001push it. >> Can someone move the screen further back? Just tilt a little bit. Tilt it just a little bit or move it back. You've got to the edge there. >> Yeah, you can't see it. >> No. Thank you. >> Thank you very letters for wheelch. >> No, you don't have to turn them. You just touch them. Yep. You can go. >> Thank you. >> Mhm. >> Morning, North Haven Board of Finance members. Uh today we we will be presenting the board of education budget for the 2627 school year. Uh Joining me to present this morning is Chairperson Baffick, uh Vice Chair Randy Peterson, board secretary Michelle GMO, board member Amanda Gabriel, chief operating officer Christian Strickland, and finance manager Howard Warl. Provided through this budget are resources to provide instruction to 3,70 students, give
002or take. Mental health, nutrition, and medical care to allow students to access instruction. Specialized services required for all students to achieve their potential. Diverse opportunity for students to engage in activities outside of their curricular pursuits. And safe and reliable transportation to school. The following couple of slides will highlight the district's return on the town of North Haven's investment. For reference, the average DUID D per pupil expenditure is 22,82. North Haven's PPE is currently $20,381, which ranks us 20th of 24 districts within Earth. Please note, North Haven has dropped from 15th to 20th over the past two years. As I say, each year, North Haven spends less than most, but our return is is exceptional. This year, Greenacres Elementary School was recognized as a blue ribbon school. This recognition is similar to winning an Oscar or
003Super Bowl in the world of education. However, I believe it's more exceptional than these awards because Green Acres needed to demonstrate excellence for many years, probably a better part of a decade to be award this awarded this status. So, just to give a little bit of a background about this award, this used to be a national award, but in August of 25 it was discontinued at the national recognition. However, Connecticut decided to continue. Um, and uh, Green Green Acres was one of four schools in the state of Connecticut that was recognized as Blue Ribbon School. Um, so as Patrick just stated, this is something that is built upon over years. It's not a oneandone thing. It's something that is the donation of dedicated educators, instructional coaches, uh, para educators, the staff throughout the school, parents,
004students, administrators for years on end and all of their contribution. So, I would like to just reiterate that when you choose to fund this budget, what you'll be doing is protecting a proven educational system that will continue to support our schools and thrive that will thrive among Connecticut. The district continues to excel in state standardized assessments. We are ranked in the top five of 24 DUR districts in math, English, and science. So, schools of distinction um schools of distinction uh you have to meet certain criteria in order to be recognized for a school of distinction as a school of distinction. So Greenacres Elry was recognized as a high growth school in ELA for all students. Montouise was recognized for high growth for all students in math. And Ridge Road was recognized for high growth for
005students in ELA as well as high growth for high needs students in ELA. And when I say high needs, that encompasses students with disabilities, students that are English language learners, and students that are eligible for free or reduced price meals. And basically what happens is there's this 12 list of 12 indicators. Not all are applicable to the element level. I think it's eight or nine that apply to elementary schools. But um you get points for each of those indicators and the top 10% of schools that get those points are um are acknowledged as a school of distinction. I think it's really important that we recognize that there are over 1,500 public schools in the state of Connecticut. Only 141 schools in the state of Connecticut were recognized as a school of distinction and four of
006them are from North Haven. So we are doing the right thing Haven. [cough and clears throat] It's working for our students. It's working for our community and what we're doing is working for our future. So we need to education in on this budget. Now we will we will be moving on to the board of education's budget for the 2627 school year. This slide demonstrates the four areas that drive the board's budget increase for the 2627 school year. These four areas total just about 7 million additional dollars to the budget with medical and dental insurance carrying the bulk of the increase at just over $4.5 million. This is followed by contractual salary increases totaling $1.7 million and five new special education position salaries totaling $350,000. To expand on the new special education positions, the district is
007in need of three specialized programs. An additional speech and language pathologist and occupational therapist are al also included. These positions are necessary for various reasons. To remain compliant with the students individualized education plans or IEPs. To ensure that necessary staff is in place in order to keep students safe and meet the goals and objectives of their IEPs. And to ensure that case loads for our special education and support staff members are manageable so that they can meet the needs of our students and remain compliant with their IEPs. Additionally, two of these positions present a cost savings to the district, which will be further explained on the next two slides. The district currently invests $5.6 million in eight different special education programs. Without these programs, the district would be spending approximately $21 million to educate students
008within these outofd district programs. This is an annual savings of $15.5 million. With this being said, these programs continue to grow and our students require additional and necessary services to meet their potential. This is why the board and district continues to support these exemplary programs. To be more specific, we currently contract to an outside provider to supplement the district's mandated speech and language services. For a full-time SLP or speech language pathologist pathologist, a contracted provider cost the district $150,000 per year, $157,000 per year. Hiring our own would cost approximately half that amount. I'll turn the next couple slides over to Christian. Good morning, everyone. As highlighted previously, the largest driver of this year's budget is the increase to our medical and dental insurance line. This increase of $4.5 million is required to meet the actuarial
009projected claims and begin to rebuild the board of education's at this point almost completely depleted medical and dental reserve account. In this next slide, we provided this visual representation of the increasing cost of claims over the last four years as well as the significant depletion of our medical and dental reserve account. You will note that in the 2024 2025 school year that this was the year that a reduction following the first referendum prior to that year, a reduction to the board of education budget of 950,000 was made. This coupled with significantly higher than projected claims resulted in approximately $2.2 million of the reserve being utilized that particular year. And that's your second column you'll note. So you'll see the gap, the 9.7 and that gap. And as you can see that depletion of the reserve.
010Additionally, in the current year, the reserves are again being heavily relied on with a current projection of just under $9,000 being left in our medical and dental reserve account by year's end. Again, this is a projection. In this year's budget, there's also an increase of $277,400 for our workman's compensation. This is driven by an increase in claims which has also impacted our self-funded reserves. Rebuilding this fund has been a direct recommendation from the town and the board of finance. Our annual expenses related to this account over the last three years are $419,925 in annual claims. We would like to point out that this budget in regards to the excess cost grant, we have currently estimated it does net this out of our tuition costs of just over a little bit uh $1 million. As we've
011spoken about previously, this is an estimate. The state has started to come back and in further funding this, but is always a volatile um determination that we have to be prepared for. Taking all of this into account, the board of education approved a 7,630,414 increase, which equates to 11.14%. The next two slides will demonstrate a breakdown of this increase and you will see the far majority majority of it resides in medical and dental insurance and contractual salary increases. In both of these slides, which are also included in the budget book that was provided to the board of finance, is a waterfall of the costs that show exactly how the 11.14% is distributed across our major drivers. Both this slide which actually shows the dollar amount and the following slide which shows the percentage amount. And
012as again once you once again you can see the large the single largest impacting factor is the increase in necessary medical and dental insurance as projected by Brown and Brown. If you were to actually remove this hypothetically as well as contractually obligated salaries the total increase is 1.47%. if you were to remove those two drivers or roughly $774,523. Finally, we turn to our capital projects. It is important to note that the following items are not funded within the board of education's operating budget, but are critical infrastructure needs. The time I'll hold by going not going through one by one, but I will state that our high priority capital needs total in just over $1 million. This includes major maintenance like the high school HVAC chiller replacement at $43,000 or the gym replacement floor estimated at
013$650,000 as well as essential security modifications and technology infrastructure across all schools. These investments are vital to keeping our building safe and functional for our students. Concludes our presentation this morning. Thank you for your time. >> Um there was a well I got to make a statement here first. Um, this is a really challenging year for reasons, but one of the reasons is we as a board of finance has not seen financials from the board of ed in a very long time. We're kind of flying in the dark as to what's going on and how your actuals are. So, I'm just wondering why we haven't received our monthly um financials. And my other question is, is your board board seeing the financials? Cuz we're kind of in the dark right now as to what your
014position is. >> So, um, last financial reports you would have received would have been from our December board of education meeting. That's the last formal meeting that we've held. The board of education, we've not had a formal meeting in January to finance. >> We [clears throat] would have gotten that our January meeting and we didn't get that. So we haven't received anything since the end of November. >> Correct. That is correct. >> So why is that? Because honestly it to look at this and to I have no frame of reference and I'm going to speak for myself. Other members can check check in. I don't know where you are right now. I don't know what your struggles are right now for an actual basis. So it's hard for me to reconcile what you need. But
015I don't know what's happening, what you are doing currently. So I would ask that we get those reports monthly. We always got them at our board of finance meetings and ahead of time if the questions we could reach out, but we're kind of in the dark and >> we understand that. But as a practice, we share our financial reports with the board of education prior to sharing them with the board of finance. We have not done that because the board has held workshops for the past month. >> Okay. But this is going month this is going pre months ago too. It's not just recent it's been month haven't really seen them. So my ask is that this board hasn't seen the actuals and they can attest to what we talk about it on our meetings.
016[clears throat] We haven't seen reports. So we need to get those monthly in time for our board of finance meeting so we could look at them and if we have questions we need to go back to you guys. but we're not seeing them. So that's that's that's my statement. It's hard for me to know what your struggles are now are now. What what's overfunding because of XYZ? I have no visibility. We have no visibility to see that. [cough and clears throat] So all I would ask is that you could get those reports >> Yeah. >> to finance so we could get them for our meetings. >> I think we did get some for for November. Yeah, but it's been Yeah, it's kind of inconsistent. I just want to make sure it's consistent. >> Okay. Other
017members want to >> Yeah. My challenge has been comparing what was budgeted for 2025 to 2026 with the numbers that you presented in your package. one in particular. Um I I thought the budgeted number for um salaries was 40,641. Um here I'm looking at 4842. I don't know what, you know, granted it's only a couple hundred,000 dollar difference, but that's what I'm trying to compare apples to apples. >> Are you just just a clarifying question, sir? Are you looking at both salaries and non-sarying payroll as a combination? >> Just salaries. >> Okay. So we would also >> the non-sary payroll number I had was 1,117 opposed to 901 [clears throat] unless I don't have a good unless I don't have a good budget numbers. >> Uh you're likely looking at revised versus original. >> Um
018I thought I was looking at the approved. So what happens is there's always an approved budget. The second gets [clears throat] approved and then historically what's been provided to both the board of ed and board of finance is a revised budget because budget transfers occur which are approved by the board board of education every other month. >> Okay. >> And so what happens is we what's been historically provided is a revised budget for the new year. >> Okay. >> So it's revised budget. So in total it's still the approved budget. The line items have changed. could have been $200,000. >> Do we receive that? >> Do we ever get those numbers? >> So, the monthly financials I'm sorry budget. >> Okay. I I think I think what Bob is looking at if I'm looking at
019the same thing right now the numbers you use for comparison between the two years you adjust it to whatever shifts you may have made during the process so it doesn't give them something that's compare >> apples to apples they're looking at apples and oranges >> so they need [clears throat] to kind of >> but historically apples provided >> um >> no but we have in the past years we have original budget compared to original uh proposed budget. >> Yeah, >> that's what has been actually >> proposed. Yes. >> So, yeah, if if there's a way of >> even it looks like one of the things that was maybe it looks like they're contingency 179 maybe you spread it out someplace else. >> So, if you can that way it gives them the comparison they can
020make for looking at apples [clears throat] and apples. I think that's what Bob's getting at >> if it's an easy fix. >> That's just running a different report. >> Okay. Okay. All right. >> Yep. >> Oh, yeah. I see what you're saying now, too. If if if they're looking at percentage changes, they're having a problem correlating it because the numbers aren't the same >> or the the bucket's not the same >> as previous, right? >> They need a baseline. If it's just a matter of generating another report, if you can send it, we'll send it to members on Monday. >> Okay. I have another question. Um, this is just for information. Christian, you've been here for quite a while. Um, Howard was here before and now there's two of you. So, I'm just trying to
021understand, you always had one person. what's the need for two and like what do what you guys really do? >> So, we've never just had one. How are we originally? Uh I was the director of finance, transportation, operations, food services and oversaw a lot of facilities as well. Um when Howard left, we reorganized central office to have a chief operating officer that had a educational lens um on that side. We always had a finance person assisting Howard. Um, similar to the Rich and Ingred model, similar to many districts around, the chief operating officer >> handles operations. Howard's position is finance manager is strictly finance. >> And you're basically operations. There's finance and then there's other issues that you're dealing with. Is that what you're saying? So that's why there's two. Okay. That was not clear
022to me in the past. So I appreciate that. >> Of course. And Howard's position is finance director >> manager. He does not evaluate anyone. >> Okay. Because when I looked him up, he was director of finance and operations and human resources, human services here from 2020 to 23 and then he went to Oxford and then he came back here in July of this year. Um, and what I have seen is that his title is finance director. >> He's finance manager. And how is he being paid currently? Out of what bucket? Because it's not in the budget. >> So it's not a clerical, right? It's it's currently under the clerical line. >> Clerical. Do we want to get into I don't know if anybody has any questions but there was an email talking about Brown Brown.
023Um do you want to ask a question? >> Uh yes. Um [clears throat] thanks everyone for showing up today. You all got your coffee. Um the uh we sent some chairman Dhini is not here today and uh and he sent over a lot of the same questions that we all have and I want to thank you very much for responding in some way to those questions. It was uh it was it was helpful. It was a good start. Um, but before we get into the medical, could I just ask the overall >> Yeah. >> question here of uh that I don't think was answered I don't know if you answered it in in any of the emails is that you had four different scen scenarios in terms of budgets um with different levels of of
024increase and uh of the four you you you chose the 11 the 11.4 for um yeah uh okay 5.99 6.71 9.77 and 114. So why did you select the 11.14 and what is the difference between that and say the uh one of the um uh one of the the the other midpoints say the the 6.71. Um, was there a 6.71 that you thought somehow in in some situation you could uh tolerate? >> We have been council. >> Yeah. >> Um, the purpose of the board of education is to oversee the public school system and determine what we are necessary to run it effectively. We were presented with options ranging from, you know, the mid 5% to the mid 11% range. We spent several nights discussing these options. Part of the mid 5% 6% range included
025us not honoring contractual obligations to our teachers, which was an absolute non-starter for the board of education. Um some of the other options included not requesting the additional positions that you see in your budget which we determined were a need and not want for our special education. So when all comes down to it, we considered all of the options and decided that the purpose of the board of education is to request what is needed to run a school district. And in our estimation, the 11.14% is needed to run the school district. >> Uh okay. So um the again just just going to the I mean you cleared the four scenarios so I don't know why you considered things that were unrealistic or whatever but um >> because we were going to get questions. So this
026I mean we this is not our first our first rodeo. We've done this this dance for several years now. And I'd also just like to bring up really quickly one other thing that did definitely color the decision was an analysis that my son performed. My seventh graders performed a 10-year inflationary analysis and looked at real dollar spending. So inflationary analysis based on the consumer um price index tells us how much buying power we have as a board of education. If you look over the past 10 years, the North Haven Board of Education fewer real dollars than we did 10 years ago. We have $972,000 less according to the consumer price index. The town side of the budget has seen a 13.59% increase in real dollar. I'm certainly not saying that the town side of the
027budget is not required >> over 10 years in real dollars. I am certainly not saying that the town side of the budget is not well managed. But what I am saying is that the board of education has been doing more with less for several years and we are not overspending inflationary. We are under our real dollars that we were at 10 years ago. >> Okay. >> And we address. >> All right. We may have more follow-up question on the other. >> We may have >> I can't see Amanda. better. >> I mean, Inger can char. [laughter] But I mean, dollar for dollar, year for year, the board of ed spends more dollars than the town does. >> You agreed to that? >> So, not wait, we get 49.7% of the total budget. >> No. Um,
028>> two different ways, right? You can get like >> Well, let me let me hit you with let me hit you with this. One of the big driving factors which is over 10 million on the town sign is debt service. I'm aware >> board of ed is twothirds of our debt. >> So if you back out I can give you numbers. >> I I actually have debt service from all the districts in our here too. We we are >> I'm just No, I'm just talking about debt service compared to the town. >> Yeah. Um those two lines are basically pretty consistent and there is a significant higher dollar amount um board of ed cost to the town compared to town. >> Okay. So I'm losing where you were going then >> dollar for dollar the
029board of ed spends more than the town side does. >> That's that's that. So dollar for dollar. True. Right. >> Okay. But expecting a 50/50 equation is out of line with what is standard within our district reference groups. Most districts spend about 58 to 65% of their total dollars on the board of education. We are in the bottom four of our district. [snorts] >> Yes, >> we'll let you take >> I'll share with you some numbers if I can get our [clears throat] hands on it. But >> the dollars that is much it's it's not a 50/50 split when you when you >> It's not supposed to be >> No. Well, I thought Yeah, we probably are closer to that 6040 split >> when you when you adjust debt. >> I will gladly perform that.
030I think I can >> I have it. I can get it to when this meeting's over. >> But it's not I I don't think >> and consumer price index you talk about buying goods board of 90% is the standard for inflationary >> they're not buying product just like everybody else >> but they the majority of their cost is labor >> and consumer price index impacts labor cost like that's the main driver for >> the two of us are the same in our labor cost. I'll share some numbers after the meeting. I don't want to take up your feet. Okay, >> I'll share something with you and I think you might get a different perspective. >> My biggest question to you guys is how are we supposed to sell this to the town of North Haven?
031>> Is that why you gave us the 11cent increase to start with cuz you know it's never going to pass at a referendum. >> We gave the board approved the 11.14% because that's what's needed to run the district. >> I understand that. >> When earlier in the presentation, Mr. Strickland stated that we're without salaries and without insurance. We're asking for a 1.4% increase. That's extremely minimal. We're we've shaved off everything we could in order to run this keep this district operating. Um and Mr. Holling, back to your question regarding the scenarios, our responsibility to the board of education is to provide them context. walking in with 11.14% without context is not fair to the board of education and it's not fair to the board of finances as well. So to show the different options of
032what could possibly be cut whether it's a a salary freeze or you know reduce our our staff that's important to show the board important to show all of you that we have no other options to go with here. So that's why the board approved the 11.14% in order to maintain what we have. This is not a want budget. This is solely a need budget. You had mentioned what other towns, even towns in our DUR do and in most other towns you have a superintendent's budget and then you have a slightly reduced board of education budget and what I noticed in going through every single line in this budget is that there's 100% uh equality between the superintendent's request and the board of education. I'm very proud of Board of Education. They're supporting our district like
033that. >> So there was there were no discussions among the board of ed in which there were any >> anyone that said discussions with the board of education >> in which they disagreed with you >> on some things? Sure. >> We they act uh the board asked us after the first meeting to go back and sit with every department and every school principal to see what could be done. Um, and we sat for hours with each of them combined and maybe a quarter of a percent we were able to shave off maybe. >> Mhm. >> Um, and that's that's leaving instructional supplies as is in every building. That's not real. The cost of goods are rising. We cannot run a school district solely on instructional supplies that we paid for last year. The same cost.
034It's it's we're automatically getting less. So, yeah, we we went in depth with the board of education. So, I'm sorry if that was not clear. >> Um, so Patrick or let me say to the audience here that, you know, Patrick, myself, Christian, Ron Bath, Rich Monaco, we we have a lot of meetings and a lot of discussions. It's really a collaborative relationship. But recently I spoke with Patrick and Ron and uh Rich and Christian. The union leadership has come requesting a meeting and union leadership has asked to see me regarding moving to the state insurance plan and um I never have a meeting like that without getting it cleared through the administration, the superintendent and the board of education. So I'm um scheduled to call Christa Kaplan. Okay. was uh well we have a great
035relationship with you Anthony and Kristen but until you tell me that we should meet I I haven't made that commitment but question is what is the interition from the union leadership that is suggesting that there's significant cost savings in moving to a state plan versus our plan just to give a free answer the question if that ever happened we would have an increase on the town side because the whole coalition of insurance that we have through ACES is based on aggra purchasing power reducing administrative costs because of the volume of of groups that we have in it. So but the first question is what is interpretation I would suggest that board of ed should go to a state plan. So we've been in active dialogue looking at the proposal in conversations with Mr. Monaco for
036what actual cost savings it was it was proposed to us as well Mr. Freda, we've been analyzing this. We haven't had an active dialogue with union leadership yet in terms of our interpretation. We've actually reached out to our actuaries as well. It's a multitude of things that need to be considered. You, for example, um develop a poll on your ACT membership. Um but when you switch to a state plan, you have to really start to consider how many individuals in um our various bargaining units might then choose to switch when that occurs, which could actually offset any actualized savings. you also have to consider um I'm sure as you know hirees and how that plays out into the into the equation. So we're still assessing that um and so not having had that dialogue previously
037with having received that leadership we are looking into that um as as you know that was brought forward by union leadership at that time but it would certainly have to be brought forward to the board of education first before any determination could be made. You know, I'm always open to having those these discussions, but I really this is why I brought this up because I need the I need to be uh asked by the union board of ed to do such. But having been involved with insurance for many many years, the other thing happened is and uh North Haven was a good example on the town side before I took office. uh there was a switch in the insurance moving from Anthem to Connecticut and it was it was a disaster because in that in
038that situation back in 200 let's say it was seven the whole plan design for the union changes and that would that's my concern as agreeing to the meeting this is why I was asking for this group and in particular you know again we have a great relationship here to be uh authorized to do that so to speak so any change in in moving to the state plan could adversely affect the design, the benefits, the networks, the doctors before any change like that could ever be made. But the the issue is the reason I'm bringing it up. When we look at the numbers, we see the tremendous increase based on claims history that we have. Those are accurate numbers as supplied by Brown and Brown. I think this coming year is 12 12.3 million. So and
039the other thing is important for the public watching is that we cannot um consistently uh ignore the actuarial analysis in terms of what the claims history are or claims history is. So that's number one. Number two, I want special if if I could. Okay. So, um, when we look at the 70% reimbursement and then I want to get into something else regarding energy cost because Patrick and I had this discussion. Um, when we look at um, special ed, I've been invited to go to Hartford on Friday uh, February 5th and uh, with the Democratic leadership, by the way, in a bipartisan fashion, Democratic leadership at the state level. So, I've been invited uh as one of seven other mayors across the state to address a lot of issues and one of the issues will be
040special ed. So, when we look at the numbers here, I think there's an 18,000 difference between what we should be getting and what we're not getting. Let's say I think it's 18,000. So if we were able to move the needle from 70% to 85%. >> What would that mean in terms of incremental dollars back to the board of ed? >> Or maybe we we we don't need to uh answer this now. Maybe if you can before before Friday give me what it would be at 75% 80% 85% to see what the incremental uh revenue would be on the reimbursement for special ed versus 70% that we ser that we already have. That would be helpful. And lastly, just so everyone knows that when we look at these uh we can put that slide back up
041on energy but the five-year capital plan. So had a conversation with Patrick the other day um and I'd like to and I think we can do it. I have a lot of contacts as you know. One of which is uh regarding performance contracts that can satisfy some of these energy efficient requests in the capital by financing it over a 17-year period. taking it out of the capital budget and financing it between the difference between what the new energy cost would be if we were to implement all these things versus what the current energy cost is. So the the beauty of this is we're one of the few uh municipalities that's ever done this and I spoke to a statewide mayor's meeting and half threearters of my colleagues didn't even know this exists. So if we
042can identify the real needs here, we might I'm going to set up a meeting with Patrick Christian. Ron, you're welcome to come in. Rich Monaco, we might be able to finance a lot of this and taking it out of the >> Mike. Didn't we do this years ago? >> We did seven. We did about 13 years ago with Johnson Control. This is this is a u >> a revitalization of that. I've got these other contacts that are willing to help us with this. What I'd love to do, and I don't know, it may be a stretch, the $650,000 on the replacement for gym floor. Can there be any energy efficiency savings through a new gym floor? Because that's a big number right there. >> Maybe think about that for me, too. Okay. Okay. >> I
043do think it's important to recognize though that with that support, which would be wonderful, these numbers are not a part of the budget that you're looking at. >> No, I know that. So even by doing all of those um additional fundings that you're talking about, which again would be >> great, um it doesn't help that bottom line that we're presenting today. It helps overall and over time for sure, but it does not affect that 11%. >> No, I understand that. What I'm trying to do is plan for the future. >> Yeah. No, I appreciate that. I just want to make sure that everybody understands that. >> Our big thing right now is the health insurance. you know that that's that's the the 12.3 million. So that's why I asked the question about the state plan
044and what is the actual what is the actual uh number that would be associated with the state plan that the union leadership thinks it may be versus what we're faced with here at 12.3 million. >> Thank you for the push for the support in the special education system. Prices are extremely high. We want to do what's best for the kids. So, do we want to go and talk about the Brown and Brown situation, the email? Yeah. >> Yep. >> Yeah. >> Mr. H, take it away. >> Um, yeah, it's it is unfortunate the the hole that we find ourselves in here with the uh with the insurance program. Um, you know, we always want it to be funded adequately so that we don't fall behind. That's the whole purpose of reserves too is also to
045to cover us in certain situations. Um, but this this problem started uh I think a little ways back and um I I've been raising a red flag about it for for quite a little while here uh within the latest audit that we received um from our friends there at um Clifton Lawson and Allen um in the last fiscal year the last full fiscal year uh 20 it's 24-25. It states uh in their report that uh for the education, dental and medical fund expenses exceeded revenues by 2,819,088. Is is do you believe that's an accurate figure? >> This one? >> Yep. Right there. Uh yeah, for 2425 is right. 2425. >> Yep. If you look at that, that's actually when I pointed that out um in the presentation. You'll notice the gap there that you see.
046It's the second column. Um and we can tilt that. So, you are you are correct. Um we had to rely on reserves approximately $2.2 million that year. That was a combination of two factors. Um going back from a historical context point you recall from that year um the feeding into that year we had to go to a second referendum. So the board of education had to was requested to make a $950,000 reduction. Um while determinations in reduction to a budget are always the final determination of the board. There was heavy recommendation that we should look at at the time if you look at the prior year the reserves were healthfunded at 3.2 million. So that the general idea that was communicated to the board is we could take a cut in what we were asking
047for our medical and dental absorb that cut based upon projections for that year. Unfortunately the projections were did not come to par. Um we saw a substantial increase in medical and dental claims that year coupled with the fact that that $950,000 was effectively coming out of the reserve as well. So the difference you see there and why the reserves were so significantly depleted was a combination of those two factors. >> Right. But you still completed that year with a surplus. Correct. >> $267,000. >> Can you repeat that again? >> 2425 ended with a board of ed surplus. >> Unutilized funds. Yes. >> Unutilized funds. I would >> That's separate from the reserves. I totally understand. I totally understand. >> Yes, that is correct. you you could have chosen to to deplete that line item and
048use less of the reserve funds if you wanted. Is that is that correct? when you ended up that fiscal year with something in the bank account, something on that line item, $260,000 or whatever, you you because of the expenses associated with that line, you actually could have expended that entire line rather than using reserves to satisfy whatever bills, whatever cost remained in 2425. So as the year 2425 progressed, we actually did um freeze the budget as we were very transparent on due to a multitude of factors predominantly on a high level unexpected special education costs, the uh public benefit fees that we all were hit with in electricity. And so as we projected out the year, we with that final payment in an effort not to come to the town for a separate appropriation at
049that time. that excess unutilized funds currently does sit in our non-lapsing fund. It will be up board of education to make final determination where that goes, but there's um considerable dialogue right now going on that that would in fact go right back towards the medical and dental reserve. >> Yeah. >> Which was the recommendation of the board of finance >> some some time ago. Correct. >> Yeah. >> Uh well, no, we recommended it go to workman's comp. >> Oh, that's right. I'm I'm terribly sorry. You're you're you're correct. We recommended women's cop and and then the board actually recommended splitting it. >> The board of education. >> Yeah. So your your reserve amounts up there for for 23 24 that that's at the end of the year uh 3.2 million down to 986,000. So that
050to me that seems to indicate really a a a change of about 2.3 million as opposed to the 2.9 that is listed in the CLT audit. But nevertheless, I I was saying during that time that I my numbers were coming in saying that it was it was a $2 million uh loss or or um expense in in in excess of revenues for the dental medical and that's um certainly quite quite a miss there on that. So the the problem I that that got compounded is that I don't know what what information or what uh advice you were getting from Brown and Brown, but in the budget that followed in the in the current year's budget, you asked for a 0% increase in that line item. Zero. Even though it was three almost $3 million in
051the red for that for the 2425 year. Is were you was the advice you're getting either correct or were you you ignore it or what? How did this happen now? And because of that, how how how much in the red how do you expect the that that line item to be at the end of this? So, um, in addressing that question, and I may have some of, um, the board of education compound, uh, jump into my answer here, but going back one year, um, as Superintendent Sturk spoke to earlier when he presented his budget, um, to the board of education last year at this time, um, the actual amount was included in that particular presentation. The board of education made some incredibly difficult decisions last year in terms of trying to reduce the total ask
052in order to get a budget approved quite frankly. And so at that time uh the board of education and this was shared during our presentation last year made a determination at that time that they would continue to rely on the reserves to address the differencing that would come about this year. This year we are doing our best in looking at any actualized savings. We have frozen the budget again this year in an effort to make sure that we play all of our claims in the current fiscal year, but as mentioned, that will likely deplete our reserves down to just under $9,000. That would be remarkable if you could do that. Um, again, you know, I I I don't know if it was a just a bad claim year that you you had in 2425 or
053whether it's a trend that's going to continue in the in in the current year. It was very bad. Yeah. 242 25 was not it. The projections versus what actually occurred were quite off. >> Yeah. Um on average, how much do employees contribute to health insurance? Is there a certain percentage? >> 22 to 25. The board of ed >> between 22 and 25%. I shouldn't jump. It's okay. of of the total cost. Yeah. Um and that gets taken out of of of each uh paycheck that they receive, right? And so so is that why there's no I you've you've given us charts before um uh or or numbers before that show no employee contributions during the summer. So they correct they so there's there's no if they get paid for 10 months or or whatever there's
054there's no money coming in in July and August is that >> benefits are taken out of 20 of their pays. So if a an employee elects to utilize uh payments over 26 um those those payments particular summer pays as you alluded to deduct not taken out of them for those benefits. >> Yeah. So your um your operating account acts as your reserve fund. That is the the amount reserves that you declare is whatever is unspent in your operating account for insurance and that line item in in whatever insurance fund you you run. So in the operating account so each year we place in um what whatever the the proposed amount is and we send a check over to the town monthly cuz that I'm booked. So we're feeding that reserve account and then all of
055the claims come out of it. >> Yeah. Okay. So you Okay. So the reserve account is your operating account. This is what you spend money on claims for. You don't have a a separate reserve account where sometimes you'll move money into into and out of an operating account. So you don't run two accounts, run a single account. >> Yeah. That's >> it's two bank accounts. We have to cut a check out of our operating account, send it to the town who then deposits it into on their books, the bank account for the reserve account. It's two separate bank accounts. Has nothing to do with our operating account. Operating account has an expense, right? So, there's two sides of this this this equation. There's the reserve account that sits on the town's books and then there's
056the operating account over here with our expenses. We put in a line item in that expense. We cut the check off of that line item. Check is made out to the treasur town of North Haven. It is then deposited into their book into their bank account on their books. Has nothing to do with our operating account other than what we funded the line we funded from. >> Same works for workers compensation monthly. I may have some questions about that in the future, but in one of the the uh the reports that you give us um it's a it seems to be a single number of what the whatever the balances in unpaid ex um expenses versus revenue. So, um, but again, I'll spread that >> the one I had problems with 6932 693. >> Yeah.
057Yeah. It was just just for historical purposes. I started that report back in 2021 simply because the data I was being given from the town was inaccurate and I had to reconcile the account every month to make sure that was uh all right. Um I just a note on the on some of the the charts that you sent to us um in in response to Mr. Dohane's questions here. uh you you you sent us this this uh budget or budget >> projection or something. Yeah. >> Just just to clarify, I think that uh for the the one that says budget fiscal year 2627, I think the top section was not fully labeled that the top section had to do with the current fiscal year 2526. >> You are accurate. We we clarified that in our
058responses yesterday and sent the backup document. >> Yeah. Um okay. And the same thing of course went with the page that for the previous year or the current fiscal year 25 26 at the top section had to do with 2425. It's the same it's the same chart >> the same uh information but for a different correct. Okay. Um, and by the way, the the workman's comp page that you the workman's comp numbers that you gave us, for some reason, it's labeled at the top medical and dental and then and it's labeled a second time another line medical and dental. >> So, we were talk so that's that's literally the spreadsheet I just talked to you that I developed in 21 medical. talking about change. >> So it's just the workers it's the workers comp. >>
059Okay. >> All right. You know you know where the delete key is, right? Make those changes. >> We do. Thank you. >> Um >> yeah. So for the the for the one that says uh 2627 um the the numbers uh at the at the bottom. Now that has to do the whole lower section is just is it act is it is it actual expenses because it says projected through 103125 is this whole lower section just what what historically has occurred in the last 12 months. >> No. So the bottom section is is the projection for 27 claims is through 1031 and 2025. That's how that's how the actuaries go about it. They take a period of time comes in and they project those out in the future year. That's why the 1031 is on there.
060You see another other you see different dates. That's the date the claims are utilized by the actuaries to then project what they're talking about. So that bottom section is all of what is being projected for the full year starting July 26 going to June 30th 2027. Okay. Commission from Brown and Brown. >> Yeah. Um now you have a a a finance uh committee that you work to, right? Your >> Yeah. And we we have been asking for some um some more specific figures on on what the monthly changes are to uh your your reserve account or your operating account or whatever it is uh based on uh you know contributions based on um uh claims paid and everything else. So, we we're trying we're trying really to get it because when a when a when
061an account continuously runs millions of dollars or or a high percentage in the red and and we get the the monthly reports and we're supposed to look at them and we we we obviously comment on them. What does your finance committee say when when when this when this medical and dental is is running in in in in uh in such a negative fashion? I'm chair of our finance committee. I watch all the board of finance meetings and I address your questions in the public board of ed meeting sessions. You are welcome to come to board of ed meetings anytime. All of our finance subcommittee meetings are also public. Mr. Halan, I also know you happen to have my phone number which any is welcome to reach out to me on. As far as running in
062the red from a reserve perspective, it makes us all deeply uncomfortable. My dear friend Joe Salamini, who couldn't be here today, has been banging the drum on increasing our reserves for years. We were in a position where it was either um lean heavily on reserves to do what we thought was the best thing possible or potentially f more direct cuts. So we do this calculus every month. We look at this every month except for January when we have workshops. You are more than welcome teachings and ask question to us. We will get you the answer. Absolutely. >> Yeah. Um we do like data and some of the data is is more explanatory than others, but uh we've been told by Mr. Monaco that that this that this board can receive at least as much as
063what the finance committee gets uh on a monthly basis on the board of ed finance. >> What I said. So my my question to you is what what information are is provided to to you and your committee then >> on on a monthly basis >> whenever I ask for committee information Howard, Christian, Patrick are happy to apply. I I never feel like >> I mean within the the reg you get regular monthly reports that you also my understanding is that you also receive them. we get regular reports, but I also will email the um the team fairly regularly with additional questions so they can come here answer in a session. Um and I I find that I get answers when I ask for them. You're you're welcome to send me questions as well if you'd
064like and I'm happy. >> No, but then all you receive is this is this is uh the the 692 report. >> Do we get that regularly? Yes. >> Do you get more than this? >> Yes, we get more than that. >> Okay. Well, just as an example, why don't you just send us what you've received in the last meeting and then and we can look it over. >> We Well, that's true, but like whatever happens in the finance subcommittee is in >> I don't think anybody's trying to hide anything. If you have a specific question, I'm happy to ask you a specific answer >> above and beyond formatting issues. If you have issues with formatting, I'm more than happy to help you interpret those. >> All right. Just just I do not like the 692
065report. It's an awful report. >> Let's let's there's there's blank lines and there's there's entry numbers that don't correspond sometimes to uh complete budgets that we can. >> I'm not struggling with the report, but if you are, we are happy to make adjustments that you can. >> I think we need to we need to sidebar. We need to talk about the report and we don't need to keep going. >> All right. How about if I how about if I if I can just interject here cuz uh I want to try to bring this back to a u a collaborative discussion between the two foreign people here because what I'm about to tell you is what we're all faced with together in this meeting and even those watching on TV. So right now with all the
066requests on town and board of ed side including the insurance numbers we're at a 3.5 mil tax increase. Now, I'm going to tell you something that I don't think anyone knows. Um, and that's this. Rich and I just talked about this late yesterday. So, the grand list numbers came in and, uh, it's not a bad grand list increase probably going to probably going to be reported to the state about 2.7%. This is after, which is almost remarkable. This is after the offsets. So just so everyone knows the way this works is that in a coming off a 39.5% rebal this past year created that taxing because of that for every city and town that went through rebal uh there's appeals both residents and from businesses. So the net for us after the appeals is about
0672.7%. And that yields approximately $3.3 million in incremental revenue for the town, which in a in a normal year without these types of uh non-discretionary increases, it's really a remarkable year. But when we look at the 14 million and then we subtract 3.3 million approximately, we're still at a 2.8% >> 2.8 mill rate. 2.8 mill rate >> increase. >> Now, also uh and I'm not sure if it came from this room, and this is this is just a question there. There's a there there could be a request coming in to me to split the budget on the town side and the and the board side. We've never done that. I'm not even sure if we can. I'm not even sure if the charter allows it, but I understand this it's bubbling up somewhere. So, so
068the question is even after the incremental grand list growth, can we collectively, this isn't board of ed versus board of finance. Can we collectively sell a 2 mil a 2.8 mil rate increase? It's a rhetorical question right now, but I'll give you my opinion. After the last couple years, I don't think we could sell it. So, what do we do? Even if the town stripped $3 million worth of capital out, we're still over a 2 mill increase. And by stripping the two million or $3 million roughly worth of capital, then those are sanitation trucks. You know, there there's fire trucks that we have to pay for. How do we get around a 2.8 mil increase? I'm not asking for an answer. is something we have to consider here. I don't think I don't think we
069can [music] get it done. I'm talking collectively here. So, we talk about qu you know this is why I'm trying to bring it back as a as a whole here. Okay? Rather than go back and forth on this because we're all here in this room faced with this issue that I just presented and I'm not sure what the answer is how we can do it. We all have to think about it collectively. Okay. as we're at. >> Any other comments from the members? Yeah, I I have some uh sort of specific questions because again, as was mentioned before, what each of us was faced with doing was looking at the 2027 request, comparing that not just budget, but also with the actuals from 2425 and then also comparing where we are to date for that
070given line item in the current fiscal year, which is 25 26. So we're at a little bit of a disadvantage because we're almost in February and the numbers that we have are through the end of November. But um I I would like to ask just the very first line item which is uh salary contingency. So last year we were told this was in the budget um uh at $275,000 and I noticed that it actually went to zero or was revised. uh the the budget was re revised for that line item back to zero um I think in November uh and now you're requesting an additional $176,000 for salary contingency. I just wondered if you could provide some context for this. >> Sure. This year's salary contingency line request actually increases um we're actually about to
071enter into negotiations with our custodial contract. So um their their wages pending the the bargaining will increase. So we have an increase in there as well as um anticipated minimum wage increase which will come one year from now for all of our part-time employees. This is also where the just over $12,000 for the coaching stipens um is also housed. That >> and again this this line item was just created last year for the first time. So, where did you pay for all of these things that you just mentioned previously? >> Can you repeat the question? I'm sorry. >> So, this line item, salary contingency, didn't exist before the current fiscal year's budget. So, I I think I remember that this was created in order to accommodate the registered behavioral technicians that were being retrained this
072year. Uh, and that was a big part of it. Mhm. >> We were also at that time again in contract negotiations. So placing >> we don't know exactly, you know, we're going to come to the bargaining table with anticipated increases. So that's where we place those. Right. >> Last year we were still at that time. >> Um nurses contract, the RBT um growth that we had also placed in there. >> Um I can go back and look because I don't have that book in front of me, but there are some other smaller pieces in there as well. But it is primarily designed to house the the uh minimum wage increase that will trip January 1 next year as well as the result of contract negotiations which have not begun yet groups that are scheduled to
073begin. >> Right. So I guess my question is prior to this year's budget, what how did you account for those things that you've just described? Because on the town side of the budget, we just make a forecast for increases in salary. Uh if we're renegotiating contracts, we have a personnel and policy department or line item that accounts for um uh back pay for contractual increases. So I guess I'm still trying to understand exactly what was done prior to the creation of this line item. Sure. >> Let me give you a shot. Um, sure. >> So, salary contingency was just an effort to be more accurate in our budgeting. Prior to that, we wouldn't necessarily account for that the increases like we do now. Occasionally, we we'd pull from, you know, we'd hire teachers or employees
074at a lower rate from teachers that have retired and see some savings there and that would go and it wouldn't be as accurate. Now we have this cont this contingency which we can um put in our our uh negotiations or stipens or whatever to be more to be more direct and accurate for us in our planning and for you to see where those increases might be. We weren't as accurate as prior prior years, >> right? Cuz cuz all all we see we don't see where it goes. We just see that that is zero. So we don't see that it's gone from this line item to >> Yeah. and spread in different yeah >> where it goes sort of to the point that I was saying I don't really get a sense for that um and
075then um speaking of the registered behavioral technicians um I guess this is item 112 S's and um it looks like there's about a 410% increase from the current fiscal year to the 27 budget um wondered if you provide some context because again if you add that the current year's budget is $75,000 and you even if you add the entire amount of the sal contingency, it still doesn't get up to the what you're asking for. >> It is a but it is a um this coming year is a where we did is we actually shifted the 10 RBTs that were in the salary contingency last year. That's now where that those individuals get paid out of. >> Right. But I'm saying even if you added those two numbers together, the $75,000 from from the current budget
076plus the entirety of the $275,000, you still wouldn't come up with this 381. >> Right. But the the if I'm understanding your question accurately, Lindsay, the entire salary contingency from last year didn't it wasn't all RBTs. Is that >> No, I I understand. So So how do we go from 75 to 381? 10 RBTs at $38,000 131 uh 31 annual salary. So >> yeah, >> 10 10 time 31 is >> 38131. >> Oh, sorry. 381. Is that what you said? >> 38131. >> Oh, sorry. Okay. So that's not what we expected for the current fiscal year, right? There must have been some big jump in their salary from the fiscal year to the next. It's it's what we uh negotiated with the union. It's a it's a position within the upsuit bargaining contract. So effectively
077what we did was we took >> that were already there. >> They were already getting paid at X amount of dollars and the salary contingency helped cover the difference between those. That's how that's being fund this year. >> Then you backfilled those paras or we no longer have those paras, >> right? It the best way to describe is an RBT. We we kind of classify that almost as special forces para educators. They're higher trained. They've received a higher level of training. So they can do both a par educator assignment and the RBT. So we don't have to back build. They've now expanded their skill set and be um assigned to students where uh the RBT services are identified within their IEP. >> Right. So then the [clears throat] total salary is reduced then by they
078were originally paid as parents. Correct. >> Not necessarily. We we may >> then we're double paying. >> No, no, no. We may have been hiring additional pair pair of educator. >> That's my question. Right. It's whether you're going to back fill, right? >> But not we don't not it's not always a one to one to one. >> Okay. >> Um let's see what other questions do I have. Um let's see on pages. I know that uh Chairman Donnie asked quite a bit about um uh the transportation fees, but of course they're broken out into individual line items. So, uh I guess on paper budget it's line items 510 uh G is in golf and 510H as in hotel. Um it looks like these are some really substantial jumps in uh transportation for VOAG school and
079transportation for ECA magnet of like 165% and 450%. There's some big uptick in participation that you're expecting in both VOAG and ECA participation. >> Yeah, it's a bad location. This is a reallocation for the proper allocation of fun. So if you look if you're going if you look at year over year >> right the allocation last year is incorrect in total it's correct for the schools but it was allocating correctly by so you're going to get a false increase this year when you allocated >> that was the 197 that he was talking about in that email. No, >> no, this is >> so vag was is budgeted this year at 85 and you're requesting 225 and in 2425 you spent about 78,000 it >> correct and you can see regular transportation went down by 4%.
080So again you're taking it line by line but the allocation year over year was correct last year. So OAG could have varied in the regular transportation line where it should have been in and it should have been fully in its own line. So when I went through and reallocated properly this year, you're going to get these in incorrect percentage increases and decreases that don't truly reflect what the cost of transportation is. It hasn't gone up. There is actually an extra plus in this year that so there is an increased cost there which also complicates the calculation. >> So for that line item the spending at least through November is about $13,000 >> for VOG. again I don't have through up to date on um and likewise for ECA magnet um in 2425 we only we
081spent a little bit under $5,000 the current year's budget is 15 and you're asking for a jump up to 85 which is a $450,000 and thus far this year we've spent about 6800 so there doesn't seem to be a connection between what's happening either in the completed last year >> to date this year mber is 66,000 then you ask for the full year it's going to be about 15 if you do if you just do pro that's a probation you said 6800 through November >> yeah and you're asking for 85 >> so you go through the year you're out for the full year you're going to have about 15,000 which then oversides what we're budgeting for next year >> so so yes it would it would be appropriate for this year's budget at 15 it
082would not be appropriate for next year's budget where you're asking for 85 >> because additionally there's more in there than there's also again there's something that was in a different line in a sped line or something else that fit that was not in there last year that should be in there this year. >> I can get some details if that's a question you have on the details. >> Maybe we can just maybe cut to to the end for a second of it. It looks like the overall transportation is about 4.4%. Is that what your contract drive is driven at 4.4? If you look at it in totals, >> the total is like a 4.4% increase >> and that's contract driven. >> Correct. So what he's what he's saying is his allocation's all screwed up. So
083throw his allocation look at it in totals. It's a four points change increase and that includes contract driven increase plus one additional bus. >> Correct. And we also bill for inind service on the finance department. thought it was funny. [laughter] >> Which that is supported by our town budget >> which is supported by the town side but townside bud button. >> Okay. Um let's see under I guess on one of the last pages last pages uh under tuition uh I'm assuming that this is out of district tuition payments. >> Yes ma'am. >> Okay. So uh again um in uh 2025 uh we budgeted at 1.8 eight and we're actually in excess of that at 2.1 but in the current fiscal year budget we're at 2.9 we've shaved that a bit down to 2.7 [laughter] and
084year to date at least through November is at a about a million so is the expectation that it will be two of those or three of those that two two times the spending through November or three times processing question. >> So, you're you're saying we spent a million dollars through November. >> Mhm. >> Yeah. >> Right. Yeah. Right now, I think it's going to be a little it's going to probably be right on target based on the projection we have, but it's a volatile item. Tuition is a very volatile item. It's one of the most volatile items in this budget. So, it's can we project as best we can think? know about how to get your program to start paying. It's not you can't look. >> And are the tuition payments made, >> you know,
085>> monthly, quarterly? >> Monthly. >> Yeah. And again, I never know whether that's a function of billing or >> how we pay it. >> Yeah. And then it looks like you've added a new line item uh 739C which is called leases. And this is different from rentals correct rentals 440 44 4400 440 44 0 440D 44 43 zero rentals. So that's different from leases. So could you give some context for what leases? >> Sure. So um in our relatively small fleet, uh Mr. Phil Diana has made us aware that we have a 1999 Chevy Silverado which is used for plowing, etc. Um the floorboards have rotted out and it's pretty much on its last legs. Um [clears throat] >> Mike Mur might swap you a vehicle for that one. [laughter] stop sign. >> So, >>
086does it has it has a stop sign welded in for the floor. So, that's where you stop your feet. >> Um, >> another kind service. Thank you. Yeah. >> So, fridges are willing to offer an incind vehicle. >> So, we're so we're leasing a plow. Is that what that is? >> We're not leasing anything yet. It's a proposal to try and >> proposal proposal to replace that vehicle for our grounds and consider that vehicle quite frankly. >> Mhm. Right. Because the board of ed pays for >> we would have to of course the board of ed and then come to you on a on a lease. Well, yeah, we plow >> we plow all all of your own uh parking lots. Got it. >> Okay. >> Um and then um one last question in terms
087of the line items. Um uh the second to last line item 8100 uh organizational dues. Um, again, this has been bumped up from 127 to 134,000. Um, in 2425 we spent about 80,000 on this and year to date we've spent about 55 on this. Is that something that is front end loaded? Is this going to be the organizational due for the year? Is this something that is spread out over over the course of the fiscal year? >> Spread out over the course of the fiscal year. >> Okay. Because usually organizational due I think of as being paid at the very beginning. >> So, so your expectation is they'll there'll be more. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> I have a couple questions. >> Sure. [clears throat] >> Um there's two new assistant coaches for fencing and
088track. Are those new programs now or >> just additional subs? >> It's just so there are other So how many coaches in total? Is it just the two or is it more than that? >> Were those those respective programs? >> Yeah, cuz I Yeah, it just said two assistants. So I was my question is did fencing and track always have programs and now we have people managing those programs or I'm just trying to understand. So, yes, we we have had uh the indoor track program, the fencing program do currently exist, have previously existed. These would be assisting coaches to help out with >> Oh, so there's regular coaches and and existing. That's what I'm trying to figure out. This says assistant. >> Yeah, there's a coach in place for each of those. >> So, there's
089one for Okay. All right. And then I noticed software and that's for all your probes. Like we just talked to the IT guy earlier. I just I'm assuming that's just an increase of what you already have because the license is correct. >> That's correct. >> All right. >> Anybody else have anything else? >> No. No. >> Yeah. One of the points that you made um in your budgetary considerations was the whole idea about institutional supplines that were reduced this year by 17.2%. But uh again in 2425 you only spent about 63% of what was allocated. So is the expectation that there's going to be an increased need for instructional supplies. >> So uh what you're actually referencing the 63% Nancy >> remember we froze our operational budget as of January 1 last year. So that
090effectively there are very few counts that are discretionary at that point. So at that point teachers really started really of January 1 starting to say if you can do without it you have to start doing without it now and so why those lines were not fully expended last year could result of that budget freeze. >> That's a good answer. >> Mhm. And then was it unfrozen at once you got to the last two months of the year because we don't really have any of this uh financial records >> for it was never unfrozen. >> Okay. >> A question. Um what what are our uh what are your projected uh legal fees for the suit against New Haven? >> We do not have that available right now. We're at the beginning stages of opinion in this
091side that right now. >> So, if you could negotiate a settlement that would cut down costs. >> Yeah. If I can jump in on that though, uh the mayor's name called me and we're trying to I already talked to Patrick in the board of ed on this. So, there's a willingness on our part to meet with their board of ed and uh so I'm trying to orchestrate that. Mayor David who's on board with me on that. Um I think he's talking to their board of ed and um it's unfortunate because our board of ed has done everything they can on this sending messages trying to reach out unanswered calls unanswered emails. So the two mayors are involved and we're trying to reconcile this to see if we can bring uh this board you with their
092just bear me on that one. Okay. >> I just wanted to also say that budgets are always really hard for everybody. So, I appreciate the work that you guys have put in and what all the members of your board have done. And I wanted to congratulate you on the Blue Ribbon School for Green Acres, but I also wanted to congratulate you on the uh youth governor that we got from that school. That was pretty cool. >> Mhm. >> That was really good. >> In daughter was there. She's in that class. >> Mike has questions. >> He's waiting patiently. >> Yeah. Just to button up on some overall um items here. the uh in terms of the uh enrollment um the projections are well the medium pro project shows uh about a 50 student increase per
093year uh into the future. So that's that's about a 1.5% increase in enrollment per year. Okay. Yeah. Because you you gave us three projections, low, medium, and high. That's the medium. Okay. Uh and then now with the numbers of uh of um you did say that all the numbers will remain the same except the teacher uh with with the proposal here for for uh uh um employees and the teacher line. So you would go from um according to the information you gave us here from 343.4 4 whatever point4 is uh to 348. Okay. Um but the pair of professionals uh would remain the same at 109. Just getting confirmation. >> Yeah. Uh other support 109.5. I guess the codes are not part of other other support. >> They're stipened positions. Yeah. A little chunk of
094money. >> All right. And administrators will stay at 17. All right. Um, the teacher uh contract uh are we're in year what of of how long of a contract? >> This is year one of a three-year contract. >> One of three. And does that contract include um steps at all? >> Uh every year? >> That is correct. >> Steps every year. >> That is correct. >> Just step 14. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Step by 14. >> Okay. and uh with an underlying general increase or cost of living increase or whatever of of what two two and a half three. >> Yeah, we can get the exact figure for you, but it's right in around there. >> Okay. Um uh administrators uh what year are they in of their contract? >> I think we have
095to go into negotiations this end of this year. So, they're in the second of three years. >> Okay. All right. And and the bus contract that's we're in year two of how long is that? >> Two of five. >> Only five individually five individual years, right? >> So no, that that stays with us. That's but that's the food contract. >> This is year one of of five on the transportation contract. >> What? >> This is year one of year one. We just ended with M&J. >> This is year one. Yeah. >> Um, >> the current year is year one. So, the the budget year is year two. >> Okay. >> All right. Thank Thank you for that information. >> I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Freed unless there's you have a question. >>
096Yeah. In the past, you've provided uh information uh regarding uh actual enrollment. Uh and I go I know you always have to do it at a certain point in time. Usually it's October of, you know, the given year, but you you also provide the figures for um preK through 12 in district versus out of district versus the transition program. And I wondered if you could provide us with that information that we have. >> That would be great. >> You'll get the February 1st numbers. They'll be out. >> All right. Anybody else? Good. All right. Mr. Freda, >> I think the last thing I'd like to say is that I'm in Hartford. on uh Friday and try to get a uh a sharper handle in terms of what the state's subsidizations will be on all the
097different areas uh that we qualify for. You know, we're not in a position like we mentioned Haven earlier, we're significant part a part of their revenue is derived by state income. I think we're at six or 7% which is that means 93% of what we do is is on the taxpayers. So hopefully I'll get more information on what ECS may look like, but here's what we're up against, just so everyone knows, and it's the same thing. And and I was at a statewide uh meeting on this during the week, that we all of us uh at the local level, we have to have either council decisions or referendums in May, but many times we don't know what the money is going to be. We're just speculating. So, we're trying to get a handle on what
098the projections will be and determine how those projections match up with what we think the flatline would be from the year before. So hopefully there's some uptick in whether it's ECS pilot program that can apply towards this budget because just to summarize right now it's $14 million aggregately uh on both sides the town and the board of ed that's a 3.5 mil tax increase. I just announced today that uh we have about 3.3 million in incremental revenue that brings that down to about a 2.8 mil increase. So, one of our goals at the local level um is to try to see how much more we can get out of state funding here that helps mitigate whatever the tax increase would be. I'm going to give you one last point. Both sides, I'm not saying we're
099doing that. We're still we're down to a 33 mil rate increase. If we flatlined and we know we can't do that because of the insurance numbers here, okay, we get down to a 33 mil rate increase. I think that's the number which we talked about roughly. Okay, >> but that's eliminating everything. >> So this is the balance right here. This why I said earlier this is more of a collaborative discussion because we're all faced with the same thing. In the end, it's going to go to a referendum in May. That's kind of my summarizing points at the end here. Okay, thank you. >> Meeting a journal is >> actually Diane, I I one more thing. >> I'm terribly sorry. I I I had forgotten that there was there was something that that I wanted to
100review with you all which uh kind of afflicts me and I know a few other people too. Um the board of education administrators page. So I I took a look at the one that is on our town's website uh the current filling year and in my experience the way you end one year is the way you should begin the next year. Just like a basic accounting principle. So for fiscal year 2526 all those uh budgeted salaries for the 18 positions should be exactly the ones that are listed for 2526 in the proposed [clears throat] book. And I see for six of the administrators that those numbers are different. And um unfortunately it it's about a $30,000 difference. But um what I'm also noticing is that it it it makes the basis of comparison different. Right?
101So if if the the 25 26 number is larger, then uh the incremental increase for 26 27 doesn't seem quite as great. So I I'm first of all trying to understand why the numbers aren't the same. But just as let me give you an example. The superintendent for 2526 in the current fiscal year budget your salary is listed as 200,899 but then in the budget book for this year you're listing it as 209949 and then you're proposing for next year 216247. So what looks like it's only a $6,000 increase is actually a $16,000 increase. So I'm not quite understanding why just for these six positions. >> My contract isn't negotiated until May. So there has to be a number that's put in play when we're sending this budget. >> But your contract was actually set
102back in July of 24, right? It was renegotiated >> for a three three for a three-year term >> annually. But it's renegotiated annually, >> meaning it was it was set, let's say, in July of 2024. >> It's renegotiated between the superintendent and the board of education annually. So each year, yes, a three-year contract is put into play um with the board of education in concert with the superintendent. Typically they're May, sometimes June, that contract is renegotiated each year for another three-year contract. It's a standard operating procedure, not just here in North Haven, but statewide. >> Right. Well, I I've just never seen in previous years that where we left off in the the previous year administrator salaries is different from where we start as a basis of comparison in in the next budget book. So
103this is true for >> Ve I think Howard already agreed that he's going to run a report so use oranges and oranges and not oranges and apples. So that maybe answer your question once you get that page from them. >> Well, this is not a revised budget issue. What Howard was talking about was we appropriate a certain you know amount for a budget line item and the board of ed votes to revise that. This this is administrator salaries when and Ed Swinowski used to tell me when budget is approved at referendum it gets frozen. Nothing changes >> correct >> in the next cycle. You use that as your frozen basis of comparison. True. >> Correct. So, so this whole list should be exactly the same as the way we left it. >> Um, and then
104secondly, I also noticed >> in 25 26 fiscal year, um, we have three assistant principal positions at the high school and in the proposed year, you only have two, which is of course your prerogative, but you can't just cut that from this list. you have to include it and include that salary for the current fiscal year. And if you want to list it as zero for the proposed year, that's entirely prerogative. Can't just cut it out. And then lastly, I'm I'm still perplexed why Howard is not listed. His position is not listed in this list of administrator. >> He's not an administrator. >> Administrator, it's clear. So again, I I looked up his his LinkedIn profile says finance director. So either you change your your LinkedIn profile or he should be listed here. >> I'm
105not judging. >> No, no, no. I I'm not suggesting that. I'm just surprised. >> You are suggesting it. But he is clerical >> why he would go from being a finance director to now a finance man. >> He's clerical. >> Never been finance director. What do you mean he's never? He previously was the finance director. >> I'm not talking previously. >> Right. And then he >> and he was actually the director of finance, transportation, operations, food service. He wasn't solely the finance director. >> Director of finance operations and services and then director of finance. >> This is semantics. He's the finance manager in clerical. >> Let's remember he left. >> So he when he was I understand. I understand. And now he's come back. >> Now he's come back. So I appreciate no clerical >>
106and that's where they opt to do that. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. I think it's interesting you're checking his LinkedIn for budget meeting. That's up to you. >> I was trying to determine what his title is because we never received anything. >> We're not in charge of his LinkedIn. >> You received no. >> We're not in charge of his LinkedIn. >> I understand that. >> I'm going to I'm going to close the meeting. >> Thank you. We are adjourned at 10:30. >> 10:30. Thank you. >> Thank you. [laughter] >> Hi. >> The proceeding program is brought to you in part through a grant from the town of North Haven. Watch town meetings or other videos on demand at nhtv.com.