001e okay Andrew I have 6:31 sorry I was trying to log no problem wait no worries all right um call us meeting to order and we'll start with the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all this internet is not working very well today for me um all right so we have what comments from the audience is there anyone who would like to make a comment out in the audience this evening is there even anyone here I have no idea can people hear me is the Internet working yep you're good okay um so I assume no comments from the audience we have any additions to the agenda we do not um
002I'm sorry the agenda in front of me either next we have uh routine business approval of minutes minutes right correct um Can someone approve the minutes of the January I'm sorry I don't know what the date is it's okay uh we need a motion to approve the January 9 reason my internet is not working very well so moved Ria thank you Ria I'll second Chris thank you Chris any corrections any questions comments or edits uh oh never mind okay all those in favor of the motion please say I hi anyone oos all right thank you I'm sorry I'm trying to pull the agenda up my Internet is just not working right now no worries so we're on to uh Board of Ed committee reports Finance Ashley are you GNA that or um I didn't prepare
003yeah um I didn't have anything noteworthy to be honest from the last meeting I wasn't at the Kappa the last Kappa meeting um you know I'd say that the budget kind of reviews just kind of continue um so no substantive updates at this time okay so uh the 2425 budget is 47% expended compared to last year at this time which was 46% just reminding the board that special ed is always changing um and let me pull it up for you we can go over it can everybody see my screen okay thank you all right so we have a few transfers in January uh we needed a reclass to cover social studies uh subscription a transfer uh to purchase instructional supplies um in music at the center School a reclass to purchase a Yamaha alto sax
004which was on next year's replacement plan but kids we have a lot of interest and we need it now so we did that and then a reclass to cover the shortfall for uh psychological tests at BCS any questions on the transfers okay hearing none I'm going to move on to the report itself uh we are still um projecting full expenditure in regular education uh as it stands today we think we're in good shape with special ed I'll just say that as it stands today uh same for projecting full expenditure right now in administration support and Central Services uh operations and transfer um I'd like to talk about um the $63,000 transfer um that we are requesting to cover um the various uh repairs that um are needed at Bolton Center School to fix uh the
005heating system um for the remainder of this year um we actualized some more savings and salaries and benefits uh due to unfilled positions and as I've shared previously um people taking different Insurance than what they had originally stated or the fact that we had some new hires that didn't take Family Insurance um and then so if you approve the $63,000 transfer the board of V is sitting on a balance at the end of January of $380,000 so looking for a motion uh to approve the January transfers I'll make a motion to approve the transfers oh second so that's Ben Davies and anyone have any questions yeah just a point of clarification so are we voting on both the $36,000 transfer and the smaller ones or just the smaller ones the $63,000 transfer and yeah and
006you can do the 63,000 as a separate one if you want to that's up to you guys I just wanted to make sure I knew while we were voting yeah fair enough I can clarify my motion to include both thank you thank you Ben okay do anyone have any questions or comments on any of those um all those in favor of the motion please say I I I anyone opposed or abstaining alrighty um I believe that brings us to community meeting reports yeah no so I have one I have one more thing Finance Andrew please um and that is the USA mechanical bid for the fy2 bcsh HB back repairs and Replacements uh in order to award all these fixes to USA mechanical because they are kneed deep in it just want to remind everyone
007they were the lowest bidder uh they have been um in every extremity of that building and um so we're looking for a motion to wave the bid to award USA mechanical the fy2 BC hbac repairs and maintenance so move second any questions or comments on this bid waiver all those in favor please say I I I I anyone opposed or abstaining okay now that brings us to community meeting reports does anyone have any Community meetings to report on so Andy from a a finance standpoint I I guess my frame of mind before was on committee meeting minutes with the town so um that was that was my update as it relates to Kappa um I don't have anything anything further I can just say that uh that the finance committee did come up with a
008a budget that's going to be sent to the a board of Selectmen and they did that last week correct and I I if I could just add to that as well um I just want to remind the board that um the replacement of the camera system that was originally on our original list for this year has been moved to next year and um the BCS Bell system was taken off in the hopes that we can um have enough money maybe next month um to do a transfer to get that done hopefully maybe over April vacation John's in the process right now of working on quotes um and that we still have half the building uh at BCS that still needs replacement of window blinds we were able to do half of it last year with
009some um remaining monies that's not something that's allowed in Kappa that is something we're going to need to try to get done thanks um I attended the January B scholarship I attended the January Bolton scholarship fund meeting um we are gearing up for our Springtime activities phonathon will take place um I believe in late March and uh shout out to the VHS National Honor Society kids who will be helping us assemble our annual Town mailing um and then uh applications for SC scholarships will open on April 1st and run through uh May believe it's Sunday May 3rd or May 5th whatever the first Sunday of May is thank you Chris anyone else I didn't see a PTA representative tonight I can briefly talk on behalf of the PTA Andy if you want sure yeah um
010I was not at the Tuesday meeting but they're still fundraising um toward their boundless playground project um have the suon special dance this Friday I think they've sold over close to 150 tickets uh they have the spring Gala for I believe March in the works um they have the wolf pack um family night that they're doing and I believe that's in February 21st they've sold over 100 tickets for that um they have some family nights at Urban Air coming up I think chuckecheese maybe and um yeah they're they're they're very busy as always thank you very much I suspect that's all for Community meetings to report on and we can turn things over to the superintendent for tonight's superintendent of schools report you G to share my screen so here to present tonight A superintendent's
011recommended budget for 2526 school year just a reminder that that is our portrait of a graduate right there in the center and it grounds all of the work that we do our vision is that all students in the Bolton public schools are empowered to embrace learning in a healthy mindset continually build knowledge develop skills and become engaged Global Citizens this strategic plan uh vision statement is good through the end of 2026 an overview of the expenditure plan you can see that it is a 4.64 requested percent increase with uh regular instruction being 2% of that budget student Support Services 4% Administration and business services 5% operations and services which we're going to get into a little bit later 7% salaries is 62% and benefits is 20% this is a distribution just seen differently in terms
012of the increases um you'll see you know salaries and benefits are always the biggest drivers um currently our benefits number U from the state partnership plan is at 13% um they gave us a window of 10 to 12% but there is a factor added in for each um County and some counties were negative so you would take that top number and minus out and some were an additional and talin County was an additional 1% uh we anticipate having final numbers we hope the end of March I know that the town I spoke to Jim rert um and they are also budgeting 133% at this point time we're hoping that that goes down in March so that's a stay tuned um and you see too a really large increase in operations and services which we're going
013to talk a little bit more about uh later on this evening but one of the major drivers in that is the cost of electricity and the fact that we have a new um contract for electricity also so was like we we got a double whammy there the overview of the budget drivers include our contractual obligations as well as insurance and that's 71.6 4% of the budget increase increased cost in maintenance of operations is 26.625 of the requested increase and special education this year is a very small amount a 1.74% increase so we have a number of rounds um of budget deliberations that we go through uh the teachers uh put in their budgets early on in the fall to the teacher leaders the teacher leaders then reviewed their budgets with the building Administration um and
014um with Monica and Beth um the initial increase with just everything that everyone requested that was app then approved by principles was a 6.08% increase um I then meet with the administrative team to go through Page by page number by number the budget uh we were able to reduce it uh an additional 237 $862 for the 4.64% increase um some of the things that came out of that that were eliminated there were uh a professional trainer some online services that we were able to um do in some grants some instructional supplies and textbooks and some instructional technology again that we are able to do in some grants I just wanted to just share with everyone what local area superintendent uh budget numbers are so you can see that there uh what the various numbers are
015with an average for our area of 5.66% our projected revenues total 69 $1,679 uh both and that includes both federal and state grants uh the state grants really our choice monies which just want to remind everyone are used to pay tuition for Bolton students attending State magnet and agricultural schools and we anticipate this total projection to be $140,000 for next year our Capital proposals that um as Ria shared um are still uh on the list that is moving forward to the selectman and that includes the second phase of the energy management system the district handicap van replacement District utility truck with plow replacement um and the BCS and BHS hbac uh assessment this is a fiveyear set aside $6,000 for each School uh because every five years this needs to be uh this assessment needs
016to be done and it was determined at uh Capital last year that this is how they wanted to handle it and spread it out over the five years I leave this slide here just as a reminder um for potential future referendum items which will be coming up uh the BCS roof replacement will need to happen I think once things or will at least need to be discussed but it really does need to be replaced um as do the air handlers that are up there um consider putting air conditioning in all classrooms the units that are up there now that cover the uh office and the nurse's office and the library and a couple of other places um also need to be replaced uh there has been discussion for years about fixing the soccer field at
017Bolton High School a science lab upgrade at Bolton Center School and a library remodel at Bolton Center School here are our enrollment numbers our actuals and our projected for next year and you can see there's either like maybe change by one student or going up just a little bit the Columbia enrollment numbers I just share that with you they're 2425 enrollment there on the right um and you can see you know their numbers are a little bit uh up and down um as well and our projection for uh Colombia numbers for this coming year at 15 students and the tuition rate for Colombia is $1,728 183 uh and you can see how that's just distributed in terms of 80% to the high school bond and 20% to the general fund I just want to call
018to the board's attention the accomplishments uh that have happened in our schools this year uh the mtss implementation uh using data focused systems and team based decision- making to maximize student achievement and support our students social emotional and behavioral needs a continued focus on positive School climate including safe and caring classrooms building relationships with students and supporting the well-being of our staff embedded PD on K5 reading programs 6 to8 student L conferences BHS portfolios and prek to2 ongoing review of curriculum in Atlas or managed technology infrastructure support and cyber security services and training with novice an advanced BPS technology plan I will just share that um I'm very appreciative that uh Novis is uh our uh technology infrastructure partner particularly this year when we uh pretty much every school district in the country um Power
019School had a breach and um novas has been uh essential in helping us to manage that breach and get our arms around uh the data that was uh taken and and steps that we need to take next and to share with families continue BCS math coach to support the Improvement of teachers instructional practices and student achievement in math K to 5 our continued use of parent Square for staff parents and students and expansion of our social media presence continued expansion of our BHS Yukon and ecsu ECE dual enrollment and AP courses and BCS implementation of csde approved K5 reading programs um our students have been uh very active and engaged uh we have have a lot of students taking one or more AP classes or Yukon ECE classes uh in grade 12 we have even
020more students participating in those classes uh we had more college applications generated uh this year that we did last year which is great news we have a number of clubs and Athletics and um student body participating in various clubs and Athletics uh at both schools and uh as well as in the Arts uh our schools participate in the Sandy Hook promise start with hello week emotion into art the Hyer International and other uh various organizations that our students support um BCS and BHS did ccmc pajama day for kids to support kids with cancer we had food drives at both schools an amazing Veteran Day assembly yet again at Bolton Center School BCS held its third annual winter family night BHS holiday meals and gift Drive U BHS Senior Center partnership which includes food tastings and
021leaf raking you heard a little bit about that um last month Red Cross Blood drives at the high school for students in the community which has been longstanding and this year um our high school students have had over 1,200 hours of community service which is really amazing and kudos to them I share these pictures as a reminder of what this budget is all about and why we do what we do and why you all give so much time to ensure uh we have great schools and our children are engaged and happy and learning [Music] and lastly this budget is focused on our with guiding by Guided by our strategic plan our priorities continue to include maintaining Bolton Public Schools as a high performing School District Student Success caring culture talent development and resource stewardship and
022power build develop become this is just a reminder of upcoming dates for the board I will send you this presentation uh later this evening um we have our budget Workshop tonight at 7:30 we have another one on February 20th at 6:30 our budget is due to the finance committee by March 15th although we try to get it to them long before that so they have a lot of time with it the Board of Education and the board of selectman will both be presenting their budgets to the finance committee on March 27th uh there's a budget meeting scheduled for April 3rd April 10th if needed and April 17th if needed and that concludes my presentation this evening all right thank you very much um we'll be discussing that at Great length at 7:30 and we don't
023appear to have any unfinished business but we do have new business which are resignations we do not have it oh wow uh future business how about a motion to go into executive session for the purposes of discussing confidential attorney client Communications and to invite superintendent hex and director gold Snider don't moved this is Chris David second second you have your choice whoever um questions how about all those in favor of the motion please say I I I I opposed or abstaining all right that passes and I suppose we'll have to wait for everyone to leave leave and turn the meeting over somehow right