Weathersfield School Board Meeting - November 18th, 2025

001Okay. >> All right. So, we're good. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Think so. >> All right. Um I will take a motion to approve the minutes from last month's meeting on October 14th. >> Move to accept. >> Okay. Um all in favor say I. Hi. Hi. >> Oh, sorry. I meant to say are there any changes? Sorry. Any changes or there? >> I got a question. This just before the vote on the minute the three letters I can't remember what they are. What do they stand for? Does anybody remember what they are? >> Um where what three letters? >> Oh, NFC. >> Yeah. >> No further discussion. >> Thank you. >> Does anyone have any changes? Okay. Sorry. We'll go again. All in favor say I. I. >> I. and I will abstain because I

002wasn't here so passes. Um, up next we have public participation. Do we have anybody here for public participation? Nobody in person. Anyone online? >> I don't see any hands raised. No. Okay. So, we'll move on to the administrative report. Here's our lead learner report for November. >> How you doing? >> Great. >> All right. So, we're going to go ahead and as soon as that pops up, we're going to go ahead and go over our report for the month. There it goes. So, November 18th, 2025. Start off with our motto. You know what to do, do it. Pretty simple. Um, a great man share that motto with us. So, that's why we're continuing it. A lot of personal meeting to me. Our daily thought. So, each day I like I said, I send out daily

003thoughts to all the staff. And so, today's was who and why will always prompt what and when. Never forget why you went into the profession and who you wanted to serve and impact. It's never too late. Start again and make an even greater impact today than you did yesterday. >> Great thoughts to be able to think of every day. Um, our mission statement and the mission of Weathersfield School is prepare and empower students to be leaders with a global vision by helping them develop critical thinking, communication, collaboration skills, and creativity. And we're actually gonna have car. Okay. Winter information. So, basketball signups have completed. We have 92 athletes signed up for basketball. That's up from 87 last year. Um, we have teams at every level with great numbers. In some cases, it almost feels like

004too many. That's a good problem to have. Uh we are scheduling open gym finally. We've talked about it for the last couple of winters. Um and we've had a bunch of adults come forward. So starting this winter, just the week of December 1st, um we will be offering a first and second grade co-ed basketball open gym on Saturdays. Uh third, fourth, and fifth grade girls indoors soccer open gym also on Saturday. These are all Saturdays. and fifth through 8th grade co-ed volleyball. Um, and then we're currently, this uh started a week and a half or two weeks ago, uh, fifth through 8th grade girls and boys are just messing around in the gym warming up for basketball season. So, we're we're serving the entire school with extra opportunities to be active. Um, and I really

005appreciate Laura Barry and her uh willingness to work with us. I think that she and I coordinate well around what she needs for her gym space and not wanting to repeat on that and her understanding that um it's such a great part for our student body to be able to use the gym. So, I appreciate her. Um we did just order the new console um electronics, I don't know what it's technically called for the scoreboards in the gym. they uh were blitzing on us bad last year um where one of the teams had, you know, 254 points at one point and the clock stops when you don't want it to and keeps going when you don't want it to. >> Um so that was a a necessary piece. Um and I'm I'm excited to get

006it and then hopefully fingers crossed the YouTube video on how to install it goes well. That's exactly what we do apparently. But it's it is an updated also which we just needed that scoreboard and system was original to when the gym was built. Um so to have some wireless Bluetooth kind of opportun huge percentage of the student body is participating in sports. That's amazing. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you, Carrie. Next up, we have our meet president. >> Awesome. Thank you. Um, so not much has happened since the last time I talked last month. Um, but just a couple things. This Sunday is our make it and take it event from 9 to 11. Um, so that's where students can come in and make free crafts um for gift giving. So there's 16 stations

007set up for that. they get to pick five, six. Um so we're excited for that. Um along with that is our craft fair in the gym from 9 to 1. We have um 30ish vendors um taking up about 40 spots in the gym. So uh really good turnout there. We actually had to turn away quite a few people that wanted to come and participate. So we're looking forward for that. Um we did do a little stat giveback funday on the Friday before Halloween I think. Um, we did pumpkin in your pocket. Uh, so the staff had to find who had pumpkins in their pocket and we had three of them going around the school and so the three lucky winners got $10 donut gift card. So I thought that was fun for our staff. So

008we're excited for that and give them a little bit of a fun thing um give back. Uh we are providing prize for the upcoming community artist dinner dessert that's happening this week. Um, and then our apparel order is still obviously ongoing, but if folks want apparel for the holiday giving, make sure you get your order in this week in order for it to be delivered um for the holiday. We will have some of our stuff for sale up there, but we are very limited on what we have in our So, that's update for um the apparel. I do actually have a couple questions for Brian in regards to the swimsite email. Um, so thank you for responding. I guess my two questions I have is who is responsible for coordinating with Bis because I feel

009like that's been our >> So Misfit's been okay with the exception of now we want to make sure that says it's okay to pour concret it's too cold. >> Yep. >> So that's been that concern and trying to get somebody out here. So Jim's been working on that. The guy was supposed to be here last Wednesday and cancel. >> So is there a reason we waited until November? Um Jim had Jim didn't have the time. He had he put on the back because that was something that they were doing. So I talked to him again today about it and that's where it's at right now. So we're looking to see if we can still get it done on Monday and Tuesday. Just don't know yet with the weather. >> Okay. Um and so we will

010not be able to provide supplies before Monday or Tuesday because we'll figure that out on that. >> And that's not a problem. Figure it out. >> Okay. So perfect. We are waiting and excited for that to come. >> Yep. We are too. We're waiting to be exciting. So, the swing set has been here. It's just been a hassle to get it installed. So, PTO did donate the swing set. Um, it got delivered in July and um we've been waiting on maintenance and we're trying to coordinate with them. It's going in the same spot as that. It's just a bigger one. And then we also have we were able to order a disabled swing for that too. So, it's ADA compliant for any student that we get at school, which is great. Um, it's just been

011a hassle with trying to get somebody out here to be able to make sure. And then now it was the cement part. Making sure because the cement looking at the bags again today take like 45 days for it to cure. Um I'm a little concerned in California. Yeah, pour it no problem. But here with the heave and everything else with the frost, we're not sure. So we might have to wait. Um but we do have an alternate plan. If we cannot pour it, then what we will do is we will uncrate swing set, put it in the safe area so it's not in that weather. I mean it's designed to be out of weather, but there's no sense in having it just sit out in the weather in that condition. So, we'll make sure and

012then we'll figure out what we can do for that. So, hopefully Monday or Tuesday, not holding my breath because I don't want to turn blue. Um, but we'll see what happens on that. So, but I appreciate that. And thank you, Jess. I'm glad too that you said 56 and not 67. I was a little nervous about So, I appreciate that. So, Jeff's on. Sorry. >> No, I'm good. >> Okay, >> perfect. Thank you. >> All right. Now, the long awaited views. All right. She's going to talk about some of our events that we've been doing at school. We're ready to go. And I'll chime in if you need me to chime in. You want a lifesaver. I'm here. >> Um our fall dance, he had the six. Um the leadership helped a lot with setting

013up and figuring out funds and how to pay for everything, including the food. And so we needed decorations and stuff. Um, Red River Week, we had kids each day wear something different, and if they did, they get a prize, like a pencil or um a bracelet or a sticker or something. Veterans Day we had people come and talk to every one of them what they do certain people who do different things. Then community lunch we have tomorrow um where family can come and even kids uh leadership is helping serve I think. filming that night is kids are going to come. They can do different crafts like stuff with um >> the turkey part next week right on Tuesday. And then for K through five, you're doing little games that all involve turkeys. >> We have

014scaven for kids on the structure. So I think they're going to capture the chicken. >> Anything else you want to share? talk about parent teacher conferences or anything. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you, Kendall. Great job. So, um the students have been very busy doing different things around the school. It's been nice with our leadership group and our students. Um the veterans assembly was um really between the students and the staff, it was just great. Um the students ran the whole thing. The parents didn't have to listen to me talk, which was really nice. they got to listen to the students talk and then some of our guest speakers. So, it was a really great opportunity for our students to showcase their skills and leadership skills. We appreciate that. Speaking of leadership, we have

015a young man here, um, Jayen Mcott, fifth grader. So, the state of Vermont has a new program this year where they're having kid governor. So, they had a whole application process. We had to vote within the school to who we were going to let run and then the student had to create a um a platform for which they were standing what they were doing and then they created a video. So this happens you can click on the little video link it should all work. It goes to all seven of them because I thought it was pretty cool to showcase the whole thing but we're just going to focus on Weatherfield tools are great too but let's just focus on Weatherfield. There you go. And then scroll down a little bit. Sorry, I'm getting a little

016bossy there. Keep going. Keep going. >> Keep going. There he is. >> Yep. There's Gayen right there at the top. But there's actually a video if you go down a little bit. And it talks about his platform and what he is doing. These all pop up. They were popping up a second ago. >> Yes. >> Yep. There we go. So go ahead and hit play. See Gayen in action. >> That bottom corner should go straight. Hi, I'm Gayen. I'm running for kid governor because I want kids to have a voice in what they eat for school lunch. Come with me to explain my plan. My campaign is improving school lunches in Vermont. One way we can do that is to have school gardens. Check out ours. Here's our school garden. It looks a little dead

017right now, but we'll fix that up. The second thing I want to do to improve school lunches is to ban all ultrarocessed food items from school menus like chicken tenders or other high sugar foods. The last thing I want to do is make it so that a third of school lunches are locally produced. I want this to be a standard And that is what I would do if I was kid governor. Thank you for your time. >> For real. >> Hi, I'm Gayen and I want to have a Wait, what? >> I'm Gayen and I'm running for kid governor cuz I want a voice in school. Oh god. >> Hi, I'm Gayen and I want kids in Vermont. My campaign is to improve school lunches in Vermont. Here are three ways we can do that.

018One is we should Oh no. >> And that is what I would do if I was kid govern. And that is what I would do if I was kid govern. Thank you for your time. >> You've done an awesome job. We have the results tomorrow. So there was a total of seven candidates that got next to the next level. So whoever's chosen is whoever's voted in as kid governor will be kid governor. They go up to a celebration a ceremony up in Mount Fure and then the other six students will serve on the cab. So everyone's got a purpose of it which is pretty awesome. So one way or another we will have a fifth grade voice up in Mount Fier which is great to have. Um just really nice that he did that and

019there was a great article in the Valley News and he's been quite the celebrity. We've had lots of reporters calling, interviewing him, coming in, taking pictures. Um, and it was nice to say in the Valley News article, it also stated that the chicken tender part might be a little hard for some voters for kids. You got so not spoken like a true politician, he told came from heart. No offense to any politicians at that time. Um, but he spoke from the heart, not from what he thought people wanted to hear. So, it's something we want to take away. But also, he was the only student that had a blooper real chance. Um, that all the videos came through. the weather field at the front porch forum. So you can see all the videos there or

020I can share as well. >> So great job. Good job. >> Brian, how was the voting conducted? >> So the voting was conducted at different schools. So each school was able to vote for um all across I think out of the 72 schools or whatever it was that put in I think everybody got to vote and those are going up and then top. >> So it's cumulative. >> Yeah. Of everybody. So it's truly is a >> and anybody Kate or >> I think just >> just a votes here. So >> all right. Um we have quite a few of our BA members here. I again want to thank them for all the hard work that they've done. They've been pretty diligent about meeting on Fridays at 10 am um and sitting there and going through

021everything and taking a look and doing some of the really hard work. I want to thank Vince and Megan too for joining us from the school board to help give their input as well on their insight. So it made their process a lot easier. It's all hard work but it's good work to do. So thank you everybody on the BAC. And then we did do our safety drill. So, we had one last Friday. Um, and we mixed it up a little bit again and we had a fire drill during middle school recess time, which is always fun, but the middle schoolers did a great job. Um, and again, it's nice to be able to see that there's a couple things that we need still still to work on because that's why we do the drills.

022One of the things to make it work a little bit easier and have it flow a little bit better is to have some of our staff members that aren't to remind them. It's sort of the expectation. actually they have this but to remind them to hold doors open so the kids can get out and then staff can get out quickly if you don't have a a classroom that you're responsible for students then your role is to make sure that you're holding the doors and watching anyone get out so it's always great to be able to pick up on some of those things that we do and now I have here and we are going to do our data presentation so she's going to present the first part of our skill data for the fall and

023then I'll All right. So, so these are our three wigs. We wigs are wildly important goals. We have one based on which we did for for K through three. It's a early literacy assessment. We have a wig for our star reading and then we also have a wig for our star map. We are looking at um comparing the winter of last year to the winter of this coming year in our weight. So when you see this data, we do have a lot of work to do before January. So we're going to start with dibbles. This is the first year that we gave the dibbles assessment to our kindergartener in the fall. Normally we wait until the winter to do that, but this year we wanted the data. We wanted to see where these kids were

024right out of the gate. So you will see that that the scores look a little different than maybe what you've seen in the past. Um but we've already done a lot of progress monitoring on these kids and we've already seen tremendous growth in what we've we've done with our intervention and our classroom teachers. Overall our star reading scores. This is comparing last year's fall to this year's fall. And it looks pretty similar from, you know, we're a few few percentile points where we were last year. So you can go to the next one. Our three through five is pretty similar to last year as well. We're doing pretty well with that. And our sixth through eight also is doing remarkably well. Um we have a lot of conversations about what goes on in middle school

025and we don't know if it's developmental readiness. We don't know if it's um having the same teachers for multiple years, but our middle level really really rocks it. So, our STAR math scores um have gone up a lot since last year. We put in a lot of work. Math is definitely an area that we have focused on and have noticed that we need more work. So, um, last year I think it's 50% for Christians in the fall and this year it's really small. I think it's 50 54 56 56 56 56. >> Okay. So, our first and second graders um with Star Math last year, we did not give the math assessment to kindergarteners. So when the first graders take it, it's their first time taking it. And if you also think about first and

026second graders in front of a computer, there's a lot of clicking that happens. We've noticed um with the math, we don't feel with first and second grade that it's as reliable a score as we see with some of the older grades. We're actually looking into other assessments that we can give to our first and second graders that are more and actually our kindergarters too that are more of a one-on-one situation. >> Yeah. Before we go to the primary, who set the benchmarks? >> The WC. >> Oh, all of them. The benchmarks on just about everything. >> So, the benchmarks are set by state levels with STAR. >> Okay. So, AOE sets the benchmarks. >> It's so maybe you can explain this better than I can. What we do is with Renaissance, which is the program

027that we get our assessment from, it's then aligned to the state um the one two three four that we use with our proficiencies with our with our standard based grading. So I believe that STAR sets where those levels are. We have the ability at the SU to either change those or leave them as they were. And I don't know what we decided. >> I think we left them. we let them with what with what the company said user learning metrics should be. So it's a nationally normed assessment. >> Okay, that's that answer your question. Thank you. So in first and second grade, I just want to let you know that um we are looking at other more reliable measures to to measure what's going on with kids that maybe aren't as um you know star

028map is is a little different for first and second. But if you see the next slide, you'll see it changes when the kids get into third grade. And once again, it could be developmental readiness. Um but our our third through fifth just did really good job and our sixth through eight also made really significant growth last year to this year. So now the demographics um over on the left you'll see that slide are that would be the students that would qualify for free or reduced lunch. um that that's not information that we are privy to. So, it's it's hard to try to help that population, but the kids on the right are the ones that would not qualify. Uh in reading, you can see that we're we're doing okay in both categories. We have more

029kids that are proficient that that aren't in math. That's going to be a problem. Once again, it's hard to know who these kids are. So on the left you see the students who would qualify for free lunch are not doing as well on the math test. Um the students who don't qualify or wouldn't qualify for free lunch are doing pretty well. >> These are students who are on an IEP at Weathersfield from the fall of last year to the fall of this year. Not completely, but graduated. And then these are hand over. >> Awesome. Thank you very much. All right, we're going to go ahead and look at our fall attendance of parties. So, um, our average daily attendance, we've been hanging strong about 96%. Which is pretty awesome. Makes it makes it shows you

030that kids want to be here at school. And we've been really sort of hunkering down and making sure that we are checking out on kids when they are late because as much as so our sort of rural school technically starts at 8 o'clock but as long as they get start we we allow that little bit of window because they're getting breakfast but they need to be in their seats in their classroom by 8:05 because they want to hear our announcements in the morning. Um and but we've been really a lot more strict about that. So, our numbers have gone up a little bit in unexcused parties. Ties excused are obviously when parents have an appointment, have something else going on where they come in late during the day. And then middle school is the next

031one. Um, again, 96%. So, when you have six, seventh, and eighth graders that want to be here every day, that's that shows that we're doing something right. And then again, our excused and unexcused trades. Middle schoolers have a little bit more control sometimes if because a lot of times with elementary school kids it could be their parents or late or something else with middle school kids are a little bit more independent at that point. They can get to school get ready to be here and other stuff out. So with that then one of the things that we've been working on is really making sure that we are logging any and all types of behavior in to powers school because our philosophy is if it's not in power school. So we're making sure that we are

032logging anything and everything. Um not only are we logging discipline or students we're also logging recognition. So this is an average of how many logs per day were put in for the elementary school and an average of logs put in for the middle school as well. So 100% transparent, most those are probably disciplined, but there are definitely some positive notes in there. It's great. I have one teacher that's really focusing on if you put something negative in, he's also finding something positive to say about a student and recognize that as well. And then we can break it down to times of the day. um right there in the middle on the elementary school side one. So that's K through five starting at 11 am. What happens at 11 am? >> Lunch time. >> Lunchtime. Lunch

033recess. That's when the majority of our incidents happen. Lunchtime. And then same things run sort of true for middle school. It's a little bit tighter. 9:00 am is a little bit of a struggle for middle school. So that's when students are going from first period to second period. So we have some struggles right around in that block. So second period block trying to look at that and see why that is. And then of course the 10 o'clock hour as well. And then definitely lunch. You don't have that many wood incidents that happen during lunchtime. >> But the elementary school one definitely up. And then if you look by location >> so we had 64 incident in the classroom for elementary, 39 for playground time. So more incident and those could be students that aren't following

034directions. Maybe they get up when they're not supposed to and leave the classroom to go to the bathroom without giving permission. Could be a number of things. Middle school is definitely more classroom than most of those are because we have that program, the Minga program, which is where digital hall pass. So if students aren't signing out correctly like they're supposed to because we want to monitor where they're being where they are at all times. Um those a lot of those are in classrooms or if they're just simple disruptions in class, those are being handled by the teacher. And then the next one does do a subtype of incident. So it breaks it down into and then since this report was running we've cleaned that up even a little bit better because there was the difference

035between the M's and just the one twos. So defiance and M and Defiance was just a zero. So if you go all the way to the left hand column and you go right about in the middle where defiance is M was like a major and we didn't have major events in defiance for those and so we had to look at those and make sure that staff was categorizing them correctly because if it's a minor incident of a shout out in class if it's being a little bit disruptive not following directions that would be a minor takes three minor incidents to be equal on major events. The same thing with middle school. So the next time we get that report, it'll be even a little bit cleaner because that's why when we're collecting data, we're taking

036a look at it and saying, "Hey, this part doesn't make sense. Let's see how we can adjust it so it makes sense." >> And that is that it any questions for myself on >> a question about this? It's just so >> which part? Um just like the subtitle incident or just any of this new um doing logging in and doing it in P school. Is it the teacher themsel like so say I interrupted the class would the teacher obviously speak to me give me like a warning and then go in and do power school or is this when they've been like sent to the office or >> it's usually something to document a behavior that's happened in the classroom so we can keep track of and see if those incidents are leading up to bigger

037incidents. So it would be like Sarah, you need to follow the directions. And then the teacher when she hasn't he or she hasn't said Sarah today was having a trouble following directions like we're doing blah blah she did blah blah blah blah this boom. Um unless it's a major incident I don't get tagged in it or unless the teacher needs help. So there's a part of there where the teacher can actually tag and say like we need some assistance with this and that means like a referral to the office. We take care of that. Other than that we're just trying to document what things are happening in the classroom. So those numbers could seem like they're bigger, but we're documenting much more than we used to in the past. Because a lot of times, even

038as a classroom teacher, I would just say, "Sarah, stop what you're doing. Let's move on." And some teachers will still do that, but more of them are starting to document those behaviors >> and the and the kids know that this is a thing. >> Yes, they do. >> Question like how that will also if they know that. >> Yeah. If they know Yes. And you know, sometimes it's just documentation. Sometimes we have teachers that are calling home especially if it's a more agree with more of a an issue that Sarah's contin home and and have a discussion about it. Have you shared with parents that you know the time like progress report or parent teacher? >> Typically not because a lot of this data is just for us unless it's a major more event little

039minor things like Sarah showing up in class isn't going to be because you would get all of it >> and I think I've misheard you so it sounded like you put the things in there too. >> Absolutely. Okay. So you put positive recognitions in there too. So we're trying to encourage that as well to put positive things in there. Um because you know it takes three positive things to outweigh the negative things. >> So that's obviously not following like those are going to fall off. Those aren't going to be on the incident, >> right? They won't be on the in by type of incident. Well, there like on that sub type of incident, there's not ones positive recognition. The overall injuries on that first one that I shared with you would have positive recognition from

040there as well. And that's something we're working on because we need to be positive and then we have a greater impact on our student life. And then this is from like the start of the school year until this >> until uh October >> end of October. So >> we can run the report to show just the discipline incidents and a separate report to show the positive incidents. So we can we should share that. >> Yeah. Because I think it's important to work on those positive things to recognize kids are doing great things. We want to show these statistics compiled for our own use or do they go to There are only strictly >> unless unless there um there are five categories that we have to report annually to the state. Um suspension uh violent threats,

041>> possession of a weapon, possession of illegal substances. >> So we do report. >> So we're watching the trending more than anything. And then that way too we we look at areas that that could be problematic and then we can adjust where we have supervision at see what we need to do in those areas as well. Just like for instance we have an is we have back in the back of the school we have a little red wall that's an interactive wall for younger students. Middle school really has no reason to go back there. So, as we were observing and seeing what was going on, we adjusted and said, "Middle school, you need to go and stay over here by the Gaga pit because that way we can focus our supervision then over on the

042field area and the play structure." Of course, we still have that many little kids, middle school kids play structure, but we were able to eliminate that area because we didn't need it. So we were able to adjust based on what we've been observing and what we need to try >> for the green reduced um that's K through eight right >> so the only way because you can't right identify that is to improve like the overall scores of which it's actually it would actually be three through eight our star data All right. Thank you very much. >> All right. So, we've got lots of upcoming events happening between now and winter break. Um, November 19th tomorrow harvest lunch. Hopefully, everybody is going to plan on being there. It's an amazing meal that our kitchen staff puts

043on. So, we appreciate that. And we start lunch at 10:45, 11:4. So 10:45 for 3 through 5, 11:45 for K through 2, and 12:50 for 6 through 8. So come and join and have lunch with your student or somebody else's student. Um, November 20th, family math night like Kendall talked about. Um, November 23rd, PTO make it and take it and the craft fair like Jess mentioned. Um, 26th through 28th is the Thanksgiving break. Um December 1st through 5th we're having a kids castle holiday shop for recess and lunch which is put on by PTO as well. And then we're having our winter ensemble holiday musical performance. Last year's one during the day on the 19th but last early release day on the 19th was amazing for our K35 students. So looking forward to that one

044again. Early release day. It's going to go out for winter break and before you know it'll be the new year and we'll be back here again ready to learn in January. All right. I think that's it on my report. Any questions for me? >> Um, great to see you all almost the holidays. Feels crazy that it's here already, but it is. So, um, just a couple things. Uh, I I wanted to touch on the behavior work because that's been ongoing across the SU. It's one of our focuses this year. Um and uh a positive um last month was um anti-bullying month and we had some students who created a a bullying video. I think I sent it to Laura sent it to you and Brooke um our communications director helped um record it and create

045it. So it was a collaborative effort. felt really great that the kids were really standing up to bullying and um creating a presentation to share out on that topic. Um Brian shared some of the behavior reports. What we're doing as an administrative team is around um every six months we sit down, we dig into the data um our own individual data school level. We create grade level reports for the teachers to then um look at and look for trends and behavior is um behavior is a message. It's telling us something that students um need is not getting met. So we use the data to yes look overall at trends and where we could um shore up supervision but we also look at which students are really struggling and we have our multi-tered system of supports

046we can talk about students and potential supports um around behavior as well as academic needs. So, we did that in October. That's why the data um was from October. When we do it again, I think right when we get back from the um Thanksgiving break and as Brian shared while we were diving in, we noticed that the system wasn't doing exactly what we wanted it to do. So, we did go back in and align every behavior in our behavior matrix in Power School, which that wasn't the case. we learned. So, um that it'll the report will look a little bit different but very um it'll be it'll be more representative of what we're seeing in our schools. So, that's actually been really informative work. I think we've even the teachers enjoyed looking at the data

047and seeing what's going on with kids. >> You mean every six weeks, Christine? >> Every Yeah, we're gonna say six months. >> I was like, yeah, >> that makes you said we're going to check out after November. I was like, I think she needs six weeks. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. I just wanted to clarify that. >> Yeah. And you know, we've had this. It's a it's a Power School plugin. It's called MBA behavior. We've had it for a few years, but we haven't really done our due diligence in using it, and staff are really stepping up and and implementing the um logs, which is critical the data. So, kudos to them. It does take time for sure. Um, and the other nice thing about it that we're using um, this year is when a

048staff member logs an entry, they can tag different people um, on that entry who need to know. If it's a major, it goes to Brian. They also call the office if it's a real major. So, so we know but the administrators um and the SEIS can go in and respond with uh how the follow-up has gone so the teacher it closes the loop so teachers know that they're not just filling this out for nothing the administrators are doing follow up on the behavior which is great. Um, we also purchased the MBA attendance plugin this year and it's just uh it's just up and running now. So, there was a notice in my newsletter I think last last time that it's there and it allows parents to go into the plug-in electronically and call their child

049out for for sick or whatever whatever the reason is. So, parents don't actually have to call the school anymore. I asked today have parents used it and um the team hadn't looked yet and said we just we just started it. So that's a new plugin. It also gives us a lot more data around attendance and tardies which we're collecting information on. So we had to set thresholds as a team. What is tardy? How many tardies before a parent gets gets a notification that your child's been tardied a class a couple times. It's mostly middle and high school, not so much elementary, but so that's new, which is great. Um, the audit, I just want to I said this at the SU meeting, but the auditors were here in October. They spent three days with us.

050Uh, they did not have any material findings, which I think has been the Lar fiscal year 19. So, >> it's fiscal year 1950 >> any material findings, which is kudos to our business department. They do an excellent job. um and especially Deanna Crow who uploads all the data for the auditors before they even come and then answers questions while they're here. So when those results come in, we will post them on the >> They're posting >> the results are in and thank you Scotty Harland and Weathersfield. The SU is the last one. >> Last one. All right. Okay. Just a quick update. I'm sure you all have heard because it's been all the news. The redistricting task force met earlier this month. They had a all day session. I I did watch it after the

051fact. I didn't watch it live, but um lots of deliberations about the MAP proposals or the plans um that they've had. They voted in the end and they went with the cooperative education services model which is sometimes referred to as BOSIS board of cooperative educational services which is a way to consolidate services for special ed or um other efficiencies like uh you could coordinate all your transportation for OC's or your payroll so that they're going to write their final report on the 20th which is this week part of that plan included voluntary strategic mergers uh which will likely be incentivized and voluntary regional high schools which u would need to be incentivized. It's going to take some financing to create regional high schools. They have to be built. Um that's not the end of it.

052It goes to the legislature and they have the authority to make changes at that point. So we'll see what happens. I'll keep you posted. Um I do have a couple maintenance updates. I don't know if you want me to do them now or wait until the Is that okay? So, I talked to Jim about the wood chip boiler. So, you approved $17,000 out of your capital reserve funds and I believe he said that was to fix up one pump. He was able to fix three pumps with that amount of money. There's still one pump left to fix and Jim's waiting on an estimate for that what that will cost to fix the final pump. He said they're up and running very well, better than they have in a long time. Um the other piece to

053mention is a new control panel. He had stated the control panel is getting old and >> there um it will need to be replaced I think in the next two or three years. the the person that he works with, Matt Cobburn of Messerith, >> uh recommends that we don't buy used parts for the whole um wood boiler because you buy used parts, they're not the software is not supported and company that he works with won't be able to work with them with those used. So the estimate for the new panel is roughly 25,000 marks. Sorry. Again, Mark thinks, you know, in the next few years, we should you should think about replacing that, but the cost would be about $25,000. So, that's good news. And it's good news that the pumps are fixed, three of

054them. Uh, Jim also wanted me to let you know that he's been working with Efficiency Vermont, and they are going to pay for the replacement of of the lights. We have until the end of 2027 to get that done. and they're going to replace them with LED bulbs. Jim is going to, if there's an opportunity over the breaks when there are no kids in the building, they might come in and do a section of the building at that time. Um, if there are no if there are other priorities that that take place if that doesn't happen during this year, who plans to do it this this summer? >> Is this just a bulb replacement or are they taking the balance out? Uh I think it's I don't know actually John I can ask that question.

055>> I do know that you know. >> Oh yeah because I wasn't on that tour. Um it can be both. They can get the ballast the bulb without the ballast or the bulb with the ballast you know to replace it. John and it's deciding what they're going to do. >> And it's urging that you get the ballast out of the circuit. A they use juice and B when they inhale the light goes out and then you're supposed to hire electrician which gets expensive. >> Okay. Oh giving up as well. >> Okay. >> And they're all 18 years old. >> Okay. And that is the end. Any questions for me before we stop sharing the screen? >> Okay. So, up next we have our items for discussion. Um, we have the SU budget update. Oh, I

056forgot to mention something. Thanks, Larry. It was in my notes. It wasn't on the screen, so that's why I forgot. Uh, Jim shared that uh one of our maintenance um staff members are going to get HVAC trained through Visbet. It's not going to cost us anything. It's going to take a year, but once it's John McKinn, he works for us. Um, once he has his certification, it will uh reduce the the number of times that we have to call control technology. So, we'll have somebody on site. We may still have to call them for larger things, but um John will be engaged in um that coursework over the next year, which is pretty exciting. >> Yeah. So, thanks Larry for reminding me. >> Okay. So you budget update. Um so just uh bring over some

057things. This has been on the website for few months now, but uh just wanted to go over some things that are different about this year's budget book than last year's. Uh one example is that I added in this was brought up last year around town meeting was uh the questions about the statewide bargaining process for school health insurance. when did that come into being etc. if we could see trends or whatever and I had to look it up and it was uh it was fiscal year 20 was the first year of that. It was passed in July of 2018. It was act 11 and include other things in including uh employee healthcare benefits uh for schools that's now bargain at the state level. Um to show you what that looks like for our health insurance.

058I know it's hard to see but on the screen but uh the annual premium for a single family in fiscal year 19 was 6,913 for single. Did I say single family? >> For a single plan was 69 6,913 and a family plan in fiscal year 19 was 19,150. We just received the 27 updates for health insurance plans and a single plan is now 15,856 for next year and 43,920 >> for a family plan. >> Uh that cost is shared 8020. Um and again that's set at the state level with their negotiations that 8020 split. So the local district or the SU depending on who the employer is is responsible for 80% and the employer pays 50% of those monthly premiums but that's the total cost of the annual plan. Um also um one thing that

059I had in a report earlier um that I wanted to include in the SU portion of the budget uh book was uh increasingly uh much of the work that we do at the uh business office, food service, IT and our data systems that the state is trying to get up to speed. We do a lot of our work at the SU um that is uh required for the state and federal um governments. So here are examples of monthly, quarterly and annual financial reports etc. data reports that we have to do and you can go blind looking at that your own time but I just wanted you guys to see it. That's new part of the budget book. uh SU budget was adopted at the previous board meeting um SU board meeting and um the headline

060number there is I think as this lows The headline number is we go down to this chart down here that shows the total SU budget increase, general fund budget increase from fiscal year 23 to 27. And from fiscal year 27, we are projecting a 14.6% increase in special ed and a 1.4% 4% increase for nonsp special ed which includes transportation, the business office, the superintendent's office, IT, curriculum, etc. Um, one of the questions that came up was uh comparing the actuals with the budgeted need in mental health services. What you can see on the left is from AOE data and it shows the uh mental and behavioral health positions at Vermont school districts from fiscal year 22 to 25. And the increase is a 456% increase in those positions over three years. And on the

061right hand side is those exact same years for our SU under the function for psychological services. And you can see that increase has kept you know, pace with what the state is seeing a little less than the state technically. >> Um, >> so where green and the state >> the green that's a good question. The green is the budget and the orange is the actual >> Oh. So um obviously psychological services is only under special ed that function and uh we um for students that um I don't want to say the word for students who um services are more than $66,000 we receive 90% reimbursement on the revenue side from the state. So, it doesn't mean that $300,000 gap doesn't get filled in, but that is the gap. Um, to show you an example what

062that looks like up here. We are projecting the service plan which was done by uh Jen Hulse that sped um extraordinary reimbursement revenue which is this orange one right here. we expect to go up 20%. Due to uh the increase in some of those needs and that's revenue from the state. Um obviously it doesn't cover everything and that's where the SU assessments come in and that's down here at the bottom. One thing I want to show you that came up at the uh Mount Scutney School District BAC meeting and I know it's very small here in person. Um see if I can zoom in a little bit. Okay. So, this column right here is 25 budgeted. Let's zoom in even more. All right. So, this column right here is 25 budgeted. And this column right

063here is 25 actual. And if we go down here to tuition to approved instate, sorry, tuition to out of state, private schools, independent schools. These are special education placements. We budgeted 410,000 but we sp spent 1.194. Now we ended the year at 1 point let's call 1.2 1.2 million in fiscal year 25. That's last year. But if you look at the assessment um the assessment is the same. We were able to cover that with um once I find it right. >> I'm sorry. That's uh that would show up in the Weathersfield budget book. I'm looking at expenses. We're talking about revenue. Uh the larger point is you'll notice in that it went from four 400,000 budget to 1.2 in actuals. But when we assessed when the when the SU assessed back in 25, there was

064no increase to what was budgeted for the assessment. We were able to cover that with uh a a fund balance and additional savings at the admin and operation side, the nonsp special ed side to make up for that. So, we didn't have to come back to the district to reassess, which has happened in the past. Is that going to happen at FY26? We hope not the year we're currently in. But that's uh that's why you'll see in the budget book for expenses for Weathersfield when you go to assessments, it's the same number between budget and actual even though at the SU our costs are not the same between budget and actual. Um that's all I really have. I mean the headline numbers for the SU budget if we want to move into the local budget

065and where we are now or take questions from the board however you want to do it. >> Does anyone have any questions? So, in your in your board packets, and I don't want to steal the thunder of the BAC, but in your board packets, um, this is a whether it's a local budget, and I think the I think it was Chris who had the question, uh, if if I could lay it out in different ways to take the increase, the budgeted increase for Weatherfield this year and break it out by what percentage of that increase are the biggest drivers? And looking at the pie chart, it's the same chart. Whether it's the stat column or the pie chart, doesn't matter. But you can see out of this uh the 17.92% budget increase. The 11.92% budget

066increase. Out of that 11.92%, how much is the uh different factors? And I broke them out by factor. So SU special education which we've talked about is 4.6% of that increase. High school tuition is 2.56% of that increase. Negotiated salary increases are 2.36% of that. Health insurance is 1% of that increase. Uh SU admin and ops is less than 1%. non-health benefits which kind of go with negotiated salary increases like FICA is uh about 38% and miscellaneous um is less than almost 1 half of 1%. Yeah, >> I can pull that up. So now on the budget book, we go to Weatherfield. Oh, one thing that the BAC asked me to include this year was similar to what we have at the um SU budget book. I included a personnel summary. So um as you

067can see elementary, regular education, English education, mathematics, science, social studies and so on so forth. This gets a little confusing because we have a K5 68 model in RSU and the state uniform chart of accounts which we have to use does a K6 and 712. So, but when you see mathematics education, that's basically 68. Science education is 68 and so on so forth. Um, and you can see all the positions down there. And then, uh, so that includes the 31.4 FTEES that are for Weathersfield School. Those are nonsu positions. Those are local budget positions. And then I click on the general fund. You can see the headline number here and everything that makes it up. As you can see, most of uh this shows your historical expenditure levels by um by level. So for example,

068blue is locationwide. What would be blue? That would be district-wide positions. positions that encompass K12 like the office of the principal like SU assessments like um buildings and grounds that are K8 that are not just K6 or just 712 and then secondary would be 712 and elementary is your K6 prek that's your SU assessment for preK it was 207 last year this year is 202 or sorry next year this year it's 202 207. Next year is 202. Um, this is a uh broken out showing a typical dollar $100 bill. How much of my budget is the K8 building at Weathersfield? And the blue is your K8 building. Your red is your your pink, I guess, is tuition. This is special education. This is non special education admin and ops at the SU early childhood program

069at 22,000 we talked about earlier and then right over here 1.31% of your dollar is food service. Um down here this is your function summary. So this breaks it out by think of functions as terms of departments and uh central services are basically your SU direct instruction is 51% of your budget. facilities and district safety would be buildings and grounds. Um debt service is pretty self-explanatory here in this building. Um account summary. So these would be like uh salaries and benefits and as you can see the uh blue is other purchase services that includes the SU assessments and that includes high school tuition personnel services over here green and blue sorry green and orange are your salaries and benefits for your local budget. debt service is at purple again. You have I believe two more

070budget years. I think 28 is the last budget year. We're working on 27 right now and 28 will be the end of your bond. So 29 will be your first year budget year without a bond uh function. This is departments I was talking about before. Regular education assessments building operations office of the principal. This shows how much of your budget is each. So let's say fizad fizzed is 1.39% of your budget. Um health services that's your nursing your nur school nurse etc and all their related costs under that function. Uh transportation that would be nonsu transportation $12,000. So that'd be like field trips, athletics, transportation and expenditure by accounts is this is the line by line where you can look at every line. You can see the dollar change and you can see the percentage

071change. And if you look at the dollar change and you see the big numbers, that's basically how I built this for Chris. I went through and I did how much of the percentage they are. So in the SAT column here, your orange is special ed, red is your high school tuition, negotiate salary increases are green, health insurance is the yellow, and so on. Um, so that's everything I have in the budget book with the DAC or Brian or any speak. So, when we went over the budget, um, I know one of the goals was to keep things as status quo as possible. We accomplished that. Um, and to keep the building in great shape. We accomplished that. The one thing that we didn't quite accomplish was one of the goals was to set it our

072increase under 10%. we were able to get down to 11.92 um without jeopardizing or sabotaging what we have right now. I think that's a good spot for us to be in. We went over this with a fine tooth comb. The BAC um asked lots of questions. We were able to um look at a couple things and get a better explanation for it. Um, and I think this was this is a a budget that I think we as a team take a look at and say like this is this is what we need for our school to continue the education that we have for our students at this level. >> Okay. Um, were there any suggestions for any possible cuts if say the numbers come in and they're not looking great? >> Yeah, we do have

073a couple plans. Okay. >> I want to we we as a group decided let's keep those plans because that's anytime we do any large cuts >> to make up and get it down by 10% that's going to be personnel. >> Yeah. >> Because that's where that's where we can cut and then that's going to directly affect the classrooms. Last year when we cut custodial staff and we had to really step it up a notch to make sure that our building was maintained the way it was. Um and we didn't feel that we could do that. We felt that we were sort of bare bones and I also want to keep cuts as far away from classrooms as possible. So >> So we have ideas. >> You have ideas. >> We have ideas. We have plans.

074>> We may need them, but hopefully not. But >> hopefully not. >> Um just want to take a moment to thank the BC group. um really engage the amount of meetings and the discussion that's um really great and I and I just want to make a point um you know when you're looking at this and I I agree with Christian's recommendation stacking it I think that's really powerful Larry so thank you for doing that when you look at what we have for wiggle room it's so small um there's >> there's nothing that we there's nothing on here that we have control over except for whatever maybe miscellaneous is >> it just >> but we have we have no control over special ed, high school tuition, salary increases, health insurance, the SU administration and ops, and

075the non-health insurance benefits. I don't maybe we have a bit of control over that. I'm not sure, but yeah, >> non-health insurance benefits are pretty much tied >> into the contract >> tied to well, some are federal law like FICA. >> Okay. So, we have no control over that either. So, we have control over 38% of the increase. Um I want to >> and maybe I don't even know because I don't know what that is. It just says miscellaneous. >> Something about it's it's everything that's not those. So I it's not because I didn't want to make the call and feel like you know it was such a small percentage I left it. Yeah. Uh, one thing about special ed really important is as I showed in the FY25 budget and FY25 actual, just to

076be clear, because of the costs of um those out ofstate tuition students, uh whether it's budgeted for or not, they will be paid. So it's sort of like what's happening in 27 is when we built the budget in 24 um those costs were not there and they came in midcycle. So the that's why the actuals went up and uh so it's you know it's not a saving grace or anything but when we build 28 they'll they're in the budget finally because they came mid year of the 24 cycle if that makes any sense. And how much Larry is my knowledge we get revenue for those that's not the 90% you were talking about correct >> those that those tuitions out of state placement if uh any services including tuition that is over 66,000 per year

077we get reimbured 90% which is how we're able to keep the assessment steady I have to build the budget based on those needs now I can't >> so that's why the assessment goes on So out of our we would pay the 66,000 and then anything above that >> you got it. The SU would pay 66,000 and anything over that let's say it's I'm going to pick 100,000 uh for that 40,000 difference give or take would be reimbursed 90%. Every quarter I submit to the state a report, one of those quarterly reports that the state requires. I go uh student by student in the SU and we track everything. So we're able to get as much money back that we can get and that's how we're able to keep even though the assessment act even though

078the special ed actuals went up by that amount your assessment in 25 actuals did not go up and we were able to not reassess because of that tracking and because of that revenue. So we hope to do the same in 26. Um but in 27 we're building the budget with those costs in and that's why you're seeing such a significant uh special the largest special increase we've had in seven years. >> And for high Go ahead John. >> Yeah. >> When the auditors are done and we know which side of zero we fall on if it comes out of the deficit are we required by law to make up the deficit in this budget or can we let it roll through? >> You could do it as it depends. So we could do it as

079a reverse revenue. Uh so I >> that money. >> So so that would be the proper way to do it from an I would do it as a revenue but a negative revenue. I call reverse re. It's a negative revenue. And so let's say let's say you ended the year with a $50,000 deficit and that's how you end 25. Um I would do it as where you do prior year fund balance. Let's say you had $50,000 surplus. We do the prior year surplus of $50,000. I would do the exact same thing, but it would be a negative $50,000. So, we're taking it away from the fund balance, but you would pay for it because it's a it's a negative revenue. >> Okay, >> if that makes sense. So, that's how we would deal with that.

080Uh Weathersfield ended 25 pretty much right on. So, I don't think you're going to have a significant surplus and I don't think you're going to have a big big deficit. you're going to be right on. Um, >> what do you mean? If it's 10,000 in the in the red someplace, it's got to be made up. >> If it was 10, if it was a smaller number like 10,000, I would do the negative revenue. >> Got it. >> Because it's so small, I have to account for it and I would account for it by counting it as a negative revenue. It would go against the fund balance as we build a 27 budget. um that would if it was a much bigger number we would talk about it separately a separate agenda item but anything like

08110,000 15,000 less than one tenth of 1% of your budget you would just do as a negative revenue >> second question maybe Christine be best to answer this >> um 73 we've been concentrating on the redistricting but there's a lot of provisions in that as far as tuition does any of it kick in in the this >> next year. >> No, not even the out of state tuition part. >> Uh >> I I know that the kids that are in out of state can stay there, but let's say your 12th graders or eighth graders that are transitioning there are aren't there some restrictions on where they can go? >> They can go to um New Hampshire schools next year if that's what they're asking. Out of state public schools. >> Okay. And and that a

082little bit off subject anyway because the tuition wouldn't be that much different whether they're across the river. >> Sure. But it's money going out of the state to a different state. >> It's money leaving the egg. >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> So I'm sure it'll come up. But um it's my understanding that next year they still have a choice outside of the city to public >> to public not private anymore public. Weatherfield doesn't send many kids out of state or if any. >> We didn't too much. A very small amount. >> Yeah. Uh to to the public. >> No. To public. >> Yeah. So they're grandfathered in until >> I think I have one or two. >> Oh, that's a good point. Uh you're seeing a draft. It's November. It's it's early for the local

083budgets. Uh are we going to see massive swings of this 11.9 without something else? No. I think this is a very I think this number is going to be around here. Um but the tuition numbers right now I'm using guesses. Uh so as Springfield for example or Woodstock announce their tuition then I'm going to put in the real the real number. I've been pretty good at hitting close to the mark. So, because I'm using last year's number, I'm just adding 5% 4% depending on what we're looking at. So, I will update as the as the announced tuition comes in. This num this these budget numbers will change until we go to print and I can't change it. >> And once again, it doesn't affect our quadrant, but in a couple weeks, we're going to get

084something from GFO that could be >> not good news. That's correct. >> The the the yield does not affect the budget but affects the tax rate. >> Um what it do we know what the per people spending limit is for this coming or the 2027? >> Yeah. So one second. >> It's uh I want to say 16331 but don't hold me on it yet. Uh this is an estimate. This is not the actual you know this may be the final number but it's an estimate 16331 so um I'd have to look at last year's budget book but uh that's per LTWM >> so if you go over that you're >> so every dollar over that you get taxed an additional dollar >> um and what do we know where this budget puts us >> so

085>> last year you were barely under the threshold >> this year you're but you would be over the threshold. To what extent? I don't know yet. That that has to do with the yield >> and it has to do with the um No, I'm sorry. The yield comes after. It has to do with the LTWAM, the student count. >> So, I'm using last year's student count. >> Yeah. Um do we anticipate our student count being drastically different this year or >> I would not anticipate it being drastically different. So it was pretty good estimate to use last year's. >> Yes. >> Great. It was higher. >> And we were slightly under though, right? For the our assessment like Weatherfield, you said it was the first time it's dropped in nine years. We're paying actually like

086slightly less for a good point. So for the last four or five years, I've been doing the SU budget. We do our SU assessment based on LTWM for special ed and for admin and ops. and for early childhood. And so if you picture a pie, Mount Scutney pays most of it. Hartland and Weathersfield pay the smaller portions. And as a percentage, assuming the budget was flat, which is never flat. Uh if Weathersfield's budget goes up, Weatherfield's enrollment goes up relative to the others, they pay more of the pie. And that's what's been happening to you roughly. It's been But LA this year, this 27, it's gone slightly down. whe this deals uh that that's based on last year's LTWM Sarah relative to the others, >> right? >> T for the purpose of taxes, it's slight,

087but for the purpose of taxes, >> we use what's reported in December. >> Can I clarify where we think we're over the people's spending limit? >> I'm sorry. >> Yeah, it's all right. Right now with the the budget the way it is and using last year's LTW model and using the estimated excess bank threshold you are over the threshold >> what is what is the number there you go for student number >> right now uh you are at $17,7982 per LTWM Okay. >> Uhhuh. >> And since the threshold is 16331, I take that, I take the difference, I drop it down. That's uh $748 over which is double. And that leaves your educated spending plus excess spending $18,242. So basically you're going from 17,79 to 18,242 wholly because of the excess planning threshold which is

088the purpose of the threshold >> because that money gets dropped back in the edund >> and will that that loan come down at all between now and when we get all the final figures. >> I do not expect LTWM to change drastically enough. In fact, if it goes down, it would hurt you. Um, and since this is before the yield, the the CLA and the yield could help, but I I I think you're still going to be under I still think you're going to be over the threshold. I don't think there's any way around that >> without making significant cuts. By the way, to I mean, for example, just for the sake of math, If you cut, just to give you an example, if you cut, you would have to cut over $450,000 to be

089under the threshold. >> So, we're fighting with peanuts like we do every year. Like literally like >> you were not significantly over the threshold. >> Yeah. >> Like like >> I'm saying if we cut if we make cuts it's like like last year it was like 56 thousand like it's it's sense on sense like it's not we'd have to make hundreds of thousands of dollars to drop these numbers. >> That's correct. >> And >> in order to get under the threshold you would have to it would have to be 400 some thousand. That would be significant like >> yes >> as we know it. >> This is an assumption but I'm going to bet that our situation isn't a whole lot different than most schools in the state as far as hitting a threshold >>

090as it's not going to look as different as others. So >> yeah, >> any chance of them adjusting the threshold? >> It it's possible they that's that's what they could adjust. So I it's an estimate. Um and uh Hartland for example in your SU has been over it every year since it's except when it was waved during co >> and mount spending school district is not yet not over the threshold >> ever and then I don't think for 27 they're going to >> who are we lobbying to get it >> like is that the legislature or >> I don't know if it's if it's I think it's uh it's based on CPI. I think it goes up. There's a The reason why it went up is it's based on a a mathematical model. They would

091have to change the model, >> huh? >> If that makes sense. What was the threshold last year? I um >> it was 15. >> Yeah. Um give me one second. I'm pulling it up right now. So the updated estimate was so they take average yeah it's basically inflation they take the average inflation of the base year >> and they and they add what they expect in average spending which would adjust it for the current year and then they drops down to be adjusted and we're not the only ones having our special ed budget. So so crazy you know you said it's behind it's been seven years the increase I mean is there any chance that they would take consideration that and revise this number make it more realistic >> I don't know I don't think

092so >> I think uh barring >> I want to stay in my lane as far as as far as the path force is concerned. But barring any going to a foundation formula, barring any sort of thing like that, uh the excess spending threshold as far as the people who put it in is doing the job it should be doing. They saying that there's a number per kid that should be spent and a dollar over it rather than the foundation formula which would not allow you to spend that money allows you to spend it but taxes you double >> and what was the calculated like consequence of that for being over? What did you say it was? >> A dollar. Yeah. Like budget. >> So if we were 748 over it would be twice that. Yeah,

093but like as far as budgeting like overall >> I I said I said to get under the threshold, >> you would have to cut approximately with quick math $450,000. Thank >> which basically is the special ed and tuition increase >> which I think reinforces what the budget committee has kind of you you've seen the number what we can control and what we can cut is very limited. So if it comes to personnel cuts or anything like that it's going to change the integrity of this school and that's why we're coming to you with that 11.92. We think that's a solid number given everything that Larry's just told you. If we cut anything more than that, we're changing weather's field. And I think obviously from a budget committee standpoint, we want to make sure that you

094understand that and somehow to also make the community aware of that that it's very limited. We're already bare bones. We don't want to make it any any more drastic than what we need to at this point, which is why we came to you with the 11.9. And there's a pretty good chance the state isn't going to have that magic pot of money to shove money over either, which is going to happen. >> They've said they do not. >> They bought down tax rates the last two years. So even the estimates I gave you last year for tax rates at this time last year, December, January, this time last year, they were actually two or three cents to the better because of the buy down. >> Y >> which we said was going to bite us

095this year. >> Exactly. >> It's why uh whenever there is a surplus, >> we were not in favor of that. Okay, >> that's why unless it's a unless it's a very large surplus, I always for that exact reason Sarah is why my fiduciary would be to request to put it into cap reserve, >> not to buy down the tax rate, which I know is hard because you got the money sitting there and it's their money and you essentially overt taxed. you want to return it, but uh all you're doing is unless you cut the budget a comator or repot, you're just delaying the paying for the following year. >> Okay. All right. Well, I guess um Dan have anything else? I guess we wait for those other numbers to come. >> So, what we would

096like to propose to is a team of be because I know our next scheduled meeting for a board would be on the 9th. It's the second Tuesday, but that' be three weeks away. We would like to see if we could push it back one more week to see if Larry can get those numbers. That gives us an opportunity as a BAC to take a look at those numbers and see if we can come up with anything else. So, we're proposing that we have our board meeting in 60. >> I think that's a good idea to have the numbers before meeting. >> I mean, that's all varied. We get the numbers in our timeline. >> Yeah. So then that way we will have that extra month instead of having doing it too early. >> Could we

097actually propose to do it on the 17th? If Larry did I didn't realize he has a prior commitment on >> Oh, so is that that Wednesday? >> I think we have issues with Wednesdays, right? >> Yeah. >> I mean, we can look at that in a minute. I just wanted to topic Thursday. Um, so I think we should also decide when we actually want to approve the budget because >> just to keep with our timeline, make sure that we don't how soon, Larry, do you think like are you thinking like our January meeting? >> I just feel like trouble. We were like a month behind. >> When do you need it for the >> perish? January. >> Yeah. So we really want like the good hard numbers next month so that then we can have

098the time to if if things need to be >> your January meeting is scheduled for January 13th. >> Yeah, but that's so >> but when you say m with January 13th or is that too late? >> Uh that that would be very that would be pushing it. >> So we technically need to vote in December. Yeah, school folks. >> Yeah, we'll probably have to have a special meeting again voting on it. We'll have >> we'll have the meeting on the third. I do not expect >> because I think we needed it for the town and we had like two days to decide whatever. So, >> so this way we'll get all the members >> in our December meeting and we'll schedule something either December or very early January. So we just have a seat over

099whatever. Yeah. >> So I could I could do the 17th. I could do the I could do the 18th but remotely. I could do the 23rd. >> Um >> so the question is okay >> obviously you want to say we're 24. >> Yeah. >> Are we what? So, what we want to work out what day our meeting is going to be. Um, >> so Larry, you can't do the 16th. >> I can do the 16th if it's uh maybe an earlier time. Maybe if it was 5:30 and >> I can do that first on the agenda. >> I could knock it out. >> Is everybody >> I could be remote. Well, it would it would it wouldn't matter time wise. it would matter. >> But uh >> um basically it would be presenting the final

100budget number >> um and then I would have the tax calculation worksheet which I have in the budget book from last year >> and I would have it >> and you'll have all the final numbers by then. >> Uh I don't that's the thing is I don't I don't know if I'll have the LCW. >> When is that guaranteed to be here? >> Guaranteed. It comes in It comes in different every time. >> It changes. It changes. It changes all the time. That's >> That's the issue. Uh >> but the later in December the better. >> Yeah. Yeah. Later in December the better. >> Um let me find out when the last one is. >> I don't think it's one of us. >> It's always been that way. >> Are you thinking like January 7?

101Well, I don't know why I think the 17th might have been last year. Was it like January 17th that you didn't? >> It depends how um it's presented to us. Like the way Larry presents it in the budget book goes to printers. They have to reformat it. >> So that takes a little bit of time. >> They're used to it from last year. But when they reformat it, sometimes >> it takes a little bit of transition to look at it to improve that. >> Yeah. I actually wanted to we can talk about it later, Larry Stein. Um, as far as the budget, but as far as the town report goes, the book, I feel like what we gave them last year, since we can only do black and white, I think we could the charts

102really don't show up and don't make any sense in grayscale. So, um, because they're so similar, you know, the grays. Uh, so if you just get rid of all the graphics, I think, and just have the numbers. But >> I could see I could see what you're saying about the um >> I could see >> we can talk about >> Yeah, I about the pie charts. I completely agree, but the the uh >> the non- pie charts, the columns might work. >> Yeah. >> Uh so just to give you just to give you an idea of of of uh of my life in December, January. Okay. January 31st was last year's LTWM. >> Oh, January 31st. >> That's what I'm saying. We're already in print is that's why they're all estimates. the state constantly updates

103the LTWADM >> and they finalize it around late January, early Feb. So, I guess what I'm trying to get at is there will be no difference whether we meet at your regularly scheduled time or January. The only difference could be if they change the yield, I guess, >> in the interrupt, but they could they're just as likely to do that after January. >> Well, the yield really doesn't come out till May. the actual >> the actual yield those Yes. during Yes. >> We'll know if objected by our next meeting. >> Yeah. But I remember two years ago they changed it literally like a like a month after they announced the initial one. >> Right. >> There's always minor changes. But I guess what that's what I'm getting at is I'll have an LTWM estimate >>

104in December. >> I will not have the final one. The printers would already be printed. >> All right. Well, what when will you have an estimated one? I I feel pretty it if it if this is the only reason to move the meeting, >> I would suggest keep the date and I'll communicate as we get closer. >> Sounds good. So, we're going to keep the >> keep the regular date and then it's and if I hear something crazy that there's going to be a significant difference in mid December that's worth waiting, I'll I'll communicate that >> because the bottom line is we're still we're still voting to move the 11.9 forward because we >> yes or no feel that we can't make the $400,000 worth of cuts. So that's really the question like >> exactly

105>> that's what I would be ready to vote for you know like in December I'm saying or whenever and not care about I mean again it's estimates but we already know no matter what it comes in >> we're kind of yes or no to this because >> either you're okay making 400 something thousand worth of cuts or you're not. So really we can make a vote regardless of what those numbers are unless they're like I mean it would have to >> crazy but >> yeah if they would have to amend the the law the mechanism for the excess spending threshold they would have to change the yield drastically right >> uh your CLA would have to come in better which we know it's not >> um it would have to be something along those lines.

106Um, >> it's not really changing what we're tasked with is my point. Like, >> no, I I think one thing uh they're trying to do with the with the foundation formula is that's not the case now is there's your budget and then your tax rate over here. And they're somewhat in line, but they're not really in line. And uh so I I'm agreeing with you. I'm I'm saying everything I do is estimates once you guys pick a number for the expenditures that's the budget and that's what I tell the state our budget is and um when we go to and I I don't touch the budget book after that once you guys pick a number we go to print and that's it and something might happen after the fact but that's the budget. >> Okay.

107So we'll keep the the >> for example, sorry I I had I mentioned it earlier announced tuition. Let's say Woodstock announces their tuition December 15th, but you've already approved the budget December 9th. I'm not changing the tuition. I the budget's locked. >> Okay. >> To make it to balance the books. >> Yes. I I'm not unless you want to have a special meeting for a $3,000 difference. >> Okay. >> All right. Um up next we have decoupling capital construction debt. So that's the letter that we are asked to sign on for um with uh Woodstock or Mountain Views. >> Mountain View. >> Um >> I did I did listen to your meeting last time. Um and I did call this part of it. Um yeah. So, uh I'm I'm in favor of signing on to

108it because I feel like I mean we do we do have a very nice school here and we don't have a lot of construction bills, but um I don't personally I don't feel as though construction costs should eat into what schools are able to spend on their kids as far as education goes. So, I think that that should be decoupled whether it affects us or not. It's tempting to not sign it since exactly what you said. We're sitting in a nice building. It's almost paid for, but um and we tend to use Woodstock as an example, but there's buildings all over the state in desperate need of work or replacement. >> Would you educate me on what it means to decouple? So it wouldn't be it wouldn't like affect their their people's spending their per

109people's spending. It would be a separate that's >> so like if a if a district needed to build a new school with this per pupil limit, you know, they might not have enough money to educate their students properly. So um >> and it's merely a recommendation. >> Yeah. It's not Yeah. We're not like >> we're not making a decision. Yeah, it's just if we want to sign our names on to that we think it's a good idea to decouple it. >> Um but I'll take a motion to um add our names to the letter or or a motion to not add our names. So >> in favor >> move in favor of adding. Okay. Um is there any further discussion? What happens right worst case scenario you talking it's a new school it is coupled

110together the state step in what happens what is the consequence right >> they have to pass bond first >> okay >> they failed it last time >> two times >> they blown up again I think >> that's their plan >> and this is what they want to send this recommendation to the state that they're not it doesn't >> doesn't mean it's going to happen >> doesn't mean it's going to Yeah, we know that. >> Yeah. >> I mean, >> and and it's still >> even though it decouples it from the cost per pupil, doesn't decouple it from what taxpayers >> Yeah. Their taxpayers still have to pay it, but they would it it more helps them with this excess spending threshold where like they're penalized the double amount >> for going over. they wouldn't be

111penalized that double amount if taxpayers still pay it but it's not being penalized >> because of the year that you passed your bond you are able to exclude it >> I've excluded two your bond payment 234,000 from your >> excess banking threshold any bond passed today >> you cannot exclude >> right we we'd be almost we'd be halfway to our >> you'd be halfway to your goal >> right if we weren't >> that puts it perspective. >> So, um, any further discussion? All in favor of adding our I guess our board to the the list of signitories on that letter say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> I'll share again. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Um, update on maintenance parts. I think you already sort of did that. The update on crosswalk on route

112five. Any update on that? >> What are we on? >> The update on the crosswalk. >> Oh, um I went this going to couple in with this um select board report. >> Okay. Well, they're together so we can >> Yeah. And and I did go in and present it to the select board even though I wasn't on the agenda for some reason. Uh which I think we have remedied. You're behind the podium from my view. >> She's shaking us. >> And I would like the board's permission to work with Brian to draft a letter to be ready for our next meeting and take it to the select board so they can hopefully write a parallel letter. Uh rather than either one of us taking the lead, we'll kind of do a parallel approach. Send it

113into BR, find the right people, make sure it lands on the right desk, see what happens. Uh after meeting I asked my husband who works for the state um to ask around so I think we have a good lead on where you need to go. So um it's buried in my email but I will provide that. >> Thank you. >> Everything's a help. >> He is a civil engineer to the state >> or be trans. >> Yeah. >> Good. Don't give John too much information. And as far as the rest of the report of the select board, I want briefly touched on the SU budget only giving out percentages. I didn't get into the details. Um, but I emphasized very strongly that the admin part of it was the numbers we just heard and the

114special ed and invited anybody to intend some of the meetings. If they got any ideas, please bring them forward. And I'd also like to say that it was supposed to be a reciprocal agreement with the town that the town would vote somebody to report the town's affairs back to us and we would report our affairs back to the town. So two point it's a single pair of pants with different pockets so that we're coupled together a little bit better. I know you attend Kelly but I'm not sure you were ever designated as dup. But I'm going to be honest. I actually told the board that I thought it was a conflict of interest if I was to present >> the town to you guys or me to the to the school because I work for

115the school. >> Understood. >> So I don't know. I haven't asked it. Nobody else has volunteered to come. >> Hard to believe. >> Okay. I I'll ask again at the next I was really sick the last meeting and I just >> You barely made it out the door. >> No, Monday's meeting. I'll find out if anyone wants to >> Well, just remind them that that was part of the agreement. There's been a lot of criticism. What are they doing? What are they doing? And unless we couple the two part uh uh boards together, at least at this level, especially this time of year. >> Yeah. >> Um it would be very helpful. If Der wasn't doing it before, then he didn't run again. So, >> all right. >> Um, >> anyway, messages relate. >> Anything

116else? Okay. >> Um, do we have any reason for an executive session? Okay. Um, so, um, setting our next agenda. Um, so we're going to go with the ninth at our regular time and place and everything. Um, we did want to John had a a future agenda item you wanted to add and maybe I don't know do you want do you think next meeting is good or I don't know this not it's not imminent but what I sent out to everybody and I didn't want you can't start a conversation >> on on any outside of our meetings. Um the SU uh we voted in favor of supporting uh Mountain View, Hartford and us >> uh as at least >> the concept of combining and with this redistricting map having kind of fallen on its face.

117uh whether or not we want to pursue that and and ask through through our reps to DSU possibility of maybe working some budget numbers to see if if it even looks like it would save a plan. >> I guess it would kind of depend on when it's going to be being discussed at the SU because we probably should discuss it here before it's further discussed at the SU level. >> It hasn't come up. Yeah. >> Okay. It hasn't come up since the since the meeting in September, >> which end of August, I forget. >> It'd be interesting to hear. I know that meeting took place because people felt like if they were going to be forced, they wanted a choice. >> They're not going to be forced, but they still want to make that choice.

118I guess that's the question. >> Yes. >> It hasn't it's not on the agenda at this point. >> Okay. So, yeah. So, let's get the budget behind us. Um, so >> it's more time sensitive. >> Yeah. >> So, um, so the December 9th meeting is gonna be budget budget budget budget, right? And anything else that needs to be discussed? >> I haven't done those board engagement check-in as one of your goals. >> Oh, yeah. >> Um, yeah, we could do a board engagement checkin. >> Okay. >> See what people have been up to. Hopefully, we'll have lots of engagement pushing this budget. >> Yeah. I mean, that's everybody's job. Yeah. Yeah. >> Just uh follow up on so at what point to communicate back to the board and Marie about moving the meeting. Would it

119be if I don't receive any LTWAM numbers by the state by then? Like let's say it's December 5th and I haven't received anything. >> Okay. >> Would you want me to say let's move it or would you rather me? >> I think we're we're saying I think we're saying we can't do much so let's just move on. >> Let's just have meeting. We'll just have it and then if we have to have an emergency meeting, >> We can have an emergency meeting. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Um, of course, if we don't have anything budget related to talk about >> much of a meeting, >> it's like a good again it's a it's a weather still wanted to have their budget presentation in November. >> Uh, so now it's out in the public. It's

120been on the website for a month. >> It's it's on Sappa. you know, people are going to hear this and um >> I think until until the tax rate numbers become real, I don't think anybody really focuses on it until until they hear that their tax rate is going up. >> So, are we going to vote in December 9th to >> um Well, we'll hear it. Um if if people feel like they want to vote on it, then we'll vote on it. um if people feel like we can't wait to think about it, >> which is what ended up happening last year and we had like two days to figure it out. >> Yeah. >> So, we really Yeah. So, well, yeah, we'll vote in December, but I'm just saying like if we don't feel

121ready to vote at that meeting this having since we've moved everything up a month, we have that time. you have the time now >> to to to set an emergency meeting or not emergency meeting but to set a special meeting you know a week or two later and you know we could think about things if people feel like they're not ready to vote yet on the 9th. We have that time but if everybody feels ready to vote on the 9th then we'll vote on the 9th. >> And so to be clear we're looking at the what 11.92 is what we're looking to potentially vote on on the 9th. So >> pull it over. you're not ready. We'll we'll go into an extra session. But >> that's that's what we're voting on, right? >> Yeah. >>

122So, I was just saying for agenda purposes, we probably should have a possible vote. >> Yeah. December. >> Um, >> is there anything else that we need to talk about in December? >> We also talked on the BAC about getting the word out. >> Yeah. for people to socials, the sign out front, >> whatever we need to do if you have more ideas. >> Yeah, we should definitely talk about ideas for getting the vote out. Yeah, >> Ryan was kind of we did talk about that question. >> Yeah, we talked about, you know, taking doing a road show and going different places and talking a little bit about the budget. >> So, yeah. So, so should we how are we going to put that together before December >> a road show or whatever >> do

123the road show until after we decide on a budget. >> That's right. That's right. >> So, yeah. So, we will we will talk that will be one of the agenda items. >> Yeah, we can make that on the agenda. Yeah. And then also the presentation because John had mentioned to me as well for the 28th when we have our town meeting about board participating a little bit too in the presentation. I know two of you aren't going to be there. So, but we do have a quorum for the >> for what? >> For the town meeting day on the 28th. >> Oh yeah, >> that's during our spring or not spring break. Our winter break or February break. >> Yeah. So 10 a.m. 10 a.m. very long >> because our winter break is >> later

124this year. >> Yeah. >> It's a state state agreed to have the same vacate. >> Oh, that's great. Yeah. >> Same calendar. >> It was changed for us. Yeah. It's later. But they are um planning to do the same next year and it's it's the same month. Uh the same week, the later weekend. I don't know how you change your meeting way. I don't know if that's >> it's I mean it's the Saturday before >> meeting so many days before you vote. You can't you can't limit it. >> I did check in. >> Is it a charter or state law? >> We're changing it to a weekend like it used to operator. Yeah, because I know other towns do it different. >> I think it's within seven days. >> We used to always have it

125on a weekday. So, I'm just wondering. Yeah, it wouldn't help with our members to be able to attend any better. It no matter what day it is that week, it's >> Is it going to be hybrid? >> Oh, it will be hybrid. It will be hybrid. >> It will help. >> Have we done hybrid in the past? >> Well, you can't I thought you could >> You can just watch hybrid. You can't participate. That's right. >> Yeah. Okay. >> But it could be hybrid. >> Is it Can a board member participate hybrid? >> That's what I mean. >> Yeah. We'll have to ask. >> Yeah. I forgot about that. >> Is that a physical option for people that are going to be away be able to log in or not? >> I'm sure we'll be

126fine. We will need your help beforehand to help with spelling it. But uh yeah, I think by the time you get the town meeting >> um all right so uh all budget and I guess I will take a motion to adjourn. >> Okay. Uh all in favor say I. I. >> And we're good. Thank you everybody. Thank you. >> Thank you.