001problem solve when everyone's watching. Um and even last time, you know, we had a a meeting and there was uh no cameras, but we had two people in the front row, you know, passing a camera back and forth. I I I don't understand that. Um is that for a gotcha moment or is that for like home viewing pleasure with popcorn? Um so, I want to acknowledge that. Um I want to thank you for voicing your opinion um even, you know, when you're given facts. Um so, I just wanted to acknowledge that. >> Okay. Thanks. Um to the consent agenda. Uh Marie Camarado, 2-3 integrated day teacher from Green Acres Elementary. Uh Bojanna Galen Blair, music teacher Green Acres Elementary. Donald Jacobson, social studies teacher North Haven Middle School. Douglas Jones, instrumental music teacher Green Acres
002Elementary and Clintonville Elementary. Sally Marr, physical education teacher North Haven High School. Jolene Vett, social studies coordinator district. Robin Norup, payroll specialist central office. Nancy Schriever, world language teacher North Haven High School. Susan Wilson, social studies teacher North Haven Middle School. And the resignation of Beth Crosby, paraeducator at Green Acres Elementary. Maria To- Toi, uh 4-5 integrated day teacher Ridge Road Elementary. May I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved. Second. Second. >> Any discussion? Yes, please. Yep. Yeah, that's right. You got a cup of coffee there. Don't mind if Um I mean Yeah, I I just thank everybody for their service to to the district. Obviously, there are a lot of names on this list that are very good teachers. Um three of them in particular that have my family has
003had a fair amount of experience with. Don Johnson, um who's a fantastic teacher. Uh Mrs. Blair Green Acres Middle School, if you've ever been to one of the concerts, the things that uh her choir does are remarkable. And then um Marie Camarado is I think when you think of a teacher, she embodies everything that you would think of. She is stern when needed, caring when needed. She provides structure and discipline. Um my family was in Greenacres for about 12 years through the four kids. All of my kids had Mrs. Camarado. She was fantastic and she All of my kids are very different. She knew what each one of my kids needed and brought out the best in all of them, but none more uh so than my youngest daughter who was coming through COVID and
004then went into uh Mrs. Camarado's two three class. And admittedly, she was struggling with reading and and basic skills that um just a function of what COVID did and and how it was approached. And I do not know what happened in that classroom, but um she has thrived ever since. She's in all honors um or advanced programs in the middle school. And um Mrs. Camarado really changed the way she viewed school and her love for learning. And when someone like that has been in our district for as long as she has, and when she leaves, that is a loss that is felt throughout [snorts] the the school. So, I just wanted to thank her so much for everything she's done. I hope she enjoys her retirement. I hope she enjoys watching the Yankees. And >>
005[laughter] >> and I just thank her for everything she's done for for our district. It's kind of hard to follow. Yeah, you have to follow it, though. >> I I mean, I was really just going to say that I know that this list is um that we have a lot of teachers retiring. I know that many teachers decided to um take advantage of the early retirement and me myself as a teacher I wanted to say thank you so much for all of the years of service that you put into our district. Um there's names on here as well that have impacted my students. Sue Wilson over at the middle school also helped my daughter during COVID time um which was difficult for a lot of students. So um I'm I'm happy that everyone's able to
006get their retirement and I I wish you all the best. Hope you enjoy it. Anyone else? May I have a moment? I I just I can't say it better than uh Joe and Michelle did. Thank you everybody for everything and I do appreciate that we were able to find a little bit of a win-win situation in some early retirements with folks that uh it benefits everybody I think, but you definitely will be missed. I agree. I'm glad we were able to offer that and they were able to take advantage of it. I may have a motion to approve the consent agenda? I'll make a motion. Second. Second. All in favor? Aye. May I have a motion to approve the Board of Education's 2026-2027 regular meeting dates? I'll make a motion. Second. Any discussion? All in
007favor? Aye. So moved. Reports from standing committees, ACES. All right. Uh we had our meeting today. We We had a long discussion about the governor's uh distribution of funds and why some areas got more than others and I'll leave it at that. Uh as far as their budget is concerned, they're finishing the year uh on target with their budget and all of their funding capital has been met to date. Uh we discussed a program called Brightwell uh which is uh for approximately [snorts] 10 students and uh it's for students who are basically unable to fit into any kind of classroom situation. Uh so they're uh for lack of a better word, these are difficult special special needs, not special ed, but special needs kids almost on a one-to-one basis in order to function. Um and
008that's something that started this year. Um ACES uh received uh an honorable mention from uh CABE uh for a program that they offered called ACES Social Media Sharing Our Story. This is uh called the Carne Award and it's presented to uh various school systems for pro- uh media programs that they develop for information. Um Bassett Street is complete. Uh the dedication and our next meeting is going to be June 4th at 11:30. Uh I don't know if it's going to be open for visitation. Uh as soon as I get information, I'll let everybody know on that. Um They presented uh 10 grants. Uh they had a gala several weeks ago uh and uh teachers were able to apply for grants through the ACES Foundation. Um and they were presented at that time. Uh the James
009Street building, which is uh in New Haven, has the purchase of that and that's going to become their uh uh main building for uh uh office staff and so on. Uh the rest of the program's going to go to Bassett Street. Uh we had an interesting discussion. Uh they they bus mainly with uh vans and uh they we had an interesting discussion. If they use the yellow vans for uh carrying students, the drivers have to have a CDL. Um but there's some kind of clause and I didn't understand what it is >> [snorts] >> uh that if they use a white van, uh it's classified as an activity van and they don't need a CDL in order to uh drive it. So, that's helping out. >> [clears throat] >> Um Tom DeHayney, the current executive
010director, is retiring effective next month >> [snorts] >> and will be replaced by Dr. William Rice. Um and then I was asked to serve on the nominating committee for officers for the ACES board for next year. Congratulations, Marty. And that's it. Thanks, Marty. Any questions for Marty? Curriculum, instruction, and planning? We did not meet. Did nothing. Does anybody have any questions for Joe? Finance and operations? Yes, uh we met earlier tonight and we talked through uh where we are currently for our current fiscal year. We remain on a budget freeze and uh we continue to track closely a lot of the risks that we are looking at. I did want to take just a couple minutes to talk through some of the conversations that are happening right now about our budget though more holistically, right?
011Um I want to start by saying that I understand that people have a lot of questions. This is complicated and it matters. Uh it affects all of our taxes, our kids, and our community, and people deserve clear and accurate information. Um so, as an analyst by trade, I tend to think of a lot of these things in in terms of hypotheses. So, you make a statement and then you try to prove or disprove it, right? So, I want to go through just a couple of quick hypotheses and talk about how I battle test some of the information that gets put out there. Um I like to think that everybody in our community is acting in good faith. So, when folks make a claim, I treat it like it's good faith. Uh so first, um we
012built something too big during COVID and now taxpayers are paying for it. I want to just acknowledge there's a kernel of truth here. We did add some positions during uh the COVID times, but nowhere near the number that people are using out on social media. Like nowhere near that number. Um what matters most to me is what these positions were for. The majority of them are tied to special education services. So let's talk about how bringing those services in-house does two really important things. One, it keeps kids in our home district, which is better for our kiddos. And two, it saves everybody money. Outplacing kiddos can cost well over $100,000 a year plus transportation costs. So programs like our RISE program, which takes place just at Clintonville Elementary, saves North Haven taxpayers $5 million a
013year. So this was not expansion for expansion's sake. This was a strategic decision that this board made to improve outcomes and reduce long-term costs. Um so if and if this hypothesis were true, like if we did add say 70 positions, which we did not, um there would be significant evidentiary support showed in our budget numbers. We would be out pacing the inflationary trend over the last 10 years. We are not out pacing inflation over 10 years. In fact, we are coming in 1% below. Like if you just snapped a line 10 years ago and applied the consumer price index inflation, our budget for this year would be 1% above what it is today, which is not nothing. It's close, you know, but it's not nothing. So I I I'm going to say that that hypothesis
014is not entirely accurate. Uh second up, we are top-heavy or overstaffed at the administrative level. Totally appreciate when when people see things online how that can um how that can look. I look at districts within our district reference group or our DERG. Uh those are districts that are similar size to North Haven, they have similar socio-economic uh demographics. Most districts have multiple assistant superintendents. In my personal opinion, we have the best assistant superintendent, but we only have one of her. Uh most districts have multiple people doing Mr. Strickland's job as well, and Mr. Strickland is is an army of one. Um and you know, we actually reduced administrative roles uh last year through attrition. And we haven't filled our director of grounds administrative position yet because we're looking at creative solutions. We are all taxpayers
015here, too. We get it, you know? Um and I want to just share something really quick for a second. I'm going to try to do it without crying cuz I get really emotional on this. But last week during a lockdown, like our leadership team ran toward the schools. Like they didn't hesitate, they just went. And to me, that is very, very valuable. Um it could have been disastrous, and they didn't care. They were like, we have to be there. And when there was a student that was very unfortunately struck by a bus, they did the same thing again. They ran toward it not knowing what they would find, and that is very valuable to me. We have mission-driven folks who legitimately care about our babies, and uh who uh have been doing more with less.
016Next up, the Board of Education doesn't make cuts. This This one kind of gets me sometimes cuz I spend a lot of time looking at the budget and figuring out how do we make creative solutions. Um we've been under spending freeze for almost 2 years now. We've reduced staffing through retirements and are trying to figure out the best way to absorb that impact with as little impact to our classrooms as possible. Uh we've cut our capital budget every year except for one over the last 7 years. Like the capital budget has not existed. Um we've reduced uh coordinator positions, uh and we've let go of folks who were part-timers that were hired during COVID. Um so like I do think that we do make cuts, and we are making really difficult trade-offs that we take
017very seriously. And the last one came from my kiddo when he got in trouble in December. He had to review 25 municipal budgets and come up with battle-tested numbers on if we are spending more if North Haven schools are overfunded. And he came up with several things. One, our spending compared to our district, we spend about $2,000 less per student than the average of our district reference group. To me, this means that we are like certainly making better choices than some of our peers. We spend a larger share of our budget on education, but we don't. We spend 49.7% of North Haven's total budget dollars on schools and the typical town in our district reference group spends somewhere between 57 and 65%. So, we're coming in way under that, too. Um I hear a lot
018that we get plenty of help from the state. Um North Haven gets 8% of our funding from the state of Connecticut. The district reference group D median amount is 16.6%. That gap accounts for about $5.6 million. And don't worry, as much as I talk to our state rep and our state senator about that, I'm also talking to our governor about that regularly, too. Everybody gets to hear from Amanda on that. Um so, it's up to local taxpayers to cover about 89% of the cost for schools and that is significantly more than a lot of other districts that look like us. So, here's where I land, right? It's totally okay for people to have whatever opinion they want on this budget that it will, right? I respect that, but I do hope that people make decisions
019based on accurate information. Um I'm only one of nine members of this board speaking on behalf of myself, but I certainly don't benefit personally from raising my own taxes. None of us do. Um we do not get paid for this work. We do it because we believe in this district. And um Um, I have seen every member on this board take that responsibility very seriously. Uh, at the end of the day, I'm not asking anybody to agree with me on anything. I'm just asking that we ground conversations in calm facts. And if anybody wants to get really nerdy and data specific, I am here for it. Have I got spreadsheets for you. That's it. Does anybody have any comment? I have one. Um, I I agree with everything that that Amanda said. It's It's difficult
020sometimes to to go through that Facebook, uh, those pages and go down those rabbit holes because, you know, somebody will say something out of context and the next person will say, "Fact." [snorts] And it is And it is obviously not a fact. Um, I I get it. They're worded in such a way that, you know, it's easy to to think that. Um, but we dig into everything that we do. I would say the easiest The easiest thing to do is the one stat that Amanda mentioned that anybody can do and it's easiest to kind of solidify what we're doing here is if you look at what it costs per student to educate. That takes everything in the budget. >> Mhm. And just divide it by the number of students that we have enrolled and you
021get a number. And when you see that number, thousands of dollars lower per student than in almost every other school in the dirt, and then you see the success rate that we have here and provide the equality education and schools of distinction, the Blue Ribbon schools and so on and so on, you have to acknowledge the fact that we're doing it right. That we're coming in as low as we can. It's obvious just through that simple math. Total budget divided by enrollment. And then you look and see how steady and sturdy these schools are and the opportunities and the opportun- our future Board of Education president, all right. No, I didn't. >> [laughter] >> So, if we could just kind of focus on that in the short term for a a quick answer. I mean,
022everything has spikes and valleys you can look at and debate. But, overall, if you just take that one number and look at it, you'll see that this board and this administration who work incredibly hard to try to get things done for this town and work well with the town administration of Mr. Frieda, Mr. Monaco, Mr. Piper. It It's really been an awesome experience for me, especially over the last couple of years. When I started this, I had no idea how really involved this was and I didn't realize it was a part-time job, either. But, but it But it is and I'm not complaining by far. And I've worked with excellent people who make my job easy. So, if we can just look at that and obviously, if you have any questions, you're more than welcome
023to come to any meeting and bring them to the mic and we'll be more than happy to try to answer those the best we can. Other than that, we'll move on to the North Haven Education Foundation. Thank you. The Ed Foundation met yesterday morning. During the meeting, they approved a grant submitted by Amy Ralph, our CTE coordinator. And the grant will enhance eighth grade technical education by integrating hands-on drone technology into the curriculum. So, we're very thankful for the Ed Foundation and Amy for submitting it. It will support Mr. Fuji's class in the next over the next 3 years. That's all there is to it. That's it. Anybody have any questions for Mr. Sturt? Okay. Policy reads. This will be the first read of a couple of different policies. Um I'll go over We really
024won't talk about these again until August or September, but first read of policy 3310, expenditures expanding authority business, policy 5128, meal charging policy for students, policy 514 1.8 wellness policy. We're going to move ahead to the superintendent's report. Oh, sorry, guy. Can I just ask a couple questions? Sure you Okay, great. Thank you. So, for 3310, that's the policy that governs how the district spends money and ensures that we are sort of operating similarly to how the town does. Correct. Um do we know how often exceptions to the competitive bidding process are used and how they're tracked? So, I appreciate you asking us because all three of these policy reads are a direct result of the I believe or not the food audit that we just went through last month, which we did find out
025but they will go through everything. And each of these three policies has been on our books for a considerable amount of time. So, the changes you actually see in this particular policy, we have been doing. They are the town's procurement and bid process thresholds. So, we've been doing them. They've just not never been codified in policy. Amanda, to answer your question, we we usually only in emergency situations have to reach out to Mr. Monaco or Mr. Frieda for emergency purchases. Um but outside of that, you know, we really do look to either stay on the state Connecticut kit bid and and utilize those vendors that have been recognized or quite frankly adhere to the the purchasing thresholds that are identified here and in direct alignment with the town purchasing policy. Perfect. Thank you. And then
026for 5128, which is the meal charging policy, that like sort of governs how the district handles students who cannot pay for meals and how we collect unpaid debt. Um, are we offering families that are in this position the um, paperwork for free and reduced price lunch? Yeah, and we occur we we get the information out at the beginning of the year each year. We also work with our principals to really delicately just encourage folks to make sure that just apply and if you have questions to contact our office. Um, cuz we want people if you you can take advantage of this program and please do um, because we want to make sure that if you're eligible it it's something that can benefit your family. So we do outreach to them. Um, in this particular um,
027policy the only addition that we had to make sure that was really clear um, and this was a directive from the state is the fact that unpaid debt we are responsible for at the end of the year. We cannot use the food service account to pay for that. Great and then last question on 5141.8 the student wellness policy that kind of talks about nutritional standards, physical activity requirements, wellness education and staff and community involvement. [snorts] Um, it says that there's a recommended 30 minutes of play per day in the elementary schools. Are our teachers able to meet that physical activity expectation given like the like mandatory scheduling constraints? Yeah, they have to and recess outside of a recess Yeah, that that's effectively recess. Um, way back when that this policy we had to blow the
028dust off it a little bit because it hadn't been updated since 2006. Um, and in between that time and our and our principals have been adhering to this as you can't you have to provide that. You can't take away it is punitive um, because it's important for our kids and it has to be supervised but not structured. So PE class does not you can't say hey you have PE class so can't go out for recess. Um that that's been clarified with across districts. So yes, we do provide that at that level, so. Excellent. Thank you. Anybody else? We'll move on to the Superintendent's report. Thank you. I just want to say a few words regarding the events that occurred last week. It was emotional. It was very scary. Uh as a district, from everyone sitting
029at these tables here, as well as all of our teachers, support staff, we really put nothing above the safety of our students. Uh but last week, the safety of our students was called into question multiple times due to circumstances beyond our control. I'm very happy to report that the student that was struck by the car was back in school this past Monday. And although the middle school and high school were locked down for a better part of an hour, all of our students made it home safely. And really in these times of crisis, our people shine. They come together. We saw that throughout the week at our schools. Uh I emailed you personally thanked so many of our teachers and staff, but I just want to reiterate it again tonight uh because North Haven's very
030fortunate to have the folks we do. I'd also like to thank DACo. Uh they played a major role in supporting us through these incidents. Uh they were extremely responsive, communicated with us without delay. And I also just need to recognize, I think again, uh the North Haven Police Department and the North Haven Fire Department. Their response to each situation last week was was exceptional, so uh we truly appreciate them. Uh on a completely different note, uh I did want to just uh throw back out to the board uh a conversation from last month's meeting. Uh Ms. Krista Kaplan spoke about the board potentially considering permitting faculty to forego the professional development uh that on Friday, May 22nd and I just wanted to bring that to the board's attention for any possible discussion. That's my report
031for this evening. Thank you. Okay. All right, somebody have before we get into that, I just want to reiterate what the superintendent said about our relationship with the fire department and the police department in town. It's it's absolutely stupendous. Um really they're like our left and right arm. We call they're there. We ask a question, they have an answer. It's really been tremendous to work with the chief, both chiefs. And I just wanted to thank them again for that. Does anybody have any questions? Uh Mr. Stork in particular about the professional training day? Do we have to add a motion to the agenda to approve that or to discuss it? It can be a decision that I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I think because he brought it up in his report. Okay. It will be okay.
032I think that's a good question. I support it. Yeah, I think it's something we've done in the past and I I I like it. I think it supports our teachers and I think it's a good way to show our appreciation for everything they do above and beyond. All right, and that day is already a half day for the students, correct? >> Already a half day for students, yes. I don't have any It doesn't that's been out there. Are we all in favor of that creating that day? Yes. Treat those teachers well. That's right. Amen. Uh assistant uh >> [clears throat] >> What time is it? Assistant superintendent's report. This evening, I would like to highlight some end-of-year student achievements that are happening across the district. First, um the results of of recent world language seal
033of biliteracy testing that are um our students performed exceptionally well. We are still awaiting a few um final scores. They come in different areas. 34 students at the high school chose to take this assessment. They select that themselves. And so far this cohort this cohort has achieved the highest scores since we have started participating in this program. In order to obtain the seal of biliteracy, students must show proficiency in all language modalities, reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Earning this seal of biliteracy is a significant milestone that validates our students' high level of proficiency in multiple language and prepares them for success in a global workforce. Congrats to our students and our world language teachers. Our culinary students recently returned from Disney achieving many awards and honors. These include second place for their appetizer, a regional
034overall winner for African cuisine, and judges spotlights judges spotlight pins for character and effort. So congratulations to them. Today, we just learned that 100% of our CNA students have passed the written examination. And 13 of the 14 passed the clinical assessment. The one student that missed it has an opportunity to retake it as part of the process, and we are confident um that that student will pass as well. So amazing work there. Additionally, our preliminary data on the state English learner assessment called WIDA ACCESS for ELLs shows that we have an exit rate of 12.4%, which is approximately 22 students. Part of that data will be looped into our fall data presentation, but that's really a great accomplishment. Our multilingual numbers are always moving because students move in and move out, but we were at
035approximately 200 this year, so that's great. Lastly, I want to highlight a new resource for our families. It's called the Literacy Lounge. It was created by our K-8 Language Arts Coordinator, and it's an online hub designed to bridge the gap between classroom instruction and home support in literacy. It's located on the district website under content areas, and the Literacy Lounge offers a clear breakdown of the science of reading, an overview of our district assessments and what these scores mean for your child, and practical fun activities for every component of literacy, which can come in very handy for families during summer break. This page will continue to be updated with new information and fun activities at home. We encourage everyone to explore it, and that's all I have. Does anybody have any questions for Melinda? No?
036Director of Student Services? Great, thank you. I have some positive news to share this evening, so to piggyback off of what Melinda just shared with everyone. First, I would like to congratulate Green Acres Preschool for earning their NAEYC accreditation. This labor-intensive process took a deep look at our preschool program as a whole, the curriculum, classrooms, and staff to ensure that we were meeting the highest level of instruction and support services for our students. This multi-year accreditation process reviewed every detail from hand washing to learning stations in the classroom to how much mulch is on the playground. The unannounced visit that occurred and walk-through reviewed each and every one of these details plus much more, every big and small component to the preschool program. Our preschool passed with flying colors and they were highly impressed with
037the program that we were offering to our students in the community. A major huge big thank you to our building leader, Tracy Considine, all the preschool teachers, support staff, paraeducators, custodians, students, and the families for being part of this process. However, a very large big shout-out goes to Christie Scanlon, our coordinator of special programs, for her dedication and commitment to this process. It was many years of training and working with a consultant and many hours of collecting data and I'm just so proud of everyone through this process and it really allowed our preschool to shine and show the good work that happens each and every day. So, congratulations to them. Second, our special education resource fair was a huge success. That was last month. There was about 75 people in attendance with over 30 vendors.
038Families gathered and visited each of the tables obtaining helpful information and resources on how to move forward in different different resources that are available in the community. We received quite a bit of feedback from our vendors about how wonderful the evening was and the opportunity to connect directly with our community. They felt that was a the face-to-face impact was highly beneficial and it allowed them to capture some families that may not know what direction they need to go in through certain processes. For example, applying for the autism waiver or resources post NHT program. So, it was very very helpful. I have to say thank you to Apex Solutions for the refreshments and a big again shout-out to Laura De Santo for our coordinator of special ed for secondary for raising the event, putting all the
039important details together, making all those great contacts, and she built an excellent community of resources that now we can continue to build on and share with other communities. It was also wonderful to see, I believe there were one or two other families that came from other communities to join, so it was nice to build those relationships. And lastly, as our school year winds down, we're preparing for ESY, the extended school year program service for students who qualify for additional support through their IEP, their individualized education plan, during the month of July. This, just to clarify, is not an enrichment program, but is a program that is required under the law to support students with special education and their particular learning needs. This summer, our coordinator of elementary um student services, Rachel Tyrell, will be the
040coordinator, I mean, excuse me, will be the director of the program. If you happen to have any questions or concerns, you're welcome to reach out to my office directly. Thank you for allowing me to share this good news. Thank you. Everybody have any questions for Anthony? Okay, we uh thank you, Anthony. Uh we have to Chief Operating Officer's report. Good evening, everyone. Um I'm just going to piggyback off Ms. Gabriel's uh report from our finance committee and just highlight some other important operations information. Um as mentioned, we we are still in a budgetary freeze, which will stay in place till the end of the year. Um we are going to be beginning the formal process of closing out the fiscal year starting June 1st. Uh with that being said, you have in your uh report
041this evening the transfer report for the month of April. Any items highlighted in yellow are always those that cross object code lines that are respectfully submitted for the Board of Education's approval. In In regards to our two reserve accounts, this is our medical and dental reserve and our workers' comp, they currently stand at the end of April with just over 1.3 million in our medical and dental reserve and our workers compensation at just over 81,000. Uh in regards to this transportation, piggybacking off Mr. Mastriano's report, he and I have been working directly with DATCO to finalize our ESY routing for the upcoming summer. When this is finalized, pick up and drop-off times will be directly communicated to families accordingly. Uh this summer, our four our four-week ESY program will take place beginning June 29th through
042July 23rd and our five-week program will start on June 29th and continue through July 30th. Um in regards to cafeteria and food services, uh just want to let everybody know that on April 22nd, Chartwell catered events celebrating Administrative Assistants Day, which had a great response. Mr. Rizzo and I have also finalized the walk-in freezer replacement project at Ridge Road Elementary School. The walk-in freezer and step-up coolers have been overdue for replacement and this week this work will be done the week of June 22nd and will be funded through the district's food service account. I'm sorry for being >> Oh, no no problem. >> Sorry for being Christian, I'm sorry. Oh, no problem. I'm sorry. Um finally, this evening, you may recall during the March 2026 Board of Education meeting, information was provided to the Board
043of Education to support a small increase to lunch prices for the 26-27 school year. For reference, I did attach that information in this month's packet again. We have not actually raised lunch prices since prior to COVID and this is in in terms to lunch equity pricing. Um it is respectfully presented to the Board of Education that the elementary lunch price be raised from $2.75 to $3 for the 2026-2027 school year. And [snorts] similarly, excuse me, the middle school and high school three-tier lunch pricing of $3.15 and $3.65 be changed to a two-tier pricing of $3.50 and $4 for next school year. Is that still under the max standard that they would allow us to go to? The the the the average pricing where you should be at, it's still under that. >> Wait, so do
044you have an idea how the difference is, what difference that is? >> To get to the to the max? >> Uh, in order to raise the prices to get all the way up there, that I can get to the board. I do not have that. This is still below that. >> But it's fairly substantial it's more than I think the quarter that we raised. >> Right, and I don't think >> it's twice that. >> Yeah, and I don't want to put that on parents to make that >> No, absolutely. And and no either uh, anyone on the board. It's just I'm just trying to you know, make people sure that they understand this is another avenue that we always look at every year to make sure that we're getting the best opportunity for kids to
045buy lunch at a reasonable rate. Correct. So we could easily just say, "Oh, the state says we can charge this and that's what we do." Um, that's probably too easy to do it that way. >> Yeah. So we yeah, we go through and we make sure we talk about it and try to get the best uh, situation for everybody out there. And have anybody uh, that was it for sure? Yes, sir. Uh, anybody else have any questions for Christian? No. Okay. Thanks, Christian. Yep. May I have a motion to approve the monthly financial report including the recommended transfers? I'll make a motion. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. So moved. Uh, may I have a motion to approve an increase 2027 school year as discussed? So moved. Second. >> Second. Any discussion? I just
046I I wanted to say just my understanding first, no one wants to like I don't want to raise prices on anybody, but my understanding from when we discussed this last time, too, was that if we fall too far below the mark, then at some point somebody steps in and says you have to increase to this amount. So increasing by this small amount is softening the blow for when and if that happens, but also potentially keeping us out of that happening because we're staying closer to the mark of where we need to be, correct? >> You are accurate. >> just wanted to say that because, you know, I mean, my kids buy lunch, too. Um randomly, not every day, but um I just wanted to say yes, I mean, I don't want to increase price. Everyone's
047finding it difficult for everything right now. So certainly not something I want to do, but I think that it's a smart move to make to try to to be kind of under that radar and keep it affordable for kids and avoid that big like, oh, you guys are way too low. You have to increase it to this now. Forced job. Yeah, right. You're correct. Can I ask one other question? >> Yeah. I totally agree with Michelle and can we post this somewhere publicly just to make sure that parents aren't caught off guard? I just want to set everybody up for success and make sure they have time to plan and adjust any any budgets that may be need to be adjusted. Can I ask one final question about the tiered pricing at the middle school
048and the high school? What's the difference between Like, I mean, is it different Is it like a typical Is it what's posted on the daily lunches like the 350 and then if they get something different, it's $4? >> [snorts] >> Am I real? Okay. All in favor? All right. So moved. Um just I wanted just a couple of comments from me before public comment. Um this is the last meeting for a couple of months. I mean, graduation is only 4 weeks away, just give or take a couple of days. And I would like to congratulate the the students that are moving on, whether they're moving on to further their education, whether they're going into the military, whether they're becoming entrepreneurs, whether want to start a work in the getting into the workforce, or if they
049just want to take a year to kind of regroup and and figure out what they want to do. Take your time. Think it through. Work hard like you've done the last four years, you'll be very successful and you know, congratulations to everyone graduating, everyone who's able to get some recognition, [snorts] whether it's through sports or academia or plays or music or whatever it is, that was able to get some financing at a higher education level. I know we had our first wrestler, right? Finally get I mean we just got that program's only two years old. And we're already uh making a making a statement in the in the state with that. So, congratulations on that. Um to the parents that are going to be empty nesters, you'll get over it. It happens. It happens to
050all of us. Just, you know, let your kids do their thing and and they'll they'll be fine. Um They do come back. They're They actually never leave. But, you know, that little vacation is rough at the beginning, but you'll get used to it. Um other than that, um I'll move on to the public comment uh for uh anything that happened here today. So, if anybody has any comments, say. Sure. >> Yes, please. I don't know if I can answer this. Good evening, Governor board of team governors. Um, I just had a couple of questions. Um, as I mentioned, I I did not intend to speak this evening. Um, but related to board um, I just had uh one consideration and then actually two considerations. Um, the free and reduced lunch information no longer goes home
051on paper copy and a lot of our families that do take advantage of that program don't have access to printers or sometimes internet at home. Um, so they're not always accessing it like it should and then sometimes we'll notice um, as teachers throughout you know, within the first like six weeks of school which kiddos aren't eating as much as they should be eating um, and we'll get them that paperwork and we'll print it for them, but I think I remember when my kids started kindergarten it was part of that like home packet that kind of went home that first week of school. So if we could get those printed again, I think it would go over um, a good buy and then piggybacking off of the the notice we could kind of include a a
052notice and change of the pricing um, related to that too and I think it's important um, to explain how the food services lunches work for parents because even as a parent and teacher myself, I didn't know until my kid was in like third grade that if she wasn't getting the full meal which is the the entree that was served a fruit or vegetable and the milk, you get charged a different price and a lot of parents don't realize that. So it'll get charged at like six uh $3 um, for ala carte and then whatever else they're getting will be an additional cost whereas the meal price is much cheaper. So I was always like, you have to get fruit and you have to get a vegetable um, so that they get the meal price. So
053I think a lot of parents don't realize that piece as well. So it's important you know, for the kids to grab a fruit or vegetable that you do like and you will eat because it's part of that meal. Um, I also want to just take a moment to thank central office administration, our administrators in our buildings, North End PD fire department, and just community members, and even our community PD in the surrounding communities that helped this past week. Um it did not really go unnoticed by teachers and everybody kind of being present and being there really we were more relaxed and more able to respond to the kids because you