001uh as a lot of my life was spent with public Boards of education and really appreciate the service and effort that I know you guys put in um also want to really thank Adam I know Adam gave us to say it ain't so uh retirement speech uh and just want to say how much I've appreciated the chance to work with Adam uh in this setting Adam and I my past life work together um but but in this I'm really grateful the opportunity work Adam as well and you guys have a big big job to fill his shoes I'm sure you know indeed and wish you all the best and that good luck so tonight uh Kate gave me this the hook sign like wrap this up I hear you she use the word efficient uh
002well done at a message taken so we had a we have a presentation but we also have a a um some slides here if we can get that up it would be awesome it's no problem if you don't don't worry about it at all just a couple videos I want to show and just showcase a couple quick things but tonight I'm here really to of course talk about NFA and and you know to open that up U yeah I I am very proud of NFA and very proud to be a part of NFA and you should be too um because you are a part of NFA and and um this is about you know in the business world we talk about Roi return your investment you know why and why send your children to us
003and why invest your funds with us and and why be partners with NFA and the moments like this are a good chance for us to really try to explain why and in that with every success comes opportunities for further growth um just like all schools just like your school NFA is not a there haven't been any perfect days um but there's days of lots of success and lots of opportunity move forward I want to talk about that and transparently talk about some things that I hope we can continue to work on with our relationship with btwn and that you know the greatest thing is how can we have more Voluntown students experience what I do believe um is an exceptional and unparalleled educational opportunity in the secondary level in Connecticut and I frankly say across
004the country as well that's kind of the goals where I'm going to go I am I'm going to use a lot of data that came out of this report I know Adam shared this report with you we sent you this report I want to say in December might have been November this is the performance report that we publish on an annual basis and it it Chronicles your specific student data as compared to the school and as compared to the state it's a long time ago uh but I'm sure you have don't have it I'm sure Adam can get it for you or happy to send you another copy of it um it's really important data and it's annual data that that is important for you to see but we're going to talk a little bit
005about some of that report tonight um also really happy to uh be interrupted at any point in time if you have a question you don't need to write it down or save it or pray to remember it just ask it and I um I have seven children so I'm very hard to uh I'm either never on track or always on track depends we ask but uh please feel free to interrupt and Havey to kind of take a through there want to start off a little bit if we jump to slide uh I think I think it's the third one it's the first bar chart here unless you want to look at our wild cat you know like who is at NFA uh so at NFA we're just under 2100 students we have just under 260
006special ed kids of those 2100 students there are 37 Voluntown students at our school so you know um a really important group of 37 students um Voluntown kids Thrive at NFA and you have some Superstars I don't know if you just sent us your best kids uh but if you do keep that up that's great work but we have some really remarkable F Town kids there and um it was kind of fun I went through our Instagram and all of our social media posts which if you if you don't follow NFA on Instagram you should um NFA uh and they also NFA Athletics um you'll see pictures of your kids all the time uh because they are athletes they're Scholars they're musicians um they're thesbian uh they're dancers you have some really remarkable basketball players
007uh volleyball players you have some remarkable kids uh line that I think we're looking at and trying to work on here and I updated this data in this slide here you can see uh you have 37 students um right now uh the slide is 34 at the end and you know I look at that in the Heyday in 2017 there were 60 volunt kids at NFA that number is to up to 37 you know and I think to start off that's an area of uh I'd love to talk about you know why is that what is what what is something we could do and I think two reasons of course I'm here to represent NFA and I'm here to represent on a school that is actively working to increase enrollment just like every other school
008around us and I do get concerned when I hear certain narratives around NFA that true or untrue are things we should talk about and uh every family has uh the right to make a choice what's best for their children as I want to make for my own children and I guess in that I feel like my role is to try to make sure that you're making decisions based on facts based on reality and based an experience and as representatives of the community I think this is a great opportunity for us to talk about what that is I am concerned about that trend line for for bent and I'm concerned because I I I feel um as somebody who made a decision my wife and I made a decision we really didn't really my children made
009the decision we supported to transition from a very small tiny High School uh to NFA and I would say the difference that's happened for my daughter's a senior right now she just committed to play soccer at Nicholls college so just north of here so I'll be driving to valentown and get a lot I guess um I can't tell you how much has changed my daughter's life it is open up doors it's change her as a human being her confidence her sense of self and I think for us who are Educators we want that for all kids um I'm really happy it happen for my kids and and and I believe that's an experience that can be replicable for other kids so something we can we can dive into a little bit jump into the next
010slide here this is kind of the the performance slide here and this is this is pretty neat when you start thinking about it um where your kids are uh the first chart the first grd we look at are dual enrollment and college coures uh so 29 29 out of 37 of your kids are enrolled in um dual credit three Community College Eastern connec State University or Yukon courses so that means that they're getting college credit while they're at NFA and so that means when their transcript moves forward those those credits and many Yukon credits are accepted by all your state schools and other schools as well private colleges as well when you think about that's that's you know 80% of your kids are taking college level courses uh at NFA that's a really big deal
011that's a big deal number one for the family who's saving money on a college credit as they're getting in high school it's a bigger deal for a kid because they're in rigorous cour work that's preparing them for the next level can't emphasize that enough uh the other choices that you're sending kids uh High School to they don't have that opportunity that doesn't exist there at this level and I think that's a big deal when we're making choices hard for a freshman to kind of get their head around that right that's what not what they necessarily should be thinking about but as we guide and shape and think about that decision that's an important thing I think the second one here the ch on the right here um these are Ukon and AP semester class counts
012so this is a little bit of a redundancy here um but this is kind of looking at our honors and advanced programming Yukon AP program again college credit and of your 37 kids they're taking 99 courses so that means your kid and not everyone is because you know only 29 of them are but most of them are taking three plus courses so in other words you're pulling out nine credits essentially of a college of a on a college transcript uh we're seeing students go to to college and their freshman year with sophomore level credits 15 plus credits in the first year and that's a really big deal for these kids uh graph number three to the left here is talking about on track to graduate uh 37 out of 37 kids are on track that
013means on track to graduate really simple you have to have 25 credits by the end of your uh uh spring of your senior year um that's spectacular um as a school and and on a state comparison 100% of your kids are going to graduate in four years means they done what they need to do these graduation requirements you may know have lifted for us it used to be 21 now it's 25 I wish it wasn't 25 because it really squeezes out a lot of the things kids want to do that's a state mandate but but it's still impressive to see that your kids are keeping track with that and then the third chart here I think is the one that blows me away btwn kids on your SAT scores are are averaging just under 1100
014points on your average Mark that's uh uh the state average is 962 you're almost a 12% uh above State scores you should be proud of that uh sat performance doesn't just happen in 9 through 12 that's built on a base of what's happening in your Elementary and Middle School experience I wish we could fix it 9th grade through 12th grade as we all know as educator is just not that simple you're sending us really strong students and I'm really grateful for that and and to see them Thrive like that that is placing you 1050 is placing you what's called career in college ready those are the benchmarks that the College Board has established Across the Nation and your kids are exceeding that Mark on an average line um that means scholarship that means preferential opportunity
015to college um that means that when these kids are taking the PSAT and throwing up to 1012 their parents are being flooded with college mail um so this is this is I think what we want to see on the college kind of academic track um and and I think important data to look at so we just jump to the next slide we're going to go into some other things so this is a slide we use uh when your family's came we host uh multiple recruitment nights uh we're really always happy to Town families we host them based on themes uh but this is a standard slide we talk about we talk this slide is pointed directly to kids and you know why NFA and when we're talking to kids why NFA we honestly could be
016sitting and using the same slide As We Are Tonight with you as a board why NFA why partner with NFA why have NFA be your publicly designated high school and I would say for me there's lots of reasons but if we pick three reasons uh NFA has this comprehensive academic and career opportunity we've talked a lot about the academic track we've talked about the robust opportunities for for students who want to go to a fouryear school but something I'm really proud of I think that is an emerging interest in violence on is our Career Development um the market how are you keep you late at work today or what happen uh don't talk to me about that the checks in the mail right yeah oh absolutely uh is is uh realizing that in today's world
017the college a four-year college track used to be defined as success in high school right as the parent did a good job because my child got into ex school but as we hire a plumber to come to our house and we have to reorge the house to get some foet fixed we realize that there might be some other path to success the Market's telling us that right when EV is hiring 5,000 a mandate of 5,000 employees within the next year we realize there might be another path which is just called common sense and I'm really proud that NFA a school in 1854 is built around the concept of Industry art and academics um you know in education we kind of just go through Cycles new things things that we did 10 or 15 years ago
018I think is absolutely what what a trend for us is right now so we are really building out what we're calling our Pathways program we have four pathway programs that are really developed the first one is a manufacturing pathway with direct pipeline two EBS and employment opportunity EBS obviously your kind of big gorilla of employers in this sector but then the pipeline manufacturers such as the Collins and jewels such as the Nels Cent are where we're sending kids as well last year we graduated uh 23 kids uh 23 kids had signed contracts before they walked across our stage and they're going $32 an hour plus benefits plus career opportunity plus paid first year of college uh college credit that's not a bad start in life um that at NFA as far as our career tracks
019looks like the kids are coming in they're taking engineering design courses they're moving over to our Innovation lab and taking uh CNC Machining Woods all the manufacturing pieces that brings them together their oan certification and their certifications that makes them employable for that first year at EB uh EB head hunters and recruiters are in our schools actively recruiting these kids um and one of the biggest challenges we have we'll start to have now in the next month is that e is like hey any chance you get and get out of school today and come on down and you know like no there's no chance you got to finish the yeah but I think that's important to know I hear a lot about well my kid's a tech kid um I I went to the technical
020high school so I can speak with with fluidity to this I don't know if 14 years old is a good time to decide that you want to be an X I think 14 year olds is a good time to understand I want to learn how to work hard I want to learn how to be kind to others I want how to treat others with respect I want to experience a broad world and then start to find my place in it that's not a knock on the technical high school I went to there and I obviously I'm not I'm not a carpenter today I was a carpenter at one time my life but I I think we have to be really careful of this idea that at 14 you're going to go pick three shops and
021those three shops you're going to end up that and that's you're going to be that's not true that isn't actually what's happening and that's why those retention rates on a kid who is in a tech school versus getting into a trade there's a different story here and I'm saying that to you as a board of education I'm also saying to a parent that's a great choice for a parent to make but I think what's important for us as a comprehensive school is broaden the doors and open the opportunities second pathway for us is our medical Pathways uh Susan Sarah I'm sorry Sarah uh Sarah and I were talking before this Sarah obviously works in in Pharmacy our medical pathway has three feature pipelines the first one is a CNA program um a CNA program is
022a full certification for CNA for our kids they're working in nursing home homes around the area our goal is in for our kids to be CNA CNA is the entry point into the medical field and what we're finding in our CA CNA programs is two things are happening one kids are falling into this this hands-on experience working in patient care and saying hey this is for me now let's talk about how do we expand expand this go to college to be an RN Etc or a doctor um or two I start working in the medical side and I realize hey body fluids are not my thing and that's great too because that doesn't have to be your thing you're 14 years old you're 15 years old experienced and now you can go to something else
023you weren't pigeon hold into a place third pathway for us that we're uh super excited about obviously is our culinary pathway uh we run a full culinary pathway culminates in our brick View Restaurant it is an amazing student run restaurant at NFA that is completely from scratch to finish to front of the house to back of the house uh run by students um I work very hard not to eat at The Brick view because I'm trying to fit into a bathing suit this summer uh other than that don't record it on the social media site either cuz then I I'm like I don't have that in my kitchen right now yeah well listen I uh today I went down there and I went to get a cup coffee they have a cappucino machine down there
024and I went to get that and I went down there the kids were all in there like are you eating today they like no no no they're like Hey listen we have Buffalo fried popcorn um uh no it's white and it's a vegetable and it look cauliflower cauliflower thank you cauliflower and I'm like oh I can't say Noe of that so I ended up that ended up being my meal today um that was dinner that was dinner that was dinner I feel all right uh really proud of that program uh we just sent a group we sent two teams of students up to Dunkin Donuts Park they competed in a like a chopped cooking uh um demonstration you know think about that experience hour and 15 minutes lamb shanks uh lamb shanks uh they they
025cook completely on a propane grill the no electricity Etc what an experience for a kid to have um fourth pathway for us is are we've developed a u human development Child Care um associate so CDA Child Development Associate uh this has been done through the partnership with the national Head Start program and this is really taking you to that place of either working in a prek or starting to work on a preed type of track so we're really exploring these things these are robust healthy if you go on our website I can show you to where it is I say this because many times when we have orientations with families when we tell them these things like we didn't know that we thought NFA was just a four-year kind of college going school is absolutely
026not it wasn't designed to be that way and it shouldn't be that way um next year we're going to be launching a new pathway in public safety with police fire and partnership with the noris police department and fire department uh super excited about that and more to come so that's that's a big thing there and then obviously the last piece here is the student life and experience you know for all of us who were in high school I'm sure our only memories of schools with our hard fought English tests social studies assignments Etc maybe for the rest of us we remember being with friends are still our friends to life we might have remembered being on a sports team we might being in a play and if you want to find a way to love
027and engage in a place you have to find something your passion and that's that's NFA and whether it's our sports activities Sports I hear sometimes the story well I don't know if my kids are good enough to play at a dou school large school like that I'll tell you your child's definitely good enough to play at NFA uh two things happen number one there's 53 Varsity Sports um and there's tons of opportunity in terms of that number two all of our Sports off incredible offseason programs workouts conditioning opportunities to get the coaches if you want to play a sported NFA they're going to find a home for you and and number three I think that the idea here is you know um it's pretty amazing the the E the state uh basketball finals right now
028uh have four ECC teams in the finals they pretty incredible our team got knocked out in the final four really proud of them our girls team went incredibly deep uh if it weren't for Lloyd's grandson we would have the only great uh shot putter in in town uh who did set a state record uh it's the state record holder but NFA is a place for kids to go and Thrive and and and I say last thing we say here is you belong here and we say that you belong here I'm talking to you and I'm talking belonging as you belong to come to us but also when you come here you belong I hear another time I hear family say well I'm afraid in big school my child's going to get lost and I said
029well actually what's going to happen your child's going to get found uh if you go to a small school such as some some of the schools that are in our area you have to fit into the profile you have to fit into the box those of you who went to a small school including me you know that it's a certain look it's a certain type it's a certain family it's a certain ex and if you don't fit into that you don't fit into that and you know that so does everybody else at NFA the beauty we have is because of the diversity of our student body whether it be racial academic background past there's a box for you and there's a place for you to fit in and um I'm so proud I hear places
030say we know kids names we have 2100 kids I don't know 21 our students names but I know a lot of them and and I you know I'm looking at Arad she knows a lot of them too and uh NFA is a place where I would say I've never experienced any in lik and I'm so proud of this this is a place that just honors kids and you know if you haven't checked social media is not the best way necessarily to know what what the heart or character of anything is because there's a fantasy world of social media but I think if you look at that it's just a great photo representation of that you'll see how kids are lifted up and made a very big deal and I I'm so proud of that and
031I honestly as a parent I'm really appreciative of that um that's a very big deal and um so that's that let's jump to the next one here uh career offerings uh academic career offerings I'm not going to do this because it's going be hard to do but if you if you click on this link and and I'm sure you'll get this presentation when you look at 250 course offerings if we do it and start scrolling through it you'll see the first set because it begins alphabetically or the Arts thing we'll go for probably there's probably 35 to 40 art offerings whether you're taking jewelry making as a full-time semester course or you're taking Play Shop 1 2 and three digital photography U drawing painting one lesbian acting um the offering of courses are probably larger
032than most of the small colleges around here um it is a place where the challenge and and for me the challenge my wife and and my kids have had is trying to rule out like my daughter really wanted to take jewelry making but really loves Pottery so she had to make a choice am I going to take Pottery my daughter's not going to be an artist but this is what she's interested in and she had to make a hard Choice what a cool place to do you know what a cool place to be and being like well we only have one thing we'll get you in that next semester it's that that's not an option that's a huge thing for kids uh we talked about college placements we'll skip over that honors classes in all
033quers Grade 9 through 12 our students the other thing I love about this and in most smaller programs you have to be an honors student in all four classes for NFA you do not have to be that you could be an honors you're really strong in English language arts you're in honors that course whereas math maybe isn't your thing you're in a level class that puts you in different groups put you with different friends and put you with different people itcl different experiences and that's a big deal uh 24 of your 37 students are in uh honors uh on their GPA have been uh honors or above so your your kids have figured this out and and that's really impressive to see um that that kind of success academically in school on their GPA uh
034you know what do you mind one thing I just Nate just if you just small little snippet on History day cuz I found that was a really cool thing that's a very like holist that you can accomplish something like that in such a large school and learning through that just in two years I'm like this is kind of crazy that they that you do it so it's a good to talk about history day was on Saturday U was Tess in it she was yeah she was yeah Nate was my son my son's name is Nate he was in as well and um history day is really cool so history day has kind of two days for us uh the first history day is we do our own our own internal history day and all of
035our social studies classes offer an opportunity and really cool because what we're seeing with Learners now is that they want to explore topics of their interest and instead of boxing them into learn this give them the concept skills and strategies and let them explore so my son's uh topic was um oppression of Native Americans and he was studying the trailer teers and obviously the story of western expansion and what happened to Indian they were put on the tribe really appropriate obviously what was testes I shouldn't ask the railroad something in Pittsburgh I have no idea and I'm like why did you pick that that I I don't ask and this is starting from you know maybe like a SRP that we board members know about in seventh and eth grade here in ball town where
036you do a yearlong study on something that you care about and is exciting yeah then they choose something not exciting it might I don't know maybe railroads in Pittsburgh AR side I yeah so clearly she I was not invited so I couldn't see the the Glamour and the joy and theed Janice Chopin I thought that was awesome I know I was like there's things you can really pick that hey I I don't know I think you should be careful with that you know I'm I'm railroad have changed our Innovation I wish I could tell a shame that I don't know the actual topics but something to do with some just something there's no judgment here there's no judgment strike that like it it started unions or something I think it did I don't so um
037but the point is that it was again like this holistic Journey for this you know they did it in a group and a team and so you're dealing you know you're learning about a subject over a course of time um presenting it to your classrooms doing a rubric finding out the you know the different pieces of it and this is stuff that we do here in Vol town and to see that carried out into like a whole like schoolwide it's not just like you know in 10th Grade you do this you're doing it in nth grade 10th grade all the way up and it's and then there's Statewide and Nationwide things and people it's just really fun so yeah so it starts at the school and it's really cool we host it in the land
038library and there's probably I mean I don't know how many we we you can do a uh kind of a trifold board where you're explaining through pictures of presentation you can do a paper or you can do a PowerPoint presentation there's different places done uh our faculty and you know our community families come to it so it's very internal I went to my son's and I was like I'd love to hear about your she goes you can read The Bard so I didn't get that presentation I got other kids though they were really good then it culminates in what uh Kate's talking about is we do it History Day for the state it's one of the regional sites we have kids from 8th grade uh I think seventh and eighth grade come for theirs as
039well at our site kids from all over the state it's an enormous day um and it's pretty cool to see and judges obvious come from across the state and judge and um ultimately those students will move towards the the regional opportunity as well so that's a a really neat thing so much is happening there right you're exploring history right that's awesome that's amazing you're learning many these things are done with partners and groups you're learning how to work as a team you're learning how to talk to adults and make eye contact and present something uh which is a a really marketable skill for young people um it is an example of a really and that's the way learning happens now learning is no longer take notes copy this down remember this memorize it bring it
040back our kids are so far beyond that and obviously the world of technology and AI what that's brought to it is Chang a lot of these things and and we have to evolve the way we teach as well so that that is a really good example what's that oh yeah it's perfect um the kind of the other piece of this thing we talk about broad offerings or our academic uh offerings in the Arts experiences um I would say if NFA does something particularly well it is the Arts experience I think a lot of times people think about think about sports and I would say you should come visit it's really arts and we offer three different levels of Arts Visual Arts music and Performing Arts uh next year relaunching what many you may have known
041as the norch art school which kind of closed in the 1970s and and remarketing that and BR bringing that back to NFA so students can earn a fine arts diploma um Arts is really seen in two ways the Casual artist which would be me probably my children and the committed artist who this is what I want to do and this is where I'm going those are two different types of students that still can find Value in the same thing I love music I don't play it uh and I definitely don't sing it uh but I definitely listen to it same kind of idea the options that kids have you know we're talking about this sculpture jewelry metal smithing graphic design on the Performing Art side uh a huge effort around dance um we have a
042national recognized Dance Program uh I believe about 80 students are in that program right now uh Prov they perform across up and down the Eastern Seaboard they were just in Florida and the Nationals uh a really impressive group of young people uh last weekend we just uh maybe was last weekend or last week it gets a little confusing because they have something every night there um but we just had an event called dancing with star with the faculty so it's a Dancing with the Stars our I think is doing it next year so definitely I I'm not sure about that I saw a list there was a list um we all got to submit our favorite faculty and I submited her name um and you've seen Dancing with the Stars same idea the the dancers
043take a faculty member and they work over a month period and and I thought this was going to be kind of like okay whatever they take this extremely serious and it is a professional level event it's an awful lot of fun I was asked last year to participate uh I said no to nothing in NFA this was a hard no and the young woman who came in my office came in and goes Dr really like to do this I think it's be great you know be really good for the school I goes I'm really sorry this is like no like not going to happen she said like you know so I she said I said I I I say no to nothing but this is no and uh I'm happy to give any amount of
044money I'm happy to participate as a judge I'll do any I'll hand Out programs I'll clean up afterwards she go no no you have to do this and I'm not going to leave until you say yeah you should get a chair because um can't if had to take out of my I'm just kidding I have not danced and I won't dance so AR's going to take me neither will I next one uh student life experience we talked a lot about uh you know some really cool things State ofthe art athletic facilities uh whether it's football baseball basketball fencing Etc uh weight room training if you're a serious committed athlete NFA has that for you uh and then if you jump to the next one we're we are one of two two high schools in the
045country to have a museum we have a largest museum in the country uh there's over 10,000 objects in our collection you have to go to 40 museums around the globe to get there if you haven't gone to Slater uh please take my word for it and go um it is an unbelievable place and and it's really worth exploring I would really say to Amy um if Voluntown kids ever elementary kids ever want to have an experience our curator uh there's also an educator in the museum will we happy design a program for kids um you know it's an amazing place all of the classic sculptures are in there um uh if you want to see the uh the god of her name is Nike that got a victory she was the original design that the
046Phil might used when they designed the Nike Swoosh she's in there um it is the largest collection of complete casts and the Eastern Seaboard and several other um uh exib exit as well the exhibits change um on a quarterly basis um and we're really proud of that Museum and and what's cool for me is when museums are obviously having a museum is amazing but then to watch your kids interact in a museum you know I I say and I don't say this to the kids but I feel like art and appreciating art is kind of like wine you know you have to work at it to learn how to appreciate it that's a terrible metaphor with high school kids I don't don't worry I don't tell them that but say we have to work on
047appreciation you can't just expect kids to do it right I'm on my phone I'm interest that at all but now we work at this little bit you start realize the beauty the grace and the strength of De is Alter um so pretty cool place and Ne neat thing to have on a campus um jumping down here uh I think this is pretty cool you should know that young man uh that's a pretty special young man right there and we're really that's having soulle he's Bown kid um when you look at bentown kids out of out of your four classes that are at right now they are playing participating in uh 64 uh sports clubs or activities um that would mean out of 37 rough kids are doing about two things um that's a busy year
048uh that's awesome and that's exactly how it should be thankfully your parents don't mind the drive coming back and forth um but you know I not at all not at all you live there uh I think for people again when you hear that narrative in the community oh I can't go there because I won't get to do this that's a little statistic for you the average volent kid does two things uh which is I would say three is a is maybe a little bit much uh two is a lot to be honest uh but that's a good sign of student engagement in what your kids are doing so last kind of Landing the claim here and I don't know if I hit the standard on on um quickness and it's hard to do is quickly
049because there's a lot to talk about um NFA uh the unique thing about NFA is that we are a privately endowed institution which means that we have a foundation that sits behind NFA and provides Financial backing to many other things the NFA Foundation contributes about $1.75 million a year into our operating budget and that money goes Direct ly towards reducing the tuition increases that are passed on and turn to our our our town this year you're aware we passed just around a 2% budget which result in a 3.7% increase in in your tuition fees for NFA if we didn't have the foundation that probably would be somewhere around 11% so this is a big part of our school and what it is and that's that's really important important to know um important to understand the
050second piece of the foundation is really important is the foundation is largely a restricted f on about 30 about 30% is unrestricted and the rest of it is restricted it's restricted for scholarship and with that scholarship money we hand out 7 about $750,000 of money to students every year that walk across the stage the amazing thing is as long as the market uh does relatively well that's a uh that's based on a that's um interest money that will come to your kids it's pretty cool you know 187 kids got over 374 scholarships last year um you know pretty cool six Voluntown kids I think you had eight kids in the class so six out of eight of those kids received scholarships last year for about $155,000 you're going about $2,500 per student obviously it probably
051didn't work out exactly like that one could got $5,000 Etc but for me and I I know if any of you have seniors uh or kids in college you start realizing that that's a really big deal and again I don't think anyone should pick or go to a school because I got a chance to get a scholarship that's that's not the reason why you should go anywhere but when you start thinking about the value ad and the value back um that that's a that's a very very big deal for families so let's skip ahead and this is one keep oh you don't have uh man I I I lost my punchline here this is a really cool video I want to share with you but also you can watch it in your notes um and
052I think you should watch it because this is the ultimate end uh of what happens in F it's a really quick video of our graduation and I wanted to show it to you uh and I really want to invite you if you haven't been to one of our graduations please come uh because suddenly you realize in moments like that and and I'm pretty energized every single day but when I watch that kid's walk across that stage and get the chance to par I realize this is what this is all about this is why you volunteer as Board of end members this is why you spend hours listening to people like me go on and on and on because you care about them you care about what it means to our world and our community when
053they do that and that that's a pretty cool thing you show the last one so we really want to thank the Benton board of ed u want to put back the challenge that there's something we can do my fear is is um I I do uh and I know this sounds very presumptuous I don't mean it to but I I do think this is such an amazing choice for a child and and I do want to do everything I can do to help btown U parents see that and then make the decision that they should make um and I do think there's some room for us to grow there and if there's a way that I can be helpful with that please let me know um happy to adjust happy to talk happy to bring
054people in happy to work on things happy to handle things individually with people um and I'm just very grateful for your strong leadership and and appreciate the chance to come here tonight I do know that you're busy schu thank you now just one now do they still keep the freshman in a separate house kind of they come in from a class 30 you know and yeah and so so you know one one one of our towns is not right norch is nor is coming from two larger uh middle schools but Bown is not the only place com from a tiny place um and and so the strategy here is we have the cranon house um and all freshmen begin in the Cranson house um we have uh an incredible principal of the Cranson house name
055is j kouis he's alumni of our school and he leads that building and when you come into that building the first sign you look at says welcome to the next four years four of your core classes or channels are going to be in that building um and very quickly our freshman become very very comfortable and I always say that you know in our orientations we do um we do I mean we we have an accepted student night coming up in May um obviously that's all towards getting people comfortable it's always interesting me too when you have a child that's been homeschooled all the way through and then their first drop this year into Denay you know like this uh and I would say it takes you a couple days and then you figure this out
056but but it is a heavily supported campus there are 26 campus safety officers around that building uh around that school all the time that's larger than probably most of the police forces in the entire Southeast region um they are all highly trained highly effective uh gifted at relationships many times some of our most popular staff members with the exception of our psychologist U they're extremely popular you than you for that clarification they're extremely popular with kids live in her office they live there yes they do she it's very very lovely there Ry Ry that's one of good techniques good question thank you I was I was just going to you're saying like how we could just ideas um I think I did see this somewhere but um we see this with some of our sending
057schools well they'll um they'll do a special day where their you know chorus comes in or somebody comes in and kind of gives a performance to our students um I know I think that that just obviously we have the talent there is the talent at NFA I'm not saying we but like um I think you school we we I not part of it but to your point so I saw this on social media I follow NFA and they had gone to Lisbon and I was very offended I was on it I was likees from and we would love to come and she said that actually your band director was at her house over the weekend and she said to her why didn't you ask me if you could come to Vol town so they are
058coming long story short they are coming I knew that was going to happen real quick but I was like I got to go straight to the source be like anytime you want to bring talent to all in town we would love to have we would love it's great for our kids you know we're trying to I mean and think about this is your this these are our kids this is your school this is not nor Rich's school this is the school of the N partner districts you are a fully uh vested partner in that despite the F number of your kids every single one of these you know I would say recruitment night the other night we had a parent come up to me and we handle every single one of those conversations with one
059individual because that's the most important thing in their life you know I have 21 most important things in your life but they have one well I have a couple but they have one there and um we have multiple uh tutoring mentoring opportunities that we we've shared as far as we' love to be a part of that um but getting back to what I was kind of say think about the experience for a high school junior to come back to an elementary school and be that person that someone's looking up to that's a powerful profound marketing experience for you of like I got this and and and other people are looking up to me and so as much as it's important I think for your kids and I do think it's important to see pit of
060success I actually selfish think it's more important for us and I think we get a lot out of that experience so we are happy to do that we would love to do that um and and also welcome welcome you at our school you know you know I think you know walking people around that campus is very telling it's very telling for me um in the process of me becoming going to be a part of the team there what sold me was walk around on the campus with a couple kids um I wasn't sure if this was the right thing for me and when I walked around that place I went my my jaw was on the ground all the time and I said wow this is something else so happy to do that yeah and
061I think um Mr rulas came one point and and presented I think that was a cool thing too so all those things are great we'll reach out to Amy we'll figure something out and get that going definitely easy and we have you know and we're always open and we can be flexible because we are all in one building you know we have a preschool program if we had kids at wanted to come and you know participate in that um you know we don't mind that we can we can make anything happen here because we are just one um and we always look for we always you know work with brisal and they want to send us kids for community service hours and things like that so I'm always you know we always look for those
062opportunities that's great other questions you let me out that easy huh as I told you just warn them to have one other question do you do your clubs during the day or are they solely after school most of the clubs are after school yeah you know it's there's just not a coverage it's really impossible to coverage but I'll tell you I'll tell you the biggest Club at NFA is Dungeons and Dragons gave I have no idea what they were doing uh but they love it and uh I had no idea that was such a following I mean I think that's actually phras in there that is it's I don't know why you have a club on a Friday afternoon but they have Club on Friday afternoon and we had to move it out of one
063part one building was in Cranston in the in the project Outreach which is our community service arm we do all that and it's move had to move down into the cafeteria because it was uh too too many people in one room uh that's a pretty good problem to have very unique group of kids Pro offers a lot of opportun leads a good good program out there too another person get in touch with volunteers and great just a comment you unified program Wonder oh yes yes kids with disabilities really good opportunity have some experiences but also to build friendships with typically developing peers and the staff that you have doing that been doing it for years just do a great job I should have mentioned that really didn't talk a lot about special education it was
064on the slides but we didn't talk a lot about it but you know there's 260 students there that are identified special needs and and really appreciated Lloyd's work U when my first day at NFA my first meeting at NFA was Adam and Adam was not in a good mood that day uh and he gave me both barrels of shotgun but I heard the message loud and clear and some of the frustration really centered on special education and some and I deeply appreciate your follow through and the cost savings that you implemented with knowing where every penny is going for special is especially I learned from Adam I'm I'm one step away from getting a binder like him that's my next big step but the special program one of my favorite kids at n is one
065of your students Zayn he is an awesome kid and uh I don't believe Zan I don't know if Zayn went to volenti and elementary schools I believe he kind of transferred in um and zann is into everything um he's on our cheer unified cheerleading team he's on our unified basketball he's in everything and um Zayn was walking around school with a hat that had a c on it and I don't know what the SE was I told him Zan can't wear a coester hat at the school like you're not allowed to do that so I go what's my hat so I said well come on upstairs I had a one of the tennis coaches to give me a tennis hat so I gave Zayn my tennis hat I don't think Zayn's taking a hat off
066in months um he is such a great kid uh and I know leg you worked hard on him he's awesome today doing oh he is he is a really bright Soul yeah yeah and it is Unified as such a wonderful program but it's also an opportunity for all the student body to to engage and volunteer their time and and just find Opportunities to get involved you know whether they're they are involved in extracurricular stuff or whatever but it's like it just as it really does bring the whole Community together um it's actually the most beautiful to me it's most beautiful part of the OB of disabled and undisabled peers and and some of our um kids that I would never expect to be into this kind of thing and of course I'll volunteer their hearts
067there's a girl I told her I said you know you have something special in your heart like watching her interact with students with very significant needs and this girl is very popular this girl is very she very she's pretty girl she's she's an athlete and to watch her slow down and and invest herself in uh someone else else who may not have all the things that she has is is really remarkable I don't know what that means for her I don't know whether this is where she's going to go but but I think for a moment of humanity right there that's pretty special and I'm I'm really proud of I I should have talked about that that that is something we all should be proud of you should be proud of too that those are
068your kids but Nate I I do really appreciate all the follow through and the uh uh strategies that you've developed to uh really make good things happen and I award I applaud you for your efforts yeah well thank you and and thanks for uh thanks for letting me get out of that meeting I I thought that was my first and last day on the job there a but I did survive it and I made some promises that I've been trying to live up to so you know if you leaving I'm going to have to stay on point you know won't be I know Dr Cornell was actually very very upset when I let him know about the retirement he's like I don't you don't you don't know what's happening here like you need to like
069get it and understand the magnitude of what's going to happen when you lose at what we're going to lose would we have no B we know so that that goes to show how respected you are Adam oh thank you well thank you so much thank you for if I can be a help in any way I I I guess some cards the way out but if I can ever be a help please let me know and um you know thank you for the that M sure give you my cards on someone else's I know you is great she's our she's our back she does so much for us on every level thank you all a good evening you appreciate it bye okay all right so we always know that when we have a guest speaker
070it's going to get us to the next hour so we'll try to be um efficient with the rest of our time and um and maybe keep it to you know 10 to 15 minutes per section and then maybe we'll get here agreed feel good about that okay yes okay I'll set thank so um our consent agenda do we have a motion to approve it as presented motion second all in favor none heard motion passes for administrative reports we have um is sao's report you you have a copy of my report on um February was very busy I I scheduled all those things all at once but February was finally over March we had read Across America so it's like a highlight for us um and our big kids always like to participate we had representative
071um lenu he came in and he always asked to come in and read so we always welcome Brian um we had judge Donna Brant and she came and she um read to a group of our younger students Kate came in um Tracy Hansen came in um um librarian came in her name ising STS came in yes we had quite a few people come um it was a great experience being able to you know to share the love reading and really promote that um with kids we our Honor Society had gone to the um ysb meeting they made a presentation um ysb donated funds for them held a volleyball tournament and they ended up raising all of the money they needed for the emblem really it all got raised so after the volleyball tournament you know
072they counted all their pennies um they had everything plus a little bit extra so we ended up ordering uh just a plaque to put up with the Hest Society members to recognize that they were the ones that you know raised the money for this emblem that they'll hopefully be there for you know quite a long time so they did do it but um one of the things that I told them you know when you collect money from a community it's really important to than those people right so when we have an assembly it's important that all of our kids are recognized because even that one little dollar that somebody brought in is part of that that's on the floor so it's really important that you know we recognize the community YB um Rec commission had
073they had gone to rec commission they gave them a donation also um we had gotten some community members who had given us donations so that really helps you know kind of fuel that project so they um did it and I said next year we're not doing that much we'll do something a little bit smaller was a huge amount of money um that they raised but definitely for a good cause the gym's going to look great um and we'll unveil that after April vacation well yeah definitely on behalf of the board our congratulations to the entire Community but those those students that they're hard work and they they really did engage with the community and the school system and and what it takes to you know have a goal and and really work hard to to
074achieve that and they were really good about our you know really getting our middle scho like we talk about this Eagle get emblem all the time yeah so like our kids feel like oh this we're all doing this so other people want to have projects and like no we're not fundraising anymore that's it we're not you know selling popcorn and you know moms whatever you want to say so um but everybody feels why not come on they want to do like babysitting we're not babysitting no no no no and Michelle Pelin yeah Michelle pin's artwork was the one that was chosen right and that's it so like it really is you know they're the ones that did this so it was really a good yeah it'll be great it'll be great once it's in so
075you're all invited I know it's it'll be a Monday morning because of course the kids are want to go in the gym so we're going to cover it we're going to do it right away at 9: um in unveil it and from school um all right stop there unless there's any questions um um no no questions no questions for um Miss s thank you for the brief report uh then we have the um director of student services Mr Johnson good good evening hello call a little while ago we asked permission to uh um donate a piece of equipment that we no longer needed that was barely old and uh discussed with my wife where planning to donate it she said Floyd half it day all at gas to go to Harford isn't there someplace closer
076it's very close to where I live I was director in East Li the preschool um special education preschool is in the elementary school I was principal of I delivered a Wednesday they can use it so uh so that um piece of equipment which was released by the community uh by the town to allow to donate is going to be able to service another student in another place so I wanted to give you that feedback and uh um we completed the uh Last Link State Testing any student who within whose home um uh a language other than English is also spoken was a testing process the have to participate in and we completed that with the assistance of uh Emily Nelson and Andrea Kelly just a few days ago so that's been done and results are
077analyzed if there's things that the teachers can be working on um we we'll use that information to help them take the test every year until they get to a point where all of their scores are above a certain crer Reading Writing listening and speaking than thank you Johnson no questions we appreciate everything you do on behalf of all of our students so thank you yes yes I know it's been a little bit yes but it's you know all of the publicity that uh the funding of special education and extraordinary cost really were on my desk um the last month I'm glad the governor is helping um maybe in the future there'll be a lot more help so that no extraordinary expense that a community has to be responsible for can be shared more by the
078entire State Community been an interesting thank you I wonder how much of the 1.3 billion that the Democrats spent on illegal would help our special education students around the state I just hope then funded over the last few years we have sta support by staff a special ed Grant I hope those grants are not withdra there a lot to be done to make sure all funds are appropriate okay yes so you have my calendar of events and in the minutes I will include the money that we returned you know to the town thus far it's in the vicinity of 68,000 uh you have the enrollment report uh the high school enrollment has been somewhat uh you know consistent and uh there's a number of things that we'll get into but uh um uh unless there's
079any questions uh Kate we could move on to the you know to the uh old business sure on the same page [Applause] here an agreement okay old business um the first item is the transportation update yes and uh this is going to be a two-part presentation I'm going to talk about the uh financing lease purchase of buses as the first part and uh there's a little report that I prepared uh for the board of course at the last meeting uh we made a presentation about replacing all of the buses and uh there was a 33 vote so that did not pass is there enough uh [Music] ARA okay okay you got it well okay so the transportation committee met and they reviewed um you know they reviewed uh where we were with the uh activity
080and the transportation committee um went and suggested uh that U we we purchase we leas purchase 377 passenger gasoline buses at 128 918 uh and 141 passenger bus at 12 22,29 that comes to $58,000 uh I was called yesterday and told by the the company that got the bid um if a decision is not made and you delay it the cost for the buses will go up $2500 per bus so if we don't make a decision tonight and delay it for another meeting the cost will increase by $10,000 uh the Comm the Transportation committee will continue to meet to review the we life of the remaining four buses and develop recommendations for a phase in for replacing the remaining B buses now as you know on April 14th 2016 uh which is almost 9 years
081ago we purchased 677 passenger buses 2 36 passenger buses we traded in eight buses and the amount that we financed was $460,000 that was paid off in 3 years so the above increase shows what's happening so you know I am going to request that the board approve the purchase of four buses and securing quotes for a municipal lease and authorize the trade in of four buses but if you turn to the next page I wanted to break this down with what the financial impact is and as you can see in 2425 we have budgeted $643,000 75 that's in this budget and what I'm proposing for 2526 with running the whole transportation department getting the four buses trading in the other buses it's going to cost it's projected to cost $651 785 that's an increase of
082$7,990 from this year now option one replacing the four buses in 2526 and I put down that we're going to have to put in $7,800 for maintenance and repairs because of the old buses and the new buses and then in the in the budget proposal you'll see that there's a projected 99,00 ,800 to start in the lease purchase so that that means that the total is 17,600 if the board decides not to buy the four buses tonight I would have to put in and this is option two $115,000 in the maintenance to repair you know the eight older buses which will be you know approaching 10 years old and I also if we didn't do it I would put money in 5 55,67848 $796 because we purchased a twoyear chair handicap van and so we
083we had that base in our budget to maintain the transportation now what does this look like overall well it looks like uh you've got a 16-year history of what's happening with transportation and then recent Transportation budgets show what has been happening and of course 2122 um you know that was uh during the back end of the pandemic and then we wound up having some increases and of course we went from uh 23 24 from 583 th000 up to 643,000 that's like $60,000 more because that's when we purchased the but the van free and clear so you can see so uh the town has a diesel bid and uh I have to tell I have to tell Tracy as soon as possible that we will need diesel for four buses and then with the gasoline we
084wind up signing a you know a discount at price with one of the uh you know with one of the companies uh for years we had one at the local gas station that we use for any gasoline that we had and we also used that for diesel so the priorities uh uh for the development of 25 26 is the current update of the bus routs replacement of the four buses trading and for com compare gasoline to electric vehicles as well as cost of charging stations but that has we we've investigated that the the cost of an electric bus is is absolutely incredible um completed the town uh RFP proc and procurement process for securing the uh you know the buses we followed that to a te and then uh we do need to seek ways
085to address the sortage of CDL bus drivers and then we are going to maximize efficiencies with bus uh bus routes and of course scheduled Transportation meetings but right now I need to know uh if you support uh the trading in of the uh of of the four you know of the four buses and go through this process this is the uh this is the uh third time I believe that I've done this and it would leave you with four new vehicles which would also address some of the safety issues that occur and I can't guarantee how much uh you know additional repairs would be but I will tell you this that we will review the buses very carefully with our uh maintenance provider and make sure that uh you know we're addressing any maintenance issue
086because the DMV comes around and spot checks and and and they inspect vehicles and uh we have always been in compliance and that's been a given so something needs to be done we we fix it but uh you know uh budgeting $115,000 in repairs uh for keeping older vehicles going uh we might be able to do better if we follow the recommendation of option one and I would appreciate if there was a motion to approve this because tomorrow morning I have to uh go ahead and write uh you know either a purchase order to order the buses or we just say uh we'll we we'll wait another year now I am trying to find $10,000 in this budget for a down payment and that that locks in the purchase order and as you know the
087previous purchase order I wrote was in April 16 on April 16th 2016 so this is uh this is a decision making time and uh I I would like the board to uh you know follow through the transportation committee is spent a lot of time reviewing this and the uh vendor assures us that the uh gasoline engines that they're bringing in you know would be able to provide the power and help for for what's going on just what we have now is eight gasoline or eight diesel we have a what do we have now all diesel or allas yes we have all diesel but diesel are going to be phased out I believe so and the diesel has this additive called DF that eats out the turbochargers and we have 124,000 reping four Diesel with four
088gas right and we'll still have four diesel or gas yes and and then that will allow you to make a decision you know about the next round and U you know I I do think that this would uh you know save money the other thing that happened is the transportation committee May stagger they may not necessarily buy four new buses next year they might buy two and then two and if the buses are in good repair there's a possibility because the diesel engines do have some longevity and we bought excellent Transmissions when we wrote the specs for the current Fleet and I have one more thing under priorities we really have to make a priority to look at contracted Services well contracted Services is coming next this this decision right here I don't want to
089talk about anything else at this point except replacement of the buses and we need to make a decision and then Amy has some good things to talk about with the Outsourcing so that's the second part of this presentation but I think your your your question is excellent uh you know but I just to who inspects the health of our buses state of Connecticut TMV DMV will have a have a have somebody just show up at the uh show up at the bus depot and they'll go through all the records and they're quite thorough and if there's something wrong will be written up there's no there's no scheduled appointment or anything they just show up and this is it so you know that's uh that's one of the things and we have always been in compliance
090Erica I have two questions one this morning there was an issue with the buses did that have something to do with maintenance or was that okay so that was my first question I wasn't sure the wheels are falling off the buses well I mean is it like something that like I don't know you need a person my second question is that there's some information about tradein of the buses has anyone been able to come down and inspect them to say like yes they are you know the company that you got the the information from on prices are they willing to take the tradein do or is this just a guess I guess is a 30,000 a guess or is it something that we know is going to actually happen okay if you have a 5-year-old
091bus right now they're probably worth about $60 $70,000 and as I checked uh a national wide search I put down 30,000 as a base but we could turn around and and you know uh we keep our buses in good repair and the kids are very very good with respecting the seats and everything so if somebody walks on them they're going to see quality seats they'll see tinted you know glass and that we have features and specifications so I've seen 2017 buses in the used uh list Nationwide going for uh 30,000 27,000 but ones in good condition I was seeing 40,000 so if you approve this then what I do is I we check around we have people inspect them but we're looking for a transfer in July if we make the decision today we could
092possibly have these buses in July perhaps August but we would love to have them for the first day of school and uh we have other things that we want to do like take out our uh surveillance equipment and put them in the new buses because we like the equipment that we have right now so there's things that need to be done with registration and other things but I don't know the actual price so I put down a price of 30,000 based on my research and what's available over the internet if you want to go and inspect that but we won't know until we advertise and we put them and we put them out last time around we got uh what was it I said it there we we had tra trade inss for about 200,000
093you know and that was on uh that was on eight buzzes so you know I I I hope that we do okay with this I think the um one thing that was from the committee's um kind of information process that made the most sense um was this phase in approach just just from even a budgetary perspective of of giving us more time to you know save for and project out and say we're going to do this and you know we know we need things for the safety of the school buses and where they are right now di you know dicey on on quite a few of them but um I think with this phas and approach it'll help us just budget it better over time and manage it so and we are spending a tremendous
094amount every month on yeah repairs I see that month after month I'm signing checks for 3040 $50,000 a month you know some months not every month but some months $50,000 for check for repairs on that line is in deficit right now for the repairs but we cover it with other savings from other areas so um again approve you know I I I put down to make a motion to approve the purchase of four buses from school line and uh um you know and and uh number two would be well another part would be secure uh quotes for municipal lease purchase and I I go through uh a slite on that and then authorize the uh trade in of the four older buses and those are to be determine now with the municipal lease we we
095we had some companies that we researched and uh there's some companies out there that have been excellent to help us and uh I I like you know being able to have the opportunity to pay it off as soon as possible so it's just like filling up the uh you know the fuel oil tank for the school at the end of the year if I have some balances I will I will help pay that off or I would work whoever would work to to help pay that off and then you know you wind up saving on some interest and other types of things is and we work with the town on that Municipal Le say that again we work with the town through the police yeah well you know of course we go go through the
096town there's there's Municipal Le things but I would check with of course you check with Tony you check with the town but this is coming out of our budget right we're paying for budget and that was one of the other things too U you know when we were talking about the capital Improvement plan I I talked to Tracy and I indicated we have things for building projects in the capital Improvement plan traditionally we've taken the buses from the school budget and Anthony confirmed the town Treasurer that this was this was okay so you have a line item for you know lease purchase and as I said uh you know I I I put in uh 99,8 per year and uh you know we might do monthly payments or or other types of things but we're
097already ahead of the game if I can put $10,000 down uh that that would help reducing you know that amount of money being financed over the over a few years we have a motion we can do this in one motion can't wa exactly we need a motion for authorizing me to you know sign the purchase order in order the buses from school line and securing the quotes for a municipal lease purchase and authorize the trade in a four buses motion and it's definitely trade in a four four yep okay four buses I guess my question is if if they were if it were to come back that it would be um looking at a busing company what is that what does that do to these buses these new buses Oh you mean Outsourcing yeah because
098I know that's on the next agenda agenda item so we' just bought R new buses and then he said they buy them from they take them up they take the contract from PI it up contract cons I do not that when we had our transportation meeting that's what they said when we discussed that's what somebody from the Outsourcing company said or somebody on the Transportation committee that no the the school line in the in the in the two times that I've participated in Outsourcing when a company comes in they evaluate the quality of your buses and they have to give you a reasonable cost for that and that's part of their they purchase the fleet so they would use our buses they don't take over the leases they basically G give us a depreciated we
099would take a huge loss because the depreciation the second you buy it we would lose money I think we should wait for the new superintendent to explore this and I feel we're going to be putting budgetary items on him or her that should be best left to the new person to decide what how they would like to run thect we have all these repairs that we're paying every month and then we have these that are we're not quite sure of the life and the health of that so what do we do in the meantime that was the that was the review of comme given him a chance months to a year won't kill us on I don't know that I don't know if we have that much time I think is the issue fall and
100so this is a compromise from we we know we need to replace all of them we know we may make different decisions around Transportation so this is sort of a way to allow us to bridge to be able to have a safe Fleet get kids to and from school and in a bridge period to allow for additional evaluation that's the way that's my perspective on it that's the way I'm looking at this which is like you know you know like it it's the only thing we can do right now to bridge um but the expense of the maintenance is because of the additive so or because of what it does to the engine lit I'm say the increase in the maintenance is not because of buses that are actually breaking down it's because of not
101just that that was that was one of the major expenses now there's there's doors not opening there's certain things that are just like tires that are like come on you got to take it down to yeah I had a list on one bill of like 50 8 different things that were broke on the bus that had to be fixed 58 different things it was just onward and onward and that was like 52,000 for the bill uh on that one I don't know but they they also have like a this is our Vital piece of kids to from school this is kind of safety they're peace mealing using like different buses to help out different buses at this point I mean it's like it's it's like a p here to take here they're stealing something from
102two buses to get this bus to run I mean that's how fragile the system is on these buses they've gotten a 10-year life I think yes if maybe you know in in hindsight we have a fiveyear plan of maybe phasing them in a little slower which is what our plan is now while we evaluate what it could look like in another scenario of maybe you know finding a contracted solution if that is more economical and what we want for our children and our district I think this is this is where where the committee felt it needed to go and I think it helps our budgeting it helps us stay more you know stable what about purchasing used buses that would be a huge cost savings it'd be in order and warranted for a period of
103certain years and we would have newer serviceable equipment and the ability to not take massive depreciation loss if we do have to turn over to a contract Service Company used buses the depreciation is something that's always there but the uh issue is how long would it take uh to complete the process with Outsourcing because again that would have to be part of the negotiation process no we're talking about us buses versus then use use buses um I haven't gone that route U but I'm sure that there might be some available um but U you know uh that would be something that would have to probably be left for the new superintendent to Ru so if you want to delay it then then that's that's that's fine I have a plan of action here with some
104good prices uh but uh again uh you know the bus company is uh you know giving us a pretty good price I was surprised because these prices were discounted from the retail value that we had and when they came in with that price of 128,000 there was already a hefty discount you have a motion need a second is that what we're hearing yeah I don't know if you got that yep okay we have a second all in favor I I I I opposed three I'm opposed any abstained unheard four votes for y motion passes to approve the purchase of four buses from school line and the quote for municipal leas purchase and authorize the trade in of four older buses okay okay so in terms of the transportation priorities we um we have the just
105the Easton discussion that's so I'm passing around a paper um I'm going to utilize this format when we have a board meeting so we can just keep track of what um it's got different agenda items on it so I'll just refer to it when we come up to those pieces so that we have record of um you know where we are and where we're going so I just outlined it for us I have been in contact with Easton um I was in contact with them this past week um I haven't received any update yet they told me they're working on it I don't know you know how how long that takes yeah I do have one more I don't know how long that takes um but I have requested you know multiple times for them
106to provide me that information one of the key points on here is in number 4B um I I know not not much about Transportation however in some of my contacts I receiv received the name of a gentleman that um has recently completed a transportation audit for a neighboring town and that Transportation audit after I looked up who this person was um he does this for a living and does it for multiple districts so I think this is what the board board is actually looking for more of an audit of the transportation department if that's my understanding more of a audit not just of roots but of everything um so if the board would like I did put out um interest to this gentleman he did get back to me he said he would just need
107a couple days to put together a proposal of like what he does and what that looks like so this is beyond just routes this is everything your efficiency your gas like all those things and I think that's what we're talking about and we didn't know where do you find that person so just happened through um to connect with this gentleman um and then I Googled it you know different reports that he has written so very comprehensive you know types of things I think that would answer a lot of our questions that we all have like how do you wrap your head around this enormous thing so hopefully that might help us so if the board would like me to proceed and contact with him I will um and I will talk to Adam I I
108don't know what the cost is um right you know if it's astronomical then maybe no but you know it is something that maybe we should um look at and one we should um move forward with so once he gets back to me I can um give that information to Adam and he can review it and you know we can kind of just go from there and see what he has to offer now does he look into contracted services for I think that I think that could be part of it I'm not sure I haven't he hasn't given one thing that we were during the meeting um the Our Guest um who worked with multiple facets of different um communities that have looked into you know their private fleet versus you know public pleats and Outsourcing
109and all that stuff he did mention that um some of these larger companies they they do that service and they only allow them like you to use their service Serv so even if we've taken say Eon as the person first student be like well we need to do this all on our own to give you the quote that you're having so it's just a heads up that like when when and if or you know how we pursue it or you know how we do more research on this we'll see a lot of this stuff going on and I think um and I know I had shared an artist with you which was interesting and you can Google it a couple years ago canabury had gone through the same process and there is an article out
110there on how long the process took for them to actually research what to do and how to go about it and then their final decision um and I think they didn't just they decided not to Outsource but you can um Google it and it was like a day article um and it was interesting to read just to provide that information to context of like how big this actually is to get an RFP and and get bids in and then look at the um pieces of it so um that's just something I thought I'd share once you know I investigated somewh more so I will um you know be in touch with this gentleman I'll will provide that information um and based what I saw of what he has written already like I said I feel
111like that might be what actually you're looking for that in more in- depth information than just picking up the phone and calling someone and getting it that way okay I want to thank you for taking all this on and working on this I know you have of free time to work on Transportation I'm going drive next I'm drive and the whole obviously a lot of people that are involved it's you know it's not just Amy but also the whole transportation department that helps you know provide the information so of money that we're spending every we want to spend it wisely want to make a you know informed decision with a quick quick decision you know contract bus services will have their own person come in and look at every facet I don't know if they
112provide a report however they keep it to themselves and just give you a quote I'm that's what yeah that's what he was kind of in you know intimating that like you're going to get this whole you know roll to we probably want more of a non buas like just someone who you know this person isn't isn't trying to sell us a bus trying to sell us a gr he's not trying to know where we stand if we need to work on something on something else we need to buy buses or we don't and I think in the future um this other person from this other Town um they do this annually so I I can't imagine it costs that much money but they do the audit I would say annually or by anually I would
113assume um just to see so but that's something else you know let's just see what he says first and how much he cost know my how and then it could be Revisited like every two years or every 3 years you could go back and say maybe we need contracted Services now at some point you know just cuz you say no once doesn't mean forever right it'll be nice to have an outside or give us a report feedb yeah absolutely this is audit include um uh bus bus route scheduling does it do that I think I think they I think review from what I read reviews the efficiency of routes so I think that's also also part of it so we'll have Ison who's still working and hopefully this other person if this pans out um
114but now we know where to look and where to find a person that does this excellent is there any like motion or anything you need from board right now to make free to be able to go into contract I think I think as long as you're aware I just want to make you aware not I I just want to publicly state that I really appreciate the transportation staff for what they've done this year shorthanded because we are down one bus driver and that requires people to put in overtime and and cover extra roots and make uh adjustments to make sure that we can uh safely uh transport the students to and from school and our transportation department has really really had to work uh extra hard this year to uh do that I'm in hopes
115that we can eventually find uh another bus driver with a CDL uh license to be able to help with that process a tough priority not to jump ahead but I know no don't go [Laughter] ahead I've got my Cav be listening should okay does that cover everything under transportation okay yep okay all right so moving on to old business item two updated budget proposal for 2526 Adam what did you what did you Whittle down for us now what's the state of the roller coaster ride the spending plan the budget say that again I'm just rambling about um the budget what did you Whittle down for us oh okay oh here we go budget yes um this is about $118,000 less than the budget I gave you last month so when we uh were reviewing uh
116what's happening and we are in a roller coaster without placements and uh we could have a new student move in and it could cost up to $200,000 and then the next month that student might move out and so we have some savings uh so uh as we get the enrollments with what's happening for this year U that that determines where we are now the budget today you have to approve and we send it over to town hall for our public Hearing in April and just like in last year I just told you this budget is $118,000 a little bit more less than what was what happened last month and we may have some changes that can occur between now and April so I I really do want to make sure that you keep that uh
117you know keep that in mind I some sugar to get through this one okay take it should always cookies right in between Transportation here we are all laughing cheer that going to indulge too yeah tell you after oh yeah at all the details know I know you have a huge I know so this budget today is uh shows a total of uh 7, 51,4 42 and it represents an increase of of $197 and or 2.74% over the current budget um this proposal will be reviewed in the next few weeks and we'll see what's happening but this is the budget that I believe we should give to the town to review but if there's changes in this then what I would do is at the public hearing if we had some savings and other things I
118would revise it to give that to the board to the public because I don't want to go through this budget and four minutes later say oh we had some cost savings so this is the approach it it involves the negotiated salaries for teachers and non-certified uh pending any adjustments and classified salaries to be verified and uh Kate and I talked about that we'll review those at the April meeting um projected cost of out placements for special ed projected cost of tuitions for the designated high schools um and then uh increased uh 10% for the cost of health insurance but that's not final because uh the CT partnership will let us know in a few weeks what their rate is now I'm in hopes that we can have a repeat because they have they they said
119oh Bud last year they said budget 10% and the average increase was about 5% our premiums went up two 2 point something per so you know we we have had a good record with the Connecticut partnership uh the replacement of four buses in our 9-year-old Fleet of buses and then Construction Services allocation to complete an asbestos abatement project and four classrooms in the 1960 section of vaa VES and replace the 1990 HVAC system in our Li library now the building committee has has met and of course they did an RFP for the asbestos this is the final part for the asbestos but we only have a certain remaining balance from the oil tank funds so I put money in this budget proposal so that we can complete the whole project this summer and then with
120the HVAC system we have a comprehensive RFP that's going out and we intend to get the numbers in um next month and we can see that where that is now the town allocated I think we've got about uh 22,000 left but the the uh you know the system is going to cost a little bit more than that so I put it in construction services to complete those uh process and of course my recommendation is that you approve this budget uh to uh sent out to the town hall now let's let's go into the second page and this is an important thing the 1 two 3 4 par paragraph down for 18 years we've applied for a School Readiness Grant and received anual annual funding which is now increased to about 2 7,000 for our preschool
121our pre our School Readiness Council meets on a regular basis and a grant for $180,000 based on recent recent Statewide uh reduction in the allocation per pupil is being submitted Amy did they approve that we did yes we secured the 180,000 180,000 and so now you know you see we've dropped so I have to go into the budget because we still have to run the program and we had to take a little bit of the board funds to pay for some of the Personnel in the preschool program because uh that's a dynamic program we want to continue with that the new um the the office of Charley Early Childhood has proposed replacing our Local School Readiness council with a local governance partnership and uh that includes nearby communities now we just received this okay and
122I if we're going into the local governance Council would like the money to be put into that Council but the allocation from each town be run out of the IND individual Town Offices I don't want to have to write a purchase order and send it to another town to process I would prefer to be able to run the payroll the supplies the other things out of our central office um sorry I just like to have control of every penny what is the name of this new one the name of the new one so there what happened was with this early childhood funding is that they want basically towns like us um Griswald uh spray Lisbon those who receive funding for like tvcca um School Readiness we get School Readiness funds um to come together more
123regionalized and then they're going to disperse like administrative funds to then monitor all these places now no one really wants to do this because everybody likes their own program in their own place so um there's a lot of uncertainty they've been having a lot of meeting about this but they're kind of like building the plane as they go so there's a lot of questions like who is controlling the the money and how is that being disseminated like that's our 180,000 to pay for our employ so where who holds that so if we if we Bridge with Griswald um and we've talked to them they're ascending town you know it kind of is natural for us to to bridge with them in a way how what does that look like so there's no clear answers on
124that so we're kind of waiting like we're not going to form anything until they tell us I plan to apply as a sole unit still and see what they say you can still apply as that is it called the to the local governance um Council part partnership partnership I don't even know the right name of it partnership because it's very very new lgp lgp that's the acronym NOW in the early child it's not Dei is it so we're going to you know I guess we'll just have to wait and see I mean prechool is vital especially our birth to three kids like that really does save us quite a bit when we have children come in that require um services and needs right so we need a preschool program in some capacity now it's kind
125of being micromanaged in a way of how this is dispersed whatever so anyway long story short that maybe will happen maybe won't happen hopefully it won't happen this decreased amount are we still going to be able to bring in from other towns because other towns so we yes so we changed our seats so we are going from 44 to 30 because right now based on our enrollment it's hard for us to fill 44 we probably have six to eight res non-residents just because we're trying to get to 44 we lose money correct if we don't yeah don't we lose yes some funding yeah danger of that no so we haven't had that happen at all but that is the premise of the program like you know if you're not fing spots and what they'll do
126is take the spots so for us it's easier to give the spots back because in reality we're not going to fil them we don't have like we talked last time there's not a lot of like kids out there problem with all that though any money we get for the person from gell goes to the town hall not to us it's not going to our budget it's going into the back to the town hall the T those other tuitions yeah if we if we if take six kids from gville and then we don't get we we per se don't get we don't get money for that we're just allocated 100 you know whatever 200,000 right now is what we get for 400 bases so we are we are you know that I do enroll kids going
127down the 30 we go down to 30 30 we just change ourang the state yeah yeah and so we could get 180 because it's 30 seats part for different hours of the day for different hours of the day you get more money so that's what we did to get the most money that we could um realistic numbers that we have yeah so our seats all going to be Vol the kids now that we're going to 30 yeah if we can um or do you still foresee that we're going to go to the outside we might have to have some non-residents yeah so um I just didn't know what the projection is that's I ask it's a small class there's small classes families right on the board was love they do I mean and people will
128call me yeah from GIS W and say my kid went there five years ago can we come back you know and and they will I mean our preschool and and people love volentine I was tell people you have to move here you know you can't stay so after preschool yeah after preschool Sorry by um but you know that is that is going to be a problem if that funding continues to go down we'll have to like you know really just think about and adjust what's the most impactful and what can we do and how much do it cost you know no I I brought the this up for an initial discussion but we literally have only received bits and pieces of information it hasn't been um you know comprehensive and uh in discussions with you
129know some of the other superintendant we need to figure this out but I'm in hopes that uh you know the approach that we want to use we might be the smallest District but uh we have some pretty strong opinion about how we want to use the money and how we want to monitor that and I'm looking to see if this Council this partnership can just allocate our total Grant to us so this is this is what's happening with that um okay getting into the uh budget itself I need to point out that one of our largest budgetary items is the 1,1 11 certified salaries and if you look at that uh we're at 1,366 68 for the regular Ed teachers it's less than last year and it's about the same as the previous year it's
130a little more uh well it's a little less than what was uh actually um you know expended and if you look back at 2122 uh this is uh you know much less than it was uh you know a few years ago and so as our enrollment has been declining we have been uh reducing staff through attrition resignations or retirement and as you can see the regular Ed uh budget went down 1.48% I would like to draw your attention to the 5161 account which is the High School tuition that is it this year we budgeted 1, 157,000 and next year we're proposing 1, 124,000 High School regular tuitions are going down so when you're talking about the cost of high schools and stuff we're holding our own with a regular tuition now special ed right now
131we're at a 29 Adam does this reflect replacing does the spe with the Regular Ad does it reflect you replacing retiring teachers except Jackie with Mike with lower income yes our our right now lower the cost of the regular certified teacher contract for the total over three years is is going to be $67,000 less all right is this covering this hiring three new teachers so we're not we're not hiring three new teachers but I'll get into who we're we're hiring good question Cathy going over if you look here you can see that with special ID U you know certified certified staff you know again uh the 11 12 and the 1200 account we budgeted 222,000 this year and next year we're budgeting 161,000 we reduced one teacher that was a retirement we did not replace
132so then um we look but there's been some increases in the non-certified wages and then please look down into the uh tuition for public school special ed this year we have 543,000 329 budgeting for next year it's $736,000 increase in private uh schools um I'm in I'm in hopes that we see a reduction in that by April uh or perhaps may but uh we'll have to see what happens with uh some of the uh programming and is that 7,000 reflective of those two high price is that 7,000 reflected of the two the two high cost yes children yeah there's there's there's out placements and then there's the tuition you know within the specialist program at the high school Cathy yeah um okay the uh speech and language uh again we have a slight increase with
133that you can see with the contracted Professional Services we have to offer more speech and language services to our high school students so that's why that is increasing over the years I wanted to move to down to library Services um Margaret ban uh retired and we're not replacing Margaret and we're going to uh reallocate a teacher to cover uh you know the library for that quarter salary um and then with technology at the last board meeting I gave you uh you know three different options that we're reviewing we don't have that completed right now because we're reviewing do you replace that with a certified teacher or do you replace that with a classified person or as North Stonington and Preston are doing they have some lean services that help with purchase services so that's under
134review that's why I highlighted that and uh Amy Mike and I in a subcommittee are you know researching that just a little bit more so we can come back with a recommendation um possibly before you know the uh actual budget here ing uh Board of Education uh went up just a little bit uh we had uh you know uh property and liability and uh I'll have to uh I'll have to check that but uh and and then we're going through with uh you know most of the other prices that remained the same except um the work that D's had to complete has uh has increased and uh we decided that it would be important to uh increase you know we increasing hours more hours more hours um with the uh property and liability um we've
135we've been with Kera and uh we're getting uh no increase in the kma premium and um the um I'm not sure I have enough copies here but uh you know uh with the uh with the uh liability here uh we have a 0% increase again for uh Kera so uh what we're doing is we have a three-year another three-year uh proposal and uh based on what's Happening oh you heard all the pages I we should take one that's together oh which which one do do you have something got stuck there should be just three pages we have two one two pages yeah it's this one we have two pages P yeah two pages yeah excuse me yeah we can take them back here but this is the annual uh premium that we work with with
136kerma and U again uh the building committee uses Kera a lot as they're developing rfps and uh we submit that to the town for reviews and then kerma also has a contract uh reading so when you sign for a construction project we send that over to kerma as a matter of fact uh you know uh this week or next week uh kerma will be sending in their rep to do an annual uh inspection to you know review the building and all systems and they make recommendations uh the services kerma also is our uh bus bus company uh you know Insurance why are we going from 36 to 55 it's 36 this year 55 next year he said he was going to look into that particular piece of it 36 to 55 that's my insurance property
137liability yeah you're saying the rate staying the same yeah I'm going to have to uh I'm going to have to get back and review that I see I just saw yeah that's why he he said look at it but I'm sorry I just saw that so yeah I'll I'll go back and review that and get back to the board that's fine but uh this uh this budget uh was based on uh what's happening I'm sorry about that I thought I had uh that section counted out that'll make us but let me just uh in that check something out with the uh property liability because of do we have another carrier do we car with somebody else too is there another carrier involved I I I I will have to check that Kathy um but uh
138you know uh with the board of ed for that particular budget um you know we spent in the past 30,38 you know 29 23 33 33 there's there's something added in there and I have to apologize I forgot what it was but I know that it could be something very very legitimate so my apologies for that and who knows we might come back with some savings at the next meeting um you're good I I would like to be able to sign this with uh kerma because uh they're waiting and uh you know eventually if the uh new person wants to go out to bid for insurance to see what they can do with matching that but but uh there's not time to complete a bid process between now and July 1st and we need to
139have insurance I do know that we added cyber Insurance Kathy you know there were a couple of other things but I'm I'm just not recalling them right now and I apologize does kerma write us a check every year for doing yes we get we get we get a rebate so they're coming in and they do the safe check Chris and then Brian and and everybody we get together and we complete all of the projects as soon as possible whether it's you know a repair in a sidewalk or or fixing a window or a door or you know checking something in the maintenance room and uh you know we've been traditionally getting a rebate you know sometimes up to $3,600 so you know there's some positives with this um plus they're very good with the contracts
140and if there's any you about just a single year contract versus a threeyear what the what the rate would be on a single year contract I can't single year contract can they do a single year contract and what would that rate be um I'm I'm not sure that they would uh give us that uh that that rate um but they they haven't raised the rate in a while Megan so you know this is a a threeyear rate uh I imagine if we wanted to uh we could say that we just want to just continue the next two years but U I would have to check on that this will give the new guy a chance to go looking if he wants to whoever we get he gives them time to look so by signing this
141are we in for a 36,000 or a 55,000 do we know what the difference no that's the question is like might not be the 55,000 you know generally speaking it's U it's been a little uh that might be the Cyber Insurance you can't remember what it's I I I am sorry we can we table it till the next thing until so we have the clarification table the signing of the contract unless it's an urgent signature let's just table this until we know um you know I can wait until the next next meeting okay okay y okay uh superintendent's office uh is uh standard uh the uh the salary is based on the 45% rule and uh I'm not sure what happens with that principal's office uh 4.34 um you know with the uh oh with
142the superintendent's office uh generally I try to prepay the dues and fees but I'll wait until after July 1st so that the new person can determine what organizations they would like to use and the equipment uh you know U I'm not sure what kind of computer the new person would like but it would would be good to be able to offer that to them um okay then uh the uh we have to hook up our new person with the right technology get computer computer okay now let me get uh let me get to something else here um we're trying to attract people here that new computer better be us efficient as the binder every question gets answered out of that instantly okay fiscal services and Adam um I just want to make note fiscal Services
143we talked about this and that was um there was a question last time why was that so much somebody asked that question it's for um a fiscal audit so we have a we audited every year so we have to pay for that um it's for payroll and accounting software so so the software components and then it's for additional services that come or fall in in with anything that has to do with the software the the audit Etc so that's all Encompass in that who does our payroll somebody like 0 or paycheck it just it's such a jump you know it's doubling in price and and the audit yeah we do every year so that's this is the uh this is is a 61,2 245 uh we have um you know Tyler technology and Tyler technology
144is a program that we've been using for years to document every single expenditure in the budget so as I'm preparing reports for you um I use T Tyler Technologies and a number of school districts do because it's so good for TR in all of the expenditures and then um there's uh there's also um you know analysis and monitoring of of the budget so that's the payroll system uh we use uh we use paycheck uh for the uh payroll monitoring and you can see that uh each each payroll there is a cost for running that and then we also have a Time Clock survey that helps us with determining the hourly rates so this is uh this is what happens with uh you know developing uh you know um our our budget for that uh program
145and um I just want to say our audit had no problems at all when they did the audit for the school budget to the town well we've been able to meet all sorts of uh auditing deadlines and other things and uh I've been pleased that I've been able to use this because this allows me to monitor the expenditure of every penny this is very thorough that's helpful yeah okay and then uh operation and maintenance that's going up 12% salaries are going up um the the big one there is the uh repairs and maintenance 98,0 1824 in this uh in this account uh General supplies 26,000 electricity it was 66 this year I had to up it to 88,000 for next year and that could be more by the by the time we review this in
146April because the electricity rates are soaring so uh and then the other thing is the fuel oil I was going to say the bill for here has those same add-ons that your home bill has public benefit the public benefit that goes by how much by how much we pay about three three to 4,000 a year so that's another it's another tax it's on that you know but it's it when I look at the electric bill it's been going up every month you know repulsive I mean it's here there everywhere you called eversource and seen if that is correct or if that could like as a I'm assuming we're like a nonprofit I have never called I guess I could next month I'm curious if we could either receive some sort of either not have to
147pay it or a relief being a nonprofit I I'll call next month when I see the bill and so you know I was amazed that we were getting that yeah I think that's well we've seen some recent increases but uh I have a I have an electricity solar panel committee that had you know met and it's standing committee and I need to call them in to review all of the prices and they make recommendations for our electricity and for solar panel use when I see the bill I'll try to we I'll call when I go through them and I'll take it and then I can tell them what they say I hope that I can come back at the next meeting with a report of the monthly cost and some reactions and suggestions from that
148committee to review that uh um I do remember a year or two ago we had gone out and like looked at different electric company rates and we had gone with yes R yes we did we did get they at that we did get the best rate Val and so that's something that this committee would also do we had a reduction and we went out to another company right so you know that's that's something that's uh you posi yeah and Chris we we have to have another maybe Peak meter reading because that that determines they they set your rate based on the most expensive day that you have oh yeah so uh you know we're we're asking we we would probably ask for a review of that um the uh transportation we we had talked about
149that uh as you can see this Transportation has has gone up 20. 64% and most of that is for the uh you know for the equipment and the rental and and I reviewed that earlier but if you turn the page you can see for special ed Transportation uh we had a budget of 1 15,795 this year and that's going down to 56,58 next year and I will tell you as I said that's seven the old transportation is an increase of $7,900 uh food service and I don't know what the federal government's going to do but it looks like they're talking about taking away some of the contributions to snap and food and and Food Services Amy you're doing a little bit of research on that not until V3 keep going keep going okay but we
150had to put something in to make sure that we're absorbing uh some challenges so in the extracurricular activities we want to make sure that we're maintaining our program Community Services went up $1600 uh that's the contribution to yba and then Construction Services I talked about that 37,500 for the HVAC and the library to replace a 36y old unit that is the last part of our HVAC and we are using uh about 26 25,000 in in some of the HVAC funds but it's not going to be enough to replace that unit and then the uh you know the other thing is is part of the asbestos abatement program that closes out our three-year plan but we didn't have a big Bal enough balance to to do uh section three and and quite frankly just based on
151what's Happening I have to have Brian call like tomorrow to schedule the ESP bestus people to come in during the summer just like they did last year to be able to finish up this project so you know that's the budget I I really request that you approve it as is because this is a discussion point I know there's four or five areas that need review and more clarification but this is where we are right now with setting in motion uh the budget development for next year and as I said this budget is 118,000 less than it was last month and we only found out about that opportunity just about 8 days ago and uh I have a feeling that uh we might have another reduction and if we don't get that information by April we
152can have our budget hearing but I might ask the town if they could defer their town meeting until May or even June so that we can come in with a more accurate budget so this is not the defining moment of the budget proposal you have April where we can make an adjustment and if we get those numbers in we can give you a request for a firm recommendation and then if it needs to go to May I'll talk to Tracy and she has been very gracious in uh making sure adjustments now this is the education budget and we have to send this into the town and the board of Selectmen and acts as the board of Finance they could look at this number and they could say well no Adam this is this is too
153much but that's why I wanted to make sure that I gave you a rundown on page two of the introduction you can see that in 2017 the board of edge share of the total Town budget was about 81% and now this year it's at 73% and what is it going to be for next year that's to be determined so the Board of Education and the school budget has consistently gone down in the town relative to I mean just some of the the draft budgets you've been seeing locally this is pretty low compared to other budgets correct oh the average in the state right now um the last uh thing that I looked at was about 110 towns was 4.98% and quite frankly when I talk to people they say what's your budget and I tell
154them and they said oh we're we're at 6.6 I'm at 8.8 how did you get to a 2. you know 9 whatever it is but you know this is uh this is just something but again as I said just about 10 days I we weren't at that number we we were we were close to what we asked during the last thing this is roller coaster ride season and you're right in the middle of it um I should probably charge tickets to have a roller coaster that would cost money we're trying to reduce cost here okay yes but please if could if you approve this budget then I just get to send this over as is to the town and they can look at this and if any citizens want to come in to ask questions
155they can go ahead and do that but you do have time at the next meeting to make an adjustment is the next meeting the public meeting for people yes that's the public hearing and as I said if we get some changes like if I find something with that insurance thing in the board budget and it's less I'll put that in and as we open the meeting I will explain you know that the last meeting the board approved a budget for 2.74% but we've recognized some other savings and then so you need a motion to send this budget to the town for review okay okay you want to make motion I'll make motion motion all I to send the current v motion for review to approve correct it's just for review okay I all in favor
156I I I any opposed unheard motion passes for review thank you very much see what Happ going to get out his red pen and chop some more it's like can be like human bodies that actually like come and go and I think inflation this year was 2.8 for the overall year they're saying so we're about hitting just what inflation is with this yeah High School choices item number three okay item number three okay on your other report yes E3 High School choices so last um when we spoke at the last board meeting we talked about setting up a time to meet so myself Sarah um Jackie Valen Court Rachel sahu if anybody else wants to join we're meeting on March um 21st at 2:00 and we're going to review High School choices so this um
157Sarah started um shared a document so we have some information that we're just plugging into it so we can see it on one spreadsheet one one spreadsheet um we've started the process of talking about and and what we talked about last time um qmc Kellin Le boag Ellis so are up north we we started that um eliminating Ellis is that what you said eliminating Ellis big our most heavily enrolled School nor nor so office everything else yeah so I started a comparison of what each one offers so I have that information so we can look and make sure um one of the key points and I when Sarah and I had talked is that um we have no enrollment at Ellis next year for freshman oh was going in so did did Ellis switch to
158a lottery I had heard a rumor that they switch to lottery so how I guess how do we not nobody interested or nobody was accepted via the lottery um I think one person was weight listed no two people were weight listed okay so it's not that they didn't want to go it's that they do not and so we only had two Lottery yes and so if somebody drops out we could have somebody enroll to apply applied and got weight listed and nobody was accepted so they wor of all of them you know is this worry are they going to does anybody know if they're going to maybe adjust this so there's upheaval at the state and they they just appointed was at a at a at a conference today um several students a year right
159we were we were yeah I mean and we have to remember our as our home rooms got small are getting smaller um next year's class is larg for us 30 but after that it is a very significant decrease so in the end really how many are you going to have for you know and anybody who already started we would have too and Norwich both do a lottery and or Norwich we've had how many of our students be accepted compared to how many live um i' have to look yeah let me look on here um have to be exact just ballark I remember seeing that like this Freshman Class of this year we have 11 that got applied of that are currently there right now I don't know how many applied versus that I guess what
160I'm just trying to understand is is Norwich allowing significantly more of our students I think we don't know that question there's a lot of questions that we don't know about this Lottery next about like according to like what what your population is how many seats do they allow versus suris many at all it's all unknown and so people are right now having really heavy discourse of how if you already have somebody there right there was a sibling component at one point remember well here's the other thing is like this is free tuition for us as well so and we had two kids who now we are that's a budget nightmare in some regard my other concern with Ellis partic particularly with Ellis is up in that like puam dville Killingly area there's a still a
161decent amount of manufacturing and so cutting Ellis out is actually doing our students a disservice to basically pipeline into those manufacturing jobs because because a lot of those a lot of those manufacturers I mean I I can't really speak for The Quiet corner but I do know that there's a whole tons of manufacturing this way yeah I'm just saying but like both both ways right so like that's a lot of those Tex schools have pipelines so I think but I mean obviously if we can't send any students there then that doesn't matter but it is something that we should consider and that's what I think we're going to do with this this leged boag because we got to have a boag that makes sense I just that's disappointing Norwich Tech is an amazing place it's
162a it's an incredible facility it's a mod I had a chance to see a lot of it I was pretty shocked that you just wouldn't expect a tech school but they've changed a lot I think it's very different than what we imagin has been updated anyway we're going to talk about this in this this this other section where it's like I think we're those are great questions to the surface I do want to see it what we're what we're giving up what we're getting you know cuz that's those are true elements that like you know outside of just what they offer maybe the other not just Transportation somebody from the tech schools could come here and maybe Norwich Tech does have the manufacturing Pipeline and yeah I would assume Gro has E I have been
163in contact witho you know when I I talk to the principal and one thing we need to recognize too is like I If you you could send your kid to Ellis but we might not transport them you can apply to any texol you want want you can go wherever these trans transport that way Ellis and Grasso have similar curriculum Norwich Tech Norwich has much more computer stuff and that again this is what we're going to talk about in our in our subcommittee so we can just we're just as a highlight of it highlight go highlight that's it I yeah I think just so this group and we will bring visibility to this but I think what we're trying to to do is also have a way to objectively look at each of the schools um
164and then um understand all different types of criteria so everything that things that we've talked about in the past so from what programs are offered what is what are if any limitations on the number of students they can accept the tuition um transportation considerations all of these things are linked um to together when we talk about high schools and um transportation issues and number of buses we need and all of that all of these things are linked together and then come back um to be able to present that to the board with some recommendations from the subcomittee around uh High School choices and I I'm glad you're on that committee um spret I I like I like spreadsheets and um is it a Google or is it an Excel it's a Google it's right team
165Excel team Excel docent um but but I just um you know I've asked Amy and and I know she's asked some other folks in the building to help fill things out for us because I think sort of we need all of the information sort of in one place to be able to look at and make decisions so we will that's good do that so hopeful okay one thing with a budget that vote was so quick in the nursing Services the other new position is the certified nursing assistant and we have budgeted $4,998 and that's a contract that we just got in and we need to sign this Lloyd it's a specialed uh child that that needs help and it's based on the number of hours that we used so we we projected it would be
166up about $4,000 it could be less it could be more but that would require moving some budgets around but we have to sign that Lloyd and uh this is something we have otpt and these are contracts that we annually sign as part of the special ed so I wanted to inform you that I want to sign the contract with this company so that Lloyd can start planning and Amy can start planning for services for next year that require a lot of coordination this is something that I don't want to uh you know uh delay because there's some planning activities that have to go into this uh you know this support and we need this person because we were having par professionals take care of uh this need but it requires a certified nursing assistant Lloyd
167is there anything else so I I just want that's in the budget but but I have to sign this contract to to make sure that we're securing these Services now okay it's a secured budgetary item I think we yeah do that thank you sorry for the interruption okay can we move along on the old business okay okay thanks the superintendent search committee update is just the third reading of the superintendent job description that was included in the packet um I think we um Mary BR reviewed it yeah and had somebody C review it who made one suggested change to add um School finance and policy development that's the only change in this um under the qualific but other than that they said it was very thorough I think if we're comfortable with that we just
168make a motion that we are approving it the revised as um as presented I'll make that motion second second all in favor and any opposed none her motion passes okay thank you eight years of teaching experience before you become a superintend I know wow only8 years you don't know anything in no know anything I don't know anything in 23 okay um new business we have some Personnel items to review for probably spring and forward looking sounds like um couple of motions that we need to approve here for personnel um a motion to approve the volleyball program and appoint Emily Penman as head coach and Andrew Kelly as assistant coach motion all in favor just W the game today games okay motion passes and thank you for what you're doing now um go Eagles motion to
169appoint Brian rasco and Chuck Salter as Tru Track and Field co- coaches motion Mr Salter back into the track and field game I know um all in favor any opposed none heard motion passes a motion to approve the following as summer custodians uh Judith Fedor Crystal Fitzpatrick Christine Driscoll and Lydia Snyder motion and also Karen per as a substitute custodian motion any opposed none motion passes okay um my eyes are crossing looking at all these um motion to approve shaa stansky as a summer SE secretary second in favor I opposed unheard motion passes okay the motion to approve Kate Stockford and Emily Nelson as a as the summer special education teachers motion all in favor none heard correction good all good okay motion passes uh motion to approve Heather Miller as Camp Q par educator
170motion second all favor opposed unheard motion passes here are my motions we more no we have two field trips do we Okay um a motion to add the executive assistant to no I think we're doing that later no doing it now no what you got two field trips oh wait no yeah that's that's a different that's a different thank you sorry I got the field trips those are those are my favorite thing to approve and I will hold on to it so um I think we're good okay so that's all personnel and then food service update all right last section on the documents I gave you you're such your teacher always in you yeah all right so I um after the last board meeting I contacted eot again I was like I have to wrap
171my head around um okay Food Service let's let's find out what we need to know about food service so I spoke to a woman on the phone um she had gotten back to me she had given me some basic information so you can see that in that bulleted list there she just talked about um they have a Consortium and it's comprised of Sterling poam um Brooklyn Scotland H small schools and they go into this Consortium and Easton manages their food service department um I asked her about you know she said do you have your own Cooks I said yes I do um I said would love to keep them she said we would just take them over and they would remain and work for us through but in your school they work through East con
172but they would work through East Con east con so we have to open the contracts are they they're not contract they're not in the contract good um she talked about how the school is responsible for the equipment because it is technically our equipment so services or refrigerator stoves and that like we would have to handle which we normally do anyway so anything um cleaning products Etc that would be part of it she talked about completing so one of the pieces I do part of is I do um our food service director submits claims I approve the claims um I do the applications for freeing reduced lunch um I go through those pieces so they take all of that over um I did ask her about utilizing something like arac that's like a Food Service Company
173if you don't know she said um the problem is with big places like that those are great for big schools with a lot of Revenue um for smaller places you still have to meet the quota of lunches met so if you say I'm going to have 150 lunches a day and let's say for a month you only have 75 to 100 lunches you still have to pay the the difference of what you're trying to guarantee this company so she had given me information just about that she didn't say too much so that's the basics of that she is going to I provided her information on our daily averages for lunches and breakfasts um and she and her director are going to review they do fiveyear terms so they're working out what five years looks like
174she said the average cost is um what her districts pay now is like anywhere between like 25 and 50,000 so it's like your employees your um everything that you're paying so we would no longer employ tom o Conor when you move to Easton Easton becomes the director eliminate that bu did they give you like like an example like a monthly menu so we could see like the differences in like the food options that they would offer to the kids yeah no you know what we could do also is um we could look up some of those schools yeah I'm curious to know like quality like what that would look like and so we would still have our same cook I mean who our kids love and she knows the food they like so I'm I'm
175assuming they they would take their input on what our kids eat you know they eat the same every week they eat tacos on Tuesday do not vary that's what pizza Friday um but I'm sure that we could probably look at that too so once she gets back to me with the actual what does it look like you know you can make a decision on whatever you know the board sees fit based on what we're paying and then what that would cost Tom is our biggest employee chunk out of their salaries that would be that's a separate that's an additive to he'll go away you know to look at you know stuff so that's he knows his business huh he knows what he's doing it sounds like whoever this person is would know too if they
176would be basically they would they would manage us all with local the local schools and stuff but um I think it maybe it also seems like one of the other big benefits is that there's a chunk of work that you do right now that they would take over right there is a piece that they so they would just assume all those pieces of the program that's not something we get through well no they take over like um involvement in the the pricing and Co you would obviously collect the money but they like how is yeah so I I do they have like a maybe they have like right now we're using that wonky rev track through Power School right so maybe they have a different program and it gets deposited through them maybe we don't
177have an account budget for that anymore those are questions like down the you know as you're asking um but she was going to send me a proposal you know and I just said we're just looking we just want information or maybe they can even after we don't really know anything how much is this going to cost she said anywhere between 25 and 50,000 on average depending on school size for the whole thing so we just have to look at like what we pay this would be what is it and then they would do what Tom does basically manage the food service and give put a report on your desk say here's how many lunches and breakfast you know so so you're maybe they could present something like in July if we get down to that
178point where you're very interested I can ask them to once we get past budget season they could maybe come do something our I mean the past budgets are so tiny they are you know and then and then just a one jump this year but is that what we're projecting it's going to look like going or we're going back to you know under 10 10 grand and or under and then it doesn't make any bu where's Tom salary in that is it still I feel like that's in a different spot yeah it must be because that's not that wouldn't be the actual 10,000 wouldn't be more 20 grand is is the non wages 20 I think he's the 20 but does that come out of the school lunch program budget and not and not this budget
179yeah generally speaking we used to spend between 107 and 120,000 a year yeah and that was supplemented by some school funds but then we had collections we had the reimbursement for free and reduced lunch and we also had uh money saved by the uh you know the uh commodi so uh putting that all together I'm I'm not sure what it would be but the number that I put in the budget was just a projection from what I knew from you know the last time and as we move along uh we can monitor that but I had to make sure that we had enough so that we wouldn't have to take money out of another account they must be yeah do we pay their salaries out of school lunch program separate from this we pay their
180salaries um well with this one here in the budget proposal we pay for the health benefits but it's uh basically uh from the money that we earn in the school lunch program but the thing is that there hasn't been enough money coming in so this this year we're in deficit on the uh on the school lunch program because uh we thought that we would you know they would continue with some of the services and just looking at the location report um Food Services I'm I'm in deficit $4,660.00 [Music] from the collections but uh we we've been supplementing things Tom salary is 18,000 we're not being reimbursed for the breakfast anymore no not free breakfast anym why don't we just stop it and let parents parent their children instead of having the taxpayers do yeah yeah
181we're not getting the reimbursements that we used to they not giv us no they have to buy no they have to buyids have to buy free introduced kids still get theirs and we get the money for that yeah yeah no they still have to buy breakfast now we're not just giving it away to our budg that don't have free and reduce don't I mean that was great when we got that reimbursement that we got reimbursement for everybody the big thing is participation when we had complete free and you know free lunch and breakfast we served 44,000 meals and then when that back to uh you know produced uh lunch and it wasn't free anymore we served 24,000 meals so that was the big change I I will tell you this that if a company's coming
182in and they're pretty good at uh you know promoting the lunch program one year we had an intern from Yukon come down and uh she work miracles greeting the kids in the morning and our breakfast numbers like increased by by 1,000% so there are ways to do incentives with that but it does take a little bit of time to well you got you got my kid believe me like I I can just get I can get breakfast at school Mom I'm like since when I'm like it's it's not free it's not free and so that's coming out of your magic like green card at school so and it's I know it's in that breakfast but it depends on the teacher too when my had second grade the entire second grade whether they had to buy
183it or not took breakfast cuz he let them set up in the classroom and eat it you know some teachers don't let them eat in the classroom whatever you know but it kind of depends if you got somebody going raah raah let's all eat breakfast you know it is expensive 225 a day if you're if you're paying if you're paying for a couple next thing you know you have a $50 bill cuz your kids been getting breakfast every day you know exactly sp sp on and then if they're buying can't do do one online and one in paper so I'm like which I just did that no I did that one online now you can pay all online don't worry so that's just the basics and one of the um important points that she did
184bring up is we're not eligible for this um certain Community provision because we do not have enough free and reduced students however going into a Consortium um the way she explained it was that our percentage gets blended with these other percentages and then we become enough I'm not sure but that's what she uded to so she said you know I she tries to work those numbers together as one group um cuz these are all small small for buying food and stuff like that I think you get purch something or a discount or however that works you know so isn't their benefit to get more schools just to able to more buying power I think that's maybe that's what it is thank for looking Tom's salary is a major component but we had to go to
185that when we didn't have somebody they didn't even know there was a Consortium they could pay B from who was running the kitchen before we got Tom they were just from here but I mean if you add Tom's salary into what we're what we're putting into food service for the budget that's $448,000 if you're talking between 25 and 50 and it's 48,000 currently there's going to be some savings well this is what we're putting in this year because we're not getting the same amount we the Easton with the same Collections and everything that we're paying Tom with so it going to be a we wouldn't see much difference hopefully the kids would be you because we're putting 40 Grand to it right so the salary we're doing that this year because they're quoting us 25
186to 50 before this we only had to do six or seven you're supposed to run your you're supposed to run your cafeteria program Revenue neutral that it's not costing you money you're not making money that's what it's supposed to be and right now we're losing money in previous years we were pretty well breaking even round 6 four five grand we've always done well it's been all right and they do make you spend that down by the end of the year they they you to buy if you got you got to buy stuff stin in lober for shrimp everybody Sushi we're learning about International Food get rid of the money or they'll take it back all right guys okay so we're we're moving along here thank you for the update there the healthy food certification speaking
187of all these great food items making me hungry um that time before com um okay so these are the the standard crazy long motion so pardon me for the words I have to say um but we need a motion for the healthy food option pursuant to CGS section 10-25 5f Bown Board of Education votes yes to participate in the healthy food options option and certify the all food items offer for sale to students in the school under its jurisdiction and not Exempted from the Connecticut nutrition standard published by the Connecticut State Department of Education will comply with the Connecticut nutrition standards During the period of July 1 2025 through June 30th 2026 the certification shall include all food offered for sale to students separately from reimbursable meals at all times and from all sources including
188but not limited to school stores vending machines School cafeteras culinary programs and any fundraising activities on school premises sponsored by the school or non-school organizations and groups in favor any opposed none heard motion passes to vote Yes and then there's one more you go ah you elected me for this very special job so um motion to make the food and beverage exemptions combined into one motion the volun town Board of Education voted votes yes and will allow for the sale to students of food items that do not meet the Connecticut nutrition standards and beverages not listed in section 10- 221q of the Connecticut General statutes provided that the following conditions are met number one the sale is in connection with an event occurring after the end of regular school day or on weekend number two
189the sale is at the location of the event and three the food and beverage items are not sold from a vending machine or school store an event is An Occurrence that involves more than just a regular regularly scheduled practice meeting or extracurricular activity for example soccer games school plays and Ure Scholastic debates or events but soccer practices play rehearsals and debate team meetings are not note that the regular school day in period from the midnight before to 30 minutes after the end of the official school day location means where the event is being held and must be the same place as the food and bever favor you just you just made us eligible for reimbursement of 10 cents per me deal and it's been 10 cents for the last I think 18 years remember course
190so you know just looking to put it in perspective for the you know for the support but this is a requirement of the U school launch program okay item number four Library hbac heat recovery unit replacement RFP yes all you need to do is approve U issuing the uh RFP for the HVAC I don't I didn't copy out for you but the building committee had worked on that and then Dar and and Brian you know have edited it and we're ready to publish it so you you you've approved you know issuing the HVAC if you would like a copy we could send it to you but it's going to be posted March 31st as part of the Town procurement have aop of that s us one to the I don't have a copy did it's
191in the packet it's in our packet we put it oh we did that's right I'm sorry thank you Sarah so you just need a motion motion all favor oppose I didn't realize I forgot about that approve Library check replacement rpage thank you okay my favorite here we go field trips finally at number five field trip requests May these pleases have a motion to approve the Southwick Zoo field trip in Southwick Massachusetts MO hi none are heard for Nays I will assure you that and the motion passes knes they shall hang their head in shame I um a motion to approve the ysb sponsored Aly cats bowling field trip in Westerly motion second all in favor no a motion passes okay then final to approve the Roger Williams Zoo field trip in Providence RH Island motion
192oh don't say it with such Vigor I mean this is exciting times for these kindergarten going all fun all very fun favor heard motion passes put some of these between Transportation okay we have number six we're not done yet the town treasur signature authorization for school lunch checks motion yeah what is it it's the the town Treasurer signature yeah the motion the town treasur motion to authorize the town treasure to sign uh the old school lunch checks so those are like the it's a housekeeping issue $833 oh yeah we talked about this he came in yeah he like there's like a lot of like people 20 yeah that they ow right they owe reimbursement they just reimbursements to old people's accounts not old people but old students accounts can they just the money supposed to
193be taking the money and putting it towards something paying off the unpaid stud okay yeah do we have a motion did second all in favor motion passes is there an executive session or we we do have an executive session of course of course we do um so I think we covered everything on the agenda item the the next regular board meeting is Thursday April 10th so a little bit earlier in the month um me yep next Tuesday right y yeah yep um so there is no plow bids I don't even know um budgets you know everything else but just the date save the for next Thursday uh just for the regular board meeting yeah lots to work on the superintendent should earlier Tuesday we yeah y um so then um do we have sorry a
194a motion to invite the superintendent into executive session for purposes of discussing preparation negotiation of the next non contract thanks Amy thanks Lloyd good night the potentially the Board of Ed self- evaluations thank you Amy okay I Kathy second all in favor I motion passes Okay so