NPS BOE Meeting - (2/19/2025)

001e e e good evening I'd like to call this meeting of the Newton Board of Education to order for Wednesday February 19th the time is 7:02 p.m. please rise for the pledge 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 Justice dad would you please call the [Music] RO here here thank you the first agenda item is a award for our everyday hero I will turn it over to Dr Breman thank you very much it is my pleasure to announce this month's everyday hero is Jen Macwan she is a special education teacher at Martin Kellogg School and she was nominated by Jay laier par educator from Martin Kellogg School who was also in attendance this evening here's what

002he had to say Jan has done an amazing job this year creating a learning environment that is inviting and effective for all of our students we have a visually impaired student this year in grade seven at nkms and she went above and beyond by finding and registering for beb which is the Bureau of educational services for the Blind and training workshops to learn about modifying the classroom and class work for the student with visual with a visual impairment it was a great opportunity to learn as an Educators as Educators as well as an opportunity for us to create a classroom that benefits all of our students Jen is also an amazing person who makes sure that we the Paras have all the tools and resources we need to accommodate our students she's an amazing person

003and comes in every day selfless and with a strong minded attitude for success she is absolutely deserving of this nomination congratulations Jen McGowan and since your nominators here he can come up too Mr L here come on up come on I only get this because you do you want to add anything to the whoever wrot of the Newton School both yeah so um camera okay thank you do you want to say anything uh oh I gotta be on the mic I just um you know I could have written this for Jay so I have a very strong feeling about our Paras and the work that they do um I just we could not do the job we do with our students without them and uh I'm just blessed and lucky about the Paras that we

004have at Martin Kellog and in the whole District they just uh here's my plug for higher pay benefits what else should I give them no they're amazing people and they do a lot of the hard work and some of the same work that we do as teachers so I couldn't do it without you personally um and just so you know Jay has also made a commitment to get trained and learn Braille to be able to be what they call a transcriptionist to help this student who has just lost his sight full sight since sixth grade he was born sighted and um he's an amazing little kid who just I don't know Jay and I say every day that I'm not sure I could be as resilient as he is um but Jay's learning Braille alongside

005the student and it's kind of cool um and I said to him it's good that you have a young mind and can learn this because I'm not sure I could learn that right now at 50s something um but really I could not do my job without the par Educators that work with me so thank you Jay I'll open up to board comments don't fight over it uh thank you uh to both of you you um our par educators are extremely valuable in our school system you make a direct impact to each and every one of the students that you come in contact with I think the the example that you had is the amazing commitment to doing everything you can and beyond that to make sure that every student in our school has not only

006what they need but more to have a full life and to have a full future and I cannot thank you enough with the right words thank you Miss petrius um thank you and thank you once again um those of us around this table are reminded about the magic that happens in classrooms and we talk an awful lot especially now about the needs of our most special students and we sometimes forget how important it is to meet our students where they where they are and when especially when we hear a heartwarming story like your student who's had so much life change in such a short period of time at such a young age and it's a real credit to both of you not just on the education side but on the Human Side and being there

007for them so again thank you so much for your commitment to all of our students but especially our students who need the most so thank you Mr Newton uh it's very important to hear your story of a student with vision impairment everything else because the biggest problem we have in the budgets is special education and I think that people have preconceived notions of what it is or what it isn't and I think that by just the exposure of seeing that it's in other areas helps you make a decision either one way or the other but it at least clarifies what you're doing thank you Miss Weaver I love love Fest we just get to give all the love um one so good to see you all uh this is a nice throw back to my

008days at mkm um you look great by the way like I won't say how long it's been since I've been at mkm and she looks the same um but I think uh one of the things we love about this award is that like highlights that every day things you're not always hearing you know I think things that hit the news waves you're not going to hear um and these are the things that deserve hear that the community needs to know about what goes on every single day so thank you both um and it's really I think one of the reasons it'll never be enough pay it'll never be enough things um so this is drop in the bucket but um what you do for a student is truly what makes this community great and what

009we love to see our students come out with like I can't wait to see in the next 10 years um where this student is because of you um and it's why so many of us want to come back because of of people like you so thank you um and I know you know we do have a par educator of the Year award now too so nominations I don't know when those are open but uh just keeping that in mind but congratulations yes thank you so much for your commitment to this the student and to our schools obviously and um very it was fun to hear that you're both Newton graduates because it just just shows how great that Newington is and I'm assuming you're more recent graduate so perfect so yes thank you for um

010I just think it's great that you're learning Braille and and you're training yourselves just for the needs of your student I think that's just really really awesome to show a commitment to everybody every student like you said thank you so much for being here we definitely appreciate you and congratulations and thank you for nominating Miss McGowen thank you at this time I will open up to public participation on any matter related to board responsibilities in the room can come to end and raise your or turn on the mic uh online you can raise your hand oh Mr oh we saw Mr Lambert he's on Jason are you there does he want to say anything anything I am right here can you guys hear me yes one of the things that I wanted to point out

011when Miss mwan got up to receive her very welld deserved reward is what's the first thing that she did she went ahead and passed the buck to give credit to someone other than herself and that is absolutely indicative of the type of person that she that she is when she works with our pair professional staff um she not only helps Empower them to best serve our kids she gets them excited and uh is is quick to point out the winds uh whether it's working with all different you know student learning profiles and she spreads that enthusiasm we're very very fortunate to have a unbelievable Cadre of Highly invested PA professionals um and I believe that is in due no small part to the work that uh Jen does to show the wins and the and

012the potential and just the gratifying aspects of the position where you know you work to serve a kid and you're able to kind of point out and see firsthand uh the the the gains and the and she's uh intentional to point out those celebrations in that growth and uh it's such an honor to work with her every day as it is to work with a former student Jay laier as well uh they're doing a great job supporting our students but I'm so honored to have her represent Martin Kellogg tonight thank you Mr Lambert all right I don't see any members of the public wanting to speak to public participation I thought you just opened it up you're not a member of the public on the board you want me to speak just as a board

013M later do I don't know the protocol for that I don't know the protocol for that either so I suppose uh let it let it happen for St your name address for the record I mean you're welcome to speak later on the meeting that the public participation is for people who aren't allowed to speak during the meeting but I mean we're having a discussion with the next agenda item so you're welcome to speak now or then whenever you want okay okay okay so we'll move on to our new business which is discussion possible action for um a lot on the budget so first I think what we'll do is um go over the questions that have been asked since or at last meeting and and since and then we'll open up for discussion on next

014steps or we'll trans we'll probably we'll adopt the budget as our own and then we'll open up for for next steps Al righty so thank you board chair I did with the help of my team um and they many thanks to my team many of these items did take quite a bit of research but what we tried to do is pull together answers to questions um some have come up since um the last board meeting and some are outgrowth of the board meeting um a quick update to the top item about our athletic fees um this was was something that came out after the last meeting we are a little below the average for the CCC and what we charge for sports um Mr Myers was able to determine through his Outreach that most of

015our counterparts are charging 14750 per Sport and we charge 100 per sport so later on um when um we get to that section I can show the board what uh a potential raise in our rates for sports could do for the budget um but currently we are a bit below what the average is for our area then we had a question from Mr Newton about an account analysis 24- just get this up so I can get the numbers right d690 and uh basically there was a request to see the details of that account I won't read it line by line but it is linked into there and I will show it I won't until I do this there this is all areas Lou correct me if I'm wrong we' we've listed it by every area

016generally the top section of this memo shows what generally is included in this line item across all schools and without reading every line item and you know L laminator plaqu and awards bulletin boards supplies snacks for students for certain things um student of the month medal so on and so forth uh by school schools that had any different um unique uses of this line we listed below um the high school is our hub for all the security tags or students wear them so there's a lot of expenses involved in that there's a special printer that does all those security tags um student ID badges um the nor Easter Academy does offer a snack for kids because it is in the afternoon after a long school day high school has a spirit week and advisory activities

017that are unique to them freshman orientation is unique to the high school the middle school it's attributed to Martin Kellogg but both Martin Kellog and Wallace do the battle of the books um and that's a very motivating sixth grade event where kids are uh competing about books they read and um and then elementary schools have special events as well so that's generally what's in this line there aren't any real differences um this year probably a lot of cost of living adjustments L any further comment on this listing that you put together yes the nature of looking at all the schools and the I want call it inconsistencies it's more a matter of how they've just evolved over time and the programs that they've you know been sponsoring for years have kind of taken over and

018that becomes the budget foundation so you see differences school by school as far as what they're doing compared to another school uh it's not really structured where it's top down uh delivery you will carry all these items in your budget and this is all you get know they do have some discretion as far as how they design the programming and their special events so that's really what's here you I certainly would have to go and you know go back line by line and I'm some pretty small dollars $200 for this $120 for that to really get had a really deep assessment but in just trying to portray the activities in a fashion where you can kind of compare and contrast and see what's really different about it compared to what's common is the approach I

019took to develop this little summary so that's that line in a nutshell Miss car sorry just one question question so John Wallace doesn't need funding for battle of the books it wasn't in their budget so maybe the PTA is fully sponsoring it this year they alternate schools Wonder so maybe that's what it is I believe that's what it is because they run it every year so they might end the event t-shirts I know um B all the books they have T-shirts for that and for their um pep rallies and such so now both both schools commingle that I believe year to year okay the next item that came up is SRO salary detail what we portrayed last time was accurate uh but I know some board members wanted a little more information I'd rather not

020show that publicly because it is someone's salary but feel free as a board member to click that link and read through how all that salary is outlined um a lot of it is determined by the town while while we um have an agreement with them that we're paying half there's a lot of fees in there and a lot of different things but it is determined by the town and it's been done that way for a number of years so um I'll leave it to you if you want to pour into those details um and find out any there's nothing out of the ordinary for that it's been that way for a number of years okay Miss Weaver has a question just to clarify that's just so the public knows one SRO at the high school

021yes we have yeah people often um overlay security guards and SRO we have one SRO for the entire district and we have one security guard at every school but at the high school we have uh three plus well and one is spread between Adult Ed and the high school so that is the number of security detail how we have all right oh Mr Newton I thought we I thought we were paying the bigger percentage this says 5050 so is it 5050 so that position is a total of hund something thousand go ahead L we're paying 5050 on the base cost for the person but there are special assignment activities where they may be brought in for other things on days off from school and there's adjustments to the uh money that we owe the town

022because of that I can't tell you exactly what's in at it without spending a bunch of time you know unbundling it but there are there are extras that go with the over and above the base for them all right Mr howerin inquired about this budget line let me get to the right tab here for there we go this is budget line item this called public relations and it's 2410 54220 and these are kind of a comparison of what is in the budget for for this coming year and what was kind of the trend for this year I did speak with Miss tigno um to her why there was some V variances and previously some of these items were paid for of the Student Activity account and that's not the appropriate use of a Student Activity

023account so we budgeted it more appropriately this year when we worked with her on the budget so that is why there is some deviation but it's really um it was a little higher I cut some of the items here but the the deviation from year to year is just a couple of thousand um but you can see kind of a breakdown the high school being a school kids are graduating there are more activities um they have a Scholars breakfast that's pricey there's a cost of living increase there um the staff holiday breakfast is more expensive because there's more people there some guest speakers that is a little bit higher um that large number from this year was because they had Chris Haron uh speak at the high school um we did have a meeting today

024with the town Social Services director and she's willing to next year pay for some bigger ticket speakers as well but when I spoke to miss Redmond this 7,000 amount is really so she can have guest speakers coming into her mental health class small stiens to pay folks that are kind of giving up a couple hours of work to come in and present to her students about a variety of mental health issues often it's therapists or drug counselors or people that are in recovery um so that's that's where that money's kind of coming from and the events for NHS students are like their spirit days their dances some of the things that are a little pricier to um take on um water for meetings there's a lot of meetings going on at the high school and

025couple things she had in this last year's budget that are not in this year's budget so long story short it's a an increase of about $2,000 okay we were asked to look at special ed 563 and the public school tuition and contracted Services those are combined questions from Miss Weaver and Sher parate um so let me get that booted up here and just try to explain that as how how it reads here so the special ed students that are attending magnet schools um which is 20 26 kids are costing us close to a half million dollars so while we are now having the town pay for the regular tuition for magnet schools out of ECS dollars um the special ed students are costing us quite a bit as well um our 54 students and this

026is in legislation for this year that 504 is a regular Ed function and it's always been a bone of contention for school districts about why are we paying for the 504 expenses for kids who are going to a different school for whom we already pay tuition for so it's in legislation this coming year that this 66,000 should be the responsibility of the magnet school I don't know if that will go through but it is currently in legislation um if a student is attending Goodwin Tech um while we don't pay for the goodwi tech tuition we have expenses related to kids that go there who have special ed requirements they've re redone their schedule and kids are going in and out of there on partial weeks with special ed only they they're with us for special

027ed services they go there for the regular Ed component it's very complex but that's where that dollar figure comes from and we're required by law that if a student is hospitalized for more than 10 days and needs an educational program that we set aside dollar for tutoring um that money is pretty consistently about that amount of money every year um specialed private tuition this are these are our obligations for our students who are outplaced two kids who are through open Choice are currently outplaced for that total there we do get fully reimbursed for that our special ed students we have 37 who are outplaced um that total is5 .3 million that's 37 students we didn't want to list them student by student for fear of any personal identifiable information so it's not really 5.3 million

028divided by 37 out placements range anywhere from $60,000 a year on the cheaper end upwards of $250,000 a year um we also bake into the budget the inevitability that there'll be new students that go outplaced during the course of the school year um and so we've B we have a half million dollar set aside for that and just to reiterate for the board when I say outplaced what that means is a student has such significant special ed needs that they are requiring something more than what we have here that's the typical reason sometimes um it is also that a parent really pushes for it and threaten legal action and because of the cost of legal issues and the heavily weighted due process system toward families uh it often is not a cost benefit or cost

029effective for the board to go to litigation on that so sometimes we allow it to happen because it's more costeffective to do so upon attorney's advice um right now the estimated excess cost Grant calculation for next year is $1.2 million so we took the total of these numbers which is over here and subtracted $1.2 million and that's 4.9 million um NE fast forwarding down to the next line item of special a contracted Services Sor just so we can clarify um so open choice we get reimbursed for is that included in the 1.2 or separate that's a whole separate amount just to clarify y okay and then the 5 three yes 5.3 million we get we don't get reimbursed for that 5.3 million from there we we offset it with the cost we have offset excess

030cost in baked into that 5.3 million is a calculation about how many of those students have tuitions I think the threshold is about 990,000 L 90 almost 96,000 96,000 so anyone in that 37 grouping whose tuition is above $96,000 they're eligible they craten up eligibility for us for excess cost so from that analysis Lou is projecting $1.2 million next year now you'll hear later in tonight's meeting that excess cost is fluctuating daily um luckily today in a good way so we don't know what may or may not land but this is given current information we anticipate $1.2 million coming back to us from EX cost in the upcoming school year um okay so for the public we know that we're getting that offset but we're still paying you're paying up front we're paying up front

031we're paying up front and that's the 4.9 is really more reflective of that's the net of will have to pay as a board but we have to um expect to pay this much at the outset and that's what we need in our operating budget correct the reimbursement comes the reimbursement comes throughout the school year I think we get two payments Karen is that what it is so that that comes at increments throughout the school year based on whether the students stay out place the entire school year and it goes into our CIP it doesn't go into our right currently it goes fully into the CIP but with the mou that we've created with the town we can divert some of that back to um the non-aps account which eventually can be used as an offset

032to the budget so but yes currently that money goes to the uh board CIP account um again similar to uh the open Choice out placements open Choice students who require a one to one perah were required to use correct Pais for that because they have the relationship with open choice so we anticipate um $860,000 in open Choice Paras that is also fully reimbursed um goes to the to the board CIP for possible transfer to non-lps eventually we initially budgeted um $750,000 for ESS we're using $100,000 offset from the idea Grant um and we're also reducing this by $50,000 because we found out it came in at a lower level when we finally got the bill um contracted services L that 310,000 is for peras outside agencies correct so again due to our um you know

033less than competitive PA salary and mostly our benefits is less than competitive we are often uh going to outside agencies for Paras contracted uh Services Kenny they manage our Medicaid process so they help us get the claims in we get about $50,000 net in Medicaid claims which we also use as an offset here which um puts us at $1.7 million in that contracted Services line um quick question about Medicaid reimbursement um what are we getting reimbursed for from Medicaid and are we getting any payments from commercial insurance as well or just from Medicaid well for commercial insurance we do not get that for the uh Medicaid it'll be really the related Services activity it would be the uh psychologist the social workers uh possibly speech therapists that would be you know intersect with the uh

034approved service list for Medicaid students you the way they have you uh process it is we don't have direct knowledge of who is a Medicaid eligible student you know we have to just submit U list of all the case contacts that are staff does with uh students that are in that area and then the Medicaid will match it up and then send a reimbursement for services based on that can I clarify that for a sec so we for privacy I'm assuming purpos correct so we don't collect that information so students that take advantage of let's say of our our health services at the high school or or counseling services so we give the entire batch if you will and then Medicaid just picks out the ones that they have as clients I'm not understanding that

035I can clarify that a little bit Lou um okay our health our you mean our school based Health Center yeah yeah or what would be a Medicaid billable right so our school-based health center um is allowed to build private insurance we're as a school system only allowed to for the services that we directly provide to build Medicaid as lot articulated speech psychology some testing uh so that money gets factored in and Kenny and Associates does all the math behind the scenes um and I think we this became a discussion them last year because not everybody allows Medicaid to be build on their behalf they have to sign a waiver uh there was a movement by the legislation to potentially make it just a direct qualification but that did go through last year I don't know

036whether that's on the docket for this year I have not heard that it is but so the only providers in our district that can build private insurance are the school-based health center folks ESS they can as well that's why our bill came down a little bit and we also work with Connecticut Behavioral Health and they come in and provide services and none of we pay nothing for that they build those uh families directly through their insurance so none of our providers can build private insurance but those contracted folks that come in and out of our sub system can okay okay no thank you for clarifying that okay all right and then we did have a question about Staffing and enrollment a seven-year look back and Mr FY uh did a deep dive into this um

037I'll speak a little bit the enrollment that he listed I want to be clear is a combination of our IND District kids as well as kids who were fiscally responsible for in other words our magnet school kids as well so this shows you the trajectory of enrollment um seven years ago we were at 4272 and right now we're at 4,100 or this is last year I believe right see let me look at the top I think I only went through this this current school year um and then as you can see and I Steve can help me feel questions here um we've gone up in the seven-year trajectory uh one since since 18192 administrative positions flat and are a little bit down in career and Vocational Ed flatten educational technology down a little in library

038media math intervention uh down from last year but up since the start of the seven years uh Aerospace Academy is up a little bit in Staffing biomed Academy up a little bit instructional coaches uh up a little bit from the start of the sevene span stem is flat music is flat Wellness is up a Teensy bit at 02 uh reading and literacy coaches are down school counselors are up one but that one is a grant fun person the mental health coord um guidance counselor Middle School um is flat and foreign language flat and of psychology social workers we did add them several years ago we've been flat ever since special ed is the big one um as mentioned earlier by Mr Newton we had 36 special ed teachers seven years ago now we have 45

039um our number of special kids continues to rise as it does at the state we're slightly below the St at average but we still have very complex situations with require special ed services you can see the em or ml the nomenclature there changed over the course of those seven years um we're up three teachers there because again that's a in the seven years our ml population has doubled and there's are mandatory Services um speech clinicians are a little up since the start of this but pretty flat in recent years High School is up just a few like a 2 point I don't know what that adds up to be little fraction of a person and a half and a lot of that is the EB and flow of courses that we have to teach financial

040literacy did require us last year to add a position correct um so and then uh we're down a little bit at both middle schools and you can see we fluctuated the elementary schools here and there like um you know back seven years ago we had 15 class classroom teachers at Green next year we're projecting well this year it's 14 it might go up next year if that kindergarten teacher goes through Reynolds is fairly flat uh Patterson anywhere from 18 to 20 and chaffy anywhere from 15 to 16 to 17 so at the end of the day we've uh increased certified staff totals from 34522 to 3652 over the last seven years most of that is special at an ml um and we already explained the uh certified administrator or administrative people and then enrollment is

041going down slightly and some might say well if our enroll is going down slightly why did our teaching staff go up slightly well the special ed the ML and even with some ads and flows of enrollment it doesn't always equate to you need one less teacher it did at the middle school the middle schools we've had a little reduction there because of the lower enrollment there but but at our other schools specifically Elementary and high school there really hasn't been enough of a dip in enrollment to Warrant any significant teacher reductions so that's the long and short of that chart Steve would you add anything or elaborate on anything and thank you for doing this no yeah I I think you covered it all I think um you know special education you can see the

042increases there um which Earthly effect also speech and language right um our ml population we've spoken about how that's continuously Rising um I think Dr brumett mentioned it earlier not only those positions but the legislatively mandated um financial literacy teacher uh that we put in as well um so those really account for the majority of the changes otherwise some of the fluctuations in percentages really are um staff who who pick up different courses in different areas so some sometimes um certain electives are on hot and then they kind of move over to something else and those happen to be in social studies or then they kind of move over into another department maybe science and so that's why you see some of the es and flows in in in those areas but um those just

043naturally run with the programs of study that we offer for students and what students are selecting otherwise everything is really based off our enrollment and you can see that we do adjust accordingly uh especially at the elementary and middle school level where it's a little more clean then up at the high school level where it's a lot based on course um selections okay go ahead just turn your mic on please is there is anybody looking at what's driving the increase in special ed as a as opposed to the mainstream kids that's a great question um yes there was a task force that um I was involved with as just a person that was Consulting with them they feel a lot of it has to do with um the litigation pieces in Connecticut but uh the

044laws in Connecticut unlike most of the nation are very favorable to um what parents are hoping you know want for their child versus what is most appropriate so there often is a time when you um rather than go to an expensive litigation situation you just you know have allow the parent to have that additional service so that does increase some of it I also think you know based on you know been I was special ed before I became a central office administrator um the more complex kids are coming along kids are being um medically intervened as young children babies and they survive and then they come to school and they have a tremendous amount of needs and that might not have been true a decade ago so we do see an increase in complexity of

045children due to the advances of Medical Science but we also see the litigious nature of our state as a contributing factor as well thank doesn't seem like the medical community is advancing things well that's depends on who you ask so just want to it's clarified on the sheet I just want to figure out if I'm reading right like the change from the reading and literacy coaches to the interventionist is that the read right you'll see that big significant difference one year right yeah when we reclassified so I did try to put a footnote next to the areas where there's a fluctuation and then at the bottom you'll kind of read the justification or rationale for that um but yes that's when we reclassified and organized um we wanted to ensure that folks were being classified

046according to their certification okay in the appropriate area and that it matched the budget so um that was just a budgetary shift but not really a change in in okay yeah so it's like 17.8 total or something on reading so to speak not the actual classification 11.8 plus 6 if you if you're adding the two together we're down okay okay so it's just so people know like how that that line item looks but um and just curious too um I think one of the things obviously we hear not only is increased need but um increased we're looking at uh learning loss and strated learning recovery um and obviously the need I think we've seen in scores and on curriculum we talk a lot about um so is there a reason we're down with math interventionist

047too if we're we're fluctuating is that based on need or based on so we did um this was definitely a conversation also I think last budget cycle where um a lot of it is pending title funding and which schools are um identified as title funded schools and so when we appropriate the title funding to those schools uh in a certain way which is um distributed by a specific ratio that the state makes us use on the percentage of um Staffing in those schools um we can only have so many staff in the other schools that aren't title funded um or percentage of that so um if we were to increase all in totality we can't just like oh let's increase the schools that are lower if they're not a title school because then we have

048to increase everywhere um it becomes a massive undertaking of Financial Resources I was blocking that from my memory and then just lastly to that um blacked out one the bilingual tutor that goes into effect in this budget just to clarify we're talking about here we're required to have that and it's a mandated correct so that'll be for yes in this budget yeah coming up bud yes okay M car well thank you for the chart I it looks great I know you put a lot of work into this so thank you for doing that um I just had a few follow-up questions so it doesn't necessarily mean if we bring a new program in that another teacher is needed correct like for example jewelry 2 we're not going to need to bring someone else in that's

049correct and have we brought in programs that we then removed later on in the future because the demand hasn't been met or or it the class size is too small and it doesn't make sense funding wise over the few years certainly so we look at a couple of things with that if um course selections um let's say in a couple years jewelry 2 is no longer a desirable you know um there may be another offering that might replace it um so it wouldn't mean that we would reduce in a teacher from a point you know 1.0 to a point8 uh it might mean that they just might um be teaching different courses but we also do look to reallocate so we look at across the district what are the needs of the art department and

050might there be an opportunity to reallocate Staffing so that we can meet maybe um a higher enrolled School uh without having to hire new so maybe someone has to travel that point2 period and come and help out an elementary school and then they're the rest point8 up at the high school and we might do that as well so we have to take kind of a complete look at what are the district needs and then allocate the Staffing accordingly we absolutely Ely try to reduce where we can um and then where there is a a need for an increase we come to the board and we we request and Lead our case as to why um because we wouldn't be able to fill it from within with our current Staffing in the current courses that we

051have to run you and I think just to for the jewelry too course I think correct me if I'm wrong but you're there's one a section some other art class that's not going to be offered in place of the jewelry so it's kind of just a swap yeah exactly all right back to our Q&A section uh there was a question posed by Miss car relative to the per pupil expenditures um and again thank you to for creating this chart and um it's it's a very complex formula but for purposes of tonight's discussion we're really right on par with the state average so what this chart shows you is um the per pupil for Newton the average per pupil for state for that same year and the deviation so and then the state rank refers to

052where does Newington rank order um in their per pupil costs relative to the 169 districts in the state so um early in this chart you can see we used to and if you had we had this actually going back as Luke called it to the dawn of time uh I I SP I sparing you those details but if you went back to the early days Newington was way above the state in their per pupil expenditures that's not the case anymore we are as time goes along either slightly below exactly even with the state or and last year about 2% above the state um and then you look at our ranking um in terms of our ability you know our current rank where we are as to how we compare to other districts we're hovering right

053there dead in the middle if there's 100 well not a little bit below but um you know there's 169 districts in the state and these are where we line up to them um so we're just if there's any message to be told or story to be told by these numbers we're pretty average with what the state average is and you've all seen the deviations districts that are super tiny might have a per pupil expenditure of 30,000 per child because they're providing a school system of services for Less kids um bigger districts like New Britain has a very low per pupil expenditure um I don't know a lot goes into these numbers and Lou I don't know if there's anything you can shine a light on like if I'm a if we're uh we're not but

054if we were in uh a district that was in more need like an alliance District does that per pupil money go into there that accounting yeah the formula does have biases in it for uh incentives like in the early years of the open Choice program if you had students that you were taking in on that you would get some you know bonus counts toward your uh enrollment and you know some of the fixed um entitlement money that was tied into the formula I haven't looked at in detail at it in a couple years and I'm not aware of any major changes but it it's probably 97 98% tied directly to the money the district spends and the number of kids that go to school in the district but there are a couple percentage Point differences

055for you know the participation in magnet schools uh kids going to the U grade schools things like that thank you um Miss weer sorry just to follow because I know we've had this discussion in the past I know have one of the things we were always looking at too was just cautioning the um the comparative nature you can use with these given um does this account for like the town bonding and that kind of stuff too or CIP and that kind of stuff because I know some people have it in their operating budget some don't in terms of some of the capital projects in that this would be as uh standardized as possible when it comes to the overall State reporting and they make their eliminations and allowances to uh basically you know get everybody

056to be Apples to Apples or as close as I just remember a lot of proceed with caution on yeah I mean last year we did do a deep dive into this and Kathy gay who's got a real eye for school and state finance did mention there are some interesting ways the state calculates all it she says it's so complex she's not even sure she understands it but these numbers are generated by the state these are not numbers that loose set you know do the calculation this is that's why we don't yet have uh 2425 because that state has not made that available yet so we just did a seven-year look back starting with uh the school year 23 24 and just a question on followup um this is just an overall question but like as

057our needs change to I'm assuming some of that's calculated into it we're not in the liance district but you know how we obviously have our Durk I do wonder if we're going to be in the same dur at some point or what that determination happens um but also is there like the comparative nature of where we are in terms of um that counts for in the formula like the the need that's changing because obviously in that time frame we've doubled and almost some of our special ed foring reduce lunge like yes that demographic that rank has it's completely different student population corre yeah if I had other years of this chart up the last 20 years or so we've really been in the same range plus or minus 2% from the State average uh that

058was there in a ranking you know 80 82 to 105 you know one is in the 80s one's in the hundreds all the others are in the 90s that was very consistent with what it's been the last 20 years overall so there has not been a lot of movement as far as either the perception that the school district is uh reinvested proportionally more or proportionally less it's really kind staying the course of what they're putting into the district it's just interesting as we change as like it's not the same school district at all since 2017 so to stay that rank I think is actually us moving up just means all other dist the same thing that we have most likely yeah but it is a complicated formula that only a state status or a person

059in charge of this could explain it properly um but I I think the message here is we're not spending above the state average so if there's ever concern are we overspending on our educational programs in Newton I think the fair answer to that is no your question yes uh and I'm not sure if I'm reading it right I'm not concerned about the price per pupil cost because to me it's like going out the restaurant if it's good food I don't care what I'm paying for but the State ranking are we dropping that's not um a rank in our academic Excellence that's a rank in our per pupil expenditure so out of 69 districts were ranked 92 for the year 23 24 and how much we spent on our kids per people um for whatever reason

060219 220 we were ranked 104 I'm not sure why that was the first year of covid I don't know if that played into oh yeah we had that 0% increase uhuh ah there you go so no that has nothing to do with our quality of Education that's strictly where do we fall in line out of 69 districts we're in the 92 to 93 range for the last several years in terms of our spending not nothing to do with our quality do we know where we do rank as far as qu I guess you're using the word quality but do we know where we rank in 169 towns as far as Excellence I do I don't know that there is ranking in that fashion I mean we're all given growth targets from the state relative to

061to our achievements but we there's not like a rank of who's the number one school district I mean some may say they are number one but um that doesn't exist by the state um sometimes like um US News and World Report will put out some rankings uh we've gotten a couple of bang outs from them but I in some um agencies make rankings but they're not like officially endorsed by the state um so to to answer your question is no the state doesn't issue those kind of ratings a lot of it seems like we have some great teachers and great students but I'm just curious where we you know um how we look overall yes so um if you attend curriculum meetings or even maybe we can bring them here like you see the you'll

062see like um standardized testing across the state and there's a state average and there's a Newton average and typically Newington is higher than the state average in in results like that and then a lot of the like Dr brumit mentioned some of the you know news articles or different like independent rankings will come out but the caution there is that there's they're highly subjective and you really have no idea what's going behind it like like good schools is is notorious for not being accurate or like you know go on realor.com and it's like newington's like six but like six out of 10 but like what's going into behind that like it you know you can't really yeah so yeah but I thank you for bringing that up it really what we try to compare ourselves

063is to the state and we are typically above the state average in our academic measures um based on standardized test scores SAT scores our music programs um so those are some of the things that give you an inclination as to how we quote measure up but the state doesn't put out any rankings of that nature right Mr n just a point of clarification do we actually have 169 school districts because we have Regional School Districts which cover multiple towns such as ess6 Deep River Chester so we have 169 towns and cities but do we have 169 separate systems or is it more like 150 no you bring up a great point the um Regional School districts are considered their own districts so they're part of that 16 like Regional School District 10 is part of

064that 169 Regional School District 9 is part of that so those Regional School districts are counted as a school district even though they you're right represent three four towns in some instances but they've Consolidated into one District yep all right um Grant expenditures now that was a toughy because how to represent this fairly and so it's understandable is a challenge and Karen did a a really great job but a lot of Grants come and go so some of the grants on here uh the question was posed by Mr Sharma like what are our grant expenditures over the last uh three years and um you know Karen did her best to compile that and uh you know as everyone's aware in these past three to four years we had Co dollars which are gone but they're

065reflected in here so there's really um I'm not sure what will what story comes out of this other than the chef Grant refers to some of our open Choice dollars that we get and we spend every nickel so fear not we never leave a a penny on the table because here's our grant award in 2022 and here's what we spent same thing the only deviation you'll notice is this year the chef Grant was awarded at 15117 we've only spent 48,000 today but it's only February it will be gone by June 30th so we do spend every nickel allotted to us we do get some open Choice bonus dollars or uh enhancement dollars um those are each as these um diagonals are going that's year to year so the First Column is what was the first

066column 23 22 2122 and then all the way up to this year open Choice acceptance we get these little minuscule couple thousand dollars here and there for that with all our bilingual kids the Connecticut bilingual Grant is a generous $39536 just as just so people understand what that would be as an impact so we get Title One title two title three um you can see we're getting you know $380,000 $400,000 um and so on and so forth so that's a lot of money that we get through those various title grants that that would be impacted should those be cancelled in any way shape or form form similarly um fast foring to Perkins this is a grant that isn't huge and most of it goes toward um you know supplies but Mr Sher wanted to know

067how much goes towards stiens Karen if you could just uh illuminate on that a little bit not much um Perkins Grant pays for the the grant coordinator a stip in for that one person does it pay for any uh program there three programs that we do um pay to offset a small stip in for those teachers as well how much is it how much is the stip in for um they range from $1,500 up to like 2400 and that's it you'll see I don't have the total there but roughly it's like $77,000 in total for set first small stiens so they're not paying any salaries but some teachers get a stien for particular program that they oversee that is pay a stien but this money is not enough to pay anyone's salary it's stiens and

068its supplies is that is that stien is that a mandate from the from the feds from the birkens grand is that something that's District driven can't answer that question right now I don't know can you find out let us know like usually the stiens that are like 1500 or whatever they're usually like student council if you're an adviser there's the B1 B2 like stiens too like if you're a these are Perkins has its own rule sets and they're pretty strict yeah um but I know one of the stipend is for our uh Medical Science Academy at the high school and the role that that particular teacher plays in getting our kids certified to do EMT or uh some of those other certifications that the board asked about a few meetings ago I know that's one

069of the Perkins stipend we can get a little bit more uh detailed list but they're really small like $1,500 and they're just acknowledging that some of the programming that we run through that Grant require some different oversight um so I think to answer your question Mr charman and we'll get more information some of it is limited by the grant because the grant is we've tried over the years to pay for certain things out of that Grant and the Perkins people say no so there is a very strict rule set around Perkins and again it's a very small amount of money but we can get a little more information about that it won't really affect the budget discussion tonight but we can certainly get you more information on that I mean it's used we offset as

070much as we can to reduce our board ask through the Perkins Grant but it's got super strict guidelines okay um has a comment are you yes I am thank you get your picture fors ready my question is uh if we're talking about grants um Dr hariston uh that looks like a grant allocation of $161,400 for uh basically Dei which the federal government just striking out of the education programs so I have some questions about that um one of them would be could that Grant be used for other things I mean that's two teacher salaries right there um I guess I'll start there can that Grant be used for other things besides Dei yes the grant has other potential uses um but we have gotten no U guidance from the federal government in terms of what

071exactly they're limiting or not limiting and as I mentioned at the last meeting um that position is also in charge of our mandates our school climate and culture mandates and there are a lot of state laws that are still in effect about how we need to work with our students to make sure we're respectful of their cultures and backgrounds so that position in my opinion as a professional is still needed um and I wouldn't say it would pay for two teachers it would probably pay for a teacher and a half um based on the salary but there is a lot of Education that comes out of that position and a lot of oversight of our discipline our seal um climate and culture so there's a lot that goes into it um and the whole title

072isn't strictly about Dei it's the chief of innovation and strategy so it's not strictly about Dei um anyway that's my uh my response to that so what are what are Dr harston's duties and responsibilities well those are some of the things I just stated he oversees what's his PhD in May I have that educational actually no it's actually an I don't know the exact title of his dissertation but it was in the realm of culture Equity um diversity information I I really have to ask him directly but it's along that line he got it at Central is he uh are there policies that he has put out for the school has he written any policies no the board rights policies so um I I would like to respond to uh your thing about the you

073haven't got any guidance this is uh this just came out February 14th 2025 um and it's by Craig trainer acting assistant secretary for civil rights United States Department of Education and it's very specific I was going to read the whole thing but it's kind of boring but I would like to point out a couple paragraphs here um that it's uh it's eliminating it says other programs discriminate in Less Direct but equally Insidious ways Dei programs for example frequently preference certain racial groups and teach students that certain racial groups bear unique moral burdens that others do not such programs stick matiz students who belong to particular racial groups based on cre racial stereotypes consequently they deny the students the ability to participate fully in the life of school the department will no longer tolerate the overt

074or covert racial discrimination has become widespread in this nation's educational institutions the law is clear treating students differently on the basis of race to achieve nebulous goals such as diversity racial balancing social justice or equity is illegal under controlling Supreme Court precedent and that precedent was from uh the students for fair missions versus Harvard the 2023 Supreme Court decision all students are entitled to an environment free from discrimination the department is committed to ensuring those principles this is this is it's it's a advisory letter it's the it is the law now I have all I have the complete letter yeah I would I would have to um respectfully disagree certainly uh we've been advised by our attorneys otherwise that while there are executive orders coming down um hourly that right now none of them have

075been made into the law of the land so to speak obviously if they are and our state department of Ed advises us because many of the things that are in these guidance letters or advisories are currently state law in the state of Connecticut so there's going to have to be some reconciliation there um between what the federal um you know whatever whether it becomes a law or not but I will tell you we have sought advice from our legal council and they have very clearly stated that these advisory letters or executive orders are not law yet and if they are law then our legal team will um certainly give us that guidance similar good case and point is the whole notion of ice agents coming to schools we have a issued guidance to all of

076our administrative team about how they are to comply with that in a in an appropriate way should someone come to the schoolhouse door it hasn't happened I believe anywhere but not here for sure so we will adhere to anything that is deemed an a law of the land and that would be passed down both federally but also from our local State Department of Ed many of the State Department of Ed mandates to us are in contrast or in conflict with some of the ad information that you just shared so we're in a bit of a quandry about which end is up however what we will do is follow the law as our legal team advises so for now the position that Miss Dr harston hold is not in conflict with um because a lot of

077what I'm reading too is about recruitment issues and we we don't and we said this came up at a board meeting uh probably six months ago we don't hire anyone because of the color of their again we hire folks who are the most qualified and I know I think what you shared in the Supreme Court ruling had to do with some sort of um you know College admission based on race or ethnicity or what have you we we don't do that uh however we do try to create uh classrooms that deal with students who are very diverse 50% of our kids in the district of Newington are not white and the vast majority of those kids live in Newington I know there's always that concern their open Choice kids but they're not the vast majority

078of our diverse population has a zip code of 06111 so we have to follow what current law states and we have to do what's right for the kids in front of us if at some point in time the state department of Ed and they usually take their lead from feds tell us that we have to do matters differently we certainly will you know we're going to definitely comply with the law I'd like to get back to the grant is that a renewable GR Grant it is a grant that is through the open Choice program and um it is important to note that open Choice legislation was to diversify your school system and to give students from challenge backgrounds a better opportunity so it's very appropriate that Dr hon is paid out of that Grant because

079the whole premise of the open Choice program that was litigated when uh Governor O'Neal was in office um is under that offices is to diversify and to make sure kids are in a welcoming environment so that position being paid out of open Choice money is extremely appropriate yeah um who who hired um the doctor the committee of ofet was were the other applicants was he the only one I don't know I don't recall I think we had other applicants and so I I still feel as a taxpayer that that position um you you could you could paint it however you want to paint it's a Dei position and uh I I wish I knew a little bit more about but so policies and procedures regarding any kind of equity and inclusion are written by who

080the Board of Education okay so we have all those we do we have to that's state and federal law so what are we what are we teaching in classrooms regarding that Miss so we as a board of ed we voted two years ago honor Mission values and vision we sat here and we voted on that that includes Equity it's been in there equity's been in our policies and procedures since they were written in 1999 well that's like the last one we could find 1999 so the policies are they so all of our policies and procedures are on the policy manual website which is visible to everybody and has been since the 1999 or since the dawn of computers or when we put it on and we've actually upped it so it's incredibly accessible um in

081the spirit of equity we have it accessible online and it's specifically labeled our policy manual now there's certain regulations that go with every single one of our policies as well because we want to give discretion to our administrators we as a board of ed our roles and responsibilities are to be able to judge whether the administration is doing the job in which we believe so that's where it's actually said in our bylaws which are part of our policy manual so that's the 9,000 Series which is the bylaws every single Board of Ed has one um they're they're pretty much similar in terms of concept um those do not judge the curriculum in which it's taught that is the discretion that we give as a board of ed to that because we are as I always

082like to use the analogy we as a board of education are like a board of directors I would like to think that Moren is considered a CEO of the school district this is a business although we are not for profit um and so all of the policies and procedures we approve as a board but how it gets implemented is the discretion that we give to the employees and then every year we hold that accountability mechanism by giving her annual review to Dr Brit so that's how School District functions with that is the grant federally funded open choice is a state funded Grant and it is directly a a lawsuit that was filed versus O'Neal um started I don't know all I can tell is when I was in high school it was in effect and

083that's going back at long time so when when that position gets a raise who pays the raise the Grant and do you do we apply for that Grant or reapply every year or how does that work it is based on the money that we receive from the open Choice Grant um it's it's actually part of what I had just shown the board students that we have that's the enrollment declaration right student enrollment declaration talk about that it's right now we're estimating about 159 students at about 8,000 per student we may go as high as 10,000 per student we're watching that carefully so yes his salary is a byproduct as are many salaries in the district a byproduct of our participation in the open Choice program in fact the vast all but one position in that

084Grant is either a classroom teacher or an interventionist or um it's this position was the only one that is that nature yeah I just I just want to um also reiterate the his position I believe we talked about this last year too and I think we had a whole slide um on his role and it I think it's changed since last year um with this picture on it and everything so we went over um his position and the need for his position in the district and the great work that he has done for our district um last year so I think if we will get to a point where we're making motions to to make adjustments to the budget and you're more than welcome to make a motion to adjust the budget um as as

085you see fit and then we can vote on it board is it so that's just federal tax dollars it's not Newton taxpayers money paying your salary it's a state settlement so it's State dollars it would be included for example in Governor Lamont's budget and he's mandated to by that lawsuit I will also say just as a quick um aside virtually every District in the state Connecticut has someone in that type of position so it's not an unusual position it's not an outlier it's a very common position districts call them different titles but they are designed to meet the ever increasing diversity of students throughout the state here we're mostly concerned about Newington but it is a very common position for many districts if not most and Dei is not just color of skin it's it's

086but it does promote racism some ways and it does keep that employed with positions okay thank you okay um and then there was that was really it you know the grants that um chart that Karen prepared and all board members are welcome to dive in as deeply as they want to it's just hard to encapsulate our grants because they change year to year and there was a huge uptick in grant money during covid which of course now that has all gone away um so before we head to the board taking over the budget would you like me to review some of the potential um reductions chairman or would you prefer to do the other piece first yeah we can review the potential elections that we chatted about yes so the board um had wondered about

087a number of different things throughout our numerous workshops so uh with the help of the team around the table we created a document that looks at what would be the impact of some of these cuts and that would be up for the board to decide but right now as you know when we started this process my proposed budget was 93 m633 71 or 6.86% increase um we already discussed this but I'll reiterate it that um the ESS contract came in at a lower level than originally um that we originally were told would come in at so that allowed us to do a total of a $50,000 reduction um and that it's broken up among different um account codes as you know our we've got account codes for everything um we also are Rec well not

088recommending but is a possibility of suggesting a reduction in reading supplies and uh reduction in media and library books a partial reduction in the damage Chromebook damage loss recovery by $11,000 because we uh through our fact finding found that the Chromebook Insurance Fund had had a very high participation rate this year so there was more money in there um we recommend or can live without $220,000 in our conference cost line if the board uh chooses and we up our charge for sports the net would be a reduction of $220,000 to the athletic budget uh we had previously planned for 4% raises for a couple of different groups were saying that the board could choose to go with a 3% raise which is pretty much on par with other bargaining groups uh these are groups that

089are not in a bargain in unit so we get direction from um the ATS from the town but also repairs that is one of our decisions to be made that would reduce the budget by 21,000 and change the par professional increase going from 4% to 3% would provide a $117,000 reduction so if the board were to adopt these in totality that would bring the budget down to 92 mil 66226 or a 6 4% increase um can you just clarify um on for number two and number three I had written down that Miss Freeman said 8,250 per books is but now I'm seeing like number two is a lot higher oh the number two is reading supplies okay so that was those Miss Freeman those are um separate that they can they're okay getting rid of

090those that you gave us last time Miss yes she she looked at these number three was kind of her chunk of uh books yeah I I think in the original um memo it was the reduction in the library supplies uh library books and then we went back in there were questions around some of the items in reading and so those were taken out of the budget as well or they could be that would be the do we need those are the dynamite decodables and Benchmark Advance though what what we're hoping is there may be some buad opportunities which we'll talk about in a minute but right now that is one we hope we can get it back through a bad opportunity but it's too soon to tell about that um so so that is are

091there any other questions about this chart or memo rather relative to potential budget cuts Mr holler I'm sorry looking at numbers okay we're deep in the the numbers we're talking a lot of numbers not directly related to this spr sheet and I'm sorry if I missed it but I believe there was a request to see how often the Chromebooks were being replaced in other districts in our did we get that information we did go over that um in a previous Q&A we talked about I'd have to go back to that slide which I could do um we did if you are you talk about the Chromebook insurance policy or generally how people are just how often they're cycling through their Chromebooks because I know we do K5 n oh yes Mo many districts have a

092three-year Chromebook cycle whereas we have four Cor that's your thank you for clarifying thank you for clarifying okay so this is linked into your have to raise my hand I sorry I just want to clarify so we talked about the reduction of media library books and that was the 1B right is that 2 whatever um but then we also talked about was it AP pych and final and financial literacy books are those is that on this list or because I'd written down 80 and Jessa has it too 80,000 8250 I had for but I don't know if that was only encompassing the apsy and financial literacy and the library media books or the so those would have been in two separate line items those are just library books it would be a sep a separate

093um line item under textbooks it would be specific to social study so that should that would be the program code and it would have included apsy financial literacy we were keeping the World Language one or the world history one um modern world and US History the online subscriptions those definitely have to stay so it could be that was an oversight um that those need to be added to this cut list apsy and financial literacy I don't have my notes in front of me yeah so the total line item is 86,1 so and we WR down 80250 so just want to make sure we get the right dollar amount for the apsy and the financial literacy go ahead um I'm in the detail now the financial literacy was budgeted at 6,000 uh psychology text was budgeted

094at 22 so we can it's another 28,000 right we have if we remove those textbooks and that would be 10:30 64120 they're both out of that same line yes thank you okay so that is uh 28,000 that did not make it to this list we will amend the list but tonight you can still yeah have access to that are there any other comments or questions on these so we what we we talked about we didn't really discuss was the athletic Pro program costs increase and then the two salary lines Miss waver yeah just a question would that because again I'm very wary of the tax transference of you're paying here you're paying three taxes on this one um what would that increase to is that like 100 to 125 per sport or yes um the

095because we're much lower than our counterparts the thought would be an increase of 12 25 per Sport and not give a waiver for a third sport so paying for every sport you participate in um sometimes it's been noted that when students are not paying for a sport there's less engagement with that Sport and many districts don't offer that so though you know the final decision is the boards this is some of the observations that U Mr Myers was able to make given his Outreach to local districts that were that are in our CCC our conference Mr Newton on that same line um say I'm a parent and I have twins and they play in two sports at the same time do I get do I have to pay 125 for each student that could be

096a done in a case by case basis so I don't know the answer that I can find out um but I know one thing is very certain if a student or their family does not have the ability to pay we work with them because we wouldn't there's not some we don't want someone not playing a sport because of a financial um hardship I'm ju I'm just concerned with a family that's going to have a tax increase and then we have to tell them 375 for the two freshman and their junior to play in the fall let alone the kid wants to play baseball in the spring they have to pay it again I have a there should be a cap on a family cost per year period okay family cap I can we could always

097make a policy on that I like that idea you're not your mic's not on so we can't hear you I'm sorry just when I was younger as a parent I you know it was hard enough to pay for cell phones now you're at you're paying for the cell phones the kids got to have the bags to go to the programs my kids played soccer in in the leagues I mean it adds up yeah I mean I think that's the concern right robbing Peter pay Paul right you're paying it for it here you're paying you're paying for your budget and that exactly what I was similar concern exactly um I think that's one of the things that's difficult about this process is you're paying for it somewhere um do we just burst the cost or not

098my question is also um what is the average um thanks to RTS for taking a lower one but what is the average increase for paas it's very hard to find a comparable one given we don't give benefits so I'm just curious is there're like an average increase on par like is there Statewide yeah I don't know most I will tell you most Paras in the state of Connecticut have a contract right they're in a we're a weird we such an outlier that we are an island unto ourselves but I would say typically in a contract right Steve 3% yeah right now 3% previously 2% um 3% I think is a very fair and equivalent to what bargaining units are getting within our district so I think that's kind of where we landed as a as

099a launching par yeah I guess my question is we're already having trouble attracting Paras you know does every dollar cents count here where we're not where we don't have that I and I guess I know we've talked about this at nauseum and stuff but just again to have uh maybe an example or a chart that we have or what available data out there of how Lonesome we are in not having uh a pair program obviously that's going to be a$2 million doll budget item blah blah blah but I think just reiterating that to know where that's costing us in the long run SL not would be helpful too um if we're one of the fewer district one of the I'm sure we're we know we're one of what two districts that don't have if that

100I don't know that we've ever found a district that doesn't have a pair of contract but I'm not sure what the question is is is the question are we competitive on our hourly rates yeah like how so in L okay we're competitive that way okay and we now they do sick days um and they get more because of the canect get paid sick leave the real challenge is the benefits yeah we gave them right two years ago we gave them we gave them some even before it was required they were getting some paid time off but where we're fall short is our um Insurance yeah it's more of okay I I put a percentage here to like look better hourly but don't have the benefits how much is that really offsetting is is I guess

101the question or what is the real impact in terms of us being able to hire and retain um I feel like it's at the margins it really very it we've got as you saw tonight we've got some amazing peras um I think a lot of it has to do with their personal circumstances someone who's younger may still be on their parents Insurance many of our parents are their spouse's Insurance some of our parents have been able to get on husky or other uh because of their income and family situation but there are a Cadre of folks that really would prefer a job that had health benefits right in the mix so that but that's been our age-old problem for the last uh number of years um especially with the Statewide pair of shortage all right

102okay and then the only other thing um that is good news but it's not official yet is we uh through the work of Representative farar and her team um there is a vote coming up next week to increase excess cost for this year um at at a pretty large rate I believe it's 40 million and the anticipated though not Inked in stone or written in stone is that new inton is likely to receive somewhere in the vicinity of 361,662 this year so while I think it's best to wait till the vote happens on Monday and Tuesday at the state this does have impact for next year's budget because it reduces our needs this year by $361,000 so what does that mean could some of the money um which is why I mentioned that earlier uh

103could we use some of that to do some buy ahads and further reduce our budget um our budget ask for the um for the town or this could be money that goes into um that requires us to use less of our non-aps money this year so I think um given the the uncertainty right now we we might need to take a wait and seee approach on that and see how the state votes on it um next week but I did we've all seen news feeds all day long it seems to have a lot of support for it um it doesn't solve next year's problem but not let's not go there let's celebrate the big win here um Mr F I asked him to be prepared to discuss open Choice um if you wouldn't mind Steve

104I know the question mark for the board is are we going to cross that 4% threshold next year which could then give us 10,000 per student versus 8,000 right now we've budgeted as if it was 8,000 per student so I'll kick it to you Mr FY for your analysis on that sure so um each year we declare um enough students or this year we we've declared enough students to cross that threshold um and we always um add in a few extra because there are times where in the past um students will select Newington it's a highly desirable school system to want to be in um but then they also have their name in a magnet school as well and magnet schools allow you to accept all the way up through October 1 so you could

105literally start here an open choice but then leave here in September to go to a magnet school uh that happened to us one year you'll see in the grant summary that was provided earlier when we were going down the grants one year there was a blip um because two reasons I always have to look at how many students that we're putting in a classroom too and try to keep our enrollment manageable uh for class sizes while declaring um open Choice students so uh trying to merge those two together and keeping all those factors in consideration that year we didn't have extra student St enrolled so any students that were not staying with us ended up bringing our cost down our percentage down but this year um we've declared about uh seven students over um so

106we have seven kind of seats to play with before we would be below the 4% threshold um we're hopeful uh open Choice also beginning last year uh changed the process as well so we do an upfront Declaration of seats uh and then throughout the process they now do various rounds um and you can declare more seats as rounds go forward so uh there are always opportunities to declare more if needed um again though I would be very considerate of how many students were're choosing to put in the classroom and the impact that could have on our our teaching staff we want to ensure that we create um healthy learning environments for all of our kids miss Weber so is it's baked in right now for per kid 8,000 per kid what is the change if

107it's 10,000 per kid well time7 right so one 1,570 well 10,000 2000 more yeah yeah more I was like I just way more you almost got me really I was about to just run this is just great yeah I was like my math was not doing the same thing there okay I was like if you just told me we have that we we can go we don't need to be here um okay4 th000 okay um so that's not currently baked in that could be potentially again I'm putting the possible heavy on the possible okay thank you it was one.5 no I I wish I could say that but I can't the other strategy that we're leveraging right now is to um and Karen's office has been managing this reviewing all open purchase orders and um

108you know making sure that if they're not going to be used for the rest of the year we close them that will free up some unused resources that'll give us a better sense of our budget reconciliation we should be able to report that to the board next Wednesday when we meet again as to where that stands um so if there's any um money to be had there we would certainly bring that forward next Wednesday so these are really all I had to report this evening in terms of some of the uh you know looking at the budget deeply analyzing it looking for areas of potential reduction and monitoring future areas of potential reduction thank you and then the I think we talked about it last time but the insurance and everything we have no new

109news on on that okay sorry one last and nothing else just to clarify those special education excess cost we likely not to get more or less that's a variable amount so for for that amount we're going to get this year yeah that that I think what I put in the in the PowerPoint is very close to Accurate um next year is a big fat question mark um because right now the there's been no new money put into next year's budget for open I mean excess cost so Lou has estimated as best he can I forget the figure did you use 1.5 million for next year l or 1.2 this point 1.2 down 62% level right instead of 75 to 78 so I'm in the process of preparing testimony I'm testimony testifying tomorrow I believe if

110I get a seat about that because while I'm very appreciative of the work of Representative Farah and her team it doesn't do much for us for next year and that wasn't intention the intention was to try to make this year better so for that home run for next year though I still feel strongly that I have to advocate for more uh resources for excess cost because as the board is clearly aware it's a very pricey part of our budget okay so at this time um we can so so what we just went over and all the questions and everything the the book right now as it stands is the superintendence by budget so the first thing before we can do any make any changes to it is to adopt it as our budget um and

111once we adopt it then we can make motions to adjust um as we see fit and then eventually um transmit to the town yes Mr Newton I have a couple questions I don't want to go go before a motion but I want to have there's some things I want to clarify even though it's not the area where we speak that would be after pass I just had a couple questions so so I think we can adopt it and then we can open up for discussion on how the board's feeling about various things they talked about sure that would be an appropriate time so let's um let's adopt it as ours and then we can continue the discussion I move that the new inton board of education adopt the superintendent of schools proposed budget for 2025

112to 2026 of 3,63 371 or 6.86% second thank you we have a motion a second uh is there any discussion okay we're going to vote to adopt the budget of 6.86% Deb can you please call the vote Mary yes yes yes Anthony no Timothy Newton no Amy Pate yes Sam Sharma yes Weaver yes motion passes thank you okay I can open it up for discussion on what's next what how we're feeling Miss weeper so I think um I just want to put the outset one thank you again everybody for your work thus far um especially appreciate all of the visuals of the cuts um I just wanted to put it out I'm in favor of um the majority of the cuts I would like I'm not sure about the athletic one I'm feeling like a

113little bit about that and the par educator one um just because it's one of those things very relevant of mind and again the tax transference of you're paying three taxes you're paying another $25 here and as Mr Newton alluded to we got a couple multi sibling households so maybe also just looking at um kind of what that looks like um although I know it's it's one of those things where we haven't gone up in a couple years so I guess um just a question if maybe there's a way we can slowly think about these things as we you know up it $5 every year I don't know um um everything goes up right and so we try and keep as stable as possible while everything goes up so um but I think um some of

114the other Cuts have been great and I just wanted to point out um if we go to that like first page in the budget book um I think it just is a clear reminder of like where those those cost drivers are but salary costs are 2.68% increase employee benefits are 1.22 increase that total is 3.9% So to me that's quite literally all the contractual obligations are 3.9% increase on our budget regardless of anything else um that we are contractually obligated to do and then that scary 1.67% for special ed um if we looked at that and not doing any curriculum supplies facilities utilities all of those other increases that we're seeing um that's a 5.57% um so I just kind of want to put those numbers out there just to kind of like get a

115sense of um or at least con contextualize where those major drivers are and what that those numbers look like and then so not saying you know oh it's all fine and dandy um but to me the contractual obligations are 3.9 and then um we're looking at obviously the these other costs and where we can find a reimbursement sln not reimbursements and where there's no funding and then we have these added unfunded things um so I just kind of wanted to put that out there and then uh just say that open to um some some more cuts um and I think just kind of want to put on the outset I don't think we have to pass the budget tonight I think there's still going to be more questions so um to put the pressure off

116we don't have to transmit the budget tonight put the pressure on next week we do have to do that before March 1 and then also again every year I say this but we will pass a budget it will probably not be the last number because it will go to the Town Council and the Town Council will then give us a number um and then we will have to readjust regardless um so I think that's just an important reminder Remer of the landscape that we're in and a lot of the things that we're relying on so final question and then I'll end my diet tribe is we don't have um a sense or will have a sense by the time we pass our budget or by the March 1 one on any of what the ECS

117percentage of funding will be we won't have a sense of the nor Easter Academy Grant um we won't have a sense of a couple other things I think that we up on that beginning one of the beginning slides of um the original budget presentation so that's difficult thing that we will have to try and think about but we can't rely on because it's not coming in and it won't come in time for a budget so just wanted to lay that out as we we do that but is that correct Dr BR we don't have we won't have that we won't I mean I think you meant excess cost because I'm I conf to myself so I don't even but yes we will not have those answers uh there is a possibility that by the time

118we present to the Town Council in early March that will might get some information and in the past that's been something we've offered up at you know a town council meeting that this is late breaking news this could help us lower our ask but right now for purposes of next Wednesday's decision the only thing that I think will be relevant is if the excess cost offset for this year passes um and whether or not the board is comfortable with our open Choice declaration and looking to add that back into the budget as an offset that's that's the board's purview um and anything oh and the whatever we do get in any sense of our reconciliation as a result of the purchase order uh Closeouts so those are unknowns until next Wednesday yeah and then um

119you you mentioned but we do have to transmit it next Wednesday yeah yeah go ahead Mr newon questions y my question I I had a couple questions I apologize I'm not a big Electronics person so I kind of have to write them out um when we do prek tuition does that fully offset the cost of the prek or or do we lose a little bit or it it does not fully offset all of our prek costs but it I believe our budgeted amount next year is 420,000 of an offset so not doesn't cover the entire cost um but it does cover probably the entire cost of the regular Ed component which is what we've expanded the last few years okay so I think most of our teachers are covered where we have some additional expenses

120might be Transportation okay other question was we we we we need to hire the bilingual teacher and we said we were taking I think two Paras for that position or something two and a half removing two Paras does that equal out or do we lose on that too um no that equals out okay that's a swap okay oh no I'm sorry um two and a half peras is not a full offset Lou my apologies it's about one of them was a much better compensation rate right actually they were both t two and a half tutors so it was was a fairly close I don't remember if it was exact consider okay thank you and uh the question was took we we're adding the school psychologist which I agree with and we were taking away something

121there I I I didn't understand what we did to compensate for that yes we have um currently in the budget right now is a 500,000 I'm sorry $50,000 uh contracted service line that we've had to use to function as that shortfall because we don't have that other psychologist since that's already in the budget we would apply that to the psychologist position next year which would mean we'd have to put in the board would have to put in about 40,000 more or thereabouts as an offset to fully fund that position because psychologists are shortage area so they're typically hired at a higher rate and then I had a question we we did away with cab as a cost saving because it was a duplication of aair events but it seems like we have a lot of

122money in the legal fund for Goodwin shipment how how did that equate well we did yes cave is still out of the budget and that saved us I think 25,000 20 and but we now get our policies from shipment so I don't recall what is the annual fee for that Steve or Lou whoever knows that answer it was a little bit of an up charge was that much that was even less than that yeah might yeah I I would have to go back and double check but it was under $10,000 definitely most of the um the funding for that would be for services that they to support right outside of policy what did we do before we had good one and shipment I I'm just good one we've had I'm sorry I'm sorry go right

123we've had shipment and Goodwin for decades uh they've always been the board's attorney okay um and so they they support us with everything from uh legal questions that come our way and matters uh as far you know that come our way as well as like no negotiations and things like that sometimes our board policy committee we have to out to them or we do not abuse the uh legal legal legal and I would say too just to note for this board um there was a lot of legal fees one year on our board um but we uh as a school district it just happens you are likely to get sued so that's like okay you know it's just inherent nature and given as Dr BR mentioned the litigious nature of our state with special ed

124it's probably bound to happen so that's like you know I wouldn't say it's not retainer but it's how much you're for with them and then add to it as the year requires we don't always spend that exact amount but um special ed attorneys are involved in that uh bundle as well as just um labor issues um contractual contractual questions any of those things um add up to about that Personnel matters that become dicey so and our policy our policies now come from shipment and Goodwin but that was a good move it did save us n about $155,000 because we're not um the policies we're getting from shipment are at a cheaper price than what the C policies were okay and then the last one's the big one but I'm going to preface it by saying

125I support owning our buses I support everything that's ours but I must get 10 or 15 emails on a week asking What's the total cost of US running our buses with the salaries the mechanics the insurances I need a figure because people are asking that's that's the biggest question I get asked seems to be a hot topic again yeah I think that's probably a good thing just to have in general and and then show the total cost of Contracting out the services right yeah so if we yeah we just cont but I don't think people are seeing that yeah because we're saving y we're saving money by having our we broke it down um in one of our previous budget meetings it it's $700 per student cheaper to R have your own bus fleet but

126we can portray that in a different way umons but I'd rather have Lou do a little homework on that yeah there's a there's a lot of complexities there but um I think it was 750 per kid 750 I will I will go double check my math that's a big one but that is because a lot of our kids do ride the bus and we talked about the buses are used for other things that benefit both board and town but I think for to make sure we're giving you a good answer especially if it's going to go out uh to to your constituents we want to make sure we have an accurate number you betcha okay okay Miss waer a question about um the uh Chromebook kind of situation too um that's still we still have

127enough in our Capital though as well that we're allocating for so that that's still part of yeah money in our Capital there 750 in our capital for the Chromebook replacement cycle where the operating budget comes into play is that back fill issue due to damage right and that has I just want to clarify too um but that one sorry had it I think that was like an increase of like $300,000 285 five right not all of that was for the um right L the what was our the initial ask for the Chromebook um damage replacement fund that was was it initially 200,000 or was it 250 250 okay so the board cut it or no one cut anything yet right what I put as a possible cut is $100,000 so that's still leaving there's 150,000

128in there for uh Chromebook damage Replacements yeah I think um in general that's where um my concern obviously is it goes and more PSAs letting the public know like this is a direct result of damage by the students it is some of it is it is I mean not everything is a student responsibility but many things are as we analyzed our data that Craig provided us you we're seeing that uptick in the middle schools and middle school is the worst culprit um followed by high school then our little elementary students are the least least offenders less offensive and and maybe for a future board meeting or you know beginning next year like have some sort of update as far as what has been changed as far as procedures or you know are we surveying students

129every year to see if there's damage that we can fix under warranty versus waiting until they turn it in in fifth or nth grade um kind of stuff like that and other I know Craig had mentioned other things that he was looking at so maybe just an update in a future meeting so that we can kind of stay on top of that and we don't have to backfill again next year Miss Carr going off that there was a pilot program about keeping them in the school correct do we have data on that yet or it's still underway it's still underway we just expanded it all uh Four elementary schools it was largely at chaffy I think the big analysis it does seem to be a better way to go for elementary to be honest with

130you where we have to now decide how to go about this is it the estimated cost per classroom to to create adequate charging stations is about 400 per classroom and we're trying to see if we can get it cheaper than that because if you multiply 400 times there's as you saw in our previous slide between 15 and 20 classrooms at every elementary school that does add up to about $40,000 so um we want to see what the cheapest way to go is and Craig is currently exploring some of that with our elementary Pilots so that is still a work in progress Mr Sharma Qui question on our prek program uh we Sorry do we um are we part of the care for kids program as yet I think something I asked you last time yes

131uh we have aligned ourselves to care for kids so if a parent uh who wants to enroll in prek we participate with them so we direct them then to contact care for kids so we are aligned with care for kids and participate with them all right thank you sure okay so um I I'm kind of in Alliance or in agreement with Miss Weaver where there's some cuts that we've discussed that I'm very comfortable with and there's a couple others like I just want more time on like the um like the athletic fees um and the and the salary increases that we're the bottom two so do we want to um save all of our motions for next week or do we want to do some now and do some later potentially thanks Mr Sharma quick

132question so Paras who work for our district right do we pay them like sick days and how many sick days have we giving them right now so they do they they earn one a month um so they have approximately 10 sick days and they do they get any paid holidays like for Christmas or New Year or we do not have paid holidays you do we do not not right I think the only one I'm like concerned about is like if we since we do not give them we do not give them like health health benefits like other districts so I'm you know so I'm just thinking like we should probably give him a 4% raise because you know they go to other districts like and they don't get any health benefits here so that's my

133opinion thanks thank you I would add if I could just um we do a time work bonus for them so uh the more time that they're here they get two opportunities to receive that bonus throughout the year one right before the holidays one toward the end of the year for retention purposes so we do little incentives like that as well that is on top of their uh regular Salary thank you yeah if you wanna go ahead and make a motion I'm GNA make a motion um I just before we do this for the account numbers it's the code at the top right yeah Dash and then the then the three digit is that alignment the question the board board's gonna make a motion about some of the cuts which codes should they use the ones

134at the top of the page they just want to make sure they're accurate maybe I'll put up yeah you have so it's the four digigit code for the program the three-digit code for the objects and the two-digit code for the location okay so if you're looking for a specific cut you can identify it those codes okay let's go oh oh they're up here I'm like I just did that you're not losing your mind I just did that I'm like looking at it I'm like oh yeah yeah yeah yeah it's it's totally fine I'm like it's fine guys it's SED late okay all right and anyone feel free to share the love if you want to put in a motion as well um okay I'm gonna move the 2025 2026 board of education budget be adjusted

135by the subtraction of $12,500 in account 12599 d10 you can do those three I think all in one oh and 1,00 59911 for the amount of 12200 $12,500 and the amount of $25,000 12599 D20 totaling $50,000 C second thank you thank is there any discussion on the the reduction subtraction of $50,000 for ES Contract Services me clarifying this is not cutting any of the service this is the bill came in lower correct contract adjustment just one okay we are voting to reduce the line items listed for $50,000 not cutting any Services would you please call V Mary yes Britney car yes Sean Hollin yes Anthony mey yes Timothy Newton yes Kate yes Sam Sharma yes Jessica Weaver yes Mo passed unanimously 8 thank you congratulations everyone our first cut that was an easy one Mr

136hollerin just a question on the uh reduction of media or library books the figures we have out there are not currently reflected in our budget book correct or are they they're in the book and they are proposed to be reduced by that amount so those are the um Miss Freeman can can address but those are the ones that were not high priority items correct so to Mr Hull's question all of those were in the original budget that was presented to the board in going back and looking at those none of those line items were indicated as 1 a which is priority there were either one b or three all right then I'll go ahead and make a motion to reduce uh line I am 642 D 02-04 to- 06- 10- 11-20 and in the amount

137of $ 52,2 second just want to make sure that works for Lou and Karen as a motion yeah okay thanks um is there any discussion on those line items no okay we're voting to reduce media library books by $ 52,2 and again those were not priority items although we love library books we just maybe not this year would you please call the vote Mary yes Britney Carr yes Sean holl yes Anthony me yes Timothy Newton yes yes Sam Sharma yes Jessica Weaver yes a passes unanimously 80 thank you I'm going to move to move the 2025 2026 board of education budget be adjusted by the subtraction of $12,995 in account 1026 second is there any discussion or clarification needed for this item no okay we're voting to reduce the budget by$ 12,995 dollar for reading

138supplies Mary P yes Britney car yes John hin yes anony yes yes yes Weaver yesly 8 Z thank you just volunteered me so I'm recommending the motion to move the 2025 2026 board of education budget be adjusted by the subtraction of $100,000 in account number D oh wow I can't see one 8- 73030 for the partial reduction of Chromebook damage loss recovery second thank you Motion in a second $400,000 for Chromebook damages subraction of $100,000 for combook damage loss recovery is there any discussion Mary beer yes Britney car yes son Hollin yes Anthony yes yes yes Sam Fara yes yes yesim 8 I'll move uh the Board of Education be adjusted by the 2025 2026 board of education budget be adjusted by the subtraction of $20,000 in account 2810 58230 for reduction in conference cost

139second you didn't turn your mic on so Britney gots it um okay we have a motion in a second for reduction in conference cost for $20,000 is there any discussion okay P yesy yes yes Anthony meley yes Timothy Newton yes Amy Pate yes Karma yes Jess weer yes unanimously 8 Z thank you okay do we have a line for the at salary an account I don't that's a cross count there's not one specific account for that there it is across various programs so we could do a flat budget reduction y okay all right um I move the 2025 2026 board of education budget be adjusted by the subtraction of $21,000 for the operating budget for changing at salary increase from 4% to 3% second thank you motion a second to reduce at salary increase to

1403% for his subjection $21,000 dollar is there any discussion yes Mr holler can we just talk about the role the at salaries would play across the budget just I know it's across it's not a single line item but what's the impact I would have in terms of retention for those positions if any or hiring I'm sorry I couldn't hear you on that one um just thinking about because it's not a single line item and it goes across the budget in several places MH a blanket reduction it's not really a reduction but a proposed cap on 3% to 4% what does that do to us operationally in a general sense nothing that was easy go ahead Miss um so if I heard correctly that is standard is 3% correct it's still maintains um competitive salary for

141our district and and that kind of stuff yeah yes it's it's aligned to what all of our other bargaining units are getting this year so um I think it's a fair market value for raises right now I don't know if Mr FY would add anything to that but any further discussion okay we can vote to reduce the budget by $21,000 for that line item or for those salaries Mary P yesy car yes joh holl yes Anthony yes newon yes Amy yes Sam sh yes weever yes Mo passes unanimously 8 okay so was there anything else that we was yes I have so many backs of papers I don't know where I wrote um where did I write that down is it 1033 I forget for 28,000 correct Miss Weaver would you mind absolutely Noe sorry

142this account for 28,000 okay uh I move sorry hold I'm sorry I move the 2025 2026 board of education budget be adjusted by the subtraction of $28,000 in account 64120 for the um non- need or elimination of the AP Psychology and financial literacy textbooks second here a motion and a second for the reduction of $28,000 for textbook and social studies is there any discussion okay har P yes Britney car yes holl yes Anthony me yes Timothy Newton yes Amy par yes Sam Sharma yes weer yes Mo pass thank you okay if my math is correct we have just reduced the budget by $292,450 good job everyone and do we have any more we want to do tonight do we want to not work on those right currently are there any other motions that we want

143to make tonight hi so um so next week again we will we will have to transmit the budget um and we can I think the outstanding items are those um those that we listed are potential and then the open choice if we want to um take that gamble or you know maybe Dr BR and team can just go back one more time and have a recommended amount um if we want to assume additional open Choice funding for having additional students yeah yeah make an educated guest on that one um so I think this oh sorry bney go ahead I just had a few more questions and thoughts so going back to the school psychologist the difference is 40k Plus benefits correct yes um the other thing I know we looked at this weeks ago on

144the college credit courses I saw calculus AB but not BC it looks like there's a Yukon equivalent but not in general a BC is there a reason we do it that way because they know BC covers two more units and it usually gives more credits um so so we offer AP Calculus BC it's just not an ECE course okay and one more and you guys are free of me under Central direction that tab it was hold on thank you SP a lot of time you've got a lot of time on your hands so I looked at the book from last year and I can't recall why we were at 2000 then we went to 39800 now we're going to 44,000 which is more of like a 10% jump and if we can bring that back

145to maybe a 5% or what that difference was years ago L 600 other supp yeah I feel like we asked why last year and I don't remember for the life of me and I know this year it's a 10% jump so maybe we can cut that to 5% save some money there I don't know if we want to do a little research on that Lou or yeah for comparisons I'd have to so the ask is can we reduce that increase from 10% to per. okay i%9 other suppli other suppli 600 thank you Britney there might be one more I lied to so looking at you know that line item regarding Athletics and the cost increase I don't know if we want to consider you know like a scaling slide where first sport is 125 second

146goes down to 100 you know third goes to 80 or 85 something like that for us to consider yeah that's just looking like she said we have a lot we have a lot of young families that came into town and I'm just thinking in three years you're going to hit somebody with a ninth and 11th and a 12th grader and that parent's going to be looking at $750 for the fall $750 for the winter $750 for the spring I mean I just think it's unrealistic yeah I think that's definitely um yeah that I I was kind of just jumping to 125 and then including that third season like I kind of like the idea that we give the third season um for free essentially um it was interesting you more um Dr brah said that

147if the student doesn't pay they're less engaged is that like they sign up for track and they don't J to practices because that's in the spring or like what was that Mr uh Myers reported that the students there's a higher tendency in the spring with that sport not being charged for lack of participation not showing up for practices not showing up for games okay okay which could cause an issue for the team if they're making a commitment and not showing up but it's probably more an exception than the rule but if it is free maybe it's encouraging people to sign up that aren't committed so I guess that's a fine yeah it's a fine line um I like the idea of the you know first season 125 second season 100 because that wouldn't be such

148a big impact to the families and if you have multiple students as well as Mr Newton said so yeah maybe if we can just get some more like maybe an another recommended figure um for the athletic fees for next week absolutely is that it okay you're welcome to ask more questions if you have them okay so anything else through the budget today no okay all right so I think that brings us back to public par participation um thank you everyone for the discussion and the almost $300,000 Cuts today um hopefully there's more next time so public participation is's no one in the room if um anyone is online they can raise their hand to be recognized don't see anyone online either so we can move to um remarks by board members Miss petus um two

149things first I just want to thank everybody for um the um incredible amount of work you've done to to Really pair this budget down I know that it's difficult and we say it every year every program is important everything we do for our kids is important and it's it's hard to make those cuts and I really really do appreciate it the second thing I wanted to touch base on is something that we discussed a little bit earlier with regard to um questions about Dei and I would encourage everybody to use their grownup words and what does Dei really mean when we talk about this we need to use our words diversity we need to use our words inclusion and we need to use our words equity and instead of using um letters put together that

150really don't affect us in any way we all can use our words because words have effects and we need to make sure we're using them appropriately I want everybody around this table to ask themselves if you were a child and you heard some of the conversation about these very very important topics what is the message that you would be giving we know that our community is diverse we know that the data doesn't lie we've had a year and a half of discussions about this we talk about it constantly and our diversity is what makes us strong and we need to make sure that when we have conversations around this table we keep that in mind when we have children who hear that what makes them special isn't important enough to be mentioned in school it

151tells them that it doesn't matter and when we talk about different parts of our curriculum our history those types of things it's not okay to erase that and that's what we're doing so I want everybody to be very thoughtful about that and using our words is going to help with that the second thing we want to talk about is inclusion we had a beautiful uh presentation this morning uh this afternoon recognition about a teacher who works with a a visually impaired child that's what we're talking about every child regardless of who they are and what they're going through and where they're at we need to recognize that and it's our moral obligation and I would say our legal obligation to make sure that we're meeting those needs so that these are things that are non

152negotiable and when we use terms like Dei it dehumanizes that and it takes away the power that these children deserve to have and this is our mandate as board members this is what we do we educate our kids no matter who they are or where they're at that's the obligation we have legally and it's the obligation that we have morally so I just want to to remind everybody use your words and there's no certainly it's not the the purview of this board to erase that and take that away from any child or their family to experience the the thing that that makes them special we've talked a lot about achievement gaps and how data shows us consistently that again we need to close those gaps the equity uh initiatives that that the district has taken

153over a number of years has measurable results again not just our legal obligation it's our moral obligation so please going forward when we have these conversations think about what those conversations mean not just to our families but to our children thank you thank you Mary Mr hollerin thank you Mary as well I'd also just want to put out that next Tuesday in this room at 6:30 we have our curriculum meeting and I think a lot of our discussion centers around how those efforts tie into our curriculum and our culturally relevant culturally relevant pedagogy um so it takes it out of theoretical and makes it a little bit more practical a little bit more brass tax when we start looking at the numbers and if you are interested please join us this room next Tuesday 6:30

154thank you it's Tuesday two Tuesdays this room 6:30 6:30 so for clarification March 4th 4th yes March 4th curriculum meeting thank you go ahead Tony so we're adults in this room and everybody knows that every one of us cares about every child and particularly children that are handicapped disabl Etc again when I talked about my career you thank me and then you disregarded it by saying however as an adult you should know when you put it however B by after a thank you it wipes out okay I've we're adults in here okay so the virtue signaling I get it it's been happening for too long um so I'm I would just like to read another part of this this uh directive okay educational institutions have toxically indoctrinated students with the false premise that the United

155States is built upon s quote systemic and structural racism and advanced discriminatory policies of practices proponents of these dis dis discriminatory practices have attempted to further justify them particularly during the last four years and that's when I understand that uh Dr was hired about four years ago under the banner of diversity equity and inclusion smuggling racial stereotypes and explicit race Consciousness into everyday training programming and discipline but under any Banner uh discrimination on base of color race color national origin has been and will continue to be illegal listen we all have different opinions okay um I spent my lifetime defending every sing single human being on this planet including putting my life on the line for them and I would die for every single one of them including everybody in this room okay but the

156fact of the matter is um it it's gone too far where where you make uh uh children Rec when I was growing up I didn't recognize race or color okay we didn't care what you what you look like we cared about how you acted um Equity is is a word that is diminish equality equality means everybody has the same opportunity my opinion okay Equity means everybody lands on the same spot doesn't happen that way that's that's not that that's not what uh uh getting ahead in in our in society and everything is about everybody deserves I'm I'm looking at these programs that we have we have incredible programs for the disadvantage and and and again the cost is going up and up and up I don't argue that okay but I just get I get

157frust frustated because you're pointing out the obvious and you're but you're trying to make it as though uh there's people in this room that don't agree that children deserve every consideration and children aren't loved by everybody and children aren't adored and that we shouldn't do everything for everybody and I'm kind of tired of it thank you and I have a copy if anybody wants this four page directive from the uh Department of Education civil again uh the United States Secretary for civil rights that's all of our rights I think we're gonna always disagree yes right yes um but being dismissed is another whole thing I think you know we can validate those feelings I think what's important is also that right there's many different intent versus impact right so how we saying things are maybe

158not received the same way we intended them to so I know that sounds very like flowery language but I think it it's what we teach our kids is sometimes you intend something and I think it goes both ways right we intend and we have our viewpoints and then how someone else receives that is maybe not how it is so I just want to put that out there a little for the night um I just want to say as a product of the knt public school system I fundamentally like I I fully believe in equity because we do want everybody to land at a similar spot right like if everyone could get a hundreds that would be great right like we want everyone to achieve a rising tide lifts all boats and I think that's the

159mission is to make sure that there is a we're not working from a space of scarcity we're working from a space of EV uncy just because this other person has extra need doesn't mean that that takes away from someone else that but that's kind of what is implied or at least what I take from it is that you're treating someone differently means that in equity someone might need a step up this person might need to step down because they're already ahead and and they don't they don't have the same viewpoints so I think what's important when we talk about this Equity is nothing new um you know I'll just say as a white woman that's the biggest class that benefited from affirmative action it was women didn't go to college now we outpace men white

160women are the biggest beneficiary of that so I just want to think about like when we talk about these These are constantly going to be our back and force um it is very frustrating when this polonization from the national level and it's not just those who have those views local but it's trickling down to the local level and it's very frustrating because um I think it takes away from the value of the programs we're talking about I think it politicizes the things that we're trying to do rather than the focus mission is getting every child to like 100 on the SAT like we would love to see every single child hit those marks that is the mission I think that's what we all believe but words are politicizing and I think honestly everything that's going

161on at the national level it's very frustrating trying to defend that I've been doing this for six years multiple administrations multiple different parties and all those things I've never found value in taking the political and frankly just toxic nature that is the national level down to local because so much of what our budget is is from the local level there is a good amount from this Federal so I always am scared about that but the majority too is the state and so I think like you'll hear me say it jocking a Democrat is like I do not like these unfunded mandates from the state that we can't afford and it's getting pushed under local level it's okay we can hear multiples of me but I digress I think the back and forth about this kind

162of takes away from the budget aspect that we really I think You' goes and we we'll fundamentally disagree and that's okay um I I fully will say totally Pro if you want to call it Dei my work is ESG I've had a million different acronyms politicized in in my time um so it's nothing new to to see that kind of rhetoric but I would just caution and advise that that really does then trickle down the people that watch this the teachers that watch this are very concerned about these kinds of things so I just want to say as a personal my personal opinion as a board member like I fully support um the equity and inclusion and diversity of and I just want to give a shout out because it was featured on our Ana

163Reynolds um Facebook page that there was um multiple teachers who gave a Ramadan brunch today and I thought that was super cool and I didn't know that we had that even so like just to see and learn about that that was really helpful so I am done talking but I think next budget and I'll just add on sorry I have to policy's March 3rd on the Monday so if you want to come to that too duly noted um yeah but I also just want to reiterate I think everybody for giving their opinions one and two the work that goes into this budget because I know at the end of the day intent is that we all want these kids at top bch thank you scar I'll just say two things quickly um I think people

164who share opinions like Tony get upset when it comes to the budget because they see that number 161,000 or 162,000 and knowing the money can go elsewhere and if they don't you know believe in it or they see that okay well it's a newer program we didn't have this before why should have now if that money can be used elsewhere so I think that's where you know Tony is coming from I don't want to speak for you um and then the other comment I'll say is again thank you everyone for putting this together and the discussions we had today you know I think it's important for all of us to see each other's views and to try to make sense of the budget and how we can move forward thank you I'll um I just

165want to quickly say because I don't want to leave it unsaid is that I think a lot of what's happening at the federal level is scaring people and um on both sides like I think there's a lot there's a lot going on and a lot of the things that just keep getting spewed all these um executive orders Dr Brett mentioned it it's it's not law and a lot of it is legal and we as a board and as a local school district are so far removed from everything that's happening just you know across the president's desk right now that we need to wait until things settle and until things like actually become directive and then there's also conflicting things with the state and we work with our state representatives and of course we are abide

166by Connecticut state laws a lot of this Seal's social emotional learning is is mandated and and is very very important for our students taking you know just aside from all of the diversity Equity inclusion rhetoric that's been going along there's a there's there's things our kids need to learn how to function as human beings in society and that's what we've been doing for years I remember my daughter who's in high school now is in kindergarten and we're talking about seal and talking about you know you can't learn unless you're in the right State of Mind mind so I think we all care about the students we all know that people in special education students in special education require additional services and it's a lot of money but it's necessary because they have special circumstances that

167to help them learn whereas you know there's just so many different students we have such diversity in our town and in this country and this world that they need to be educated and everybody is different I think that's back in the day everyone had the same education and now we're it's being specialized there's federal laws that specialize education for individual students and and we are we have to abide by it um and we should and we want to and it's expensive so I think that we all just need to understand I think we need to not let the politicize nature of Education trickle down into what we're doing on this table and the 4,000 students that were responsible for educating with this budget so with that said thank you for the work one more week

168and then we will transmit it and then we get to bring it to the town and see what they say um oh yeah motion to adjourn just second just second it just second second in FV thank you everybody meeting at 9:37 p.m. it's just not in Robert's Rules