001That's okay. We can call the special uh board of ed meeting of 62525 to order at 6:05. We're going to raise to say the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. So for a quick roll call, we have Sarah Thompson, Arwara here, Kathy Grant here, Bo Parlant, Adam Burroughs, Megan Wixs, and Valerie Mosiano all the way from New York. Oh, and Amy's on too as well. Sorry, Amy's on the line as well. She's she's out of state as well. Okay. So, in terms of um the agenda this evening, it is really just to review the budget proposals and timeline. Um as yes, predicated from the last board
002meeting where our last budget of 1.35 did not get approved. It it didn't pass by five votes. So sadly enough, um we're we're back to the the place we are. So, okay. Um when we went to the selectman's meeting last night, they asked if we could cut $20,000. I thought that they were going to ask for more, but with the 20,000, this is what happens. And I will tell you, fate has a way of helping us because yesterday I had a a non-certified person come in and they said, "I'm going on Medicare." So that saved us 13,000 right off the bat. And then the other thing, and I think Amy is online, but we had a reorganization of the preschool program. And within that reorganization and and I'm sure Amy will be explaining that more
003to you, but we had a a part-time paraprofessional 3 hours a day and that person had resigned and Amy looked at the schedule and said we can reasonably use existing staff to take care of the needs of the students. So services for children will not be cut. So, we found the remaining balance of the $20,000 from there. And then I I just rearranged a couple of dollars here and there within the budget proposal. But those are the two primary things that are different. So, the new budget proposal and I I laid the outline in the um in the letter that I sent to you and I gave this letter to Dee to include in the minutes for this board meeting so that uh we can record that. But please, another thing that I want to
004remember, and I added this to it, the board of ed has returned $333,135 to the town over the past four years. So we have an expenditureon budget but we you know give money back to the town if we get a rebate or if we get uh you know something back from uh excess cost or from another source of funding. Now, the per pupil cost is one of the most confusing things that the state uses because Nor Connecticut spends $49,000 per student. Yes, they do. And you know, the state probably contributes 5% of that, but I I hear stories of the state legislators saying, "You're spending too much money." But that's a community and there are communities that no matter what the board of ed asks, they would fund that because they have the tax base
005to do that. And quite frankly, my last assignment where I was acting superintendent, there was one town that would never vote the budget down and there was another town that uh you know would would uh would would vote it down but the budget would pass because the town that always supported education was overwhelming. And I want to tell uh the community that you know the per pupil cost is is is really something that that's about 15 thou well 14 $15,000. It's not 34,000 or 35,000 and it's the most confusing number out there and I'm going to editorialize a little bit. There's legislators and other people saying you're spending too much per student. You need to regionalize. And we have school site governance. We called this meeting very quickly. You're making the decision for the children.
006If we were to regionalize, then you we might get two votes on a board of ed and the other town would get seven. and that might take away some of the decision-making uh power that you have as a local taxpayer. So, I always uh express caution over that. And the other thing is the state will offer an incentive to regionalize. And they'll say, "Oh, we'll pay 80% 80% of a building project." Then four years later you have another building project and they say oh we're only going to spend you know fund 20%. So you know it's a neverending thing. Now the other thing that we're affected by is excess cost. This that's the special education cost and this budget proposal that that you have before you. There is a reduction in teaching staff, but we've
007we've uh strategically increased some services for students of of a certified nurse to help with a handic handicapped children, a behaviorist to help, and but we've cut back one special education teacher. So, you know, there's lines here that show $60,000 in reductions. And uh I think we've put together something here that makes a big difference. Health insurance. Even though the health insurance went up, our health insurance for next year overall cost 2.93% less than it did this year. And that's unheard of. Who ever thought, you know, health insurance would go down? But we've had some changes within that. Um I I could go on and on, but I I have to thank the board of ed because you spent hours and hours looking over this budget and it's a good budget. It will meet the
008needs of our students. It takes care of transportation and sets in motion a plan of action to, you know, to help with that. It it it sets in motion consultation services. And one final thing that that is really uh very very interesting is the uh is the uh cost of the uh you know of the uh of the technology and library. This year between the library and technology we spent $280,000 and the proposal that we've done with contracting services for Eastcon it saves $71,000. So we've had a resignation, we had a change over in services and those are the ways that you look at saving money. Now the budget increases is is reasonable for what we need to do. Uh but what we cut what we cut um you know from the original proposal uh
009I would have to go back and take a look but but we were you know trimming here and there but u you know we've come up with the uh 20,000 that I mentioned and yeah we also decreased 17,000 um based on the different quotes that came in. That was our original. That's right. And then we did 20,000 we took from no almost 21,000 from Kate. Yeah. Yes. That's how we got the uh 49,000. But I will tell I will tell you what I did because there were things in the uh new you know contract for the superintendent. I had to restore the money for the superintendent to meet the needs of the contract. There was a a couple of language lines in there, but the budget proposal that I'm giving you tonight, you know, restores
010that, which uh which is important to meet some, you know, contractual obligations and u you know, that that's probably uh one line that that increased, but that's all right. I have I have concerns about how much we're cutting. I have concerns. The preschool program grant has been cut and will no longer cover their free lunch. Their free lunch is $5,288 a year. And we have to come up with that somewhere. I see in the line for fuel oil. You would cut that. You and I I don't think there's anybody in town that thinks fuel oil is going to be cheaper next year than this year with all the problems in the Middle East. I see problems with how much we set aside for gas and the idea of even cutting an unfilled position right now
011that leaves us nobody to pick up sick time, anything like that. I really have a problem with some of this. I understand some we could drop the Medicare part since switch from insurance to Medicare and that part, but I'm concerned about we're cutting this budget way too short. And uh I know already right off the bat we're minus 5,000 in the lunch department for preschool if we want to continue to give them lunch is $5,288. We've made no account for that since that has come in. Uh, I just think fuel and gas and electricity, all of that is going to be higher next year. And I hate to not have even a single hour of sick time, replacement time for if somebody is out sick. We do not have it without cutting this position. I
012have a problem with cutting that much. We have cut quite a bit and we did not have any high price raises in our budget. It was just contractual raises. In fact, the superintendent coming in less than one, you know, again the uh the cut back in the in the parah for the preschool program. Amy reviewed that very carefully and it has reorganized and she feels that uh we can meet the needs of students with regards to you know what's happening. The other thing is that it could be that that we might get another uh resignation from parah and that means that if we get the resignation we you know we replace that person who might be on a lesser step for salary and other things. So there's some noted savings that that could exist. it
013can be made. I I will tell you uh this year has one of the most challenging years because there was a 30day period in there and I said it at the public meeting. We had over $400,000 in outplacements. One was a 225 placement by the courts and the other was a single student that required over $200,000 in tuition. And both those guardians moved out of town. If they didn't move out of town, we would be sitting here with a whole different story. And we've had it in the past. We've had people who have moved in and then we have to go on essential spending and see where we have to hold expenses to be able to cover that. But we've never had to go back to the town, but it may come to that. But
014we can't count on the state for full funding for reimbursement, which is a real challenge. And they have never fully funded the excess cost. and it's a real challenge to the local taxpayer. So, I think we've done the best we can and u is this a budget that we can work with and and and be flexible? Yes. And it's one thing to develop a budget. It's another thing. And and the board of ed is relentless on this. They review the location report and every single expenditure. And if we have to make an adjustment, we try to make an adjustment to to cover that that you know that that expense. Now, there's been times in the past where I've had to go to the town and say, "We may have a a big expense here." Well,
015like the uh the fire alarm system and we thought we were going to have a huge expense and Jody came in and the experts came in and they said it's going to be okay. There's been repairs and we can put that into a capital improvement plan and if the in the time is right, we can save money and then we can you know do that. So that's the approach that's that's working. But we informed the town that we've had a a huge potential expenditure that's coming up and quite frankly the town has responded to that and helped out. So, you know, that's that's our approach with this. And I I do think if you continue on that approach, you can do that with this budget because we're only talking about a few,000 for a part-time
016parah. It's not even a, you know, 27 and a half hour per. It's just for a few hours a week to cover a specific thing within the preschool. But the preschool program has changed a little bit. But but we've made adjustments to accommodate that. So I think you know based on what Amy said will be okay. I'm going to stop talking. I have a question. Adam, how much do you currently have budgeted for the projected increase of health insurance? For what? The projected increase of health insurance. How much do we have it? But how much do we have budgeted? Health insurance. increase in health insurance in which which line they're in four or five different lines no so overall Adam generally does like a blanket 7% 8% what what do we have budgeted this year
017Adam uh for for the uh for this year for the uh health insurance is that what yes for this year um you know that that's that's very interesting because uh let me let me pull it up here real quick. Um, this year we we budgeted um, you know, $640,000 for health insurance and next year we're budgeting $621,000. So we save overall $18,700 for a a 2.93% decrease. That's the new number, Megan. So, so your your new budget, so so what you're saying is your new budget has no money budgeted for a health insurance increase. You only have money budgeted for a health insurance decrease. It's I think it's based on the need for the insurance. So it's like, you know, who's taking the insurance? No, I I get it. I just every every year when
018we do the health insurance re renew there's generally an increase right and we've in the past we've budgeted you know because at the time that we're doing the budget we don't know what the actual increase is going to be so we've budgeted generally ballpark like seven or 8%. Is there is there seven or eight% increase budgeted in this in this budget or is it increase our year does this budget reflect a 2 whatever it is decrease in the insurance. Yeah. The the u the budget amount you know is is a 2.93% decrease even though the premium went up 8 8%. We've been we've been pretty flatfunded with the uh with the health insurance. As a matter of fact, uh health insurance for next year is $621,000. And in 2021, uh we budgeted $643. So it's
019it's $20,000 less than it was 1 2 3 4 5 years ago. And so there's there's been a trend with Adam, I Adam, I get that. I I understand that. I'm not worried about the last 2 3 4 years. I'm just looking at there is no So, you have already received from your insurance brokerage. You use Willis. I'm assuming we still use Willis that you have already received that for the year 2025 or 2026 that the insurance for the employees is are going to go down 2 and a half% or whatever it is and therefore your budget has no increase built in for health insurance. Is that a correct statement? No, it it has no it has no increase budgeted if there's somebody that comes in. But generally speaking, you know, if we're um if
020we have a position that comes in, it's based on replacing somebody who may have left at a higher. No, Adam. Adam, I'm I'm talking about if you're just looking at the population you have right now, you have already received the actual in because again remember I and you and I talk about this I know every year generally when we're doing the budget we don't know what the actual renewal is going to be right we don't know what the actual percentage so you always have to pick like a generic number 7 8% just to make sure that you have enough to cover And then the actual tends to come in differently. Are but you're saying that you have already received the correct amount the the exact amount that your insurance is going to either increase or
021what. And again, I'm not talking about your what has happened in the past. I'm talking about just the plan itself. The Connecticut Health Insurance Plan has a projected amount of increase that we have to pay. We already know that. exact percentage increase at this point in time. Yes or no? And I'm not I'm not trying to be rude about it. I'm just trying to make sure I understand. We get it. We get it, Megan. Like I we've talked about it, so yeah, it's fair. No. Yeah. I'm just I'm not I'm not trying to be rude if it's coming across. I'm just making sure I'm asking the correct question. Have we gotten the Connecticut healthc care plan? Yes. Yeah, you know the partnership numbers have come in and and this is this is the this is
022the actual numbers they're in. So it's the actuals. So you have already you know back so back in April these are solid numbers. Okay. So back in April when you were doing the budget prep you would have had an estimated increase amount in there. You've already taken that increase out based on the actual numbers you received from Willis and the partnership. Yes, we've Yeah, we've gone through and uh we've been in the partnership for years and they're very very good. Yeah, it's just we went from the estimated numbers in April and then once we got the real numbers, we updated them for this because they gave us the percentages and then we prorate these and look at what's happening and these are the numbers and you're going to be okay with this insurance budget numbers.
023That's so these are the these are the actual numbers bas so if you have no changes in employee status right or you know somebody takes family or somebody drops family if you just look at your population right now and it stays exactly the same over the next year the amount that is in your budget is the exact amount of money that we will pay. Yes. Well, again, uh we've we've we've experienced many years of trends and it does Adam, I'm just talking about actual but it's remained stable. Megan, I want to tell you I did talk to Crystal about this and she said what what we have in the budget now just covers what the the number coming in is. Okay. And that is and that is going forward as well through the next year.
024I got the numbers yesterday. I was in here signing checks and she said what we got covers what we got but there's no extra hanging around. So from that point of view my well all I can say is that that our trend and our experience and you can see it here but the hard numbers you know we've been able to you know uh handle um you know and budget appropriately for health insurance and out of the eight eight years of uh you know health insurance we had two years that we had a deficit of The last one was in 2324 and there was a $12,88 you know deficit and then the the one before that was uh almost uh five years ago and that was a $50,000 deficit but we handled that. Other than that,
025we've had savings of 18,000, 61,000, 23,000, 10,000, $239. So, we've been on the money for budgeting for health insurance. I think I think we don't have an overflow issue. Is my Yeah. And it's yeah it's if it was estimated early on in the budget from January to April cuz we didn't have a number then it was it's been adjusted. That's it's been adjusted based on the number you received for 25 26. Yes. But then they they wound up giving us the actual you know projected figures and that's in here. Yes. Yeah. So the actual projected figures are in the budget. Correct. Thank you. And I feel confident that if we've done six out of eight years with, you know, slight surpluses that we've budgeted appropriately and I will go with the trends. Okay. Thank you.
026One of my main concerns is utilities and what we're going to be spending for food service because last year we ran over way over and there's no more funding coming in. We don't have actual number there for last year without the approved and this year it's like 34 that's minus that 5,000 I know at least the food service that's not being covered this year at all. Um so and we will if you look at the gas prices under even special ed I'm worried about the gasoline the diesel uh the contracted service is for special ed transport uh I'm not how did we get away with dropping that almost $10,000 in line uh you know that's face you know I'm just worried that that rattle with equipment and under um the line. I'm trying to see
027this one. Yeah. But but realistically, if we if there's a need, we we move money throughout the year, right? We vote on it and move it. But we don't have much to move this year. Be some of the Yeah. I mean, the the reality is though, Kathy, the budget failed. So, it doesn't matter if we like it or not, right? We we we have we're working with what we're working with. We just have to I know, but we may have to go back. I'm just worried that taking more out is going to put us in a dangerous position not being able to fund what's we can say what's necessary any potential increases I guess yeah I just I don't think I don't guess having a choice yeah it's not I mean we're already going down
028the road of essential spending already and it's not even the beginning of the year worried about doing more I realize the town is 20,000. Yeah. The town the town made some decreases and then they kept the um the firefighter weekend stipen which is you know that that's those are in the the best interest of our town. We want to obviously work together and work in community to do what's best and to keep things flat. It's around 20 grand which we're we're we're working with. Obviously the Medicaid seems like a very reasonable situation. Yeah. Um I you know I I am hesitant to you know um take out student services you know in any way or you know anything that's going to impact a student but um if Adam and Amy have reviewed this specific situation
029based on the needs for the next school year. I mean I have to you know agree with their positioning here. Amy did you have any last thoughts on that that one piece? Sorry if you're driving or something. No, no, I was just I had to find the unmute. Um, no. And I just think that, you know, I if if there was another parah, let's say for example, that decided to resign, leave, retire, we would need to replace that person. So, a part-time person um with s, you know, significantly less hours is a little bit more manageable than somebody that we would need full day. So with the structure of the preschool and what we had to move to, we're only servicing four year olds in the afternoon. So that shrinks us, you know, pretty significantly
030and being able to manipulate where um you know, some of our support staff can go while we're still running our our program. And the thing about preschool lunch is that preschool lunch, you know, in the morning that will turn into what we're projecting is to a snack time. So, there are requirements um to fulfill for that for preschool and our preschool lunch program would be offered um to our four-year-old program in the afternoon. But we were considering and we had talked about this before um that they become part of our just part of our lunch program. Yeah. And parents would supply their own lunch or they would be welcome to purchase lunch from the cafeteria. And that gives us you know a savings in changing our program in that manner also. Okay. This year's lunch
031program is going to be significantly more expensive because we don't have the volume. I think my biggest concern Amy, will you still have um out of town kids in that four-year program or is that just going to be volunt uh what we needed to look at was the numbers of those kids. So, I don't want to right as of right now open that up. Um and As of now, our resident our non-resident population is shrinking because right now we have we're pretty close to capacity of the 30 students of being in volunte. Yeah. And that preschool offering is becoming a mandate in the state. Correct. So eventually towns will offer their own or is that no longer the case? Um they're they're still working on that. So, I I mean, if they give us universal
032preschool, that would be great. Um I'm not sure how much anybody's if they're already cutting us now, I'm not sure how much um yeah, they're going to be willing. And if that's the case in other towns, then they would just go back to their own town. Okay. Yeah. It is a tough thing if they don't have it. You know, it just it was a nice ser obviously you just want all kids to have the offering, but and that's money. We don't get that tuition money. That's money that goes just goes to the town. Yeah. That we're paying for the teacher, the lunch, the whatever. And it goes directly back to the town. Great. I think my biggest concern with all of these cuts is that every cut that we make is influencing only the prek
033to 8 kids. Everybody else is set in stone. The other high schools are set in stone. The outplacements are set in stone. So this is just influencing. Every penny that we cut is influencing our prek to 8 kids. They can only be influenced so much before we need to start thinking about like do we offer all of the same high schools anymore or do we bring those kids and consolidate into fewer high schools? Do we cut out Griswald? Do we cut out NFA? And that's going to end up being the hard line if these pre these these numbers keep influencing the prek to eight kids because that's all that that's all we're cutting right now. That's all we have control of and we're working on the other part. Yeah. of narrowing down. we just picked
034up Boac control over school choice and but if this continues I think that's where it needs to go is we need to start influencing the kids outside of prek to 8 as well because every time you cut something and these these you know little kindergarteners are have their programs cut or a para cutting from cutting from prek you know it's not across the board the across the board would be prek to 12 being cut and it's not Right. But we can also decide that I think that we need to share with the town how our budget works and what we put into it and what our continued needs of our kids need to be supported. Right. Right. And that our and that we're all feeling the increase whether you're a school, a school is still
035a business at the end of the day. It needs to be run efficiently. Uh and there's there's costs that go up and we're all feeling that. And I'm hoping that people understand that that that's also influences a school as well and we need to do our best to support our kids K to 12 right and K to 12 plus plus plus and and I I'm hoping you know it was understood that that the age where we have to we kept repeating this is that educating kids took 22 almost to 23 with the changes that were out of our control. It was a mandate that was put upon us that that is also costly. So um and I beg people to continue to understand that there's costs from that end as well that also impact our
036K to8 guys like you said that there's many things that um we're trying to do here and trying to manage and I'm hoping people recognize that and can see that we are try to do the best we can with very little. Yeah. With within a tight tightly managed budget and and year-over-year, we we have good faith in our process and the people that are are managing it. Obviously, Adam has put his heart and soul into this. year-over-year for 21 years he's worked on these budgets and that does it's it's not lost on I don't think this community how much goes into the fact you know that every single nickel and dime is here for a reason and it it pretty much flattens out to get back to the town you know like you know whatever
037thousand bucks goes back to the town anything that we can give back to the town an expenditure only budget goes back to the town and And it will at in the end of the day too and it goes directly to the undesated fund and this is how we work and we never have to go back to the town because that's how how efficiently this budget works. But I you know I and we understand it's it's a it's a difficult time with for a situation based that's out of it's it's this the revaluation is is hitting everyone very hard. Um so that's what we're doing. We thank you, Adam, for for coming up with something to work to meet the needs of what the town is asking and that way we can support some of the
038all the services we have. This is it. And you chasing after grants continually. We don't have a grant writer. You are a grant writer. And those have and those grants have specific qualifications and they can only be used for the monies can be only used for that specific thing that we apply the grant for. We cannot take any extra and apply it toward another item a line item. I think I'd like that to be understood as well that the grant is for that particular agenda. It's very highly regulated. It has a lot of stipulations at times and and you bring up a good uh point, Anakah, because last year at this time we budgeted, you know, 6,600 in the lunch program and there was on and off again thinking that we were going to get
039the uh you know the grant continuing for free and reduced lunch and then they they eliminated that and so you know uh we didn't have the money and thinking we were going to get that. So this year we're in deficit. That's why there's such a big increase in the lunch program. lunch program cost about 120,000 and what do I have about 30,000 in the budget to cover it you know so you know and and the the uh commodities the healthy food reimbursement and uh the uh state reimbursement for meals serves and the collections of the students pay for the other 105,000 so you know this is where we car, but um it's it's just a roller coaster ride, but we have to be careful about the uh the grants and what's happening. That was a
040tough one. That was a big increase in the budget. I didn't like it, but we had to absorb it. So, I um as I understand it from with Wow, it's raining out there. Sweet rain. Anyway, Um Todd over here. Um so I guess there is going to be a um the timeline moves past June 30th. So we're past the deadline for the budgeting um based on on these results. So the next um meeting will be July 8th. July 8th is the next meeting to review these proposed budgets. And then it appears there'll be a referendum the following Tuesday, I believe the 15th. So at at that point, um just we need to implore the town, all the parents, all those the teachers, anyone that lives here that supports um obviously supports our town. um go
041to the voting ballots and please vote for um for the budget that we're proposing. That's um it's essential that that we get that support. So get out there, please. Um we do need a motion. So motion to accept the budget proposal. So yes, it's a a motion to accept the adjusted budget proposal for 202526 of 7,379,927, which represents an increase of 1.07% in the current year's budget. All in favor? Icredably I Yes. Okay, everybody get their says. Okay. Well, majority passes. Megan and Val. I Megan and Val. Sorry. He's just asking. Yeah. Um I that's fine. I I'm trying to think. I didn't hear the the actual vote. Oh, the Sorry. Like who voted what? Yeah. No. Did you say all in favor? Yes. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. I'm not I'm not voting opposed. Okay. I
042said I Sorry about that. It's okay. Thank you. All in favor? All in favor? Well, thank you. Thank you. All right. But yeah, she's regrettable like me. Yeah. Strong feelings that we don't have to go back to the town. Anything else? No. Motion to adjourn. Motion. All favor. I thank you guys. Okay. This is my final board of ed meeting. [Applause] I said that last time. I can't believe it. Really? It really is. Unless we do a special on Friday. Close the conversation. Oh my goodness. Oh my gosh. Have a good night, everyone. Okay. Thank you, Chief. You've got for 25 from 26 27 NFA tuition goes