001e call this meeting to order at 7:30 we'll dispense with the pledge again and um is there any comments from the audience for our budget Workshop um all right hearing none I guess I will turn things over to Kristen for our page by Page prop budget review great and before we do that I just want to go over uh what is in your uh budget um packets that I provided to you uh and that included uh the superintendent's recommended budget for FY 26 uh FY 26 uh Q&A for the budget projected grants for FY 26 recommendation of new open Choice seats for FY 26 new and enhanced dipen requests for FY 26 area superintendent budget requests for FY 26 which you saw in my presentation this evening and BHS current and projected AP and ECE
002courses all right so we are going to start with um instructional technology is there a way to make that bigger or no Joe I can make it bigger on my computer with my okay that yeah that's great thank you um any questions on instructional technology I can't see you all so you're going to have to unmute and say I have a question okay all right uh hearing none we'll go on to Art hearing none English language arts okay on to World Language okay on to computer instruction please onto mathematics please sorry Christian I actually had a question for uh computer instruction okay um it's actually probably less of a question and maybe more of a suggestion for the program description um which only explains why we're spending money in grades 4 through eight but maybe
003include what happens at the high school and why we're spending $110,000 at the high school good point or at least the offerings that we have at the high school and computer instruction right for the um yeah for well it's for it is there pen Foster fees um for the distance online learning I was thinking more more that the program description implies that we don't have a computer instruction program at the high school well we don't it doesn't say anything oh we don't okay so the computer courses at the high SCH School aren't counted under this program like AP Computer Science and whatever other no computer Tex no this is just for virtual High School um computer instruction is really yeah yes y but not for grades four through grades eight correct because we don't offer
004virtual High School in grades 4 through eight so the the AP courses and the things like that would you would see like for example in the math budget AP Computer Sciences in the math budget of high school correct yes because it's considered under your you know under our board policy it's it's one of the areas within math um so it falls into the math budget okay so it's is there a reason then it seems like we're combining two different types of programs here because the pen Foster is not for computer program for computer programming right that's for any online course can I offer could I offer a suggestion um think of this not as computer instruction as computerized instruction this is online subscriptions and those kinds of things to provide instruction as opposed to teaching
005in robotics or teaching AP Computer Science which are in their respective departments okay and I I think I understand that I I'm just asking why is that type of course why why are these you know courses that are instructed over the Internet or via computer which fall into history and you know Social Studies English math under this program along with the courses that are taught at the center school that are actually on how to use a computer it just it seems like you're bundling it's because we're paying a subscription to one company we right for the opportunity for students to take these specific online courses and we never know until scheduling is done what students need to take what if any online courses based on their schedule um and and we're paying the online service
006for the ability to do that so we'd have no way of being able to put it into the various English social studies math science buckets for the high school ah okay that makes sense that makes sense so it's kind of here by as a there's no better place to put it sort of thing well correct and from like an accounting perspective if you will in terms of our uh unified uh accounts this is where it's supposed to be okay okay so we are going to go on to math right hearing non on to science all right I I don't hear any questions so on to physical education and health all right hearing none on to social studies all right hearing none on to vocational education which just a reminder that's paid for out of the
007choice Grant but we still have to keep it in our book business education hearing none on to family consumer Science question oh go ahead no you first um the by anual fire inspection and the repairs is that um contracted through John Joe you know the answer to that corre correct Cassel okay yes okay no I just saw the large increase um just from experience my job um a lot of those companies all like merged and they're super expensive right they they double their price but there are some more like local companies but I could always touch base with John about that and also for the instructional supplies I know the teacher travels to go pick up supplies correct yeah um have we ever looked into like I don't know if it's possible because I don't
008know how the cafeteria gets their deliveries like Piggy backing off of that for bulk items we can't do that okay yep because that comes in from USDA and you have to order you know through certain consortiums and whatnot and we can't um we can't like in the buckets it's like mixing apples and oranges and not allowed right thank you yeah good question though great if we could so my my question is sort of similar on the first part about the repairs and maintenance increase um what are the fire suppression Services is that just like a hood or do we have like a full sprinkler like what is the so yeah good question the entire building is fully sprinkled but in the both kitchen areas both the one in the cafeteria and the one in the
009family consumer science there is a hood with a full anel system as well as required because of the stoves in there okay that's what I was sort of assuming and the increase Ashley's comment sort of makes sense that there would be a huge increase if there's consolidation and I guess I was curious if that ever goes to bid like if uh like we say we switch out companies like if they have a 50% increase like this is for the same thing then well John always looks right John goes and certainly looks like when we have you know big increases but we've had a lot of big increases in a lot of areas um and certainly um you know I would encourage Ashley and I think I have already right to reach out to John and
010and and connect with him you know if she knows of somebody else maybe we could be using that would cost less money uh sounds good thank you all right great thank you guys uh on to music I got a quick one here also there's a note about um decrease in repairs and maintenance due to decrease number of instruments to be repaired but it seems to me that we have bought a lot of instruments in recent years and I'm wondering if the new instruments don't need to be repaired or if why are we saying there's a decrease in the number of instruments so as a parent who had kids um play musical instruments the older uh the instrument is um the more repairs that are often needed over time uh just due to use um you
011know it's sort of like the anything like in somebody's house kind of so to speak so we do we have done a good job of replacing a lot of instruments so one so we don't have a lower number of instruments we have a lower number of instruments that need to be repaired we have more instruments yeah okay that's what I was I thought because as I'm saying decreased number of instruments but it's decreased number of instruments to be repaired which is what it says but I just wanted clarification on that yes that is correct cool thank you okay on to technology education we right hearing none on to continuing education right hearing non anra library media all right hearing none onto Athletics yeah Chris a quick question for me on the online services I think
012the Q&A references wait for which one like Ashley for athletics on uh online services so of 3400 the Q a references Arbiter registration what does that relate to Arbiter Sports is the system that we um have to use for families to go on and register their students electronically with um all of the information needed to play a sport so the increase is this new or is it just every couple years no we so we we we've had Arbiter registration for online Sports there was just a natural increase in that the the big uh ticket item is for the did swap video Services um for volleyball as well as boys and girls basketball and this uh new service provides player analysis for improvement and uh the coaches and the players love it okay so it is
013something incrementally new that we that we're paying for the the vid swap video yes is new okay yep I two questions have one oh go ahead Chris think that um so uh chrisen can you confirm that 0% of this program goes to classroom instruction yes correct Joe okay right none of this yes and do we budget any funds for any other types of extracurricular activity or do we only support our Athletics extracurriculars this way oh no so in in the teachers contract right we have stipend for all kinds of um additional um activities that are not sports related um it's just that the a lot of those activities um aren't as don't cost like Athletics cost because you don't require to have officials and things like that um at them um but like for example
014we robustly support um robotics right um and and and different things like that another really good examp sorry are you saying that the the funding for those extracurricular activities supplies and whatnot that might be used as part of those activities come out of the regular instruction budget no um oftentimes we support well yes and no right it depends right some of the things that they're doing in robotics if they're doing that in class we're supporting that through the right budget um for extracurricular type things like they need more robotics kits or whatever the case may be um we often use the choice grant for things like that because we're never really sure what it is they need till kids demonstrate um right their interest in something particular or they want to make a different kind
015of robot or or whatever the case may be I'm just using that one as an example Joe also wanted to add to that I was um and then just two other quick things remember the alltown fresh donation Chris like that $2,700 that went to a good chunk we b a new field for robotics uh the PTA loves to uh support some of our clubs in enrichment so yeah we get money from a variety of sources and we've also used title four grants as well year after year for um different types of enrichment whether it be to be used for example like uh uh I don't know we bought something clay clay something but then the kids were also using it for presenting you know putting together their art show which was happening after school right
016as part of the art Club so Joe also wanted to add yeah another really good example would be the drama which is a you know because you know if you look you'll see it in my administrative budget you'll see funds in there for the licensing fees which are EXT oridate you know a couple of microphones each year those kinds of things come out of that um that line as well to support that okay thank you so then my second question was do we offer waivers for students whose families might not be able to afford the $75 payer playay yes we do okay thank you and the fact that we have waivers is regularly communicated to students so that they are and families so that they are aware of that or is it something where they
017have to come forward and ask no it's actually right on the registration page when students go to sign up for a season it's right there and and a shout out to the um the athletic booster group that actually sponsors scholarships or however you want to label it for most of that y yes great thank you thank you I had a question on the uniforms are are we replacing them for every team every year or like it's not all that specific but um I don't see my kid getting a new uniform every single year so I'm just trying figure so we don't so for example when you look at the uniform ement cycle we'll use the high school boy soccer for example um we purchased them in 2019 2020 and the replacement year will be next
018year so soccer team will get new uniforms next year um same for girls soccer um you'll see cross country and track um softball um th those uniforms were purchased in 2122 and they're up for replacement in 2627 so we usually have like a fiveyear rotating system on it is how it works okay per sport so so maybe last year was one sport and then you say oh well it'll be about the same amount next year and yeah years ago we put this replacement cycle into place because to be honest with you when I first got here uniforms just weren't being replaced and and we kind of like look like rag tag uh system here and so we put a uniform replacement cycle in place so that it's about the same amount sometimes you know it's
019a little more different years depending upon the uniforms and how many kids um but it's why you see different years listed for when we're replacing them because we're on that 5year cycle all right all right thanks yeah it seems like then I mean k through eight I guess is not nearly as expensive as the high school uh but the high school has a lot less people so is it just a difference in the number of students that play sports or the expect the are there just much more expensive uniforms for bigger kids well we have a lot of kids that participate in athletics um at the high school um and it's I don't know we have a lot of kids that participate and the bigger uniforms cost more money for bigger kids sure sure okay
020thanks yep all right my was about the Professional Services out of curiosity the CPR first aid research which went from 0 to 1500 is this like uh every other year cost or is this a new rule or was this somewhere else perhaps $1,500 from zero it says resert and I know I haven't been certified in a while in first date or CPR but CPR used to be in every other year or an every year thing yeah so originally that Professional Services line was the athletic trainer and the athletic trainer could do the CPR and and the other piece research um we took the athletic trainer out of this year's budget but we still needed monies in there to be able to do those recertifications and we really need to keep it in there every year
021because sometimes coaches change but we have to ensure that they have those certifications because otherwise they can't coach so the zero was just an unusual year it'll be 1500 going forward it should be yeah okay I was just curious why it went from zero to 1500 yeah because like the year before you would have seen $21,000 in that line for the trainer yeah correct yep so it was embedded in there and I we just we didn't think that through all the way so that's why it's there okay yeah okay so we are just one I have one one more question that the um the plaques and the banners and everything um we have to hang up the banners I mean is is that cost included or is that like um you know having somebody hang
022up the banner is that in a different bucket of uh of no we hang the banners ourselves once we get them back from once we send them out get them back um our our maintenance and actually Joe and probably a custodian are the ones that hang them okay yeah cuz I I mean I know like some of the some of the plaques right I mean the kids get them if they win the state meet or whatever it is but then the stuff that we make ourselves for sure you know I love that you walk into the you know into the high school there on way the gym and you just see all the records up on the right um all the students yeah okay thank you you're welcome okay we are on to special ed
023so I'll just say that um special ed um also continues to be a hot button issue um at uh the state capital um area superintendents from small districts met with a number of legislators um and we also had uh the commissioner of Education there with us several weeks ago uh where we um presented um a number of ideas and changes that we would like to see made with regards uh to how special education is funded in the state of Connecticut some of which uh if you heard anything about the governor's budget you may have heard there and you can probably expect to see even more and some bills that I believe are going to be coming forward so this is where we are for right now yeah I had a question um so we're showing
024a significant reduction in tuition for out placements but not a corresponding decrease in the transportation which I would have expected if we're not transporting as many kids to different schools so what's going on there Beth yeah I think trying to find my questions my question I do have a question why is there an increase in student transportation out of District you wrote it's based on an anticipated 5% rate increase right right but if we're not transporting as many kids out of District shouldn't there be a but okay reduction from current years if if that um student um who's out placement or students um and we weren't providing Transportation say their parents were providing Transportation then there would be no change and there is no change there's a $20,000 increase I understand that because that's that's
025I understand that by change I mean no decrease right because Transportation not being provided not that it's not provided if parents choose to not accept the transportation and them then there is no cost to the district and therefore there would be no reduction okay so that makes sense however the increase that is shown is I believe more than 5% so if it's just a 5% overall increase in cost cost of Transportation where where at an increase is more than 5% right so you looking down here at the the 159 is that where you are yes be yeah yeah so it shows a $20,000 increase which 20,000 divided by 139 is definitely more than 5% there's a I believe it's the student there's a student who may be needing Transportation next year which is why there's
026an increase from this year to next year a child who's curling does not get Transportation but who is outplaced who is out well who reques Transportation yes requires Transportation okay we're anticipating may need it next year it doesn't currently but yeah so that's the part about additional students requiring transportation and her answer right so I have the 5% increase in additional students requiring transportation additional students okay so you could have additional students requiring Transportation but still have fewer students overall going out of District correct I know that's a little convoluted but that is in fact that's the case yeah it is would it also be because maybe students are traveling farther or no I think it's just it's just based on the need right now it is based on the need okay anticipated um also
027under the $90,000 increase for pupil Services um so I know we have a 5% rate increase but then IEP needs for individual students so is that 990,000 in additional needs for current students or is this projected needs based on what you know students you know are coming into District that's that's a huge jump it it is a huge jump I not sure how to answer Chris without being identifiable yeah so um so we have actuals for this year that came in higher than anticipated then maybe we were originally quoted this time last year number one for that line so that's issue number one that we have to account for right and then can I jump in right there Chris I'm also a student that when we were doing planning we didn't know about as a
028particular student correct so it's twofold there right so that's um a significant amount of the cost there that we need to take care of um as well as um the cost um for the teacher of the deaf um coming in higher um and we have a number of students that we service that need those Services um and we have um added evaluations at BCS based on the number of evaluations conducted over the last few years because we are seeing an uptick in evaluations sure sure can you talk a little bit about the increase in costs for the teacher of the DEA was that because their services were needed more or because it was confusion over what they were going to charge us Services change from year to year based on a student's needs okay fair
029enough y great question thank you and we also have the services of the teacher of the DEA and an audiologist and depending on the age and abilities of a student and the needs they may need more or less of an audiolog audiological services from year to year okay thank you oh uh also just a I think a typo in your Q&A the last question under special ed why is there a decrease in excess cost reimbursement I think it should say fewer students will meet rather than will not meet am I correct in that think you no so I think it's I think they will not meet so if fewer students meet it that would mean we would get more money all right yes of course that's how yeah it's how excess cost Works yes I
030had to think about that one too when we wrote a Chris C all I go back and forth on it every year and I had to think about it when I reviewed it like three times I think I went back to them so and I didn't think long enough about it so thank you for clearing that up all good all good all right other questions on special ed all right we're going to move on then to extended school year I'm hearing non on to tutorial in home instruction all right hearing none social work okay uh hearing none guidance I had a question um I was curious what we currently pay for navian and is that amount in the budget plus the cost of the new system no we just have the want me to answer
031Kristen sorry do you want to we just put the cost of the new system in here for this year and we're pretty sure that's the way we're going based on the last conversation I have with the school counselors we're going to be moving to school links that better suits our needs they've had a lot of meetings with other districts who are using it um the the transition from navian to school links will be seamless and has been seamless in other districts um so we've just included the cost of School links in the budget it is higher because there's an initial startup fee as well ah okay but you anticipate that it will provide increased services for or allow us to provide increase Services yes both school counselors think yes it's going to be a lot
032better for the students and an easier platform form to to access and they've been really researching it since we first started talking about it a year ago and they've been in groups with other schools for that was like we tasked them Joe and I tasked them with talking to other districts to find out pros and cons and um when we first started doing budget this year they were kind of still well we're thinking School LS but as my last conversation like last week the week before and they're like it's School links is what they want so I think it's going to be really good for the kids and just a much better platform thank you welcome okay uh moving on to nursing I had some questions I think I did uh oh if you want
033to go ahead first Ashley yeah I was just trying to understand the increase the the 10,000 increase there I know it talked about external costs but I wasn't really following the root of what was driving that significant increase based on the explanation so that was my question too so it says if if I have to be careful here um if a district were to have a student with significant medical needs that need to be addressed say by the nurse and that has to be a oneon-one one situation then the nurse cannot be providing services to all of the other children in the building during those times of day when that has to happen so that being said you need to hire uh someone to either come in and do sort of the um additional needed
034medical piece say it might be feeding or breathing types of thing I'm just giving you examples specializ into interventions yes thank you Beth and so this is based on student need for specialized interventions okay so forecast medical forecasting for a higher need this year well yeah we anticipate yeah yeah yes so is this purely an on call position or is it scheduled Services certain times of the week kind of thing is it is it is it like a student might need a Specialized Service but the nurse is busy with other people and so they call somebody to come in or so it is really dependent on the particular needs of the student or students who we looking for the interventions for so we've projected and to be quite honest cassol and I really struggled with
035this because it is a projection for how many hours we will need so we're hoping that this is going to be the accurate and appropriate number but to be quite honest it may be not enough or it may be too many because it really is dependent on um the health needs of of uh the children who require the service and it would be it's an agency that we've contracted with a pediatric nursing agency who can come pretty much um like on call we can call them that morning if we need them and say we need you for the morning or we need you for the afternoon and they'll come and support the nurse's office and either provide the interventions or cover the office so that the nurse can provide whatever intervention she needs to provide
036I see okay um and are those Services um put out for bid or you comparing services to find the lowest cost provider or the necessary lowest cost but are you shopping those Services when I was shopping for this to get it in the budget um there weren't a lot of I didn't find a lot of options so this particular year I I did not I went with recommendation on somebody who can do pediatrics there are a lot of nursing subservices that we've kind of used in the P early on many years ago um many of those nurses had experience in nursing homes and other places but not school or with Pediatrics so we were really looking for somebody and some agency with pediatric experience and that's what this agency is and they were able to
037meet our needs very quickly like right now if we need them that they were able to come on board immediately okay and so just final question I we also have separate budget line for substitute nurses at $115,000 why why aren't we pulling our budgeting this under substitute nurses because it sounds like that is what it is it's it's not though um okay the substitute nurse is if the nurse at the high school is sick or the nurse at Bolton Center School is sick we have more of a an on call correct yes correct okay thank you yeah so what was the historical Trend prior to 2024 2025 was it did it ever significantly fluctuate it just seems to be fluctuating a lot going into 25 26 what this Professional Services line here corre because this
038is based on student needs of students we have today needs right right so have we ever had this level of of need or is this a unusual this is the level of need we have now there okay I'm sorry that's that's fine okay um moving on please to Psychological Services all right hearing now onto speech and language please all right hearing none on to program Improvement and evaluation oh yeah I had a question here um do I see that the the inservice the first line uh is decreasing and the explanation is because we're not sending as many staff to national conferences um if that is the case Would we not also expect to see a decrease in the travel line I believe that um travel line is um M that's Monica's contractual travel yeah line
039by contract yeah okay and honestly if we if there were a local um relatively local East Coast um National Conference again we would have budgeted for it so um this is because this year we sent five teachers to Boston it was very easy for them to get there we didn't have to incur uh any flights um just hotel and registration so it was a great opportunity for them if something comes up again in the near future then we will budget for that but there is nothing pending for fiscal year thank okay on to Central Administration okay hearing none onto School insurance so there are some fairly Hefty increases there um do you feel that we are getting good value for the insurance products we have and what is what is our claims history do do
040you track that I mean I don't know if it's helpful to do so but we're paying an awful lot of money and just curious if we are get any getting anything back that's something that we can take a look at this is a this is also a joint effort it's not just us this is both us and the town um and right now the cap the the rate stabilization that we entered into so that we can at least budget for is 5% this is year three of that rate stabilization um contract with them so in this budget I've got that maximum of 5% plus a 3% exposure so there's 8% increase in there um which it may come in lower you know 5% may come in lower and there may not be a rate exposure
041but we won't know that so yeah but but we don't know that I mean it's typically come in lower there's it's it we've only had higher than um projected it's rare usually when they're giving us that rate stabilization that's kind of like the cap and and then it can go down from there but we have to budget the cap yeah I budget for that because one year I didn't and um it came in higher okay moving on to building Administration all right hearing none moving on to fiscal Services can you explain the answer to the first question on the Q&A I not sure what a biannual Actuarial valuation is and why evaluation would increase our costs so this is for the um the postretirement um disclosure on the financial statements for the audit so that
042happens um every two years so we have a regular one that we incur every single year and then in the biannual every two years we also have a bigger more extensive review for th that disclosure so this is also in combination with the town and this is kind of our guess and what our portion might be I see I see we're required to have it yeah I'm not following the every two years versus the year I'm familiar with the every in you know year requirement and the disclosures there um is it a different set of disclosures or it's uh the same just a more granular level I believe it's the same but more okay maybe we could chat offline about about what that is I'm just curious but I do know that they are expensive
043so understood yep and then I also wondered um the business office membership is that would that be like my Amazon Prime subscription that I can use to I used to be able to get free shipping whatever we absolutely we we utilize Amazon Prime we we we order a lot of things that's that's what that fee is for correct because it's a lot cheaper than oftentimes ordering from other places we save a lot of money yeah okay okay on to systems management I just like to note again how invaluable noice has been um in spite of this increase um I want to thank them and I want to thank Monica for uh managing the uh our school breach U Monica's done a great job um and been right on top of it and novice has as
044well and been very helpful um we did um I'm not sure if the town did but we have done our tabletop exercise we had done it um earlier um to go over if a breach happened or whatever and I'm thankful that we did that in quick order with them because we were far better suited to respond to this than we would have been had we not done that um so they're also assisting Cal and looking at e- rate uh potential projects and eate money not sure where e- rate's going to lie um com the end of this year but they're still on top of it so all right hearing no questions there contracted salaries and wages all right I have a couple questions um so the extent of school year teacher salaries uh granted is
045only up I think a tiny amount $354 however uh I noted that the extended school year program budget was cut by 33% so if the program budget is being cut by 33% but you're also but you're still anticipating the same number of teachers that will be needed how does that work so it's based on student needs so if we have students from a myriad of grade levels um that even though we may not need the supplies per se because maybe we have them or whatnot um for the program part of the budget um we still need the Staffing to meet the IEP goals and objectives for these students okay and I guess to be fair the bulk of the decreases for transportation and in the program so correct okay uh the other thing I wanted
046to ask is is it possible to get a census of employees with our budget each year broken out by you know Administration teachers Paras that sort of thing so can you be more specific on what exactly it is you want before we do that work how many teachers are we paying how many how many of each type of staff are we paying got it how many people do we employ got it you got it I just wanted to be sure I was clear on what you were asking before we work Cal are you clear on what we're he's looking for there okay thank you I think when I first started on the board you provided me something like that and it was really helpful so I think if you can just refresh that sure yeah
047we can do that and we'll get that out to you guys for next meeting okay any other questions here Qui question um why is the administration and the business salaries going up like uh roughly 14% And then the teachers are only two and a half so administrators are down that's that's the first line yeah that's that's a decrease yeah sorry administrative business for I guess yeah oh wait where are we business sorry um so you may recall that um the board made a change um in the compensation for a business person uh so between that and and the contractual um pieces that the board approved that's that okay I just wanted to clarify thank you you're welcome good question okay hearing no other questions we're going to go on to Personnel benefits then again we're
048you know go ahead Chris did we ever did we ever come to any sort of uh agreement with the town about the dental the self-funded dental insurance and there was like1 $200,000 in that account and we were trying to figure out what to do with it was that ever resolved uh no that is up to the selectman to resolve because that account sits with them so that may be a question that U members of our finance committee may want to ask but it's our money right or I mean not our money but it is collectively for board employees not just board employees it's also Town employees but certainly board employees are the bulk okay of that however the board of Selectmen are the owners of that account we'll ask Chris it has come up a
049number of times and I think there's some investigation that needed to be done there um and we'll see where they are with that thank you I asked Jill every uh six months and she says we don't know I get the answer so okay not for lack of trying Chris I appreciate the effort sure maybe Ashley will have more luck Andria okay uh on to operations and maintenance the Q&A mentions that you're adding maintenance to the HVAC management system does that mean that you've purchased a contract for maintenance or is this an estimate of Maintenance costs with maintenance costs okay just based on things that happened this year oh and then also uh Q&A Q&A mentions anticipating needed repairs to zone valves I thought we were already doing that didn't we just approve well you transfer
050to take care of those you well you did for the ones that we know we need to take care of for this year John's concern is is that because of the age of the zone valves they're going to continue to fail until the whole system is replaced or or until those pieces are are taken care of so he feels that it would be very prudent to have money in there for others that he anticipates will fail next year make sense we really don't want to be in the place we we are this year to be honest any other questions on operations and maintenance oh uh could you explain what we are using tractors more of or why we are using tractors more that would account for the increase in diesel cost I think it's it's
051just for to be honest with you maintenance of the facilities right trying to it's almost a it's almost a doubling of the fuel cost are we doing double the maintenance or I just think we're doing more of it in more of a timely fashion than maybe we had done previously um as well as the cost of diesel all right hearing no other questions moving on to transportation next year will be the last year of the current Transportation contract so that will be another thing that uh the new superintendent and the board will need to tackle oh long awaited meeting of the transportation committee yeah does the transportation program does that include transport for our magnet students or is that part of the D that we PID to magnet schools it does not include the cost
052for the uh Kracken Hartford magnets that's provided by Hartford okay good question though all right hearing no other questions here uh moving on to appendix a again that's our Kappa request moving on to appendix B these were all the reductions that took place all right hearing none moving on to appendix C this is the Revenue page does the ECS estimate does that include the proposed budget cuts or the proposed Cuts in the governor's proposed budget or is this based on last year's budget or I mean what we what was passed by the legislature last year Mel this is not based on the current budget that just came out this is um an older number based on information that we'd been given previously about where we would be this year correct correct and do you typically
053adjust it based on the governor's proposed budget or do you wait until an actual budget it depends um if the governor's budget um once we get it out I do usually go in and adjust it if it's in time like we find out now I'll change it so that well on your budget you'll have the governor's proposed budget number okay but prior during the superintendent budget we don't know that I don't have it before then yeah of course yeah but it will get adjusted for yours all all the pages will get adjusted for any new information when when it's the board's budget if it's known before we publish thank you all right moving on to the next appendix which is D hearing no questions appendix okay hearing no questions moving on to the next one
054okay I'm hearing no questions there um Joe I'm GNA have you close that out because I now need to share my screen please give me just a second here to get organized okay uh what you see here are our um projected um Choice numbers and our projected Columbia enrollment for next year and just for new board members um if we have sibling requests we do our best to try to honor those um as well um so sometimes siblings are in different grades and they're at different schools and the parents want them all at one school or whatever the case may be so we do try to honor those but we don't know about those sometimes until very very late in the school year any questions here okay stop sharing that let me pull up my
055next one Kristen is are the choice numbers stabilizing I know that they were they were going down for a while yeah honestly Ria it's really hard to say I mean they seem to sort of be somewhat steady at this point in time um but it's a guess from year to year to be honest with you it just is because I know that they have more options than they've had they have a lot more options than they've had previously that is absolutely true yep all right sorry I'm looking for my next piece here um okay what you have here are the um stipend uh enhancement requests um the first is for the athletic director to increase from 22 to 24 points uh the reason for that is is Cass CAC uh approved having allowing for um
056summer practices to occur with coaches um in the past that was not allowed um at all um so now it's going to require some quite a bit more coordination and work in the summer um and this was just a stab it what it might be we really don't know until it happens uh this coming summer so that's the first request the next request is for the AP coordinator to increase from three to four uh points uh because this position is now uh fracturing afternoon exams um after school time the next one is for the drama club director to go from four to six points uh we have a lot of kids involved in drama uh there's increased licensing responsibilities that just don't seem to ever go away they just keep keep piling on um so
057that's the request there uh robotics um at both schools um robotics is a hot thing in the Bolton public schools which is awesome um but we have increased number of events and and looking for uh they're looking for you know a small increase there um as well for their point values and then um we have two new ones one is the chemical hygiene off officer um at the high school um and this person is responsible for the inventory and maintaining all the SDS um paperwork um that comes with that and then the last one is the BHS portfolio coordinator um the our portfolio program at the high school now encompasses all grades um and that was formally uh one of the pieces that um the dean of students also um had a large role in
058as well so looking for support there questions on these what's the athletic director summer right off the right off the bat the first one I'm sorry what's the athletic director going to be doing over the summer I mean summer day is not required I I don't know I mean they have summer practices but I I don't really don't know what the athletic director is going to do for practices there's no competitions or anything I can't imagine there's any coordinating Joe you want to speak to that because you were on yeah sure um so there's a lot of paperwork health forms registration and everything done prior to any season and with the season basically starting earlier all the registration coordinating with the nurse and all that kind of stuff has to start sooner in the summer
059so the athletic director has to work more in the summer plus you know scheduling gym times and field times and all those kinds of things oh well okay I mean all all that same stuff maybe is done earlier I get it um I I guess I still don't understand what they're going to do they're going to they're going to schedule opening a gym this is this is for the summer months it's like what is it maybe 10 [Music] weeks well it's usually closer to 12 14 weeks um you know kind of depends on when we get out of school um but a lot of those things that Joe described will be taking place after the year ends for the athletic director currently but those things that were described were not additional work they're just done
060at a different time so you know that I had a lot of reservations about this when we discussed it in the Personnel committee and we agreed we would discuss it here so what I was arguing at the time is we have a rule now that allows a thing to happen we don't have any evidence that any additional work is going to happen we just had some testimony that some things might have to happen earlier but what I said was at the time was why are we speculating about what additional time is going to be spent when we have no idea what time is going to be spent we don't even know if anyone's going to do like do we really need to schedule field times when there's two teams that are practicing like a couple
061of weeks before school is this really worth a thousand dollar more well don't we have anything to measure they had summer practices this past summer so did we have any EV did this happen this last summer and did we have a significant additional time expenditure for this Joe are you able to answer that from the stien committee discussion um you know his requirements for being in over the summer were limited to a few days of registering kids because practices started really that week or so before school but now the stien committee felt that if he was going to have to spend more time in the building things start up earlier outside of you know the the basic contracted time um that's why we felt a small increase was required I also don't think that the
062athletic position stipend um points have gone up in many many years as some responsibilities have increased um but to Kristen's point it is kind of an unknown the stien committee landed on this as a a starting thing and they did ask that you know if it does go forward that the athletic director track this summer to kind of see you know whether this made sense or not so we did ask uh that that take place as well so my argument at the time was why won't we see what actually happens and then adjust accordingly in the future yeah that would make more sense to me that agree you know have him track this summer and yes if there's an increase okay so do I hear consensus around that one so I know how to proceed
063with that one can we take them one at a time I think I'm hearing consensus does anybody disagree that there's consensus okay can we go on to the AP coordinator any issues there okay the drama club director okay uh robotics for the high school or Center School okay I can't see you all so I'm I'm looking I'm listening for voices I'm going with no issues there uh chemical hygiene officer this was another one I had asked questions about at the time um so the SDS paperwork as you may recall I discussed like those are data sheets so what I was wondering is if we're maintain maintaining SS paperwork for instance at two roads where we use a lot of really harmful chemicals is a binder that has not been changed in years of time so
064I was questioning what the maintaining of SDS paperwork time requirements are and I think that I remember hearing that we have new art chemicals that weren't previously being used um and then the other justification is about inventory and I was curious about who had been doing this before and whether or not a lot of it was for art I believe and the rest mostly for Science and who was doing this before and whether or not [Music] um it was a shared part of their job responsibility or if somebody is sort of taking on a new role for this yeah I can I can address both of those so we update our inventory and re uh update that binder so there's never anything in that binder that we don't have in the building that's how we
065work it out that's kind of the the best practice for schools so that's why every six months or so that binder does need to be refreshed um that is something that I had done for a few years uh the previous chemistry teachers had done some of we finally got a really good software program that lets us update the inventory but with no chemistry last year uh no chemistry teacher the chemistry teacher of the year prior to that was doing some of this but did not wanted the you know to take on the official responsibility of the entire building um we now have somebody who is willing to do that so we really haven't met the level of chemical hygiene officer um efficacy that we probably should have been because we didn't have the right person
066for the role uh but we now do so this is just BHS what happens at BCS with I mean do we have most of the same chemicals probably lesser yeah good question they they have far fewer chemicals um the software that we did purchase um several years ago we did configure so their inventory could be added to it as well and one of the things that I'm going to ask the chemical hygiene officer to do next year if this is approved is to reach out to Center School staff and say Hey you know here's this here's the software keep it updated you know how can I help that kind of piece of things because the software lives under the high school account but we did make accommodations to make sure that required Center School chemicals
067could be inventoried there as well why um like why if it's in art why can't the art teacher just quarterly however often because the SDS binder and and all of that requirements and the liasing with the fire department to make sure everybody knows where it is and everything is like it's one binder so we wanted one person to be responsible for it so yes the art teacher has to tell the chemistry teacher what's coming and going but the actual updating of the software um and as regulations may change with what needs to be printed and not printed that one individual will be responsible to making it happen okay and is this I mean I guess is the fire department they did they promote the this software that we use or no like Andy we I
068work at a our restaurant is just a binder also we update it quarterly gets checked regularly same same idea so the the the software we purchase is actually through I believe it's Flynn who is our chemical supplier so it a software spe specific spefic to schools to keep an inventory that also generates the current SDS sheets okay Kristen can I ask a question sure so what about the SS sheets for like all the the maintenance things that for John's guys because those have to be included in the book too so and don't and I in the fire department I know I do our SDS book and we get the sheets in we get chemicals that come in they can come in with the SDS sheet so I'm just wondering if that's been looked at or
069or My question is what about John's chemicals if you're doing chemistry and art what's happening to all those that are in the building that would be a question for John we're just looking at the instructional side of things but it should be one binders should be for in the school for it's one physical yeah it is in one location it is but we don't maintain that side of things the the types of chemicals that we have especially in chemistry vary so much year to year that it's important to keep an updated account how much chemical and print only the current items that we have not just keep adding SDS sheets that's what used to be done new chemical would come in you throw a sheet in it and you may not even have that chemical
070in the building anymore okay so I need some guidance here on on this one I don't necessarily have a problem with it I just was sort of trying to understand what we were doing before and why yeah we now needed to pay someone yeah it's you know you're and I get that the really the bottom line is the previous chemistry teacher was doing most of this but didn't want the title didn't want the responsibility didn't want the stipend but the science chair and I really have been looking at this and really thinking that that it's a lot of work and it's some responsibility and so we thought it would be appropriate to create a stipend for it it wasn't that the work was never done it was just that we weren't compensating somebody for that
071extra out of you know instructional planning time that was taking place okay certain better have person in charge of it and organizing everything rather than a mishmash of things but I suppose best question is a good one because those are chemicals that are in the building yeah I mean I know John is responsible for the SDS sheets uh for all the pieces you know on his part so we can certainly look into seeing if this program I I don't even know if it you can look into that piece yeah I guess the other piece other than the inventory and the SDS is the management you know having somebody the chemistry expert know what should be stored in one place versus another make sure everything is labeled and all that kind of stuff that's all part
072of that same responsibility okay all right and then um the portfolio coordinator any issues there all right so what I'm hearing then is we're GNA decrease by the $1,054 and take that out of the budget so we'll have a a new uh updated version for you um to send out to you before our next meeting on the 20th okay decrease not increase yeah but it'll be a decrease in the number that we the actual number that you'll be voting on that's true then as a vague generality on this whole topic as part of our conversation that we started in Personnel I had asked so every year we kind of go over the stien changes and I don't recall ever having stiens removed but we continue to add them and we have in the last 10
073years like what 100 less people at the high school but we've never reduced any stipend but we keep having programs that have more involvement so are we having more kids involved total than has historically been happening or are like are does the stien committee review stiens to be cut ever I mean when does that that ever happen yeah so what has happened with that in the past is like we've had some stipend like for a while we had a dance team then there were a number of years that we didn't have one and although it didn't come off the list because we've had interest at times and then we go for for several years and we might not have interest I'm using that one as an example so the money is appropriated but it's it's
074not used right but it's there should students you know we've had kids come it's December hey we want to have a dance team you know what I mean so if there's that kind of Interest we've we've kind of hung on to things if you will right um but there may be times when like I'll use that one as an example few years back like we had a ton of kids in indoor track well we had a coach and an assistant coach but we needed another assistant coach because we had three different sets of things happening at any individual meet and we needed coaches at different spots because there were so many kids so instead of using the dance money because we weren't having dance group we use that for an additional assistant coach to support
075the needs of the program that year okay so basically that money is still budgeted for but not necessarily being spent but it's not cut from the stien budget correct because we just because a lot of times like I said it's just based on student interest yeah right we don't want to say like a few years from now all of a sudden the running Community decreases in bold and the indoor track team doesn't need the assistant assistant coach and maybe doesn't even need the assist so then is that money also not being spent or do we ever reduce like from five so that money would be spent three points Etc no that money wouldn't be spent and it would be money you're returning to the town if it doesn't happen Okay so it still appear in
076the overall stien number but just not be ever spent okay correct yep thank you I was just sort of seeking Clarity on that whole thing no problem a good question all right so the next thing I have to share are our rejected grants uh for next year and again this is our best guess right now uh things are a little in flux right now so this is our best guess any questions here nope no questions for me thank you I can't see everybody so thanks all right I'm not hearing any so I'm going to stop sharing okay so we'll um make fixes to the proper Pages based on that one um enhancement that isn't going to happen um any else if you know if we have um an update about insurance and it gets better
077we will certainly provide that update at the next meeting although I don't think we're going to have anything in time for the next meeting I think the next time we're going to have something is probably um around the time that the board will be presenting a budget to the finance committee and we may not have it in time for that meeting and and we shared that uh re can speak to that we shared that um at Kappa the other night I just want to clarify that two points for the athletic director um C is only going to be $944 because that's the 472 time 2 that thousand you saw was to change from current year to next year so was a bigger number because each point is 472 in the current budget so you'll see
078a decrease of $944 okay close enough yeah thanks all right anything else tonight oh overall it was a very easy budget to follow so thank you Kristen all and team as always um you know a lot of it we we don't have a lot of control over a lot of it is contractual salaries and wages I think it's a a good starting point and um you know look forward to the discussion with the finance committee thank you yes thank you for the Q&A it was very detailed as always we still managed to ask some questions but headed us off on a lot of them I know which is great we appreciate the questions we try our best to anticipate but we can't possibly anticipate them all and we appreciate the fact that you're very thoughtful
079in your process so thank you for that all right you don't have anything else I'm sorry go ahead Ashley no I was just gonna say thank you thank you um so you'll need um yeah motion to ad I'll make a motion right time to go up this so I heard Ria make the motion second thank you AB any questions or comments all those in favor please say I I I think I heard everybody um all right well thank you Administration for being here for our two meetings