001I had >> Jordan's calling. Yep. I just just promoted Jordan to panelist here. She just joined online. >> Jordan is online. >> Yep. I'm here. Can you hear me? >> Yep. Okay. >> Okay. I'll call this meeting a special meeting of the board of education for Wednesday the 25th. Uh the purpose of this meeting tonight, it's a short agenda. It's a budget workshop to discuss uh board of finance reductions and uh with that I would ask us to stand and say please for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. that we'll move right back to public comment. Anyone for public comment tonight? All right, hearing none, we'll go online. Anyone for public comment online tonight? >> If you're joining us for public comment, you can use that raise hand
002feature of Zoom and I will call on you by your Zoom name. >> No raised hands. >> Okay, one more time. Public comment. Would you like to? >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> Oh, >> we went to public comment. You're welcome to come on up to the to the podium. Just state your name and and your address, please. That's all. Sorry to catch you so quick. >> Oh, no. No problem. You want me to start with my comment or just >> whatever you'd like to do. >> Just your name and your address, please. >> Aisha Sadiki, 60 Wilders Pass, Canton, Connecticut. >> Thank you. >> Do you want to say anything or >> I mean, yeah. >> Yeah. >> I don't know. >> Oh, podium's yours. Okay. Um, I'm a parent and I'm here because I
003care deeply about the quality of our education system that our children are receiving. Sorry, I'm out of breath. So, that was um I have young children um that go to Cherry Brooks Primary and what happens in these classrooms really matter to me. I understand that bud budget reductions are necessary and have happened across other areas. Um, however, I'm concerned how these um reductions are going to impact the board of education. My understanding is the board of education is being asked to determine um a $200,000 budget cut internally and um these decisions oftent times oftent times um impact their children directly. It means larger class sizes, um, fewer teachers or support staff, um, reduced services for students that might need it. Um, potentially, you know, we also need raises for our teachers. Um, and at the
004same time, we all know that our town is growing. Um, more families are moving into Canton. I mean, I moved in four or five years ago myself. And um with that comes increased student enrollment in more complex needs for our our um students. Uh and growth should mean that we're planning for more resources and not reducing them. We're already seeing that our children need more support in areas such as social emotional development, behavior health and um mental health supports. Uh our our teachers need higher salaries. Um I was just having a conversation with some of the teachers uh last week and we were talking about how important it is to have more social emotional developmental resources for these childrens who are going through what we call big feelings and um complex emotions that they need
005to navigate from. Right? Um so as a mom this is where it becomes really real for me and um these are kids these are our kids this is uh the future generation of candid um these are staff these are relationships all these um are being impacted and um our schools are one of the most important investments that we make as a community um it's really important that we invest in our future future of Canton which is the board of education and our students and if our town is growing our and student needs are increasing our investment in our education should also reflect that. >> Thank you very much for those comments. Glad you came out tonight. Appreciate you. >> Okay. Um I'll go back online just in case anybody online >> that might have a
006public comment. Again, you can use that raise hand feature if you'd like to make public comment from online. >> Okay. I I would post public comment, but just this final comment that the board meets again on April 7th. Uh and of course, we'll have public comment at that point. So, if somebody feels that they didn't get a chance to speak or have further further observations, they'll be able to do that at that time. All right. So, I I'll open up before I turn it over to the superintendent. I just wanted to uh our chair of the board of finance is here and I just want to say that I thought that the uh board of finance I didn't attend the meeting I was able to uh get a pretty good briefing on it but I
007just want to say the board of finance did a great job really I think in a very difficult task and uh the thing that I'm very pleased about uh as as chair this time with this board and working with the board of finance and the board of selection there is this joint cooperation tri cooperation if you will together to try to do everybody has the best interest of the town at heart and we all have different ways we have to get there and of course we're advocating for our children and selectman advocating for the town and the hard thing that they have to do is to figure out what we can afford and then they come back to us but I thought um I thought the board of finance was levelhanded and fair in the
008way they evaluated budgets and uh I just wanted to tell Brian we very much appreciate it. So, having said that, we have been uh we've been asked to reduce our budget by $200,000. And uh at this point, I'll turn it over to the superintendent for his recommendation. Super. Thank you, Mr. U. Before I begin, I I I want to take some time just to remind the board in the community where we are now and where we were December 9th. I I think that's really important for everybody to understand that the board of education has been having budget workshops I believe since we started the conversation about the budget and sure team actually started uh in August really analyzing we where we were budget and as part of the the tri board meeting and Mrs. Robin,
009correct me if I'm wrong. I I believe that we were forecasting there would be somewhere in the eights or nines um of 100% increase at the tri board. And so those are all things that we had to take into consideration. And on December 9th, if you remember, I I did a forecast budget that was presented to you and was also presented to the board of finance. And at that time, at that time on December 9th, we're at 6.7. And uh what really has me thinking about this whole process is where we were on December 9th and where we are now because a lot of things have happened and I want to make sure we understand. I want to take another opportunity um to just educate the the community a little bit. The the final budget
010that we proposed the superintendent proposed through the administration when we were proposed in February was the 6.67. So it was actually below where we were um what they what they thought at tri and where I was at the forecasted time. and and that 6.7, it's a true number. Um, but there's a lot that makes up that number that I I just want to remind the board that we don't lose sight because I I'm just not sure there's been enough conversation about that. We proposed and you approved basically two numbers to the the board of finance that you presented. You presented a 5.92 operational and a 6.67 67 a total board of event package. What I think is being a little bit missed and it's it it just is what it is is that it says
0116.67 but $258,000 of that is not new money to the the town. It's $258,000 that we already have. It just needs to be allotted. It was revenue to the board of education, but through our auditors, they would like us to, and I respect that, and the business manager respects that, and we agree with that at the board and the board of financing, they recommended that that revenue just goes to the town. So, that increased our budget right out of the bat to um to 6.67. If we didn't have to do that and we were able to offset our budget like we've done the past two years with the ECS education cost money, our number would be a 5.92. So I want everybody to understand even though it says 6.67, the mill rate is not affected
012um by the the 6.67 67 from a 5.92 because the money is just being moved to different accounts and the board of finance is still able to use the $258,000 of offsetting of revenue. Please let me know if I'm explaining that appropriately because we've gone over that probably four or five times as board of education. Everybody understand that? >> Yeah, I just have a quick question on that. >> Yeah. So in regards to the 258, is that included then on the board of select men's budget? Are we positive that that's reflected correctly there? >> No, >> it is Jordan. It's um board of selectment budget for expenses. Um this is a revenue item. So this is on a in a separate area of the budget. It goes to it goes to the revenues that offset
013the expenses. So this is not in the board of selectments budget. These are not expenses. These are considered revenues which is a a different topic. >> It's a revenue to offset the total budget. >> So is it fair to say Anna >> you debit board of education and you credit board of selection? >> No. >> Well because we were trying to we we we were using it as a credit. So yeah you can say that you >> it's not for the board to select. I don't know. >> So I want to be very clear. This has nothing to do with the board of select budget. So when the board of finance, we have the board of finance chair here. I don't mind being part of what I'm saying. Um if he's comfortable with it, the
014board of finance is offsetting when they're looking at the budget and the revenue that is coming into the town. Instead of the ECS being, let's say it was $4 million coming to the town, it's now $4.2 million coming to the town. It still offsets the mill rate and the taxes that are brought into the town. >> Yeah, that's that's correct. It's concerned on tax revenue that we don't account for until we put all three portions of the budget together and then offset. So, >> like we did not get a fluent. No, no. This has nothing to do, Jordan. Does that make sense? It has nothing to do with the board of swapping. That has everything to do with the revenue that is coming in through the town. So, the other day when the excuse me,
015>> the revenue to authenticity expenses. >> So, when the board of finance the other day was doing their sheet, their worksheet, and they were putting in all the percentages, that revenue was included within everything that they were doing the calculation on. >> Okay. And which line I guess would that be included then on? >> I'm just trying to figure out where exactly the 258 is reflected since it's coming out of us. Basically, it's increasing our budget. Where where is it then? Where is it reflected other than a debit off of ours? Where where else? Where can I find the other side? So, you're in the if you're when we get to the the town in the in the town budget book in the revenue section, you won't see 258,000. What you'll see is ECS educational
016cost share for 40068 I believe is the number that 258,000 is in that number. Now that's the entire amount that comes from the state of Connecticut in the ECS fund and that's in the revenue portion. Now you know how it goes. We have all our expenses. Then we have all our revenues and our that the non-t tax revenues. Then then the board of finance figures out what the tax needs to be to cover the expenses. They lower the expenses in order, you know, then then the whole the fund begins. That's so Jordan, it's on page 85, the board of select men's budget proposal and not >> select. Okay. >> Okay. So, it is on the board of selectman side. That's where we'll see it. It's just not a line item of 258. It's a it's
017a higher number or >> it's the full ECS number, >> right? >> It's in the full. >> Okay. >> And that 258 is in that total ECS number. >> Correct. >> It's part of that number. Okay. Okay. So, it is part of the board of select men's side of the budget. >> Yes. No. Their operating uh percent increase does not reflect on tax revenue. >> Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you for that clarification. >> Little complicated. I know. >> Sorry. Yeah. I don't I think what the reason that I started with that I think it's really important um that we were very uh communicative about that and and that that's where this 5.92 comes from and some of the things if you remember that we had to add in from the time that we did
018the forecast budget to where I finished was if you remember We had um someone retired. Part of the contract was at the EAC sickly buy out for 44,000. We did the retirement incentive and I want to make it very clear to the community and remind this board that we did do an incentive program for teachers and we generated an offset over $239,000 relative to that. Um, but in year one it's going to cost us $55,000 and that's that that's net. We had EAC salary advancements that we didn't realize for 49,000 other salary adjustments for $29,000. So from the time that I presented to you that 6.7 I had to add in $438,000 after I presented. and $438,000 is about a percent and a half. So from when I presented to you in December to when
019I had it present to you in February, I had to figure out $438,000 which was it brought our budget actually above seven and a half. So to come back down to the 6.67 67 or the 5.92. We had the retirement incentive. The the town worked with us that was mentioned at the board of finance thinking that they gave us the revenue for uh preschool tuition which is offsetting in their budget and it it's it's not revenue for them. Um so that's really good partnership. We brought in $108,000 more of revenue for bridges. There's been often times to think creatively about programming that we could save money. So, we have bridges. Um, small capital. We reduced $50,000 from our small capital at that time. Special education uh changes. Mrs. Robbins did an excellent job doing a
020census for our health insurance. So I reduced $420,000 from what was over 7%. Am I communicating that where where we are? So we landed at 5.92 and when I look at the 5.92 number and this is in great partnership with the town that we took on some of the the the staffing from the the the town and I appreciate that the the CEO and the the first selectman realized that they were town employees but they were doing all work for the board of ed. So, their salaries and there were some adjustments in their salaries relative to where we are as a board of education and we moved it over to the board of education side and and it wasn't just this year, it was last year. It was two employees this year, two employees last
021year, but it was a good partnership. That in itself was approximately 04%. So, if we didn't have that, we'd be looking at like a 5.4% um budget. So, now we're faced with, as we went the other day, that we're at a 6.67. That that is our number. That is the the number that is in the books. Uh now, we're at the point of that we need to make a recommendation to you tonight of $200,000. And one of the things that this administration's tried to do the the best that we can is really listen to public comment and really listen to the board of finance and listen to you. And as we all know, enrollment is going down. I I I've not said in in the years that I' I've been here the past three years
022that enrollment is going up. I'm not seeing that. I am seeing a trend going down. And ever since that I tried to do the forecasted process with you, I have been sharing with you that I anticipate for the next two or three years that will be losing uh 2.2 staff members each year, whether it be certified or non-certified to adjust for the enrollment. In this budget, we have 2.2 two staff certified teachers, one at Kent Intermediate School for the incoming fourth grader. They're going to be going from six sections to five sections. And then we eliminated 1.2 FTE here at the high school, which is still to be determined what the FTE would be because they're doing the scheduling right now. So, we are following through with the reduction of staff based upon enrollment, but
023I can't ignore what the board of finance said the other day, and I think we all would agree that um this is a difficult time within and and looking at the mill rate and looking what the average cost for the taxpayers. So, I I very much respected um what the board of finance said. So from that meeting um I did watch the meeting again to make sure that I heard what the public was saying and then I watched um what the public was saying at our meeting that when we presented that some of you were at and it it kept coming up a little bit more with looking at enrollment it is there anything more that we could do and and as we said as a as a board and as an administration we're not
024talking $5,000 worth of paper and supplies. That That's not what we're really talking about. We've done that. We've done that over the past several years. We're really talking about looking at operating expenses and really looking at um how our operating expenses relate to our declining enrollment and can we move quicker in uh decreasing our our class our uh our cost based upon our enrollment. So I have a couple recommendations that I met with administrative team on and shared it with them. I'm going to pass out a piece of paper and for the people that are on a line, this will be uh published tomorrow uh on our website and Amy and Jordan it I'll be able to talk right to it. So I'm not concerned that you don't have it on online and then we
025can just share John. Um this was no easy task and there there's a a statement around each one of these recommendations that we are making. The first recommendation is if you remember last year um we did reduce a bus route in our budget for this year and realistically we didn't really get any feedback on what the impact of that was. So what we are recommending in consultation with with Mrs. Robbins in part of my cabinet is really recommending uh a $90,000 reduction in transportation reducing and reduction of two bus routes which would affect all schools. So what does this mean? This means and we've discussed this before um that some members of this board, some members of the committee have said there's not that many kids on the bus. We are required by law to
026transport children. But the question is, can we do a better job analyzing who's on that bus and and how we do our bus routes? And the answer is absolutely yes. You can do a better job with that. So I charge Mrs. Robbins to uh study this and with the help of uh Mr. Bishop and working with Martell Transportation. What we are going to do to really look at this is we're going to send out a letter this spring or early in the summer to all families and we're going to ask families to opt into transportation or opt out for transportation. And opting in means, yeah, you're going to take the bus or your van to school. So, we're going to chart that and we're going to develop routes. If you opt out, it means when
027Mrs. Robbins and Martell Transportation are developing the bus routes, right now we're developing bus routes based upon every kid in our school system whether they're taking transportation or not. So, if they opt out, they're not going to be part of our bus group. But what will be very clear, and we'll have to communicate this with families on an ongoing basis, if they need to opt back in, they can opt back in anytime they want. We will just have to figure out within our roots how this is going to work. So there's a lot of hypotheticals. Could kids be on the bus longer? Maybe. I can't sit here and say definitively yes, kids are going to be on there longer. Will bus routes start earlier? Possibly. We just won't know till we we we get the
028analysis of who's going to opt in or opt out. One of the questions that I heard was, well, some of our Cherry Brook learners in the middle of the winter get off the bus that it could possibly be dark. We're going to have to account for that. Whether and I don't know what we can do for outside the buses, if the buses um if it's dark when the children get off, if it affects our our uh late arrival home, we're really going to have to analyze that. Do we need to put spotlights or things on the buses? These are all things that we're going to have to factor in. But we won't know this until we really get the opt in and opt out. And I can share with you there there's plenty of parents
029right now just when you're looking at the the schools and we're at the schools every day and see drop off and pick off. There's a lot of cars at Chairbrook and CIS and high school that are dropping off and picking up. So, I'm sure we can generate a list really quickly to see and analyze that. And some of those buses are going right by and they might not have to go down those streets. Um, but I appreciate what people are saying or what a question that I heard. What about our youngest runners that it could be dark if the buses are are running a little bit late in the room? We're going to have to take that into consideration as we're developing the routes. And of course, we keep safety and security in mind. And
030it may be that our vans are running differently. So I'm very confident in Mrs. Robbins and Mr. Bishop and working with Martell Transportation. I believe that you have a committee too that looks at them. >> Oh, great. We are starting this year started. >> Yeah. So it it's great. Um it's not ideal, but I think we've spoken about this before. So, I hope this is not a like ah a surprise cut, but it's not the ideal cut, but it's an opportunity when we are losing enrollment and losing children and in some buses. I I'm just drawing out a number. I'm not saying it's true that they may have 15 kids on the bus. Is there a way to move that around and look at that by this opt out? I'll take any questions on that
031one first. Sure. >> Yeah. >> People have the option to opt in for one or the other because I know some people like maybe drive their kids in the morning but pick them up after school or is it opt in opt out? >> No, I think I think we're going to have to allow them to because we have to provide transportation. Okay. So, yeah, that'll be all part of that like breakfast. >> Yeah, we have been talking about to to a variety of people about some of the situations that days sometimes can be challenging >> activities. So we're trying to take that into consideration as as >> any other questions online. Any questions? >> Yeah, I did. So I have two questions. Um I did have the same concern about Cherry Brook students getting home
032um late. Uh, I know some buses already arrive at homes around 4 4:15 and in the winter that can be pretty late, especially for a 5-year-old getting off the bus. My other question is around um the actual drop off and pickup at Cherry Brook right now and if we're going to see an increase in parent drop off and pickup. It's already pretty crazy there in the morning. Um, and it kind of sounds like we as with this suggestion are looking for less kids to be riding the bus. Is that the intent? >> No, that that's not my intent. My my intent is really to figure out who's riding the bus and who's not riding the bus and really looking at do we need to adjust our routes because some of us would be saying and
033I and you're going to have to correct me if I'm wrong here. Our bus routes have probably been the same for a long time and the question is can we change the way that we do our routes based upon the transportation network that we already have be more efficient. Thank you. I use the word right sizing. >> So we're trying to right size our our roots, right? Just make fit with the the people that are actually riding the bus. >> Right. Okay. No, that makes sense. I I'm supportive of that. I I didn't understand I didn't know that we didn't know who's riding the bus and who's not riding the bus when we do our bus routes. No, we we we is we do our bus routes based upon who goes to the can public
034schools because we're required to provide transportation. So if there's a kid that a child that lives on 125 Bunker Hill Road, um we're planning our bus routes that we have the kid a student that lives at that house. >> Okay. So our default right now is that every student rides the bus and that's how our bus routes are made. did actually fill out three. >> Oh, okay. Well, then yeah, I have no I think us being more efficient and more proactive and that makes sense. So, I I was just under the assumption that we already did that. So, okay, I'm supportive of that. >> You do fill out sheets, >> but the sheets say where do you live and different things like that. And we never really asked, are you opting in or are you
035opting out of transportation? And there's kids that get bus to school every single day and get picked up every single day and we still may have that bus go down that that street. So I I like what John said about right sizing. Um any other questions on transportation? >> Amy's got a question. >> Yeah. >> Hi. Um >> can you hear me? >> Yeah, you're good. >> Okay. Um I just this might be more of a comment. I just from my personal experience, the bus that serves my neighborhood um is consistently late when delivering the children to CIS because of the um the timing of everything. And I think we have one of the lower number of students on our bus. So, I would just um I appreciate the efforts to make the bus routes
036more efficient, but I would just um I guess plead that the group doing the planning of the routes um take into account how whether the bus can actually get to the schools and get the kids to school on time. >> Thank you. And and part of what and that's a legitimate uh comment maybe that part of what we may have to do is the board of finance asked us to make $200,000 worth of of recommending cuts. You do have the flexibility that if we come back to you in May and say this is not going to work. We do have the ability that we can look in other areas to make these uh reductions. So they it just because we say this if it doesn't work if Mrs. Robbins and her committee come back and
037say this doesn't work this is just a placeholder of where we think that these reductions could be made or we could come back to and say this is not going to work and then we re-evaluate and now we'll go through Mr. Bush the finance committee they'll be up to date regularly every month now regarding these reductions. So your points well taken Amy. Okay, great. Thank you. >> Let's move on to the next. >> So, the next one is a very difficult one. As was shared at Port Finance the other day that they they felt that there's only a few areas that we can make some reductions and it would be $110,000 worth of reduction of certified and non-certified staff to be determined at a later date. It's really difficult in two days to come up
038where these uh possible cuts um may be uh regarding staff. Um we're really going to have to look at um enrollment. We're going to have to monitor the kindergarten enrollment which we've been saying from the very beginning where we are with the the kindergarten because right now we have six sections in uh the budget that could show up as five sections. So we'll have to see. Uh, one of the things that we shared with administrators the other day is that we need to look at um, how many tutors that we have in the district and how many parents we have in the district. And I appreciate what Mrs. McClean said at our meeting the other day that we may have to adjust the the model and how we do things based upon uh, the numbers
039that u we have. We also have some vacancies with within our district, the retirement retirements in different areas. So, we're gonna have to look at that. Um, so the 10810,000 that will be something at the finance committee um that we'll be talking about as we go through the year of where those um reductions um will be um and we'll also look at um that the kindergarten in particularly and see where we are. But that that's where we are relative to staffing that it'll be $110,000 worth of non-certified certified staff and it will affect children. Um it's just we're going to have to look at the models of of how that that um happens. But this will be something that I wouldn't say our April 7th meeting for the finance committee. No, we'll have a better
040answer than we have tonight. But I would say by our May meeting, I believe it's May 13th meeting or May 12th meeting, >> we'll have better idea of where we are with enrollment for kindergarten um and high school scheduling. So we'll have a better idea of where we are. But um the recommendation is $110,000 surprise that so we we are bound to make a $200,000 cut. And it's not easy. And when we started this process, 4.1% of our budget comes from um personnel staff and contractual obligations and insurance. So I think um there's never a perfect place to cut, but I think what we found ourselves is is uh we're not going to be able to do this through $5,000 here and $10,000 there. The other thing we have to prepare for is um a
041budget is up for referendum. A budget can be approved or it can be voted down. And if that is the case, I think we have to be advocates of this budget with the cuts as uncomfortable as they are because uh if the budget fails the next time, it's going to be a more severe cut and that will be the cuts into staff. That's the only place we can go. So is is board me. We have we have advocate. Kim, do you have a question? >> No, I just going here. Um the final comment I want to make before I move to a motion is um next year it doesn't get any better. We're we're contractually obligated and Jordan will tell you our church is still going to go up 20% next year. So once this
042budget is over, I'd like to sit down with a small committee and the superintendent to talk about what the vision is our schools going forward over the next several many years because we can't continue to offer as much as we offer as a small district with declining enrollment. So we're going to have to figure out what we want to get really good at and what we're going to have to depart from. And um I think that's that's something that we're going to have to do as a board. 20 years ago I I uh as chair I put in a a committee was called the brick by brick committee. We studied every single line up to make sure that we were efficient uh as efficient as we could be. Uh next year we're going to put
043together a commission committee uh in order to really look at what our schools are going to look like in the future and how we're going to address that because we can't continue to do this. Next year we're coming out 4.1% right out of the gate. Um the town that we heard this cannot sustain increases like this going forward. So having said that, I'll open up one more time for questions. Questions online? All right. And hearing none, I'd like to make a motion that the camp board of education approve the 2627 board of education final budget based on the recommended financial reductions from the board from the board of finance in the amount of $200,000. The reductions reflected will be transportation $90,000. That'll be the reduction of two bus routes affecting all students, all schools rather,
044and $110,000, which is reduction of certified non-certified staff to be determined at a later date. I'll take a second, please. Thank you, Joe. Further discussion? How's the timeline? Hearing none, I'll ask uh for a vote. Again, it's to move camp board of education approved 2627 board of education final budget based on recommended financial reductions from the board of finance in the amount of $200,000. >> All those in favor? >> Opposed? I think we're we have all nine tonight. So, we're nine now. All right. Passes. Uh any other business come before the board of education tonight? Hearing none without objection for general. Which method?