2024-03-12 Board of Education Regular Meeting

001So, of course, there's always Okay, we're going to call to order at 6:30. Let's rise for the pledge, please. To the flag of the United States of America. to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Roll call starting with Shel, please. Shel, Robert, Debbie Sherman, Steve. Any amendments to the agenda? We have the board meeting agenda uh minutes of 227 to approve. Is there a motion? Make a motion to approve the minutes. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Opposed? Abstains. Motion carries. Okay. Audience citizens. So state my name address for the record minutes. All right. So I have a few comments here tonight that I'm really going to address to deputy because as chairman of the board among everything else that

002you do, you're responsible for setting the agenda, right? and I'm here to express my concern about your excessive use at the executive session. All right. We had you had one last night. The minutes you just approved have two or three in it. I mean, it's kind of hard to tell how many exactly had at your last meeting. Um but you know, the executive sessions were created by the Freedom of Information Act. All right. For very specific purposes, right? There's five reasons to have executive session, right? purchase of real property, individual performance, um security man, security matters, pending litigation, and anything that would disclose a protected document. The protected documents are things like tax returns, passwords. They list 20 protected documents. All right? So, in the last year, this board, as I've had over 20 executive

003sessions, all right? Now, I'm not a lawyer. I'm not an expert in freedom of information, but when I go back and I look at your minutes and I look at your agendas, to me, less than half of those meet the five criteria that I just said, right? It just all these executive sessions. Um, so, you know, in the last 10 years or so, I've been on several different boards and commissions in the town. And in that whole time, I can almost count in one hand the number of executive sessions I've been involved in. six or seven, maybe eight, and that's it. All right, you've had 20 in one year. All right, but then it doesn't stop there. You come out of the executive session and you make a motion that refers to the executive session.

004For lack of a better word, that's a secret motion because the public wasn't in the executive by definition isn't in the executive session and they don't have minutes, right? So then it only goes to follow that somewhere there must be secret documents to go with these secret motions, right? So look, maybe you have a lawyer here that you know you pay a lot of money to. He tells you you're following the law. Don't worry about it. But to me, you may be following the letter of law, but you're not following the spirit, right? But having open sessions, right? So I'm just here to ask you know to stop with all these executive sessions stop with the secret motions the secret documents and just to have open clear transparent public. Thank you. Anyone else? Yes. Um,

005I'd like to read a letter to I addressed it to you, De I'm not sure the proper protocol, but yeah, sorry. I'm I addressed it to you. I don't know all the proper protocol, but I did uh send it to Tom Hall and I believe that that was then sent on Mr. Tumble. Uh, dear Chair Sherman, I take my position as a member of the Oxford Board of Education seriously. I recognize that I have a fiduciary duty both to the taxpayers of Oxford and to the students in our schools. It's not my job to rubber stamp whatever the superintendent requests, especially when the expenditures of public funds are involved. So when the superintendent's proposed 2024 2025 budget showed very large pay raises in central office and I am referring only to the budget book in

006central office in the addition of new administrative positions again referring to the budget book. I did what any responsible board member should do. I investigated. My investigation resulted in belligerent personal attacks against me aimed at me. Most of the other members of the board, including yourself, seemed more interested in protecting the superintendent and pulling a shroud of secrecy over the whole process. Because I am being prevented from exercising my responsibilities as a member of the Oxford Board of Education, I must resign. I have proudly and diligently served on the board of education for nearly eight years. I've served as vice chairperson of the board, as secretary of the board, as chair of the curriculum communication technology committee, and as a member of every committee of the board, including the special education ad hoc committee. I

007sincerely hope that the board of education will consider carefully in all of their endeavors the emails from FOIC that I have shared with you as well as the more recent ones that I offered to share with you yesterday. I attach all four of those emails to this letter for your reference. Just because you say that an elephant is a tiger does not mean that that elephant really is a tiger. The elephant is still an elephant. As my husband often says, "A person puts themsself on a slippery slope once that person loses their integrity. I will never compromise or lose my integrity. It is with great regret and with some fear for the students of Oxford that I leave. If you could just anybody else. Yeah, I don't have anything to prepare except the experience of

008going through this thing, but it kind of reminds me of no good deed goes unpunished. We all heard that. I wonder if they can say the good deeds that you do are remembered forever. You put in eight years in every role like you have said and you provided a lot of guidance to me after those you and study. So with this episode and the treatment and the whole procedure, we're supposed to be the stewards of teaching students, whatever you want to call it, seal and and pride in the community and parents and all that. So I just suggest that with this event that maybe we reflect on ourselves and they can say you know really the guiding light of students in the school you know help at this moment thank you for your service and

009it's been a pleasure and we get kicked around together Mr. George Temple, two gent Farm Road, Oxford. Um, a while ago, a teacher did an experiment in classroom. They had a pet goldfish in the classroom, and the teacher said, "I'm going to take the fish out, put them on the table, and no one is to get out of your seat. If you get out of your seat, you'll be expelled. So fish was there groping for air, flopping around. Finally, a little girl couldn't put up with it anymore. Got up, put the fish back in the in the aquarium. And uh the teacher immediately came into that class and she said, "You know, that was a little test for you all. Sometimes takes a little courage to buck system. Takes a little courage to buck authority.

010But this little girl did what was necessary, what was right to do, and she got up and did it despite potential for what happens to her. And that little girl is Shelley Casta. Uh I am I started this session uh very uh enthusiastic about this board. Many of you I appointed myself and I thought you would do the right thing. I never thought I would see this as um whether you like it or not. You know, a lot of times, uh, Barney will tell you, anybody will tell you, you know, we we have to take our lumps down. A lot of times you have to have the guts to say, "This is the way I feel. This way I stand. You know, I think we need this position. I think we need this project. I

011think we need to do this." And you have to stand up to people. But that's why you have the job that you have. Now, I was here last night and I I must say uh I was encouraged by some of what some of you said. Uh very discouraged by the rest. Uh I think it showed a lack of moral courage. uh you know the uh form over substance you know uh the you know why anybody of her and I her Shel's uh integrity and experience should ever be put into questioning beyond me they never in my mind Shelley was one by the way that I appointed uh and uh I say I I selected share the blame with uh so you know to me uh you know he kind of let me down uh you

012know uh I think transparency is important. I hate it sometimes. I hate it, but I but you know, gotta sit there and put your big boy pants on and go up there and take it. And uh and that's what that's what we do. Uh, Shelley, I want to thank you for the years that you and I know the dedication and I know for a fact that this uh that Shelly is uh joined the meeting here while she was in intensive care. I never heard of that. But that's the dedication that that lady had. That's the dedication that you could have focused and should have focused and and you're through that failure to do that. It's just that failure in my opinion. So, u you know, board of select will be coming up with a replacement

013for Shelly. We'll have a seat. We'll be able to fill we'll never we'll never be able to replace Sh. Thank you. Anyone else? Anything Bobby? Yeah. Um, Shel, I would like to thank you for your years of service and your dedication. Um, I I haven't been here very long, but uh, I admire your courage. I admire your ability to speak out. So, thank you very Oh, go ahead. Both as a resident of Oxford and superintendent. Joe, I want to thank you. I've known you for a long time. I have well before Ben was an employee here. you and I cross paths um back when I was part of working in 18 Western public schools through your work. So um both as a former um colleague of yours um as superintendent and as a resident want

014to thank you for your service. Thank you. Stephanie Stephanie Miller to drive. I'm here on behalf of Shelley who is resigning from the BOE tonight after almost a decade of service to the Oxford school district. What a sad day for the children of this town. They are losing a staunch supporter of education, especially the group that Shelley fights so hardest for, special education students. For those of you who may not know, Shelley has had a very long and successful career in education, launching her own business that advocated for special education students and their parents in the state of Connecticut and beyond. People in this room probably sought her guidance. Parents from all corners of this state sought her services because she fought for their children in order for them to have the necessarily necessary tools

015to be successful in a school environment. And Oxford Board of Education, you had that for free. Hi guys. I haven't been here in a while and I apologize. Um, but when I look at every one of you and I was a volunteer in this town on many different boards and I still volunteer a lot in my time and I admire everybody that sits behind these desks because it takes a lot of work, a lot of time and people don't understand. They like I tell people that all the time even in teaching. They don't know what goes on behind closed doors and how long people spend researching and things like that. And Chelle, you were one of the hardest people sometimes on the board of education um fighting and and like I said, special ed is

016very close and dear to me and you were right there for him all the time. Um, and I really do appreciate that. And I'm glad that you said something about the um the budget that came before you guys because I was just wondering a few years back, we bought many of you guys that were on this board to cut back on the the the staff that we cut back on and now they're coming back again. And when I look at that, I walk through our schools and I walk through all of them because I I admire every teacher and every grade and everything about Oxford and I see things that every school needs. Okay. I see our school, our society has gone because there's so many kids with anxiety, so many kids that need so

017much from us. I mean, I talk to kids that I don't even have in my class all the time that that aren't in any of my classes and they talk to me and I feel where these students are coming from, but we don't we aren't getting more staff to directly help those students. I I would love to see another five guidance counselors, you know, or psychologist. And I know psychologists cost big bucks these day because they're shorthand. But when I see somebody in our school system getting the raises that they are and they haven't even proven themselves to our town, um, that hurts. Okay? because I look also at the at the the the contracts that go into the people that do work directly, the parishers, the nurses, the teachers, and I look at and

018I I and I told you to, Robert, I I talked to you before about all this. Some people are going back in because of insurance going up and getting a low amount of increase. when you see this and and they work directly with our kids and and our kids are everything in this house. When I get a kid that wants to help with the veterans there that that aren't looking for volunteer hours, aren't looking for the glory of it all, just want to come out and help. That's what we we're supposed to be producing in our town because Oxford is a volunteer town. Even though you know we don't we still have people being paid here and there and here and they you have still so many stu students that are be filling these volunteer

019uh positions on a fire department on the ambulance. We are raising these kind of kids but we also need that that help and also I believe that with administration I believe we have to get a backbone in answer. We have to be able to stand up to parents that doubt us. And the way we do that is to prove ourselves. And I I believe in our school system. I believe that every one of you guys, everybody should have to prove themselves to our so we don't have that that person that wants to sue the school system or or we did something wrong. And if we do something wrong, admit it. You know, stand up and say, "Okay, I I'm sorry. I I screwed up." Because we are not perfect. And I tell my students that

020all the time. I'll tell my students, "Listen, I was grading. I was going back from grade book to project, grade book to project. If I miss grading your project and I handed it back to you, please look at Power School because I I'm not perfect." And nobody is. But the people that volunteer for our town like you all are are looked upon that they should be looked upon in a very glorious way. And Shelley, I want to thank you for all the years that you've done. I enjoy seeing your pool walk around the high parking lot talking to yourself. It's it's nice to see you and it's nice to see neighbors working together and I hope that Oxford never especially this board of education never lose the commodity that you should you need for our

021kids and and for each other. Thank you. Anyone else? Bill Miller to Indiana Drive. Uh some of you I know and realize that I was on the board of education for several years. Uh and I've served with Shelley uh for probably three maybe four years uh a couple years ago and I can tell you nobody in my experience nobody took their oath and you do take an oath to be on this board took their oath more seriously and diligently than Shelley did. Uh her dedication to the people of the town and to the residents was second to none. And Shel, I want to thank you for your service on this board. Uh it was an honor and it was a privilege to serve with you and I'm better because of it. So again Michelle thank

022you very much. Anyone else move on to board correspondence? You have school calendar for 2425. At our last meeting I presented to the board a proposed calendar. Um in that calendar we had our professional learning days scheduled for Wednesdays um throughout the year other than release days and go days. Um the feedback that we that I got from the board at the time and feedback we got from the parents um in the audience was that there's a preference for us to look at moving either to back to full days on Fridays or a hybrid between school. So in my newsletter that week I did a survey to all parenting staff. on that survey um results showed that majority of staff and parents wanted the progressive learning days to be on Fridays. That's easy. We moved

023that back there. But I also asked an open-ended question for feedback on this on the calendar as well. In that survey, um the feedback said, take a look at the return back from the winter vacation. So the way that the schedule was um the year fell January 2nd is on a Thursday. So when he had talked to putting the calendar together, we felt it be better for staff and students just to come back on a Monday as opposed to on a two-day um school calendar. The feedback asked us to take a look at that again. So I went back and I probed um did a second survey to my staff and my parent newsletter on Friday and asked that follow-up question. That follow-up question resulted in a split. Um 190 people that responded said they

024preferred the return on January 6 and 164 said they prefer to returning on January 2nd. Um the majority of our almick school staff would prefer to return on January 2nd as bigger farms. Um their feelings is for our youngest children it'll be more difficult for them to be out of school for full weeks before returning on um Monday the 6th. majority of our secondary staff um felt it was more important for um students to be in school and return on the sixth thinking that there would be a higher rate of absences if we have vacation ending on the second. So actually I took a look at that data as well and that data showed us that um two years ago actually 2020 was the last time that we had a um January 2nd return on

025a Thursday. Um when I look at that attendance data, it's no different than the attendance of students coming back on Monday or Tuesday and Monday, Tuesday the past year for Tuesday and Wednesday for second and third. So the placement of it didn't really make that big a difference for student attendance per se. I'm recommending that we return on January 2nd. Um majority of the the feedback that came in while the numbers showed a higher percent rate showed that they refer on the six a lot of the comments from parents was it would be easier from a child care perspective for students to return on the second. So between that and our youngest children being about elementary school and the feedback of better for learners I'm recommending the second. I'm happy to go back and look

026further or take your feedback on how you want me to proceed on this. It's kind of split down in the middle. Anybody have any questions? Um, have you looked at what other schools narrated? We would have been the only one that be going back on the same. Okay. Thank you. With that being said, most of county now has breakdown. So, it's it's all in place. Anybody else have any questions? This is just maybe question. You know, I've did this in the past and some other town did it and u and I look at the weeks of school and it seems like and I the other person did a percent is that there's not too many full weeks of teaching. It's a half day for this that day for that. There's, you know, I see pink

027and yellow. I really don't want to sit and try to analyze this whole thing. Think you're going to do whatever you're going to do. But uh when a student misses a day and we have people being tardy, it's it's a whole program to get kids to school. But you know, we have all these broken up teaching sessions of short weeks and and I looked up on Ed Smith or whatever it's called and I I look at I kind of look up what students were missing and what came up is that we've gone from I think it's absenteeism for teachers went from nine days to 13 days. So again, probably going back to what I said before, you know, we got to start to look at ourselves is that if students are being hammered to the

028school and they're missing a teacher in one half or one day every week and we have absenteeism at 13 and a half% last year, 90%. I think there's a a time for an inward look. you know, this is going to be whatever it's going to be. But it brings up the problem of how many days are the kids really in in the school. But their teacher, if you have this and you have that, you got to pick more. I will say this that the teacher and staff attendance is very different than the school calendar. And teachers bargain for a contract. In that contract, teachers have contractual right for a certain number sick days and personal days. That's their right as as managers, employees, they bargained over in that and we as the as board of

029education have signed a contract that gives those staff members the guaranteed right to take those days. In fact, sick days, they're allowed to accumulate up to beyond 180 days. So, the teacher is sick for s times, they're allowed to have those days. That's part of their contractual rights. I I got all that. But a student comes in here and in theory he's paying $20,000 per year. That's what our average cost is. So that's like $240,000 that that he's supposed to be spending for an education. And when you have, you know, your contract and stuff like that, I think it's time that you take a look and see because I I can't understand this thing, your staff or whatever it is. But it means the the ship is not fully loaded that many of the time

030and the contracts and the things that we do need to start to focus on, you know, how do we get a full week of schooling and how do we get the students two volunteers. Just a quick statement, there's six half days for professional development. Kids are in school, 180 days, not counting the two full days teachers have professional development. Those would not be counted as not. And so we have six half days throughout the school year that there's a caffid professional development, which I believe the best thing to the teachers are very important. We've been lacking that in the past quite honestly. Um, so I get the confusion of it. Um, and I'm sure this is not uncommon having professional days in school system. In some districts they do it every week. I know in

031Ottawa gets out every Wednesday at least an hour professional development. My daughter goes there. But um, and back to your point on just so I can comment on it. I think the second makes sense. We don't need to deviate from standard. We don't need to kids out longer add more confusion. So, I'm in favor of going back time and I just want to we've pushed a lot for professional development over the last few and a half because we felt that as a board that it was important to give our staff the time that they needed to learn the programs that were asking to write curriculum, work together to help the kids. So, um professional development has been one of our pushes for uh at least the last year and a half, maybe two. Bobby, go

032ahead. Yeah, just I just want to make sure I'm understanding. So, Dr. Miller, you're recommending to come back on the second. Is that correct? For two for two primary reasons. One, for the founders, I said from a childcare perspective, it's it's easier for them to have the students return on the second because they're going back to work. Yeah. And our most fragile students are our youngest students. So if our teachers are saying it's better for them as learners to begin for those two days rather than being out for a full two weeks have to lean into what our teachers with the most fragile students are telling us. Okay. And I I happen to agree with that. Um and the the other question I have is um we talked about going to Wednesdays. Just want to

033make it clear we're going back to the holiday. The only day that's not on on Friday is the election day that has to be and that's what the survey have showed us. Yes, we surveyed both parents. We and teachers and overwhelmingly they Yes. And again, I'm agree. I'm I'm in agreement with that. I talked to my wife about that and she's like, "What? We're doing Wednesdays." Voice of the consider and I I think that thank you for doing that. I think that we as a board really struggled with voice. So, um is draft B the one we're approving? So, draft B, when you do the motion, which I have under action items, doing a motion to uh approve the account that has been uploaded except for returning on January 2nd. I did not make that

034change because the survey went out on Friday. I re I believe the results didn't get data in and I hadn't posted the calendar the board agenda on Friday before the survey went out. So motion to I'm just going to write it out and then motion to approve the calendar um with the modification of January 2nd as the return from the winter break. I I'm sorry. Can I but while you're doing that another question? Um so you know to pick up a little bit on Vic's point here um we're contractually obligated to do the professional de development a certain number of times and etc. Is that correct? For full PD days so teachers are guaranteed in their contract um 184 work days of 184 work days for professional learning. Okay. Two of those days we do

035before school. One is convocation and the other is a full professional learning day. Okay. And then we have two additional full PD days during school year. It's always done in November for election day because shut down school stats statewide. And then we typically choose a date in March for the second full meeting day. Several years ago, we adopted also early release these days saying we want students to be in school but once a month when we don't have the full meeting day. We would like to honor the professor and teachers and have students go home midday and embed that into the calendar. As Steve was saying, a lot of school districts do that on a weekly basis. We said we really can't do that weekly, right? Um but we'd like to do it at least

036once a month when possible. We don't do it in May because of all the testing in schools. Um so that one is more difficult. So we've made it more efficient in the counter to make sure that those are safeguarded. At the risk of not making some teachers h very happy, has there ever been any thought to doing this after school hours? Okay. We'd have to pay. You'd have to pay. Okay. And I think that teachers would say they probably wouldn't want to be teaching all day long and then stay three or four hours back to school. I get it. But I I do want to ask the qu like I'm just again I'm new. I'm learning. I'm trying to figure out how things are going. There's also some some questions that came at me from

037some parent after the meeting. Could we have instead of two early release days, one full profess learning day? The only way to do that is to add on to the teacher contract now 185 days or 186 days so that you're because you still need to pay 180 school days for working. You're tagging one additional professor on top of that. Okay. Thank you. Anybody else have a question? No. Just just comment back to just as continue with board operator get details on when you have PD topics. Right. I typically Yeah, you do. I provide it to the board. Y it's part of my Friday update. Friday update Friday and part of my update is that next Friday actually have learning. So coming up. Yes. Okay. Motion to approve calendar with modification of January 2nd return from

038winter break. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? Any more discussion? All in favor? I opposed abstain. Motion carries. Okay. Connecticut educators support funds initiative 2024. Okay. So by policy anytime we have a donation of um any item that's over $500, the board of education needs to receive an update from me with an approval to accept the donations. Um this is kind of a little bit different. The way that this um rolled out, the state of Connecticut had excess funds from their um the federal level and decided to grant $4.2 million to teachers across the state. In doing so, they did not do it um uniformly from so every teacher across state may get the same value. What they said was it would be first come first serve and allow teachers to log on to

039donor's shoes, grant an account, and post a project up to $1,000 until the $4.2 million ran out. So I provided that information to the teachers and we had a large number of teachers. I was very pleased to see the number of teachers that applied. It did not go through our business department. It did not through purchase orders. It went directly from the teacher to donor to choose. Um I don't have a way to find out exactly what every teacher acquired. All I was able to do is to find out that teachers had applied and how much they applied for. Um even that is what the teachers reported to me. So there could be some teachers out there that did receive something that I'm not aware of. Um what I'm providing to you today is what

040I am aware of and the fact that we had as many teachers we did which is I'm so thank grateful and thankful to teachers that took the time to do this and we started to receive the funds almost immediately. But we brought in overnight in the course of under three or four days $41,5815 cents worth of resources to the school district for free. And I am so grateful and so thankful that we had so many teachers that took the time and said, "I want to make my classroom better. I want to make my learning environment better for my students." And this is how I'm going to do that. So, I'm asking the board tonight not to have a a list of every single item because I don't have that, but to approve and mass the

04140 um $1,581 that were brought in resources to the district. I didn't understand. What are you asking us to do? There's a there's a motion to approve based on our board policy to approve and accept the donations. There's money from the state. Not spending money there. You are spending money. Nothing has ever and the money actually has already been spent and resources already here. So the money is for that particular teacher's own classroom. And that's correct. the way that um donations work for both our district and the guidelines with the donor street. So donor excuse has a set of rules um and if you look on the website it states that any resources purchased by teacher is owned by the school district not the teacher um and that's also by our board policy anything that's

042donated to the school district by default is owned by the school district is why the board needs to take a motion to accept and approve that the resources then become accepted by the school district. I'll make the motion. Um, can I you can do it during discussion. I didn't have No, I got this. I'm just gonna change. Can we should we just do the motion and we can do that during discussion if Okay. Yeah. All right. The board of education per policy 3280 approves and accepts a donation of 41,5815 of resources through the Connecticut Educator Support Funds Initiative 2024. Second. Discussion. Okay, that's what this list was. When I got it, I wasn't sure they were asking where we received it. That doesn't $800 and I remember going through some of the other committees for

043saxophone, electronic piano and all that, you know, stuff. So, so I I think this is great. You know, it's never free money, but it's it's a helpful to the school. The the thing is maybe it's a separate discussion is that many times I tried to donate things to the school, you know, friends and associate, people my age or F loading stuff, you know, and believe it or not, just because we're older, it's not junk. And the thing is that, you know, from machines to laser printing machines and cutting and stuff like that, and it's we we need a procedure and and a a welcoming type of an approach. I tried to donate books and they say, well, the books are talking about capacitors and think, well, you can get to printed circuit boards and chips

044and stuff without learning about the previous. The books are no good because they're old. The technologies are an ultrasonic cell disruptor that they can break around flippers by themselves. They lead you into research. Oh, that's too much money. You have to go through another board. I'm just saying simplify it so that these people that are leaving here, I go to Florida. I just drop it off in South Carolina, Florida. They go give me a big hug and say welcome here. It's it's almost impossible to give anything away. I set up a program where I gave a car from a dealership to a teacher for every month and and all I got was grief is that I'd rather have the money and it was supposed to be a fun thing and a reward for the teacher

045for doing it voted on by their peers. It became a nightmare said forget it. So we need an attitude change that they can get things into the school quicker than the people that were moving up. They got quick stuff. So put that maybe on your agenda that they can work with me that they can get some additional. This is great. You know, I donated I think up to 500 bucks in STEM stuff. So fifth grade, you know, it took me from October to just after Christmas. They get it through. That's how hard it is to work at the school. And this was the previous administration. So I'm just saying look at these things. The town is a volunteer town and we ask you to give. If you make it difficult, we'll just give us some

046place. I'll respond very quickly that the board policy clearly dictates how donations are done. Um, any teacher is welcome to ask for a donation to be accepted. We're open any time. Um, I receive an email from that teacher or that staff member. If it's under $500, I grant it and I I approve it if if it fits our our needs. um if it's over $5, it comes to the board of education. Um I haven't received many requests from from from schools asking for a donation, but if we do, I mean, I received one two days ago. Um and I immediately asked your instruction to look into it um to make sure that be compatible that we accept anything that that fits and um aligns to our curriculum and and our and our needs. It's a

047wonderful experience for you, but it wasn't for me for some of my friends. So, we should get together and talk about it because it doesn't work for my end. So, Well, I'm sure we can continue that discussion. I just would like to thank the staff for coming up with such a great list, taking the time to apply for all these things and um for doing it for the kids. So, I I really am impressed with the list that's here. So, anybody else? And I will also add that the teachers this went out in my staff newsletter midday on a Friday. Teachers submitted Friday night, Saturday, Sunday. they took the time over the weekend to to do it and those that did it within 24 hours had funding and by then we're getting the resources in.

048So it's just wonderful to see the number of teachers that took the time to to do this to better for their kids. I I think it's great. I mean I can't count it seems like it was like 40 awards. Yes. Which is amazing. Quarter of the Yeah. Oh yes. That's great. That's great work. So um you guys ready to vote? Motion to Oh, you did the motion. All in favor? Opposed? Abstain. Motion carries. Thank you. [Music] We bypass that now. Yes. Public content. No. Approve of the increase diversity plan. Oh, sorry. Yeah. So the state of Connecticut um this past year uh required that every school district by March 15th approved a increasing educator diversity plan um that scrambled all the school districts on what does that look like. They did a number of webinars,

049they did group sessions, a number of our admins u went and attended a workshop on how to write the plan. We're given a template and we filled in the template. Basically, what you see before you is the plan that we're asking the board to approve so that we can submit the minutes and the document to the state of Connecticut and then we can check the box and move on. Any discussion? Do we want to make the motion and then have the discussion? Yes. Uh the board of education uh make a motion to uh for the board of education to adopt the Oxford increasing educator diversity plan as presented by the administration. Is there a second? This is before the vote. This is second. One second. Okay. Discussion. Can we explain that the there's another document

050here. It says extension or something. Um, so it was that we were not too sure how long it was going to take us to get the document filled out and how quickly we would get to the board for approval knowing that we need the board approval before we submit to the state. So we asked the state, could we have an extension to give us an extension for 30 days if we needed that? Sounds to me. Yes. Do we have an extension? Yeah, we don't want to approve it tonight if there's any revisions. I didn't know if this would take one read or multiple reads. I asked the state just by chance it takes longer. We have an extension. I guess I just No, you're absolutely. Yeah. Um I I'd like to read the statute a

051little more. I think in this case I'm tired of state heavy-handedness on school districts. Um I'm all for ensuring we have the right person for the right job. Um I don't like being boxed into metrics. Um I don't think anybody deserves that. It's I think it's a disservice to a lot of people. Um, I'd like to make sure that I understand what the minimum requirements are for this ask and we adhere to the minimum requirements of the state statute. I can say that when drafted a plan, we try to keep it as minimal as possible without doing any sort of associated quotas or anything like that. We try to um make it as low as possible. I I mean to me this reminds me of the situation when the state said that we need to

052put um you know tampons and and other feminine products in the boys's bathrooms and they said you need to do that and we said no we don't I don't think that's appropriate and this when you start putting quotas you know it's a slippery slope when it's quotas when it's it's you know you get an inch and then you take a I didn't even know if parts of this seemed even legal because I know that there was a court case and I believe it got to the Supreme Court talking about um diversity in admissions for for colleges and I think Yale and a few others they got their hand slapped pretty hard um and it was found to be unconstitutional to use diversity as a deciding factor and if diversity if if someone's if employment is

053first looked at well do we get enough candidates of a certain box did we check all the boxes did we get enough people because we need to make sure that we hire enough of any category. It's a dangerous slope and I I don't know how much of it is is still legal when when I mean when admissions can't you know we can't even ask an application what your ethnicity is right. So how how are you supposed to make do you have to add you have to advertise in diverse media. So the regular media doesn't count. It it needs to be diverse media. I'm just the fact of the matter is that regardless what's on paper, our objective is to always hire the best candidates possible. That's what we're trying to do. Um, in asking and

054we're trying to when we're trying to find the most expert staff, some of those will be diverse candidates and some will not be diverse candidates. The fact of the matter is right now in the Connecticut workforce, there is a real shortage of teachers. real shortage of our professionals. We're a shortage of administrators. We're not looking for the ability to solve the problem locally. It falls on universities to attract and get more diverse and more talented people that we can hire. So the question is is it what's the penalty if we don't submit uh something I'm just for discussion sake if we don't submit something to the state is is the what's the penalty I don't have that information it's an unfunded mandate we'd have to find out what the state board of education would do

055to us if we did not have there's nothing in the statute that's I didn't read anything there's nothing in the statute related to that because in the cover letter or in the whatever the proclamation is is that you can sit in it whatever you want and they will review it and tell you what they want. That's in the in the initial two letters there. So whatever you come up with, they're going to come up with what they want. So it's it's a uh consensus is always a lovely word which means I can sign my right to somebody else, you know. So basically you're in a consensus mode, they're going to tell you what to do. But I looked at it a different way. I looked at the high level people that are involved in this,

056you know, and it's really quite impressive. We have this this staff there. But one of the last things was there we have a goal of 2% over five years. So if you take 2% of 140 teachers, you know, you're looking to take it and improve your whole program for half a teacher. You know, I mean, this is like the most bizarre thing from a mathematical standpoint. The amount of leverage and money you're putting in to look for half a teacher in five years. It's like, you know, these people are smoking. I would just like to say that I seconded this just to get to the discussion. All right. And that's the only reason I seconded this and I concur with my colleagues that have already commented. So I guess just I can just read this

057real quick because someone asked the question. Thanks. If what if we don't submit a plan, submit one on time? Are the consequences penalties for not submitting? CSDA seeks to be proactive, not punitive, because the legislation is silent on consequences or penalties. So again, I I this is my personal opinion. This is another manipulation. Um a waste of taxpayer money. Um I'm not in favor of it. I I'm not in favor of a lot of things. the state pushes down on districts who are meant to be um governed by themselves what's best interest of their town employees and town taxpayers. Um, so I don't see consequences, but I just it's a fixed point 2%. I know that's a number you guys came up with, right? To build a plan. It's a couple people over five years,

058but I don't want to be held to any number. The best person and and yeah, we got we got a job to do here. We need the top the best regard. I don't care where they come from, who they are, period. I don't want to be holding to a metric that they go, "Well, let me see your numbers. You didn't do it." No, there's nothing penalties here. No, not being held to a metric. Bobby. Yeah. So, previous planning and zoning uh committee member, commissioner, whatever you want to call it, uh this heavy-handedness coming down from the state is a huge thing in that in that area. You know, um my personal opinion on this is that it should be a local decision. Shouldn't be done from the state. It shouldn't be mandated from the state.

059Uh and frankly I believe you know our kids in this school system deserve very best applicant that we can get regardless of what you know uh what race color creed etc gender um is mandated by the state and if there's no penalty then I personally would like to just ignore it. What I what I will say to comment all of that is that we always will and whether this plan is in place or not always seek to have the to hire the best candidates. Part of this plan is attracting a diverse workforce, but part of this plan is also retaining a diverse workforce. In other words, those staff members that might be different than the person next to them. How do they feel a sense of belonging? How do they feel that this is a

060place that I want to continue to work in? So while the part of it is an is an effort to bring people in for the other part of the effort is whoever is here making sure that this is the most welcoming place that they can be at. So while I hear a concern over a quarter and trying to get to number part of this is looking at our work culture and our environment here to make sure this is the best place that our staff wants to work. And if you read through the planet you'll see that part of this is take away diversity, take away that word itself. Part of this is how do we make this place even better than it currently is? And what are the steps that we can strategically take to

061try and achieve that? And so you've got the the attracting new staff members. What were we doing to staff me? So I think there are there are valuable components to this plan that that are addressed in it. So, um I I agree that that's a very important thing and we don't want to take that away, but you don't need a motion to create a a welcoming nurturing environment. We don't need a a plan submitted to the state that tells them how we do that. Again, that's a local matter. We should seek to keep all of our staff have a strong budget that supports our staff and our students in our district have the resources and services provided to them that meets the needs of the students. You know, address uh discipline situations and having enough

062staff to adequately handle the needs of the students in crisis. Th those are the kinds of things I I hope we invest our our energy in. And if there are things that can make life easier for staff in general, I'm all for it. But I don't think we need a motion to make that happen. Okay. Anybody else have anything to say? We have a motion to approve. Um, all in favor? Opposed? I abstain. Motion fails. Move on. Um before the superintendent, right? Um the month of March is board of education recognition month. So I am recognizing um all of you um your dedication, your commitment, your passion, your desire to do the right thing for the the children of Oxford um as volunteers. Uh most people think that you probably attend two meetings a month

063and you come at 6:30 and you go home at 8 and we see you two weeks later and then summer there's no communication. You've gone for the two months like the teachers are. I know for a fact that you are working evenings, you're working weekends. Some of you are here two or three nights a week with me. Some of you are on on text messages or phone calls with me on a Saturday morning, Sunday morning or Sunday night. uh whatever it might be, I know that you're working a lot of hours and you are volunteers. Um and in that role, I could not do my job um without the backing and without the support and the amount of effort and time and dedication you put into it. Um and I want to thank you um

064for that. Um and we do have a few things special planned for you this month and I'm going to turn it over to share with you what we're going to do. Um so we're going to split it. still be this board meeting and then the board meeting in two weeks. Um we do have a special gift for you and then also we'd like to donate a book in um one of your favorite books to a library here at our public schools in which you'll be able to write a special message to students of our district. Thank you. We appreciate this. Thanks for running commission. We appreciate it. Walk around. Right. And so the other part of that is um at our next board meeting where we have the board training, we're actually going to have

065a dinner for you that even surprises for us. I am as volunteers your your payment is in terms of a thank you and so our board training will be at 5:30 that night on the 26 the regular meeting. Okay. Yes. I can make it. So will be part will be part of that. Thank you. Yeah. So the the other part of this um the other part of you I was like, "This is great." I usually open things with I wouldn't have noticed that till later. Thank you very much. Thank you. That's my calming mechanism. I best um we received some questions online over the last couple weeks in Facebook about recognizing students especially um not just athletically but um academically. Um the question came to us at the board level came to us in some

066of the forums that we did last year on putting the honor honor role online. I don't know when it stopped here in the district. I made the assumption that it would stop for security reasons um but I don't know exactly what year it was stopped. who was not here at all while I've been here. Um so when they went into Facebook again, I began to do some more um digging into that. Uh I reached out to a number of school districts um in the area. Um some districts um like New Town um do it on their local hometown newspaper. Um other districts like BAL do it just on their website. Um other districts don't at all. Um Brookfield, Ridgefield, Region 12, Region 15, they they've abandoned that years ago. Um with that being said, we

067are going to restart it again now starting with the third quarter um for the middle school and high school. Parents do sign a release, but I do want to u remind parents that this is the method that they can opt out within power school um and then begin the process again of recognizing students with the honor role starting with the third quarter. So thank you for the parents that brought it up again um now and last year. I know it took us a little bit but we did get there. Thank you. So when you do that list, would you bring it to the board and the list is prepared so you can acknowledge those? We certainly can. At least as a board at a board level, we can you know have the list and absolutely

068absolutely. And we don't have a hometown newspaper, just a a local Oxford paper. So it will be on our website. It'll be on social media and then parents can share that out on whatever matter they want. If they want to send it to voice, if they want to send to that, it's a public reach. They're welcome to do. So, will it be honors and high honors or just high honors or just honors general? Yeah. Um, we're also looking for other ways to recognize. Um, so before this even came up, I had already had a conversation with um Sylvia at the middle school. They do the weekly um hometown heroes. Um that's a student that's um done something special over the course of that week. Um, so she and I already talked about coming bring those

069students into June to the board meeting and actually recognizing all those students that were recognized during the course of the year. Once again, another way of recognizing student achievement beyond um pure grades or pure um athletics, how else they contributing to the fabric of our school community. So that's um in motion. We'll be doing that. Um we did have a situation yesterday where um around 3:00 or so a road was closed um and that impacted middle school transportation um one of the buses couldn't get down a road. There was some um misinformation and some information that came in as to where the bus would go. So we were told um one street information got out to parents they were told after that that the bus couldn't next to get the students there. We were then

070told all the students were being brought to Quaker Farms where they're middle school students. We had to divert them over to different building. With that being said, over a dozen messages went out to parents between the middle school bus and to Quaker Farms and goes buses and in the interm told some farming go students parents that their children would be in the school. Then the road opened up and we're able to get the bus there. So we had some parents pick the kids up, some parents have their kids dropped off. There's a lot of different things happening all from this one road. I know some of it hit Facebook and I get some emails today. Um, with that being said, every time that we go through something, we say, "How do we do better?" Um,

071and we had those conversations this morning of what would we do to improve the practice for next time, lessons learned. We did some stuff good and some stuff that we need to do better next time. So, that's just how we need to operate. Dr. Can I? So, I was actually at Quaker Farms when this happened and a lot of the issue actually um from the 10 or 15 minutes that I was there during that whole thing was kids with cell phones on the bus and they had information or thought they had information and they were contacting their parents and you know that doesn't help you. No, not really. But, you know, nothing you can do about that. But that's that was my observation about it. And to make matters wor even more complicated the farm's

072phone system went down in the middle all of that. So our concern was okay parents not sure where the kids are. Parents trying to call school school can't answer. So we sent out a message to all the parents saying if you need to call school call here. Um and we did have two secretaries that stayed well past their commitment well past 4:30. Marlene and um um Beth were both here um well past their hours. um neither um were told to do so. They both said I'm going to say until we resolve the situation and I'm thankful that they they both did so and Wendy as well actually secretary that stayed um late yesterday to help out. Please make I will do so. Um we talked to professor learning next Friday on March 22nd will be

073the next early release day for staff. um just reminder to parents that that's taking place and then tomorrow and Thursday for Quaker Park and go is our teacher conferences. So those two schools are on our early release day for teacher conferences on Wednesday and Thursday. Our blue team at the middle school 7th grade is doing a book collection and children book collection um for an organization called Read to Grow which is a nonprofit organization promoting children's language skills and literacy. Um the book donations are being accepted um through the entire month of March, but more specifically they're doing a book drop off um this Saturday um from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 at the middle school. Um they're looking for any books um new or used that could be then um dropped off and then provided

074to this organization. It's been on my newsletters for two weeks now. it's on social media um but um helps spread the word and um any folks that we can donate our so you pause for that. What time was that? Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 and I'm sure the teachers and students are involved will be thankful to um any donations that come in and I'm thankful that they I'm thankful that for all of our schools I do have many community service projects to be doing. This is just another example of how we give back to the greater community. And then finally, um I hope to see a lot of parents and any staff members that are interested in the budget process tomorrow night. It's a very important meeting at the board of finance at 6a

075at 6 pm in the town meeting room. We are presenting our our budget to the board of finance. Um we will be answering questions for the board of finance. Um the board of finance um will be diving into it tomorrow night and beyond and it'll be important for our parents to attend that meeting so they can hear the questions are asked um and for the board of finance to see the support that is amongst the community and interested in our board of education budget. Any questions for Dr. Mill? Okay. Audience of citizens a second batch. Anybody have anything they want to say? I'm gonna sit here dry on me for you. It's not a microphone. So, so first I want to thank you, Dr. Miller, for turning back the honor role. Um, it's unfortunate that

076Facebook had to, you know, I I don't even know those people that started that thread, but I thank them for speaking up and I'm looking forward to seeing all the kids from the middle school and the high school in there. So again, thank you and the board. My next question is more of is there any sort of plans for April 8th for that partial solar eclipse that's going to happen when some of schools are leaving going out to the bus? Now with partial in Connecticut I read it's only going to be at 93%. I my husband already bought the glasses for my son but I'm wondering is there any sort of plans that it would be a great way to bring the school community together to do something or by school whatever. I know the

077high school will be out, but for the rest of them from the middle school goes and Quaker are if any of the teachers are looking to do anything as as a school district. So that's that's we talked about it a little bit during curriculum yesterday. Um so we had a couple of concerns. Um I know that was a request that the middle school get some glasses um purchased. We're going to keep talking about it. I don't think it's it's a a no-go with anything. It's just sometimes a little bit of legality and parents opting out. Parents can pick up kids. So, we're we're going to continue having some discussion about it. The town library is also doing a program that during the eclipse. So, we're one of the things might be to provide information to

078parents who have just children to go and participate in that. Um and I know that there are other districts that are allowing students to be picked up early, excuse their parties to um participate in those activities. That's something we definitely would do for any grant that wants to do that. Um as Dev just said, there is concern that students traveling home during the eclipse time. Um there's also concerns from a liability standpoint if we provide every student a class sunglass and they go outside and they don't use it properly, what happens to that child then? And what happens? Are we then legally um liable for any damage that might occur? So there's there's conversations that we're having, but those there those concerns have my kid brings his own in that we purchase. Is that okay?

079If you have to take that in the bus, that definitely would be an article. I think getting the information out is yeah to everybody, you know, maybe some, you know, some Instagram posts or Facebook posts. Getting that information out say, hey, you know, this is happening on April 8th. protect your child. We're going to do the best that we get that we most people need like the hardest day to be in a classroom like that question. Is there a safety issue if kids are outside and my friend? So kids so kids are walking outside that's what they're concern there's concerns in both dismissal time also concerns about actually taking groups of students outside actually see it there's there's both of those literal issues well the youngest kids right what time no but no I mean

080what time start it goes to 4:30 something you got the littlest kids in the district walking outside looking straight up at the sky and then getting on the bus and getting on. Yeah. So that's the problem. Looking even if we did an activity where we brought students outside to see the solar eclipse, they still students go home during that period of time. During the meeting yesterday, I took the liberty to look up last night is there there are window shades available. Okay. Because one of the things I mentioned is that the kids were inside and if there was a window shade that met the requirements of the glasses, you know, you could have the kids stand around, you could actually be described to them and still have them in the room, you know, and they're

081combined with not outside taking their glasses off to look. I'll blew my eyes. I'm going to get, you know, cooked. So, they are available and they're, you know, they're like 87, 90 bucks, 120 bucks. So, uh I don't know what the time frame is for the uh the eclipse and stuff like that, but there are alternatives that may be feasible. It may not be feasible. I don't know. But there is all of certified shakes that a whole bunch of kids can make around two windows. So, it's a it's a a possible solution for Anybody else in the audience have any questions? Well, April 8th and 9th is the U districtwide art show. Let's get a little creative on these days. Um, but it's later. So, we're we're set. So, can you put that on your

082calendar because that's always a fun thing to for to watch the kids. Please send me please send me the details I can get on social media as well. Yes. April 8th and 9th. What time? 8th and 9th. It's from 6:00 to 8 at night. Um and um I talked to all the art teachers and they'll both be there both nights. Yeah. At the high school and the gym in the main lobby. It was a phenomenal song last year. Yeah. It was great. Is this all grade levels? Yes. Yeah. K12. I just can I just one thing for the safety of the of the kids. The reason that it's it's such a a dangerous thing is that because it becomes nighttime, your eyes dilate till a full pupil and sun are still coming down. So now

083focus on the rest. So that's very very simple terms if you know kids are pretty smart today that they could understand that the there once it's cooked it's gone. Right. Well that's why we think it would be a major safety concern. Well prekers getting on look at this where the go I think the middle school and the high school are more in tune. [Laughter] When I was at school and we actually had to stay until after it was finished in school, I remember because we all had like these like weird little things to look through and the school actually kept us. They would not let us leave because it was a liability unless our parents came and got us early. I mean those are the things that are in discussion more to come. Yeah. But

084just I mean not to labor this but the main since we have voice of the parent here is it more on concern of the liability or I just thought it was something cool to do for so more on the science opportunity. Exactly. Versus I'm concerned about kids looking up and going blind. intel. I see this I see this as tremendous education opportunity for students while there's a tremendous safety concern at the same time. Correct. I'm that parent who would like take their children out of school to go do it with them because I'm we think it's really cool, but I'm thinking as a teacher, oh my gosh, that's in the middle of my dismissal time. You've all just lit a huge light bulb from now on. Oh snap. What are we going to do? Like

085I don't want prekers, especially that I teach. I don't want them out. They would I know what they're going to do, right? Maybe tell them two. 3:30 is like when it's supposed to be at its which is when we're walking out the door. So that's one of our major are we going to bouncing back and forth on this meeting. Talk about the eclipse. It is cool. Had no idea. So I'm going to do my finding out. Yeah, I'm learning a lot. So, I'm going to do my report now. Um I'm just going to um remind everyone to um come to the board of finance meeting tomorrow night. Um it's really important and we would appreciate people coming to just um listen. We have our budget is very clear. We've made um significant documentation with grants

086and staffing and all of that. So, I would appreciate people coming out. Um, I do want to address um the earlier comments that we made this this evening. Um, I am very sorry to see Shelley leave regardless of what anyone else thinks. I've been friends with Shelley for 17 years. Um, I do feel very badly that she left. Um but unfortunately there there were some concerns of um information and we needed to as a board manage what we needed to manage. Did we do it perfectly? Maybe not. But it was not done maliciously. It was not done to have the outcome that it had. So, um, that's just what I have to say. Um, facilities, Mike. Uh, sure. So, we have our next meeting. We had to shift it from its regular time to Thursday.

087Is it is it Thursday or Wednesday? Wednesday. Uh, the 27th. I know it's not a Thursday because I don't want to do that to at 6 p.m. we're going to be meeting in person. And I think for this meeting, am I correct in saying that both Karen Nisterak and Joe Stockmill are invited? They're invited. I have to confirm that they can meet. We'll confirm. The goal is that to encourage um Joe and and Cara who who do the sports, whether it's for, you know, whatever season we want to start getting them at the facility subcommittee. So, if they have feedback for us, especially about facilities and and the use uh of our school and our our property, um we want it on our radar and we don't want them to we want to give them

088a voice and give them uh uh the ability to communicate with the board. So, the subcommittee is it's under its purview, so we're going to be including them in it. Uh we're excited to hear, you know, how things are going and just keep that communication going throughout the year and into the future. So that's all I have. Anybody have any questions for Mike? I just want to add something real quick. Um, so we we've begun ASO interviews. Uh, I think we have some super really high quality people that have applied. Uh, we will be finishing up I'm not sure what the next step will be, but I believe we'll be finishing up the interview on Thursday. Um so uh some very high highly qualified people have applied. Thank you for visiting participating. Oh yeah it's

089uh M case myself uh Mike Dustinino and Taff are conducting the interviews that's our open high school. Yeah. Thank you for doing that. Sue um can what are minutes for all the all the committee supposed to be? None of them are ever posted and it's hard if you're not attending all the meeting to know what's actually going on. So, we could be a little bit better at posting minutes from each committee meeting. We got it. Absolutely. Yeah. I'm guilty. They're all sitting. I'm sorry. So, if you guys if you do them, send them to me and I can upload them for you. Do they go do they go on the board docs or they Yeah, they just go a not Google Docs. That's right. It's pretty it's pretty easy to and I can also we'll

090do a better job. And just one last thing to add uh some of the board members met with George Temple and the selectman um to discuss security. We could not go into any specifics because it was a public meeting. Uh but enough information was shared that uh uh Mr. Temple uh approved the plan that we have. Uh so we're in the process of we're moving forward with it. It's it was already funded partially by the board. Uh in a prior meeting we made a motion to share some of our was iter funds uh to help cover the cost for some of the security improvements. It's you know it's forefront on our mind whether we're looking at a new position director of security or we're looking at ways to improve the security of the school. Um

091it is a priority for the board. So, anybody else from my curriculum? I'll do. We had our meeting last night. Um, attached to the curriculum um agenda, you'll see the midyear um assessment report. Um so, if you guys want to look at that, we'll come back to that once um as we go on throughout the year. Just gives you an idea to attach the curriculum agenda from. Okay. In board. Um and then we talked about the eclipse for a little few thing. So we talked about that for a little while. So um that was pretty much our um curriculum meeting last night. Um policy. All right. So our very efficient policy committee tackled seven policies last uh meeting. They're called uh weighted grading for honored classes, improved completion rates for FASA forms, graduation requirements, administration

092of medications, increasing educator diversity plan, FMLA, and the employment and student teacher checks. Um, instead of going into each and every policy now because it's for a first read, if I can direct your attention to the minutes, which should be posted. They were posted. They are too. I did those. Go ahead and take a look at the synopsis for each of the policies. If anybody has any questions, feel free to reach out and I'll do my best to get you the answers that you need. Thank you. Thank you. Um, finance. Yeah. So we met um 5 days ago. Um the meeting was bifurcated into two sections. It was more about how what's the upcoming strategy for the board of finance meeting and and town meeting regards to the budget. Um we discussed um adding a

093few exhibits to our budget book which will be on the website. Um it's on the website. It is it's updated. Okay. And I mean is there version needs to be that we have one. We talked about a very simple infographic that can be consumed um with the highest level points of hey we're asking for this amount. If we were to do nothing else just adhere to contracts staff uh insurance HSA it would be you know 4% x of the overall 5.4 ask. So we're just trying to add some exhibits to clarify and make it very simple for people understand what the budget is and what it stands for. That exhibit is in the budget vault is and I posted that on social media on Friday and again today and it will be again tomorrow. It's

094a one sheet piece of paper for anyone to pick up and say this is what the budget is announced. So I probably should pay attention to our social media site. Sorry. So I actually I've noticed it looks good. Good. Um so that's we talked about just a little bit high level around where we're going with budget. The other half of the meeting was discussing the January results. So because of budget, we're a little behind on the monthly operating rhythm that we have. Um we covered down on um just really high level summary, you know, 91% of our existing budget is encumbered or uh expended. We went through some of the grant funding levels and what's left there. We also discussed um the balances and activity with regard to student and central activities account. Um, we

095did highlight early discussions on the potential of a PE card for the district where it would facilitate vendor purchases. Many are not dealing with POS and old fashioned cutting checks any longer which makes things difficult. Uh, pretty common practice today. We discussed um approach to maybe look into that a little further. Um, I think Howard did some due diligence and um, we're going to come back with some information. I can't remember what it said on that. We'll come back with some more. There's a potential rebate. So we want to make sure we understand how the accounting works for that as well as if there's any also I'm looking into to see if there's any other programs out there that give a rebate not just going again what we're looking at is through Caspo which is

096the business associated business officers and they work through bank hall but I do know from a prior district that Chase Bank also offers this um so I just want to call get all the opportunity to that would be great and then we'll bring that back to the board because it requires There's a board motion for us to then submit further. Yeah. Yeah. That's the motion that I have to then but that the meeting minutes have to then go to the bank say that the board did it doesn't change any processes as far as approving the purchases. Beautiful. So we anticipate bringing that either in the next meeting or in the meeting in April. Um let me keep going here. Talked about that. Um we also went through um line and adjustments. So for many of

097you that know you know the way it works in schools municipalities we have to align our budget line. So if we're in deficit in one line we must take another line and balance it out. I'm used to corporate we run a negative and at the end of the year if our total adds up the right place we're good. But here we have to make sure each month that we align per policy that the budget uh each line item is is funded. So we went through um November, December, and January adjustments that had to be made all at once. It's in the it's in the document attached under facilities under finance. Um, so we're going to need to make a motion for policy to enable Howard to make those necessary budget realignments uh in compliance with

098our our policy. So a motion to approve line item transfers from November, December, and January as approved by the finance committee. Second. Discussion. Anything? Thank you. So um there is big movement around again a lot of the budget what happens is at the end at the end of the day right so you get a budget you have from the day it's approved it's wrong tell you that already right because at the end of the day because you're gonna there's going to be so you get an appropriation and then you think you've laid out the budget as it is but teachers leave teachers go staff leave staff comes and goes and so what you're doing is you're adjusting the budget you'll have expenses that you have one line that you thought there were going to be

099utilities or something like that. So we use the funds that are there move it up into a line perhaps you had to hire a teacher at a higher level or teacher you hire a teacher at a lower level. So now that gets into the ground. So to answer your question nothing really major that's standing out at this point in time just moving the funds around to where they're needed at this point in time. The big thing that has been happening this year is maintenance. Um that is where the biggest expense have been coming and where the biggest for lack of a better term is on the budget is is occurring at this point. So, we're utilizing funds where we can to help that difference. Excuse me. What was that area again? Maintenance of the facilities.

100There's a lot of lot of um a lot of work um to get the fields in get the facilities up specifically in the HVAC. Matter of fact, we use some funds from the ESR fund um to also back fill where we can because that's also making it you can use it for safety. You can also use it for healthy buildings and Hback. So, so trying to balance that out between the operating budget and create so that we're not overburdening the operating budget. Thank you. Anybody else have any questions? Just Yeah, just isn't the normal process of uh when we do when we have transfers, we're supposed to approve them. That's where we can see. But in the past, I think the transfers happened at the end of the year, whereas right now I think the

101purpose of doing it is one to have a better uh projection of what our surplus could be. And in the past, in the past, we typically have come to you with maybe four or five transfers per month. Um, this is just a large ball. Large bulk, right? Well, I know a number of years ago, Jason first came on that consultant and we had shortages and overruns where money was sitting there, some sections not having any money. So I mean I remember his comments were is that it was just poorly run and the budgeting was wrong. But it's just the normal mechanism of paying Peters to do well. I mean it's like doesn't make sense to me but you're the man. I you have a total budget right? So it's just and you have like lines

102there are of that budget. Not everyone's going to be correct. So there's going to be there's going to be hits and misses in each one of those lines. For the most part you're going to get it right. you're gonna get the salary lines right which is the bulk of the tell because you know the person you know what account they're in but you're gonna miss out a bunch of lines so that's like maintenance this year predicted that all these maintenance items so they're going to be negative but we're going to have positives like one of the items you'll see in my report if you read the report that we received $814,000 change state our excess cost funds now that's a little bit over what was budgeted for so that's excess funds that we can use

103in other places that's that's the give and take it's the puts and takes budget. I'm with you. I trust you. Howard was in here when he the budget was built. He came out. He inherited this one. You said that in public, right? Put it in minutes. And typically um it's very common practice for August for the board to be presented the final set of transfers to balance everything out now kind of preset some of those final Yeah. I know some of you work here. It was actually a very large transfer that I asked I think it was in August that was asked was like twice the size of what we're seeing here because of all what's it takes and you have to go for every line. This is going to make that much smaller entry

104because it's going to already be leveled out as we go month by month. Which is also going to happen is what I'm going to start adding to my report than you see in here. So I'm going to add projection of where those balances are going to be at year as best we can tell going forward each month. So what that's going to help us do is that if we know that this balance is zero, we zero that out, got it to where it needs to be, then we can just focus on the lines that are positive or negative and understand where those are going and what we think they're going to be on year end. So gives us an idea. Are we going to have a surplus or deficit come June 30th? We shouldn't have

105last minute surprises at the one thing when you're doing zerobased budgeting and you're doing all this moving around is when you look at that account and it shows that it's on score target whatever but it really isn't because you have to take money from another one. Is there an accountability for that event and eventually that you go that zero based budget budgeting you you blew it. you know you were getting too much and you were get I mean how do you find I want to go to an accounting thing it's just so that get straight no it's not an accounting thing right so it's at the end of the day so let's say utilities right utility I can guarantee you no one no one will ever hit exactly on utilities because you can't because you

106don't know what the electrical cost is every year how much electric we're going to use what we do is when I created the budget for utilities this new budget that's coming up when I created it I took what our usage was for the past 12 months I then what I then said is okay what's our average kilowatt per hour, right? It's a very it's I try and be as scientific as possible about my calculation and then I maybe I adjust it a little bit saying prices are going to go 5%. Or maybe they're going to go 10%. I don't know that. So there's a lot of variables in a budget that you just cannot calculate. You just you just can't know. You have to have a ball be able to do that. We don't. So

107we just make our best estimate scientifically as fast as you can. So when you do that, right, you get so you're getting close. So if you're within one or two%, you're hoping that that's a good that's a good last. So the other thing we talked about approve a motion. Oh, sorry. All in favor? I opposed abstain. Motion carried. So the other thing is we're finalizing um timeline document. There's still discussion about previous surplus. So, that's going to be another exhibit available as a public um and it's in the budget. It's in the budget. Okay, great. I know we looked that today. Um starting in February, well, our next meeting, we're going to review February's finances. Um as mentioned in prior, board meetings, town meetings, um we're going to be super transparent whether we're excessive or

108uh we have surplus. We're going to we're going to monitor that and and project that and communicate that monthly. Um and if we do have a surplus, it's going to opportunities at that point in time. be real good about it. Again, numbers can change. Unknowns can fly into the district at any time that we weren't expecting. Something breaks for $100,000. Who knows? Say it. But but we're we're going to do our best to make sure if we are running surplus that we can appropriately apply some of that to necessary areas that have maybe been neglected in the past as an example. Um, so you will see a projection each month in the packet and and discussion around if we feel like we have a um a list or something we need to take care of

109that we feel comfortable enough that we can expend that on that item. Any questions? Yeah, there was a meeting last night with uh about capital improvements. Is that an appropriate question for this? So how did that go? So from what I understand, the full list of all of our capital requests were added to the town request and approved last night. It now gets forwarded to the board of finance. Typically at our presentation to the board of finance, they'll ask us operating questions, but they will also ask us capital questions. will be prepared against those tomorrow nights and then they would deliberate they'll figure out from that list what they want to be presented to the town in the public um town meeting at the end of April which will then get voted on to be

110placed on the um ballot for referendum midnight. Okay, thank you. Um, I will be there. Um, will be there. Um, Mike will be there. Steve will be there. Most of us will be there. We'll be there. Any other questions for Steve for finance? If you have any, hit me offline, too. I think it's important we block the step with everything. Um, leazison reports. Sue in anything. Um, he had a meeting last night on camp. Um, but I think it was pretty simple. Basically, we've got bingo coming up on Thursday. We have about 85 people signed up. So, that's good. Um, we started to plan for senior lock in. We've got all of the fun things booked already. Um, Lisa has been in contact with the the mural people and different ways that we can, you

111know, work with that. I don't know if she's shared with um and uh that's I don't have a report. Well, I think PTO is next. I think so. So, I don't have a I don't have a PTO report. I don't I think that's all for lays. Is there one quick thing? Uh coach stocks and uh retiring from coaching. Yeah. Are we doing anything for him? Any plans in the words? We are actually planning a districtwide retirement um staff recognition um which will probably be toward the end of May, possibly beginning of June. Um and he along with any other retirees whether it be a stipen position or full position along with other staff members that are not retiring um will have an opportunity to be recognized that okay any other questions. Is there a motion

112to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. Second. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Abstain carries. Thank you everyone. That's cheating.