001Our next speaker will be Ann Marie. Yes. Okay. I didn't prepare anything. I didn't know I was going to talk. So, um I live 3 minutes away from the school and on a daily basis it takes me a minimum of 10 minutes just to get through the line of traffic to get to the school. And it's not all parents going that way because my daughter's been going there for years. It is literally people going all the different side roads and trying to get to the quickest way to get to their and all of that. Um I have personally had three experiences where I almost got hit in my car with my daughter. I have had people where they are either running late maybe for a flight. I'm only assuming I don't know if they're Uber
002pickups or what. It doesn't matter. Coming and going. where I have actually had to swerve because people were at the lights and they're rushing and they're going. It's it completely ridiculous. Um I've had to slam on my brakes at least two times again because of the chaos that is driving around there. Um that is not from the school at all because we all go in one direction. We all know everybody. We're a tight-knit community and these are not people that we even know. Um, I think that it's something that the mayor and the engineering department have to take a closer look at to plan. Um, as if these were your own children. You have to think you have playgrounds there. These kids don't just get out of school and it's the end of the day.
003Bye-bye. Have a great day. They're literally riding their bikes to school, out of school, up school. We have parks there. We have And it's We have flashing lights. We have speed bumps. We have a crossing guard who pulls up a sign as high as she can. Um, and it is still not enough. We still have people on a daily basis when she is holding up the stop sign. People are literally going around other people to get by. I see it on a daily basis. Um, please, I'm just asking for the safety of the children, which is literally your jobs to do and to take care of. um and to make sure that the children are not being put on the back burner instead of a big corporate. Uh I know that it's all for the
004neighborhood. I understand that. Um but this is not benefiting us at all. I have lived in New Haven 10 three minutes from the school, three minutes from Aveo for almost 20 years now. It's been 19 years this year and I have never once gotten a notification that you guys are just that New Haven is going to be doing any of this roundabout anything. If it wasn't for this public uh Facebook page that we all we have because we are a close-knit community, nobody would even know what's happening. I think you guys should ask people who live there their advice. Maybe their suggestions. Maybe you'll get something. We live there every day. We know where people are going. We know where they're coming. We know maybe send out a questionnaire so that people could give you
005feedback you didn't even think of because it's not your world. It's not your uh place to be. Send out something to people who've lived there. You have lost time. Okay. Have a good day. Our next speaker is Addison Samuels. Hello, my name is Addison Samuels and I'm a student student at Nathan Hill School. I have been here since I was four and in kindergarten. I am now in the sixth grade. My mom recently told me that people who are going to fly a Villa would be going the same way that we cross the street for school. I know some people like to drive really fast and go over the speed limit when catching a flight. The crossing guard is really good is a really good crossing guard and it would be sad to get her
006to see her get hurt or one of my schoolmates getting hurt while crossing the street. I hope this rule does not go through due to safety reasons and many more reasons. I hope if they do implant the rule that the drivers could be more careful while driving. In conclusion, I hope that everyone is safe no matter what happens. Thank you. That concludes the in-person speakers. We have two people with their hands raised. Gloria's iPad, please state your full name. Miss Downer, you have to give me again the host so I can man the chat. Hi. Can you hear me? What's your name? Um, my name is Gloria Bell Chico. Can you hear me? Hold on one second. Okay. Nicole Gilmore. Hi everyone. My name is Nicole uh Gilmore. That was my daughter that just spoke,
007Addison Samuels. Thank you. I'm very proud of you. Um we have been uh residents in the in the community in the cold area for the past 17 years. Um I have my daughter Addison, her twin, as well as my son CJ. So they have been attending uh the school for the past seven years. Um, I do want to state that I see that it was noted um in the um article from the New Haven Independent that traffic does not affect our morning drop off, but it does affect our afternoon drop off. It may not affect morning now, but it does affect afternoon. Um, there are days when I'm stuck caring for my elderly parents, um, are stuck at work and those are the days that I'm forced to have my children walk home the four
008blocks that we live from the school and I literally have to stay on FaceTime with them the entire time because the traffic is horrendous. There are people coming in and out of our community who don't care for our children. They're speeding up and down the roads. Um, even people within our community and people outside of our community, they don't have a care for our children. So their safety is really really top priority. Um and also in the time that I've been an Ethan Hell parent, there are days when our crossing guards are not there. Days when our crossing guards are not there, I will physically get out of my car and cross children. Not only my own children, I will cross other children because to see uh someone possibly get hit is very dangerous. Um
009in the time that I've been there, I saw our former assistant principal um Mr. Voisine actually hit by a car. Um, and also in the time that I've been there, I've seen at least 20 to 25 near misses of crossing guards get um, possibly getting hit. Um, it's very scary. Our children are in danger the five days a week that they are going in and out of that school. But to speak on the time when our children are entering the school, but not speak on the time that our children are exiting the school, I feel like it's very dismissive and it needs to be addressed. Our children are in danger. Our children matter. Just because we live in the Cove area and so a quote unquote a safer area does not mean that our children
010do not matter. Our children matter just as much as any other uh public school student in this city and we will continue to stand for them and we will continue to fight for them and continue to teach our children such as Addison and Avalene to to advocate for their community. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker now is Gloria's iPad. Please state your full name. Hi, can you hear me? Yes. Yes. Okay, thanks. Uh, Gloria Bellachico, uh, 300 Lighthouse Road. I do not have a student um that goes to Nathan Hill, but I'm a resident that's very concerned in the increased traffic from Tweed um in this into the neighborhood. Um currently uh traffic stops at that stoplight by Fort Hail and it stops um the airport traffic from going in front of the school.
011So drop off and pickup is a huge problem there. Uh the other day, Friday, was early dismissal and there's a funeral going on at the church at the same time. It was incredibly busy. Uh tweet will tell you and the city will tell you that they'll put signs up saying in this new traffic pattern saying uh to the cars not to use Bur Street during these hours. Let's face it, people in New Haven did not follow street signs. If they did, there wouldn't be parents parked on the side of the road to begin with, and there wouldn't be cars parked at the airport all over the place on the other uh residential areas. um besides pickup and drop off and the increased traffic from the airport endangering the lives of our most vulnerable residents. Um,
012even if they were to change the hours of bursty with the cars, there's still the fact that the children play alongside Townson Avenue in the playground during school hours. It just exposes children who already suffer with breathing problems, with asthma, um, to increased pollution from the exhaust from vehicles. Um, I apologize because I I don't have anything right now, so I'm going to kind of be all over the place. Um, that's also important. Uh, the exhaust from the cars, the pollution. Um, also on October 6th, there was a pedestrian that was hit while walking on Townsen Avenue and the vehicle evaded. They left the woman lying on the road. No one talks about this. It took me months to find the woman who uh had been struck. It's very disturbing that this was kept quiet.
013And what's even more disturbing is that this traffic circle that's going to circumvent all the traffic from well most of the traffic from lat which is the biggest parking area at Tweed and the drop offs and the arrivals. It's just really going to endanger the lives of the children, the senior center. I mean, there's it's just a crazy traffic um circle pattern idea and uh I think that they should keep it the way it is or think of another traffic solution. This is just not acceptable. Thank you. Miss Gloria, that is time. Thank you. Our next speaker is Shelley McKinnon. Hi, can you hear me? Okay. Um, so hello, my name is Shelley McKinnon. Um, and I know that most people I've never done this before. Most people have been talking about the traffic plan
014around um, let's see, join as a panelist. Uh, okay. Um, sorry, I got a weird alert. I know that most people have been speaking about the Nathan Hail uh, traffic um, issue. I am actually a parent at Warthingington Hook Hooker School. So, I hope I'm not speaking in the wrong order. Um, but I am here today to speak on assistant principal Clarino's transfer from Worthington Hooker School at the end of the year. Um, I'm a parent of a kindergartener at the school and I am deeply troubled by this decision. Jenny Clarino is an extraordinary assistant principal who works with our youngest and most vulnerable children at our K2 building at on Caner Street. Um, Warthingington Hooker School is just it's such a special place and it's a happy place and a huge part of what
015makes it special is her leadership at the school. She greets my son each day with a warm smile and I mean it when he I say that he has repeatedly expressed to me that she is her favorite person or his favorite person at the school. As a parent, I have been extremely comforted by her presence at the school. From day one, whenever I reach out to the school for help or with questions, Jenny herself immediately jumps into action, making me and my family feel heard and incredibly supported. I know that if anything comes up, I can count on her specifically to be there for us, for the students, the staff, and the entire school community. After communicating with other parents and observing Miss Clarino in action with our children, it's my understanding that the Worthington
016Hooker community as a whole will be devastated by this decision to move her. In fact, I have not spoken to a single parent who supports this decision. We all know that consist consistency and continuity is key for both student success and a positive school climate, especially with children this young. If Dr. Negron and the board of education move forward with this decision, it will be obvious to me that this is more about adults and adult politics than it is about what's best for the children at our school. I really love New Haven and I believe in New Haven public schools. From someone who lives here and plans to spend decades raising her children in New Haven, I beg you to please listen and to understand how negatively this type of decision will impact hundreds of
017children and families. Please show the New Haven community that our voices and our opinions matter and that our children matter. Thank you for your time and consideration. That's all. Thank you. Our last speaker is an iPhone 15 Pro Max. Can you please state your full name for the board? Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. So, my name is Alice Blossom. I am a lifelong resident of the East Shore here in New Haven. I am also a former student of Nathan Hail. I attended Nathan Hale from kindergarten through 8th grade. And now both of my children are attending Nathan Hale as well. My um youngest child will be starting kindergarten in the fall and my older child will be going into second grade. And I just want to talk about the opposition that I have against
018the proposed traffic circle. Um it's just downright dangerous to be adding that much added traffic through an already congested and dangerous um towns and avenue. If you've spent any time, which most of us have, at pickup or drop off in the morning or in the afternoon, it's dangerous. I've almost been hit by cars. I've seen children almost been hit by cars multiple times. It just doesn't make any sense at all to reroute the traffic from the airport past an elementary school. It puts the youngest members of our community at risk and I don't think it's been well thought out. Um it's just dangerous overall and the only other option if you don't take Towns and Avenue is to take Woodward Avenue which is narrow because the infrastructure of this neighborhood is not built for that
019much additional traffic. There's also a playground that many children travel to after school gets out by walking or riding bikes. It's just it's not safe to have that much additional traffic traveling deeper into a residential neighborhood. Um, and I've lived here, like I said, my entire life, and the traffic was never like this. I started walking home from school to this very house that I still live in when I was 11 years old. And I used to walk home and it was fine. I could never imagine sending my children when they're 11 years old to walk home from school the amount of traffic that there is now and especially if there were to be added airport traffic also coming through the neighborhood. Um it's just there needs to be a different solution. It's not safe.
020It's just it's not safe overall and it's not fair to put the youngest members of our community at risk to only benefit the airport because let's be honest to relieve the traffic on Fort Hill Road mostly only benefits the airport. It does not benefit any of the children. It doesn't benefit the families, anybody that's traveling to or from Nathan Hale. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes the public speaking portion of the meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Next on our agenda is approval of the minutes of March 4th, 2025. I move. Second. Thank you. Who seconded? Miss Oh, Mr. Wararez. Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none, we will vote. Dr. Bonitez. Yes. Mr. Hardes. Yes. Mr. Wilcox. Yes. Dr. Joiner. Yes. Miss Downer. Yes. Mr. Musler is not here. Miss Cologne is not here. Miss Mayor
021Elker. Yes. Thank you. I'm a yes as well. That motion carries. Next is the personnel report of Dr. Negron. Dr. Negron. Um, good evening. I'm asking for approval of the personal report. In there, you will see that we have um two uh retirements that I wish to highlight. uh Miss Patricia Harkkins, an English teacher who will be retiring on June 30th after serving 31 years, and Mr. Thomas Merritt, a science teacher, also retiring on June 30th after serving 27 years. And that concludes my personal report. Thank you. Congratulations. And thank you to our retirees, Mr. Cox, I move we second. The internet has been unstable. Okay. I don't know if I was asked to vote, but I I The superintendent's personnel report has been has been moved and seconded. Um any discussion seeing seeing none,
022we will vote. Mr. Wilcox, yes. Dr. the joiner. Yes. Dr. Joiner. Yes. Could you hear me? Dr. Bonitez, they are frozen. Yes. Thank you, Miss Downer. Yes, Mr. Hardes. Yes, Mayor Eller. Yes, Dr. Joiner. Yes. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Hues. Yes. Thank you. I'm a yes as well. That motion carries. Finance and operations committee. Mr. Wilcox. Right. Thank you. Before we get started, is there anything anyone would like to move separately? Miss Downer. Yes. Um um Mr. President, I'm actually looking for 7.2. 2 and 7.3 to be moved separately. Certainly. Thank you. All right. Uh first thing is a um one change here is we had the request to remove purchase order 7.01 which is the the multi-year could be considered and presented to the FNO committee at our next meeting. So, uh the other
023next thing is I am going to move item 5.02 separately. This was categorized as a um agreement. This is actually year four of a true multi-year agreement that was approved by the board, approved by the board of alders. And so uh it's thought that this would be better as a purchase order. But so I'm just going to move now that we approve uh item 5.02, which is year four of the multi-year agreement with the Connecticut Association for Performing Arts. I second. Any discussion? Seeing none, Mr. Wilcox. Yes. Dr. Joiner. Yes. Dr. Bonitz. Yes. Miss Downer. Yes. Mr. Huarez. Yes. Mayor Eller. Yes. I'm a yes as well. That motion carries. All right. Next, I move that we approve items 7.02 and 7.03, which are purchase orders for ABM coverage for permitted event support services and
024floor support at events at Flack and some of our other high school locations. Second. Any discussion? Mr. Wilcox, just as a reminder, this was these two items were tabled by this board at our last meeting. We heard more information about it at our previous finance and operations committee meeting, including we received a memo which should have been posted for the uh meeting materials this afternoon for tonight uh stating that there was not any cases where what we are proposed to pay ABM for was paid to SJ services and um we've all heard issues with SJ services and so we will be having this in a um um uh at our next finance and operations meeting a discussion item solely on that topic. So, thank you. Thank you, Miss Downer. So, since the last meeting, I
025kind of like I'm I'm just not settled with it at all. I got the chance to look at the RFP dated back from 2022. Um, and there was a few things that sort of stuck out with these contracts. Um, one of the things that it was actually calling for and one of the requirements and general conditions is um, the monthly invoices in detail and it was those detail invoices should be provided to the COO which would have been acting COO Mike Carter. Uh, Mr. Carter himself has said he didn't receive it on a monthly time. We are now looking at billing for 3 months here. Um the other thing that it requires our vendors and ABM is our vendor to be trustworthy and reliable at all times. So the contract the RFQ is written and
026I'm pretty sure the same language still stands when the city of these large magnitudes of these contracts have the same language in it where the contractors responsible for the assignment and also to provide us internal support especially when we're we have these type of events whether it's at flack or whether we're at um cross or these major schools they failed to do that the other thing that stands out a lot is these contracts are binding. Um, and we tend to move from that when it comes to accountability. The board had no warning signal. This is some of the things that we have actually been promised. Um, but apparently, you know, the school system is working on it. But for something like this where we have a blatant contractor refusing to do our work and breach
027our contract and no one told us um you know I'm like I said before I'm for sure that ABM has a similar language. So why ABM which is our facilities uh management company which is our you know our vendor didn't tell us why do they wait till now when it gets up to like $200,000. So to me um there was a failure to meet our contract obligations. Um, ABM is indeed engaged with STA services and at some point the terms of the condition should have been reviewed to be addressed and so all these vendors can be held accountable. So besides a few lessons learned that we talked about in FNO meeting, the conditions of the RFP is very clear and the expectations are there. At the end of the day, we need to stop this.
028A change is really needed to bring quality standards to our school system. these these standards. It starts with our operation team. It's going to better our teaching and learning environment. I urge the school to look at consequences needed that need to be enforced, re non-negotiated terms, and seek mediation. There is nothing good that anybody could say when we were left out like sitting ducks. So I just asked you tonight to vote on compliance when it comes to terms, conditions, policies, regulations. It definitely tells a good story when it's in writing and the pen hit the paper. And that's all I got to say. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Downer. Other discussion, Dr. Joiner. Uh I I really believe that Miss Donna made some valid points. Um, one of the one of the real problems we
029have is is our structural inability to do the monitoring necessary to to hold people accountable as well as the how can I say this? It it seems that each year we we have more problems with um some of our private contractors and and I do I have seen that the superintendent is posting a facilities director position and and a chief operating and and she's going to find a chief operating officer. We're having these problems because we are handicapped. We just don't have the internal structure and personnel to monitor this. And in the past, we've kind of depended on the goodwill of the people that we give these big contracts to. Uh it actually has been much worse in previous years. Much much worse. Um and so I I think she's absolutely right. Uh, I can't
030wait until we can hire the staff that we need, but we have to in an era of declining revenues, we have to show the public that we're spending funds in a in an effective way. And uh, someone should have to answer for, for example, when the superintendent followed the people during the snow plow and she found that they hadn't done what they claimed to have done. And that's that's the top that's the top of our organization seeing it that. So we're gonna have to do something about it. Um I think if this was a personal contractor working in your home and you found these issues, I think you'd have to sit down with that person and say, "Listen, where do we go from here?" And um I I think that we're going to have to
031do that. It's it's it's not easy. It's messy, but um that's the nature of of of the beast. So, I'm I'm in complete um alignment with her positions on this based on information that I have. Uh but I will say that there's a bit more monitoring going on now than there was when I first got on this board. Uh it has gotten better, but we cannot do a good job until we have a chief operating officer and a facilities manager that will be able to uh investigate um help develop contracts uh monitor uh do quality assessments and what have you so that we can um expend our funds in a more effective way. And I'm not blaming anybody on the board. Not at all. Uh to me, if if if if you say you're going
032to clean snow and you don't clean it to the satisfaction, then that's that's on the vendor. If if you say that you had 20 people that you you you sent to work on a day, you only sent 10, that's on the vendor. But it's our responsibility to make sure that when we find these um these problems that that we deal with them and and and it starts with the contract and and as well as all these other agreements that we can get that will ensure quality control and quality works workmanship. That's all I have to say on that. Thank you Dr. Joiner. Mr. Wilcox and then Dr. Bonitez. Uh, thank you. I will be voting in favor of these items tonight. Um, I certainly agree that we've had issues with SJ's services on part-time custodial.
033It's why we're devoting time at our next FNO agenda on this and it's been on several other agendas uh to talk about this. Um, I was going to mention it in my um, FNO report later this evening, but the putting this out for bid for rethinking uh, part-time custodial, that bid item closed, I believe, um, last week. And so we will soon have potentially other options in front of us for that for those services. But for the item in front of us tonight for ABM coverage on these events where SJ services did not provide the services, uh ABM did uh it's been provided in testimony here and I believe at our last board meeting that we actually saved a little bit of money over what it would have cost because ABM stepped in on this
034and uh they did so as was an ongoing situation because as Mr. Carter has testified. He was in the process of working with SJ trying to get them to come to an agreement to provide these services. So, um, for these reasons, I'm going to be voting yes on this tonight since the work has been done. The vendor needs to be paid and we've had confirmation that no other vendor was paid for this work except the one that we have in front of us on these two items this evening. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Wilcox. Dr. Bonitez. Uh, thank you, Mr. Wilcox. And, um, because I was just going to ask, uh, I'm assuming if you're bringing this to us that the members of this board were all present at FNO, had a conversation about this,
035should have had clarification. And I'm a little bit concerned that we are discussing this now, but I everybody has a right to to disagree on things. I will be voting for this. As you all know, I don't like to not pay for work that's being done for this district. It's not good business, I don't think. Thank you, Dr. Bonitez. Uh for myself, I'm voting in favor of this. Um I agree with the comments that have been made. Uh SJ services uh did not perform this service that they agreed to perform and at the district's request uh ABM did perform the services. And the two uh items that are before us is to pay ABM for those services that do not overlap with what SGA um with SJ services uh did do beforehand. The other comments,
036suggestions, Miss Downer, I just wanted to say there was one individual from SJ services that did perform work and there was a memo that was sent also. Yes. Thank you. And you're referring to the gentleman who or the member uh had particular expertise that stepped in to help. You're correct. Thank you. Yes. Yes. Okay, additional comments, Dr. Joiner. Um, I'm going to vote yes for this, but bear in mind I have a lot of scar tissue and I don't want to raise the dead, so to speak, but there's been some This is the first time that I've heard the board call out a particular contractor where there's proof that the person didn't do that due diligence. So, I I really support that. Uh but uh we we have to keep doing this and uh like
037Dr. Bonitez, when people have done the work, they should be paid. And um I'm voting yes for that. But I'm I'm I'm also glad that what you just said and and also what Miss Donald just said, there was one SJ person who did do it do his job and you indicated that there was no duplication that we didn't pay SJ for work. They didn't do that. We paid ABM for work. they did uh because SJ failed to rise to to the level that we we contract with them for. So I I look for better days ahead. Uh and I applaud all of you uh for the kind of work that you've had to do to dig deep and we ought to we ought to have a little statue of Mike Carter in front of city
038hall for some of the work that he's done to try to make sure that we're protected. But I I urge the board to carefully consider future contracts, to have a a a frequent monitoring system to evaluate projects and repairs in such a way that we'll know who did what when and where and how much it cost us. uh if we if we're a system that's based on data and metrics, then there are metrics out there that could easily help us evaluate the work of people that we pay pay as private contractors, not just in maintenance, but also in some of the academic areas where we have people in after school programs. So again, I I applaud the board for this. Um and u I also applaud Miss Miss Donna for her experience and and and
039and Mr. Will Cox and you for the hard work you do on the uh on on on the finance team. This is a good board. This is the first time that I feel comfortable moving forward with some of the stuff that we had we struggled with in the past and and and I'm talking about the first four to six years I was on the board. So thank you. Thank you Dr. Joiner. Thank you board for the conversation. We'll now vote Mr. Wilcox. Yes. Dr. Joiner, yes. Miss Downer, no. Dr. Bonitz, yes. Mr. Hues, yes. Mayor Eller, yes. I'm a yes as well. That motion carries. Mr. Wilcox. And finally, I move that we approve the one abstract, the remaining one agreement, the one amendment, and the two contracts listed on our agenda. Second. Any discussion?
040Seeing none, we'll vote. Mr. Wilcox, yes. Dr. Joiner, yes. Dr. Bonitez, yes. Miss Downer, yes. Mr. Huarees. Yes. Mayor Eller. Yes. I'm a yes as well. That motion carries. Next on our agenda is the students report. I don't know they submitted anything. Okay. They're on spring break. Oh, excuse us. I'm sure they have Wi-Fi where they have spring break, but okay. Um Okay, we'll skip that for now. Hope they enjoy the spring break. Uh superintendence report. Yes, thank you. Um tonight, um I'm going to be joined by our chief of finance, Linda Hannons, and as well as Christine Bourne from the um office of finance. We are bringing forth to you our um proposed general budget. As you may recall, this has been a topic that we have um presented at FNL extensively. Um we
041also um brought it to this table as well and we have gone back to continue to look at possibilities on how we can best mitigate um our current fiscal situation as we think about um the year ahead. Um I will need Miss Kamacho to help us out by um putting up the presentation. next slide please. So again, I want to share um actually before I share, I do want to take a moment to um extend my gratitude to members of um my cabinet, members of the executive leadership team, um Miss Linda Hannons, Christine Bourne, Lisa Fleger, Fragler, and many others. We have spent weeks, extensive hours going through every single um school budget, every single um contractual service, looked at every single opportunity to arrive at the best um scenario as it relates again to
042our proposed general budget. I want to stress that uh we have done our due diligence in what we are going to present um to you today. Um again the objectives as we had shared in FNO before we were aiming to get number one at a transparent budget process. That is why there were multiple conversations held in our FNO um committee because ultimately we are trying to get at an equitable and sitebased budget that will support the instructional core and also get us um at a balanced budget. In our next slide, um again to remind folks about our demographics in terms of student need and the students um who we do this work for. We are in service of them. Um always take a minute to show um the number of school facilities that we are
043supporting as well as our demographic. And with that last um row um the level of need that currently exists in our district. In our next slide um is to give everyone again um a glance uh where we have been as it relates to enrollment. Um here you will see that our enrollment has trended um downwards since 20 um 17. We'll wait until we mute that. Have you heard Mike? Are you able to mute? Thank you. Um, as a reminder in our next slide, um, to, um, not to the board because the board completely understands this, but to the public, in our next slide, we are funded, all districts in Connecticut are funded based on the educational cost sharing formula. That formula uh begins with a foundational amount that was established by the legislature which right
044now and has been consisting of 11,525,000 per student. That foundational amount has not changed um in over a decade. So we start with a foundational amount for every child and then there are weights that are added to that foundational amount um to get at uh the funds that are necessary uh and required to support um students with greater need. So right now that formula accounts for lowincome students. So there's a weight for that. There's also a weight for multilingual learners and there's also a weight for students who are living in concentrated poverty. Those are the only components of that ECS formula. If you have been following a lot of the press as of late, it has not only been us in New Haven who have been advocating for changes to ECS. There has been advocacy
045done by teachers union. There has been advocacy done by students. There has been advocacy done um by multiple districts because right now we are in desperate need for that formula to be updated to number one catch up with inflation and second to increase those weights to properly represent what it requires in 2025 to educate a child. So again just wanted to remind folks about ECS based on that formula in our next slide that is what we are um expecting to get in revenue. We are expecting to get 142.5 in our alliance um I'm sorry in our ECS cost sharing grant and 28.4 four that is part of that ECS but comes to us as alliance um grant funding. So that's all that we are expecting to receive as it relates to state funding. In addition
046to that we would get our um interd district grant uh with which right now we are projecting at about $36.8 8 million and then what we get for tuition billing. But that is all of our revenue. That's it. In our next slide, we do have um a reminder uh for the public that again uh when it comes to grants, we're going back to what we used to get um back in 2016 27. actually it will be a little lower. we are expecting um 84.7 uh because the influx of the esser dollars and um arpeser that's done and over with and I also want to remind folks that although we are expecting the 84.7 um in grants and in our next slide you see the grants that we currently have as of um that we are
047projecting for 2526. I also want to remind us all that every day, every week we read about changes that are happening in the federal government and a lot of those our grants um pass through the state to us but a lot of that funding comes directly um from federal grants. So this is what we are expecting. This does not necessarily mean that tomorrow we turn on our TVs and there's a whole new story about what is going to be cut. So again, that is all of our revenue. In our next slide, I'm going to turn it over to Miss uh Hannons who has been working to put together um our budget. Good evening everyone. Thank you Dr. Negro. Um I'm going to talk about our projection summaries and what we've done with the budget so
048far even working right until this afternoon. So what happened is to to tell the story last year we had asked um we had requested 220 and we ended up getting approved at 208 which left us um coming out of the gate at $1.8 million shortfall. In 2425 we um took the 208263784 and our request for 2526 based on that number was 225 216777 with no new request. It was it was a status quo budget and the difference brought us at $16.9 million an increase that we asked for eight eight% rounded off. Then in 2425 we said okay fine we have vacancies we have a lot of things that we have not been put into the budget and I'm sure you all hear of all the things that are the buildings that we can't keep up
049to par or just various things that we have not been able to do. So we said with this budget we were just going to put everything on the table and start from there. So what happened is that we had 263784 again our real budget incre our budget request would actually be 231.5 which includes all vacancies the one previously did not include any vacancies the status quo budget. So we came out the gate needing 23 million.2 and that was an 11.15% increase. What we've been working on since we came up with the with the numbers and the increases that we needed, what we were working on just until today, matter of fact, and we're still working on it when we leave here. We did the projection of 23 231 181. We were able to work on
050reductions of 5 uh 5.895. So now the difference comes down to 17 17 million 33618 that we are still looking for. So with that what we did was then we said okay our proposed budget let's put it all on one sheet instead of um previous where we had we did share those with finance but to um we just put everything all together. So what we're showing on this this sheet here is the actual request with the um actual cost which is the 225. So that brought us down to we needed 16.5 16.6 really million dollars more and that was the 8.14% cut. Then with our uh request staff actual cuts and vacancies that's everything in on the table. We were coming in. We were coming in at 231494972. And you could see there's that 23
051number again, the 23 231. So that would have been an 11.15% increase. What we worked on for the last just about three or four months now is to as Dr. and the grown uh alluded to earlier. We've looked at every single expense that we have to see how we could mitigate um the the the impending uh shortfall. So today we actually came up with the numbers of uh 225599 so 2256 which leaves us now with 17 uh.3 at a percentage rate of 8.42%. So, as you can see, we got we got some numbers down, but they're not nearly enough. Um, but this is where we are today knowing more work is still needed. The I don't know if I need to see more. Is that up there? Okay. For the revenue assumptions, we um we
052updated those as much as we could. Um and um looking at some of the numbers are just coming in to be verified. I think some come in in May. So we there are going to be tweaked a little bit, but this is not far off of where we're going to be. And as Dr. Negron uh alluded to earlier with the 142.5 is still the education cost share and then any new money has to come in through the alliance grant um which is at now at 28. Keeping in mind though that the alliance grant is not to cannot um fill the need of our deficit. So it and and all the alliance grants you you must put in new programming. So we have to look at now how we're writing our grants and how we can
053pick up some of the cost but make sure that we're within compliance issues and and we're we're supporting um not supplanting. So, um, not much has changed on this sheet. Um, it's still an active document, but this is the for 2526. This is where we think we're going to be. This page here is to because of the the categories and we couldn't list every single category on the summary budget page because that would be like four, five, six pages longer. So what we've done here is with the proposed budget, we try to show you what the categories are and then the description of the charact category. So you'll see like in instructional supplies, you can have stuff like equipment that has a life of less than a year and if it if something happened to
054it, of course you would destroy it, you wouldn't try to replace it. Um special ed tuition, uh natural gas is all under utilities. transportation would be buses, bus passes, interd district transportation. We also include special ed and is and um field trips as well. And then our other contracted services are could be our business travel, any workshops, any uniforms, postage, contractual services, legal services, and legal sentiments. So that's just to give you a short overview of when you're looking at a category and you see numbers change or you say, "Well, what's in that category?" This tells you what is actually in those categories and and matter of fact this is the way we port report out when we have to do the reports at the end of the fiscal year. So we try to keep
055in in things in with the state codes. Our notable cost drivers um the ba the main one basically is 8.43% and that's all under personnel. We have our next big large one is out of dis out of district tuition and then our third one is transportation. All of our um full-time staff are part of collecting bargaining agreements. So whatever the agreement calls for, that's what we have to do there. Of our of our four largest bargaining units, the following contract changes are in place for 2526. The teachers would get a bump, administrators get a bump, par professors, we are still in negotiations and management, no no step movement um in in that fiscal year, but there's a 3% 3% raise. So all other salary changes are to be negotiated. a transportation contract renewal for July
056uh 25. Our anticipated increase is 2%. We just received our contract, but for 25 20 and going forward, it's 2% for the next fiscal year. So that would be the 25 26 year. We also have price escalation is spelled out in our long-term agreements. Um and those are agreements that we have for more than one year. So, whatever those price increases call for, that's what would be those would be your um maintenance and and tuition and other costs like things that we already have gotten notification that we are will be expecting increases in there. And then we have escalating special education costs. there are costs in there are things in plan I mean in in works for us to um try to get those costs down um and then also we had our state regulated
057increase and those that's for our charter school um and I think it was a it's 7% for 20 242 so what is the impact now of what we've been what we've done. Thus far, we have a reduction so far of 4.3 million in full-time salary cross cost cross cost cross across the district. We're going to we're thinking of eliminating all non- studententf facing part-time staff um substitutes. We would be should be able to reduce our substitutes b um based on our right sizing plan. We um have to reduce our summer school offerings and locations. We're trying to eliminate overtime, which will result in less buildings being open in the evenings and weekends. We also had done a $1.5 million reduction in non-personnel cost. So, that hit general ed supplies. Um, our tuition, we're thinking of
058bringing a program inhouse, which will save us money. our contracted services. We're we were talking about um bundling like some schools have contracts and we're thinking, okay, fine, let's pull them all together and bundle them and hope that the vendor will give us a better price. We may have to do multi-year, but if we can do a get a better price, then it's worth it. We're also thinking of um looking at our legal legal services and see how we can um reduce those costs as well. And I think that was that was it on that slide. The next slide basically is just gives you our budget timeline. So right now we're at the part where we are presenting our budget to the board for um a vote and then next week um our budget hearing
059with the board of alders finance committee is the week on on the 24th. So I, you know, I'd like to keep folks up to date so we'll know where we are and to take action accordingly. What we don't know, the effect of the uncertainty in Washington on our current budget, budget and future funding, the effect of declining enrollment, which will have on grants. Some of our grants are entitlement, but it's ba they're also based on enrollment need costs due to unfunded mandates. I think we had a few last year that came out. We have increased costs for health care and other benefits. Impact of inflation on goods and services. We have increasing costs of special education services and outplacements. And then also costs which are due to aging infrastructure infrastructure at our schools. And that
060doesn't include the the uh the emergency costs which happen just about every day. and we have to include those costs in our budget which were not originally budgeted. So our final thoughts at this point were the award um just want to mention what the the funds that we received with ESSER and how extremely helpful they were in in designing robust academic and other improvements for our students. Um we also um due to increased costs mentioned in earlier slides and decrease in grant revenue we are facing serious gaps in our resources which will result in a loss of programming to students such as increased class sizes reductions in class offerings cuts in athletics afterchool programs just to name a few. We will continue as we have always done and as we do every day in the
061finance department to explore new sources of funding opportunities as well as continuing the challenges to close the gap. And I will now turn it over to Dr. Mcgrron for final words. Thank you uh Miss Henance. So again I want to reiterate that with all the work that went in um looking at everything we were able to find that 5.8 8 worth of cuts. I want to reiterate that every single one of those cuts is not an easy cut. Every single one of those cuts means that we're going to continue to combine classrooms wherever we can. Um so we will be going from small size to bigger size class based on contract wherever we could do that. Um even looking at um high school courses where maybe there were small number of kids and saying that
062course can't run next year we probably have to look at the following year. So every cut will hurt in terms of what it does um to the experience. We are trying to stay as true as possible to the learning uh experience knobshot that I had provided um earlier. I just noticed that it that slide didn't made make it on there. I'll make sure that it gets added again where we spoke about we still have to provide for academics. We still have to provide um our integrated instructional models for students with disabilities and our MLS. We still need to provide academic and behavioral interventions. We still need to tend to the whole child by looking at their social and emotional supports. We still want to hold on to our college and career pathways. We sure do
063not want to be cutting our athletic program. So, we're keeping that intact. um doing some reduction even on the team that we have been utilizing to address student attendance while keeping some of that team and also making some cuts in professional learning but still um having professional learning so that we can continue to be on top of our game. So again I to put it broadly I don't know what else to cut. I have looked at everything possible that we could cut and still be able to open the door so I could sleep at night and feel like we are still providing our students a public education. That's as far as we've gotten. That's a 17.3. I wanted to again be transparent and show you today exactly what it is that we have in this
064proposed budget. So with that, I guess we'll pause there and Miss Hannis and I will open it up for questions. Thank you, Dr. Negro, Miss Hannis, Miss Bourne. Questions, comments? Dr. Bonitz, thank you uh team. this I I am sure this uh something that everybody um thought very thoroughly about because um we cannot uh spare anything of what we have. So I know that for all of you this was a very difficult uh process but I have a question and um one of the things and and this is pennies pennies but I have a question we usually allow community members to use our buildings without pay. Uh is that something that we continue to do and uh should we consider not doing that anymore or making sure that people aware that we cannot afford doing
065that? That's one question. Second question I have is when we have students who receive special education services who are out of district, they are uh perhaps from um through magnet or through open choice from other districts and we provide the services as we do for our students. Is that district responsible for some of that spending or is that completely on us? Those are the two questions I have on expenditure. And then two um statements I want to make. I I want every staff member and every community member to understand that we must keep our lights on. We must bring our kids in and therefore we all have to be willing to make sacrifices ones that do not touch the academics. And second, I would like for us to think about how do we support the
066district as volunteers from the community? And I'm sure that requires much more thinking and much more planning. I'm not I don't want to burden you with too much more, but those two things I wanted to to say. Anyway, um I'm in I'm asking the faith community and other community organizations to think about how they may support community programming so that we don't have to open our huge buildings for activities that may require a smaller space. That's all I have to say. Thank you. Um, Dr. Bonitez, I think I can answer your your two questions as it relates to building usage. I know that in FNL um the plan was to take a look again at our tier system in terms of usage to be able to um revisit and update that because I believe it
067has been the same rate for um many many years. Mr. Wilcox, you might know a little more, but I know that that was one of the things that we wanted to do. So, for example, when somebody submits a use of facility, um, sometimes they'll have to they'll have to pay the cost of the custodians or the cost of security guards, but those rates again have not been revisited in many, many years. So those are the rates that I'm speaking about that there's interest to take a look at that to ensure that again we know lights right electricity has gone up every time we have to open a building even at night or the weekend even though somebody has a use of request that's that's an expense that we're going to have to um incur. Thus
068we want to um adjust the rates for those um use of facilities. The second question that you posed related to um magnet and open choice please um keep in mind that part of the revenue that we do get is the interd district grant. So those are the funds that come in. So for example um last year we got $36.8 8 million based on the number of kids um who participate in uh magnet or open choice. Thank you Dr. Bonitez. Thank you Dr. Sorry I have a I have a followup question. Sorry. Yeah, if I may. Um then my question is um does that grant cover special ed services that are beyond what would be a per pupil which is I understand what they pay. So what we get is a per pupil allocation as it
069relates um more on the special education side which I think I better heard you say something. I know there's um litigation going on right now um related to uh reasonable reasonable cost versus actual actual cost. So there's a big debate as to what that means. So right now for example um Waterberry was one of the um folks that were part of that litigation. uh we were part of that as well and we did receive um an update and it is something that I know attorney Alexi um is going to be looking at um with us to see whether we're going to be um jumping on into that litigation as well. And Dr. Bonitz, if I might add, we do build the individual towns for the students that come outside into New Haven for special education
070services. directly. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Bonitz, Mr. Wilcox, and then Mayor Eller and Dr. Joiner. Mr. Wilcox. Uh, thank you very much. So, um, thanks again for this presentation. My understanding is this is you're going is it next week for the next next Thursday? Uh, going to the alders to present this. Uh and I mean it's a budget with a big gap that's in there. Gap between what is needed in this district uh which is obvious in terms of number of people we have in the buildings and the buildings themselves. There's gap between what's needed and what we have. And I think this is uh largely due to our per pupil funding gap between what we have in New Haven compared to other towns. We're below the state average. And when you have big
071numbers because we have a lot of students but less money per student. Uh it doesn't mean just because we have a lot of students that our students are cheaper. And in fact, one of the slides points out that we have a lot of English language learners, kids with special needs, homeless children, etc. So our needs are certainly pretty high here and in other districts. Um and uh this is just a lot of difficult choices the district has to make. You know, I just couldn't help but think that on that impact slide that you all presented of all the things that you've been working on trying to cut your budget, which was the one that you said you can't go below without cutting things. There you are having to go below and cut things and everything
072on that impact slide, you know, eliminating um programs, cutting supplies, all that, staff, etc. None of those things should have to happen. And it's unfortunate that we're in this position where you all have to be planning of not having enough. And then what else are you going to cut? And um again, it's our per pupil funding is lower. And I think um I still think that we need to have the worst case information slide uh presented before this goes to the alders. Just to make clear that I from gathering what we're saying here is unless there's increased city contribution or per much preferably the passage of SP1151 which would address things like indexing ECS formula to inflation. That's what really needs to happen. But if we don't have those things, we're going to have these
073cuts that were talked about tonight and even worse. And these students don't deserve that. Our staff don't deserve that. it's demoralizing enough um that's just going to add further to it. So I hope everybody is contacting their state representatives and state senators and so on asking them to support increasing per pupil funding through things like SP 1151 so that we can actually have what these students need. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Wilcox. Mayor Aler. Uh, thank you. I I I um I'm sorry if I'm not clear on it. If if if you could just reiterate, so the impact slide is what you've already identified for cuts, but there is still a large deficit after you implement those cuts. Is that correct? That is correct, Mayor Eller. And uh to Mr. Wilcox's question about uh what
074is the reality with the 5.8 a cut. We're talking about 103 positions. 103 and that still leaves that 17 three gap. So So the the impact slide had the the highest line was a 4 million something million dollar full-time employees and those those you're suggesting are vacancies or they're actual filled positions. No. Um, some of those are active like these are people's lives. They're in those positions. Only about 40 of those positions are uh vacant. Okay. And and then beyond that, there is still a $17 million deficit, 17.3. So, I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Wilcox that we have to be explicit about not just the 5 million that you've already identified in cuts that are very painful but the entire 17 million of what happens um if if we don't get an increase in funding
075from the state because it's way more people it's many more layoffs because that's where the bulk of the money comes from is personnel budget because that's the bulk of our budget um than the number that you've outlined in the five billion cuts. And the challenge right now, the dilemma right now is that with those 103 positions that have been identified for the cut resulting in the 5.8, 8 at least we're still able to hold on to provide kids an education is holding on to their core is holding on to their um arts music um PE is holding on to our athletic program right to find the other 17.3 in staffing that is where right now in all honesty don't know what else we are able to do because even that finding that 103 was extremely
076painful. I I understand Dr. underground, but you uh if we don't receive additional funding, you'll have to do that. And I think it's uh it's fair to the legislators who you present this to uh for them to understand the gravity of the cuts because otherwise you're presenting something that says it's already bad and you're not presenting the scenario that is currently the trajectory here. And so I I strongly encourage you to outline what it would look like if we did not get that additional 17 million on top of the 5 million that is already painful. Again, we're going to continue what we're doing. Um I don't know how much drastic I can get. One of the pieces that we were talking about this afternoon, um I know that there are models um that happen in
077other states where they take a look at an opt out um program as it relates to transportation. And right now in this district, we we transport everyone, not just to school and home. We transport to home and to babysitting and to program. maybe that's something that we cannot continue to do. So, knowing how how much we paid in transportation, that was going to be one of the areas that we were going to um look at look at to see what if there was a high school opt out um program because right now every we're we're paying for everybody when we know not everybody rides that bus that somebody can say, "Hey, I am not going to take the bus." that that can actually translate into um the actual number of routes that we would need
078all within the um the contract because we do have a contract with the bus company. So that's going to be one place where we are going to look at. Again, if you want us to look at cutting all sports, we can cut all sports. Uh we can see how much that equates to. Uh, but I feel like there are no more cuts to be made in the classroom. I I understand. I'm just asking that you you be very direct and honest with the legislators about what the consequences are of not getting an additional 17 million on top of the 5 million and we will do so. And again, I wanted to share with you guys the scope of the magnitude of what we're talking about. Thank you, Mayor Eller. Dr. joiner. I I just want
079to support what Mr. Wilcox and what the mayor said about giving people the unadulterated truth about the desperate nature of our circumstances. Um we are in a let them eat cake era in American politics, especially as it relates to education and human services. And uh even if we get everything right at the state level and and we still haven't done that, we need to do that. we're gonna struggle. But I I really applaud you for what you're doing. And I would liken what Mr. Wilcox and what the mayor said to a doctor looking at your lab work and finding that you have a really serious problem and then failing to tell you about it. We we need to let people know what the implications are of this for kids as well as parents that work
080for us who may lose their jobs and that will have a ripple effect on on this community. The other real big structural problem that nobody talks about is something that Dr. Bonitez raised. or you know we we get kids from other school districts and there's a formula that reimbures us for them. But is that formula fully reimbursing us? In other words, if we get $36 million because of our magnet program and we have x number of students in that program, does that $36 million cover the full cost of educating those children? And and and there are lots of costs other than the ones that are obvious. The the other thing is that we Dr. Dr. Bonita has made an appeal to the community to help us help us out. And we're going to need that
081big time. If you do believe in what you do to the least among us, you do to me. If you believe in that, then you ought to be the first person knocking on the school's door saying, "How can I help?" I if if you believe in the story of the good Samaritan, then you ought to be knocking down doors of schools saying, "How can I help?" The only way this country has gotten to where it is now is because there were brave people at every level of society that truly believe in the greatest good for the greatest number. That everybody's entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And that's the biggest resistance that we're going to have to push back now because there are so many people in power who don't believe that
082and who have willfully manipulated people into thinking that they are the answer. We can't allow that to cause us to quarrel in our own city and we can't allow that to cause us to quarrel with our state folks as long as they are doing what uh is is required in terms of giving us our just do. Uh, and the last thing, and I I keep repeating this, New Haven has less than 50% of taxable properties in its borders. And our institutions, our schools, our medical facilities, our cultural institutions support the entire state. That ought to be worth something. And if not, that means we're being pimped. We're being pimped. And I'm sure everybody out there knows what pimping is. And I hate to use that word, but we got to use whatever means necessary as
083long as they're morally and intellectually defensible to help people know the trouble that we're in and the kind of hard work that it's going to take for us to get out of that. Um, and I rest my case. Thank you, Dr. Joiner. Thank the superintendent team for your presentation on the budget. Um, and I've been thinking about how thinking about the conversation about how to represent the uh deficit, the 17.3 17.3 million and how to name it, how to talk about if it doesn't show up uh like the money doesn't come in, what are the further cuts? Um, and I'm torn because at some point we can remove something such that we're not providing the public education that the state has committed to provide. So for example, if I think about the from a medical
084standpoint, um, human body got two kidneys. Okay, I can get rid of one kidney and still function. Uh, but the heart is not optional. Yeah, there you go. At some point, you get rid of the heart, you don't have the person. And so, I'm a little torn about acknowledging where additional cuts will come from because somebody say, "Oh, yeah, go ahead, cut that. You done, you named it. Go ahead and cut it." Well, what if we do cut athletics? What if we do cut arts? What if we do cut some of the programs that we know our children need for career or that our children need for going to college? What if we do cut the faculty? What if we do cut the leadership? At some point, we're not going to have a a functional
085school to present or a functional program to present. Um, so I I agree that we have to be clear on what the deficit is and I think we also need to be clear on what it is we are legally charged to provide and what we morally agree that we're going to provide. And the state needs to be clear on that as well. Uh, because they're leading this effort. Um, and so if we say there's nothing more to cut, you can't have my brain, then I think we need to say it and be clear, um, under no uncertain terms, can these particular roles and whatever magnitude, uh, not not exist? Um, so maybe we need to do a combination of things depending on who we're speaking with. Uh but at some point we're not going to
086have uh the education system that we are charged to provide uh if we don't have the resources to do it. Um other questions, comments um Mr. Wilcox uh pointed out that and I see you miss down Mr. Wilcox pointed out that um uh our superintendent and the staff are going to present to the alders, board of alders on next week this draft budget. So I just want to reiterate that. Um Miss Downer, please. Well, I just wanted to just say that this is um this is just very disheartening, you know, but I know the truth, you know. I know that the state um you know can't provide us anything because you know it all trickles down to what's going on in Washington DC. Um I too am leaning with Dr. B and everyone here. Um
087yes, we need to call on our faith friends and you know help us through this. So uh very disheartened because you know who I can't even even think about what's actually going to happen. Um, but I stand with everyone. Um, the mayor, um, Mr. Wilcox, um, Dr. Joiner and Dr. B, Mr. N, um, Mr. President, I stand with you. Thank you, Miss Downer. Yes. Dr. on the ground. I just wanted to add that um yes, it is it's very disheartening. It's concerning, but I also want to remind folks that our state has a rainy fund. It has a rainy fund and right now it's raining on our students. It is raining and on on the future of our state. It is raining and that's what that rainy fund is for. And I know that there's
088will from our state legislators to want to do something. All of my colleagues, this isn't just about urban environments. This is about all 169 public school districts who are in the same predicament because we're all being faced by the same fiscal challenges. There is will to do something about it, but there has to be increased pressure up at the state so that those guard rails can be loosened up so that finally we can get the help that we need. I am grateful for what the local has done to continue to support us. I am grateful for what our delegation has advocated for. But we have got to come out in masses and and say to our governor, "Governor, it is raining on our kids and our kids deserve better." Thank you, Dr. Negrron. Is there
089more to share for your report? That completes our report. Thank you, team. Next on our agenda is the president's report. Just a quick note that with the superintendent, with the executive board, uh we're working on a board orientation and retreat and I will reach out to our team uh for dates and times that may be available for uh getting together for three hours. Any questions or comments? Thank you. uh teaching and learning. Dr. Joiner, I have a brief report and I'm going to send some information out to the board. Uh having talked to a number of teachers and students in some of our buildings, um Miss Donald was with me on one of those conversations. I think we're going to have to create we're I'm gonna ask the board to work with me to create
090a committee on education of atrisisk children for two reasons. One, we need to look at what our current programming is and and in lie of our previous discussions. Clearly, we don't have all the resources we need to help kids at risk. But we're going to have to look at that to to to look for more efficiencies and and and make sure that we know that we don't have any blind spots in that area. And at the same time, we're going to have to do more to help our teachers. Some of our students are engaging in behavior directed towards staff members that's just unconscionable and we can't have that absolutely not have that. And so in in working with uh this atrisisk committee uh I' I'd like to work with superintendent and the board to identify
091the membership. Uh I believe in workforce um uh committees that have work forces work teams with them and I think there should be about eight eight teams. One would be uh the um data collection and analysis work team. Another one would be needs assessment and research work team. A third would be program evaluation and improvement. Uh fourth would be intervention and support services. A fifth would be professional development and training. Six would be family and community engagement and seventh would be policy and advocacy team and of course we'd have to have communications to uh envelop all of that. I think just as we are telling the truth about our fiscal needs, we also have to talk about the uh conduct and behavior of of folks in our building buildings and a way in which we
092can get students uh the support they need, but also help them understand that um some of the things that that that I know are being done to staff um is is just it's just not appropriate and we're going to have we're going to have to deal with that because it's demoralizing. enough not to have resources, but it's even more demoralizing to walk into a building and know that you you're not being respected and that you're not allowed to teach or or to do your job well because of one or two people. So, um that's going to that's going to be a big issue for me now. And I I'm I'm not going to move forward until I get the endorsement of the board and the superintendent. I'll submit a um perspectus to everybody and then
093of course I want to make sure that uh we invite all stakeholders to be a part of it because we do have to own the problem ourselves and we have to take the responsibility that has to be taken in order to see changes. It is a different era. When I first started teaching there were some real problems but uh schools were not responsible for kids come showing up. that was a family responsibility. Uh it seems now that we're we're saying that if if we have a poor tennis in a district, there's something wrong with the school district. So I think we have to clear up some of those myths and also make sure that we uh accord responsibility where it lies and that we u create the safest environment teaching and learn environment we can
094for our students. So again, by the next board meeting, I will have sent something out to everybody and uh we can we can act on it and decide where to go from there. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Joiner. Any discussion? Next, Dr. Joiner, facility naming committee report. Nothing to report. Thank you, Mr. Wilcox. Head Start report. Okay, this will be brief because our next meeting is this coming Thursday in April 17th and we're going to be hearing about the results of the recent focus area one review and another monitoring view that the district went through. So that is coming up on Thursday. Thank you. Any discussion? Citywide school building committee report. Mr. Wilcox, thank you. This group met last Thursday. Uh in addition to the stewardship report which should be posted for everyone to to
095see. Um we also had update on future plans for the Cross East Rock Sports Complex. Um we asked for this to be added to the standard stewardship report. So we'll get a regular update to it like we do were with other large capital projects in the district and adult debt etc. And uh also we had a recommendation for a group to look at the current issues because there seems like there are some gaps between because it's shared space, city-owned, city maintained in a lot of ways but also used by the schools. And so recommendation that there's um groups from the district working with the city and also athletic teams and families uh to look at the current issues just to see what can be fixed now. And then also we'll have future information about the
096next phases for other construction projects at the complex sports complex. Thank you. Any discussion? Finance and operations report. Mr. Wilcox. Finally, uh instead I mean in addition to the action items we've already talked about and voted on this evening, um we had an update on the adult dead lease. My understanding is parties are coming together and we'll be hearing more about this as a board in um future days. Um and that um let's see here. We also had an update on the RFPs for the part-time custodial and facilities management. I mentioned previously the part-time custodial did just close last week. So there'll be the scoring committee looking at that. uh the facilities management. It was we were told that that one will soon be posted. Um we also had and it's linked to this agenda
097I believe uh for tonight's meeting our draft of our discussion item calendar. So this is just kind of the upcoming for the next few months of things that are on the discussion calendar items. If anybody has any suggestions for additions, uh please send that to the committee which is myself uh Miss Downer and President Yarro and to the superintendent. And uh finally, just a reminder that the FNO minutes are posted as part of the board every time. And if anybody if I don't cover something verbally in the meeting, that is also there. I'm sure everybody takes a look at it, but just as a reminder that that has the record of what happened at the meeting. So, thank you. Thank you. Any discussion? Dr. Bonitez, governance report. Good evening, board of education and members of
098the public. I have two uh policies to provide to you for first reading. The first one is 5114 student suspension and expulsion process. This is to update our policy according to recommendations from CAE and state uh legislature. In addition, we have first reading for a uh for parents, family, community partners responsibility, involvement and civility policy. We would like to provide you with both of those for first reading. And we remind you that when the policies are long and important policies that require your time, we may have a second reading a month from now and giving you time to respond to the committee prior to uh voting. So, if you can all please take a look at that and make sure that um you send any comments to Miss uh Downer or I and of course
099Miss Tiffany Jackson who very strongly supports us. That's uh uh we met to discuss these policies on the 26th of March. Thank you. Thank you. Any discussion? Thank you. Seeing none, the food service task group report myself um the task group met uh last week. Um the district food service team is uh working on menu enhancements for the next year and they're also developing bids for the 2025 2026 school year. The food gap uh is um operating now in terms of this week's break and witnesses to hunger representative uh leader and United Way uh leadership partner with the district Danny Diaz and 300 plus families put in applications to receive groceries this break and there is a a new model uh where these groceries will be delivered by Havens Harvest. Uh that's an additional partnership.
100They have a model of delivering rescued food. Uh there is a commitment to maximize the students and families that are reached. Um this is also um a goal as it relates to our summer food uh programming. The food gap group received a donation from the Yale New Haven Hospital Give Healthy campaign. 6,000 pounds of fruit and uh produce and it's close to about $10,000 and this will happen I believe annually and the school uh break groceries team is asking uh Yale University for $285,000 to do 14,000 bags each break. Uh importantly, uh the school district is also involved with food sustainability and I'll look for the minutes to provide us with the details of what's happening. Um but Michelle Martinelli uh who is on the ABM team uh leads the sustainability and energy conservation effort.
101Um and there are uh four schools um that are uh that piloted reducing organic waste. Um, and that has gone up to additional schools this year. And I think the record is 22,000 lbs of organic waste kept from the landfills because of the effort of New Haven Public School uh students and staff and families. Um, so there's more information in terms of food sustainability and I look forward to the minutes coming out and the report getting to you. Any discussion? Seeing none, is there a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Wilcox. Yes. Miss Downer? Yes. Dr. Bonitez? Yes. Dr. Joiner? Yes. Mayor Eller? Yes. Mr. Hores? Yes. I'm a yes as well. Thank you everyone. Good night. Good night everybody.