001going to call tonight's meeting to order. It is 6:02 p.m. and we'll start with the pledge of allegiance. >> Oh, who did I not pick on yet? >> Amanda, you want to lead us in the pledge of allegiance? Sorry. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right, chairman update. I don't have much of one. Uh we had our budget meeting last week in which we had an obscene amount of discussion. Um, grateful for every resident who stayed online for 3 hours and 45 plus minutes. Um, that's all I have. >> Good. >> Uh, we start with citizens comments. We will start um we'll go backwards tonight. We'll start in
002the room. Any citizens comments? No citizens comments in the room. Any citizens comments on Zoom? Please raise your hand. If your iPhone is listed as iPhone 2, etc., please either a change your name on your phone or put it in the chat. We do need your name and address. >> Okay, go ahead. >> Muted. >> You are muted. I think she's trying to figure out how to change it. That's what she said. >> There we go. Oh, >> hi. Sorry. Thank you. >> Hi, Cindy Bastis. >> Hi, Cindy. >> Hi. Um, I just have a couple of questions about um the need for new lockers and security updates. Um, and then also the kitchen equipment. Are there any federal grants available to cover these costs? >> Generally, it's citizens comments, not question and answer. >>
003Oh, sorry. >> No, that's okay. What I will do is I can tell you that based on our administration that there are currently no grants that we've been able to obtain for lockers, any further security updates or the kitchen equipment. Um grants for those type of items are very few and far between. And I know that there had been some comments on the internet about why we need quote unquote restaurant equipment which was improperly quoted by the first selectment. It is not restaurant equipment. It is essentially health and safety equipment in the cafeteria because that's what keeps the hot food hot and the cold food cold. But we can continue to attempt to look for grants, which is what we always do and will continue to do. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Any
004other citizens comments? Going once. Going twice. Moving on. Okay. Board of Education budget meeting number four. >> So, um my apologies for being a few minutes late. Um Bill Stedlets and I uh went over the um expenses that came in for FY27 after I presented the budget to you all. So, I think Bill is going to start with going over what those numbers look like. Um, and then you all can have a discussion about that and then it's going to be up to the board whether or not we add that to my original budget or not. >> So, just for illustration purposes, I did include those numbers in the the package that's in front of you. Um, in a nutshell, we added, and I'll go into a little more detail in a minute, uh, $323,000
005uh to pupil surfaces and another $21,000 related to the pension contribution. I think I had mentioned that in the last meeting. Uh, we had finally heard back from the actuary and 27's contribution is a little bit higher. So, that brings the pupil services increase uh to $877,000, 17.2%. Uh the pension contribution appears in the districtwide line. That's uh budget 9006. Um so the change there is of $299,000 is $21,000 higher because of the um the contribution. Um obviously the bulk of those numbers are related to pupil services. Um I I have to be careful about how much detail I can go into. Um, however, I can say the vast majority of it is related to two outplaced students that um whose situations developed after we drafted the first budget. Uh, as well as uh having
006a better idea of the number of students who are going to Killingly and Ellis who have IEPs because there's additional related charges. >> The VOAG, >> right? Boag and and I believe Ellis 2. I think there was a couple at Ellis. Well, we have we have a little bit of money in there from Ellis. I think it's 20,000. >> Okay. >> That was from a conversation I had with Chris. >> Yeah. Chris and and I followed up with Chris after April today. >> Uh and then there's an additional amount in there um for at home related tutoring for a student uh with some medical needs. Uh that's a relatively small amount of that uh just over $300,000. Um, so all of that brings us to a revised budget of $23.9 million, which is a $2.2
007million or 9.9% uh increase. um to address a couple of the comments. I can speak generally towards a couple of the comments and questions that came out of last the la our last meeting specifically around uh there were some questions around some of the salary line fluctuations. I think I had mentioned to the board that I would I would take a look at some of the larger ones. Uh I I had expressed that in a nutshell those were pretty much related to the vast majority of them are related to step changes within the teacher lines. Uh there are some instances where um a a former teacher had been replaced either with a higher paid teacher or in other instances a lower paid teacher. So in those instances that drives some of the some of the
008larger fluctuations too. I'm about half of the way through that analysis and everything I've seen so far is sort of the lumpiness that is inherent in the step structure of teacher compensation. So you might have someone going from a step three to a step four and it's a very minor percentage increase whereas someone who is going uh from a step 13 to 14 uh it's a much more significant increase. So that's why you see a a lot of variation in the in the teacher raises. But like I said, I'm not complete completed with that. Um, forgive me there, but I wanted to get these numbers refreshed for you and and as Jess mentioned earlier, um, this is a big week on the town side because we have the first um, uh, town side budget meeting
009on Thursday. So, there's a lot of a lot of prep work going on there, but uh, the early results are in and it's it's pretty much exactly what we expected is it's it's primarily related to step differences. Okay. Any questions for Mr. Seglets? >> Justin, >> this does not include any of the capital. Correct. >> Does not include any of the capital. >> It does not. >> No, those were the only changes that we made from the from from the previous budget. And obviously we're keeping an eye on if we if we find um I know it's some noise in some of the paras salary calculation that ended up being relatively minor but that's not different from any this this is never intended to be a final budget in word even what we were talking
010about with the town uh for example on Thursday we still have numbers that are coming in on the town side for everything from what Connecticut water is charging us for hydrants and and the like and that that develops over the budget process. So, >> and this still has the 10% insurance. >> Yes, that hasn't changed, unfortunately. It's still holding at at 10%. >> What is the mill going to be worth this year? >> 1.148 million. Popular question tonight. Are there any particular line items anybody wanted to look at? >> Not a line item, >> Justin. >> Not a line item, but we usually do it a little later in the process. I'm wondering if we have any idea what that looks like now. Uh typically when we start our presentation portion of the budget season,
011we have a slide put together for grants and where where certain monies are coming from. Um and two questions to that. One, could we get a draft of that sooner rather than later before we get to presentation? So, >> we'll get that tomorrow night because that's part of the budget basics so that folks know where uh some of our revenue is coming from. Um so, I'll have that for you tomorrow. It won't be in slide format, but the information will be there. >> The information >> um uh and then of course um you know we wanted to start working on the slide part of this but we don't have a number yet. So it was difficult for us to create the pie charts and kind of update the presentation without that number. Um but we
012plan on working on that as soon as we have one. And I don't even know if you're even ready tonight to figure that out. But um we'll do the best we can with the presentation and draft it together um and then get it ready and we can pull it apart next meeting. >> Yeah, at least get the bones of that. >> Well, it it's already put together from last year. >> I was just looking for some of that data. Sorry, Rick. >> Some of the data that I keep dragging from last year's slide deck. >> Exactly. And I think that >> last year you had a sheet for us that said that had budget drivers >> that we converted that sheet into a slide which was really helpful come budget time. That's something that I'd
013like to make sure that we put together with the >> grant lines I you know whether I don't care if it's a $5,000 grant from JW City Bank for something right that that that's the type of stuff that I want to identify that we captured this year. We've got a lot of questions that keep coming in about are we applying for grants? Are we >> We around this table >> and and those that regularly pay attention to our meetings understand that we're going for every grant humanly possible. We're scouring every corner of the federal and state to try to find them. But what we need to do, I think, is better show that we are going for any grant that we're eligible. And this is what we're getting from >> outside of the federal and
014state grants that we typically already get. Um there hasn't been a whole lot. Like there's no security grant out there yet. >> Um there hasn't been very many grants. We get small ones like the teachers get small ones. Um there haven't been any like next year we'll have a matching HDT grant which I'm assuming in the alliance budget. Um, but it's a matching grant dollar for dollar. So, we're hoping to pull in 100,000 for HDT using 50,000 from Alliance and then going after that other 50 from the state. So, that's on the horizon, but I don't see any big dollar grants around. >> Okay. My last >> um I think it's important to note that as we watched last week during our meeting with the town struggling with the salt, this is on a much
015larger scale, but in a matter of three weeks, we went from 1.5 million on uh line 177 to 1.8 million. So we went $300,000 in a matter of a couple of weeks. That is how volatile that section this overall section of our budget is and we have no control over that. Um if I may take another second. >> Sure. >> Thank you. I I had some recent interactions um relatively recently with some teachers at the school um who I feel are having to struggle with decisions that are being made because of budget items that are out of everybody's control. We have teachers that want to teach the students that see students that have struggles in certain areas and they can only serve so many at a time. Bodies in the classrooms, teacher bodies in the
016classrooms matter. For those that continue to say that Thompson is a struggling district, that Thompson has low scores, I would ask, "How can you make it better if you don't have the teachers to support it?" Our teachers, as Mr. Apprentice, Mr. Melon, and Miss Granado said last week, are not just doing their union contracted time every day. They're coming in early. They're staying late. They're putting out their personal cell phone numbers with so that parents can text message them and and get information from them six o'clock in the morning to 9:00 at night. I I think if we look at the overall teacher salary in our district versus other districts, it has historically been lower and it is lower than other districts. And if you take that on top of what our teachers and what
017our staff are doing with their time, they're not sitting around. They're trying to do the best they can for our population with the minimal resources that they have. If we're going to continue as a community, we need to step up and support our students and our teachers. And I think we've kicked this can down the road long enough. Oh, sorry. Right. >> That's fine. Two lines, Bill. I'd like to just see if we can put some clarification in the explanations and one is on line 149 and the other's the line 237. I was I was given some information about 237, but it was interesting just looking at line 149 and it's under a ES teacher subsary. The thing that kind of catches me is that the proposed budget of 55k, the revised budget of 55,
018but the ex the projected standard 83 and it says I'm a zero change. So I'm just curious how on earth we deal with that 33k when it happens again. >> Yeah, that's an instance where that that budget probably could have been higher. >> I gota that's that's a need I'm assuming. Sure. to have that kind of the lack of needing a sub teacher there. >> But it's like, well, that's an interest because it >> you kind of miss it when it says it's only a 0%. But it is a 30 almost a $34,000 impact with that one sub thing there. >> Yep. So pretty huge. >> And then just the the background information on the line 237. It's um nearly a 30% increase. >> So I can answer that one. Melissa can >> I can
019easily answer that one. Last year we had to cut our HR dire director's position. Um it saved um 85,000 on the board side. However, those duties ended up falling on my executive assistant. She received a new title. She is the executive assistant to the superintendent slash HR coordinator and she picked up those duties for the $20,000. That's >> why she's always here. >> She doesn't leave. >> She chang. >> I wrote it in this time. >> Okay, >> Matt. Uh going back to that uh elementary school uh um substitute, should we not that we want to be adding more, but should we increase that? Is it going to be needed next year? >> So the subline always runs over and so we use other lines obviously to cover that overage. Um we have and I
020put it on my sheet a couple weeks ago. We have two permanent subs at the middle school. We have a permanent sub at the high school and a permanent sub at Marriott Fischer. So there's four permanent subs here. Um we years ago we found that we were having difficulty getting substitutes. Um we decided that we would put those permanent subs in so that they know the children, the coverage is there. Um but we go beyond just those four substitutes in the district, right? Um, and this has been an unusually hard hit year for illness and we have had a lot of people out long term this year for COVID, pneumonia, you name it. Um, so people are are are sick this year. And so, uh, we're starting to see that flush out in the subline.
021Uh, we don't have a really good pool of subs either. So, the ones that we do have come in, they're pretty dedicated to us. Um, I know on my list of reductions I even put those four permanent subs down. That that I don't I I don't think that's a wise decision, but um those are positions that will probably escalate that line if we don't have them here every day and then the inconsistency of not having the same people in the building. Um but anyway, yeah. So I I do know that students appreciate having, you know, not necessarily same sub every time that they have a sub, but having a familiar face. It makes it it gives them a known quantity to deal with, >> right? >> So >> sub that just left, was he a
022permanent sub? >> The one Friday? >> Yes. No, no, he wasn't a permanent sub. No, but he was here for um during his school break. Okay, just >> Danielle. >> Um, followup question on the subs. Are these just if somebody is out like what if somebody is out maternity leave uh something? Is this the same line that you would find that >> because I know there was a teacher out on maternity leave. So, is there like potentially an increase because of that or is that in a different line? >> No, this isn't that. It's a different line. >> Okay. you know, the permanent subs get coded sometimes to the role that they're taking. >> Okay. >> But sometimes we hire beyond just those four permanent subs to fill in like for a longterm fully year
023maternity leave or half a year. >> Uh we post for those positions. So then you are paying if they have enough bank time, you're paying for the teacher who's out >> and then you're also paying for the substitute and depending on the number of days they might exceed the substitute. If it's beyond 45 days, they end up on staff. Um, Kathleen. >> Okay. Going back to the increase in the special education of 323,000 adding that to the budget or not adding that to the budget because there's the possibility that we don't spend it or there's the possibility that we do spend it because basically what we're doing is we ended up this year almost more than that amount over in special education. So, we started out we're starting out this fiscal 27 in the whole
024by over that amount. Um, if we don't add it to the budget, we're at risk of going over fiscal 27 by that amount. um adding it to the budget, we're adding 2 mills, basically 2 mills to the tax rate if this were to be accepted. >> The total increase. Yes. >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> Which would apply in my opinion. >> Y >> plus the whatever is on the town side, >> right? Which is significant because >> yeah, we need to get into that. If we don't present it as is, >> the 21,000 is peanuts, but we have to we have to fund that. That has to be funded. >> Yep. Um but this is we are in such a predicament >> and the town and the town too because they have kicked the can
025down the road last year and the year before they they they've gone without as they have demonstrated with the with the salt budget and the paving and everything else. Um, and they went into the general fund to lower the mill rate last year or last year. I think somebody said it was the perfect storm. I don't know who said it here, but it was a really apt >> apt phrase. Uh, between the revaluation and the everybody's needs. It's not wants. We got to remember that these budgets that we present are not wants. They're needs. absolute needs, bare bones needs. Um, this year we don't have the reval issue, but we have set the mindset of this town that we're only going to go up half a mill, a mill at the most, and you can't
026continue to operate this town or any town at that rate of increase. So, we need to add that to this budget. I say we need we need to present the budget that is the true spending needs of this school. I second that because if we don't then if we're over in a certain area there's nowhere that we could compensate in other I mean we need to first we need to staff the building that first and foremost we need to make sure that staffing is in proper ratios that we're supporting the students that you know that's that's a need that is not a want that is not a reach that is a is a basic need, a fundamental need of the school system. We cut staff last year and we can't continue to do that and
027support our students. But if we don't have someone to come in and fill if someone's out sick or if someone is taking a leave of absence, then you know it's a double-edged sword. You you have to, you know, apples for apples. And this is something that I feel like we need to add to the budget. Matt, >> this is I'm going to say 15 years, but I know it's more 15 years of my experience of of coming to meetings and >> um I know it's more o of of kicking the can down the road and we say the same thing every year, but it's 15 years of of negligent budgets and 15 years of people only, oh, it's got to be flat. It's got to be half. It's got to be 1 mil or less.
028And yeah, I don't want my taxes going up. I I feel it and and I I you know if you're on a fixed income I understand that too. We have to keep the town open. It's you have to keep the school open and but the these larger increases are because we kept shifting and moving and cutting and shifting and cutting and moving >> and there's nothing left to shift and and move and you cut and it bleeds. And I I understand there's people in town that don't care if it bleeds, but it's it's the community and and we need to get it out there that uh this is it. This is you we have a functioning town and by by law we need to keep it functioning. And you know, I'm speaking for for this
029budget and for the municipal budget as well. And you know, we people will complain if there's potholes in the roads and people will complain if they have to spend money to pave the roads. People will complain if the transfer stations open. People complain if transfer stations close. People complain if transportation rates go up. They'll complain if the transfer station closes. It's this is it costs money to do things. It costs money to have a society. And I I I really I understand the need to want to not pay more, but everything else goes up and and the town is a is has the same bills that the the that people have. The town has the same bills people have. Town has oil. The town has electricity. The town has, you know, uh uh debt burdens.
030The town has roofs to keep over our heads. The town had it's all the same stuff we have at home. It it is town has food to buy. It's the the I I really wish it we didn't I really wish it didn't have to go up. So I I I you know if there was something in here that we cut legally and without harming the students or or having the building fall down around us. Yeah. Kristen had her hand up. >> I was just going to speak in response to what Kathleen has said about should we put it in or not. But if that is what Bill is telling us that there's a known student, we are responsible for that. And if we know that that's our budget, it needs to be put into the
031budget, whether it's $8 billion or $5. >> Each of these additions go back to specific students. There's no there's no let's put 300 in because >> it'd be nice to have, right? Right. >> These are consistent with how we have >> determined as a board to budget special ed. These relate to specific students. >> Right. So therefore, it needs to be in the budget. >> Right. >> Kathy. >> Yeah. I just want to again say this is rightfully to put this in, but I also want to um >> uh echo what um Justin said. There is no capital in this budget either. There's no fixing the cafeteria. That isn't addressed in this budget. >> Correct. >> My concern, and I don't disagree, is that we always hear people scream about minimum budget requirement. And if
032we put that in, then that amount of money has to always stay in. >> Right. So, I'm not suggesting we put it in. >> Um, we could address it by giving it to the town because And it's going to get it's going to get cut. >> Well, well, there's that and then there's the fact that in previous years we have asked for money for lockers. We were told it was put in a municipal repair fund and then we were just recently told that that fund could now be used for whatever. Not that that money is specifically allocated even though that was in their budget presentation and to me that's not transparent. But that's my personal opinion on that. Yeah. >> Hold on. I'm going to go to Daniellea because she was before you, Matt. >>
033Yep. >> Yes. Um, did we hear anything regarding the fact that we are the safety? What are we calling this? >> Are were the town emergency shelters? >> Yes. So, I know it was brought up, but the fact that if there is an emergency and we need to seek shelter here, that cafeteria is open to the town. So, were selectmen looking into helping some or anything? was that I I wasn't quite sure officially stated >> in writing going back anywhere. >> So when I met with the emergency team a couple of weeks ago, >> um the conversation was that they were John and Steve were looking to see if they could find any relief to help us with the generator. >> Um they haven't come back with anything, but um they were going to research
034that because the generator is going to be a cost I mean, in this if we become the shelter, we need the cafeteria. So, we're going to need some of that equipment. Um, so just one of those things like, yep, are they thinking about that at all? Are they willing to support in any way and and help? Um, >> I feel like it's Groundhog Day, guys. Does today feel like Groundhog Day or what? >> It's very appropriate to have this meeting around circles. Matt, >> um, two things about the the the the cafeteria issue and the the emergency issue. If if the town had the extra money in an account, which they're supposed to, but if the town had it as a surplus or something, we we would be happy to, you know, I'm I'm our
035administration would work with us. I'm sure. I'm confident of that. They don't have it anymore than we have it. But what I was going to say before that is I forgot I it all it's everything's a blur time-wise, but it was a couple years ago when we did have the surplus >> that we said, "Oh, well, you know, we have making I'm just making a number up. We have 1.8 million in special ed. Uh, do we really need it? Do we really need it? Well, we might be over." And then it came back to bite us when we did cut it because something else happened. it was that next year. And so, but that's not to say that's what we're doing because it's not what we're doing. It's somebody's come in. We have a need.
036We can't avoid it. It's not like we're hiding $300,000 behind shadow children, which we don't have. It's they're there. They're there. They're they they have that need. If we don't put them in the budget, it's going to be come back on the back end like it is this year. >> Um >> Plus this plus. >> Plus this we're five, >> right? >> Added this. >> So, that's what it is. And it it does come back in back to the state needs to do their job and they're not and they're just as ineffective as the federal Congress. >> Rick, >> so are we able to do something to move ahead some of the capital items under the non-lapsing accounts >> prior to throwing it into next year's budget extra? >> We've talked about it several meetings
037back. It's like 118,000. >> There's a finance meeting tomorrow evening. That's when we'll have our discussion on >> Mhm. >> Thanks, >> Justin. >> All right, I'm going to get controversial here. >> Okay, so everybody can get over it. So, we added 344,000 to the budget tonight. Um, what are we going to get rid of? That's uh high school and middle school athletics at 344,800. Um, or are we going to do culinary welding, CNA, and fire safety? Or are we going to do security and construction electricity? Which one do we want to do? >> That's just bringing down to last week's numbers. >> You're talking about which one do we want to do? Because I mean, here's the thing. There there are people in this town who think that we can go to a sheet
038and start cutting items without affecting children. Everybody around this table knows we can't do any of this. But I just did some really funny quick math. The athletic programs that are on Melinda's sheet come out to $344,800. We just added 344,000 to our budget tonight. Well, proposed 300. That's this this is what we're talking about where we're just stuck. And I think if everybody around the table is not willing to touch any of these programs and we have to add what was coming in and we have capital needs that are literally I mean either we put a steamer >> somewhere on some budget somehow >> or we're not serving lunch. >> Right. Right. >> Right. We we can decide we don't want to fix the generator, but that means when the power goes out, power
039goes out. Means we're calling the boss company and the kids are going home and parents are going to have to figure out how they're going to pick up the kids. These they're Newton's laws say every action there's an equal and opposite reaction. >> And here we are. We are finally at that point where where something's going to happen. And just as the board of finance does, you know, I know the board of finance fought last year over an owl camera, I think was one of their items last year that that they were debating over. >> And last week they debated or didn't debate, they they talked about assault overage of $39,000. I I >> fishitiously said, "I wish we were worried about $39,000 because every single time we blink, >> it's >> 100. It's 165.
040It's 200. It's 300. That not not this same time, but a month from now last year, we were looking at 277. >> Mhm. >> Give or take. And that 277 hadn't gone away. >> And that could happen again. I hate to say it, but keep in mind that happened in May. >> Yeah. >> It's February. >> Yeah. >> I'm And these are the these are things that are out of our condition, out of our our control. I >> I just I I want to put the question around the table. And I want to put it out to the public that's on Zoom tonight and anybody who listens to this going forward. >> Yep. >> Where in this and this is up on the district website. This has been published to the town. It's in public
041notes. >> That that was for your eyes only. >> It was in the last meeting minutes, >> was it? Yeah. >> Yeah. It was in the last packet. >> No. Which one? >> The cuts were not in the packet. Regardless, the numbers are there cuz they're in here. >> Correct. >> Where would you Where where does anybody want us to get this money from? And I I don't want taxes to go up in town. I don't want to burden the fixed income. But we have gone I've been on the board for just over two years now, and I'm trying to be fiscally responsible. Fiscally responsible doesn't mean cut this down to 21 million and call it a day. Fiscally responsible means I got to make sure that the dollars that we're putting into the system
042are being used somewhere useful >> and we're actually making progress in this district. So any dollar that gets pulled out is going to be detrimental to the progress that we've made. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. I mean, great. >> Last year, we got rid of the HR director >> that those that function needed to go somewhere >> and and there's a science teacher that's currently we're looking that's an open position in the high school and we've got staff members that are picking up that piece, >> but we need to replace that next year. >> I I get that. But but what I'm saying is we didn't hire a permanent sub in to fill that spot. We had other we had other staff members that filled in that gap. >> And Justin, what
043you said earlier, right? I don't think our staff I mean as willing and as helpful and dedicated as they are, they're taking on a lot and I don't think we can ask them to take on anymore. >> No, I'm not here to do that. >> No, you're fine. when when you're having conversations with staff members and they're coming to tears because they know what they need to do, what they want to try to do, but they can't do it because there's just the the cup is empty. The stone has been bled dry. And when we go through this fight every year, the morale drops more and more and more. I mean, there are people who don't even go anywhere near social media for town sites this time of year because it's so demoralizing. And this
044is what we're doing to our children. >> So, let's let's be realistic. If anybody my email's up on the district's website, my phone number's up on the district's website. Anybody has anywhere in these pages that they can see being cut, send it my way, and I will make sure it gets brought up at our next budget meeting. Amanda. >> So, I feel like yes, we have our budget and the board of finance asked us to look at it again and look at it again. Is our budget that we have is that what's the word I'm looking for? it it doesn't show all of our needs because we've had to really pair down what our needs are. So, should we look at it again and put in what we really need? Because let's face it, you
045can cut, but we can't cut from this. There's nothing that you can take from this without impacting the education of our children. Yes, we want to be physic fiscally responsible. And I get that. I get that as a mom. I get that as a taxpayer. But we have to stop thinking you can cut and you can cut and you can cut and you can band-aid and band-aid and band-aid till, like Matt said, 15 years of underfunding and cutting and cutting till there's nothing left to cut. >> That's where we are. >> Matt, >> I think Daniela was first. Oh, >> Amanda, I love the thought process, but realistically to put in what we need to add more We're going to be sitting here fighting the same fight. It's going to continue to be groundhog day.
046We're putting If we said to Melinda, "Tell us everything you need and put it in here." >> But it's not a need. It's a It's a >> It Right. It is a need. It is. It is a need. >> It's not a want. That's Sorry, that's what I was looking for. >> Right. It is a need. They're all needs, right? We We need to bring back every teacher we cut last year and then some. And we need to bring back >> field trips. I mean, everything uh more school supplies, all of it we do. But realistically, >> we're never getting a budget passed. We will have I don't know how many referendums and then the state's going to have to step in because nobody in this town is going to accept that. If you look
047and see who's joining on Zoom right now, majority of the people are our teachers because they're worried about do I have a job? What is going to happen to me? It's not our community. It's not I mean there are teachers that are part of our our our town. The people on there are the teachers. It's not anybody here. I posted today. I don't see any of those names on here. People want and where's the Zoom link? I gave it to you. You still couldn't be on the meeting. Right. >> There's lots of iPhones without people saying who they are. >> Right. As noble as Amanda's sentiment is, if we were to add $3 million more of the things that we need, >> the the board of finance, they could see right through that. And but
048but however, if we did draw up a parallel budget of the things that have been cut, I'm not saying we should do that. You don't have time for that. You don't have time for that. But hypothetically speaking, if we were to draw up a parallel budget of the realistic budget that we should have, >> right, it would be three more million dollars or four more million dollars or five more million dollars of the things that haven't been paid for in the last 15 to 20 to 25 years. Just everything's just gradually been whittleled away. So if we if we brought ourselves back up to the and I'm not saying we should if we brought ourselves back up to the services and the programs and um field trips and the little things like that that get
049keep getting whittleled away >> enrichment over the last you know let's say 20 years is a round number >> it would be a lot more than this and and that's to make our students >> well-rounded and the things that I had when I I went to I very middle class, you know, high elementary and high school in in New Jersey back what 40 years ago, whatever, whatever that whatever that was. I went, you know, but I had I had things that I wish these kids had. Granted, we have these the high school programs that you've implemented that we've implemented are phenomenal and great, but just just general ed things that should be offered to kids to to, you know, to make them well-rounded and the things that we just keep cutting. And I just it
050breaks my heart. And I understand I understand that we can't afford everything and there's, you know, but but we're also not >> cutting we're not we're not cutting you golden staplers out of our budget. We're cutting we're cutting you know the essentials. >> Um >> question from if and this is a hypothetical. If this $323,000 that just came into our budget was in the high school and the high school was outsourced, we would still be on the hook for that 323,000 probably plus more for administration fees. Is that a correct statement? >> That is a correct statement. >> Okay. My second question is, what could the district do with $323,000 if it were to be pushed into the general education budget? Oh, >> well, we would certainly start to restore some of the programs that
051we put. Uh, we need interventionists um in uh we need a reading teacher at the high school, gened reading teacher at the high school. If you So, I always have a wish list in my head. Um, but along the way, we have been I love this term, shuffling chairs on the Titanic. That's what we've been doing. Um, and so if I needed to get a culinary teacher, I had to get rid of the family consumer science teacher. And it was always a give and take. Over the nine years, the nine budgets I've prepared, I can tell you that there I I don't think there is a year that we went by that we didn't cut staff somewhere. um and and reduce something somewhere whether or not it was because of enrollment or uh the fact
052that we just couldn't afford it anymore. We used to have a reading class at the middle school. It was there was ELA, but then students went to reading. We got rid of that my second year here, I think, Danielle. Um we uh we got rid of all of them, one at every grade level. So, that was my that was my first, >> you know, budget. and I had started to take out essential reading program because well you look at the test scores ELA and reading um I didn't see anything inching up so we pulled that out probably wasn't a wise decision at the middle level you didn't even have when I came you didn't even have reading teachers at the middle school and you only had two and a half at the elementary and you
053had students that weren't being serviced so we had to give something else up to put those folks in um and that's what It's been it's been nine years of shuffling those chairs um and to the point where there's no more chairs to shuffle because what we have is a practical budget that meets the needs of the students that are currently in the district. And you heard the three principles, they all said the same thing. We're trying to maintain what we have. We're not asking for anything else. if we need something else, they're going to be creative with their teachers and they're going to figure it out on the backside if it's not staffing or they'll roll up their sleeves and volunteer more of their time. But at the end of the day, um if we
054had to cover that 323, we're going to we're going to lose kid programs. So, I will follow that up with >> if the state were to magically come in tomorrow and write the district say we're going to cover all pupil services, the state's going to cover all pupil services moving forward, that would be roughly about 5 mil, that would come out of the 19 mil rate that we have right now. Even if we were to drop one mil back in there to, let's say, bring back enrichment programs and some of the other programs, I can't imagine what $1.148 million would do in terms of bringing back math labs and reading labs and what that would do to our district's test scores from a general education perspective. >> Correct. >> I I just this is the
055type of stuff that I think we as a board should be able to talk about. Not not where do we want to take $323,000 from, but what enrichment program do we want to put $323,000 into? Where is the need for the district? Well, we're having a really we're we're struggling in math in third and fourth grade from test scores. Okay, let's do a math lab there. We're struggling in reading in the middle school. Let's do it there. We don't even get and I won't even call it a luxury. We don't even get the opportunity >> That's right. >> to debate those kinds of things at this board level. We are we we get bills that come in for $323,000. We have to figure out where that >> where that is going to take from at
056this point. So I I think um I think we're we're kind of there, >> Amanda. And I think that's where my point was was to show like, okay, this is what where we should be at and this is where we're at. Not that I'm advocating to let's raise the roof, >> but you know, we have to be practical and we have to show apples to apples and say this is what it this is what it is. >> We want our children to succeed. We want to be able to do, you know, make mountains into, you know, glorious everything. But we have to show it. And we have to show the people that Thompson's worth it. And our children are worth it. Do we have We're at Is there any further discussion on the budget at
057this point? Motion to discuss >> table the budget. >> Motion to table the budget. >> Pending our finance committee subcommittee subcommittee meeting tomorrow. Second that. >> Okay. So Justin has that Matt has a second. Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I I >> All right. Any opposed? Any extensions? All that passed unanimously. All right. Citizens comments. We're going to start back on Zoom. Going once, going twice, three times. Any assistance, comments in the room. I would suggest uh if you don't have these extra needed but not currently used requirements from a camera system security system that need to be upgraded I heard last time additional support and reading if you don't put it in the budget at least make a list of things that you need but aren't in the budget. >> Good idea.
058Maybe that would help explain to the board of finance and citizens our budget is X. We really should have been asking for this and this and this and this and when the town needs emergency needs to put citizens in the school, there's going to be no generator. You know, let's let's try to make a make a pitch here that makes sense. >> I don't I haven't looked at every line of the budget, but it looks like it's a pretty thin budget. I don't I think you guys trouble next year. I'm a little concerned of finance is not going to add to your budget. >> No. Right. >> So, if you don't ask for it, you're not going to get it. >> Interesting. Thank you. >> Just a thought. You might want to think about including
059something even if it's going to be um shot down. Certainly, you're not going to get approved if you don't ask. Suggestion you might think about adding. Is there any contingency in here? >> No. No, there's going to be something next year. We don't know what it is, but there's going to be something. You need to ask >> if I know ahead, Mr. St. probably be the first thing that gets slashed, but it is appropriate. You guys have a job to prepare an appropriate budget. It's appropriate to have contingency funds for this kind of $20 million. >> We'll be discussing some of that tomorrow. Steve, the closest we have to contingency in here, there's a there's a I think a couple of TBD positions in there that are replacement positions to be filled, but that's really
060not even contingency, but that's the closest thing in which that >> it's not like something doesn't have a contingency line. So again, I I would suggest and I I'm on the board of finance, but I would suggest having a budget that that's you what you need for this goal, not what you think you can get away with, >> what you need. >> And again, And if you can't put it in the budget itself, at least tell the board of finance and the citizens, we need X, Y, and Z. We're not putting it in the budget, but it really isn't needed. And next year, if this breaks, we're going to be in trouble. >> Okay. >> Oh, one might make one final comment. I was looking at the the uh salaries, salaries of 7.7%. And that
061seemed like an awful lot happening even though I understand steps and anybody gets a pay raise and so on but that's comparing the budget to the budget for the current year. It's not comparing to what we're spending in the current year. >> Compared to what we're actually spending, it's a 3.3% increase. Not still an increase as you expect, but it's not quite the 7.7% that this shows. So I'm I'm I'm when I look at budgets, I like to look at sort of the current year actual or running rate or expected number this year, not what we budgeted last year, which probably was based on what they budgeted the year before, which was based on the budget what we budgeted the year before that. I like to look at what we're expecting to do in the
062current year. And and that teacher salary is a great example. Looks like 7.7% not even half that compared to the actual spending each year. Just a thought. Okay. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. >> Did I need to say as a citizen comments? >> Yes. In this >> 42 Loi Road uh new on the board of Ed, but I remember Melinda saying she'd already cut $400,000 off of the budget before it came to us. And that may be along the lines of what Steve is saying. Those were presented to Melinda as needs from the principles in the school. And that may be one of those things kind of where Justin was heading is here's this list we've already cut. And I took her for her work. This was stuff we're
063just not going to be able to pass. So I' I've already taken this off. It needs to probably not put back but somehow stated as you've said last year you had a whole document of what already got cut, >> right? >> That list probably should be presentable. >> That's a half a million dollars to someone. So, >> right. >> That that's a lot. >> And then another 300,000 got added today. That's pretty tough. And may I take it to that thing I said a few weeks ago? It's almost like pupil services or special ed needs to be one block of money and then what it takes to run the school gen ed and the rest is here. So when this 5 million switches every other week that shouldn't impact I don't I don't understand why
064we're not separating it. People don't want it. It's all one bucket of money. But the reality is it takes this much to run the school and this student need changes. So I I just feel it's terrible to consider if this part of the bucket changes, I got to steal it from here. I I do not like that approach at all. It seems like that's the way the town wants to run, but >> I don't you just can't. It takes There's 777 students in this these buildings. we need this much money to keep those kids going with teaching the ABCs as well as some food, you know, unless you're going to provide peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and milk every day. Um, you know, we're beyond that. That was 50 years ago when I was in
065school. So, that's but thank you for the couple of parts there. >> Any other comments? Motion to adjurnn. >> Second. Take your >> I know it's going >> and we've all had some good good points and we all spoke tonight so I don't know