001So, I'm going to call the meeting of So, I'm going to call special the special meeting of the Kent Board of Education for March 25th, 2025 to order. And with that, we'll kick things off with the pledge of allegiance in the next moment of time. Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Thank you. All right. The purpose uh the purpose of tonight's meeting is really to um to uh talk really to um we were directed by the board of finance last night to reduce our budget by $158,000. Um and um I think I think the way I'd like to approach this is to um to get some recommendation
002from Dr. Gman to see where he's coming from. He's our pay professional. The the one thing that that worries me sometimes is when people make uh comments uh because they have strong feelings and I understand that but it's not based in fact or data. Um and that's the reason why we have a professional uh administration team with uh Dr. Gman, Mr. Bishop uh and and the rest of the the the administration team uh that works through our budgets very carefully and as I um indicated two meetings ago uh to the board of finance the process starts really in October and there's many many meetings that goes on examining line items and uh costs and also you know education changes along the line there there are changes that are going on that we're not even aware
003of uh in how we instruct at how we teach and things that are going on in the classroom that that we don't necessarily uh need to know about. As I've always said, I remind the board this often that um the job of the board of education is to make sure our schools are run well and not run our schools and that's the job of our our professionals. So, so with that, I'm going to ask uh Dr. Gman to make some remarks on what he heard last night, where he thinks the board should maybe direct some of this um where where our cut should be coming from. and he heard some of the comments uh before. Thank you. And and he heard some of those comments. Before I do that, I have to open up to
004public comment. I'm sorry. I was overwhelmed by the amount of people in the crowd. Lost my place. So, is there anybody in the audience for public comment? No. Okay. Is there anybody online that would like to make public comment? If you're joining us online, you'd like to make public comment, you can use that raise hand feature of Zoom and I will call on you by your Zoom name. Okay. All right. So, I'm going to turn it over now to Dr. Grossman to give us uh some of his thoughts and where he thinks the board should be uh moving in this direction. And then what I'd like I'd like to call in each board member to get their comments uh tonight to see what they're thinking. And then uh hopefully by the end of the meeting,
005we'll be able to uh decide where to go. There there's a memo that has to go out to the board of finance. uh by tomorrow letting them know acknowledging the cuts and generally speaking where the cuts are coming from. So Dr. Gman morning uh thank you so much. I I just want to give you some the the board and the community that may be watching the the recording of this when it goes out that as Mr. Janu says that the the budget process starts early on in in August and we take it really seriously and we try to be as transparent as we we can. One of the things that I want to commend this board on is that we do have a finance committee that meets monthly that really looks closely at our monthly
006financials and really guides the work from a financial standpoint that we're trying to do throughout the year and moving forward. So, I'm going to circle back to that when I'm done with some of my comments because I I think that's a key component of some of the work that we need to do moving forward. Another component that I think we really need to look at and I want to let the the community know and I know the board knows is that the board of education actually has a policy committee that meets regularly monthly and this policy committee is charged with really looking at the policies that make up the public schools and spend a lot of time by that on that and our finance committee is chaired by Russ Bush and our policy committee is
007chaired by Mr. Daniels remember me Mr. Shiver sorry about that Mr. and they spend a lot of time on it and the committee members spend a lot of time and I think that plays a part in what we heard over the past couple weeks. I want to commend the board for all the work that they have done relative to this budget. And I want to remind everybody the the budget that we're talking about is not the administrative budget. It's the Canton Board of Education budget. And we heard a lot of people that spoke about support the education budget, don't cut anything. We heard some people that that were concerned that the budget was too high and that the they gave specific examples of where in recommendations where they felt that the budget could be cut
008or reduced. So for the it hasn't even been hours. for the past 24 hours. Like some of you, I left the meeting last night saying, "Okay, there's $158,000 that needs to be reduced from the board of education budget. Where would these reductions come from?" We had the same thing happen last year that we had to reduce funding and we we went to a meeting like we are right now and you asked me for recommendations and I gave recommendations. This one's I think a little bit more complex because there were some comments yesterday that I truly respect and I respect when people ground things in data and are concerned about for example class size that came up and our policy of where we ground the amount of students that we have in our classrooms. particularly at
009the elementary level. So I respect that comment and the comments that other people make that we need to take a look at that. But I want to acknowledge also that I know the administrators looked at it and I know you looked at it. So it's not a new conversation for us. But m Mr. was in and the board before I give you some recommendations and my thoughts my recommendation one of my recommendations is charging Mr. Bishop and Mr. Shidler as much as I could charge a board member I could charge uh Mr. Bishop for the policy committee to look at the class size policy. That policy was last looked at approximately 10 years ago. A lot has changed in education in 10 years. And I don't think anybody was um disrespecting the administration or the
010classroom teachers and how we came up with the engines. I think people were really just saying look at your class policy and you're below your class policy and why. And that's where I have a tremendous amount of respect for the administrators in the classroom teachers and kids of what's best for kids. And that's where we came up with the sections that we came up with, but it is below the class size guideline. So I do respect the individuals that question the the board and why we are below the the class size in particularly the second grade going into third grade. I respect that. I respect that that they they're asking us to look at that. But as I can tell you, the administration and teachers and this board have looked at that. But what you
011have not looked at is the class size guideline policy that has not been reviewed in 10 years. So I'm asking Mr. Bishop and Mr. Shazer that immediately starting with your next agenda. If you could put this on your agenda to lay out a timeline of what would be some of the things that we would look for in what makes up our class size policy. That's nothing that we're going to be able to do in 24 hours from last night. and the recommendation from the administration that I spoke to today and based upon where we are and based upon what we know about our class sizes. We stand by where our class sizes are right now and what was recommended. But fully acknowledging that there does need to be a look at our class size guideline
012policy because what we are presenting to you does it it could be viewed as miscommunication to the the community because we are below our class size guideline. So that that's recommendation number one that we really need to um look at that. Then I heard over the past two weeks some specific recommendations of what can be and and I respect the board of finance. They didn't tell us what to do. They just gave some of their thoughts and some of their ideas and the campus supervisors came up. Technology came up. Staffing and technology staffing at the central office came up. So this is where I'm going to ask Mr. Bush and the finance committee to really look at some of these things. So my recommendation to you to come up with the $158,000 is the following.
013$92,000 in non-certified staff reduction. That would equate to approximately 4.25 staff. Now what would be on the table could be proposed new staff or current staff that are already on the the current staff and I would ask the finance committee that's why we have the finance committee to start looking at this. One of the things as you said Mr. Daniels is that we don't have to provide to the board of finance specific line items. We just got to provide where specific items we just got to provide where the reductions are going to come from and that's how we report out each month that we report out and non correct me if I'm wrong Mrs. Robbins non-certified is a category within our budget. So my recommendation would be to reduce non-certified by $92,000. And that may
014come in a variety of different ways when we really sit down and analyze that as an administration and a a board of education in particularly the finance committee. I'm also recommending that we take out $48,000 out of the technology budget and we really look at what is planned for technology next year. Are there things that as you know as we've discussed we have a replacement cycle. Do we need to look at replacement cycles? Do we look at our younger students not getting technology at all? And I think in 24 hours to give specifics of what that technology would look like, I I I just don't think that um is something that um this team is prepared to do. But overall, $48,000 reduction in technology. And then, as you heard last night, we have $18,000 in
015property liability and insurance. So that is a total of $158,000. So there's a few recommendations. Recommendation number one is for the policy committee to really look at the guidelines that we have for classroom size and that's going to take time. That that that's not anything that's going to be quick. Number two would be the finance committee to really over the next few months dig into what is the best thing looking at our proposed staff that we have and then our current staff of non-certified which would equate to about 4.25 and then really work together on what that reduction is going to look like. What I do want to share that 0.12 of this budget is in supplies. So you're not going to hear the administration talk about supplies. We're we're talking about people and and
016I do think the the the board of finance um mentioned that last night that they're concerned amount amount to staff and I did hear um that specifically concerned about technology also of how much technology do we need? So I'm giving you what I heard over the past two weeks. I do want to share that if there are further cuts, we really will have to look at that third grade the the third grade section for next year full well knowing that this administration feels that the best environment for their learning is in two se is in um six sections what they're currently in. I'm also concerned about what our current kindergarten enrollment is coming in. We're right at our class size of 18.3, which is on the high end of our class size for kindergarten. That's
017110 students. And I, as I've always said since we started this budget process, we need to keep that in mind. So that's where we are. a lot of reflection, respect everything that I heard over the past two weeks from community members and from board of finance members and I my recommendation is 92,000 men certified which equates to about 4.2 4.25 staff member reduction a reduction in technology 48,000 and then proper property insurance liability of $18,000 for a total of $158,000. I'll take any questions or discussion. Okay. Thank Thank you for that your recommendation. So, what I'd like to do is uh just pull each board member if they have questions or comments or suggestions. Let's get it all on the table. Um and uh then we'll move forward after that on how we want to
018shape this and uh in in in light of the superintendent's recommendation. So, I'll go online first because I think that's easier. Um Felicia, do you have any comments, questions, or thoughts you'd like to share? Um just just um reflecting on on what uh Dr. Gman just said in regards to the cut, is there any wiggle room to move some of that cut from the non-certified staff over to technology based on our previous spend on technology and the trend? or is the the way that you split it look to be the best moving forward? When I was looking at technology today, um with Mr. Bishop and when I met with Mr. Delmastro last week, we thought about 48 to $50,000 if we needed to make a cut would would be the the part that we were
019at. And honestly, I took the $92,000 for the non-certified based upon that's new staffing that we had and that was a a question that we've heard. Um, and I think this board needs to really look at it through the finance committee of where we are with campus supervisors versus existing staff that we already have. Um, I I think that's a worthy discussion for the board, but I took the exact number that we have for non-certified uh new staff. Okay. And you don't see that um making more of a gap um not not having those positions moving forward with new student enrollment? I know we don't have high enrollment, but like the new kindergarten students and things like that, like the staff that we may need as far as non-certified goes, I I I think any
020reduction in in our staff would be a um it would hurt kids. Um because but the 92,000 is new staff. So that's when we would have to weigh as a a board of education and in finance, do we want there was some talk to have one campus supervisor and then not have the two-day campus supervisors. So I think that's a discussion that we would need to have and my recommendation would be to have that conversation at a finance committee and um then that that hit would be less from the staff that we currently have. should. Okay. Thank you for that clarification. Okay. Um Kim, are you ready or you want to take a minute? Yeah. Let me let me let me correct something. The the the 92,000 I'm not proposing taking away the um the
021the Thrive Social Work order. So the the the campus supervisors are a total of $60,000. There would be $32,000 from existing staff that we already have to keep that. Yeah. To keep the social worker is what you're saying. Correct. Okay. Okay. Kim, are you ready or I know you were struggling to get on so you um the connection is poor and I apologize for having difficulty logging in earlier. Um yeah, I couldn't get in but I um I'm just taking in what he's saying and I'm thinking um on it and I can add it's something you come back to if you want. Yes. Just to clarify, three areas of non-certified technology and insurance. That's what I said non-certified for 92,000 technology 48,000 and the prop property and liability insurance 18,000 for a total of 158,000.
022Do you know the areas of non-certified more in specifically? No, I think that's what we would have to discuss as a finance committee that like I I could say just cut the three campus supervisors and then I have $60,000 of that and then I got to find $32,000 of existing about 30 of existing which it it could be a parah it could be a a secretary that would it could be all anything in non-certified is going to be cut. But this board may say, "No, we want the three campus supervisors. You need to bring it to us or we need to figure out what are the other three $60,000 worth of staff more." All right, I'm still thinking. Okay, no problem. Erica, I'm going to go down this end. Sure. So, how's that? Um, for
023those of us who didn't hear the conversation last night, could you just summarize the property liability insurance discussion? Yeah, m Mrs. Robbins. Oh, sure. We um get our renewal a little bit later in the season. Um, this year we um the CEO was negotiating and it was a little bit later than typically. So, our rate was reduced from a 5% to a 1 and a half. So that cost about $18,000 and so we can that's a realizing change. Okay. Essentially the conversation last night was we found $18,000. Now they tack that on. So we're looking for 140 because the insurance was already brought up to the board of finance and they said, you know, reduce your budget by the 18 and then the total cut was 140 plus the 18. That's where you get the
024158. Okay. Okay, thank you. Um I think I think that's it. Other than um I'm glad we are leaving the social worker in. I know there was seemed like there was some confusion about that. I know we've said before that this is something we have to do to to save money. Yes. But there was still some confusion in Yeah. So, one of the questions that came out was can any of the current social workers cover that? The answer is no. That that the current and I have Mrs. McClean here that Mr. McLean, why don't you just answer that question while you're here? received the question. Why don't you come right up to the It's it's the difference between It was suggested last night that we try to leverage the town social worker into the school
025a little bit and avoid the addition of the.5 social worker, which apples and oranges, but I'll let you explain the current social worker that we already have on our staff, right? Why? So our our current social workers already have uh really reached capacity in terms of their case load and in order to maximize therapeutic programming within Thrive, it really requires a dedicated social worker, those students require a higher level of care and support. Um so it's necessary that that program have a social worker dedicated, right? And if we didn't have the social worker, then we would have to outplace the student. It could lead to further outplacements. It would impact our ability to provide therapeutic supports and services to high students. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. That's it for Okay. Thank you, Mr. Russell Push.
026That to me, so my I mean my biggest question was when you were saying the non-certified staff that the social worker was staying in there because that seems like it cost savings, not expense. uh what I've been trying to poke through but I couldn't find it fast enough. What is the what was the total technology budget fun all of the technology budget besides choice. So our biggest line item is um software um that is 240,347. Um we also have um contracting services 115,870. We have some supplies under 20,000. Um, right. So those are the software defin would that include like what software is that new software or is that software renewals and stuff that we already have Mr. There's there's very little that's being added to us. It would really be the evaluation system that
027we already have. Okay. Okay. I mean obviously I'm concerned about that. Oh, I'm concerned about the programs cherry and how well they it would not it would not impact the the program at Cherry. Okay. So, so your concern is taking out technology or yeah just I just want to know where you know what I mean we'll get on the finance committee get dive a little into that would just be my concern right it was so successful. Okay. Anything else? That's I think that's it. I I think that John did just as a comment on last night's meeting. I think John did a great job on this explaining off the top of his head what the seven people do on the communications. That was impressive. That's that's what they call pop quizzes. Yeah, it was a
028serious pop quiz and you just rattled it off. It was amazing. But but at the same time I wish maybe just for the public like that that it was brought up that the town has one guy and he takes care of the town employees. There's this there's there's all the teachers and all the students. So it's not even a kind of a clear comparison. I would say we're probably the understaffed on the technology side. We just did it by numbers of people supported. So, we did a pretty we did a pretty significant study several years ago with that too to be able to make determinations around our our purchasing cycles and our staffing with that too. So, I appreciate that. That's it. Peggy, uh the only question I have is um are there any surprise
029or unanticipated retirements that might occur still? No. Um we count we factored that all in. Um we have our retirement of Mrs. grant here at the high school for science and we factored in a possible savings for that. And then our library med library media specialist or digital innovation specialist at CIS at Kelly Conway who retired in January that position has been filled at at a lower rate. And we actually met with the union today to ask them if they knew of any retirees surprises and they didn't open it. I I I would like to say that I think it's really important in the um elementary and kindergarten to have smaller class size than larger because I think it's just so uh foundational and in the long run I think it'll save us money and
030I think we've said that before too but This is what I believe. Okay. Anything else? That's all. Mr. Sh, just a couple of comments. Did spend a lot of time reflecting on the conversation last night. Um I think it's important to point out that there was a lot of support for the budget as presented or close to as presented uh from the uh board of finance and from the I don't know half a dozen folks or so that that spoke supported uh class size is important that the policy was developed 10 years ago based on research based on uh practice based on input from teachers based on our our neighbors and it's probably time to look at it again. So, we have to do we can't guarantee a result by the end of this year
031and certainly beginning next year. Um that there are uh considerations this year uh that make uh reducing staff, professional staff uh really quite difficult and the impact on kids would be will be significant I think. So, I'm I'm happy to answer that's off the table at least for now. Um the budget there was some implication that the budget was developed without input from the board of education. Budget was developed over as all of us know over months with a lot of input from the board of education. U input obviously from the people the folks we've hired to do that. Uh the insurance situation uh is odd, unusual, difficult to explain uh and it's really impacted us uh I guess you could say unfairly. But those are the cards that we have have to play. Uh
032there's no fluff in the budget. The fluff in the budget would be to cut it already. It wouldn't be there and there is a need to fluff the cut. So So something has to go and for the amount of money involved, you know, there has to be personnel involved. I think uh I was really sold on the need for a campus supervisor, especially after uh after hours at the high school. Since that came up, I've been here many times and there are a lot of people in and out of here. Uh, and we've been extremely lucky so far that there hasn't been an issue of any significance. So, I hate to see that that go, but something has to go. And Jordan, leave that up to you and the finance committee and the administrative team
033to come up with that $92,000 worth of nonprofessional staff cuts. uh the tech budget. Remind me again what are contracted services and in in that line I are um our copers um our service our um I can get to that the entire list but that type of thing is where we go out to another vendor to provide service. Those are the two things that pop up. It's it's not fluctu just to just able to do away with contracted services create some problems. That is correct. I mean that's a line by line um items that are currently embedded in our infrastructure for operations. Okay. And Tren, do you is it too early to give any indication where you might go into technology cuts or Oh, I I I think you if I had to guess it
034would go to software that would affect instructional programs that would affect I think it would affect both. Um I think it will in fact instruction I will it it can also affect data management and how we mine our data. um that everything has a purpose and we just got to look at what the purpose is will be. But like I said, I I'm not sitting here with a 1.0% increase in supplies. Um and there were some other things that that were were brought up. This budget also includes $72,000 more in capital, small capital that we haven't had to include before. That was it was normally just in a a large capital improvement, but that's all important. So, um I I listened yesterday and technology is higher than it was um last year, but some of
035it was because it was moved from open choice into the general fund. But if I had to think right now, it's probably going to come from software. Small capital, large capital, they're easy to cut, but they just multiply the problems down the road. So, can't ignore those. Yeah. And one of the things that I heard, and I just wanted to confirm this today was regarding the sound system, the PA system, uh, regarding quotes, I wanted to find a little bit more about that. So, I asked Mr. Bishop to do do a little homework on that. So, if you could just share what we found out with that. Yeah, I spoke with Mr. Richardson um who was our superintendent of buildings and ground and now is our director of public works and our uh head custodian
036here as well. There was a a quote that was provided to them um I believe it was two years ago on uh replacement for the PA system. We actually engaged in an init an initial walkth through with folks today to be able to hear more about upcoming opportunities. So the recommendation as as I shared with the board of select when they asked the recommendation that uh came from us for CIB was based on the data that Mr. uh Richardson had and then we scaled that across the the three schools to be able to provide a framework for that. Uh and we're continuing to do our due diligence to be able to make a determination on what uh what an actual cost of turnover of that project would look like. Thank you. And so Jordan will
037do I support the proposal. Thank you. Thank you, Kim. Back to you. Hi. Um, just a couple questions. Um, the great the greater Together Community Fund that that foundation that it goes around that we've have discussed before about encouraging teachers and kind of pushing more. I know we don't want things to sunset and then be, you know, liable to have to fund it, but how many people have applied for that grant from the Canton schools? How many teachers, how many programs? How much are we tapping into that? I I have no doubt on that. I don't think we could I can tell you that we consistently get three, six, eight teachers that go into the ed into the education foundation we provide grants to. So this year you do have people that have applied for
038that. I just wrote I just wrote three checks to uh three checks to Mr. Bishop for $3200 that I think is it 30 $3,500 or so for teachers that applied for spring grants. Okay, good. Because I know we haven't always had that applications. So that is happening, right? Yes. Um, you know, I like I think finance meeting I have more thoughts and ideas and questions, but I mean it's hard for us to say who's the one running the operating of the school system, but I mean I'm sure you've looked at everything um closely and that's what you have. I didn't know if you had had looked at all staff that does not directly impact students such as you know support staff such as curriculum um at some schools there's additional language arts people um that
039were not always there years ago. I didn't know if you looked closely at that. I'm sure reasons why you'd like to keep people where they are. Um it does seem like we have uhulum support at all the schools which I wouldn't want to see it cut. But I know those areas that you know if you have solid teachers working and solid assistant superintendent running curriculum then sometimes those are areas that you know are are a bonus or a privilege for a school district to have. You look at neighboring towns they don't have that. So I didn't know if that was something you looked at. And then um technology there's a big push out there in the world realizing harm that technology is having on students of all ages and there was a you know a
040digital world that was presented and school systems bought into it all across the country. Um is there any software that can be cut that you know of course it's going to impact us in some way but can be cut really um kids you know you know we have CNN kids news being viewed in schools you know could they go without watching that is are we paying for that subscription you know are there things in technology that we haven't looked closer at that really aren't going to harm our kids in fact may benefit them to revisit on a paper and pencil with rather than doing more stuff online. So that's really my concern, but thank for hearing those thoughts. So So just so you know, a little bit of your audio you were going in and
041out, but we were able to read those of us were we were able to read your comments, but your audio wasn't that great, Kim. Just just Sorry about that. But but we picked it up. But thank you. Thank you for the comments. I'm just going to read Jordan Tusan couldn't be here tonight. She sent me a little bit of a note. asked me if I would just uh um go over some of her thoughts. Um she she is opposed to cutting any um any classes. Um she feels that that would be a step backwards and she uh I think she is um she's suggesting that we go forward with the type of um audit you're you're considering a little bit more study on on class sizes where that all stands. Uh Jordan also had concern
042about the art lab uh about delaying the art lab and that that send us uh save us some money and she was in in sync with you on the uh campus supervisor. She's uh advocating instead of three um just one and then of course she also uh discussed reducing non-certified personnel. So she seems to be uh in line a little bit with your recommendations. She did have questions about the drinking water that was brought up. Uh she asked if there was a way to consider kind of a um uh you know pay to pay to participate system or um I don't know I know we don't do bottles but um vending machine or something like that. She was suggesting maybe that's something looked at, but that seems to be a larger um a larger uh
043item and and she agrees that we need longer time to analyze the option and u um you know something that uh might require a policy change and something the policy commission looked at. So she seemed to be in line with that. So those were her comments. Okay. So I'm I'm just going to close this out with just a couple of things from my side. Um, you know, when you think about the cuts that have been made with the board of education, $158,000. I I I know in in the scheme of things, doesn't seem like a big number. And I think to some extent you could say, um, the board of finance was fair with us last night. And some of the comments that they made, I I always use the term with what doesn't kill
044you makes you stronger. Um, as I said in my email, some of the criticisms are are tough to take, but if it makes us a better board and it causes us to do some of the things that we're we're going to do, we're going to look at policy. We're going to look at the finance of things. But I think the thing to remember is even though that may not be a big number, here's the big numbers. The big numbers are last year uh when the referendum was uh when we were cut, we were cut by $750,000. That was after this the and I didn't go back to see how much the superintendent had cut before we got to that point. This year, you know, in your budget packets, we were cut 800 the superintendent cut
045$860,000 on the requests and now we have another $158,000 that are being uh requested. There's been over two years more than $2 million. And the reason why I point that out is because a parent said something very important last night. She talked about the uh thriving versus surviving and we've worked hard over the last couple years to get the trajectory of our district uh in in a position that we are now getting recognized and accommodations. And while those are nice, what's more important is our kids are doing well. And my concern is if we are just going to survive. Uh if we're always looking for the places to cut and to get to the tightest spot, that's actually what's gotten our town in trouble over the years. Where the finances have to kick the can
046down the road. Therefore, our roads are in trouble. Therefore, our Mills Pond is in trouble. If we start taking that same tap to education and getting getting this thing squeezed down as far as we can, we're going to be in the same we're leaving that same legacy for the next generation or for the next set of board members. What concerns me about conversations about class sizes and cutting class sizes that comes out in a board of finance meeting is the fact that once that door opens and we're balancing budgets based on the fact that we we're going to cut classes and reduce and consolidate. That's an easy door to walk through every year. That's the door that they'll say just like they've done with roads, just like they've done with other things. That's an easy
047place to go find cut cost. What's another two or three? Drives me nuts. What's another two or three kids in a classroom? It's not It's not overwhelming. It absolutely is overwhelming. You talk to any teacher and it's critical to keep those class sizes small. So for my money, I will always fight to listen to what the paid experts are telling us as far as class sizes go and where we need to be rather than past board members that have been off the board for 10 years and haven't been participating and haven't come down to any workshop to hear where the cuts are coming. I'll go with our paid staff to be able to do that. So I feel strongly that we go forward with the superintendent's recommendations on the 158. We resist, but we resist
048it now, but we we review it. We study it to make sure we're on the right path. That's a good thing. We make sure we're on the right path financially. That's a good thing. And then once we have that data, then we can be confident as we sit here as board of education members and what we're telling the public when we say we cannot cut a class. We cannot consolidate. So those are the things that we have to remember as board members. We are the champions of education. Board of Finance members of the Champions of Finance. I appreciate that. I respect them. Every single one of them are volunteers just like we are. They don't get paid. They're trying to do the best thing for the town and I appreciate that. And we're trying to
049do the best thing for our students and I'm sure they appreciate that, too. So, I'd like to stick with our guns, stay with with what the superintendents recommended. Remember, this isn't the end of it, though. More cuts can come. There's going to be a budget workshop down the road, so people have to speak out. We still have time. You're going to hear on our meeting on on the 6th 8th, April 8th. You're going to hear about what you can do to promote the budget and what you can't do from our legal our legal council is kind of doing a uh dos and don'ts as far as that goes because you all have to be champions. You all have to be proactive when we go out there and push this budget. Okay. So, with that, I
050will take a motion that we accept the superintendent's recommended cuts in three areas. It's $92,000 in non-certified staff, $48,000 in technology, $18,000 in insurance, giving us the $158,000 cut that the board of finance is looking for. I have a motion, Mr. Sher. I have a second. Thank you, Peggy. I got you, Felicia. Um, any further conversation, discussion, hearing? Yes, sure. I just wanted to say one thing that you just what you said sparked something that I remember remember from last night there was a comment from the board of finance that 6.4% increases are unsustainable but it went on and on about that recollection there was a long period of time prior to like our big increases we had to significant inflation the last two years where we had very minimal increases below the level of
051inflation and our school test scores appear to reflect that same trend. When we got up and put the money in, our test scores came up and our schools got better. But it also 6.4 every year for the last decade, it was zero, 2%, 1%. And schools struggled under that. And in the couple years where we've had uh administrative changes and more money spent, our schools got better. Yep. I listen you get what you pay for right and it happened quite quickly wasn't and Lou one other thing how many unfunded mandates I mean we don't need to go into what they are but are we still dealing with unfunded mandates because that's something I think people are really unaware of that we get unfunded mandates from the government and the state asking us to do things
052Kim I I kind of close that discussion out this is on motion you have a question on motion no sorry about No, no. I Your question's a good one and I hear you. We can we can chat about that, but I want to take care of this motion. So, I have a first I have I have a first and a second. All those in favor? I two on the two on the screen. Unanimous. Okay. I I appreciate uh everybody's comments tonight. Um I don't think there's anything else for tonight. No. No. All right. Anyone opposed to adjournment? All right, we are adjourned at 7:21. Thank you. Thank you, Barbara, for being here.