001TR out I'm getting side you're live okay we're exiting executive session at 7:30 okay at this point uh any board correspondence communication that's been shared with board to share hearing none moving on information items there okay moving faster uh action items discussion and possible action regarding suspension of board policy number 3171 0.1 didn't know we had point. ones and establishment of funding of an unexpended education funds account pursuant to Connecticut General statute 10- 248a as amended by Public Act 24 4- 45 that's you yes so the state of Connecticut passed a law that allows Boards of Education to create what's called a 2% par fund originally that fund was created years ago and it required the board of Finance to approve the authorization of that account this past year the state of Connecticut changed that
002law which allowed the boards of Education to the create that account separate of town politics um town government from weighing in and creating that account what you're allowed to do is to is to put 2% up to 2% of your operating fund from that given year into that car account originally that fund was only for special education related purposes and major Capital expenses like the boiler that way it opened up to a little more flexibility CL Bo of Education to use for any purposes they see fit however it's not a flexible sp8 for us as employees what's hard if we go to use the fund is that we come to the board of education and see approval for the use those funds the reason why this was put into place was so that Boards of
003Education in June don't feel the incent imperative to spend down $100,000 $20,000 or $50,000 if they have fund at the end of the year rather than going on a spending spree they can say we're going to put this money into this account for several different reasons one um if we think that it's special students mov into town at some point during the year it's going to cost $60,000 for tuition now you've got a sum of money that's outside of that budget that's now permitting us to use for that particular purpose major Capital expense I said if there's a um B that goes if we have a major roof leak um damage to the building whatever it might be it allows us to have money um for use of that as well as um in this
004particular case for this year our liability insurance is actually going up by 6 about $69,000 over what we had budgeted for so if we have 69,000 in this year's funds we can put that money into this 2% car fund carrying into next year and pay that liability insurance with that fund so that we're starting this year in deficit but it allows us to not go into deficit in the other areas of the school district kind of protects everything else in the operating budget from that def that would be hitting knowing that we have that increase in that cost in addition to liability insurance dental insurance went through the group gr went up beyond what we're expecting we have two bargaining groups that are not moving forward with moving to our health insurance right now so
005there's additional Parts with that so it gives us some Financial flexibility to move money and to use it for purposes that we know we need for liability insurance or for an unexpected expense such as a student that now needs to be outplaced or student had a settlement that W unaware that F any of that is possible and help protects the rest of the operating budget next year for those FNS so the request this for that we're presenting to you is to create that fund to have that conversation about creating the fund and then the conversation about how much you want to put in there you might decide not to create the fund that's your right to do so you might decide to create the fund put $10 in there that's your right to do so
006as well but the conversation we're bring forward to you is from our legal advice front the lawyer Zach looked at our um board policies through local Town Charter and he we in on state laws and he's given us the advice that this is something that the Board of Education about is entitled to do and we do not need to go back to the board of Finance to be respectful we did let the board of Finance know that we were intending to bring this board tonight that they were aware of that and I and I worri the B had a conversation about it at their meeting last night um so we are aware that that in VA town that it's important to keep people in the loop and I know that this is something that the
007board of M probably does not want the Board of Education to do but I am asking a board of education to have a conversation for the reasons that I'm here at and and this we just started this discussion I think our last last Thursday two days ago we talked about Finance about possibility change of legislation and our concerns around know what we budgeted for this insurance plat is no longer valid fols require so it was an opportunity to discuss potential not starting off $69,000 shortly be expected just see when the insurance program was brought up in the first stage of the budget then and learning just by disos there was always a concern that you wouldn't get F participation and I asked what would happen if we didn't have full participation ofl whatever it's okay
008so we knew that and I think was pretty posi anybody kind of knew that everybody was sign up at least the input that I got so we want them to do the budget knowing that they weren't going to sign up for it now you got a short call you want us to do this 2% well would say it's a bail out cou things let me kind of tease that out we knew that um there was a risk associated with moving everybody over to high deduction plan for budgeting purposes but knowing that the board of Finance was cutting us $200,000 we took that is a risk in hopes that we' get people to move over the greatest deficit is not for the medical insurance though the deficit is from liability insurance has nothing to do with
009medical Insurance liability insurance that's Insurance versus building being in the building or if there's a flood if there the um the roof collapses if there somebody gets injured that's liability insurance they gave us an estimate a while ago that estimate proved short of what the final costs were when they presented the final cost to Howard last week that is nothing to medical insurance that is nothing to high dedu plan that's the liability insurance itself sometimes companies and that's $69,000 that I'm talking about I got I got yeah but still the same game is that insurance is always like the cash count out budet there's always some snapo with insurance okay now we have it it's reliability it's the same game that happens so I'm for taking the 2% I put toward buy the bus but
010not that they can bail out on on the insurance thing these Insurance guys are used for CI and if you keep learning by now you know they come in with the thing up here they negotiate it down you tell us you sa 400,000 I know it's a different thing and everybody's notory and then all of a sudden some other thing come out would rer the different insurance company I my feeling is they are just what's the alternative budget an estimate budget is an estimated process that's that's information time with if I'm selling you a car and entertainment okay and then it comes out different you think you want to ask why you may they can switch sales you may even switch C there's something wrong with the insurance program with the state in the schools
011because there's always I saw three towns do exactly what we did last year with million dollar surus Town said look can't they came up with $600,000 saving within two weeks I'm saying the con is the same we have to have insurance I know you had to have insurance but things negotiating with the insurance company they have millions of people all kinds of algorithms and artificial intelligence that know what the things going be and miss something other insurance is by 400 500,000 this is $100,000 this I'm just saying there's something wrong with this program all for the 2% I don't know what JP board line but it's so it's j think a different discussion process of how we end up with a cost for liability insurance for liability insurance so we start and the process starts
012in October November so you haven't even you don't have a full year claimed yet right so that's part of the issue is that when you're starting to do claims you don't have full year of claims and that's how insurance companies actually charge premiums based on your claims you actually have what four months of claims at that point in time if you have a huge claim in December all of a sudden your premium is going to be much more than what it would have been if it's in November when they gave you a price because now you had a huge claim insurance companies are always going to make their money they're always going to reclaim what if you have a claim you know they're always going to get your money back through premiums so if you
013have a huge claim the PRS are going to go up some we've had some claimes this year for the we had the fire in the gym we had some things so our premium can change from now and they didn't come to to last week it's down to us is when they finally brought their numbers and it was last week so we started this budget process back in October with a with a verbal quote that they said we think this is it but it's way too early in the process to know that and then they didn't update us the final numbers until last week so that's how that's the claims that they wait for to see that entire full year of claims before they actually start and get their quotes and bring in the PRS so
014the process part of the process you say the problem with the state and school problem with the state of schools is that because of the process of the budget and how long it takes to build a budget in the corporate world it doesn't take that long to build the budget it just doesn't because you're doing it over a much shorter period of time and so you're getting claims you know when the claims are coming up your budget's pretty close and you get it done much quicker better case problem is now is that the budget process winds its way from October all the way through until you guys all approve vote on it in May right so that's the process and it's just too long of a process to have an accurate number it just this
015it just doesn't work and that's why you're going to get what they're going to come in and do is say we're gonna we're gonna so that what happens is they're going to come in and try to get you a higher number generally and then they'll bring it down this what you said this year unfortunately they came in with a number and because of claims and everything it's higher what were the major that the fire a fire fire was water leak damage for the B basketball basketball like water Le lock rooms it's not huge but it'ses right it's it's not only our it'ss but it's it's the whole model that in so again it's the process is flawed in that it takes too long in the public sector that's my that's and I don't know if
016the town liability also went up as well I don't I don't know they they do all they gave USP to be perfectly it's still not fine because we got rid of 462 the old building they had that on ours so that's still not a final number yet because they haven't gone through and they're not going to do that until July so they're going to go through and they're going to allocate the assets so I truly I have a number and it's still not even now we're so I'm a little confused of what the actual account is it's like a rainy day account and why would the board of Finance want to answer it for them I'd like to recognize Jack to speak from the board of Finance if you'd like to address the board okay
017first thing is wish everybody a Happy New Year year okay our bu goes into effect now we had the Surplus what's the first question people ask me what is the first question how come you overfunded the Board of Education they got a surplus who gave them too much money okay that's the first thing we get now as far as not having the money for certain things that you don't have in reserve I could tell you the pull pack we took the board of Finance we took uh $362,000 out of our contingency to cover the pull back we're going to ask the board to cover okay we are tight this year we got a lot of expenditures we've got the uh this school and you've got Qui Farm school you want the hbac you want in
018both schools right our share of the hbac so far for this school is $950,000 so let me tell you where the schools where the where the town stands the end of last year June 30th we wonder up surplus of $8 million okay we put away in our Reserve 5 million 700,000 that's to cover all you know emergencies that's cover also that also covers our bond rating if we're going to go out in bond we need that there to show the people buying our bonds that we have money we have resources we have ability to pay that pay that Bond and we have the ability to collect money to pay that Bond but this year the Year we're finishing right now we've done something which I don't like we did in the past I don't ever
019want to do it again but we use some of our Surplus to cover the revenue on the budget so in other words we used a million dollars to say okay here's that shortfall for the taxpayers okay the year before that we came out we didn't have to use a penny this year in our budget we're not using a penny we have to get out of that because we're killing our Surplus we have in Surplus we have right now going into this year we got $ 2,300,000 that we got to cover at this million two per town of Lane to get that pipe done 950,000 the pool pack we already took care of uh wpca already took care of that's $400,000 we should have done five years ago okay and the taxes people complain about the
020taxes went up this year went up 1.3 million that taxes think should have gone up a couple years ago gradually going up we're not paying we're not getting enough out of the the taxpayers come run the time and we were lucky we got a few hit items that we could put in our Surplus it's gone okay we have also we have a fire Tru a rescue Tru a million eight that we have to pay for we've got the library basement 360,000 we have't put pay e-commerce Pump Station $400,000 that's the e-commerce drive we have to get a pump station in there because you look at the lots a lot of them are like this all that's got to be forc made that's not gravity has to be pumped back uphill okay and then we got
021the engineering Christmas just Tree Hill Road okay on that uh corner there and that we got just now on the engine we PID $200,000 we got more lot more go so as you can see it's not a Rosy scenario and I'm hoping that uh we do have a some Surplus this year and the Surplus this year on that million dollars we had planned for year we just closing we could get some of that back increasing okay now we spent a lot of money on schools show you our general education we have a bond here that's the original bond is 8.3 million as of last year we had six 6.6 million left on it we have education 2020 it's a 4.5 Bond 96 9, 600,000 we have another plan general education 500 110,000 that's 4.5 that's
022going to come through next year so that'll be gone we have general education again that's got be part of the Middle School 9, 895,000 that'll be finished in 2028 9 million and the other one is education that's all that the middle school left $7,990 and that'll be paid off in 2042 okay and Jack can I have a question you indicated that not this year last year you had a surplus right seven eight million no what was that's we ended the year with the the whole surus so at the end of the year you had a surplus and you put it somewhere or contingency million in contingency okay so but that so my question is if you guys need the money you can go into the contingency to get it to cover expenses for the town
023correct correct and so I have a question if you guys if the town itself goes negative what happens what's the liability for Bo to finance or the liability for the town first of all Town goes negative okay in three years if we don't cover the budget three years in a row the state can take over our finances right but but in theory you're not financially liable correct there enough you never get anybody run for office if there is yeah try and get something right it it hasn't happened that in my memory but it but law wise we are liable that's why protected like other we don't have the same level of protection in that sense and well I'm just saying it's as much as the town's budget is very complex the district's budget is extremely
024complex and if we're off we reliable and I'm not saying we should have large surpluses we shouldn't but if we have a surplus and we set it aside for contingency I think PA said in a meeting she says why doesn't the board of that have contingency plots we do we had 450,000 no Paul asked why the Board of Ed doesn't have contingency funds set aside for when we don't get fully funded assume you pass some one for like law but the point of the matter is and I'm not saying we should put a lot of money in I just think there should be consideration that we're not trying we wanted to that's why I think we talked to you before it came to this meeting it was able to be brought to your board because
025we're looking for open transparency and I don't think we want to put a lot of money in it but the concept seems reasonable especially if it's if it's public and we're not hiding it we do is public okay I always tell people come to our meetings sit there everybody's invited to sit in our meetings all the time uh first of all the Surplus for the port of bed let was with Howard okay what Surplus is it the Surplus the auditor says you have or is it the Surplus that you generate and then we wait till the audit and wech it's the unencumbered funds that show up at the end of the year whether we budget for fuel and then we get a bill we find out Mike I've been doing accounting for well over 50
026years okay I can make that book number come out like I I could bake you a cake you want a chocolate you want a vanilla you know how that works so in the off chance that say we put $69,000 in there and the comes back in October November and says look it actually should been $55,000 we don't spend that money we can invite that check back to town and say Here's the fun fact there's a mechanism to fix what the auditor might fix if that was the case Protections in the account that that says you know what we're not going to touch it into the audit it's done protected by I would rather I would rather do it the way we've been doing it because we've always come in here like we're going to fix
027the roof in this building the town's fixed everything basically all the maintenance on the buildings that we try to do the town's put a lot of money into the school thank you for that I know so we're always there I mean if you need something emergency it's done you know you want both cried for the pool pack for how long we finally got it done but I think in this case where this is kind of somewhere in the middle this is a case where we're not replacing pull pack there might be a minor repair that needs to be done in building for maybe 30 $40,000 that we might not have the funds to do so that the board Finance might not way in on or as we said in specied Cas where a student now
028needs to be out place for $80,000 I think you'd rather have us spend our finances here to go back and say we've gone into the red we need the town to now give us more money discussion but it's not going in the red on operating expenses it' be look I got an A repair I didn't know about we do it you know one time uh somebody on the townsite not mentioning names or anything said well the Board of Education they got to understand we do all the flight the fields for we take care to maintain the buildings we do this and this so I said okay you want them to do it I'll shoot all the money over there go do it that was the end of that argument okay because you know we got
029to work together on top on top that's we're not talking about putting 500 into account we're talking about putting 50 to 60ies into the account for an emergency right right now o1 is our operating this would be O2 60 6 be 60 sit there just and town has all the money anyway right it's not really cash it's just it's we don't will fund the account so we actually say we have to pay something F and where do we currently have the 69,000 everyone just no that number is just coming up because that's the amount that right right now it's where we technically get the money to put in it yeah so from this year when as the year goes down on Friday we'll have a final number right what whatever was left whatever's left from
030this year's budget is what'll go through that in the the the options are either we spend everything down to as as few dollars as possible if we $10 account we get back to time whatever is left we just spend down as much as we can that's option one option two is we give a large sum back $100,000 whatever might be 50,000 whatever number it is back to the town of the surface we're not going to spend it here's the funds they put into the reserve and option three is that we create this account and some of that money goes into our account for this is that money going to be spent current year that money that you let's say put $60,000 away is that guaranteed to be spent in that year or you try to
031carry that over more that's choice to the board decision legally we were allowed to roll it but the expection there the expectation would be to spend it on an expense that went up that we were starting negative in that aspect because the budget that we need is higher than what we budgeted and got appr appr right long we get Surplus you know that the to only gets a surplus a certain way that is we spent less than what we budgeted for and that Sur that extra Revenue goes into Surplus okay we um get we could get a bond that money that we didn't have to spend on that to keep that out of surplus the town could uh we could get grants or we could get a lot of other things that goes in and
032it's a surplus we don't get too many of those anymore we had some big hits one time it's gone goodbye okay so I would be careful you're draining the town of that Surplus too okay and what's going to happen in your nature if you go to do your budget next year Finance Bo is going to think of that $660,000 that's sitting there and your budget's going to go down $60,000 so you know what I mean I I know I don't I wouldn't do that I'll tell you I gotta tell you something this board the whole board the best you know and I've been doing this for over 16 years it's the best numbers in control that I've seen since I've been here okay the control and the numbers and power and I tell you is
033doing a good job and we never had we had anything close to what the number was this time of the year okay I just want to ask you something Jack in years past when we've had extra money at the end of the year what have you told us to do oh before the end of the year to spend it because you know what happens so how is that any different we rolled it why would you punish us the next year I'm not punish oh but you just did said I said Mee okay that's the eyes are for that's I just said back of Remer saying well he's got an extra 60,000 to take care okay look it it all comes back to if it's it Bo I don't think we seriously ever under app I
034don't think so I'm just gonna say theoretically you can create the fund and put nothing okay just have the fund created for not going to be in this position forever no one that's right at the end of the day so you don't know what the future holds but if the fund is created it's there for you to utilize as the board at some future time even if you only this year I'm just throwing that out there as a possibility for tonight does that have a Max the max I believe is 2% and we're nowhere near touching 2% of what we're covering put in there we're talking about a small small some Max that you would carry in that reserve for how long you can carry you put up to 2% of the operating budget into
035that account and we're nowhere near even talking about that we're talking 60 being honest I I think the the way it's set up you could put 2% every year in perpetuity until they take away this this scenario it's called f it could roll over so I'm I'm not saying we have the money to do that but I think the way it's set up it can allow 2% every year and you can roll over the full amount year after year after year the way it's written that as far as I understand I'm not saying we would want to do that we have projects it's not like you know we're shy on projects or things to do but the way it's set up just for full disclosure and VI and then Mike Deo will recognize you as
036well okay I'm just looking at and it says that and I don't know if we did this last year based on last year rate of 1.6% that was 22 to $27,000 I don't know if we had that last year or not but hypothetic this is what I'm asking is this what you're asking Mr Miller we're on action item 6A 6A saying because we have a policy that tells us yeah so six no no no no 6A first bullet point we're looking into so we're kind of discussing do we want this do we want to basically suppress the current board policy that says if we want to make a reserve because we're allowed to by state law we have to get the board of Finance approval that state law has changed so our first item is
037do we want to create the account because we can right now and have potential that loads and support you know Surplus in there for liability insurance for so that's the first the first question what used to happen is what but the people the school board comeing with their budget and be loaded with supplies this right at the very beginning of the year and I said well you had a Serv this last year why didn't you buy them then why why kill your first year the first month of the budget the stuff you should have bought the prior year and you have the money to do it that's what that's the point I was trying to make on on the on the budget for prior years what our Surplus as of right now so the Surplus
038right now is as of today is probably like again it's a number it's it's if you look at the May report it was at 600,000 significantly we're expecting round that's the projection that's the projection after all our bills tracking last year 295,000 that's what we that's put M back the put it this year yeah exactly so Jack I mean what your your position is even though we're on a different hook than you something goes negative right technically what you're saying is the Board of Education shouldn't have a contingency account like the town bu what you're saying it causes you Optical basically you do have the contingency account P pack came out of our contingency I only had 400,000 in this year and you Ed $300,000 that's only if you approve that's only if you approve
039it it's not hard to te we try to get it done for years you got Get You Gotta Get You Gotta there in a procedure so everybody knows the procedure you go you go you get the you get the project get quotes on that project you go to the board of Select and have them approve the vendor they send it to the board of Finance it's approved and it's done but that's not a contingency plan it's that's where it ask the town to do something they weren't planning to do correct it's an ask it's not a guarantee it's n oh no right and we it's an extra mechanism that we need to go through in order to get to those spots you still got to go get the vendor only the select could approve the
040vendors on capital projects and when 2% car fund the permission would end at the Board of Education that proposer would go to the board here it wouldn't prob going to the board board of finan back and forth they would just come here and said we need use the funds and we would get approval spend many all right so we we've got to make a motion yeah so I'll make a motion hereby move the board suspend policy 31711 pursuant to board bylaw 9314 so this is essentially second let me explain why You' be suspending by law or this board policy this is an older policy that's in place about the carer fund right so this is suspending that which giving you the permission to then create fund so the old polic the all policy relates to
041the old language the board of Finance so we're suspending the policy we don't technically thew changed did you second it I'll second I wasn't sure if it was you get it credit okay any discussion for this for this pie for this motion all in favor any abstain are you opposing or you abstaining okay motion carries okay so now the next would be question for now with a motion hereby move the board to establish an unexpended education funds amount pursuant to Connecticut J statute 10- 248a as amended by Public Act 2445 and authorize the administration to take all appropriate actions to create an account so this is basically creating this account that any discussion so just creating right any discussion all those in favor I I those oppos abstain okay motion carries now we go back
042to discussion on what we want to do now that we have technically a fund or an account fund it do we want to fund it is the next question and if we do by how much like so Steve would you like to make the motion then we'll hit the we'll do the discussion yeah um what the amount just we have to make a motion with discuss let's have the pre discussion we've created the fund it exists we could fund it we could not fund it if we fund it it theoretically could be used against us when it comes time to budget time theoretically it's it's public it's public knowledge of what we're putting in this fund and when we spend it it is publicly acknowledged so so our option either spend it all down give
043it back to to or put it in the fun well right now the fund exists regardless of what we do right do we want to take any money money that we have our options are to spend it all down absolutely give it back to the town do a combination thereof or put it in the and three days left fiscal three business days left might be difficult to get POS in place identifi the next thing on the list those are teally yes all right so we already know that we're in the hole as far as the insurance and that's liability something9 $9,000 and we don't know the exact number that we have as Surplus but we know it's under 100,000 is it safe to say 50,000 or less is guaranteed to be Surplus because if we're
044specifying a number I'd hate to pick a number not to exceed say not to exceed F we want it funded not to $50,000 whatever whatever number you so we can so the liability were about 6,000 short is there any other line on that's all insurance that we're aware of see Insurance in the medical insurance it's like 30,000 because of the two unions that chose not to go into the so we so right, insance was uh be we funded like 20,000 but again and then there's we just so there's everything so we just locked in oil right now at different things we have so all right so I I'll make a motion and we can discuss it so hereby move that the board fund it's expended education funds in the amount of not to exceed $60,000
045with unexpended funds from its 2324 operating budget second by anyone second it okay discussion I just have a question instead of making it a dollar amount that not to exceed we say 50 60 sorry you not to exceed the Surplus that we currently have into the account I think we're supposed to get the amount that's what I'm asking we I think I don't think we have to spe so we could say 500,000 not to exceed 500,000 and it would but is this something we' have to do again next year if you have a surplus right yeah it's optional you can also put a motion on the table that says that the end of the fcal year if it's not spense it's return to the not maping if the board of finances concerning this continue on
046on each year we can put some parameters around it has to spend by certain point and then it's return do anything with that again so if one of the concerns the board of Finance has is each year we're going to add 50 or $60,000 and after years we $400,000 sitting there there's no need to go back to the board for major capit project they're concerned with that you could put a stipulation on this policy on this fund that says by June 30th 2 if the funds are not extended those funds are then return to the town to the town Reserve at that point I think that could protect the board from something concern the board of Finance as of us creating an account Jack what do you think about that it's okay to weog what
047do you think about what do so it's not spend by June 30 2025 by next June if we don't spend it gets returned to the town with that with that crush on you because if you want that's that's fine my question well if you have it let's say you do you have the funds and you got a project coming yeah but you haven't spent it yet it's still sitting in that Reserve you put a data on it comes back to the town I do do that well we could fund mean we could fund that future thing right with 60,000 it's just that if we have it after June 30th then we have to get it back it's a matter of if we're trying to combine dollar maybe maybe maybe it's somewhere in the middle maybe
048it's somewhere like by September 30 somewhere that to go into New Year can combine I actually would like us to take some time Finance Subs I just say I be rushed that Surplus injy unexpected unexpended Reser for Max we could later yeah and we could decide by Friday that we only have 30,000 could be less so at this point uh all those in favor those opposed abstained motion carries all right okay just the edes we'll Beck okay the next item is dealing with creating a a credit card with JP Morgan so right now um as a matter of transparency the Board of Education already does have a credit card with Home Depot correct and we've been using that for years it's it's a mechanis that we've had what Howard has brought up is the idea
049of paying good portions of our bills with the credit card the advantage to this is just like with your own personal credit card as you're spending money you get cash back so if we're spending $150,000 in the month of September we you get a percentage of that back and that's going to be credited towards the bill itself so in a sense we're saving the district some resources and some money by just paying our bills that portion number one portion number two is there's a number of expenses that we do now that are only credit card payments and since the district only has Depot card person that ends up paying with the credit card most often is made how we just some there's a lot of sports Banquets that we only p credit card the um
050field trip that the umer Farms kids going to the zoo as an example they don't take check they only take credit card so I pay my credit card and I get your personal credit with my personal credit card so I'm getting reimbursed for all these things I purchased my personal credit card sometimes I forget a reur my s but most times I do but I I'm tired of what I'm concerned about is at some point somebody auditing the checks I'm getting and I like full transparency that I think would be cleaner if there's a district credit card that for these purchases that have credit card we could just use the district credit card for that now there's parameters that we put into place that you can't just go in and spend the credit card there
051needs to be a fireal approval just like we do everything else is a regular purchase order system it needs to be approved through our system in order to use your credit card it's not just let's go and use it tomorrow there's a mechanism in place for checks and balances and then full reporting will be provided to the board of and finance committee on the expenses that are being attributed to that so they' be complet the same that we've got checks the same process would go through for the credit card they wouldn't be anything allow to use the credit card like the only certain only two so anyone has to come with any expense that they're going want to do they to pay online so way I did in North David way I do it here
052they to come to me I have to actually go online and actually make pay the card no's going to have access to the card right so just to be clear every process up to the point of payment remains in place is the payment vehicle change and then the statement of what's being purchased on that vehicle comes to and the net benefit is what we spend you get a portion of that what account does that go into it doesn't it would basically will be deduced oral payment so actually end up paying less right so I don't even know how to ask this question it's like getting miles is that correct you got Delta you got a Delta C getting miles yes and you can only use those miles on Delta Airlines and all that stuff so
053there's no there would be no like using points for no other things just be so it would actually cause our expens just go down right it cause a surplus certain so is that because let's say you're going to spend $100 and it was 1.6 but let's just do 1% for easy numbers right you spend $100 now you're going to spend 99 you're getting that $1 right it's a cash back rebate at the end of the year so all that's going to get you're going to get that dollar back so you're really spend 99 that's something that normally got pay by check would but we haveck take it next year no you're gonna roll it over no you can't do that so be clear I want to be clear with this right so you cannot roll
054those funds over because that's where the that's when we talked to the I wrote I wrote was in the report but but the FKS so to what'll have to happen is those funds would have to go into Central activities right so Central activities is that that other set of funds that's not part of your operating budget and you have whatever you got back that $1 you got back and then the Board of Ed would have the right to say what we spend that dollar so you just honestly you just alleviated a huge question for me like was not this was not something that I was very fond of now that the it's been explained better I have a little bit more understanding what's going on a little certain things roll over all that's not gonna
055happen it's gonna be very clean and a lot of transparency behind it districts have credit cards again go to my experience we started this this exact program in P so it was literally there was three cards there was one for the superintendent one for the assistant superintendent they had like personal EXP expense cards and then there was the purchasing C we only asking for the purchasing and and this has been something that has been talked about at the board finance committee for several months that we've had this back and forth conversation which is what we finally got Zack and about to take a look we looked at the town we looked at our our policy just to make everything yes Jack we can recognize you do you have any feedback for us on this oh
056I I know the businesses use this all the time all the time small business they run all their inventory and everything that's they travel to the world with all the points it's tax free supposedly any but they use all cuts down on paper one you get check voucher everything else it does cut down but small going to the store getting $20 worth it's not worth that check it's not use the credit I I'm surprised be happy using at the Town side and one I think one of the questions that came up at the board Finance meeting last night was say we get I'm me make it this up $10 back at the end end of the year are we if we end up spending 100% of our fiscal money given by the town are we
057erex expending what the the state says we should be expending at that point by $10 the answer is really no because we have our local funding we also have state and federal grants that we get that are over above what we get at the municipal level so we always spend a different amount the town grant us year anywh sure your budget doesn't commit what on this you got you got all the grants in there so this additional Revenue that comes in no different than the PK Revenue that comes in we give it to town so everything's everything's working well we got the same we got the same order coming back this year our likes he likes our gy gets along everybody gets get this thing done a lot faster we just close the a month
058ago because June 223 opposed a month ago that's that can't be okay I'm GNA make motion to authorize our or though to execute an agreement with JP Morgan Chase for a new purchasing program credit card second discussion you say discussion discussion I'm I these two items together so once I fig out the first part and we have used it in Forever the thing is that money that you're saving prod is saving expens I'm just asking you know 2% be a lot of moneyy the work get more or less it's different type of work Tak Place putting thisiss my time shied some minutes periodically so in my so in my report you you will see that they when they did their analysis JP Mor did I had sent them a file all of our spent and
059they took out all the like like the municipalities and stuff that don't the credit card and they ended up showing that they would be umal part us 5.6 million of our spend right it's on page two of my report um and basically of that 5.6 million you would get 1.4 to 1.7 million acceptance okay so that means that's how much we can put through and you're only get 61% of that that's only 22 to 27,000 if all of that goes through right I'm not even expecting that to all go through I'm expecting a much lower number than that so to say does it create it creates savings because you're spending less right because you're getting the money back but you're not creating enough savings to eliminate a person right because we only have one person
060do a we can't eliminate that person the reason I because that is JP purchasing it says if you allocate all your M which they must million in whatever right 5.6 million could be converted but 89 correct but it correct that's all 5.6 million is accepted that's they're saying that's the potential right that's not necessarily guaranteed right that's saying that's your potential that could go over if it if we got that yes we could eliminate someone I don't know where try to put the pie I don't get your expectations to set your expectations that that's what we're going to get to that's not having run this program once I guarantee you that's not what we're getting to that's just potential is what they're telling you if everything goes right and everyone accepts the car and not
061to scare any sta watching are no way talk that's not the reason to set this it's not the reason to set this program up we have one person that works a that person can't get rid of that we don't we're very thin staff here at central office so not I mean I know you don't agree with that this point I'm going to bring it to uh vote all those in favor I I opposed abstained motion carries I think C is G be covered under the let's do the vote now there's transfers in the finance statement um under the committee report that we need the board approve in order to a few dollars round it's in page of what page is it five and it's just reallocations to the funds among accounts again it's the same
062thing where we're moving where funds are needed where funds are Surplus at that point in time different account that's what all these are that account this is our monthly monly report motion I make every month again confus me because we do things different in corporate but um I'm going to make a motion to authorize Howard warlo to make the necessary realignment of the budget L on per his exhibits second discuss okay there no discussion all those in favor opposed obain motion carries the next item deals with the root AC require go on cafeteria gy we went out to public bid for the RP um three vendors provided um quotes or response that was open on Friday we're Mak recommendation for the low bidder to be awarded um there's been questions that were raised at the
063board of secondary meeting I think it was questions that came up at the board of Finance meeting last night related to what happened in 2018 and all was kind of blind all together at the same time in 2018 tornado went through Oxford it created a lot of damage trees went down there is water damage in this building and portions of the roof got damaged York Temple has questioned whether or not there were repairs that were done were done whether we got the funds and we spent the money to repair the roof and the roof was repaired back in 2018 why do we need to repair or replace it now so what we did is we went back in 2018 there was an insurance check that came back came in for around $770,000 from the insurance
064company um we went back to the work that was done at the time we know that on June 22nd 2018 $877 was spent on water restoration fixing stuff in time had water damage we know that on June 22nd 2018 22,6 75675 was spent on tree remove a clean up from the area here around school and $597 was spent with New England M boofing company um to fix um the scope of work that they identified as the problem related to the roof damage from the tornado so we know money came in and we know that the r was cared based on the estimates and the company came said this is the problem that we need to fix we need to fix this they didn't say the tire Rook was damaged but they said portions their damage
065and we only to fix these portions the money came in and the money was spent now this is when you add up those two items that's less money than the $70,000 so the insurance company did not give us 100% of what we asked for they only give us a portion of what we asked for did There's dedu in there they not always find 100% of what you're asking for anyway so we know the work was done we know that areas of the r were fixed but we also know dating as far back as as the four years ago we've been asking for the gro roof to be replaced the building Jack knows that that was one of the reason one of the original reasons that this building committee was put together was to fund the
066roof over that side of the building it was never done as part of the work in um in this building that roof is continuing to fail we're having issues where there's water damage s of side of the building because the roof is damaged so yes the roof was fixed in 2018 portion of it but even if you say that those didn't get fixed or got fixed it doesn't make different because the rest the roof is damaged not from the grenado but from years of just use years it's well the7 original the original plus spotty repairs it's the original roof with some repairs in 2018 so it's well past the life of what You' expect your roof to be so what we're doing we're asking the Board of Education tonight to approve the request for this
067award to be done so that we can do a memo to the board of sment tomorrow or Thursday requesting that they approve the the bid so that they can pass the board of Finance to weigh in on funding reason why we need this done for two reasons one we keep getting water damage on the side of the building because the roof is damaged so even regardless of the ageback the roof needs to be repaired and it's been on the capital projects for years needs to be funded regardless by itself portion number two is we got the state funding for the hbac grant that hbac requires us to change the roof in order to put the HVAC equipment up there so in order to use the safe funding for the agback we need to replace the
068roof so the two are paired together the agback grant needs to be funded and ex expended and the project finished by end of December 2025 we don't have the luxury of waiting for the town to fund this project so that's why we accelerated the bid got the bid in presenting to you tonight so that we can then send it to the T appr reason for the h not the things can't hold it all or yes and and you wouldn't want to put a new equipment on the down through that's that's really the reason it's not necessarily that I can't support it will be able to support the it's that you don't want to put new equipment on top of the old roof because then if you your roof fails you're now mobilizing someone with a
069crane remove the equipment to replace the roof underneath and then reinstall the equipment sense duplication yeah in the capital project we hadin estimated this to be a $350,000 project the fact that we got this in for under 300,000 this is a good price um so we think that this is a good value for the work that we're talking about let's make a motion and let's start the discuss yeah okay I'm going to make a motion motion to approve the winning bid for the goes we are 18 United grouping and Metal Inc for the amount of $299536 out of state they're from Springfield Massachusetts so I can only assume I don't I don't run their business I don't know why they bid the number they bid I have to assume that if they springf Massachusetts they
070had some travel or some other reason for them to be higher we had two bids that were very close to each other silk town is very close uh they're I think they're in seamour or Derby I'm sorry derby um and United Roofing I believe was involved in the of farms 2014 so we have so we have I still need to go through the referral process and the reference so we're asking pending the reference checks coming in um positive that um you allow us to go to the board of award I mean we technically don't need the Board of Education to approve the bids but historically we come to you for going to the let's bring it to a vote all those in favor I oppose abstain motion carries moving on to the report of superintendent
071I'm aware of the lateness of the hour and I'm going to make it just a comment public comment for what took place earlier tonight I know that parents are upset over the coaching situation what I can say to this is typically my decisions that I make are fully transparent and I would like to provide information to the public as to why I made the decision I did there are some decisions that I make that are person related are confidential because that employee has the right to um keeping their matters private um while information might have been shared from that individual to parents or students in the community there information that I have that they do not have and the Ben that I have that that I used to weigh the decision that I did to
072no longer maintain employment with them not me go beyond that but to say that if parents had the same that I had that I would trust that they would have um made the same decision that that I had um and that I trust that moving forward that we'll engage parents in the same way that we just engage parents with the cheer head coach process they engage parents to the Head Football process that parents involved in the process of hiring the next on baseball Co um once we start that process um that's all I'm going to say on that matter and I hope that people do see and and watch that portion of that um there there have been questions that have been raised over staff retention over staff that have left the district over 19
073there have been accusations from staff accusations from General Public that since I've taken um superintendency the number of staff that have been leaving this that have left the district have increased so I did a deep dive in the data I'm share this report with you in a moment not going to go too in depth with it other than to say over the last four years number of Staff members that have laed each year has decreased um in 2020 2143 staff members left in 2020 and that was under Dr McKinnon in 20 21 22 there was a split between him and I 41 staff members that that was four under him in August then 37 dur the SCH year 22 23 39 staff members left and then 23 24 and 19 staff members left so each
074of the past four years that number has decreased um and that number was as high as it was this year because the retirement package that we offered which brought that number significantly higher than we were anticipating in the first place so I did a deep Di share this with you now um public welcome to this as well that this goes over um the overall number of staff that have left a quick expanation from Trend and patterns that I saw reasons for why people left whether they left because they resigned whe they retired with and terminated um and then it goes into a little bit more detail um by stakeholder group so I thought it was just important information for you as a board to to know on why staff might be leaving the district over
075the last four years this is not the exit data but it shows you the numbers that we've actually seen a decrease in staff leaving which shows that a retention has been improving um into the past four years I'll dist this while you do that I don't know Jack you I don't think we have any more Finance told my wife be home in 10 minutes no and I don't know you need power I don't think so this thanks for partnership so thanks Jack appreciate it I mean we're gonna we're close to wrapping up yeah sorry and that's those are theie information I wanted to share with you tonight related to business and operations from a human resources standpoint I do want to thank droski for facilitating the athletic graor um search process um he has provided
076to me after two exhaustive um sets around with board M than you members that the process um as well as parent and internal staff two recommendations that I'll be interviewed on Thursday with the hope of then moving forward the candidate from there principal search we had over 30 people that have applied we U the two of us have review those applications we've invited 11 now as of course we've one more so it's 11 now for a screening round on Tuesday um we have a set of interviews that we' like to do on June 15th and then the 18th assuming that the comms candidates that we going to interview Our intention is not to rush Our intention is not to hire the first person that we can find everyone hire the right person so if come
077Tuesday day we say look there's only one candidate in this PO and it's not worth having committee we're not going to move forward we want to make sure we have a right full of candidates for the principal search again we have um parent involved we've got staff members involved administrators we have a combination of stakeholders that'll be engaged in the process and it'll be thorough process us with interview questions and performance test weti the right person and we're starting with 11 people from that um the principls have been hard at work on highing staff we've hired um Elementary School teachers we've hired two Librarians we hired um School psych school psychologist I have interview schedule tomorrow for um literacy coach no literacy coach coming out good yeah the ly ly coach education tomorrow and athletic
078Thursday try to do Monday yes and then Library Li they were finalizing interviews today so the principles have been hard at work in trying to fill these vacancies before the part of the summer hits so I think we're ahead of the game in terms of where we have been um in past there are still open vacancies and we're trying to to apply but think from a general standpoint more good shape with what the principl have done in trying to fill these these open positions um there anything that you wanted to say esy no esy begins on Monday which is hard to believe um so it'll run for the full month of July we have about 65 students that will be um getting that support with so and I do apologize I didn't send the wrong
079letter um but I have rectified it um so the dates are now correct um it's July 1 the 26th of July 4th in fed as St I no way I'm going say one way another interview process are confidential I can't share who okay the other question I have this is just supering information and some of the conversations that are there today I I know from Old School I've never ever talk to any employee about any thing again I said we've never had any conversations with Personnel about different problems without having notes in a third party there and some of the comments that you had you had with somebody but there's no real documentation that that conversation existed B are you are you asking about something that happened an executive yeah well we talked about no
080What U when you're firing somebody and you're having a conversation you were part of one conversation but then there was another conversation that you had that there was nobody there there's no notes or point of order I don't think we about personnel and content from an executive session I don't think we can do it this is not this is a procedural thing has nothing to do with the person I'm just asking I've seen this over and over and over again that there's no documentation of conversations I'm just asking is is that something that the school system goes by you can't talk to a person and and and reprend that without having somebody in the office with you and I haven't said that's been the case where there's always a sub present well you said you
081had some notes that that nobody was you talked on the phone with somebody I had a conversation with a person provided me information that from another agency that was a phone call with that person yes and I have my own internal notes that I took from that conversation okay I just you know that's like I saiding there's tons of conversations I have with attorney there's tons ofation Dr has with attorneys neither of us are presentent every single conversation yeah just trying to decipher what he said he talk to you and talk to him there no we're all set okay at this time audience of citizens citizen Cien you for an entertaining evening no I'm just information to lot of new things I'm happy to hear that there's a 2% I know that's been in other
082schools I'm happy that credit cards are happening for a senior staff as a person who School gives them each a credit card and St here's your classroom budget you're free to just it I am not a teacher who has to spend my own personal money that I hard earn it's just here's your card be responsible submit your receipts so I'm so happy to hear that from the board of Finance meeting last night this transpired it's not so I'm happy to hear that you're making it easier thank you hey moving on to report of chair Des me that's design me I think it's late enough give you back the five minutes or 20 minutes I could talk and we're moving on to subcommittee reports uh as I was late very unfortunately late to the facility subcommittee
083meeting I don't know if Joe Bobby if you could give an update cheat sheet over here I'm just gonna hit the highlights because it's late um for the high school uh AC compressors um burn out because coils were plugged for a year all coils are cleared and we have to replace one compressor one fan uh outdoor bleachers were inspected and repaired field was cleaned after graduation there's a water fountain and a spigot that has been installed in the pool that happen or is it it's happening there okay and they were replacing the shower the seated shower um due to uh Ada regulations alterate Disabilities Act diving board the maintenance has been reformed I know that's been an issue in the past cleaning the deck on the pool bathrooms clean we won't mention the stuff you're
084talking facilities concerning the dirtiness of that uh drainage to the ball field starts this week Wednesday correct that's correct um the health room there a control valve be placed on a trium system there's an issue it doesn't connect the rest of the HPC so we're going to bypass that so that the health teacher doesn't split off 1550 pounds a year uh music room cabinets are being reconfigured and Hood clean room kitchen qfs music room carpet replaced office painted and carpet replaced um hallways and bathrooms also clean sidewalks being replaced this week behind the school Splinter valve repaired playground inspection and performed and a fans of the gym is being considered goes hbx hbac system upgrad in high gear three areas are running uh we Joe and I were taken down on a little field trip
085down to one of the classes it's significantly cooler and nicer than there you can hear each other as opposed to this yes yes exactly um so well done on that construction project on hold uh we discussed that already with stupid that security playground enh enhancement is in process this week additional company uh central office parking is in process this mean additional Lighting in the back is going to go up as well roof roof replacement bid open we talk about that gate replacement for the truck so you can't get an emergency vehicle down here down the field so they're wiening that hood clean in the kitchen major project we've got from last meeting the Westfield survey is complete uh they cleaned out some of the drainage pipes there but it's just going to happen again if
086we don't repair everything um possible replacement the drainage is approximately 200,000 uh and finally director security interviews start next week to the second and the third Joe and I and Mike and our Sergeant ran Gray from the um the town of Oxford trooper and we're going to be involved in that three rounds first two of those people and then Dr will be conducting the final round one thing to add uh one topic that came up in the finance subcommittee as well as the facilities was uh for the Board of Ed to consider using activity funds to fund uh some form of bathroom flushable toilet that had the wreen field uh the exact details of how that would transpire there's a bathroom committee that Joe manovich heads up that is coordinated to work on this but
087that the Board of Ed was interested in funding it up to I think the dollar Mount we talked about was $50,000 uh but nothing's been approved it's just been discussed at facilities and finance subcommittees and more details will come at some point anything else Joe to add Bobby nope okay moving on to curriculum Deb's not here so big you have a curriculum update it's an amazing update do we have another meeting coming up not well looking forward to to the next update for curriculum policy with Nicole a cple policies that working on but we're not ready to bring anything forward this this week or this month because we're still getting in from the medical director and some of the administrative staff so we'll get back to you once we have that ready although Rob in
088speaking about I'm wondering if we should take up repealing that policy that we just talked about that was the advice that um Zack had but we have to put on the table and has to go wait a certain number I think three meeting while back all right so that's something we should probably get going yeah that's it for now advice was to do we did and come back to that uh Finance I think we covered a lot of we had report update we talked about 2% account we talked about JP Morgan P card we reviewed open positions uh and we went through the central activities fund and that's where discussion came around potentially co-funding bathro if anybody for for a long time but again more to come on essential activities account as we're going through
089it think that was those are the main items actually hit them all rep okay the on report PTO and then booster club so PTO not I do want to thank the booster for the girl that inst really nice thank you all the parents and the booster for the hard work and the parents that actually showed up and students that showed up to put it up into lot of hard work two two days look really nice yeah we'll have a we're plan on having some sort of a reveal for school year haven't quite figured that out yet it's something to see yeah it's very nice right next to if you take if you're facing Auditorium it's to the right of the doors okay at this time do we have a motion to adjourn the meeting motion
090to adjourn second favor motion carries thank you everyone than