001I am recording and whenever you guys are ready to start, you may. >> Okay. Um >> forward whenever you're ready. >> Oh, right. >> Oh, yeah. I'll Yeah, I I made it tonight. So, um yeah. So, uh good evening everyone and welcome to the board of education special meeting. It is Thursday, May 14th, 2026 and it the time is 501. Um, and so I am calling the meeting to order. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> And just to acknowledge everyone who is here tonight, Superintendent Dr. Estraa. Um, we see board of education members Sher Pritchette, Ashley Gulas, Diana Karpio, Mary Ellen Flity
002Ludwig. I see uh, President Howard White, Garrett Oliver, Jasmine Prey, um, are all in attendance. And I will go ahead and turn it over to, uh, Mr. White. >> Good evening, everyone. Glad to be here. Hope everything went well with everyone this past week. Um before we move on, is there possible questions anyone may have in reference to a approval of 26 year end transfer a temporary waiver request? Any questions or any concerns? Okay, with that in mind, can I have a motion to approve of the Go ahead. I'm sorry. >> That's okay. FIA transfer temporary waiver request. Sherry >> motion. >> Yes. Sherry made a motion. >> Seconded by Ashley. >> All in favor? >> I I >> I. >> Okay. Sounds like I. >> We move on to the second one. >> The
003approval of the operation budget. Before we go into that, any open discussions anyone like to discuss in reference to the operation reconciliation budget? >> If I may make a few comments. >> Yes, >> if it's okay. Um, thank you um Mr. White and um good evening to everyone. Um it's this is the last step in the budget process tonight and so um it really was a personal priority of mine to try to heal our community u from last year's budget cycle and really make this go as seamlessly as possible this this uh this year and it was a very difficult uh budget season but I just really want to take um take the time to thank Dr. Estraa Mr. Mani um Sandre Foes um and um our our team um Jared Schmidt, the finance team,
004the city council, uh the BET, and of course the members of the board of education here. We worked very very hard u to get through this budget cycle in as in as positive a way that as we could. Um, also of course a great thanks to Governor Lamont and to Senator Duff and all of our state delegation for that infusion of funds that really really helped there um in in the end. And so um these budget decisions are the discussions are never easy and they require balancing priorities and making difficult choices. And I think we did a really good job of of resetting um uh so that we can move on. Um it's what's really important is uh when we support our schools, we strengthen our entire community. And I also want to thank all
005of our educators, all of the school staff who work with our kids because every day you show up for our students with dedication, patience, and compassion. Uh budgets matter because people matter. And behind every number are students learning, teachers teaching, and families counting on us to get it right. And I think we got a lot closer to that this year than than we've seen recently. So, as mayor and former teacher, I remain committed to working collaboratively with the board of education and all our community partners to ensure NORA continues moving forward together. We may not always agree on every detail and we may not get it right every time, but we share the same goal, which is providing the best possible future for the children of this city. So, thanks to everyone for your work.
006>> I'd like to make some comments to Howard. I would like to say um I want to thank everybody for all of their efforts in putting this budget together. However, I would have liked to have seen us get the 6.5, but I do appreciate the mayor's efforts in advocating for us getting 4.9. Um we did get the 4.1% and we are going to move forward. And uh I just want to thank everybody from the central office staff, folks in the mayor's office, as well as all of the uh teachers and everyone else who has contributed to um getting us to this point and we will move forward. Thank you. >> Before we continue, are we sharing comments before our presentation or are we having a presentation on the reconciliation? Just >> I do have a
007presentation and whenever you're ready I'll present. >> I'll defer to Chairperson White. I just wanted to to check. >> Yeah, I just opened it up if before we went into that if anyone wanted to comment on it. The opportunity is there for them to comment on it. Doesn't take away from the presentation as well. >> Okay, just checking. >> Anything? If there's no other comments, uh you want to wait till the end, that's fine. At this point in time, if there's no other comments, like to pass along to Luna. >> Thank you, Chairman White. I believe Superintendent, do you have comments before I I get into this presentation? >> Thank you, Mr. Osmani. Thank you, Chairperson White. Um, good morning. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us as uh we engage in this
008important conversation of the reconciliation of the of the budget. Uh I think it's been um a long journey like every year in trying to uh get to a place that uh one uh allows us to continue to do the important work on behalf of our scholars and families. I always say that a city's strength is how strong they ma they support and maintain programs for schools because the future of of the city relies on how well we serve our students. Um, I know that we've had a number of engagements that that has helped the community build awareness in terms of the different um areas of the budget and the essential components of the budget that allow us to do the important work. Like Miss um Pritchette articulated, we would have liked to have the 6.5.
009At the same time, we appreciate the efforts that uh Mayor Smith has um engaged in in trying to ensure that we get all the resources that we need to um provide the the optimal learning environment for our scholars. Every year we experience um reductions that significantly impact programming across the organization. And I'm hoping that as Nora continues its transition in identifying a leader and further supporting schools that uh the state works with the city and finding better ways of of funding schools particularly because a lot of the burden falls on on the shoulders of our taxpayers and property owners. And I know how difficult that is and we've seen models across the country that demonstrate that this could be done differently and and could be done better. So, I hope that as Nora continues its
010path forward that the state and the city uh work together and finding more productive ways in which we they fund schools so that Norwok doesn't continue to get um short change in terms of the resources it needs to do the work. I think that um as the the learning community continues to be diversified and we talk about Norwok's pride, the pride Norwex takes and its diversity, in order for us to be well equipped to support the diversity, we need the resources to do that and um we don't always have the resources. So, we worked really hard this year in um reconciling this budget and like every year we we've had significant losses of essential services that are critical to support our scholars. Uh we've made the best of it. most importantly making sure that we
011limited the amount of funding and resources being taken away from from schools and uh most importantly uh the the in-classroom services that are critical and essential for for our scholars. Mr. Omani will speak um today in greater detail of how we we got to to reconcile the budget. Um, one of the things that we will continue to look at particularly is school our school lunch fund. We will have to make some shifts in that area unless we can eventually find additional philanthropic um dollars alongside other public dollars so that we can continue to offer free meals across the organization. Uh, but I'll turn it to Mr. Rasmani to provide greater insight and um the team will tag along in different areas to provide additional uh context. >> Thank you, superintendent. Um begin by sharing my
012screen. A proverbial question. Can everybody see my screen? >> Yes. >> Perfect. Thank you. And just got presentation. Well, again, there have been many thank yous. So, I'm not going to be redundant and thank everyone. Uh, but I did want to pay special thanks to um the finance team uh both on the CD uh side and on the board of ed side for just working together and um coming up with creative ideas and solutions um for making for making this budget work. So, as I've mentioned in previous presentations, this is a cyclical budget process. Um now we are at that last circle uh seven uh the night where we approved the reconcile the reconcile budget. >> I'm sorry your slides are not advancing. >> Oh they're not? Okay. Let me see. >> Oh well we
013see >> yeah we don't see it in in slide for >> presentation mode. >> Mhm. >> Okay. Let me move it here. Are you seeing the presentation mode now? >> No. We see your background. You may have to stop sharing and then reshare. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> How about now? >> No. >> Oh, >> check and see what screen. Well, there it is. And then >> is it in presentation mode? >> Yes, it is. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Sorry about that. >> No worries. >> Um, so when we began this process, there were a series of drivers that drove the budget. As we went through the budget process, we've had to make decisions and adjustments. Uh, but the drivers seem to be the same um, year after year. Greater focus on special education and
014the challenges that lie with funding special education. Um, early childhood education is something that was part of the decision-making process, putting the budget together. Um addressing insurance cost is an element of this budget. As you know this past last time this time last year the board and the city had gone into an agreement of anou where we would start funding the liability account. So this budget incorporated that as part of the as part of the budget. Um staff pay for our union contracts. Our teachers being the largest bargaining group was a driver. Uh we are excited that Norok uh the South Norach school um is moving is moving forward and we will be um officially um going through the name change um dedication this this coming week to so that's exciting. Retirement contributions we have
015contracted services and we'll talk about school meals. So those were the drivers of the budget when we put when the board of ed initially put this budget together back in uh back in uh December. Uh throughout this budget process, I think one of the things that we really were um intentional doing this year was making sure that we had we were engaging the public in conversations both virtually and in person. And here's just a brief snapshot of all the public conversations we've had related to this budget clearly beginning from September all the way to this meeting uh this evening. So we were very intentional. We have had BOE committee meetings. We've met with school governance councils. We've had conversations with the BET and the council, joint committees of finance of the council and the BET.
016Uh we have had multiple public hearings throughout this budget process. Um and we've been fully engaged uh with the BET I believe this year more so than in prior years even in having conversations outside of the structured uh meeting dates. So we have been we were very intentional this year. All of these meetings and public information is available on our website uh that's posted um at the bottom of this bottom of this slide. Um in addition to that, we also have our budget book that's also published. So people that want to get additional information um it's available by following this QR code and we will continue to update this once the board um approves the budget tonight. We will update the budget book to reflect the changes um that are made that are approved uh
017this evening. We've talked about the cycle and how the budget process has evolved when we first started with those initial requests from the department. We actually started at 8.1% in working with the superintendent and looking to address and critical issues, timing of initiatives. We were able to lower that initial request to 6 12% and that is what the board approved back in December. It was then forwarded to the city. Mayor's initial recommendation was 4%. it went over to the council. Council initially approved a cap that would have allowed 4.9% for the BET. Uh the BET in their deliberation um concluded that they were going to appropriate 4%. It did go back to council. Council set a revised cap that would have allowed for the appropriation of 4.5%. As the mayor and the superintendent have alluded
018to, we were fortunate towards the end of the legislative session that there was 1.95 allocated in supplemental education grant. So combining the supplemental education grant and the local funded portion of the budget, uh we were able to end this process at a 4.91% overall budget. uh this is kind of the path that the budget developed over time going back the past uh six or seven months. So to reconcile the budget right now we are presenting to you a reconciled budget that ties to the 4.91% approved by by the bet couple weeks ago. So the initial reconciliation target at the time when we request the 6.5% was a little over $6 million. Uh we made budget adjustments and these are numbers that go up and down as we make adjustments for a variety of things. Uh
019turnover assumptions um as new employees come on board. Uh vacant positions are budgeted at a certain rate. When those positions get filled, we update those projections to account for those filled positions. We update that to include um what type of medical coverage they're taking. So it's a constantly changing target, but those adjustments amounted to about 1.2 2 million as of this past week. So the gap that we needed to address at particular time was 7.3 million. As mentioned, we did receive the supplemental education grant from the state at 1.9 million. Uh the city did provide some additional funding so that our overall allocation is 4.9%. So there was about $290,000 appropriated to the board of ed, which then lowered our reconciliation dollar amount to a little over $5 million. as we do each year. This
020year we looked at what's happening with our enrollment. We did what we we saw that we were losing just about 117 students projected for next year. So what the team did is they met with all of our schools and looked at where these shifts were happening. So in areas where we were able to adjust class sizes and number of sections, we did we would we did a thorough review of our elementary, middle, and high schools based on their programming. So from that exercise to get to that $5 million reduction target, we identified about $1.2 million in reductions just based on enrollment adjustments. That did still leave us a gap of 3.8 million to get to that 4.9. And there are a number of other adjustments that we're making and some of my colleagues will speak
021to some of these. Uh but I'll briefly just like to touch on a couple of them. So we are making some central office position reductions. Um we haven't had conversations uh with the unions yet and therefore at this time we're not able to share what those positions are but we will be having those conversations with the respective unions and HR and making um making those notices um to those impacted um individuals but there will be some central office reductions uh just under $600,000. Uh Mr. Pennington will speak to the inner district educational cost and some savings that we're capturing there and how those savings are coming about. Uh Mr. Pennington, >> good evening everyone. So students who live in Norwok but attend an interd district school in Stamford or other surrounding towns, Norwok is responsible
022for paying for their special education services. And one area that we have seen a decrease is in students attending those interd district schools. And so looking at this year, we saw that reduction and we are able to make that similar reduction for next year. And we're able to track our students and we have seen students either staying here in Norwok and going to schools that we have. I I know that some of them are tied to like an IB focus and we have an IB elementary school uh or they just have not they're not living in Norwok anymore but we have seen that decrease this year and have a projection of a decrease for next year. So that is our reduction. >> Thank you Mr. Pennington. Um we're also seeing we're we've also looked at
023our future ready program which is a program that provides um an alternative to students who are not able to complete their high school education the traditional route. Um and these are noninstructional reductions. We're just looking at efficiencies in terms of curriculum uh consumables and materials software licensing. Working with our IT department and the curriculum department we feel like we can make create some efficiencies. So, there's about $100,000 in savings uh through through that process. Um, as you know, last year the board did approve a second assistant principal at West Rocks Middle Schools to address some some challenges at the school. Uh, this year that assist that second assistant principal was um selected by the board to be the principal at Silvermine Elementary School. So at this time uh this proposal right now contemplates moving forward
024without that second assistant principal. So the school would still have a principal and an assistant principal like the other schools but from not filling that position this year we would be looking to save about um 233,000. We will continue to review if there are opportunities in the future if we get some additional grants. This may be something that we may bring back to the board at some point if there is an opportunity to bring that position back. But for the purpose of reconciling this budget, that position has not been um included at this particular time. Uh we've also looked at our district-wide events and how we capture um overtime throughout throughout the district. And when we say districtwide events, we're not saying that we're doing away with our major events like Black History, Hispanic Heritage,
025and celebrating um Women's Month and Women's Day. uh we're going to continue doing those events, but it's really going to be looking at how those events are programmed and any efficiency that we can capture. But then there are also other districtwide events that we also um put together. And so it's just looking at holistically what are some efficiency that we can capture from those districtwide events. Um I'll let Miss Foe speak on the uh professional learning contracts and what efficiencies we look to capture there for that $150,000 savings. Thank you, Mr. Osmani. So, the professional learning contracts, by no means do we want to communicate that professional learning is not a priority within the district. There are some areas like we we had a a company and uh a consultant that worked with us in
026the MBK MSK program that did a lot of the work in getting us started. Uh Dr. Estraa has mentioned before that we have been able to build that capacity internally through the leadership of Mr. Q and Miss James and so then they've taken on a lot of that um lift that previously was done by a consultant. So a reduction there is an example of the types of reductions that we are talking about because some of the internal capacity has been built then we're able to either reduce a consultant's um support or modify one of the contracts. Another one another good example is with TNTP and implementing our literacy vision because we are now in a different space with that literacy work. were able to reduce that portion of the TNTP contract. They will be taking
027on the math work that we're doing, but still their contract came in um a little lower. So, that's essentially the way that we're able to capture that $150,000. It's through either reducing the dosage of the services or in some cases being able to eliminate it because we have the internal capacity. >> Thank you, Miss Pis. Uh Mr. Pennington, could you speak to the uh high school behavior support program? >> Sure. One area that we spoke about earlier this year is the development of a high school momentum program for supporting students with externalizing behaviors. And as we are planning and looking to develop this program, it it is a program that we will have students for, but not in for next year. We have students in middle school that will then metriculate the following year. So
028the recommendation would be just to postpone it for one year and to be able to have that program the following year. And our goal is always to be able to try and bring back students who may be in an outof district placement. But I do think it's important to note that we will have to build that program um to then be able because a family would have to opt in and we would have to be able to have that program to be able to share with families. And so if we just delay the program for one year, we will then have students going into the program and we can then build that program with that same mindset. >> Thank you, Mr. Pennington and Miss Fes, I think there are two elements of the school lunch
029program. Maybe kind of share how we're making adjustments there. >> Absolutely. And this has been this has been a long time coming and a really tough decision. Um both uh Mr. Emani, Dr. Estrea and I have been in a lot of conversations around different scenarios. One thing that I think became a gamecher in terms of our participation in the community eligibility program is that the mayor recent I apologize the governor recently has passed legislation to provide universal breakfast for all of Connecticut's students. Um, in doing so, they are also proposing to pick up the remaining cost of families that qualify for reduced price meals of picking up the remaining cost of their lunches. So, in having free breakfasts for everybody and free lunches for families that would qualify for free um meals and reduced meals,
030just from that, we would be able to capture $900,000 in savings. Now, the catch is is that C district could not also reap the benefits of this state funding. So, initially we had requested $2.4 million for our food services if we remained in C. And then we saw that this actually would allow us to remain in to remain free lunches or universal lunches for all and have this funding from the governor and still be cheaper than C. So, that was scenario like three or four. At that point, we ended up um not being able to offer at the moment to pick up the cost of meals for families that do not qualify for reduced or for free meals just to be able to reconcile this budget. So, the remainder um $400,000 that you see there
031are um the funds that we expect to actually collect from families that are going to be paying for their own meals. Um, so in essence, it's been a long journey to get here. Uh, but Dr. Estrea has continued her conversations with some of our philanthropic partners. Dr. Estrea, I don't know if you wanted to add to what you are trying to achieve in order for us to remedy this at some point. So, I actually have conversations with two of our philanthropic partners um in a few days just to continue to advocate to see if they will support us in funding um a portion of the school fund. I've been in conversations with the mayor about u maybe sharing the cost three-way in so that our families don't have to um pay for free meals. I
032feel that if we're providing a free public school education, we should also be providing the nourishment students need so that they can learn effectively. So, as one of my final efforts as your superintendent, I'm going to try really hard um to advocate with our partners to see if we could get the additional funding to um address the gap that we currently have and that all of our students can have free meals. >> If I may add, if I may add, and thank you Dr. Australa for your efforts there and I am committed to working with you to make sure that uh we have um we provide lunches for our kids. >> I appreciate it. If you remember um Mayor Smith, the community really advocated for this last year and and providing free meals for everyone.
033Uh we it's unfortunate that the federal government doesn't see the importance of this because we've seen it work during the pandemic and we were hopeful that it would continue. We're very um pleased with what the governor is doing now and we're hoping that he continues to close that gap so that all students can have access to free meals. So, uh we'll we'll try to to address the gap right now and hopefully next year families don't have to worry about meal preparation for their children. >> I'm not going to stop advocating. >> We won't either. So, I think that um couldn't have said it better myself, but families will start to get those notices that we are withdrawing from the community eligibility program or C just so that families are aware, but we are still working
034on it. Thank you, Mr. Armani. >> Thank you. Um so, the remaining two to get to that 3.8 million target, we were fortunate again with a district repair and improvement program grant from the state. We actually received that funding today. We just got notice of that. So that's exciting. So the money is in the bank. Um so we did receive 471,000 and that allows us to offset some of our um it's related for um district repairs. We have some repair budget in the facilities budget and therefore receiving this 471 grant allows us to offset um expenses that we would have paid locally. So that freed up 471,000 to allocate in other areas allowing us to reconcile the budget. Um unfortunately even with all of these reductions uh we were not able to make all of
035these reductions without impacting our schools. Fortunately the reductions that we are proposing at our schools are about 305,000 across all 21 schools. These are all non-staffing um reductions and these are things that the finance department will work with each school to identify areas where we can uh where we can find those those efficiencies. Uh we've talked to Mr. Valencisi. Some of these related to a software contract, some of these relate to how we're purchasing across departments. And so the next slide um is really showing how each of those schools will be impacted. So, at the elementary schools, we will we'll be looking at about a $50,000 um amount per school. And again, we will work with each school to identify that amount. At the middle schools, we would be looking at 25,000. And there are
036schools that are exempt uh from this requirement just because they have already made right sizing reductions based on enrollment. So, at the elementary schools, NARMAC is not part of the 15,000 because they have had to already make some additional reductions. At the middle schools, we're looking at $25,000 per middle school, but Roen and West Rocks are exempt. So, it's the two remaining middle schools that we would be working to get that uh $25,000. And then the high schools, it'll be the three high schools uh the Norai is exempt from this again because of the adjustments that they've already had to make. So we'll be looking at about 30,000 uh per high school. And that's how we kind of tie out uh the reconciliation um of the budget. So just big picture summary, we started off
037with $7.3 million, state and city funding of 2.2. That left us with a gap of five and we achieved that gap by going through the items that uh we uh just went through on the on the slides that I just shared. So just as a way of overview in the general fund, this is a summary. You do have all of these line item detail budgets in your packet. So I'm not going to spend uh too much time. I really wanted to spend time just to share how we reconciled. But as you can see on the general fund side, you will notice that it does show 4.1% because this is the local portion that the BE appropriated. The 1.9 is captured on the grant side and not part of the general fund budget. So the general
038fund is going up 4.1%. the grant fund. This is where you will see that 1.95 that's been appropriated uh by this supplement education grant. Uh it'll be captured in the uh in the grant fund. We did see reductions in other grants. And that's why if you look at the year-over-year, the grants in total are only going up 1.2 million. So even with the $ 1.9 million infusion from the state, uh the net is still a lot less than that. And we have shared with you how grants have kind of dried up and it's not the same as it used to be. So had it not been for the 1.9 infusion from the state, we would have actually seen a decrease in our year-over-year grant appropriation uh to the district. Um and then food services fund.
039We've talked about it. This is looking at the food services fund from the expense side, factoring in some of the changes that we have proposed. Again, if we're fortunate to receive additional funding, they won't necessarily change the expense side, but they will impact the revenue side. So, the transfers that we would be making from the general fund to the lunch fund would be reduced because we would be getting alternative uh sources of revenue um for this. Um and then just looking at it from a pie chart again, we've always shared this 85% of our expenses are general fund grants this year represents 12.3. You'll recall 3 four years ago when I showed you this chart, grants represented about 30%. And so you could see how the elimination of grants are causing additional pressures um on
040the general fund. Um and then again the general fund 76% is salaries and benefits um as you can see here and 24% is everything um everything else. Um, and with that, uh, thank you for, uh, for your time, but I do hope that you have the materials in front of you and the line item information, and I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have to allow you to approve the reconciled budget. At this time, I'm going to >> Before we move into question, Mr. Omani, I just um wanted to if you could take off the presentation mode, that would be helpful. I just wanted to thank um your team as well as you and um all of the members of the cabinet who worked tirelessly to put this budget together, reconcile it, get
041it to this point. I know it was no easy feat and I want to just thank uh the cabinet alongside all the members of their teams and the work that they've done to to make this possible. I also want to thank the board for your work and in advocating with our local legislators around the importance of adequately funding our budget and um always being ready and able to collaborate with us. Thank you, Chairperson uh White for your leadership through this work. Um I really appreciate all the work that everybody has done in helping us get to this point. Um, and now I turn it over to uh, chairperson White and any other questions that the board may have. >> Thank you, Dr. Australia. To my colleagues, do you have any other questions or comments we
042like to recommend before we move forward? >> Okay. Um, it's a concern and a question. So, we're talking about cuts. We're talking about cuts in programs in different you know central office in the school buildings everything programs how I know that's going to take a while um to see the neg negative effects of these cuts in data um you know has been doing very well moving forward with the data and you know Hartford has been looking at us how do you think this is going to affect us and how are we going to stay on top of any changes, negative changes because of these cuts and do we have a plan for that? >> Um, I think that every year we've have had to make significant reductions in and essential services. As you know, one
043of the things that we worked really hard around um the pandemic was increasing our social service supports um particular around. Last year we took a significant hit in in terms of what we had to reduce in that area and over time it will have implications in terms of a panorama survey and our and other monitoring tools that we use to assess how our students are doing because we were setting up a structure that was focused on preventative care versus triage care. And because of the reductions that we've had to make over the course of the past two almost 3 years now, we are going back to triage versus preventative care. And that's just one example of like an essential service that has been significantly impacted as a result of um resource depletion, right? because the
044focus has been maintaining student when people say student facing a lot of people talk about in the classroom but they're not thinking about all of these other services that are critical to maintaining a healthy classroom environment that are to the work. So, we've been able to mitigate and um build systems and processes to kind of circumvent some of these challenges, but over time they will have an impact in how well this work can be done because it's impacting the frequency by which students are getting interventions and supports. And when you reduce the rate in which you do that, it has a a correlated impact in how students will will be able to do over time. I I mean like we I I I have to kind reiterate we have a phenomenal team that has taken
045additional work on top of their duties and responsibilities. I I I the everyone in from from the classroom to the central team is overworked and has when you look at their job description in comparison to other employees across other districts in the state of Connecticut, they're doing more than many people within their their realm of work and and that also has a toll over time. So, we're doing as best as we can. I think that if if the system continues to deplete services and the challenge is we've spent an exorbitant amount of time during this budget process trying to educate um people that are part of the private sector and don't necessarily understand municipal budgeting to understand the implications of what happens when you underfund programs and the importance of programs right the what Mr.
046as Marty articulated around grant services. We're we were constantly applying to for grants because we wanted to minimize the impact on taxpayer dollars. But when grants are now also limited or grants come in with language that doesn't align with the district's philosophy and how we service family and community, then we don't have the opportunities to bring in those additional resources the way we used to in the past to bring in those additional services that are critical to support our students. So over time, the district will see an impact. It might not be this year or the next, but as as services continue to deplete and the system becomes exhausted because we're asking so much from people, it it will have an impact over time. >> Okay. Thank you. I also wanted to say thank you
047to well everybody because um from top to bottom everybody's putting in all that extra time but extra special thank you to Lunda and the finance team because I know how hard they've been working. We meet monthly. We have discussions back and forth. I know that the budget is very fluid and constantly changing every day. So they are constantly sharpening their pencils and working. And I just wanted to say thank you, Furla. >> I would echo all of Diana's thanks and and I share the concerns about what we need to cut. And also I'm very grateful and and I think you all are wizards to have figured out how to reconcile this um without touching school-based staff. Um and so I thank you for that. I'm I'm sad to see that we're having to put the
048special education program off for a year. Um, I'm really so enthused about all of the programs we've built in our district. Rob and I talk about this a lot and, you know, I really hope that we're able to prioritize keeping that in next year's budget. Um, cuz I'm always worried that we're going to have some of the same issues year after year. And, you know, the last thing I I really do hate to see us not able to provide um universal breakfast and lunch. Um, but I know that we're still working on it. I'm going to trust the process that it will come through. Mostly, you know, I'm frustrated with our governor that he won't step up to do that. I know I know our legislators legislators did push for that and did want it.
049Um so I really hope that that can come to fruition in the future. But thank you all for making this work in the way that you did cuz um while it will have an impact, it hopefully will not have as much of an impact as it otherwise could have. And Ashley, just to your point um about the program, next year like it the district might have to definitely provide it unless you want to pay more in outering pro um services because we have a cohort of students that will be moving up to the high school that will need the program. >> So, so we really need to prioritize it next year. It's a much greater cost to pay for those out of district placements. That's very good point to keep in mind. Anyone else? >>
050Yeah, I have a question. Um, so, um, I don't believe you, uh, mentioned it, Linda, but, um, in terms of the teachers health insurance, I don't that hasn't really come to any resolution, has it? And, you know, is there any hope there that uh, that it will resolve and provide a little more funding? I don't >> it will not provide more funding because what we've budgeted here is makes the assumption that they would go to the state plan. Okay. >> So if they go to the state plan the budget will stay whole. >> Okay. >> Um so there won't be any savings. Uh what it would prevent is additional expenses should they not go back. We're meeting with them at the end of the month. We're still exchanging information and so we should know by
051the end of the month where where we sit uh with that. >> Thank you. Thank you. I also like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Australia and her cabinet for the extraordinary work that you guys provided to the mayor as well to the services and the input and support to the common council as well. I think it's always very truthful and important to have a collaboration of community support and I think that's a key component of the new direction that I feel we're heading in. Um for those uh my colleagues that participated to Sherry, Diana, Garrett, as far as the finance committee is concerned, take this opportunity to say thank you to you guys as well. You know, um your hard work go unnoticed as well. Um as we should move forward, let's just
052be mindful. You know, this is just the beginning of some things that, you know, every year is a different year. Every year could be a better year. But at the same time, one thing that I did notice that once you work together and once you work collaborative as a group in unity, it means a lot. So I just want to say to everyone, thank you for your effort. Truly appreciate that. With that in mind, uh we don't have any other questions. Can I have a motion for approval of operation budget reconciliation? >> Motion to approve. >> Second by >> um I second. Mary Ellen. Mary Allen second. Garrett approve it. All in favor say I. Brianne. >> I. >> Any oppose? >> I got it. Thank you once again. We're going to go into section
053C. We'll go into section C, the approval of the U beverage exemption, healthy food certification. Are any questions in reference to that before a motion's call to order? No. May I have a motion for the approval of the beverage exempt healthy food certification? >> Approve. >> I didn't I heard two people >> approve uh beverage exemption mccreat. >> Thank you. Sherry second. >> Mary Ellen. >> All in favor raise your hand by saying I. I. >> I. Any oppose? Thank you for that as well. For D, the approval extension of food service management company contract with Chartwell. Are there any questions in reference to that for year 2627? >> I'm assuming this is pretty much a boilerplate uh presentation based on what we've done in years prior. Correct. >> Yes. >> I know Jill Crest
054is on. Yes. >> Is there anything different? >> No. At this point, nothing's different. >> Thank you, Joe. >> It's just a renewal. >> Thank you. >> Can I get a motion for the approval of the food service? >> So moved. Ashley. >> Ashley. Second. >> Second. >> Jasmine. All in favor raise your hand by saying I. I. I. Any. >> Thank you for that. Now we're going into E approval for an interim superintendent contract. Are there any questions before we go into that? >> Nope. Can I have a motion for approval of the interim superintendent contract? >> Motion to >> Garrett. Second by >> Ashley. Seconded. >> Second by Ashley. All in favor raise your hand by saying I. >> I. opposed. >> I thank you for that. With that in mind, that conclude
055to adjourn. Can I have a motion to journ this special business meeting? >> Sure. Motion. >> Motion. >> Second >> by Garrett. Thank you. All in favor? I >> I. >> This meeting is completed. Thank you everyone once again. Thank you for a wonderful session. Once again, just remember that you know our our progress, our work never ends and we're willing to continue to do the wonderful work we do. And once again, take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you guys here online today and looking forward to continue the great success. Have a wonderful night. >> Good night. Thanks everyone. >> Good night. Thank you everyone. Good night.