001right good evening everyone thank you uh have to call the uh Board of Education uh special meeting budget Workshop to order at 7 o' on the nose uh and if we could begin by the plge of Allegiance I pled Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice [Music] for first of all uh Mr Daniel send his regrets he does not like to miss board meetings and he rarely rarely does but he's a a business commitment out of state and uh he's communicated with Jordan certainly about his questions regarding the budget his thoughts and I'll continue to do that the one agenda item uh tonight which is a budget workshop and I'm going to turn it over
002to Dr grman to a super thank you Mr Shadow good evening everyone good evening to everyone that may be online and for those of you that will watch the tape so I'm excited to have a formal budget workshop with you it feels like that you've had a budget workshop at every single Board of Education meeting now for the past four meetings but if you recall this is a process that I said that we would start early and just continue on so what I'd like to do is take you through a presentation I believe each of you have the presentation for anyone that is online this is online also under budget materials and take you through a review and then take you through some questions that we had so I want to remind everyone of the
003vision of the cam public schools graduate to be creative thinkers communicators collaborators critical thinkers compassionate citizen that this budget is grounded in our vision of a graduate it also is grounded in the Board of Education goals relative to board goal number one student growth and achievement board goal two partnership and Community engagement board goal Three Financial Cal sustainability and efficient operations board goal four learning environment and belonging board goal five embracing equity and board goal six Workforce Development the administrative budget priorities were to number one student achievement in all areas across the district maintain class size according to the Canton Board of Education policy focus on teaching learning professional development and social emotional well-being of students and staff focus on creating an inclusive and cultural responsive learning environment provide a safe and healthy school environment
004propose a fiscally responsible budget that aligns with the Canton Board of Education goals so on page five if you recall new this year on December 8th I presented to you what I referred to at the time as a forecasted budget and at that time the forecasted budget was a 5.55 a net 5.55 and when we go into the operational budget that I proposed to you on February 13th I I'll remind you of where our our costs are but on December 8th I propose to you a 5.55 if you go on page number six from the time I presented to you on December 8th to me presenting to you on February 13th there were things that changed in that month and I want to remind you what I explained to you on February 13th that I
005had to add 98,5 to that 5.5 due to a kindergarten teacher was removed from the open choice to the general fund I had to add 97 ,000 9769 of added District tuition I had to add $5,000 to digital citizenship class I had to add $1,100 to tuition to the Farmington Valley continuation and then $38 to the K Mastery uh project for stiens so after the 5.5 I had to add another $23,000 to that number which is let's say approximately a 75% so right out of the gate from the time I met with you in December to when I proposed I had to add $233,000 So based upon some of the feedback that I received from December 13th December 88th to February 13th I knew that I needed to make some adjustments in the ministrators knew
006that we had to do that so everything that is in red is what I eliminated from the budget proposal that the forecast budget that I presented on December 8th to where I landed on February 13th we eliminated 1.5 K srbi Paris for 33 $30,000 benefits actually had a reduction from the forecasted I did 9% it actually our advisers told us we could go to 8% that yielded 44,000 in savings I proposed an athletic secretary that um is not in the administrative February 13th budget I uh reduce Legal Services by $10,000 workman's count by 5,000 athletic uniforms I took that from our operational proposed and moved it to our pay for play uh funding that we have an account for special education tuition we realize that there could be $155,000 savings small capital we took out
00715,000 a lunchroom monitor 10,000 Mr delmastro felt that we would get some eate Savings of $5,000 we took out another 10,000 for district interior exter doors to look to see if we could get that through the security Grant equipment another 5,000 eate another for our Network switches 9,600 um to slow down the process of us going to a web based infinite Visions which is our software for business operations to just remain the same that was a cut a 17,500 interactive Tech equipment I have Mr deastro applying for a grant right now for $110,000 for uh equipment that we anticipate that we'll receive some athletic equipment related to chairs that will take that from pay for play adjustment to the open Choice based on enrollment we had in the the forecasted budget 925 25,000 we actually
008feel that it would we're going to receive 950,000 for open Choice and then uh this is our gym chairs that I refer to that that's 3500 so the 1,00 with some other Outlet equipment so I cut from the proposed forecast of budget that I presented you to you $342,000 which is roughly a percent in our budget so if you you net the $342,000 and the $23,000 that I had to add in it Nets out to $139,000 everybody understand where that came from okay so if you go to page 13 this is what I really want to remind the board before I in the community before I go into the the questions that were asked if you take last year's this year's fiscal year budget of 31 million [Music] 746,000 that's where you start from and
009if you take our salaries certified in non salaries we know with our bargaining groups what we have we already know that that's going to be $992,000 which is 3.13% increase we know our transportation and fuel is going up 06 we know that our health and benefits at an 8% is going up 436,000 which is 1.37 we know liability and insurance is going up 12,000 point4 we have some cost savings on our oil natural gas and electricity based upon some contracts that we entered in and we know that contracted Services is going up 46 so just add of the gate just to roll over the budget from this year to next year is a 5% increase just in those line items when you add special education netting out the excess cost and we netted out the
010excess cost at 70% even though as we know it should be 88% in the governor's budget but as everything that's going on with excess costs right now in the state we know that um we should go lower than what's anticipated so that is a 4.85 so if you just take the fixed cost of that in special Leed right out of the gate I'm at 9.85 5% increase then if you add in dues and fees supplies maintenance and upkeep facilities furniture and Equipment educational technology tech services small Capital items um that's another 2.47 if you add the 9.85 and the 2.47 that is a 12.32 budget increase right there then what we're able to do as you know we're we're able to take out the net of the $950,000 in open Choice which is a reduction
011of 2.99% and anticipated revenue from special education from the city of Harford for our children from Harford that we we get reimbursed for their special education cost that is another 2.68 850,000 so if you take that that is [Music] 5.67 and then that gets us another thing that the the in the governor's budget there's an additional $398,000 that is coming to the town for Education cost share which is over and above what we receiv received this year that Nets out 1.26 so that gets me to a budget of 33,45 7875 which is a net of 5.39 I also want to remind the the board in the community that I'm also carrying over just like we've been reporting to the board of Finance each month I'm also carrying over the shortfall by the prior administration of
012approximately a million dollar shortfall in special education services and um non-certified uh support staff so tuition and that so as you know we're writing a shortfall for um this year that we've been reporting to the board of Finance if I didn't have to put that in that that shortfall that this budget would actually be uh under three relative to the net so what I'd like to do right now is really just talk to you about the highlights to this budget and maintain the camp board of education class SES guidelines the core instructional and student intervention programs are maintained we have campus monitor positions for both Cherrybrook primary school and can Intermediate School and extended campus supervision at middle school and can high school our teacher Residency program to increase the diversification of the teaching staff
013a department chair for English at K Middle School in the high school math and English language arts instructional coaches for both ch CH Brook primary school and Canon Intermediate School and new course offering at the high school economics Early Childhood so I'd like to do starting on page nine is you you sent me a lot of questions and I thank you for sending me those questions I'd like to go through them and I also received some questions from community members so I embedded them in in the the presentation too I did not differentiate between board questions and Community questions because I actually felt the community questions were very good and deserving of me bringing them to the board so the first one when should we expect final numbers on insurance cost are the numbers in
014the budget final ones we received an update from our third party administrator two weeks ago and the 8% increase in benefits continues to be the number they suggested to use we will continue to work with them over the next few months to determine if we could get a cost savings there or just to be honest that could increase also so depending upon because we're self-funded CMS on page 10 CMS enrollment is down 10 students 7.5% for the next two years before starting to climb again the numbers are actually down 62 students from a decade ago how has this decline in enrollment affected Staffing for next year and over the past decade class sizes within the middle school have ranged from an average of 24 at the school's High Point and 20 16117 year to a
015projected average of 19 Staffing overall has been maintained from that High Point given the school strong focus on the teaming model and I'll add in the experientials that we're offering for middle school students also while staffing has remained relatively flat the board did approve for this fiscal year the addition of a math interventionist and instructional support coach to support learning at both the middle school and the high school question 11 or or page 11 excuse me are there any areas where it might be possible to phas and costs over two years in technology and equipment and Personnel so I want to really explain this one so new this year was a forecasted budget if you remember which began in September 23 from then to the present time a series of meetings were held both individually
016and collectively with administrators and businessman manager to look at the year's initial priorities planning and challenges challenges administrators were asked to prepare their budget forecast recommendation and priority for the upcoming budget cycle as well as exterior years through 20129 so if you remember I forecasted out for supplies materials Staffing for 5 years from now so we had that 5year plan so we actually did do the the phase in O over 5 years the phase in in terms of such technology equipment and personnel as already taking place is an accounted and is accounted for of course unfunded items may come up in in those years and those will be addressed in the proper budgetary cycle cycle as applicable the forecast of budget cycle is as transparent one with administrators talking openly about their school needs for
017the upcoming year and for the next 5 years as presented in the forecast budget memo on December 12 page 12 Ken High School textbooks are up $16,000 from last year where are we in the textbook presentation in the approval process the appearance of a $116,000 increase in textbook cost is due to the fact that the text resources from previous years were moved to open Choice funds moving the textbooks back to the operating budget creates the appearance of a large increase yet maintains a flat net overall so open open Choice had our textbooks in the budget we I move that back to our operational budget text requests from the middle and high school are anticipated to be made available to the curriculum committee in March 13 this was a new one for me that we had
018to uh uncover during the the budget process CMS math lab and CMS language lab tutors don't seem to appear in the 23 budget and do appear in the proposed budget for next year can you explain it's as simple as the tutor positions were not presented in the 2324 proposed budget they were not in there when the the previous administration proposed the the budget but we didn't cut those positions so they were not funded so I'm making up for that in this year's budget but we needed to account for that next year the math tutor has been maintain maintain while Staffing the ELA position remains vacant 14 under open Choice funding technology replacement District funding for all smart boards for this year's 5-year replacement cycle are the majority of teachers using the smart boards regularly it
019was my understanding they weren't being used as much anymore and were potentially being phased out please inform me we will most of the smartboards at the Intermediate School are being phased out and replaced by interactive laser projectors however Cher Brook Primary School continues to utilize smartboards daily up to three or four times a day the misunderstanding may arise from the replacement of old style smartboards with full LS LCD interactive Smartboard panels offering significantly improved resolution and performance teachers appreciate how these boards bring lesson plans to light with their enhanced interactivity 15 in the light of recent Connecticut budget challenges what adjustments are being made to ensure that essential programs and services are not compromised in response to the recent release of the governor's budget the Administration has accounted for these adjustments being made to safeguard
020essential programs and services from compromise we are F we are focused on optimizing existing resources implementing taret targeted spending and continue to explore revenue generated opportunities initially there's an emphasis on improving efficiency and streamlining operation operations within various departments to maximize the impact of available funds 16 page 16 what strategies do we plan to utilize to address potential funding gaps or shortfalls in the education budget great question we are proactively developing strategies to address potential funding gaps or shortfalls in the education budget firstly focusing on optimizing resource allocation identifying areas for cost savings without compromising the quality of Education this may involve consolidating services or implementing energy saving measures additionally exploring alternative Revenue sources such as grants and Partnerships with local businesses we continue to have an open dial with stakeholders including the Board of
021Education parents and Guardians staff in the community to gather input and Foster support for creating solutions by taking a collaborative and proactive approach we aim to navigate any funding challenges while safeguarding the quality of education for our students 17 can you provide an update on any grants or additional funding sources that the district is pursuing to supplement the education budget Grant revenues are obtained by both state and federal government grant funds enable the district to better support students by enhancing current programs Grant funds may not supplant local funding so I've listed out this was in your budget book I listed out all the grants that we have ranging from Title One title two title three title four right to read adult education Ida Commissioners Network Grant open choice and sr3 funds which I'll explain in
022a minute for the community so we're we're utilizing the the grants that are out there for us and if more come we will certainly apply for them page 18 how do we plan to measure the effectiveness of spending within this budget and what metrics are being used to evaluate the impact on student on student outcomes as shared in the proposed budget book the accountability index as developed by the State Department of Education will serve as the key metric for return on investment individual initiatives or programs may have alternative metc metrics used to articulate a return on investment and will be developed accordingly additionally this is the key additionally District administration continues to monitor its School continuous Improvement plans these plans allow continuous involvement and valuation of student achievement continuous Improvement plans are reviewed by each
023school in the fall it will be reviewed again in the spring these plans are available on the district website at ww schools under school information 19 for the English chair are you hiring are you hiring additional staff the district attends to post for a 1.0 FTE 7-2 English department chair requiring an administrative endorsement the district attends to complete a comprehensive search to identify the next departmental leader the comprehensive search will be first open to internal applicants who may be interested should to be be no interest qualified applicants internally this position will be advertised externally and that's according to our contract page 20 can you please explain the enrollment projections for the district so I'll start at 2425 you could see that from 23 to 24 we're actually going down from 1483 to 1475 and just
024remind the board in the community that we did do two um studies on our enrollment with the Peter Proud study and the nezda study so we have two studies and we did one last year two last year and two this year I want to remind you that we start growing at our prek through three next year and you could see in 2526 we go 474 483 480 487 that's the highest that Cherry Brook has been since the 2013 2014 school year and as we know we don't fit now at Cher Brook Primary School I've had community members ask me well why don't we fit and how why do how do we fit in 2013 and why don't we fit now education looks a lot different than it does than it did 10 years ago we
025have more preschool we have um more special education programs Within building we have more tutoring and intervention supports within our building and as we uh have mentioned and as some of you have seen in the walkth through our tutoring and interventions are out in the hallway now kids that are receiving services are in small little office spaces so you may say well our numbers look like that they're actually going down and where we're actually going down is the Middle School level so another question that I've been asked well have we looked at just moving our grade reconfiguration and moving our third grade to CIS and then our sixth grade up to the Middle School the board many years ago did study that and it's really just kicking the can down the road the the sixth
026grade would not even fit here at the the Middle School based upon that the the our current programming and the programming that we would want for our our sixth grade so that's why we are proposing modules uh W within this um conversation if you go to page 21 can you please explain the class siiz projection for the district we are not increasing any sections amount for for next year we're utilizing the same sections that we have this year as 54 in the same amount of 54 next year these class sizes are within our our guidelines I've been asked well what would happen if you removed a kindergarten section for example from six sections to five sections my simple answer is that's a lot of five and six year olds in in a a classroom um
027and I would not recommend that and then if we did do that that would make our class size guidelines be against the what the board is recommending and that's the same for all the great levels if we reduce a section class size would go up and and the board would have to relook at their uh class size guidelines page 22 what are the pay for play funds used for currently there's $69,000 in in the paper play that's why I'm offsetting um some of the things with the uniforms and the um the chairs and some other equipment Canton collects payto playay fees for students in grades 9 through 12 12 these fees are used to directly offset expenses related to Athletics current fees are $100 per student with the exception of football and hockey which is
028225 page 23 what new educational programs are being developed for next year's curriculum at CIS CMS and CHS CHS adding personal finance per state requirement adding economics expanding dual enrollment in ECE opportunities CMS continued evaluation of the CMS schedule and partnership with the Commissioners Network to ensure flexible scheduling to provide opportunities for student support and enrichment CIS continued revision and expansion and math tutorial and enrichment programs continued evaluation of social studies program evaluating prospective Ela programmatic implications due to projected cbps reading adop uh program adoption 2 for what consists of Transportation fuel line item 148,000 this figure is based on the anticipated 2.5% increase in fuel prices in the actual expenditure from fiscal year 2023 we have a a vendor dime oil LLC is our main vendor for transportation fuel there is a small portion
029budgeted to this line to reimbursement to the town of camp for the Border ofed truck and ban usage of the town fuel pumps 25 please provide examples of purchase Services as shown in the budget py graph so these are all examples within instruction Administration special education maintenance and athletic relative to Services um we have nursing Services outside instruction Consulting and Therapy Services Pest Control uh elevator maintenance Sports official scorekeeper timers those are all examples of purchase Services then what I'd like to do is just quickly go through some of the um previous questions that you asked at at previous meetings so the first one is what impact does the Thrive program have on the proposed budget for 2425 is the program fully funded have any extra savings been realized the impact of programs such as
030drive and the learning lab are that they enable Canton schools to provide a least restrictive environment for students with unique needs Thrive is keeping High need students in District which is decreasing the need to seek out placements the program has already saved hundreds of thousands of dollars based upon the current and projected students the Thrive program is appro appropriately funded savings so far this year is 108,000 PPS anticipates an additional savings of 70,000 for the 2425 school year since we did that in um in December if you remember the monthly financials that I presented we have more savings we have approximately $130,000 more uh that we brought uh students back are there any new funded unfunded uh State mandates for next year that impact the budget yes just a reminder that an act on the
031implementation of the reading models and programs that is an unfunded mandate that could cost us in in the 25 26 year approximately $650,000 an act concerning resources and support services for persons with um intellectual development disabilities this requires Lees to extend the IP until the end of the school year in which a student turns 22 it is anticipated that there'll be 101,000 cost additional um for providing required Services the the the public act on hbac a reminder that we have $70,000 that is mandatory to do an hbac inspection and then the the legislation regarding the menstral dignity act ensures that all menstral uh menting students regardless of gender age ability or socioeconomic sta socioeconomic economic status have an opportunity for safe dignified self-care there in the budget there's $25,000 for that what items if any
032that were funded by eser grants does the proposed budget include in what are the costs it is likely that some of all these uh expenses will be sunset just a reminder to the board into the community eser funds were provided to the school district for during the time of covid the running out we only have um one thing relative still from Grant funds for next year and it's a custodian in next year's budget so the following as you recall originated originated as funding through Esser continues to be in the operating budget another custodian of 05 educational software for 46,000 tutors for 69,000 summer school services for 40 Communications coordinator for 24,000 in a literacy specialist at Cher Brook all those were in Grants and they're now in our operational budget what impact has the lack
033of the English department chair for the past 5 years had on curriculum selection and materials The English Department position was retained by Dr Kidwell concurrent with her assistant principal ship through 2021 Department coordinator duties were held by current staff in the Years following the department supervisor respons possibility were to oversee the department meetings and facilitate Department work evaluation of Staff occurred through current administrative loads in this time there were no new courses no selection of materials the return of the English department chair will provide expanded instructional evaluated support for teachers facilitate the material selection process for the department and complete curricular reviews and Lead Department improvements just a reminder that ventilation to the ventilation to room 100 Music Room B what will this $2,000 entail this room has been a storage room for several years
034it is partially partially subgrade with external fresh air intake this system will be serviced to ensure proper ventilation protection from weather and the air quality tested to ensure that air quality standards are met in order for it may be used as a classroom the room will also be clean painted and prepared for use what is the timeline for us to hear from the commissioner Network Grant we'll hear sometime around May 15th if we get that gr the Panorama survey regarding the Panorama survey reduction if we were go back doing the surveys inous how will we be sure of their accuracy the Panorama survey provided Norm School climate survey questions and out survey data the district will utilize survey is created to provide Community student and staff feedback relative to the National School climate standards campus
035supervisor 1.0 chair Brook Primary School CIS what is the job description for this uh Position will be someone already on staff the campus supervisor position is established position at CMH cmhs the campus supervisor will provide Safety and Security support by greeting visitors visors monitoring hallways and shared spaces and working in concert with the school leadership and the director of school safety is increase in special education based on the needs of our population or is it a projected number this budget is based upon the needs of our current students we do not budget for the potential of incoming students are we legally required to incur the riseing cost of special education services yes we are legally required to pay for students special education services however the excess cost for rent does exist with the cost once
036it reaches the 4.5 times rate of our per people expenditure how does the budget address improving student achievement this budget directly relates to board goal number one improving student achievement how does the Bill of Rights of the the Connecticut that the Connecticut Board of Education pass potentially affecting our budget for next year as I mentioned the the state they did this last week but they actually just emailed us yesterday um an update and they anticipate giving us guidance in June or July what is the process for what is done to ensure all items in the budget are necessary or fully utilized the budget process starts in September and from then to the present time a series of meetings are both held individually and collectively with administrators to look at this year's initial priorities planning and
037challenges administrators were asked to prepare their budget forecast recommendations in order of priority for the upcoming budget cycle as well as exterior years through 2029 detailed conversations and itemized budget reviews have been taken place so we anticipate that everything that is budgeted will be used and the last question how would the teacher minority recruitment work the Connecticut teacher residen program operated in partnership with C is focused on diversifying the teaching staff across the state of Connecticut the program partners with school districts and grow their their own learning model for the Connecticut state certification this program works to support legislative mandate Public Act 23126 section 10 the program works in conjunction with the district to identify and support perspective candidates for participation the program then supports the candidate in professional learning courses for 14 to 18
038months while the candidate Works within the district candidates participate in depending upon the program and work with a mentor teacher for one school year while receiving paying benefits C candidates are then eligible for full-time teaching position in partner District upon successful completion of the program and then the last slide just summarizes our upcoming and future meetings We Have Tonight a budget Workshop if we need a budget Workshop this Thursday there's a budget Workshop if we um the another budget Workshop is March 5th and then on March 11th we need the board of education budget is due to the board of Finance March 20th is when U Mr Daniels on behalf of the board will present to the board of Finance I would encourage everyone to be at that meeting if they can while uh we
039present our budget March 26 a possible Board of Education Workshop depending upon if there's Board of Finance reductions April 23rd is the annual budget hearing and um to be determined but must be on or before May 9th a budget re referendum I know that was a lot we've been talking about this budget for a few months now but I I'll take any questions um that anybody would have well I won't start but I will say thank you for your uh continued thoroughness and transparency you have been right from the beginning of the budget process uh and thank you for answering all of our questions as as thoroughly as you did makes a big difference to us all with that said uh board members questions [Applause] comments I have two little ones I think uh I'm
040pretty sure you said this the uh projected special education excess cost you figured that at 70% 70% 70% so it's supposed to be 88% but we're budgeting at 70% and that's the better part of $200,000 difference give or take oh I think it's more than that I think it'd be more than that and the department chair position it's a full-time job but it's it it's not a full-time addition to the staff is it it is no because we right now we um we have a part-time position within our teaching staff that we offered a one-year contract knowing that uh this was something that was important so that's why you see a $50,000 line item within the budget knowing that we already have funds within the budget so the the new money would be for the
041supervisory end of it not for the teaching it all it all depends how it all works out depending upon the candidate that we get okay anyone I've had a chance to think for a minute or two I know it is an awful lot but you also sent in questions which were answered so uh comments thoughts I I know we did a study for um you know projected enrollment but did that include all these different buildings this work it did it did all and and and the thoughts that people have when you put up Apartments you think that there's actually going to be kids within the apartment I asked Mr Bishop and he reached out to the the the the management and I believe there was only three students at the the present time that we're
042in there that's correct so and that's all that's all factored into when they do their projection out there because Applegate we can't that's 34 HS I believe I mean there could be a lot of kids who all Factor it into their projections thank you good question Peggy for sure anyone else we can open it up to folks online uh is there anyone so want to just go public com this is we move to public comment um Bud we ask that you can find your comments if you have any to budget items that was the only item on the agenda today U and we ask you to be respectful of everyone's time and toine your comments to 3 minutes or less and please identify Yourself by name and address just for the record so if there's
043anyone online that has a question we would love to hear from you and and rather than just listen this time which is what we normally do with public comment Dr Gman has agreed to answer questions that people might have so if you're joining us online tonight you can use that raiseed hand feature of zoom and I'll call on you by your Zoom name and then you'll be allowed to make your comment I don't have any raised hands but I'll keep an eye on it if um and let you know if anybody does all right thank you and board members we oh someone in the I'm sorry folks in the in the audience no one question no I'm new with this so my forget you Jordan I have a question so um when I was looking
044at some of the policies um the the teacher minority teacher minority recruitment um policy was in there I had a question about that before but and this isn't really budget related but I'm just curious about the wording of grow a grow what a grow their own model means and also it says that you know after uh a candidate it goes through all of this kind of professional learning and all that kind of stuff that they'd be eligible for a position in a partner District how does that work I'm going to ask Mr Bishop to explain the the program he's done the homework on it so I'll let him do that sure cind it's the uh increasing educat diversity plan and through partnership with the teacher Readiness program um the trp I will use trp which
045is the the the program connection that we have uh heard from with that um the grow your own concept is should you have a a candidate who would want to be able to to um apply to participate within the program that they would have the opportunity to be able to join that and be able to um uh work through the program and participate in it however if we if we didn't have anyone within within our our Uh current Staffing the the partnership does work to be able to find um a candidate who might want to be able to work with us then to to be able to to do that work Okay I uh I served on the C uh committee for half a dozen years uh prior of the past two and in terms
046of broadening the diversity of staffs this program was Far and Away the most successful uh that been a lot of talk over the probably the past two decades that didn't result in much this has resulted in uh candidates that you know getting a chance to finish their education to become teachers and then to slide right into an opening and it it was uh as widely successful as any program has been for uh for CRA and and uh that's what we're talking about thank you other qu anybody have any thoughts on anybody comments thoughts I have a raised hand online if you still like the public to can do that sure all right I'm going to allow Lisa C to talk Lisa you should be able to unmute and make your comment now I did thank
047you very much um Dr Gman I just want to thank you very much for the comprehensive report I know you answered a significant amount of my questions and it's very thorough um I did have a question I don't I apologize I have not been a part of the process uh I know you've been discussing it since SE I don't know what the doll shortfall is that you referred to that's one question um and another question I had was um I know Mr Bishop has a meeting with the do on March 13th I hope to be a part of that meeting but the do has a green bus initiative which offers a grant for Ev options for smaller bus BS and I was wondering if anyone looked into that because I know there was a additional
048vehicle requested in the budget um and um I think that's it for my question so thank you very much super Lisa I could explain uh I could actually explain both the the the shortfall in the budget is when I arrived as the the superintendent of schools um I I uncovered when I reported out the October financials to the this board and to the board of finance that actually might have been the September financials that we were under budgeted by special education tuition of approximately I'll say $600,000 in special education tuition and transportation and then another approximately $400,000 in non-certified staff so that that was something that I had to work with the the board of finance of how we were going to to make up those dollars and we are doing that uh currently related
049to funds that we received from the the the city of Harford in special education that was a revenue to the town so we're working our way through that so th this budget actually accounts for that shortfall but also Nets out the $850,000 that we anticipate so I had to account for those students because they're still with us in in the can Public Schools regarding your your transportation with with with green energy um I I I've just arrived in District six months ago and it's on my radar screen that we need to look at that and not only do we need to look at that relative to Transportation relative to our vehicles but something that uh the the state and the federal government is also looking at uh Green Transportation for our our buses and our
050Fleet so that that's something that I haven't even entertain that that conversation with this this board or our transportation company of where we are but it you you make a a really solid recommendation and there is funding out there that we're going to have to look at so thank you for bringing that up I appreciate it thank you Lisa Lisa before you go could we have your last name and address for our minutes sure yes sorry it's Lisa cogin danard Drive thank you the all right before we we uh close up for the night um perhaps we could go around and you could give your your thoughts as to where we're at with the budget where your feelings are we you would support you're looking for changes looking for more [Music] information so Kim I'm
051eyeballing you first at that end of the table I can tell you who don't want to but I don't have any comment right now no comment okay Felicia um presentation was clear and and transparent concise I don't have any additional questions besides the on I agree up to me yeah I think the budget obviously Jordan's done a great job with Clarity or bringing more clarity to the budget process I feel like this year I'd say as a general comment it seems like a relatively flat I mean in terms of most of the increases are fixed costs that we have no control over at this time so I mean I I'm I'm all in favor of it thank you er um yeah I appreciate the format um this year where you would ask for questions and
052then write the responses I think it allowed for more of a thoughtful process um and thought helpful answers um I uh the the area that I um feel we are strongly needing is the English chair so I'm glad to see that in the budget um and I know I I know it's still some catching up since this is your first full budget as our superintendent so um I just appreciate all that's gone into it and I hope the community is aware of that as well that's it Cindy I thought it was really straightforward I trust you Jordan I think um I think you did a great job answering everybody's questions I have like one or two little things that I I can email you about um not really so much about numbers I'm more of
053a language person but yeah I'll send you an email and I would agree that uh I feel I know the budget well the information you provided us has been accurate thorough complete uh transparent um and and while it's a 5 plus per increase it does seem like a flat budget because we're adding an English department chair and one or two other uh small things and looking to make make things work better uh so I'm I'm in support of this budget uh would brings us to our next question uh we have a budget Workshop scheduled for Thursday uh is there a need for that I don't think so I I anyone anyone I I would agree I don't I think we're we're we're good now certainly doesn't preclude anyone from uh sending additional questions to uh
054to Jordan that he will answer at the Tuesday March 5th meeting um so please if you you something occurs to you or if you hear from somebody in the community that that's a question you can't answer please ask them to either contact Jordan directly or to you can do that for them um our plan then would be to meet uh next Tuesday right Tuesday March 5th uh again there' be one item on the agenda uh two two parts uh one would be to interview prospective candidates for the open position that wouldn't be in public session that would be in an executive session um I haven't touch Bas with L but I presume that would be before the meeting yeah there'll be it will actually be I'm just not sure the times yet there'll actually be
055two separate agendas there'll be one for that and then there'll be an agenda for a budget workshop and on that agenda will be very it will actually be the same agenda um and then a possible recommended action just like this one to possibly adopt a budget that time at that time to mve if if we don't adopt the budget on March 5th we'd have to have another meeting prior to March 11th because we do need to get it to the board of Finance for then so I I I would judging by tonight and all you know for the past several weeks uh I would think we'd be in a position to vote uh on Tuesday um but again please if you have questions or concerns or you know people that have questions or concerns Jordan
056is more than happy to address them before we vote it'd be great if I can get those questions by Friday um so we can put them together and take a thoughtful process on Monday and never ready to go on Tuesday if we have more questions and I make get more question from the community that I will definitely share uh so in terms of timing for Tuesday you'll hear from uh from Jordan or Lou sooner rather than later budget workshop's going to be at 7even so whether you go before or you do the budget and then people come in it all depends would all possible be good if you could uh attend in person for that uh I think it's important for the community to to see this is March 5th Tuesday yes and even though
057it's not on the agenda I call your attention to the insert that came out uh came out last week I think U it's really I think it's really extremely well done so to those folks that had lot to do with that we he that our thanks for that it it speaks well for our our district I think it gets people some important information as well too uh comments questions I'll take a motion to adjourn then beggy first is there a second Felicia uh I assume there's no discussion on that and uh we're adjourned that 755 thank you all thank you Jordan