001online is and Felicia not yet I'm okay thank you okay let's uh Hey R let's do the uh the pledge please I pledge alleg to the flag the United States of America to the for it stands one nation libery and justice for all okay thank okay um we'll go into the uh the budget workshop and then we will open up for public comment after that give people a chance to come online so the uh what what we're dealing with is uh for those of you who made the meeting last night um it it became very um apparent that the town is in a difficult situation specifically when it comes to the rebound on our homes um and I was talking to Russell about it earlier today and the fact of the matter is that um
002home price home um properties have gone up but unfortunately commercial properties have gone down and where we make a lot of the money as a town is with our uh car taxes and car ta car uh values have gone down significantly so the combination of those two have left the uh have left the resident residential property owners um the um unfortunately the job of of carrying the ball and because of that it's it's significant um so last last night we were trying to separate that and what we heard from the board of finance and we heard from former selectman first selectman Dick Barlo is that our budget seemed to be uh reasonable um you know if it wasn't for the Ral um a budget like this is is is um is is probably part for
003the course and uh that we did a good job uh getting us to where we had to but we're going to get tainted by the Ral brush clearly and uh but be it is May we'll get into that in a second so we were asked to cut $150,000 from our budget um and so tonight's the purpose of tonight's meeting is for the superintendent to inform us of where those cuts are going to come from and for us to adopt those cuts and if we do then I'll do a uh a memo to the uh uh chair of the board of Finance letting her know where the uh where the cuts are coming from uh so that they know that we've met their uh we've met their request so so with that I open it up
004to Dr Gman super there's a sheet going around right now and for the board members I apologize that you don't have this online um maybe somebody can text that to them can I text it to you right now she is oh Fel hi Felicia Kim Cindy I just sent Dr BR just texted you or I just sent it to Ken so we could send it to Felicia and Cindy so in front of you you have a draft Memo from the the board chair to the board of Finance member that is on Monday and the board chair and I spoke yesterday and today regarding the $150,000 cut or reduction so in front of you you have my recommendations of what would be reduced that total is $150,000 so the first line item is certified salaries I
005look at that as something with the the higher in that we still have to do and possible retirements and the the possibility of making a reduction to certified staff I'm recommending a $60,000 cut right now I I'm not sure exactly what certified position that would be we need to do the high school middle school schedule we need to look at enrollment I'm hoping we could absorb that in hiring this spring but I needed to put that out there non-certified salaries the same thing $20,000 that would cover a possible tutor if you remember I have a tutor at K Intermediate School that is a new position um that that could be a wide variety of non-certified type of positions ranging from Paras tutors and uh monitors so that that's something that um I I think we
006need to do also technology and subscriptions I met with our cabinet yesterday and Jeff deastro and John said that if we need to make Cuts this would be an area that they would recommend and we would have to meet with our team to talk to them about which subscriptions would be cut in which technology items would be specifically cut but Jeff um said we can look at that area professional development and conferences we would have our teachers and administrators stay in District and we would try to bring our own professional development into District excuse me and so that would be a cut small capital projects of $10,000 ranging from we'd have to look at some of the items that we had in our budget and we would uh cut some of those uh small capital
007projects and then one of the things that we need to also look at is we have textbooks in for the high school we have instructional resources in for the middle school and the elementary schools so that would be a $20,000 cut we specifically have to look at that what I'm trying not to do is create alarm within our district from a Personnel standpoint and from a instructional standpoint but $150,000 is a lot to us I don't want to minimize that it's not I already cut $351,000 from our budget which was some of it was existing already to get to the number that I was getting at and just remember that our fixed cost to roll over with special education was in a %. so $150,000 wasn't like I just had $150,000 of money just to
008look at this is a cut that will hurt and um this is where I would recommend us being right I'll take any questions questions for the superintendent please so at what point are are we deciding I know you you just want to give um broad category Cuts but at what point are you deciding detail in the spring in the spring when we really look at our hiring for what we're hiring for so we have some openings at the elementary school we have a math opening we have um uh it's a not un certifi but a certified opening so we'll have to see where those totals come in so I don't want to say that it would be like a 0 2 FTE at the high school where if our hiring and somebody retires let's say
009in the next month I don't want to put a staff name out there position out there when I may be able to cover it from within if I had to do it right now there would be a reduction of an ft but I know that I have an elementary opening and I know I have a high school math opening so we'll have to see where that lands Jordan are you anticipa any retirements in the uh the SI day buyout category or is that pretty much done no it's done done corre well no it's not done we still have staff members that are left but no one currently is within that the right now but for next year we we did budget for it next year just in case somebody does um take that up but
010we do have staff members that fall within that that's part of the contract I think before 1999 that if if you were a teacher that you before 1999 there was a CL C in that contract for 6 B and we still have staff members that um have that provision in place and that is budgeted for next year I I did not touch that Carin I don't know if you have a question this is all new to you and um anything we can answer for you on how this all works and please don't be fashional at a moment I'm still trying to take it off take it'll take two years I'm going to go online py before I go to youall go online Cindy any questions about this or what's going on you're good uh Kim
011no it was just disappointing last night to hear that even if we uh you know cut this budget by hundreds of thousands of dollars more and Clos Library doors and everything it's still it's still not the issue the issue is the re-evaluation so I really hope that the community can get that message because I think there's this undertone of like no it's the board of AD it's the budgets it's always they keep they keep raising everything but you know that reevaluation is really what's hurting taxpayers um so I know the the newsletter is going to out Lou right when is that going out oh not until um what mid April the last week of April a April 15 it goes see the issue is is as much as we can want want to separate ourselves
012from the uh the rebound but we're going to get sucked into it for and can't avoid it but um hopefully that newsletter will educate the best thing we can do is try to educate people on the merits of our budget separating it from everybody's going to be upset about their taxes so Felicia do you have a question maybe I'm good thank you okay may what what do this change remember we had a 5 point something budget incre 5.39 what does this change this to so this would change 150 it all depends where um some of you heard this other night that the education cost share was actually reduced from our $398,000 to $258,000 due to the formula that they used is different than what they it's the same formula that they used a year ago
013when the governor's budget was approved but in the in a year K's wealth went up so the formula gave us less money so Peggy I'm not sure where they have that on their mill rate out but if we just took 150,000 from our 5.39 355,000 is a% so this is about 25% 4.96 we go from there 5.39 to 4.96 do they project like there there's new businesses that are being built yes the new homes that are being they don't forecast any no it is um it's just rebout which is mandated by the state um the company does rebout does it for other towns it's just it's it it truly is as I said Russell and I were talking about it's a seesaw and our our values went up but the other two that were helping
014to offset went down so we have to Residents we uh property owners are picking up a bigger part of the tab um you know I I will say I talked I talked to Bob Skinner today and he's he's working hard to try to figure out a way to minimize this and he said he's looking into there isn't there is a uh opportunity within a law that you can phase in um an assessment like this or a reval over 3 years but he's not sure if we qualify for it he's doing a lot more work on it but I will say our our CEO is is fast at work he he realizes the pain he's trying to do something about it any further questions on these where does the where does all the reval money go
015it goes does it go back to the town or the state like all that money that will become coming in it doesn't get to go back into the town or into the budget no it's it's it's the money that funds the funds to town yeah right so there'll be a surplus of that there won't be a there's no Surplus there's no Sur I know that we're just paying a little bit more because the other guys are going to be paying a little bit less so okay we know the questions um we will go to public um public comment at this point see if anybody has anything is there anybody online we don't have any okay thank you all right um we going go right to the motion thank you I move that the C Board
016of Education reduce the final 2425 budget in the amount of 150,000 further recommendation of the board of Finance in the following areas certified salaries $6,000 non-certified salaries $20,000 technology and Technology subscriptions $20,000 professional development conferences $20,000 small capital projects $10,000 textbooks and instructional resources uh in the new category of $20,000 have a second thanks Peggy any further discussion hearing none all those in favor I online I unanimous do we have nine tonight is that right yeah so 90 90 okay thank you very much everybody okay we now we're going to move into uh want me to read yeah I move that the C Board of Ed enter into executive session for the purposes of contract negotiation discussions at 7:16 p.m. inviting Jordan Gman superintendent of schools second thanks Erica any any discussion all those in
017favor oh um so how should we handle the people so that passes so we're going into the executive session how do you want to the phone um you want to should we call you on the phone and listen in but if nobody's on right Carol I can lock the meeting and you can stay in here yeah allop I don't think this will take