001technology. Um lunch will be provided by the friends of the Weatherfield library and the AP room and we are always very grateful for that and it's a great chance to um to break bread with um all kinds of people. Um, the second thing I'd like to say is that by law, non-residents are not allowed to uh vote or to speak at this meeting, but we have uh some I'd like to ask any non voters who are here uh to stand uh and without objection, we would allow them to speak to their cards. Uh Christine Bourne and Lar the WCSU and Larry Der the business manager. >> Y um and without objection we would allow them to speak to as well hearing none about to call the meeting to order using this bell by BJ's request.
002I feel it belongs in a bell tower where it's not so close, but it makes a big noise. So, brace yourselves. The legal voters of the Weathersfield School District are hereby notified and warned to meet in person at Weathersfield School, 135 Schoolhouse Road in Stephanie, Vermont or virtually on Saturday, February 28, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. to transact any business not involving voting by law by ballot. Second meeting shall be adjourned to Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026. February 28th meeting shall include the public information meeting on the articles to be voted by Australian ballot. The legal voters of the Weatherstone School District are further notified and warmed to meet at Martin Memorial Hall that 5259 US Republic Scott, Vermont on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026 to act on any business involving voting by Australian ballot or any voting
003required by law to be by ballot. Polls open at 8:00 a.m. and closed at 7 o'clock p.m. Act on the reports of the Weathersfield School District officers from July 1st, 2024 to June 30th, 20 floor vote and obtain a motion to act on those reports. >> Mr. moderator >> Mike Stangovich. I so move. >> Moved by Mike Stangovich. Is there a second? >> A second. >> Seconded by the Forest. >> Is there any discussion of article one? Hearing none. All those in favor to act on the reports of the Weathersfield School District officers from July 1st, 2024 to June 30th, 2025, please signify by saying I. >> I. Those opposed, please say no. The article carries. Article two to vote that the Weathersfield School District is authorized to borrow money in anticipation of taxes to
004meet the requirements of the school district for the ensuing year and authorize the execution and delivery of notes or orders to the Weathersfield School District. >> Identify yourself. >> Tyler Harwell. >> Thank you. So moved by Tyler Harwell. Is there a second? >> Mike Stanovich seconded by Mike Stankovich. >> Is there any discussion of article two? >> Hearing none. All those in favor uh to vote that the Weathersfield School District is authorized to borrow money in anticipation of taxes to meet the requirements of the school district for the ensuing year and authorize the execution and delivery of notes or orders to the Weatherfield School District. Please signify by saying I >> I. >> All those opposed nay. The >> article carries. Um the remainder of the articles are by Australian ballot and special. Article three
005to elect the Weathersfield School District officers for the ensuing term. Um candidates have candidates listed on Um, page 136. Thank you. Direct your attention. Page 136. Um and when I uh name the candidates for the school offices, they I invite them to stand they wish to be for the body to to see who they are. Uh the open uh school positions uh which we voted on Tuesday are moderator for one year Sean W uh school director three year Megan Wid School director for one year John Harris candidate and school year for one year school director for one year Vincent Juel not Then again uh voting will be on Tuesday. back to my town school. Um, any discussion of art? Shall the voters of the Weatherskill School District approved the school board to extend 9,953,500 9,953,590,
006which is the amount the school board has determined to be necessary for the ensuing fiscal year. Weathersville School District estimates that this proposed budget, if approved, will result in per pupil spending, per pupil education spending of $17,7778, which is a 13.24% higher than per people education spending for the current year by Australian ballot. Uh, is there any discussion? Article four. Uh, I'd like to first uh invite principal Brian Montes to give a presentation on you like this one. >> Thank you. >> All right. Good morning, everyone. First off, I'd like to welcome you here to our wonderful school. We appreciate you being here this morning to be able to hear about all the great things that we're doing here at Weathersfield School. All right, so here's our agenda today because as an educator, I have
007to have an agenda. I have to have things set up and a way to view everything. So this is how we're going to highlight. So Mr. Wayan already went over the articles for approval. Talked about the first four articles. The fifth article will come up in just a couple of minutes. Um, and we'll talk about how well our Magnificent School is doing. Um, so we're going to share with you our goals for our fiscal year 27. Um, emphasizing on student learning because as a school, we are here for our kids to make sure that they're successful, they're engaged, and they are doing well. Um, we're here to meet student and family needs. Um, we've got lots of different strategies that we use. Um, and we have tons of community support which make our school such
008a unique and wonderful place to be at. Um, we're going to show you some of the schoolwide activities. Just a snippet, a a shot of what we do here at school, all the things that we do to help our school and our community. Um, we're going to go over the sources of how we get our funding for the school. We'll review our strategic plan goals for the year as well as an overview of the proposed budget. You guys do have a budget sheet in front of you. Plus, if you have your town report book, it is in there as well. Then we'll talk about the projected tax rates for FY27. how is it going to affect us and then that's going to be the highlight of our agenda today. So, Mr. Wayland already talked about
009the articles for approval, approval of school district reports, the election of school district um officers, the authorization to borrow funds, proposed budget approval. So, what we're proposing for you is our budget and then other business matters. And then there's the actual wording of the different articles, but I can go and click through those pretty quickly since you have those with you. >> All right. So, let's talk a little bit more about the school, the important stuff. All right. So, we're here to make sure that we're enhancing and engaging our students and showing success. Our first goal is to enhance student engagement um and ex and success by implementing an innovative teaching methods, providing personalized learning experience, integrating technology, and catering to diverse learning styles because all students learn differently. There's not two students that learn
010exactly the same. So, we try to cater to the needs of all of our students. We want to make sure that we're improving communication with families in our community. So, we've done that through different ways using our school newsletter that goes out weekly. We do social media posts as well. We have this great digital um board up front that shares with information that's coming up. So, as you're coming up our drive, you can see events that are happening at school. And just making sure that we have people coming to the school to be able to see what we're doing. um positive fostering a positive school culture and student wellness. Um focusing on the positive culture, making sure that students feel supported. Um mental health, social, emotional, and inclusive practices celebrate diversity and making sure that
011students feel like they belong here at school. All right. So, here are some of the ways that we meet our students and family needs. So we have individualized education plans that are available for students if they need them. So students are learning in ways that typical students learn. We set up individual educational plan or IEDs and so it meets those diverse goals that students will need and we set goals and go through those with the students to make sure that they are making progress towards meeting those goals. We also through the state offer free healthy meals for kids. So every kid has the opportunity to eat breakfast and lunch here for free. It's all through our state. So, it's something that if the kids are well fed both for morning and for um lunchtime, they
012are going to be able to be able to their minds are going to work better. They're going to be able to do better in school. So, that's an important thing. Um it's always nice to have those meals for our students. We do offer advanced math courses. So, we have an algebra course for students. We've had students in the past take geometry as well here at the K through eight level. so that they have those high school credits as they go on to high school so that they don't have to repeat those classes. We have engaging family activities. So we have one coming up actually coming up next Thursday. It's our camp readalong. So it is for students and to build literacy and so it's an opportunity to do literacy camping style. So we have tents
013set up here. It's all a whole wilderness theme. Students get to have a recipe for sports. It's a lot of fun activities that plan for students to be able to be engaged. Our VTO puts on their annual event their pagraph in the fall which gets each year keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger which is awesome. And we also do our community dinners throughout the year. we just had lunch with a loved one um throughout or you could come and have lunch with your grandchild, your own child. Um so those are some of the things that we do to be able to have families come to school as much as possible. We also have nature-based learning opportunities. So we have four winds which is a volunteer program. We have lots of our family members, community
014members that come back in and they teach Zangerbased courses through um a set program, but they come once a month to learn about what they're going to be teaching and then they deliver those instructions through the classrooms each month through K through five. Some of the schoolwide activities that we do, we always offer a welcome back um opportunity for families to come back. So, right before school starts, we have sort of a soft opening where our staff is ready for students to come in and we are able to have them come and see who their classroom teacher is. They are able to um meet the teacher, see the classroom. It lessens the anxiety for lots of students, parents, and the staff as well, which is nice to be able to have that. And then we
015have, it's always nice to break bread with our community, so we offer an opportunity to have a barbecue. We have an incredible maker space program. So, we have um all of our students instead of just going to library, they get the opportunity to spend time in the maker space and they're able to create and build things in the maker space. Um and then we also have for our sixth through 8th grade, one of their electives is also the opportunity to do maker space where they're building and grading different items. Um sports program is off the hook. It's amazing. Our staff has done a great job. We have a great athletic director that really promotes um athletics and has been able to create new programs here at school as well as really enhance the amount of
016students that are participating. Um we have a community Thanksgiving dinner is one of those opportunities to come in. We have the it's usually the last Wednesday before we break for that holiday where families can come in and have a Thanksgiving a harvest dinner for um everybody to be able to have. We invite everybody in the community to come. Um, and it's a great opportunity to see what our kitchens can do as well as to have lunch with our students. And then it's nice because our leadership students really help out and they actually help serve the food and bust the tables and do all of those fun things. So, it's a great atmosphere to have that happen here. We also have monthly assemblies. So we recognize our students for our five assemblies for perseverance, respect, integrity,
017determination, and empathy. So each um classroom teacher nominates a student to be able to that exemplifies one of those character traits and then we recognize them here in the gym. We did one last Friday right before we went on break and it's a great opportunity to showcase all the wonderful things that our kids are doing as they're building those character traits. We do a drama production once a year, a big drama production. This year it's all shook up. We happen to have our director here with us. She's sitting over there. So my right laughs now she's laughing at me. Um but he's done since I've been here. We've done The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Peter Pan, and now all Shook Up. So it's not a Disney theme one this year. It is a
018little bit more of an Elvis thing. Um, I won't do my first too much. Um, I tried to try out for it, too, but she wouldn't let me because she said we had to let the kids do it. Um, although I definitely could be elders in the later years. Um, we also offer passport for winter activities. So, through our PE department, our students get a passport to promote quality health while they're during the winter time because lots of times when it's cold outside, some of our students don't like to go out and do things. And so it's a checklist that they can be able to do as a passport where if they're doing certain activities, they're able to turn it back in and get some points. We also did winter activity. We did winter activities
019light is like I like to call it. So we did winter activities has sort of gone away a little bit for us here at Weatherfield, but we brought it back. And so the last two Fridays we did a K through four and a five through eight winter activity where they got to use a second outdoors and they got to go tubing. We got to play um I played for the first time broom ball hockey. How many have you ever played ball hockey? It was pretty awesome. Like I had so much fun playing ball hockey. Um some of our teachers got a little too into it with the students. Um they we kept having to put the spillson in the um penalty box, but that's a whole another story. We won't talk about that right now.
020But um just giving students opportunity to go out and do some winter activities and be outside, which is really important. um for not only their physical health but their mental health. And then as you go through our school today, you will see all the different student art projects. We have a full-time amazing art teacher and she does great projects with kindergarten all the way through 8th grade. It's been really nice because I heard from students when I first got here that they were doing the same art projects just on a little bit of a different level. Some of them said, "We did that one in kindergarten and now I'm an eighth grader." So she did this the our our art teacher we've had now for three years has really differentiated how she's doing art for
021kids and giving them more opportunities to do different things which has been great. All right, here's some of our sources for funding for our school. 65% of our funds for our school come from our local tax dollars. So all of our tax dollars that we are paying 65% of it come right here from Weatherfield myself included. 34% of it comes from the state education fund. We get zero federal grants that we get. 01% for our athletic revenue. So we do get a very small amount for athletic program because we charge a minimal fee for students to be able to play athletics. Um, we also do, if a student can't afford that fee, we do offer scholarship for it, but we get a very, very minute amount that helps out with athletics. Other than that, it
022comes out of everything else. All right, here's some of our our three strategic plan goals. And so student success and engagement, we want to make sure that our students are meeting their academic and their personal goals. We want to and make sure their students have that love for learning that they're and we're promoting success for all students. Really important for kids to love school, want to be here. And that's definitely improved because we averaged 95% attendance at school with even everything all the different bugs that are going around right now. 95% that's kindergarten through 8th grade which is pretty awesome. That shows that our kids want to be here and want to be part of our school. We want to make sure we're prioritizing clear and effective communication with families like I said earlier, including
023digital platforms, our weekly newsletter, and then our bulletin board outside as well. And then plus promoting those community events that make Weatherfield School the upper center of our town. And then we want to cultivate a positive school culture, student wellness through mental health initiatives, leadership programs, and commitment to inclusivity. >> Bless you. All right. So, student success in the gate. How are we doing that? So, first off, as you walk through the school later on, and I have I have homework for you guys later in between this meeting and our town meeting. I'm going to give you guys homework to do. So, you have to do this, okay? It's important. But I want you to walk through the school and see what you're getting. So as you walk through the school, most of our classrooms
024outside of the doors have their classroom mission statement. It's important to have a mission statement because that is what they go by of what they are going to be doing. Just like in business, we have a mission statement that promotes our classroom goals. They have a shared understanding among students. Um and it helps posit it helps develop a positive learning environment. student led presentations. It's important for our students to lead their learning. It's important for them to be able to share with their families and their community what they have learned, what they've gotten out of school. That gets them ready for high school and beyond. And then like I mentioned before, our panther pride assemblies. It's an opportunity for our community to get together. We have families here. We have our entire K8 school in
025this room all at once and everybody's here to showcase those students that have done amazing things and to applaud them and help continue that support for them. >> All right, our weather field weekly. It's a pretty amazing newsletter if I do say so myself. It goes out electronically to families. It talks about school events, activities, and it's a vital communication tool because information that is in there is vital to what is happening at our school. We try to give long enough information so people have um it's also linked through social media. So, as community members, if you aren't on our email um list, you can always look up through social media and see what's going on with the school. Our digital billboard, which was a combination through our Hicks Nichols grant, and our PTO that's
026out front, like I talked about, you probably saw it coming in. You came in, it's a great tool for when families come up, when people are driving by um that they can see exactly what is happening at the school. And then again, community dinners. Talk quite a bit about community dinners, but it's just an opportunity to be able to spend time together. Goal three, full-term student wellness leadership class. So, we have some leadership students from our current leadership class. We also have leadership students from past because it's important for our students that are alumni that are still within our high school system, still within our school system that they're here to help and promote our school. So, leadership students, the great thing about that is they are given the power to do what they need
027to do. We had a dance two weeks ago. The students planned everything out, decorations, how much they should charge. They gave me a DJ list. I got to be a DJ, which is a little harder than I thought it was going to be, by the way. Um, it's a little stressful when kids aren't dancing that you have to go and change up the music real quick. But they really, really loved um I just lost my um the limbo. Like Limbo, I need to have that one set up next time. Have five songs in a row because it took that long because every single kid had about 80 kids here and every single kid in the limbo even though I think they were supposed to get out, they kept going, but we let it go. that
028they wanted to see how low they could go. Um, and it's great because they're they're also pairing with other students as well. They're helping out. They're fostering that sense of belonging with our younger students and they have those buddies. And it's nice to be able to see when an eighth grader is there in the morning and helping out reading students or seventh grader or when you have um classroom buddies set up. And those are all through our leadership students. They take on and they do tons and tons of activities at school. Student leadership day. It is the Friday before Memorial Day weekend and it is a studentled day. The students do all the work. They set up the assembly. They showcase what they want to showcase. They have um items in the classroom that they
029are able to share with everybody and it makes it a really incredible day. So mark it on your calendars now if you have time. It's the Friday before Memorial Day. from 8 to 12. Um, and it's just an amazing experience for kids to really highlight what they've learned all year and to be able to show you um, everything about our school. So, it's just a great opportunity to be able to be here and mental health initiatives. Um we have lots of counseling services. We have wellness workshops. We have awareness campaigns designed to create supportive environment for all students. So we need to be physically healthy as well as mentally healthy to be at school and be successful. All right. So we are part of the winter county supervisory union and with that part of our
030our membership our partnership with them we do get special education cost with them food service comes through them transportation and administration and operations. So it's a vital part of we can't do this all by ourselves. We need somebody else to help manage some of those other items. So overview of our proposed budget for FY27. The proposed budget for fiscal year 20 FY27 is 9,953,590. That's a big number. That is with no new programs. That is keeping things status quo and trying to maintain our small class sizes which make Weathersfield such a unique place. That is make putting students first and making sure that students are getting what they need to be a better part of society in the future. So for next year our projected student enrollment kindergarten right now we have 24 students come
031in. So if we have two classes that's an average of about 12 students per class. First grade, 26, 24, 29, and fourth grade, 25, 28, 26, and 30. Our area class is pretty large right now, our incoming eighth grade class. So, those are all projected numbers. Those could vary back and forth a little bit, but we have a projected roll in right now of 236 students. But just the other day, right before break, we got three new students in the door. So, Weathersfield is a place that people want to be at. And I like to think that part of it is because of our amazing school here. So, a part of our budget is the projected um high school tuition cost. So, last year we spent $2,181,587 for 98 students. Our budget went up this
032next year, a little over $200,000 for high school tuition. We have a 0.5, though we did not cut a student in half. That's because of some of the special programs that they have for training schools. We don't only have to pay for part of it. Um, but now our budget projected cost is 2,48,39. And then each high school that we send students to or students get to choose. Remember, students have the choice to go to different high schools has a different cost. So those are our three most attended high schools, Windsor, Woodstock, and Springfield. And so those costs change based on what they offer. All right. So, some of you have that in front of you. Most of you should have gotten that in the mail as well. Um, this is our budget snapshot, which
033has a lot of good information. Larry Dower, who's our C CFO, is here also to answer any questions. Does anybody have any questions about the budget snap of where that is going? I can bring the mic to you. I will throw the meeting back and I will >> thank someone answer the difference between the actual school student now high schools and we hit student council. >> Yeah. So, um that's due to and I'm losing all my axe, but that's due to act 127 which was passed four or five years ago and it was first into effect I think fiscal year 25. Vermont used to do equalized pupil um which is very similar to long-term weighted AD average daily membership. So, the actual student count are the actual students in the building. Uh long-term weighted average
034daily membership, they take the student count as of October 30th and then they add different weights. The state adds different weights based on the population. So, for example, if you have 40 students um that are free and reduced lunch, you they would count for I'm giving an estimate 65 students, right? uh if a student is an ELELLL student, they are weighted as four students. Um and so on and so forth. Uh high school students are weighted slightly more than non high school K uh K through five students are weighted as a one than one student and high school's like 1.15. Um, so the state has determined that certain students cost more to educate and that's a way to defay some of the cost of taxes in the sense that if you have more free reduced
035lunch count for students for example that's the denominator on the tax rate. The top is the budget divided by the number of students equalized students weighted students and that's how you get the tax rate and I just want to remind uh for a quarterly meeting uh when you're called on state your name be recognized. >> Any further questions uh for Brian's presentation? cannot >> Brian. Um I I'm guessing that you measure academic success by test works. >> Absolutely. >> That's one way. One way. >> I like to do it a few ways, but that's one way for sure. >> Um can you give us some some uh background of test scores, where we've been, where we're going >> compared to other years, compared to state, compared to our nations? I think you must have been
036reading my mind because I was just sitting back there thinking about that. So recently you probably heard a lot of information that Vermont schools are failing, not doing so hot. People have heard that. I heard that. So the Vermont Agency of Education just put out a school report card for 2025. We are beating and excelling compared to other schools within the state of Vermont, which is pretty phenomenal. There's very few schools within our area that are doing that. Um, but we are one of them that is meeting and excelling. So that means that our test scores are continuing to rise, continue to do better. We do um assessments, formal assessments three times a year. Um, and our test scores continue to rise. Um, we are right now at like 60 I think the most recent
037one I think 64 65% of our students are proficient. Can that number grow? Absolutely. But that is higher than most students are within the nearest on their facial reaction there. >> Is that the country or is that >> that's within the state of Vermont because that's based on where students are at um with that particular test score and the test progresses as the year goes on. So when you take it in the fall, it's not as rigorous is when you take it in the winter and when you take it in the spring. So do we have room to grow? Absolutely we do. But we are growing. We're continuing to grow and we're continuing to excel especially within the state. >> federal we don't I don't have that information. We just did so in federal they
038do NAPE which is national assessment of the educational program. Don't get those results but they usually do them in fourth and eighth grade. They just did it in eighth grade this year. I have not got that feedback yet. And they do that every other year. >> How have we done past? >> We've done great. We've done right there at the federal level as well. So, we're up at the top. >> We are at the top. I would take I would take Weatherfield School and compete it against any other school I've ever been at and we'd be excelling. We're doing a great job. Our teachers do a fantastic job. All of our educators do a fantastic job with what they're teaching and how they're teaching. And the important thing is that they've gotten over the years
039they've been able to receive curriculum and receive programs that help them teach the curriculum. and our our staff does it with fidelity which helps and it shows that our students are growing because they're continuing to grow each and every year. >> Does that answer I saw your chart was zero federal grants. How does that compare to the years and what's going on there? you know, >> so because we are not we are a title grants, we don't get we do get title one money very very little bit like we have a 8% person versus title one money that's shared but that's actually through the SU but we get it so we because of our status here in Weathersfield we don't get the federal funding that other places do which is a good thing but it
040also can be a not so good thing other surrounding districts get more federal funding because of social economic status of those particular areas. Oh, would you give her the mic? >> Well, we really should do that. And Sophie, would you stay here for >> Of course. I know because it's long. Um, so my question is, uh, when I was going to a couple of the schoolboard meetings, there was talk about, uh, a new curriculum that was being put in place and making sure the teachers were, um, proficient in delivering it. How is that going? >> So, we I believe the two programs you're talking about, our language arts program and our math program that we've had. Now, this is our third year in place. So, our student, our staff has received all of the training
041that they've had and now that they've been doing it for a few years, it's continuing to improve and grow and do better. So, the students have it down, the teachers have it down because it takes just like anything, it takes a couple years to be able to get something in a routine. And so, it's taken a little bit of time, but our teachers do it with fidelity and it shows that we're getting results because of that. statement name is Wman. um relatively new to Weatherfield, but I'd like to better understand relationship between this budget and the Southeast Super. >> So, yeah. Or Larry, do you want to take it? >> Yeah. So, >> either one of us. Yeah. Um inside the budget book you can see uh well at the in the executive summary of
042the budget book at the beginning there's a little bit that goes into the uh well there's a lot of financial information about the supervisor union but in Vermont um they have supervisory unions if uh with districts basically that don't that have school choice tuition I should say high school tuition so uh and more and more has been put from the supervisory union in the last 10-15 years and I list all the acts uh the state laws in the executive summary. So for example, Brian mentioned special education which is a big driver of this year 27 increase in the SU budget. Um 14.6% of the 16% increase is special education. 1.4% is nonsp specialcial education. and um it's assessed out based on the LT based on the weighted average that was earlier asked about. Uh so
043we basically have the SU budget and then based on the weighted student count from the previous fiscal year we assess out. The only difference is for food service we assess that out based on actual student bodies. The theory being that if a student chooses to go to Springfield High School, we're not feeding that student. So we should charge one bill for that student. Uh there's an SU board. So he there's uh three members from each town of our four towns make up the SU board. So there's a 12 member SU board. They hire the superintendent uh and the superintendent hires the um rest of the staff for the SU. Uh I don't know where you're originally from, but in Maine they have these things called RSUs, which are regional superintendent units. In uh New Hampshire
044they call SAU, school administrative units. And it's basically just a way to add some efficiency um in around for example uh you're not paying 100% of uh the superintendent salary, you're paying 25% of them. You don't have a superintendent or central office for each small town with 250 students or 300 students. So our our SU is about 12,300 students in blue. Uh a lot of the stuff we don't have a choice about. So, for example, special education, would it be more efficient to uh run it at Weathersfield um because maybe they have fewer students on IEPs than and other than their 25% assessment breakout. That would be a good question to ask, but uh there's an act and I forgot the number. I think it's 153 where um that was passed in 2010 that doesn't
045allow that. It says that any SU must run special education out of these supervised union, human resources, business services, payroll, uh stuff like that and curriculum. Sorry, curriculum question. >> Oh, and I'm sorry if the other towns that make up our supervisory unit are Weatherfield, Heartland, Windsor, and West Windsor. Windsor. West Windsor merged out of our former law and their mouth school district. Any other questions for Brian on the educational portion? >> Um Paul Austin and Perkins Hill. Can you just talk about the drivers or the special education increases? Is it number of students? Larry, are you take that question? >> Yeah. So if you look at page 31 and this is this will help lay the foundation for that. You can see I mentioned this earlier so I'll gloss over it but the orange
046is uh special education the green is administration operations that includes every other part of the entity that's non special education um and separate food service which is a separate fund and you can see a significant increase in 27 if you look at the next page it's 32 and and I'm getting to your question uh you can see the demand on the left the little blue chart on the left hand side showing the difference between 22 in 25 which was last school year. Uh there's been a 400, this is statewide, this is not RSU, this is statewide, a 456% increase in mental health positions that are education funded, not mental, not the Vermont uh human health services. These are education fund. The chart to the right shows our SU and I broke it out by our
047psychological services. So you can see the actual and the budgeted amounts and you can see that there's a significant increase in the actual and the budgeted amounts. Now to answer your particular question about 27 by going to expenditures by account where we go line by line page >> I'm sorry so far Larry the your pages that you're referencing are non corresponding okay >> and our copies are black and white so we can't tell Okay. So, the the page my page 40 and uh which is it lists uh the last it's the last part of the SU budget where it goes expenses by account. The top says auditing services and the bottom says other equipment and it's basically a line by line of the SU budget. Um 46 in your copy. Very good. So the thing
048that you're going to see, so the difference is uh a significant increase if you look at the line for tuition to out of state private schools, independent schools. These are therapeutic settings for special education students. I can't talk about the specific students obviously, but you can see that we budgeted in fiscal year $410,000 for that line. FCL year 25 actuals, we spent 1.2. 2. We budgeted for 26 594. We spent we budgeted we're budgeting for next year 1.8. The difference being that 1.2 you saw from 25. Now the question is wouldn't that increase your assessments in the actuals not in the budget which we we're talking about. But it didn't because uh Vermont has a funding system for intensive need special education which the majority of these numbers are for students. We track every student
049at the SU level. It's something we're required to do. I do a quarterly report to the state and any student that costs over 60,000 $67,000 per student, the state reimbures that reimbures us at 90% of that cost. So for example, I'm just picking a round number. If the student out of placement cost three $400,000 for that one student, the state would reimburse after defer 67,000 90% of that cost. So that's why the actuals have gone up and the budget. What happened was these students appeared in the fiscal year 25 actual. weren't students here in fiscal year 24. So we didn't budget for them in 25 because we budgeted in the fall and the fiscal year starts in July. So now basically what we're doing in 27 and the reason why special education is up for
050this particular line speaking to this particular line is not because we have 20 more paras or something like that than we did in 26. It's because we are finally budgeting for what we've been spending because we finally had the opportunity to. >> You said that if the state reimbures 90% of anything over $67,000, who pays the last 10%. >> We ask you. >> So it's 67,000 plus. It could be substantially more 10% of a large number. Still a large number. >> Exactly. which is why the assessment's not up. Addition in addition to other factors, but the biggest driver uh for uh Weatherfield and the budget one sheet is um special education and high school tuition as a number. >> Just a question to ask you. Uh if you would please just clarify exactly whose costs
051these are uh and how um they end up um being in the Weatherfield school budget. Are you speaking of uh specifically of Weatherfield students uh special students or are you are you speaking of the SAU of SAU specialty students cost passed on to Weatherfield through an allocation formula? It's the answer is both. >> Could you please explain? >> Yeah. So, um we have an IEP count uh IEP is individualized education plan and that's what makes a student eligible for special ed services. Uh and we get a block grant from the state and then for the intensive needs which is what we've been talking about we get reimbursement model uh for that amount of money. The question is how many students uh are Weatherfield students and I write here. So as a fiscal year 25 at
052December one count um out of 296 SQU special ed students weatherfield is 74 74 of them are weather skill students. Obviously, I can't go into specific details about individual student situations, but if 29675, that's a little less than 20 and that fluctuates. So, um, yes, we we we do everything for special ed as act 153 requires at the SU level. questionage 33. >> Just wait a second. Thanks. >> So on page 33 just to help me understand this when I look at the state funded um increase this is revenues coming years. It's approximately four and a half% year-over-year overear from the restricted non-restricted compared to 23% that the town is expected to pay if most of the increase is special education which it sounds like is primarily funded by the state. Why is so much
053of the extra special education cost landing on every scale versus on the state? So special ed uh in the budget is and I'm using round numbers is roughly $9 million of the SQU budget. We get a block grant of it's roughly between $4 and.5 million. So we're already short about $5 million. We have to make up the difference and the difference is made up out of the SU assessments. spending pays 45% weatherfield pays roughly 25 26% and Harland pays about 29 30%. Now the intensive needs part we are estimating we're budgeting. So I'm using the 25 actuals to estimate. We know who the students are. I work with a special ed director and I'm estimating with that 90% figure how much money we're going to get back from the state. If those students move out
054tomorrow, uh, then my budget's going to be off. I'm expecting more revenue but our costs are going to be more so. Um so the answer the short answer is the block grant um the state went to a block grant model about four or five years ago and more and more has been picked up by the local assessment. The uh the model prior to the block grant and I think it served its intended purpose. The model prior to the block grant was it was all a reimbursement. We got reimbured 50% up to 67,000 and we got reimbured 90% over 67,000. The block grant model has gone down for our SU every year since the block grant was passed. >> Thank you, Larry. It's my understanding that the board is also prepared to make a presentation on
055budget specifically. So perhaps to avoid redundancy uh and to invite further questions I would start this over to question. >> All right you ready >> to our board chair and >> hi everyone. Um okay so we're going to go over the budget goals for FY 27th. Um, our first goal is to maintain staffing and programs to provide a well well-rounded education. The budget will prioritize maintaining adequate staffing levels across all grades and programs, ensuring that each student receives the support they need to succeed academically and personally. Our goal is to ensure educational quality standards. The budget aims to meet and exceed the educational quality standards set by the state and federal guidelines. This includes investing in curriculum development, professional development for teachers, and resources to enhance the learning experience. Projected tax rates for FY27. The
056proposed tax rate reflects the necessary adjustments to support the school budget and ensure quality education for our students. Our current tax rate is 1.9807. The proposed tax rate is 2.1940. Any further questions? So, >> so just because I've seen many comments online, I wanted to just ask the question so that we have an answer for those that are questioning the increase. For me, it 100% makes sense. So, I just want to put that out there. But to those that are saying, "Oh, how can we go up again?" Is there I mean have you assessed what could be taken out? I know we're staying level and we don't want to cut but uh you know is there anything any I know last year we were going a little here peeking out a little there peeking out.
057I'm sure there's very little more that can be taken out. So just to play devil's advocate. Um so that has been addressed. Um, the budget advisory committee goes over the budget by hardline with Brian and Clary and looks for ways to make cuts. They recommended we make no cuts because in order to s to make a significant change in your tax rate, we would need to cut $450,000 from the budget and that would affect student outcomes. >> Are there any other questions? Sorry. You give me the mic and I just take over. If you replace the microphone to the stand, folks, >> we'll have to come up and get it. >> Okay. >> But we'll bring it to you if you can't walk. That's okay. >> I check you. What song would you like to
058hear? >> None for me. I guarantee. Okay. Um, great question. Um, or um, our school is amazing. >> Our school board, supervisory union, I don't think is the problem. And you just pointed that out. The the tax increase is large. There's no way you cut $400,000 without an effect. Um, so I think my question becomes something that we all have to examine outside of here in consideration moving forward and and I think it's really important because this school is pro the most important asset of this town and it's an amazing school and if we go back and we think for a minute about how difficult it was to do the consolidation out of Perkinsville I think it took seven votes. I don't know how many years that was. John, you might remember uh but I
059think it was six or seven attempts to to do the school consolidation. Actually, we got an exciting date coming up this year. There is a mortgage payment on this building on this building and we're going to have a mortgage burning. So it was almost 20 years ago. >> Thank you for that joke. >> My concern is or question. Let me start with a question. Is the act 60 uh law or or law uh act 60 was uh 1997. It's 30 years ago now based on the 27 tax school year. Um, is is that an effective uh state policy uh for funding? I think that there are policial mandates within the the the the law of school funding. I kind of like having that up there thinking um that um I mean the CLA is a
060part of this driving cost. I I understand that. Um and and um I think over at the select board, we can issue responsibility on that by not taking a a step forward sooner in in getting that corrected. And then uh compile that with meeting the mandate from the state that we had to redo the townwide reappraisal. It's two to three years, maybe as much as four years before you're actually going to see the effect of that reappraisal uh in the town and the tax rate. Um the the state has done something to kind of fix that because I I believe our number is down around 62 on the CLA right now and the state has equalized that at 84 or 86 I think is the right is the number. Uh so we got a little
061bit of a break there but that's still uh uh isn't helping us. So again, the question is uh across the state of Vermont, I think we need to examine whether or not this uh state funding law is working for us. uh because many years in in our town reports and I see our budget at 5,680,000 in the 2016 2017 budget and now we're nearly 10 billion. Um we know this year we're we're level funded. We we've heard the the principal tell us there there's no change in programs, no additions, no additional staff. Uh so these increases are coming from the movements within the laws that that that that provide the funding which we have no control of. In my research, in my numbers, I also found that in last year's report, there's a legislative um
062update, I guess, 2025, and by 2028, I correct me if I'm wrong on this, but I think what I read was there isn't going to be any more local school budgets by 2028. Is that is that correct? >> So, that's something that the governor has proposed um is still working on it at the state level. Um what my understanding of it is um act 73 um the consolidation that the governor is pushing um in fact in his state of the state address he said that he would not vote he would not he would veto any state budget that comes to him that does not include school consolidation. Um it would most of the options would end school choice as we know it. They would also make it so that there are no longer local budget
063votes. There would just be a amount that's spent per student. That's what you'd get. >> Yes. Thank you. Thank you. And and I'm very concerned about those things and the effect that would have on a school or or town community like ours. We've got one of the best schools in the state. And I I know I I've been involved with with planning commission and other areas of town and government for about 20 years now. John's been around a lot longer than I have. I I think we can say uh unequivocally that that echoing what I said earlier, this school is our most important asset. People of this town do not want to lose the school. Absolutely no way. Um, and I was talking with another board member, Rica Henderson, uh, yesterday, and she talked to
064me about a new, uh, resident that just moved to town that came here because of this school. It's not the first time I've ever heard that. It won't be the last. This school is the most important thing to us. And we have to think about a message to the state about whatever changes need to be made to fix what I what in my opinion is a broken funding system not a broken school system. Our school board has done an amazing job. I think it like I said all these numbers they didn't come from the school board. They didn't come from the SU. They're coming from a broken mechanism funding mechanism in the state. Um I' I'd like to I'd like to tell everybody to say just say no to all the school budgets across the
065state. It doesn't stop the school year. Uh but but we need to send some sort of message somehow and maybe that's already taken place. Uh and there's a better way. We'll get to that. Um but the legislature needs to understand how important these schools are to us and and the problem isn't with the schools. the school boards, supervisory units, it's good the mechanism that's in place right now that's that's not working and and and I think we've heard it from our representatives. I I think last year Joe Major and Allison Clarkson both addressed school funding issues in the legislature. Um but what are the what are the things that they're working on? Are they working on solving that problem? And if they're not, we need to somehow send that message to them. So, I'm sorry
066to take so much of your time, but but thank you, Sean. I give it back to you. >> Comment. >> I'd like to recognize school board chair. >> Um, personally, I would advise against um voting no as your way of expressing your displeasure with what's happening at the state level. Um, it will only harm us at our local school. Um, voting no on the school budget will harm us. We will have to cut teachers. Um it it won't be good. It's they tried that last time around, not here, but in other towns by voting their budgets down. It didn't have any effect. What you need to do is you need to contact your state representatives, your state senators, your the ones the state house representatives and talk to them. Uh contact the governor. But voting
067down our school budget is not going to be a good way. It's that's a burn it all down way of fixing things, not a constructive way of fixing things. Thank you. >> So to Mary's point, Sophia um to Ann Marie's point if If we um vote down the budget in order to give a message, all we do is prove the governor's theory that we're all failing because you collect the money and now we don't have the resources in order to make sure all of our children are successful. And then our school is not as successful as it is right now at continuing to grow. Is there any further discussion of article 4? >> Mary Branson and I have a question with the flat level of students, flat level of staff. If you can elaborate how
068salary increases are over 90%. >> Amarie, can you take that question? >> All right. I'll recognize Christine. >> Thank you for that question. Um the staff wages are negotiated with the um association, the teachers association with the support staff associations with a a board team that negotiates with them. And your budget um your budget is what was negotiated with the staff. the teacher teacher contract this um this this is their last year of a three-year agreement the support staff their first year agreement so the teachers will be negotiating this coming for the next so those are negotiated and agreed upon and we don't control that once that agreement is >> also It's nowhere near 90% though. Correct. No. >> 90. No, no, no. In the last round of negotiations, um, you know, we did the
069cost, the comparable salaries, and so did that. Um, so did the associations. Our teachers needed to be brought up to a living wage and we actually really thrilled that we were able to provide them with an adequate increase so that we can attract teachers to those teachers. I don't know pay attention to this but there there are teacher shortages all over the country when we advertise for teachers. Sometimes we don't get one half the role and so we needed to bring our base up um to be comparable to other districts in the area teachers. So that was negotiation question there. So with the question on the health insurance costs, who is is it the supervisory union or the state that is negotiating the cost? It's just double >> that is negotiated at the state level.
070>> Makes sense to me. Um, I know X73 is still working its way through with Alex. I'm sure you guys have been looking at the structure two years from be a different situation, right? Is it better or worse in your humble opinion? Um so my personal opinion um is that uh I don't I don't think that force consolidation is a good thing. Um we are willing to uh join with some other sus or other um entities nearby. Um if it if we can find a way to make it work and make it um you know save money. I'm not sure that it's going to save money. I don't really see that expanding where we'll still you'll still need like I mean right now we have our own superintendent. I don't think that a giant supervisory
071union or whatever it's going to be called is going to be able to be run by just one person. You're probably still going to need three people at the top still paying same salaries. Um, so I think we lose a lot of local control and we don't save a lot of money. >> Further discussion of article four. >> Yeah, I just want to ask a question about the uh raises and salaries. Now I totally understand as a related professional job if there's an opening you have to advertise a job at a wage to attract people from state whoever to that job but what percentage is the what percentage is the increase the wages for ship and and the insurance cost to the share anything uh so the wages are in the uh the sheet that
072you saw there uh input >> uh 9.4% was a contract selling. Now that doesn't mean >> is that 9.4% increase in wage. >> No, that that's that's already increase. >> Well, under the contract. >> Yeah. Well, under the contract increase 2.8 and we live in a this town, although this swim school, it's a great school. Um, we also live in a town with an awful lot of people living on social security and 2.8% is what they give us and it just go down every year. Medicare takes out a good chunk of it and it's like a lot of people including myself wondering how you're going to be able to save. So yeah, so to answer the question and I I know it gets a little complicated 9.4% is not an exact uh every teacher got
073a 9.4% increase. So for example, if a teacher negotiated contract was 8%. The adaptive master agreement 7% whatever it was. Uh some teachers the cola is big because they moved up a step. But if a teacher goes from a bachelor's to a master's they move over laterally. So that's so like if four two teachers got a mast's one teacher got 15 credits. >> That's what makes up that 9.4. >> So yeah. >> Yes. >> Yeah. They're just saying is Poland doesn't drop that much. It's like so if it's 2.8% 8% but my tax level is going up this percentage more then okay >> and yeah the screen and you also brought up healthcare and I just want to and somebody else brought it up earlier too uh in the budget book early on in the
074executive summary uh there was a lot of questions from the budget advisory committee particular was there the first ones to meet to see uh the health insurance increase and um in fiscal year uh act 11 a state law that put uh negotiations at the state level. What we used to do was just like how we negotiate wages. We sit in a room with our teachers and and they hash out and we've come to an agreement every time with with our association. Uh we used to do that for health insurance year 19 that was taken away and now it's been a month. Uh and um and when they started that our fiscal year 19 a family plan of gold CDHP which is our by far our vast majority of our plan is $19,150 in the charts
075again right in this um budget book and we are budgeting for fiscal year 17 which be the high tells us to set the rate at $43,920. So since fiscal year 19, a family plan has more than doubled. A single person has gone from $6,913 to 15,856. So that's more than doubled. Um, and we're talking about six fiscal years basically. >> Hi. Um, so you mentioned people have fixed incomes and I just wanted to make my yearly speech regarding making sure that you fill out your um your income sensitivity forms which are HS122 and HI144. Um they're very important to fill out and file when you file your state income taxes every year. Any household with an income lower than $115,400 will qualify for some form of property tax relief. So I encourage everyone to please
076fill out their forms. Um, I hear that not everyone fills them out. Um, a few years ago it was like 50% of the people that qualify are filling them out. So, I haven't got an update on that number, but please fill out your forms. If you have um a fixed income, you should be filing those forms. You can save a lot of money on your taxes. Is there further discussion of article 4? Please, >> I came here to say nothing, but I'm listening to several points that I need to clarify. Um, most recent one under this uh try to be to help for property taxes. The problem is as we get older and we transfer some properties into trusts, the trusts don't qualify for these being owned by individuals. So that's what hurts. I've been
077given that in several emails lately. So um that's a problem. Um I'd like to remind people that we're talking about healthcare. I I don't think we're going to fix healthcare here in Weathersfield. the teachers co-ay 20% of that even the rising of the dreamers. There are other people in town that don't pay that. So that to that level um I'm pretty sure that maybe the healthare system is going to break before we fix it. I know I'm on Medicare right now and um through the school because taught we just got notified as of January 1st that um Blue Cross Advantage pulled out the state that's the Medicare carrier that's a big problem and even though there's another new one that came about um who knows how long I agree with Wayne when he said because
078the social security was 2.8 What happened was Medicare took 1.4 away from that immediately. So, we're not netting that kind of money. Um, the problem with this system is it's it's quite square and it's combined to go through a bunch of different things including the town plan that people that have all of this space on property. And I notice that's I I'm assuming that's a homestead because we have two, right? That's That's a homestead tax. If they're not, they're not homestead. >> That's correct. That's the homestead tax. >> So, I mean, I've got some fields and woods that are not that because they don't have a house on them because we're allowed one homestead, that's what you're allowed, but then the others are charged a nonhomestead tax rate and that's a state issue. That's >>
079I believe the non homestead rate is lower. Correct. >> Yes. The non rate is lower. I'm not sure exactly how much. field another homestead, >> but that that can vary year. I I I've got some property that's just fields and all of a sudden one year it'll be higher homestead. So it's half don't know why. Um and I don't pretend to know the answer of of uh fixing the property tax thing other than I can tell you it's putting extreme pressure on properties. Um the town plan calls for that we want to have the town looking the way it is with green spaces. It cost me $500 an acre and keep my fields open. Um that's a lot of money and so I just want to clarify a couple of those points. But one one
080last thing I don't think enough time has been given to the uh things that are controlled by the supervisory union and then the school. So, I heard equal amounts of people outside this meeting saying, "I just think it's too much money. I don't know." Got to be honest with that. Um, the problem with that is if that happens, there'll be no change to the busing. There'll be no change to the foods to anything to do with the the the things that are provided by the supervisory union. So the school board will be really in a hard place if they had to come back to the gooding like supports that or whoever's under the employment of the supervisory because that budget is passed in October not now. >> That's correct. So any cuts would need to
081be made to our local schools budget. >> So So how much money do you think is controlled by that versus whatever is controlled by the SEU out of the 9.9 million? Not going to touch tuition because that's different, right? Not going to touch uh anything to do with the supervisory unit share of that. What would be left? It's a dollar. >> For exact numbers, I'll let Larry answer those. >> 4.1 million. So less than 4.2 million. Uh tuition is 2.6, the next highest cost in the field. And then special education is 1.8. Non-special education is under a million. who uh the early childhood program is 2% of your budget dollar. Food service is less than 2%. To give it in percentage terms, your K8 budget is 42% of your dollar. Your high school tuition is
08226%. Special education is 18.5%. Non special ed is less than 10%. Early childhood is 2% and SU food service is less than 2%. >> I'd like to say one more thing about whoever is you can call up your your legislators. Obviously, it's a hot button issue. I don't know how that's going to play out, but one thing is to remember, you know, I agree with people here that say that the building is the center of our town. It is um but a factor that we can't we're never going to be able to monitoriize money put a handle on money is um if this building ever closed and it went somewhere else to quote save money then you can't you have to really measure how much money it costs to go somewhere else as a grandparent
083or a parent and that's really problematic because it's cheaper for us to have this open than it is to put a money fix on let's say to drive 20 more miles to a centralized unit. That's not the answer. The answer is for me to build this model to try to uh make it to to look back at the future to say like a one room classroom. What could we do to provide all the electricity, all the heat, all the staff and show everybody else how you do the small issues? Is there any further discussion of article 4? Stephen Dun resident. Um, been a resident for 40 years, a taxpayer for 30. This is the first time I've been to a school board meeting. I voted yes on every time I could. I voted. Didn't think
084about it. To hear that, you know, the school board is doing a good job of determining the budget and everything. Um, I guess I'm new to trying to figure out actually how things are funded. So, it seems like a large driver of the costs are at the state level. They're making decisions. We're dealing with that. Um, as uh we said earlier, we need to put pressure on our state lawmakers um from local level up to um higher office, I guess, as to fixing this. this isn't working. Um, a lot of people are in fixed budgets like we're saying and it it's just something that it needs to be reimagined. Um, we're an aging state. Um, you know, you keep reading about uh we're losing residents left and right. Maybe the ones that are coming in
085are um financially viable or, you know, a lot of people are coming in. maybe uh they uh they'll have children. I I don't know what I'm exactly getting at here, but um I guess we really need as a community to put pressure on the lawmakers to get this right. Um the amount of money we're paying for schooling is a lot. It's a huge amount of of the budget billing. Uh just last th this past Thursday we were at a meeting talking about the police force and what we're paying for the police force protection of everybody is a minuscule amount comparing to the schools. Um there needs to be some sort of budget. I I don't personally have the answer but certainly we need to put pressure on the people in Montelier to take some action
086and to figure this out. And it just seems like we're voting in the same people every year and nothing's getting done. I I again I I don't have any answers here, but it certainly seems like the bigger the biggest factor in why we've jumped what did you say almost $5 million since 2016 to the budget is the model that the state's put in front of us. So I I think we all have to take the rise up as these smaller counts and maybe again voting yes no I'm not sure what that would do to the budget this year but there has to be some pressure put on our lawmakers to get this right and um again voting you know may affect uh the local um budget in the people here. Now, I I certainly don't
087want to look at any teacher and say, "You don't deserve this. You don't deserve that. You don't deserve the healthcare." But on the other side of the coin, you're we're looking at taxpayers saying you have to pay more and more and more. And so, something's going to give and um you know, I there's bigger problems going on in the state that needs to be fixed. Again, you need to put galactic pressure on those people to actually get it right. And the answer is just to ask everybody for uh there's no one else who's already spoken on the article or who haven't spoken yet. I'll recognize my on page 106 of the town report. your uh nonet tax rate is 1.9919. It's the third line up from the bottom. >> And uh Dave, thank you for
088the model. I was going to mention that when I was up here earlier, Dave and I have talked about that model that he suggested probably for the last five or six years. Um and I certainly don't want to do anything that's going to hurt the school. Again, we've got one of the best schools in the state. the last thing we want to do is harm this school or or the or the people in this town that want this. So, so I I think I had said that I'm open to ideas uh that that saying no was a suggestion. Um doesn't sound like it's a good idea or a good suggestion. Um but uh we definitely need to do what Mr. Dlin just said and that is to um try to get organized and get some
089leverage and a voice. uh with our legislators uh to get them to pull down a little bit and focus on this education funding problem. Thank you. >> Sophia. Um so I just want to point out that we are not the only state having issues. Yes, we have funding issues that need to be fixed, but this healthc care issue that they brought up, this is killing us across every state, every company, every I mean, literally, we're going to have to implode. But I just want to make sure that perhaps we need to be putting more pressure on not just our state but as well as our federal uh legislators to be doing more to fix this crazy issue. We just can't you either have no insurance. There are more and more people that cannot get any
090healthcare and this is just not the solution. But I know it's sort of not here nor there, but I just want to point out yes more. But what are we gonna do? >> Got to stop the problem. >> I just It's kind of a follow there. I >> And who are all the school employees across the state? They came to the same insurer. Yes. Who was this insurer? Blue solution. >> Are they for profit or a nonprofit? >> Well, there's your answer. That's why cost rise because as anybody knows, if you have a business, your model is to make a profit. If you're a big business, you have shareholders, you have profit, you're going to demand from people. It's not just that the law makers in Montellier are saying, "Yes, screw the meat." Some of
091it might be not. But if you're running a business, anybody who has run a business, your whole model is invasing profit. That might mean screwing people over. And that's what we're seeing here. It's not a question of it's if I can make an analogy, we are in a ship. We're in a storm. We here are cutting pieces of sail cloth off boat so we can wipe our bones. But there's a hole in the boat, folks. The boat is sinking and we're cutting little pieces off off the the sales. We're looking in the wrong place here. It's a big issue. Yes. Contact your lawmakers, but not about buying back money or from our children. It's the biggest deal. It's a free market though. This is it. Welcome to it. I'm sorry. The AI is just always
092there at your fingertips based nonprofit. Further discussion of art. Hi Chase. I just quick question about the child program. Are you pulling in childare financial assistance dollars for those students? >> I can take that question. Are you pulling Are you pulling in child care financial assistance dollars for your early child? >> So that's uh another acts 166. >> I'm g have them all memorized. back 166 was the universal prek law that was passed a few years back and uh it's a great idea and they they allow for uh basically a subsidy um for students for um whether they go to the ECT program which is at our local SU or outside service providers um uh but again that cost was never given to us by the state it's an SU assessment back out the weatherfield
093into Harlem So yes, we we raise money that that ECP program that early childhood less than 2% of your local uh budget is um the ECP program at Windsor and for the SU and the payments for the individual providers. >> I have one of those programs. So you eventually not it but the child care financial assistance system is through CDB the child development division and you should be able to be drawing down dollars for families that qualify and I don't see that in your budget at all. I think that it might be a big chunk of miss revenue. >> Okay. Yeah, it's the childcare financial assistance program. It's through the child development division, but her global office is going to be the Springfield area parent child center >> and that's for uh SU's full revenue,
094not just for the individual person. >> It it is going to be based on the families that go to your in school program. >> Yeah. >> Qualifying for that. But with Act 73, they put a ton of more money into that system and now we're all paying that child care contribution tax, right? >> Yeah. >> That 044%. >> Yes. >> That money is sitting there for families to use and should be I've done my research correctly should be able to be drawn down for a year program and it's it's quite substantial. >> Thank you. Uh, I just want to throw out a suggestion. I'm looking around the room seeing people with various different talents um that step up for the local community specifically for the school. Uh we got people that are soccer players, ball
095players, coaches, drama, people who know everything uh there is to know about roadway. they step up to the select. They step up for all these different positions. One of the biggest drivers that I've seen in terms of our total costs are the uh IES um the special education budget and it feels like we as a community are from that whole process because it's administered by state mandate and also by the supervisory union. I think some way to think about one of the biggest drivers is what can the local community do to support IEPs in the same exact way that we do all of these other disciplines that are involved in our school. So family answer for this and it's a really big problem and there's hurdles and boundaries privacy issues. I just think it's one
096place that we as a as a community and as a society might be able to support this school and in a more productive way than addressing the funding formula which we're not going to fix here um and all these other bigger issues. So anybody wants to give some thought to that further deliberations down for next year that's not going to get us squared away for Tuesday but I appreciate Further discussion of article four from I just said I'm thinking that I could use some training and working with students to kind of and create a volunteer group that that has trained and done wants support the students who really need it and we're not necessarily trying and regular school system. So sign up further discussion of article four hearing none that article will be voted on
097Tuesday at Mark Memorial Hall. Uh anyone who's eligible to vote but hasn't registered Cloudflow and passed the registration number five to transact any other businesses may properly come before the beginning hearing. None as just to note and this actually has more to do with the tax rate. uh we won't not know what the actual tax rate is until at the earliest in May and the way the pace the legislature is working considerably later than that. There's numerous other tinkering that's being talked about. There's bills in the legislature now that could affect the health insurance in the future. And I will say that act 173 is fairly out of the starting gate. There's many many aspects of it that really haven't been touched on yet. We do not know. Will the legislative school district exist? We
098don't know. Will we ask you that we're currently in cease to exist? That's probably um will be the ultimate outcome. It will probably become a supervisory district. There's been several maps presented. s would have had us. The current S view would have been combined at Harford and Mountain View, which is what stops all the way over to Bridgewwater. >> And so it it don't come to conclusions what 173 is going to look like and next year, the year after, and the year after that. And the legislature is having a terrible struggle uh trying to decide the basics of how it's going to work. Also, um, as far as, uh, our representatives, I also would like to just make sure everybody knows to include the governor with that because he is the one pushing for this
099consolation of school districts, consolidation of school districts, um, and to have it done quickly. I think this is a big problem that needs to be thought about carefully and plans made with a lot of thought before we just rush into something that might not be any better, might not actually save any tax money. So, um I would just recommend also contacting the governor. Um, and like um, like Sophia said, um, this also goes up to the, you know, to the United States Congress and to the president and all that because cuts at the federal level affect us here. When they cut when they stop paying for things at the federal level, guess who has to pay for it? We do. So, you need to be contacting all your representatives. Thank you. Sorry, I have cold
100so stupid. Yes, please. Um, I would ask I'd like to ask that the school board and the select board um work more closely together. Um, this is a huge budget, a very little child at a town meeting, which is not unheard of because that seems to be the norm. Um, but I know uh Mr. Erson since he's been on the school board, he attends several select board meetings and reports back. Um, it just there's always been a little bit in my personal opinion a little bit of disconnect. School board and the select board. We're all one town. Yeah, school board can or school budget can go up 10%, town budget can go up 10%. It's going to go up 20%. I mean, that's our taxes. So, people need to be better informed to make um
101better decisions. Um, so that's one thing. And the other thing is I think this is our 10th maybe 11th but I think it's our 10th town meeting that's held on a Saturday. We switched from an evening meeting to a Saturday meeting 10 or 11 years ago. Um I personally was hoping I may have been the one that suggested that at the slotboard meeting. I was personally hoping that it would create a greater turnout especially if um you know daycare is provided at the school for the younger generation that would have talked. I'm not sure that anybody has benefited from a Saturday meeting. So, you know, maybe um a a poll should be taken or, you know, a survey could be done or something like that to ask towns people what works best for them to
102generate more participation because it's really a shame that, you know, some of these people are going to leave and they're not going to participate in the town meeting. Some people will participate in the town meeting but not the school meeting. And you know the school budget's just as huge and larger but just as important as the town budget. So just some thoughts. Anybody have other business which may properly come before this meeting. I'll ask for a motion to adjourn. >> Mike top second the motion and second. All those in favor please say I >> I All right. I did.