Special Meeting of the Finance Committee -Room 305 Monday, March 3

001life evening ladies and gentlemen this is meeting of the finance committee today's date is March 3r March 3rd so not used to the same thing we on the engine 2025 um and attendance is Joseph SC myself committee chair Mr Willie Medina Committee Member we've got all the lines Andre Woodson board membera Casmir board member George Garcia and we got various staff here and in attendance in person we've got Mr M and our superintendent schools notate the first item on the agenda is the approval of minutes date February 6 2025 do I have a motion to approve so move I shall second you find any material errors or omissions nor do I so that being said all in favor of approving the minutes dated 20 February 6 I I oppos motion carries next item is discussion

002and possible referral to the full Board of 2576 food and nutrition budget call taking that away sir uh yes well the the nutrition center they requested budget for current year let me start with current year is $25 million 6613 next year what they requested is $26 million $26 million $872,000 82 so basically nut cred meaning they have to be even they canot they cannot based on the number of meals on B number of population based on the number of students that are eligible for premum which my understanding is virally all students for premum just about so it's all dependent on established reimbursement rate supended so that's what the state Rees um if they do run a sub if they do make moreone let me put it that more than what they spent it has to

003be put into nutrition C inter service fund which is a reserve F he used full C equipment like when freeer breaks something big so it's a it's not a flush money but it's something Freez some of those freezers they have to compresse 20,000 that so those are what they use money schol and sometimes they going use it to buy a cooler a truck cooler or Big B truck so it's used for Nutrition Center Food Services purpose the state does not will not allow the district to keep them a matter of fact last year was the first year was the first year that I did to late created an internal service fund for the there by moving ntion center ntion Center internal service money that was under the umbrella of one ofed and I different F

004and was all presented when I when I presented the reconation of the inter service this year when I started whereby isolated what belongs to the Nutritional Center and the establishment of the internal service fund which is f f 090 that's the F number that's how you can identify what belongs to nut C so that's pretty much for Nutrition Center again A lot of times your revenues and expenditures they have to match sometimes they kind of whether they collect all the money or whether they attend their revenue number or not they have to scale out their expend to the tone of their revenue collection so they can defit if the Run St exceeds the expenditures that excess is put left into the interal service fund for replacement of the equipment like coolers compressive their salaries are

005independent their employees are e or charge to their or to their Department cannot come and go expendition all the with City question do you have that uh I don't have my documents in front of me but I just wanted for the record that 090 what is the what is in there right now um you can I say this one yeah for nutrition you say it's it's all 90 correct fun fun fun fun fun9 uh let me see if I have I went through let me see if I have the I don't have the P balance or fation with it's about5 million my M it's about million about $5 million when I did conation it was carved out I did resend again just Rec again the recation of this time I would you want specific that

006there was an ISF uh you said there was an ISF uh PA for air mar Just for you that's why that reference that's why I for to92 yeah yeah yeah that's how we distinguished 90 090 you go by the four last digits to organization yeah you start looking at here what they and may I ask George K where where is K he said okay okay got it where but I'm just tell wouldn't it's more account any questions no Mr Woodson do you have any questions not at this time Miss C you have any questions yes um I'm looking at the July 2024 2025 New Year budget the top half of the page is in red and the bottom half is in Black Mr Uno can you just explain the difference between those two colors thank

007thank you absolutely whatever you see in red you're going to see the numbers negative minus negative sign and all those object what I call object codes if you look at the if you look at where it says object under the object all those numers start with four right that's that's object code IM mun in the city immunity in the city in Board of Education revenu start with Miracle number four okay expenditure start with numerical number five you can never see Revenue identifi with numerical number neither can you ever see exp identified or affiliated with numerical number that's the distinction so the red is basically indicating revenues the black is basically indicating expenditures the toal the total of the revenues is 25 minus $25 million it's actually 25 million it's not a minus $25 million credits

008versus deits credit and credit and deit debit and credit basically that's yeah then if you look at the total of the black also equally 25 million so the total revenues and the total expenditures match exactly to pen that's what I mean by Nutrition Center have be balance they cannot run a deficit however they can run a surplus at the end of the year that Surplus gets get loged in or ACR in The Ledger as a ren their fund for them to purchase a cooler repair compress compressor of the big freezer those can be very expensive sometimes I see the requisitions it it's not cheap that I can tell when you start refilling free and I don't know how many tons of free and for huge huge cooler room it gets exp so that's what the

009money is there for basically Nutrition Center itself sustaining okay they not a liability to the district the excess money is there for them to be independent of their own or take care of their the buildings are in the city the city of bridgport BS for the re Roofing of their buildings so it doesn't come out of Center budget the state pays about 78% the city pays the balance of it all actually it's it's a bit different it's um 6040 for nutrition oh really yes because they're it's consider because you don't have children in the building okay um and then in terms of the fund like n was saying that's the renewal of equipment which has been happening throughout the district there's been a tremendous need of renewal in terms of equipment old and family equipment

010um the vision of the department is to you know start to stabilize the operation now it's about working with the people right so it's it's been on two fronts very young team uh he almost been here three years and mostly his team has been on on uh his been te or two so they're doing a tremendous job of sort of stabilizing the district that was mission number one okay thank you and so the Surplus if there's a surplus then that Surplus goes into the ISF for nutrition is that right yes it yes canot cannot be should not be used to be I you use the word commingles she used to be put under the umbrella of B education in Serv F the state came and CRI well not CED they did it they made it

011clear to be separate okay thank you you set up a fund in set of a more more an entity of his own buiness work well for that surplus funds to to utilize that money is there a request from the board to purchase those those equipments why is that it's an operational Improvement they go off for bid anywhere for replacement of the equ bid or state contract or state contract how does the board know how and what the funds are being used for used for to at what campus I mean you can use $5 million at one campus if it wanted to but does how how do you dictate what campuses you know equipment is needed do you have some type of uh rotating inventory plan that that shares maybe maybe all the elementary schools will

012get a serving line or they may get a different type of serving bar whatever how does that how does that plan how do you how do you distribute the the wealth of that Surplus dollars into different campuses that primarily based on need right number one um as as you know we have a lot of failing infrastructure in the district there wasn't really a a plan per se in the past to sort of renovate and and and change out this wh it which has started renovation of kitchens renovation of cafeteras um upgrading of equipment so K if you can elaborate more on that I know that for larger Capital um for larger purchases like trucks that are in the $200,000 range and things of that magnitude those do come to the board right uh let me

013give everybody a point of information before we get too far down this road City Charter policy St statute all contracts over $225,000 must be approved by the board whether it's what whatever shape and form this we just have validated several contracts happen to be Personnel we haven't even gotten into purchases which is somewhere we're going to have to go to look over the last year and a half of what purchases pass by the B 25 so I want to be abundantly clear it may seem like I'm talking like basically simple things but I don't know what people know I don't know what people understand about the budget process we've got so many people who haven't been here for a long time Mr Garcia you familiar you may be familiar might be before your time with

014the lemon lemon bar gate lemon we were called to task in front page of the newspapers because we went out for lemon bars on a qualified purchase and the board never approved it but such a black guy for the board is one of my first years on the board that the board specifically included the Nutrition department and their purchases as part of the $25,000 because whether it's Federal money with a zero balance at the end it does not affect operating cost whether it's Capital expenditures they all taxpayer dollars which we are entrusted to approve and make sure they spent it's not the Nutrition department is not Dr aver it's not a St close budget request this is the bridport board of education budget request for bridport public schools we function differently from all the other

015Department as departments as the department heads all answer to the name the the department head Dr a answers to the board of education does that make sense to everybody of so we bought we bought those large purchases to the board right any all the purchases that I've done within School Renovations were brought to the board within my first year and then um B from your question you have said earlier I will I usually will draft the report to the CFO asking for the funds and giving the detail report on the schools the equipment and the plan anything over $25,000 you bring back to the board for yes I'll bring to the board to go out to bed and then um once I secure everything I'll go back to the board and let them know I

016think we got we got a couple little yes last year we did um cafeteria tables the trucks uniforms and the renovations of the cafeterias working on which is ongoing next year or so with Le times and everything else so being a lot of that has started initation some some is still being in and and usually the food and nutrition bids are brought to us in unas yes and I think we did that last year if I'm not mistaken did you or did we skip I I know we we did it last January 2024 202 but we we never actually did this portion in approving the school and nutrition food and nutrition budget was not presented to the board last year not I'm not saying didn't fall to your home we had different leadership back then

017and a different process that's right which leads me to my question who is the person who created this report Donna deata he is our financial name that finan yes because I said I say I got concerned because I say it on the mut form this has not been presented to the city of bridport yet no that was just a open draft but everything was this awesome awesome that that that that that was a major concern that is getting my I definitely want to we we want to dot our eyes cross our te's under a lot of pressure here um yeah so got to see this in I call in the past we used to see a lot more detail but for the purposes of this is fine want whatever whatever whatever the um whatever the

018city sees this is this but when it's constructed into the whole budget there like this basically becomes line still the same thing the line items are there line it there all the line it are there all the line there yeah maybe because I'm saying in different form different form all the all the all like looks a little tooy right now now let's go to um the is the food and nutrition ISF we are exploring every place we're allowable to charge to the nutrition budget like Services say say like a secur security does a food events or something maybe that's a bad example um like C certain certain repairs that would normally be under the operating budget to the kitchen they hand that where I'm saying is wherever allowable we are charging where we can to

019save the operating budgets because we are we I know there certain journal entries we can make to utilize the internal service funds for nutrition where we would otherwise because if the nutrition center runs at a deficit we got to cover it with the operating the nutrition center handles all repairs in every school every kitchen anything that is broken that is that our responsibility being funded and then for the for what you're saying we actually pay the Board of Education indirect cost 4.7% based on our um operating cost and that covers every department for security electricity and all that monitored by the state after that 4.7% we cannot can't take anything else or else the board that would owe food and nutrition department and that happened in November 2023 when they did the state review the

020board of vet had to pay nutrition back 166,000 if sght brains over and they should there should there should be I just want to make sure we're not leaving anybody on the table anywhere because food and nutrition I don't think they ever really brand out a deficit in my tent and there's always there's always been surpluses and shifting in the funds we allowable it's right now it's about the infrastructure and making sure that we're providing a a new and more efficient way of delivery of service to our students um uh what is our percentage up now 7% we increase Meals by 148,000 meals per year so we're seeing some good Gaines we're starting to see that those Investments are taking hold and you know we're starting to bring in some Innovation you know so we

021can continue to uh do what we've always done we have new leadership who has a vision we're enacting that Vision now and we're starting see the fruits of all that lab we have this management working on have we analyzed all the costs to make sure the 4.7% allowable is sufficient to cover all those costs such as I mean like you would read The Nutrition department and other other employees with the p with a pension plan are we rolling in those projected pension payments as well with murf and everything in there well through the che yes Nutritional Center if you look at line their life insurance is on their budg contribution is on their budg their social SEC asking health insurance that's not the that have retired look at the financial condition report or the Gap

022FL the measures you're going to see a million doll in there for nutrition and into the district they got awesome thank you sir and that encompasses portion of the reti and the 4.7% over charart that K have indicated as far as over administrative Char is concerned like he said the dided book and that the maximum this did allow I I just want to make sure that the maximum allowed is sufficient to cover the actual cost and if not to lob to state to hey you g up that we don't want to overreach pay back one time is enough as a warning time might fact are there any other questions on this item move on to the next agenda item sir updated 2425 Financial condition and inclusive of ISF projected yearend balance thank guys thank you

023thank M okay current year Financial condition report you set us yes couple hours ago okay start and just just getting a few hours ago this was late agenda they didn't have much time so it's not what I was what we're going through is what Danielle has said in the yes yeah yeah what I today is more oh yeah yeah can we look at this one first um one just give me one second actually CU I got a question because thank you very go I mine's bigger made it bigger that's all it is um again this is kind of a recap of what we have gone through the other time with the board uh to address um board member M's concern of the $39 million that the board adoped you're going to see under fy2 unit

024budget you see the 309 that's what makes up the 3 look at the that's how the 309 came about that 309 total budget of number that the board adopted included the $26 million of use of service fund on top you say yeah I see I see 310 309 so that's why 309 founding the wrong okay he's said on top there paper man appreciate that so that that's pretty much what the board adopted 309 again not to repeat myself that's 309 was Gap filled with $26 million use of internal service fund so that's the story for this current year based on the projection the current year is supposed to end of $322 million that's without what I did here is I said for now I forgot about internal service fund let's come to the gross problem

025and decide how much of the internal service fund we're going to use by trying on the Gap closing measures determining because for me it's not a prudent financial management to use 26 million this let's forget that we have 26 million let's do some work at least throw some punches and see what's left as much or as less of inter we do that's we can use so with that in mind we we kind of came up with gap closing measure the total Gap is pretty much $42 million we said we're going to do Alliance programming of Grants we're going to credit the general fund or transfer some of the leg expensive two Grands to the T of10 billion then the next phase which is other that will measure Solutions I'm focusing on current year after that

026I'll going to the next one is Citywide operational savings free attrition which is the email I have sent out but I realized that there were trouble in the house we still that operational free TR we only feel we feel needed and mandated and necessary and educational position and be clear we are not holding back educational position that will enhance The Well of the educational children I just want to be clear you see the nutrition center $1 million um reimbursement know that we talked about see a million dollars there and we got a Char go Nutritional Center reur the district for paying for their retire reads which is part of our health which is part of the board the school system health insurance exp so part of those employes employes so that going to reimburse those

027plus 4.7% administrative that the board is allowed to that the next one is the state reimbursement of school boil replacement what happened here when place a boiler here tell school I don't know this school but it's a very expensive Bo it's a chill chill so it's a gr that apply for however with most brands you have to front the money yourself or spend the money yourself send the receipts of what completion before the gr can re mercy so we fronted the money on offering B so we're waiting for the reimbursement approv the reimbursement has been so we're going to credit back the account where the money it's actually not the account the offering we get it reimburse bettering sorry now the board we came came before board and when we realized the Gap was too

028much or the deficit was increasing and use of 26 million was in this mon the best idea so we took some proactive approach by having the board through some Downs now when he let out the unemployment and everything for this year it's going to be to $1 million sale next s uh next year that's when we get the full cost because it's for the entire year and unemployment cost must have been exhausted meaning those people stop thring down on unemployment when get po which is about 7.9 million next year then this was a very debatable or passing back and forward um the issue here my goal is to close or try to close car G little not too much so I decided to use 22.4 million instead of 26 that was ear marked in the

029budget or adopted by the board and defer for use use additional 7 million trying to balance next Gap they're leaving a balance of5 million in the inter service fund after using the 29.4 so the total action of those Gap measur is 40 4.2 million 4.2 million if you take away take away $40 million 4.2 million $42 million gap that we start we still have a short of potential of 2.2 million G still going forther saying okay our goal our desire our our ambition is to close this Gap look at our public facilities I have to be very blunt and honest with everyone the rate of overtime is a put pressure on them to scale it down by the year is almost over most of up already but it could be scaled down to save 00,000

030next year we're going to pool session everybody have to realize that we spend $1.2 million in over time so but that's that we fig we're going to save $200,000 here this is a pending action that board has been taken on additional downsides positions this year again the action has going be clear and let everybody know the ramification of delay don't let people intend to people if you don't before April one just by Crossing that line one day Mr un can you repeat what you just said can you repeat that again please the the the entitlement for vacation start April 1 in the city in the board if come ail one if I'm intitled to five weeks vacation in a year come April 1 I'm entitled to the entire five weeks let me up after April

031one you going to pay me that five weeks but if you lay you off March 31st then you don't right I haven't I I didn't make the threshold or the deadline oh you're just hypothetical okay thank you no no that's correct you're right so it's kind of like an allocation if you would well through the chair so April 1 it's like the start of their vacation that they earn their vacation time yeah so no I I understand all that I understand all that my only question was that if it's March 31st we don't owe them the whole five weeks according to what saying don't want gotcha thank you what trying to little diplomatic U okay so that's that's the way it works it's been the way it works and that's the way it works so

032that's the story behind that again one thing I don't want to do here is in people look at numbers if actions are not taken the number doesn't mean anything I could put a million dollars here doesn't mean I think AC and that's why I don't like to put n because people think the problem just with people people are just going to go to the bottom and say we got home no assumption contining on additional solution trying to close this year Gap most people must have heard that legislators did push and approve $40 million additional special education funding for this current year contrary to what the governor has proposed Governor proposed in 40 million becoming effective in fiscal year 2027 legislator said no municipalities towns have suffered and theyve been suffering and they're choking from this

033special education expenses the muscle up and voted $40 million to be split among towns and municipalities based on bridge for population U special education population and race we will our entitlement will be would have been will be whichever one it is everything is limbo now $1.9 million that's why I rushed and said thank god let's grab the 1. 1.9 million because legisl have passed they passed unanimously so with that added that close this year's gap of 42 million that was done however this afternoon well I you know I took it to the bank tooo soon this afternoon I understand that the governor is vetoing or if he even if he has not veto that that $40 million so that money for now is not there the 1.9 that you see there does not exist you

034understand everybody all the people on the on the on the on the on the web understand what I just said that 1.9 million for Now does not exist so back to square one the Gap is still current year Gap is back to 2.2 million there some scenarios that can play out here I don't know how it's going to play out it's all Politics the legislators can override the government veto they need two-thirds of the vote majority vote to override the governor's veto that's all in the air but the governor is entitled to do a line item v and that's what he's going to do he's going to do a line item v he can singly line item v a line in the budget that's his right and that's what he has expressed he's going to

035do that's where we stand relative to that this is my rational my thinking trying to be logical sometimes not too good try to be logical I figured if the legislator approved it this year this 1.9 million there's no way they are not going to pass a law amendment in the session to extend that 1.9 or funding into next school year and that's why I cop well I assumed that 1. now will occur in 2023 right now that's 4 million this year and next year is the minimum I guess what I'm saying is for this year and next year let's take out that 2 million on both sides I me for the time being that assumption seem to be a little shaky but again so that's where we stand for this year we can go on

036to next year if you want if no one have a question what I'm trying to do here so everybody will understand is show current year budget current year challenges solutions to closing current year gap for deficit was also on the same page show you how one year relates to another by going into 2026 budg because if I had done it one spreadsheet or one flyer all over the budget and another flyer with another spreadsheet telling you about 2026 budget everybody's going to get so confused but it's all you you do agree there just something something in Translation that you gota translated from accountant speak to people speak to advocacy do maybe I have to more but no no it's not you I told down you can really go deep I mean real I mean I

037learned that from the city side when you do a budget you don't do a budget the budget is not for you the budget is for the residents and aage taxer to understand where their money is going it's not about you knowledge so that's something you know I'm very aware of okay you done I'm done with the current year you want to go to next year let me take some questions first I see Mr M any questions M CM I just have a question about the does anybody here in this room know why the governor is vetoing uh funding for special education I just I've I've done the research and I've looked at videos and I've read the articles but I don't I'm not clear on why he's videoing it I just want to know if

038anybody knows I I'll take that one uh there's a thing called the fiscal guard rails that were put in place in oh 20145 or something like that that protect certain dollars there's a currently five billion dollars in excess money on reserve in the savings account to protect taxpayers from taxes going up from yeah I know that part okay spending certain money and there's caps that they can only spend x per of X dollars before triggering something this money he says Falls outside those caps and he wants to PR to protect those caps so there doesn't have to be any tax raise taxes on the wealthy or raise taxes on anybody or start tapping into that fund protecting that fund like it is all money and so I can find that on the State website or

039what you just said how do I find proof of that it's called TR it's called a spending C spending cap okay it's a cap that state implemented on their own they said a benchmark that they will not exceed certain spending cap the reason the reason to that minut what happens is that people not people towns cities whatever the state run to run into a power of cash or run to a company big company coming into town doing big investment then they start living a high profile lifestyle based on that income tax or taxes that that investor is paying when that investor pulls out of town they've already EST too far established themselves the very high standard of living that they canot sustain so sir I'm sorry to interrupt you yeah but that's we our our

040job is to get that money not to help them keep it I'm just let the governor R I'm trying to explain the rational behind the spending Camp they trying to contain spending thank you Mr Uno I appreciate it again Mr calovic do you know where I can go to um to get proof of what you just said yeah um I would suggest you look um this called director to the the financial that that's very difficult for everybody to understand myself included with an accounting background there's a group called contic for all that breaks it breaks it down very good breaks it down how to spending cap and all this came into play when I get home later on I'll see I'll send it to you by email I'll send you some information that they got

041it breaks it down breaks it down very man man of the street way to understand yeah I just found their website I'll check it out thank you right now why like you have any questions I got some questions sure this up thing is as of the same this is same update from December 30th correct I do not see encompassed in here the 1 point x million in program programmatic savings that were approved after this thing was made made that learning committee and brought to the full board afterwards the academics committee right uh it's like one point I forget exactly dollar amount yeah that's they didn't give me any down so far what I understand is some of that savings is avoid yes they gave a specific number for savings and so you just need to

042grab that and I'll make sure you have that in front of you I know but I think it was sent to you somehow with there's moving parts that we need to grab it let me something between let me let me try to explain you understand some of the savings what they call Cost avoidance time meaning that they didn't implement this program and it will save you this much money down the road you understand so there will be savings but what I'm trying to say is somebody telling you that if I had contined subscribing for this new for three years me $1,000 but because I trun it I'm saving you $500 what they did is what you call Cost avoidance for future yes he's giving you the opportunity to reprogram that money for the future but

043not immediately that cost avoidance was it included in the initial budget projection for 2 2425 that 1 Point 3 million if it was baked into the budget for wait no yeah 2 24 25 so so in that projected budget we received we're no longer utilizing that program for the remainder of the year so there should be some cost captur that were encumbered within the encompassed within the budget I will make sure n [Music] have for this year one for all the savings are in the grant so we got to be careful what which which which your budget prowess and you're journalizing through the can make the numbers work out through legal Journal entes because they we're talking about like if we talk about tit one there like a 100 different things we use we talk

044about four CLE look at it detail move s right and between between that and the um 1.8 reasonably confident that they got enough money enough votes to override that veto and I'm hopeful that I'm not I don't often get hopeful with the legislator but but but I'm also conservative so I think we should prend is not there at this time being and stretch still um three it just that honestly I already incorporated into this report before I found out about governor governor so I just said you know what not going to keep passing this back in and out yeah we we we got we gota have some we gota we gotta have some assumptions within the we and the problem is we don't know all the numbers if we want to know every single number

045and develop a budget L okay have problem um is there any more questions on this item Mr Woodson I did not check in with you do you have any questions no I'm good thanks um I may let's go to page two where it says additional Gap PL measur solution too that the board has not approved toal 5.1 million I just want to be clear the fact that the board hasn't approved it it should not really count I said g my first for now yeah I understand so so for all practical purpose 5.1 plus 1.9 call it 2 million is $7.1 million that the board has not approved that's been used in next year Gap Clos what do approve they don't materialize add $7 million to 23 million remaining deficit back to $0 million understood I

046just want to be cbody we're talking we're talking about 2526 F year 25 26% want everybody to be clear we're not out of the woods not La so but there's still a lot of factors for next year's budget and so as one of the Gap closing measures this is this is a $5 million savings if we the board were to consider these particular things but there's a lot of discussion that needs to be had with this because it impacts the classroom a little bit and so he put these things Vol there just for consideration only nothing moving forward on it until we have a deeper conversation and and and I guess I know actually reminded me of a question I forgot about um we okay I know that I know the pars are Kelly and

047we're not paying them any vacation no there so the 11 restorative practice position those are represented employees they're unaffiliated unaffiliated uh are they um un Affiliated employers are they are they pensionable employ employes and vacation employes and those position those position April 1 they do not have any bumping waves they will be entitled to their vacation come April 1st there's a deeper conversation around those positions because those positions kind of correlate to stor in school suspension all those things from the disciplinary side of the house that we struggle with in the district so I want to make sure that we have a deeper conversation around absolutely you know deleting those positions and in addition to that we started practices in then school suspension there are some key requirements from the state of Connecticut that are

048required and so I hadn't add it to the cating measures because we may have to shift between restorative and then school suspension and I want to make sure I had to do a little bit more research on which one of the positions are required you know and which one's going to give us a bigger thing for a buck because a couple years back the district did away with the in school suspension uh people or staff members and that came in with restorative last year in state of Connecticut said you're out of compliance because you have no in school suspension staff m anymore and so we have to fund in school suspension separately in a whole different line item in addition to restoring it so if we flip-flop things into consideration we it will not be

049a savings because you still need those dollars in order to fund in school suspension understood so there just some some deeper conversation understood and this is G segue perfectly into the next agenda item which is the 2526 SCH year budget and I want to begin with a preface we are under severe time constraints with this budget to get it complete this budget is a holistic documents it's depend upon the facility study the approval of what we're doing with our facilities if we're going to close schools that's got to be baked into this budget uh these is right here the vacation is April 1st collective bargaining unit with our certified staff they have to know whether they're employed by May 1 or we're in violation So within 60 how many days is this like 26 days

050we will not be able to capture this full savings or we have to pay the vacation for the ones you just mentioned so that's about 20 something days let's like's call 26 say oh I don't feel like doing Ma right now um and then add to that another 30 days to get us to May 1 so 56 days within 56 days we've got to complete the process of the facility study decide if in fact you're going to close schools decide send notices out to the staff decide the senority and the bumping rights find out the savings of all this all within 56 days 56 days we got to this work this is why I keep stressing on we have to have actions moving forward day by day you got to make another step in this

051process because if we close two schools three schools or zero schools it's not a foregone conclusion maybe somebody will come to our rescue with $30 million $40 million that would be great but being a realist this probably not going to happen these schools have X amount of employees that if we bring them all and keep them all we're not going to see any save we're not going to see any Sav so the reality is these employees may have to be laid off and if they are laid off I as a former Union member if somebody violated my contract and terminated me pass the date they they were supposed to I'm coming for compensation as with de so that whole savings will not be realized and and beyond beyond the savings there's the moral responsibility to

052let people know if they will be working next year so they can start looking for employment else I preface that to say there severe time pressure and also before we get into this because we are asking for has done as instructed and asked for the money we need to keep every single program in place along with escalating costs for next year now it may seem ridiculous what was the top number ask 25 said it the whole the whole budget the whole operating what the whole operating budget requests inclusively the monitor name now yes let me clarify there's a distinction between monetary need and what budget number will be absolutely that's I'm going to get to that yes sir $280 million 248 million oh right I'm sorry yes 284 340 what the M need will be

053however right give me a second go thank you now I just want to put this out there with 348 need for the district with 19,700 change students versus the Stafford Public Schools is are like 328 $330 Million worth about a little more than half the students we have so it's not a ridiculous number to operate in school district is what our children deserve and what our children need that being said we know we're not going to get there and we're going to have to take away St things from our children we're going to have to damage their education going forward probably for a decade it'll take us to recover from the financial abuse that have been heaped Among Us by the state and local governments of the city and the state and even the country

054there the staff in public schools gr schools and everybody else can fund their schools why do all kids have to suff so going to get that so we're going to have to decimate the budget we're going to have to approve a budget so we could get into the a budget request and we approved the budget request last year which was irresponsible because we did not go back we reli too heavily not internal service funds and for some reason everybody thought we're done we don't have to do any more work on this budget we're finished we're complete this is this is mostly I'm talking to the state we are aware that the process does not end at Monday when we approve the budget we are quite aware that we need to make cuts into the 2526

055school year in order to balance the budget we are aware our work is not done we are aware we got to balance the budget before prior to hopefully prior to the next fiscal year June correct is and this fiscal year the beginning of next fiscal year I mean we could play like a million or two but we do not have much regular room within that budget um so that being said we've got to have multiple more meetings I'm going to bring back we're g to come couple of times we're not going to wait till June 18th and get a menual cuts and say okay let's go the way we've handled it in the past past practices the budget cuts I don't think anybody in this room was on the board of fam milon m gentlem

056over here he's for way way way back in the day when we actually had to make um budget cuts 2018 2019 school year there was a couple of ways that this handled one we presented um we test this CFO with giv us suggested menus at a 10% shortall 15% shortall a 20% shortfall so we were prepared when the final numbers came in from the city so so I'm G my intentions as the chair of the finance committee is to have the next meeting next couple of meetings or whatever happen doing a projection at $10 million for 50 million or something like that whatever knowb makes sense we can think about it more discuss it a little while later just so we're ready because what I do not want to do is have another position where

057we're in at the end of the school year where we are presented with one option that's something we need to have options we need to have choices that we need to get this done am I making sense to everybody did I just depress everybody like it makes sense I mean I agree with you because it's just a matter of how we plan it all out and based what we get we can kind of go to the next one and go the next one and that's just good we get in our own bus right it's part of the part of the process you get that way I kind of sh it all with the spreadsheet that's why I have solution one solution two solution three Solution that's plan a plan B plan C but but in

058that plan solution but but in that plan where's the school closures numbers Sav bottom bottom okay right you cannot nightless has made that determination I'll give you a number if you said what no I do not want I do not want absolutely agree 100% I'm sure I'm sure Mr un was scratching his head up at night waiting for those numbers waiting for the action of the board waiting for the action of the facilities master plan which is actually in existence we should be having multiple meetings of the facilities committee bringing scenarios to the board a b and c because we're not going to do it in one meeting we're gonna argue we're going to fight it's going to be stressful the community is going to come out you can't put off the hard conversations because

059this gentleman needs that number to get us to the number where we need to whatever it's all listed here if you go every option but the state but the school but the city every option is on the table and I think for for short you know n and I've been talking we we we he understands the magnitude of what you're you know and and the urgency that you put on you know trying to get this budget you know somewhat summed up we have to have options and he left those options open until we decide okay are we going to do whatever you know we're gonna we're gonna be able to find $10 million Savings in this option that the board takes on and and put some numbers to it and be able to come work

060from there you said the 10 $10 million $15 million you know we do a $5 million savings and then as we get state allocations city allocations any additional dollars from the legislative session we'll we'll we'll tap into all those options and then we'll know which way which one we're going to pull to say okay we're going to fill the Gap because we still need $15 million right so in $15 million come April or May whenever we need to decide on what we're going to pull that option then we'll have a little bit of working knowledge to be able to say okay now we need $15 million our best case option in addition is this and so you'll have all that stuff worked out beginning at the bottom and then we'll bring it to the top

061and say okay we're good so we understand the urgency as well I think it's important that you know we finalize and do a little bit more in depth like you're asking and be able to bring that for for deeper discussion and so we're going to we'll be able to do that as well let's try to work between you know ne's department and the finance committee and then we figure out and map that out so to the committee is clear and order to bring those options to the full board for consideration when we're needing them so absolutely sure yeah and I don't think he'd have a lot less stress if we had those numbers in his head to do his job just just keep in mind 26 days and 56 days are our two hard and

062fast timelines before we could before we start losing potential savings and making that gentleman's stve harder and bringing us bance budget well without respect the way I look at it each day is money say8 million hypthetically going to save 8 million $8 million in closing school or closing schools a year if you divide $8 million by 82 working days means each day of school that there's a delay losing almost 44,000 each day delay action did you say 24,000 Mr 4 44,000 439 43 43 956 44 col approximately 44,000 thank you it's School de time is money is there any further questions on this item or well wait on new it yes um Mr the new call I just thought I just thought it was very valuable to have that preface before we go into this

063to give everybody make sure everybody's on the same page so we're all communicating and people out there hear what's going on as well and what we need to get done if I may let me now we talk about the monetary then there's another column called FY 26 proposed budget that's the budget number that the committee or the board has to and I'll try to make distinction this might get a little technical not be right back start which we on five this is extract of I'm trying to distinguish between monetary need and number very Bott line you still have $23 million yeah that's okay is power show the difference yeah the reason why monetary need let me try to explain the need the essence of monetary need Monet need is how much money you need to

064balance the budget the budget number if you're laying like you go to page all the layup you're going to do the $7.9 million layup you're going to do right you're going to reduce your total $346 million budget number that by that much because you going to have a reduced budget number those people will not be there you're not going to pay them you don't need to forward good you good yeah so that's the difference between monetary need if you didn't do anything you're going to need 348 million but because you're taking action your budget numers that you're going to budget what any cut that you do don't need that Mone need anymore because you why you taking away that problem or you eliminated that existence of that problem by laying those doesn't have to that's

065the difference between monetary need and what the board will ultimately adopt because you're taking action to reduce the monetary need the budget number will come low this is not a unique normal budget what you see what we're going through of year balancing next year buget simultaneously not a chall play just just won't qualify to what you said I can't end I already said it the need to adopt a budget that's less than this with cuts would not exist if they give us the money we got we got we got we got we got to keep emphasizing that that is true we got to keep emphasizing but as a real be some there going to be some dollars but I don't know what that dollar amount is going to be right and so and I see

066your I see your point to but I have to True picture if you take this action you don't need this much money don't take that AC you need then you need the old full Mone me right and that's what the that's what the suggestion or direction for the scenarios comes in if then if then if then if zero this we do so that's the a little technical but I prig I'll point it out thank what's our budet request for sorry you have what what what's going to be the requ the for now the proposed budget is is 300 when you see on page three $327 million assuming assuming we me the CL yes interesting yes it's a lot less well but but it's still with that we still have $23 million yeah to close yeah

067can we move forward can we the slides show up on the screen for the public to see but next year Buton assuming all the assumptions we made we put up here solution 1 2 3 Works Flawless you still have3 million big you have you have a yeah sure I'm sure you okay I'm just pointing out that Stanford prop budget was 347 million we have kids they have a big they have a big Grand list Grand what much more BR St other attack like it's amazing how you could attract business with prop governance can we share can we share our screens 26 don't have [Music] excuse me hey while we waiting I'm looking at um page number five this is um probably new duct saying 19,800 is our projected enrollment I seen this on the state

068documents saying over 20,000 that's for next year yeah current like our current yeah they say C they C was a 20 20,100 or something I can't tell you what that I I yeah on one think it's on a letter open letter to the public well this came October 24th from well okay sorry what state is probably I Wrong was probably adding that adding no it's not enough I'll get yeah thank you this is October 2025 okay second sir okay um pretty much current next year budget um go through it flip to the next page talking about FY again FAL year framework T of content goals challenges budget overview budget request essential monitory need is basically working to run this to run the school system and take care of the children educationally and then the next

069appendix is Grant Bri Vision cult responsive high performance learning more mission statement and goals those are pretty standard page talks about fisal framework goals challenges District enrollment NC nce numbers School allocation model fiscal challenges the goals have pretty much outlaid their four goals structural balance budget Bas budg model fiscal accountability and comprehensive financial management can I pause you for a moment please just I'm just because this I just want to can you describe what a structurally Balan budget is SE one in a while a structural balance budget is a budget that kind of does not assume too much of one time windfalls meaning you have a solid base continuous base maintained increase in cost mean control your cost not one not one time went for and that's why again I don't mean to keep going

070back like using a one time Revenue source using money to establish your standard of living or what whatever Cas might that's not thank you sir continue please uh it's not prudent Financial bugeting let me put it that the next one is page five which basically list the district enrollment as far as students are concerned if you look at it in October 20 October 1 2024 if you look at the numbers students special education was three uh 3,000 819 English as a second language is 6,149 if we combine SP the total number is 9,968 students between el and spec 9,968 student if you divide that number combination of those two factors the total total number of students of students 50.1% of your students are special ed and I live alone there I numbers of facts that's

071what it is and I'm going to I think it's easier for me to interject before because I'll have a million questions at the end if I don't um sorry so our the special education is 19.4% of our student population and they consume 33.7% of our budget which leaves 66.3% of our budget for the remaining 80.6% of us do this just again just we see that expenditure for student is an average um as of last year State special education cost $140 million oh let's CL well wait including transation y i s got the whole thing clouded in my head right now far as the present so it's not that you know it's not that where the the ratio of expenditures on ell and SP you know it's not the same with regular students so that a

072lot of money is being spent right for basically fre needs a lot more money sustain or to keep the pace and ell people have to understand rich is a h for all incoming you know immigrants if you want to put it that way this is where the beginning starts this is where they can afford this is where they're comfortable this is where they can raise their children before their children will become somebody something and move out of that most people that live in trouble most people that live in Monroe most people that live in Fairfield there grandparents Grand parents most a lot of them were born in Bridgewood raised and born and raised in briwood before they saw the light and moved up or have better financial position so it's a Recyling thing it's a

073revolving do as people graduate have a better life more people have to come in they have to start somewhere and breach what is the F that's just the way I look at it Contin okay so that's that's that then you have the excess cost it's always confusing to understand well excess cost is basically anything over the you know the city state is going it's one of the put it mind one of the unfund state mandates that's pretty much what it is in summary you asked to do something but you're not giving enough money or you're not being reur enough that's just that's what ex unfunded mandate is I I I think it will be beneficial to actually explain when do we start getting funding if the average student cost was we have an example here

074the is okay the average student cost $16,000 say 17 for E up around this so we got to spend 17 34 68 75 about 75 grand and then everything over 75 grand that we spend then the state will refund us a portion of that money so if we spend 175 Grand piece of that 100 Grand will be refundable which would be for 50 2025 will be 21% correct yeah so we would recruit this where you sometimes get confused so probably it's 21% not 89% the formula is there if based on the formula of this is the one that proposed that the legisl adopted 21.2 what was proposed in the governor budget was5 not but let's go let's say the legislator prail if you do the formula in a nutshell if the district spends $100,000 on

075out of District placement for special education the state is only reimbursing the district $1 19,35 as simple as that if we spend 100,000 the district will eat up 8,695 the state will reimburse only 19,000 let me just simplify it 100,000 spent a simply s000 100,000 spent did bridport each of $80,000 and the state reimburse is approximately 19,000 and CH simplify we make it simple as simple as it can be I think okay every every dollar we spend we get 20 we get 20 we get 20 cents back [Music] simp um so that's pretty much like it shows it here on page eight spent $114 million almost yeah 114 million point 7114 million in special education in 2024 that's where the money went well quite a bit of the money went the next one is allocation

076model which is the teacher allocation model on parents parent allocation model that's PR straightforward the other one is you know those offering budget fund it listed there Transportation every everything that related with running the school that's what it runs the school challenges again Financial challenges or challenges or huddles that make the budget somewhat out of balance or challenging special education ELR Services um you know absense coverage with some employees and Par being absent health insurance benefits again when it comes to health insurance the latest proposal we receive from the state seo seo is the act company that proposes the rate for the state based on the health insurance is proposed to go up 12.6% July one that's not cheap that's pretty I mean you know we we talk about other things factors it's a multiple

077multitude of factors multiple factors and the health insurance is going up 12.6% to One Life Bill kicks in did great increase in life Bill kicks in gas kicks in and electricity dat on and on and on Transportation we're kind of locking with locked in with we Transportation at 4% um increase next year sure these these are not nothing is stable nothing is constant as far as cost of living is concerned so just without doing anything this District come July in a fiscal year they have to spend almost $8 million between between cost of between salary increases on salary increases actually just salary increase paying all the teachers agreed upon salary increases the mar contribution which is contribution to pension attribut to salary increase Medicare increase attribut to those salary increases is about $8 million a

078year automatic then tack on 12.6% increase in health insurance of about 50 health insurance which retire an active about almost $80 million t on 12.6% people ask where does the money go balance the budget balance the budget only you know there are certain things you have no control over so we can keep going and going and but that's what it is um talked about sped on special education on El on page 12 okay page 10 page 13 it's right there this is the breakdown of cost of wage increase contractual contractual wage I'm sorry can we pause for a second page 13 back to page 12 P 12 is sp we talked about SP kindergarten we up or down I think we're up a little bit because you also you take into consider maybe not kindergarten

079but two and three year old has increased this year last year and so you're going to get a few more of those kids that's gonna go into that four five year old prek PR Kinder or whatever but I'm not PR good what's what's going what went down from the the student head kind of saw Elementary School kind of went came down a little bit however high school went up yeah there was a little decline in elementary school but high school did go on compensating for the decline in school so so P 13 basically outlines what makes up how the $7.9 million in unavoidable increase chemical teacher salary cont trct there's nothing anyone can do about it teacher salary he add it all up is $6 million administrators about half a million ask me and asme

080J unaffiliated is about 615,000 nurses and Luna is about 80,000 again this is dependent on the number of employees so that's what is well of course we have more teachers than any other group of employees so n employees cost factor is about $97,000 trades Union it's about 61,000 now for trades let me be clear the district does that settle trades trade trades cont is settled by the local their local whatever you call their local the Trad Union so once they settled it just tell us what they sett for so we have full control over TR electricians plumbers it's pretty Trade union but we have to abide by it because they work for us they belong to their unit just like every other supervisors and see what we call supervisors and un Affiliated 192,000 now the

081Medicare and M and social security contribution attributive to the salaries but these salaries go up every contribution affiliated with them goes up accordingly proportionately to the percentage increase or dollar increase so the $325,000 increase between Medicare MTH contribution and Social Security I have to question everyone here we are lucky somewhat the state pays the state con pays for teachers pension the district does not pay for it if the district pays for teachers pension that Medicare Social Security and Mer number will be over a million um transportation is broken down as to what Transportation cost are what we anticipated to be next year we have a 4% contractual increase with um with weed Transportation however if we establish new routes due to additional special or out of town District students cost goes up accordingly it's all

082driven by increase in service population increase in distance increase in location question and somebody numbers I see 76 million I see 78 million I see you know8 million okay I know that so why why was it written that way not to make it look to business oh okay what do you I mean point is 800,000 if you want I know math but I just saying everything else is you know thousands and and now you guys put a78 uh million there I just thought that was she like and then later on you put 6.9 million so I just thoughted was an here at first well once you once you cross the point now you got to put this one and then I see another one is 09 million I just wondering why it was done that

083way because it's just looks like it was an error so I no no no it was not got you I mean this is the way it was presented to B in the p i just the P it's not something I invented I just did one to people to accuse me that you know something abnormal I'm just I wouldn't do it this way but again question because I thought it was so was written I had a question 1,363 preach MK students need question charter schools buses going down in 876 P4 that's projected that's good $100,000 less that's probably yeah every everything else is projected increase with the exception that one line so unless a big change of um demographics within the charter school I can find out it must have been must have by number of

084students the number R but again um so we we provide busing for charter schools within Bridgeport are we also providing the charter schools um students busing to New Haven for J 1 is that is that do we pay for that I'm not sure I find out I don't do the operation okay that's the question I have I know we I know we have a lot of student a first school just thank you yeah that's what I'm saying I'm wondering if we ar our busing to good question look atain while we're on this page Point down 2.6 the $3 million in transportation that don't go for students and resurs are not calculating course that's just the transportation I testify but when I testify before the state they asked me questions had the chart we gave me

085they for give them exempt on this special education course and good I listen to your testimony to accept every dollar we send out got the charter schools he's asking me what number how I get to that number but 1.9 plus the parochial plus the sped maybe I'm m.9 million 2.9 sorry and those monies that go out that further reduces our expend your per for students we have to service interesting because to see the high school at least if we are if we are re charge their busing see if there's any alternate or B transation for them but also um I know that some of our students are in school Norwalk and I don't believe provide that Transportation so like if high schoolers going to others you can correct me I I see you talking about

086the you might be talking about a CH Charter I don't think we got to send them to char is outside the district from the special education and you might be talking about um school choice yeah the school choice where they allot certain seats when they allot the certain seats I do not believe we're responsible for transportation I'm just saying it would be interesting see we don't pay for those we don't know P so I'm checking so that's pretty much it if we go to page 15 kind of outlays everything what what want sub teachers Utilities in projection estimated 250,000 for utilities uh we Transportation the contract is pretty much standard is 4% um increase for next year 26 26 is facted in you know going up which we have all these things add up under

087noral circumstances all things been equ a good year the budget is supposed to increase by 10 to 12 million all things assuming we're running very smooth operation no waste At All by Nature the budget is supposed to increase by $12 million that's for standard me of retention of service million is wait you can say goes up at another two3 million which you just did that is have we the transportation company is not going to keep giving you the same rate every day or every year because one we has gone up they have to adjust the FMLA law has kicked in this cost money somebody has to pay it they have to pay it and they have to pass it on to them but that's the reality of Life char only pay if they do project

088Choice okay so I'm sorry we don't have the history history what history of um budget increases yeah yeah if you can run it off for a regular me regular board meeting because I wanted to make a said cost $12 million a year and some years combined we got between six and eight combined with city and state funding exactly which no no historically from 200 that's that's that's the majority of the reason for the budget cuts leading up until 201819 where we we got rid of 241 231 positions which was only Frozen because the S and when we got all the s money it relieved the pressure from the city especially the city and the state as well oh they don't need that much money they flush with cash so we were getting six to8 Mill

089ion and that $4 million is being structural deficit rather than structural balance budget because it was being hidden along with the Esser funds so the next one is page 16 page 16 kind of outlines everything gives you kind of different P charts of what makes s okay page 16 kind of outlines or breaks down everything the total monitary need is $348 million current year budget plus $67 million 67.8 million money additional monit to need that brings you up to $348 million the other thing I have to clarify the $ 67.8 million money to need is inclusive of the $26 million innal service fund that was used just to be clear it did all did not happen this next year or well it's not all happening next year it's a compounded effect of using 26 million

090dollar this year which will not reoccur next year that's the effect of compounded effect but it comes down into we got hopefully get about 9.9 million or 10 10.3 million or 10.4 million from Alliance brand but 5% of that have to be dedicated for diversity what's it got to be dedicated for that's diversity have be inclusion yeah I don't think we should do that Donald Trump might get mad at us those things are suppos be illegal now maybe we should talk to the state and let us again it's one thing or the other um but that's that's what it is for for now that's what we have to do excess cost Grant the excess excess cost Grant of 1 million $1.9 million that are factored in like we started saying earlier it's a little shaky

091U the governor most likely will vory today well I don't know but that's where we stand relative to that um what of Education Gap is is $23.3 million assuming under the assumption $23.3 million is still remaining of G assuming the solution one total amount of solution one 27.6 million materializes total amount of solution two which is 5.1 million materiales that the board adopted and materialized that the war excess cost Grant of 1.9 million that the legislators are going to override the government vision and materialize if all these things happen you still have 23.3 million gap but we still have 23 million budget Gap to close next year assuming all these things work flawlessly that's a big assumption tell yes let the record reflect Mr Albert benan has joined the meeting and are you ready for

092questions Mr yeah yeah I'm GNA start with Miss cmir she had her hand up for a while thank you um my question is regarding foster kids that live in Bridgeport uh and transportation so the foster kids who need private cars um from the foster home to the Bridgeport Public Schools back to the foster home these are kids who can't function on a regular school bus whether it be a big bus or a smaller bus they just cannot take the bus at all they have to have private cars it's the City of Bridgeport responsible for that the only reason why I'm asking is because I know for a fact that the transportation vendors they Bild DCF directly so I'm wondering um if Bridgeport gives that money back to DCF or is it just picked up by

093by the state uh to my knowledge I'm not aware of which for paying DCF or reimbursing DCF I have not approved any requisition reimbursing DC DCF or DCF whatever you know whatever agency they are all payments will pay go directly to the bus company okay it's the Department of Children and Families DCF okay thank you um Mr Ben do you have any questions about the budget sir just so so the the it's like the well the ask of the state or the city whatever we're asking for this is not to it's the bare minimum to keep us FL it's not even to add any services in fact we need to cut Services yes so what we're asking for is just to people we have and possibly C we have but nothing to actually yeah no

094no cplus to to actually hire the staff we need or provide the the services we need well if I co clear things up the remaining 23 $23 million or $23.3 million in gap Gap remaining is after devastating layoffs that we've done and plan on additional that we plan on doing after that you still have 23.3 billion yeah that I want to make that point be with the budget we have and the amount of money that we are historically given the state and the city we are going to have to do Mass layoffs and we cannot add anything to this budget we cannot add any services that are needed we have to continue I'll say I would even say as is because we're going to have to cut if we don't I mean if we don't

095get if we don't get a bailout let me not even a bailout a relief from the state and the city shave additional 23 million of what the impact that has been done already it's going to be seriously devastated is what yeah I understand I just wanted to read read it body this is not it's not like it's not like car of w it's just not doesn't work that way I'm these are people's lives these are children's lives these are children's education these are children's future just done not there do you have any questions I've got a question on the federal GRS you've got stability is projected how can we project stability when the president is dismantling the boys in education and threatening districts with Dei initi lives withholding funding I think that is prior to

096all of that real Focus no it's just something to think about especially since we got the words Dei encompassed within Al and that Grant has always bought Grant they call it a grant diversity Equity inclusion getting um more diverse St they call it a grant but it's really a clawback you're forcing us to spend money on a particular item to recruit minorities St and the n s interv richb Connecticut has the most diverse St in the state of kingom this is the only hidden Alliance districts they're not forcing GRS not for in Stanford maybe Stanford I'm not sure um not just for in districts that don't receed the alliance Grant which demographically are the districts that start that need to start seeing some diverse skin colors in their classrooms they're not held to the same

097thing they take Taking Back money and diverting is used dictating how to spend the little money that they give us that's insufficient in the first place I just myself boxy every every every time I see that number I've got to talk about that and I've got to just the unfairness of I mean diverse staff is all well and good but we still got ways to go but we're ahead of everybody El we are doing the best in the state on diversity as far as diversity St all right so any other questions on this yes go ahead m c when you say diverse staff I know that we have diverse par professionals and those who aren't teachers but if we're talking about specifically just the teachers is are you saying that we have diverse teachers like

098no ma'am understand what you're saying right I'm saying we've got a ways to go with diversity yes but when you compare us to the other 168 districts within the state our diversity is the is the best we've got a higher ratio of African-American staff we've got a higher ratio of Hispanic staff and we got high you're talking about staff overall staff overall got it that's the answer to my question all right thank you thanks even CER even with the certified administrators teachers and administrators our proportion is higher we're not there yet it's not saying we are we are we' got a disparity between our student body and our staff ratio something we haven't looked at in a while maybe bring it up a teacher and learning or look at the ratios again we haven't done

099that in a while see if we're increasing or decreasing that Gap but um we are doing the best in the state that's not saying that we don't need to do more any other questions on the budget just one I'm sorry excuse me just one more question on that on that point um Dr Avery um Dr Avery do you know the um percentage of African-American and um Hispanic teachers I think not have that in front of me but I can get that for you I first thing in the morning I can Sho the bo an email all right it doesn't have I mean you know it's not immediate just whenever you have a chance I'd like to know that thank you all right bye if I can answer that as well answer that request is the

100overall overall staff demographics as compared to the student demographics like 10% versus 20% 20 see that's been a report Comm doesn't exist all right so any other questions about the budget once going twice all right so with the prior understanding I discussed before that we as a board to not any way shape or form think that we are going to get all this money this is a request just to keep us at sustainable levels not had one single service and knowing that our job is not finished once we vote to approve this budget request which we are probably not going to get the full and we still got to do a lot of work to close the budget Gap that remains After we receive all our money that being said those qualifiers I'll entertain a

101motion to move this budget request towards the full board for approval and presentation to the city and then second and need discussion here you know I think the board can approve an budget we're not approving the budget we're approving budget request at this point in time well we don't know the dollar the committee is is the committee referring the budget to the board referring a budget request that has to go into IM muness by such and such date don't know them we don't know the end numbers budget has to be balanced by June I by the end of the fiscal year correct and the fiscal year we got to have we cannot enter fiscal year 25 26 with an unbalanced budget right now we're not we don't have an unbalanced budget we've got unbalanced budget

102request right okay if we if you I mean think about it your way we would have to make before we do anything and send anything State we would have to make $40 million in Cuts today based on based on the recommendation yes and so what he what he's saying he just wants this to go to the pation to put into the system you know still have days to be able to kind of Rectify find I mean approve or unapprove a new budget so he's not there yet it's just more of discussion and I understand your CAU after looking at last year's budget and approval process we were thinking we were done that's why I keep emphasizing we are not done we've got to reconcile the budget between the money we're going to get and the

103gap which is why probably the next meeting couple weeks from now hope I hope to have your show us 10% 20% in in Cuts in possible Cuts what that looks like just just to get us an idea right but the job this has going be made a lot easier if we could see where we are with the facilities if we need to plug at $10 million $20 million because when when I when the first when the first when the plan was presented at first last year for six school closures they add up all the values of those six schools and every single staff member that contained there in we talk about $24 million but we're not going that high be that and that's what adding a single service well all of what was presented last

104year is off the table we're not even that's not even on mindset got mindset that $24 million is our top number that's going to come out in the facilities master plan if six schools are closed which is nowhere near reality so we can figure why we is that what the board Rec is recommending the board is not recommending but we don't know what we're recommending until we get there so upward number of savings if we recommend to do the exact same thing that was presented to us we're not I'm not recommend doing the same same exact thing we don't right no that's a that's our upper possible limit coming out of the master facilities plan but we're not there we're not even I don't even think we'll get half of it half of it that's

105why it's imperative that we get those numbers out of the master facilities plan as soon as possible so we don't have to have it upward as part of the the discussions that's going to be Happ over the next couple weeks correct which got to feed into into the budget to see where to have him have rather than have a hundred scenarios he can start winding it down once you got a greater idea of what the number is say two schools say $1 million then he knows we got to get 14 what whatever the balance number it all with all do respect Che I assume do respect sir to really kind of give me an idea of what they will entertain or they will bravely do I mean I don't want to be go Chas and

106wa is what I'm trying to say s yeah and causing panic yeah yeah what has to give me a full sense of direction as to what is strongly convinced among the they can deliver I don't want to start go and and again the major part of our savings is going to be for the facilities Master PL and at this point we can't worry about closing panic because it's here it would be irresponsible Not to cause panic and not to say these school closures are a possibility hard conversations got to be had I don't know you just said you just said six closur no I said P because nobody ever said six closures that was last year and we're saying that this that's off the we don't know we don't know what's off the table yet

107well we're so once we have the we have the recommendations coming out tomorrow and we have meeting scheduled this month to discuss that so before paing panic and saying we're gonna close Six schools last year last year's budget counted on six schools for $24 million savings if that was adopted not saying it is totally clear that it's not if that was adopted the most we could save is $24 million which does not even close our Gap so whatever we do close whatever we decide to close if we even do decide to close schools then maybe there'll be a miracle maybe not but until we inform ourselves of what that number is we've got to have some sort of placeholder some sort of Target moving we can't give this man a moving Target after we vote

108on April 29th and say hey it's the quote the number of savings is $12 million now figure it out in the next month but mean again this savings mathematical this is that is not it's not what people think it's not you know you close the school or that cost you $6 million the problem goes away casing the whole money absolutely understood there are other peripheral things that go along with it you have students you have to accommodate you have other Provisions you have to make the teacher don't disappear the class time the class don't really disappear you just consolidate absolutely and there's Logistics of Transportation because now you're moving people from one nebor to another which could be a b longer distance and more bus consider and get the number what matters is the net

109savings not the gross savings after all the doct right that's why I said the up that's why I'm emphasizing upward number if then which it emphasizes again the urgency basically situation the urgency that we've got to get this stuff done so you have those solid numbers rather than projecting and talking if then if then if then the more we reduce the if then the more we get a solid picture of our savings the only way I work I don't chase a number right which number comes into play based on you know F rational or something but still chasing the number I have a pinpoint number in my head then that's no longer anal absolutely absolutely agree and don't know I don't know if you realize this I'm trying to help you to get to a

110place where you have a rational number by putting the urgency on us as a board to start making decisions to get there based on what we need to do with these hard decisions coming up I'm going to ask Mr won for his questions Mr wson but I just want to say you know you said but you're not giving Mr Ino all the tools that he needs he's telling you to give him the tools that he needs to to to to give you the options you're not putting all the options on the table you know I know people don't want to be the boogy man and and and scare people but we have to put all options on the table you have you you you you have to do it like I said 20 23 million

111for next year's budget Gap is uh is astronomical astronomical you know like you said you you you if you would have I and I hate to say it but if you would have listened to the super last year she her plan was to save 40 I think it was 40 million dollars with no layoffs there would have been no people laid off but like I said each day that you're wasting is the the the the the the the mountain is just racking up so every day every minute every hour the the you know you're just building it up so the quicker we make a decision the quicker you get Mr enqu the the the the you know the guidelines to to to to to make good decisions then then we could you know we could

112move and hopefully we could move quick because like I said you know if we would have made this decision last year you know we we we we might not be in this situation that's all I have to say thank you thank you well I agree with Mr Woodson's sense of urgency that goes mine I do however disagree that we could do it without any without any layoffs it was never possible to do with our layoffs because our biggest course driver is Personnel Department consumes about what percentage of the budget 60 70 at least perc of the budget there is no way to cut 20% of the budget without touching biggest cut I have the I have the supers plan that she put out last year on paper I could bring it to you and show

113you and your you know in person if you want but it says no layoffs on it right and and if you it said no layoffs for the 24 2425 school year and a savings of$ 2.6 million right under that line and then you go look for savings over time it will come to 24 after you get to the 206 27 school year I believe or something like that they fed one but anyway we'll get those numbers for more clarity is a motion on the floor any further discussion on the motion hearing none all in favor I and so this Miss Perez can you see this gets on the budget on the budget next agenda please give now that brings us to the end of our business I'll entertain a motion to J