001And we're just going to call uh board of ed members present is Rick, Daniela, Amanda, Justin, Heather, Matt, Kristen, Kathleen, and myself. >> We're all here. And board of finance members present. >> Yep. Rob is here, Steve, Ken. I can't see who's online. There's quite a few. >> Can we tilt Can we tilt this just a little bit or something? It's hard to see. I don't see any. >> We would be looking for either Dave or Brian. >> Nikki's on her way. She's actually parking right now. >> We do have several members on Zoom with the label of iPhone. I do request that you update the handle on that to your name. >> If if you can't do that in the chat, please put your name if you're Dave Johnson or Brian Lynch, >> please.
002Uh momentarily Nikki will be here. So that'll provide a >> that'll give you your >> quum for so we good to move forward then. >> All right. >> Yeah. I don't want to hold everyone up but Nikki is coming in and we're not going to do any we're not going to perform any any business. >> Perfect. All right. So then we'll start with pledge of allegiance. >> Kathleen, you want to lead us, please? >> I certainly will. 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. Going to start with my comments. All right. Good evening and thank you all for being here. I want to begin by welcoming our colleagues
003from the board of finance as well as members of the public district leadership to this joint budget meeting. Your time and attention and willingness to engage in this process is truly appreciated. We are meeting tonight in a year that presents a real and serious challenge for our district. As you know, our special education costs are exceedingly high, driven not by excess or inefficiency, but by the very real and legally mandated needs of our students. These are needs that we are obligated to meet, and more importantly, that we are morally committed to meeting. In addition, a significant portion of the district's budget is driven by contractual obligations that are already in place. These include negotiated agreements in staffing, services, transportation, all that is the district is legally required to honor and cannot be reduced without consequences.
004At the same time, state support has not kept pace with those rising costs. The gap between why our district is required to provide and what is reimbured continues to grow, placing increased pressure on our local budget and ultimately our taxpayers. This reality makes tonight's conversation both difficult and essential. The board of education comes to this table focused on one core responsibility. Ensuring that every student in our district, especially our most vulnerable, receives the services, supports, and educational opportunities they're entitled to under the law as deserved by as members of our community. We are equally mindful of the fiscal constraints facing the town and the responsibility we all share to steward public funds carefully. And that is why collaboration between the board of ed and the board of finance is so critical. We share the same
005goal. A sustainable budget that reflects our values, meets our legal obligations, and is transparent about the challenges we face today. It's not about oversimplifying complex issues. It's about understanding the realities behind the numbers, asking hard questions together, and working in good faith towards solutions that serve both our students and community. On behalf of the board of education, I thank the board of finance for your partnership and your willingness to engage in this dialogue. and we look forward to a constructive and respectful and productive discussion. Thank you, >> Rob. >> Okay. Thank you, Jess. Uh I too want to thank everyone uh who's in attendance tonight uh both from the school, from the school board, and it's great to see the screen full of members uh I believe mostly members of our community. So, that's encouraging.
006I also want to thank everyone for their flexibility, especially those that are presenting tonight. We did a kind of called an audible very late last week and I appreciate the flexibility with with that change and then of course we had a storm come in and pushed us again. So thank you for that. Uh in addition, I listened in last week on on Zoom for the entire meeting and I saw the vote to reopen the budget. I know that doesn't necessarily mean that the budget's going to change, but I think the fact that it was reopened um sends a an important message. Um I think certainly to me, I think to the board of finance and to the community. So I I thank you for that. Um I mentioned last week um some of the other
007challenges and you know, I really thought um last year was probably the most difficult year. >> Need you to raise your voice. They're having trouble hearing you in the back row. You >> can't hear me back there. >> No, the audience. I just got an audience said that they can't hear. I'm sorry. >> Well, I'm far away from the speaker. >> That That one works too. That works, too. >> Yeah. >> No, I'm going to have my back to you all. >> That's okay. >> Feel comfortable with that, but sorry about that. I I mentioned last week in citizen comments that um in addition to many of the challenges that the school's facing and you have all been working through, the town too is is facing a number of challenges. Um and just to highlight
008a few of them, uh in addition to the basic salary and benefits that we all um that we all face. U we have the HVAC bond coming due. That's a that's a sizable uh debt that the town's taking on and that will uh begin in in terms of debt service in this fiscal year. Salt and sand. It's been a really tough winter. So, not only have we depleted our our salt and sand, but in terms of our budget, but we depleted the inventory that we have. That's going to be a challenge not only this year, but going into next year. our paving. We pulled out 600,000 out of a $750,000 ask. That's a year-over-year expense that the town has. And once you pull it out, even if you put it back at standard uh funding,
009it's an increase year-over-year. So, that's another $600,000 um headwind that we have as a town. And then the fire departments, and we're all most of us should be fairly um up to speed on what's happening across the fire departments. some of the challenges that they're having. So, I bring that up not to bring the whole mood down in the room, just to highlight some of the realities that we're facing and it's going to be a tough year for us. I'm pleased that we're here and we're working together and I look forward to hearing, you know, from all of you uh in the departments on these budgets as we go through the rest of the evening. So, thank you. >> All right, we're going to move on to citizens comments. Uh as a reminder, it is
010three minutes. Please state your name and address. And just a reminder, it is citizens comments. It is not a question and answer or back and forth. >> Hi. Yeah, my name is uh Brett Gany. I'm not a resident, but I have two kids that go to Mar Fiser and their mother lives in Thompson. Do you mind if I said a couple things? >> Sure. Can you provide the mother's >> Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Her name is Brienne Booth and my kids names are Warren and Eden Gier. >> Okay. And >> my name is Brett. You guys might know me. I I'm in and out of the schools, but hope you all are having a good night. Thank you. Let me come up on camera, too, just so I you can put a face. Um, so I
011prepared something here very briefly. I know I only have a couple minutes. Um, but I just wanted to be come prepared. So, um, my name's Brett. I have two amazing children enrolled here at Mary R. Fiser. Uh, like many of you probably if you haven't been here your whole life, uh, I came to this area as a transplant. uh for a long time. Uh the quiet corner to me was really just like the place you stop to pick up, you know, food and snacks and cash on the way to the casino. Um but not too long after their mother and I met, we decided to to set up in Thompson. Uh and from there, I really found a home. So, at first, the slower pace and rural setting here was really a little off-putting because
012I grew up near the city. Quick access, the convenience, uh you know, things that come with that. So over the last six or seven years, you know, we had our kids uh unfortunately their mother and I separated, but we maintain uh a healthy relationship for them. Uh I made the decision to stay close to them. Uh when we did separate, so she set up in Thompson, I live here in Putinham. Uh I used to say I was from Massachusetts. Now I say I'm from Putinham, Thompson, uh you know, like the woods on the way to the casino. Uh six, you know what I mean? Like nobody know. They're like, "Where the hell is Thompson? Putinham the speedway on the way to the casino. They're like, "Ah, got it." Okay. So, you know what I mean?
013Sorry. I'm not I get a little anxious public speaking, but um you know, we really did find home here. Um the closit community that these towns have, I was raised around that in uh the Wester County area. Um unfortunately, in those areas, which a lot of you probably came from, it doesn't exist anymore. Uh I found a lot of what I used to have as a child here. Um, and this place is an absolute freaking gem. Uh, you really can't touch the quiet corner. I really do love everything about it. Um, you know, I spent decades working in technology. So, um, I worked at Apple for about 15 years and a big campaign during their '9s revival was think different. Uh, I really stuck to that motto even as a child and up to today.
014I'm very fortunate with somebody with some college experience in a GED to say I worked for the biggest tech company in the world for 15 years. Um, you know, our kids have grown up and I'm really trying to look at that think different scenario. You know, I understand everybody's struggling right now. the person earlier talked about some of the other budgets um with my experience in technology um and the fact that like I am a creative person and I do think out of the box um I know I'm limited for time. I did leave a voicemail with the superintendent uh with the idea, but I run a couple businesses on my own. I have friends in the community that own their own businesses as well. Um, I came across, um, in a cleanout of my
015grandmother's house, like 10 to 20,000 old, if there's any sports cards fans, you'll understand the term junk wax. Uh, it's just a lot of junk that takes up space. It's worthless. Um, so this is kind of an opportunity for me to be able I have about 10 to 20,000 of these cards. Uh, and I've been kicking around the idea of maybe having the kids draw on them in art class or maybe send some home with them to like draw art on them and sell them for a buck. um you know, even some of the older kids if they are artistic, they could really do some nice art pieces on these and maybe set them up in a community place, um you know, community center or the library. And I mean, even if they bring in
016a dollar or two, it's it's looking at it from the other side of things instead of making cuts. Uh I know I took up a lot of time and I actually deviated from my speech. Um but I think you guys get the gist and um if you guys all want to reach out to me or anybody has any additional questions, Nick has my number. Um, uh, Zach Labonte has my number as well. Um, but I think it's really important for us all to to band together and try to figure out outside of the box solutions here because the kids are our future. And honestly, uh, I have a lot of older relatives. I come from a big Italian family and one thing that I was raised on was a statement of it takes a village.
017Um, and our kids need that right now. So, I appreciate your time. I sincerely apologize. It probably went over um but I would love to work with the town to try to figure out an alternative solution than cuts. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Uh Nicole Kenny. >> Hi. Can everyone hear me? Okay. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, my name is Nicole Kenny. Um I am a mother of three uh little boys in town who attend U Mary R. Fisher. Um and all three of my children have been here since the beginning. All three have entered into the school through uh birth to three through early intervention. Um have received amazing uh resources and support through the preschool system. Um and now my oldest is now in first grade. I currently have a
018first grader, a kindergartenner, and a preschooler. Um all under the special ed program. And I know that if the budget doesn't go through, one of the programs at risk is um I know there's been talks about the preschool program in addition to the languagebased program. And I just wanted to speak on that for a minute because the current programs that you guys have in place for these vulnerable students that need special ed are so so valuable. My son has entered this entered the school who is completely non-verbal. Um he is on a onetoone and now like thriving in a regular classroom. Um I think a lot of this has been due to the amazing preschool um program that they have in place. The size of the preschool program. um you know research really does show
019that early intervention is the biggest key to you know targeting um these children and they're so vulnerable and I'm afraid that these resources if we lose them are really going to impact them severely. Um not only that but increasing our you know it I think in the long run will increase our special ed numbers in the long run because these kids are not getting the support that they need at a younger age. Um, in addition to the language-based program, I, you know, was on the on the fence of whether I, you know, when I first my son got diagnosed with dyslexia to see if I needed to go to a school program, a school that had a program that would better support him. Um, and actually was looking to put my house on the market.
020And I have had the most wonderful experience here at Marfisher. The languagebased program that you guys have put in place is, you know, so value valuable and impactful. Um, my son is thriving and I I'm concerned that, you know, if there's budget cuts to that, there's going to be, you know, a lot of repercussions for these children. I mean, these children are our most v vulnerable population. Um, and yes, he I know he will still get the services he needs, you know, legally through his IEP. Um, but there are a lot of supports that you guys offer that, you know, help him in more ways than just, you know, the things that are written in the IEP. So I would really strong to urge us to, you know, look at other avenues that aren't really
021directly targeting our youngest, most vulnerable population that really needs these services and the support. >> Thank you. >> The next round. >> Okay. >> Deian is online, but she's supposed to be a student. >> Yes, she's she's under the students. >> So you could have her now wait till her turn. >> Okay. Um Isabella Stewart. Well, that's when we go to student programs. >> Oh, they're in for that now. >> Yeah. Still not comments. >> All right. >> Okay. >> Our three minutes is over. >> Okay. All right. And then uh any citizens comments in the room. >> Name and address, please. I'm Payton Boly. I live at 1081 Riverside Drive. >> Payton, can you come up closer to the microphone, please? >> I live at 1081 Riverside Drive. And I'm a student at the
022district. I'm here tonight to speak in support of our sports, music, career pathways, and other student programs. These programs do more than fill our schedules. They help shape who we are. Uh sports teach teamwork, discipline, and perseverance. At the high school alone, over a hund of our 168 students participate in athletics. Music and the arts give students a voice, build confidence, and create a sense of belonging. Once again, more than 100 of our 168 students are involved in music. Career pathways and handling learning programs help students discover their strengths and prepare for life after graduation. Whether that be college, college, the workforce, or the military, our most popular pathways serve nearly 40% of our high school students. For many of us, these programs are the reason we feel connected to school. They motivate students to
023show up, stay engaged, and work toward our goals. They also create safe, positive spaces where students can grow academically, socially, and emotionally. My freshman class and I had the opportunity to take high school classes during our eighth grade year. That class experienced the lower the lowest number of students leaving the district. So I asked why would anyone advocate to remove programs and opportunities that help students help keep students at TMHS? I respectfully ask the boards of and our community to continue supporting and investigating investing in these programs so all students not just some can benefit from a well-rounded education. We are a small school with big opportunities. Thank you for your time and for listening to the student voice. I also have another statement uh for another resident and she said, "Hello, my name is
024Christina Labonti. She lives at Cornob. I have had four children enrolled in the Thompson public schools and I have been educated in the Whisker public schools for 25 years. I would like to share today about the impact that Oregon Gilly Camp program has had on my two daughters. The daughters are currently in grades 9 and six. They have attended Thompson public schools since preschool. They both have been diagnosed with learning disabil which made learning very challenging for them, specifically with learning to read. Both girls were working with an IEP very early on. They received countless reading interventions, small group instruction, and even after school tutoring. They were simply not learning how to read despite the effort, the best efforts of the school, the teacher and myself. It was very frustrating for all of us, but
025especially the girls, and they both were often upset that they were not successful in school. It wasn't until the Orton Gillingham program was introduced to them that they had success. They were both chosen as students to work with the teachers as they were being trained. Finally, the light bulb went off for them. It was this specialized multiensory reading approach that finally worked. Both of my daughters finally learned how to read only after being taught in this way. I've heard of the language based classrooms and how being offered in the elementary school. I only wish that they had have been available for them. This way of teaching literally changed their lives and I am sure it is changing the lives of many other students in Thompson. Now that we know there is no way we can
026go back. The students deserve it. >> Thank you. Any other citizens comments in the room? >> Hello, my name is Danielle Koslowski and I live at 80 Sunset Hill Road in Thompson. My husband and I grew up in Thompson and education has always been very important to our family. I attended private school in Webster until 8th grade and graduated from for high school. My husband attended St. Jose and Thompson for elementary school, came here for middle school and then graduated from Ellis Tech for high school. When our daughter reached school age, we were living in Webster and enrolled her in the private school in town. Our experience with her there was very positive especially since she started school during co when class sizes were smaller. When the time came our son also attended the same
027preschool. However, our experience there was quite different with him. He was in a class of 28 three and four-year-old students with one teacher and one aid and he became very overwhelmed. While he is bright and capable academically, the environment led to behavioral struggles that many of the children in that class were also experiencing. In early 2023, we moved back to Thompson and decided to transfer both children to marry our Fisher at the beginning of this school year. I will admit I was nervous about such a big change, but our experience is not has been nothing short of excellent. Our son is now in the full day preschool program where he has truly come into himself. With the smaller class size and dedicated staff, he is learning to manage his big emotions, follow school routines, and
028prepare for kindergarten. His teacher is always accessible and genuinely invested in his success. The preschool program is an absolute incredible resource for our town. We were also pleasantly surprised to learn how closely students are assessed and monitored academically. Early in the year, our daughter was identified as needing support in both reading and math. Within a month, she was enrolled in the during school reading program and the progress has been remarkable and she now loves reading. She has also begun the afterchool math program which is helping strengthen her foundational skills. These are services we did not have access to at the private school and I am so grateful that they are available to all the families here in Thompson. We're also thrilled with the extracurricular opportunities offered. They have fortasa which is the fancy term for
029the chorus. They're in the play ensemble this year, reading and math clubs, music and band and school sports as they grow older. These experiences help create well-rounded students and a strong sense of community that we both grew up in. Having come from a private school and looking at this in terms of financial burden, I believe our property taxes are reasonable. Does anyone ever want to spend more money object on objectively invisible benefits? Of course not. But as a parent, if I add up the cost for a child to attend a local private school, which includes yearly tuition with increases every year, after school charges since busing is only available to Webster residents, fees for tutors and extracurricular activities, the large school supply list that each child's family is responsible for purchasing, plus donations for class
030supplies and holiday parties, along with all of the fundraising and volunteering required and the yearly uniform costs are equivalent to less than half of what we pay for property taxes to own our home and a very large piece of land in town. We were very on the fence about leaving private school, but I can honestly say that the Thompson School District has exceeded our expectations. The staff is welcoming and supportive, and many already know both of my children by name, and we truly wish we had made the switch sooner. After just 5 months in the school, my kids are absolutely thriving. Not having funding for all the affformentioned services would be detrimental to not only my kids but all the students in the town of Thompson. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any other citizens
031comments in the room? >> All right. So then we're going to move on to uh item number five, moving into our budget meeting number three, update of student programs. >> Okay. Um we have some students here um that have been willing to talk about the importance of the programs that they are participating in. Um so Miss Person, can you call them off? >> Oh, sure. You go right on in. >> We have Isabella Stewart's on mute. >> No, we can't hear her. Nope. >> Do you want to move on? >> All right, we'll come back to Isabella. Uh Madison Carlson. >> Hello everyone. I am here to talk about the education pathway that TMHS offers as well as just um pathways kind of in general. TMHS has provided me invaluable hands-on experiences through our Tiger
032Pals program. I had the opportunity to intern for two years and fully immerse myself in the education pathway. This long-term experience allowed me to work closely with students and educators and gave me a real realistic and meaningful understanding of what working in an educational setting truly looks like. Through the Tiger Pals program, I was introduced to a new avenue within speech language pathology, particularly the role that they play in supporting children within the schools. That is what changed and shaped my career goals. Spending those two years in a group setting, it helped me realize that managing a large group of students, often 20, was not the environment where I felt most effective or fulfilled. Instead, observing and learning about the structure of speech language pathology showed me how impactful small groupoup sessions are, and it
033provided me a more flexible kind of situation for the real world. This kind of clarity helped me understand that scheduling and one-on-one small groups of SLP aligns with better with me and my strengths and my passions. TMHS is fully to support for this. They provided professional growth and allowed me to create my own independent study which gave me the opportunity to work directly with the local speech language pathologists in our elementary school. This experience allows me to connect classroom learning with the real world practice and gave me insight that most students don't get access to until much later in their education. Without these opportunities provided during high school, I would have had to spend many significant money uh time and money after graduation to explore career options and determine that that path was not right
034for me. Something many students are forced to do. The programs like Tiger Pel and Career Pathways are able to give students the chance to make informed decisions early on, save resources, and build their confidence in their future goals. If these pathways are cut, future students will lose access to the experiences that help them discover their passions, and to develop career readiness and make thoughtful, informed choices about their future. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Let me see. Isabella, are you ready? >> Can you hear me now? >> Yes. Yeah, >> thank you. So sorry about that. Um, okay. Good evening and thank you for having me. My name is Isabella Stewart and I am a senior. I followed the visual art pathway during my time at Turtleot, starting with foundations and drawing and painting as
035a freshman, then two years of AP studio art as an upperassman. Beyond just the courses offered through the school though, I've also had the chance to broaden my knowledge of different artistic areas through online courses. I've had the opportunity to take multiple art history courses and I'm also taking an in-person studio class at QVCC um that I had my first of today. Um based on all this, you'd probably gather that I was always pretty selfassured in what I wanted to do. However, when I first started as a freshman, I loved art, but I was convinced I could never make it work as a career. I wouldn't know what I was doing. I'd never make any money, and I'd waste time and energy on art school. Now, I'm planning on going to college for a bachelor's
036of fine arts in visual art to work in production design for film and theater. With that, I can say with pride that my experience with the visual arts pathway at Turtle has given me the confidence to make something of what I love doing. From learning about different art careers as a freshman to AP studio art classes that showed me my talents were worthwhile. These opportunities have aided in my future plans. The one you most hear of is the significant amount of money saved through dual enrollment and AP classes. But I've also had the experience of taking college level studio classes, something that usually shocks freshmen when they get to college. All this goes to say that I'm so grateful for the opportunities Turtle has afforded me in my future path. Thank you again for having
037me. >> Thank you. Oh, Jenna Valby, if you're there, >> can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Hello. Okay. So, I just want to thank everyone for the opportunity to let me speak. I am a senior at Torlot and I was just asked to speak about the business pathways here at Torlot. So I have had the opportunity to take every business course within the school which includes principles of financial accounting, principles of money management, software applications um and I believe there's oh and marketing. I've also had the opportunity to take now five um online classes through CT State which have all been provided to me through the amazing staff and the amazing support I have throughout the school. With these opportunities that have been given to me by this school and the amazing support system
038we have, I have now been committed to Bentley University um majoring in management and I kind of like found all of these amazing resources and what I wanted to do in life because I had such a great support system and such an amazing business pathway to help me come to the realization that I enjoy every aspect of the business part and that's what I wanted to do in the future. So because of all of the amazing opportunities I've been given, I now know what I want to do in the future, which some schools and some students can't say because they don't have some of the amazing pathways we have. So because of all of this, I just want to take my time and explain that these pathways that we have been given as students as
039early as 13 years old have such an amazing and large impacts on our life to the point where we now know or have a better understanding of what we want to do after we graduate at 17 or 18 years old. And that is it. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Jenna. >> All right. Is Noah Russell on the line? >> We'll go to Emilyn. >> Emilyn, are you there? >> Yes. Hello. >> Hi, my name is Emilyn Kowski and I'm a junior in in high school. I've done the manufacturing class in high school and through the class I've gone to the women in manufacturing event last year the in the fall and the spring I went to the e to EB's the boat program which was a two night handson like activity and
040it had just opened my eyes. I like how with our um pathway that with the manufacturing pipeline or pathway sorry um we are able to go and do a bunch of hands-on things with different schools and go see different like manufacturing things cuz it's not all just welding and with metal there's plastics and everything and it just shows like what you can do. I never knew what I wanted to do and I always knew that I wanted to do something handson but I'd never knew really where to put like what I could do and I've always been creative but didn't know like how to be creative in a job but with the manufacturing class that I took it opened my eyes to show me how much like truly there is that we can do without
041having to just sit behind a desk and work. So, thank you for having me. >> Thank you, Emiline. And then we have Deanna. >> I know she's there. >> Yeah. >> Hi. I am here. Um, I do apologize if you don't know. I got my wisdom teeth out yesterday. So, I'm going I'm going to try my best. Um, so I'm going to see if my camera is working. It might not. It might. I don't know. But I am here to speak about the culinary arts program here at TMHS, which is something very close to my heart. Um, as you can tell because I'm here right now speaking about it, even with my horrible teeth. Um, I actually have recently got accepted to John Wales University for culinary arts with a $28,000 annual scholarship. Um, and
042culinary arts has been one of the biggest parts of my life. Um, since I was young. Here I am. Since I was young, um, I knew that I wanted to do something with culinary arts, whether it was like, you know, cooking in a little, uh, cafe or something. Um, but I'm choosing to use this culinary arts pathway to better my future and I know that a lot of people will. So, the fun thing about culinary arts is you don't have to go to college for it. It's something that gives back to our community even if you don't go on for a higher education learning from it. Um, the tips we learn in culinary arts carry on into our everyday life. And for some students, I know it's their only source of learning how to cook.
043Um, I would like to say that one of the biggest reasons I stayed in culinary arts was because our our chef, Chef Sentgraph, we don't call him Chef Graph, we call him Chef. And if you've seen chef or you've been a teacher who's been down to our food or anything, you know I'm there. Um, it has been one of the most amazing chapters of my high school career and as a senior, it has helped me better myself and my better education. Um, I with chefs retiring this year, I hope to have someone for the rest of the students that helps them in a way chef has helped me. Um, the culinary arts pathway again is one of the most amazing fields I could ask for. Um, I also got to get out into the community.
044I had a job shadow at New Boston Beef, which opened many career pathways. I loved chatting with Sarah. Um, and I'm actually planning on going into working for the Boston Bruins, which is so funny cuz she worked for the Patriots. >> Um, but yeah, and I would just like to say I'm very passionate about everything. I'm also in TSLT, the music department. Uh, and the opportunities here at TMHS cannot like it tops a million other schools. I've been and in and out of school districts my whole life and I'm so happy I got to have my whole high school experience here at DHS. >> Thank you, Diana. >> All right. >> Excuse me, Jess. >> Yes. >> Two things. Mhm. >> One, student update of student programs. I really had no idea what to expect,
045but that was the highlight of my night. >> Okay, >> sorry for everybody for 5B and onward. It's going to be hard to >> That was really awesome. Uh and and a shout out to the students for the courage and they were very well spoken and articulate. >> Uh number two, could Danielle, could you note for the record that Nikki arrived at 610? I didn't want to interrupt. >> Yes. >> She arrived at 610 and that uh brings the board of finance to a core. >> Thank you. >> All right. Move on to budget overview. Mr. Stylist, do you want to take the driver's seat on that please? >> Sure. >> Welcome back everyone. Hello board of finance. The package you have in front of you uh is similar to what we saw last, but
046there are some marked differences I'd like to to walk you through. Kind of high level. Uh page one is a page everyone's used to looking at. Uh summary by department uh with very high level explanation of changes. Pages 2 through eight. Uh the first uh five or six or eight columns there are what we're used to looking at. But in response to the interest of of diving or even documenting our our deeper dive on a line by line item uh basis, some of the larger fluctuations uh now have explanations off to the right hand side there. >> Uh and there are other changes that aren't explained. Many of those are covered by the explanations at the front, but these were specifically items that folks had um had mentioned they were uh seeking an explanation on.
047So that might help us guide our discussion a little bit later on. And I can already hear the board of finance saying, "Why don't we do that on the town side?" Noted. >> Thank. >> You're welcome. >> Mr. Stelets, I I think we need bigger pieces of paper. >> That's That's usually Brian Lynch's comment, but I'll I'll take it. >> Pardon me, Bill. Pardon me. Bill, can I ask a quick question? >> Sure. the the file that you emailed us, is that other than the comments, is that the same as this one? >> It's the same. The numbers are the same. Yes. >> Thank you very much. >> Yep. >> And then um pages 9 through 11 are uh another view of the same budget area information where we're looking at uh the object level.
048>> So yeah, so that allows you to to look at, for example, technicians salaries all rolled up or uh nurses salaries. Uh that's it's within our accounting system. and that's called the object uh level view. Um we've also recently added u a number of positions column uh in in response to curiosity around uh how many positions are represented by each of the salary lines. Uh so you'll see that in there as we proceed through some of the comments. You'll see we've got a little bit of recclassing, some recoding that I have to do that moves the numbers one or two here or there. Uh, but I think that's very helpful when you're looking at a line that has multiple teachers in there or multiple administrators in there specifically. Um, very often we hear comments such
049as, "Oh, I I can't believe they're paying so and so that much money." Uh, when an instance it's not one so and so, it may be three. Um, so that helps people get some visibility uh into exactly what we're looking at in terms of positions per salary line. So to walk you through the top page uh very quickly um for high school, middle school, and elementary school, the main drivers of the budget changes are contractual salaries, step increases on the teacher side, for example. You'll hear that a lot along with a 10% health insurance increase. Now, I want folks to realize that when we go through the detail in the back, every time we see a health line, it's not going to be 10%. And the reason for that is because there may be fewer
050employees in that line than there were last year. There may be more employees in that line. Folks who were in that line may have moved up the coverage ladder and may maybe uh last year they were um plus one coverage and now uh they have a family. Um which those changes are significant to the budget. the the fluctuation in from single coverage to family coverage is about $20,000 a year on a for for for one employee. Uh so those numbers uh make quite a difference. So just understand that you you won't see 10% uh for every health insurance line. Uh moving on to pupil services, our our much discussed and uh special education uh department. Uh 12.7% increase driven by higher outplacement tuition. That's a combination of higher needs and a larger number of students
051that are outplaced along with uh higher uh tuition costs. Um specifically eastcon. Uh and then there's also some some personnel there. Uh health services. Uh kudos to uh to nurse Grower for keeping a very tight lid on her budget. Uh the only increases there are contractual salaries uh districtwide. A large increase here because the board of ed has now taken back in 100% of the cafeteria's health insurance. in the past. Um, specifically going back to COVID, the the district had an opportunity to push some of those health insurance costs into the cafeteria, uh, because the reimbursement rates were higher and there was a much higher amount of grant funding that was available. at this point, uh, that's just unsustainable and it would be frankly irresponsible to keep those costs in the in the cafeteria fund
052because ultimately any overages that the cafeteria runs revert back to the district. Um, so the board of ed took action and and and took that back into the budget. Um, districtwide also includes our insurance policies. So you see higher workers comp and liability rates. Um we have unfortunately some severance payments coming up in in fiscal 2027. Uh and and um and then we also saw an increase in boag tuition. On the plant side uh facilities transitions costs um HVAC maintenance has been put in place. Uh we just as all of us know invested heavily uh in in HVAC systems here at at the facility. uh and the budget makes room uh to maintain those improvements. Uh we are budgeting as we are on the town side for a 10% electricity increase. Uh once again, unfortunately,
053we don't get a lot of guidance on that. Um from from chitchatting with fellow u financial um finance directors in other towns, everyone's using 10% again this year. Um health insurance, I've already mentioned uh and partially offset by fuel savings. Uh although this is a minor savings, it's it's something I'm particularly proud of. Um every year when it comes to uh diesel, unled, and heating oil, um we make a pretty concerted effort to try to buy uh buy ahead of the contract, and I'm proud to say this is the fourth year in a row we're paying less per gallon uh for all three types of fuel. Can't promise it'll happen forever, but it's it's nice to string a few years together. transportation uh at 4.3% uh that is a combination of the cont the contractual
054u increase with DATCO offset by fuel savings and uh bus route reductions uh that were put in place actually this year high school athletics pretty flat uh technology up 2.1% replacement of network switches salary increases uh and partially offset by the removal of some software programs that were the technology group kind of re-evaluated the whole roster of what we were using and were able to eliminate a few of them. So, nice to see some savings there. Middle school athletics um higher liability insurance rates flowing through there. um curriculum a reduction uh primarily in supplies and then ESY and summer um folks who regularly attend the board of ed meetings uh will recall that every every month I have to mention we were slightly over there so we uh last year or this year currently. So,
055we addressed that in the budget going forward. Um, making sure we got right with where we need to be on contractual salaries. Uh, and then of course transportation costs roll into ESY and summer also. >> How's that for a summary? >> Beautiful. >> Any questions on Mr. Stelet's summary for Rick? if you don't mind on the health insurancees, what's the ratio employee to employer comp? >> Sorry, I just just took a drink. >> Um, it depends on the contract, but it's it's between 18 and 20%. >> Depending on which union you're talking about, similar um similar to what we see on the town side, too. >> Thank you, >> Nikki. on the VOAK. Is the increase due to more students going or the increase of the program itself? >> Yeah, so uh we currently have
05621 students and we know that 17 applied. Uh minus out the six that are going to graduate will bring us to a grand total of 32. Uh we hear from Killingly that the if you if our students apply they will be accepted. Um and so therefore we will have grand total of 32 versus 21. And we figure today that the tuition to go to BOAG is about 4,000 per student. However, four or five of those students do have IEPs and therefore we will get an additional bill uh for any kind of special education services provide to the VOAG. I don't have an estimate of what those costs are yet, but I will find that out. We still pay the special ed costs. Correct. It's not the school they're attending. Correct. >> If I might have
057a question. >> Um the percentage and dollar increases versus the budget or the budget, not the actual. >> Right. >> Okay. So, um Dr. Jones expresses his um uh you know pardon that because he and his regret for not being here this evening. However, with the date change, unfortunately, he had a family commitment he couldn't miss. Um, so therefore, he I asked him to record um his overview of his budget. So, if you look at this packet here with a little graph, um we're going to call up Dr. Jones recording and he's going to walk us through this. >> Pretty cool. It's like AI and we get to ask questions. >> I will I will record the questions and get the answers to anyone. >> Just tilt this a little bit. The cord seems like
058it would allow me. >> Careful with that. >> Just be very careful with that cord because we had one already break. >> And that was on it last. >> Yeah. Don't touch it. Sorry. >> Here at Thompson Public Schools. Uh my ap >> good way to start director of pupil services here at Thompson Public Schools. Uh my apologies for not being able to be in attendance this evening for the rescheduled board of education and board of finance meeting. I want to take a moment to just pull up my report so I can go through this as detailed as possible and reference the report. Okay. So, I thought it would be um a good way to start to showcase the staffing that we have in place to service these students that we have identified under special
059education. So, um, I broke it down by school. And if you start here with Marriott Fisher Elementary School, we currently have nine special education teachers in place, one social worker, one speech and language pathologist, one speech and language pathology assistant, 19 paraprofessionals, as well as a one-on-one registered nurse, and also a half-time board certified behavior analyst. There are currently 77 students that have qualified for special education services and supports. These numbers are >> Oh, don't leave us hanging. >> I have a big >> It's like virtual learning all over X. Hold on. I'm sure Travis is on his way down. Let me see. I could fast forward. >> Hold on. He said he's coming. >> Yeah, he's on his way. >> All right. Well, we'll wait for Travis. >> While we're waiting, I I do,
060if I may. >> Yes. >> Mr. Smith, >> um the staff that's on Dr. Jones sheet is not solely responsible for those 77 61 and 49 students. Correct. There's there's regular staff that is also responsible for that same >> Oh, the classroom teacher. Yes. >> Yes. >> That's what I I just wanted to make sure that >> above and beyond. >> Right. This is the right this is the services that I just want to make sure that that was clear that it's not just that that there is a higher level of >> these are the above and beyond the normal staff that would take care of this >> that's exactly right um so everyone gets general education even students with IEPs and 504s everyone has equitable access to the curriculum through gened but then the
061specialists on top of that is to give students access to the curriculum in an individualized fashion. >> There we go. >> Thank you. >> I wouldn't go too far, >> just just in case. social worker, one speech and language pathologist, one speech and language pathology assistant, 19 paraprofessionals, as well as a one-on-one registered nurse, and also a half-time board certified behavior analyst. There are currently 77 students that have qualified for special education services and supports. These numbers are fluid. I I know everyone understands that, but again, I just want to emphasize the numbers are fluid. These are the most current and up-to-date numbers. The middle school currently four special education teachers, a half-time speech and language pathologist, a we have a full-time occupational therapist that is a district-wide position. This individual services all three schools.
062We have a halftime board certified behavior analyst as I just mentioned. We have a halftime in the elementary while the other half is in the middle school and five par profofessionals. Currently 61 students have qualified for special education services and supports. The high school there are currently two special education teachers. a half-time speech and language pathologist. We have a full-time district-wide school psychology position that we're currently trying to fill. Um, we have a full-time board certified behavior analyst, a full-time social worker, five PAR professionals, and one one-on-one certified nursing assistant. There are currently 49 students under special education. Um, important to note, we utilize one bus with a monitor to transport these students that require door-to-door transportation, the elementary, the middle, and the high. And again, that's done with one bus. Um, Bradley School, Windham
063County. That is a state approved uh specialized school located here in Thompson Public Schools. At one time, we had an elementary, a middle, and a high school. Due to the shortage of special education teachers, we only have a middle and a high school class currently running. Bradley um or Brown Health uh University otherwise known as um is certainly working diligently to secure another teacher. Um so eventually hopefully sooner rather than later the elementary class will be back up and running. Um, as a result of that, the numbers have dwindled a bit, but I want to just um, note currently we're still hosting several other neighboring districts, Stafford, Killingly, Planefield, and Woodstock. So, we have students from the neighboring districts in our Bradley School here on site as the host district. There is only eight students
064total in the program, two of which are Thompson students. In terms of other placements, we currently partner with Eastcon, uh, relocated to Willamantic, Bradley School in New London, the Grow School, the Learning Clinic, Susan Wayne, Meadow Ridge, and Eagle Hill. Currently have 21 students outplaced. We're currently only using four buses to um transport our students to these other schools that we partner with. And the new London run for Bradley does require a bus monitor. With respect to section 504, again not special education general education initiative initiative. Um, Marriott Fischer, we have 26 students who have qualified for a 504. The middle school 32 and the high school 20 bringing that to a total of 78 students. Let me >> require extra >> start here on the 9 trend line. So, um, I went back to
0652017 and 18. I came to the district in February of 19. Thought this was important to look at and follow the trajectory here. Um, dating back 2017, there were 13 students outplaced. And then moving on up 16 20 24 29 29 20 21 22. Now if you look in 1920 and you see the orange that is again 20 students are out placed total of the 28 were moved to the Bradley program here on site. So during that year only 12 students were out placed to other schools while eight were here in Bradley school Windham County and you can follow that trend line as well. So we tried to increase it the next year from 8 to 12 to 14 to 14 and then you see it start to dabble off 8 6 and six and
066currently right now we have two. Again, this is largely in part due to the teaching shortage in the area of special education, but also it's important to note that, you know, students have done well in the program and we've been able to um transition them to a least restrictive setting. I'm going to jump back up to the charts. So here the first chart without the Bradley School Windham County program, excuse me. Um from 2019 to 2026 and again 2019 being the inception year. So you see this orange section for transportation without the program and again these numbers are approximations. The cost for that would be roughly $2 million for the number of students. And it's basically taking these numbers here in the orange. Okay. And dividing that out. This was the um positive outcome. We
067avoided this. This section here representing about 75% of this chart is the tuition for other placements. again saying there's no Bradley school Windham County for that same number of students the trans the tuition cost my apologies. So with that being said we transition to this chart here with the Bradley program being on site there is no transportation. Those students are on the gened buses coming to Thompson public schools and going into the Bradley program for the services and supports. The tuition here considerably lower than the tuition here. So when you factor this in, we'll just go to this narrative. Bradley School Window County has provided the district with cost avoidance over the past seven years pri by by approximately $2 million in transportation and $4.75 million in tuition for a net differential of $4.5 million,
068otherwise known as positive outcome. This does not factor in fuel, ESY, or any additional one-on-one staff support. And again, the numbers are approximations. These numbers are fluid, but this gives you the general idea of how important the program has been for the district. Yes, financially, but more so the least restrictive setting, allowing students to have access to typical peers, general education classes, being able to go out for specials, fizzed, music, teched, all the programs in the high school, wood shop, electrical, so on so forth. So, I just wanted to provide that information. I think it's uh very telling and very very important for you to see. Um but again challenging with the shortage in the special education teacher field as a whole. So we're definitely feeling the effects of that. As I slide here to
069the next page, this is basically what I referenced to start the presentation, but it's just a bit more in depth. So just bear with me. Uh again, Marriott Fish Elementary School, as I stated, 77 students that have qualified for special education services, 26 qualifying for section 504. A better breakdown or a more in-depth breakdown of the staff that we have in place. Five, inclusion or resource special education teachers. they're pushing into the gen ed or pulling students out into a smaller size classroom um for small group instruction. Uh that's for grades K to 4. Two life skills special education teachers prek to 4. uh two inclusion prek teachers, one social worker, one guidance counselor, one speech and language pathologist, one speech and language pathology assistant. Four program paraprofessionals for each of the four preschool programs.
070uh three program paraprofessionals for three kindergarten classrooms, one registered nurse as a one-on-one. That's a contracted position, meaning position is not hired by the district as a district employee. We contract with an agency to receive those supports and services of this individual to work in the district. Um there are 19 par profofessionals in the elementary school. Six of which are general education positions, 13 are special education positions, whether one-on-one or classroom um classroom par positions. Uh part-time board certified behavior analysts split at the elementary school. Again, that is a contracted position. that person oversees four registered behavior technicians. Those four individuals are contracted as well through the same agency. Uh and looking at the middle school, 61 students have qualified for special education services. 32 have qualified for section 504. There are currently three inclusion
071resource special education teachers, grades 5 through 8. As I mentioned, inclusion and pushing into the general education class to to deliver services or they have the ability to pull students out to a resource room or for small groupoup instructions to remediate as needed. one life skills special education teacher, one speech and language pathologist. That's a split position between the middle school and I'll make mention to it in a moment also the high school. One building level paraprofessional, one life skills program parrofessional, five paraprofessionals, uh a part-time board certified behavior analyst split at the Thompson Middle School, contracted. I made mention to the first half of the split which again was in the elementary school. And lastly for the middle school, three registered behavior technicians. Again, they are overseen by the BCBA. Again, all contracted through
072the same agency. the high school. There are 49 students that have qualified for special education services and supports, 20 students that have qualified for section 504. We currently have two inclusion um positions in the high school, grades 9 through 12, currently working with one teacher. We're looking to solidify the second position. Uh we have one life skills teacher that is currently also split with transition. So the life skills is grades 9 through 12. Transition ages 18 to 22. Uh one social worker, one speech and language pathologist. Again that is split between the high school and the middle school. Uh one board board certified BCBA behavior analyst. That's a contracted position full-time at the high school. Uh, one building level par building level paraprofessional, one life skills program parrofessional, a one-on-one CNA, certified nursing assistant, three
073paraprofessionals, one-on- ones throughout the building, and two registered behavior technicians. Again, those are contracted. Um, just again to emphasize one school uh, psychologist districtwide. We're going to be contracting for that business. We need somebody full-time, but for right now, it'll be a part-time uh, position. Two board certified behavior analysts. Again, those are contracted uh, basically districtwide. One right now is at the high school, the other is split between middle and elementary. one physical therapist split throughout. That's a part-time position and one occupational therapist. Again, that is districtwide. As I go to the next page, really it's the next two pages. I will not go into the detail to read the description of each disability, but I thought it was important that um everyone could see or better understand these exceptionalities that we identify when um
074having to determine eligibility or a student comes into the district. Um what the categories are. So they're broken down by 13 qualifying categories again or exceptionalities and there's also two subcategories. So in the district there are 25 students um with autism uh zero deaf blindness developmental delay two and again these numbers are fluid um but the most up to date that I'm able to share emotional disability 11 hearing impairment zero intellectual disability three multiple disabilities or comorbidity multiple disabil ilities going on. Nine orthopedic impairment zero other health impairment 12 separate other health impairment solely ADD attention deficit disorder or disability um and attention deficit hyperactivity disability 15 specific learning disability 54 is a separate category off of specific learning disability specific specifically dyslexia 25, speech or language impairment 31, TBI traumatic brain injury zero, visual
075impairment zero. So those numbers are what currently make up our students that qualify for services. Okay, you're with me. So, Bradley School, Windham County, um a program that again opened in 2019 in partnership with Thompson Public Schools. Um I think it's important to note here again, this is a program that was thriving and we've had some challenges with the teacher shortage. However, this is a program we really believe in and really has done wonders here in Thompson. It's not, you know, the end all beall for all students, but it certainly has its place. So, um, we're looking closely with the Bradley team to fill these positions and hopefully in due time we can we can get that back to the way it was when it was really flourishing. Um, important to note with the program.
076So, as the host district, the district is able to receive a discounted rate once we have x amount of students in the program. So, every time we have a seventh student, we receive a discounted rate on one of our students in the program. So, um, you know, when we have seven students in the program as the host district, the the rate is discounted by approximately $36 per day. And you multiply that over 180 days or 181 days. The positive outcome for one student would be $6,480. And that rate that I'm referencing would happen at if we had 14 students, 21 students, 28 students, and you keep on going over time. And again, that's a positive for the district, needless to say. And again, currently we have eight total students in the program, which allows for
077one discounted rate at this time. Some um important factors here I think um definitely worth mentioning would be some uncontrollable variables of high volatility in the department and again the department that I'm responsible for is known as pupil services not just special education um so oftentimes we hear special education is over budget but again the department that I'm in charge of if you will is pupil services which is overencompassing of special education. So just looking at a few factors that I think are important to note. Um for example number one there been several students currently six that were living here in Thompson removed through DCF um and placed in neighboring towns. I named a few here for you. Um, as a result, Thompson's had to absorb the special education service costs as well as transportation
078for those students that have been placed and currently that's about 120,000. Um, I have no um say in that matter. Um, typically the district would receive a letter and letting us know of the situation and then a PPT is held and as the LEA we assume that cost. Um, another example, there are times in which the district had to hold internal threat assessment meetings and as a result there's been a risk assessment. as a result of a risk assessment and the recommendations. Possibly a student's been had had to move to a more restrictive setting and no placement or additional supports are needed here in the public school such as a registered behavior technician. Uh this school year to date we've held seven threat assessment meetings in which um one has resulted in a risk assessment.
079Risk assessments are done offsite. Uh number three, several students in need of additional services and supports due to medical complications. Again, I mentioned those earlier. Um but we've had to add paraprofessional, registered nurse, certified nursing assistant. um as a result of the needs of the student which are always paramount first and foremost and I'm proud to always say um under the the direction and leadership of the superintendent uh whatever the student needs um under FAPE free and appropriate public education we have always risen to that challenge um four a wait list in different out of district placements um which can be challenging We understand that it's important to have our students in school um as quickly as possible, but sometimes due to extenduating circumstances, we're looking to place students in programs that meet the needs
080of the specific student. And there are times where the placement is full and then you're looking for other placements and that can be a challenge. And that's also where you run into issues with the shortage of special education teachers. uh students moving into district that are already outplaced. Um there's a lot that goes into that, but if a student is placed in a program that's here, yeah, within this within the state and you're looking at the placement and the students doing well, um decisions have to be made to allow the student to remain or start to talk about a transition back. Um a lot of that takes time and you want to make sure you're doing it one time. We're not in a um line of business where we have students coming in and out.
081That's not good for any student. But again, the district has had situations like that uh come about where we've had to absorb those type of costs. uh school choice as everyone knows Killingly VOAG QMC uh currently three students attending with special education services and right now we're looking at about $40,000 in services. Um students that have become hospitalized due to trauma, mental health, etc. Uh district acrews the educational cost while a student is ination for tutoring services. Uh due to increased needs, the districts had to hire three par profofessionals just this school year. Um homeless students under the Mckin Vento Act. Um I'll leave that there uh for you to take a look at what that means. Uh multilingual uh learners and I'll go here to uh the last part number 11. the increased special
082education referrals over the last three-year cycle. Um, I always like to just keep everyone up up to date with those referrals and what that looks like. Um, number 12, the shortage of special education teachers. Um, this is updated just a few minutes ago. There's currently 186 open special education teacher positions across the state. Um, and I I provided you with the link, so you can click on that if you'd like or go to that website. Uh, due to medical complications and mental health, expulsion, etc. The need for inhome tutoring or project Genesis, that's another program that we do partner with. um that has really served the district well. But again, those are unbudgeted positions um that have come up. And then lastly, the excess cost. Again, based on approximations, but I think it's important to
083just have a general idea uh with the increase in the threshold of the tuition and transportation combined uh for outplaced students. For outplace students, the district will receive reimbursement only on the costs that exceed 119,000. Last year it was 104. Okay, so it went up essentially 15,000 from last year. Again, tuition and transportation combined at a rate of 72.72%. Last year it was 64.19%. So yes, the percent went up of anything over the threshold. We get a higher percent of anything over the threshold, which is which is good. However, that threshold went up. It went up about $15,000 to 119. So again, we receive reimbursement of 72% of any funds over 119,000 and that's tuition and transportation combined. The district currently spending roughly 2.1 million in out of out of district placement and transportation and
084we will receive approximately $62,000 back in excess cost reimbursement. So, the net deficit to the district would be roughly a little bit over $2 million. Again, the numbers are fluid and approximated. I hope um this was able to shed some light and um answer any questions people may have of the department or myself. And again, I do apologize. I'm not able to be there in person um for this rescheduling meeting from this past Monday. I hope everyone is well and um thank you for your time and looking at the slide and this information. Take care. >> Any questions or discussion on people's services? Kristen. >> Um, I know he's on here, but he did a really good job breaking up all the positions for everything that falls under special education basically except for the multilingual
085minors because that I mean that is mandated too. So, if you could just put in there, you know, how many of those? >> So, we have one MLL teacher. Um, and Kim, how many students? >> 22 students in seven languages. Yeah, 22 students in seven languages. >> So that one teacher is the only cost resource. >> Yes. >> We exceed 22 and then the rule is or the mandate is that we're supposed to add another teacher. >> So one more kid and a few more children and they're going to be in that bind. >> How many languages? Matt, >> uh, to clarify for everybody else in the room, can somebody define a 504 again, please? Just >> so4 is, um, under the ADA accommodation. Um, it is a, um, plan that's put in place that
086is not specific to special education. is actually a general education plan to provide a student with support in the classroom that may not necessarily qualify for an IEP. However, there are dollars attached to those services that are provided through a 504. Um, and as you can see, we have quite a few students. I think we're at oh gee about 150 students on an I an IEP I mean on a 504 plan um that we have to oh a total of 78 sorry I'm looking at that quick but 78 students with individualized plans that may require a behavior therapist that may require um extra um services from a special educator um just so that they can access the gened curriculum. Um and so we often forget about the students that are on 504s and even when
087we had the Connecticut project out here last week um she said that that was a hidden number um that there is also costs associated with supporting 504s. >> Great. Thank you >> Amanda. So when you look at the cost without Bradley, you're looking at between from 2019 to 2026 a total of $6,750,000. Okay? When you look at these numbers, when you're breaking down the students that qualify for special education services and the students that qualify for 504 plans, those are two different numbers. Correct? >> Yes. So when you look at Marri Fisher, there are 103 students that that require services given to them and that is where all of the extra staffing needs come from. Correct. >> So you've got 103 at Mar Fisher, you've got 93 at the middle school and you've got 69
088at the high school. So, I don't understand how if cutting is where people want us to go, where are we supposed to do that with the needs where they are? >> So, here's here's the kicker. We can't cut any of these services. These were legally mandated. So, those are not the services that are going to get reduced. What's going to get reduced is what those students were talking about at the top of the meeting. It's those extra programs that we have in place, the athletic program, career pathways, um our our language based reading programs, all the things that are showing gains in our test scores are the things that the board is going to have no choice but to look at. >> And that's what the portrait of the graduate is, is all of those
089enriching things that make our students uh excel when they graduate and leave the school. >> Correct. >> Yep. And that's what we we're set. We want to set our students up for success. We don't want to set them back. We want to set them up for success. Yes, I understand that we need to be fiscally fiscally responsible. Say that 10 times fast. Um but I feel like there's only so much you can cut and there's only so many places where it's ethical and I don't feel like it's ethical >> to cut any of these services for our students. Justin, you had your hand up. >> Justin. >> Yeah, sure. Um, I just I wanted to supplement Dr. Jones because I do this every month and I want to make sure it gets on the record
090for this meeting. Um, last year at this time, we were 16th in the state out of 169 districts. This year at this time, we are 40th in the state out of 169 districts with roughly the same special education percentage. >> 16th in what? special ed special education in what cost number of students >> percentage of the percentage of students in the district needing services. >> Okay. Thank you. >> So percentage of of district percentage of students in the district needing services. We are at 26.51% now. Last year we were right around 25 26% same thing. Um but last year the important note that I want to get here is last year we were 16th in the state out of 169. This year we are 40th in the state of 169. What does that tell us?
091That tells us that the need in the state has gone up and we have moved further down down that list. Not because our percentage is lower, but because other districts have have a a higher need per by >> student percentage than we do. >> State problem. >> Correct. it. And we keep saying it's a state problem, but right now it is a local problem because we are having to fund this aspect of our district locally, legally bound to do it. And what suffers when we um are legally bound to to fund something are the programs that we heard of earlier, which are those pathways programs. And and I um I I just hope that people realize I know last year in last budget season there was a large faction of people who were saying go
092to vocational, go do this, you know, we need more vocation, close the high school, turn into a vote school. We're doing probably something better than that with the pathways programs, right? We've built out programs that support our students and get them out into the world in in a in a fashion that works for them as we heard earlier. So, um, I yield. Chairman, >> Rob, >> if I could, if I could jump back to Amanda, I'm a little slow on the math. >> When your totals, you added the 77,61,49 for the other three numbers in the 504. >> Oh, say that again. >> Sorry. >> She was adding the numbers. >> So, I was adding the 77 and the 26 at Mary Fisher, which came up to 103. >> And then 61 and 32 is
09393. and 49 and 20 is 69. But that's not including the 22 students that are uh >> outplaced >> out with those are the ones that the multi- language learners that we are required to be able to teach them the seven languages that they speak. Correct? >> No. the 22 out >> my second question uh we consider if I read this correctly and if I understood uh the presentation that we view the Bradley school as at a district physically here >> even though it's physically here we it's still tuition based >> and so two questions on that the first one is I'm having a hard time connecting the dots on the math the the not the rate but the discount. The discount not not the total rate the discount is $6,400 >> correct >> for
094the seventh student. >> Mhm. >> Yeah. You have to hit the threshold of seven. >> Not students one through six. >> No. >> So how do how does that tie to the multi-million dollar savings? because the cost of the Bradley school tuition is significantly lower than the out of district placement. It's around $60,000 I would say per student where some of our outpaced are between 85 and 100,000 plus transportation. >> So it's not the discount, it's the delta between the >> alter the bra Yes. And the Bradley students come in on our regular buses, >> the ones that we already have, where if we're sending them outplace, we have to have specialized busing. >> Understood. Understood. And um following up from that, that this number, you know, is declining over the last five or six
095years, 14, eight, six. It's now two Thompson students in the two. >> And I heard mention a few times of a shortage of teachers. Is it that they don't have the capacity to take the students and maybe 18 out of the 21 could be in Bradley or is it that they don't qualify for Bradley? In other words, what I'm driving with the question, Melinda, is what's the opportunity here? If they were actually fully staffed appropriately, what would the opportunity? So, if they were fully staffed, um, we would have an elementary program, for example, and maybe some of the students, and I don't know, I don't know their disability, right? But maybe some of those students that are outplaced that are in elementary could transition back. Um, the problem is that they haven't been able to
096hire someone to restore that position. We are we we meet with them once a week um and really are trying to put pressure, but you know, we've had we've had our own woes about getting special education staff. We even contracted uh to fill a classroom this year and that that went belly up. That didn't go well. And uh we're still looking for a special education teacher up at the high school as well as a school psychologist. Um when we contract out um and you see a lot of our uh behavior an uh BCBAS and RBTs when we contract out um we um are doing that through an agency sometimes there's cost savings there because we're not paying any of the benefits on that employee um and so there's sometimes cost savings however um our contracted
097services and you'll see that line that is always seems to be go inching up and up because we have to provide service in the general education classroom first and if that doesn't work then we move them to a more restrictive setting a smaller class size and then if that doesn't support the students appropriately then they leave the district. So it's a multi-tiered uh step um but sometimes a student that remains in the classroom can cost us more than a student that goes out of district. It depends on the need of this the child >> and and sorry I said two more quick ones. Um >> is there a cost for us to have the Bradley housed here? >> No. >> Zero. They pay for everything. >> Okay. >> They're using space that ultimately would be
098empty right now >> that's already heated that we already have. It's like just incremental. >> And then of the 21 out of district order of magnitude, what is that? What's the cost of that versus the total cost of special? >> Are you asking for an average cost of a student? >> No, the total cost for the 21. I recognize it's going to change in the budget. I think 1.5. >> Yeah, it's line uh I can get you a second problem. >> Other placements line number 177, >> but but you also have to include the Eastcon line, too. >> Y uh I'm sorry, it's 177 and then it's also 2011, which is the transportation piece, too. Correct. Wanda. >> Yes. It was include transportation and eastcon which is >> 208. >> Yeah. >> So 1.5 >>
099177 2011 and 208. Correct. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Which is 255. >> But since this budget has been put together, we've had an additional student move out place. We've had a student requiring homebound instruction and there was a third thing. Um there was the tutoring the oh and the student was placed by DCF Susan Wayne and we had to pick up the educationals. So, uh, we don't have a hard number on that because we don't know what placement the student that is needing an outplace is going to, but it's going to require another bus on the road. Um, if one of the placements is selected um, and the tuition, so we're looking at about 140 for that student that's not even in this budget, 32 from Susan Wayne, and about 30 for homebound tuition,
100uh, tutoring. So those are costs that happen within days of us presenting the budget to the board of ed. >> That's how that's how volatile it is and how it can swing one way or the other. >> Matt, you comment. >> Yep. Um I just want to clarify about the the the Bradley school, the little pie pie charts. Those costs from 2019 to 2026. You should correlate those with the numbers that are down here because it's not for every that's not of everybody. That's just those 8 12 14 eight those students. That's what that saved over on average looks like maybe 10 to 12 students that saved that much $4 million. So it's not just saving, you know. So that that's a a huge amount of money per student that it's saved if you look
101at it that way as well in addition to not costing anything to have it here. >> It was one of the best things Dr. Jones did when he first started. >> Oh, absolutely. >> Daniela, you had your hand raised. >> Yeah. Um, so I understand that Bradley is an outplay school. >> Who pays for the staff there? >> Bradley. >> So they're paying for it. So none of that is in our budget. >> No, >> but we pay the tuition which pays tuition, >> right? Just the tuition of the student the just those two >> that are in the program >> principles >> principal overview. >> So we'll start with principal analys. >> Go ahead TJ. >> Um just because like we talk about two only two of them being in there. Um so we
102have an additional three. >> Um but the needs of those students far exceeded with what even Bradley could have offered. So I mean that's what you've seen. You're seeing >> and this is not just you unique to Thompson. I came from an urban setting before where every year our needs escalated as society falls apart on the outside. You see we live it firstand in the schools. And that's why you're seeing you know these budget increases and more kids with special ed more kids with 504s. You got breakdowns with families. You got drug abuse. You got socioeconomic issues and that all feeds into the school and this is you know kind of what you're left with and a bunch of unfunded mandates from from the state. >> Thank you Steve you had a comment. >> I
103was going to ask is sounds sounds like contracted staff is less expensive than hiring staff >> in some cases >> because I would have guessed >> not always. I would have thought it would be opposite in all honesty. >> Yeah, not always. although we don't ever pay the benefits. So there there's that we don't have to pay the health care on those particular contracted people. >> But I would assume that person gets it through >> through their agency. So eventually I guess >> they don't pay it directly but >> correct. Um uh some of those some of those positions are more than what we would pay for an employee if we could hire them. Um and that'll be like under the umbrella of this psychologist that we can't seem to hire someone. were probably paying
104more per day for that psychologist um through contracted services. >> But I notic for example you have uh nine uh RBTs registered behavior technicians >> all all of those positions are contracted. So that yes that's just because the nature of the >> that profession is it turns out they all go through contractor contractors >> and so it's a certification often those folks gravitate toward an agency and then they're hired through the agency >> and some agencies have gone into business and developed a pool of RBTs for to farm out to districts. >> Gotcha. Thank you. All right, we'll move on to principal. >> We'll start with principal Melon. >> Pardon me. >> Yeah, >> one other just point of clarification and I'm not suggesting either way. Just want to clarify. Do we we got this
105these next uh series on five D will be presentations and then questions after or would you prefer it to be interactive and we ask questions along the way? >> I'm not either approach. I just want to know which one it I think it might be more beneficial if we have them do their presentation and then you ask your questions like if like after TJ does his you want to ask questions that way. >> That's fine. >> You have them right there. >> Yep. Excellent. Got you. >> Mr. Melon, >> good evening everyone. Thanks for having me. Um so I'm going to approach this two different ways. Um, one way is kind of just to give you some some basic facts um about our high school and then I've got a little comparison I want to
106make that hopefully will will uh let people realize the positive impacts um we're having on the Thompson community. So, this is a DAS accreditation year for us. Um it's very important that we get that accreditation um to become an accredited high school. And one of the things um that they identified before I even got here um we call it priority priority area four. The school will be provided with sustainable funds to ensure the longevity of positions and programs that provide academic, behavioral and emotional support to improve student graduation rates and better ensure students long-term success. I can tell you right now um we are doing that. We are improving graduation rates. Um we're increasing um attendance rates. uh academically speaking, our students are doing better um over the last couple years. So, we are doing
107all that despite having some areas where we could definitely use some more support. Um I wrote down although we are a small high school, our enrollment numbers do not accurately reflect the level of service our students require. Due to the socioeconomic challenges many families in Thompson face, a significant number of students struggle with mental health and substance abuse issues. As a result, our staffing needs extend well beyond what our size might suggest. So, everyone looks at the high school as this um you know, reduced population compared to other high schools. We do not stop all day. We we rock and we roll. We do that to keep things orderly to give kids a bright future. Um we have an amazing staff. um we all work collaboratively with one another um to to meet the needs
108of our kids despite probably needing a couple more staff which I would never ask in in a budget season like this. Um so two positions that we currently have that are critical are uh in supporting our hybrid students um our BCBA um who works with uh students that have challenging behavior and then our career development coordinator. um these are currently grant funded and so if we those grants expire and then we don't get those positions back next year um that's going to definitely have a negative impact on our school um so that's something we have to to think about. I wrote down a lack of an assistant principal and I'm not we're asking for one. I completely understand that we couldn't afford one. Again, we're a small school. Um but while our student population again
109is small, the demands of the role remain substantial. And this is the favorite part of my job by the I spend a large portion of the day uh addressing student behavior. Believe it or not, I like engaging with the kids, making sure the school's safe. Uh making sure kids feel supported. Um but I'm also supposed to be out in classrooms and focused on collecting data and classroom observations. These things I still do get to. Um but it's extremely challenging to do both at the same time. I've got to wear multiple hats. I'm only able to do these uh things because I have a great uh supportive team up there with my social worker, school counselor, BCBA, um and you know, our new uh career coordinator. So, takes a team. We're doing it. Uh we're going
110strong. Um but again, from last year, we kind of really lost two positions. Um we never filled our science uh position uh this past year. um we lost we combined a special education position and then we we currently haven't had um a resource teacher all all year which is putting a heavy burden on the one resource teacher we do have to service all these students. Um so now I'm going to switch it over to like a little little story. How many of you seen It's a Wonderful Life. >> All right. So if you have not seen it, you need to watch it. It's my favorite movie of all time. And I always you know I told Linda this the other day. I always feel like feel like education is like a George Bailey and and
111I'll explain what I what I mean. So George Bailey and it's a wonderful life represents the quiet everyday impact that Torlot Memorial High School has on students in the Thompson community. Just as George sacrifices personal ambitions to invest in the people of Bedford Falls, Torlot devotes itself to developing young people not just academically but socially and emotionally often without any recognition whatsoever. George provides stability, opportunity, and hope to individuals who might otherwise be overlooked. That is the same role that we play at Torlot when we support struggling learners, create safe environments, and open doors to futures students may not yet see for themselves. His story shows that the real success is measured not in a personal gain, but in lives changed over time, which is exactly the long-term community-shaping effect we're having every single day.
112When George got to see what Bedford Falls was like without him there, you witnessed a world of chaos and despair. People that don't live and breathe school every day, like the staff at Torlot, have no idea of how much a positive impact we are having on Thompson. Our pathway programs provide students the opportunity to get good paying jobs in welding, culinary, nursing, business, construction, electrical work, and plumbing. We also send countless students to colleges and universities. As we saw earlier with Jenna, um we provide uh for the hungry. Uh we help feed the elderly at times and we celebrate our veterans uh providing them with meals around Thanksgiving. We need to ask ourselves, is it worth reducing funding to our high school? And I certainly think it's not. So, thank you. >> Questions? >> Any
113questions in regards to the high school budget lines? >> Thanks. Principal Gronado. I know. >> All right. Well, good evening everyone and um thank you for having us come and tell you about what our budgets entail. Well, at the middle school, um we are just sustaining. We are not adding anything. Um last year we we had to um let uh our one of our fifth grade teachers, our sixth grade teachers, we reduced because of enrollment. Um so we lost a teacher. Um we're not adding that teacher back in. We are still in loss of a teacher going into now that uh fifth grade um will now go down to three teachers and our sixth grade will go back to four. Um so that is the only difference that we are seeing in the middle school.
114Um, you know, I always say this, middle school is such a trying time of a kid's life. You know, it's it's the last time before they get to high school that we get to invest in them. When those kids walk through the door, we in there is not one staff member in our building that does not invest in these kids. I want to rest assure these our taxpayers of Thompson that when your child walks through that middle school door or through this district, our teachers are working tirelessly. Our support staff is working tirelessly. We don't take breaks. Our support staff is amazing. My assistant is amazing. Um, the energy that it takes to meet all of these kids' needs, you would never believe. You would never believe. I I can't even explain to you. But
115I can tell you that when I stand up here and I listen to the students um that are graduating from the high school, I think back to when we had them and it just that says it all. You said that. That says it all, right? You know, coming up here I'm like, what am I going to say? you know, to make you people understand how detrimental what we do to these kids and their lives. We have a responsibility to do what's right for these kids. And I can attest to you, I've worked in three other districts. It is amazing what we do with the lack of really And I, Superintendent Smith is amazing at developing pathways for these kids. If these kids did not have these pathways, again, just remind yourselves of who spoke in
116the beginning of the night, where would they be? They wouldn't be graduating. They would be just getting jobs. But now because of the investment that you made into the community and because you have passed these budgets and these pathways, now our kids of this community are proud. They have pride. They can go out. They can receive a job. They have a talent. That is that is you can't put a cost on that because eventually they're going to come back and give back to the community. I have one success story too that I'm going to say is that we have kids coming back and subbing in our buildings. Do you know why? That's because of all of my colleagues and everybody here at this table in this community of what we give that these kids want
117to come back and give to their community. That's all because of what you've been doing thus far. But we cannot take away anymore from these these kids. They deserve that. They're relying on us. They come through those doors, they look at us like, "Help me. Help me do what's right. Invest in me. Help me to believe in myself." Those are things that are so, you know, morally, we are obligated. And I'm going to shift gears now. We are seeing improvements. Three years ago, our attendance was only 89%. Now we're up to 93% as a district. Do you know what that mean? That is because people, our staff comes to work every day. They invest. They're doing they're they're personalizing to these kids. They want to come to school. That just doesn't happen. That's from the
118investment that everyone here that walks through those doors made. Our chronic is decreasing. It's amazing to see how our chronic attendance is driling at dwindling at all three levels. assessments. We are an opportunity district, but I am going to tell you, and I can't get into the facts because it's private information, but I can tell you that Thompson is at the lead of the opportunity districts, making an average of out of three years a 4% increase in their test scores. No offense to the other opportunity districts. My heart goes out to them. But they're not making any positive. It's all in the negative. Again, that's because of all of us together doing what's right for kids. And we need to continue that so we can get out of this opportunity district and show everybody what
119our kids are made of and what this district is made of. So, we are improving test scores, but we have a ways to go. Can't we we have to sustain we have to keep going. We have to invest in these kids and the pathways because that's where it is. But everyone here is a testament. We as a community have to fight what's right for these kids. So yes, you have to make some difficult decisions. You know, when I heard about paving and everything, I I I wouldn't want to be any of you, but I can tell you I love my job. I know my support staff loves their job. We come to school every day, and we are making a difference in children's lives. We need you to keep that up. So please, from the
120bottom of your heart, you need to look in the mirror and you need to say to yourself at the end of the day, I have to do what's right for kids. Because that's your obligation sitting here. That's all of us our obligation. Thank you. >> Any questions on the middle school line items? >> I'd like to make a comment. >> Yes. Um, I I appreciate your message and your passion. >> Yes, I'm a little passionate. >> You don't you made a comment that you wouldn't want to be any of us. I'm not sure I want to be me. >> I know, >> but I'm me. My comment is that I think in a large part and I know a fair amount of people in this room. I think in a large part there's a lot
121of people here that support the school. >> Yeah. >> Support our community. I've been here my whole life. I love the town. I'm speaking for myself and others. >> We We not you and not me. We >> Yes. >> need to send that message. >> Yes. >> To the broader audience because at the end of the day, >> yes, >> we as a board of finance can put forward whatever budget we feel is appropriate. >> But if the community doesn't support that, >> yes, >> then your your message and passion needs to shift to I'm trying. I know you are. It wasn't it wasn't an accusation by any stretch. I wanted to take the opportunity to say I appreciate it, but it's going to take it's a multiplier effect. It's going to take each of
122us speaking to people to speak to people to speak to people to really get the a broader uh community outreach and support for our town. >> I agree with you. I mean, it's not for lack of trying. Um, I know every every level I I mean I' I've watched this board work so hard and Superintendent Smith sending out letters and campaigning and doing what's right for these kids. I mean, it's amazing what they've done. >> You know, thank you for your time. >> No, thank you, >> Mr. Apprentice. >> Thank you. >> That's a hard >> Yeah. You know, um I'm going to have nightmares about Chris Jones's voice tonight. That was great job, Chris. Sorry. Great job. Um I'm going to go a little backwards. Um just thank you to Mr. Ga who spoke
123tonight. Uh Mrs. Kenny who spoke tonight. Uh Miss Karowski, Mrs. Kowalsski who spoke tonight. Payton, great job speaking tonight. Uh I should have shared this. I I totally forgot to share this. This was a communication from a parent, a pre-K parent. So, if um if you'll just indulge me, it'll probably take just a couple minutes to read, but I think it's worth reading. Um this is from Mr. uh Mr. Keith Benson, Mrs. Carol Benson. Her their daughter's name is Bailey. She's a pre-K student and and they write, "The following is a testimony regarding our family's wonderful experience at Mir Fischer's prechool program. Our daughter Bailey Benson was diagnosed with autism upon turning two years old. She began early intervention which included inhome therapy several times per week over a span of 15 months. Excuse me.
124At the start of the 2526 school year, Bailey was three years old and used one to two word utterances to communicate. She she did not seek out other children to play with. She was not potty trained and she had regressed from the little progress she had made at home earlier in the year and showed no signs of readiness to try again. She was unable to follow oral directions like typical children her age could do and mostly just floated around the classroom needing constant direction in order to participate in any activities. Today, Bailey is comp is a completely different child than she was just a mere four months ago. Thanks to the tireless efforts of both Miss Tamo and the ladies of the speech therapy department, Bailey is using three to four word sentences to communicate.
125She has friends in the classroom whom she addresses by name and engages and play with. She is now able to follow simple directions and participate in art class and music classes. She has developed a daily routine where she comes home and where she comes into her classroom, hangs up her coat and her backpack and washes her hands at her at the sink. This was learned by Bailey pure out of habit and repetition. And as her mother, I admit that I never would have expected her to be able to learn and develop those kinds of skills after just a few months into her first ever school experience. She is now beginning to potty train, making huge strides over a short span of time. It's my honest belief that if Bailey had not been welcomed into the
126classroom, she would not have made the progress she made thus far and and continues to make. She she was accepted just as she was at the beginning of the school year. And because she knew she was loved and wanted, she developed trust and rapport with her teachers and her peers that has allowed her to learn and to thrive. Being a new family in a school district is a scary thing and no one knows what to expect and we are beyond grateful in our decision to enroll Bailey at Mirar Fiser and place our trust in this wonderful program and staff with gratitude Carol and Keith Benson. So that was just a beautiful recognition of the work that this the teachers at the elementary school does. So uh thank you Mr. and Mrs. Ben uh Benson as
127well. So, I'm just gonna echo uh I don't want to belabor all the the numbers you have on paper here. Okay. Um I I echo the passion of both Mrs. Granado and uh Mr. Melon about how hard they work in each of their schools. I do not envy and I and I will steal what Mrs. Granado said. I do not envy the decisions that you have to make both as a board of finance and a board of ed. Mr. Mrs. Granado, uh, Mr. Melon, Mrs. Smith, and myself have have made some really, really difficult, uncomfortable decisions and we make them every single day. So, we have a deep appreciation for what you go through. So, I just want to say that from the bottom of my heart. I mean that. I will tell you there's
128not a lot of people that know this. Um, I don't consider myself a success story at all. I uh but I was my family has been in this area since the 1960s. I lived in three rows. I was evicted from three rows and now I'm a principal in this community. So I I appreciate being from this community and what it has to offer and the individuals that showed me love and acceptance and worth and passion. That means a lot. It means a lot. And it means a lot for me as an educator to show the same thing to my students. And I do that on a daily basis. Mr. Melon does it on the ba daily basis. Mrs. Granado does it on the daily basis. And I can assure you every single elementary, middle school,
129and high school teacher puts their the the effort and attention into what they do on a daily basis. Um, so we're not asking for anything. We're just simply maintaining the programs that we have. And I know again this is a difficult position for you to be in, but when I when I tell you at the elementary level, when a teacher walks in the building, contractually they contractually they have to be here at 8:10. Contractually they can leave at 3:20. What does that mean? If I if Mr. apprentice says, "Hey, I want you here at 8:05." They'll go, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's not that's not what my contract says." However, with that being said, we have teachers routinely come before school, after school. We have special education teachers, I know this for a fact, that
130stay up till 11:00, 12:00, 1 in the morning, Saturdays, and Sundays looking through C-TOP exam, uh, Ctop tests we give our students, Wyatt tests, we give our special ed students, all these sorts of batteries and tests that we provide students. So, their work ethic is undeniable. And I know the community knows this, but I think it's worth mentioning because um I I think the teachers take a lot of slack. They get the summers off. They get vacations. We've heard that. We've heard all that. That's played out. We we we've heard it time and time and time again. Um if you if you divide the amount of time >> by the work they put in, it's below minimum wage. Guaranteed. No doubt about it. There's just no doubt about it. Um, so at the elementary level,
131we are not asking for programs. We just want to maintain what we have. A couple of you talked about the language based classrooms. It basically in a nutshell, it's an approach. It's a really creative approach to identify and to intervene in a classroom model with students that have reading difficulties. It's as it it's as that's a really simple take on it. There's much more involved in it. You'll have a classroom teacher in that classroom. You'll have a special ed teacher in that classroom. You'll have a speech and language pathologist in that classroom. all working individually in small groups to intervene with students that have learning difficulties. And I can tell you if you've well you you haven't been, but I've been in hundreds of PPTs, hundreds of 504s um in just recently over the last
132couple years. There is nothing quite like having a mother or a father sitting across from you crying, weeping. I I we are so grateful our child couldn't even read the most basic words. That's that's what this this is what education is about really. It's it's really what it's about. Um, >> so we're not looking to increase that. We're just looking to maintain what we have. Dr. Jones did a great job. I'm not going to belver what what he talked about, but I mean, seven 77 students qualify for special ed services, 26 at the elementary with 504s. That just speaks to the level of need we have in this school. I tell this to to parents every single day that walk in. They walk in the halls. I I I bring them around, bring them to
133a meeting. Oh my goodness. The the the schools you attended, with all due respect, the schools that you attended five and 10 years ago, they don't exist. They they do not exist. You need to erase that from your mind, let alone 30 years ago. You're not having 25 kids sit in a classroom with their hands folded. Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. You're having kids crawl underneath desks. You're having onetoone You're having adults onetoone support children that that that that can't hold the pencil, that can't read. I mean, it's the schools that you went to don't they do not exist. The level of need is so great. Mr. Malum nailed it. I mean, we we and and don't get me wrong, love to interact with these students on a daily above it. Wouldn't be doing this wouldn't
134be doing this um if I didn't love kids, period. Pure and simple. But um yeah, it's it the the level of need is is just truly amazing. Um, I really implore you. I've said this. I send out a weekly newsletter. I've said this multiple times. I implore you, come to the building. Come see me. Let's walk around. Senator Jeff Gordon was just in our building the other day. His head spun. >> Unbelievable what he witnessed. So I would be ready, willing, able, any of any of you folks, any community members reach out. I feel like I have a really good rapport, although I oftentimes have to be the beer of a lot of bad news to parents. Um, but I I I um I would love to have you walk around introduce you to our
135our faculty and staff and I speak on behalf of the faculty and staff at Mirror Fisher. I mean, I'm I I I I'm passionate about what what I do and what I see on a daily basis, but I'm equally, if not more passionate about the level of skill that these educators possess. It's truly unbelievable. Unbelievable what they get these kids to do. Three-year-olds, 15 three-year-olds walking in line, sitting down, quiet, answering questions. Three years old. But anyway, um, strength programs, somebody mentioned that there's there's tons of evidence increasing brain power, improved concentration, executive functioning skills, the relationship between music, string string, mu um string instruments, music in general. um the the guidance counselor that is also um grant funded. 77 students, 26 qualified for 504 plan. Um almost all of those in one way or
136another are seen by either a guidance counselor or a social worker. You get rid of that guidance counselor, you've effectively doubled the load of the social worker. She cannot now she can do her job as effectively as she could before. Not even close. >> Not even not even close. Um and that's that's that's one educator. That's a guidance counselor. >> Forget about the special ed teachers, classroom teachers, occupational therapists, speech and language pathologists. Um and the list goes on and on and on. Um, and then the reading specialists, the foundational skills of of of learning taught by reading specialists, getting rid of them. Decreasing programs equals lower student achievement. Pure and simple. Period. That's it. Decreasing programs equals lower student achievement. So, sorry, I don't mean I'm not I'm not I hope you I'm not
137shouting at you. I'm passionate about what we do here. And again, I can't tell you enough. Um, board of ed members, the position you're in, I say it all the time. I I would never want that position. Board of Finance members, I I know you have a tough job to do as well. Mr. W, you've been nothing but respectful. Your your professionalism is unbelievable. And if I've never told you that, I'm telling you it now. And that goes for everybody else, honestly. So, from the elementary, that's that's all I have for the elementary school. Sorry about that. I'll get off my SL. >> Kathleen, you have a comment or a question? >> Yeah. I I just want to attest and to emphasize what Larry has said over there. It's uh it's a dedication of our
138teachers. >> It is amazing. And to prove it in the Northeast Connecticut, the teachers are on the lower spectrum of the pay scale in Connecticut and our teachers are even the lower spectrum of that pay scale. And yet 50% or more of them are what I would refer to as lifers. They're on the last step of the pay scale and they've been here and they stay because they love being in the Thompson school system and they want to teach our students. They could get more money by even just transferring to Putnham and they don't do it. They stay here because they love this school system. They love our students. They love our kids. And we fully fully support them as a board and we fully support them as residents of Thompson. And we've got to
139get that word out. As Rob said, we've got to get this budget passed because this budget just maintains the status quo. Any questions on elementary line items? >> You indicated five or 10 years ago student behavior was substantially different than it is now. >> Why? >> Um I like I make a lot of more a lot more phone calls to aunts or uncles that live in the home. Not mom and dad. Grandparents that live in the home, not mom and dad. Guardians that live in the home. the the family unit, and that's just one layer. The family unit has changed dramatically. >> 10 years ago, a lot of students go home. Hi, Johnny. How was your day in school? Dinner's at 5:00. Let's sit around the table. There's a lot of kids like that. Now
140kid comes home. Anie Jen, what what? Get away from me. I'm on my tablet. >> I'm too I'm too busy for you. Right. So what does that tell a what does that tell a child? >> You're not important to me. Now I'm not saying that always happens but that's a layer the family unit and it the time spent quality time spent with a child has diminished quality home time attention just pay attention to me mom or dad aunt uncle let's eat together let's sit down let's read a book let's watch a movie let's just talk. Can't we just talk? Doesn't happen anymore. >> So, it sounds like social media of the adults in the build in the family. >> Oh, most definitely. That's part of it. Most definitely. I mean, there's a lot of pluses
141for social media. A lot. I mean, a lot of pluses for technology. Social media, you know, sometimes is ineffectively Yeah. It's can be tough to battle. It can be tough to combat. So, yeah. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. Justin, >> um I'll roll you guys back to last week. We had um a presenter from the uh state finance project in um some of the numbers on that were pretty staggering. Thompson's percentage of low income is 43.7% versus Ponford at 20.9, Woodstock at 23.9, and Eastford at 27.0. I think that speaks exactly and directly to both what principal apprentice were saying and uh principal Melon where the socioeconomic status of Thompson dictates a lot of what we as a board of ed more specifically the administrators and the teachers deal with in the in the
142classroom and in the buildings every day. Um multilingual learners 1.8% versus uh 1.7 1.4 and zero. Uh students with disabilities 20.8 8 versus 15, 16, and 15. And we could go to these these numbers all day long. We're we're a much higher needed district with a much lower state overall uh state um spend on us. Um a and with what's left in our budget, um as as Mrs. Smith sent out last week, the programs that we're going to have to eliminate are the programs that have been driving up our test scores that have been driving up our attendance. The students I know for a fact because I have two students in the two kids in the district. Um they come to school for certain programs. They they don't they're coming to school anyways, but they
143come to school without a fight because of certain programs. Um, I think there are other guardians, as principal apprentice said, that if the kid's gonna fight, yeah, all right, stay home. Stay on your tablet. We don't we don't need to worry about it. But if that kid had knows they have music that day or knows they have gym or knows they have culinary or welding or or construction, they're going to make an effort to get here because that's the class that they hang their hat on. So, I I hope and I pray that we as a board don't have to cut any of these programs um because of a lack of community support. And I know everybody at the table uh understands what the pressures we're under. I just I hope society the town of
144Thompson understands the pressures we're under at this point. Amanda. >> So, I graduated from Turtle in 2006 and I can honestly say that it's totally different than what it is now. I would have not that I'm not thriving, but but I would have excelled in, you know, getting out of my comfort zone in trying these pathways. >> You know, setting students up for success is not an option. It's an obligation. We need to set these students up for a fulfilling life. Um, you know, coming back in coming back to the community like Mr. Apprentice when when I went to high school, Mr. Apprentice was the gym teacher, you know. So, like some of the teachers like um Mr. who was the social studies teacher? >> Tim O'Brien. >> Mr. Dupre. >> Dupre. >> He's still
145here. You know, like those things matter. And even today, I see them out in public and I'm like, "Oh, hi Mrs. D Mr. Dupraer. Hi, Mrs. Chanel." Like those things matter. Our students matter. We have to figure out a way to make this work. If we do not give back to our students, then our town is going to fail. >> Right. Facilities. facility. Sorry. >> Jess, can I go? >> Okay. So, I'm I'm going to keep this pretty short and sweet for you while we short. um because it's certainly hard to invoke the kind of passion about oil and electricity and systemic failures as my colleagues behind me have just uh come across. But in order for all that to happen, there needs to be a place where it happens and that's where all those
146things come in. So, this budget that's before you now, there's, as everyone else said, there's nothing new. Um, as Mr. Stegler said, the meeting of Thompson OPEC usually starts uh around July. We we purchased this year's oil the year before. We purchased next year's oil last summer and I assume that come July we're going to be purchasing the oil for the year following because that's when you can get the best price. Uh Bill's done a great job. He just entered into a new electricity contract uh that sets us up for electricity purchasing for the next 5 years. These are all things nobody ever sees. Somebody told me a real long time ago, and I tell my crew, if we do this right, nobody knows we were there. >> But you can't always do it right.
147And I want to just say what's not in this budget and wasn't in last budget are the things that we kick down the road time and time again until it blows up in our face. And we took >> the burglar alarm in this building is no longer supported. If it fails, it's failed. Fire alarm system is over 20 years old. That's not in the budget either >> and that is on the verge of failure as well. Video surveillance and access control. This facility probably has one of the tightest perimeters of any in the area. And that's fortunate because we don't have a resident trooper. We don't have a police force. We're kind of on our own here. But again, those systems are over 20 years old and technology doesn't last that long until it needs
148to be replaced. One of the recent tragedies, uh, Brown University and Providence, one of the problems they all alluded to was that while there were some surveillance cameras, they were pretty grainy. You couldn't really get a good image. Well, those are like our security cameras. But again, we we don't have that in this budget or the next budget. That lovely clock up there. We put this clock system in in 2007 and believe it or not, every single clock in the building says the exact same time because there is a satellite somewhere that tells a master transmitter what time it is and it sends it out to every clock in the building. And that's great because it keeps everybody on schedule, but the transmitter is failing and last couple of times that the clocks changed. Well,
149they didn't really change. So, you know, we figured out that we can shut the system down. We can reboot it. We can get it up. Oh, yeah. There they go. Because if not, every clock in every classroom is going to be wrong. Just recently, we found out that at last year, everybody remembers, we had to put a radiator in the generator. $26,000. Just recently, we found out that we're losing coolant in the generator. It's most likely a head gasket, but we won't know until we get further into it. If we have to replace the generator, I got a quote $275,000. >> Oh my god. You're not required to have emergency power, but you're also you're also the emergency shelter for the facility. That's not going to happen without emergency power. And nobody wants to hear
150me say this, but in 2027 and 2028, it's going to be time to put a roof on the building that you built in 2007. That roof has going to reach the end of its life expectancy. So these are all systemic things that it's it's not when they it's not if they fail, they're going to fail. Anything mechanical and is going to fail sooner or later. The one line on this budget that I do want to address with everybody is building repair and maintenance. We Bill talked earlier and Rob mentioned we've made a substantial investment in the HBAC system in this building and from my standpoint I believe it was a good investment. Uh the building is going to be much better controlled. More importantly, the building is going to be healthier. You're going to have
151fresh air everywhere in the building and it's going to keep kids in school because they're going to be able to breathe, but it's kind of complicated. You know, we put in over 300 valves and actuators to control the heat and refrigeration in the building. They're all electronically controlled. Someone's got to watch them. And when they fail, like everything will, someone's got to be able to repair them. Well, that kind of in-house talent, you you could not you you'd have to have a crew of probably five or 10 maintenance people in order to get that kind of uh talent in house. You have to have a service contract and you have to have somebody that when it goes wrong, someone can pick up the phone, make a phone call, and someone's coming. That's a problem with
152this locality because most people that have to come out here to work, they're traveling an hour, an hour and a half, and on Sunday afternoon when there's a football game and it's 10°, they don't want to come. But so it's important to have that contract in place and that's an increase of $70,000 over what we've paid in the past. Now we rolled into that the boiler cleaning. It costs us $18,000 a year to have the boilers cleaned. If you don't clean them, then they're going to fail. They're not going to run. >> But the total service contract was 108. >> Total service is 108. So we rolled in the boiler cleaning. We rolled in the oil burnout uh tuneups and service. So, it's an increase of about $70,000. Beyond that, there's really nothing else in
153this that's beyond keeping the lights on and the doors open. >> Can you talk about for a minute, you are retiring in December? >> I am. and we have been fortunate for 22 years to have your level of expertise and you rolling up your sleeve in fixing things. Finding somebody who's multi-skilled like that is going to be like finding a needle in the hay stack. And so we have talked about and the board has talked about and has directed me um to start to hire um a a replacement trainee under you while you're still here because there is some in institutional knowledge that needs to be passed on. Can you speak to that a little bit, Bill, because you have been here for 22 years. >> So So first of all, thank you, but I'm
154not that high level. You know, I've got some experience. I've been doing this for more than 40 years. I can jump start an oil burner and get a boiler running when I have to. I've I've been in the control business, so I have a good idea how things work. The more important thing is that institutional knowledge. So I was very fortunate when I came here. I had Dean Wilga Mush Blaine who had been around. They knew this place and they kind of led me by the hand and they taught me. You know, for instance, there's a valve out there in the foyer up over the ceiling that'll shut off the cold water to this entire wing. Now, I guarantee you that valve's on a print somewhere, but it might have been the prints that were
155drawn in 1960. It might be on the prints that were drawn in 1964. It might have been put in there when they redid the heating system in the early 90s. So, yeah, it's probably on a print somewhere. But if the water's pouring through the ceiling, it's a lot better if somebody knows where it is. That's the knowledge that Melinda's talking about. And then we do have a five-year plan for capital improvements. Um we also have a five-year plan for equipment. Um equipment being something more um recent. Um the don't Trump died. Um you want >> that's one of them. I'm sorry. So, so we had we have these two dump trucks. Um, they are 2002s. We got them from the state when the state was done with them. Um, Joe had one at the town
156garage and I had the other one here and he finally got done with his so he sent it here. So, we had them both while one of them is done. it. The torsion arm broke off the chassis. There's nothing to weld it to. That's finished. So, we now have the one dump truck that's left. And of course, we have our new truck, knockwood, thank God, because that came in handy this past weekend. Um, but but but that truck's on its last legs. So, I I know that Joe's plan in his budget, he's asking for at least one F350 this year, and his plan was to turn one of the other ones back to us while it still had some life in it, and that would solve that. But you know what? We've got a we've
157got a little tractor that was purchased in 1986 when they built the high school. That one's got That one's got either a cracked block or a bad head gasket. I bet some of us remember Porter Seal. >> We put some We put some Porter Seal in it and we've got it sealed up for now. We ran it all weekend and it ran. But time is very limited for when that machine just says, "No, I'm not going to do it anymore." And I guess we'll put it out with the dump truck in the back. Uh and and those machines are not just used to plow snow. They run year round. Winter and summer, those things are going all the time. Uh in some cases, it's a wonder that they last as long as they have. >>
158But we didn't put any of those in this budget. None of those things are included. >> Put them in the first round >> and I took them out, >> but they're gone now. >> Yes. >> So they're they're not in this budget. But but that's that's what I refer to when I say the deferred maintenance that we push down the road. So what'll happen if if you know we'll pass a budget this year, but come next winter, if that thing rolls a seven and it's dead, somebody's going to have to do something. It's going to be one of those things like the generator was last year. You got to do it. You don't have any choice. It's going to be like two years ago in October when we found out we needed two boilers. >>
159It So, so yes, we have a plan. We have a five-year plan. We have a equipment replacing replacement plan, but what it really comes down to it is we do those things when it blows up in our face. >> Heather, um I just have a not necessarily a question, but more of a comment. Um, I know the board of finance, but this is more for for the online folks and and someone who listens to this later, is that the the town and specific >> I'm naked with my kids. I have sex in front of my kids. >> Turn. >> I never be ashamed of sex. My son be >> just delete them right out. >> Okay. um the the um it's referenced to the town and to the school um that we have been criticized
160in the past that you know we don't plan ahead that we um how did this come to this how come the maintenance hasn't been done how did the track get in such disrespair that it couldn't be repaired and on and on and on and on and you know there has been effort to put together a five-year plan but this five-year plan is just paper at this point and what's happening is the the eight items that were supposed to happen on the five-year plan for next year is really one because seven have been pushed off to an unforeseen future date. Um, and so it's like, you know, we do go through the effort. We are trying to be conscious about knowing maintenance that is going to happen as does the town, you know, with their paving
161plan that they tried to put together and capital maintenance funds and all of this sort of stuff. But the reality is we are doing those things and the town is just simply not funding them and and it all just kind of becomes paper that never really gets done and then a catastrophe strikes and we're pulling from the surplus. Um and it's just not a way it's not the way to run a town or a school. And so I you know applaud your effort and you've done everything that you've been asked to do. Um but it's quite hard to do something with two hands tied behind your back and that's kind of where we're at. that >> uh and to piggyback on what Heather said, >> this year we we will be dipping into the uh
162excess >> non-laping non-lapsing accounts. But in in years past, if something did blow up, like where are we going to find $50,000 to fix this? And it came out of something else in the oh no books for the kids or you know, and that's there is no more oh no more no books for the kids. That's all. There is nothing left to pull these $50,000 furnace blowups anymore. And it so some of this is going to come out of the non-lapsing account. Some of the things well the things aren't on these on that list, but some of the things that need to be done because they're emergencies because they're 50 60 year old things that need to be replaced. Fortunately, we have that non-existing account. But it's a one >> a little bit. >> It's
163a one roll that's a one roll thing. And once that's gone, that's gone. And all these things on your list that you just talked about will not be will not be covered from anywhere from non-lapsing count from textbooks that we're not going to buy from lunches that we're going to steal from kids mouths. It's not going to come from anywhere and it's going to have to before the building caves in. It's going to have to be addressed. Kristen. >> Um, actually the most concerning thing that I heard, of course it's all concerning, but for me as a parent is the security cameras and hearing everything that was stated about Brown and the town keeps pushing things back. Like that's great. And what are you going to say when parents walk in because a tragedy happens
164and their children are dead and what are you going to say? Like it's sorry we didn't get cameras. We didn't fund that. Like that's scary to me. And as I can tell you as someone that's buried a child, that's not something you wish on your worst enemy. Like that's not something you kick down the line. Like it's a little bit disturbing to me to hear that we don't have like appropriate safety measures that could potentially prevent something horrific in our district. Like that's concerning. >> Any questions or concerns on Danielle was first. Um, it's really time that we stop being reactive. We really need to be proactive and we have plans in place and we really just need everybody in this community to hear us and understand because when something blows up, when something breaks
165and we come and say, "Hey, this happened and we need some money." Everybody is going to yell at us. Everyone is going to scream and say, "Where's your budget? You have a budget." No, we don't. We have a budget for what is necessary right now to keep the school open for the kids and nothing more. >> Justin, >> yeah. So, I it's plant related, but it was brought up two weeks ago and I want to make sure we're bringing it up in front of the board of finance as well. >> We got a report and you guys are welcome to get a copy of it from the uh kitchen, the cafeteria director. It was excellent. >> Um, but it has some very interesting data in it. Um, we've got equipment that in in our kitchen
166inventory that's 37 years old. Um, we've got serving lines from 1975. We've got serving lines from 1989. Uh, ovens from 1999. Um, that are either dead, dying, or being held together with duct tape and bubble gum. Those are also currently in the board of education's front view. I mean, they're they're literally in front of our headlights at this point. We've got to do something about them. >> Um especially because we were just told at the same time that we are the food support emergency shelter in town now. So, we've got to use these items to cook for the shelter as it exists. Um, I I don't none of this is easy. The stacks of paper that are in front of us are not easy, but the those items alone are over $100,000 worth of inventory
167that we've got to come somehow come up with money to find somewhere to buy it so we can get it in um on top of a dump truck and and whatever >> generator and whatever else decides to break in the next couple of weeks. We put together last year, I asked Melinda to put together the the the facility plan and and the equipment uh cycle plan so that we could put a five-year plan in front of the town because I was there at the town meeting where we were admonished for not doing something and and having a rainy day fund for the HVAC. Uh we were admonished for allowing the track to go into such disrepair. Um, we're trying not to, but we need we need help badly. >> That's it. >> Okay. Any questions
168from the Board of Finance on the PL line items? >> I just got a question for Bill. >> Are we finally done with the oil spill cleanup? Is that finally put to bed? >> No more oil spills. >> No, I'm not saying all that. No >> filtering and everything. It's >> It's finished. The filters are out. They're done. Okay. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. Heather, last but not least, >> that next time Heather gets to go first, >> right? >> I don't have much. Um, I want to say I do usually put together a five-year plan and every year something gets cut from it. So, this year we did have to cut some Chromebooks from my hardware budget. Um, we were fortunate enough to get a donation of Chromebooks from someone
169that wants to remain anonymous, but um, I pretty much took them from the dumpster. Um, and that's what we're giving our kids this year. So, they're used Chromebooks. They'll get us through another year, but I mean, how long are we going to keep doing that, I guess? Um, also for hardware, um, I do seek a lot of grant funding. Um, we are beginning another five-year rate cycle and what -ate will do is reimburse us up to 70% of network equipment. So, the backbone of this network is part of my responsibility to make sure that all the kids remain connected. Um, runs all our camera systems. Um, a lot of those switches are 7 to 10 years old. So, we have to start replacing those out. Um, so I did put in my budget for 10
170of those switches, but like I said with -ate, they'll be at least 70% reimburseable, which is >> Yeah. And we we accounted for the reimbursement rate in the budget. >> Yep. Um, other areas of my budget, you'll see decreases because we did cut programs like Lexia, Happy Numbers, Navvian, Ed Puzzle, and Vocabulary. Um, you know, I met with Melinda and the curriculum leaders and we gathered the data of who's using what. Um, and those are the things that unfortunately we had decided that we needed to take out. Um, and then we also support the town um the town's IT. We support a lot more than just the people at the town hall though. We have now taken on the library. Um, Travis, who's awesome, has upgraded all of the town computers. Um, we do the
171town garage as well. Um, so taking on all those extra things, we did put a little increase um for what we're charging the town for IT services, which is still not really a lot considering like, >> you know, we're same day service to all the people down there. You know, they put in a ticket, they get a phone, you know, we get a phone call, Travis is down there two to three days a week, I would say. >> Wow. >> Did you say you did water treatment, too? Um, we have in the past, but I I double check. Travis hasn't been there since he's been here, but I know we did help them occasionally, I think, with some email issues in the past. Um, and also just to note that they did have a server
172that needed to be upgraded and we had a lot of extra virtual space on our server up here at the school. So they um we were able to utilize a lot of our server space. And Travis put that server virtually on our server, something that we would have really had to pay, I don't know, $5 to $8,000 for somebody else to come in and do. So he has saved us and the town a lot of money. Um the town, they're also um on our firewall, too. So we manage all of their email filtering for them. So, we definitely share and um it's a very valuable partnership. Um we've we've shared a lot of equipment down there with them. A lot of our switches um that were end of life here, but could still be very
173useful down there to them. So, um just wanted to highlight a few of those things um if anybody has any questions for me. >> Justin, >> we had a letter dated January 5th that said delay purchase of 9th grade laptops next year. Is that We took those out of the budget. >> Um, that would be the fifth grade Chromebooks, >> right? >> Yes. >> So, delay purchase of fifth grade Chromebooks, not the ninth grade laptops. >> Correct. >> Thank you. >> Um, sorry, go ahead. I may continue. What are other districts doing in terms of hardware cycling? We seem to I think you said at previous meetings that we cycle through until they go end of life or they die physically and then we try to replace them. >> Yeah, we're I I try to
174do every four years. >> Um so I try to to beat those deadlines. Um I think that's what a lot of other districts are doing as well. Um I think three to four years is a good is best practice because um you don't want to go end of life. um they're going to become slow. They're not going to connect to Wi-Fi. They're not going to update. They the students won't be able to use them for state testing because the operating systems won't update. So, we we really do have to stick to every four years. >> So, you've been recite you have been replenishing in grade five and grade nine. Correct. >> Yes. And then, um they do get Chromebooks in first grade, too. So, they get them in first grade, they switch them out in
175fifth grade. Um, and then when they're freshman, they upgrade to laptops >> to use the programs like the office and some of the video editing things that they need. >> Any other questions or discussion on the technology one of those? >> No. >> Okay. >> Thank you, Heather. >> Thanks. >> All right. Um, do we have any not currently on the agenda, but is there any new business? Actually, we do have some new business uh for the board of finance. If the board of ed would please uh bear with us for the good of the town. It won't take long. Um Bill and and Nick had both brought to my attention well they've been bringing to my attention over the last few months the completion of our salt and sand. Uh this last storm, I
176think we normally use about 70 tons per storm, you know, per sanding, let's say. And this one was closer to 500 bill. So Bill, if you could just share with the current state, there's a need to uh perhaps have a motion and and shift some funding out of contingency, but if you could just share in a little more detail the current state for us. >> So the snapshot right now is we have 200 tons of salt in the shed. Um we have another 150 tons on order that was supposed to be delivered today, but as you could imagine, the salt delivery guys are hustling right now. Uh hopefully that'll arrive tomorrow. That'll give us 350 tons going into this weekend. As you may have heard, like clockwork, we have another storm potentially hitting us on
177Sunday. Um depending on the severity of that, uh we could be close to empty. Um Joe uh has asked that we move money uh to order another 400 tons. Um, and he'd like to get that order in sooner rather than later because if you if you either withdraw an order or uh you're slow in putting one in, you get bumped to the bottom of the list. Uh, and and salt's going to become increasingly in demand because everybody's experiencing the same winter we are. Um, I think a path to do this, uh, is that that 400 tons equates to roughly $39,000, $ 38,548. Um, we have $30,000 remaining in contingency. Uh, and I spoke with, uh, Joe and Kelly out at DPW today. uh we can move the remainder from uh one of the DPW supply
178lines. Um that'll put on the back burner what those funds were originally budgeted for. But right now, obviously, the salt and sand is the bigger priority. So, that's that's where we stand on salt and sand. >> Thanks, Bill. Question. I appreciate the eight the $9,000 being moved from other line items. Have >> have uh has Joe and the team fully scrubbed the the balance of >> Yes, we actually >> budget. I know overtime's going to be a killer, too. But there's things we're just not going to be able to do, >> right? >> Maybe that are in the budget to help offset this because if we if this moves forward, there'll be nothing left in contingency, >> right? >> Is there other opportunity within their budget? >> Um the the other areas The other areas
179where it's most likely that we may have some money uh are in the um the parts and repair lines, the repair and maintenance lines. Um just like up here, you get a lucky year and and and that money goes unspent and it can be redeployed. Um I will say this time of year beats the heck out of our trucks. um the the the plows really take a beating and the more they're the more they're plowing the more edges they have to replace uh and just the more wear and tear. So, but as of right now, those those equipment lines, those repair lines halfway through the year are in pretty good shape. So, that's probably the likeliest spot. >> And and could you remind us what's a typical inventory because we're talking about total tons left.
180We have a budget for salt and sand and then we go into the year and we have a pile in the shed. >> Yeah, we usually have around 400 tons. >> That's I think that I think the thinking behind that is that gets us through I guess your typical heavy storm. Uh obviously this past one was a little even beyond that, >> right? >> Um >> I'm just fast forwarding to next year. We got 350, we order another 400. There's a chance mother nature works for us and there's 400 sitting there. come next October, there's a chance there's nothing there next to >> we not only spent our budget plus 39,000 plus we're depleting inventory that was paid for from the prior year. Go ahead. >> Uh we've had years in the past where we've
181gone into the thought into the next season with nothing. >> Start with nothing >> because we've exhausted. >> Yeah. And we always try and build up in the past >> whatever was left in the budget to have that jump start because you can't predict. >> Correct. >> And that's always what we've done going in. >> Usually when we get into a situation like this, we freeze the budget >> throughout the town because we don't know where it's going. So there's no maybe that filing cabinet whatever may not get purchased because the roads are more. >> So hopefully we've done that. Uh hasn't happened yet. definitely needs to be done >> without a doubt. >> I mean, we still got >> there's nothing left to continue. >> We got we got roughly six weeks anyway, 6
182to 8 weeks of winter weather. March can be horrendous. It may be wet, but we still got to go out and do it. And we're getting killed >> and we haven't gotten into the thoring yet of the uh winter. As soon as this stuff stops melting, we'll be out sanding and salting >> all winter, never mind doing pothole patching and everything else. >> All this damage come spring that we're not we don't have a budget for >> exactly >> similar theme, guys. >> Yeah. Oh, yeah. >> I know. >> Okay. Any other questions on the top? >> What's that? Do we know what that 9,000 was supposed to cover? >> Uh, >> are we kicking something, I guess, is my question. >> Uh, the 9,000 was a it was a general supply line. Um that
183that is similar to like I said with repairs and maintenance was in pretty decent shape at this moment. >> Okay. >> And that was that was the fruit of of me and Joe and Kelly just picking through all six of their budgets uh to try to find to try to keep some something left in contingency. Unfortunately, at this point, I really think it'd be premature to pull from R&M. >> Yeah. And the the reason we're bringing it up tonight is the biggest concern is if we don't place this order and then we place it later, we make this now we're in the back of the line and there's a shortage of salt and sand. I mean, this is a statewide challenge. I don't want to see us get dep prioritized. >> Any other questions or
184>> we need a motion? >> Well, I think we got to add it to the agenda for one. Well, that's the first motion added to >> motion to uh to add to the uh the discussion as possible action on the salt sand. >> It's a special >> Danielle. I know you're not normally on our team. Go ahead. >> Do you mind? >> Not at all. >> Thank you. Motion made by Ken, seconded by Steve. Is there any discussion on motion to add the agenda item? >> But it was a scheduled special meeting >> that we rescheduled. >> Discussion. All in favor of adding the agenda item say I. >> Yes. >> I passes four to zero. And yes, Steve, we would need a motion or anyone. We would need a motion. >> Make a motion.
185We add 30 we take 30,000 from contingency funds and use it to purchase salt and sand. >> And the motion on the floor is to move $30,000 from contingency to salt and sand made by Steve. Is there a second? >> Sure. I'll second it. Any discussion on that? >> What was your amending? >> My amending was to add the nine grand in. Can we do it as one or you want to do separate? >> I would support that. >> You can. You're just because I don't support it doesn't mean couldn't do it. >> Don't do it. No, I'm fine. >> I think there's other tradeoffs. I'd like to see them find another 15 and we keep 15 in contingency, but I feel a need I feel a need to move. >> Sorry. >> No, it's
186fine. Any other discussion on the motion? Okay, since there's none and we're dealing with allocation of funds, we'll we'll vote individually. Ken, do you vote? >> Yes. >> Steve, >> yes. >> Nikki, >> yes. >> And Rob, I vote yes. So, it passes 40 to zero. Thank you guys. >> Back to you, Jess. >> Okay. Well, now on to the next agenda item, which is open discussion for BOE and board of finance members. Is there any particular items you want to open for discussion? >> I had a couple of questions. More general questions. One was um I noticed across many of the sal we can go through line by line, but I noticed across many of the salary line items the aggregate increases were higher than what I believe the contracted obligations are. Is there
187an explanation? I I could target the line items, but you know, some of them were at 3% and then there was a bunch that were, you know, I would say significantly higher than 3%. For example, just the middle school line 128 salaries are are moving up 46%. That's a bit of an extreme. Um, but there's others that are that are moving up. Uh, BS general ed is moving up 6.6. I don't remember, Melinda, in the last at least on the teacher side, I don't remember it being that high. It's because we hired people at higher steps to replace people that had left. >> So there's a mixed element to it. And there's also a variance in >> unlike the town where the the the contracted rate raise is the contracted raise for all labor. Um
188step steps vary greatly. some steps going from I don't know I'm pulling this out of the air go going from step three to four might be a 2% increase but going from step 11 to 12 might be >> much more significant right >> uh then you also have these these instances where if teachers have left the district >> I don't think we've had a single instance where we've replaced the teacher for for less and that's really uh because these teacher positions are coming down to a to a bidding war >> it is >> um So with with all of those moving parts, uh you do see some that are bel below expectations and the other ones that are higher are typically for one of those two reasons. >> I mean, if I look just broadly
189and and tell me, Bill, if I'm off base, but if I look just cross that to try to get an aggregate, if I look at the adjustment in Medicare and FICA, which you know, as a percentage should just move, right? Unless you're hiring a whole bunch of more people, which I've heard they're not. It's flat. No, >> that those are going up, you know, around 50%. How many lines are you looking at? >> Um, you could, for example, you can look at any of them, but 168 169 elementary school. >> So, the middle school is the same way. 144 and 16 14% and 16%. >> Yeah, I can take a look at the there's a calculation that's going up 15%, then wages are going up 15%. >> Right. >> Is that No, that's true. Yep.
190I' I' I'd have to look on those. I'll have to review the allocation to push the Medicaid adjustments back to each of the different schools. That relationship should hold pretty steady. >> I mean, we might want to see a bridge on that or something. Understand? I hear you more than that, but it just seems like a if the contracted negotiations are in the 3 to 4% range, we're moving wages up 15%. That's a that's a big number. >> But the contract that three and 4% in the contract only is the wage increase. It doesn't include the steps. I understand the concept, but it's a lot of >> then when you hire in a new teacher that is also being paid $10,000 a year more than the old teacher who they're replacing that adds to that.
191>> Y >> the um just so everyone know >> it's an observation. >> No defensive about it. It's an observation. It's not like three or four. We're at five or six. It's it's it's triple >> the this is we're comparing against the budget for last year, not the actual for last year, meaning the current year, >> not not comparing it to what we're actually incurring this year. So, we may have some of the difference be simply that we're not going to make the current year's numbers because we're going to be over the current year. Therefore, next year's numbers are not as >> greater versus budget, but not so much versus actual. >> Just so everyone knows how how the salary lines are built. It's actually the same methodology we use that you guys would be
192familiar with on the town side. It's employee by employee. Uh and and that's why uh in vetting some of this Melinda and I noticed there there are a couple of of uh reading related positions that need to be reclassified um because we're going down to that level. So all of these salary dollars tie back to specific human beings. Uh the only the only uh times we vary from that are situations like substitutes that are budgeted as a pool. >> You know, you've got some of that in there, too. Switching between schools and >> Mhm. >> It's Yeah, because if there's a need >> Yeah. Okay. So, How are we not over at the current year? >> If um >> if this is our current uh census, >> we >> didn't replace the science teacher. >>
193Y >> we haven't replaced um >> the psychologist because we haven't been able to hire them. >> You have attrition that's being offered. >> We need those positions filled. We can't find people. So that's offsetting the other lines. So, in the meantime, are you contracting with anybody? >> That position in the budget though, right? >> Yes. >> Um, so we're trying to contract. >> No, no. I mean to fill the gap at the moment or it's just not being filled at all >> right now. It's not being >> people are doing extra duty. >> So, we need the third science teacher at the high school. We've done some creative work with our teachers. When somebody said somebody else is picking up the workload, that that's what's happening. But it can only be a band-aid for
194this year. Next year we have to have that third science teacher at the high school, but we're gonna skirt through this year the way we've plugged that hole. Um the psychologist is really hard to find. Um and we haven't been able to replace. So we're contracting out for individual. The psychologist is the only person that can implement certain psychological tests and then analyze them and report back to the group. Um, and so we're contracting with someone to do that um, sporadically as we need it, but we do need a full-time person there. We just can't find one. So, >> and and then another area just u, and trust me, I don't don't I don't need a reminder on who owns the decision rights. I understand that. I'm just giving you my observations and thoughts. >>
195On the facilities manager side with Bill retiring, you're doubling over for six months. So there's $54,000 added because you're carrying two salaries for six months. >> I understand why and it's important and you need to kind of have a transfer of that knowledge. One thought may be to approach Bill u and I've seen this work in the in the in the corporate corporate world very well. Oftentimes people don't they don't they prefer to wind down versus they just clip it off and retire. He's going to go from being super busy being here every day to zero. So potentially maybe he'd be open to to doing a windown, right? So that you have that that that extension. Maybe it starts a quarter early or it starts in December. But something to think about in terms of
196maintaining that relationship even if he's on a contracted basis, x amount of hours a week, he's on speed dial. I know you're shaking your head. No, it depends on the individual. >> Yeah. So some people don't want that. Some people go, "Oh, that'd be great. I can work 10 hours a week." Now you've got that lifeline. So just a thought. >> So the lifeline he has extended the lifeline but that that's you know it's going to be limited because he truly wants to retire in December. Um so he has told the board that he will be happy to be there for those kind of purposes but not on a regular basis. >> Right. If I may, when we had the discussion about Bill and his retirement, the reason we added that is because we know
197we're not going to find somebody to do anywhere near even what Bill does at Bill's current rate. So what we saw as potentially happening is whoever's going to replace Bill, those line items kind of flip for the next year where Bill takes on like you said that consulting role and that whatever is not allocated to salary would be positioned to support Bill in a consulting role while he while he truly, you know, transitions out. And I don't know that we're going to be able to, you know, say, "Hey, Bill, we need you for four hours on Monday." Bill's gonna say, "Yeah, I'm in Bermuda. See you later." Like, >> I don't know that we're going to be able to do that, but we needed something in there because we It may not be Bill. We
198may have to hire an HVAC tech to come in because the new guy can't >> doesn't know what >> what's going on, >> right? >> Well, I understand. I understand the challenge. >> So, that was >> he's a unicorn. It's like >> the total line item >> impossible to find. the total line item for him was kind of a we let's put it all in there, but that's the the monies at the end of the day might shift to more of a consultant role than a staff role. >> And just real quick, just back to the salary comment. Some of them are they swing up really high, right? 47% 30%. I mean, I don't know. I get that you someone leaves and you hire, but some of them are pretty pretty big swings that that
199I don't know if you're adding hours. If you look at page nine, >> I mean, if you go to like lineage, sorry, if you go to like 197, a 30% increase, >> line 182, a 47% increase. These are numbers that kind of jump out the salary. >> I think if you go to page nine, you see where you go by the the object code. You'll see that the instructional teacher salary for object 50104, the actual increases when you roll all those up is 7.7%. >> You also have to take in consideration to the number of positions that that line item is serving as well. So you've got instructional teacher salary. That's 88 people that you're dividing. Do you know what I'm saying? You have to think, is it really that much money? It looks like
200a lot of money, but when you break it down that way, >> 7.7 is 7%. Yeah. >> Well, that's what on average everybody's getting. Now, some of it may be a level change. >> I think it's the level. I also think it's, you know, >> some higher. It makes more sense when you pull it together as a total >> as opposed to looking at it by school or >> Right. I I understand Kath it does because it balances out those big highs that I was saying to your point 7.7 is a lot more than 2.3. >> It's double what you would expect in >> Yeah. But because you have steps >> I I understand. I know how the steps work. >> Yes. But >> but we we we is their contract. >> We've added a
201lot of cost in in salary. That's a big part of the budget is people >> and we haven't added a lot of people. >> That's a challenge. >> Well, we added three new people at a higher rate of pay for sure. >> A significantly higher rate of pay. So, >> uh Mr. Douglas in regards to we'll pick line item 173 elementary school reading salary. Uh it is page number five. It's a 40.9% increase. Your note says includes literacy coordinator position which needs to be recoded. So my understanding is is that was under a different line item >> and now that's under that line item which is making that percentage rate go up much higher than probably what it actually is. >> Oh absolutely. That's why that note is there >> because it went up 100.
202That was a recclass and there was one for the middle school >> reading specialist as well which is a recode which was that 46 or 47% one that you pointed out >> and I mentioned those in my comments. >> So if you were to put from line such and such we should see a decrease in another line. Correct. Right. >> Right. When they're when they're properly recclassed. >> Yeah that's my point. And that was primarily because people moved positions in schools, right? >> Not that we got someone new, it's just that they shifted and we didn't catch up with it. >> So that library coordinator, literacy coordinator, I'm sorry, literacy. >> So she replaced, if you remember, Laura Stfansky used to be the ELA curriculum leader. Yep. We got rid of that position, held on
203to that obviously salary and we renamed that position literacy coordinator and that and that's Lindsay's salary. >> Where did it come from? Where I can see the offset. >> I would have to go back and >> that that got unearthed today. >> Is the I think the the question on the table and I I think we've answered it. I think there's answers partially here and there. >> The question on the table is it it shows about a 7% overall salary increase, but we're saying that it it realistically there's no teacher in the school that's getting a 7% 10% 15% salary increase. >> It's a mix of teachers that have gotten 3% teachers that are getting step raises on top of their 3% correct as well as attrition replacements that have caused a significantly higher salary.
204I think the question that we should have that I'm going to have is how do we quantify that and account for it in the additional 4% in that salary ad line right besides going through each line item and going this teacher we kept that if I excuse me for a moment >> the 7.7% is versus the budget, not the projected spend. If you look at the projected spend, it's about $250,000 more than the budget. So the actual increase compared to the current year is roughly half of what shows here. >> So it's not 7.7, it's >> Three and a half or four. Thank you. So it's not we're comparing versus if you compare versus budget, that's one issue, but if you compare against actual big different a different picture. That's >> Steve taking that a
205step forward for forward actual we're actually on budget outside of special ed. So what you're saying doesn't really hold together for me because hang on let me finish because if if outside of special ed we're we're tracking the budget >> then then the the projected is it's not overspent. It's it's at budget. So it it truly is closer to the seven >> but special ed is over in salaries. Look look I'm sorry. Go to page nine, the fourth or fifth line down. >> I understand it's only salaries. So that's why we need a bridge. I think we're going to be circulating on it. I don't have a bridge >> to get to get to Justin's point. The way to do this is to roll forward every single salary line and every single teacher. And I
206will tell you that this is that now I have to demonstrate it more clearly I suppose but that is how the salary lines in this budget are the sum total of the step increases and the sal the replaced positions. Do we had any anyone come off of the other thing I thought of is come off of grants. >> Yes. >> So that that right there is a salary. if a salary rolls off a grant into the B DOE budget that wasn't in the budget in the prior year at all >> and now it would be. >> No, I don't think it's unclear. I understand the answer. I asked the question, I got a I got a very clear answer. >> Yeah. I'm just suggesting that if you looked if you if you now we'll go
207to the aggregate. If you look at the aggregate Medicare and FICA at 11 to 13%. That would suggest to me that would tell me that on average across the population the people that are receiving salaried paycheck receiving paychecks it's gone up about 12%. So that's a that's a big I mean it's a big number. I'm not saying it's an unjustifiable number. It's a wrong number. I'm not saying it's wrong. It's it's it's a big number. >> So we got 3% in or so in salary and we're saying the other 9% plus or minus is a combination of hires and and and replacements and step changes. I'm just my only comment is just in my observation is wow that's a that's a big number. >> You may not be able to change the number. >> Gotcha.
208>> It it seem it seems it seems pretty significant to me. >> I'm going to suggest that the FICA on the projected spend is too low. You said it doesn't change from the budget but your salaries went up 250 grand. Your FICA went up. >> So I don't think that's that's right. >> Show it going up 13%. Steve, >> I understand. But but but it's going up 13% over the budget. I understand. But it really I'm looking at it compared to projected spend. I think the projected spend here, which you say is the same as the budget, that doesn't make sense. How can the projected spend for FICA be the same if salaries are going up so much? >> Understand my question? >> Yeah. Oh, yes. >> So, so, and I don't mean this disrespectfully
209at all, and I'm trying to figure out the right way to say it. All of us sitting at the table have looked at these numbers year after year after year. You're asking people online and you're asking people in the community to read line items and to read percentages and to not make the assumption that these are raises above the 3 to 4%. And it's really hard to see that linkage. It's hard for all of us sitting here to see that linkage. It leaves this up to an interpretation that is absolutely incorrect and really hard for us to educate people on. So it would be really helpful to be able to understand which bucket holds which percentage. If the step change is holding 3% of this number and the new salaries of teachers is holding 6%
210of this number, that's headwind you will see year-over-year. That is an understanding we need to have in some of this. So I just think the clarity somehow and I know Bill this is where I ask for a lot of things sometimes that you say how in God's name am I going to go do that and yet you always do. So I I pose the question again of is there an easier break even if it's just bucketizing the 7.7 into the categories maybe that will help with the communication for people who are completely confused and go down the path of now what's hidden in the seven what we struggle with on a town versus school side is that the town could not be more straightforward. It's one number for everybody and there's no there's no wage
211and step subcomponent to that. >> Yeah. >> At the school we have five different unions, different bargaining units. >> And the teachers being one of them, although the largest one of them, and they do have that wage versus step component. The town has almost no turnover. None. And even when town positions are replaced, the wage is typically specified in the contract. >> Now, >> right, >> the town went through what the school's going through prior prior because we had a wave of longtime leave. >> Yeah. When we were go ahead, Bill. >> So that's so that's why those are the reasons why that comparison is much more complicated at the school. It's not an excuse, it's a reason. >> There are there are way more factors at play at the school. Not to mention that
212the labor force you're talking about is roughly four or five times the size. >> Y >> So five times as many unions, five times as many employees, wage versus step. And that's what's in the stew of that number. But I'll come up with a way to bucketize it. >> Well, I don't want you to spend three days on it. So hopefully to Steve's point, I call it a burn rate, maybe a run rate. I mean to Steve's point over on the current situation. I don't know what magnitude that is, but I hear what you're saying. >> So I I appreciate Vickiy's request for clarification in in bucketizing these things. And it is it's it's about the message and there's nothing hidden. And you know I it's it's we know we understand but it's everybody else.
213We do need to present this to the town folk and and let make them understand even if hopefully they ask. Hopefully they they ask and we can communicate because nobody's going to look at this and understand all these details. Uh >> it's hard. It is. It's a lot. And I we've been looking at it for years and it's still minutia and and so I I would love to say why is it 7%. Well, this is why. And if if we can I hate making more work for other people. I do. But I I totally appreciate the way you've asked the question, Nikki. >> But we do have that problem even on the town side. Absolutely. >> When we we have a high percentage going up. >> Yep. the general residents look at and go 10%
214here. Why is it 10% when everything else is? >> You know, and it's hard to wrap your head around. >> Yep. >> Heather, um to piggy back, um I I didn't attend this joint meeting last time. I must have been away. And I really like it. So, I just want to say that. Um I think it's valuable to get um feedback from you guys that maybe we haven't thought about. Um, and I do think that as a whole, we've been trying to make our budget more user friendly for the folks that aren't um, staring at it like we are, like you're saying, and they do, you know, in the 11th hour pull it out, you know, and then start making assumptions. So, to make it, you know, as clear and concise as possible, I think
215is is valuable if we can. We we begged Bill to add the number of FTEES and and then also this little explanation which has been super and I I think that adding maybe one one more layer would be really great. So >> yeah, I think sorry Justin to build on that. I think that the the presentation on the fifth is an opportunity, right? I know it's a lot of work. We're asking Bill, but I mean if we think if we think about you know there's ton of people on the on the Zoom that's great. They're hearing a lot of this and there's a lot of other people in town. So this that may be an opportunity to frame that in a way that you know really kind of >> clarifies the moving pieces. >> Justin,
216>> I just wanted on the record that I was not the one who asked for >> usually me first time for everything. Justin, >> so this is the opportunity with both teams here. Then where do we think the town is on an allowable increase? Because the bottom line is I don't see anything that we're talking about says it could stay the same. I know that's what you've asked us to push for. But with what I see in the special ed that isn't coming down. What I see here just to keep it the same, it's not coming down. And I know there's a lot of needs for the town itself to keep alive. It's not coming down. And there's capital equipment needs that need to get taken care of. That's going to steal from those little
217budget $100,000 you got set aside. Where do you feel the town sits on what the mill rate change can be? >> I know they're going to say nowhere, >> but I was asking questions of someone the other day. What is a million dollars worth in the tax budget to somebody who owns a home? >> So, where's the threshold? >> Well, as Ken said, they're going to say zero. >> Yeah. >> If not negative. >> I don't I don't see >> and that's coming off a year where it was zero. Yeah. >> So, we had no increase last year. >> So, we'd be looking at a second year of no increase. >> In this case, we continue to go backwards that >> exactly >> and that's what we're trying to zero is backwards. Yeah. >> Nikki,
218zero backwards >> because there's at least 3% inflation rate outside of this. So, right, we know we're losing >> just just in the contractual that we have with the uh employees >> and the healthcare costs. >> I mean, anybody's uh household budget goes up just on utilities. >> We don't. >> It's a way of life. >> We're not immune to that >> except for Is there any thought to that? >> Well, I'll address that. I mean, it's a million dollar I appreciate the question. It's a million dollar question, right? I don't have question or finally I don't have an answer sitting here today nor nor would I uh attempt to project one simply because we're a board of six for here we got to go through it and look at it and we're going to
219put forward what we think is you know satisfactory to keep the town going and something that's going to pass now we did that last year it didn't pass >> right >> we did it again it didn't pass we did it again and it didn't pass and then on the fourth time it passed so you know what we feel is appropriate and what the people that are voting feel is appropriate don't align and and so I can't it's just impossible it's a good question Rick it's impossible to answer that question here today um >> thank you >> so I'll just make one comment on that too in in my question um I don't know that there is without pure communication from the town which we don't get right like this This is where I think we
220started at this beginning of this meeting and we'll probably end at the end of the meeting and I'm sure someone will put it on social media on how many citizens were physically in this room tonight and how many were on Zoom versus our total population just the same as when we go to vote people put the percentage of people who vote versus versus the percentage of people eligible to vote. Right? So what population comes out and what population votes may be the zeros maybe go up to 15 right it is so difficult to put a thumb on what that is when we don't necessarily get a good sound report from the town which is why the meeting Rob referred to earlier on the 5th is so crucial for us because when we get up there
221and present these budgets to the town and the town gets up and has that conversation It allows the ability for us to start to understand where they are from a position this year because some of those people who were in a position of uncertainty last year with what I considered the perfect storm this year may be able to use their abilities in just changing the mill rates and may not be in the same position. But without hearing from them, it is really hard to put that number. So, >> but do you feel that with Nick's communication weekly that the information is getting passed better? >> I I I agree that there's more communication. I I think my point isn't the communication going outwards. It's the communication coming inwards. Right? I can sit here and tell
222you that I have people call me every day and say, "I want to see a 10point mil increase because I think we should go to budgets that are fiscally whatever whatever the comment is." I have other people who call me and tell me that if it goes up by even 01, they're putting the for sale sign in their in their front yards. Right? So, you're getting all of that, but you're getting it half-hazardly as individuals that sit around this table. We need a collective audience of the town to speak in the forums where they're given, which is the town meetings and citizens comments. And without that, there's hard to say how do I represent the people that elected me. >> Heather, >> sorry, can I just my bill question? >> Oh, yep. Sorry, I forgot.
223>> Do do I need to ask you what I asked you last week or on the >> the over the years >> the special ed projections by year what we might look to see for coming off? >> We wanted to go back in history, right? >> Um >> I just have a NASDAQ reported. So what I asked is even looking forward is there a way to say 15 20 30% of the budget is between 27 and 29 or is it 40% of the budget that falls in those years like that special ed budget of increases and things if they're coming in where we're carrying them for the 10 year when they're carrying them for the three-year like what does that look like? We wanted to map as the students roll off >> to determine if
224when the cliff would be if there's a cliff or if it's just a >> but I think >> so so I haven't experienced here we've had some high tuition students come off and then two kids move in and it just seems to balance it out where we had hoped I think the one year we had surplus that's since I've been here um was because we had a special education student age out um and we we we were able to return some money to the town. Uh we put some in non-lapsing, but that h that has happened one time in nine and a half years. Um and um yeah, we did send um NASDAQ does a special ed projection report. So we just sent them all the data. The the the report came back yesterday. I
225haven't had time to print it out and look at it and see if they're giving us any significant increases moving forward. Um, but we thought we'd let them look at our numbers and do an analysis. It was part of our our um annual fee. They do that for us. Um, so, um, I'll read through it. If it's interesting, I'll send it out to obviously the board of ed, but, uh, to the board of finance to take a look at. Um, it might give us some insight. I just haven't had a chance to read it. Thank you. Heather. >> Hi. Um, so I I just to piggy back a little bit of what you just said is is I I do feel like the town meeting is one of those opportunities, but I also think the
226town doesn't as a whole utilize it. I've gone to town meetings when we do these budget presentation and most of the audience are the same people that put together the presentation. It's not a lot of new faces. um the spouses of those people are there and you know it's just it's it's not well attended. Um maybe they watch it later on Zoom. I have no idea. Um I I also find that they don't really well attend these meetings. You know, granted we had a lot today. This is very unusual, you know. Um I also think that the percentage of voters that come out is terrible in this town. Um for all votes, presidential, uh for all of our town officials, for budget votes. Um, so I mean I know I personally and I implore all
227of you here today, um, that the night before the vote, I literally send out about a hundred individual texts to all of my friends and family that live in town. It's literally got to be by carrier pigeon at this point because people say they don't know that there's a vote. They don't know that there's a meeting, even though there's all these ways that we convey it to the public. the newspaper, Winnie, uh the Facebook pages, the town website, emails that get blasted to their thing. Um it literally has to be almost carrier pigeon to every single person that we know. And I hope everybody at least here and maybe people on Zoom um the night before the vote, you know, it doesn't even have to say what what you want them to vote, just to
228remind them that they have a due diligence to be a part of the process. Um, and it takes every single person in this room to do that. So, please consider that. >> Justin, you had your hand up. >> Yeah. So, um, I'd ask you guys to go back to last year's presentation specifically last year. And in going back to talk about special ed last year, uh, pupil services, we added 886,116. That's what we were going to present the night of the budget. The day before the night of the budget, we were informed of additional headcount on the special ed side to the tune of $277,000. It literally changed overnight. Um, so that's when we talk about volatility in our budget, we just watched you guys have to vote on salt. Um, $30,000 $39,000 for salt.
229I I was joking with Heather. I wish we had $39,000 that got added or removed at some point because I'd much rather that over 277 165 whatever next week's number is going to be. Um I know somebody's going to do some math on uh $23,711 294 versus 777. um we are fiscally responsible for 872 students although attending on campus here in Thompson is 777. So let's keep that in mind as we do our math. Um another thing that I find as I speak to the community is they don't un there's a lot of community members that don't understand what we as a district are responsible for and Dr. Jones brought it up in his presentation. students removed through DCF that we are now paying tuition to other districts to the tune of $120,000 for students
230who are homeless that we are paying for. If a student gets expelled from the district, they do not fall off the planet fiscally. We are financially responsible for wherever they are placed. This is statemandated, policymandated items. We there's there are some of us on this board that wish we didn't have to do that, but the state mandates that we do and all of that falls under people's services. I find that when I talk to the community and they find certain things like that out, they're like, "What do you mean? >> What's going on?" Right? We expelled the kid because they brought a gun to school. Why are we still paying for them? Because the law says we have to. So, just keep that in mind as we go through some of this. it. We would
231we would love to send the town a budget that had a reduction. It's just not fiscally responsible with the backlog that we have in capital to not watch this place crumble to the ground. And I I the pressure that you guys are under, the pressure that we're under, I I don't envy either one of us right now because this is this last year sucked. This year is going to really suck. that >> uh I want to kind of go back to what Principal Apprentice said in terms of you know I I'm 55. I went to school in the 70s and 80s. Schools are not like they were in the 70s and 80s. And so anybody that's my age or older has this thing of what they think school is and and what special ed was
232back then 30 40 years ago. And it is special ed. That was, you know, one little room of kids. It's it's a quarter of the school and it is a vast spectrum of services that we need to provide. And I'm not lecturing you guys. I'm just kind of speaking to the ether on this. And it is it would be great if we could wind back the clock to how how things were funded back then, but we can't. and and it's not going to get better or easier to fund this stuff. And um and and unless we can get the state to do their responsibility to their unfunded mandates, which I I say this every meeting and it's I'm just blowing into the wind. I just uh want everybody to realize it's not your schools from
233Larry was saying 10 years, you know, but the the people that are my age or older, it's it's way way different than it was way back then. And it's, you know, any anybody who was a teacher or a principal uh back then who's who's saying, "Well, this is not how it should be." Get in touch with the times, get in touch with reality. Is it is what it is. and thank you for your time. >> Any further discussion? >> I think there's one thing. Um I understand the requirements of the special education. I understand the passion and the conversations from the principles today and for all the things that we discussed. But I have zero notes on Janed on the entire conversation tonight. The entire focus was on special education. And I don't know if
234this should have been citizens comment, parent comment, but I'm a little concerned on where we are with programs sustaining the gened population in not having them fall in to the special ed section because they're being either frozen funds year after year or all of the conversations we've had understand that the special ed is state required. the genet is not and and I'm I'm challenged a little bit on understanding where a lot of that goes into the conversation because as an outside perception of what I heard tonight. It was really challenging to hear any conversation about them. And you're telling me that special ed is 20 to 40% which means they're not the majority but every meeting and every conversation as the financial burden. It's what we discuss. So I I just don't know is there
235something I missed? Are there programs? I know we talked about removing them possibly, >> but those are the only places, >> but is there something else, >> Melinda? So the reason we started off this meeting with our gened kids talking about the successes that they've had in the career pathways and for our parents who are here whether the students who are special education preschool students or gen or regular ed uh students and the same goes with uh some of the reading programs that we have out there. Not every student that has an IE, not every student that receives reading services has an IEP. Um, and so a lot of that is also GenEd support, but we started off this meeting specifically to let you know what's at risk for the GenEd population. Um, and and
236the fact that those programs are being extremely successful, they're raising test scores. They're doing what they were designed to do for our gened kids. And we're at a breaking point. We're at a real critical breaking point that the scale has tipped over so far that that smaller population is taking a bigger part of the pie, right? And what's left are these programs that we've spent nine and a half years building up and on the backs of a lot of our our teachers and staff um and creativity just finding money and now we're saying okay now we got a a road those very programs that our students are being successful about. So, we were very intentional about putting those up front tonight so that you could hear some of that. Um, but those are the things
237at risk because for nine and a half years, we always come to budget before it ever gets to the board of ed. >> I cut out a lot of things. I took out 400,000 out of gened before the board of ed saw it. Um, and every year we do that. we take positions out, but then as we go through the referendum process, the budget is reduced and reduced and reduced and so we stripped out everything I can think of right now um has been stripped out of our budget and we're left with bare bones, the very barebone gened programs and we're not covering special ed. And so that that's the reality here. And whatever move this town makes in reducing the requested budget I put forward is going to impact the gened population of students
238and special ed because they take those courses. They're in the pathways. They're in the they're in they're in the athletic programs. It's going to impact students significantly. We've done a really good job. the board and I have done a really good job trying to skirt around that by cutting this and cutting that and we're at a we're at a point where we're getting laptop I mean Chromebooks that we have to piece together from somebody else's castaways. I mean this is this is a critical situation and I think Jess was very intentional about putting students up first with that are successful in our gened program. So, you had that sense. But I I it I don't know where to go. I can't even guide my board because I can't tell them that, okay, if you get
239rid of this, that'll be okay. If you get rid of this, it's going to create chaos. So, thank you. I I appreciate that. I don't think that everyone is clear when we talk about some of these programs that are title programs that you are not required a 504 or an EIP to be a part of them. I think that some of the communication clarity isn't there. That when people talk about like math lab, the assumption that I made, not this year, I've made in the past prior to being educated was that all of that falls under special education. And it's not clear. It's not clear in the conversations. It's not clear in how it was presented. Um, so I just It's not an it's not an attack in any way, shape or form. It is
240an observation of we heavily focus the conversation. You have a group of parents who sometimes tune it out because their children are not part of the population that is constantly discussed and it gets frustrating to not hear that they themselves and their children will have a path because if the pathway you talk about are the different thing they just want a good general foundation it's hard to see where that's coming from. So just it's it's not meant in any way just an I think Heather kind of said like it's good to see >> that is I struggled with saying it or not saying it but that is my observation from tonight. >> That's good. >> Good. >> Any other discussion? >> Yeah, I do have one. This is mostly for this is really for the
241board of finance. I know uh though this is the third school budget meeting number three and I believe uh the four of us and maybe others attended last time's meeting. I don't know how many attended the meeting number one but if you haven't attended number one or number two uh I'd suggest you you know call it up and and take a look at what at what transpired there were things to learn from all those meetings. The first one for example the cafeteria was discussed at length. Very interesting. You brought it up earlier presentation. >> Um and well I think last meeting I think the four I think all four of us were at last uh meeting so we we know what happened there. It was very insightful to learn about the the whole school system.
242Um, so again, I would I want to recommend to our two members who aren't here, if they haven't already attended or listened to the prior budget meetings, that that they do so. And if either of you or if any of you have not listened to number one, I would really urge you to do so. >> Okay, >> Jess. >> Yes, sir. >> Could you could you give us the five-year plan for capital and stuff? >> It's in last week's package. >> Yep. >> Yes. Yep. I'll make sure that that gets to the board of finance. Danielle, >> thank you. >> And when we had the person here last week that was given that >> the school state finance project, >> did she have a uh >> PowerPoint or whatever it is because it was kind
243of hard hearing it, >> right? You know, it is listed on the school website on the um the tab for the school board. >> Okay. >> But we can send it to you. you coffee. >> That'd be great. >> Was this Was this Brandy Dandy new version um emailed to us? And if not, could we have that emailed to us electronic? >> We don't have that one yet. >> That that version that Heather's talking about, the brand new dandy shiny new version. >> That does not have any of the >> surprises that we talked about last week. >> Correct. >> Those numbers are the same budget. We've been talking all along. >> Yeah. Can we get because we know there's something on the horizon with that. Can we get that list please somewhere >> if
244it's in a weekly brief wherever it is? I we I know >> that number. >> Yeah. Uh because we are going to need that for Monday's budget meeting. >> Okay. >> All right. Any further discussion? >> Just a thank you. >> Thank you. >> Definitely. Uh, Rick, >> I was trying to type my other new person to say, Melinda, I thought your letter was fantastic. >> Oh, thank you >> for trying to turn up support. >> Well, I'm in a sweet spot right now because you haven't approved a budget and so I thought I would jump on it and try to get >> parents to understand the gravity of the situation. Um, I'll do that up until you finally vote on a budget and then I kind of get the gag order. But, um, I
245will still keep rattling that and inform parents to come to the meetings. Uh, it's very important for them to stay involved. >> All right. All right. Uh, we're going to move on to our last section of citizens comments. We'll start in the room. >> Any Mr. Brassette? >> H Sean Brat Davis Road. Um, wow. >> Where did he come from? >> I consider myself pretty well informed and there was a lot of stuff that I learned tonight about what's going on in the school. And anybody who sat through what, 3 hours and 41 minutes and thinks that the school district is the problem or the board of ed is the problem, more than likely you have a personal agenda. Go look in a mirror and see what that is because the school district's not the
246problem. The board of ed is not the problem. I'd say my only disappointment tonight is that the amount of time you guys spent talking after everyone gave the presentations and there was no real talk about how to mobilize against the problem which is the state and I've been saying for over a decade when I started attending board of ed meetings this system is not sustainable. It will bankrupt our town. It will bankrupt other towns. Passing a budget this year does nothing for next year. it does nothing for the year after that. This is a serious problem that every board of finance chair, every board of ed chair, every first selectman should be calling their counterparts, emailing them constantly to get on the state. I would also implore every farmer I know >> cuz look what
247they just did in our state. This is the perfect time. The farmers just mobilized and forced the state, the governor to change his tax base for open space. >> Every taxpayer in the state of Connecticut should be on board with this. Special ed is destroying our town and every town like ours. Okay. When I was on the board, the last year I was on the board, even though I never got involved in our contract negotiations, I did call around. And as expected, Thompson was the lowest paid district for every bargaining unit we have. It always has been. >> If people want to question the salaries, question them, but get informed because they're the lowest in the area. And by the way, the lowest in the state probably or close to it because our area is
248the most depressed in the state. So if you want to question something, get informed about it. Don't just say there's waste. Don't just say somebody's making too much money. See what the counterpart is. Also to the people that are listening who think we should outsource. We've been down that road. But I also would employ the board of finance to appropriate money for an audit to figure out the facts because for some reason the people don't want to believe the facts which is1 to2 million more just to outsource the high school because they think well Marinapolis charges 17,000 a kid. Why can't we do that? They don't understand the special ed. They don't understand the transportation. It's all about educating. But even at that, it doesn't matter if we don't get the state to start paying
249for special education. It just doesn't matter. We can't sustain this continued cost increase that we have every year. So, I would implore you to get back together as a combined board with the selectman and figure out how to fight the people who are really to blame for this because it's nobody in this room. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Bette. Anybody else in the room? Anybody on Zoom? >> Going once. Going twice. >> Amanda G. >> Hello everybody. Um, yeah. I'm trying to figure out how to give you at least a video of me right now. There we go. I have been sitting down here for the past 3 and 1 half hours in my basement trying to listen to everything that's going on. And this sounds like it's a call for all citizens to
250kind of step up to the plate and start looking at what's going on. And I think that the only way that we're going to get people's attention is if maybe we could start at the education point and get a hold of parents that are involved with the district. Start getting the PTO to reach out to them and get them more educated about what's going on with our education budget. And I want to thank all of you. I don't know how you're still thinking at 9:30 at night when you've worked all day long, but um just putting it out there. Um my son and I came into this district. He was general ed. He now has a 504 plan. Um I can't be more thankful for what Mary Riser and their staff has done for him
251when he really needed the supports. Um he started off he had some math problems and some reading problems. He doesn't have those issues anymore. He has some very limited issues that you know they give him some supports in class. But I I would love to outsource what he needs in the classroom just to minimize the amount that it's putting on the town budget, but he's only one student. If we could get more parents involved, I think maybe we could go somewhere further with this. Um, maybe someone else can help me out with the idea. But thank you all so much. >> I hope you all get some real rest tonight. >> Amanda, I need to ask for your last name and an address, please. >> Oh, I'm so sorry. Amanda God, 21 Rachel Drive. >>
252Thank you so much. >> You're welcome. Anybody else from the Zoom audience? All right. Oh, I'm going to say a thank you for everybody who's stuck around for so long. Do I have a motion to >> adjourn? Nikki, Nikki, and Matt for the second. I >> All right.