BOE Meeting 6/9/2025

001It is now 7 p.m. on Monday, June 9th, 2025, and I would like to convene this regularly scheduled meeting of the board of education. Item B, moment of silence. Michael A. Palumba Jr., beloved husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. Michael A. Palumba Jr., 87 entered the gates of heaven on Sunday, May 25th, 2025 in the comfort of his home surrounded by his loving family. He was the beloved husband of Lorraine Falconee Palumba for 64 years. Michael was born in Waterbury on August 27th, 1937. A son of the late Michael A. and Lucy Beckia Palumba, Senior. He proudly served his country honorably in the US Army. Michael was a property manager for both Drumner Real Estate and Wesson Oil Company until his retirement in 2002. He enjoyed reading books and watching Yankee games. He was a professional

002drummer in the Joe Speck and the Speckled Spouts. He was also a member of the American Legion Post 204 Southbury. Michael's life was deeply rooted to family and friends. His greatest joy was spending time with his family. He enjoyed countless trips visiting friends and family in Florida, watching sunsets at Pasagril Beach, creating lasting memories of laughter and love with his wife, children, and grandchildren. Mike's legacy is one of love, generosity, and a deep appreciation for life's simple joys. He will be deeply missed by all who knew him, but his spirit lives on. Besides his wife Lorraine, he leaves his three children, Jeffrey Palumba and his husband William McIntyre of West Haven, Cheryl Laval and her husband Joe of Bethlehem and Christa Palumba and her fiance Dean Silone of Watertown. Four loving grandchildren, Joe Lel. Label,

003thank you. Sorry. and his wife Jade, Samantha Sex and her husband Matt, Savannah Stoino, and Payton Stoino. Three great grandchildren, Jack and Joey Lavell, and Jodie Sites, sister-in-laws Carolyn Church of Waterberry and Evelyn Palumba of Alabama, nephew Michael Palumba and niece Donna Burns. He was predescased by a brother Nicholas Palumba and a brother-in-law Thomas R. Church. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Miss Davidson, Mr. Miss Failen here, Mr. Gavales, Miss Fessa here, Miss Hoskin here, Miss Palumba here, Mr. Malaguda here, Miss Lton here, Mr. Mr. Brent here, Miss Me here, Miss Ky. Board members should have received their um packets with minutes from the

004board of education meeting from May 27th, 2025. Does anyone have any questions? Seeing none, do I have a motion to approve the meeting minutes of the regular board of education meeting on May 27th, 2025? Yes, Madam Chair, I move to approve the minutes of the regular board of education meeting on May 27th, 2025. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? I opposed abstensions. Motion passes. Moving on to student recognition. Yes. Good evening everybody. We're very fortunate to have several uh recognitions this evening of students and we're going to start with Watertown High School Unified Sports uh recognition. If Mr. Perini can come up and make those announcements. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Um I'm Giani Perigini, principal at Watertown High School. I'd love to uh introduce to you and and

005recognize some of our amazing students. The first is the unified sports award. Um so congratulations to two Watertown High School seniors who received the unified sports award. Uh these students have excelled in their academic and athletic careers. Student one is Mackenzie Kish and the other student is Morgan Kish. Uh both Mackenzie and Morgan participated in unified sports all four years at Watertown High School and currently are captains of the unified sports team. McKenzie and Morgan were recognized at the CIA unified sports banquet on April 28th at the Aquaturf in Southernington where they each received an exemplary unified teammate award for their outstanding dedication in sportsmanship. These sisters have been an integral part of the unified team through uh by running warm-ups, organizing practices, participating in almost every event that has been held in the past

006four years here regarding Unified. They've been assisting the coaches and cheering on their teammates. And this award is welld deserved by both girls. So, congratulations to both Morgan and Mackenzie Kisher. So, next we have the other unified. So, you're going to Is it okay if I move on? You're going to go do the swift one? Oh, no, not Swift. Sorry. Yeah. So, you'll you'll go off and then come back. Sorry. I just wanted the mic. You just like it up there. Okay. Next, we're going to uh recognize the students from Swift with the Unified Awards. So tonight we'd like to recognize Logan Marcella and hat her Imam who wasn't able to make it tonight. So Logan has been an active participant in the unified sports program since sixth grade. This year her joined the Swift

007UN unified sports team for the very first time bringing with him valuable soccer skills gained from outside activities. But both Logan and her generously shared their knowledge and abilities with fellow team members, contributing to a collaborative and supportive environment at Swift. Logan and her were among many unified sports athletes recognized that night on April 28th. They were honored with the unified teammate award in recognition of their exceptional dedication and sportsmanship. In addition, Logan received an honorable mention in the annual middle school contest for essay writing, which invites athletes and partners to reflect on their experiences in unified sports. Hater is eager to continue with the Swift team as an eighth grade student next year, while Logan looks forward to joining the unified sports team at the high school level. We are proud of both of

008them. So, at this time, um, if students that are here would like to come up and take a picture with the board and I'd also like to take the opportunity to thank Mr. Pernees and also the high school unified coaches. We're very fortunate to have a wonderful, wonderful program here in Watertown. It's something that's really a hallmark of our town that we're very proud of. So, want to come up And I have a certificate. Peter. Uh, here you go, Logan. Congratulations. Nice job. Thank you. All right. Can you look at me first and I'll set you off to parents. Congratulations. Okay, Mr. Perigini, it's your turn again to come up. The next award to give. This is the CIA correct scholar athlete award. Okay, great. I know we've got a number of awards tonight. Um

009so the Watertown Board of Education proudly congratulates and the high school proudly congratulates our Watertown High School scholar athletes um Sarah Keski and Andrew Brown who are also both members of the uh board here as student representatives. They were recently honored at the annual uh calf cic scholar athlete banquet held at the Aquaturf on May 4th. And this prestigious recognition celebrates their dedication to academic excellence and athletic achievements throughout their four years here at the high school. Um I just want to note that some schools will um give the scholar athlete award. They'll take the highest uh ranked uh male and female and that have rostered on any sport whether it's one or five um and and they'll award the scholar athlete that way. What we did this year with Mr. for Benellas, we actually

010created a um a formula that took into account uh all of their academic honors, honoral status, uh national honor societies they've been involved in and any um all league accolades, all state accolades, captaincy, uh and all that. So, we truly have uh an awesome representation of what a scholar and an a student athlete is here at Watertown High School and these two student uh athletes. So, talk a little bit about Sarah. I'll start by embarrassing Sarah first. Sarah Kryski not only ranked seven in her class, she had an impressive 4.3 GPA and is a dedicated and accomplished three sport athlete, earning 11 varsity letters in girls soccer, indoor track and field, and boys golf. She served as captain for both the girls varsity soccer team and the boys varsity golf team. Sarah's honors include the

011Rochester Institute of Technology High School award for women in STEM, the CIC Scholar Athlete Award, the AllIron Athlete for Girls Varsity Soccer, and all MVL honors in both girls soccer and indoor track and field. Her ability to excel across academic and athletic arenas highlights her exceptional work ethic and her leadership. Congratulations, Sarah. Congratulations. You know the drum. See? Okay. Our next uh student athlete, CIC scholar athlete is Andrew Brown. Congratulations to Andrew Brown. Andrew ranked top 25 in his class with a 4.2 2 GPA and is an a standout two sport athlete and an eighttime varsity letter winner in ice hockey and lacrosse. He served as captain of both teams during his senior year and has earned all conference honors twice and all state recognition twice in ice hockey. He's a member of the National

012Honors Society. Andrew has shown tremendous commitment and resilience and leadership both on the field and in the classroom. Andrew exemplifies what it means to be a scholar athlete as well as Sarah. Uh successfully balancing rigorous academic coursework with the demands of highle athletics. Their achievements bring pride to Watertown High School and serve as an inspiration to their peers. Congratulations, Andrew. Congratulations. Thank you very much. Mr. Perini and Mort, if you want to come up. Is BJ here either or? No. You want to take a picture with the forward? She likes that size better. We went through this the other day and I heard all about the good side. That's good to know. But next time you remember one, two, Congratulations. So, Mr. Perigini will stay up there one more time. Um we will recognize our

013student board members this evening. Okay, great. Um so I'm going to talk. It's going to be a little repetitive because two our scholar athletes, our CIC scholar athletes were also um our board members. Um I'm going to call three of you up there so that way one doesn't have to stand up there in an awkward uh you know by themselves while while someone else is getting talked about. So, if I can ask Andrew, Andrew Brown, Sarah Kryski, and uh Juliana Meglio to come up to the to the center here and I'll talk a little bit about each of you. Starting with Andrew. Uh Andrew, I'll try to give you some information about Andrew that I didn't mention before as a CIA scholar athlete, but Andrew is obviously a graduating senior and spends the majority of

014his time playing hockey and lacrosse um or going out with his friends. Uh, Andrew has taken nine AP courses throughout high school and plans to pursue mechanical engineering at the University of Connecticut. Within his four years of high school, he's received all state all conference for ice hockey, like I mentioned before, both his junior and senior years. Andrew's also been a part of two conference championships on the lacrosse team. Andrew spends uh his time in clubs or honor societies, numerous within our school, helping out the community. and his main takeaway from the board of education or serving as a student representative on the board of education is that it has allowed him to be part of a community that is larger than just himself. He enjoys being able to represent a larger body of people

015and is grateful for this experience. Sarah Kryaski Sarah Sarah is a senior at Watertown High School who embodies excellence in athletics, academics, leadership, and community service. She's a dedicated multiport athlete. Sarah has earned recognition in varsity soccer, basketball, golf, indoor track and field. She was named all iron and soccer and all MBL in both soccer and track. She also served as captain for captain for the girls varsity soccer team and the boys varsity golf team. Academically, Sarah is a top ranking honor student and a recipient of the Rochester Institute Technology Women in STEM award. She's a member of the National Honor Society, National Technical Honor Society, National Math Honor Society, and the National Science Honor Society. Sarah's committed to service is reflected in her volunteer work as a math tutor, a youth soccer coach, and

016a contributor to local initiatives such as the food pantry support. She has also held leadership roles in the link crew, and the principal student advisory council. In the fall, Sarah will attend Clarkson University to study civil engineering and play women's soccer. Juliana Meglio is a senior at Watertown High School whose high school career reflects a small a strong commitment to academics, athletics, and leadership. She plans to attend the University of St. Joseph in the fall where she will major in education while continuing to play both field hockey and lacrosse. She's a standout athlete. Juliana has served as captain for both the field hockey and girls lacrosse teams. She was named to the All Brook League first team as a junior and senior, earned second team all-state honors both years, and currently ranks third in program

017history with 40 career goals in field hockey. In lacrosse, she was named allconerence for defense and helped lead her team to a three water town to a three WCLC championship. Oh, there's a typo here. Sorry. Uh, in addition to her athletic achievements, Juliana is a class of 2025 officer, a member of the National Honor Society and National Technical Honor Society. She's an active participant in Student Council, the Educators Rising Program, Best Buddies, Link Crew, and the Principal Student Advisory Council. She's also a recipient of the Academic Excellence Award. As a student representative to the board of education, Juliana found particular value in learning how to compose board notes and strengthening her her public speaking skills. I, as principal, cannot be more proud of these three students and all the work that they put into serving

018as the uh student board representatives for the board of education and I hope the board has appreciated their work all year. Very much so. I were able to come every other Monday because they didn't really have anything else to do judging from like Yeah, exactly. Right. They were just sitting around waiting to do nothing to fit this in in between all of the other things that they do. We have some flowers. Exceptional students. Say thank you. Congratulations to the three of you. Thank you guys. And if the board would like to take a picture, of course. Thank you so much for everything. It's very much appreciated. two. Thank you. Now you guys actually have to do some work before you go. for John Trumbull. Students have grown academically, socially, and emotionally this year, and teachers

019have worked hard to meet individual student needs. On the I Ready Diagnostics, students showed 112% growth in reading and 116% growth in math. To celebrate this accomplishment, the whole school will be watching a selected second grade will be watching selected second grade students as they pay a teacher or administrator in the face. On June 10th, second grade students will visit either Pok or Judson to meet their upcoming third grade teachers, while kindergarten and first grade students will meet their new teacher on the last day of school. Kindergarteners had a great time at the Beersley Zoo. And first graders enjoyed the Hungerford Nature Center in Berlin. And the second graders enjoyed their trip to the Flanders Nature Center. The second grade celebration will happen on the last day of school. For Pulk Elementary School, Pulk was

020excited to welcome second grade families to the upcoming third grade parent orientation. This special event provides an opportunity for parents to meet dedicated third grade teachers, learn more about the school day, curriculum, and expectations, and gain valuable insights into what the transition to grades 3 to 5 will look like. Parents will also enjoy a guided tour of the school led by the fifth grade student council representatives who are eager to share their experiences and showcase the spaces where learning and growth happen every day. For Judson, their field day will be held on Wednesday, June 11th. Stepup day is on Tuesday, June 10th. And this is an opportunity for students to meet their next year teachers. The incoming third graders will also be visiting their teachers. Earbooks will be distributed on Tuesday, June 10th. And thank

021you to the PTO for planning their fifth grade celebration. And on Monday, June 9th, incoming third grade families will be welcomed into the school. This is an opportunity for families to learn about the school, meet the teachers, and get a full tour of the of the building from the fifth grade student council representatives. First with middle school, eighth grade band, strings, and chorus students earned gold ratings from the panel of judges at the fantastic um music festival on May 29th. This marks the third consecutive year that these talented ensembles have received the prestigious recognition. Their dedication, passion, and hard work truly shine through in their performance. Um for the eighth grade band and string students, they also had an exciting opportunity to travel to both Jetson and Pulk Elementary School where they performed a wonderful

022wonderful concert for the younger students. The purpose of this event was to inspire spark and an interest in music among the elementary students while also introducing them to many musical opportunities that Swift had to offer. The string ensemble will be performing at John Trumbull Primary School as part of the senior graduation parade celebrating the Watertown High School class of 2025. This special event honors the achievements and hard work of our graduating seniors as they prepared to take their next steps beyond high school. For the Memorial Day parade, Swift Band was a standout at the Watertown Oakville Memorial Day parade. Congratulations to all students and staff for their dedication and outstanding musical performances for Wartown High School. On May 27th, oh sorry, Wartown hosted its annual National Honor Society induction ceremony in the auditorium. This event

023celebrated the academic achievements of students. The following day, Warttown High School hosted the top 10 student lunchon, which is a Warttown tradition in which each of the 10 students invites a staff member who has a has had a positive impact on their education to share lunch. On May 29th, Wartown High School held its annual World Language Honor Society induction ceremony. The event recognized students who have demonstrated achievement in the study of French or Spanish. As of June 6th, the World Language Department has had nine juniors and seniors enrolled in Spanish for honor honors and Connecticut ECE Spanish course classes um for the seal of biiteracy. For Watertown athletics, a congratulations to the spring athletes who have earned postseason recognitions for their outstanding spring seasons. For softball, Julia Campbell received all NBL, first team, as well

024as first team all state. Maddie Aubbertton uh received all second team as well as Alexa Connor. For baseball, Cole Ozari received all NVL first team. For girls lacrosse, Juliana Meglio, Malia Arline, Nichollet Forte, Bella Shiavo, Sawyer Dubet, Katie Schwire all received WCLC first team. For boys lacrosse, Julian Guerrera and Noah Mcedan received WCLC first team. For girls tennis, Vanessa Cypriano received all NDL and was also selected as most outstanding senior. For golf, Michael Longo uh received all NBL second team and Sarah Kryki received runnerup NBL girls championship. Uh for track and field, Lexi Connor, Ryan Walsh, Mallerie Hannon, and Lily Corey uh were the 4x800 champions. Um, Crystalin Lafo uh received the girls 300 championship and Ryan Walsh received girls uh 3200 championship. Eli Crawford um 100 meter and 200 meter MBL championship uh class

025M runnerup and an all state recipient. Additionally, Eli Crawford and Ryan Walsh were selected as two outstanding senior athletes for the year in uh the NVL. Thank you. Next, superintendent recommendations and report. Yes. Um thank you for having me this evening to fill in for Dr. Villanoeva who is not here today. Um I appreciate the opportunity to be here tonight and also to be serving as of July 1st as the acting superintendent. Um, I just wanted to share that at the next board meeting on um, June 23rd, I'll be sharing my 30609D entry plan um, to the board and anyone else who might be interested in hearing some of the details of that. Um, given that this is the last board meeting before school lets out, I just wanted to take a minute to thank

026our amazing staff, our amazing teachers. Um, it's really, you know, a lot of work and it's a long year of teaching and learning and we're almost at that finish line and then there'll be a little bit of a time for a break and a well-deserved break before we embark on the next school year. Um, and thank you also to students and families. Um, I think it's been a very good school year and I look forward to wrapping up in a fine way and then kicking off when we come back. Um, I'd also like to congratulate the senior class. I can attest to the fact that this is a special group of children. I have my own graduating senior this year and he has made friendships and connections with teachers and students that will last a

027lifetime. Um so I'm, you know, really part of our graduating senior class. They're an exceptional group and I look forward to what they're going to bring back to our community at at some time moving forward. Um there are a few events that I know that were already mentioned but worth mentioning again. Um they will be doing that parade at John Trumbull on the 16th which is always an amazing event where they parade through the school of where they started in their caps and gowns. Um then of course graduation for grade 8 and 12 will be on June 17th. Um so we look forward to all of those events. So thank you excuse me through the chair. Um I just have a couple questions. Um since Dr. Villan Noeva is here and you're acting in herstead.

028Dr. Dr. Venoeva had sent out an email with some updates um for coming up with schedule changing. They were June updates on Wednesday. Are you able to answer some questions towards that email? I am not sure if I've seen the email. Um I can certainly take the questions. If I can answer them, I will. Um Oh, no. I appreciate that. So, I I have some of the email here. So, um I just have some very real concerns and questions. Um the email came out when you talked about scheduling changes. It talked about special education support and things. Miss Feresa, I'm sorry to interrupt, but since the email came from Dr. Villain Noea, I don't think it's appropriate for Miss Beckery to be answering on on um Okay. the superintendent's behalf. She's not here, so she

029will not know like intention or her thoughts. Okay. So, she hasn't read the email. That is fine. So, I have very specific questions then regarding to I'm assuming that since you're acting interim and you're going to be in charge of the scheduling moving forward that you would have answers to these questions. You would understand, you would know because you're working with her on the schedule changes at at Swift the high school. There's some special education questions I have very specific question. This isn't the time or the place is what I'm saying. We're on superintendent's recommendation and report. I I assume that there would be time because she usually mentions updates in the report. So, that's unfortunate. So there'll be an email going out about this. Okay, you can ask the questions then. Thank you. Okay,

030moving on to public participation. In accordance with policy number 9050, public participants must state their name and address for the record and limit statements to three minutes. Board encourages speakers not to express defamatory comments about Watertown Board of Education personnel or any other persons associated with the Watertown Public School System. Would anyone like to come up and comment? Please step up. Please state your name and address for the record. And you have three minutes. How you doing? Bruce Chantello, 22 Malvin Hill Road, Watertown, Connecticut 06795. I am the president of the Grid Iron Hall of Fame, as well as president of Water Oak Circle of Sports. And the reason for me being here tonight is to give you a petition for the naming of the back softball field in the honor of Keith Borcowski. Going

031through the uh 1050 requirements, I we feel as a community this is welld deserved. Keith has been an active uh coach for over 40 years in the town of Watertown. Since 1996, he's been the chairman of the softball committees. He has many uh honors and recognitions, especially from the water oak circle of sports grid iron hall of fame 217. He was nominated as a finalist for the high school coaches association coach of the year. And in 2024, he was inducted into the state scholastic collegiate softball hall of fame, as well as being inducted into the Watertown High School Hall of Fame. So, at this time, I'd like to uh submit this uh copy of the petition that has gone through the committee. Uh we have plenty of uh uh what do you call it? signatures

032and people on there uh pertinent to your requirements for 1050 and I would like to know what is our next step after after this [Music] Mr. Chill to you. Yes. Thank you. [Music] What's wrong? Good evening. For the record, El Longo. I reside at 83 Bella Vista Drive. So, the fiscal year end closes on June 30th, exactly three weeks from today. And your uh most recent or current financial report indicates a budget shortfall of $720,000. Short while ago was north of a million dollar, but some of your accounts such as professional services had a projected balance of only $9,000. And now here we are today, professional services has a balance of $470,000. So I I would ask that you uh perhaps look into or ask questions during your financial report of how is it that

033the professional technical services which 60 days ago had a projected balance of $9,400 now has a projected balance of $477,000. You've already applied the full $2.2 million of the insurance appropriation, but the report indicates that you're still short $123,000 in benefits. If we take a look at your instructional supplies accounts early in the year, these are uh investments or purchases that directly impact students due to the pending deficit. There was a freeze as you know as you aware and approximately 65% of the budget was set aside and remains today to offset the budget. However, you take a look at the other supplies account which has a fullear appropriation of $218,000. We've only spent $19,000 in 11 months on a $217,000 line item. Yet $178,000 still remains encumbered today. Just three weeks left to the fiscal

034year. What is the plan to purchase $178,000 of other supplies in the remaining three weeks unless it's been obligated in contract? And my recommendation is that you release that $178,000 in order to further curtail the pending deficit. We wouldn't want to close out the fiscal year as a board of education, perhaps requesting of the town an additional appropriation of north of $720,000 for yet another year of deficit spending when you have $178,000. That's 90 cents on a dollar. 11 months in, you haven't spent it. So why is it still encumbered in the financial report? Um, in terms of the uh upcoming schoolyear budget, I still ask that you take a deeper dive into the transportation line item. This year, your projection right now is you're short $566,000. However, next year it's flatfunded at $3.1 million

035and the contract calls for a double-digit increase year-over-year. The math just doesn't add up. So, um, that's what my input, if you will, uh, accept it or consider it. uh this evening in terms of the financial report and the upcoming school year budget. Thank you. Thank you. Would anyone else like to come to the podium? Seeing none, moving moving on to the presentation on food service in 2025 2026. So, Miss Doring, our food services director, has a short presentation for the board tonight to discuss a few items. Um, one of which is talking about um the price of meals for next year. Um, just for the board's information, the last time there was an increase in um cost of meals. It was in the 2324 school year and we continue to have some rising costs

036and Miss Doing is going to go through and talk about a number of items. one of which will be the meal prices for next year with a potential um action item perhaps for later in the meeting. So, I'll turn it over to Miss Doring. Thank you. Uh Miss Facy, I think I misspoke when you and I were talking. Our last increase was during June of 2022. I was standing up here. So, that would have been for the 22 23 school year. So, it's been 23. Thank you. Uh three years since our last meal price increase. All right. Um, so I just wanted to start off before we jump into the actual numbers and uh the financial health of the department. Just celebrating a few highlights from this school year. Um, most of these have been

037included in my board updates and various presentations throughout the year, but just to kind of capture them all together. Our department has been working with the healthy meal incentive grant that was in the amount of $94,500 over the past two school years. that allowed us to hire a nutrition e educator to implement more nutrition education into some of our classrooms. We were also able to run some food as well as new equipment through that grant. Um so it really covered a wide array, excuse me, wide array um of expenses for the department. We were also awarded the Connecticut grown for Connecticut kids grant that is what we used to start the cooking club um at Swift Middle School. That was a very big success this school year. Between that grant and the local foods for

038school incentive program funds from the state, our department has put $20,000 back into the local agricultural economy, which I think is a really big celebration for our little department. $20,000 going back to farmers um in the community is definitely a big help um to the agricultural small businesses that we have here in this area. We've been working on transitioning more of our schools to reusable trays. We know this is a bit of an upfront investment because we are purchasing dish machines, but long-term we're not relying on the singleuse trays. Um, so there's a cost savings there as well as an environmental positive environmental impact. The picture on the screen is the dish machine at Pulk Elementary School. They transitioned this year to their reusable trays. Swift Middle School will be getting a dish machine this

039summer and they will be the fourth school to transition to reusable trays. I'll touch a little bit more on summer meals after we talk about meal prices, but another huge success from our department. We serve 45,000 meals last summer, and we will be operating another summer meal program very similar to last year for this coming summer. Um, we've also had a revamped catering menu that we rolled out this year to make it easier for departments and administrators to order through the food service department as an attempt to increase some revenue that way. Okay, now on to the challenges. Um, it goes without saying, everyone is experiencing food costs. We're all seeing it in our own personal grocery bills and there is no exception to what we're seeing in the food service department here. I will

040say that we got our bid back for the upcoming school year. And while food prices are still going up, it is not as steep of an increase as we've seen in past school years. I gave two examples up here. So, Stuffed Crust Pizza, this school year, we pay $42 a case. Next year, we'll be paying $52 a case. So, we're seeing a $10 increase on that item. Compared to banana bread, we are seeing less than a dollar increase per case on that particular item. So, by no means are food prices going down, but I am happy to report that there is definitely not as steep as an increase as we've seen the past two years with our bid. Another challenge that we're facing are the increased labor costs, which are directly tied to minimum wage.

041Um, again, this is something we've talked about, but when you look at the rate at which minimum wage has increased over the past four years, we're looking at about a 16% increase in minimum wage. We want to be able to pay our employees what they're entitled to. We have some very hardworking employees in the cafeteria department. It was hot last week. They are still standing in front of an oven cooking and sweating and trying to get food out for students. But the bottom line is that it is more expensive to produce a meal because of this minimum wage increase. The last challenge I want to bring everyone's attention to is our participation rates. Last year, from September to May, we served 130,000 breakfast. This year, during that same time frame, September to May, we serve

04290,000 breakfast, which represents a 31% decrease in participation rates. So, some of you might be thinking, well, if you're serving less students, you're buying less food. That part is true, but when we think about some of our other fixed costs such as our point of sale software, the cost to buy new equipment, our chemicals, those costs don't change just because we're serving less students. And so some of those fixed costs end up feeling a bit more expensive when we're not getting back quite as big of a reimbursement from the government because we're serving less students. So with all of that in mind, um I have a year to date. So again about se Jul July 1st to May 31st profit and loss for the department. Um you can see that we are currently operating at

043a bit of a loss $168,000. I will just reiterate with this profit and loss. This is looking at what money has come into the department this year and what has gone out this year. This does not account for what we have in the bank account um which we do know we've been operating with a bit of a surplus which is recommended by the state to carry about a 3month uh reserve in the bank account for situations like this for unforeseen equipment purchases so on and so forth. Um, so while we are operating at a loss, we do have our own funds that were able to cover this loss. And so just to reiterate, we will not need any sort of subsidy from the general fund. We do have the funds in our reserve to make

044up this loss. However, the longer that we continue to operate at a loss like this, then we will dwindle that supply that we have in our bank. And then it does put us in a position where down the road we may need a subsidy to help sustain the department. So, that brings us to our meal prices in Watertown. Um, and looking at how much we're charging for a meal right now, we charge $1.75 for breakfast at the elementary schools. And we charge $3 for lunch at the elementary schools. We charge the same price uh for breakfast at Swift as well as the high school, which is 225. And the lunch prices are the same at both secondary schools as well, which is 325. This next slide, um, we put an average range of where other

045schools are sitting in our DURG. There's a lot of kind of data to compare when you're looking at the different meal prices. Some schools do tiered meal pricing. Some schools charge flat across the rate. Some schools don't serve breakfast. So, we I included a range um just so we can see where we fall. For the most part, we're right in the middle, maybe slightly below the average. We're certainly not at the lowest end of the range and we're certainly not at the highest of the uh end of the range either. So with that in mind, um this last slide does list what we are proposing for meal prices next year. We are looking at a 10 cent increase across the board at breakfast, bringing the elementary breakfast to $1.85 per meal and the middle and

046high school breakfast to $2.35. For lunch, we're looking at a 25 cent increase um at the elementary schools, bringing us to 325. A 25 cent increase at the middle school bringing us to 350 per lunch. And then we are proposing a 50 cent increase at the high school lunch price bringing us to 375. We have put a lot of effort into expanding the um portion size as well as the quality at the high school. We are giving those students larger portions than at least when I first came here four years ago. We're working on giving higher quality proteins. We serve Boris head deli meat at the high school. We use a lot of whole meat, whole muscle chicken products. We have the salad bar that's a build your own with plenty of toppings. So, we

047do feel like the 50 cent increase at the high school level is just for those reasons. Um, this is all that I have prepared. I'm sure there's a lot of questions and a lot of thoughts about this. We put a lot of thought into these numbers as a cabinet team. Um, we know food is a very sensitive topic for a lot of people. We want to be able to sustain our department but still do right by our families in the community and we feel like these numbers uh strike a good balance of that. So if there's any questions or comments, I'm happy to answer those through the chair. Yes. Do you feel the increases will help offset the the deficit there? The math has been done on this to Yes. Um, so we think that

048this will help match our food cost, the the food cost, the rise that we're seeing in food cost. Um, one big expense that we are continuing to have this year is we are helping to offset the utility cost in the department as well as the custodial cost. Um, and that makes up about half of what our loss was. Historically, the department has never been able to cover those. only in the past couple of years with the excess COVID funds was that a decision together that um Dr. Villan Nova and Miss Kosuba and I made to help offset some of the general fund budget. But that is that's one particular example that we'll have to continue to look at because historically that wasn't in our budget and something like that would potentially continue to to still

049carry a loss. But as far as the food cost, these uh meal increase prices will cover the food cost. Thank you for the chair. Um, is there any other plans to help offset net losses or replenish the reserve funds that are being depleted? Um, so we're continually looking to add new alakart sales. Um, we are obviously very regulated. So, it's not like we can just go grab like any bag of chips off the store and start selling those. But that is something when I go to food shows and when I'm looking at other directors finding other ways that we can sell of what we can sell to bring in additional cash flow. One of our biggest um selling snack programs is our classroom celebrations which are the birthday celebrations K through five. Um we have

050historically we've this year charged $1 per snack where snacks in the cafeteria are $125. So we will be increasing our classroom celebration prices to make it equal next year. So, the classroom celebration form will be $1.25 next year. So, we know we'll have extra revenue from that. Um, and then we'll continue to apply for grants. We had those two fabulous grants that we worked with this year. And that can really help with our aging equipment. Um, which are also very heavy, hefty costs when it comes to a food service operation. This is a question for anybody. I'm just wondering if you could give me just pick one school maybe Judson or Paul how breakfast gets fit into the morning schedule. I'm trying to picture it between drop off from and the beginning of the school

051teaching day, but I'm just not seeing how it fits in. Did you want to address it? Yep. So, I believe that the elementary buses start dismissing at 8:35 in the morning and the school day starts at 9:00 in the morning. So, 8:50. 8:50. Oh, I could have looked at you. Sorry. 8:50. So, that is a 15minute window that students are coming into the um building. All three of our elementaryaries, Pulk and Judson, they come to the cafeteria and pick up breakfast. Um, at John Trumbull, they grab it down at the bottom of the school by the bus loop. All three elementary schools take their breakfast back to the classroom because it is such such a quick turnaround time. Sounds kind of busy. There's a lot that happens in the morning. I know those schools are

052busy for a variety of reason. Are they able to get breakfast before they go right to the classroom or do they go to the classroom first? I think they all get them right off the bus. Okay. Yeah. Right. Interesting. And then they are provided time to eat. So typically um that like additional 10 minutes between 8:50 and 9 is kind of taking attendance, doing morning work, those sorts of things. So students who have breakfast can kind of sit and eat. You're going to sit in the room. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. [Music] Through the chair. Yes. The decrease that you showed in terms of just um numbers, was did any of that was that a result of breakfasts being provided prior through um you know, as you said, COVID money and now being provided at

053a cost or I mean what what do you think? Yes. That decrease would be. So, I mean, we take a lot of phone calls in our office of families that cannot afford the meal prices, families that are right on the cusp of free and reduced. And so, that was really weighing into our decision when we looked at meal prices because we know there are so many families right at that cusp of not qualifying. If you report $1 over the free and reduced threshold, it is very black and white. there is not any wiggle room with the state and that is a really tough part of of the free and reduce process. Um when we look at the data it does seem to indicate that free meals do help drive participation. Um we saw the biggest

054decrease in breakfast from last year to this year. That's when free breakfast went away. And then two school years ago we saw a huge decline in lunch because that's when lunch went away was between two school years ago and last school year. And just for a a point of discussion, one of the things with the budget cut that existed, we tried to close um some of that gap. And so if I remember the number correctly, it was $48,000 that, you know, as part of the um budget cut from the uh town council recommendation, that was one of the things that was lost. where there was some support. I'm wondering now if we're going to see even a larger drop in numbers and um you know one of the reasons behind school breakfast is for everybody

055to have the best start to their day for learning. And so I'm you know I struggle with seeing a 30% decrease in in numbers. I don't know if that's I don't know how we begin to close that that gap. Yeah. Um I had a train of thought but it slips out of my mind. So I talked too long. You have lots of good points there. Yeah. Through the chair. I've always felt I wish the the federal would reinstate that. It's one of those things that became a benefit and a comfort for so many kids and when they get they got used to it. I just they uh wish they made it permanent there. It is sad to see the drop too. I agree. It's tough to watch that. Um breakfast they there was legislation they

056were looking at adding free breakfast not for the 25 26 school year. It would have put it in for the 26 27 school year. However, that legislation did not pass in this current legislative session session. So it is um not currently an option that we're you know banking on. We've done a phenomenal job with all these grants and initiatives. So, it's really nice to see that tie with the community farmers and my kids come home excited about what they've tried and it really does set the stage for like the healthy habits and that's a very real positive impact. All right. And then just two quick uh any other questions about meal prices and then I had just two quick comments um while I'm up here. So, the next thing that I wanted to report on

057was our summer meal program for the upcoming summer. Um, we are just about ready to send out the flyer, but it hasn't gone out yet. I'm just in the final communications with the state to get everything 100% ironclad. However, we are going to be having a summer program um very similar to last year where it's pick up two days per week. Families can come and get three days worth of food at the beginning of the week, four days worth of food at the end of the week. And that is completely free for all families because we are located in Lichfield County. We qualif qualify for the rural non- congregate feeding option which is what lets us give out that food in in bulk and give it free of charge to families. Um it will be

058Tuesdays and Thursdays just like last year. 12 to 1:00 p.m. is the pickup time. And I anticipate the flyer will be going out to families in the next week or so. I really would like to get it out before the end of school. Emily, isn't there a change in location? So, yep. So, we are very happy that we're going to be able to actually host the meal pickup here at Watertown High School, which is a tremendous help to the operations and logistic of the program. Last summer, many of you might be aware that we were transporting food to town hall, which was a huge feat in itself and required a ton of cafeteria help, a ton of maintenance help, a ton of secretarial help because it was just such a a large task. Is that

059because of the roof? It had to do with how we were able to qualify and we didn't have a school that qualified last year. Thank you. This year we actually have one school, not the high school, but one school that now meets the 50% free and reduced threshold. And so we were able to kind of combine the two schools together to get approval for this. It had to be a certain amount of miles if I'm not mistaken. Correct. From Yes. So because we have one school that met it, we could kind of neighbor them together. Um which will be a huge help because we have refrigerators here. We don't have to be lugging food with maintenance help. We have lots of carts. So, um, pickup will be here at the high school. And again, I

060will get that flyer out to our families as soon as possible. Traffic flow. Yeah, the traffic flow will be much easier. Yep. It'll be at the bus loop, which sort of has its own um kind of traffic pattern. Emily, quick question on that. Um, on the summer program, I did have a lot of parents ask me and I didn't know the answer. What do you do with the leftover food for us? So we use something called a two week cycle menu which means that there every two weeks the menu repeats itself. So and then the way we package the food is a refrigerator bag and a freezer bag. So the freezer bag that you give out today just and we have 50 bags left over goes right back into the freezer and in two more

061weeks it's ready for us when we need it. Um we throw very little away. Any produce that's not used on Tuesday gets distributed on Thursday. Um, so it's a two-eek cycle menu and it, you know, there's some drawbacks to it, a little repetitive, but it significantly cuts down on food waste. Thank you. Um, one last thing I wanted to highlight about the summer meal program is that we have 16 cafeteria staff that are so eager to work and I think this is a really great opportunity for our staff because we're now able to offer not quite fully employment, but we're kind of getting closer to that fullyear employment. And that makes us more competitive with other districts that offer summer feeding as well as just other food service establishments in general. Um some people don't

062want to work just 10 months. They are looking for more hours and we're kind of getting to a point where we can say we can probably give you work over the summer and that will help increase um the quality of our candidate pool as well. Any other questions about summer? And then just one more update about some equipment repair. Um, this summer, Swift is going to be getting a pretty major repair on their walk-in refrigerator and walk-in freezers. The way that those types of units are powered is there's a big compressor um on the outside of the building. That's what pumps refrigerant through the system to keep them running. The uh unit at Swift has a crack in it and so refrigerant is leaking from it periodically and it's very expensive every time they have

063to come out and recharge the unit. um we've had to have them come out three times to recharge it. So, at this point, we just need to get a new compressor and be done with this so that we're not worrying about the freezers going down during this school year. Um so, we are looking at a ticket item about $32,000. We are going with Commercial Kitchens who does uh most of our repairs. We have we went out for RFP with them last year. We have a contract. They're an approved vendor on the Connecticut Source website. Um so, they'll be doing that project over the summer. And again, that's one example of what we use our reserve funds for is for those larger equipment pair repairs like this. Thank you so much. Those are my updates. Thank

064you. Thank you, Emily. Moving on to this Gshuba. Hi, everyone. Good evening. All right. So, I wasn't here for um I think I'm loud enough. I don't think I need to have a mic. I'm sorry. Um I wasn't here for the last meeting and I apologize, but I had another obligation that I needed to be at. I also have a graduating senior and her schedule is 10 times more active than mine. Um, so I did ask that in this month's um this uh this week's budget uh binder that uh they included both April and May for you. And the reason I wanted that is so that I could address um the figures and some of the concerns that have been raised by Mr. Longo during uh public participation. Um I want to say very openly

065I actually welcome your advice. I I don't pretend to be an expert in this field, although I'd like to think that I'm getting better at it every day. Um, and I'm happy to answer any questions and it's a learning process for me as well, maybe on ways that we can improve processes. So, as of April 30th, as you can see, we were reporting a $ 1.4 million deficit. Um, I had uh like in prior months, I've always said that we are watching these lines literally weekly. I now feel like I'm looking at them in my sleep. Um, I feel like I know every PO that's open right now. But it's all right. It's my job and I'm happy to do it. As of May 31st, I'm happy to report that that number is now down

066to $720,000. Um, and I will say that today before coming here, knowing that I would be speaking of this, I want you to know that it is now at half a million dollars. So, I'm going to give a little context on um, some of the topics that were I was asked to broach today over concern. Very reasonable. Um the first uh item I was uh asked to look into was the topic of salary and benefits. Um as Mr. Wongo had indicated, uh our benefits obviously we know that we had a catastrophic year with insurance. Um $1.9 million just in claims alone and I know that that number had been stated several times by Dr. Villanva. That was in fact the amount of claims that we were over in moving to the state partnership plan. Not

067only did we have to cover that 1.9, but there were also additional costs because then we needed to obviously pick up three more months worth of insurance. Um there was an additional excess policy that had to be taken out. All these things to make sure that we were covered um for the runoff. But had we not moved in April, which I was very eager to do, I guarantee you based off of the runoffs the way they've come in, we would have been looking at another million dollars. So, I know that the decision that we made, and when I speak for we, I'm speaking strictly only for boarded because the the the town obviously incurs their own costs and expenses on that. Um, so I think it was a smart move to do. Um, we only

068asked for 2.1 to cover the deficit and in all honesty, we probably should have asked for a little bit more, but because we had been in a freeze and trying to be good partners with the town, we had used some of the money we recovered from the freeze to offset probably some of the additional funds that we needed uh to do that. But that's what the freeze is there for. We know that having been self-insured that we were always taking a little bit of risk. In the perfect world, I would have been able to budget more, but we couldn't. We're always trying to come in at a reasonable amount. So, that being said, um it we're grateful that we did the freeze when we did. Unfortunately, when we do a freeze, the money's coming from

069somewhere and it's coming from areas where obviously other people who had gone through the trouble of doing the zerobased budgeting with wants and needs that we we know are needed. Um, we forced them to do a priority list, if you will, by the schools and the principles and the secretaries all work with me on this. And we basically ju just allowed pretty much what was absolutely needed to just start the school off and to get them running. And then we I still look at requisitions on a daily basis. That being said, with salaries and benefits, I understand that there's some um variables here and some variances that I want to address. With certified payroll, we're showing about $120,000 um unfavorable. $120,000 is a lot of money, but it is less than 1% budget-wise. I actually

070think that coming in anywhere around that number, it could fluctuate either way. I expect that number to stick right around where it is. The non-certified and other salaries, um this is the area where we see some volatility or at least a swing, what Mr. Longo refers to as a swing. Um, I would like to say that this year was a year where we had four contracts, all non-certified staff that were um not negotiated and closed before the start of the date. Some of them, actually, most of them were not closed until the end of the year or even January, February, and as late as March. Once we closed those contracts, I then am required to go back and retroactively reimburse everyone, including employees who have left during the year for any hours at the new

071rate that they should have been paid. That figure alone, which and it it is part of the swing between February, March, and April, depending on which contract we actually ratified and when and when we were able to go back and do the computations to make sure that we were paying people appropriately. um that amount alone generated almost $125,000 in additional payroll that hit the line in a drastic matter. So instead of being spread out over the year, I hit it once we cut those salaries. Um the other part was and and this is still ongoing to some extent is uh we had severance payments. We have um a a we have more people now than in the years that I've been here and I've only been here three years um retiring and they are entitled

072to a payout. Now, normally we wouldn't see some of the most people retire at the end of the school year. We've had some people leave during the school year, primarily from January until now. That has generated almost another $70,000 in additional payroll because it has to be paid out in a lump sum fashion at the time that they retire. And that could be depending on the contract for the person. It could be vacation pay, you know, vacation acrewed time for vacation pay um leave or um sick leave as well. It depends on the person's contract and whatever. And I believe we still might have another one or two that we need to pay out, but all of that has been taken into consideration now and is being applied on the books. Um, I do have

073one journal entry that I can enter on non-certified staff and I'm going to take the time to explain that we do receive some revenue, not enough revenue by any means to cover the cost of all the teachers and pairs that we have per preschool, but we do have students who pay a nominal fee for their students to attend as peers to the the students that are in need of the program. um during the year usually quarterly if I can I will look at the account balance of what we received in tuition um payments and we offset the cost of either a teacher salary or a pair of salary or both depending on how much we can um as the year goes though I do not allocate all of it because there could be expenses that

074come up preschool might need something that we weren't anticipating we try to use those funds to cover preschool expenses um I now have just verified the amount that is in the account left and I do have $30,000 that I will be hitting in the next few weeks. So, I expect this number to go down by $30,000. In addition to that, there are times where sometimes we have to bring on additional staff, one-on ones with um special educations. I receive budget alerts. We have a new student, they now require a one-on-one parah. We have had to bring in one, two, three. I don't know the exact number of this happens during the year. Um, I did already speak to Miss Becketty and she's in agreement with me that I think what I'd like to do is

075when I receive a budget alert, I am now going to make that as part of my report so that I can start saying to you guys ahead of time, um, we budgeted, but now we've got a student that is now requiring additional transportation or additional needs or a one-on-one parah. And then hopefully that'll help to again, I'm trying to be as transparent as p as possible. um we're going to try to um create some additional reporting so that we can provide that information to you. Um the third part of that equation is the employee um benefit portion. And as we stated um we should come in with no um we've already pre we pretty much have to prepay for April, May um and June. Moving from self-insured to fully insured, we actually have to pay

076the bill ahead of time. So um I believe our as far as the employee benefits section, we're fine. Now the only variation that you you will see in that is obviously again when we put additional payroll on the lines then Medicare went up a little bit and social security went up a little bit. Is it a huge amount? No. But it's still a variation that hits the line and it won't hit you can't encumber for that especially on hourly employees until their salary and their hours are entered for that bi-weekly payroll. That is when the um the the costs are incurred for both Medicare and uh Social Security. The other uh bulk area that I know that there was uh another huge swing was in under purchase services. There were three categories under this again

077uh professional technical services. Um there was a huge swing. Um I've been saying this all along but I'll say it again. We had grant money that we had not applied towards this and that is because it does require me to sit with Miss Becky or whoever's in charge of special ed. For the most part, the grants are written very specifically on what they can and can't be applied to. Now, normally I do try to hit this as soon as possible. We hit the salary lines immediately for the most part because it identifies who should be covered under these grants. But when it comes to the other categories like professional technical services, um for instance, if we have a a provider who is providing I don't know, I probably can't speak very well on that. This

078year, we actually didn't use one of the providers we normally use. So, I needed to meet with doc with Miss Becketty to determine what exactly can I hit this line because we can't put something on there that doesn't qualify. Once we rectified who needed to be put on that line, I immediately encumbered the funds and move the funds from special grants to um to the general fund line. But when we receive invoices or when I know that their bills are coming, whether they're on a grant or not, I immediately make sure I encumber them because obviously things really should be paid out of general fund unless they're covered from a grant. So $286,000 was applied to the IDA grant which needed to be applied and that was one of the um huge swings on why

079that suddenly fell off. Um I believe there was one other Oh, and then just the normal reviews of the POS. So, for example, I went in today just to look because I wanted I said to myself, how many POSs on average do we do for this year alone? As of today, we had over 2,200 uh purchase orders or requisitions, if you will, that become purchase orders. The minute we know um that we have a contract or a bill that's coming, a teacher could say today that they need a specimen for a biology lab tomorrow. I have to put the wreck in. We do it off of a quote that's given us. We cannot wipe out any encumbrance until we actually receive an invoice and pay the bill. I am not going to remove an encumbrance

080for any item unless someone tells me whoever it is that encumbered that item or needed that need. If they tell me suddenly they don't need it. I am aware that there's a large incumbrance under supplies. We are waiting to finalize that bill. I literally have my staff calling asking for bills because I I do want to know what the exact amounts and I do want to know if they're going to be in in time and if they're going to be applied. So those are the things I'm happy to provide any additional detail that we need to. Um the next line that with regarding the professional technical services as regards legal counsel um we always try to obviously encumber. Um, we have one line that's just for special ed because we identify anything that's special ed

081as special ed so that we can receive credit for it if you will and know that it's applied to the appropriate line. And then we have general ed normal expenses. Um, again with four contracts this year, I did not expect them to go as long as they did. They did. It can't be helped. Um, those bills came in a little bit higher obviously. And then if there's uh extenduating circumstances where legal needs to be called whether it's um questions to you know entertain something with a student whether it's special ed or general ed all those things are incurred and I thought I had covered enough um we still have bills coming in so at this point same thing I'm chasing down attorney's offices to send us as many bills as we can. I you know

082there there's no rhyme or reason to over encumber something. Um, I think at the beginning of the year, we try to make sure that we're covering at minimum what we're anticipating the cost to be. It's important that I note to you that if we were to carry over an amount from this year to next year, the way we do it at um, Watertown is we actually move from general fund to a carryover account. And if we do not pay that bill within the next fiscal year, those funds don't go back into our general fund. They're returned to the town. So, it is in my best interest as the business manager to get as close as I can to the amount that's needed, which is why I chase down invoices because if I were to leave

083$500 le extra on a PO and the and the bill comes in at only $250, we we can pay the $ 250 because we incurred the cost and and it was for this fiscal year, but the remaining balance that did went unused actually goes back to the town as it should because it was not used for its intended purpose in that fiscal year. So, why am I saying this? because I'm I'm trying to assure everyone, the public, you all, I I am responsible for this budget. Please believe me when I tell you, I don't think anybody's, you know, trying to accuse me of anything, but I take this very seriously. I don't want to leave any money on the table. I want to make sure that we get everything we can, especially when we're saying

084no to requisitions on items that people need. Um, I'm very happy to report that as of this afternoon, like I said, we're at a little under 500,000. I'm going to come back in two weeks again with another report and I'm very confident that that number is going to be much closer than this. Is it going to be a tight race to the finish? Absolutely. I'm checking requisitions in my sleep as I stated and I'm going to continue to do so. But I have also already noted revenues that we're expecting to come in, other grant lines that I know that we're still waiting that we're hoping we can hit. And I'm very confident that we're going to be able to come in. And if we're not, it's not going to be off by very much. If

085it was, I would have already told Dr. Villanva that I felt we needed to go for an appropriation. Um, if I have any other you guys have any other questions, I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability. But again, in two weeks, I'll bring another report even though it won't be the year-end report, but it'll be one week out from the year end. And hopefully that'll um instill some confidence in in town council, you, Mr. Longo, everyone who I answer to. And I'm happy to do that. Okay. Does anyone have any questions through the chair? Yes. not a not a numbers person and all. So listening, you know, all year to your reports and and also taking in the um information from Mr. Longo and having an opportunity um at an outside

086of the board um meeting to to also hear from from Mr. Longo. Am I incorrect in understanding that a zerobased budget is what we present or you know what that's been the accounting practice for lack of a better word that Watertown um board of ed has chosen. It's what's been done since I arrived here. I don't know that it was done before I was here in all honesty, but it's not been what was done since I and I've only been here pretty much as long as as you you know at least sitting on this side. Is some of the questions as I understand them more related to the fact that like you just gave the example at the end about if there is a surplus it goes to the town. But are some of the

087as we look forward and as we all learn are there are are we facing this at the end of every year because we've not accounted for any wiggle room or is it I mean is that kind of a natural I think I could say in all honesty that every year when we come up with the final percentage number I'm already in panic mode. Like I could have told you before Dr. V told me at the beginning this year that we were going to have to start in a freeze. Um we don't have a lot of wiggle room. Um one of the reasons why I was also all for the health insurance plan with the state partnership plan is because I'll take a fixed cost over a volatile variable. That's just a personal preference for me.

088I mean I know what I budget for next year. or I'm given that number by the broker and that's not going to fluctuate unless there's maybe we have, you know, an influx of people that we didn't have or but that's not going to happen because we know we're not going to be hiring, you know, an influx of people. But, um, you know, I have to tell you, this job is so much harder than I ever thought it would be. Not the job itself, but we are in a district where there is no fat. I know that the first thing I did when I came here is I thought I was going to find f I was so confident that I was going to find because on the private sector I never had a problem. I

089prided myself on the fact for those of you who don't know that I actually come from an audit background. So I love to dig in the weeds and I've always prided myself on that I think I could find something and I have found some things. I'm not going to pretend like I haven't. Um but nothing you know I mean I mean Dr. V will tell you jokingly. I remember after doing this job for 6 months, I asked her if I could run fundraisers to help raise funds because really and it's I think it's just hard because I know from the bottom of my heart and I think everybody here agrees with me. Nothing's being asked that isn't needed. You know, I mean there's there's a wish list, right? Like you can tell people give me

090your wish list but when we're cutting the budget from what the actual budgets that are being presented to us are down to you know 4% 6% whenever when contractual increases alone are more than that you know we're more than that it's you're already starting in a really hard place and I'm not I'm sure that we're not the only district but it just makes it very hard and it's really hard you know and at the end of the year I'm trying to find staples you know people need staples I don't know if you know but staples are very expensive for copers. I learned that when I came to the public sector and people are looking for staples or running, you know, exams for students or whatever it is. And I'm literally calling a school and saying,

091"Do you have a box of staples? I'll replace it right after the new year, but we need one over at XYZ school." And everybody works together to make sure that you know what we have what we have. Um it's just hard. It's just hard. It's not that we're not trying to account for it. We're we're just trying to be as close to the number that we need to be. Um so it's hard. It's hard to sit at meetings and to hear that we have to cut because at the end you know that you're taking away needs, not necessarily wants. At least that's what I truly feel. I'm a very transparent person, maybe more transparent than I should be, but I truly believe that. And um and I feel like we have an incredible staff. Um

092it's our students who ultimately pay the price for anything that we can't provide for them, right? And I'm not saying that we should be providing everything that they want. That's not what this is about. But it's my job to make sure that we're fiscally responsible. Um, I just want you all to rest assured that, you know, we are doing what we need to do. I I don't want to give money back to the town if I don't have to. I mean, that's just an honest answer, right? If I'm saying no to Staples and I just let $250 go on another PO that I carried over that I could have bought the Staples for, well, we would have been one up on Staples for the following year. That's that's a true analogy, right? That's what's really

093hard. Um, I think what I what I've learned about this that I'm going to try to do better, but in all honesty, I am one person and I love my job. Um, but you know, you can drive by that office and I'm not out of there by 4:00 on any given day. And I do it willingly and I love this job. You know, can I start looking at wrecks sooner and and PO sooner? Yeah, I can. But at the start of the school year, um, we're really just trying to get everything encumbered and that takes a few months. And then we're in budget season and you know budget season is a full-time job in itself sometimes as a oneperson you know business manager. And then we get to January and um this year we had

094the insurance debacle and I'm calling it a debacle because that was one of the most stressful things I've ever had to do. I'm grateful that we did it. Um but that took up a lot of time as well. Um I have already met with my uh purchasing agent and Eva who also does our payables. They pretty much work as a team. And I had said to them, we have to figure out a way where we can start looking at this. I don't know if it means spreadsheets or monthly checking this. You know, I'm going to try to do it, but 2,000 purchase orders. So, let me give you an example. 2,000 purchase orders. If I was off by only $100 on each purchase order, and mind you, some purchase orders are one-shot deals, right? Somebody

095needs u paper. We put an order in for paper, the bill comes, it's paid immediately. But our larger contracts, whether it's tuition, transportation, um, god, there's so many things. Uh, anything anything that we have a contract for, we book out for the year. So, we do what I call a blanket PO. Um, so we'll have, you know, right now I'm like, if you've got 12 months on the book, let's look at it. Let's close it out. Let's figure out, you know, what we need to do because you you're supposed to have 12 months on the book unless it's a 10-month, you know, if a student's only in school for 10 months and then the contract's only for 10 months. But it's it's just if I was off by a $100 on each PO, that's $200,000

096right there. There's a swing. There's a swing. So, if I go back and I just happen to find $50 on each one, and I'm going to I'm going to if I find it, I'm going to remove it or I'm going to add it. In some instances, I've had I have had to add some funds like this. This PO might be short a little bit based off of like utilities sometimes and other things might might have more on there than we expect. So, for instance, with students, we have contracts. If student doesn't go to school 3 days that month and we put on that they were going to be in school for 21 days and they're only there for 18 days, that's why you would have an overage on a PO. And of course, and and

097then again, we're waiting on bills. And I have to tell you, the tuition bills and the transportation bills, at least with first student, they're wonderful. We get them monthly. Um the out of district uh transportation bills, not such a quick turnaround. And again, I don't know, maybe that's one thing that we can improve on. I'm certainly going to try to see if we can. So, the other thing too is I feel like I started providing these monthly because I wanted to be as transparent as as possible, but sometimes the more numbers you give, there's more room for people to identify them, right? Whereas before I was reporting quarterly, you wouldn't see as big of a swing, right? Because I mean, literally daily, if I were to do these reports, there would be even more swings.

098There just would be because there's constantly in and outs with the POS. All right, I'm off my rant. I just wanted I I it's important for me for you all to understand and for the public to understand what their process is like. Um and again, like I said, I I'm always willing to try to to make things better and I will continue to do so and I will report as often as you want and um and I'm always happy to answer any questions. It's not a problem. Marie, I I sympathize because I mean your job on a smaller scale and it's the job of three people because you're accounts payable, accounts receivable, you're the comproller, you're the chief financial officer, you're all of it and it and it's tough. It's tough. So, thank you. I

099know what you're going through. Thank you. Yeah. Um just wanted to say thank you for everything you've done for our board. I have great faith in your work ethic and what you're doing for the school system. And it's got to be so challenging for the unpredictable things, the severance packages. I didn't even know about that or think about that. Uh the catastrophic claims and I hope the public realizes attached to all these things are higher health care costs anyways. So it hits you with more claims, but it hits you with inflation as well. Transportation does as well with the fuel, obviously the utilities and um I I'm one too. We always look at the transportation. We live in the same neighborhood. I see the buses go by with limited number of kids, but we still

100have to provide the transportation and we have looked into that and audited it. Uh, so just thank you for all you do. I know the unpredictable is probably the most challenging, the special ed things when they come in, how they really ramp up our expenses as well. But thanks for all you do. Thank you. Okay, moving on to board policies. Second read series 4,000 personnel. So, I know the board has both of this policy in your binder. Um, and Dr. V informed me that the adjustments on the policy are in blue. Um, and that was based on the board of ed be feedback at the last reading. Um, and Dr. B indicated that the adjustments were primarily about the out of district personnel's checks. Um, and so I don't know if there's any questions or

101comments or anything about that policy. Um, but the, uh, idea will be that perhaps there'll be a potential adoption next meeting. Did anyone have any questions on the second read for the student teacher checks uh, through the chair? Just to reiterate, yes, we had gone over this. There were minor language changes and what Miss Fecky just said uh perfectly sums up uh I remember doc resonating that we have been getting some out of state uh uh applicants coming in there. So, it was just a good additional language recommended that we add uh everything else on this was uh pretty straightforward for us though. Okay. For the first read series 5000, Connecticut school climate policy 5000. I know we did talk about this many times. Yes. So, I have a little, you know, context and just

102some background for the board and um uh but yet Dr. B had indicated and I do recall sitting through and I know that um we knew as a board that this was coming. Um and Dr. B actually also on the agenda included the dates that this policy was talked about. Um so I just wanted to provide a little bit more context for the public and for the board um and some historical perspectives. So the general assembly passed this leg legislation and they made um significant changes to the statutory provisions related to school climate and bullying. And when that passed um they charged CABE with developing a school climate policy consistent with the legislation that would be adopted by all boards of ed across the state. So in um the board packets this it's actually the

103second policy the cave policy um that policy the statute says that that has to be adop adopted cart flange um just exactly as is um and that is one piece that's just important to know because it has to be adopted as is. Um the second policy, that's the first one in the board packet from Shipman. Um this really isn't necessarily the policy itself. Rather, Shipman um created a companion policy just to help our district and other districts to implement the policy. Um they did not change anything in the policy. They simply just put forward some regulations and some guidance for districts on how they can enact the policy. um including forms and the forms that shipment um the the forms aren't here yet in this policy but eventually they we can shipment will send them

104over but those are the exact forms from the cave policy from the state um so these two policies ce and the shipment policy they completely replace the current bullying policy that we have so that policy will sunset on June 30th and then this policy has to be adop adopted by July 1st by statute. So the only other um piece I wanted to mention just to be perfectly clear is that this policy replaces the bullying policy but it does not touch our current discipline policy which is 5120. That policy stays exactly how it is. Um and the intention of this policy when you read it more carefully isn't that there aren't consequences. Rather what this policy does is add an additional layer. So a student may have a consequence consistent with our discipline policy. This policy

105says that in addition to providing that consequence per se, you must do something restorative to address the core reason perhaps for the behavioral infraction. Um so by no means does this mean that we are not going to follow our discipline policy. It kind of just complements it. Um so 5120 stays as is. Um, last thing is that uh, Shipman and Goodman did come to our last admin council meeting and they impact all of the policy with our administrators and this is already on the agenda for our admin retreat in the summer um, for us to go back through the policy with a fine-tuned home and figure out how we will implement in our schools based on Shipman's guidance so that we have a calibrated um, implementation to put forward. So that is the context around

106this policy and hopefully a little bit of clarification of why there's two here and what that looks like. Does anyone have any questions? Um I do have a question. Um so with restorative practice and it is still somewhat controversial. I know the state of Connecticut loves restorative practice, but my question is, you know, restorative practices work only in certain situations and that's if the perpetrator of the the action wants to actually engage in it and then you've got the victim. So the victim is sometimes put in a in a circumstance where it's an awkward position. You know, do I really want to do this? So if you've got two parties that don't want to do this, then what is what is the solution? if we're not doing restorative practice and getting everyone together and what

107I like to call a group hug. So, what are we doing with the perpetrator? I mean, you know, as far as the consequences are concerned because, you know, as I read through this, they're like, we want to limit inschool suspension, expulsions, all these things. And that's fine and dandy, but you know, sometimes you reap the consequences of those things, correct? Behavioral issues. So, I first thing is that 5120 is still in existence and we will still follow that policy. Um, and I don't think that anyone um, in our district and in the conversations that we have as an admin team is saying that we no longer want to put forward consequences. And I think restorative practices take lots of different forms. It doesn't necessarily have to be where you force two people in a room

108that don't want to be in a room together. There are other things that are part of restorative con consequences. For example, if a student were to um you know steal something from from the cafeteria, that student may need to write an apology letter or that student may need to put the snacks up for for a day and and help by doing some work. So, it's not always just about that conference. Um there's lots of different ways. It could be something in writing that's expected to be put forward. Um, but I think the spirit of it, which I believe does make sense, is that you have to think about what the choice was that you that you made, have conversation, and see if you can prevent it from happening again. It doesn't mean that it's just

109restorative or just consequences. It's marrying the two. I just want to make sure the district does really push that forth. Yeah. And I I I mean, clearly 512 is is staying. Um, so I I think it's just a layering on of another step where it the expectation is that you have some dialogue with the student. You try to get to the root cause. Maybe that student took that snack because they were hungry, you know, so then you know the root cause. There still may be a consequence for it, but you could solve it in a different way. Um, so I don't think that it's getting rid of consequences. I think it's meant to be a complement to the consequence and I think that that's the spirit um that we will implement it as an admin

110team. Yes, I appreciate having both. I do think that kind of the group hug terminology kind of minimizes the impact that restorative practices do have an abundance of literature that shows a significant decrease in recidivism when implemented along with discipline. So I do think it's valuable for us to have both. Any other questions? Items of discussion. Policy 1050, naming school buildings and facilities. Okay. So, um this policy 1050 is very timely with Mr. Shenziel. I think he's already left. Um but he submitted today um the petition to the board. Um, and I believe that this was um, inserted here and knowing that this was a topic that has come up before about naming the softball field um, in honor of Mr. Keith Forcowski whom my own child benefited greatly from as a softball coach. So,

111I will just add that tippet in. Um so the policy very much states um the process by which you have to go through to have um a place named for a particular person. So I'm sorry I just want to get to the the policy. Okay. So um the first part is the petition initiating that and then next step would be for the board to have conversation and then decide and and go through a vote or a motion to see if it will move forward and then a committee will be developed. So I'll draw your attention to the second half of 1050 um where it says very specifically and that was Mr. Chancola's question. So, um I certainly and knowing that he works in our schools, we can make sure that he's he's aware of the

112next steps as well. Um so, that is what the steps that the board would follow. Just an a little tidbit of information in reading the policy. Um I think that the signatures are an important piece as is some of the things that Mr. Chantiola shared and and hopefully he put those things in writing because part of the charge of the board and the committee that they create is to look at at data um and to look at all of the uh justification for wanting this to be the decision. And I think that it's very powerful when you have the signatures as part of you bringing that proposal forward. Um and it shows the community support to do such a thing as naming a complete field after somebody or a building or whatever other case that

113may be in the future. Um, so this policy is really just here for the board's information and I'm sure that you will review what Mr. Chanciola put forward and then decide moving forward at some point if there'll be a motion or not. Thank you. Moving on, communications. Miss Veressa, we did have some communication that came in from Miss Brianna um D. Grola, and if I butchered that, I do apologize. Um, she had concerns about um alcoholic consumption at Watertown High School at one of the sports games this past weekend. um not on our side but on a visiting team. So I think that is something we need to burn up at some level because I assume there was no alcoholic consumption on school grounds and I guess there's not clear policy on that. It it

114is being addressed. Excellent. Okay. Moving on to committee reports, curriculum and instruction. Miss Haskin, no report. Policy and labor. Mr. Neli. Uh thank you, Madam Chair. Guess we had our second read of series 4000 personnel employment and student teacher checks 4040 which uh we will have a vote at the upcoming meeting for. We had the first read of Sirius 5000. Um the mandated documents that are from cave there combined with our uh are also uh climate that we're going to keep in place. And um also spoke briefly about the renaming uh policy there for uh school buildings and facilities policy 1050. And that's it. Thank you. Budget and finance and facilities. Mr. Gavales, governance and community engagement. myself. There's no report report from the board chair. Tonight is the last board meeting of the 2024

1152025 school year. It's hard to believe that another school year has come and gone, but what an amazing school year it has been for the students and the teachers of Watertown Public Schools. The end of the school year marks not only a time of reflection on all of the accomplishments of our the accomplishments of our district, but also a well-deserved opportunity to recharge and rejuvenate during the summer break. Earlier tonight, we started the meeting with a moment of silence for my father. In my eulogy, I told everyone my dad's life was a gift to us. He was an amazing father, husband, and grandfather, and his life story should be celebrated and shared with others. I am going to share with you my father's gift which begat many many gifts. The gift of his time. My

116dad gave his family the gift of time. It's not the easiest gift to give. There's nothing impressive about it. No glory, no public praise. There's no trophy honoring a great man who built a family through the loving gift of his time. It's a gift that accumulates slowly over the years, taking shape through the steady gift of attention and devotion. My dad was the best dad and grandfather. To honor my father's memory, spend more time with your children or your parents or your loved ones. For my dad, quality time required quantity time. It's harder than it seems. So many things more real, more attractive with more immediate returns. Call for our attention and distract us. Put the phones down, stash away the electronics this summer. Recharge and rejuvenate and spend the time. Have a safe and

117fun summer, and we'll see you in September. Action items. Adoption of items to be approved by consent. Consideration to approve the meal prices presented for 2025 2026 academic year. It is recommended that the board approve the meal prices for 2025 2026 academic year. Do I have a motion? Madam Chair, I move to approve the meal price for the 2025 2026 academic school year. Do I have a second? A second. Any discussion? All those in favor? I I opposed. Abstensions. Motion passes. Moving on to future agenda items and board member comments through the chair. I just have some questions. Um so about two years ago, um at the end of the school year, the district went through some very disruptive changes to master scheduling and it could be also termed a bit bit chaotic at that

118time. and we had counseledled and chatted with the superintendent to say, you know, if we're going to do any types of changes, it's very important to have either a committee talk to team leaders and really get the buyin of the boots on the ground. And it's come to my attention that we're kind of in a similar situation right now. So, in light of the fact um obviously Dr. Villinoe is not here, I just would like to um whether it be a report, whether it be a full email, whether it be discussion um fully understand the changes that are happening. um you know with special education the changes that are happening with self-contained classrooms with resource time with interventions um I we're having I guess double block times 90-minute sessions of math and ELA for the

119students in a co-eing environment what exactly does that look like what is the impa impact of that and special education students will be impacted by these changes what does that mean to the IEP and PPTs that were already finished for the school year and how does that impact the time and all these changes. So there are a lot of things I have a lot of questions and I just would like to have a better understanding before these changes in this master schedule was introduced. Was there a benchmark? Was there another district that was doing something similar? Is this a best case scenario? Best case model um to understand why we're making these radical changes because at the end of the day we have a superintendent leaving. We have an interim coming in. We talked about

120continuity and consistency. we have principles leaving. So, there's a lot of change in the district. So, I'm struggling to understand why we're making such radical changes to a master schedule when we should stay consistent through the process, especially considering we have a week left to the school school year. So, I would like to see something in writing to understand exactly why we're having these changes. Miss Becky, I know that you've had multiple meetings with administration and teachers um regarding Miss Faressa's concerns. Did you want to share anything now or would you rather? So I think that some of your questions are for sure probably meant for Dr. Villain Noeva because some of these I it's not that I'm passing off responsibility but certainly she's a superintendent. She's the one that made some of the decisions.

121She's the one that you know implemented the timeline and and so some of those questions I cannot answer. Um certainly some I perhaps I can answer and I'd be happy to. Um, I didn't see your email, so I don't know specifically what those questions are. Um, some of the special education questions I may be able to answer um either now or in a different format or follow up at at another meeting if I have the questions. Um, Miss Gaelic as well between the two of us, we'd be happy to answer um the things that we do know. Um, so so self-contained classrooms, are they going away? No. Okay. Resource time, is it going away? No. Is it being pulled out of double block time? Yes, either pulled out of double block time or delivered in

122the double block in the co-eing model in the class in so resource time that that can include anything from OT to PT to speech. So we're going to pull kids out of curriculum res resource actual learning time for these things when they had specific other resource time prior years. So, no. Um, there were other blocks and other times and spaces where they being where they were being pulled from, and I don't think that that's very different in the schedule. Um, so one of the things that we did talk about when we met as a special education team at Swift was trying to prioritize the times that you pull out for things. Um, that's not going to look very different than it has in the past. Okay. With respect to related services. Okay. Um, and there

123is there are still self-contained classes in seventh and eth. Okay. But what about sixth? There are not self-contained. Well, there that's I shouldn't misspeak. There still are special programs like life skills and like wings, but the not not talking about life skills or wings. Those are two entirely different programs. No, there are not self-contained classes coming from fifth grade to sixth. There were no self-contained classrooms in fifth grade. Um, so there will not be self-contained classes moving into sixth grade. Those students were not recommended for self-contained classes unless they were recommended for one of our special programs, life skills or wings. Okay, that's your final answer. Yes. Okay, perfect. Through the chair. Yes. I wonder if this might be a good future agenda item. So, there's some time to prepare because I know there's some

124teacher questions as well. So after some further discussion, maybe that would be a like a better forum to have like all the information presented that would answer, you know, teacher concerns, special education. We could all maybe have that information and have time to ask questions. Absolutely. I do think too that it's a complicated issue because there's many things at play. There's the master schedule and how that integrates with everything else. So there's there's a lot there to unpack, but I wonder if that's maybe better for a I have a lot deeper questions, but it's not right for this forum. So I would like that very much. Thank you. Yes, Jim. Uh I was just if I have mixed feelings about this, but I thought maybe if the board uh felt the same way that maybe

125in the future we could explore maybe increasing the participation time to four minutes. We can take it under adisement. Absolutely. Thank you. Anyone else? No. Okay. We now will be moving into executive session.