001Mhm. >> But it's not a hit. But it's not a pleasant situation to be in. >> [clears throat] >> I don't know if I would It's not a hit. All you can ask for is more. But it's not a pleasant situation to be in. Sure. [clears throat] I don't know if I would It's not a hit. It's not a fault. I mean, I don't think All you can ask for is more. It's not a pleasant situation to be in. Sure. I don't know if I would It's not a It's not a fault. I mean, I don't think All you can ask for is more. It's not a pleasant situation to be in. Sure. [clears throat] I don't know if I would It's not It's not a fault. I mean, I don't think All you can
002ask for is more. It's not a pleasant situation Sure. It's not a fault. I mean, I don't think All you can ask for is more. It's not a pleasant Sure. It's not a fault. I mean, I don't think All you can ask for is more. It's not Sure. It's not Sure. I see. I see. understand exactly the magnitude of the funding impact of those decisions made. But everything that we make has to be in the district in terms of financial weight. And sometimes in an organization like Bridgeport, you know, people may not necessarily feel that, well, it's not my It's not my dollar, so I'm okay to to relinquish and give it out. So, we got to be really training our people to make sure that, you know, is this a necessity? Giving a kid,
003you know, something that's not to me, it's it's uh it's providing a kid with faith. Sometimes it's a detriment to provide additional people to a classroom when the classrooms are really kind of, you know, you know, impacted by behaviors in the classroom, number of kids in the classroom, there's a number of factors. So, we're having to kind of figure out our systems and then put things in place to do checks and balances within the system in order to make sure the system is efficient. And that's That's really the things and the work that we've been doing with with the two-state technical assistance team. They're not important. And that's important work that you reestablish processes, procedures, and efficiencies in the district. And I think that's where That's the hidden thing that we're working on that may
004not necessarily be out in front for the board members to see. But I think that's important that we shore up the things that we're doing in order to make sure that it impacts. Everything that we do impacts dollars in the district. Curriculum, you know, the professional you have in front of the the kids teaching, uh the support staff that's supporting the teacher in the classroom, uh there's a lot of factors that sometimes it gets cloudy in the whole scheme of things from the financial side of it. And so, I think that's really what the state is really wanting us to do internally to make sure that if money's given, our systems are going to be able to be in place. And I think 2 years ago when I came to the district, we didn't have
005a We have a financial system, MUNIS, but we don't use all the the integral parts of MUNIS to make our jobs easier as a district and as individual uh departments within our district. And we are in a in the process of fully implementing MUNIS. Uh and by June, I think we'll have the implementation, you know, drawn out and orchestrated to where we can follow it. But again, it's then it's trained staff to this whole new process. So, it's it's a whole it's it's it's a constant, you know, uh impact on what we're doing financially. And so, I know And that's a long explanation of things, guys, but I wanted you to understand that we're we're trying to be strategic about making sure that we're um looking at under every single rock and make sure everything
006is put back on the table to say, do we need this or not? You know, and and that's our job is to figure out, do we need these services? Do we need these programs? Do we need this essential staff? Uh and it's an inefficiency. There's no efficiencies in what we do. So, a huge organization like like Bridgeport has to be able to understand everything that we do is going to impact something else in the organization. And I think it's just a lot of connecting dots. And that's kind of where we are. I think we were we're in a better place than we were last year. Uh and um The time is now, and so we're we're there. Getting there, anyway. You guys nothing? I'm there. It depends. I'm on it. Again, it depends how many
007people are right. Honestly, they don't provide a financial amount of money. I mean, it would be an uphill battle. I don't know if we can do that. They don't provide a financial amount of money. So, what are we supposed to speak to? But it's They're right. No, no, no, no, no. I'll just put it public. If I see me laughing every now and then, I've got some kinds of laugh and nervous laugh and it's disgusting. Everything you're saying is disgusting. Um Every cut is going to hurt. You say low-hanging There is no low-hanging fruit. Any piece of fruit we need to get to, we need a ladder to get to. Low-hanging fruit was gone in 2017. But after 2017, even those cuts before that was not really a Every cut hurts. Now, you know, I'll
008always put the administrators first, top first. They ask the classroom. Even those cuts that I pushed for first was not cuts. No less provisional oversight. All these other districts have less. But they really I'd like to compliment for speaking today in front of the Connecticut General Assembly. It's well put together. However, I would like to caution us right now to not push the state's narrative. We are efficient. We are doing Of course, we always want to push for efficiency even when we are well funded. But to sit to like sit to bring the state and how they're helping us, you have not There's not enough money. For us to back one thing from the state, one suggestion that did not cost money. Not one suggestion the state put forth did not cost us money. So,
009the state is well aware the problem is money. The state is well aware it's not efficiency. If it was efficiency, I'd be the first one to get on you guys like, Let's tighten our belts. Let's tighten our belts. Let's do this. Let's do this. You got to think to save a million dollars money. Save a million dollars. However, Hartford, New Haven, New Britain, every single district in the state is not being efficient. Every single district in the state is suffering from the underfunding of the ECS formula, which everybody is right now pushing to get raised. Now, due to the magnitude of best case scenario, if this bill passes as is and everybody comes on board and says, "Let's pass this bill." It's $980 in the foundation increase, which translates to about $18 million for Bridgeport,
010which translates into a need for $26 million more in cuts. Where do we cut as a district? No libraries. $6 million more in cuts. In a district with with no libraries, without a single >> [snorts] >> single librarian, where do we cut? About I don't know what percentage. I'm going to call it something. About 25% of our schools don't have vice principals or assistant principals. I don't know if anybody got to do that. It's something they got to throw out there, but um Schools without vice principals. Without Absolutely. They share counselors. I don't know if we're sharing nurses just yet, but that's probably coming sometime soon if it's not already here. Um Uh but where do we cut? $26 million in cuts. Single cuts. You're looking at I don't know what. 10? 9 to 10%
011of our budget or already about something I don't know. I'm a little bit slow today. And you got to translate that a disproportionate percentage of that got to go to personnel because that's the biggest portion of our budget. At least our people we're talking about front-facing people that service our children. I mean I We can't emphasize enough the harm that's coming and People were talking about front-facing I mean our instincts are to protect people from harm and protect But those instincts can work against us if people aren't aware of what's coming now. And we don't push this essentially we don't push the city to give us the money we need before it's too late. aware of what's coming now. I don't even think I don't think we could have a viable education system in the
012city of Bridgeport with these cuts. I mean Best case scenario we'll have maxed out class sizes. Um in schools without fight without assistant principals, librarians, and splitting social workers and And there's no way to get to that another 26 million dollars without there being damage to the education system in Bridgeport and the future of our children. I mean of course the staff will do what they as well as they can. I'll try to push through. You don't expect them to try their best. Even with the state behind our most tenured teachers >> [snorts] >> that are ready to retire the additional stress and burden on them they're going to leave so we'll even end up compounding that by having a younger, less experienced work force to pick up the slack. I I'm sorry I'm sorry
013if it sounds like doomsday scenario but we are at doomsday. That's what I'm talking about. I'll speak later at the general assembly. I I want to emphasize exactly what you're saying because you're That's what we're getting ready to embrace ourselves to be able to do and it's it's painful enough just to even figure out What do we cut? Where do I go? And and that's I'm going to have to or help orchestrate that with staff to be able and it's just it's just It's gut-wrenching because I don't know where where which way to even go with it, right? And um every single cut's going to hurt. Every single one of them. The smallest little thing is going to hurt. But But we just kind of want to make sure that you guys understood that, you
014know we we got We're in a good place to see why now we have to start putting the the rubber's in the road regarding how we're going to get to that 30 million dollar sacrifice that we made and so uh neither of us have Neither one of us have hair so we would have to pull But we don't but So we're ready for that challenge and so whatever comes our way We're very hopeful though. And And we're going to we're not going to give up the fight. at all. Is that all you need? Yes, to the chair. Thank you. Um question for you guys. I'm sorry I'm going to bring the elephant into the room. Uh three points or three things that I would like to ask you guys. Uh what has the state that's
015supporting that we have these two groups have said in these three areas What have they said about our budget level? our staff level and our administration levels? They got to be They got to be in my opinion they shouldn't be looking at where we are in our budget right now. So let's start there. What have they said in this, you know, view because if we're looking at it being responsible and they're supposed to be supporting our education they should be looking at it. So As far as the budget, what has the, you know looking at To to to respond to you with that in my humble opinion um the state truly been working with efficiencies in the audit report making sure that the audit report's you know recommendations are adhered to by administration. You know,
016in order for them to feel comfortable if money is given then we have those things in place to make sure that you know, prior deficiencies are not going to re rekindle themselves uh into bigger problems. Uh and remember we have 34 recommendations. And within those 34 recommendations they're not just one thing. They're deep things. Things for efficiency and problematic pieces looking at, you know uh >> [clears throat] >> things that we can reduce cost for you know, do we go out and consider you know, outsourcing you know, maintenance facilities uh you know All these types of things that would feed right into to impact the budget. And they're impactful things. Things that we were not doing the way we should be doing or we wouldn't we didn't have a check and balance system in place.
017Uh and so as you take each one of those 34 recommendations we're going through and figuring out you know, who does who does who who owns that particular task? And do we have policy to address that or not? You know, sometimes policy doesn't drive that whatever but we got to make sure that you know we have protocol in HR that's going to make sure that they're communicating to uh the finance department uh and the benefits department and everything's done that in this district. So they take one piece of paper department for and have that person look at it. We don't have checks and balances where you have a an outline in a in a in a tree would you say approval goes to here here to here to here with all these different approvals based
018on the function of the role that needs to happen on the final outcome. There's something not happening but it's all antiquated. You know, everybody does it you know at at their leisure or whatever. Going to the new Munis system you know, it's a it's a click of a button. You know, from the campus level, you know, they want to they want to hire someone. They put in the requisition. It They put in this all electronically done. It goes to the principal or principal goes to their supervisor. Supervisor goes to So you have that chain of command who's going to do what? That efficiency policy in place right now. In a way that everybody understands it. You know, and we've been trained on it. So I feel that they've done a good job of making sure
019that when you pull, you know, the onion back here are the things that we have to work on and are you getting there? I meet with them weekly. I meet with the deputy commissioner weekly. And they gave me five tasks that they want me to figure out how we're going to improve. That's especially transportation. That is especially one-to-one paras. That is meal times. Uh what else? We've been looking at substitutes how we can bring down substitutes in the district. Teacher attendance you know out-of-district replacements And and and say just those five things That's about 40 million dollars that we pay out or [clears throat] more. And so if we have, you know, if we're efficient in understanding that Yes. A child may need a one-to-one para to provide faith to this kid you know, or
020the least restrictive environment for this kid but sometimes adding more people to a room of 15, 20 people of 20 kids just it's not the best thing for a child. So you have to be able to come on justify things a little bit more than what we have done in the past. And so those are the things that we're setting up. And that that's going to set us up for success moving forward. You mentioned Munis. That was going to be a big back through these three points. staff, the budget staff and administration. You mentioned Munis and it's been a talk for the last let's say 18 months if not more. Uh how much are we using it right now at this point? And where we're going to be as far as implementing Munis into our
021district by the end of the year. So where are we now in Munis and where we're going to be at let's say by the end of the year? I feel we're using about 75% of the functionality of Munis right now. And and [clears throat] that's And that gives you a lot of wiggle room to to to be 100% right. Uh and what's happening is we're connecting HR to finance. In in in a way to where it's automated right now. They they've been doing a lot of things individually. We use Munis in in payroll right now. We use Munis in benefits. We use Munis in HR. But HR has all these different functions. They have onboarding. They got they have hiring teachers. What's the process? That process has to go through Munis in order to be
022able to finalize to get to forward for approval of teacher contracts and things like that. So if there's no process it just doesn't get there. Uh you know, so 75% effectively using Munis uh being able to add the the additional components of Munis mainly it's the HR component really that we didn't use but HR has a lot of functionality. You know, and and it would be a great opportunity for this district. So when a when a teacher comes to apply for a job in the district it's all done electronically. You know, they they go from their home, they type into the Munis system that has the HR component and and you work from there. So, um I It's It's a good thing, you know. And again, it's a process though. I mean, because we have
023a revolving door with with with the people that we employ, we got to keep training them. And we're going to set that mechanism to train people as new people come in, here's what we're going to do. This is how we're going to train them, and here's how we're going to kind of keep up with it. So, it's it's it's it's a good thing. I mean, you know, it's it's a little nerve-racking a little bit because they're on us all the time to provide things for them so that they can make sure that we're doing things right. They just don't want They just don't want, you know, "Oh, we're working on that." They want to say, "How many media How many How many PPTs have you had to bring kids back into the district?" How many,
024you know, um you know, "What are you doing and what are you looking at over time?" And how many overtime All these functionalities that we sometimes take advantage of are not really, you know, coming together. So, this is the time for that to happen. You know, I just wanted to answer Mr. Medina's question about staffing. And if you go to our initial budget presentation, where we compared uh uh student-to-administrator ratios and then student-to-teacher ratios, and we look at all the districts that are our peer districts, if you will, we have the highest ratios. Meaning, we have more students to administrators and more teachers or more students to teachers than any of our peer districts. Yeah, I knew that fact. I just wanted to know what the state assistance team and those two teams that are
025here supporting us, what are they saying when they're seeing them? Cuz I know they're reporting also to uh the woman in charge. Excuse me, I forgot her name already. Ms. Tucker. Um Huh? Tucker. Dr. Tucker. Excuse me. Uh no disrespect intended, but um But I know they're reporting, so I'm wondering what are they reporting to make sure that is, you know, with due respect to the word, holding everybody accountable, as big power to power, holding everybody that that that she's getting the fact, the truth, and that she's seeing that, you know, we're work we're not up the creek, we're down the creek and then some. And we're not going to be able to manage this if we don't get this ECS formula into a place that it's going to be. Noticing that 13 years have
026passed, guys. And noticing where we are right now that every single pretty much needs to probably every town is on the same subject. Education funding, education funding, education funding, because since the first year that they did not increase ECS, we've been feeling it. They haven't felt it until now, but we've been feeling it for the last 13 years. And now they're being affected, and all of a sudden, now they're in the boat. I'm not trying to throw them under the boat or throw them under the bus, but I'm just saying that we've been feeling it from day one that they've been not giving our students the, you know, quota, not giving any money into the ECS for us to for us to be able to especially in the condition that our district in with the
02750-plus percent in special education and percent special education, ELL, and all of that. What are they saying about our our the levels of our administration if anybody has anything to say about that? I want to know what the state is saying, not what we are or what we say we are, but I want to know what they've been saying because Those are state supports that I just quoted. They're included in our presentation. So, even that they know >> They don't see it. Those are state general We're speaking overall. I think they understand They They work with our staff, because there's only a few people that they work with, because we don't have a whole lot of administrators. They can It's so That's And that's true. And so, the people that they're engaging with are the
028only people that they engage with, because they're the only people that's here that's doing the the work that they're wanting to find results on, right? Uh and so, I think they understand our budget, they understand our staffing, they understand the needs that we have, you know, but it but again, they they want to make sure efficiencies are there. So, like I said earlier, if the state were to give us the $18 million, right? If we got the the the bare minimum ECS funding perspective, right? They want to also see, okay, what else could we could we find another $10 million somewhere? Sure, we could. If we had our efficiency checks ready to go, right? You know, and if we do some things to try to make sure that, you know, if I have a $50
029special ed, you know, uh budget that I'm I'm paying out funds for services in special ed, well, how can you You know, we do that with our own budgets. So, that's what we're doing with the district's budget. You know, and that's my job to orchestrate my staff to be able to go through that exercise to say, you know, what else could we do differently? You know, could we, you know, uh when we look at transportation, bus routing, you know, we have a lot of kids with one we have some bus some vehicle with one kid in it. So, if we we and we have 20 of them at $400 apiece per day, you know, you know, if we if we can do one bus and get to all the kids picked up on bus, that's
030routing routing efficiencies that we we should be looking at. That's what they're having us do right now. And that's some intensive work, and that's really what we all are trying to figure out that we can't even do our day job because they're wanting all these things from us to be able to get things done, and that's weekly. You know, so um we're going to do our We're going to do our due diligence to kind of make sure that we're good at what we do. And if they're bringing up the things that we to to become good, we got to get these 34 things fixed. And once we get them fixed, we have to have protocol to make sure it doesn't happen again. And that's what we're doing. Uh and that's what they're helping us do,
031and that's what they helped Hartford do as well. You know, uh but when you talk to Hartford, you know, the superintendent spoke today, you know, how do you put it? It's a structural structural deficit a structural deficit. It's not about how we manage money, you know, and all or or how we're mismanaging money so so that the the the representative said to our kids today, "No, it's absolutely absurd." You know, there's no mismanagement of anything. We're just a lack of funding over the years. And it's all come down to now, right? And so, it depends on how we react to that, you know, it it's how we're going to prevail from there, right? And so, uh we're going to do our due diligence to do to be the the efficient, you know, organization that we
032know we are we're able capable of being. Uh and we're going to get there. It'll take some time, but we're going to get there. Quick question on one statement that you made that I want to be made clear to if it's not the case. Uh when we're bringing kids When we say bringing kids, I saw the news that was out there, the video that was out there about doing such things as bringing kids back into the district. Um it's not as easy as some people are saying, to my understanding, because the parents have a say and a right to say, "My child has been here a year, two years, or three years in this place, and they're thriving, and now you want to try to bring them into whatever area," and they can say no,
033to my understanding. And I want to make sure that, you know, If it's a two-way street, it's easy. It's a two You know, it's a two-way street, and you got to understand that when you when we look at the 280 some odd kids that are in out-of-district placement, they they they got that that out-of-district placement due to the fact that this district was not able to provide a free and appropriate education for them. When this district builds those programs, Mr. Medina, we have every right to bring those kids back, and we will. Can put them into a program. >> Absolutely, we will. We We didn't have the ability to do that when we sent them out. So, that gave the parents the right to say, "We need I want them to go somewhere else." When
034you build a program, and you're doing it the way you need to do it, yes, the parent has a say, but the district has a say, too. And we have Absolutely. And And that's what happens though, Mr. Medina. You say, "If you we can provide the service for your child in district, you know, but if you choose to go out, you have to pay pay the cost of that." That's what trained administrators do for the district. Cuz we pay people to to have to make those types of decisions. You know, but we have to be confident about those decisions. And yes, parents have all the rights. They have a lot of rights, but the district does, too. You know, and me as a superintendent of schools, if we build programs, and and we say up
035when we have the one of the state of the When we build this new facility, we're going to have state of the art state of the art programs in that facility. So, you you bet your bottom dollar that we're going to bring kids back, cuz we want them to be right here at home getting those services, and not I can spend 280 250,000 for that same program inside this district. It doesn't cost me 250. I'm already I'm already paying for it. So, it's the same for the district, you know, and that's what we're trying to build. Absolutely. And then we can enhance it. This is what it's all about right there. And be confident about that as well. Superintendent Wilson. Um Yeah, I'm glad you said that Dr. A because we I think we need
036to start you know, making a or, you know, at least building a culture of of trying to be more efficient than we are. I know we've been efficient. We cut you know, made tremendous cuts, you know, in the within the last year, but you know, I I remember, you know, hearing you know, someone say that we have to at least have the classrooms filled to 70%. You know, to to to to make you know, what we're doing, you know, more you know, uh uh you know, like cost [clears throat] of, you know, just just to make it viable. The room with the classes aren't filled. We have classes that are that are 40% filled or or or less than 70% filled, and we need to be looking at those classrooms or those schools that are
03760 50, 40% full. You know, we need to look at closing those schools and and combining them. You know, how much, you know, so closing a school that could that that that's sometimes millions of dollars saved right there. Now, that doesn't mean getting rid of the teachers. Doesn't mean getting rid of staff because we need staff to to to be in other places, especially if we're going to be filling up schools to over 80, 90%. So, you know, it did People don't have to look at closing schools as a as a, you know, people are going to lose their jobs. You know, we need we need people in other places. There are other places that are, you know, like uh Mr. Garcia says all the time, he has big buildings with with one, you know,
038uh maintenance man in it. So, you know, those those those buildings that are old that cause problems that are costly, need to start looking at closing them. You know, if we could save millions, you know, that that's that's a big chunk in into into the the money that we have to save. Without doing like without getting into the the the the five things that Dr. A would just talked about. So, maybe we could start looking there first before you know, we start looking at other things. That's that's that's probably why the state has a hard time giving us money because they don't want us to go back into the same old habits that we had in the past. If you give us If you give us money and we just keep living like we did
039in the past, we're never going to become more and more efficient with the money. So, you know, like I said, if we could start closing some of these old buildings or start combining some of these classrooms that are half full or 60% full, then, you know, and the state sees those things, then maybe they'll, you know, maybe they'll they'll they'll take into account the, you know, the the things that we have to cut in the future. Thank you. If to respond Mr. Wilson, thank you for that. I think you're you're spot on. I think that's all the things that you talked about will be part of our uh uh our list of opportunities for the board to consider. All of those things that you mentioned will be on that list as well. So, again, and
040that will be a deeper discussion for as a as a board and as a whole to make to help finalize those decisions on that. So, thank you for bringing that back up. Mr. Callen. >> [clears throat] >> Yeah, a few things. Uh like if Mr. Garcia, I'm pretty sure you probably won't have the accurate number off the top of your head. Probably give me a range a range. In the current um that I'm pushing not that I'm pushing a plan, the current seems to close three buildings and move them to the old Harding. How many operational savings if we close those three buildings? Operations only excluding personnel costs. How much savings approximately will be will be derived from closing three buildings in this entire excluding personnel. Um that's a tough one. Um but you're probably
041somewhere in the range of 3 million. 3 4 million. >> 3 4 million. So, closing three schools will save us $3 million and if we don't get any money, we would still need $41 million. So, therefore, it is impossible to make the rest of the cuts without touching personnel. Sorry. Sorry. I I I just want that to be I just want that to be clear. 5% of our of the budget is So, there's no avoiding the personnel cuts. >> no cool. There is no avoiding that. And so, we should not never thought pedaling this. Nope. Contradictory to what we need to do and what we need to be getting the conversation out there because if we say, "Oh, we don't need to lay off personnel." and then we surprise people later, we say, "Hey, you
042said not to lay anybody off." That that it's if we got to cut over If we got to cut over $3 million, basically there's going to be a cut. Somewhere, somehow, some personnel is going to lose their job. Some child is going to lose their support or whatever you want to call it after you tell me. Another thing I would like to caution us. We did a lot of talking about special education right now. We've been down this road before. We talk about low-hanging fruit. Special education because of its price tag is an attractive fruit when it comes down No disrespect to finance people and educators, but when it comes down to that finance piece, that is a very big piece that you track. This district has gotten in trouble before and gotten on the
043state and somewhat stated eventually through the special education program going back into like don't want to elaborate. This prior to my tenure on the board, like probably 2015 or so, where we were put under the microscope and we had to do a lot of corrective actions around our special education because a lot of the decisions being made around our special education were being made through financial decisions rather than best interest of the child. So, I would just like to caution us to be sure we don't trip over the same feet that we trip I don't I'm not I I started the conversation without saying I'm not trying to say anything about anybody in particular. Just giving a history lesson of where we've been and how things can get um a bit clouded in the conversation
044when it comes to money. And of course, it's best to bring up students back up once we get one once we get those systems up and running, but again, that's a system that's 5 years out. So, it's not going to help us currently right now today. Let me let me add to that. And I I I appreciate you explaining saying that, but I think it's important that, you know, when you look at your highest cost factors in your budget, you have to look at efficiencies though. You also where what group, what subject, what whatever, you still have to look at efficiencies. And and I've looked at the efficiencies in special my background is in special education and what we do in this district is not efficient. We got to do a better job than that
045because kids deserve better services than what they're getting. You know, they're getting the bare minimum and it's very very little. So, and then I would rather see savings in special ed being brought back into programs in special ed. You know, assistive technology, you know, there's all these things that kids could be using to learn and we we don't have the ability to grab hold of some of those things. So, yes, it's it's all Yes, it's a hot dollar, but you can maximize those dollars. And that's the game plan, right? Not taking away, but just maximizing those dollars. I I don't disagree with you at all and I'm I'm sure and I got Let's bring it back to the student in education and not not look at them as like dollar signs for a minute. Cuz
046they're not they're not dollar signs. The best case for a child anyway would be get those students get those services in district and not have to be on a bus X amount of minutes losing instruction time. Not having Absolutely. interaction with their peers that live across the street from them and around them and not knowing anybody in the school and not having parent having to go all the way over there for Absolutely. parent-teacher conference. All that would be better for them. We talked a lot about the neighborhood school concept. That whole concept That concept has has evolved over the years. You know, when I started the business 30 some odd years ago, it was it was all about neighborhood schools and and every city, town, across the nation was dealing with that neighborhood school concept.
047But things have changed a little bit because the environment of schools, especially public schools, have changed. And we have to change the system in order to make things better and efficient and and streamline things a little bit differently than because parents want their children to be around kids in their neighborhood, you know, and if you're going to put them on a bus for 2 hours a day, they're never going to engage with their with their with their neighborhood peers. And so, that's the concept that we're trying to bring back to this district and you can do it in very very innovative ways. And that's what we're trying to be able We're we're not there yet. You know, but we got to get there first. We got to clean up our house, figure out what we
048need to do, get get the furniture all back in place, and then we start fresh. And that's what we're going to be able to do if we is this, you know, we can do the great things that are that could happen in this district and and most of all, we need to equip the people to do it. Uh we have We need a lot of uh professional development in this district to be able to to go back to the basics to to bring people back up. But it takes money to do that, too, though. So, um but it's we're we're we're we're moving and we're we're I think we're steady. We just have to stay, you know, true to what we're all about, kids. Everything we do is about kids and they're they're the inspiration
049of doing the work that we're doing. You guys don't get paid for it, you know, and you're doing it because you want good things happening for the children of this board, and that's what we are striving to be able to do, to meet you guys there, to get the job done, to carry the torch over the finish line. >> Right. And as much as I give everybody a hard time, now and then I don't tell anybody around We do it. sit around and chill. We do understand. Definitely I understand. Mr. Watson, do you still have a question? Answer them. Here you go. Here you go. Thanks. Yeah, quick question. Go ahead. Mr. Mr. Anquo, how how much does it cost us per month to to to run uh the uh the the the building up
050on uh uh Sheridan? Utilities. We're currently in for that. Utilities? Daily or Mr. Wright, you know Brother Phil B. All right. Or like Daily or No, 1 2 A day or I don't know. I I don't know I'm daily. I think I know about a year. Is that all great question and all inclusive or It's all broken. Yes. Let me give you some factors. Utilities. The utilities. All inclusive? >> Utilities probably right now all in 40,000. A year? Yeah. Uh no, no. A month. For this time of year. Um I can get those numbers for you though. The winter months you're probably talking 40 40,000 a month, and then in summer months you're probably 22 23 3,000. Yeah. We'll go get it. for 12 months uh for 1 year. Then if you need additional [clears
051throat] trend, we can bring also providing additional trend, but the best thing is to if your goal or your idea is to relocate just give me just you the yearly expense on the yearly cost. I was just trying to get an idea of what it what what what it cost a year to run a to to run an apartment in a 100-year-old building. This is Chicago. Yeah, it seems like I might be trying to get to 44 million dollars without layoffs. So, if we were to close every single school in this district, how much would we save in In energy, 8 million dollars. Say it again. 8 million. 8 million for all the schools in energy alone. 8 million. We're still I think so. I mean I mean I mean we still need to get
052rid of the staff. They have no buildings to go to. I mean I didn't mean that flippantly as get rid of the staff. I meant to All right. Just to bring us back to reality. You can't pull buildings out of our rear end. deficit. Um Can I Can I say one more thing, please, to the chair? >> Yeah. Well, you know in our in in one of our in our last meetings, you know, we had issues of you know where uh you know the kids' health in some of these buildings. So, it's not only you know just about you know cost savings and stuff like that. Some people are worried about the health of the people that are inside some of those 100-year-old buildings. Thank you, Mr. Watson. Um Any further questions about the update?
053Like more's coming. Details coming. >> More details coming. All right. That's all, folks. We have a All right, folks. See you folks later on Monday. Motion to adjourn. Second. All right. We're meeting on Monday and for real this time. All right. Thanks. Thank Thanks, everyone. Let's go. Don't say that too loud. Don't say that, yes. I think Anquo swears it's 6 inches long.