001[Music] good evening today is Wednesday December 20th 2017 and I'd like to call the regular meeting of the Brookfield Board of Education to order if we could all please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance can we have a full board at the table tonight and the first thing on our agenda is student spotlight whisking our middle school so I assume principal renda you're on good evening I am very excited to introduce some of our student leaders here tonight end of October we had a Eric Jackson they come and do a student leadership program with our students called generation leadership the students behind me our fellow Bergeron Matty Doty Matt snug and Shruti Kelkar and our advisors miss Hassan is Ryan are here also each person is going to come up and speak a little bit
002throughout our presentation I just want to give you a little background there's our Jackson our motivational speaker on that speaking to the students beforehand kind of tell them a little bit about what the phase about but I just he's been a speaker motivational speaker excuse me for over 20 years he's won numerous awards for his talks and has spoken at the Connecticut Association of School Leadership Conference for over a decade we recently started a new initiative with cats called generational leadership which we're going to talk a little bit more about tonight you must be here student leaders along with our five into SAS and Ryan are now some of the first students in Connecticut to be trained in this program currently there are schools three in the middle school level and five at the high
003school level that are participating in this this was a full day of training that we had again like I said at the end of October at this point I'm gonna have a month empower and inspire student so that in turn they lead the way for others and survey this transformative approach to leadership development helps students understand that they all have leadership abilities those leadership abilities may look different and manifest in different ways based on personality experience environment and/or motivation through this students learned that everyone has talent and skill sets that can be nurtured and developed that day we were put through some challenges some challenging activities some group oriented and some individual there are opportunities some that involve risk-taking to build trust student confidence learn more about acceptance how important communication is and how to
004be successful working as individuals and in a group dynamic to develop our leadership identity arek feels that if we as students develop these core leadership concepts we will gain insight into our into our styles and behaviors which then we would be able to recognize our own potential as well as our personal responsibility in the development of it also understanding the desires and motivations of people and helping those around us rise to be their best helps us in turn understand ourselves and rise to meet our true potential tonight we're gonna be tough we're going to tell you about our experience with Eric we started with our eyes closed in a straight line in the cafeteria and then we were asked a series of questions that help determine what type of the leader we were as you
005can see in the picture we had our eyes closed so that we would not follow our friends when a question was asked we would be given the choice to move forward or back left or right depending on which decision we use an example is would you rather be part of a crowd of friends or a lot of friends if you would rather be with a couple of friends step forward another example would be if you're shy or outspoken if you're shy take a step backwards after the questions we were all asked to open our eyes and each of us ended up in certain quadrants each quadrant had a personality trait associated with it you were one of the following hour later as socializer a director or a thinker art did say that even though we
006ended up in certain quadrant that doesn't mean all all of us have to follow those certain traits in the category but there are categories that we tend to fall in more than others here are some of the characteristics or personality traits of a person in each quadrant as you will see the animal that goes along with the personality type fits it pretty well okay so there are the relators which we called the cool koalas and they are warm and nurturing they are people oriented and don't want anyone to have his or her feelings hurt koalas are excellent listeners are relaxed and approachable and they're strong network of close friends makes them great team players our second group is the socializers or the precious peacocks they are the party people of the group and they are
007often found where the action is their acts they're excellent when they become excited in fact there aren't and are fantastic at getting others excited peacocks are Alliance builders and can be very persuasive their ideas peoples and brainstorming is the game the next group are the directors the lit lines they love to be in charge and they're good at finding practical solutions they're independent and self-sufficient lions can be trusted to accomplish a task on time and are very goal-driven if they get a task they get it done now and they will get it done they're honest to a fault and often find it easier to apologize than ask for permission so the last group was the thinker's which renamed the outstanding owls owls tend to analyze in their head and process a lot of information internally
008they are non procrastinators and like to be prepared quality over quantity is their motto and they like to be detailed and accurate owls our problems are solvers and tend to be task oriented over people oriented after we found out what quadrant we were in we had to develop a poster with our group that highlighted our strengths weaknesses our favorite movie favorite song and our form of transportation this is a really fun activity so the relators also has a COO koalas was the poster that we created we had the strengths which for the koalas was we had learning skills fast social skills and look to be proactive and what we needed to work on was that we were talking if we lacked organization skills and commitment and our favorite movie was The Hunger Games our song
009was party in the USA and our form of transportation was limo the socializers are the precious peacocks their strengths are allowed and proud they're talkative in social and they're risk takers what we need to work on is they can be annoying or self-control in being Restless our favorite movie was it and our song was party in the USA our foremost Rampur transportation was either the jet or the limo the strengths of the lit Lions were being very interesting and powerful in their groups what they need to work on were in being open-minded to other opinions being willing to change and being willing to compromise their movie was home alone their song was roar by Katy Perry and their form of transportation was motorcycle for the thinker's poster their strengths were calm composed and they want
010to get things done right away what we needed to work on was we needed to deal with people that might not care as much about something and not be so stressed about things and being a little bit less intense or serious our favorite movie was Stand By Me our favorite song with centuries by Fall Out Boy and our form of transportation was airplane okay so the activity number three was a rap contest and at this point we had to now put our learning to the test we were mixed up with peers from each personality type this activity was a great way to show how we could use what we learned to work together as a group to produce a rap song before we started this activity we talked again about using what we know about
011our strengths and weaknesses so we could be a successful team also knowing how to approach someone with an idea and/or just how to get input from everyone in the group and now I'm going to show you a video we got leaders and stuff I think that's pretty neat our relators are fuzzy and tweaked to keep it together whenever we need their kind to us and you have a lot of trust where the directors do listen up so sit down and dummy ooop us will show you straight right through start pull make sure everyone's doing their part hey what about I know so the next activity was the dance party which are called the encouragement activity it was a really exciting and fun activity we set up in a line and had to do a dance
012going down the middle of it with everyone cheering and clapping for us we will we were all a little nervous at first but we realized how important it was to cheer others and motivate them in a positive way even if it may not be the best-looking dance and it and that it helped others to feel welcomed or good about themselves we think something that is important to remember is that the personality types tests or any other personality tests you do is that even if you your results technically place you in one category another you are not confirmed in that category just like you are not confined into a certain way in front of other people or certain you are not defined by what others are even this personality matrix stays about you you were defined
013by what you think about yourself and how you react with other people and what the world as a whole this is just one tool that we can use to felicitate by their communication and interaction with the people in our lives and the people that we meet around the globe so they're each going to give you a little funny story or something about what they learned real quick so one way that I applied my learning at the afternoon activity was going into science that day coincidentally we got paired into a group activity and knowing how each leadership style worked and how to approach them it was much easier to get the job done quickly and efficiently so my experience was right after that day I had to field hockey with my friend mahi actually and we
014just couldn't stop talking about it dying we just were so amazed by everything and we were and all about how he just completely described both of us and it was almost like he read our minds or something it was kind of crazy and we were just kind of just laughing about it but it also was just a really great learning experience because I to this day still like use what he taught us every single day because it was great leadership skills and also when you're having the conversation with someone or approaching someone I know how to approach someone now and you also look at some of your closest friends and family different because of those categories and you kind of just realize oh they fit into that and it's just kind of funny and it
015was just a great learning experience and I'm very thankful we saw these personality traits in our friendship because they're complete opposites but we're still friends yeah I think it was actually the day before we were I was just texting her because I'm a thinker and I was just texting her about a bunch of details I was like what are we supposed to bring are we supposed to dress nice and everything and then I get there and I have like my planner and my folder and like my pencil case and I'm all set and then there's me on the other hand I come in like empty-handed because I'm like a socializer and I'm just there I show up because we're complete opposites but we're friends yeah and it's funny because mahi is like usually the one
016who's like outgoing and like you know talking to everybody a lot of like high energy and stuff and sure he's more of like the shy and held back but when you get to know her she can be more of a socializer - yeah miss Ryan and I just wanted to let you know that um this program isn't over yet so eric is coming back sometime after winter break to do another half-day session with us in order to continue this process um we're going to be doing a real-world project implementing this with the children that they'll have to either do a project in whisky near itself either in the Brookfield community at large the state of Connecticut or even internationally we'll decide as a group and they'll have to implement what they've learned about their leadership
017styles and those strengths and apply that to making the most successful project so we've been really lucky to have him and miss Ryan I have also seen him speak multiple times and so we're excited to continue the process so thank you so much thank you do we have any questions for the advisors or students how many students took took part in this 40 that's fabulous and was it about an even distribution and all the personality types yeah we had two koalas Bella and Matt were cool koalas they're the biggest definitely was the socializers but I think the biggest thing is the kids told you a little bit about was that I we we were sitting on to the side and as the kids got into groups we were like oh yeah my he had me
018a little bit I'm not gonna lie at first I didn't know if that my he was a socializer but most of the kids it fits but he hit the biggest point which I says it doesn't define who you are if you're so it doesn't mean that you can't be another of these other categories if we want to say the big thing is learning how to I want to say deal with people but working with people and collaborating as around doing school and later on in life with people if you're if you're a thinker a socializers you don't want to go up to a thinker and get in their face all loud and everything like that because they're they're gonna be taken back by so I think that was a big thing I know I had
019the kids fill out some forms after a survey for him and the responses were a lot of these things that we talked about tonight and what their learning came that came from it so I think a really neat experience for him and the great thing is he's going to come back to do to do a little bit more with the students for a half-day and some of these students also be going to the Leadership Conference that he'll speak at again in January thank you so much thank you okay next on our agenda we have public comment I do not believe we have anyone signed up at this point but is there anyone here that would like to speak via public comment could you please just approach the podium and just state your name and address
020for the record please hi my name is Stacie Connors and my address is seven Gary Glen Road I'm here to address there was talk going around Brookfield high school that the athletic program was going to be buying girls lacrosse helmets and this is something that several other parents are very much opposed to I am the currently I am the girls president of the Brookfield youth lacrosse and my daughter has been playing lacrosse for eight years as we become more involved I've become more involved and I understand that you don't need to be involved and understand the girls lacrosse game but you do need to understand that helmets are going to inherently change that game the game that the girls love that many of us love and don't want to see change there's no one that
021would ever say that we don't want safety to be our top priority but at this point that hasn't been shown and that's still up for debate I'm very happy to hear mr. Baldwin says that this proposal is no longer being presented to you that we're not looking to buy them so I'm very happy to hear that as the debate goes forward though I hope that parents opinions and taxpayers opinions are still valued and that I would hear about it when it's being considered I'm also very very happy to hear that he is that mr. Baldwin is actively engaging with the students and I think that he should be held to that if they're not going to wear them that's going to be a complete waste of money and they're not mandated to be wearing them
022and the debate is still out there whether helmets are going to make the game safer or wear their helmets are going to make the game rougher girls across is a non-contact sport putting lacrosse helmets on them is not necessarily the best thing for them and for the game just on a note US Lacrosse they make their yearly recommendations in December so they've made their rules recommendations fuller next for the 2018 season just in these past weeks they won't make their recommendations so there'll be no recommendations made or not made for helmets for 2019 until December I mean I would recommend that you wait and see what those kind of recommendations are each year thank you thank you do we have anyone else they would like to speak at public comment okay we can move on
023next on our agenda is student representative Dan unfortunately was not able to be here today with a conflicting schedule so we will move on to written correspondence so Stacie Connors who just spoke a petition against girls lacrosse helmets and Ron Jaffe provided an article from Connecticut mirror thank you next we have the approval of Board minutes so a recommended motion that the board approved the minutes listed below as recommended regular meeting on twelve six and the board retreat on twelve twelve okay all in favor discussion okay passes and next we have the superintendent's update thanks mister just briefly to address the lacrosse helmets there is no there's never been a proposal for lacrosse helmets and there hasn't been any formal debate in Brookfield mr. Baldwin has been engaging the girls from the cross team and
024talking to them about the thoughts on it the possibility of it has a sample for them to look at but there's never been a proposal so that is that is something that could be talked about going forward so no proposal means that no proposal was ever taken off the table so just to be clear on that so really excited about some things going on we've had a lot of the board members new board members all of you have been quite busy with a lot of different meetings going on and I'm not going to detail the content of each meeting but just to share with the public it's very important to kind of encapsulate the last couple of weeks we had a board retreat on December 12th where Nick Caruso from cave came down and shared
025his anecdotes experiences on the good the bad the ugly effective and ineffective opportunities that we might have as board members in superintendent working together also Board of Finance we met and discussed the request for the special appropriation last week I thought that was a tremendous discussion very positive and productive and really thankful for the opportunity to to work with the Board of Finance and collaborate on how to resolve that particular issue and further on Monday the Board of Education held a joint meeting with the Board of Selectmen and Board of Finance to talk about long term finance obligations plans and so forth going forward you know with all the different projects in town and alike so there's a real spirit of collaboration and it's exciting to be a part of it it's really a great
026time in Brookfield yesterday the Facilities Committee and several others walk through huckleberry to kind of get a start on seeing needs instructional needs program needs at huckleberry it's space issues to that end we also just had the steering committee which he will talk about later our building project steering committee meet to have the kickoff meeting with Tecton architects this evening so it's again extremely exciting time and then the final thing I want to share that really adds to my enthusiasm in the excitement is when I visited the PTO meeting at huckleberry yesterday parents shared with me that they're hearing from teachers how excited our teachers are about the curriculum work that's going on some of those teachers who you know over the years kind of gave up on professional learning and and said you know
027it's not as productive as I'd like it to be are so thrilled with what's going on I have to thank mrs. various and dr. Ruby and bringing in dr. Alcock and our principals we have 40 core teachers trained in the new curriculum work going on they were trained to administrators were trained in the summer and the works continued all year the teachers have gone back to their schools with their principals and worked with the teachers at the schools and you could you could feel the energy going on and it's it's not only research-based it's not only necessary and standards aligned but it's also there's a lot of common sense that's that's just clicking and making sense for teachers and they're seeing the vision going forward so it's just a great time to be in Brookfield
028really excited about where we're heading and lots of different pieces from our strategic plan are starting to coalesce and come together and I think people are starting to see it more than they've seen it before so looking forward to you know ending our year on our calendar you're on a high note and moving in the new year so I don't know if anybody has any questions for me but that's all I have for tonight okay thank you thank you dr. burrow okay next we have subcommittee reports topic first they do finance so I'll give the finance committee report this used to be called the business and facilities but we split those two committees so I'll be reporting on Finance the members of the Finance Committee are myself Colette and Jen and first order businesses we
029decided who would chair the subcommittee and I got the honor of I guess speaking for all of us that are at our meetings here and chairing the co subcommittee we we talked about a lot of things in this in this agenda that we're actually on last agenda and this agenda so I won't go into those in any great detail we went through the financial reports the major issue and the financial reports with special education costs which are far exceeding what we had budgeted that has been a special the topic of our meeting and it's and at the board of Finance and the Board of Selectmen so I won't spend a lot of time on that one we talked about the we did a preview of the budget and talked about the need to kind of
030reset this year on some of the decisions that we've taken so you'll see a motion on the agenda this evening to move some funding for the current year one hundred ninety five thousand dollars from the salary line to this special education line because that's how we're actually spending this year budget and part of the reason for doing that is to get this year's base correct so that when we show year-to-year growth for next year it makes more sense so had a good discussion about that we did a preview on the capital plan and I know the Facilities Committee did that as well we're going to talk about that this evening and we we talked about the board of finance meeting that we've had we talked about the 2015-16 Capitol items and this has been a
031topic discussion because they aren't all complete and you have a three year window to complete a capital plan which for us ends this coming some are at a fall we just thought that we could concluded and so they had a good healthy discussion about that and that was presented at the Board of Finance I'm sure the Facilities Committee will talk about that as well and we talked about the recent presentation to the Board of Selectmen about the town joining in a law class-action lawsuit regarding opioid abuse against some of the producers of opioids and that's a decision not in front of the Board of Ed but in front of the Board of Selectmen so that's it was information for us more than anything we talked about the uniform chart of accounts and a grant that
032comes with that and we're working on that people were getting filed so that we can benefit from that relatively small grant how much was the grant Ken the money was those for the town right and and we teed up a discussion on Student Activity accounts at an upcoming meeting because the you know in the fall we had kicked that off a full formal review with the different principals and there are well through that so we've asked the committee's asked to have a come back on that and in the in probably in the February time frame because January is gonna be a little busy with the budget so that's all we did in our first meeting together anything that the other members of the committee would like to add or Ken anything okay so that was
033it for our Finance Committee meeting okay how about we go to facilities okay we had our first facilities meeting on December 12th the members are myself Debbie Brooks and joy Greenstein Greenstein I'm sorry I always go your last night in joy and she is a joy I was nominated as the committee had it was an interesting meeting and I actually I I personally enjoyed it because it gave us a fresh look as regarding the committee now that it split from finance and we had some healthy discussions about the different schools how the the meetings went what we talked about and we all have the task for next meeting of coming up with some goals that we would like to have the committee work on for the next year you know what would we like to
034do as a committee together what would we like to see have done what we'd like not to have done right now in tabled one thing that we did do was we talked a lot about the huckleberry hill portables the status of them the conditions they were in how long they have not been in use and were they valuable to us now we met yesterday at noon Dan Caldwell Ken post dr. Burrell and principal diamond met with us and we toured the school joy was there Debbie was there I was there and Rosa we had the pleasure of her company in attending the walk through and I found it beneficial because to read the different reports on paper in to actually see firsthand of what you're reading and what you're seeing and sometimes you pick up
035things that you don't necessarily know but you do hear from the public it's it's it's just it's a wealth of knowledge that you you just you have to see for yourself so yesterday was successful the that's concerning huckleberry the BHS water project can report it on the status of the funding we also have some money left so there was a recommendation to request reallocation of funds from other projects I'm sorry from other projects to make up for the insufficient funds allocated to this project so I think I said that a bit backwards we need more money to complete the water project so we can found places where we did not use the money allocated from different line items that we could perhaps use for this fund so I apologize I goofed that up let's see
036a 10 year capital plan we talked about being now all three of us were together we would be on the ad hoc Street to the strategic steering committee for the schools for the four schools and we talked about once we had this recommendation we would we would need to have plans drawn up and have a placeholder for money for any design work whether it be a rebuild repurposing whatever this situation is that we do decide as a committee from what is going to be presented to us we need to have money put aside and we have to think towards the future and be proactive as as to what our goals are so there can worked with tech tennis architects and they came up with a lump sum like ballpark figure for us to add into
037for the capital plan for 2018 2019 on coal plumbing and electrical mr. Caldwell Deann Caldwell who's our facilities director he used to be our on-call plumber and he is really stretching himself then so as a committee we discussed the possibility of putting a proposal and issue some RFPs out there for plumbing work and electrical work and with the hopes that we can have someone on call for both of these needs and in the long run I think we would get better service and perhaps use our money more wisely for the repairs that we need wrapping it up we picked our date and our time for our meetings it's going to be the first Wednesday of each month at 6 o'clock right before our Board of Ed meeting the only exception to that is next month
038January 3rd we have a public hearing at 6 o'clock so our committee will be meeting at 5 o'clock then and that's it that I have Debbie joy do you have anything to add anything I forgot any questions thank you I think I'm still on I'm sorry okay on the steering committee well we have done amazing I'm just so happy the contract has been signed which is lovely and we had our first meeting tonight at 5:30 of the committee with our architects so basically what we did is we met we introduced ourselves we talked about about what we what each of our needs were what we wanted to do we went over some guidelines some discussion about you know great configuration you know what tectum really needed from us to start the ball rolling mister dr.
039Brown and mr. Caldwell and mr. gay Gerry gay the purchasing agent for the town on the school they're going to be providing them with all of the necessary paperwork so they can review basically what we've been living through you know the different Geographics of the town the enrollments the conditions of the school you know we all shared some of the needs that we've heard from the community and they're going to take back the information they're going to come back to us with a schedule of what they're going to be doing when they want to meet with us and we're going to put together a game plan of what our committee should be working on and what we're going but they're going to be working on and start going basically that's it we're going to be
040coordinating a firm schedule dr. Brill do you have anything to add I would just say you know expedite lines expectations timelines you know those kinds of things you serve to allude to the schedule there we're ready to get going on that we do need to provide them with some information so they can get started over the next couple of weeks and then with with the timeline will will obviously schedule yes and actually I was I was thinking you know we were talking about communications to the community and I thought as we started our meetings going that maybe one way our committee would like to communicate with you know the school and and the community would be maybe through our Communications Committee I haven't brought that up yet to them but I thought that that would
041be a possibility I know that they have a Facebook page and that they communicate with what's going on in the school so that may be another thing we may ask them to take on we do have are you an overlapping member of both of the Thank You Debbie she's so excited thank you very much I have the best two partners we are just gonna we're gonna take this and we're gonna run and it's gonna be good we're excited you're welcome thank you okay no questions good we want to be a consent agenda a recommended motion that the board approved the items listed below on the consent agenda as recommended a very short list sex thank you yep very short list this time any questions at all comments okay all in favor aye opposed all right
042moving on to new business we have the prioritized capital projects discussion recommended action that the Board discussed and approved the 1819 and updated ten-year prioritized capital projects list most of you have seen this already but I'll run through it anyway for the benefit of anybody watching and those of you who have not seen it I was not spending time on years two through ten because that's something that we're gonna be getting as a product from protectin and in about six months but the projects we have proposed for the current year the first one was on the plan a few years out in a smaller dollar amount and that is to replace the generator at the high school with a generator that would actually power the entire school and another 50,000 s three hundred fifty thousand
043dollars and then another fifty thousand dollars to replace the the generator transfer switch so that this would be fully functional as you know the high school is a town shelter so this we believe would be a good move for for the school and for the town next on the list for 1819 is something we heard from the budget round table and that's the renovation of the boys locker room which actually would be a large project as we put $50,000 in year one for design work and then a half a million dollars in year two for the actual construction and that number obviously would probably be modified after the design work was completed the next item down actually was on the plan already and that's construction supporting outdoor restrooms foodservice and storage and that's a hundred
044thousand dollars in year one for design and then 1.4 billion in year four at that end of the high school and then moving now towards the bottom of the page another item we heard from the budget round table and that's coral risers for $15,000 and then the next item is $60,000 for time and attendance clocks and record-keeping software this is an item that has been on the plan at a smaller dollar amount and I believe just been deferred at least the last two years I would make it a high priority myself especially since we've migrated to munis for our payroll it makes sense to have an automated time and attendance system - that would be integrated with the system and I got a quote from Yunus that would be slightly less than the $60,000 on
045here and moving away from manual written timesheets is a good goal for for good record-keeping and then the last item this came up at the Finance Committee meeting and that was to put a placeholder in for a design work for Tecton in conversations with them obviously they would not commit to recommending a dollar number but they do have a sliding fee scale and I believe the $300,000 would be the fee for a four to five to six thousand a million dollar project of work so they kind of said it's you know as good a guess as any but it's a placeholder and hopefully as they move through their process perhaps they can give us a better idea of what might be good to put there thank you you're welcome are there any questions can one
046of the things that's not on this list is anything about the fields if I remember there was something it son discussion about whether we carry it forward or the parks and recs department could you give us an update on that yes Parks and Rec has put that they put the the fields the tennis courts and the the lights and press box all on their plan okay and what of that do you know what of that is in the next year's the first year was the first year of their plan has the tennis courts tennis courts so any concern about the fields and safety and getting on with that because we had talked about that a year ago excuse me spoke with Dennis very comfortable with his plan your choose two three and four with the
047you know the fields on two different years and then the lights coming in I apologize about but you know Steve has been Steve Baldwin our athletic director has also been working around the safety issues with evening games with lacrosse and things like that because of lighting and goaltending and making sure the ball can be seen so those are some things we're working around until we have the lights up to date the way we want them but it's a it's a timeline and the rec department has recommended their their timeline going forward it's something we you know certainly can talk further with them about but also have been working with with our current facilities and you know can work with the direct department on the existing timeline if the board thinks we should work with the
048rec department a little further and try to be a little more aggressive with the timeline we certainly could talk with them a little further about that his report for his capital plan is also preliminary and will be going before the you know the Board of Selectmen at similar time are as well so there's opportunity over the next month or so to have some discussion well one of the things we'll need to do is core Nate with Dennis so that when were in front of the Board of Finance that it has both parties there on this table sure right so that it does he doesn't get could be in a box where you all right so is it my understand that all small ball sports are being played on the back field if they're nighttime because
049the lighting is better I I would say I'm very confident in that but I always is a strong word I don't know that's that's in the air yes look Ross can you ask the question again collectors maybe Marc might have a little small sports are being played on the back field at nighttime games right now because of the lighting is that is that how okay okay okay we come back okay okay any other discussions questions the only other thing I'd like to point out also is that in the past we've had smaller items like furniture and painting rooms and things like that on the plan and we've removed those and put those into our operating budget and you probably have noticed the furniture line in the operating budget is actually a question from the board
050members exaust week I'd like I'd like to just emphasize that the choral risers while we did hear from the community on a concern about the choral risers that has been something we have been actually looking at ourselves mr. teabolo when he was our facilities director prior to retiring actually had either the company or a specific house he came out the vendor came out to do an assessment of that of those risers and gave us the the clear on that so it wasn't as though we had some dangerous risers being used by the students and that we thought this was okay so you know while we appreciate the public's input on that is something we were moving forward with because what we noticed you know administrators and teachers notice regardless of hussies report which was a
051satisfactory report we noticed some bowing in in the risers and we weren't on our own anyway and interestingly the Reiser's a lot of people think they're mostly used for the high school which is true but they really are brought around the district so all of our students get use out of these so it's incredible investment and they last a long time so say it's a it's money well spent can you pointed out the changes um for 1819 are there any other significant changes in years two through ten aside from the boys bathroom I think it was me I'm sorry sunshine for me the locker room the outdoor restrooms we move the outdoor restrooms is exactly as it was on the plain before we moved the generator from I think it was year five or six
052into year one and increased the amount to accommodate a generator that would power the whole school other than that I did not touch the end of the rest of the plant another piece regarding the generator at the high school mr. Caldwell and certainly mr. Boland has been living with it we've run into actual problems of the generator not working properly it's supposed to automatically go on when the power goes out and we've had two occasions this fall where the power went off the school in the generator didn't kick on and so thankfully you know we've been doing our walkthroughs on those those nights where there's high winds and things like that and we noticed that and we're able to you know move forward and get the generator started but we can't live like that at
053our high school and certainly for an area refuge for the community we need to be mindful of that okay so the capital plan needs to be approved by the board yeah I would recommend we approve it when we approve the budgets I was just going to say that I don't think there is a need now in this way it gives the members time to look at it submit questions if you have questions after you after you review it again and by all means direct questions to either dr. Borel or mr. post okay thank you right and next we have on new business the budget transfer recommended motion that the board approve a budget transfer in the amount of one hundred ninety five thousand dollars from the salary account to the other professional services account as
054recommended by the finance subcommittee okay this was the transfer that Bob had mentioned in the finance report it was there anything else you wanted to the only thing I'd like to add is that this I'm bringing forward this transfer request tonight there will be more coming at the next board meeting to cover some of the other areas where we are we are overspending okay but this is just two covers one specific item $195,000 overage in the special education outside services and to be clear this is independent of the 870,000 that we had discussed earlier that were bringing forth with the appropriation correct this is one that we are able to cover through additional savings identified correct and those were additional savings from the retirements or replacement of teachers who left after we last updated the
055budget the open maintenance mechanic position that's that we're going to keep open for the rest of the year and then some cutback in the clerical salaries okay any questions discussion all right all in favor aye aye opposed thank you thank you all right next on the agenda are spending reductions recommended action that the Board discussed 1718 spending reductions in order to mitigate the additional special education costs okay if I can just do a little groundwork on that I think you all had received a letter that Bob had sent in regards to the special appropriation for the special education excess or unanticipated cost we should say and that came in two different markets really there was the $300,000 that was built into our last budget as the one of my notes had asked us to increase
056our special education access cost amount to 900,000 as we knew with the budget with the governor's budget that didn't happened we ended up getting closer to the 600,000 amount so that was in anticipation of that and then the 870,000 which we had found and identified savings that was going to bring it down to about five hundred and thirty eight thousand five hundred we discussed this at the Board of Finance meeting and there was some uncertainty as to what the actual excess cost grant is going to come in at this year because we do have it some increased special education costs so I'm not sure can if we had found what that actual amount is going to be at or is it's when we get the check I know it's yeah we won't know the actual
057amount until April or May then we should be getting within the next month or so a check for 75% approximately of what we're going to get but then we have to file adjusted numbers in March I did actually get a copy there was an email referenced at the Board of Finance meeting from mr. chambers at the State Department of Education I got a copy of that today and he does say in that memo and that email that based on the way of the universe is right now Brookfield would receive about seven hundred and seventy thousand dollars in excess cost which is about 80 thousand dollars higher than and I was originally beki okay I think what was determined at the Board of Finance meeting because that might be a moving target number is that we're
058going to back out the ninety two thousand that we had anticipated as in a savings identified in what we're asking for a special appropriation and the excess cost grant is going to be reduced from the three hundred thousand amount so then this amount that we are requesting as a special appropriation will stay static and they'll stay static then at six hundred and thirty thousand five hundred so what the Board of Finance had asked of the Board of Ed is that we go forward and see if we can identify any savings to help with this amount they are in support of working with us but they're not quite sure what they're able to do so they just asked us to put forth some scenarios and I thank you appreciate that thanks for that background I think
059that's that's great context for the public to be reminded of so so we have exercised the budget and exercised the budget and exercised the budget again difficult decisions difficult conclusions some of it as I talked about tonight haven't prepared a handout the conversation for this evening for our initial discussions about this some of it is is similar to the budget freeze that we instituted in August regarding the concern about not receiving the state ECS funds so some of that will be continuing savings from the freeze that we instituted I have to thank the principal's for their disappear financial discipline in working with us at central office and working with the board I also have to thank the Board of Finance for being so open like I said before is incredibly positive productive conversation and they're
060extremely supportive I mean five six hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money it's more than one percent of our budget and we need to be very deliberate as we go forward with this so anything we mentioned this evening is a preliminary discussion I wanna emphasize that preliminary discussion for those listening here and at home preliminary discussion not to be considered as absolutes and I also want to be very careful about assumptions that we make when we talk about other financial impact decisions so the first thing I'd like to talk about are things that we can save that we've saved on thus far and where we'd recommend we can find savings toward that half a million dollars or more to cover the unintuitive special education cost but the other things do involve positions and when
061you talk about positions you talk about people and that's where people get into assumptions we're talking about people's lives people get nervous and under advice from counsel since none of these are permanent decisions that we're talking about this evening there are starting points that as part of our agenda tonight we have an executive session posted we will be talking about collective bargaining strategy so we have to look at the financial impact on collective bargaining and how that all plays out so that part of this discussion and we have about I'd say about $120,000 impossible position savings that we've preliminary identified we'll talk about that an executive session I'd it's not advised to talk about that publicly but the things things that we could save on so through our prudence actions since August conference and travel
062that particular line item right now we are under budget by $25,000 furniture we are under budget by $10,000 technology and equipment under budget by $10,000 remember we're only halfway through the school year library books we're under budget by 20mm is that right $20,000 10 I read that correctly the monitors that we had originally proposed last year to have additional supervision not that we don't have supervision but this was additional to sure up some supervisor areas that's $15,000 we haven't gone forward with those monitor positions and then in instructional supplies and textbooks while we're under Buy well over $100,000 we have some purchases we must make this year that we just cannot skimp on but working with dr. Ruby and will actually be talking further with the principals at the principal meeting tomorrow we have identity
063identified eighty thousand dollars that we'd be willing to use toward the unanticipated special education costs for a total of one hundred and sixty thousand dollars all those things I just mentioned to try to put a dent in this and show good faith imprudence actions with the Board of Finance as they look to support us in all of those there's negative consequences to all those you know we're between a rock and a hard place and we do need to make some difficult decisions so to clarify with all this these are not really efficiencies these are oh no these are places that we can find savings should we need to but it would come at a cost in how we deliver instruction to our students yes we've really worked hard over the last few years with our
064budgets to get as many efficiencies in place as we can so mid-year that really aren't any efficiencies to be had these are these are things we need to just not spend on and reapply but they would be they would also come back and next year's budget then when you come back in next year's budget absolutely so if there's a long you save money this year it'll show up as growth to next week because if we're deferring purchases then we need to make those purchases next year so it'll be a double hit next year yeah the going rate plus plus the stuff you didn't spend this year well for example the the instructional supplies classroom libraries I mean that was deferred what we just haven't gone there yet so as we continue to align our curriculum
065and refine what we needed going forward with materials that's something we haven't purchased yet so we're really deferring that new purchase okay just thought that's just pushing it out push that something out not not one where you have to catch up and continue these I mean you do lose something so you know you miss out on conference and travel I mean we're deferring that those are conferences where people learn and bring back to the district I talked earlier about the enthusiasm and engagement of our staff and the training they're getting conferences is another way of getting at that but if we have to defer that we you know we understand this is not easy to do with regard to the classroom libraries we did cut back on classroom libraries last year when we did some
066budget revisions and so we had planned to purchase classroom libraries so that the teachers would have text that were aligned to the units of study for both reading and writing so that's something classroom libraries are not a one-shot deal you're continuing to to build those over time so I want to be clear that you know cutting them if we if we did not do any purchasing this year because we transferred that money it's not like we we're gonna we're gonna be behind because we're not going to be building of the lot it's not a one-time purchase is something that you continually add to and we didn't do that last year in the way that we had planned and so we wouldn't be doing it again this year and the way that we had planned so
067that will take its toll but I have to say that you know teachers are finding materials online it's not ideal you know we want to put we want to put books and kids hands and we want to be able to use the curricular tool that we've invested in to be able to provide what our intention was so it's not that we're not teaching but I do believe that the classroom libraries are critical and we will have to eventually catch up any discussions questions Colette I just wanted to clarify was there a specific number amount that the Board of Finance asked us to try to arrive at no and they really just asked us to perform the same exercise that we did last year in anticipation of the unknown as far as what we are going
068to get educational closer to sharing and when there was the budget impasse statewide and so they said just please come back with some modify numbers as you did then just so we can all get together and see what we can do so doctor Barilla in your discussions with First Selectman done has he given you any signals of how much he thinks he can cover on the town side versus what we might be able to have to do here no he wasn't able to give me a sense of what kind of number that would be ideal for us to get to and then and then what the board Finance might be able to approve going forward okay weren't there yet one thing one Board of Finance member did make a point and again this is something
069we're not going to be discussing publicly with specifics but when you talk about positions and I'm just going to say the word it's a bad word we don't want to hear which should we talk about you know some new year layoffs perhaps or something like that again these are people's lives we're talking about we have identified and will share with you an executive session about 120 thousand dollars in savings for the half year for the second five months that the last five months of school because even if we instituted something drastic like that and I hope we don't have to go there's something draconian like that that would have to come right after the holiday break and in many of our bargaining units there's there's a 30 day notice so that's going to take you
070well into the first couple of weeks of February now you're looking at only five months of savings and one of the Board of Finance members brought up if you're going to make decisions like that and we need to go there you need to do that sooner than later because you're not going to achieve the savings and you're going to upset the applecart and we're going to disrupt lives disrupt the schools and for you know how much savings were really going to gain out of that this far into the school year I mean again we need positions going forward so what would happen would we have the funds to fund those positions next year when we do need them again difficult decisions did they they talked about doing a joint meeting with the three boards to
071talk this pot item through have we have they made any proposals on when that would be scheduled that's yet yes it'll be right after the first of them they were sarcomere with yeah they've been there a little bit they're a little busy little busy the joint meeting this past month so yeah so we're just a busy schedule has not but if we had a sense from the Board of Finance if they were able to come back to us or board selectmen together and share with us a sense of what they would be able to cover willing to cover obviously we can do the math and work together on that some yeah I just I would just personally I'd love to see us in a position where those decisions are made before we're heavily into budget
072season sure because it helps with clarity your dreams and patience now great absolutely I shouldn't call it budget season because we're well double budget is easy but what disease infantile and the women it's an eight-month season yes it's like mud season what's that it's like mud season oh yeah eight months eight months of mud season and eight months of budget season okay any further discussion when a topic under we don't want to discuss okay then moving on we have the program of studies recommend a motion that the board approved the revisions to the BHS program of studies as recommended by the Cape subcommittee well second just a um note on this Cape just met last night to review the program of studies and while I'm kind of set on as a as a placeholder and
073Rosa will be taking that place next month but while Cape unanimously approved of the program of studies to to move forward for a full board approval we didn't feel like it was really fair for you all to approve it now if you haven't even seen any of the proposed revisions and you couldn't get them because it was just went through last night so if everyone has an agreement the proposed revisions the deletions and additions there's very few it actually fits on one page this year as far as the differences in the in the program of studies will go to you and then this can be voted on next meeting so we can table this motion until next meeting if everyone is an approval of that okay so I move that we table IMD program of
074studies until the following meeting I have a second all right all in favor host okay when will we get a summary of it so we can look at it if you can send it up that'd be great then everyone will have a whole two weeks to review it before the January 3rd meeting thank you mister Blanda ok we have a 2018-2019 school calendar alright so in your board packet you received a proposed draft of the 1819 school calendar very similar to the current year there's one thing that's not on there yet and that is the elementary K through 4 conferences that they will be on dr. Ceylon and mrs. diamond are still working out a few items and talking with their staffs and so forth looking at what some parents actually what dates might be
075best so that's the one thing we will still be adding to this for fall and spring but otherwise this is a firm proposal for me which includes the shortened days for professional learning certainly the typical holidays that we've had here but one difference from the current year calendar is anecdotally and there's no I have no survey data on this but anecdotally I have heard from multiple parents that they would like to go back and I did propose this last year but it didn't go anywhere with the board and that's fine is the Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving to take off like like like a number of districts in our neighborhood are starting to do Brookfield I think it was the last time was the 13-14 school year took off the Wednesday prior to the Thanksgiving recess
076currently we have an early dismissal across district and and that's worked out relatively well for us the one thing I would tell you as some data we've looked at the last few years and at each school essentially the attendance the absentee rate excuse me is doubles on that Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving so you know of just picking a year here so this past year at the high school we went from a typical 10% absentee rate the Monday and Tuesday prior to to that Wednesday twenty percent of the kids were out six percent the 13 percent of the middle school five percent to almost 10 percent at huckleberry nine percent to 15 percent at center school so in those mirrors the last couple of years so so it's an essential doubling of our absentee rate so
077that you know I don't know if the board is comfortable with that certainly don't have to make a decision see evening but that is one change from the current calendar that's noticeable although otherwise it's pretty straight forward and at the end of the school year okay and even with that we last day of schools on the 14th of June on the 14th barn for the fall conferences when is that determine there who that'll be termined dr. shealynn and mrs. diamond how quickly do you think you'll have those dates to Lisa and me by so I could share them with the board of it oh it's a principal meeting tomorrow very good I just have a concern okay year after year is your so it's for three days so if you total the time it's 13
078and a half hours which is 710 minutes on a typical class of 20 students each parent given 20 minutes that's only 300 400 minutes so the excess of 300 10 minutes I don't know why so much time is given when it's not being utilized okay for parents to have to take off I'll have that conversation tomorrow absolutely that's assuming all parents show which is no sure I appreciate you bringing that up absolutely the one thing I always I'm gonna just if you don't mind I'd like to take the opportunity to mention about calm which is very important for board members that really I think internalize for administrators teachers its parents is we're in age and thankfully in a time in an era in education where we need we should never we professor meaning a parent
079a teacher parties with email phone any meetings we should be moving all we can immediately be resolved really so just waiting for comms is sufficient for any other I think about that realizes are critical and horrible time if a parent least and the meet in person with our ally or an integration they didn't call it I mean everybody for proms for well that's tie - what - meaning that right it's perfect now I want to get it off were once again putting all of the PD days too long yes and I think there's only one and in one day that is not in a new normal she's a full week we've had a lot of commuters holy the senses and conversational this is January forward I was asked to years and already would get any
080malls principles we call seven laws you know it would be important to get uh approved by I felt like the first if you could probably because and there correct yeah correct along the other thing page the earliest times we may be consistent every other room now that have the same role in professional learning happy time it used to be two times extremely confusing parents so we need I mean you have a goal you know but but certainly don't do that out of that that's the direction quickly that was weak there was never one single week we're going cuz it really how much you have I I have found that the topics of he that these are things that are really we use data and finding lead and it's the and so it worked very well
081and the bull babies you know teachers kind of the day so not always convinced that we get up all day put in that work although we know very well only have a full day we try to have the bad days we're not days we had women for our grant and this is a very engaging speaker really key and fully engaged took of the whole day we see that having to doing what we need to but I there's thank you sir yeah traditionally in places where either had were really and I want to think that we do the past two years is we're going with schools and we have and is just one other pieces that I forgot that if you were to take four or five happy to determine and we would be adding tagging
082few years prior to getting your school I believe from answer that because of some jobs internships colleges alike that we wanted and so there's not other factors we surveyed our area and I can't really do that there are four currently closes that's Monroe New Fairfield New Milford and well and the other week that still rolls but entertaining the one day is battle Danny very really g9 in every field so it's a five more work right now okay any other next on our report recommend a cage for teachers and then another and number one so we have in our wings that we have because the piece is really large marketed and my last year so that I swear [Music] do we set as one for that a different nation based on the recommendations although women so
083much smaller so to answer that question believe it's ours but that have another reported after when one degree would be maximum and it would be lower maybe some that there are communities or another them yes so and maybe in terms of again age service hours so the only mr. solve all this two years ago we were planning the the 6070 we added a couple of species language because those are later does really axis of education community religious tremendously deduced yes yes Romanian are you saying yes dozen beautiful there and we made a dedicated is DD $200 every soul please no it's a lot we need right now does anyone have any other questions come on this might wait okay so we really didn't buy all of us email we have to to our students so
084I'm trying to digest it all is a lot so we wanted to kind of spread out these reports a little bit I appreciate that yeah I I don't think people to look at our budgets because of course you stare at the budget so realizing that we have caseloads of 1 to 40 and 1 to 50 you know for specialists and they're pretty heavy caseloads I think I think people see the more the ones that have the shining light when we look at our class size guidelines and we really try to meet those those regular ed class size which include our students with special needs but when you look at these you tease these out there's a lot of a lot of large pieces and and for clarity these caseloads have nothing to do with the
085special education cost exposure we've been talking about this though this that is a completely different fund exposures that anticipated how placements for our place correct situation so I just for the public I want them to understand part of our regular opposition normal operating procedure yes okay how about if we go to old business and dumb first we have the review of the superintendent's 2018-19 budget proposal recommended action that the board review the 2018-2019 budget proposal as presented by superintendent dr. John Burrell on 12 6:17 so Clyde I'm not sure where we want to start because I think we're thinking perhaps an open discussion one thing I didn't want to let everybody know is slide number two and another slide toward the end which is the same slide the Finance Committee we talked about this how
086we were going to look at that know as your belt and could probably articulate better the base versus the actual versus you know the increase going forward for next year so I'll certainly Bob will certainly give the opportunity to have that that the explanation out there so I think you do a great job of that and it's appreciate you'll see on the slide that's up on the screen right now is really a lot last two weeks ago at the last meeting I identified the special education cost at one point 1 million kind of separate from a status quo increase and so we made them subtotals the special education and the status quo increase to see that large increase to keep services as is with no changes based on increasing costs of contract obligations etc we
087get to a you know the rollover budget is something like to call it is a 5.1 percent increase and then after that when you factor in increase in some revenues that we're getting against the loss of those one-time revenues that offset this year's budget the 300,000 we've been talking about that was in contingency as well as the reclamation from the mr. Kali settlement in some student activity monies that we applied to this year's budget you know we still end up at that that six point four number after I would say not excessive new and exciting things we're looking to do with our district at $305,000 we talked about school start times and the enrichment taking a look at enrichment and increasing the line item for the teacher work to work on the curriculum that needs
088to be done that we've been talking about all evening so those are those are the new innovative and exciting things that we're working on in addition to many other new innovative innovative things that we're just going to allocate time differently to and prioritize that won't cost us any money so I just wanted to line that up for people to see that a little bit differently and we will certainly after the discussion tonight and if there's any adjustments I need to make that this PowerPoint will go up instead of the one that's up there now just to keep updating it with it with a new date on it every time we have a conversation actually I would say that the recurring revenue and the loss of one-time revenues are also part of your cost of keeping
089the biskits word is that as well fair point no the only thing that's not is your proposed new investment yeah that's true okay point of kind of fact in life yeah and I think with a hundred and ninety five thousand that we talked about moving in the budget there'd be some Swizzle in there I would expect quite frankly that kind of underlying costs of the you know doing what we do today should grow at close to three percent by itself because of just the teacher contract whichever if I remember Ken was about 2.8 percent correct yeah and then benefits being slightly higher than that right it's kind of hard I mean 2.2 was what struck me as law absolutely last time so I think with this the adjustments on that 195 k because that really
090was a benefit kind of buried in the way you did the numbers before right because it was a bet you know it was the AXA weren't using that under okay now we're using it to cover some of that special ed services it'll just balance those numbers better but I think all of those lines are part a sense uncomfortable laughter that's you know just trying to get clarity on clarity on the presentation of this so we're all talking the same language you know I was gonna use I was going to use some time over the holidays when I had some good chunk so you know non-scheduled business time to actually think about how did you know tell that story sure right because that's complicated it is there's a lot to it and and so the other
091the other piece was the other adjustment in the PowerPoint that I don't need to turn to is just the 18 19 capital I added that in there so this is again for the public to reference this later while online and then I really appreciate all of us do we worked on this together over the last five working days is the Board of Education you know you folks sending us the the questions by Sunday and Monday of last week because we were able to get back to you I think on Monday and and send you a document and so I you know I don't know where mrs. Snyder you want to continue the conversation or how you guys want to go about if you more clarity I was going to open it up for question because
092especially if someone has any clarity they want on the questions answered those that submitted the questions I mean I think I just I would like to go over some of the ones where you know the answer was will be described as a full board I don't know if you know maybe we can continue the discussion there and some of your answers for the other ones were pretty comprehensive that's understandable I think for it seems like we all had kind of questions about the kindergarten first grade teacher and reduction I know that we were we were a little bit over our projection last year and that that's been accounted for in this year but it seems still if we are when I did the math it look like if we were just off by about four
093students that would push some some of the classes up into the twenty kids per range which is above our target in first grade it was a little bit more but it was still only like a 10 kid swing whereas I didn't understand why we couldn't maybe just or I would like to see you know us not reduce definitely in kindergarten I'd be a little more open to first grade but again I would I would actually rather see a reallocation and a teacher maybe to another grade where some of our enrollments were over our target if that was possible sure and I remember you saying something about like depends on their certification and they may be able to move but personally I'd like to avoid no no I understand that um typically what we went when
094we've had I think there's two conversations here there's reductions and the loss of the possible loss of a quality you know cancer in our district and we all know that for the most part it's last in first out and that's how things work in municipalities so I really appreciate that typically what has happened is there's been offsets with retirements and we've been able to keep those those new staff that we've time and money into on staff so that's that's what we'd be thinking going forward again this is all estimates and it's moving and it's alive and it's very early in the process so that's kind of my response to that first piece so you know we're thinking about that Rosa the the kindergarten number I think Maloney McBroom has kindergarten for next year at $1.99
095and they correct on that 1:17 for 119 I'm sorry yes it was 119 so we added I think 1333 we put 133 in our estimate and frankly that number is based on the number Maloney macroon was off by for this year's kindergarten that's we're just applying experience with the projection the projection is from 2012 2016 so it's not a very old projection and so the one of the discussions was does this take us from 8 sessions down to 6 sections that's if it was at 1:17 and I think that would get us to 16.6 that would I think be very risky as a move I agree with you on that reducing by one section gets us to a better ratio there and I think that's more conservative knowing that we're likely going to get some
096movements having said that what we did for this year working with the Board of Finance last year they did build in $80,000 for contingency in case we needed a kindergarten another kindergarten teacher because on the board of education side we can't budget make contingencies we can't just that's not part of the budget process but certainly the town can do that for us so in the spirit of collaboration and if we request that that's something that I would think the Board of Finance would be interested in again and we stay updated I update the board on where we're at with registrations dr. sailings been great about that keeping us up to date and monthly reporting how are we doing with kindergarten registrations is so you know I'm trying to be as prudent as I can and
097is responsible you know with you know as a good steward of the taxpayers dollars at the same time the responsibilities to the students and making but it will be hard for the court of Finance to put in a contingency if we have a six point four percent spent okay freeze not those to the fact they had the flexibility last year because our spending increase was much lower yes and my spending it was our spending increase was reduced through the budget process originally as they put some of that oh no I understand and if we the more staff we keep in six-point-four goes to six point six goes to six point eight continues and so is that realistically and that's not our job to determine that but we have to go forward what we think is
098right but realistically what is the Board of Selectmen going to do with a budget that has this kind of an increase in it and then what does the port of finance going to do is at the end of the day while they don't have any kind of line-item control they're going to look at what the town what they consider an appropriate increase for the Board of Education and then we're going to have to live with whatever that decision is so you know if we're going to go forward with whatever is the recommendation ultimately over the next few weeks from the board we have to going to have to make a strong case for it there's no the fact that you know I don't know if we're really looking at the range because you know we're
099talking about a range of 17 to 20 students and I understand there's like target but we seem to be using that as a hard target as opposed to if we keep that kanou our teacher we keep it with you know eight classes we're still within that range there most of the sections so you know if we have a little bit if you know probably a few more kids maybe moving in whatever there might be some flexibility there we're still gonna be within range so I feel like that's a much safer what area just help me out cuz I'm not doing the math in my head if we keep eight sections using 133 as a number which is lower than that back it's lower but they're which is okay there can always be move in so
100of course of course yeah okay I just want to make sure my number within my head is right but that also says to stay within the range and the range if I remember is 17 to 21 you're actually stay within the range as high as 160 with eight sections mm-hmm so we're at 146 147 I mean I really am a believer in using the target as how we do our base planning but in terms of thinking about risk around it the range is useful to think about right because that gives you where you get uncomfortable which is why I think what's your tolerance level it's a tolerance discussion which which is why they were both created with the range in the target yeah I can't see very many scenarios that says we drive up to
101160 given the what we see on our recent experience we're building in already from the projection from alone away from 13 of the 13 additional 14 additional students again this year we had 13 it's beginning now we have 15 new students in Kindergarten and so we're doing well in that regard so an additional 27 on top of that I think would be quite a bit I don't know that we get there so I'm hoping having the discussion have we had how many new kindergartner students have we had move into the district since say our totals in October that we were given doctor sale yeah you recall any new kindergartners since the October one per classroom so the lowest class is 19 and the highest is 20 that's this week before that's what they ate sections
102in Chris so comedy it's usually first grade so I'm sorry so how many total is that kindergarten students yes it's sixteen twenty including the four that you're getting [Music] so with these with so so in October one I think we were 146 are we more than that now or with that loss of a few kids and now for coming in its we're still around that same number or okay and it's first-grade reflecting the same thing not this year okay [Music] any other questions discussions can I just make sure I have the numbers right melona McBroom projected about a hundred and nineteen for next year 119 for next year next year and we're adding 14 to that correctly to make a hundred thirty three correct and that is symptom that's simply based on this year we
103had that around more than our 14 more than they predicted well I'd like I we're gonna have that conversation further tomorrow because I want to actually get the numbers yeah she's trying to do it from her head as best she can yeah but numbers laughter that's accurate Russell yes of course of course just know we can do we can just give me updated numbers since I covered where where we're not over where no sure just use and if we could all have crystal balls by the next meeting - that would be I [Music] asked her one for Christmas the other I know that we kind of like talked about that the TESOL teachers I would definitely be in favor of another one for next year and I know Debbie kind of echoed some of my
104comments with like is there any way that we could utilize a para to sort of like continually offset some of the burden [Music] we receive monies through a title three grant and last year we used the money to provide a program for second language learners that consisted of leaders theater because we thought that was a really great opportunity supported by the research base to engage kids in in reading and language use that was not anxiety-producing was engaging and fun and our previous TESOL teacher ran ran that so we had looked for volunteers to other people to step up and do that and because she did not want to do it this year then when she resigned and I didn't have anybody that stepped up to do it and I read your comment I was also
105thinking about hiring a tutor you know to work with mrs. Holly while we were looking for a replacement and also to have somebody there that could support this person and so I requested the ability to amend my title three grant to use that money to hire a tutor and I we've been very cooperative with the people that are in charge of the grant funding and so we were able to get our revision that can put into the system she said when you put it in call me so I can retrieve it and move it up and so we had less than a 24 hour turnaround and we have somebody that we are going to hire who is being processed through HR two more and we'll be able to have that person on board part-time starting
106after holidays nothing and so the one of the recommendations was since we have such a high proportion of our English learners who are Portuguese will be higher a Portuguese tutor and it really it doesn't make any difference what language the the tutor speaks speaking English is perfectly fine speaking the language of the English learners is not critical so you know we weren't looking for somebody who spoke another language they update on our search is we have a the they've done I think you have been involved right Mary Rose involved in doing phone interviews and screenings to try to expedite the process and we have a candidate that we're very interested in coming in tomorrow and mrs. Holly will give me an update after that happens but I think they the feeling is that this is
107a very promising situation and the grant covers that the grant will cover that the the grant money will cover the tutor part-time hours how long through the end of the year I've worked it out so that the person has availability three half days and we can we can cover that so we're fortunate because with grants as you know you have to supplement not supplant what you're doing so you have to be very strategic about exactly what you're doing when you're right so we got it approved so and then I appreciate the the support for the TESOL needs of our students and we'll see where we go you know where the board wants to go with that there our request is for one additional for this year and like I said last time we're open to
108your input obviously we respect that I don't i wonder if going forward maybe we'd think about dual certification to of having somebody if even if it was an English teacher or another teacher is also certified in T so that might just give us some flexibility and most of the most of the diesel teachers in Connecticut that our our our our dually certified because they don't most of them are getting T saw as a secondary in Dorset the aneurysm we actually have some teachers in districts who have T saw certification that they're interested in they're their primary role right now the person who we are bringing on board as a tutor it is actually a certified teacher who might have an interest in doing the alternate route to certification or TESOL so we're hoping that she
109has a very positive experience in this role and considers doing that because good welcome having somebody that is working in the district who really wants to do this work what's the anticipation of the title three grant being approved for next year as well well it's federal money so Congress has to allocate the funds to the federal Department of Education given the the needs of English learners in this country I don't think that that's something that would be cut and the distribution of the funds is based on the number of students that we have so seeing that our student population is growing or at least being stable this year we can anticipate the same amount of money that we've gotten this year so if if that continues through the next year and the budget goes through
110this year we would be looking at miss Hawley plus two T cells plus the tutor well the tutor we the tutor is only remember we're starting that tutor after January so that you would not have it we don't have enough money to fund a tutor for a whole year no yeah but that's why I was asking I guess when I was asking the anticipation of the grant I was thinking for 2018-19 right right we would only get enough money in the 2008 for half a year half of what half of a year or so we have to consider quarters well I got half a tutor okay and so we do that and Ken can explain it better because he handles all that like in our title one funding we use title one funding for a
111what we get for a portion of one of our reading teachers so we can put that money towards something yeah that's but it's not a large amounts of wood only paper okay here stand up a part time and then remember that if we bring somebody on more than part time and then there's benefits involved so you know there's like all these opening parts that we have to consider definitely okay anything else any other questions thus far what has been presented okay moving forward then we'll we'll bring this forward again to the January 3rd meeting that will give everyone the holidays and all that wonderful time to go through the budget more and submit other questions possible but you all would need the questions by what time so we can discuss it similar the last time
112Clinton I appreciate you asking is you know if there really are any comebacks you know last time questions were submitted just a few days later you know we'd like that we're going to be making Ken work over the break a little bit so depending on how many how many questions depends on how many days work so the sooner we can have that and because this isn't brand new and we did answer these questions you know I'd be hopeful if people are able to get their questions to us maybe by Friday because that'll help us actually you know we all have the holidays just like everybody else and family coming into town and so forth so we do need to strategically plan our days so we can be together to do some of this work or
113whatever the case may be I'll be able to get you questions by this Friday okay I understand because when we come back from the holidays we there's a New Year's is celebrated on the Monday Tuesday we're back to work and Wednesday we have a board meeting on January 1st it's just a quick turnaround so if there's there's anything that you think might involve some some calculating and some work as a comeback the sooner you can get to a that's all I can say okay sooner the better and we won't have the the public hearing on January 3rd prior to our board meeting here but really we're only talking about the board of that budget needs to go to the Board of Selectmen by the 31st of January so we're really only talking about two more
114meetings that we have unless we do a special meeting there to really refine this to the way we wanted to bring it forth to the Board of Selectmen so we're going to need to start thinking in that direction well like can you just clarify the public hearing so that would be just community members giving input asking questions and things what we envision is dr. Brill perhaps doing a short presentation of five 10 minutes or or however the overview for the public to get it just so they have an idea if they haven't gone on to the website and looked at those the sheets and after that it would be open for comment from the public's we can we can have it interactive for questions if we choose to have it that way I don't think
115we've decided on an exact format but it would be the opportunity for the public to get input both on the budgets and then now that they've seen it they perhaps may have more then more clarity than they had at the roundtable when they weren't even actually sure what was going to be on the budget Thanks now we're gonna do the round table and a round format like we did the workshop are we gonna do it where people come to the podium because that was an awkward moment last year when we did it with a podium people were expecting more a round table in table form right I think it's the difference between a round table where there is just open dialogue and discussion and the public here and where it's actually more comments yeah I'm
116directed so it might actually even be better in this format because then dr. burr would be able to present it but I'm I'm open to whatever just it was a confusion for some of the people who came and wanted to have more give and take right so I'm I'm more comfortable with a round table type of format okay yeah I what's up one think about that I'm happy with that is similar to the last round table like that oh I could do it less than ten minute overview five minutes no do like I did a huckleberry yesterday that's pretty quick so get get through it pretty quickly and take it from there okay I think that's great okay you might get more participation that shows people a little less anxious about going to the podium
117the podium is oh sure could be a frightening thing okay thank you everyone okay I really appreciate the support and the interest and your engagement in the process great appreciate thanks for all the detail and background too with all the responses I'm glad it was helpful all right if there is no other discussion that concludes old business and we can move to upcoming events so on Friday December 22nd early dismissal and December 25th through January 1st is holiday recess no school visit and then again just a plug that we will have the public hearing at 6 o'clock on the 3rd prior to our regular our next regular scheduled board meeting which is will then be at 7 o'clock so we do encourage everyone to attend that please come with your questions and your input all
118right and next we have an executive session anticipated so we could have a motion on that jury recommended motion that the board enter into an executive session for the purpose of discussing strategy and negotiations with respect to collective bargaining and the superintendence goals okay all in favor aye host so this concludes our regular board meeting right now and the board will be moving into executive session so thank you everyone for joining us