Board of Education Meeting

001[Music] six the first thing I would like to do is ask everybody to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and then remain standing because we are going to have a tree of the national anthem from our chamber choir I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for [Music] all by at the Twilight last we [Music] and the RO the in Pro through the flag [Music] still [Music] star of the of [Music] [Applause] okay please be oh am I on I'm on please be seated Mr Lam andola the floor is yours thank you uh good evening uh this is the BHS uh chamber choir we are here to promote our Winter concert along with the band uh on

002December 19th Tuesday 7:00 45 Long Meadow Hill Road here the auditorium uh come on out it's a really uh wonderful event 7 o' uh Tuesday night the 19th and we're going to get get you in the mood with a little Carol of [Music] theels [Music] s [Music] everywh [Music] Mr Lam and Dolan chamber chir thank you all very much thank you for coming out tonight happy holiday we'll see you all on Tuesday 19th all right greetings folks thank you and our other treat at this time of year is Mr St George in the Jazz Ensemble come and also provide us with some wonderful selections so Mr St George Team take it away thank you uh we're going to do uh one t for you this evening it's a arrangement of joy of the world and

003it will feature Brook Stanford on Alo saxs and Giovanni avalone on drums la a oh h he thank you ladies and gentlemen we'll see you on the 19th at 7 right here in the auditorium all right thanks Mr St George thank you everybody what a beautiful gift and thank you moms and dads for coming good to see you all all right so for for some of you uh that could be watching at home or watching the tape uh it's unusual ual for the superintendent to actually begin a meeting of the Board of Education and facilitate uh I'm doing that um as we ready to nominate and vote on a chairman tonight uh before we do that I'd like everybody to um uh join me uh in a moment of silence I want to say a

004few words before we take that moment of silence uh in honor of uh Barbara Fuller uh longtime legendary custodian and all-around beautiful person who served nearly 50 years she's actually in her 50th year of service here um at Brookville Public Schools uh helping us transition cwood Lake Elementary School um she started her career in 1974 here with us and um couldn't ask for a more dedicated loyal and loving uh employee and it's just the kind of person she was um and we are going to miss her dearly so I ask everybody if you just join me now for a moment of silence thank you very much I do appreciate it all right so it is that time in our agenda that we move to election of officers and so I'm going to start that process

005um I would like to make a motion to accept nomin ations for the chairman of the board of ed the board for the Brookfield board of education do I have a second to accept that motion second Rosa seconds it thank you Rosa the motion has been moved and seconded we will now accept nominations I will nominate Wendy Young Blood okay are there any more nominations I will nominate Joy Greenstein okay are there any other nominations okay we have two nominations on the floor all those in favor of Wendy Youngblood as the board chairman please raise your hand and say I I okay all opposed please raise your hand three okay any abstentions don't see any we have four to three in favor of Wendy okay we also have another nomination on the floor uh all

006those in favor of Joy Greenstein as board chair please raise your hand and say I I we have three all those opposed please raise your hand no okay we have four thank you it doesn't look like uh any abstentions do we have any extensions we don't okay um by a vote of four 2 three Wendy Youngblood has been elected as chairman of the Brookfield Board of educations congratulations Wendy I'll now hand the meeting over to you great um I'm a newbie with this so I can help you button up so so yeah just make sure it's up okay great thank you and to do it with the mask makes it even more challenging um thanks everybody I look forward to working with all of you um okay thank you um I move that the board

007accept nominations for the office of Vice chairman of the Brookfield Board of Ed I'll second um so let's call the well are there any nominations I nominate Roosa Fernandez as Vice chair are there any other nominations wait to nominate myself okay so we will um we'll well are there any other nominations okay so we'll call the vote in the order uh the nominations were made all in favor of uh Rosa Fernandez as Vice chair please say I raise your hand hi okay um all those opposed say Nay n nay okay so it's uh the vote is four to3 Miss Fernandez is elected vice chair um I move that the board accept nominations for the office of Secretary of the Brookfield Board of Education I'll nominate Joy Greenstein I don't accept the nomination okay I'll nominate

008Sarah deine okay I nominate Stephanie soraa I'll accept nomination okay are there any other nominations all right the floor is closed for nominations all those in favor of electing Stephanie sakur as secretary please say I and raise your hand I it looks like the vote is it looks like it was unanimous did we have a nay vote okay so it's so it passes unanimously okay um I've notice that the secretary typically U makes the Motions on the agenda um Stephanie would you like to continue to do that so we can move along a all you would do is just read the motion it's easy okay okay great okay um so with that uh we would move to public comment except there appears not to be uh anyone signed up for that um so so I

009don't need to read the the statement about public okay thank you very much okay so now we'll move on to um uh a highlight student representative AA Canton we get to hear from you hi I hope you're all doing well tonight I have a couple updates about what's been going on at the high school um since our last meeting um all high school students participated in mandatory training for the Sandy Hook promise Anonymous reporting system um so that's the see something say something app um so that training included just basic information about how to use the program it's an app um and just what to do if you sense a school threat like who to talk to how to approach a situation like that um another event that happened today was the counseling department um

010they conducted a holiday card making event and all the cards were donated to a local assisted living facility so students got community service hours feewing that today and it was a really successful event I know a lot of students went um an upcoming event on Friday is Pajama Day so um I'm quoting Mr banda's email um join hundreds of schools businesses and individuals across the state to honor children who must wear their pajamas for days weeks or longer while fighting cancer or other serious illnesses so everyone hopefully we'll be wearing school appropriate pajamas to school on Friday um I have a couple updates for athletics um right now uh the BHS Athletics program is kind of in a transition from Fall Sports to winter sports so with the end of the Fall Sports season the

011C CIA has recognized some all Patriot all swc all state and honorable mention athletes and we also had two American athlet allamerican athletes um for fall Sports also a good amount of senior athletes have committed to college for their Sports which is always really exciting um in terms of dance team uh this past Thursday we performed at the St Leonard's tree lighting which is always a really good event it's fun to get involved in the community like that um and we're a fall and winter sport so we're transitioning into our competition season um so we're finalizing all of our dances and getting everything ready for that and our first competition is at the end of January um I can also talk about some of the clubs that I'm in for the Brookfield youth commission um

012this past Sunday we were recognized at the Brookfield Town inauguration which was a really good event and that was really also really interesting since we're a government based uh Club just to get involved with just to pursue some Civic engagement as a club it was interesting to attend um we got to talk to representative Johanna Hayes and a couple other um Connecticut Congress members who were there and with that group we're also in the middle of planning our career fair which will take place in March so we're sending the initial email out to parents um just to gather some information about what careers they can bring to the table for our fair and we're also taking in all of the student input that we received after the event we did a survey um and so

013some of that was like to include more careers in the Arts so we're trying to focus on those specific things that students are interested in um I'm in National Honors Society um and on this Saturday morning we're running the winter workshop for kandlewood Lake Elementary School um it's taking place here at the high school and it's going to be 50 kindergarten through first graders doing a lot of fun like winter themed activities um like crafts and story times also with NHS this weekend Friday Saturday and Sunday we'll have NHS members selling raffle tickets at the Danberry Music Center Nutcracker um so that's another good way for us to get involved in serving the community and finally for Spanish Honors Society our main project right now is a mural cuz we focus on doing things that

014promote appreciation for Hispanic heritage but this project kind of focuses just on appreciation for World language in general so we're in the middle of uh painting a mural that just promotes World Language it has a globe and a lot of flags on it and just to emphasize the importance of World Language finally I have an update about the voice for change project that's the project that um was decided on I believe at the end of 2022 um and this is a message on behalf of Vanessa green Ste who is the president of the future teachers of America Club who helped to coordinate and drive this project and she's the head student representative for it and Senor dula who's the teacher representative for this project so this is a quote from her just a little update

015on our grant and on the progress of the of the benches we have an outside contractor that is ready to start the construction getting the base ready for the benches all estimates have been approved and we have sent our bench that is ready to be ordered to the administration we hope construction will start soon we have a plan and fund to do the six other spaces in the school and once the first one is done it will hopefully happen much faster in the meantime we have been planning and designing our multilingual signage that is another part of our grant this part of the grant is to put up signs for common school areas in languages like Spanish and Portuguese as they are the two most used languages other than English in our district this will

016help fulfill the climate part of our grant proposal and allow for a safer space for all students and give them more comfort in seeing a language they recognize and that's it for the voice for change update and that brings me to the end of my report thank you thank you AA so before we move on on from from what you were just saying I I think it's really important to give a shout out um to the two all-americans um in soccer that's incredible for for a a school um of this size I think there were 46 all-americans on the girl side and the boy side and so for Brookfield High School to have two is astonishing Riley bgee and Jack Ryan right so incredible and kudos to them and their coaches and their teammates and

017their families who did all the driving um but that's that's just amazing hopefully the winter sports season will be as fun as the fall was awesome okay so we're going to move now to the next item on the agenda it's written correspondence oh and thank you AA very much yeah you too um so Dr BR did um Amy Foster submit anything for us I do not have anything in terms of written correspondence at this time okay then we will move to uh item seven approval of board minutes um Stephanie do you feel like you have the language GRE sure uh I move to that the board approve the minutes listed below as recommended just say reg regular yeah say on the date y so regular 11:15 23 uh special meeting 11:20 23 special meeting 1127

01823 special meeting 2 12223 do we have a second I'll second okay so uh Rosa seconds um is there any discussion on [Applause] this okay um so um then we call the vote oh wait no yep oh yes okay thank you um so we call the vote uh to um approve board minutes all in favor please say I I I okay any opposed say nay all right so it passes unanimously um with that the minutes are approved and we can move to the superintendent's update all right thank you Mrs Young Blood I do appreciate it um and since I have the floor I would like to congratulate everyone and uh welcome uh uh to the board as I said in a number of emails I I hope I haven't been overwhelmed ing everybody with emails

019about the budget and other ongoings of the board to get you transitioned here and ready to go um but really appreciate uh your willingness to serve um as I always say it is the hearted elected board to serve on as a individual member and as as a team um in in our small towns here in Connecticut the the time demands the reading demands and the preparation um uh are really uh phenomenal um we and we do have a retreat uh scheduled for uh next Monday uh evening and uh in addition to that um we had uh participation in a kind of current board to new board handoff a couple of weeks ago kind of get everybody up to speed as best we could in the short turnover time that we have so again congratulations look

020forward to the work um and really excited to get rolling with uh the planning for next year which is the start of the budget talks tonight um so uh I do uh also want to mention before I get into the report that we are working with Mr Conlin and Dr pep sasi we are very hopeful that we could have a uh a regular board meeting but a special treat to be actually at kandlewood Lake uh Elementary School to hold it in the multi-purpose room on the 20th of December so we're really excited about that opportunity all right so uh a couple of things on communication just to let everybody know what's happening um the first thing is I think most of you are aware uh my Brookfield broadcast District newsletter holiday edition went out um

021last week um we also early in um November just given the time of year and the fact that we actually had some snow squalls uh today early in November each year and we post it on the website I send out a weather update letter reminding families to have an emergency plan if there's going to be early dismissal from school and those kind of things and how to uh uh access all of the different ways we communicate regarding snow cancellations or delays or anything like that in emergency days so that went out earlier um in November and then the last thing on Communications just ear uh very early this week um I sent out with Dr pep sasi we sent out a uh a co-authored email with our team from kandlewood Lake Elementary School regarding really

022kicking off kindergarten registration uh of all things things are a little different this year um there is a new state law um where um students are to be five by September 1st which is very different than the being five by uh January 1st as it's been long standing here in Connecticut um the law though isn't so strict um with the September 1 date and so if parents do want their child who is born after September 1st born in the fall to attend kindergarten they simply have to uh in writing let the principal know and then we will go through our typical kindergarten screening process and see how they're doing and make a determination and have a you know a conversation with the parent If the child is ready uh so everybody knows uh it's it's

023we're handling it in a very family uh Centric and student Centric way here in Brookfield um the students are going to be our students no matter what whenever the time is right for them um we're not looking to exclude anyone we're actually excited to get the kids with us as soon as we can um because again they're going to be our students and so uh with that um we're very open in our screening process excited to have conversations with parents and get the students in as soon as we can one thing that's important to know we looked at our current kindergarten class this year and so people know the effect that this would have on families next year 45 of our 160 plus students in kindergarten this year have a birthday after September uh 1

024that's more than 25% of the kids and so there's a lot of impact on families with that families are planning for next year there's a financial component to this we're very cognizant of that all of us have families we get it and so we want to work with our families and so I want to reassure families and reassure the board that the administration and the teaching staff is very excited to welcome the families in and this was the first letter to kind of explain things get the law out there so people understand and we're obviously open to any conversations we need to have starting now and uh after the holidays when we begin the registration process so that's an important one I want to take a little time on before you on um is there

025like a cut off or maybe I'm I'm thinking about how we plan for kindergarten enrollment and teachers and stuff um is there a cut off for parents to make that application or is it up until the first day of school it's it's up until the first day of school at this point um and what we need to do is in getting the letter out relatively early in the process we're trying to get a sense of the number of kids at this point um and so that's that's where we're at usually in any year and while this won't be a typical year it might actually we might be better off understanding our numbers earlier because we're we're putting the Outreach out there so much earlier and I think more more families are paying attention in the

026coming year um uh the trouble uh and the challenge comes with those last minute movein and registrations anyway you just get to that point at late August where we we all know school's coming but some people just decide to wait till the end of August and say oh I should register for school and okay well we'll try to find some room the the challenges in space and some other things that um maybe larger districts might be facing or whatever the case may be um we're very fortunate we planned for this in our new school we do have space Not only in the pre kindergarten Wing but also in the other uh spaces in the school so if we had all of a sudden one year where we had a burgeoning of student enrollment we could

027move a classroom to a different wing and be okay for a year and we could have some swing space so so we're in a good position for that right now um you'll see in the budget tonight though I do ask for an um uh funds for an enrollment report we need to really dig in on that for the next couple of years looking forward thanks got it yep okay Rosa good um I also wanted to um share that we were at the bef Brookfield ation Foundation gala on Friday night it was a great turnout a lot of fun a lot of fundraising done coach Reef was fantastic as the MC as he always is um I'm sure there's Facebook video he's fantastic um uh I wanted to thank uh joy and Rosa and uh and

028Hala um and Stephanie for being there Stephanie being the resident photographer thank you um and also for Casey and Anna and Bill uh attending as well it was just great to have everybody there and it was a good time by all we were able to sit with uh former board member Mr Beldon and former board member and State Representative Steve Harding also sat with some of us so it was really nice to see everyone so thank you to the bef for working so hard and putting on such a great event for us uh next I want to I interrupt pleas and um today uh at the middle school which is one of the reasons that Mr Renda is not here um today and tonight uh one of the bef grants um presentations is happening it's

029called a motion into art and Dr Brill and I were able to go over there today and see one of the presentations so this gentleman presented to each one of the well the eighth grade is tomorrow I believe yeah um but it's a great program and thanks to the bef for supporting our students in our community thanks Ann I appreciate you and all of you for going to the Galla so that they can support our kids in our Comm exactly thank you um since we don't have a facility uh minutes or report tonight I did want to let everybody know um and Joy's been the lead on this with the facility uh committee for quite a long time the close out of the BHS guidance roof project and the HVAC project here at BHS have

030been closed out so those projects are complete so important for the board to know important for the public to know just wanted to make sure I mentioned that in my report tonight um I do have a clees kwood Lake Elementary School um report I did want to let everybody know about classroom Flags I understand there's been some social media conversation about that uh the first thing I want to let everybody know is the flags have been with us on campus since the summer um the issue which is not a Dr pep saski issue or a Dr burill issue or a board of education issue the uh construction team along with the NBC are still the leads on the project the flags have been there the problem is the clip that goes on the boards in

031the classroom was incorrect when first ordered and incorrect when second ordered and so we hope by the end of the week I think Dave we are told that we'll be able to have the flags up there however we always adapt overcome and improvise like our friends in the military and uh our 86in smartboards have had massive flags on them every single morning when we get on the PA system and uh recite the pledge so I want everybody to know that that's been happening every single day at the school and uh we're happy to report that our actual physical Flags should be in the classroom they've been in the school but not in the classrooms um and uh that's happening this week hopefully uh next thing uh in terms of parking lot and driveway at Candlewood

032Lake Elementary uh School most people know that the south parking lot um while uh fully fully paved has not been completed in terms of islands and so forth and so it's a it's a bit of a makeshift parking lot with Jersey barriers and our bus company and our parents and our and our staff is doing a great job man managing that um the north parking lot is almost finished in terms of uh processed Stone and stone dust and uh some different barriers to set it up um we believe after the holidays that north parking lot which is much closer to the school than the current temporary parking lot that's by the road will be usable for the winter so our staff will be closer won't have as long of a walk to get into the

033building um the temporary lot will still be usable um although I think some work trucks might be there over the winter and all so if there's a bad snowstorm snow will be literally brought to that spot and put there um the driveway the second part of the loop of the driveway where buses would come in that will not be completed uh this winter uh it'll be started up again in April so we can get the the final project done on the outside of the school uh that driveway where the original cutout is for the driveway for Huckleberry Hill that is going to be used again as kind of the north entry um uh driveway for the buses and so forth so we're going to do the best we can every body has been incredibly flexible

034we're very proud of everyone um and so I just wanted to give you an update on that the final piece on Candlewood Lake Elementary School fantastic news the playscapes are in the grade 2 through five um playscape equipment was approved on Saturday through inspection and the kids have been on it all week long really excited about that one thing Dr P and Mr Baldwin and myself worked on in designing this um we were looking at our physical education data and and um also just some of the things that kids were interested in and we've mixed a lot of upper body um uh areas for strengthening as well it's a lot of fun I think Dr P's kids were on perhaps before the inspection I don't know Dave having a good time I don't know if

035that I don't know if security video might have caught that I don't know um I might have been on if you checked the security video just so you know it's really exciting to be there um and the other great news is the inspection I think is happening tomorrow we're finishing up the inspection uh for the Young kids for prek and K1 playscapes if we get the green light as soon as we have it Dr P will let everybody know and the kids will be able to get out there and play so we are really excited relatively mild week so we're we're excited to get them out there so that's um oh and then two more on Candlewood Lake um the main stairwell we've been talking about getting the main stairwell totally finished with that Tazo

036flooring now it's totally usable it's safe but there's kind of a rubber coating on it right now the tazzo wasn't able to be completed before opening school we were told all along that was a onewe project we're now being told it's a 2 to 3 we project which means it cannot be completed over the Christmas break um and it'll be a summer project is most likely where it will happen and you could I've asked to can we do this during school you know we just shut down that area and uh the reality is um there's a smell and so forth with with the the mixture that they use and we don't want to put anybody out like that so we'll be patient it's a usable stairwell and frankly I don't think the kids care either

037way they're having a great time there uh and then the final thing is that stairwell I think has been part of the reason with some of the other finishes we've been on hold with having a ribbon cutting and a building dedication uh so we'll be working with the NBC um and uh you know the board and other folks to decide when we're going to have the building dedication I hope it's sooner than later some want it to be a little you know further into the springtime when the parking lot's complete and those kind of things so we'll continue to have that conversation that's it for Candlewood Lake um I now want to bring up some of the team um and I'm excited to invite Mr Roland our special education director up to come just give

038a brief update on how we're doing in special education with the crack report and strategic planning and those kind of things thank you Dr burill good evening everybody uh welcome to the board to the new members and it's good to see theard members that benon you push your you start again do your mic up there you go bill right now yes okay thank you my classroom voice you know doesn't uh resonate um so just a quick update from some of the things from last month and going forward um last month Dr corvo reviewed the correct uh specialized program review with you I've also been going to uh department meetings in the building and working with our supervisors to reiterate um the main points of the review and to start putting those pieces into action uh

039including the professional development that was spoken about and the uh examination of IEPs and looking for more Fidelity and of implementation and goal setting and um data collection and progress monitoring in addition we are uh scheduling our next septo meeting special at PTO for January a few of us were sick in various combinations uh couldn't quite get it together for for December so we're going to have a meeting in January that's going to focus on uh the parent view of CT saids the IEP system uh what it looks like from the parent side helping them to navigate and giving them kind of a guide to walk through because uh unlike IEP Direct in the past uh with CT says everything is done through a parent portal so when parents need to access the documents it's

040accessible to them but sometimes there's some glitches in there that we'd like to help them walk through uh and finally just to talk about each building meeting with the principles meeting with the supervisors and uh working with parents on attending ppts and hearing their concerns and making sure that we're doing right by uh all the students that we have with with IEPs uh and I'm also working with the the counselors on 504 plans as well so just a quick update on the ongoing progress that we're making in special education uh since my arrival in July and I thank you all for your support thanks Mr Roland greatly appreciated thanks for all you're doing um next I'd like to uh invite Mr Bland up for a brief uh update on the athletic uh program here at

041the high school and the CIA program review I know he's working hard to get the folks down here to visit us so Mark please take it away all right thank you make sure we're on all right we're good uh so uh update on the athletic program um I appreciate the board allowing me well the superintendent allowing me last board meeting I was um at the semi-final soccer game giving updates all along on the sideline like a giddy little kid uh screaming for our team as they they went along we had a very successful fall season uh and and Mr bald will come and do a Winter summary uh report for the board so you can hear more about that in the coming weeks um the big thing that's on the table is still the CIA

042athletic audit uh you remember this was initiated uh not La actually the process actually started last year with the goal of finishing it by the end of last school year which did not occur um not from anything other than we there was just so much work that had to be done not on improving the athletic side but getting everything else done so we've already administered surveys we've done our self-study um it's similar to what some of you are aware of is a neas um sort of style of report we've done that it's been submitted to CAC they're now reviewing it there is a bit of a back and forth right um which is a good thing right and I'll share this good piece of news um you know the last conversation I had with uh

043Glenn larino who's the president of Cass CIA he's like all we're going to wrap it up and we'll we we'll get it out and if we have to come out we'll come out and it sounded like they didn't need to come out and superintendent and I had had this discussion well maybe we' go just to make sure we have some like just one person come out and it there's been a little bit of back and forth to make that happen the Hope was to have that happen in the shoulder season between the fall and winter season that did not happen um I did not see him in his office when I was at Cass today I planned on stopping in and seeing him I was at Chester today he was not in his office when

044I was there so I will certainly follow up with him I have a feeling he might end up at the conference I'm going to be at in Boston um the next two days so uh as soon as that happens we'll be able to get that uh it's going to be a full report that describes all different aspects of the athletic program uh from coaching and parents and budgeting and and all sorts of things every pretty much every Dynamic that you would expect uh to look at a CIA athletic report uh we do expect to come out very favorable from that perspective um given that we won the Michaels cup again for the I forget how many the 13th the eighth time or something like that it's a pretty prestigious award that we continue to get

045every year so we have really high hopes but we're also looking if there's things that we can improve and make better we certainly will right we always we always strive for that Improvement so um that's the update on Athletics thank you Mark all right greatly appreciate it and poor Mr longarini he won't get any rest because many of the ad administrative team here are involved in the C so we know where his office is so we will we are peppering the poor man all right um so next I'd like to actually turn it over to Dr man to give us a uh Equity inclusion and belonging update um the the the new board just as a reminder um this was a for a couple of years we had a special subcommittee of the board for

046equity and inclusion um was it early this fall or was it over the summer um end of the summer end of the summer um the board dissolved that committee um with the intention of moving it more toward the school level and District level to do that kind of work so uh I asked Dr man and some of the uh leaders in the district to work on that so Dr man can you give us an update on where we're at this year absolutely so I'm excited to um hear Ava's report and about the update um from Vanessa uh with the voice for change because it's it's nice to I mean that is the ultimate goal is to partner with students and partner with the um make sure that each one of the schools has a focus

047on equity and inclusion and belonging um and to so to start that you know we were kind of discerning what the best approach is in terms of after the the dissolution of the subcommittee of the board whether it should begin at the building levels and then kind of filter up to the district or should the district kind of start it a kind of a general approach and then figure out the nuances of each building and also have kind of a cohesive um approach from the district level so uh we have decided to go with the district level first so we're going to begin District conversations we've invited and we're we invited faculty and staff um I'm leading this work with Katherine oo our multilanguage learner and uh World Language uh K12 department chair um and

048so we sent out a a invitation via Google form asking interested faculty and staff to sign up for one of two or both conversations which are going to happen next week and the following week um to really begin just kind of discernment process where are we where do we feel like you know what are the things that we currently do um and really this is kind of building building off of it's it's a nice opportunity because it's building off of the pathway work that we're doing um through our professional learning approach which is really predicated on the concept of vertical conversations and vertical articulation one of the things that I kind of heard over and over last year not just from um any one particular faculty or from our professional development and evaluation committee but

049kind of across the district um was the feeling of kind of isolation in each building which happens in many districts um that they just don't know what's happening at the other levels and so so we have a pathway program for our professional learning where everybody is involved in a vertical articulation team um and so this is kind of an extension of that that we'll have this vertical vertical approach to conversations around Equity inclusion and belonging um bringing up uh and so the first step is going to be these conversations and um I'm excited to I Katherine and I have gone to a few workshops at the state level led by the um the State State Department of Education um Mark and I are going to the neas annual conference tomorrow and we are both signed

050signed up for a few of the workshops that we're signed up for um are around this topic around Equity inclusion and belonging um one of the uh the I was looking at my roster um and one of the ones that I am going to is called designing for belonging um which states a goal uh to be to provide ideas and protocols where schools are intentional about creating ways for a community of Learners to feel that they belong so you know it's kind of right up the alley that we're looking at um we have you know as we've heard our multilanguage Learners we've had a lot of conversation of that over the last couple years um and we've built in some bilingual programs so we know that we have a need certainly in that area and

051also um just kind of across the district not just within our student body but also across our community um so I'm excited to continue this work and to report back to you fairly regularly and also bring to districtwide ptso um speaks uh that uh Dr burill will be um focusing on and then as we get the goal that I have by the end of the year year is to um make sure that our professional learning plan um if necessary has uh is inclusive of this so we'll be working on this with our PC committee which is the professional development and evaluation committee so that's where we are so good question was there any discussion around um involving the climate committees so that's we talked with the principles initially and I kind of asked did you

052because that was kind of my initial idea was to start with the climate committees um and so rather than starting there we thought we would report back to The Climate committees and figure out which uh um certainly involve them after this initial conversation I'm interested to see how many of the faculty and staff who come to these conversations are also on climate committees at their schools so absolutely that's a great idea so we will and joy the other the other part about the climate committees they um we'll be reaching out to them through the and you'll hear about this in the budget presentation is what we've talked about with facilities is the beautification and uh physical environment of each of the schools too getting folks from the the climate committees um and not climate like

053air quality climate climate meaning culture and climate um and also uh utilizing uh the climate committees as an opportunity uh for um the parent engagement student engagement staff engagement work that I'm going to try to do so we're really looking at the the um uh system that we already have in place and different structures and how could we use them and align them in an even more coherent way so we're really excited about the work that's going on and just like um Ava reported that Vanessa reported for the voice for change you know that's it's a way to bake in um climate and equity and inclusion and belonging by creating signage that is multi language um you know and having these uh these physical spaces along with the systems and structures of our um you

054know of our schedule and different things um the parent square that we're going to you know possibly explore our new website you know those kinds of things um there's so many ways that are just kind of that can be included in that equity and inclusion and belonging can be baked into so um I also have a quick question so this is obviously a first step but it's um you know staff and administrators Etc is there going down the line plans to include student voices in this and the and parent Community as well okay y that's exactly what we we thought we'd start with a A Faculty staff conversation and then particularly at the secondary level include students which would also be a climate committee piece and the voice for change students and and those kinds

055of things um and then also Outreach to the parents through the district ptso speaks um you know just other opportunities and what's great about this and you listen to Ava's report tonight and I think about way for change and what we're talking about here um this all points to the portrait of The Graduate and the work we're doing with change making and collaboration communicating critical thinking creative thinking and it just is all in alignment you'll see that in the uh especially in the initial throws of my presentation tonight so there's a lot of alignment and coherence work going on and uh those are words we use quite a bit and uh just really exciting so a couple quick uh a couple more things very quickly um I do want to recognize um Dr man and

056Eric uh they are um exercising some Statewide leadership uh Dr man uh was a keynote speaker uh late last week or was it early this week that was Friday um at Southern Connecticut with CIA for the student leadership conference and so that was great to to see her there and Eric next week uh he is a founding board me member of uh Kettle which is Connecticut education technology leaders and uh he has their first Workshop of the year um with a number of Keynotes and Eric will be leading and facilitating some of the work there with the State Technology leader so we're really proud of him and excited about that so thank you Eric um I've got a couple of things that I didn't put on the report upcoming for January through early spring that

057I want to let the board know about we be reporting out um on professional development Pathways and how that's going uh on our new teacher team program that's coming up right after the holidays in June and then um Mrs FAS our director of instruction and Dr man along with the instructional coaches will be talking about what the instructional coaches are doing the leadership that is going on uh at CES with um the director of instruction Mrs farious and and also the various roles of the instructional coaches and so forth and then while we're at kandlewood Lake for the meeting next week Mr Renda is going to give a report on the dean of students and how that new position is going and uh Dr man will um be giving a performance index report of our

058district report card and some of the really great news that just came out of that so we're excited uh about the future uh and ready to get going um final thing on pajama day for Friday that I want to let everybody know thank you Lisa gramling for getting that fundraiser going for us it's to benefit the heart for children's hospital we did hit our goal of about $2,500 and I think we'll be raising more more excuse me over the next 48 hours so we're really excited about that Wendy I'm done it was a long report tonight thank you great thanks very much Dr bro so let's move now to item nine um the subcommittee reports uh we'll start with Finance um Rosa do you have a report on this thank you I do okay so

059we uh last met on November 13th um at that time we went over the check registers um what that is just for new board members is um the finance committee reviews any check o written over $1,000 um we also went over the October financials um in case um well joy and H will know but I've been reporting that um we went through the same projected short fall so we are projecting a shortfall in this current budget year of nearly half a million dollars um most of that is due to higher than budgeted special education Transportation costs uh and tuition and also lower than expected Savings in teacher salaries and retirements exits um for the new board members we budget for netive $200,000 in the salary line so we expect um a certain number of retirements

060um and just teacher turnover where we um typically have retirements of very longstanding veteran teachers that are at the top of the pay scale and generally um they're replaced with younger teachers um that are um at a lower at the lower end of the pay scale um and a lot of that is due to uh we're just not seeing those retirements like we normally do um instead we're seeing some more movement in the younger teachers the newer teachers um or we're seeing vacancies in our really high demand areas where if we find a teacher um you know that that teaches physics we need that specific teacher um so I think Dr BR might be able to add some more detail or color to that if you if you guys want some more detail but that

061is um one of the big reasons why we are um over budget this year we also talked about the food service contract so when uh Candlewood Lake opened it is technically a new school within our district and that necessitated a new food service RFP um we have been permitted to apply for a contract extension with our current provider witson um so that we can go out to bid in the spring and perhaps get a better response um witson was the only um provider to um put in a proposal last time we also went over the pay rate guidelines um we went over some changes in those guidelines and those were actually approved at our last board meeting and then lastly we went over Capital request for the 24 25 year as well as our 10-year

062Capital plan um at that time there was urgency from the town uh for the board to approve capital expenses um in the 2425 year so we did approve those requests which included funding for nearly 36,000 to complete the cafeteria flooring at wisener that project already had had 35,000 in funding for this current year but needed additional funds to address a moisture issue with the flooring and then the rest of the 10-year Capital plan we reviewed uh the only issue noted was that we can't find a contractor willing to replace um a small section of the seating in the whis skiner seminar room um so we either need to replace the entire seminar room seating um or get creative in terms of how we're going to just replace that small section and that was it any

063questions just one yeah just one corre the um the Woodson's contract is and I I make the same mistake all the time I call it an extension because they're currently our food service proor but it's actually a brand new six-month contract and the state would say no no it's a new contract so I just want to make make sure thatle of course thank you okay so thank you very much Rosa for that well thank you Rosa for for that um so John did Debbie submit anything for the policy and communication subcommittee um we uh there are minutes but I I can give a quick summary if you'd like great okay so um briefly uh for the communications part of policy and Communications I just went over that during superintendent report so I won't uh discuss

064any further on that and the uh policy that was discussed that evening was actually approved at the last board meeting uh the policy meeting was directly before and that was the school library media regulation actually um and that was approved um last month it was very brief that was it okay great thanks um so next is the Personnel negotiations I understand that um from uh November 29th that this meeting was entirely an executive session so I don't think that there's any need to report further on that um and then for the security task force um Rosa yep um so on um at our last meeting we spoke with representatives from the iroy pipeline um company uh they're a natural natural gas company with a facility located natural gas right located right behind um whiskin ear

065um there have been a lot of community concerns regarding the safety in light of their new Expansion Project we did learn um that just so that we're clear um the pressure in the pipes is actually not changing I'm not an engineer so I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about it um but the pressure in the pipes is not changing it is just the volume along that project along that line as two lines come together um we discussed uh or I should say they really presented um um a lot of explanation in terms of their fail safe procedures so what happens if there's a leak what happens if there's a fire um and as well as their Comm um emergency communication procedures and their evacuation procedures and how they would communicate with

066um principal Renda at whiner um police chief gy was there major Franks was there from the police department um so they were a part of this discussion as was Sarah Palmer the town emergency operations manager and principal rendo was there as well um so we really had a lengthy and healthy discussion um about these and we all left feeling confident in the in the current plans so unless you want to add anything Dr BR no I think that that hits it Rosa thank you I was off a little off topic but was there any discussion about relook at the um people in attendance because um consistently some of the same people have been absent for this meeting these meetings for in terms of the actual committee the members yeah yeah that's definitely something we did

067not schedule the next meeting we talked about some ideas for the next meeting but we do not have one on the calendar but that's something we do need to discuss with the new board members that are going to be on the committee yeah and for the new members the security task force does not have a regular monthly schedule typically um we usually um have a particular topic or uh subject that we want to pursue and get some information on and and really dive deep into with our Emergency Management experts um or law enforcement experts or whatever it might be um so uh once the decisions are made this evening or uh at our next meeting in terms of which subcommittees we'll have to have a kind of a kickoff meeting with the new team and

068figure it out from there great so that concludes the um committee sub reports or subcommittee reports rather and so we'll move to the consent agenda um I move that the board approve the items listed on the consent agenda as recommended that's new hires transfers and the October financials second so that's Rosa Fernandez seconded the motion um is there any discussion of this NOP okay so then let's um call the vote all those in favor say I hi okay so that's unanimous great thank you um Now we move to um uh item 11 on the agenda it's new business um so this is about the subcommittee meeting dates um I move that the board discuss and approve uh the subcommittee structure and other board representation um yes from January to June 20 from January sorry thank

069you from January um to June 2024 second okay so uh Rosa Fernandez seconds um I'd like to open um the floor with some discussion I have some suggestions from uh for subcommittee membership but this is just to get the conversation started these do not have to be approved this evening I I would like to if I don't mind if I can interject I don't think we've had a um chance to discuss discuss this as a board together that's typically what's been done in the past so I'm not really comfortable discussing this in public um with our interests and um you know what we would you know choose to be on and our availability and things like that so I would like this to be a discussion approval for next meeting absolutely um then uh perhaps

070I could um distribute my um get the ball rolling ideas um during the executive session I actually just interject again um I think that's fine I don't think we need to decide on anything too much tonight if you want to decide on the dates how yeah the dates yeah we could definitely agree to the well probably we could agree to the dates unless once the committee is made it's not good for everybody but um I kind of want Finance to be only I I don't know if I'm going to be kept on finance but the finance committee really needs to get going like now I'd like to Echo that sentiment I know that's you know our veteran board members here Rosa and joy have have been on that long-standing members of that committee we do

071have a meeting on the schedule for next Monday the 11th before the board retreat um and I think you'll see with the presentation of of um the detail that needs to go into the budget work I think the finance committee I'd urge the board that if that's one we could come up with tonight I think we should do that the the rest could could wait we don't have urgent cape work to do or even facility work or policy work to do but finances definitely I think one we need to be thinking about yeah to that end I will volunteer myself to be on that committee I would like to stay on that I think it's important for the two um veteran members to stay on it and i' I'd like um myself to be on

072it as well to fulfill those responsibilities um so well I I have an interest in two others so um there's someone else that wants to be on it okay on finance you want to not be on finance cor any volunteers or Finance so much it's a lot of fun guys and you do not have to be an expert in really you really do not have to be an expert on finance at all it really is a great opportunity to learn about Finance hits everything I'm trying to sell Finance here but Finance hits everything I mean as long as you have two right as of now as of now as long as we have two we could have it you're absolutely right thank you thanks for saying that then the persuasive campaigns will begin you want

073to volunteer I mean with a lack of anyone else interested I think we should allow people time to think about it exactly it's a big commitment to your point Jo if we have two we can have the finance we start okay okay so um procedurally then um are these discussions that we will have um I guess we'll table yeah we'll so we'll table this table to the and okay great okay so then you want to agree on the dates or no wait ah yes please um I'm I mean I'm okay the the finance is still second Monday at 5:30 so I'm good with those I dates this on Pace for what we've had this first half the only thing I noticed was June 3 that's a I think it's a Monday for facilities yeah I

074think you probably meant the 5th the June 5th is a Wednesday oh so that's said facilities typically happen on Mondays as well no on Wednesdays Wednesdays so the is the first Wednesday but so that June third should be the fifth we could switch the third to the fifth to just have it be accurate yeah and I just want to um make mention that the reason for the time the start time it was because of the former chair that was when he was able to get there at 610 for the cap for Cape um that we can make that whenever doesn't have to be would it be hard to decide on dates without knowing who's going to be on what I mean it's uh it's probably whoever's on these committees are going to have to decide

075whether or not any of these dates don't the so maybe we should wait until we until the sub until the Committees are formed and then decide on the dates as long as we could have Finance on Monday I'm happy yeah no we can I would like to I would like to keep that okay so are you good with when uh Finance on when on Monday I am okay I am that's great so we'll just table and not not vote on anything then right not even the dates we'll wait until we can make a motion for finance for finance we should make a motion for the two new MERS all right I will move that the that two members of the finance committee be Rosa Fernandez and Wendy young blood do we have a second I'll

076second it okay um so let's call the vote um all in favor say I I all right it passes unanimously okay so the uh the other items will be tabled y um great so now let's see um Dr bril I think now uh it's time for the budget proposal absolutely so if you want to see on the screen all right you can go over there okay thank you unless it's in here all right I'd also like if um board members you have your uh budget binders in front of you the presentation that is going to be on the screen tonight um and will be broadcast is uh in section two of your binder um it's hard to see the screen you're more than welcome to come and sit here if it's easier for you to

077see the screen um slide seven when I get there has some small print on it but we're going to spend some time on that tonight I think that really is a good solid uh budget driver slide that summarizes everything that we're going for in uh this particular budget all right we've got it up on the screen maybe one more light off that one okay thank you Eric all right so I am uh as I as I said really excited uh to present the budget tonight uh we are really looking at planning uh for next year and it starts in early October and I'll go through the process in just a bit but before that I I want to really thank the administrative team uh Mrs gramling Mrs Reynolds uh Mrs do uh Anna the principes

078everybody who's had a hand in putting the budget together it is an incredible task that has to happen um and like I said we begin in early fall uh pretty much just before October 1st um and it's a whole process that we go through um before we get into budget numbers and talking about that um it's important to let everybody know what the whole purpose of this is what is what is our vision where are we going with things in our school district because at the end of the day and you'll see it throughout the presentation the budget is simply a financial statement of our values about educating our children that that's what it comes down to and so it's important to start with the Strategic plan everything is in service to the Strategic plan

079we just had a whole hour conversation throughout all of the different reports tonight talking about por of The Graduate and thinking about all those that feed into to the Strategic plan uh the Strategic plan was adopted in March of 2003 and that really was kind of the watershed moment to really explode and move forward from learning recovery to the new learning and exciting achievement and other things we're going to be doing our mission is always to inspire Challenge and prepare our students for Meaningful and productive lives at the end of the day preparing our students for success in life learning and work and again we talked about the portrait of the graduate which really is is rooted in critical and creative thinking communicating change making excuse me and collaboration so I want to talk a

080little bit about um kind of our hero's journey Arc here um I think we have before me at least three English teachers here so I I hope I do this Justice um it's important when we use this graphic and we've used been using it for uh uh about two years now um it the the the setting the scene for us was the adoption of the Strategic plan as I was just saying and you could see that um the the yellow and blue graphic there um the one-page document of the iic plan which I'm going to get to in just a second um really that grounds us in our purpose and really focuses our work uh for the next 5 years um and and as you know you have really heard us talk about that and

081bring back the alignment and all of the work that feeds into the Strategic plan the work the rising action this year is to to crosswalk the data formulate the plan and really work on the portrait of The Graduate that's done as you can see the hands document there that is through a collaborative process uh a lot of that work is happening through the pathway professional development work um that we've been doing K through 12 prek through 12 through that visioning and sense making we move forward and we really at the end of the day we envision ourselves in Brookfield having a worldclass education system uh having great world-class experiences for our students and some people think that's maybe a little hokey or a little corny or very bold and so how are you going to

082do that we're going to work really hard and it's not going to be easy and and it's not going to be free to get to world class um but in life you got to choose the hard it's hard to be world class it's harder to be mediocre and we are not going to be mediocre and I'm really excited to pursue our vision so the next slide uh is the one-page document this synthesizes about 20 pages of the Strategic plan into one page for everybody so it's very uh while it's there's a lot of words here it's very succinct if you just take your time and look at it it's quite easy to understand understand um not easy to do but easy to understand we boxed off in the Strategic action some key language here and

083if you kind of listen to me it almost flows into one sentence of what we're trying to accomplish and you'll see the alignment we really are working to develop the portrait of The Graduate how many times do we have to say it if you hear me saying it that's what we're doing so you're getting the hint that's good um and that's prek through 12 the key is incorporating um assured authentic experiences for students which is all about great teaching and learning then investing in technology that uh is really in the form of digital tools and then after all continuous Improvement you heard Mr Banda talking about it with the athletic program continuous Improvement to really make sure and fine-tune our operations and our systems to provide the impetus and the resources for that worldclass highquality

084education all right let's start to dig into the budget process now as I was saying it starts very early in the fall um there's initial budget discussions with the administration the administration at each School works with their team and they start to develop their budget it really is bottoms up working with the faculty and staff and really ascertaining uh what the needs are um the other thing we do is we work together over time over the next couple of months especially over October as an administrative team um and we work through the budget um and then ultimately uh the plans are distributed uh excuse me disseminated to the central office we work through those plans we work together um and uh we come up with uh a draft uh budget from there in parallel to

085the the administrative and Leadership work and faculty work um instructional coach work we are working with the board of education on what are the priorities and assumptions of uh the upcoming budget that was adopted uh I believe in at the October meeting uh with the Board of Ed and and so that's a foundational document and just an aside any documents the board has either approved or reports they've received this fall are already online under the 2425 budget that anybody can access they're also linked in this presentation so all of the documents and and the hard work that's going on uh this fall is feeding into this budget tonight that we're talking about um the next thing we do is Casey and I really work on the budget and we produce a status quo budget and

086then we break down budget drivers and send that to the Board of Education before this meeting uh you received that last week via email and uh as I said it's early in the process you received a uh a a change already six days later when I sent you the update email yesterday and then we have our meeting tonight where the superintendent presents the budget from there the the and it was so important to talk about getting the finance committee established we really start to dig into the budget we don't have to have any pressure on us to dig into the budget tonight the board start to starts to submit questions we will have a Google doc set up to submit those questions we work with the finance committee and we really roll up our sleeves

087as a team and document the responses to all of those questions um and ultimately through that process uh work through a number of meetings um mostly weekly um after right before the holidays and then after the holidays work with the board at the regular meetings and then ultimately by the end of January uh typically by the second regular meeting the board adop Ops a budget to submit to the first selectman sometimes we have to have an additional special meeting because there's a lot to discuss um from there I'm not going to get into the the the nitty-gritty details after after January uh but in February through April we work with the board of finance and board of Selectmen work through that whole budget process and you can see that's a three-month process and then ultimately

088there's a referendum scheduled in May so we've already been working on it for two months for some people it's the first night the superintendent's presenting the budget it's the kickoff to budget season um for us it's uh into its ninth week uh of work um but ultimately it's an eight-month project uh process uh in our small Connecticut towns Brookfield we are one of the very first districts to go in terms of presenting the budget in the state and so that's why it's very important I want to reassure everybody while the budget number that I'm submitting to you tonight as the proposal it's a conservative budget in that um it makes estimates to make sure we have enough money in the budget there will be breaks in the budget we already had a favorable break and

089I'll talk a a little bit about that when I have the numbers up um and we hope for continued favorable breaks maybe in utilities I know Casey's working with our uh purchasing agent we might see some some heating savings uh as opposed to what we have estimated right now so we continue to to to scrub the budget and sharpen the pencil the entire process I wanted to take the opportunity with the new board to get a little bit in the weeds with this one slide that I typically don't use uh this being my ninth budget presentation here in Brook field I typically don't put this kind of pie chart out there about the budget but I thought conceptually it's really important for the board and the public and and frankly the faculty and staff to

090understand the budget is a financial statement of our values in educating our students this is a human service business education and our resources are put into our human resources and those people are our faculty and our staff and our administrative team and as you can see here nearly 80 if you look in the light blue the health benefits and the salaries take up nearly 80% of the budget quick little story I was talking to my father who some of you know was a superintendent he's long retired now and he said let me ask you how what's your percentage on faculty and staff and I said we're about 79% he said I did a study he was going way back in the weeds and uh he said I did a study I remember it was my

091my fourth or fifth budget and I looked back historically for 20 years now this was in the 90s he looked back 20 years and the entire 20-y year period the Staffing costs were 78 to 82% of the budget in the district he had been in so that is just a historic number you can go to any school district around here in Connecticut you're always going to be in the high 70s low 80s that's typically where you're going to land that leaves us 20% of a budget it's important to take a look well we have utilities oil gas we need to turn on the lights and heat the schools and cool the schools we're going to do that that is 2 and half% of the budget we've got Transportation regular education transportation and special education Transportation

092we're going to transport the kids that's 75% of the budget we have uh heavy cost and Rosa started to allude to that in out of District placements from for some of our most profound students with learning needs um and that's 5 and a half% of the budget so there's a little bit of money left 3% for professional development uh Technical Services um and also to purchase supplies whether it's school supplies or maintenance supplies and things like that and I look at Rose and joy they're not because they know this all too well um but they're really this is the expenditures this is what uh a school budget uh conceptually looks like a lot of words on a slide this slide is uh I believe it's slide seven in your binder so you could feel free

093to look there or Again Come a Little Closer if you'd like I'm going to take take a little time and I'm going to walk through what's actually driving the budget this is a simple straightforward slide you actually have this in spreadsheet form and other sections of your uh notebook as well I think this is going to be something very helpful for the public and all of us as we break through and try to understand exactly what's making up the budget for next year so the proposed budget is well this current budget is $50 m300 th000 The Proposal if you look to the bottom of the page uh is an additional um uh $3.5 million or 6.52% now we all know historically our budgets have never been that large but this is where we're at right

094now and again I want to reassure you it's very early in the process so let's walk through what the budget drivers are the first thing is that status quo budget status quo budget is a very simple concept to understand and I really appreciate this I didn't do this in my former District before coming here but when I came to Brookfield there the board always expected the status quo budget and simply what the status quo budget is if you take the existing Staffing and services that you provide in Brookfield today in this school year what will that look like next year with inflation and contractual increases and collective bargaining contract increases and so what that looks like as you can see is um a 3.98% increase and so let's talk about what's driving the status quo

095the first thing that's driving the status quo is health insurance we're our plan manager is estimating a 7% increase there and a 7% increase in health insurance is almost 1% of our entire budget or $473,000 and then when you look at contractual and inflationary costs um you were looking at 1 Point almost $1.7 million or 3.3% increase um and again these are salaries energy Transportation all the things I was talking about earlier that drive a budget uh that you have to do you have to have staff and you have to heat your buildings and you have to maintain your buildings Etc we did find some reductions um we are looking at uh reorganizing reorganizing excuse me Human Resources uh our human resources specialist uh has resigned um it gives us an opportunity to take a

096look at the leadership model and I'll talk a little bit about that uh as we go on we also have reduced the school counselor position at Candlewood Lake Elementary School this is a position that transferred from whis skiner to the elementary school um the position has not been filled at all this year and the way our mental health staff and other faculty is working with students Dr P and Mr Roland did not feel uh they needed to ask for that position uh in the budget for next year so there's a savings there um AIS tuition for the magnet school in Danbury we have less kids attending there now year-over-year so we could budget less for the tuition that we must pay uh under the state legislation for the magnet school and then I think you

097heard Anna mentioned parents Square that's going to be our new website solution and also it's going to consolidate all we're so excited about this we're actually going to save money but we're consolidating um uh all of our Communications School messenger um and the like are all going to be uh consolidated and interfaced with the website and there's an app and we're just excited about it there'll be a soft roll out in the spring and to get us ready for summer in the next year it'll be fully Mo but the uh anecdotally um staff here uh parents excuse me they're parents here but they they work in Danbury and they just transition to parents Square absolutely love it as employees let alone as uh parents we're getting a lot of anecdotal feedback and the team is

098really excited about it so Eric's working on on that so there's a savings there that's the status quo budget 3.98% we've Ros has started to allude to this and we've been talking about it and we've been communicating with the board of Finance uh you know all fall along we have some serious anomalies in the current budget that are real cost in operating our school system that we need to carry forward and plan for uh in in the next uh next year Rosa went into the teacher turnover uh uh savings that we typically build in so I want to just make it really clear what Ros was saying and Rosie did a great job with it but I just want to add to it is we have as as a strategy in the school uh School

099District here in the Board of Ed and the the town has agreed to this this has been something we've done for years we actually budget $200,000 less than the actual uh cost of the salaries that we know we're going to have because we assume this turnover so it's a risk everybody understands and the town has been very gracious that if we don't hit our $200,000 Mark they have contingency to help backfill that but the last two years last year and this year we're just not seeing that um and the teacher shortage drives some of that we just can't find the number of teachers we we are able to employ teachers we're really excited about that we are not uh short faculty in any way but there are teachers that are veteran teachers that come to

100Brookfield because this is a great place to work they want to be here but when you bring in veteran teachers they bring their years with them and they're higher on the salary schedule and that's how you meet the needs for students but you don't meet the needs for that risk we take the budget special education transportation and tuition uh Rosa did a great job on this so I'm really not going to explain that too far um except to say that we had six new students identified uh for outplacement now when we talk about outplacement this becomes a tricky uh piece for people we're certainly not going to talk about individual students or anything like that these are children with very profound learning or behavioral needs that um need specialized schooling and that's done through a

101whole planning and placement team process with a individual education plan six students that weren't identified at the uh at the end of last school year are now outplaced well there's your increase in transporting the students there and paying for their tuition and we are obligated by federal and state law to pay for these programs and so that's a very very expensive proposition um the good news on this which uh Casey has not been able to report to the board the board's finance committee yet and we're gonna present it right now and I shared it with you last night is she did a lot of uh work in reestimating and taking a look at the submission that our special education uh Team put into the state on Friday for excess cost grant our uh our estimate

102looks like because of the increased cost the state will reimburse us about $198,000 so that really is cutting into that overage uh Rosa as we were just talking about uh enjoy so that's something uh that we've known about for a number of months but that's very favorable for us in the special education department dep very very happy to see that substitutes here's another area that we've been working on for quite a while another budget driver and anomaly we we're carrying forward we're o we're projecting that we'll be over budget in substitutes and so we have historic actuals in substitutes that are more than we budget for and it's really time we seriously uh talk about with our uh finance committee um making sure we true up that that budget line um to cover the absences

103of uh teachers or excuse me Paras and have enough money and not have to uh take from other uh budget lines to make sure we have enough in the substitute line so we're going to true we the plan right now the proposal is to true that up electricity this is one that's actually quite disappointing at least at this time but again um we want to keep our emotions in check with the budget and really be deliberate with things um we were uh told as uh as late as uh I think it I thought it was this summer Casey it looks like we have August 22 but definitely within the last year we were told in in budgeting um last year to budget for this year with Candlewood Lake um uh a specific number for um

104electricity and that would be less than the total cost of electricity at Huckleberry and Center school so we built in a savings and and we're have a burn rate now that we're seeing month by month that we're actually using more electricity it's costing us more this was given to us by the engineer that works for tekon and so we're working directly with the MBC and Mr czecho to to look at those numbers again um and of course every month we're looking do you want to add something to that Casey August 2022 is estimate and the update that drove the current years that's right that's right okay thank you Casey really Chang no no and we did get confirmation on that that's where we got confirmation from uh a couple months ago so that's what we

105have in the in the budget and so there's a shortage there and then the other anomaly this year that's driving the budget for next year is the bus driver shortage athletic Transportation um for us to have a top-of-the-line Athletic program to make sure our kids can participate in a way games and competitions and the like uh we have to transport our kids there Transportation as we all know is very expensive gas prices are very expensive and it's no different with the bus um our kids uh to make sure they get there Mr Baldwin has a heck of a Time Allstar Transportation they've been great with our regular transportation we do not have late buses our kids are getting to school very rarely we had to combine a bus run with all this driver shortage we

106have to thank Deb Jones she does a great job managing Depot um but after school there just isn't enough drivers to go around for the away away competitions and Mr Baldwin has uh the last couple of years is forced to go to private carriers sometimes it's actually a a party bus sometimes it's a limousine um you know other times it's a it's just a a silly little van obviously always safe and uh so with that um that's an extra 31 ,000 we need we don't see any relief in the driver shortage so we want to be uh smart and put enough money in there but to the tune of $745 as Rosa was talking about we've got these anomalies we're dealing with today that we have to be prepared to budget for in next year's

107budget so we'll work on dealing with that through our conversations then everybody here's about this and we've got a lot of Educators on our board State mandates the dreaded term State mandates and boy do we have a lot of them in Connecticut um and what I will tell you is um we we have Changing State mandates in uh uh two of these three items and one that's been a standing mandate that we have to uh obliged to so the first one looking at special education transportation and tuition to the cost of just over $100,000 um Transitional services for students students that um have significant needs they're older than the typical high school student they've moved on from the Brookfield schools that were still responsible for in Transitional services um up until covid you kids who

108qualified for transitional services had to be educated through the age of turning 21 during covid the legislation changed through the age of 21 all the way to Turning 22 the recent new change is through the age of 22 until they turn 23 at their 20 23rd birthday so we need to prepare for that and there's some students who qualify for transitional services to the tune of $102,000 that's another driver um a long-standing state mandate is that um when you have a threshold of when you reach the threshold of 20 students in a school Under One Roof that speak a specific language as their home language you have to provide bilingual um programming we already provide bilingual programming um in Spanish um we have a a full-time teacher that teaches that we have about 40 kids

109in the bilingual program for Spanish stands to reason now with consolidating the schools we have 20 students at our elementary school school Under One Roof um and if you look in the enrollment report it actually we landed on 20 students so when you hit that number the next year you have to have bilingual programming so we built in a halftime bilingual teacher and we'll be looking for one come summertime and then the final uh new new mandate I think a lot of people have heard this one out there is the K3 science of literacy legislation and so we are uh we received our extension last year so we were able to take this year with committee thanks to Dr man and the team over at CES to work through uh the various programs that the

110state has identified as highquality uh scientifically based literacy programs I think there's seven and we are in the we're down to about two programs that the committee is looking at to make that decision um in taking a look at our estimates and what the program will cost for us um the actual cost to us will be $887,000 um but the full program cost is about $174,000 and thanks to our team team we applied for the right to read Grant which is giving us $85,000 from the state to offset that to the taxpayers here um so we're complying with all mandates so again status quo budget anomalies now the state mandate driver Last Driver is our investments we need to invest in our school system no secret to anybody is the ARP Esser funds the phasin

111we're going into our last year of phasing in those federal grants that came in during covid to into the operating budget uh the big push with us was was learning recovery so we went with instructional coaches and summer school and so forth and so the last part of phasing in um we had estimated uh originally about $210,000 but with some fine-tuning in summer school and some efficiencies it's going to be $115,000 phas and you could see it's to continue regular red summer school um the the there's part of the technology instructional coach salary the K12 instructional coach uh in technology and then the uh part-time certified occupational therap therapist assistant and so um we want to make sure we're meeting the needs of all of our kids and that's the final phas in of our

112uh we won't see that at this time next year when we present for 25 26 then there was federal funds to the town uh those were called the arpa funds and the phase in there is for security monitors uh some of you may recall in 2022 we had a lot of town discussion on what it was going to look like we work with the police department on adding uh sro's to the school armed security guards unarmed security guards and so the to the tune in our district uh right now to the tune of $69,000 uh we have um uh a phase in that we have to do to continue um operating with the existing security staff that we have then we're really excited about illustrative math we've got a strategic initiative here we are getting

113set with our program Improvement in math um where we saw a lot of gains in middle school is where they were uh implementing illustrative math we're now going to implement that fully at the elementary school and um we're using EX existing uh funds in mathematics that are already in our budget for the uh current program math investigations and so what we're doing is reallocating that um to purchase um the illustrative math program uh to the tune of $22,000 Mr Bland and the team um have proposed a course for college algebra that would demand new textbooks and uh of course that will be discussed at uh subsequent cap meetings with full board approval we don't buy textbooks without approval of the board and a discussion and so forth but we want to get that in the

114budget now so everybody has a sense that that's in the pipeline and excited about a new course and opportunity for our students in maintenance we talked earlier about whis skiner in the high school now that the elementary school is built really putting our our full focus and attention on uh beautifying and updating the physical environment of both the high school and the middle school and so in the maintenance line You'll see that we're adding about $82,000 into there what we want to do is look at that Marx a Kubo building condition study that we had had and there are a number of smaller level maintenance needs at the school that aren't uh that don't rise to the level of capital Improvement major projects and we want to have some funds in there to be uh

115to have the flexibility to improve on the on the building and then the last one I mentioned earlier was the enrollment study um a typical enrollment study I checked with um uh with the local resk uh likely about $155,000 we haven't had a comprehensive study since I think 2019 and so that's an investment we need to make with the births during covid the new Elementary School in anecdotally in chatting with some of our Reals in town they are definitely using the new elementary school as a selling tool to get people to buy houses here in town and also anecdotally with the uh aging portion of the population where it's just a couple that uh their families grown and moved on they're starting to really turn over houses and the downsizing here so more families are

116going to be moving in we need to be prepared for that so that's why we were do an enrollment study a lot of detail there I told you what I'm going to tell you I'm going to tell tell you again and then I'm going to tell you again at the end okay so we're going to understand this budget next thing I want to do we talked a lot about strategic plan we just dove into the numbers of the budget I want to talk about our big four Focus areas strategic plan implementation in portrait of The Graduate development I think everybody's got that the other one we want to do if we're going to be world class in number one we've have got to continue to increase achievement um we I don't want to spoil this

117but Dr man will be sharing we really had some great growth results um from where we were uh uh a year and a half ago to where we are now in terms of growth so we're really excited about that and we continue to move move forward meeting the social and emotional needs of all of our students and the energizing of the various uh Capital Improvements as we or beautification improvements as we talked about at the schools and budget priority and assumptions talk about all that I link that report on this slide our five big budget goals maintain our class sizes but adjust Staffing to get as many efficiencies as we can and adjust with enrollment our second goal provide a curriculum that's rigorous and relevant and that we know how our kids are doing at

118all times and is worldclass in learning our third goal is to maintain and continue uh to enhance our programs but always thinking about changing organizational needs and being responsive to those needs the fourth goal technology not only technology infrastructure but digital tools for learning to enhance learning experiences for kids and then finally always and number five providing the necessary resources to meet the state and federal laws that we have to operate under those are our five big goals under goal number one maintaining class size and adjusting patterns there's not a heck of a lot that we have to change this year sometimes there's fluctuations based on enrollment flow and grade levels and so forth this year right now it looks like um we'll need this year going into next year and the enrollment Trends look

119like we'll need one less section in grade two but one more section of uh classroom section in grade five Dr P is working on that with the team and then the other thing I had already mentioned reducing the counselor um we we don't believe we need that uh position at the uh Elementary School and the case Lo special ed case load report and the enrollment reports are linked on that page goal number two this is the curriculum work this is under uh the the leadership of of course our principles but Mrs FAS our director of instruction and Dr man um I won't read this word for word but I'll hit the high notes for you we need to work toward portrait of The Graduate really focused on our science uh state standards and also on

120this the Connecticut Frameworks for social studies um developing those assured instructional experiences prek to 12 um making sure that the reading program is implemented I talked about that earlier so I won't go too deep into that um also making sure that illustrative math is implemented all the way now K through 8 very excited about that and excited about the results we're getting and the students I know are very engaged with it um providing PD and planning opportunities for those assured experiences going toward the portrait of The Graduate making sure we could assess the outcomes of RPD through the pathway work and again Dr man will be presenting on the pathway work a little bit more after the holidays uh and talk a little bit about it on December 20th you'll learn more as we go

121through the the remainder of the year um we want to make sure that we Implement actions in alignment with the program review that Mr Roland talked about we had two program two a phase one and a phase two of program review from uh CK and uh the recommendations and the actions that need to happen we need to support those in special education and then of course the new course uh college algebra and the textbooks we need to purchase the third goal looking at being responsive to organizational needs I talked about the phase in of the ARP Esser Grant and the specific summer school OT and uh Technology support there phasing in of the security monitors the human resources organization making sure we conduct the enrollment study lessening the tuition for the declining enrollment in the

122um uh magnet school over in Danbury AIS looking at our custodial and mainten maintenance needs being very proactive can't tell you the difference in our facility department and our our maintenance team in not having to run around at Center School and Huckleberry all day long fixing HVAC needs um the schools were aging and old and that's why we went to the new School four or five years ago when we made that decision they're really able to focus and be proactive now and we don't have those needs certainly at a new school so now they can focus on just whis Ander and the high school so that's that's really exciting and we have some great work that's been accomplished at both the whiskin and the high school so um we could start to be more proactive

123addressing the athletic Transportation uh issue with the driver shortage that we just talked about and then increasing substitutes to really have the actual budget uh the budget meet the actual spend fourth goal is technology you'll see a lot of infrastructure and cyber security here uh I have to thank Eric and the team they're doing a heck of a job here um making sure that we update our classroom presentation stations of course uh smartboards everywhere for our students interactive smartboards uh continuing to invest in our onetoone Chromebook uh program funding the existing cyber security uh protections that we have and the network protections uh building in disaster recovery and continuity planning um making sure that we have all the protective measures we need to make sure we can get cyber security Insurance a Hot Topic cyber

124security we cannot afford to have ransomware or anything like that so we not only have to be protected we then have to prove that we're protected and always be improving that protection and then demonstrating that to our insurance company so they continue to provide the insurance we cannot fall short on that um upgrading infrastructure for Hardware to make sure we have proper storage and reliability and then um of course for students we talked about our digital tools and making sure we're moving forward there and then finally goal five making sure we have the the resources to meet the needs of all of our students and we have to follow state and federal law and so to that again I mentioned the K3 reading program um we're really excited to get going uh with the new

125program uh adding the point4 teacher uh for Portugese bilingual the multilingual report is linked right next to that for people to visit um in special education supporting the Transitional services uh to the tune I think I said 100 $2,000 that's there um for the extra year that the local community has to support students uh who qualify and then supporting the actions in alignment with the c reports and the C reports are linked there as well couple quick notes on enrollment this is uh a uh the enrollment report was uh given uh in the at the October meeting you could see that uh currently uh we have 1,16 uh kids at Candlewood Lake uh between the upper school and the lower School uh whis skiner was right siiz this year to 591 students just grade 6

126to8 and the high school is steady at about 871 students giving us a total of 2568 kids currently enrolled as of October 1st we project that we'll have a few less students at Candlewood Lake at 1,89 next year that's prek to5 whis skiner um looking around 581 and the high school at 839 and so we look about 60 kids 50 kids less next year again that's right now typically that bounces back up with August registrations that's just something that always happens some interesting facts at the bottom um with covid I think a lot of people um uh I don't think a lot of people a lot of people were talking about um more identification of students with emotional behavioral and learning needs because of the shutdowns and the lockdowns um interestingly here in Brookville we

127stayed very steady with our identified special education ation population at 365 students it's only up two um in the last year multilingual Learners you can see is up 16 students up to 114 but that's really that's the net number uh the whole point of a multilingual program is to teach the kids English and have them exit the program uh proud to say that uh Mrs abrao and our team uh exited 20 students last year as we entered this year so the net is 36 more students uh 20 new in the pipeline and additional 16 for uh replacing the 20 that exited um in terms of multilingual Learners and then um a significant increase in families um free and reduced lunch which means families that are having very very significant economic difficulty up 70 students 633

128out of 2500 I think that's about 20% so or maybe a little bit more maybe 25% of the kids um have economic issues in our town so we have changing Dynamics in the town I think we all know that and we do have to address and serve class size average is always interesting for everybody uh in the blue band at the bottom uh those are the class-size targets that the Board of Education voted on long ago we've steadfast to those and you can see um for 2425 the projected uh by classroom numbers up through 8th grade um and we are just over um when you see red we're just over the uh class siiz range um we're not asking for any new elementary teachers or middle school teachers but you could see that there uh

129it's important to know in kindergarten we do have a par educator assigned to each of our kindergarteners kindergartens um which makes us a little bit more comfortable and makes our teachers frankly a little more comfortable to have it just over the range rather than having you know 16 or 18 um and being by themselves they were okay we did talk to them a couple of years ago when we initiated moving to halftime Paris and now we're able to to to work toward uh uh more para FTE in there uh they're more comfortable with that model so we're in a good good place there with our class size average and then I just summarize by going back to our budget drivers I will not walk you through this uh except to say we have our status

130quo budget and then we have three big drivers beyond the status qu the anomalies we're facing this year that we need to address in next year's budget and plan for the new state mandates um and the Investments and those drive us to a 53 m670 ,000 budget or a 6.52% increase over the current year I show one last pie chart for you this is just the increase this year of $3 million this is the increase in the percentage um by the same categories we showed you earlier um benefits in salaries you could see is the Lion Share of the increase I think in the the neighborhood of 60% transportation is a 133% increase the out of District placements are 7 and a half percent we're conservatively budgeting utilities oil and gas now at 10 and

131a half percent we're hoping that number comes down um supplies uh for maintenance supplies for students supplies for faculty and staff along with some Professional Services uh and other services account for $267,000 so you could see that there is a lot of stuff kind of baked into the budget that we have control over we can make decisions um but it is a human business We Are a Human Service organization and that's what we value the most is the people that service our ultimate treasure and value which is our students I thank you for your time and happy to answer questions or talk about process going forward I have a question um for the electricity at Candlewood Lake is it possible because work is still going on and they're drawing power from the building that we're

132seeing that is something we talked with Mr czecho about but maybe Casey if there's anything else you want to add to that yeah I I I don't really have much to add Rosa except that that's what I was hoping and thinking to um we've only had two months of electricity bills you know while school is in session on that building oh your button down sorry thank you um um yeah that is something that I that we were we were thinking as well we've only have two months of electricity of of electric bills from eversource on that building since it's opened so it's really kind of hard to gauge at this point um but based on those first two months um we are anticipating that it's going to be significantly higher than originally thought yep okay

133and we did take those invoices and sent excuse me and send them to the NBC and to tecton thank you um another question I had was on the special education transportation and tuition so it's it's listed under the two under two different areas so is the total impact to the budget just over 1% and it's just that portion of it is State mandated okay that was the only questions I had for now so wait those are separate costs not redundant ones they're the same it's the same cost it's just a state 2% of that increase is due to State mandated costs right yes so so um we're mandated to support students with special needs right we we know that um we have it in the new state mandate category as a driver because it's an

134additional year to support students that you're count you we typically were counting on we wouldn't have to pay for those students anymore the state takes over at that point and works with the families they've graduated out of the Brookfield Public Schools support and they move on to State services with their family and so that through new state law has been pushed back down on the local communities everybody in the state is facing this we're we're not alone in this every single Community will be talking about this in their budget preparation my question is for Anna um so is there a reason why we didn't want to continue the roll out of um open court like in the early grades the primary so um open court does not it's not one of the approved State programs

135because it just got approved so uh when so when we we actually do still use open court at this point as you know K3 um so we are not completely F through with our uh discernment and um focus on what exactly we're going to be using as Dr BR said we have we're down to a couple different uh programs right now the program that kind of the the front runner um aligns really nicely with mclass dibles which is what you approved last year um and so um it integrates really nicely uh but we also do have our open court uh programs which we will reflect on and see how um efficacious it is is uh it's it's what we're using right now as kind of our main focus on science of reading as well as

136the um our main literacy uh um instructional approach um but certainly that could still since it was just uh recently approved and and things are getting approved all the time um we will continue to look at that as we meet we will have to eventually make a decision about you know what we um what we want to go with probably even as the state continues to approve more programs cuz they have added originally they as you know they said they were going to add five they have looked at different things and um they have added a few more um I have a feeling that as they have more school they they just released the uh waiver results and um many districts did not get approved through the river or and they've created now these different

137um sections of approval some it's not just you got the waiver or didn't now there's transitional and there's um partial so um I have a feeling that the state will continue to approve different programs so there may be things that we um you know find we have already invested in uh what we have found out over the last couple years since I've been here was that even kind of irrespective of the um State mandate there has been a an interest in pursuing other um approaches to early literacy and so it kind of was fortuitous timing especially considering there was this right to read grant that we were able to apply for and get um supplemental money for um so while open court has been something that this district has invested in for a while um

138I'm not sure that it is meeting the needs of our students fully where we would like to see them at this point so we'll keep an open mind as we go forward but will we take a deep dive with that for on the cape committee or that's something that certainly we probably mean we will bring those that information to you nothing would go forward without you know being brought to the cape committee but as far as actually um kind of the analysis and the discernment and the decisions um in terms of you know what the the the committee of uh Educators would do that work and then bring proposals to the cap committee okay yeah if you can keep that in the Forefront because you know we did invest in that quite recently into that

139program so I would hate for that to kind of Fall by the ways side especially if it's it was just if yeah if it's if it's working then you know we're not certainly going to try to fix something that's not broken yeah and if we can get like data on that that'd be great to help that decision okay yep that's part of and I think Joy I'm glad you brought if you guys don't mind I'd like to just share a little bit uh Anna mentioned that the uh as of I think it was Friday districts who applied for the waiver meaning hey State we don't like your rule we like our reading and writing program and we're going to stay with it had an opportunity to ask always happens that way doesn't I thought it

140said something quite profound and now it's not it's not been captured okay um so on Friday uh the State published uh the districts and the districts found out um the districts who I think it was 82 districts applied for a waiver so almost half the districts in the state said we like our reading and writing program we do not want to go with one of the five or seven or eight whatever it is now approved science of reading programs that the state says these are the approved programs um and uh we want to go for a waiver so Friday they found out many districts that you wouldn't think would be would not be allowed to get the waiver um some high performing districts and uh down count districts um have been told you didn't get

141the waiver or you only have partial uh uh achievement of the waiver and so they're going to have to get direction from the state and scramble a little bit as to what they're going to do um we had interest as you said from uh faculty and staff um we just presented in October we were not thrilled with uh some of our results uh in the language arts area um and so we were thinking this might be an opportunity to take a look really at what we want to do and with the support of the state with the support of a grant so we didn't have to put you know the burden of all this programming on the backs of the taxpayer we asked for an extension to give us some time to think about it

142to work with the team and um I think that right now is paying off but to Joy's point if we have some programming or some materials that that can help us um and maybe that could be incorporated or whatever we want to we want to think we're not there on the decision yet we we are looking like I said I think we were down to to there was one we really like the way it fit but there were some other ones that we're still considering so um but at some point we do have to make a decision I mean because we have to uh order the materials and with everybody ordering materials the textbook companies are going to have a hard time fulfilling the order so we need to get the order in early make

143sure it's all set and then have the professional development built in to train up the teachers to be ready to go so we have to be thinking many months ahead the other the last point I just want to make on that part of the the concept of the partial or the transitional um is because there are parts of programs or there are programs that meet parts of the expectation of the state um and so if if districts have for example if they had open court and said this is what we this is what our uh program is and we're standing by it that could very well be well that's partial but you have to add this other portion I haven't um I'll talk with you know Mrs FAS about it and she'll bring all of

144the information along with the instructional coaches um Julie vau and Aggie Burns will have some um impact in it even though she's seventh six seventh and eth um we're really looking at that six through eight Continuum um and obviously in terms of the early literacy data we go with our mclass Dibbles and and uh acadians data because we don't have we don't test until third grade um in terms of standardized testing that's when the SBA begin so um we want to look at the whole gamut and we also want to kind of consider not only what the state is requiring but also what the needs of our students are across the and to set them up for Success throughout school thank you sure thing quick question on the um with the new cut off for

145kindergarten is there an anticipation that the enrollment is going to be impacted because I mean 45 now is probably going to be around 45 next year too exactly and so what I asked Dr P to do and he's done it with his team already for us is take a look at those 45 students uh that we talked about that are younger and uh of the 45 whose birthdays after September 1st in this current kindergarten class I wanted to know how many might be having a little trouble adjusting that's the big question right it's all developmental very individual with kids and and the and the family understands their child too and in Readiness um we're looking at five or six kids that we think maybe could have benefited from another year but they're round in the

146corner and they're doing okay so we don't anticipate a drop off at this point um we anticipate that many of our kids will um go through the screening process and I think family and back faculty would probably be very comfortable with them attending kindergarten so we'll go through that process um it certainly would have made it easier in terms of the school's decision if it was um if that September 1st was a hard cut off like January 1st um the state didn't uh the the legislators didn't make the law that stiff frankly and so the state Department's given us some guidance and then we really each district and I think we like that New England or in Connecticut kind of having an opportunity to make our own decision on that one so thank you though

147for the great question just one really minor thing on the illustrative is that does that involve training too or is the training done in-house U I'll let Dr man talk to that yeah so we um have uh contracted for professional learning for um actually for all of the grades this year uh a little bit more intensive with four through four and five and then six through eight at the middle school um with uh one kind of introductory uh professional learning experience this year and then next year it will be ongoing with the um continued with the Middle School however we're doing that kind of gradual release with the teachers we have instructional coaches um at the bless you at the um you know at the middle school and the elementary school so they have taken

148um on a lot of the responsibility um so they'll continue that professional learning so we'll kind of wean folks off at the middle school and then you know focus it more on the elementary school as we roll it outk so so an just to the um the dollars that I presented tonight that's that's the total cost M okay yeah it's inclusive it's it's it's all in there are we going questions okay um that was a really um thoughtful and thorough presentation thank you very much um for the the effort that went into creating it and presenting it um so for um those of us who are new and and for the public uh there will not be a vote um to adopt the budget until late January but this will be a standing agenda item

149uh until we've officially adopted the budget so board members will have an opportunity to ask questions and the public can also provide input via public comment or email um there's also a budget round table before our next meeting on the 20th at 6m if the public would like to converse more in depth about anything they like or dislike about this proposal that's a really good time to do it okay um I think we are moving on then to the next agenda item which is um old business so there yeah all right um then I I don't believe there's any public comment for the tail end of the meeting marous then um we have an opportunity to decide if we'd like to continue uh to do three main points we don't have to make this decision

150today but this is the next agenda item is three main points um we as board members get to select what we feel are the top three takeaways from our meeting tonight uh the floor is open to anyone uh to provide put very casual no votes are going to be taken um and in the past the chair of the communication subcommittee wrote These up and submitted them um to Dr burill and to the chair for editing and posting but we can decide um would you guys like to keep it that way or have the secretary do it to write up our our three main points since we don't have a Communications Committee just yet idea then the decision making process has been streamlined so yeah so just you know as you summarized um for you guys

151um we just kind of talk about what we think are the three main takeaways and then that becomes like a really good talking point and then if anybody sort of comes up to you in the community it's kind of like you know these are the things that we talked about and sort of the big points um I think since I mean the agenda was kind of light tonight actually in terms of like actual um but we did have some big things obviously the budget I think the budget would be a huge takeaway um after that I think maybe the um like um maybe some AA report yeah that's what I was going to say aa's report student successes yes mhm yep and don't forget our entertainment at the beginning the music department yeah that was

152good too yeah we can plug the Winter concert do I think it's noteworthy for um those of us who are new um that this was a light uh agenda because there's so much information you know I just feel like the don't get used to it well the few items we had were long but um but yeah no don't get used to it but we very much you know enjoyed your I hope you were entertained Mrs Greenstein um uh Mrs yo I just like to say one thing um I I really an anticipated thank you for your support um I I appreciate um the fact that I didn't see wincing uh at the number um with the various drivers in the budget and uh maintaining your composure cuz that there there's a lot there um no

153superintendent likes you pre- shocked us yes I pre I pre- shocked you last week um no superintendent likes to come before their board and ask for more than 3% I mean we all understand local taxpayers we are ourselves we're all citizens and communities in this in the state um what I would encourage the board to do just in terms of uh communication and knowing what's going on with things during the week as you know I already probably overwhelming you with communication but I'd rather commun overc communicate with you than under communicate um please during the five work days of the week a good organizational strategy because you are volunteers have one time during the day where you check your email I think that's really important to do because you just never know what's coming it

154might be very important nonemergency so no one's going to call you and tell you something's going on but you you know you want to be with it and stay on top of things there's just a lot that comes out of board sometimes they're as simple as just letting you know there was a fender bender with a bus but you may get asked at a ball game or at the grocery store and not have any clue if you haven't looked so it's just a good practice to check it once once a day okay thank you um are there any upcoming events um that I mean aside from the concerts um that you wanted to or the principes wanted to tell us about I would say stay with the concerts um we we've got that and um

155we've got the board meeting at Candlewood Lake and we'll have the round table I think uh I think that's that's pretty much okay our principes and the secretaries and teachers are great with getting newsletters and Communications out on a weekly basis so I think our parents are okay right now wonderful yeah with that um oopsie with that um I'll move to the final agenda uh item I move that the board enter into executive session to discuss strategy and negotiations as it relates to collective bargaining and personal matters second okay um is there any discussion okay all those in favor I I okay so this concludes the public broadcast of the meeting um and uh when we exit the oopsie when we exit our executive session we will formally adjourn the meeting um thanks to everyone

156at home for watching and [Music] listening [Music] o [Music] m [Music] o [Music] o [Music] m [Music]