >> That's the only one that's offset by the grant or the other ones are not. Okay. >> And I was able to get that uh amount for ESS. I believe it is $650,000. >> Okay. Thank you. >> So, how
097do we know how much it would be or sorry, how much was offset by the grant? >> 100,000. Okay. Miss maybe just in we could get the I think we did it last year just the breakdown of the salaries if there's any like >> offsets. >> Yeah, just like I know the grants are in the back but just like >> it says the um the line items >> the line items in the back >> offsetting. >> Yeah. Um if there was a change in the grant offset though. Is there not a change like the grants? Uh the only change in the grant offset would be the inclusion of the seed grant and the loss of the esser mental health. >> I'm just trying to get that differential. Sorry, >> we're down I I you mean
098compare the total? I could do year to year. I think uh >> I could probably look that up while you guys are talking. >> Sorry. Just >> No problem. >> Just overall how much grant money we >> grant money last year to this year. >> Okay. >> Sorry, I'm trying to clear I'll I'll look at my previous presentation while folks are continuing forward. >> Any other questions for middle school? Moving on. >> Once I start talking, there's no more questions for middle school. All right. Okay. We're moving on to uh Newington High School. Newington High School provides a robust competitive environment for our students in grades 9 through 12. Our curriculum is built on flexible pathways allowing students to meet their 25 credit graduation requirement, not just through traditional seat time in the Carnegie unit,
099but also through opportunities like community service, work experience, and even the seal of biiteracy. We are committed to honoring the learning that not only happens within the walls of the classroom, but the learning that our um oldest students um happen to acquire outside of the school building. In order to keep our curriculum modern and competitive next year, we are introducing four new courses. Um cosmology, which will live in the science department, Italian for bilingual students. Um that is a unique program because it is two years worth of Italian in one year's time. A Yukon uh ECE courses, two of them. One of them is in genocide studies and the other is in American popular music. These additions are going to provide our Newington High School students with a college level rigor at a fraction of
100the cost of college tuition. Newington High will remain qualified also as a bilingual school per the state statutes that I already referenced. As students advance um their learning into Newington High School, the learning tools that they need go from being relatively generic to being much more specialized. So if you think about materials that students need in a specialized program like culinary arts or chemistry, uh specialized software for AP mathematics courses, um even our PSA, PSAT test taking opportunities, those become very unique to the high school. You are going to see that those come with a higher price tag. But again, we're talking about more specialized courses um and getting kids ready for whatever the choices that they make when they leave Newington High School. Um you'll also see and hear from Mr. Meyers. Um our
101athletic budget, um we want to make sure that that is robust enough, not only so our students can compete at the highest level, um but first and foremost, that we keep them safe in up-to-date productive equipment. Finally, um Miss Tikno could not be here uh this evening. Unfortunately, she's ill. Um I don't think um she would ever speak to me again if I did not mention this. A priority for us is maintaining the mental health counselor that for the past three years has been supported by a grant. And I know pasts have heard presentations from Miss Redmond, but more importantly her students. Um, this request to add this staff member into the operating budget is about continuing um is about uh continuing a proven story of success. Since the position was introduced three years ago,
102drugrelated expulsions have dropped by 85% compared to the two years prior. The position and the program not only keeps our students in schools while providing them the help that they need to avoid addiction, but also to address unfortunately current addiction. Additionally, the program provides classroom instruction that focuses on mental health issues like anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and stress challenges that our high school students face all day. I'm sorry, every day. Um this position really is vital to our schools and students safety and well-being. Um among the core instructional programs, the majority of our funds are to maintain current programming. Most of the fluctuations that um you're going to see are going to be due to um grant fund offset from the previous year um or use of realized savings. So I'm going to highlight some
103of those in in anticipation of some questions. Um there is an increase in in art. Last year we had a a big chunk of materials that we were able to purchase with realized savings. So it appears that we're um spending more in art, but again that's that offset that um Miss Pradie and Dr. Bremit were talking about earlier. There's an increase in ELA repeated from the middle schools. That is the ask for the reading assessment um that is used for our nth grade students. There is an increase in both math and science because last year we were able to offset the purchase of some of the supplies with a grant specific for um dual enrollment courses. Same thing for STEM. Sorry, there was also materials that we were able to buy with that grant. um
104looking at some of the um significant decreases. One of them is in CTE, the $10,000 is usually an ask for DECA um that we did not have to include this year because the student activity fund is so robust um that it can um support students participation in that. You'll also see um a pretty hefty reduction in social studies and that's because last year there was a textbook to buy um and those are very expensive. This year there's not. >> Miss nonsp special education questions. So Dr. Dennis isn't going to come at us for that reduction. >> Say that again. Dr. Dennis isn't going to come after us for uh the reduction in DECA. No, >> who's us the board of ed? That sounds like a big problem this week. So, I don't know. >> There
105would be. >> No, that that was cut at the superintendent level. And we did we did make sure that there was um sufficient uh funds in the student activity. >> Okay, perfect. And then um just a question about the ELA um going the from the five I'm sorry if you said this. I'm going through a lot of the pages. So, um the um 599 and the um 617 lines. Um sorry, I just have to turn the pages. >> Could you just expound upon that? >> What part of the 599? >> The um the 617 is not replacing. So, we were at zero for that. >> Okay. So the 617 those are the testing materials. Um that's a Gates McInnity that is um we uh use that for our 9th graders. Um this year there was
106no cost because we handcored them. Miss Whan just informed me. Um which takes an unbelievable amount of time. So uh we're kind of in flux last year at the time of the budget ask. Um and Miss Whan had then decided to use this assessment. So the ask in there is that we can have an assessment that is um scored via computer. >> Okay. And then is that kind of replacement of the common liter? >> No. Common lit is um so the they're two very different types of assessments. The gates McGinity would be what we would call a screener. So that would be sort of um our first catch of an indication that there might be students um that have some deficits in reading that we might um want to address through intervention. Common lit on
107the other hand is what we would call a benchmark and that's really assessing um students instead of at foundational skills closer to grade level skills. So it would be more um comparable to the ESPA if we gave the ESPA at the high school. Okay. But we're cutting common lit. So I just didn't know if no common l is still in there have it as under the cut items. Common lit essentials package there was they were just similar amounts. So I didn't know one went to zero and one went up. So, I didn't know if that was >> We can come back to that. >> Yeah, we didn't we didn't cut it. Um I'd want to look into that. Why that's there? >> I did, but I'll take ownership of that cut >> based on the
108We will um Sorry, everyone. >> Just kidding. Well, if I It's just kidding. Then we need to put it back in. >> We're going to do a little more homework on that. And >> thank you so much. So sorry to create that. >> It is. Yes, it's on that page. Common lit essentials. >> Sorry everyone. >> Okay. >> Dr. Stanley. >> Um just under the math. So there was supplies um 617, 690, 730 that were cut. I didn't see that they had been labeled for us for details. >> Um so Dr. Stanley under 617690 >> 7:30. >> Oh. Um so the the request was zero for all of those. Are you alluding to we we had actual expenses of 10,000 6,000 and the 2425 so prior >> yeah prior year >> is there a reason
109for the change I guess >> right yeah from 2425 >> what's 690 >> 690 is other supplies so that those materials were purchased in 2425 so that column 2425 is the actual audited figures >> for last year >> so for 2526 six. There was no supplies requested for the current year that we're in now. >> Oh, it's not a reoccurring expense then. >> It is not. Okay. I'd have to go check what that was. >> And there's no request for the 26 27 year. >> I think it's just showing up on the the printout because there was an actual in. They're just not need. Yeah, just two years in a row. They're not >> I think like was it a onetime purchase? What was it? So, are we missing something now? >> Um and and
110Mrs. Kellogg just pointed out too um some of the uh probably in 2425 went toward uh when we were just establishing building thinking classrooms um in uh at the high school. I do believe for the zero appropriated a couple of those may be things that we were able to purchase with realized savings as well. >> So can I ask a question for the line above on 611 um when it's in parenthesis that came out of saved realization or non-lapsing fund. >> Okay, it's cut. We wouldn't cut negative though >> unless it's because it's by school. So like >> actually are we still looking at the high school correct? >> Yeah. >> 611 parent. It says 184 in parentheses. >> So that just need a little clarification on that. >> So that could be supplies offset
111by a grant. there could be a grant that is going to be used to purchase some of the slice. So that's why it's a negative. So the grant is larger than the supplies requested to offset. I'll look into it though. >> Um uh Miss Kell, so I I think that I remember from last year u Mr. Korn was overseeing the grant that I mentioned um for dual credit. The grant was set to expire. So, we were able to purchase things that we needed from the operating budget and then some. So, I think that that's why it's representing a negative. It was either that or we don't spend the money on the grant, which would be silly. >> Yes. Um and we all believe in in the wonderful work that was done by the counselor in
112the reduction in the um expulsions. Where is that um salary like what where is that in the budget here? >> It should be represented in school counseling one of the one of the FTEEs. is >> the director >> 118 is our director >> 111 has gone up as you can see >> okay >> by a fair amount >> so last year the grant covered um about 70,000 of the individual salary >> and next year it's covering the grant doesn't exist, so it's a zero. So I believe that's reflected Karen 111. Does that sound right? >> Okay. >> And then lastly on this line, so we had to hire two secretaries under under school counseling. Was that to support somebody directly or >> the two the salaries in the 113 is all the ASME um workers
113employees. So we in last year we coded those under 119 other salaries. This year we have now taken all those ask me people and coded them to a 113 which is their own account. So you can identify all those staff that are part of the union. That's why you'll see some of the zeros in 2425 because last year they were all in the 119 account. This year the 25 26 and 26 27 they've been split. They've been moved to their own object code. >> Okay. So maybe we hired one and that's why it doubled then. >> So it went from 67 coded in 119 up to 137 now for two FTs. >> The one they were charged to 2410. The second person was charged to 2410 in error last year. We corrected the error. >>
114So there was no new staff added. And back to the question about grants were uh $40,000 less this year in grants and um a couple of ins, couple of outs, but right now the net is 40,000 less with some still pending. So there's there's still possibility of more coming. >> Is that baked in the noraster one or no? Is that one still outstanding? We're just we actually have >> Yeah, I just submitted that. So we don't have it for next year yet. >> Okay, thank you. >> May not know by the time we pass it. >> According the to the grant specs, we might not know till May or June. >> It's fine. That'll be fine. Be fine. Any other questions, Miss Petus? >> I about the in the um student activities athletics um line
115690 a jump of $20,000. >> Good thing it sounds like you'd like to introduce Mr. Myers program. >> Right on queue. >> Well, thank you. Uh welcome to the floor. Yeah, perfect segue. Um so I'll I'll briefly I will answer that um quickly just our athletic program does offer uh you know 63 program 63 teams. We have 63 coaches that support those teams. Um we do participate in the CCC which is the largest conference in the state. Um just reviewing the the there are some jumps and ups and downs here. The big jump that you're referring to in 690. So, what we do do is, you know, we try to navigate uh some of our larger purchases and we try to offsent them when we have like a football uniform replacement. Um, so that's where
116you see the the jump. We do have two basketball, softball, and football um that are being replaced this year. So, you're going to see a larger jump. So with that, you'll actually also see we do, you know, every year um we do try to find an item or two of a larger um equipment that we try to replace when we have a budget jump like this in the uh uniforms. We do we're mindful of that. So if you notice in the 730 line that has dropped to zero. So we didn't make any larger asks. So for golf cart, scoreboard, you know, things that are we do need to replace on on a on a basis, um we did not include any of those this year. we will be okay. Um but we knew that that
117was going to you know cause a jump to our our overall cost. So we were mindful of that >> priorities. >> Correct. Um you know additional add-on because we knew that this was going to be a bigger budget year. So usually when football uniforms come around we do have to make some sacrifices elsewhere. >> Thank you >> Miss Beaver. So we have a lot of conversation around our bus cycle. Is there a uniform cycle replacement cycle that we don't have bubbles of uniforms? Is that >> Yeah, it's >> right. We have that. I know we've talked about it. I just >> You'll never get around football. It's just much larger. It's just too many uniforms for It's just a larger uh number of uh students. Um and the uniforms are just a little bit more
118expensive because of the wear and tear that takes on them. So, you're always going to get this hit whenever football comes around. Um there's really no way to avoid it. But the everybody's in a five-year cycle. It is a lengthy cycle. Um, but you know, we do our best um, you know, to make sure that we we've gone to a more sublimated uh, uniform style which stays a little bit more newer and relevant as they get passed down to your JV and freshman programs. Um, so you don't have stitching or uh, numbers peeling. So it does kind of it looks a little newer as it gets passed down through the years. Um, but we do have a lengthy cycle and this is just one of those times where we circle around and here we are
119again. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. the other. >> Thanks everybody. >> Thanks for >> good job. All right, Newington High School. No. Um so again, amazing programming um continuum of services. we've increased our uh co-eing experiences at the um high school and we hope to be able to um increase that over time. Um and again that takes staffing so we will talk about that another time. Um a little bit different at the high school we do have two social workers. Uh we do have a a school psychologist and like I said we have um two school psychologists but the second school psychologist that we um hired is actually working throughout the district. Um so I I've sat here before but for the new um the new members we are required to do evaluations at
120magnet schools. We are required to do evaluations at private placement schools. we are required to do evaluations at Emanuel Christian School. Um so that would take our school psychologists out of their teaching um schools and it's a it was an added um responsibility and again mandated we absolutely have to do this. uh at the magnet schools uh most of the time the speech language pathologist um who is assigned to the school will conduct the evaluation but very very rarely with the school psychologist um perform the evaluation. So we were sending our school psychologist off to schools to do that. So thank you again for the support and the addition of um that school psychologist. she has been amazing. Um, and she has been able to pick up those evaluations and help out the high school
121because again, if you think about, you know, again, that transition of four schools to two schools to one school. So all of those students now that go to the high school were being served by one school psychologist. So again, money very, very well spent. So you will see an increase there. Um, we can focus on the 599 and I will point it out because I'm sure somebody else will notice it as well. The negative -43144. Um, and I believe that that is from the way that we were allocating things again last year was not by um we weren't breaking them out. So I think that there might have been um a bigger number there, but then when things got reallocated um that came out to be a negative, but we can absolutely look more into
122that. Um but I think really what we're focusing on in on is what is being um asked for and that is again for the ESS clinicians. So again that's the 599 for the high school. Supplies again have been cut to the bare minimum. Supplies will include testing materials for the special education teachers. Um any like consumable things that might need to be um uh re um purchased. um our same thing for speech and uh language. Uh we have decreased our salary, our salaries. We have decreased our um supplies. Um and school psychologist. Again, you'll see a little bit of a savings there because we no longer have the consultant, but now we have the um the additional school psychologist. Any questions? >> Go ahead. >> Thank you. um just the outside consultant line 330. Could
123you explain the jump in that a little bit? >> Yes. So again, that is similar to what we've seen in the other schools. So the three again, I'm not really sure why $1,000 was what was um appropriated there, but that's what was there. Um but that the $25,000 would cover those evaluations that we were talking about. So again, IES um outside evaluations that would be outside of our control. >> Yeah. And I I see that the appropriator was a thousand, but the actual was also 2,953 was the actual spend. So maybe we could do a little research into that because it's more the actual spend versus the request that has me interested. >> Sure. >> Thank you. Yes, we um just asking uh on the magnet school and private school and all of these have
124those increased and do we have numbers on that roughly? >> Don't have numbers but absolutely um on the increase as well. So Emanuel question um their enrollment had been very very low and um with some changes that have happened um they have had a spike in their um increase in their own you know tuition. Um so that has opened up the ability for students with disabilities to go to that school. So then we are still charged to do um the trienal evaluations to see if they uh were to uh qualify for service plans. So yes, we have seen a spike at Emanuel Christian. >> If we get a rough cost of how much that is because those are kind of an unfunded mandate of >> like we have to do that. Right. >> Right. So
125there is no cost because we're not we're not doing we're doing those. The cost would be that that our staff is not being able to service us our own students in school, but we are not incurring a cost. We were incurring a cost when we didn't have that school psychologist because we had that consultant. Yeah. And I believe that that was around >> 20 or $30,000. >> Just bringing those numbers up again is helpful. Thank you. >> Yes. Point very well taken, >> Dr. Stanley >> for item 599 in the ESS. How many clinicians are we paying for? >> Three of them >> at the high school. Yes. >> Is it three at the high school and one at each middle school? >> Okay. >> Miss Beaver, is the 599 for this one only ESS
126or is it okay? Thank you. Any more questions? >> Okay, >> I think we've concluded at least the first run through of all of our schools. Um, tomorrow night we will go into the last tab on your budget on your budget book administrative administration, but uh we'll also have Jasono here and Jason Plum to review their departments that are kind of embedded in there um for for any follow-up questions. I know some folks had some questions tonight about facilities. So, you'll can have a deep dive into that tomorrow night. Um, so I'd like to thank all of our administrators that came up. >> Go ahead. >> Sorry. I'm so sorry. Is it appropriate to ask about non-athletic student activities tonight or is that >> nonathletics? That would be Mr. Myers. >> Non-athletics, right? >> He's
127nonetic and athletics. >> You know, my student activities um just curious um same kind of question um that Mr. Mr. Holland had before too, just the actual versus appropriated versus what we're requesting for um salaries because I know those are the B2B4 stipens. Um so just wanted to cuz we're asking for less but appropriated more for the supplies but and are appropriating more but >> I'm sorry. So under the salaries the 111 under student activities non-athletics um so actual is 90 then it went up to 114 appropriation I know those are just stipens though so >> yeah those are all contracts >> contract okay >> yeah so everything >> that's not not >> n not athletic so those are the B those are like the B2B before stipens just curious like would be curious what
128our actual is for right now like what we anticipate maybe just because 90 to 114 just seems like a lot for stipen jump. >> So again, I don't know where it would be moved. It's it's literally the if you go into our contract >> numbers that are in there to support >> those increases. Um >> so your advisors for say yearbook or you know those are you can itemize those in there. Um I see what you're saying with the the 2425 to >> the 25 26. Uh we add like a lot more clubs that's okay too. Just >> No, I mean it would it would just be in the contract. So I don't know if contractually he added position. I I again that would just a quick contract but was it a contract year? >>
129No. >> There were a couple of things added for Wallace and um Kellogg in in the budget. >> This one's for NHS. >> Yeah. This is strictly NHS. >> Yeah. Unless it was an athletics go to >> maybe just more clarity on that cuz then also the reverse we appropriated $0 for the last year but had spent $9,000 before in salaries. So that was just another on the 119 side and then decreased the supplies um over the last year. >> Do do we have the cuz we did the you're referring to the inter mural Lynn. >> Yeah the inner mural. Is there a line item in Wallace and Kellogg for that or is it kind of lumped in with the high school non-athletics? >> It's on the John Wallace. I don't see it. >> Should
130be right. >> Or there's the athletics. It's a 30,000. >> There's student. Yeah. >> Miss Wever, while you're looking the the the $1,000 supply budget is is consistent over time. There must have been an item buy that that one the 2425 there must have been. But normally it's $1,000 for the high school. I think it's 750 middle school. >> It's just the normal one we're budgeting. Okay. Okay. >> Just want to make sure in the same token we're not underfunding the Right. Okay. Yeah. >> So, we do have uh stipens at the middle schools for the inter murals that the board added a few years ago. Back to the question at hand though. Is there still a question on the table about a disparity? >> Okay. >> Because it's lower than the request is lower
131than what we asked for last year >> that Yeah. But then we also like the actual >> just kind of what the Yeah, sorry. >> Sorry, I'm moving back and forth. It was >> there there was a an additional um piece in the budget last year that was for a dramatic um >> arts club. >> I I'm not exactly sure what it was, but it was in the budget and it was some drama thing that was not carried forward because it was a one-year >> Okay. Oh, >> I believe. >> Yes, >> they have a drama club, but that's still happening. So, >> no, there was an additional thing. >> There was a >> Sorry, there was a there was a um teacher who had written a grant and that but it didn't cover all
132of the expenses that that it was going to to run the club or something. So, I think there might have been >> additional funding. >> Yeah. So that would be on the middle school one though, not the high school line or >> maybe it was. >> Okay. Yeah. I was like, we can just come back. Everyone can go home. >> We're going to double let's double check all those numbers and make sure we're on the same page. So it looks like there's a question about the high school. Are there questions about the middle schools? Okay. Non-athletics at the high school. Why the disparity? Okay. >> Thank you. And now you can go back to thanking everybody. All right. Now, thank administrative team take two. Uh appreciate everyone coming out tonight uh with the detailed presentations.
133The board actually will have plenty more work to do when we may reach out for follow-up questions. But for tonight, we appreciate your time, especially some of you that spent quality time at the other end of the table. Marilina, you haven't gotten up once. So, we appreciate uh all the obviously special education as you can see permeates throughout the district and is a very uh large portion of our programming. So, thank you for all your input tonight. And folks, I know this is a highlight of your evening, but you're more than welcome to head out. Uh we just have to finish up some questions from the other evening, but thank you. >> Thank you. All right. It's >> okay if I go right into the questions. All right. So, as folks are heading out um
134thank you again. We are we had a few follow-up questions from the board meeting um from last week. There was a question about Chromebook utilization at the kindergarten level. And I reached out to both Bev Lawrence and um Jason Lerno and they both confirmed which I believe I kind of expected that they are absolutely necessary at the element the K level because there's assessments done on the Chromebooks and a variety of uh programs audio books decodable texts. Um so they are used routinely at the elementary level so I recommend that we continue to fund the uh Chromebook replacement cycle. There were um two questions additionally about the non-lapsing fund and the to the town CIP allocations. So on the board now is a historical use of the non-lapsing fund from 2017 to present. And you
135can see um just for um where kind of when I got here in 2019 when I arrived there was a balance of $297,000. Um there was revenue coming in in 2018 that they spent beyond that. So they drew that balance down to $297,000. Then you can see two years in a row deposits were made. I attribute that very strongly to um CO as I mentioned in the other evening's meeting. We had two years in a row where monies were our budget was our budget was already drawn up by the time CO hit. So even though we knew CO would impact operations, the budget had already been set. So you can see in 2019 and 2020 and even into 2021, there was realized savings at the end of all three of those years. The money went
136into non-lapsing. Um in 2022, we did use 438,000 due to a budget shortfall that year, bringing that uh balance down to 2.6 million. In 2023, we used just under 90,000. Brought that uh down to 2 2.6 6 million. Uh last year we deposited per theou $400,000 in the non-lapsing money that came kind of as a bouncing ball from uh money from open choice to the capital budget and then we rerouted it into the non-lapsing. Did not spend non-lapsing money um last year. Fast forward to this year, we had revenues of $1.4 4 million. Um that constitutes money from um the open choice program. Lynn and Karen, remind me of some of the other sources of the 1.4 million. >> The um >> sorry, it's um money that comes in from interest that we earn from
137the stiff account. It's money that comes in from building rentals for the high school. And um it's money that comes in from what's the what's the next one? I think that's all of them. But it's building rentals, the stiff account interest, and um the choice. >> And then we did have, pardon me, uh we did have some uh re realized savings at the end of last year as well. Um and some of that went to non-lapsing and some of that was returned to the town. Whoops, sorry. And then lastly, um, in 2026, we are anticipating, um, $600,000 in expenditures, but we don't, well, the actuals are still coming in, but right now we have 4.4 million. We anticipate needing about 600,000 this year, but that remains to be seen. Um, so our projected balance, Go
138ahead, Lynn. >> The um 1.497 497 is is was put in there in error. It should have been the $800,000 that the board had voted to transfer. So the $600,000 correction was when she went in to make that correction from last year's funds because it was only supposed to be $800,000 from last year. >> Correct. All right. Let me let me reexlain that to the board. The uh town was supposed to take that money back at the end of last year. They they did not they added it to the non-lapsing fund in error. Now that we have since reallocated that back to them leaving us a balance of 3.8 million and why that happened was it was money not expended at the end of last year and we were still at that 1% limit at
139that point. So we could not add it to non-lapsing. So that's that's how the bouncing ball went last year. So right now we stand at 3.8 million. Um, it remains unclear right now what will be used this year uh for non-lapsing fund. We anticipated over $2 million would have to be used to balance our budget, but we don't know. As you know, um, as I mentioned the other evening, budgeting is a snapshot in time and you get your ups and your downs in it. But right now, that money is available to us should we need it for um, balancing our budget at the end of the school year. Dr. Stanley. >> So, at the last meeting in your presentation, um, Erlin kind of highlighted this cliff that we're on because we've been using the non-lapsing
140fund for salaries, but and here you're showing we didn't have any actual expenditures from the non-lapsing fund. So, I'm still confused by that. Yes. Yes. We have not essentially dipped into the non-lapsing fund since 2023. However, over the last several years, we have anticipated that we would and um like I said, we just got some breaks at the end of the year through pair positions unfilled, lesser special education expenses, other uh salaries predicted to be higher were lower. Um however, using the non-lapsing to balance the budget is a funding cliff in the making. right now. Um, we're anticipating using I think we budgeted for 800,000 next year. It's not a good practice. We've kind of been lucky that we've projected that we had to use it, but we have not used it. But anytime we
141project, and if we actually do use it, it does create a funding cliff. So, back in 2022, we did use uh 438,000. 2023, we used 89,000. Um, it's it's anybody's guess what's going to happen this year, but what what was displayed the other evening, and I can kind of flip back to that funding cliff here, is if we actually do use the money, it does create a cliff. Now, um, right now we're kind of in a holding pattern because we don't know if we're going to use any of it this year. But I think even if we don't use the money from non-lapsing, what is happening or not happening is the town isn't funding the increase that we need to cover salaries and then the salaries increase a percentage every single year. So, and that's
142unavoidable due to yeah contractual um obligations. So, there's a law in Connecticut where you can't um the town can't appropriate less than the current budget amount. Um but if we're using money or um like we got lucky with the realized savings because of the para benefit like the parah um shortages not able able to be hire not able to hire parasition was the biggest one but if that didn't happen like next year hopefully that doesn't happen because we will hopefully add benefits and then we'll be able to fund our paras and we'll be able to actually have what the school district needs to run. But if we are um shorted the percentage increase of salaries in our budget dollars like the $96 million then next year if we have to use our non-lapsing this year
143next year we won't have that in our base budget amount. So then we have to kind of account for more salary dollars. Yes. You just gave me an idea and I don't know if we can do it or can't do it, but I I the biggest questions I get from the taxpayers, including the ones with the kids, is board of ed is 91.813. I never see the number on the town side what it is. Could we see the whole budget impact? Because what we we impact the town budget? >> Yes. >> But I never see the comparisons. >> Sure. I mean, I can tell you where No. Um, I I don't know what their projected budget ask is for next year. I can tell you generally speaking, the board of ed budget is 60 to
14470% of the entire town's budget. It's very typical because we have the most employees. We have the most expenditures. A lot of man Well, I think they probably have mandates, too, but I can certainly uh find out what the town is proposing for this year. My guess would be at least about a third of what ours is, give or take. >> Okay. >> You'll see it on March 10th, though. Yeah. I think I think that's what the difficulty in this process is. It's like we have to pass our budget request first. >> Yes. >> And then not knowing what it will be ultimately in that in that big sandwich, right? So, we have No. So, to your point, Tim, you want to know how many mills is that going to whatever. Well, this goes into
145a much larger pot that we can't even tell. >> Yeah. We don't see the whole >> we won't know and that's I think the hard part of that process is us going first and then whatever and then then we have to come back to what they give us. >> That is correct. But I I can appreciate this non-lapsing fund utilization is a very uh confusing component of our budget. Um it has the plus side of bringing our ass down, but it has the minus side of potentially setting us up for a deficit spending. What I mentioned the other night too is the the big the reason why we've leveraged this year to year is the the town and and the board have always agreed that we don't want to lay people off. So if there's
146less money if we weren't to put that in at least as a placeholder then there would have been no choice last year than to lay people off. Similarly this year with us a um putting forth the estimate of a million dollars in non-lapsing fund offsets without doing that. That's a million dollars of salaries that we will not have. So, um, and that we still don't know what our final allocation is yet. That doesn't happen until late March, early April. >> Then we did have another question from I apologize. I don't make anybody dizzy here to my question and answer section. Um this was um a question proposed by the I believe it was the board chair about what has our historical allocations for the last um period of time on capital and this is a
147pretty telling slide and thank you to uh Karen and Lynn for putting it together. Um over the last five years we have put in requests for $10 million in the aggregate uh for capital expenditures. We've only received 1.9. So let's go year to year. In 2022, the board put forth a $2.3 mill million request. Again, this is the the part of the capital budget that includes buses, um big repairs at schools like paving, roofing. of that $2.3 million we got three we were given 325,000. Same thing in 2023 we asked for 2.5 we got 813. A very big disparity there. In 2024 we we asked for a million. We only got 125. And by the way the town charter mandates that they have to give us at least that. >> That's the minimum. Similar to
148last year 2025 we asked for uh 1.3 million. we got 125,000 and last year or um I'm sorry these years are kind of funky 1.5 million was asked we had 562,000 received. So you can see that there's quite a bit of a disconnect between the money that has been asked for and the money that has been received. Um, and I will tell you in these years, um, 2024 and 2025, uh, we had to leverage monies, um, that was set aside for the Garfield Street paving to pay for a few buses during that time. And that's why the Garfield Street paving got delayed for as long as it did. It was finally done over the summer. So our our asks and our actual um allocated amounts in this particular capital are are not congruent. They're far
149far less than what was asked for. So when people wonder about the bus replacement cycle and why we've got this bubble, there's been a lot of years where there has not been a lot of capital money allocated to the board. >> That 562,000 were that was allocated this year. How much was the paving at Garfield? 300,000 >> I was going to say. So really they gave us >> 262. >> We had 262 for for a bus and a >> No, we had 100 minus 125 that they had to >> That's a good point. the 125 had to be there. So um yeah, there's there's a very big disparity here on capital. um all we can do is keep putting it out there as to what we we need to but that I think you can
150see by this very clear chart that we've been um sorely lacking in capital in this in this particular part of the budget for a number of uh years. Do you know how many like what what other towns do? I know buses aside because we're kind of unique in that situation, but like for capital um do you know that if other towns get money from their town for the board of ed for capital projects or like how do they fund capital projects? It has absolutely has to come from the town unless it's a um you know a townwide vote for a large project and then you get some state reimbursement much like the John Wallace project. Now there is no other way. I mean I I guess you could say the drip money this year is
151a a slight um pass through from the state that we've been able to use. But there is no other uh source of capital dollars other than grants. um and those have essentially dried up. So, this is really our our our only recourse to to get funding for these type of projects is to ask the town. >> Um Dr. Stanley, >> no. Thank you, Marine or Dr. B. But don't we also have a public school CIP? Yes. That and that's >> that is actually self-funded. >> Yeah. >> But yes, we do. And that is how we pay for technology and kind of the day-to-day uh upgrades to bathrooms, carpets, painting, um usually one maintenance vehicle replenished. So yes, that is that money is largely self-funded through the money we get back from open choice, the revenues
152that um Lynn was mentioning earlier, interest income, the money we get for using our renting out our buildings. So that is where that money comes from. This money has to be allocated directly from the town. >> Okay. And then we also get funding from tuition from non-resident students, right? >> We do. There's not typically a lot that take us up on that because that's a pretty big chunk of money. Um but I mean if you mean um open choice, yes, that's a another pot of money, but that usually offsets the operating budget. I don't typically have I think in my time here I've only had one or two families that have kind of moved out of Newington but wanted to keep their kids here and then they would pay us um proportionate amount of that.
153>> We don't require um students that are here that aren't residents or I think there's some cases right where there are students that are or families that are found that are not actually living in Newington that are attending the schools. It >> there's a couple ways we handle that. Uh, one is we offer them to stay, but they have to pay tuition. That rarely is they rarely take us up on that because it's a lot of money. Uh, often if they've been found to be a non-resident, they have to leave. Um, so that's really the only two options. Um, the only other component I can think of in that scenario would be our homeless population. If someone used to live in Newington, they were evicted from their home or had other some other uh unfortunate
154financial situation, they get to stay in Newington for the remainder of that school year while they remain homeless. So that would be an example of a non-newton resident staying here. But that's governed by the McKenna Ventno legislation and that's highly regulated. And then last question. Um, so we would never consider or would we consider using our public school CIP to purchase buses? >> We we could. There's just not enough money in there. >> Okay. >> I mean, it's I can boot up that page really quick. >> $750,000 every year goes to buy equipment for the technology. So if we did that, we wouldn't be able to buy technology. >> Yeah. that we purposely put that >> be ideal. >> That would not be ideal. >> No, let me get to this. Yeah, here is our
155projected expenditures for next year. Sorry. Um, with the money we've we anticipate 1.2 million. See if I can blow that up for everyone at this late hour. Um, so we're anticipating HVAC upgrades. Again, that's another state mandate, making sure our HVAC systems are working properly. Uh, air quality. Typically, we have $50,000 for carpeting. You know, we recently had it, Martin Kellogg, a floor leaky. We had a leak which damaged some carpeting. Playground renovations, we get audited every year and inspected. If there's something wrong there, we got to fix it. safety and security, that's our cameras, our um radio program that we need to do. There's the technology that was already referenced. Uh blacktop and paving, those are like small projects that come up throughout the year. Um and then district-wide vehicles is um like a
156maintenance vehicle comes out of that budget. So that that eats up 1.2 million right there. Um there really is no money that certainly there could be a line here for for buses but there's just no money to assign to that line. >> I would say is it common practice um to use the PC PSIP to fund Chromebooks or technology or that or is are people trying to eat that in their operating budget? >> I that's a good question. I know some of my colleagues have a technology replacement cycle that's separate and apart from all of these. I know the town has that. They have like a >> town technology cycle uh budget that I did inquire about that a few years ago and that didn't didn't go but um so we've had to put it
157in here. >> Um and that includes you know what I've already gone through the >> just curious on like you know what our our peers are doing because I know it's >> everyone has a need for technology. I think um in my former district I put it in capital. >> Okay. So I think it's capital would not be an uncommon place to see it. I presume >> big ticket item. >> Any other questions for the evening? That was the last question that we had, right? That you had. >> That was the last question from last time. I got a bunch for tonight. >> Yes. Yes, you do. You don't have the answer for those yet? >> Not yet. I got a few answered uh during the course of the meeting, but there's there's quite a
158few. So, >> specific line items in the budget. >> No, I'm not I'm not that talented, but we will have time for the either tomorrow night's meeting or the subsequent week's meeting. >> Okay. Um I will open it back up. Everyone's good, right? Yeah. Open it back up to public participation on any matter related to board responsibilities. Miss Havens, >> you're on mute. >> Hi. Sorry. I'm trying to do it on my tiny little phone and I'm really tired. So, okay. Dana Havens, 113 Stoddard Avenue. Um, very early on, Miss Lawrence uh presented stuff for the elementary schools and stated elementary is K through four and that the curriculum and or services required uh to be provided to them. But in ele in Connecticut, elementary is K through five. So that kind of raised a
159red flag for me. I want to be sure that our fifth graders are getting the support they're supposed to be getting as elementary students. And of course, if you know my history, I'm also want to be sure that they are getting their 20 minutes of recess because they are elementary kids even though they are in the middle school. Thank you. >> Thank you. They are getting recess for sure. >> And proper education I will also but uh you will get a followup on that. >> Thanks. Um, any other members of the public wish to speak? >> Okay, see none. Um, I will move on to remarks by board members. Miss Petus, >> maybe not. >> Thank you. Um I I want to just uh circle back to some of the public participation that we heard
160about a little earlier regarding the events at Newington High School. Um I just wanted to share that, you know, in my opinion, it's an important civics lesson that kids got in real time. Um this is uh a peaceful uh incident with no reports of any injuries, property damage, or interactions with law enforcement. Many of our students will be voting for their first election in November. and a reminder that they are passionate about the issues that impact them. They are passionate about what impacts them them, their peers and their community. They don't live in a bubble. They know how to access news and information and they they do so probably more quickly than we even can imagine. So, I just want to caution. We shouldn't underestimate their knowledge of current events or dismiss how they feel
161about what's happening and their ability to to affect change. And historically, you know, young people have always been catalysts for change. and I'm very very proud of them for seeing something that they feel passionate about that impacts their community and taking peaceful action to uh make those feelings known. So I do want to say um that I'm very proud of them and continue to support them in that >> Weaver. Okay. Yeah. Um, I just want to say thank you um to those who voiced their opinions. I think one of the things I will note too is that this is not the first time there's been a walk out. I know that when there was a large um swath of uh activism around gun violence, uh there was the same kind of action that was taken
162um at our own high school by someone who is now on the town council. Um so I think it's just one of those things. Um, it was an administrative decision to so to be able to I think from a safety perspective. I did not know about it until I heard about it from a parent at 10:00 p.m. at night after our board meeting. So um it was news to me. I heard from students um about it. So um just want to say I think um it's a very tough time right now I think for a lot of people to talk about how they're feeling. Um, so I think that will bring us into um supporting that mental health counseling again in our budget. So just want to address that, but also wanted to address all
163the work that was done tonight. Karen, Lynn, Kristen, Dan, you're on the the the team now. Um, but thank you so much for what you've done already um for these books that I did drop and then put back together in the parking lot just before this. Um, and you know what? it came together perfectly again because that's how organized they are. So, thank you for redesigning this this year, for presenting all of that to all of our administrators who take the time to every year come and spend hours presenting in front of us. Um, appreciate your time and the effort that's put into it. I look forward to continuing our budget as this goes on. Um, and thank you for taking all of those questions. I do not promise to ask less tomorrow. I'm sorry,
164>> Mr. Newton. Circling back to the people that spoke earlier, like Mary said, I don't have any skin in the game. I believe that the administration assisted the kids with coordinating a safe, proper display of their emotions and their things. I I I still don't see anything wrong with it. I I don't understand the controversy. It was done in a safe way for all everybody involved. And I just don't understand. >> Dr. Stanley. >> Thanks, Tim. Um, I would agree. I I just encourage or maybe suggest that we clarify the excused abstinence. Um, because I don't know if that was per protocol and it it does not agree with our attendance policy. So, who made that decision and kind of what was the background of that and may be helpful? Um, I am glad that
165it was safe and peaceful whether or not they have a fully developed frontal lobe and they knew exactly what they were doing. But, um, I think it is, you know, a civics lesson and everybody should participate at one point on one side or the other. Um but yeah, I think the attendance policy is where many questions are getting stuck for parents and and why were they or how were they notified um that their kids were absent or not? So >> do you have an answer currently? >> I do not have um how kids were coded. I do know they were asked to sign up and it was during their advisory period. So, if they were accounted for on the sign up, that probably is what happened, but I'd rather do a little more homework on
166that um to make sure I'm accurate about that. >> Yeah, I I was present um for the event um on Thursday. And I I do want to clear up a couple things that I heard that no adults spoke whatsoever. It was all kid-led. Um I mean Miss Tigno did say you know in the gym or out like get in the gym or get to class basically. Um they did have to sign in. Um it was very well wellrun. There was there were tables for writing a letter. There was sign making. Everyone got a bracelet so that they knew that they had signed in and were accounted for just physically in the building or directly outside of the gymnasium where the event took place. It was blocked the parking lot was blocked off. was safe. It
167was very safe. Um, but I just uh no teachers. I saw zero teachers. I saw admins, but I saw zero teachers out there. So, teachers were in their advisory um class, if they were even in the building. Um, so I I just want to kind of like clear up some of that. Um, I'm I'm assuming that if the kids were late to their next period class, they were hopefully marked tardy. So, if you could just clarify on that because I do agree that if you're not in class, then you should be we should be following the attendance policy and not it be excused. But, um, but it was during advisory. So, um, but I do also kind of what what others were saying and Mary was saying it's a it is a civics lesson. I
168think that the kids that um organize it, they're adults because they're 18 actually and they will be voting confirmed um in the next election. And I think that they felt strongly and they had their right to demonstrate and I appreciate the administration for working with them. Um, not telling them what to do or how to do it. Well, how to do it because it was safe, but not telling them what to do or what to say. Again, no adults spoke during the entire event. Um, and it was all kid-led. There was um a few elected officials. Um, Mr. Takos does not work for the town. He is on the town council. um not paid by the town. Um there were a couple other members there, but um yeah, I think that was just it was
169a very well-run event and I was proud of the students for demonstrating for um standing up for what they believe in. And then they were very respectful and went back to class inside after it was all over. >> Mr. Skibo. >> Yes. I feel um on that is uh for the kids that are being I feel that they're being indoctrinated to hate the police uh for doing their job. And regardless of how safe it was or how organized it was, I think it's uh you know, it's teaching the kids how to you know go along with the agenda of what's going on in the world. So, I I just uh for my for my sake, it's I don't think it's it was really the right way to do things regardless of how organized and safe
170and all that. I just feel that it's uh >> you know, teaching the kids and trying to aggravate a bees nest really. Thank you, >> Mr. Lauren. >> Yeah. I just wanted to thank everybody who's not in the room right now um except the the few who are for the budget putting um all those line items asking all of our questions. Maybe haven't asked the same question a couple times cuz you're like I still don't get it. Can you say it again? Um there will be more of that. Um because that's one of our main responsibilities as a board is to be responsible with how the money is getting allocated. It's not our money, it's our I mean I guess it is if you're a taxpayer um but it's town's money, right? but it's also
171benefiting the student and that is a difficult balance to make every single year. Um so I appreciate the effort that I went into this in the forefront. Now we have to do our hard work on the back end um to make sure that we're acting responsibly. In regards to the student walkout um whether you or I agree with the issue um personally one side or the other um it's key that neither here nor there for me. I think it is our duty to make sure that our students right to their free speech in this country is protected. No matter if you agree with what they're saying or not. I think that's something that we always want to make sure that we are protecting to and we allow them a place to speak. But I also
172think especially for people sitting around this table right now, let's not forget to listen to what they're saying. They can speak, but how many of you heard what they had to say? Um, and I think that's something when we're trying to do the best for a student body who doesn't have a voice and doesn't have a vote yet, we have to remember to not just speak but listen. Um, and so I'll just end it there. >> Yeah, I just wanted to add to um, one of the things I was thinking about too is like the purpose of a walk out is to be able to to show that there's something wrong. Like doing it after school isn't a walk out. So, you can't walk out if you're not in school. Um, and you know, I
173remember sitting in one of the NHS teachers classes who still currently teaches there, and we were learning about um, you know, Vietnam protests, about um, different um, Supreme Court cases, not being told which one is right, which one is wrong, but just learning about it. And um you know my grandfather was um a veteran and was talking about you know some of his brothers and and about Vietnam and all these things. And I see so many kind of similarities in terms of young people always being on the front lines of activism and on the front lines of um wanting to have a voice when they don't have one um and at the ballot box. So I think one of the things that um I just um think is important to note too is like the
174the forms of protests are are there in history to read about um on many sides of many different causes um whether it's a conservative cause or a liberal cause or a random cause but you know um we sit at what I do with my job currently is because of people sitting out on college campuses to protest apartheid like there are so many things um I think that have come from from move from movements. So I just um want to say I think the the effect and the intended effect was probably from uh reading about it from history. This isn't the first walk out I've heard of. Uh I don't think it'll be the last. Um so I don't think the cause is always that. But I think um Mr. Holland's right. I appreciate you your
175comments for um that. So, thank you for uh listening everybody for all of these rants. >> Also, just a quick clarification um and maybe Dr. Breckett can um next time. There was a member of the public who said our scores are continuously decreasing and I don't believe that's true. So, you know, maybe we can just have a reminder to I believe they're increasing actually. It's difficult to um respond to that which he was referring to the did he was he referring to SAT scores grades ESPO scores. So yeah I I mean I know it's not like a yes it was an anecdote that said was said and I don't believe it's true. So I just wanted to point that out as far as the public's concern so concerned. So, um, yeah, we're here tomorrow night
176at 7:00. Just want to clarify 7:00 p.m. I know last year we've prior years we've done 6 p.m. This is 7:00 p.m. tomorrow. >> Motion to second. >> Motion second discussion. All in favor? I meeting 9:39 p.m.