001[Music] I call the Board of Selectmen to order I call the Board of Finance to order okay would everybody join us in the Pledge of Allegiance was I pledge allegiance and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God with liberty and justice for all so I noticed we have priests and patients you want to go through them budget exposure issue first so we can kind of talk about this year first before we start talking about next year okay so the last time I spoke we presented a budget exposure ranging from a known 730,000 to up to a potential nine hundred ninety five thousand we've had a lot of progress since we last met and we're more confident that our total anticipated exposure is nine hundred and eighty eight thousand seven hundred and
002thirty nine dollars of those five potential students that we discussed previously as determining that range one has already been out placed two will soon be and we know the costs that are associated with them and two will likely be out placed and we're confident in our estimates for those costs through the end of this school year which brings us to that 988 thousand number within our normal budget management we've had several account under and overruns and that 127 thousand figure that you see is around what likely would have eventually gone back to the town similar to years past but we will likely not see that this year the middle table you see repeats the two hundred thousand we initially froze since then we've deepened our freeze on textbooks supplies and professional development for an additional
003sixty eight thousand and we've done some work with building principals and we are safe to take fifty two thousand from the student activity fund bringing the total actions taken by the district to combat this to three hundred and twenty one thousand dollars but again not without real cost to students and our goals lastly the table on the right has been updated for you it repeats the hundred and seventy seven thousand from the Board of Education under run last year that we would be thankful to receive back as well as the two hundred and eight thousand special appropriation approved by the Board of Selectmen that we understand is still under review and finally the last row which used to say an additional two hundred and sixty five thousand was potentially needed for the five students still
004under assessment is now a firmer number at one hundred and fifty four thousand so in some I've condensed and simplified what I've laid out previously but of course I'd like to reiterate to everyone here and everyone listening that the nearly two hundred and seventy thousand that you see in frozen funds is not money that we have found in our budget these are very real things both tangible and intangible that we simply are not going to provide for our regular education students this year so Rosa if we just stay on this so you're saying for this year the total exposure an additional expense or special ed is nine hundred eighty eight thousand dollars yes so then walk us back to the real number that the town has to get so we're nine eighty eight you're putting
005in yeah walk it down okay so one hundred and seventy seven yeah from the non lab saying be two hundred and eight that we discussed at our last meeting we would normally probably are coming around one hundred and twenty seven thousand in various savings throughout normal district budget management we then froze initially we froze that two hundred thousand dollars since our last meeting we've deepened that freeze for another sixty eight thousand and we have dug into these student activity funds and there are fifty two thousand dollars of which we can use for this so you're looking for the two hundred and eight thousand at the Board of Selectmen has approved but the Board of Finance has not yet fully taken up and then an additional 150 four thousand that's correct that's three sixty two 586
006yes how do we know how I mean say you're confident in a number I mean you could have more people move into town so that's just with the student body you have now yes really should just own the this year we're looking at are those three totals supposed to add up to top number no okay okay so I just want to make sure that because they don't lie in totaling up the amount that you need from the town side is 362 yes 360 25580 sistex right yes okay so you know we're getting dangerously close to the 10% of your budget or 1% of the total town budget which would mean we'd have to go to a town meeting and get approval marshal we figure their budget is about for eligible is about 40 million that
007is eligible for the 10% without the for the paperwork we prepared for the attorney but haven't brought to the attorney haven't heard back from the attorney yet we've got to limitations 10% of the total budget which would be 4.4 million and we're fine on that 10% of the total Board of Ed budget report event budget when there's a vote and 1% of the total budget which we believe includes debt service and capital but we're verifying that that would be 70 million so we could do 700,000 for everything in the town or that so if we have a water at the water tower doesn't isn't covered things like that 700,000 for everybody that's a higher of is that in total special appropriations it's up in total for special appropriation 85,000 that was a transfer thank you
008so the most we can appropriate without having a town meeting is seven hundred thousand seven hundred five dollars I believe we're not there yet and this is still under ten percent of your budget so so far we're good but if anything else comes up where kind of really but just because we don't have to doesn't mean we shouldn't or won't Oh No yeah I agree I agree if we have to we have to I prefer not even if we're under the limit we may we that is a choice we can make yeah that's the number where you have to send it to accommodate this so but that doesn't mean you shouldn't do it if it's less than that doesn't say you can't or shouldn't I die honestly I don't think we should have town meetings
009unless we have these rules in place for a reason well then and we're having this meeting where we think we're getting the money from yeah yes yep yep yep if we can't find it within the budget right we're gonna have a problem okay can you talk a little bit about a student activity fund and how you came up with that number what we found what slept over how that whole process works sure we've been discussing this at our Finance Committee meetings for quite some time and there are a number of accounts in there that technically should not be in there that we are gonna be moving over to the general fund and they have balances right now for example there's a we used to run driver's ed out of there and there's $18,000 sitting in
010there so we're gonna take that counts for library fees and lost the book fees we're gonna be taking that because that should also be in the general fund don't things like that there's about six or seven different accounts and what remains even another step deeper what remains in the activity find it what gets what's left back everything else what did which includes what all the class funds field trips clubs Book Fair Book Fair and eating else is truly stupid too right okay gate receipts are in there that'll be coming out so can we met and we talked about every single line this would be pulling out every single line that we agreed shouldn't be in there eventually yes there's some there's still some commitments from some of those funds that are in there I think
011they'll all come out how much more will that be above the 58 I'm here you've identified your full run 988 739 you're pretty firm on that number have you are you gonna gain any of the other line items on the left side because your salary is increased by 30,000 every month so if you take your December data you were at 189 if you take your January data it's moved up to 222 if you take the prior November it was 170 so it from 170 to 180 9 to 222 so that line seems to be catching up and closing the gap so if you've identified your top number at 988 and you're still gaining on the salaries and leaves vacancies line that number at the bottom the 360 is going to shrink it could could or
012is it do we not have any idea of what positions aren't open aren't filled if we identified them the leaves and M if it's going up thirty thousand a month we should have be able to track that a little bit so that number of 360 has got to go down not necessarily should is depends on the salary savings won't necessarily continue growing up there right if people come back from the unpaid leaves or if they can position for example we have the at your Stoney in position at the high school is vacant right now so they're saving money on that every month I'm supposed to film at during the school year before Susan would you anticipate fooling a custodian position during the squeeze we actually did we've been working on it we did and the
013person moved on so it's taking together okay the numbers like I say go from 118 to 170 to 180 mine at 222 in the last four months that I don't see it dropping off I see it's gonna still gain something there's gonna be some traction I probably will I agree that's a no-no correct so if we appropriated the $380,000 right now we gave it to you there could be 60,000 left on the table somewhere correct I mean they're to be clear there were many many things that could happen between now in the end of the year they help quit both ways savings in overages so I would agree I would not like to the earlier map tonight no I wouldn't appropriate it specific about tonight and speaking of that specific someone from over there talks
014about a special education those costs could bounce back up again you know you just don't know in terms of a move in or something like that so where we would like to come back in March and report again so you know exactly where we're at well I think we I'd like to be if I want to be for everybody to be apprised monthly turf we can we let me jump maybe get into every little detail but but if I can go back to the student activity fund a few years ago there was an issue in the Student Activity fund not anyone's here's fault or issue or problem but we have since I thought we had that all figured out were which I mean in theory we should have got my point that line item was
015going through with a fine-tooth comb where we weren't yet one thing wrongs so why are we now finding out that and I'm not saying anybody's doing anything inappropriate but why didn't we know that some funds weren't supposed to be in there no actually that's a very good question and that's one of the reasons we've been focused on this so much at our Finance Committee meeting which by the way I will continue to invite a board a finance member to join us are you gonna join us thank you it would be great to have the continuity the markets are it's a really interesting question because the town controller came to us and we spent a lot of time over the last I want to say in the fall fall months going through the different activities we'd
016actually cleaned up the activity fund right but there was still a number of activities in there that it would be better handled in the in the general fund than in the Student Activity fund and and the town controller came to us and we walked through them and walked through the logic we spent two full meetings going through though and we made the decision to start running them directly through the general fund some of them had balances that had been rolling that account was clean there was no issue we'd freed up what we could but as we decided to move it into the general fund it's just said what are you gonna do with whatever's left of the balances and there weren't overwhelmingly large balances in there but we decided to clean it up and take
017it as a one-time to offset this issue that we have and that's the decision we made it wasn't that they were out of control we knew the numbers by account we didn't have this issue that if you remember that we had which was a big total but we couldn't add up the premises and said you don't have all the line you just said you had all the numbers we hand said we don't have all the numbers no we have all the line items what he said was he was holding back certain amounts for certain commitments that were made against some of those accounts and he didn't have those with me tonight he has them oh just did not open tonight sorry that's all he we clear literally we you're gonna give it to us whatever
018yeah okay yeah no so the Student Activity fund it's actually it's been a very interesting exercise going through every single account and deciding is that something we ought to run every you know let gate receipts is a perfect example that we we had a fund that we would bring in gate receipts if there was a balance up a balance down it would be it would float in and over many years that amount it added up to some amount of money we we could tie it out it was accounting correct but it wasn't money that we had any purpose it should have been just flowing through our general fund and that was one library books was another parking hearten parking in in the high schools another one that's one we talked about who sets what which
019goes on which side of that we did not decide to that as a policy there's not a not written stone anywhere how it's supposed to be that was a Gatsby 87 cents yeah yeah so there's a Gatsby that we used as our guidance so and that was available years ago when I'm sure as well I sure it was more Gatsby 87 is new to define what it to better define what's in there that there was stuff before that I didn't read as thoroughly as I did 87 for when we met but the reason Gatsby 87 came out was just to make it very very clear what is in what is not in and done it's been a really good exercise mark on to be frank in a very collaborative exercise and so we've we've this
020was one that was always on our radar screen from bloom Shapiro if you remember that we had to go clean up these accounts and this is going to clean them up so now the Board of Ed and Marcia agree that everything is in line with gets me a tea set would you agree Marcia it is the Great Gatsby yes that we didn't go over this $52,000 number but we did go through every single account and we Joan Ken and I all agreed on the placement we had the rules in front of us and and in the general fund it would normally do that right you would have a budget for your textbooks and you would bring in the fine stuff set that in the budget and that's why that's exactly the logic right that's exactly
021the logic is it should be a normal budgeting process that we go through that you have income and you have spent them right the this year the balances we're not changing that for that didn't the what's happening in the year right but what we are taking is any balances that had built up over time and applying it to solve this problem it's a one-time benefit it doesn't come back and help us next year sadly well that money does go into your general fund and so I'm expecting that there's a line item in your budget of some revenue you're expecting from that yes well there should there's no that's right no but this is a one-time release of balances and so it certainly is not those Baker Act and going forward we should see in the
022revenue the parking fees and gate receipts and there will be some offsetting expenses in there as well correct he'll patch in a matching of expenses and revenues at the right time yeah but we will MIT will probably end up having to do that as a budget change within the board of ed budget you know and just there's a plus and a minus right in the line items when it's the right time to do it it just was inopportune kingroot because we hadn't finished the time that the work by the time we did the budget so I want to say this upfront we dance or some budget information in the towns format and you guys did a great job they work really hard they put it all together we're still going through it I'm sure it's
023a luminous I think it's almost how do you feel about things like the town's budget just this book is 392 pages of supporting documentation the schools don't have anywhere near as that you just don't but I think I think it's good to have as much I think it's good to have more information rather than less I know it's difficult it's not easy you guys did a great job but we did a cursory examination here there are some of the things I would have a question about like in the schools have we shifted to talk about the budget now I didn't know that we were shifting off of the current year and onto the budget cuz they were gonna do a presentation yeah before we do that I have quite an extensive presentation proprietary and then
024we ought to go through this yep can you explain what is the correlation between the overrun number 988 it change and the three columns are they supposed to add up to that or no so the 998 997 tuition professional services and transportation okay so there was a at the last meeting there was a known amount that we knew about that was that seven hundred and thirty thousand number that was the low end that we knew and then there was two hundred and sixty five sort of hanging out there for students that were sort of in the process of assessment we didn't yet know about now we're a lot firmer on some of those numbers so it's not nine hundred and ninety five but it's nine hundred eighty eight so we're sort of honing in on
025that number a little bit more yeah so so Harry Harry Harry Harry let me let me see if I can answer it nine eighty eight's the exposure these are how you're covering the exposure for three call rights right so they should add up to the same 988 they do first and third columns don't add to what first and third don't add up to the total yeah and when you render the three of them I'm sorry I just added up the three they add up to nine hundred eighty eight thousand dollars if you have them personally they don't add up what doesn't add up [Music] so what the thought is that the the concept of this chart was you can there's three ways you can solve the problem right you can solve it by cutting things
026in your own budget by taking freezes or taking through specific actions or by asking the town for money there's only three ways you can go here and so that they are intended to add up if they don't add up it's a it's a mechanic's problem but they add up to 988 but if they don't add up vertically it's a definition there's like tells the story doesn't matter can I do it soon when I just added this up is you take your normal district budget management column you add cool books savings from leaves 1% discount and then additional expenses of Medicaid legal fees and all other variances you come to one hundred and forty eight thousand as I'd like to and this says 327 are we doing this it was different but rather page adds up
027if you go to this page behind that yeah the number this page if you go with you walk it down the other page the last the last under one on the left-hand column the fifteen thousand six hundred sixty dollars is the number that was on the presentation last month get changed one hundred twenty seven thousand dollars it's correct so what's the fifteen sixteen what's the correct number okay I'm so that number is going to continue to change just yeah we just want understand that we got yes I can't we there was one number the 127 number is correct we just didn't plug in him change the number from the last presentation in all honestly I was just trying to keep you guys with a familiar slide but there was one error and the next time
028we come it'll probably be different again and I'll make sure that I put it on the flash it 15 660 should be 36 332 minus 3 32 so you identified additional expenses since this was done since last month yes [Music] mostly legal fees I'm sorry I'm the legal fees - what you did is you put a plug of 60,000 in because when I tracked your counting it looks like you just the numbers when I add the total year-to-date to the crude there's a sixty thousand dollar difference it doesn't add a cross it's a sixty thousand you plugged into that number I yeah third I had 30 in extra last month and I added thirty this month and what was the basis of the thirty just like you know you're gonna have it or is that
029a guesstimate to it that number go awry as well it could depending on how many legal fees we incur okay so it's not based on a monthly thing it's based on a no way I have certain things going cuz it's a $60 another plug it doesn't the encumbrance plus the year-to-date didn't add up to a total number so it's a slight plug we have like some emerging issues that work well do you go we go to our attorneys and ask them hey here's the problem here's the issue what do you think it's gonna cost do you do that don't work with your baby we use the same labor attorney so yeah the last the last column got a wrong note Ruby - yeah it's off by about $400 I don't know why yeah just yeah
030but the total numbers urgent gets off by four it must be transferred so we're still sure the number is 988 today next month let me report okay anybody have any other questions on this page okay let's go to presentation all right so I have about sixteen slides for you guys and I plan to provide a comprehensive view of our spending plan and rationale I'm going to talk about our key achievements and our budget goals and then discuss each of the primary growth drivers in this particular budget and finally I can highlight projects in our capital improvement plan I want to take a moment to pause here because this slide is not included just to add fluff to the beginning of this presentation this is purposefully here to send a reminder that the Board of Education
031is elected to oversee that all brookfield students have the necessary resources to complete a 21st century education our sole mission is to advocate for the needs of the district in both policy and budget control so that this can be accomplished furthermore when we construct and adopt a budget as a board it is only with these needs and values in mind yet we're here tonight to present this necessary spending plan so that we might cooperatively aid the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Finance in balancing the needs of our students and families with the needs of and abilities of the rest of the town as a whole for which only you have the best insight looking back at our last school year I want to take the time to highlight just some of the work
032that has been accomplished by the board and our district leaders given what we're here for tonight it might seem easy to forget that while the budget is the financial statement of our values the work and dedication it takes to run a school district successfully goes far beyond projecting our expenses and we have noteworthy achievements that demonstrate that our funds reflect our priorities at the now nationally ranked Brookfield High School Administrators successfully completed the very time consuming and scrupulously investigative knee ask accreditation process and celebrated many academic improvements including making progress on closing the achievement gap identified in 2015 between our high need and non high needs students whiskey near Middle School saw similar academic achievement improvements in ela they put the New World Language lab to use and 75% or more students in grades 5
033& 8 met or exceeded the state standard on the next generation science standards this was the first science test of its kind at the elementary level after years of structural curriculum work for the first time ever parents received a standards aligned report card for math and ela with meaningful data regarding their students progress and feedback so specific deficiencies can be targeted by the teacher and diagnoseable with precision so solutions and intervention can be focused and significant and measurable gains can be made for the district as a whole our English language learners scored the fourth highest in terms of percentage achieving mastery and comparing ourselves to Derby schools our neighboring towns and the state of Connecticut Brookfield scored the highest in terms of growth an average percentage achieved on language assessments what this meant was that
034direct Pryor investments made to this program allowed 28% of students which is a nine percent increase compared to the year before to successfully exit our English Learner program and that's not all in addition to the many technological and human resource advancements that help our more than 2,600 students and more than 400 teachers and staff members the board and administration team have overseen the maintenance of our facilities those improvements include a new BHS generator auditorium HVAC system and the boys locker room project at the high school as well as specs for a new generator at the middle school the board also updated over 40 policies relating to just 1c and has remained intimately involved with the new school project for which we have received a communications award from the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education in
035order to maintain class sizes within board guidelines while adjusting staffing patterns to reflect changes in enrollment and achievement efficiencies we will need to fund one additional full-time kindergarten teacher two additional full-time first grade teachers to additional part-time monitors at center as well as all the supplies texts furniture and a point one FTE increase to PE to accompany this increase in enrollment where we do see decreases in enrollment so that's it such as the anticipated decrease in the third grade we plan to eliminate one section as we approach the final year of a five-year strategic plan we remain steadfast and our adopted strategies to move forward in meeting student and teacher goals for learning assessing and reporting on those measures of success as well as aligning all of our organizational systems to support them to provide
036necessary resources to meet the needs of all of our students in alignment with state and federal law we will fund three additional full-time para educators that were previously funded by a grant we will also need to hire a full-time special education clerk this is a position we were forced to eliminate last year due to budget cuts but this reduction has simply created a working environment difficult to comply with law in order to provide for a rigorous relevant curriculum using best practices and instruction assessment and learning we will continue our roll up of st math from kindergarten through second grade to grades three through six as well as grades seven and eight math lab students we've been on a steady path of curricular revision and we will now continue that work to align with the connecticut
037social studies framework similar to the successful progress we've employed for our curriculum work in ela math and science finally we will finally we will at last have pre-k curricular tools upon review of a pilot program that is currently underway some may not know this but Connecticut has standards for pre-k education as well what's important to note is that we are doing this important work without asking for any additional funds in fact line items related to this are actually decreasing we are remaining steadfast and progressing through our curriculum goals without growing those accounts to provide for the technology infrastructure that effectively supports student success in digital learning environment we will need to fund class link for Chromebook support for devices use K through 12 and employees for one-time sign into all technology 10 additional presentation stations
038to finally complete BHS and start whiskey near more wireless access points for faster and more reliable internet a BHS computer graphics art lab and a new cybersecurity prevention and training solution I want to make it clear also here as well that we will be providing this vital infrastructure without growing the budget and this was the board's recent decision to actually slow the rate of progress in this area in the interest of this budget lastly in order to maintain and continue to enhance programs while remaining responsive to changing needs we would plan to fund one additional full-time district ëall teacher one full-time math interventionist at the high school three additional part-time math tutors handwriting texts for grades two and three a flex scheduling software program for BHS so a new intervention block schedule can be managed
039a girls cross-country coach to meet the needs of over 70 students participating currently with one coach and an after-school security service at BHS following a recommendation from the security task force and of course we welcome any questions that you might have regarding these proposed new investments following this presentation Thanks what these goals and plans ultimately boil down to our four key areas that are driving the growth in this budget proposal and I'll go through them in this order for you tonight every year our biggest budget driver is contractual and inflationary cost increases comparing the current school year's budget to next this impacts the budget by an increase of three point six two percent of which collective bargaining and an increase in health insurance costs are most significant if you haven't already the town will see
040a major growth in this health insurance costs as well as you know like many districts we've said we've had a significant jump in special education related costs these costs are mostly associated with an increase in the types of services these students need rather than the net student population growth and this alone impacts the budget by an additional one point nine three percent because we are seeing increased enrollment in a center school the staffing supplies and furniture needed to support this growth and maintain our commitment to class sizes impacts the budget by an additional point four nine percent keep in mind that when this budget was first developed we had not yet frozen our extended duty and supplies accounts and since then we have not increased those accounts to recruit to recuperate either in fact some
041school-based improvement curriculum development and instructional supplies were approved to have decreased funding next year and this is detailed in your budget packet so while additional funds are needed to meet the budget goals relevant to curriculum academic intervention and extracurriculars the 0.61 impact on the overall budget is needed now more than ever what should be most clear about what I've said is driving our budget estimate is that personnel teachers in particular are the majority of the budget public schools are a service oriented business that unlike many large companies interact with our customers are thousands of unique children and their families every single day of operation this level of organization and service absolutely requires the best in professional leadership and structure simply put in order to significantly reduce this budget proposal personnel likely teaching positions will have
042to be reduced the other small slices you see on this visual most of which are mandated anyway could never add up to a significant amount considerable for a for a reduction and the board will only only entertain reductions to necessary staff after we know what financial support we can expect from the town other areas we may consider reducing our freshman sports increasing class sizes and the K through six world language program all of which are things this board and town value for our students to take a closer look at the biggest part of our year-to-year growth you can see here there is a relatively typical increase in contractual and inflationary expenses although the biggest chunks of that are salaries and a sizable increase in health insurance costs more detail on each of these is provided
043in the budget binder and the most granular detail is evidenced in the budget worksheets provided earlier this week in the format that you requested what should stand out most here is that while there are some small reductions in accounts where there may be slight discretion the vast majority of inflationary costs are accounts that cover mandated and contractual expenses similarly in the revenue accounts to match prior years experience we are budgeting for Less Medicaid reimbursement and Irate funding and very small adjustment to other revenue sources such as the non lapsing fund this slide should look familiar to you when the 2021 budget was constructed we had budgeted for 27 students with special needs to be out placed at the time this budgeted for one additional student over the current 19 20 year plus we had also
044a five student contingency in place which as we've already talked about has already been realized so the current budgeted amount for the 2021 school year matches the number of out play students currently this year however with no contingency built in the amount spent on out placement tuition will always be highly unpredictable the figure worth focusing on here though are the line item growth for out placement tuition and transportation like contractual and inflationary obligations these costs are mandated non-discretionary and have contributed point night 1.93 to the overall growth in this budget proposal then you have 32 students there you have 32 in 2019 2020 19 20 that budget was 1705 in the same 32 24:03 no but a budget this year was based on 26 of the 32 is includes the nine hundred and ninety eight
045thousand exposure we have 32 32 me just put five more in no 32 is the number that we have now so matches all the data we've been getting huh so what we'll actually spends a lot more than 107 is nine hundred ninety-eight thousand exposure we just talked about on the current year is the same issue as the year-to-year growth because the budget is shown from the original budget not from the adjustments we're all been struggling with this year so if you added nine hundred ninety eight thousand to that 1.7 million the costs are actually down slightly no understand yeah just how you solve it and all of that is that is the challenge that was talking about the six point six five number so that's why we're looking only at what was adopted in 1922
0462021 so that's that they adopted budget levels the starting point you so we've seen all that exposure already this year is I guess the point I think so Rosa are you saying that the nine hundred and ninety nine hundred and eighty eight thousand that we're looking at as a result of six students and professional services and transportation first for six students no more that right not directly we have increases overall in professional services and transportation as well so last I can pull up the presentation from last month but we we sort of detailed we went into detail about how our professional services has grown overall not just from new students but students that we have that need more services [Music] oh good we can come back to it over the last 10 years we have
047seen the inaccuracy of our enrollment projections increase especially in the birth to kindergarten projection our enrollment has clearly grown overall but the increase in our operating budget have not historically been proportionate with that growth as I've mentioned 1/2 of 1% of the new request is tied directly to teachers staff books materials and furniture needed to service our growing and diverse population but it's also important to note where that growth has mostly occurred the growth is mainly occurring at the elementary level where the board has maintained clear and consistent goals to keep class sizes relatively small and within board set guidelines you can see here the class size impact those funds directly related to enrollment would have on the goals that we were elected to set what's not shown here are the intangible impacts those funds
048would have mainly to manageability of lunch and recess waves with more young excited children and overall building safety and supervision I don't know it's not showing this is like the best I don't know we got it and that line is off yes it's what's coming all right I will preface this by that that blue vertical line is is not accurate on the slides it will be it's accurate in your PowerPoint it's a yellow line yet alright so what you're looking at here each year the Connecticut State Department of Education releases a state and district specific report card that provides trends on metrics including enrollment absenteeism suspension and expulsion expenditures achievement accountability graduation and college readiness the accountability index presented here shows our performance in terms of both target achievement and growth on all 22 indicators
049compared to other districts in our district reference group ordered which essentially categorizes a town's ability to pay based on socio-economic demographics Brookfield is in the second to top tier and there are seven tiers below us the only district not represented on this graph that outperformed Brookfield is Greenwich whose per pupil expenditure is significantly higher than other Derby districts the point this graph the point of this graph is quite aptly to highlight Brookfield's excellent accountability score the vertical yellow line that you see in your packets represents the average spending per pupil across Connecticut using these data we can clearly see that our finances are very frugal but smart our instructional and operational practices are well designed and most importantly our money goes exactly where we said it would and our continual climb in rankings prove that
050so it is with certainty we can bring this budget request forward and confidently assert that this truly is what we need to continue our path to success our educational system in Brookfield provides a tremendous value but spending by far the least amount per pupil is not necessarily something to be proud of it indicates that year after year the budget is trimmed as tight as possible which is fine but understand that means our year-to-year requests may be more inflexible and unpredictable compared to our neighbors fluctuations in enrollment and special education out placement may compromise what we can offer all students as was already the case this year we will not be able to sustain sustain this progress if we not address our changing demographics and increasing enrollment in some we are aware that the proposal we
051bring tonight is large but I'd like to remind everyone that the Board of Education role that's pertinent to tonight is first to understand intimately how a public school district operates the resources it needs and then adopt a budget that presents what is needed to forward those goals of the board for the education of Brookfield students it is not to presume what the town can afford or even consider other departments we leave that judgment to you and your elected positions so again the growth you see in this budget is the result of these key areas the first two listed here related to inflation and contractual costs as well as special education our primary costs primarily costs beyond which we have much control and the latter of which we consider an outlier in this particular budget enrollment
052related increases while discretionary come at a cost to the values this board was elected to uphold and the quality of services we can provide our students finally when we consider our investments I can't restate enough that our performance as a district considering these funds that we are appropriated is impressive by any standard we as a board are committed to that standing as well as our goals moving forward and most importantly if asked whether our investments meet our objectives if we invest where we say we will I believe the results speak for themselves thank you and so that is the Connecticut state's average of per pupil spending no Connecticut the torque is 15 no entire 16 I'm sorry with six settings here was sixteen eight and I do have a slide on our capital improvement plan
053but if you want to talk about operating budget first or I can show you our slide on that it's up to you so first of all you know thank you for that the the presentation about the values and the role and your passion for for the programming is admirable so thank you very much my question right now we're gonna do I think there's gonna be questions about some of the specifics but my questions have to do with more than nuts and bolts of how the budget gets built and you know on the town side at least at the board of Finance we have a really good understanding of how it gets built from the bottom up what the calendar is when the meetings are set the who is who who's accountable for verifying numbers who's
054accountable for challenging numbers what the documentation process is how it gets bedded at the department level to the management level and then brought to us and then we sit down with the big book and you with every single department so I'm curious because it's never been explained to me since I've been around how that works on the board bedside where the accountability is on preparing on verifying unchallenging at the staff and management level and then what the boards let role is in doing the same so in terms of the administration how that works is the October 1 we start the budget process and the principles work with their staffs at the school and they have their Bottoms Up approach for exactly what they need and they go through all of their line items that work
055with their teachers and their departments and they build their initial proposal that they bring to dr. Ruby myself and can we go through we challenge that we work together with that we look at our strategic plan we look at the district implementation plan and we look at the school improvement plan and we make sure that the their budgets match their their priorities of where their spending is and what they're asking for when we then share with the Finance Committee at some point in November ish where we're at what we're thinking and some of the may be new priorities that are emerging and then from there we go back with our principals we finalize the budget and we determine the priorities we can bring together as four schools in a district to the Board of Education
056and that is the final decision lies with me as the superintendent so the principal's don't get everything they asked for and we look at a timeline of in the strategic plan and in their school plans how that could work over the next couple of years where they might fit some of those priorities in and then I bring that proposal at the first meeting in December to the Board of Education and then from there the board has two months to vet it between December and January and we have our meetings that feels like two weeks it's fast but the holidays and then the the board typically at the last regular meeting in January or at the last opportunity in January might schedule a special meeting to continue vetting the budget and come up with a final
057number that we then put together and bring to mr. Dunn by the end of January which by charter we have to do so there was a look thank you I try tried to make that quick for you so long as I get that talked about meeting with your team to make sure that what they're presenting meets their priorities but I didn't hear anything about digging in and making sure that hey the numbers are correct or B I'm sure it gets done so I just wanted those are part of the rift I'm sorry - - and that have you thought about doing it this way which might save a little bit here a little bit there where where is the challenging those conversations happen at the each individual Prince meets with Ken dr. Ruby and myself
058two times there's the first time and then there's we talk about it we challenge they come back for a second meeting where we continue to challenge they come back with answers and where the higher priorities might be based on the first conversation and then we continue to have that conversation and then final decisions are made of what we're going to put forward in the whole package of the four schools and then I'm at the board of bedside where did we're what's what's the role the Board of Ed to do the same to the administration to to vet verify and challenge those to the counterpoise so so the so first of all the we have a Finance Committee in the in the Board of Ed we spend our descent or November and our December meeting snow
059vembur is a little bit more at a high level because they haven't finished yet but in December we go through a very detailed book of all the line items spend a lot of time challenging it we so far we haven't found a lot of things that can dismiss to be frank so and then we we have the entire board go through a review through December and January where we go through every every line item in the book the pro way that process works is each board member has a has a list of questions and we vet those questions out and those questions range from programmatic to detail why is this number up what's going on here you know and so forth and you deem pressed with the less though questions that came in Ken answers
060those usually by the by Christmas time and then in January we're into deliberation we're into thinking about what you know what can we do to before we submit a budget to the town so December's usually about vetting detailed questions and January's about as about thinking about is this something where we're ready to carry forward and so the budget that dr. Burrell gave to the board I know when when when when through that detailed review and you found a small now we found a small amount but we only find a small amount that's correct we discussed more than that but we only found a smaller thank you hey miss I have a few questions if I can just so we've gotten as I said earlier all the departments heads and the principal's did a really good
061job giving us a lot of data we've only been able to look at it slightly because we have received it three days ago but I had just some directional kind of questions we're looking at the school's ARRA budgets for the school Center Hill huckleberry with Kinnear and the high school and they're separated out but for example in center school the budget for the center school one from 50,000 to eighty nine thousand and 19 and it's up to one hundred and sixty six thousand dollars for the next year's budget huckleberry goes from two 155 to two hundred and seventeen thousand I'm sorry this is which line item just so I'm not sure I'm not sure what it's made up up because those numbers are small so those are those must be of supplies item or something
062I wouldn't consider $76,000 small the non-payroll objects yeah that's a total of the non-payroll ah yeah so and then whisk and err went from 144 at 197 and the high school went from seven hundred and eighteen thousand to 935 so my question is I don't know what that's made up of but overall that's a 38% increase from last year that didn't come in here that's a big increase and do you know what that's made up those increases tell us the account that you're talking about I don't have the account number it's all the non payroll non-payroll non benefit accounts 5353 thousands and above increase to 20 21 is the addition of the 3 section so it's the instructional supplies and furniture okay but I suppose I would like to see that detail because from this
063year's budget the next session I think the total increase in those is four hundred and forty two thousand dollars I think when you make that kind of increase you need the supporting documentation if it's there it's that I'm fine with that but when it goes up 38 percent one year to the next that's where we really need to dig in especially with a budget of this size it seems in some areas and and this may sound Picayune but it's just indicative for me it's like postage budget you have a total postage budget of twenty thousand eight hundred and seventy-six dollars and your actual last year was fifteen thousand 173 there's fifty seven hundred dollars in the budget that may not need to be there I don't know WPC a the costs from our sewer accessibility
064what's going down when you don't show your budget going off why inside there are a number of budget I'm sorry I'm sorry that's an interesting thing is is the but cost of the sewer going down yeah yeah the actual costs are going down and so it can what where's the source of our sewer budget like I budget increase awful sorry enough of this year's budget as opposed to offer me actually okay that's just something we would like to look at maybe there's absolutely sure to be a number of placeholder budgets in your lines where there's a budget but no expense over the years we don't have the details with me we're just going there's a list of ones where you just budgeted an assumed increase with no backup that people develop that was one of
065them something so you know when we're asking for a six and a half percent increase I think we look other than student curriculum and student directed to really dig down and we do it on the town side into every single budget line is this the right budget will let's do what we need is it too much is it too little I've gone to the boards and said I got to change budgets up because we didn't get it right but when I see things like this I concerns me and I'd like more detail as to why those things are happening we'd love the list of questions yeah well sign them and we'll absolutely got a good-looking horse thank you guys the information you gave us it's great it's really good and we're not trying to throw
066bombs over the wall here what we're trying to do is understand that the budget we have for the schools is exactly the right budget doesn't shortchange our children but also doesn't waste any money and that every one of these board members and these board members get to a budget number and say this is the number regardless of what the increases that's where I would like to be I'd like Mark Mahaney to be able to say regardless of the increase this is what the number should be honest I'm not comfortable with that whole statement yeah I'm like sitting here we should have have to ask the questions you should be able to go back and fit these numbers and come back to it with different numbers so I mean we shouldn't do the homework the homework
067is not on us to do the homework the homework is on these should be vetted that the fact that we took this budget and we didn't call the WPC a and do the questions what other areas didn't we do this entity leaves it open it I'll bring back the the insurance premium from last year you asked us for 320,000 January 31st before we go to the budget you find out it's 300,000 there's $20,000 on the table because we made an assumption but we never came back to the Board of Finance in March when we said hey we're cunningness were cutting at you had $20,000 sitting there in a known premium because the numbers aren't vetted dan asked the question what's the process and then Steve asked a question we didn't even go to the WPC
068a town to get the number so what numbers are real because that's a simple number we're in the same office the same thing getting a premium right is the same number right we get a premium estimate in January we get the real bill January 31st and come March the numbers not right and we're sitting here going through these numbers we should do the homework I'm sorry on that on your example of the insurance we do this budget in in in December in January if the numbers have changed between December and January and April we would be Lamia lemme lemme lemme lemme finish you know if if the numbers change we'd be very glad to bring you the information the numbers changes if you want to go adjust well I'm fine with that no seriously if
069we're if we're willing to go adjust it goes both ways though January you put your budget in right right January did you get an estimate in January right for the insurance premium when the insurance premium comes in January 31st in the same month but you've already put your budget in the budget was submitted to the board in December we were vetting it off a budget planning December when did we look at your budget in March okay so in March you already knew you had this ten thousand dollars and we're sitting here as a board saying but not risers we're cutting out these foot but about our budget presentation was in January we don't submit again so if you put in estimate for anything and it's a hundred thousand dollars over and you get a bill
070for less than that we go to deliberate in March we don't know that bill is any different because we don't see your bills we're just gonna give you the hundred thousand dollars and nobody says anything you mean with us in March we do we would be glad to tell you about everything we know that's new in March by the way by the time we get to March the budgets already been cut by the selectmen going into you so we know we needed that money anyhow so come on we're not that way Glen come on you just you're just trying to throw mud on the yes you are there was I mean I the first thing that was brought up the answer was we just assumed an increase that was the one example that was brought
071up was math we assumed it increase so that was that one example tell you doc thought that that's unfortunate I agree what the town does it has done a couple times with this port if we know we get finally get a final number from karma or one of our providers that's lower or higher we come to the board in March and say hey we can take another 10,000 or we can take 3,000 that's what we do so we have the right number for the next year I'd like to see everybody do that I think that's and I think I'm going to do that is well I agree with that I think we should all do that ok does anybody else have any questions or issues so we're still Marsha and I are still looking at
072this and John tell people I have no problem climate sorry coming to you with specific questions how did we get here our only goal is to make sure this is the right budget that's and then the second goal is to make sure we get a budget that will be passed by the voters because anytime you put up a budget that doesn't get passed and the slashing starts I don't want I don't think anybody here wants that we all want a budget can be passed the first time and yeah my thought would be that again the the principals and department heads did a great job putting those together that that I've come to the Finance Committee meetings and those are what we should be discussing that when we look at the budget I don't know how
073we can review the budget without those detailed worksheets and they should be a lot easier last year we started the detailed worksheet so is very very painful but this year it was very easy but but that's what we should so and I would agree the first year you do it it's very painful well it was painful for us this year too this is our first year doing these levels of sheets and it was hard and we're gonna find some things I can absolutely convinced that we will find things that we that we won't go work our way through the system okay so because because I will in just enhancing your question we're looking in the Finance Committee at a district level and we actually aren't digging down we trust our staff to go do it
074at a school level so we will find some things but you know with this level of detail so the Ronald Reagan said what try us but they're unfair I understand that I got a I've got that on my I've got that on my you know down for - yeah I got that one I had a question about a position the math interventionist that's my first experience with it I'm not sure what that is I'd actually that was that was the one that I permitted to come forward from mr. Blandon from the high school he had a number of other requests but mr. Blandon perhaps you could come talk sit over here and talk for a minute about the next mark just talk a little bit about the math entry position so Harry the question is
075about math interventionists right so currently at the high school we have two reading interventions at this point so reading interventionists what we use them at the high school for we have unfortunately that has reached us when I got here about five years ago we noted that there was a there's a real achievement gap and Rosa did talk about that a little bit in terms of where our non high needs that our high needs students are in terms of their reading achievement we are identified as a focus school we're being able to bring to reading interventionist on board has helped us to close that gap so they're pulling people out there helping students we have several different programs that we use language live we use Avice and a program and so they're doing small group interventions
076with kids they're going progressing through a program it's highly individualized based on student reading level and where they are we do have students here at the high school believe it or not some students that come to us with as low as a 5th grade sometimes the 4th grade reading level at the high school it's a very complicated question that how does that happen sometimes they're we students that have transferred in sometimes it's not always that case it's not always that case you know and I'm not going to put it on that in particular but sometimes we've just experienced not a lot of success interventions you know we didn't have a ton of resources realistically before I came and I can't speak specifically to what exactly is happening at each elementary and middle school but the
077kids were there I think every was doing their best to try to support them but we're able to try to stop that moving forward put some interventions in place and it's a challenge because you're looking at if you have a ninth grader at a fifth-grade reading level I have to get them to 12th grade in four years it's a big thing we this intervention process is started five years ago upon my arrival here yep dr. C in our medicine yo and we never that's what that's the whole point of it you catch them young and I'm so we're working on that all the way through so man--the interface and this is math interventionist I brought that up because I wanted to explain to the the success we've had so far with two reading interventionist at
078the high school level the idea would be math as well if you look across the state across the nation our math scores are lower than our reading and writing scores they just traditionally have been we're always lower in that particular case that's a societal across the country piece you know what I see is that you know we while we're progressing and moving forward it's not we need a little extra push and this is going to give us a chance to really catch some of those other kids and help develop them and move them forward you know any high school in the state of Connecticut Aloha math scores than they do reading scores it's just a fact and this is going to be something that hopefully will allow us to help provide that support kids are
079being pulled out pulled out or they're pushing in right they're pushing into a class so it's not like the student is just taking a math intervention class they're still in the algebra 1 or the algebra 2 or the geometry class they're getting additional support sometimes this person might go in and provide one-on-one support or small group support in the class as well to help get those kids caught up if we don't you can imagine the difficulty that a teacher has and a class of 25 algebra 2 students trying to differentiate where everybody is at a different level in there it's not exactly that it and they do a fantastic job of it but being able to make sure that we can make those gains and continue those gains to get these kids back up to
080where we are that's the reason I'm asking for a math intervention we never had one here there's a model at the Middle School where there is a math intervention to the middle school and it'd be a nice thing to have up here all right teachers doing a great job they're working hard but it'd be nice to be able to have that extra support I mean having correct me if I'm wrong having a lower math average er score doesn't necessarily mean then having a lower math scores at school lower than reading doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing I know it doesn't doesn't assume it has to be a bad thing if it's bad enough to where we needed an interventionist and we already have an interventionist at our middle school mm-hmm to me and
081again are we not doing something that we should be doing starting with first grade or kindergarten to where our students need to interventions by the time they get to be yourself so let me just step in there Harry to that point so the one of the things we have at the elementary schools and that the middle schools are the reading teachers just like mark talked about their newer to the high school and so we've been working on the intervention piece there vertically what we're asking actually asking for in the budget is some math tutors that we would plan to train and that would support our elementary students we only have the math intervention s at the middle school we don't have that at the elementary schools we do see some some nice growth over time
082in middle school by the time the students leave in aggregate but we but to Mark's point there are still students that come through our system that do struggle and we continue to work on interventions all the way through some of that has to do with regular education students and the issues they might be having others has to do with students who might be regular education or special education that have just moved into the district and they're brand-new and we're trying to pick up the gaps from a different district where they may have been and others our students that might have disabilities in the mathematics area that we're continuing to work with so we talked about this would help all of our kids this is regular ed special education would be a help to everyone so
083I mean mark that that doesn't speak to specifically the high school but that's the the way we work that coming up vertically through k-8 and we're gonna try to do with the elementary so so you've heard a lot of when we talk about curriculum instruction and assessment one of the things is we have viable reliable measures now that we've put in place over the last five years where we can actually target and we have two or three different assessments we use with the students to not only benchmark three times through the year how they're doing in reading or math but also progress monitor those students who on that initial benchmark might be what we call in the red or in the yellow and we need to keep an eye on them or give them targeted
084instruction and we work on that and we we continue to assess on every couple of weeks level to make sure they're doing well and progressing if they're not we adjust instruction we don't just keep doing the same thing you know which is why it's just why are our curriculum work is so important we have restructured ela Matt yet math and science and now we have to work towards social studies but it's not just using new tools which we need to we need standardized tools we need a assured experiences for every single student no matter who their teacher is and those teachers also need to learn how to know use these assessments and these tools so that we can catch these problems or not even have these problems to begin with so what is the process
085that we have in place now for the younger grades so that they don't get to the middle school so that's the process yes that's the process I was just talking about okay so math interventionist is for the high school though we have one that we're asking for is for which grades obviously high school high school and then we're asking so you'll see in there we asked for several math tutors that would be part-time people they don't necessarily have to be certified teachers that are just wanting to work part-time that would be ideal if we can find individuals like that but we could work they would be tutors for the younger grades and what that would be is an extra set of hands for our classroom teachers for those students who need that extra amount of
086time as a parent yes we have parents are still in one of my children my children and you probably saw we also are planning to roll up st math so now that's that's only being used K through second and so we hope to bring that three through six and also for intervention in grade seven and eight so that's another program that has has been beneficial for for math students so and students that need that extra or a different way of seeing math so my other statement is to my knowledge the over the last 15 to 17 years I mean the you know last straw or less ditch effort is terminating teachers or physicians to my knowledge we I don't ever remember remember us think slipping a teacher because of finances in the last fifteen to
087seventeen years correct me if I'm wrong I just think we need to be very careful of talking in public well we may have to cut teachers we have not done that in the 17 years I've been on the board of that and we're selectmen so I would just be a little cautious with you know in public saying you know we may be cutting teachers and it's not to minimize your need it's just it's you know it hasn't happened and that's looking at some very severe budget cuts to the board during that 15 years so that's it but thank you I've been in your position thank you for I know what you're going through and I I know you're trying your best thank you thanks sir anybody else okay I have a slide on capital improvements
088although you you know you already have that in your you guys probably have that in front of you and I don't know if you can see it there see they have the right so you have the detailed ones that project out ten years in your budget binder I've highlighted the priority projects at DHS with Kinnear there are no proposed improvements for huckleberry or center school actually the the only adjustment that may be in the works is the boys locker room project at the high school at the moment the facilities subcommittee have gotten estimates that are far beyond what we have budgeted for here they just met tonight so I don't know if they have an update but I'm sure that they will be continually keeping us apprised of this development scene and the only one
089not mentioned here is the paving project that's going on at Wis Kinnear that was funded or approved previously but it will be completed within the next fiscal year school summer time the high school and middle school paving projects are set to be done this summer yeah Johnny's got a question like I'm sure the outdoor lighting where the ten year estimate is six hundred five thousand this coming budget is a hundred thousand is Tornetta sections it's that because we're doing it is that what is we're doing it in sections and we're gonna be [Music] in sections section a piece at a time yeah yeah all I can say about the boys locker room yes I know it's a library but this has been on the budget I don't know how many years the rook field needs
090to be embarrassed we need with the state of our boys locker room I would I mean it's just a middle and you know it has to be fixed yeah Harry the Facilities Committee met tonight and certainly anybody from that's formally on the committee but they actually took a tour of the locker room we we had I think I think three public comment folks come for public comment to talk to reiterate here opinion on the locker room but we wanted to highlight that because the Tecton estimate it's important for you to know 1,322,000 824 how much no from the architect at this point and remember it's not just the locker room there's an upgrade to the weight room as part of the project right now and there's also setting up the bathroom so they're accessible from
091the outside so we don't have to continue to use the porta-johns for all the outdoor way it needs to be the locker room to me the weight room is a luxury I know I know it's overcrowded and I know we needed no one but to me the boys are if the boys live from Alissa health is I mean it's just we keep it as clean as we can but yeah I don't know if you can take a shower I don't think even it will take a shower there for 15 years my kids that has to be I would encourage anybody particularly new members of any of the boards if you have not toward the locker rooms you might want to increase your health to make a motion to and without objection the Board of Education
092meeting is adjourned [Music]