001yeah that is [Music] like follow meeting order at 6:30 pledge allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all right roll call start down therei benad Robert car mike all right um so amendments to the agenda I have two one is to amend the agenda to move action item 6A down to uh on the other end of 6E this is for Steve his son is um being honored at the high school tonight uh so that we can move his uh the budget stuff down so he can be here for that discussion would you like to I'll second it yeah yeah I'm sorry do we have a second mik and discussion all those in favor I
002oppos stain motion carries uh Second Amendment to the agenda is to move the report of the chair or designate designate from item 9 to where is it uh just before item three the reason I would like to do this is because I have a Prett big statement about how the process is going to go and I think I can probably answer quite a few questions if I make that statement um and um I guess we have a motion I'm sorry discussion all those in favor opposed estain motion carries do the minutes yeah I'd like to make a motion to approve the 11025 board ofed special meeting minutes discussion all those in favor I oppos abstain motion carries I'd like to make a motion to approve the 12825 Board of Ed special meeting minutes uh second
003second discussion all those in favor oppos Mo carries I'd like to make a motion to approve the 2425 Board of Ed special meeting minutes have a second second all right uh discussion um I just had a question I may be wrong but when on the the second motion from mikusa about Dev voting I could have sworn it was a was with uh n being Nicole and Deb and a being everybody else but it was on Vinnie was on here too so I was just flying clarification that's correct as recorded yep anybody else so it's recorded 72 or 63 recorded accurately on the on the anybody else I I I was under the same impression um Vinnie and I talked so got the clarification um my only recommendation for future votes is for us to be
004keep the discussion to the discussion and the votes we maybe tie them up a little bit so there's less confusion yeah that's actually what I was going to say as well that's fine uh anybody else okay uh all those in favor I I oppose abstain cares all right report of the chair so good even good evening everybody uh from report tonight I'd like to cover a few different things uh first I would like to acknowledge Dr Miller and his years of dedicated service to the O Oxford Public School District this board is extremely grateful for his hard work and dedication to our students we wish him and his family the best of luck in the future secondly want to update you all on our search for an interim superintendent to take over until such time
005we have F we find a permanent replacement tonight we'll be discussing and potentially voting on a form on forming a Personnel search committee for the position of interim superintendent this committee will include all nine members of the board the normal process when hiring an interm superintendent includes compiling a list of retired super intendant and with the input of the Personnel committee we hire the best possible candidate for the district I have already asked both our board attorney and Dr panesi for potential C candidate these will be presented to the Personnel committee for inspection and consideration uh you have board members you have um uh Zach's recommendations and Mike has a copy of Megan here that if you would like to see them all right in terms of hiring our new superintendent my intent and I
006believe the board's intent is to hire a superintendent search firm to help us in that process went back and looked at public documents from when Dr mckinon was hired during that process the major stakeholders were a part of that process and that is exactly how I'd like to see the things go this time the search firm spoke with Oxford staff parents students and residents ideally we would repeat a very similar process this time as well again when the time comes we will form a Personnel committee to include all nine board members and we will be collaborative and we will collaboratively choose a new super intendent using all data from the search firm to guide our decision finally it is possible that we will appr be approving next year's budget tonight the budget process will then
007move on to the next stage and go to the board of Finance it would be great to see the same level of support that we had last year the process doesn't stop tonight please tend please lend your support by following the process in attending Board of finance and board board of Selectmen meetings that involve the Board of Education budget Right audience of citizens next is there any questions on that take questions I don't normally take questions on report chair if you want to ask what you want uh that maybe after me I I just think that we need to structure who and what we're looking for because I took the opportunity to to review the resumés from the last group the procedures the results as well as uh evaluations and I think we need that
008they can have a clear set of of what the superintendent is going to do how he's going to do it from communication to personality and that's be well defined among the nine otherwise there going to be nine nine different things right so when I went back and looked at the public documents from the last time we did this um I think it was J Consulting is the firm that we used I don't believe they're any they're no longer in existence um so basically they I believe it was 10 different sub um groups that they interviewed um and about 195 people so and then they came up with different um things that they wanted in their superintendent that was listed literally on the consulting stuff that we went when we form our search committee we'll do
009all that we'll we'll dive into that not only with the the search the search uh firm but also what the board's looking for taking into account all the stakeholders that we have in the district so it's kind of a stepbystep process we got to get inter term first tonight we're actually going to be U voting on see what is it yeah um at 6E in your agenda discussion possible action regarding issuance of request for proposals for S superintendent search firm we're looking for rfps to get then we'll choose the the appropriate one that's your question yeah anybody else from up here I'll say Okay um all right oh yeah uh audience of citizens I'm going to uh see George do you want to say yeah as a comme and to come over here just to
010say something right the uh first of all I'd like to uh give my uh personal thanks and the thanks to the town for the job that the superintendent Miller did uh we've been out had games together and fros and everything else and U uh you know I never never doubted uh at all that uh we're we had the same goal and the same concern and that is the well-being of the uh kids in this town uh that and the parents who have entrusted their kids to for us to educate them uh having said that the one one of the things that I have been uh pushing and trying to get uh accomplished uh in in terms of uh high school kids maybe even Junior High kids is the or middle school is to uh enhance
011our uh guidance in the school to include and embrace uh non- colge uh Futures in other words the teach kids uh you know get you know I I have a lot of contacts in this town uh for manufactures naturally I'm in U I I I like to go up there different U manufacturing firms and and uh and and Commercial uh organizations to uh uh pump up our our kids that you know that they're you know that they should be looking for uh a lot of kids when they're 18 they don't really know what they want to be they're going to college you know and uh that's uh you know college they want to be College bread a fouryear loaf you know uh it's it's not for everybody it's not overly productive for everybody and uh
012you know so you know and I had many times CEOs in this town would say to me you know why don't we why don't you send some kids from the high school over here and learn how to do this and I went up to the uh to the new Hangar uh in on the airport with uh Congressman H and uh the CEO up there said uh you know we we will train the you know people right out of high school and and we will do uh uh summer jobs and things of that nature and he says you know after five years he said they could be making $125,000 a year so I signed up but it's uh I mean it's and this is something Victor you and I have had conversations uh about this I
013don't know how many times for how many years but the reason I bring this up is uh I want to compliment the new principal Heather O'Brian I mean she and in the and the people who worked in the guidance um Department uh at the high school uh Dr Miller was there with us and we discussed you know what we can do and uh you know I really I really feel that we're that we're going to get something done and and um and and Joe iuchi was with us I really I really feel optimistic and but that's something that we can't just forget about you know I I you know I think that uh as I say not every kid college and that's not the judge of our education system you know we're we're here to
014uh uh you know education is one thing but it's used for many uh many ways I'm not against College I you know I went to college and law school myself so uh it's not that I'm against college but I realized that that uh I didn't go in when I was 18 I went in the Navy and you know I was in that for uh for seven years before I actually went out to college because I was immature I there's no way I was going to handle that uh that academic discipline but but after you handle the discipline the service it's easy to handle any discipline uh and you know so I I looked at my own experience and I looked at the experience of others and uh and I think that um that the I
015I think that they're buying into that and that's that's a great stride as far as I'm concerned um another thing that I would uh like to comment about well there's two more things uh but when uh the other uh couple weeks ago I went to Griffin hospital for medical procedure was just you know not a not a big deal and uh the nurse was from Oxford and she had moved to Oxford uh rather recently and she had a blind daughter first time we this she's at his first time this school and then she's in Quaker Farms uh was the first time that the school ever had such a uh a child and she said I was just she said it was just amazing how the the staff and the teachers and the administrators have been
016so kind to this girl uh you know she's taking up dance and everything else and I think she's in first grade and she said said the kids were so inclusive now that to me is a reflection on our parents it's a reflection on the school and uh you know well she jabbed me don't want a needle but I but I when I left I I was really uh very very proud of this town and very proud of uh school system and a lot of times people just complain you know they and you know I get it of course every day but you know a lot of times just they don't really see what's going on and uh you know to have that reaction how uh the joy that this woman had that that she had
017made the right decision um you know I'm I'm I think you know Kudos kudos for that uh for Quaker Farm school and and and the kids that uh populate the uh the other thing I wanted to talk about was the uh budget I you know I don't know if you got the word but we had a flood uh we were in the process now of cleaning up after and you know that's not that easy you know we can't do volunteers to do that you know though it has to be under the supervision of Department of uh deep and so we're you know we're going through that one estimate we had is $9.5 million to do the waterways uh if we don't if we don't clean up after it if we don't redirect those channels uh
018you know we're waiting for the next big flood and I'm you know one one in a lifetime is enough um so you know we have that we uh we also have the uh bridges that we're putting up we should finish the Park Road Bridge uh soon those are million dooll projects right there so I say that uh to uh you know when you start talking about the budget uh to for you to understand also that uh you know we have to back off a little bit on uh uh on on what we can do because somebody's got to pay for this and it's going to be the taxpayer uh you know right now I don't have a secretary uh we have uh we need three people in the assessor office which we haven't hired one
019in the finance office we're going to have to hire a uh a a new building inspector and I I say that not to be you know um uh you know to cry about it you know that that's the reality uh you know I mean obviously we're right now trying to hire people but U you know we may not have the luxury to staff like we want to now I think you're more important than we are and you know I think that that what we do for the kids in this town is much more important so you know I uh I but I would remind you in the past two years we've uh we've uh I it's close to $10 million that we've given to schools to uh for hbac systems and uh uh and you
020know and to retool a lot of stuff so um you know uh when you consider the budget consider what we're going through and you know you know my I can tell you my bike my belt is pretty tight right now but uh not as asking any I'm not asking you obviously to take anything away uh anytime that anything's good for the kids I'm first in line where do I sign up that's the way I feel about it but if it's uh you know just nice of these I think you know please reconsider or think about it uh and as you know I have nothing to do with your budget you know you have to go through the board of Finance if it goes to the town meeting uh I have always supported the budget uh
021although sometimes you know I you know I it's it's a little uh it's a little tough to take but you know that's what you know I will always support what comes out of here and what comes out of the town meeting and that that's going to be uh that you know because we have a board here U many of you here well we appointed and uh and I can tell you that I would have I wouldn't have done that if I think if I didn't think you had not only the best interest of the school but the best interest of the town and hopefully those interests are interests are congruent and um see I think that basically covers what I have to say uh you know uh and you know I we have put our
022budget together yet uh we have to do our grand list which we're having trouble with because we don't have enough employees down there uh but that's due next week and uh we've been working with female all day so yeah I've been spending uh most of my time since uh August working on trying to get funding for us uh and I'm and I think been pretty successful so far and eventually this money will be uh repaid to the town and you'll be able to do what you want to do or you know a little bit more freely as as we will hopefully but um it's one thing about and I would question you the problem with raising taxes too much is that the it affects our viability as a town to attract industry and without industry
023you know the tax burden is passed on to the individuals the the residents the citizens so that makes it a little bit more difficult uh and you know to the average person and U you know God forbid we start losing industry because uh we're not put together but I you know I I think we've recovered from the flood nicely I think that's positive for everybody but uh and if anybody has any questions now you got me you I'm perfectly willing to tell you where I stand and and you know where I where I would see Envision where we're going anybody I just make a comment sorry that relas so on our thank you sign to the Board of Education students there's a rail um post from the student that you were discussing earlier so she
024insisted that she wanted to do that for the Board of Education and um that time was made so she's very special to the board as well and you should be honored yeah well speaking as a citizen of the world country City C but anyway obviously are Opa and and they've G up considerably but they also realize that the money that you spent you may not get right back from female so that has to be borrowed but at every meeting there's a lot of issues about bonding a lot of stuff and that hurts our credit rating or jeopardizes when as we borrow more money we take more money out of our Surplus so those who think that we have to be cautious think the budget that uh this if we take too much out and you
025don't have enough to get a good Bond rating or Bond ratings go up if I understand itct yeah and and with that goes the cost of borrowing money that's right and uh you know right now we have a twoa bond raising Bond rating which is ex uh when we had the flood 5 days after the flood we get a letter from the B ring company they that they wanted to reconsider because of the vast damage that we were going to have uh they came back and went over our books we did have a surplus and that's what the importance of keeping that Surplus and it U and it um Bond rating is still the same twoa because of that Surplus because of the way it was managed so uh you know we're fortunate there but
026that's a good point and you know and I and I would hope that you stay involved in what I talked about before about uh about bringing these kids in under guidance because you you know what you're talking about 100% with what's that I'm I'm good so audience decis does anybody anybody like to speak just um name and address please sure Gat 145 copper mine Road um I just wanted to make sure that you're in receipt of the petition yeah Vinnie and I were talking about that just before we stop and he's gon to be in the mention the correspond thank you I appreciate it I just want to make sure the whole board was aware um of the petition thank you 139 sign appreciate it anybody else yes please T Curtis 619 chestnut tree Road
027um I'm going to read this because I wrote it um I wish I could say that last week's letter from Dr Miller came as a surprise but it didn't as much as I wanted to wholeheartedly believe what Dr Miller was sharing I must believe that there were many other factors that went into making that decision with the bullying and harassment of Deb to step down as board chair and the acceptance of Bobby as our new chair the writing's been on the wall since that day that executive session directly after the appointment of Bobby I think proves that point I'd like to publicly thank Dr Miller for his leadership passion for our kids two of which I brought for you today the continuous improvements that you've made in our district and you're not GNA give one
028to you uh as long as he's here you can have me hour today um you know we didn't always see ad to eye we've had many conversations um but you always listened and you always took my feedback and provided me Insight listening to my concerns and made a lot of positive improvements over the last year you don't deserve to live with the turmoil that members of this board caused you I wish you nothing but the best and I hope your wife is doing well we're going to be in a very tough spot as a district now I don't know many leaders who would be willing to put themselves into a toxic situation where select members are allowed to be bullies to their employee and think more about their party affiliation and the education of our
029children which was also evident in that meeting where your de head to step down a few reminders that you should all remember I found these in your board code of ethics as we move forward with thinking about children first number 10 says you will recognize that Authority rests only with the whole board assembled in public meeting and will make no personal promises or take any private action which may compromise the board number 11 you will acknowledge that the board represents the entire School community and will refuse to surrender my independent judgment to special interests or partisanship I will never use my position on the board for personal gain and number 16 you will support and protect School Personnel in the proper performance of their duties you will strive to ensure that all Personnel have not
030only the requisite responsibilities but the necessary authority to perfect their job effectively all items that appear to have been lacking by members of this board please do better for my children and everyone's children anybody else than name and address yes please Amy sarus 12 I would just like to publicly thank Dr Miller for all that he's done for our community um I think what Mr Temple was sharing goes back to reflect on you and the improvements that you've made um you came in in a tough situation with covid and the move to here and the the new middle school and you've improved our schools we've been three years with um the award of Excellency here at Great Oak and you are leaving big shoes to fill I also Echo what um linking on the name
031I having had this problem Tanya said about um Your Role here and also the board of EDS in in making sure that we get the right person to fill Dr Miller shoes and I just thank you and I do wish your wife all the best anybody else Molly Smith 24 Gill Road Dr Miller we've had many conversations I wish you the best no one will replace what you've done in this District you got our kids heat no one else has done that you got roofs done you've gotten things done that would have never happened and you rallied us as parents and we're thankful for that we're thankful that we could support you and vice versa that you've supported us and our children thank you anyone else anyone else I have I have to leave so
032if anybody has anything you know my number and stop by thank you thank you George thank than okay moving on from audience of citizens uh board correspondence and communication uh as we just mentioned we are in re of Chess says petition uh got it this afternoon and the email you sent last week as well so we do have that and then this afternoon which I haven't even read fully yet because it came in between last time I checked in coming here we did Laura picota from uh and regards to drama ticket sales uh at the high school it seems to be a copy of something she already sent to Dr Miller so we'll review that as well okay thank you very much um student representative update um so 8th grade parent night was held on
033January 31st which was a success so families had the opportunity to uh learn more about what's ahead for their students their children actually and like meet the teacher and also gain valuable Insight in school programs and then as for winter sports uh the boys basketball team senior night was held last Friday and the girls basketball team senior night is going to be held this Friday so that's a really nice way to end the season and then to celebrate our school spirit we'll be hosting a pep rally this Friday at OHS so it's a great opportunity to you know bring students together and you know recognize athletes and also just build excitement for the school Community overall and then we're also waiting news for our robotics club and whether or not they'll be advancing to the
034state's Championship so these students have worked countless hours into like their inovations and hard work in general so we're hopeful for a very positive outcome and then finally the senior class officers are uh they're hosting a fun event for Valentine's Day so last year we did the we did the same thing where we decorated like the corner of our hallway and make it like a photo booth Stone and like so like decorating like Valentine's Day theme and you know like take pictures among students so it was really cute and nice so we're going to do that again so hopefully the weather won't stop us but that's that's it yeah thank you okay thank you very much action items so we're going to start with 6B position statement on can I get paid six law so
035this is a result of something that um we all got as board members from the Ellington Board of Education and their chairman um I don't know Dr Mill if you want to pop a little bit about um the letter that you wrote In and how we um you know kind of support her and and her letter and and how the whole new law is going to work and how it works well first of all the the new um law in effect grants every employee 40 hours of leave that suedes contracts contracts that are in place so there's a lot of additional work that needs to be done by Resources by this business business department to put this into action and which we've done and they've done great work in many is putting together for our
036staff but the B line is that there is an impact um this act has on operations of a school district in fact it is my understanding that there are multiple um legislative efforts in place right now to try and refine this law in the current legislation right now um I think at least four or five different um acts in place right now um it's also my understanding that the original intent of the law from the people that wrote it they did not intend it for it to cover School Employees and they're actually surprised that it's the case so right now we we have it in operation um there is a policy up for a second read related to this and when we did the first read the board asked me to put a position statement
037together which reflects the various challenges of the ACT that's in place so what you have in front of you on the on the agenda is a draft statement that represents the challenges that this law um put in front of us as operations of a school district I'd be happy to answer any specific question you have on it um so anybody have any questions about no no the letter was done wrong yeah no no just to clarify I think for people understand the problem is that like they can leave like in the middle of a day for like an hour right that was that's correct and that so that screws up substitutions and right and I I will say that we have wonderful staff here I don't anticipate that staff are going to abuse this um
038but from an operational standpoint right now if a teacher does leave we find other teachers that can cover them or if a par Lees we have to find another par to cover them the secretary leaves we have a vacancy in that spot administrator leaves we have a vacancy in that spot so those are some of the challenges that come to place and right now when that happens I thank the teachers the hers that step up and fr that coverage that we need to be done and that's always been the case but it it potentially provides more opportunities that it could take place now with this law place anybody else I don't know if anybody heard me but I concurred like that was very well written and thank you very very much then I did did
039I hear the understanding was they didn't consider schools as part of of doing this that's correct from what the people that wrote the law did not intend it to cover School Employees which is why they're going back out Mak a change to it okay so with that being said I would think that uh they could certainly sit down and make a carve out as the government always does on everything that they want to do to eliminate the school that's that's what they are working on but the the guidance that we have place right now is that this law as it is written as in the books covers School of voice the people that wrote it did not intended to be so the way that is written right now the attorneys say that we are follow
040we have to follow within the the law itself which means we have to enact it as it's currently in place is there anything that we to do ask the parents to make this more visible to the state because in addition to having students having high absenteeism is that now you have a class that has a blank in it this all takes away from the educational process and this is a boom of immense proportions that they can have absentee isn't though the students are high and looking over the chares of absenteeism of teachers are high any disruption in the flow of Education is very very detrimental to the to to the students so I would uh maybe put it in the record that we need to communicate with our citizens that they can that they clarify
041and I just want to make a a statement regarding that our teachers our prayer professionals are hardworking individuals I don't see an abuse by our staff that are taking days off and hours off abusing the the system when they take the days it's because they're sick because their um loved ones are sick or because they need to for a personal reason we don't see retive Abed by our staff we have good hardworking staff in this District that are coming in every single day teach our kids work with their kids and I don't see that abuse this act provides more opportunities for people take time off but I don't think it's a case where where our staff are rly taking the days off and abusing the system vac I understand that and I appreciate that but
042by going by state data in edet is that we used to be at you know 14 days and we're at 19 days so whatever everybody puts in a lot of effort and does a good job and stuff I'm just saying as a generic thing for our district and you know Statewide worldwide whatever wide it is a problem okay and this little glitch that the the state has made really compounds it so I'm asking the citizens here to take that under your jurisdiction to make sure that your representative know that that this rule has to end okay and there's other issues they can go but a ISM is a major problem across the bo thank you so what I would say is we have a lot of people in the audience right now that um simply
043don't have a problem speaking their mind and that's great so give Arie a call call Senator burel let them know what's going on and uh you know they care about education just because you may not think the same way they do all the time doesn't mean that they don't care about education all right um what is next do you have a suggestion if they don't respond uh I'll talk to them that would be great are we gonna vote on sending a letter you know I don't see a motion anywhere here use that put a motion on the table okay go ahead M I'd like to make a motion for us to approve the letter that Dr Miller wrote on the position statement on Connecticut paid sick leave Law and to be able to send on
044behalf of the board than all right discussion I think that got it okay all those in favor oppose obain motion carries all right um 6 C discussion and possible action regarding formation board sub comme to hear Oxford education association's grievance dated September 24th 2024 and appoint the board members to such committee right that motion and then yes that I hereby move that the board form an ad hoc grievance subcommittee to hear and decide upon the Oxford Education Association grievance dated September 24th second all those in favor oh no I'm sorry discussion my bad I'm jumping the gun I just have a question I the is September 24th are we not late we are not this has been a a longstanding um negotiation with the oea um all timelines have been waved through this grievance process
045with both um parties because it's such complicated and complex issue okay um I can't go into details as that would violate collective bargaining between both groups what I can say is we're at points right now where um I'd like to present along with the OA this grievance to Comm the boards the V the outcome can be um finalized um I can't go into the details because it does cover colletive bargain between both um and I can say that our board attorney not sh has been involved in that grievance process with me and with the L I was just concerned with the data contract do you have a date and time we first need the committee and then we need to put it together and my preference is that the committee be able to meet prior
046to March so that I can present this case to the board okay um so we need first we need to vote okay so let's um oh yeah sorry all those in favor I opposed Asain motion carries all right so now I'm going to need I need to have three volunteers yeah I will as well so Mike and I do I have one more um Nicole okay can I just ask like I know that you had a meeting with the the oea person like do you guys know about this already or no like it's completely I have no idea the all right just wanted to make sure that it's not three of us and then two of you have to recuse yourself no I have no idea no all right um so this is you have
047to read yeah okay action pursuant to board bylaw 9121 hereby nomin I hereby nominate the following members to serve on board ad hoc grievance sub committee to hear and decide upon Oxford education associations grievance dated September 24th 2024 mikza Robert Carr Nicole McGrath all right so we Board needs to approve per the bylaw so a simple vote of board is needed so all those in favor I those opposed abstained motion carries I will now work with you and those that are thise to find a date that we can do this with the OA attorney thank you all right we are at 6D discussion and possible action on the formation of personal search committee for the decision of inter [Music] superint I hereby move that the board form a Personnel search committee to select the interim
048superintendent what's that there anything else to add um so discussion me second mention the board members speciic that's what you did last time okay uh so you want amend the motion I ibody moved that the whole board um pardon me everybody move that the whole board be named as part of the Personnel search committee to select the interim superintendent all right discussion so I just everybody realizes this was all nine of us okay um anybody else have anything want to say okay hearing none we'll move on so all those in favor I those opposed stain and cares we go on to E 6 e discussion and possible action regarding ISS issuance of request for proposals for superintendent search firm motion okay I hereby move that the board issue a request for proposals for a superintendent
049search form and authorize business manager Howard wordlow to take appropriate steps to issue such an RFP discussions who's deciding scope of the the terms of our Fe what we're asking for who's determining cont that so that would be all nine of us in our search commit anything else okay all those in favor I opposed stain and motion carries we are on all right a which we moved back uh board of education superintendence budget 2025 2026 so I'm G to start Howard So based on feedback that we' heard from Individual board members Orting members with the night of the 28th who presented the budget and the workshop um and then individual conversations that I had and some board of ed members had with some board board of Ence members after that point um we recognized that
050there was a lot of um P up on the change in the position of the supervisor speci education Rel to the coord student conduct and the new special education administrator so we went back we looked at the budget and we created an alternative version of it where the supervisor special education phys remains intact as it's been without any changes to it coordinat stud conduct remains intact without any changes to it the addition of the new administrator and a net impact the budget that is still relatively marginal so how going to over those numbers but that's the fundamental change from the 28 to today our hope is that that satisfies the questions and the concerns that board members had around those changes um so we can rally around um the budget as it stands tonight so
051I'll turn over how go over the the numb behind that perfect thank you um I'm actually going to start a little higher than that I'm going to start out that you CH the budget that you originally received was 4.79% um due to changes which I'll go through in a second has we dropped it to 4.44% so there actually been a decrease turn to page I page remember I'm sorry page three um the changes the biggest change was the um we actually got a better um estimate for medical um it's going to around 5% um for the year so that was that dropped the budget the budget original budget by $148,000 um we had to add back because of keeping the student conduct um coordinator position in had add back that stien that had I told
052you had been taken out so 10,000 um there's a salary line change in um Quaker Farms us teachers moving from the ma Lane to the sixth year Lane so that added $ 5,743 to the budget the F that impacts both of those is $ 850 and then um what we did was there was also concern about the um the equity or um Equity of the awards for the administrators we had only given 500 to each of the the elementary schools and the middle school but um I believe they came in $6,450 was the original for the high school we stepped back and said that's not Equitable so what we did is we looked at how um what could we do so that we actually increased each of the schools which I'll go through there's a
053detailed page in here um and we did it at $65 per per um staff member in the school um I'll get into those details we turn to the next page you'll see that um this is the uh we call an assistant principal or you want to call it the elementary um shared position um what what we look like this year which is the coordinator student conduct coordinator the sped supervisor and then we had a math coach at qfs um we spoke to Rachel um at qfs she um basically said that um the position had run its course it did what it needed to do and there was no longer really a large need for it there and that we could you substitute that salary for the assistant principal's position which which is which we are
054now putting into the budget so that's where you're seeing the change out is between that math coach and the assistant principal's position what it ends up doing is it ends up creating um because of the $10,000 STP and originally was about $99,000 now it's $199,000 is what this position is actually cost the extra because there's any in the total cost it's 28,500 but of that there's $8,800 of salary increase that would be there regardless if you did this position or not I'll just stop there to ask if there's any questions regarding that position uh I'm I'm aware of this workflow in doing all of this are any staff members being displaced because from my understanding the math Coach position is not filled at this moment that's correct the person that had been at position moved
055the coordinate student contact position so there's no one that's going to be loser job over this corre okay so in in doing that it's basically taking an open position and just not filling it uh for this year next year that correct question um the next page read is the um actual calculation and the reallocation of the um events and award budget by for B so as I stated was $65 is the number we came up with um that number and how I came to that was we're were going to allow for three breakfasts per staff member at $5 each three lunches per staff member at $10 each comes to $30 the first one was 15 various Awards per staff member $20 each if you take the 20 to 30 to 15 you add up at
056$65 what this is is now equi spread those Awards across all schools based on the number of Staff in each of those schools and so what you'll see is qfs went up from $500 to $4,840 go went from um $500 to $3,800 Middle School went from $500 to $33,900 and if High School is the one that actually lost money in this because they went from the 6450 down to 4620 but still again it was it was a way to equ equitably spread that across all schools and allow Wards across all schools for the staff members and for the administrators to be able to give that to their staff members which by the way a lot of them are doing out of their pocket right now so I think this is a is a good way
057of making that stop and we the district taking on that cost I hate to go back because I know you asked if there's any more questions I just want to keep be clear on on the math coach and I see we're it's bracketed $80,000 that means fing that one and we're eliminated from that coach the position not the person right the position is equally as important as the person I think this our math scores are not very good this isn't a math Tor this is the one this is helps teach us so math coach enhances the teaching of the teachers it's not directly student to student it's not directly impacting the students it's an indirect because it's impacting the teachers it's and the teachers believe they have the math skills because we put a new
058program in I believe was two years the math the math curriculum has been in place for a number of years now and the belief right now is that we have provided the sufficient in job embedded coaching where the math stands right now this position in the future maybe it's it's brought back in the future but right now we were really allocating a lot of our resources to the coaching in the literacy program which which is why we invested this year in that position just you have to bear with me the resources that we got from the government state for coaching and stuff that was partly M too wasn't it we have a coaching Assistant Program from that that was at the middle school we received a grant for high dosage tutoring last year and ended
059this a week ago at the middle school only and that was math General is low her ability they can do that so I just want to be clear we're we're eliminating this person who helps with math through working with the administrators not directly with the students but with the teachers with the teachers okay and and we're the other part of the government thing we which is Middle School I assume we're losing some math assistance there I'm just very concerned about math and science and I just see you know a deduction there that's uh concerning no matter where that that link gets missing you know it's it was important for five years just think would be important this year but thank you I will say one thing correct me if I'm wrong though Mr rich as
060the math coach was taking students he was serving as an interventionist working with students um we believe and we worked with the the school up to this point where his case has been taken over by the tutors that are currently in place so it's not the students are not being serviced okay so the tutor is going to take over everything that he was servicing at the time and now he moving on yes okay so they're still getting what they need that's correct can I just make sure that this is really clarified in our minutes this discussion Claire's the clerk yeah so Claire's taking minutes she's she's she's not here today but yeah she's remov she's she's listening because I think this is important for Down Road thank you and uh and I and I will
061emphasize that this conversation was vocal conversations with the building principal with her from instruction and the sense from our administrative team is that the recommendation from these individuals that are on in the field that we're trusting to make these decisions or saying this is a position that we can phase into something else at this point without having a drastic negative impact on student learning in that school so we have to trust our administrators that we hire to do this job saying that this is a doable change there any questions about the awards the next page is simply the summary by cost center that I give to the Lord um there's any questions on the other the rest again it's the by category is the next page the perent change year-over-year dollar change year-over year I'm
062I'm the individual budget do special education have a special budget yes it's one two three four five it's down go back to the page I no I I got that just looking at okay all right um keep going through the as um one of the things on if you go to the page that has the the graph you'll notice that the salary jumped up significantly because of the 148,000 went down in benefits that the salar salar increased a little bit because of the the stiens are in there and things like that so you'll see that that's the larger increase but everything else pretty much remain flat the same as it was in the prior um the next page is actually the salary analysis um as you can see the ACT salaries went up 6.4% but
063again a large portion of that is due to having to bring back the um Paras from the grants back onto the operating budget so but it's still going up 4.6% with if you take if you back those out so that's a sign significant increase um and yet we're still coming in at 4.4% so we're adjusting things as we need to to make it to make it work for them District Howard is there any word of getting those grants back at some point so we have the grants are not going away way they're just being reduced right so that's it's all dependent upon federal spending it's also dependent upon State spending um those grants the Ida Grant we've been seeing it usually goes up every year this year it actually went down a little bit so
064and that it's because the state didn't fund it as much now the state's funding a lot of different things and if you put the budget from um the governor um they're talking about funding special education condition that's that's not even that's not even for this budget that's the following year so for this budget it's still not so again I it's one of the variables that comes to the budget if we get extra we can move people back out there but the way things are going see it going up at anything um I again I left the teacher salary analysis in there and again this is just um because I one of the board members Vic had asked about this last year in the budget about what the steps were um when it come to the
065teacher salary and so that's why I keep this this chart in there just so that explains what steps mean and how they do impact um the budget significantly teacher salary alone which we have 167 teachers is going up by 4.83% just the salaries for teachers now a quick question though because we had one teacher that got their docor correct that's correct and that moves it up no that actually he is already on the sixth he was already on the Sixth Lane on Sixth year what actually it did is it added a stipend of $3,000 because he has a doc written out for the contract so which was actually not bud before this year because I wasn't aware that he was getting his when I was in the budget last year and I found out about
066it this year so that's the hit that we're going to take in the budget this year but now it's that $3,000 is in this budget for anyone who has their doctor yeah just out of curiosity because there's a problem there what was the doctor then what was the teacher teaching I believe he's teaching um not special he's teaching physical education and I believe it was in education so education leadership is the next page um basically this is the the scenario page and this is where if they have if the town ends up cutting the budget as they did last year we don't know that they will but if they did in order to get to certain levels what would it take so to go from 4.44 to 4% we're going to have to cut another
067$155,000 to go to 3.5 we're going to have to cut $331,000 and so forth or go down to get to 3% if that's where they go we're going to C to cut half a million dollars this budget is set up that there are no um contingencies in it so that means people any one of these Cuts means people are going to have jobs are going to have to go so I'm just putting that out there right now there are no contingencies in this budget this budget is as as as Skin and Bones as I could get it with keeping it where we need to to keep the district growing Flo so it's it's very it's very tight so I just want to make every can I ask you a question on medical insurance the 5%
068you're using now you anticipate any change of that I know we have two bargaining unit out so part of yeah so part of the savings is in that is that those bargaining units move into the hdhp which they were not in at all this year right and that's a significant savings because that'll be 12 months into that um there's also savings because we we only had 10 months of everyone in the HP so there is there's savings from those two people um we also had a cap of without getting into the math here there's 11% is that we have that the premiums could go up but because of all of the savings that 11 and which which is what we did with what I did with brown and brown I actually made the premiums go
069up 11% but because of moving those two groups into the HD also because of the fact that we had the extra savings from not everyone being it last year and then just the way the numbers fell out it actually brings it down to about 5% is where we'll see increase so that's it's it's actually 11% increase in premiums but in the work that we've done negotiating with the cost share and all that it makes it only 5% for us this year where I will caution you is that next year it could get very bad um only reason I say that is based on seeing the towns around us who didn't have that cap are now like Beth I think is going up 33% 34% there's 20s and 30s there's 20s and 30s so I'm not
070saying that that's us next year I don't know what was again it's all based on your claims right and so our claims they're still maturing but at the end of the day that's what's going to drive next year so we're sitting here next year at this time don't be surprised if it's 10 11 to double digit okay um I've also continued the risks um in here uh one of the things that I wanted to bring every with the same risks are all there I did take out the medical CU I you feel confident in that number but I left in all the rest but the one I add at the bottom was the pre lunch for all students there's a new Connecticut public act um SB 1217 it's working its way through the legislature right
071now the way it's written there is no there's no methodology of how we're going to fund that and so if there's no funding associated with that and they and it's mandated to be here to take place 71 of 25 that's going to cost the district $650,000 so I'm hoping that they'll go through and fund it but I just wanted the way it's written right now there's no funding associated with it so I just want to give you a heads up on that Howard this is set to take effect this year so it's not something they're putting off it's a proposal it's a proposal it may not even pass right so I have no idea but again it's going through and it's it's working its way through the legislature it's a possible did it make it
072through sub commmittee I believe it did did yeah so I don't this it's there it is a risk yeah it's a risk and then the rest of the pag is just the individual cost centers if you have any questions I did a great job it's super clear as usual last year was great improved upon it even more this year um for meon with the sheets that M there's three sheets in theide from the detail if you want to dig this tell this is it right here you want visual or spreadsheet this is this is what's going on right here all you need to know my so I appreciate it appreciate you laying this out and all the work you put into it thank you yeah once again great job thank you so I'm going to
073make a motion to approve the superintendent 2025 26 budget as the Board of Education adopted budget for the 25 26 year at a 4.4% increase from the current [Music] year 4.44% it44 yeah 4.44 44 all right with discussion I just want to reiterate it's an excellent book you do a great job you do a great job every year looking forward to the presentation to the board of Finance so we try to sell it and have them understand that this isn't just a pipe dream this is this is the future of the district when it comes to funding the education of kids uh parent support this matters because we don't put a lot of fluff there is no fluff to cut 200,000 here and there every dollar cut impacts the kids because it impacts the staff
074that support the kids so I'm happy that this budget had no um even though we we shifted we added a resource we removed a resource no one's being let go for to make this happen we have the right people and staff we're investing in them we're investing in the kids and I hope that uh we can make it get this through the board of finance and and sell it to them there a date set for that meeting not the us sometime in March yeah yeah yeah I would just um as I said in my chair report earlier it's going to be we need to have the parents out just like we did last year supporting the budget you know um great job Howard great job Dr Miller as well um see as always good job
075on the subcommittee chair um anybody have anything else VI you look like your head's going exploded you gotta say something you okay I just I don't like getting a budget and then I got vote on it now I know we have preliminary budgets but there's no chance to really go into the into the into something the N degree there I mean there's I feel the budget should be results orientated there should be some mechanism in here that they can say we have department heads that we pay siphons to and there's never a dialogue because you're you're presenting the numbers I understand that what is the results of having department heads that costs us whatever it costs you know you can they can say 10,000 for five times $60,000 whatever it is is that somewhere along
076the line we have to dat and say some of these items in here have to be held to result and and I can't do that in this five minute 10 minute meeting they can saying where where is where can I ask for results I know department has a like in my brain I'd like to know what they do what they how they do it and what they accomplish why I'm paying the my sions for it and there's many other of those details in there so um I just don't like having to vote on something you know I feel like I'm in Congress I got uh 6,000 pages I got to read 15 minutes of vote on it you know so that's that's myly posted we gave the budget on the 28th to everybody and then
077we had the finance committee last week as part of the finance committee packet and it's poos to attend on Friday only minor reductions when we got three four weeks ago is still largely what we know been in play for a while and and I will say if there's any specific questions that board members have on initiatives in the budget that's the purpose of the C committee that's the purpose of the finance committee to have those conversations for the months leading up to the budget process itself analyzing specific initiatives in the heart of the budget presentation this is where we're looking at the final number put together all those meetings leading up to that is when those conversations be taking place okay i' just like to clarify my position the questions I'm asking now we asked
078during those meetings we' also so and they've been asked for a number of years but thank you anybody else um is it okay if I could leave brother's than you thank you good night okay um so all those in favor I oppos I'm G and obain all right motion carries we are Dr Miller's report okay I'll be try to be as fast as I possibly can hear um first of all I want to thank um the Middle School um one of our major initiatives this year was to have our students and our staff um work with senior citizens in our town and the surrounding towns and our Middle School really has taken ownership of that um they have gone over taken students over to the same Senior Center multiple times including just about a week
079and a half ago we had about 8 students that went there play games puzzles ate with the senior citizens there the seniors there are asking them to come back our students want to go back there and it really is a great effort and initiative that our students are making that connection with their seniors here in the community give me back that way just a special relationship and really taking ownership of that as a major District goal that we wanted to get accomplished this year um second is that last week we did have our second snow day for the year that pushed the last day of school and now to June 17 and the district calendar has been updated on the district website to reflect um those St days and the last day of school now
080speaking of the district calendar we are currently in the process of drafting next year's calendar we've given our staff a glimpse of the first draft of that getting feedback from our stakeholders um with the goal of bringing back to you in two weeks or in the first meeting in March the draft proposal for the calendar for next year to be voted on to be adopted for next year I do want to congratulate our athletes we are winding down the winter sport season um middle school high school our students have done a great job and I'm very proud of the efforts that they've made as they wind down on their Seasons um there was a question about drama there was an email that went to myself and also went to the board from what I hear
081um earlier it's my understanding that's completely been worked out between the correspondent myself and throughout the afternoon so I don't anticipate that being that problem uh reminder to parents that this after this Friday is an early release day for our staff professional learning Monday is no school um and offices are closed for President's Day and Tuesday is a day off there's no school it's um February break um and then I just want to um thank on the community thank the board I know it'll be here for another couple more meetings but I would like to say thank you for your support um kind words my email was flooded um last week um through today um thank you me and I really appreciate all that um kindest your supports of appreciation and well wishes to families
082I appreciate all that so thank you audience second audience of C citizens would anybody like to speak would anybody like to speak would anybody like to speak hearing none we move on to subcommittee reports facil facilities safe school and transportation building Jo um Quaker had various heating repairs done over the last month or so uh the high school and Quaker also received new kitchen equipment that's going to be installed in the coming weeks the big one is the HB for Quaker and go is going to be starting this summer and um hopefully getting moved on as quick as possible in terms of completion as far as the bathroom project goes of high school that is going to be moving forward the plan is still to hopefully be done by graduation and construction plans are made
083and improved at this point uh facility sub committing meeting to be at the end of the month at some point I'll let you know say um along the same lines um want to thank Dr Miller for pushing things over with the board of uh slman and finance for quer farms uh it was going the wrong way okay um it started going the right way so thank you for that really appreciate that it's been a long fight to get to where we are right now 100% correct and um also anyone that citizen lies um if you were if you're here and you were there thank you okay uh if you qu have bugging somebody's ear you told somebody what the date was of the the meeting perfect thank you um so that's all I have to
084do say about the facilities curricul technology and communication down so we had our meeting on February 3rd a couple of items that we talked about was the new change in the OS P sat update and you got the letter from um Heather regarding those changes one of the long discussions that we had was the OHS Capstone project that's going to be ramped we had a um long conversation about ways on internships and we could um get local businesses create a database um we also talked about trying to do with many field trips like if there's a a construction class that the high school wants to go work with go see a project that somebody's working on an hbac project that we could use our bus that we have and our van to be able to
085take them to those locations so what what's coming out of that is the um Capstone Capstone project is being revamped we also invited Heather to come to our next um curriculum meeting once we get a date um to talk about Capstone to talk about Vick's is concern about the um department has talk about the M Feld trips and those types of things and the other thing we wanted Heather to come talk about um with nask because we will be starting our neas work um for 2026 I believe um so we asked we're gonna ask Heather to come in because that we have new board members and I don't know that everyone understands and the process with me ask and all the details what we need to worry about when accreditation and the accreditation process has
086changed since the last time the he going through it been through it a bunch of times so when does that start in 202 the visit is next spring um the work the high school will begin will be this summer during the internal writing and that's one of the things we have to make sure we have enough time and money for t to be able to pull those things together over the summertime um we also talked about the high school math sequencing with between algebra one Algebra 2 and geometry and that's going to be changing um soon um please and fill to announce that our curriculum website is often accessible to people um you cannot look at the assessments but you can absolutely go in and look at the resources and and look at um you
087know the great curriculum that our staff has written and I'm I'm thrilled with how much is up there um it's the program that we're using is not a curriculum based program it's um something that Eric and Jim worked out to to work and it's taking a little bit of time to get some of the other curriculum in so um pay eight but um we're getting there it's the first time we've had it this well in a very very long time so um the middle school math touring the grant um has expired um Eric's going to be doing some data crunching to let us know um how that went if it helped if it benefited um and you know our next steps with that we also talked about the student board members on the curriculum committee
088coming to the curriculum P we talked about a couple of different ideas of of doing that but the concern was um we didn't want the kids to be there during some of the curriculum discussions that we're having because of Assessments um but we we're going to keep working on that and we'll work on that a little bit more with Heather when she comes um so and the for for future planning we're GNA have Heather come we're also going to do an update on the website Eric's going to put on our main page um for the district a link to be able to just click on to get to our curriculum we felt that that was really important for families to be able to get to um and then we'll continue our Capstone discussion and we're
089going to Eric's doing a little bit of research for us for Junior Achievement and try and come back with some ideas about that for our next meeting we don't have a next meeting date but I'll work on that thanks M Algebra 1 2 and geometry switching it around it's going to be Algebra 1 geometry and Algebra 2 how it used to be it was always historically Al one geometry and alra two and there's a wave across schools across the country to change that that sequence to Algebra 1 Algebra 2 and the geometry that didn't work and then most schools have gone back to the orig like what we always do we always go back Steve did I miss anything no I think you cover it was pretty busy equality oh I'm sorry I'd like to
090submit this to you for uh Junior Achievement me yeah okay because you're going to see your people I will oh yeah and I promised them that I I will [Music] all right so policy uh we've got two policies down for a second read tonight I'll start with the Connecticut pain sick leave um we've already talked about it today um Dr Miller wrote a beautiful letter to to whoever we submit those two that outlines the operational challenges that that we're facing but whether we approve it or not it's the law and we need to honor it for our employees so um does anybody have any questions or concerns they want to discuss about that right now all right so then I would make like to make a motion that we approve um the Connecticut paid sick
091leave policy is written second okay discussion none all those in favor opposed abstain and motion carries okay and the next policy is the student just policy remember this last meeting anybody who's going to be involved in um an expulsion or a disciplinary hearing for students should familiarize themselves with this um there's certain changes that go hand inand with our school climate policy um they changed some timelines I've outlined it all it's it covers a lot but I've outlined it all in the minutes for the policy committee meeting if anyone want to take a look at that um does anybody have any questions yeah I just have I know you through email you and I talked about the the aerosol stuff yeah okay um I'd like to kind of put it out there that that there
092are many different kinds out there and I'm wondering if it should be a little bit more um specific what anybody else how anybody else feels about that so I'm just going to say the more specific you get the more likely you could miss something and you're going to lose that so I think you'd rather keep it vague so then that gives you a little more leeway okay anybody else okay is there anywhere that you have the changes from what was before to now I I don't have redlined but I I mean if you take a look at my policy not it says exactly what timelines have changed absolutely when when you get the policies they come from shipment yeah do they not track the changes of before and after it's like this is what we
093had this is what we're proposing they do sometimes you'll see a change but not always they provide these little summary emails sometimes too though that's kind of like what Nicole will do it'll give you a paragraph and tell you what's different in the model language but it's not strikeout Stu I don't know how to turn on track changes because I mean this document this policy is 53 Pages it is so I mean they could have touched one line on one page or they could have made 700 changes and for well it is what it is but um if we could get for especially for a document this large a policy this large maybe we could get the your minutes attached because oh okay I mean I I personally don't know how to do that but
094I sent I submit the minutes to Dr Miller and he posts them on our on our on the agenda for that evening you send them to me yeah all right so if there are no other questions or concerns I'd like to make a motion that we approve the student discipline policy as written second all right discussion none um all those in favor I those opposed abstain motion carries and leis on report fin oh sorry ready since the last 15 minutes so just thank you for everything again and hope we get parents out there point out we're need them again letter help things like that yeah yeah I do um spring Bingo will be April 24th believe the it's all out there now on social media um L Club is also going to try something new
095and do a d out of our own next year um to raise money for our scholarships we've got senior activities planning meetings uh March 5th that's for all senior and Senior parents who want to get involved in all of the fun love graduation and locking and all that stuff um the Bingo will be equal point for the Riverside Firehouse again and um they're discussing take a stand looking at some different ways of um making a little bit more meaningful for the kids put a lot of work and effort into it year after year and some kids pay attention but most kids just like being outside so so and Sor lck will be June 13th now that the snow day has been always a Friday before graduation so now that it was a Tuesday the graduation
096done yeah so senior lck will be on that Friday before Vic were you able to get to the PTO meeting that were you able to get to the PTO meeting no yeah I'm just asking no pressure I attended okay um if I can get a date I was actually going to see if there was a PTO member here that wanted to get one but if Dr Miller however you guys want to do it I attended the big news from the PTO is that this week is the booster th that's the big fundraising event that the PTO does for the schools the middle school this is the the bulk of the funds that they bring in for all the field trip that they support and the teacher initiatives that they do um the last this is
097I think the third year that they've done this and brought in a significant amount of money to support the kids so appreciative of PTO for all that work that they've done for that um the B Community was talking about that they're also looking at different programming for parent events and community events to bring people together it's a new group of leaders in the PTO um this year and um it really worked well together can we get any updates from quarterback Club as well yeah I I don't know pres anymore this year next year okay I did atttend the P this year I didn't intend to read it but I did their banquet on two weeks ago I did I did and that was their big event for the year yeah it's the first time in
098four years I haven't been to that of graduation 17th 17th the last day it's usually the last day 16 17 right there still yeah all right make a motion to adjourn all in favor oppos and