001St [Music] are you I'm good yeah okay I was just admiring what hand is doing there one hand amazing um okay hold on I'm trying to find one okay um okay so we'll call this meeting to order at 6:03 um to start are there any changes or additions to the agenda okay moving on um I'll take a motion to approve the minutes of April 4th so moved moved by Hannah Ryan second Ryan second okay is there any further discussion no okay since we're all in person I'll just do a yay NE vot all those in favor of approving the minutes of April 4th 20124 please say yay yay or I Yay um all those opposed nay any extensions okay minutes are approved four to zero okay um so I'm really excited that we have people
002in attendance today um and so I'm gonna read um the uh public participation um comments rules um we ask that all speakers direct their comments to the board directly and not to the audience each speaker will have three wi minutes and no one speaks until recognized no shouting or profanity no questions or comments about specific Personnel on these matters we ask you go through appropriate administrative channels we will insist that all speakers and members of the audience maintain Civility and respect any Divergent views that others possess likewise you may expect any restrictions will be Viewpoint neutral please do not expect the board to respond to your questions or comments tonight we take your concerns seriously and we want to have sufficient time to process and research issues if it requires them there seems if there
003seems to be an issue that ought to be followed up on we may respond to the future board meeting or have an appropriate staff member um get back to you at an appropriate time so uh that said public meeting is not legally required but we believe it is crucial for us to hear from all of our community members and uh through these meetings our boards model how students conduct public discourse and that the board and the members of our Comm can approach controversial issues in a civil and construction manner constructive Manner and can demonstrate mutual respect board is here to listen and the public comment period is not designed for discussion please start by identifying yourself in what town you reside in so with that read is there any comments from the public okay um
004any announcements from board members do we we have must have oh you will have them in the administrative report exciting things coming up school so we will um we will go with those okay uh moving on administrative report all right so Lindsay is not here tonight and Elina is online at home resting her sore back so I'm gonna present tonight [Music] okay all right okay so um as is typical Lindsay always starts with some some highlights that are going on at the school so in the slide that you can see up there there are um a couple of students receiving heart Awards I think we recognized one of them um we didn't even know she was getting it uh you'll see Chief Frank in one of the pictures having some fun with a student there's
005a kindergarten student drawing an art class and then there is um a gentleman I don't know him named Colin mck he came and used some robots with the second grader so that's the um photograph in the corner there yes very cool um the next slide highlights the um Community dinner Middle School event which was a Asian themed that um was pretty awesome I was able to to stop by and see some of the um displays and have some of the food and it was uh certainly a collaborative effort by a large group of students and staff that put that together so it was a very very big success so those are the highlights I think um I saw some of you there it was pretty pretty good event um Staffing updates so these um the
006following people will not be returning next year they did not sign their letters of intent so it's not you don't have to approve the resignation but just to keep you updated uh Michelle Carlson who's a middle school um language teacher La teacher um our Spanish teacher Jessica Ramirez is moving on and um Lacy CT and creedy is not returning next year so is she moving on or is she I think she's going to be staying home so um she'll be greatly missed she's phenomenal they're all phenomenal teachers but Lacy's been here a little bit longer so feel more connected um we have one SEI who is not returning next year and that's Marley duie so those are the people who are moving on and um for Staffing updates Lindsay just she put that there working
007on interviewing I know they are I've talked to some of the applicants um and she'll have the she'll bring the names at the next board meeting okay they uh we are closing the hi Heather welcome the assistant principal interviews so there are two two two finalists that lindsy and I um interview tomorrow the team interview two people so we'll have that and good finalist yeah okay yeah yeah good so that will be tomorrow okay all right that is um lind's report now on to your lastol I gotta be your SPO don't I yeah um so I think appropriately the theme of April was Community um which you know kind of specifically um the community dinner which is obviously a big hit um that was a lot fun lots of attendence um and then the eighth
008grade spaghetti supper um which was you know it wasn't like class as a community dinner but lots of the community came that was amazing um and just kind of the overall feeling of community uh General news you know a little bit of a repeat here but the community dinner was amazing and the spaghetti supper was also went really well um in the eighth grade will be able to go on a trip despite some um weather issue issues of cancellation in the fall um but SC supper went really well so that's great I might I might be a little fundraising for yeah yeah um yeah and uh the drama club went to go see weathers Fields preview of beuty and the Beast which was amazing um everyone really enjoyed that and I actually went back um
009that night and it was really good um that yeah that was a lot of fun and then the whole Middle School went to see Windsor's dress rehearsal of the audition which is also a lot of fun um that was kind of nice for the whole Middle School to get to go see that um so everyone was kind of UC to theater a little bit so that was a lot of fun and so this um month's grade was second grade but it had to be done a little bit differently because of the age of the seven second graders so I sent the form to the teacher and then the teacher kind of took a bowl and then put the um like summary um up there so have they been working on any projects so they've been
010learning about the Earth and how it came to be and what it is made kind of like Earth Science um what was the best in school thing that happened um they enjoyed the all school meetings so I'm assuming that's like the Wildcat wrapup Miss T's return and the Asian culture fair I know know return at our house yeah um looking forward to in May 're looking forward to a walking field trip to the wreck that they earned as a special celebration for working together as a team um and a couple may birthdays and um they're planning to do an investigation into processes that shape the Earth during their um like final steam of uh May um so looking forward to all of that and the overwhelming um word to describe April was awesome and then
011they so that was really nice and then they added PS we were hoping for some new playground equipment and I was like I was like like hm okay like we're trying um because we're getting too big for what we have which as the second graders you know but um but um yeah what playground do the second graders use do they use the the they use the big one okay the main one not the side the main one so yep that was that's your report awesome all right um events that are coming up kindergarten registration is this later this month on the 17th there is no school on the 27th and music and art showcases on uh June 3D at 5:30 and I have the graduation dates in my we know is that how that's different
012than the music like is the I had the impression there was still information to come about that there it is to to beeding concerts the 23rd or something it's the 23rd it's the day the drum trip I mean it's kind of and then we have the the Tuesday after we get back is the when we the assembly so that's right there's like a block of a bunch of stuff but it's kind of nice so we can get get it all each them will be assemble real oh yeah um so an steing will be um showcasing art that night along with Mike Foley and some um different things that he's working on oh cool so is it more for like the lower grades I'm I'm not positive of all of it because I know Miss binstein
013is also um working to make sure that this is all just kind of going off with a hit so I'm not exactly sure the music part but I do know that there is going to be the art showcase as well that night so they're trying to put everything together awesome all right um as always my report is linked my full report is linked some of you heard some of it at the Su board meeting but um worth worth highlighting a couple of things from that report so this was the question of the month for April and we had a fairly good turnout of people who responded and the questions were about uh student live conferences so as you can see from the graphs up there starting on the left hand side the question was do
014Leed conferences helped me understand my child's perception of their strengths and challenges as a learner and there was um agreement on some mostly agreement on that but some people disagreed the middle question was leadership portfolios and student Le conferences helped my child take ownership of their learning and there was um a large portion of people that agreed or strongly agreed with that and as a parent I felt supported to participate in the process so overall the feedback was was fairly positive I have some comments I'm going to share with you um because there was a a comment section for parents as well overwhelmingly parents thought they were pretty um positive and it was really first time around so we're going to get better and better um but there W there was um a definite feel
015for having um a part of the a part of the conference be student l and a part of the conference be just with the parent and the and the teacher so we'll work on figuring how to do that um but most people thought it was great to see the kids involved allowed them to show what they're doing in school um one parent said makes sense to connect the proficiencies students are mastering in classes to the process more which is a great great feedback um again would love to more more in from the teacher but it was nice to have their their child present and um there were you know a few people a handful of people that didn't think it was appropriate or should be optional so that was the data collected from the question
016of the month from May um the question of the month I'm sorry for April for May is um Angie is leading and it's around the um CP The Continuous plan so she's trying to get feedback your last superintendent report question it was at the meeting yeah usually in your your superintendent's report Corner superintendent's corner you mean yeah I didn't see it yeah I always look forward so I can answer it I love as a follow on to the uh April question yeah I'm I'm still worried about the kids whose parents don't come yeah and we had we had a few yeah and I wonder if we survey those kids about how you don't want to highlight kid that their parents not gonna come but like you also want them I me part of the reason
017that we're doing it is so that the kids present right and it's part of learning and so to have kids who so in my in my school I I I sat in as a parent on some yeah so like they were presenting to me learning and things okay so we did it's not like just sit yeah so every student had an opportunity to present oh great if the parent couldn't make it it was with an adult theil awesome and it was evening time so it's not like it was during the school day where um uh did some yeah depended okay and some some were remote only which you know is a way to really increase participation so those students we haven't figured out we weren't prepared enough for those students to present remotely so we
018need to work on that we do offer that option um and I'll check on that may survey hea it may not have made it or maybe I just missed it if it happen well me too okay um we're going to discuss this later on but I wanted to just give you the details um there is a new mandatory child tax uh care tax that goes into effect July 1 it's a 0 44% tax on wages um the employer can pass off up to11 to the employee and we voted on this at the Su board meeting um last month uh we voted that the employer would carry that um tax for Su employees M scotney had their board meeting last night they voted to um have the employer pay the full tax you'll need to decide
019tonight what you're going to do as a board and we'll do that under items for discussion and um last slide is graduations they're coming up before you know it uh I listed them all because you're invited to all of them please come as many as you can we've got um three happening on June 12th one at one at 9:00 a.m. you're just G to be one at heart four and then Windsor Middle School at six are you gonna survive that yes yeah I'll be fine okay and then ask for lights and Sirens to get between yeah no it'll be great hopefully the weather will cooperate and so we're trying to get um kids involved in in planning a little bit of the graduation as well so um I know the the high school kids Kate
020asked them what they wanted and they selected her to be their their guest speaker now so she was pretty pretty excited about that so it's coming fast hopefully you can make it um Nikki I think you have to make it because you have to speak or somebody does you can delegate and and that is the end of that report Julian do it any any questions or anything please shout them out otherwise nck it's we're back to you yeah okay um so now we'll move on to the um the budget discussion again um so Lindsay prepared a presentation do you have thatr do you want me to pull it up yeah that would be good a minute I know that she um was preparing this for the informational meeting yeah you want to share it tonight
021some of it pull it up yeah we talked about talking it her tonight um we need to add yeah so this is the same pretty much as it's it's I think she's she's edited a bit but um not drastically um okay so we have the informational session on the 21st um and we are required to vote on the exact same budget that we had approved at the last um session the last vote are we making sure that the word is getting out better yeah I mean I need all of your guys' help what are some things we can do well so Christine and I are putting together an informational sheet um which we can pull up you saw I made edits I don't know yes I did I saw today um so we're putting together
022an informational sheet we did have we bought we are signs um how many have we get uh 20 they're in my car 20 um the board is going to head to Christine's car afterwards and um we'll have a discussion actually well Christine's pulling it up we can have a discussion it's loading of where we want to put them now um I me I think we want to distribute on all the major roads [Music] um and then I think we want to hit uh quei for people that don't come South and only go into fi yeah I mean I put some like at the intersection of yeah and then maybe like is that for 12 too what is that true for Route 12 that people just yeah you're right we should put some out 12 as
023well yeah and then five I'm thinking under all of the welcome to Heartland signs yeah um so how many of those are there actually don't know I know there's one on 12 yeah there's one near my house there's one on five there's one on five there's one on is there one in five in Northland I don't I think it's yeah it's up by I think unless I'm Mis thinking but you don't pches past the yellow Farm yeah it's I I drove past it the other day and it wasn't there I don't know I was like I thought there used to be a sign there it's heart yeah oh that's rough well I guess we're with the sign for schoolg okay um so yeah so I'm up for any suggestions on how to get word out
024um I I will fully admit that this time of my life is not good like I'm stretched about as thin as I possibly can be um and it's really difficult to um so I think you know all my time on the of course the list serve like I don't know if it's worth putting it out yeah every four days or something people we want just make sure have we talked to the PTO they have the PTO board up front just to make sure that people know that the vote is April 28th on that or excuse me May 28 have a mailing list I can ask I'm not sure but they they have that little board they have the board at drop off Bo so could ask Trish and Alexa if we can just make sure
025people know that the you know school budget vote Dave got a Facebook page that they can probably okay reach out to as well they could post to PTO y we will put it on the website as soon as we have our document ready to go and I think we we don't have that ready yet is Linda in charge of the Facebook page here okay we should have her just you know um uh what about the um front for Forum that people use that here yeah there are some people on it um is there any big event happening in Heartland anytime between now and the vote like there's the truck what's the situation this weekend next week but I mean we should have a couple signs yeah so I was just saying if there's like a
026big event um we should probably yeah and the rec center is probably going to be helpful as well I wonder if we could even I don't know I guess we're reaching the same population I guess we want to reach the whole Community yeah Library yeah put something the library I mean they just wouldn't they just let us put one out on the lawn yeah no I'm talking about any big events Li as if there's like an event and we've got an informational sheet we can put right those out's up there Kurt has the non-school population Conta he's got his hand Kurt you can talk did you put your hand up for on purpose can't hear you he's muted but uh you're muted there we go all right how's that hey we got you thank you
027my question is uh just relaying a question that people have been asking me is there going to be a way that they can mail in vote vote early pick up the ballot and do it before the 28th or does it all yeah yeah yeah uh my understanding and Christine if you no different my understanding is that everybody that had a mailin vote before would automatically be mailed the vote yep by the town CL yeah and the ballots came in yesterday they were delivered yesterday so you can walk into town hill tomorrow you can walk into town hall tomorrow on vote yeah yes and I think it like stays sealed until yeah as like as if it's an absentee right and the absentee BS will go out right super thank you um okay uh I think
028getting an informational at the library is really good to get an should we print out some more of those postcards I'm just wondering with the link to the budget in budget presentation I'm just thinking just a hand out like to have a pile at the library a pile of BS the pilot mic people just grab as a way if people want to get more information and can't attend the informational meeting I mean it's not super cheap to do that but well is there a way that we can like but can we do it I mean can we do it on the cheap and just do it it doesn't have to be fancy card stock or anything right just yeah just print it and cut can there be some like bullet like more bullet points because
029I think a lot of people look at something and read it and then if there's a website one p yeah and I think and I think like at the bottom if you want more information here's this but I do think like a like instead of a postcard more of like a flyer full size right color paper people can grab it get information go seek more information on yeah um okay uh so we can flip through the presentation I think it's pretty much pretty much the same as before yeah same budget but one article we voting on just the budget so yeah and I'll take any suggestions um I'll just Al so we go through the supervisory Union budget which is roughly a quarter of the school budget yep um show it in two different ways
030yeah and then um we go through enrollment um okay so then that was one of my questions we have a 13% increase in high school tuition costs and Christine have you heard so when the budgets first went out the I think the average budget increase was like somewhat between 15 and 18% do you know what the final number was of the high school tuition no All State we looked it up I'll find it I don't want to miss oh School budgets yeah right the average budget I meant school budget yeah the average school budgets went up by like 15 to 18% yeah so I mean we've tried to H hold originally to get that the rules on us after creating a budget um so are you I'm texting Larry you did look it up but
031I don't remember what it was okay I just feel like that's an important thing to note too it's like what where do we Landin yeah a 10% increase is really high but compared to everybody else like we the everybody's facing the same cost drivers right and we man to you know the Vermont that School Board Association that emails us periodically had sent out a really nice graphic showing let me kindy of dig back through it was a couple months ago but just showing various Town budget increases or decreases clas and subsequent tax changes so it it it demonstrated the issue you know because it showed how wusi one second it demonstrated how wook's you know budget has doubled but their tax rate is going down just to sort of show the proportional you know the
032lack of relationship ship between the budget and the tax rate exactly to show that they're not tethered right um and that might be an interesting thing to include yeah because I think it's important that people know that we vote on tax we vote on budgets locally but that our taxes are calculated statewide right I mean I'll see if I can find that graphic okay okay yeah because that might give us the average too um then goals yeah um there's a little part of me that like wants to take out like physically out of there because we've had to like take out the playground which is like all the kids the second like that's what everybody wants is a new playground and it's like we that was like the first thing that like got taken right
033off thing so like our that would be a good way to remind like where did we start and you know just the idea of here we just need so we're decreasing a teacher from this year oh yeah I just one quick question I don't know if I misunderstood but you said the budget only increase by 10% from last year's bu yes I got a graph from Larry D that shows that increased 28.3% uh I think you're talking about the tax rate the tax rate the tax rate increased 28% the school budget only increased 10% wasn't it increased by I'm Sorry by 15% the first time yeah and then we cut down so we were right in line with the state average increase the first time and then we chose we were one of eight districts
034in the state that chose to make cuts um in hopes of bringing down the taxes Statewide but only eight districts made those choices and so it didn't make any difference in the tax W well 30 30% of 30 budgets failed 30 budgets failed so it may still come down okay um yeah so we've cut one teaching position from this current year um and then that was last year this year you've cut right oh right last okay so this current season we're down one teacher um but for next year we're down two positions right um Okay so we've removed so from next two budgets ago we've removed three teachers yes um and then we've removed the playground furniture and lockers okay to get us to $50,000 oh wait I have the answer from Larry oh what
035is it it's changing it started at 18.5 then 11.9 as of March 27th okay so it changes based on the budgets that are getting voted down and reapproved change you have that are cut were those positions how those positions fed by tax yeah there were um there were two positions that were funded by um Co money in this year's budget and vacant positions are you doing there uh two positions that were covered by Co money um those are not vacant but the positions that we're cutting are um we're trying not to cut staffs that are working effectively we're shifting where they're salary money from okay so yeah that's where I was so I had gotten to that slide so so from two years ago we'll be down three full-time teachers which is our cut from
036the title funding and um two co teachers and then uh the playground furniture and lockers um okay so that was $500,000 that we cut okay um so then we had the budget approved on April 1 or March 1st um and then yes go to the next slide um and now we're voting again on the reconsidering vote warning yeah she's not finished with this slide work in progress okay uh so then we get into the actual budget um and it goes through what the costs were that really drive the budget um and the biggest line item is our tuition increase our I went up by 13% so that's less than well it's more now than the state average um but um and more than what we wanted and there's I wonder if she should highlight because
037this side is busy and so looking at it for the first time and from far away I think the the penultimate column is really the most important because that's where people will see it because the percentage is sort of tell the wrong story right 2% increase in maintenance but it's actually $25,000 so I think um maybe if she can highlight the dollar difference because then people will see like where is the money really actually you know what I want to do I want to move this slide down so I'm just gonna move you can you have you have do you have editing rights on yeah so I I would rather go into a presentation of um the increases that we did not have control of yeah um oh sorry that's the next oh so I
038just edited it so I don't know that does to you while you're presenting let me um there we go go up a slide keep keep going she' probably have to refresh just try going up a SL you well let me Let me refresh then it'll catch up hold on one second take you right back beginning so it's kind of like not a very they can [Music] they can set their rate they can use tuition District to they want it's a little scary it could be unrelated to what they charge their own town absolutely resents y they can charge whatever they want $100,000 per kid if they want to and we would have to say okay there a private school state yeah which is because they should do yeah you think they would yeah I'm gonna
039make this bigger it's very slow tonight C no the they would set the same right for all schools oh I it's more expensive to educate kids on this side of the mountains than it is for whatever reason on the other side um okay that slide moved so now you're in yeah so now so we we'll talk about the things that we can't control and we can't control the high school tuition which is almost half it's 40% of our increase um and then benefits are negotiated at the state level which with those two combined we're at 60% of our increase um and then the Su assessment gets us up to 80% of the increase um and the driving factor in that is special education right and it's the individual service plant for individual kids um and
040then the staff wages those were also negotiated at the Su [Music] level so that causes a total budget increase of 1 million $50,000 um and I think the next slide is the one that shows that the factors outside of our control are greater than $1,149 the factors outside of our control the total $1 million 70 or something yeah uh hold on I need to move that total I put it in the wrong spot okay there okay so yeah so then go two slides forward yeah go two slides forward okay so then the total budget increase and then the total increases that are out of our control and so we have managed to cut within our K8 budget to offset the factors that are out of our control right um okay but then then I have
041the slide that I moved again and then we go to Staffing um so this current year we have 33 people in house next year will have 32 um and that's certified individuals that are on hurtland payroll that this board has control of and then the next slide [Music] um we go into what's changed just what's what's happened in education and the demands that are placed upon our schools and our staff y um which I think is important for people to understand yeah yeah I think it's really important for people to understand that the kids that are showing up in our schools are not ready to learn and that it takes a lot of resources to prepare those kids for learning um and it's also I think important for people to understand that Heartland on the
042outside does not look to be a community of need but the school population is a community of need and that's really frustrating that the switch to Universal meals caused us to lose the title position that was what's our you know what our direct certification for this uh it was in the high 30s I believe whoa it wasn't 40s so I believe it was 30s let double Che the direct certific not direct certification uh no the total the total Sor oh my God many titles toal un mandated yes and the problem is is that so we used to collect free and reduced lunch papers and that told us what the need was in our population like where our poverty was and we used to send collect all of that and to send it off and we
043would get a rate based on those pieces of paper and if we were above 40 which we were so 40% of our yeah what You' be a title on school yeah so 40% of our population is in poverty and needs it typically needs extra services and um we have those same kids in the building but the switch to Universal meals got rid of that Pap and they moveed to a new way of calculating it so we lost that Federal funding because of that new way of you're 3.54 which is which it seems fairly accurate I mean that's not it was higher it was higher and I think what happened with the new way of certifying uh Windsor went up considerably so they're at 47 32% wow but I will say I mean I'll Advocate that
044implementing Universal far the loss of that that funding right it just complicates good complicates and it's money coming out of the Ed fund which is what funds are like we're paying again the school is paying for it again schools are paying for everything correct because schools are where people get fed schools are where kids get medicine schools where we get Mental Health Services we teach them uh well yeah and so are we building the insurance companies pain provide Health to kids no that's what that's what the state requires schools to do now psychologist laor Specialists yep private sector to go get VA yeah now it's uh this is how the state school system is completely working right now so harland's in much worse shape than other schools in the Su is that what I'm hearing
045as far as the kids mental health and that stuff um because Heartland has far more interventionist positions than even Windsor high school that has 500 more Windsor K through 12 that has 520 students so are we in such bad shape our children that we have forgive me but I think the number is like it's five or six interventionist yep we have two social emotional interventionists I think off the top of my head one's school has five and a half I think has two and weatherfield has two albertbridge has three and compared to other towns equal in size in the state it seems like is very heavy on the intervention so and I don't know I'm not in the building every day so so we only have two we have two seis but then we have
046academic interventionists so so there's difference between the ones that are maybe servicing the mental health issues with the students versus uh like they need extra help it's an intervent like let's get extra help for this kid in mathematics so then they don't have goic and special those different interventionist I just made the observation that the observationist title you know is there seems to be a lot of them in heart and I just I don't understand like are we really in that bad of a position in town and it sounds like possibly we may IAL to other schools yeah I mean in terms of um mental health supports behavioral supports I mean I was a principal here it was there are a lot lot of kids in need yeah um but is it sorry is it
047it seems to me that it's our services here are proportional to the services in the other schools in the district right there's five there's five and a half in Windsor there's two in Wei proportional sizewise we're population wise we're pretty close to what field they have two um I don't know how many academic I'd have to look um but if you look at Albert Bridge there a school 55 kids they have three so some of it's dependent on the I understand some of the school share yeah the the staff member understand that from from you the I'm trying Randy yeah and so don't look at us like we're villains no we're happy it was there before Co I think it started so you could see an incre yes this is a huge problem and um
048the the recession in 2008 y um you can see a change in the kids from before 2008 and after 2008 so those kids that were born in 2008 you can see and I think Co then was just like that yeah cell phone proliferation and then Co and the states yes or give that to you guys the more I read on the acts 12527 the law it's they our legislators are definitely kicking the can down the road lot of unfunded mandates a lot yeah sure just one more thing specializ like we have so much special ed here what's the reason for that compared to other schools um which schools are you comparing it to uh weatherfield so I think we're across the Su average at about 29% but last I looked kids qualifying for and I
049I don't think I I I'll find out for you but I think it's pretty consistent across schools in the Su parents and I've heard from other people that people come to Heartland they want to run just an address they put their kids in Heartland for high school choice that happens a lot actually people move to Heartland and Weathersfield because they they have that opportunity for high school choice and you see it costs money it does um but it's a value to this community and they're used to Harland used to be when I moved here 20 plus years ago Harland did have a reputation for um special ed services but I don't think that that is carried I don't think that there are kids moving to Harland just because of special services uh from what I
050hear it's more the high school um choice but I'll find out the rates for the other schools for you do we have are we allowed to find those rates I think we can like the general R they're not not going identify anybody yeah um I will ask professional profal but isn't this kids move on you think the positions would decrease if there not as many specialized kids but isn't it also of the contained classroom here there is that I have a selfcontained classroom here that is meeting the needs of students in a way that we can do it so those might be students also coming from other schools within the district that need that level of service so that require how many staff are just in that classroom well we did that out of necessity
051this year um because we needed to and it it's currently I want to say there are three or four and they're younger students in it um most were from Harland I think it'll expand next year staffed by one special educator who's also still um trying to provide the services for the other students who are under case load so it's it's like it's really it's really challenging that's crazy and what and some of the special education services come from this they not part of7 and those are mandated by IPS I mean we have to provide those services so if if the IEP demands additional support individual education for each kid y we have to have those stuff to do that so and it and it's an EV flow all the time so help your SL as
052a public one I would def to try to point those out on your slides my parents they just see a number not number now same way y yeah and one of the switches that we made in my time on the board is that the special education services used to be local to the schools but with within Hartland Weathersfield and Windsor and West Windsor we would have one super super high needs kid that may cost you know $100,000 by them themselves they would go from Heartland and then over to Windsor for one year and then come back to Heartland and it was causing these massive spikes in the special education budget so when we move to the Su level which is mandated by state which is also mandated by state now that has smoothed that sping
053it also made it easier just with Staffing yeah because we can move sta part time here part there that so we don't have to hire more staff just because each school is yeah and a lot of the SE staff do they they um we pair people to where the needes are so you have a student with needs that um match a staff member in another building you know we have very um thoughtful and kind of strategic conversations it's hard to move people to be honest with you but I was looking at our like the list of who we have in the building and a lot of those people are like couple hours in all of the different you know there are a couple like like speech language isn't speech and language the bcbas yes um
054are in all of the schools the school sites who do the testing are in all the schools right yeah so it's it looks like they're just in Heartland yeah but they're they're in all of the schools okay next is so okay that's the next you move it around if you yeah um so we're at 2.33 now um came down a Cent and a half yeah the legisl and a yeah and then the next one is um you go back one SL reading that the last clause on that is without the current tax rate would have decreased yeah slightly if our housing value hadn't skyrocketed our tax rate would have decreased it's demonstrated on yeah I think visually we know we've got about this you know whether it's better visually or right so then the next
055slide is the visual of it yeah um so the school based tax rate is 1.16 and then the adjustments which color is which 1.61 so the blue is um the blue is the state yeah your first dollar goes to the Ed fund essentially uh the green is your Heartland 3K 12 FY 25 budget that's 61 cents and then the 72 cents is what we pay to all the other schools based on your my gosh yeah because our housing value was so much higher than yeah so um so then uh I don't know that she's updated this one yeah this make sure you take that Penny off take it off yeah yeah it's a penny and a half oh sorry that was because the yield Changed by a small yeah right as the town as the
056towns that are ret tring to configure their budgets is that something's happening we just need to touch the screen um are they as the towns who are like resubmitting their budgets and getting voted upon if those budgets pass and they are lower then again is this yield going down the yield yes it could change up to June 1st I believe um June or July do they have to vote I think they have to vote on it again does the legislature have to be in session like do all the school budgets have to be voted on again before the end of M well the 30% that failed me that were ascended still have to be voted on some have been some have been um voted down again and rewared and they'll have to vote again I
057know Springfield's failed twice thereof again um they're putting forth the same budget I believe I heard as the last one they just can't can't cut anymore on the schools so um but we may get to this she may have already updated this because I have not looked at the updated versions but do we want to talk about sort of the process of this if this fails having to borrow from the state and having to pay the interest back that's on the faction okay just to make sure we so yeah so so we'll update that one y going um you know what number slide that is by chance I can't see 322 yeah um okay so if we were to cut another 500,000 that would be five full-time teachers and we would not meet the quality
058standards anymore and it would save $111 on $100,000 house so this I mean it kind of highlights that we're like stuck we can't possibly cut enough staff to offset what happens if you're in a position that you're going to be forced to open a school that doesn't need educational quality standards and you can you can students go to that school like how does that work is it like do they get like no they can I mean it's it's the those are the standards we're supposed to abide by it as best we can um get audited occasionally yeah but like we could graduate eighth graders from a school that's not meeting acceptable St educational standards yeah there's sort of an accreditation not for K okay what about the second gym teacher what about not hiring a
059second did it for a number of years Susan did it for a number of years they were together and Susan were here at the same time Susan was not here when in my 10 years so Susan was here trace and Susan were here at the same time Trey St cedy was 20 years ago yeah when I was here was here they were both here Pete Drisco no TR and Susan Murphy I was say said Pete Drisco oh Pete Drisco did it with Susan Murphy and then he did it with Angie Carpenter Henderson in my tenure te9 when I when I ran the the schedule Randy based on your question I mean I teacher teaches roughly five periods a day if you're going to break it down that way and under eqs standards each class has
060to have two PE classes a week and we've got nine grades 18 cohorts right and so it you can't fit PE into a one full-time job you could probably do a one and a half position but our PE teachers are also teaching Wellness so and there are standards for those that we supposed to be addressing so we're trying to use our resources in the most efficient ways that we can um and when we' posted for a PE teacher we've required them to be dual certified in health and PE so we can use that one person for meeting both of those standards yeah but I think the big thing also is like again like this slide shows that even just cutting one teacher it doesn't do anything it doesn't it doesn't do anything cutting five teachers
061still really doesn't do very much well it that's funny it's not $4 this doesn't get shot down 100 I mean it would the tax increase would still go up 22% 40% ir's in poverty right now we're saying right more people out yeah right all of our houses are appraised at four five six seven so which is the problem yeah that's the problem um there is income Sensitivity I know that's not an answer but there are people that and they did the legislature and I haven't gotten a briefing yet on what the new bill did but they did change some of the income sensitivity thresholds so that people that are on fixed incomes will qualify where they didn't under the old rules so we need to get those new home act yeah criteria because I think
062it's anybody under 128,000 yeah 63% of is receiving that and they'll continue to receive that and 8484 million is being left on the table because of ums oh yeah um so I'm just wondering if none of the changes we're trying to make within our own budget are going to help when it comes to the taxes um if we can't get someone from Mont keer that supposedly has PLL to come and talk to to the board at the meeting on the 21st or if we shouldn't just rent a couple of Vans and I'll drive to Mont because it seems like we have been here to the choir we have been hammering moner and that's why I say like when I started the meeting that I can't tackle anything else I have been texting our legislators and
063calling about like multiple times a week basis I get updates from the floor of monilia all day long I get videos of what's being voted on and the our legislators are the choir as well they know exactly what's going on especially Elizabeth burrow because she's in the next she's on a she's on the um Su board and she's on the um not compy board and they get it the problem is is that the Ed committee is not representative of this region and they are making decisions that I think go against what most vermers want at this point so we need to be continuously pounding and staying in the game we have Scot we can invite him invite him I mean he honestly like my impression is that he wants schools to fit he do from
064the day he walked into office he has wanted schools to fail and I think he is probably jump in for Joy at this current situation because he is going to get his wish and that is the scariest part to me so it's not the scariest part of politics but be right up there yeah you're right's a um I don't exactly know where it was in which papers but there was a new Su position um that was in the original budget for diversity and some something is that still in the new it is what is that um curriculum going to be um she uh Tracy Price is our diversity equity and inclusion coordinator so she works with all staff across the Su um trying to make sure that our schools are inclusive of all students no
065matter what um to make sure all students have a sense of belonging have represented in our curriculum we have a voice um so her job is uh extensive it's not just specifically around curriculum I mean she's on a committee um right now for hiring practices how are we how our practices going to make sure we're attracting a diverse Workforce and um she brings a a level of expertise that um pretty much uh a me I mean she she is she's been doing this for working with all of the surrounding schools we're not just carrying her Sal and Wes were you in any committees with her uh a student group with her were you in oh yeah yeah yeah we have like a a Heartland um School Community inclusion group um and we meet with her
066every Friday and she's been amazing um and yeah so we've been working like in our school to try to do a um to like make everyone feel included and stuff um so she I mean there's there's bullying in our schools there's racism in our schools and we're trying to um there's all sorts of isms in our in our communities that we're trying to eliminate um so she is the primary Point person on that work um she's been educating the board she's been educating the administrators the teachers um she um dissected our Equity audit that we had and is and um some of the work that she's doing addresses some of the um things that were brought to but from a socioeconomic standpoint we are very diverse and a lot of the work that she does
067she it doesn't her work is inclusive of everybody and by doing that is including the socio economic issues in there special education yeah special education all of the isms um she she works to make us all figure out how everybody can move forward how we can lift everybody up um and come together as a community and I think she's been a phenomen she's amazing she's amazing is um so okay so that um okay so that's been updated okay so I want to go over the uh facts documents you and I have been pulling together did you make any edits to it or did you just no today okay yeah since this morning so let me share this tab instead and then Larry also created some graphics he did we can put them in here yeah
068depending on which ones you want so okay yeah so oh that's tiny okay so um we started I think we need less bullets on um the rebot info but um you just need your most important ones up yeah yeah I'm trying to make it um and I think I mean maybe for people in the room and listening um one of the challenges with creating a school budget is that we work from October until January to come up with our school budget and we're completely in the dark because the State doesn't release any of the tax impacts until mid January and then our the state typically releases the tax impacts about five days before the budget and the um ballots have to get uh to the Wier and so the board works in complete darkness because
069as I said we develop our budget based on what we think we need in the school but our tax rate is set at a Statewide level um and so it's really frustrating to to work towards what we think the school needs and then to find out that it's going to cause a 30% tax rate increase what yeah after we've done after we've done all of this five months worth of work and then you're like okay and so that's why we went back to the drawing board um to reduce and then um so then we went to a revote um and the revote is just that it's a revote of the existing budget we're not allowed to make changes um prior to vote um and I also I don't know how you give us feel I
070don't feel like there's much we can change um so the revote will take place on May 28th um and then we'll have the budget information session on the 21st can I just for just sake of 80 million commas can we take out the year 2024 like sure for all of those because I don't I I think I think we're just talking about you know like I feel like yeah um just forgot what I wrote there I kind of want to I want to get it down to like free bullets the other thing is I wonder I mean that the that um slide that Lindsay made demonstrating this in a timeline yeah might be easier to look I was gonna put that oh that yeah that's a good idea and just do you know yeah like
071one timeline across the top I like that okay so you don't have to change the DAT okay we'll just do that instead yeah so then I put together a true false um and one of the things things that I've heard a lot from a lot of people is let's vote down the budget so we can send a message to montar um and I think that we need to make it really clear that the school has developed the budget we think that our students need and that if we do not pass a budget by the end of June what is the date on that is it June 1st or July 1 July I believe okay if we don't pass a budget then when we start our next school year on July 1 we have to pay
072interest on all of like so it's going to end up costing the town more do you know what the interest rate is I do not know but I imagine it's like 6% current yeah so so we would have to borrow the money from the state and then pay them back with interest while we try to pass a budget while we try to pass a budget um so that adds that will definitely add costs right um and I don't I don't think it'll send a message failure I think they they have the message they have the they have the message they're just not they're not anything about it 30% of the budgets failed and what have they done since then State mushroom yeah brought forth by students okay sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry that was
073not yeah that was not like it was the uh school board's appreciation week that happened when 30% of the budgets went down that I was just like literally ready to punch my computer um usually I'm not like that um so then additional cuts um will not save um tax so the other statement additional cuts to the Heartland budget will save taxpayers significant money um if so we have 42 people on our payroll and for every staff member that we cut somebody whose house that's approved at $250,000 will save $56 um so it is not it would have a big impact on our kids and it's $56 um okay so uh the primary driver of tax increases is um is the significant increase in house value since our 2019 appraisal um so it that means that
074the way that the state is taxing us is if you have a $250,000 house the state is taxing us like your house is worth 422,000 so it's worse if you have a $400,000 house you're going to get taxed like you have a 750 or $800,000 house yeah so that's why taxes are going up as significantly as they are it's nothing like we we can't do this um heartland's 10% budget increase is significantly more than other communities um so we should we should change that yeah 11.9 yeah it's 11 yeah I would change that um but when we say the budget increase I think we need to specify like the budget increase from last year budget not like tax right yeah because I feel like that reads a little funny um I I do have an
075answer from Katie about your your question um yeah on it she said um I said what are the rates special ed um at weatherfield versus Heartland are we all at around 20% and she said give or take a percentage Point yes I can run the hard numbers do you need them now and I said no but so all of them are the same yeah um which one this one the bottom one 12 guys I love this can we just write myth before the myths because there's just a risk some glces at thisly The Bold and holds on to that as the fact right so like myth heart 10% budget increases other communities that's that's a great I mean I I started to write an FAQ but I couldn't come up with questions so instead I
076no great I think this is great I think just to make sure that if somebody you know everybody's busy we all read things quickly you sometimes store the wrong facts so just to make sure people are very clear that that is not in instead of the word false if voters vote down the budget we will send a message right above that one or like in front of it or you know just to be very clear that like we're not I think it needs to go right in front of think right right to be big and bold okay you know you do like myth and fact like those kinds of things so then maybe y myth and then fact if every does not pass a budget um so we've got some more work to do on
077it yeah is there somebody that wants to lead that up yeah do you want to um if you want to share it with me I needs I've been trying to help her needs a break i' not been able to keep up with all the things right now you're doing a great job negotiations my family would disagree um uh there was another uh Larry shared something with us while I was at a conference last um the visual oh it was a it was a it was a rate it was a it was a spreadsheet of um if your house was appraised at this this is the value that you're being taxed on yeah I've got a from oh okay yeah so he s that to you why can I not find it I was in it
078earlier today do you is it an actual like image versus just words yeah that you put it in this document has anybody mentioned falling apart a little bit there's a lot on my BL thank you Christine for finding that um okay yeah so this this is in there terrifying um okay are there any other ideas comments questions I would kind of like to put together a committee on budget or uh voting advertising sub committee but yeah um are we allowed to do a committee of free or are we only allowed to do a committee because then it's two we're allow you're going to warn it and make it public right you could do it would be yeah yeah I just wanted so Hannah do you I guess maybe you and I can work together well
079how about Beth and I work together okay you and Beth work together share this with you okay but we're gonna work together on like signage yeah and like okay and pampl but you were gonna like talk tol thank you so much a pamphlet yeah like whatever this any Flyers that you get done we can print and get them get that part done we them at the Su level or at the Town level like how do we do that Su yeah or or Linda you know get it done okay just let me know and we can like print them on just like bright paper and places um so years ago I have no idea where they might be now but um we had a school board meeting posters and they were all Lam so you could
080just change the date and they they said the they said the time the location you just changed the date and they were this color green and we put them up at the Damon Hall on the three poster thing every two weeks um but we should use you guys should use that board because everyone looks at that board through yeah oh you're right BG's and miks I mean these weren't at BG's and miks they were at the town clerk's office those were at BG's and Mike's they might have been taken I well I brought a bunch over to gotta but um I mean I I rarely go into the town clerk's office but I'm E's every day right um the the other question that I just wanted to I've got still a lot more questions but
081um so you said said you cut the playground out of the budget but the playground was from the capital reserve I thought no some some of it was a small amount about 25% 75,000 yeah about 25% of the budget was in the capital reserve and the remainder was in the school budget so it was like 150,000 or so in the school budget no there was 2 30 in the school budget and 70 so that was a little misleading because when I first the first two votes said you were taking money out the capital reserve for the playground yeah but I didn't realize that it was actually buried in the budget so we had it we had a slide about it and where the money was coming from in the informational present in the first informational
082presentation um what we had done is we hoped if we went forward with the playground we the 70 that we put in the capital reserve was the amount that we assumed we would be able to get grants for so that we wouldn't so we didn't budget for the entire amount we put an allocation in the capital reserves so that if we didn't get grants we would still be able to fund the playground but we thought we could get grants for about 70,000 okay so and then like so the second when we actually voted on it it was like a 10 right that we put in and that basically is just for like safety stop Gap measures so like right now there's on part of the playround like so we just need some funds to like
083get that down so no one like gets injured you know and things like that so that was where that that 10K out of the capital reserves to be able to just like and buy some extra additional like playground halls and visit that so I did um when I was on the board for a short stent um we we voted in to have a capital reserve account and my understanding of what that could be used for and this board was a little different so I did call the Department of Ed and I talked with Nicole Lee and she did some research and she said that um these funds need to be kept in a separate account and um to be used for um what the voters decide however if the voters authorized to use it for
084something for something specific it can still be withdrawn for that purpose it's not just for Capital Equipment or what have you and some people disagree with me on taking some of the capital reserve money out to help decrease the tax really yeah for the tax burden on the um the residents of the town because they say you'll have to make it up again next year when it goes up even higher and it's you're just chasing your tail that being said there's a lot of people that are living paycheck to paycheck and just trying to figure out how they're going to get you know pay next month's mortgage so um I I don't you said you can't change the this budget for for May and why is that we can't change the numbers because that's the
085law it's a reconsideration vote so it's a reconsideration of the budget that passed in April it has to be the same if it fails then the board can come back every seven days with a new budget and then they can adjust but but we changed it the first time we resed it because the legisl asked us to do that us to do that it was never voted on the board it's think of it as the board cut the first budget or failed the first budget essentially made cuts and that budget went forth to the voters it was a little confusing because there was the informational meeting and then the Articles were still included on the ballot they didn't I had thought they were going to cross out those articles but they didn't so it made
086it look like it was being voted at and I think everybody felt like they were voting on it yeah and and again and I blame the legislature because they literally changed the law six days before that information about the capital reserve for this next month no no okay and are we reconsidering article no just the we're not reconsidering that capital reserve article just the budget Artic and there was no petition to reconsider that so that's already done the $10,000 the stop G for the playground yeah so that pass so that money will come out if we need it we don't get gr and that'll fix so theoretically speaking that capital reserve account so will have the same balance year after year after year unless we vote to put money in or vote to take money
087out and the board the board hasn't we haven't put money in in years because we' have constantly applied deficits um to buy down taxes and we have this year as well or not deficits surpluses Surplus so we've used instead of putting last year Surplus in the capital reserve account we have chosen to use that Surplus to buyx how do we end up with a surplus in FY it's the FY 23 Surplus we were um short staff we couldn't fill positions it's been a thing since Co um so we ended up with the Surplus yeah and those are some of the positions we've cut now that we're on and that gets reapplied to for the taxes yes that comes off of this year our choice and we decided to put it toward the taxes instead yeah
088um great questions though well I just I just see that money sitting in there when it could help somebody save their house so well I mean we have been drawn out of that usually to make pretty catastrophic repairs um so that those so that those can happen when they need to happen um like we had to replace all of the sinks and the Ping on this hallway and so like if we used all of that capital reserve got 3 43,6 is that right because I thought that was what we initially thought but I thought you as you just said that you have the taxpayers have to vote yeah you have to vote on it so you can War it mid but like if we would take it out we spent a lot of money and
089that came so that was like a warned voted upon use that for the sinks we knew it was coming got it okay so it had been warned and voted upon you can't it's not like it's just sitting there to like the boiler Clos tomorrow grab grab that money it still has to go through process okay confirming that it's to me it's important to have that moneyy yeah although I'm happy to know I did not I thought it had to be used for Capital Equipment so it is that is good information to know that it's because theoretically if we can't pass a budget that would you could warn to just take that out and use it have to it well no I know but which I think there's not much in there I know what would
090that even it wouldn't I think it would thank you guys um okay I think we've got a committee I thank you guys so much will definitely sleep better knowing that I have help um okay so moving on to the child care tax um yes we had that discussion at the SUV Val level like because here's another state mandate here we go many um so the Su board get what but you can't actually get I can't actually get child care from my baby the state of verot but no day carees maybe maybe the tax will help yeah let us know okay with Julian's that's right I was say I'm not having another one to out um Mar so the Su board voted to um to make that an employer um mainly uh we're only allowed to
091um have 0.11 you can pass that much on to the employees you can pass that much or is this 0.11 cents uh percent per can you do you have the data on what the ual dollar amounts were somebody shared that total it was 45,000 across all our four Su districts well Su Harland weatherfield and mney so I mean it's probably around $10,000 um if you said11 of that or whatever what we talked about at the level was that yeah $9,000 the accounting of having to separate it would cost more offset the having the employee pay it yeah to pay an account to figure out yes oh good lord um and if all of the SCH don't do the same thing then that accounting still applies just so if Harland does something so Su is going
092to the pay sorry is is paying it paying it weatherfield next week okay near this week [Laughter] yeah so the total tax is around 10,000 for Heartland and then yeah if you paid all of it yeah if we paid all of it so the 0.1 is like it's not a lot yeah it really is it's a small amount yeah you pass it on to your employees and every employee in the building pays for it it's a it's a I mean it's a child tax on payroll new payroll tax everyone on in the state now is doing this we're all getting charged a new your school too a new tax oh I'm but like it's not just the school it's like everybody like everybody's getting well everyone employed by the state All State employers no anyone
093who lives in the state because this caused a big Kur fuffle in my husband's work but if you my husband's business is a new hampire too and they have to now they have to separate out the employees that live in Vermont and tax them extra amount okay I would make a motion that we just cover the 0.11 the whole thing yeah I'll second that motion okay so Hannah made a motion Heather seconded is there any further discussion okay I'll do uh we'll do a uh God have I mentioned on FR do a roll call not no we don't have to do aoll we can just do a vote okay all those in favor of um the employer covering being School covering the entire tax child care tax please say I I I all those opposed
094are there any extensions okay so that passed five to nothing okay on to the next setting the next agenda the next it'll be our Retreat right it'll be our Retreat so but the next I mean we'll all be together again we've already set the next agenda which is another informational meeting yeah and that's the 21st yeah so the next one will be our June Retreat um it's the 4th right and so is does the fourth work with everyone what is it June 4th is it just a Tuesday yep it's a Tuesday we usually try to you're still gonna be in school I'm always in school I'm in school hi dude yeah I mean it doesn't I it's fine we usually try to get together at 5 and we go from like 5: to 8 or
0959ine um so that we can eat dinner and is Elena gonna make Del wait does Elena get to make a delicious yeah she does she's not out of here oh yeah yeah yeah she will be there will it will it be at your home again yeah I can host again um yeah umis just let herself in I'll let Prett easy just turn it off I ran down to pick up Trevor and Christine showed up when I wasn't there so Christin just like at that point she do where um okay and and we can we don't have to set that agenda right now yeah I don't know yeah we're gonna have to figure out right well I think so much just depends on this yeah right right and I think I'd like to keep the retreat
096still The Retreat and so I think maybe we choose to warn a different meeting here um if we want to talk budget again y so we will not talk budget at the retreat so we'll wait happens and then we'll decide everybody else The Retreat is where we we sit down we have to warn it because we're all in the same room but we have dinner together and we make no decisions we make no decisions it's very informal a little assessment on how we're doing as a board yeah we get to know each other better because we don't know Ryan at all oh here comes a puke don't puke on my so I'll send you something do is there like should we put something on our calendars just tentatively for like the 30th there if we
097need to meet or something uh yeah let's let's put a I don't want to say that what are weeting know I'm with you I'm no meeting every Thursday for two hours for almost there H aren we because I feel like we haven't even talk about so many important things yet and I'm happy that we're doing so well and things are going great but my goodness it's a lot a lot this is like and and then like then on top of that it's like meeting outside I'm like oh my goodness what did I jul the vote is the 28th okay we'll know that night said attentative meeting for the 30th um Heather and I will be in negotiations in the six you guys aren't allowed to um well we could set a meeting for seven where
098are negotiations we can just come remotely well we should probably be here for budget um somebody's bringing me lots of cookies we bring we are at the um let's see if we're remote or in person that night did I just check that one's in person will be at the central office do we just want to meet at the there at 6 how do you guys feel about or we can on the 28th 30th the 30th okay I'm sorry I'm sorry Miss we'll just we'll just hold it in our calendars in case yeah if you could just put a something in our calendars we figure out where when later oh yeah CU we can call an emergency meeting on the 20 on the 29 we have to 24 hours yeah okay so let's yeah let's just
099leave that sck it out sck it out uh do we have a need for an executive session um all those in favor of ad juring I I okay anybody anybody opposed chaos okay okay okay