001Again, I'm disappointed that the budget fail, but there will be the the town meeting is the uh June 18th, the 18th, and the referendum will be July 2nd. At this point, the school requested increase has been decreased by 746,000. Uh and the board of education budget for the 2526 uh fiscal year represents an increase uh of 2.3% over last year's budget, less than half a million dollar. This does not cover even cover the 877,000 anticipated special education costs. Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the awards and scholarship ceremony. There was over $60,000 in scholarships awarded by local pe organizations and private um citizens in um this is a considerable amount for our community to give. It's been one of the largest that I in my tenure here on the board and I was
002very proud of all the recipients of these scholarships and awards and it wasn't in my mind it it was different than other years and that the fact that it wasn't the same kids getting up time after time after time. It w it was spread out. I mean, there were certainly m some children that received multiple scholarships, but it was um a wide range of kids receiving the scholarship. So, I was I was glad to see that. And this week is the culmination of the school year. This is what everybody's been working for towards all year long. Tomorrow, we will celebrate the eighth grade moving up ceremony. Yay for the eighth graders. They're finally getting their desire to be high schoolers, you know. Whoopydoo. Uh they'll move on to another phase of their educational lives. They're
003now going to be big shots high schoolers. And Friday is a superbly important day for all students. It's uh in the high school. It's their graduation day. That's right. Some are going on to careers, the military and college. No matter where what path they choose, it is the start of their adult lives. Um, this year is especially special to as some of our board members have family members among this year's graduates. So, congratulations to the graduating class of 2025 and their parents and relatives. Don't make me cry. And you all did very well at the awards ceremony. Thank you. Okay, that's all I have to say. Moving on. Citizens comments. You are limited to three minutes and um state your name and your address. Come to the We'll recognize the floor first and then I'll
004go to our Zoom audience. Yes, sir. pass something out first. I don't think I got enough copies. Oh gosh. Careful. Yep. Got that. Jumping over. and we need to build. And I ask that this um I ask that the remarks and any supporting of the documents that are in here be entered in the public record. All right. This this report highlights significant discrepancies between the Medicaid reimbursements reported by Thompson Public Schools through a Freedom of Information Act request and reimbursement data provided by the Connecticut Department of Social Services. It also outlines steps for public accountability, further investigation, and recommendations for budgetary transparency. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, uh board members, uh stakeholders. My name is James Clark. I rise today to share deeply concerning findings regarding the handling of Medicaid reimbursements within the Thompson Public
005School District. Findings that reveal troubling lack of transparency, potential financial mismanagement, and need for formal investigation. The data doesn't match. According to a Freedom of Information request I submitted earlier this year, the Thompson public schools reported receiving 249,464 and 5 cents in Medicaid reimbursements between 2019 and the current fiscal year 2025. This amount they say supports the cost of services provided to Medicaid eligible students. However, records I obtained directly from the Connecticut Department of Social Services show a much higher total 598,768 in Medicaid reimbursements paid to Thompson Public Schools between 2018 in 2024. That's a discrepancy of nearly 350,000. And that's not even including any final figures for u fiscal year 25. and we are still waiting for the district to provide its 2018 reimbursements total which TSS has already confirmed was over 137,000. On
006top of this, the school district is paying 10,000 per year to a third party vendor process Medicaid claims totaling 70,000 over the past seven years. I believe that's Relay Hub. That means the actual net benefit to the district after vendor fees is only around 179,000 across seven years. That averages to just about 25,000 per year to support services for our most vulnerable students. Meanwhile, the DSS says nearly 600,000 was sent. So where is the rest? Accountability gaps and opaque practices. When asked where the money goes, the superintendent's response was the reimbursements are used to offset the cost of eligible services and reduce the cost to the taxpayers. But these funds are not clearly shown in the annual budget. They are buried in general offsets, which means that no publicly visible trail to track whether the
007reimbursements are actually aligned with what the state says was sent. To this day, it remains unclear who within the district has direct access to the account or Medicaid reimbursements from the state and deposited. Is it the superintendent, finance manager, a third party vendor, a shared account, the town without clearly clarity on who manages these funds and how they are tracked internally? the potential for misrouting, misrepresenting reporting, and even misappropriation increases and the public trust decreases. The absence of a clearly reported traceable accounting trail raises not only administrative concerns, but serious financial ones if nearly 600,000 in state Medicaid reimbursements. Take it that's my time, right? Yes. I'll I'll yield my time to to them. uh in state Medicaid reimbursements were deposited yet only a fraction of accounted for in school financial statements. We must ask
008are these funds being routed elsewhere? Could there be bookkeeping or reporting errors? Are we dealing with a lack of financial transparency or possibly even misappropriation or theft? At this point, without access logs, account reconciliation reports, or an external audit, we cannot rule out any of these possibilities. system systemic underclaiming. In fiscal year 2025, the district stated it is on track to claim services for only 40 out of 187 Medicaid eligible special education students, a participation rate of just 21%. Why are we leaving behind 147 eligible students and the funding that comes with them? Are families not being informed or asked to sign consent forms? Is the vendor failing to process claims? or is this a systemic failure to utilize a program that exists for both our students and our taxpayers? Public accountability statement plus a
009question. Before I close, I want to briefly address something troubling that came up during private conversations with two separate members of this board of education. When I raised the issue of Medicaid reimbursements, one member initially told me that their knowledge the district had received any. Later in the conversation, they suggested that any funds were received, they were very minimal and not worth discussing. Another board member echoed a similar position characterizing that reimbursements is too insignificant to make a dent or matter. Let me be absolutely clear. According to records from the Connecticut Department of Social Services, Thompson Public Schools received 598,768 in medical reimbursements between 2018 and 2024. This is not an opinion. It is documented fact from the state. So tonight, I ask each member of this board directly and publicly Do you acknowledge that
010the district received nearly 600,000 in Medicaid reimbursements between 2018 and 2024? Yes or no? If any member of this board cannot answer that question clearly and confidently, then the public has every right to question whether they are fully informed or fit to oversee our district's finances. Next steps, a call for investigation. Because of the size and seriousness of this discrepancies, I will be taking the following formal steps. Submitting a foyer request to Thompson Public Schools for detailed Medicaid reconciliation report going as far back as 2011. I will receive the reimbursement amounts from Thompson Public School Records for the years of 2011 and 2018 through 2018. And I will request a copy of the RA provider agreements to verify payments. Request let line items in the financials reports for reimbursements in detail and can be viewed
011by the public. Contacting the Connecticut auditors of public accounts, alerting oversight agencies including Connecticut Department of Social Services, Medicaid Division, State Department of Education, Office of the Times Roller. Typically we do not respond to citizens comments but Bill would you Bill I have asked Bill to do some research into this um problem because you did bring it forward to us beca requests and I've asked Bill to look into this bill Mr. Steglets who is our um come to business manager and he has done some research into this given the foyer requests in response to the initial Medicaid reimbursement foyer request. We worked with Relay Hub, our thirdparty Medicaid reimbursement vendor, to provide a response. As part of our research for the second but similar foyer requests for Medicaid information from the period from 8 to
01214 years ago, we also contacted the Connecticut Department of Social Services directly and requested the information as a cross check to our work. The numbers provided by DSS were significantly higher than our historical reimbursement receipts. To determine why, we worked directly with DSS and noted the following. The amounts provided by DSS reflect the total gross claim amounts filed by Thompson Public Schools for eligible services for Medicaid eligible students, not the amounts reimbursed to the school for those claims. under the school-based child health program. Many of you may think of it as SPCH, which is the mechanism in Connecticut whereby public schools pursue Medicaid reimbursement. TPS is reimbursed for 25% of the gross claim amount for eligible services for Medicaid eligible students. Although there are other elements to the SBCH program, this is the principal driver
013of the difference between the gross claims amounts reported by DSS and the reimbursement amounts actually received by Thompson Public Schools. To be clear, the comments I just shared were not developed solely by Thompson Public Schools or the finance department, but were developed with and have been confirmed by DSS. Thank you, Bill. Does that help clear up? Uh, can I get a copy of that? Sure. Thank you. Thank you. Sure. All right. All right. Any more comments from the from the room here? Yes, sir. Come up to the microphone, please. We can hear you. Officially, Sarah White, 308 East Thompson Road. If uh James has more in his prepared paper, then I would also yield. I don't think that anything that I could add would be as prepared. So, I would yield to James if he
014has more. Thank you. Okay. Now, I'll go to the Zoom audience. Anybody on the Zoom audience have a citizens comment? Hearing none, we'll move on to uh there are no student spotlights. They have uh moved on and they are waiting for graduation. Okay. The uh Mr. Melon high school report point. Pardon me. I I stood up and for citizens comments and I yielded my time to James. Uh no, I he has said his piece. You didn't ask for any more time. Uh, I do have a question. Can I ask question? No, it's not. No, not during citizens comments. We do not entertain questions. If you have a question, you're free to ask the superintendent. Well, now I have question or Bill Ste's if it's an honorary question. So, good evening everyone. Um, going to turn
015to some positive things. As you stated this Friday, we are very much looking forward uh the class of 2025 graduation. Uh that's been our focus uh all our prep work the last several days. Um whether awards ceremonies uh spending time with the students at their senior breakfast. We did the Wox all school field trip which uh was an overwhelming success. I think the students had a really really good time. Uh it's really just been one awards banquet after another. So it's uh it's this time of celebration. Students are very excited. Um you know we begin practice for graduation on Wednesday then Thursday and then Friday. So hope everything will will go off uh without a hitch. And as the first you know first year principal at Torot really looking forward to celebrate this class. Very
016special unique class. Um and I'll address that in my speech. Um but I'm sorry. Sorry, thank you. Um, but really just looking uh forward to that graduation, a culmination of my first year and and it was really made uh much easier by the group of students uh their passion, their energy, enthusiasm uh etc. So again that's the focus this week graduation and certainly uh the students right now are uh taking their final exams uh including the seniors and underassmen. So overall it was a very good year. Ready for summer but good year. That's true. Any questions? No. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, thank you DJ. Principal Granada is sick. Principal Granado is sick. Okay. Yes. I Danielle informed me. So there will be no middle school report. Right. Right. Okay. So now Larry, lower that
017that mic a little bit here. Uh congratulations once again to Mel Snay and Barbara Lneski for the uh the alumni and personnel exemplary service award. They certainly deserve that. A big shout out to those teachers. Uh several five or six teachers in the district graduated from uh OG. great ceremony in Rice Gavage Auditorium. Hat goes off to those individuals. Hundreds and hundreds of hours of studying, sacrifice, all um uh all to help the children of Thompson. Field day, another success this year. Outstanding opportunity for parents to to jump on. Over 20 parent volunteers. What a great day. Kind of warm outside, but uh really good day. uh spring concert. Once again, if you attended that spring concert, you know how how hard Juliana George, the uh the elementary school teachers, and of course the students
018work to put on a great show. Um just an outstanding an outstanding time. Uh that was fourth grade celebrated a culminating experience after the ESback tests. They had a carnival experience on the playground, the upper black top playground. Kids had a wonderful time. They were just um thrilled to be done the uh the ESback testing. Uh tomorrow we have um we have the math wizards coming into the auditorium to put on a little show to to teach the kids how fun math can be. And then of course we have Kim Flynn from the public library getting kids excited about uh summer reading. And that's just about it. Of course, just um hats off to all of the teachers, the faculty, the staff. Just an unbelievable year. A lot of hard work, a lot of dedication,
019a lot of sweat, a lot of tears, but we did it. Exciting. Um exciting to be part of Thompson. So, thank you so much, you Dr. Jones. Good evening. Okay, so our total student population is 804. Of our 804 students, 204 qualify for special education services. 82 have 504s. Um, out of district is currently at 26. Bradley School, Windham County is at 15 of the 15. Seven are our students. We're still hosting four other districts. Fillingly, Blainefield, Stafford, and Woodstock. Our current uh percent is 25.373%. Slightly up from last month. Um, second paragraph, there's a typo by me. I apologize for that. should say 26 students. So, it aligns with the top section. Uh we're still holding on to six vans to transport uh the students we have going out, the other 19 students. Referrals
020for the year. Um we're basically at the home stretch, but we're at 62. And just an update with CT sets. Um at the time of this report it was 306 open positions across the state. Um in terms of special education the standard um today it was at 311. So the most upto-date that I can give you was 311. Um other than that that's it for me unless you have some questions. I have a quick Kathleen, could you um just uh repeat within the room like the um amount of money that you have been able to help save our district with special education by bringing in the Bradley County overall bringing in our life skills program. I think it's just really good for the taxpayers of Thompson to hear the amount of money that's been saved.
021Yeah. So it's going on it's going on seven years kind of came up really quickly to be honest with you. I remember first coming here. Um so you know just I don't have the exact number but it's about 45 it's about $4.5 million that we've been able to save through that partnership program. Unfortunately due to the shortage of teachers across the state we're not really able to lean on that program because we have students that we can bring back to help offset some of this. So now we're looking at opportunities to take students back into the schools and kind of bypass the Bradley program as another opportunity if they kind of fit the model. So I just want to repeat that. That's $4.5 million in how many years? I've been here for seven. So it
022was about six years because it took me a little bit to get it up and running. All right. I think that's wonderful information for the taxpayers Thompson to hear. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Jones. You're right. Chris, Heather Burns, how are we doing in technology? Hi. Um, gearing up to be a a very busy summer for us as always. Um, collecting eighth grade devices and issuing some invoices. Same thing with senior devices. Um, we're also going to be collecting staff laptops to upgrade those this summer and then purchasing additional laptops for children going into first grade and um, freshman and also fifth grade. So, we kind of have a circulation going of new devices every four years because we have to keep them up to date um, so they're able to do all
023the state testing that they have to do. Um, Danette's tying up some state reports. She's finalizing getting her data for the fitness um state report that's due next week. Um I just received word that I got the check for the $12,000 grant um for the Pegedia grant that will be used to replace the um AutoCAD lab in the high school over the summer. Um we also need to replace some cafeteria computers that are out of date and we have a lot of upgrades to perform down at the town hall as well. But um the computer or the Chromebooks with the Tik Tok? Uh we did have a few of those. Um didn't catch on fire. Didn't set off the fire alarm, but they were dealt with and Okay. Uh so you can fix them. And
024are you charging the parents? We did charge. Absolutely. Yes. Okay. Yep. All right. I don't think they were under warranty, but um yeah, we charged. Okay. Good. Good. And and and they are actually paying. Yes, those those two did. They don't all, but All right. Great. Thank you. Payton's paying her bill tomorrow. It's the keyboard guard thing. Today, naughty. Okay, we'll stop that when that's trash. Honestly, this uh I'm going to call on Bill Burch. How are we doing with our little with our project? Not little project, our huge project. Yeah, thanks for that because it's not little by any means. Uh so on that note, uh we've got the electricians started on site full-time this week. Okay. We've uh they've increased the staff for air temp doing sheet metal work. The control people are
025still working on second shift. They're here tonight. You might have seen them in the hallway. They've they've made quite a bit of progress. And I have to say, except for one fire alarm, they probably haven't really interfered with too much going on here at all. Uh there will be nobody on site this Friday. They've pulled the entire crew off because they were kind of shell shocked by the fire alarm they did set off. So, they don't want that to happen on Friday. Uh but but that's going well and I think everything is going to be on schedule there. Other than that, it has just been all about the events. We tick them off every day. We tick another one off and we're down to three more days. Okay. Well, and that's pretty much it. Yeah.
026Thank you, Bill. Oh, Kathleen. Kathleen. Yes. Has there been any response yet from the playground company on the broken equipment? There has not. There has not. Okay. No, but when we get it, we will certainly reach out to the organization that was here that weekend and um try to receive um reimbursement for that program. So, there was somebody else who was here that was using the facility. Correct. Okay. Okay, Bill Burch. Not Bill Bur. Bill Steglets. Wrong. Bill. Sorry. We're slipping a little here. Uh, revised budget remains at 21.4 million. Year-to- date spending. We are at 18.6 or 86.6% of the budget. a little bit ahead of where we were last year at 83.4%. Uh year-to- date incumbrances 2.9 million or 13% of the budget compared to 15.8 of the prior year. Uh currently we're
027projecting spending of 21.4 million or 99.9% of the budget. Um we were at 99.1 at this point last year. Uh these amounts uh have been adjusted have have been adjusted to include the total uh special ed excess cost grant payments that we've received to date of $184,000. Uh this leaves us with two departments projected to be over budget. Uh pupil services has currently has a projected deficit of 743,000. uh the the same drivers we've been discussing out of district placements RBT and related spending special education teacher salaries and paraprofessional expenses are the main drivers um as we've as we've talked about in previous months um special ed uh transportation cost continues to provide a bit of an offset there and ESY is still over by 122 bucks. Uh you may notice that the $184,000 of
028special ed excess cost uh that has been included does not include the $40 million additional pledged from the state. Uh that's I'm sorry. What did they very very wish $40,000 of uh additional excess cost um relief that has been pledged. Uh we have not received it and frankly at this point I'll believe it when I see it. So I have not included on a meeting with the commissioner today and they hope to process that check the week of the 16th of June. Good. That that would be nice timing and at that point you'll see it in next month's report. So hopefully that will will help us keep the district in the black as as usual at this time of year. It's a very very strong push u to stay on the right side of the
029budget. Um we continue to scrutinize u and try to close them down and and hoping for a little bit of a break on some of the uh special ed related poss but we really don't know until honestly about mid August because you think about it you need July for June's bills to come in and you guys have all been down this road before but we're we're doing our best to uh to project accurately. Okay. Okay. I got I got one. Um the excess cost grant received that's the new adjusted rate. Correct. Correct. Okay. So that's the 64% not the 100% we were getting before. Right. That's change. Correct. Okay. Great. Thank you. Okay. So my question is now that we're at about let's say 24K I like to round um to in the black and
030and you're continuing to go through all the um the the incumbrances to see if we can eliminate some of those and massage them. And um and your uh how close do you think we are to finishing like zip? We don't know. It's a little too early. I mean that that incorporates the best information that I have right now. Um it it um it incorporates the the grant funding uh that we have available this year. Uh the only piece that's a that's a potential positive that I excluded was this additional 40,000. Yeah, I can understand why. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thanks. Um All right. Uh I'm missing you. Um Shannon, you're on Zoom. Yep. Good evening. Anything? Um, I have a state report due July 1 and we're just wrapping up this year and starting to
031prep for next year. Okay. All right then. Thank you. You're welcome. All right. The next thing on the agenda is the approval of the minutes from our regular meeting of May 12th. Kathleen, yes. I'll make the motion. Okay. Second, Justin. All right. Any discussion? I have a motion and a second. So, any discussion on those minutes? Hearing no discussion, I'll put the uh motion to the floor for a vote. All in favor of accepting the minutes for our Monday, May 12th meeting, say I. I. Any opposition say no. Any abstensions? That was not here. I'll state. Okay. So, the me the minutes pass with one extension. Okay. I don't think we had any subcommittee meetings. No. Okay. So, I will turn the meeting over now to the superintendent to give us a retirement recognition. So,
032we have two retirements coming before the board this evening and I don't know if either are on Zoom. However, uh the first one is from uh Tim O'Brien. As you know, Mr. O'Brien is a revered social studies teacher at Turtle Memorial High School. He has been in that department for 30 years. um he is uh retiring to spend more time with his family, but he wanted to thank everyone on the board for his many years of employment here. He is going to be deeply missed by our faculty and staff, but more importantly our students. Um and Mr. O'Brien um finished his school year by being one of our chaperones to uh Washington DC. Um he volunteered uh when we had a change up of chaperones and I couldn't have thought of a better person. He
033said he started his career actually um chaperoning that trip. So, uh it came full circle for him. So, uh Mr. O'Brien, if you're out there, um congratulations on your retirement and thank you for your years of service. Enjoy. In addition, in our uh food service department, Michelle Ricky, who's been with us for many years, um is also retiring this year. um she has been um instrumental and really um a workhorse in that department. She is actually leaving the state to move down south where it's warmer to be with a family friend. Um so uh I wish her the best of luck and uh a nice change of weather. Uh so Michelle, congratulations. Great. I'm going to move on to enrollment report. Chairman. Mhm. Okay. Um, as uh Dr. Jones stated, we currently have 804 students
034in the district. At Marriott Fischer, we have 361 students. Uh, that's a reduction of, uh, two students this month. Uh, at Turtle uh, Thompson Middle School, we have a reduction of three students. And at the high school, we actually have an increase of one student uh, for a grand total of 204 students. As you can see, it's been pretty consistent. Um, as far as our students in uh QMC, Killingly VOAG and ACT and Ellis Tech, um, just for note for the board of ed, and I'll mention this tomorrow at uh, moving up ceremony. Um, I've been here eight years. This is the year that we've had fewer students go out to any of those other schools. Uh, we only have 12 students moving on to other schools. The remaining students are staying. I think that
035has a lot to do with the emphasis that the board placed on developing programs at the high school. So kudos to everybody here um uh for making those uh programs possible. Uh it's certainly reflecting in our students interest and then they're staying with us. So I am really thrilled about that. Very good. Great. It's good to hear. And then C under my report um budget cuts discussion and approval. As you know, uh the board of um the the town has reduced our budget uh through a couple of referendums and so we have to make uh reductions in that budget. I have given you a proposal I believe total of $746,000 um with a little bit more there uh to cover for for contingency. Um but I've made my recommendations there. Um, we need to have
036your approval um to put those recommendations in play so Bill can adjust the budget. You all have that sheet with you. I'll make a motion to accept the superintendent. Okay. Bill, do I have a second? Second for discussion. Okay. having a motion and a second. Um I'll open the floor for discussion. Um I want to talk about the buses combining buses for next year. Okay. So I added that to um the the next um type of uh reduction maybe recommendations if needed. Uh we did reduce two buses this year right now. And that's going to continue and that was a savings of about $17,000. Um I have recommended to the uh bus company to continue to alter the routes and stops so that we can maintain those bus reductions. Um the bus company also has
037a proposal back to the board of ed which I need to talk to chairman about about having a subcommittee meeting to review that proposal. They sent me um a uh spreadsheet. Um if the board wanted to entertain extending the current contract, they would go into next year's budget with a flat rate. However, that really pushes out a 10% increase for the following year and then subsequent years. So, um I have that data. Um I'm going to ask um chairman to schedule a negotiation subcommittee to look at that and uh folks from DADCO will certainly be present if so requested um to go over their proposal but that locks you in for a good number of years. Um and that's something you really have to consider. Um and the fact that in the following year then
038there's a 10 10% increase in transportation which would be a hard nut to you know to swallow. So, um, but it's something to look at as we're looking at all reductions and being creative, but combining those buses, um, we're hoping is going to continue, but I have to do some bus stop changes so that the times are shortened on the other bus runs under an hour, but it's so% on a lower number. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Y So it's not 5% on the current number. It's 10% on a lower number because we've eliminated two buses. No, we pay a penalty for that. $75 per bus per day. Uh that's in the contract. So um it's about 13750 uh per penalty per bus. So, if you're looking at a bus costing $80,000 next year, um you have
039to uh take off uh 13 say 13500. Uh so you're down to around $66,000 of savings per bus that gets taken off the road. Um we can't go below that number. Um there's no way because then those buses would be running more than an hour. Um but uh we are working on that. I do have a meeting scheduled, two or three meetings scheduled with the bus company so that once they do determine what those bus stops look like, I need to see them with my eyes because some of the streets in town, as you well know because you live here, um might not be a good place for students to walk. Um for example, three rows coming across Route 12 is not a good idea, right? We don't want a a large amount of students
040coming across that highway. cars just go by way too fast. Um so but those bus stop changes I really want to see them um before I make any recommendation to the board as to what we're going to do with those. So that's a lot of work this summer but um I I think it would be work well done uh especially if we can maintain the reduction of those two buses. Yes. I just have a question about the HR uh director's salary. I know she was a shared position between the town and the school. Is that is that is that a shared uh salary as well or did that salary live in the the board field? Yeah. So, this is the savings to the board of ed. Okay. Um on the town side bill, I don't
041know what that is. It's a 7030 split. Okay. I just wanted to make sure that that was just our portion. That's very good. Thank you. But the net saving is 64 to us because we need to 65. Yeah, I see that. Yeah. Thank you. And remember that um in this uh we were creative with math lab. We were using the open periods for the um unified arts teacher for next year because we reduced those three classrooms at Marriott Fischer. Uh math lab's going to happen during the school day. So we're still offering a math we're still offering the um intervention. Okay. I hate to see the late bus even though there not a lot of students taking taking advantage. I just have one other question on the special education budget bringing the four to five
042outplay students back in district. We have enough staff to support those four to five students coming back. I wish Dr. Jones had stayed. So I gave him the charge of reducing his budget by 400,000. Um you know that it takes a lot of steps to meet with families, make those plans, bring students back. he is already starting to meet with two families. Um, and then he had some other recommendations for reductions for his budget. I told him I needed that 400,000 back and really it is on the backs of bringing students with additional services back into district. Um, he knows he he has to get to that number. So, he is working on it. All right. I just wanted to make sure there wasn't going to be like, oh yes, we're going to bring them,
043but then we're going to need to hire two or three more pair of professionals to make it work. And that's not in the delta, you know. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. But there's no crystal ball on how a student's going to react when they come back into district, right? And if they need more support to be successful in a least restrictive environment, he would provide that. Um, even though it's not budgeted, but definitely necessary. I No, who's first? Crystal's first. Go ahead, Chris. Sorry. Could you just clarify again? I know I emailed you, but about um the secondary special education. So, when it says transfer hours, is that like they're going to have two case load? Yeah. So, um well, um we had a resignation at a high school and it caused um a current resource teacher
044at the high school to take on a really heavy case load. Uh he's managing with a lot of um after school hours and trying to maintain those students, but clearly uh needs additional help. So what we did do is we met with the middle school staff and high school staff and one day a week on I don't know how many day rotation the middle school special education teacher will go up to the high school to service some of those students um to release uh to relieve that case load. Not ideal but we're just trying to be creative at this point. Um, just to clarify, special education budget, that is code 9,0004. That's people's services on our bill. Yes. Yes, it's 9,0004, correct? Thank you. I just wanted, you know, I have that whole thing about
045nomenclature. So, yep. Thank you. So, that brings the special education debt increase to 407. Um, my only comment would be uh if that if this is getting entered into the record that we put 9,04 on that line next to special education so we know where it's on the the sheet that's getting entered into the record. Oh, okay. 9,000. Yeah. Just so we know where it's actually coming out of. Okay. So, we're very clear on it. So that's $400,000 out of 9,04. Yes. Just correct. Thank you. Um, superintendent, I'm sorry, one more. You had mentioned uh two cycles a one cycle ago that we're going down to three sixth grade teachers this upcoming school year and then we will have to bump back up to four sixth grade teachers. So So the fifth grade uh class
046is high. Um I haven't looked at what the impact could be on doing that. that bubble is going to go through the system, right? The problem is when you get to seventh grade, the teachers have to be content certified. Where in sixth grade I could have an English teacher teach social studies. When you get to seventh grade, you have to have a social studies certified, an English certified, a math certified, a science certified. So, the reality is it looks like we're going to have to add that position back in next year. Good. Thank you. Any other discussion? Yes. Yes. In the interest of not having to have the potential issue of adding staff back in for next year. Is there a way that we can offset that salary now with some other reductions like the
047subscription services for happy numbers and all of those? And then is there anywhere else we can go to be able to keep a sixth grade teacher and not have to attempt to add them back in next year? Well, those class sizes will be significantly low, right? Um, not necessarily equitable across the district. That's true. The teacher herself is going to come back, which is in my recision recommendations, in another position. So, she's not losing her job. um we had a um a non-renewal in ELLL, so she she has that SER, so she's not losing her job, right? My only concern is is if we keep her in that ELLL position for next year, then we don't have potentially the staff that we need for sixth grade for next easier to find an uh K6 certified
048good teacher. Okay. Uh this is all this number the numbers that we've talked throughout this entire budget season is based on our current enrollment. Correct. Correct. I don't think right now um the kindergarten numbers are are um within normal registration. Um, I thought because we had the the the age change, we were going to see a significant increase and was worried that we would have to add a kindergarten teacher, but at this time, unless something happens in the summer, but at this time, we're not seeing an influx of enrollments in kindergarten. Yeah. I think that the conversation that you and I had had was regarding um children that live in the district but are either currently homeschooled or go to parochial school or private school somewhere. If that were to flux, if a school were
049to close, if something were to happen, we would see a we could potentially see a significant influx of students just like we did when St. Joe's closed. Correct. Right. Okay. How many custodians are on staff? Um, Bill, how many custodians are on staff? Nine. 10. 10. And that includes the day shift and the night shift. Correct. Yes. And in one long-term sub. In one long-term cell. So technically the reduction is um the sub position correct or no it's the retirement it's the retired Further discussion on this. So this is essentially $778,000 that we're voting to reduce our requested income spot. which is a little more than we've been reduced by $746,000 to date by the board of finance only because there is literally nothing in that budget at all to fall back on if we
050have an opportunity. What we're looking for now is a 2.3% increase over last year's budget, which doesn't cover our contractual costs increase and doesn't even cover our anticipated special edes. So, even with the $400,000 reduction, But do we want to vote? You want us to vote on this piece of it now? And hopefully the budget passes, correct? We don't have to go digging further, which we don't have. There is no money. And we have contracts with the teachers and with well we will have a contract hopefully with the custodians and the secretaries of Okay. Any more discussion before I put this before the to the floor for vote? No. Okay. We have a motion to accept the um motion for to accept these um proposed reductions to our requested increase over last year's budget. uh
051as stated on this uh as proposed by the superintendent and the other admin and her and her staff. We've discussed it. We have a motion and a second. So, I'll now put it to the floor for a vote by the board. All in favor? Um I'll do a round just I'll go starting with Justin. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Your name. You said yes. Oh, I didn't hear you. I'm sorry. You know. Yes. Yes. Yes. Begrudgingly yes. Pardon me. Begrudgingly yes. Okay. Well, we're all begrudgingly yes. We're all begrudging the cuts. Yes. Yes. Okay. And chair votes yes. So it passes. We'll we'll start here. Okay. So, the next item under my report, um, every July we typically skip over that meeting, but I thought I'd bring it to your attention since the, um, next referendum is
052going to be voted on on July 2nd, whether or not you wanted to maintain the meeting that you have scheduled in July. I think it's the 14th, isn't it, Danielle? Y. Yeah, 14th. Yeah. Um the other thing I wanted to do at that or before that meeting I wanted to have a meeting on that day is um our self- evaluations and wouldn't take long because I wanted to do um Superintendent Smith's evaluation before the school year started. Remember we discussed that. Now our self-evaluations probably take us half an hour because we really don't know what we're doing and we're just going to skim through that. It's a it's a practice run. Mhm. Um for self-evaluations and we want her goals to kind of line up with our goals. So I I kind I even though
053we off we often skip that July meeting, I thought it would be beneficial to have a short meeting prior to like a half an hour at 6:30 and go into the 7 o'clock meeting. probably have some things to discuss about the budget and maybe make that a short meeting also. You all agree with that? It's already on the schedule. Yep. Yep. Okay. Thank you. Uh I know we'd like to skip a meeting, but got work to do. We have work to do. Pardon me. If we have work to do, we have work to do. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Sure. My paycheck will be compensated. Oh, yeah. I pay you. Yeah. I don't know if these decisions go on to whole business. That's the only Yeah. Yeah. That's old business. Okay. Uh okay. Uh we have
054some old business tonight which is uh the recisions of uh three that have um three three recisions and I don't know if you need to vote to add it to the agenda. I'll make the motion to add recision decision recision decisions to item 10 on our agenda. I'll second. We have a motion and a second. Now to add something to the agenda. I need twothirds of a vote. I call that a few. So do. All in favor say I. I. Okay. We have two. Okay. So, the recisions are um Linda V. She is currently a grade four teacher. Um she is being called back because there was a resignation in grade 1. She holds a certification for grade one. Um according to the collective bargaining agreement, she does have that seniority right to come back
055to that position. So, we would like to call her back because we do need three first grades. Um, Jennifer Becker, I received word from the state um actually today that um the remember the mental health grant that we got and it was a three-year grant. This is upcoming is the last year of that grant. I wanted to make sure that those dollars were really there and so we laid her off as an abundance of caution. I received word from the state that that money is there um and it is our final year but I did um I am recommending calling Miss Becker back to the guidance position at Marriott Fischer. Um she is certainly a wonderful um addition to that school and certainly at helping students and families especially around uh mental health issues. And
056then Miss Caparo who's currently the sixth grade teacher um but does hold a district-wide ELLL teaching English to speakers of other languages. um as she can come in and uh fill uh the position that is currently vacant um so she doesn't lose her position. So those are the only three recisions that I can make at this time uh from the list that you had approved um a few months ago in April. I'll make the motion to resend for Miss Voter, Miss Becker, and Miss Confer as noted by this. Any discussion on this? Hearing none. All in favor say I. All opposed. Motion passes. Okay. We have no new business. Correspondence. You have one. We have two actually. Yeah. One's in our packet. It was from the the pool family. Oh, that's the same one. No,
057this is from Judy. I Oh, right. That's me. I can read. I can't. No, we have two pieces of correspondence. Um, unfortunately, last month we had two funerals. Uh, one was uh for Shirley Hoo and one was for Chris Iikner. both of uh associated with Thompson Public School System and we received two thank you cards. One was from Ray and Philip H. We sent flowers to both of the families and this one is from Judy Iikner. Thank you so much for sharing sending the plant in Christopher's memory. The geranium just happens to be one of uh her favorite plants. Okay, thank you. That's that. All right. Again, citizens comments, uh, three minutes address, come to the mic, please. Yes. And see the mic first. All right. So, according to my FOYA, um, I did ask
058the FOYA for the total annual Medicaid reimbursement amounts that are paid. It was specific to the actual amount that was paid out to the school. Um and according to your statement there is still in a discrepancy that you guys also had. Is that correct? Bill is uh it says that uh the numbers provided to you guys were much higher than your significant higher significantly than your historical reimbursement receipts. That James Yeah. Someone said my name George T. O'Neal has raised his hand. Thank you chair. If I take that as being a recognition from my three minutes. No, no, no. No. I'm sorry. Um, I'm in standby then. Sorry. Mr. Clark has the floor right now. Right. So, um it does look like that um that you it is mentioned here that 25% of the gross
059claims amount eligible services Medicaid eligible students even with the numbers that are provided. I'm assuming that the numbers then that you got were pretty much the same as mine and even at 25% then it's still a discrepancy. Um, so we still then don't have matching numbers with DSS. Um, so, uh, anyway, I I had a closing statement to that. So, I I provided everybody with, uh, you know, what I have my what everything that I've gathered in the last three months. Um, but in closing, I'm saying that, uh, I just want to emphasize that this is an effort. It's not about blame. It's about accountability. I didn't begin this research expecting a problem. In fact, I set out to assist. I was told the reimbursements from DNS DSS were minimal. I assumed that claims were
060being denied and simply not corrected or submitted by the third party vendor. As someone who operates a small therapy business, I know that a difference billing accuracy can own. I I the billing billing accuracy can make. I once struggled with 26% Medicaid pass rate while using outside billers. After taking over my own clearing house access and submitting claims myself, my pass rate skyrocketed to 98% and this was with Medicaid. Uh so it made me wonder are there similar failures that are happening um or scenarios? Medicaid claims can be denied for simply because reasons, missing parental consent, incorrect information, improper coding, incomplete documentation, or failure to correct and resubmit a rejected claim. Any of these issues left unressed could mean loss of reimbursements and services for students who need them most. Um, but that's why I
061started this because I I was willing to help out and try to get, you know, ideas on the table as to why is the reimbursement so low? But still, um, even with the document that, uh, Bill read off, it does look like that there's still a discrepancy because we don't have the actual numbers. They don't match DSS. So, um, using the format of 25% that's in his, um, sheet that he gave me. I could be wrong, but I would like a correction. You know, if anyone can figure that out, that'd be great. Well, Bill is doing the research on that. Awesome. So, thank you, James. Okay. All right. Now you I'll recognize you Mr. Um thank you um Chair Heert um Superintendent Smith and uh board members um I just wanted a few observations after
062your meeting I don't often uh tune in to your uh your periodic updates but it struck me that with the budget that we're wrestling with as a town I couldn't personally really uh the burden that this group is is placed upon is is huge. You've got increasing requirements, rising costs, um unfunded mandates really in many ways. Then you have a a working population or teachers where the um costs are quite substantial. Um teachers are well compensated um for what they do. And when I look at the numbers in 2015, there was 1,2 students in this school system. Today, as reported, there was 804, a 28 shortfall or 20.5%. When you look at the budget that's being proposed, that's upwards of $27,000 to educate each student. Very difficult, very challenging. Um, and the trend, that's a
06310-year trend, 2015 to present. So, I don't see a a bright spot of light in the future. So, that's a challenge. Also, I asked my wife when we moved here 25 years ago what we were paying in taxes. it was about $4,000. Well, under the current scenario, it looks like we're going to be paying over $8,000, a substantial increase on our real estate taxes. My question to you, and something to consider as an observation, is this. When does do the lines cross? Where is the inflection point for this group to make the tough decisions whether to terminate staff, close schools, outsource it, or take some other substantial measure? because at the current trend, unless you have a bright crystal ball in the future, I don't see a a real future for this school. So, I'd
064ask you to reflect on those observations. Um, I don't want to belabor the points. You probably know the numbers better than I do, but I'm a taxpayer and alls I see is increasing cost, the performance of a school. Well, that's that's public knowledge. And um I feel for the students. So, I ask each of you to just consider what next. You can't just keep having these meetings and and chug trudge along without an outcome. So, there needs to be a plan. Thank you very much for taking my uh comments. Any other comments from the Zoom audience, please? Hearing none. anyman. Oh, yes. Mr. Mr. State your name and address. John Brat Lavis Road. Um I asked this I don't know months ago and and since Bill's here tonight and he dual purpose with the you
065know the town business manager I'd love a quote on a forensic audit because it's time to put to bed. It would be cheaper to outsource the school. That's not a forensic and I understand that's probably a 50 to $70,000 number for a forensic audit and the board of finance is going to choke. But enough of this witch hunt that oh my god the school hides money, the school waste money, the school pads the budget. I if if the town's people worked half as hard getting the state to pay their rightful amount as they do attacking great people like Bill Stelets and board members and volunteers would be a lot better off. If I'm not mistaken, the last study to outsource the high school was approximately $2 million more per year to the Thompson taxpayer because
066the $27,000 per student is a wrong number. It's not simple math, Mr. O'Neal. Special ed is the reason these numbers are so high. So, please stop using $27,000 like it's gospel cuz it's not. Okay? The people who are trying to attack the school need to learn the laws and regulations that the state and the federal government put on the school. Not just come with fancy handouts and think you have an aha moment. Try working with the school. Okay? And we would all be a lot better off. Thank you. Did I work? I'm David Ford. What we're asking for right now is that the board of finance, this be brought to the board of finance to be included as a line item for medical reimbursement in all future budgets. This is for transparency. We all talk
067about this town as transparency. We need to make it transparent. That a full reconciliation report be produced dating back to at least 2011. That the financial reports include clear annations of footnotes explaining how Medicaid reimbursements are applied. that access to the reimbursement account be reviewed and clarified, including who manages manages it, where the funds are deposited, and how they are dispersed. That the school district provides a breakdown by services, PT, OT, speech, psych reimbursement claims annually. that oversight agencies be contacted, including the CT auditors or public accounts, that the Department of Social Services, and if needed, the Office of Inspector General, a forensic audit investigation by the state of Connecticut. I've said it several times. This is what we come down to. There's not trust sitting from the Board of Education. There's only one way
068to remove it. It's going to be a forensic audit. I understand the expense that comes to the town, but I think it's going to be well worth it in the end because if you guys want to clear this up and say we're all done with it, that's the only way to do it. And that's how you're going to regain trust with the town. Justin has a Justin's comment. Uh I do want to say I did attend the spring concert the afternoon for the elementary school. It was amazing. And I think we have a district that is really uh pulling some things out of the woodwork uh to really put together some great human little human beings. Um I know there was some emotion that was put into it uh both from the student side, teacher
069side. Um it takes a lot to put those types of activities together and I think the students in the district are getting a lot from it. um in terms of budget and uh some issues that have been brought forth to the board both here uh tonight and in the past. Um I w as a board member I welcome uh volunteer help uh just as we welcome volunteer help in a classroom in a kindergarten classroom. Um I welcome it as long as it's not adversarial. Um, if we're trying to get gotcha moments, if we're trying to get, uh, see, I told you this was happening. Um, that that's not helpful. It doesn't promote any level of trust. It doesn't promote any level of progress forward. Uh we as a small town and as a small district
070um have transparency in our 37page line item budget that goes out every year. Um and we have hours upon hours upon hours upon hours of meetings on that budget. I have said it in the past and I will continue to say it. If those that are trying to get gotcha moments instead spent their time with us during those budget workshops, we would have a lot better progress and a lot better understanding of where we are with our budget today. Thank you. That's all I have. Jaclyn has motion to adjourn. Oh, I was gonna have my comment. Sorry. Can I have my comment? All right. Uh Danielle Carlson, Rachel Drive. Um I been taking all my notes from the packet we received. And then um so I just want to point out that these Medicaid reimbursements
071are 1% of the special education budget. Okay. a budget that we have that is federally unfunded or um it's not federally or state properly funded. So if you want to really help the taxpayers Thompson, we need to be talking to our politicians about funding it properly. Now when you're and I first and I want to back up a sec because I first am offended by the whole um even insinuating that we're you know we're untrustworthy people because we're all really trust trustworthy people. we're doing this like volunteer work and we're working really hard. And so I just want to first say that that was completely inappropriate and uh I was appalled by it. But backing up to when Mr. Staglets nicely gave you the answer that you were looking for and then you come back
072up and you are now saying he's not giving you accurate information. It might be pennies that you're looking at. when we have a budget that costs the town millions of dollars if not funded properly by our state. So again, if you want to help the taxpayers of Thompson, you're not going to be arguing or questioning $40,000 in requests that we requested for services and then we got $22,000 because that's what it was. It was a request for services and then there was a reimbursement at that percentage back and forth. after that. I'm just if we really want to help the taxpayers, we need to be getting millions of dollars in funding. And that would be coming from us as a group if we all work together to inform our legislators that we need a voice
073up here. But instead, we're going after our community members over pennies in the budget. You're talking you're you you're here saying there's a discrepancy in the request versus what we actually got still is of still is pennies in the six years. Okay. So what I'm just saying is this is this is crazy and this is absurd but I also wanted to go off of Mr. O'Neal's comment. I would hope in 25 years that your house did gather some uh you know inflation in the evaluation because that's what we would all hope in 25 years of living somewhere that our house be evaluate higher. So that's where I'm at on that. I'm tapping out motion. Motion to