001foreign there we go do you want to copy I didn't yeah we and we went over them line by line in the finance committee so I just didn't know if you wanted it at all referenced I will never argue again hey how are you good thank you Stephanie are you able to hear me I just want to make sure my mic is working okay and and Stephanie we might want to give her a video oh okay all right I'm here yay there you are can you hear me okay I can hear you perfectly thank you okay great everything's going okay yes it's much better thanks for letting me go home and manage it I'm sorry I'm sorry to like come and then go understandable okay so I'm gonna go ahead and call the uh regular
002Board of Ed meeting to order on Wednesday February 22nd at 6 30. we'll either stand for the Pledge of Allegiance okay before we move into public comment we have a couple of agenda items to add this evening I'd like to make a motion to uh to add a section 4 sub 1 in order to add a new business section um in which I would like to add consideration of policy 6140 I second that okay all those in favor aye opposed abstain okay I would also like to make a motion to add five c as a second read of the two policies that were given as first read at the last meeting it was 5145.53 and 5144.4 I second that any discussion all those in favor I proposed abstain thank you and do we have any
003public comment this evening right wait till everybody's in uh any other public comment not seeing any on the floor or at home so that's going to move us into uh reports starting out with Mr Hopkins okay uh good evening everyone um my report will be short tonight um I'd like to report that we did have a flashing uh roof repair on the middle school high school today uh and so we're keeping our fingers crossed that does that does the trick the trick we'll see we may get some rain tonight and we'll know by tomorrow um I'll show uh since our our kids are not here to brag about the success of uh the school the high school specifically uh you may know that uh Sports have been uh quite successful uh the season girls and
004boys basketball both are in the ECC quarterfinals and both have already qualified for the state tournament our cheerleaders uh were in a competition and won the Sousa Spirit award uh with ECC schools and we also have had some success with individuals in wrestling and swimming uh so a lot to celebrate with uh Athletics at Wheeler um I'm looking forward to the budget uh discussions tonight I would like to point out that um we did take a a look at the PE Health teachers schedules at the high school middle school and they do not have any room currently to pick up any PE classes at the elementary school even if they did there would be a real challenge because elementary school is on a Monday through Friday schedule and the middle school high school is on
005a four day schedule uh so it would be quite difficult to find how to even do that uh so I just sort of throw that in there as information because I know there was interest in that topic um and I'm just interested to see where the budget discussion goes um I would encourage us all to think about the need for mental health and the increased need for that and the fact that we have one social worker that is stretched very thin and we're basically at the point where we're keeping our fingers crossed at times hoping kids are going to be okay and we should be more proactive than that uh and we have an opportunity I think with this budget to really improve uh the monitoring and uh the support of mental health in our
006student body I know and my report there unless there's any questions okay uh do we have any committee reports at this point well we had a finance committee meeting uh last night and discussed uh three topics one of them being the annual budget for 2020 324 when we went through each of the questions that came through I think Dylan Troy did an incredible job on providing the details on those questions there were a couple of action items that they took back one of them was to update the uh the budget based on some suggestions that was accomplished as we got our updated copies tonight and I have a couple of other items that bill is going to respond to at some point in time to again help get some feedback on some of the details
007in the on the Staffing certainly and some other other items uh second item on the finance committee was the January Financial reports we decided to uh have the board have some time to go through those and then we can address that at the next meeting in in March and then we had some minor discussions on non-lapsing account items so but that concludes the finance report committee any other I don't think any other committees have met did you uh we didn't meet but I want to just follow up that I sent over to Troy um the policy 6000 series um 6140 that we discussed in our meeting um to add the Innovative instruction wording but also Christine had sent me the updated cab language um so kind of tying that all in and so I think
008Troy's going to work on that and bring it to the subcommittee again for us to kind of just look at um the other thing was the um policies that we felt were good right ready to go those were the special education um what was the other one oh and the grouping policy we did uncover that there are some updated language that from cave that's included in that and whether or not I think as a as a group or the policy committee if they want to talk about it if we want to update that language going forward so yep so will you just get that over to chat then for if you want to go ahead and have the policy he and Lisa review those uh updated language or how do you want to proceed with
009those so I thought maybe have Troy have a look at it and add the words that he wants to add for the Innovative instruction and then we'll maybe send it over to to um chat and Lisa okay is that okay does that work so maybe we could get those on as a first read maybe for the April meeting would that be good for you that would be would that give us enough time I'm almost done um okay thank you on subcommittee one I just wanted to make comment that uh that Irma did update the diversity equity and inclusion language that we had approved so that is updated and onto the website um otherwise we did not meet since the last meeting so that's the only update that I have for goal one great thank you
010um Stephanie did you know so it was like a fake meeting we were supposed to have a meeting tonight and then I had to run home and so I don't know if you all had the opportunity to talk about anything but I don't have anything to report yeah we didn't Steph we kind of just wanted to wait for you so we will um we can discuss that rescheduling of that when it's convenient for you okay thanks and I'm so sorry for wasting your time okay it's it's absolutely totally fine don't even give it a second um we the Board of Ed is putting an ad in the yearbook so everybody owes thirty dollars uh you can make your check out to the wheeler activity fund and get that over to the central office [Music] um
011you can also venmo me if you'd like um and I can get you my venmo later when do you need that bye um as soon as as soon as you can yeah uh Alex and I met with Troy yesterday in the morning and uh did uh kind of a uh superintendent evaluation the mid-year superintendent evaluation and so we will put executive session on the March 1st meeting to just kind of debrief everybody it was a good discussion um and we'll kind of go with through it with you guys so you kind of know what the discussion was about and we are in the process of pair a contract right now so we met today and we'll be meeting again a couple of weeks now right so we're getting closer and closer it's been good discussions
012and that's all I have to report so that takes us up to four subset one for new business so and that and that I did start looking at this one yes there was two versions of this one well in that and that's the problem is on our current one there's two versions of 6140 and on top of that we don't have certain state required classes listed as part of our curriculum so the African-American and black studies Puerto Rican and Latino studies that have been more recently added as a state mandate are not within our curriculum um but perhaps then we want to step back if if Troy is working on this already as opposed to adopting the 6140 yeah I believe this is one that I was having a hard time finding where to put
013in language on Innovative instruction because it's mainly just a list of subject areas and it doesn't it's really not addressing the instructional piece that I could tell that much the other some other policies it was easier to find places to put it but I think this one is this this one's a state mandated situation where it's this is what the state requires us to have yeah I think it's pretty clear maybe we don't want to mess with it so yeah I think with the subcommittee we were just tossing this idea out but it doesn't need to be there um or I don't think I think it highlights Innovative instruction without distinctively saying Innovative instruction well and I I was going to say if if we're okay without adding language I think we move to approve
014this so that we are within state law we can put in the instruction as opposed to the curriculum like I think to a degree it's by the nature of some of these courses it's intuitive but it is innovative so okay so I would I I I guess I would make a motion to approve the updated policy 6140 and adopted into our our manual I I hope you go all right do we get a second all right Brian seconded any other discussion all those in favor hi hi you'll like it Steph but trust me [Laughter] all right um let's see all right and that takes us up to uh old business I emailed you out uh 5118 this came to our attention in the last couple of weeks uh back in 2019 we changed some language
015on this policy if you look at under uh non-resident attendance without tuition number five [Music] uh we had changed this language to try to grandfather in teachers that had children coming to the school and also uh their siblings that were coming up and the prior uh superintendent's office kind of um how would I say it looked at this policy different than initially what we had thought it was so we just need to clean the language up now so that we can indicate that anybody hired prior to 2019 is allowed to bring their children in for school without tuition um regardless of if they have somebody in the school currently enrolled so I cleaned up the language for that and Troy and I worked through the policy you'll see the clean copy is just the black
016and white copy and then the highlighted copy is everything in yellow is what Cabe suggests everything underlined is what we already had in the policy and we just organized it made it the same font made it a little bit more readable so we do not need to approve it tonight if we want this to be the first read but the understanding would be that we're going to grandfather and all teachers hired before 2019 to bring their children in tuition free um can I just get some historical context of why we're limiting this to 2019 because that's that's the time we started discussing it further at the time and throughout many many years prior we've had a lot of people from the Town come forward concerned about giving free tuition to some children and so we
017had a lot of discussion about it and it was decided this was voted in January of 2019 so we decided at that time we would go with that date prior to grandfather in everybody that was hired prior and moving forward we would no longer allow free tuition do you know how many children we take in um we how we came up with currently for 2019 prior it looks like it could be around 10 I think six currently we don't know if they're going to have more children or anything like that but wherever we're at right now it looks like about six moving forward I don't know because it's no longer part of the policy okay and so we wouldn't want to think about opening or re-looking at that 2019 again or is there an interest
018from the teachers to have well is there an interest from the board I guess we were looking at what we were representing for the taxpayer and we were getting a lot of pushback on it and so if you guys want to look at reopening it fully we are right now collecting tuition from high schools students so we would be giving up those spaces to non-tuition children but it's up to the board we can certainly discuss opening it up further that would be my concern seeing if we did or Jamie um if we did open it up further that uh because the the tuition paying students that it's really taken off and I would hate to turn away at tuition paying students you know as being a School of Choice um as much you know as
019I would love to see all teachers bring all their children here and we did have a lot of discussion around this Jamie and we didn't have a lot of we didn't have any teachers coming forward concerned about that date moving forward at that time so everybody hired after 2019 has the understanding that that is not practice and they understand the policy but what the concern was is that prior to 2019 there was a little bit of a mixed message and we just want to make sure that we're grandfathering in all of those families and all of those children that were hired under the as teachers children does that okay I'm just opening it up for discussion okay to see if there's a need and okay any other discussion I guess I I would certainly be
020curious to know if there are a variety of teachers who consider that to be a perk that that that's important to them only because of the idea that I think that we do draw amazing teachers here and one of the things that you can use to draw amazing teachers to a school system is investing themselves in the system because of their children present I guess I well they wouldn't have thought it was a perk if they were hired after 2019 because it wasn't part of the policy at that time so anybody hired prior to 2019 was told that this would be something they'd be able to do and we want to honor that but as of January 2019 anybody that was hired after the fact would not have thought it was a perk because it
021was no longer part of the policy so nobody now from 2019 forward would have come in thinking that that was going to be afforded to them free tuition for their children I guess what to kind of piggyback on that I guess how I see it is I want to really keep our teachers here and so I'd be curious as well to see how many teachers would really like to have that even though it wasn't given as an option um as part of their original sign-on just out of curiosity it could be zero but I'm just curious to see so what would you like me to survey or I I'm not sure I guess I've just we're kind of redoing what we just did three years ago and it had been an issue for many many
022years and you know we had taxpayers coming forward saying we and we haven't lost any teachers we didn't have a mass Exodus after June after January 2019 for it um I'm just not really sure that it's something no other hardly any other districts across around the state do this and offer this I think I think the immediate issue is to honor uh what people have been told and make the policy uh cleaner so it it's it's clear like what it means because it was not clear it was a very unclear policy that led to multiple interpretations so I think immediately we need to clear up the policy and then put people's minds at ease or told that they could bring their children and and now that they can have some reassurance that can happen I
023think later if the board wants to uh bring it up again they could certainly do that but I would hate to see the cleaning up and Adoption of this policy delayed Steph Stephanie has comment Stephanie hi so I wasn't on the board uh during this conversation but I I do actually um really remember it and it was a big deal in the town and there was a lot of pushback from uh sometimes people who felt like we were uh using valuable space in our schools and so I um appreciated that we didn't ask anyone to stop bringing their children to our school who had been doing that prior um but I I don't think that I want to reopen this I feel like we did the right thing uh when we did it and I
024also think that um now that we do have this tuition program those are really valuable spaces and I want the town to see us making an effort to use it for that all right thank you Stephanie so I guess at this point what I would ask is that we look at the policy with the understanding that at at a minimum we're going to look at 2019 and prior and grandfathering all of those teachers and their children and if we want to open it up later on for more discussion we could certainly do that I I don't think I have a problem adopting our new language here and if we need to move forward in the future it's something that we bring up as as a situation I think we go ahead and do that now
025though as opposed to I don't know that there's anything here that is going to drastically adjust people's view of this policy I think the only thing to be honest I I thought the prior language was pretty clear that it was only if you had kids in the school right um but the fact that we've made promises to people I have you know that's outside of our control I feel like that feels like something that we go ahead we we adjust now and we move forward from this point and if we're going to open it up we open it up in a separate Forum that would be that would be my move all right so you would be comfortable with moving it Forward tonight I I would be I would make a motion to uh to
026approve the new language and policy okay a second second any other discussion all right I appreciate you guys moving forward um Robert is here so I think that'll be good as well all those in favor aye opposed and abstained great thank you so that brings us up to our budget discussion and I'm going to I've asked Alex to kick that off for us this evening unless Troy did you want to start and then did you know to start out with yeah sure um I I appreciate uh the questions that the board members sent in um and um uh I was pleased that uh bill was able to quickly respond and get all those answers to you uh right away which you all were emailed out um all the answers to all the questions uh so
027hopefully that was helpful to you um and uh I just appreciate the responsiveness uh to the budget of the central office and getting uh things in a format uh tweaked as we got feedback from even the policy I mean the finance committee just last night um so I I think we're I think we're in good shape um and I think like I said I think this is an opportunity and I think this is a very efficient budget and fair budget and lower than a lot of towns and uh we we have some improvements to make and this is the year to do it sure we uh you talked a little bit about this during the committee uh reported uh report out on the discussions and the questions and stuff and and to destroy and as
028I indicated earlier I think we had a lot of good feedback on the responses to the questions um also the follow-up to that I had some additional questions I sent the bill regarding Staffing you know we're looking at adding uh uh six additional slots and we wanted to get a little bit more feedback and understanding on the uh the job descriptions on that additional Staffing which is getting work and also the course load to the teachers uh including the full-time equivalents and how that kind of fits in uh with the needs that the district is looking for and uh some of it seems like a very obvious like the social worker we talked about uh I'd like to get a little bit more feedback on the central office staffing request uh also a little bit
029more detail on the uh stipend for the curriculum support uh but that's basically all that I had I was you know I I didn't see much else to really pick at I was hoping the rest of the board would spend some time and and see if they had some additional thoughts or or strategies that that we should explore but overall I think the budget is uh from a zero-based budgeting philosophy looked pretty good I think what I'll do is go around the room and take comments from everybody starting with Lisa um I was wondering why um the elementary administrator the uh the changes plus 3.5 0 and the other administrators are 2.0 or 2.25 the very first page those are contract those are contractual yeah that would be my understanding right on the movement on
030that it could be step movement it could be okay so he's somewhere different in his contract right okay [Music] you come back and come back to me yeah could just come back to me I I you can keep going do you have more questions so you might as well ask all of yours now and then we'll go to the next one and I'm good right now oh you are okay you are okay yes Jamie okay I have just a couple comments um so thank you for responding about I had the question about the playground mulch um I guess I would like to request that we do have that as a separate line item in the past um it has been a big issue um it has gotten lost um and so if there's any way
031we could pull that out to ensure that the elementary school gets the wood chips and it doesn't end up around the track or in various areas and it needs to be replaced every single year um it just is kind of a Kind reminder that the um we we chose to kind of go this route and keep it um up to date because I think I think it said that it was under athletic athletic supplies Athletic Field it is a line item under there it isn't just bulked in there if you see if you look at uh Bill's reports in the detail it is a five thousand dollar line item for elementary school mulch but no it's not in this budget that reflects towards the town correct no because there's several line items in there and
032we just when we discussed it last night we didn't understand why that one would come out over the top of anything else it was just as important as the mulching on the fields the all the things that were in their way is equally as important and it will get we don't anticipate it not getting done are you concerned it won't get done if it's not front Forefront on the report I I guess given the history it hasn't been done and also that playground was funded by the people of the town and so I think it kind of just shows that we are maintaining it and supporting it based on their efforts as well um so that's that's the reason why I would like it to kind of come out as a standout um item but
033it's it's clear it's up to everybody else I guess I was thinking if if Bill can have a a list that that makes up what the uh five thousand dollars is and then part of his backup to the budget of that number would that work versus just is it 5000 is entirely The Mulch correct yeah it's all the mulch okay okay why don't we why don't we so Bill handed out a packet at the beginning of the meeting and in a second to last page it has Maintenance building and grounds expenses uh broken down and you can see the mulch for the elementary program playground listed separately for five thousand dollars right on that more detailed um and I don't think we got that list I think you only have that list right I think
034sorry I just saw it now I mean this is fine I guess I was just looking this but this isn't going to be presented at the it's fine well it could be I mean we could we could decide uh bill bill just he Bill worked really hard yeah and this I mean this is nice as like a breakdown I think it gives it a little more clarity of um and the details really nice to see like what athletic school or athletic and school grounds are because it just to me seemed a little vague but if so if it's possible that would be I think that would be great I I feel like if bill says it's not a big deal to add it in why so would it be fine just to add the whole
035report then not just one light item for mulch but to add this whole chart if you feel that you know to make it more Equitable for all the other items that I'm totally fine with it yeah I'd like to see that sure the whole thing sure absolutely all right so I think what we'll do is just add this when we give our presentation to the board of Finance We'll add this add these sheets yeah as background back up yeah all right with that would that get more visible yeah that makes me happy okay okay well if you're happy we're happy today you know what the hell I'm gonna die on it's the playground um so can I move on to it yes of course okay so my so I am a hundred percent in support
036of having this other administrative position at the elementary school to really help and I apologize I'm blanking on the exact title but uh assistant not assistant we call it dean of students slash uh PE teacher um I thought it was a wellness coordinator well that's what we called it last two weeks ago oh okay yeah okay I think we could we could call it a lot of different things okay yeah and it's not an administrative position it's a teaching position and that's why we didn't have it on the chart okay sorry yes okay thank you um I guess I don't want this to be an unpopular opinion but just for consideration I really like the idea of Adena students and supporting kind of overall Mental Health um I understand the logic of having another PE
037position I'm just wondering if we have any idea conceptually or maybe even just some evidence that supports the need for an actual PE period That's structured versus um free play recess type um spot within the kids day versus a structured PE position well we we have the data on the fitness scores uh that show that uh kids probably would benefit from a more structured um activity on focused on Fitness so I guess I'm having a hard time seeing where that would fit like so it would be they would have health and then two PE classes a week right yeah the schedule would need to be adjusted to fit in more PE each week okay because right now they have one PE class A week and the majority of elementary schools in the state elementary students
038have PE twice a week or every other day on like a four or six day rotation um and our our scores are as you saw they're in the tank compared to our academics so I think we could do better uh to encourage physical fitness in our in our students data shows it but yeah the schedule would have to be adjusted it would have to make some some changes and do some re-prioritizing of uh how kids spend time in their day to include another PE class so would it be possible then to just also add more unstructured play time where kids could be like more creative and well I I think they do they have reached daily recess now uh certainly that could be looked at and say you know we'd have to talk to the
039elementary school principal and teachers and say okay well what do you guys think I mean is there a way to increase uh uh recess time they may be oh any other anything else Jamie okay all right Alex now the only other item is we requested to have technology give a presentation at the next board meeting to kind of coincide with looking at wood shop uh being added so be nice to get a perspective of how that fits in with the rest of the technology as far as the uh coursework that Dave Brad needy is is responsible for yeah so I spoke with Christian St Germain about that topic and uh she's going to see what she can do um to get a technology presentation for us uh on that very topic about how does the
040wood shop fit into the rest of the technology department and hopefully we'll have that on March 1st great thanks that was it for me again I had a lot of the questions so when they were reformed okay so I guess my only couple of questions would be uh if we could possibly get next time you meet the admins which probably will be soon I would assume if you could go through the stipends the coaching stipends list and see which ones we actually don't have currently because I think what we're reflecting on our budget right now is the entire stipends list is that correct bill so we may be able to trim some there if there's actual positions we're not using or filling um and then the other thing would be uh inevitably I I think
041this isn't a solid excellent budget and we'll see how the you know after our discussion next week what we want to move forward but the other thing would just be I'm sure you're having discussions of if we have to make some Cuts where's it going to be and kind of be prepared for that to present to us if that's what we end up having to do is it going to be some of those new positions is it the PE person at the elementary where is it and where is it going to come from because I would rather you and your team come up with that then we tell you where that needs to come up with that I really appreciate that uh that you'll let me and my team come up with where any Cuts
042may have to be um but we we put together uh that slide on additional items uh because that's probably where we would look if we had to and prioritize those um and it would be some hard choices you know we we really do want to get that alternative education program going uh because it's better for the kids uh and it potentially is better for the overall Board of Ed and town budget uh at some point and that's based on individual need which is hard to predict um so uh we we definitely I think we could come up with some priorities if we had to trim or don't want to trim anything everything we presented we need um but if it comes down to it I I appreciate that you'll let us decide uh what stays
043in and then also just for everybody to understand the impact the tuition we'll be bringing in next year to the uh town is three hundred thousand dollars so if you look at your bottom line that's uh almost a third of our ask in our increase it's really important that we continue to focus on that um the other thing I think the board wants to think about and maybe take a look at is next week we should spend a little bit of time looking at that non-lapsing account we don't have that in front of us tonight but um we had a little bit of discussion about it last night and while we realize it's earmarked just for education things we also have to keep in mind we've had two big years that we've put into that
044account that we probably wouldn't have budgeted the way we did had we known that was going to be so much so we need to really think about are there some things that maybe in this year's budget we can help by using that account but also being cautious that we don't overuse that account to supplant our budget so it's kind of a a fine line but we do want to take a look at the non-lapsing again as well pretty closely on March 1st so I I I'd just like to take a moment to say that I uh I I think that we need to put a focus on the alternative Ed piece of things I think it's going to be a money maker in the future I think when it comes to tuition students it's a
045spot where we can look to make growth um where we can take students from other towns in the surrounding areas even and plant them and use that as a a money-making piece with that tuition I think that that would be a real a real loss if we don't move forward with that program um I I couldn't find the math program the one that we're we're instituting in seventh grade and looking to do advanced math in sixth grade and I was looking under math text under math technology like I couldn't figure out where where is the program that was presented by Rob regarding or I think it was Robert was talking about doing it in sixth grade it might have been okay so it's not within the map that's under it got it all right I
046was I I when I was going through I was just struggling to find it and so I was trying to pick out the different pieces that were within that new stuff coming difference all right so I don't know which paid them I have too many different types of views I know one of the math oh it's always I excel there it is can can you hear me if I just um so under for for middle school high school it's in text it's 1575. 1 500. okay so that's yeah that's our for Desmos for just seventh and eighth grade that's not bad is the software license goes not at all and then the algebra for next year is under High School um so it's separate so we're it's Desmos for three for seventh grade eighth grade
047and algebra one and then Rob has it for sixth grade yeah so can you hear me okay yes yeah so on mine it's just lumped in under my under my uh map budget so I have um do the number 16 five it's uh for the Envision for K through five and then there's an additional uh thousand dollars for the uh for the decimals foreign thank you I was just when I was when I was going through I was struggling with that piece so I went yeah I didn't break them out separate but just all in just all math tech supplies went into one line and when you're looking at the report just so you have an understanding these numbers in that First Column uh Bill had to add it kind of at the last second
048but under location one is for elementary two is for District Five is for middle and six is for high so when you're looking at mathematics for example you'll be able to see what does Elementary one's Elementary two's District district five is Middle and six is for high Stephanie I'll get you a copy tomorrow so you have it for yourself okay and did you uh did you want to write that down what I just said just so you can kind of have a legend for it okay all right go ahead sorry Chad I didn't mean to interrupt uh nope that that was honestly that was the that was the main thing I was looking for um I I am a little bit the PE position I'm a little bit curious about but uh but that'll come
049in later discussions I'm sure when we're when we're discussing those pieces so can I ask you a quick question about that Troy kind of Devil's Advocate on that a little bit on the PE sure I understand our score is low that's the presidential test is that correct how many push-ups you can do that's correct yeah push up how how does that really flexibility um how does that really reflect on the physical health of children honestly like if I have a kid that maybe plays softball but can't do a lot of push-ups would that does that test really have a good reflection on their actual physical fitness or do we not need to be so concerned about that test no I I think we do okay because it it tests uh the strength uh basically the
050three major areas of physical fitness which is strength flexibility and endurance and those are all things that people need uh if they're going to be you know successful in uh you know certain competitive or individual uh activities Sports uh just recreational uh activities um we you know we we want kids that you know don't get out of breath when they climb a step of stairs all right so you know there's some endurance uh we do want them um you know to be able to have have some muscle tone and uh and strength it's just part of overall health body uh and mind uh we know are connected we know there's a lot of benefits to exercise and and being fit uh that's why there is a state test to encourage Fitness it's not the best
051test maybe for physical fitness maybe it's not but it's what we have and it's what we have to do now um and I think our our kids could score higher uh than they are I mean if you look at a lot of other towns so we showed you some uh and we were beating them academically but they were beating us with the physical fitness score um and it it's a dramatic difference when you look at our scores here um so yes not the best test but it's what we have is what we have to do and our scores should be better okay thank you and then my last question on that just because I think this keeps the PE is going to come up a little bit for quite a few years we've talked about
052an intramural program and having some kind of a program not necessarily just a Rec program or having to be in a uh Sports per se but maybe just an after-school kind of physical activity program do you know in other districts is that something that is working with that at all reflect in that scoring would that be something we should look at or is that a little bit crazy no absolutely I think that's a great idea uh there are many schools that run running clubs they have Marathon clubs where the kids run like uh 26 miles over a period of weeks a period of weeks or months and they run the last mile on a track in a big celebratory atmosphere uh and that you know they get a medal for participating and it just kind
053of makes it uh you know something that that's fun and and the kids like it and they get fit and they monitor their progress uh which is a huge motivator so you know things like that um things like you know I mean teacher the teachers probably can come up with a bunch of ideas uh and they may they may actually be some things happening uh right now that I'm just not coming up with uh on the spot but I think we've could look to expand our after-school offerings for for activity for kids but then you're going to have to pay for it somehow you're going to have to find the people maybe before and after school program where parents pay for that but we also have things that are active yeah I you you you
054could but um you know you have to have the people willing to run it and then you need to have the space uh and space has been a real challenge uh with our own athletic teams and town Rec uh you have other organizations that want to use the schools Cub Scouts um Boy Scouts Girl Scouts you know it's just there's space issues uh it's not that we can't do it and I think in the fall is probably a good time to run some stuff I was just curious I didn't want to put you on the spot with it yeah all right thank you all right Stephanie did you want to go ahead yeah I have um I think I have just a a few comments I'm not sure um maybe just some stuff to think
055about so um math is not my strong suit but when I look at 6.7 I did sort of look at the numbers and and I have come up with my non-math brain that our 6.7 budget increase is equivalent to approximately two mils for the taxpayer so that is something that um I think people will react very strongly to and so if we are not able to sort of make some adjustments I think we need to think really hard about how we're messaging and I know that our tuition is bringing in Revenue to the town which is super exciting and actually if you have watched any of the selectman's meetings um as they're putting their budget together you will see that there is an increase in the revenue line to the town and and it's exciting
056you can see where it's coming from and it's great I think the issue is that no matter how much we talk about and say that this is coming from us it doesn't change necessarily the impact to the taxpayer so while the town is putting together their budget and they are showing an increase on the revenue line and they're saying you know our budget impact will be you know uh less be because of that Revenue whatever it it's just about what side of the Ledger it's falling on at the end of the day it's a significant impact to the taxpayer and I think we just have to think about that I think it it feels good to say we're bringing in that money but I'm I'm not sure that it's going to resonate with um the
057people in our town um so with that being said Troy the stuff that you and your administrators were talking about at that last meeting was really incredible and so I think we need to really concentrate on the increase in services not just on the dollars and so I think that your presentation really started to do that but I'd like to look even more specifically maybe for next week when we're sort of looking at this more critically when talking about especially these new positions um you know answering the question why is it solving a problem or is it providing some sort of enrichment um a better understanding of what it actually is going to look like um how did we decide that it was necessary what are the goals how will we know that it's working
058and when or how will we be able to see or hear the results and I think a little bit about the new position that we put into play last spring for the special ed director with associate principal duties so that was brand new and we created it because we thought it would work and we thought it would be great and we thought it would be efficient and as it turns out based on last week's presentation it doesn't really work in real time um and that that position really it's not structured the way it needs to be structured in order to maximize benefits to the students however that was the first I heard of it so I'd love it if we could sort of put those those sort of checkpoints in place so that we know
059that if we are in fact going forward with um some sort of like hybrid gym teacher assistant principal kind of stuff at the elementary school that we can clearly articulate the lock guy and we're gonna know exactly what it's going to look like and how did we get to that and part of that story is going to have to be that you evaluated that that position and it didn't work we're gonna need to know what the goals are and we're going to need to know how we're going to measure it and where we're going to hear and I think that once we are aware of that that'll be great but then we're going to have to start talking to the town about it because I think you'll hear a lot of the the people who
060are really heavy on numbers talking about things like zero-based budgeting and metrics and so I think if we can speak in that same language back then you connect with those people um additionally um I totally Echo what Christina's saying if you could come to that meeting with the list of things that if we if we had to remove from the budget would be the least impactful I am in no way qualified to ever assess how you should run a school and so I really want you to do that and if you tell me that it's a dean of students we need then just tell me why and I'll understand that but I'm not gonna I don't know enough to say to you Troy I wish you would do dean of students instead of um half
061gym teacher half administrator so if you could come to us with that I think it would be so helpful um and then the other thing we started talking about it last night Christine brought it up and and I think she's absolutely right we have to start thinking about that not laughing account and and how can we put boundaries in place so we aren't setting ourselves up to fail but how can we look at that critically and say what are the things that we can purchase as I look through the budget I look at things like the supplies and purchase services maybe it's PD maybe it's due some memberships I don't know because these things are all going to have to eventually make their way back to the budget but I think we're going to need
062to use that account to show in good faith that we recognize that 6.7 is is it's huge and you can tell from our history that it's huge and so you know here's what we're willing to do but I think in doing that we're going to really have to think about our boundaries because we can't every year be looking to the non-lapsing account because it's just not going to be there we're never going to see this balance again um but I do think it's something that's going to be really necessary for us to do if we want to move forward with a budget that's as it's this is an aspirational number and it's really exciting too when you think about it but really we're gonna have to be thinking outside of the box to make this
063work that's all I have I appreciate your comments um and uh just to remind everyone the status quo budget if we didn't add those things that we're calling additions uh is 4.8 percent already and that's that's not adding any of that that we're talking about not the new social worker not the three powers one special ad to Early Elementary um not the dean of students slash uh PE teacher uh you know not the curriculum uh coordinator for fifteen thousand not the twenty eight thousand dollars for uh Innovative instruction PD or curriculum writing um I I think those are the additions that we're asking for uh so those are the additions that bring it from 4.8 to 6.7 and that that's the reality thank you I appreciate that number as well because I I couldn't remember
064there was a special educator in there as well a special education teacher I think I forgot the list that is an addition that we really need to run the alternative Ed program I guess I would also ask I know we brought this up at some like I would and I know that these aren't solid numbers when it comes down to this but we spend a lot of money on bcba contracted Services through Bloom things like that that if we are going to be able to hire new pairs and I guess I would be curious once we Institute something like an alternative Ed program and things like that are we saving some of that contracted price that we've been spending on things like Bloom are we going to make Savings in different areas where we're not
065going to outplace and if we're going to have that I think that that needs to be clearly represented in the way that we present the budget so when we say yes we're going to I I thought I thought Allison did a wonderful job of stating things like one out placement is 260 000 this entire program will cost us 280. that sort of that sort of comparative analysis of that's not just this year we're going to be creating a program in which we will consistently save money over years and years um I just I just think it's really important to have that very visible agreed I I think we do need to state that um again that uh that's a possibility with an alternative education program we could prevent uh an additional outplacement we could potentially
066have an outplacement return uh but we don't we can't promise that because we have to do what's best for each individual kid and that that's that's a moving Target um but yes probably on average we're going to save money long term because it is I think sure that it really does look like an investment right that new program is like an investment that we're making it's not it's it's a long-term investment and I think that um when it's talked about the way that Allison talked about it it's so clear that it's it could be so positive in so many ways including financially so I agree I think it's really important to talk about it like that will Allison be available that night that we present to the board of Finance to answer any questions around
067this if possible well I could I could I could find out okay because I do think if if it comes up even to have her speak to it even for five or ten minutes would be really pretty powerful if she wouldn't mind yeah I agree we'll find out if she's available okay um so I just wanted to add for some of these conditions that were were kind of I apologize because I had a little bit of coveted brain at the last meeting but really focusing in on the goals and how they relate to our three goals um I think would be and and I know you talk about them but really honing in on why we need these as they kind of relate to those goals I think would be very valuable um and even
068for us to recognize them in when we have more discussion to say well we although we may think that this position or whatever it is may not be necessary as long as we can kind of always bring it back to those three goals good good input yep um let's see any other discussion on that and do we at this point want to give any direction other than the discussion we've had do we want to give any solid Direction on moving that number or do we want to talk about how spending more time on the messaging and how we move this forward well certainly on the PD part of it I like to see non-lapsing pick up some of that in Canada with the comment we had yesterday yeah so I think there's some opportunity again
069on the uh on the Staffing chains and select a little bit more information but just to understand that better and then he work around if that's at all possible but I plan on going through it again just to see if there's anything else that makes sense I think when when discussing the alternative education program um we should also discuss what the cost is now like we Outsource Outsource many things that we would not have to Outsource if we have the alternative education program I think that could be really important it could I mean I don't know what those numbers are but in my mind it could be about a wash it could be or maybe it's a savings right off the bat because we would just be doing the things differently and at the same
070time keeping the students in our community yeah I think that's a good point I do think though to Allison's point on that we don't know that there's going to be that savings especially in next year we don't know but we do know that we Outsource things that we wouldn't necessarily have to Outsource just didn't anticipate knowing for sure that we were going to not be Outsourcing those kids with the program I guess that's kind of the unknown was we don't want to assume that all of our outsourced kids are coming back in house with this program you know but there will be some that would need or require some uh individualized education that would otherwise be outsourced but will not because we have this available in-house does that make sense I guess what I'm trying
071to you can speak to that more clearly Troy than I probably can I just don't want to I don't want to offset the number if we don't know that for sure I guess is what I'm doing yeah we just can't promise um oh sure but I mean there'll be significant Savings in the future yeah but we have to build the program first right so I think someone mentioned it's like an investment and I think that's a good way to to look at it I think maybe Steph mentioned that investment for the future we're talking about that too um it's an investment for the future I mean we you know and we we do have to be careful about saying you know the number of students that we have and you know that kind of thing
072we don't want to people to start guessing who people are and um you know well you would present a vision right I mean you're not we're not going to know exactly what it's going to look like or exactly what's going to cost but um will present a vision that would that would make sense yeah I think we can explain Division and I think it was great to see if Allison will be available because she has a way of articulating that very clearly and convincingly um but we I think we can whoever explains it I think we could certainly include the vision that we believe that it's best for kids to be educated in their Hometown uh and this will allow this us to do that more so as we move into the future and when
073we don't have to transport children out of town and pay tuition get private or public you know facilities uh that's going to be a huge savings uh but we just don't know how that's all going to shake out um but you know if we don't do it we definitely won't be benefiting from those savings good point so maybe that we can make that point okay I also wanted to um to say 100 agree with Stephanie um with regards to putting uh more of a concentration on on the services on our increase in services so that our taxpayers can can see what value they're getting for their money um rather than just a number although I you know I feel it's important to to talk about the numbers as well I mean but if we can
074justify yeah I mean you know what some of it is it's hard to give the data um and and it's you know changing all the time um but across the state across the country and in our own town here uh two one one which is mobile crisis uh has been called more uh this year than in the past years uh we some of our students have had increased needs where they've had to seek uh you know uh serious help um more so uh that in the past um and we we need to respond to those increased needs that kids have uh in a proactive way uh not a reactive way um and when you don't have enough people to notice and then to provide that support and the expertise to notice and provide that necessary
075support um honestly you can have tragedies happen uh and that there's something we I think we all want to avoid and this budget the opportunity presents us with a an opportunity to be proactive I wonder is it is it possible or have you discussed in your committee meeting staff um but the possibility of having uh some kind of a community forum uh where where it can be presented what the increases and services are what we're doing in school how we're being Innovative and Thinking Inside the Box and and how efficient you know we can the efficiency just so you know like uh when we say the social worker is overtaxed we're not just talking about the social worker because a social worker then has to get help from the say the psychologist right and the
076counselors all right and the administrators and even teachers to kind of pick up and try to get the job done but then you have people who are not necessarily trained to help kids with what they're dealing with but that's the only way we're like we're staying on top of it uh so it's not just the social workers over taxed it's the social worker and many other staff that are trying to help that social worker get the job done uh so it's it's a it's a bigger uh ripple effect and it's exhausting right for a large uh part of the staff right so so that would that would give to a deeper understanding of um of the need right I would like to do that at the board of Finance meeting and really make that messaging
077strong and clear and not so much about the number like Steph said but about what's behind the number having another um Forum I don't know is going to be as effective as us really getting the message out to come and hear the message at that meeting and that's what it's for the the issue is people um attending the meeting or watching the meeting so I would I would like to see in addition to the board of Finance meeting have some sort of form we talked about it last year at a budget you know can we talk about a uh like a fix book live we talked about doing a Facebook live yeah yeah I was thinking doing something that you know at the school you have a presentation and questions and answers you know we
078invite the community or the parents the community I mean I know it's a lot I know you you know this isn't your full-time job if we were talking about this presentation because I tend to agree with Lisa and Christine I think that at the board of Finance meeting no matter how much you try and talk about the vision they want to talk about the numbers and so it may get a little lost there but I Troy do you think it would be possible if the presentation I mean I guess after the the tweaks that everybody has to make but um the presentation that that Allison gave um and uh Kristen and Rob and the other Allison gave to us the other night maybe something like that so Christine it's less about maybe you presenting the
079budget and more about the the 2023-2024 vision for our school district and maybe that's an opportunity to to explain a little bit more and to talk about all of all of the services and the enhancements and the benefits and an opportunity to talk about some of the changes that you've seen in in our kids since covid and how we have to meet them where they're at and support them um so it is a total extra meeting um but it it might be something that that's important to be able to get that message out about not just the numbers what are you getting so my concern would be that in two weeks we're presenting to the board of finance and if we have to go back to the table with something significantly lower when would that
080messaging come after we have to come forward with a two percent budget or when like when would you like to do it I guess because we have between now and the 15th of March to get that messaging out next week we have a board meeting where we're going to be discussing what the number is that we want to move forward so I I'm I we definitely try to put something together I I'm looking at it's close out for winter sports I I'm just looking at the reality of asking to put another presentation together which is a lot of work and I'm not saying we wouldn't do it for what will the outcome be 10 people 12. well I think that's that's the gamble right and and if we're going to try something new like put
081out a budget that's close to 6.7 percent we may need to take a gamble on some of the other stuff that we do and it could be 10 people or it could be 50 people I think the appropriate time would likely be after we as a board decide what you're going to advance to the board of Finance and and potentially before at least before the board of Finance tells you that you have to make Cuts right because we want those people to buy into our vision and then understand the vision and then if they felt you know empowered to do so attend that board of Finance meeting and contact their um Board of Finance members and say this budget's important to our town please don't cut it so that seems to be strategically where you'd
082want to place it and how you'd want to educate people um I agree that that the time is tight and I would think though that some of those presentations are are almost ready to go and it would really I mean it would require staff time for sure um but I think we have to look at doing things a little bit differently if we're talking about all these amazing things that we're changing and running the district a little differently yeah I think that's very I think that's very important um I would I would like to maybe ask that uh Troy Kristen Rob and um Allison maybe see if that would be a possibility for you guys to be able to pull something together like Allison's presentation and my mind is done you know she could print
083her I'm just saying she could present her art there and um whatever Kristen and and Robin and you like whatever's kind of already done and being in doing what do you if you can meet with them and see if it's if it's even possible uh look at some some possible times okay and see I'm sure they would all gladly talk more about their schools and uh the needs of their schools yeah and this is this is what we're doing and some of their schools uh because they're quite proud of the school district and and what they do here um I I'm sure they'd jump at the opportunity to talk more about it yeah I think it could be tough with the timing to figure out that I think you know they they basically did that
084here uh two weeks ago when they presented the budget uh so I think the presentation would be probably very similar yeah uh and it was a great presentation maybe it'd be just a different audience but um I I do worry about would people even come maybe that presentation on our Facebook page Stephanie no we totally we totally can and and I think we should um just like will link you know this one um I think the difference will be that maybe the next time that we talk about it it'll be a more complete Vision about what we're going to advance to the board for finance and Troy I agree with you that it may just be giving the same presentation over and over and over again to get different people to see it so it
085may be the exact same talking points for Facebook live that that we do in this forum that you do to uh to the board of finance that you guys presented two weeks ago um because a lot of a lot of that is that consistent messaging that will be important to get people to understand um but if I were to quickly look at the calendar I would say if we targeted somewhere like Monday March 6th that that might be the right time right after our revisions it's a Monday there's not a lot of competition for meetings I don't know what the PTO schedule looks like I don't have that on my calendar as I look real fast but then it's the same week as our Board of time presentation will you be able to do it
086maybe at six o'clock on March 1st before our Board of Ed meeting but we haven't made our revisions right right and that's in five days can can I just can I just suggest I mean I I think the timing thing is going to be really really tough in this time period um I'm just curious I know I know when last year for the Preston budget parents yeah they specifically was the superintendent had a meeting almost immediately following School in an attempt parents be able to quickly and easily and have more more ears hearing the presentation and hearing what's going on and and I'm just wondering if perhaps if our goal is to get it out to as many people as possible that would be aiming at a different demographic and and having a piece where
087we're we're hitting hitting people perhaps where it would be easier for them to hop in and hear a presentation and hear some of the neat things that are going on and and and the impressive steps that we're taking and and kind of Target it that way perhaps I don't know if that would be a doable thing for you Troy but just as a different option so that we're not hitting the same evening crowd and and audience but instead hitting a different a different spot I I would not mind that at all uh just we can pick a day after school and I mean we could be in this room and we could advertise it and people could come and we can talk to them about what's in the budget and the needs of the school
088I mean that would be fine yeah could be right after it could be at you know 3 30. what about the working parents though well I know but have you seen the parent pick-up line there's a lot of people that are also available then as well that don't want to come out at evening appointments so I do think I like that idea and the fact that we've got given many opportunities to hear the presentation at night yeah and um it's been very clear that we're doing the Board of Ed uh budgeting right now and if I look I have several online which is awesome but if I look around the room I do not so my concern would be asking our admins and our superintendent who's doing a lot right now between contracts and everything
089else to add another night in the hope that we can reach more audience and I'm not saying it's a bad idea I'm just wondering if we try if we really want to try something different maybe something away from a nighttime meeting makes sense okay okay so after school and it maybe won't be the full formal presentations but I could do it I will do it myself if the administrators are available to join me then we could do it all together uh but certainly I can do it um on a pick a day I think it would be so powerful if everyone could do it and I know I hope so but it is tight timing and I don't know what their plans are and so um I will talk to them and see if we
090can come up with a date okay I just think it would help our it would help our chances and um and not having to get the administrators and you together to decide what we're going to cut if we can really you know put it out there and and show them what we're doing right so so we're we're looking for a date after March first March 6th I think Stephanie suggested was proposed uh so we can look at that or maybe maybe it could be a day that week if March 6 doesn't work okay but before the eighth right you know um the board of Finance is the 15th 15th right okay so it really could be any day that week of uh Monday March 6th so and then we could record it and we could
091we could link back to that so we have like sort of this visioning presentation separate from all the numbers and digging deep into that stuff that we can also link to so people can watch at any time right and and just so you just remind everybody the recording of the last board meeting is up on the web page so people can watch that initial presentation and also there's two documents that are up there one is the budget narrative and the other one is the PowerPoint slides that are up there so if you want to if people are asking you know where's some information all that information is there all right are the meetings still going on YouTube here on YouTube okay great any other discussion on that any other direction we want to give on
092the numbers at this point if you would like me to increase it I'll try I'll really look around and I think I could probably add a few things that's a little low [Laughter] appreciate your effort all right so I guess for the next meeting what we're looking at is a little more discussion um around the the why behind me ask on some of those newer positions keeping in mind that status quo is already 4.8 percent and um how we're going to track it and what outcomes we expect to see okay any other discussion this evening on the budget okay do we have any public comment oh I'm sorry we have another agenda item go ahead all right so I'm not sure if uh if everyone had an opportunity to read the two policies that were
093brought up if you recall one of them the 51 44.4 is the one regarding recess access and the big question was the policy as written complies with law meaning that you can one day a week foreign people as well um one day one day a week you are able to use the 20 minutes of recess time as a disciplinary measure according to state law at the moment um and the question for us would just be do we want it to be 20 minutes is allowed to be taken or do we want to say recess can never be used as a disciplinary measure myself personally I think never but I I I felt like it was you know when Lisa and I had talked about it we thought that it was something that was important enough
094that the board made a decision on regarding the overall tenor of it so I I guess when you give us have it in it or out is the one we've been quoting the one that that was given to you is the cave version which allows for one one day a week for 20 minutes if the recess is 20 minutes long one day a week you're allowed to withhold recess for disciplinary measure yeah we did not change the language we didn't we didn't adjust it what we would have to do is change that section to just simply read yeah because we can make a decision there so it's a first so the question the question the question yeah it was it was a first read so so the question was just do we want to allow
095that 20 minutes or do we want to have our policy state that recess has never taken out outdoor active recess has never taken away from our kids for a disciplinary reason did we ask the admins at all if they ever use that or what they would do at that time instead is it a restorative practice time they could use for that stand up I know he had made a comment at the last meeting regarding uh Yeah Yeah well yeah so um yeah so I believe that the law says that students have to have a minimum of the 20 minutes uh of outside time for recess and um right now our coverage system is 25 so the only time that gets taken from the kids would be um a five minutes and um most teachers don't
096do that I never do that the only time I hold recess from a kid is for the you know a very specific offense and um I have a like it got clear with the parents first let them know that I want to hold them in for recess on that day um but most of the time it's not used and I would say it's usually it's five minutes and it's usually from the cafeteria um so if the kids were you know misbehaving in the cafeteria the cafeteria might make them wait a few minutes before they go outside with the rest of the kids but uh normally it's not done so I would I would definitely be in favor if it's no minutes at all that's totally fine with us it won't affect much at all it's
097not an issue we don't our kids don't have recess so totally different well and the policy does allow for the idea that if their the child is a danger to themselves or others that the administration is allowed to remove that child from recess activities because of that danger right that's always that's always in place safety is number one in that situation yeah and that is and what we've done that we've had to so we've had a couple of this is where um it's definitely been a safety issue um so normally what we would do is I still want that child to be able to get out and move around so we would give them an alternate recess time so um if they're a danger to you know somebody else I don't want them out there
098when the rest of the kindergartners the first grader out there running around but they can go out at a later time and you know um sometimes it would be me or or power would be taking them outside get them some exercise uh shoot baskets let them you know run around the playground you know do the jungle gym and that kind of stuff so um even when the the students are a danger we still want them to get outside for at least that 20 minutes because it is important time they really need it all right so is everybody okay with them rewriting that policy taking that language out okay so do you want to bring it back to us March 1st with that language out sure okay great thank you um and the second policy was
099five one four five point five three which was the transgender and non-conforming gender non-conforming youth policy um and I guess I I that one doesn't have the only alternate language is deciding between the process of of using the FERPA version of one portion where it states that that FERPA requires that and a different version that talks about the legality because they said the legality is not fully decided so um I guess I I would I would make a motion that we approve five one four five point five three um just to open that up for a discussion aspect of things so wait a second I'll second any discussion um I haven't had a chance to read it yet unfortunately I haven't pulled it out but um any other discussion on it has everybody else had
100a chance to look at it I didn't look at it yet anybody else did everybody else read it okay um so can we get a motion to I get well we already have motion on so this was our second read right sorry I just feel bad that I all right so all those in favor of approving this morning opposed and I'm gonna abstain just because I didn't read it all right so motion passes and I'm done so at least Lisa and I will get together we'll rewrite that five one four four point four to exclude any disciplinary action that's what awesome we will have that prepared for next meeting all right thank you I'll get better at my second reads I apologize uh any other public comment this evening all right not seeing any um
101need a motion to adjourn I make money into adjourn second all those in favor aye opposed and abstain