001[Music] Okay, I will call to order the Weathersfield School Board meeting special meeting for um May 20th, 2025 at 6:31 p.m. Um I guess we will start with the pledge. You want to lead us? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty, justice for all. Okay. Um, so this is a special meeting um to discuss uh some staffing concerns that the teachers brought to us. Um, then I will let you guys all take it away. So, since we're talking about staffing, um, I'll go ahead and talk about our newest staff member. We have Anna Brun Hec, who is going to be our kindergarten first grade teacher. So, she was here for our Panther Cub night. And so,
002I said, come on in for a little bit and spend a few minutes with her so that she can meet you. So, welcome. We're excited to have you here as part of our Thank you very much. I'm excited to be here. Thank you. She comes to us from Heartland School and before that she was in Hershey, Pennsylvania. So, and she's amazing. And I'm from there. I'm from Stburg area. Oh, okay. Yeah, we were in Hershey for 30 years. All right. So, here's our little presentation for the F26 staffing and budget update. All right. So, we did a timeline for the budget process just to refresh everybody's mind of what happened. So, we started out with the SU budget went through um it was approved at the um November 25th budget meeting or the SU board
003meeting and then that was way right before that we were able to start with our budget. We had a BAC committee formed on in first part of October. We had multiple meetings with the BAC. Then we presented the board the budget to the school board um below the state mandated threshold and then the school board you guys did approve it on the 15th two days later. Town meeting was on the 1st and that was uh presented to the community and then we actually voted on voting day on the 4th and the budget did pass with 365 yes votes, 342 no votes. So it was a close budget vote. All right. So, here is our current proposed schedule for FY26 with the specials. And so, one of the questions that was brought up last week was
004how it's working out. So, you can see that everybody's schedule is pretty compact. There is not very much free time, so to speak. We were able to, this is the first time that we've been able to do it where we've added a couple extra moments for our PE teacher to be able to have some extra time to prepare. You do notice that the primary grades are first, so K through uh third grade, we do have those scheduled first to make the transitions from multiple grade levels easier. So, she has a block of K through three and then she starts off with the fourth through 8th grade um in there and you can see everybody else's schedule is fairly similar as far as there's not very many open areas with the exception of our library media
005assistant who just has a whole bit lot of time on Fridays because she doesn't work on Fridays. So, okay. So, that's why that one is blacked out. that out that so we do squeeze a lot into our specialist teachers. Are there any questions on just so the blue whatever is blue is an extra additional prep. Well, these right here are the additional preps. These right here we plugged in for our art teacher because she also has a special ed background. So, we're able to do in some social social emotional learning groups that she does with those students. So, she'd be able to pull those pull some kids out throughout the week and have groups and she does like an art therapy type group. So, I have a quick question for PE. Yes, that I wrote
006down. It looks like there's not a break every day. There is. She does have a prep every day. Okay. Yeah. Which is standard according with the master agreement. She does go straight through, but most people go straight straight through. Okay. And then there are three extra spots right now. Okay. That we could have. So from last week what I heard intrinsically was that there was no time in between to prepare for classes. Right. So so and I don't see that there either. So what is the but typically you look at it there's not any time to prepare for other classes as well. So because it is tight that's why we have it broken up too where it's K through three. So it's similar materials that she's using that time. So there's lot not a lot
007of need for transition of materials. Okay. Does that make sense? Right. Well, I see kind of going from middle school back to lower grades like in the afternoon. So that doesn't make sense then. You see six to eight then back to four then five then back to six to eight. I'm just But is she is she using similar materials for all those grades or answer that question? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Because it's different curriculum. So, so what do you do currently? If you have a six to eight and then you're going to a fourth with zero minutes, what do you do? That is a great question. It's very tricky, but I try to have the stuff in the room out and ready to move quickly. But I take time out of what we're doing for
008the class or I'm setting up while they're doing a tag game. So, I'm trying to split focus. Okay. And how does that compare to her last year's schedule? Vincent had asked about that. Oh, that's what you're doing. Okay. I didn't realize she'd changes. [Music] I don't think I have you wrote added in the email but nothing I didn't see anything come through the schedule never came through last year. I don't think so because it was added. Can you just check on yours? Was it uh skipped in the slideshow? Want me to check? Yeah, if you don't mind. I thought I just wasn't seeing it. You know what? I kept looking and I It didn't show up. You guys should have told me again. I didn't see it. It was my fault. I can pull it
009up. I can go get it. Well, we could Can we let Laura Can you talk about right here? Okay, there you go. So tell us what. So right now I have five minute transition time in between which is helpful helpful for the quick bathroom or to pull equipment out and put equipment off to the edge. Um I have right now I have three in the morning and then I have my prep and lunch and then I have three more. And us typically the afternoon is like like we group before because they've done a good job of grouping. Okay. I have 5 to 8 in the afternoon, which is more similar than a K4 uh curriculum. Um but um yes, and on Tuesdays it's my K. It's fourth grade, second grade, second grade prep lunch, fourth
010grade, third grade, third grade. So that's um where my Tuesday classes are all pretty much similar. the 268 are currently back. Can you guys see that? Okay. Yep. Yeah. That's last year's. This is this this is the current year right now. This is the current year and that was that's proposed for next year. That's my my prep in the middle of the day helps me transition well because I have that prep and lunch where I can make a better transition. [Music] I mean she still had like third grade but no open period whereas now she there is no transition time or did you I'm sorry I didn't hear you. Did you say it's more helpful to have your prep later in the day instead of first period to set up? Correct. So, it looks like
011Yeah, go ahead. We got it. Nope. Okay. Um I'll take you there. Um so, I um I just want to make a general comment I think to the group that I feel like so I've gone through this slideshow. Um, but I feel like it's not exactly what we asked for you to come back with. I think we had discussed maybe like what are your proposals given what we heard. Um, you know, like this seems like more just here's here's facts, not like hey, let's let's give you the facts and I can give you my proposal at the end. So, okay. Okay. I'll wait for that. Yeah. So, these are these are the facts. So, I'm going to give you guys the fact so that you can help make a an educated decision. So, and I'll
012give you my recommendation. All right. Any questions? Well, I also want to say like it's not it's not our job to make that decision. Ultimately, my job I don't want to be involved with that, but I think that we have to figure out how to get you together. That's what I'm thinking is a real issue here. So, I mean, we can waste a lot of time in going over every prep period and every period, but I think the general gist is there's not a consensus between administration or teachers. That's what that's my feeling uh from what happened last week and what we're seemingly here for now. Um, so finish your you know, see what the proposals are. I'm sure that there's a solution, but that's what we were looking for was like for you guys
013to come together and then come back with us for what the proposals might be considering it wasn't favorable before. Um, okay. I I don't 100% agree with you. And um I think that so we've hired Brian to do a job. I understand that and the teachers have their opinions but he doesn't necessarily need to I totally agree. This is his ship and if he so I I don't think that we necessarily need to make them come together. If he feels that this is going to work then I think we have to trust in him that this is going to work. Absolutely. Okay. Thank you. So we can go and go to the next slide though. So we'll show So we did do a proposed schedule though, so you guys can see it with an added
014elementary teacher. So this is the for PE since this is the one that was in question. This is the one that I just showed you a second ago. And then this one is if we add a teacher. So that's what the TVH is. So then her because we have 35 slots in her day. We have 16 teachers right now. PE needs to be done twice a week. So it's 32 slots two and three extra slots. we added an additional teacher in the elementary level, we would have 34 slots. So, she'd have one slot extra extra one extra instead of three. Yeah. Okay. So, two less. This is what it costs for average teacher. And one of the things was to do a support staff and maybe have a full-time equivalent for a sports staff in
015there, too. But that's also pretty expensive for a budget that was already passed. This is the projected class sizes that I have um as of right now. So we have 15 and 16 in first and kindergarten. And then we have 12 in second grade, 13 and 14 in third grade, 15 and 16 in fourth grade, 13 and 14 in fifth grade. 15 and 13 and sixth grade, 24, and then 15 and 15 for a total of 237 kids right now. So, we have on the books as of today. So, if we added an additional teacher, that's what would bring the class sizes down to if we add an additional elementary teacher. So, both kindergarten and first grade would have a class of 11 and 12. Correct. Emory. Yes. I think I got a question probably
016for Christine. Last night at the SU meeting, um it took place pretty quickly, but there was some percentages we fell at 9.8. I didn't exactly understand what that was about, but we fell right in the middle where we should be at staffing level. Oh, yes. the title one comparability and I didn't get I didn't ask the question at the time what adding a staff member putting that portion down are we going to fall outside of that window that's recommended uh possibly I think she tested it with heartland and it definitely did are there consequences if you're not in that window yes there are you have to adjust your staffing okay yeah so yes that is that that is and we also have to be conscious of for people costs as well. Yes, exactly. Okay. So,
017this is your next slice. And then one of the things because currently we moved an ele elementary school teacher to middle school and so if we moved the middle school teacher back to elementary school because that's why we have now a combination class. So that's what the numbers do for there. The numbers in elementary school stay the same on the last slide, the proposed one. But then our numbers in sixth grade go up to 27. So we'd have 27 24 and 15 and 15. Okay. Um so these are some things to consider when we're taking a look at that. Um the FY25 deficit as of May 16th for special education is $1.2 million. We're on the hook for 25% of that. That could change. That's sort of a worst case scenario right now. Is there
018space in the building? pretty tight. We can make it supplies, equipment. So, if we add another teacher, all those things go up. And then um with H 454 and FY27, we already are looking at $150,000 increase minimum minimum. Um this is sort of our cluster of where we went classiz. So currently for K for first for first and kindergarten we're at the lowest end of the optimal class range. And actually some of the other grade levels we're lower we are lower we're lowering that too at 12. And then this is what H54 H454 is talking about with uh class sizes going up and our numbers have to be 450 if we're 6 through 12. That's just looking at that as well. So 1 through 4 should be at minimum class size of 15. Um 5
019through 12 should be minimum class size of 18. So planning a little bit for the future. Sorry to get back in on multitasking. I'll go to the next slide. So there's our enrollment over the years and this does include our numbers of students that are homeschooled or students that are going to alternate placements that are provided. So we have right now we have 243 students. So we sort of topped out in 23 24 at 271 and we've been progressively dropping a little bit with enrollment. So one of the things that we're going to talk about is some of the growth um because we kept talking about growth students. We haven't had that much. Like I said, we topped out two years ago. But these are some of the things that we've added to make it
020more meaningful to students with Chromebooks, maker space, having leader and me, electives, leadership. Students are going to be excelling with that this week again. DEI curriculum continually being updated visual arts athletics program SEI alternate learning opportunities through grant and introducing new musical programs like having choir which has been stuff we've been able to do a lot with what we've been given okay so since we did the budget the budget was passed in March I don't think it's necess neessary at this time to add an additional teacher. If there's concerns about we've never told anybody no about being able to use the restroom. If we need to add some help in there in PE, we can add help as far as with an existing parah. We can do that to make transitions if she is needing
021help. But I don't think it's financially responsible to add an additional teacher at this time. if that's something we want to look forward towards next year before we do the budget process and have our town voted on it. I'm all for that. Um, if we want to have a teacher be part of the BAC, absolutely. Um, we can do all those things. But I don't think my recommendation is to keep the status quo right now. If we need to make some adjustments, we can look at even the prep period for our PE and see if that's even feasible to move it. But right now, after looking at it and having all the work we did, this is the best schedule we came up with that fits the need for the majority of everybody. Any questions?
022Not for me. Any questions? But the additional teacher doesn't fit into the budget that was passed in March. Correct. So, his recommendation is to leave it as it is. And we'll talk about another teacher come next budget season if we feel that one's necessary. And the real estate isn't available for that teacher to have a room either. Correct. We we could make it and make We have right now we have OT, PT, and one of our SEI that uses one of our classrooms. We could try to find small spaces for them, but they wouldn't be able to do some of the PT and OT in a smalliz classroom. They'd have to do it in the hallways or maybe the AP room or even possibly the gym and share that space again with PE. possible but
023not most convenient, right? Megan, do you have anything? No, I I think this I really appreciate putting this together. It makes a lot of sense. I think my my question more to the group is um know my question from last week is the growth that Weathersfield is more than just students, right? looking at that as a pretty good list. Um, but with these changes, was there anything else outside of two teachers or one teacher that we could work with that could help? Is there any further thoughts on that? Just find a group. Possibly an assistant to Laura would help. There was a way to adjust that. We only currently budget for one air professional full-time professional in our building and she obviously gets utilized other places including special ed. So it sounds is that is
024that our locally funded correct para that's doing special education. Okay. So I'm just a little bit confused. Our para does special ed when we have that covered by the SU. Is that right? She fills in and she's assigned that spots right now that Yes. So, but we also can have parents that work with other kids like doing yard duty and stuff like that. That would be so it's sort of a balance, right? Is it ideal for us? No, it's not. Would I prefer to use your other places? Absolutely. Right now, we got to get kids their minutes and make sure that they're being covered as best as possible. So, but that person is funded by Weatherfield and not the SU, correct? So, can we is there an option like where that person ends up doing,
025you know, gym assistant setting up, I don't know, something like that? We can have her help with that. We can have that person help with that for sure. Right. Yeah. And that's definitely a possibility. Um, but we want to make sure that we're utilizing that person as best as possible. For sure. Absolutely. Have we is I don't know the mechanism about getting more another pair from the su uh that should be doing ours with students and not like ours I I just yeah I don't know how that works but to me I'm like why we need this they're asking for help and we're not using our our person that we're paying for. So Katie will Katie will do the when she does the service plan, it changes based on needs and and people that move
026in. I don't know exactly um how how it's going with this particular individual, but I know when staff are out, we have to cover those minutes and sometimes people get pulled. Um, I know we all try to work together because these are all our kids and we don't necessarily I mean when we talked about um special ed the model where you are tied to just the students you service it um creates less flexibility because those staff aren't able to um work with other students and we do that now. Special ed students work with regular ed students. regular ed pairs work with special ed students based on the needs of the kids in groupings. Um so it's it's more efficient. I hear you. And I think we should look at ways that we can Yeah. What
027so what is the cost of an assistant or like what about 71,000 full time? For full time. Okay. Um do you feel like that full-time is necessary? No. Okay. Clearly harder to get a part-time person, but you never know. like there's a lot of retired folks that you know might be grandparents something you know that type of thing it's it's around right so it's an option I think we can make do with what we have for sure to be a little bit flexible a little bit creative in the schedule but I definitely think we can make do with what we have it sounds like moving prep later in the day would would help I think I think that's why I clarified that with her I know last time we talked about and it's challenging for
028a PE teacher. It's a shared space. Stuff happens there after school. So, she can't I mean, when you're a classroom teacher, you can often set up for the next day before you can leave for the day. Um, and often times she can't do that. So, I'm assuming the thinking was first period prep would allow her to set up, but um maybe that's not the best place in the schedule for her prep time. She's saying it's not. So, I think that's something we can we should look at. Yeah, three extra blocks or one or two say move in the right direction. I have a question that might be sort of for Brian and you but um would it be better to like combine two classes sometimes? No, we just did that. We did that before. and
029we and we didn't like Yeah, that is a good question. When my kids were in the school, there were a lot more kids in the school and each grade had like 40 or something kids. So, you know, there were two classes, but they each had over 20 kids. So, I was just thinking, yeah, I would say no. I'd rather keep the classes myself. And that was one of the things we did is we did have one class that was combined and so we did separate that class. prep but right we did talk about that separated access the thing that I think we are talking about excuse me for speaking out but one of the things we continue to talk about is the number and we talk about the number of students but we have to
030look at the bigger picture of those particular students and needs and we're not looking at that which you you wouldn't know the needs of those students. The combined class was a tough class and we did the best we could. Lauren did the best she could. Absolutely. She did it willingly at the moment and has now said we don't want to do that again. Right. Because it is it's not about the numbers. The numbers look lovely. They look small, but they're really the students are not they have higher needs than they've ever had before. And we don't typically we're not typically fully staffed here for the the kids that need that type of one-on-one time or help. We do the best we can. But that's what we continue to do, right? We continue to do the
031best we can or make do with what we have. And so that is why we've come to you guys to say. This is really difficult. It's burning out teachers. It's burning out kids because they're not getting what they need. They're not building the relationships with the adults in the building that they need to have and it's making things difficult. And so we're only asking because we see the future. We see what it looks like now. We're the ones here doing the work. Brian gets pulled out of his office often. Multiple people get pulled out of their offices often. That takes away time from other kids. That takes away time from the teachers being able to do the work that they need to do with these students. I don't feel that we are doing our due
032diligence oftent times with students in the building even though we are trying to do the best that we can but I think that's the part that we need to look at. We need to stop looking at just the numbers because the numbers don't really show. They don't reflect what a day in the life of a teacher or any staff in this building is going through and the things that we need to make sure that the kids are getting what they need as well. Um so I I think so. Um, so Brian did mention the idea because what we're kind of talking about here is that at this point it's way too late to add $100,000 teacher into the budget. We need you guys to come with this stuff way sooner. So if I think adding
033a teacher on the BAC is a great idea. I would like to see that happen for this year. I'd also like to see the process move up a little bit. I think Sarah and I were talking to you about this at the end of last year's budget. Like when you start talking to the BAC, I think we should also start talking on the board about the budget too. Um so the same like when you do present to the BAC do the same thing to us at our meeting. Okay. And so that we can be in it along the way and I think it would be great to have a teacher on the BAC to give their input for next year. We agree. Okay. Up until this point, we haven't been privy to that information. We
034haven't been to my knowledge and be a part of the DAC there. Is there a conflict or anything that has actually it has said in the past there's a conflict for staff to be on the DAC staff member on the DAC previous years and uh it was frowned upon. All right. Well, it can be frowned upon as long as it's not illegal. should find out like where would we find out? She said we've done it. We've done it. So if they're a staff member and they're a community member because they have to be a community member to be on the BAC. Correct. So somebody who lives in Weathersfield and is on our staff, which I think we have plenty of, right? And and we understand it's late in the game, but we also have to
035wait until the budget passes. We also have to wait until the schedule comes out. we also have to wait until all of those pieces that we are privy to all of that information. So, yes, we understand that it's late in the game, but we also know that we haven't had the opportunity until now to be able to ask or express the difficulties that we see moving forward. Yep. So yeah, I think I will say to the board, we have spoken to throw this out there because I did do BAC um and coming I think it's a really good idea. I will say though I I think we all need to learn more about how we tackle this need because right it's not about the numbers. It sounds like sounds like this is a big list
036and it's more about individual students and when you look at how you're doing budget and how that is kind of separated and put in a different pile it is really difficult to allocate based outside of that system. So, I do still think if there's a unmet need, we have to figure out like what to the best of our ability like what is that? Um, outside of adding teachers because what I'm hearing is you could add those teachers which would be helpful, but you still have individual needs that were maybe not equipped to deal with at the school. And so even just being even just being on the committee, you're you still don't have that insight because the way it's allocated to the SU, you don't have the ability to essentially pull that money back into
037other fields. Unless I'm speaking out of turn, it it depends on the needs. So I mean, you just saw the special ed budget is over and that is because there were unexpected needs. Um and it's not an immediate fix usually, right? So, if there's a student that's displaying needs and it usually comes out behaviorally um academically as well, there's a process that we have to go through before we get there. Um and so that's frustrating for everybody involved, although there's a lot of work being done to try to put supports in place with the resources that we have. Um and and we will obviously support all our students all the time, but once you get through that special ed process, um there may be additional supports assigned to a student. That's not always the case,
038but um often is the case and it's not it's not always the answer either to be honest with you. But what I mean though is once it's if you don't have the whatever evaluations you need and all that isn't bucketed before then you don't have the ability to pull it back out from the SEO and give it to Weathersfield. So I don't have the I do not have the answer. Um, but what I'm putting out is um, whatever these unmet needs are, we have to figure out what they are and how we communicate that before budget for whatever it is because if not, it's not going to be what budget because that's segregated out and split. So, I do think this is a really good idea, but um I don't know that that is going
039to check all of our boxes just to be transparent and and if there are needs, special ed needs that arise outside of budgeting, we we have to fill those legally and we do um which can have budget implications. So, if there is an unmet need at at Weathersfield and a student qualifies that wasn't planned for and there is a determination by the IEP team, that student needs additional supports and we don't have the staffing to do that. We have to hire somebody and and we've had to do that this year. Um, so, but it is complex and complicated and everybody works so hard and um I I hear I get it. I was a teacher. Brian was a teacher. We totally understand where you're coming from and want to do the best we can um
040to support you and the kids and be mindful of you know the financial responsibility as well. So the classes just aren't in our favor especially the coming and so we don't have that lever. What are other ways to tackle burnout in this group? Are there any other um ways to look at this? I don't foresee us getting past the class size issue, especially with what's coming. Um, it's not looking great for next year. If we had the budget, they still wouldn't be able to keep the teachers given the class size requirements. So, this is the piece that is there another way to reflect and and to share more information about how we can make meaningful changes that make um keep you guys engaged and not burned out. I don't know enough to have suggestions yet.
041Um, so I'm just curious. I heard that there were previous engagements or meetings about this subject. What were the outcome of those meetings? And this question for both of you. We we meet with Brian regularly. Um, we in terms of meeting about Laura's particular schedule, um, we usually do that at the end of the year, it's been at least three years now that we've discussed her schedule with Brian normally at the end of the school year, right? Like after the after the schedule comes out and we've discussed the difficulties that she's had. Like I said, she has volunteered sort of to give it a try, right? And now we've gotten to the point of where it's become even more difficult. And when we build a schedule for the school year, we look at Laura's schedule
042first because hers is the most difficult to be able to do. And then you build off of that. So everybody else's special schedule, everybody else's is built off the PE schedule because she has the most commitments for minutes for students. And then she also and the schedule doesn't have any duty schedule. There's no time. Yeah, there's no time for her to have duty. So, she doesn't have duty, which everybody else has duty, which is okay because she's with students, right? Like it's not like she's Yeah. Yes. But I'm just making sure that like we're not adding that on to her, too. So, staff understand that. Union understand. Okay. Thank you. That's why I want to make sure. We understand that. She's She's with students. It's free time. No, she's not, you know, she's not hitting
043duck. Yeah. So, in the last three years, what were the meaningful changes that occurred when you were working on this together? We've adjusted the schedule best we can. We've listened to what she said. Okay. We She's been open to trying different things as far as the having the combined classroom, also mixing the PE schedule so that we can have electives for students so they have a choice in the afternoon. And she's tried it out. She's told us things that have worked and haven't worked and we've made those adjustments as best we can with it and trying to give her the opportunity to have a schedule and trying to keep her numbers lower. It is difficult on Fridays. Fridays tend to be a bigger day because we are short one person because she didn't want to
044work that day. Um I'm picking on Terra. I'm kidding. You know me. I would like to work. Yeah, [Music] she'll do it. I don't have the cific. That's thinking outside the box. That's not a bad thing. Yeah, exactly. It would increase the budget by just by one day though, right? Like by two. I'm good with that. We don't know if we can convince it. It would be. Well, then actually we don't want to do full time. I'm worried about like grand. Yeah, that's um we can look at it. That's that's in all fair joking aside, building on this though, is there any other time staff that are not here all the time that might be curious about those hours? I don't know. I don't currently have anybody right now. Okay. But we could look and
045still and see if somebody wants to help out. I Yeah, I think we only have a couple of pair of educators that don't work full week, but I'm not sure. Yeah, we only have one right now, but she's also retiring. Yeah, I don't think so. But then we have somebody else that helps there. We can look and still see. I'm not saying no options. Obviously, we can find an option. We want to make everybody as happy as possible. I just can't justify another an additional teacher. I just I think we're all agree. I just looking at it, but there's probably a multitude of other small program and we want to keep our great VA program and we want to keep happy. Absolutely. But we can look at I mean I can still look at other
046options. Absolutely. But but they just have to be less expensive options. I can't we all agree with that. I'm wonder just for the sake of you know playing this out is the board in support of um adding additional time to potential part-time employees to mitigate the problem just so we don't have to have another meeting I say yes yeah you can I will explore those options may ask another question is there a possibility of a shared situation we've done that before in the past with other schools schools that maybe they have a part-time staff that would be willing to I'm over here. I I'm We don't have another part-time PE teacher currently. I I mean if if it was an assistant, we wouldn't need a PE teacher. Correct. If it was an assistant to Laura,
047we needed a part-time staff member. Staff. Yeah. I just curious if that was a shared situation that could also be a possibility. and grant funded positions are still funded positions. So if there's the possibility of writing a grant, yeah, anybody wants to write a grant, we're all we love grants. Just snowballing another idea that possibly we could do a grant to fund another position or and like I mentioned, if there's any kid, you know, uh student student teachers available, um that would be great. There aren't a lot of people going into education right now. It's a fairly secure job market. Yeah. Okay. Well, that that's helpful. Thank you. Okay. Um so what are what are the next steps or I I you know we're at the end of the year. Let me finish talking. We're
048at the end of the year. So I realize we're not going to resolve this problem by that time, but I think we should make a plan for there to be options or you know whatever you've done. Yeah. At our I don't know what meeting because the retreat I don't know whether we can do that or not. We can do it at the start of the retreat. We can do it at the start of the retreat and then go. Yeah. Great. So we can look at options and see Okay, go ahead, John. This is a tough conversation. I understand the wants, but even tougher conversation will be sitting in this room in March with a failed budget. So, we absolutely have to look at the bottom line. A handful of votes is all it takes to
049flip. We got a failed budget. We only passed by 13. Yep. So, um, okay. So, we don't need to vote on anything. So, we're not doing anything. Yeah. So, we're let Brian work some magic and do what his job is as he's been doing. Okay. Um, did Sarah have anything to say or I didn't hear or see her hand or anything? She's there. Yeah, she's she's there. Okay. All right. She doesn't have her hand up. Oh, there she goes. Yes, Sarah. I'm here. I've just been listening. Um Okay. I I think everything that I would bring up uh has been brought up, so I was just listening. Okay, sounds good. Um so Jimmy algebra one we have on the agenda. Um so we had a meeting SU meeting last night um where it was brought
050up. Uh they decided not to vote on on resending the algebra the current algebra 1 program. it wasn't voted on uh because Hartland has not had a time has not had time to properly discuss it amongst all their board members. So um so they're they're leaving an option open at the at the high school level to to allow H Heartland or Weathersfield to send students if we choose. But we've already come up with a separate plan. So I believe we're planning to stick with that. Hartland said they might have three or four kids to send if they decide because they don't have any currently in their budget. They don't have any way to um to have algebra one at their school like we do. So um so they're they could do um BTBLC has some
051options um but the I think they want to discuss if that's the best route for their for their kids. Yeah. So, so they're so they're still discussing it. So, it's a possibility that they may be sending a few kids to Windsor. Um, and we I'm charged with getting the math teachers together um over the next couple of months and having them really talk about whether the um the program is working the way it was intended or if there's a different option that might be a better option for the kids. So, status quo for this year, but next year there maybe changes. Okay. Does Windsor currently offer eligible one through eighth graders? They do. I think it's important that the district try to make it uniform across all three entities if we if any way possible.
052Otherwise, we're sending our kids with a slight disadvantage. Yeah. Well, we're still going to offer algebra one here, right? Just as a we're going to have it as an online program here, right? Um but yeah. Okay. So just to clarify, John, too. So we've noticed in the past that our students that go on to algebra are missing a big chunk out of that eighth grade math. So that's why we want our students to take eighth grade math as well as take out those students. That was the concern that had that they were going to miss out with the normal, right? And we want and that's been our concern and we've seen that over the last several years. And then talking to the our feeder high schools, they've noticed that same some of the students that
053are coming into to geometry are struggling in certain subject areas. So, we want to make sure that they have that good basis plus the algebra and those students that usually take math, more advanced math, that can definitely be their elective. They will choose to take that as an elective. Okay. All right. Um, anyone have any other questions about algebra one? Okay. Um, and executive session, we don't have any need for that. So, our next meeting is our board retreat, which I don't have the date of handy, but um June 10th. June 10th. Five o'clock. Five o'clock. Is that the draft agenda? Yes, we have that. And um so I guess if no one has anything further, I'll take the motion to adjourn. You want to make that motion? Okay, John's made the motion. All in
054favor say I. I. I very good. That's unanimous. Okay. Well, thank you everybody and uh