001for planning meeting of the whole. [snorts] Mr. Jensen, roll call, please. >> Sure. Mr. Kolau, >> here. >> Miss Cullinin >> here. >> Mr. Eckie. Miss Fitzgerald >> here. >> Dr. Harrian >> here. >> Miss Rosenberg >> here. >> Mr. White >> here. >> Madam Chair, you have a quorum. >> Thank you. Please join us for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic to the republic for which it stands >> one nation under God indivisible indivisible with liberty with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. [snorts] Um just for item number two on the agenda is public comment. We do not have a public comment section. However, the public is more than welcome as we are streaming and with any
002questions to email the BOE email which is BOE contact at cheshure.k12.ct us. With that being said, we're going to move on to item number three, which will be the elementary school attendance zones for 26 27 school year. And I will forward this to Dr. Solen, who will review um scenario D as well as B2 um and some survey initial survey data. >> Thank you. And I would add that the um emails [snorts] received from the time that we sent the uh information out or the posting out uh about tonight's meeting till now have also been uploaded into a folder and shared with the board. So I think many of them went to board members but just in case they um are all available in a folder as well. Um me just share screen here for
003presentation [gasps] everybody see that? Okay. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. So um good evening everybody. Uh as uh Miss Rosenberg mentioned uh we just want to go through the attendance zones information again. Uh also we had the benefit of a survey uh soliciting interest from families that are currently Chapman families who were redistricted to Highland as well as uh Highland families who live in the Moss Farms area that were redistricted to Barnum as part of scenario B2. But just to kind of um go back a little bit. Um the guiding criteria, the charge that uh this is the slide basically that Mike Zuba shared and [snorts] um I reiterated last week is to develop attendant zones that align with student enrollment with the design capacities in New Barnum and uh Newton
004Norton. Basically when we um began the process of designing schools the and what the state requires is basically do the 10-year enrollment study and then you have to build schools that u meet that enrollment study if you're uh going to receive reimbursement. So you uh your schools should be roughly balanced. uh you can't get reimbursement with if for example you had an elementary district uh a whole school system that has a thousand kids and right now you have three schools. Well, you're not going to build one school for uh 800 kids and have a whole bunch of empty seats in the other two buildings. They would ask you to close them or something. So you have to basically level off the schools uh and build in essence right sizing uh for the the buildings and
005then uh the other thing that we were looking at is sustainability the longterm sustainability of these attendance zones. Nobody likes to redistrict. uh it's uh uncomfortable uh and upsetting and a challenging process to be sure. So there was a special attention paid obviously to making sustainable boundaries boundaries that make sense today but can also make sense 10 20 years down the road. Uh we also uh paid attention to cost effective transportation uh is part of this. I mentioned last week the additional considerations obviously, you know, it had been reiterated in the the Chapman community that, hey, we're all going to Barnum. And so that is certainly uh out there and something that we're we're sensitive to and how do we best address that situation because all of our schools create strong school communities and um
006pretty much everybody thinks their community is the best community. Uh they're all great communities and they feel like home to people. So, how do we try and make a good long long-term decision for the Cheshire community and at the same time um honor those who wish to stay connected to their current school community? Is is there a way to do that? Um, one of the scenarios that we looked at I know has received a lot of attention from the Chapman community is scenario D. Uh in scenario D, we have uh on the map here, Barnaman Highland highlighted uh Barnum in yellow, Highland in green with the uh circles around them being a mile radius. So the last meeting, some of the things I I talked about were proximity, uh you know, people living closer to
007a school. Uh certainly that's better for transportation and and local school community for the long term. Um and in both these cases there's you know significant overlap into other districts. And then uh the utilization model uh at the bottom right hand side of the screen. I'm going to have another slide momentarily that that blows this up, but you can see uh in 2030 the uh utilization rate hits 100% in that building in scenario D. Um the blown up version of that so that you can see it a little bit easier shows that in Barnum uh the 5-year average hits 95% utilization and then you know it's as low as 80% at Highland. Um now again this this did include the four portables at Highland. So, the utilization rate may be a little bit low here.
008And I'll show you what it looks like uh on on scenario B2 when we drop the the four portables and don't consider them as viable spaces to utilize for for courses but or for for classes. So, uh this illustrates the uh utilization rate over time at all four buildings and you have a 15% delta. Again, it's it's uh the 80 is artificially low. So, let's call it 86%. Still a 9% delta here between the uh two buildings. So, uh, since the presentation and you know, we we've received feedback, uh, through that board of ed contact and I had a couple of parents ask me about, well, what about this Riverside Drive community? Uh, this is on the east side of Cheshire. it uh as you can see that that lighter area in the map where
009the blue line is that's Knob Hill Road that ultimately turns into Riverside Drive. The the lighter shaded area attends Barnum in the redistricting V2. Uh the darker green is slated for Highland School. So the question was, can't we just take this Riverside Drive section and move that to Barnum? Um, in order to do so, uh, one of the individuals that that reached out and asked that question recognized that, you know, there are a number of students who live in that Riverside Drive section and to add them to Barnum would, um, push that utilization rate higher uh, if you didn't take people out. So, it's kind of like a balancing an equation. and their recommendation was to take the uh extreme northwest corner of the community map highlighted in the upper leftand corner of the scenario
010B2 map on on the screen and send those students rather than to Barnum uh to send them back to Dittle which is where that part of the community exists. And uh so you know we wanted to take a a closer look at that as an option. Um and ultimately, you know, in talking to Mike Zuba and um the transportation department here, uh felt that it would be best to reject that recommendation in part because that Riverside Drive neighborhood currently [clears throat] has 31 students. It's a larger neighborhood, a larger section with um quite a few homes. There are 31 students in there who would be going to elementary school next year. Only seven of them are in grades four through six. So those students um you know would ultimately be there as we're we're hitting
011a a higher uh range of student of uh enrollment. But either way, you'd have to back students out uh to maintain the balance. And in this case, it just geograph geographically doesn't make a lot of sense to back this section of town out and send them all the way to Dittle. I know that's where they go to school now, but where they go to school now, there isn't a a school located this close to their home. Um, so in looking at it and and talking to our transportation department, uh, the routes in the B2 scenario are actually shorter, uh, from the Riverside Drive section to Highland than they are to Barnum, but they're dramatically shorter to the northwest corner section to Barnum than they are to Doolittle. Um, so we felt like it still made
012a lot of sense for the long term to keep this section of town attending Barnum. And I I just want to reiterate again that we're talking about lasting decisions here. Um and there may be who would prefer to to continue to go to Dittle and um we know there are people in Riverside who would prefer to u go with roughly the half of the kids that are going to Barnum from Chapman and we wanted to continue to keep that on the table um and what we were going to do to try and support that. I wanted to share this visual with you. It's basically um a couple of different scenarios that we had uh put on the table and then uh the final one to the far right was really a kind of a um
013the last iteration trying to evaluate uh those criteria that we were prioritizing uh at the beginning with the balance and geographic uh sense and try not to re uh district the entire community. Um so in this far left that is the scenario D like I said that was getting attention and um you know think if you this uh extension here that goes up even north of Barnum that is going to Highland is uh quite a route to traverse to Highland. Uh it's not quite as bad as this northeast section in the far left going all the way to to Doolittle. But um the thought was all right well if you collapse that uh green extension the thing that looks like a finger sticking up the peninsula and you collapse that down closer to Highland. I
014mean that's kind of what B does to an extent. uh and even in B there are some geographic issues uh particularly with Barnum. And so that last iteration of the B+ uh again in order to put students into a school, you have to take them out if you're going to other students out to retain that balance. And that's what that far uh eastern section of Cheshure is is now green in that upper right hand corner of the the B2 map. So in the B2 utilization projections um this was the projection model that uh Mike Zuba gave us for last week. You can see they're pretty tightly correlated uh between 85 and 92. We received the question about well in Mike's presentation it's showing 147 classrooms across all four schools. We only have 126 teaching positions.
015what could be done, if anything, to elevate the number of teachers um to move kids um and basically provide more access to Barnum for current Chapman students. But from the um Mike had shared from the building capacity, um it didn't make sense. We could take four if we took the the trailers out of the equation at Highland. We're dropping the enrollment. The intention was to drop the enrollment because we're way overenrolled at Highland. And even if we did take any available space that was left at Highland to um add students, it would still interfere with the balance. the additional teachers that we would have to hire just wouldn't make uh fiscal sense in the sense that they wouldn't they would drive um class sizes down which is is nice but uh there's not a strong
016economic um benefit or strong academic benefit for the economic expenditure. Um, so and it still creates the long-term geographic issue uh when we move those around. And so we we took a look at when you take the four trailers out of Highland, the utilization rate at Highland is now 92%. There's still a range between the four buildings of only 3%. um which is incredibly well balanced. It also provides headroom for growth in each community. Now, I talked to Mike. I mean, it was a headline after our last meeting that Norton Farms um was looking at a development proposal for 25 homes. And I asked him if, you know, that was, you know, considered going in. Well, um he reminded me that they actually ceased operations at the farm last spring and that um he had
017considered that housing would go in there. He didn't know. I think [clears throat] 25 homes is almost a relief compared to um you know the apartments and and [clears throat] condos that we've seen uh in other parts of the community lately. But um he was factoring that into the calculations in terms of our enrollment growth and in his modeling uh that we would see additional students from that area once it was sold and developed. So overall with the B2 scenario, what what does it look like? um the students that are moving from Chapman to Highland. This is with zero waiverss um just straight redistricting. There are 166 students um moving from Chapman to Highland. 50 students moving from Doolittle to Barnum, predominantly that upper left hand corner and then um Highland to Barnum and Norton
018over 300 students are being uh redistricted in those in this scenario. So districtwide there are 536 total students being redistricted. I mentioned at the outset that we have uh done a survey. We solicited uh families that were in that Chapman to Highland group and about 29 that were in the um Moss Farms to Barnum group rather than returning to Highland about their uh intentions. again this is not a binding uh survey that we had asked of them but uh to date so the the issue the survey was issued late Monday um probably about four or five o'clock I think and that's a very laborious process that we're pulling street names and pumping them into um parent square to be able to or into a spreadsheet to be able to add to parent square and send
019out. So we sent it out uh late Monday and uh Tuesday we initiated a um an audit. We had nine uh families that didn't receive the email that should have. So we made sure we had sent it to them, too. Uh and so for most people, they received the uh survey about three days ago, let's say. Um, and what you see here, I mean, it's it's fairly self-explanatory. At this point, we have 53% of the surveys have have been returned are one6 Chapman students. So, current students that are currently in K through five. So, these are students who currently attend Chapman. their families indicated 57 of them indicated they would be seeking a a priority legacy waiver to attend Barnum. Um there are another 25 students who were redistricted in that group to Highland who
020indicated that they would not be uh seeking not have interest in seeking the waiver. at Highland. Thus far, those Highland families, we had nine students in the Moss Farms area indicate that they would be seeking the waiver uh or that they would like to seek the waiver and another three who indicated they would prefer to just attend Barnum as they were districted. The transportation data uh indicates that 32% of B Barnum students are requesting transportation. So there were 23 uh Barnum students who said that they were looking for that the transportation and 50 who said they were not. So um then there were 56% of Highland students were requesting transportation. Five of the nine and overall 66% of students indicated that they would not be requesting transportation. um of this this group it was 19
021total families of the 28 students who were asking about uh providing transportation that the district provide transportation. So you know after reviewing obviously we've been pretty connected to it um throughout but you know at this point I would recommend to the board adoption of the B2 scenario. Um, again, I think it's very important to provide Chapman and Moss Farms families the opportunity to remain connected to the school community ver via the priority legacy waiverss. Um, and I want to talk a little bit more about that in a second. And then the the final piece, I mean, particularly given the data would be, you know, it's the consideration of um $180,000 on transportation. That's two buses uh to address those who wanted transportation from the different sections of town. Um I think it's it is very
022difficult to justify that um from a financial perspective. Um we still obviously want to keep those the waiverss open. Um so again you know in terms of making decisions about the waiverss uh we are giving priority to uh the the uh four through six and younger siblings that are currently enrolled in Chapman to attend Barnum and same for the Mars Farms families to be able to attend Highland. Um, and I I had been asked before about um what about having like a permanent waiver? Um, so that you're just guaranteed for the next several years. And I think as I I said last Thursday, the probability that once you get a waiver uh is very good that uh you would be able to complete your time at the school. Uh, I have a hard time guaranteeing
023anything like I, you know, the um the 25 houses at at Norton Farms, if that was approved to be a much bigger u complex of of condos and things that were yielding way more students than the 25 homes would yield. Um, I can't guarantee that if that was built three years from now that a a first grader who was going back to Highland this year would be able to stay there several years from now unless we were willing to, you know, bus everybody from the new development to a different area. Uh, which wouldn't make a lot of sense. But um I think like I said given the forecast that we have and uh what's available I think if you were to u submit the priority waiver which gives you you know first in line status
024one of the areas one of the weights that we consider is has this student waved in in the past and yeah you're given priority at that point. So anybody else who might be applying for a waiter, excuse me, a waiver later would uh be in line behind you. It would once you have the waiver in, which this priority uh waiver provides, it does give security for subsequent waiverss barring something really unforeseen. Um like I said, a massive condo unit or something like that. Then of course we we look at additional family circumstances. The other the other issue I want to make sure people are aware of is that if again if you're attending one of our schools like Highland um and attending the intensive education program at Highland for example uh or the bridges program
025at Dittle and you live outside of those areas, you're um automatically going back to that program regardless of where you live. I mean, that's a district-wide program housed in those different buildings. We have an intensive ed program at NOR as well. Um, we would send you to those programs regardless of your home address the same way we do now. So, um, this point I'll I'll stop sharing um, and see what I can answer any questions for members of the board. I um, are are you okay with that, Sam? me just jumping in with questions. >> Yeah, I think that'd be ideal. >> Okay, Matt, go ahead. >> Okay. Um I have I have uh three questions. None of them should be too long, but um in reviewing the utilization data of each of the schools
026across the different scenarios. Um and maybe we'd have to ask Mr. Zuba this question, but how is that five-year average calculated? I mean, if you could go back to that B2 one, uh, I is that the last five years? Is it a running five years? There were some numbers there that didn't make sense to me showing like an 89% 5-year average when the last six years were north of 90, right? So, I I wasn't sure exactly how that number was calculated. >> I believe it's the first five, but >> first five. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay, that's helpful. I that that gets me moving on something. Um the transportation cost that you alluded to uh potentially being an additional $180,000. How much room in that waiver program? I think you mentioned we have about half
027of the potential responses back. I mean, if the responses were to come back at 100%, are we still at 180 and two buses approximately or, you know, if if the rest of the families were to respond with similar results, where do we turn into three and four buses? >> I think it depends on uh how the board would want to tackle that. If um we're saying from the outset that you're either opting in or out now and we're not if if you've opted out of transportation, we can't give you a seat all year, um then that's one approach. If um you if we [clears throat] were to say uh for example that uh all right well you you said no you don't want transportation but now that we're offering it you do want transportation and
028we're providing that flexibility um in talking to Luther it looks like you know two would be a strong base and be able to cover um the one of the challenges that is that highland Moss Farms neighborhood. Um we would probably reroute into that and require from Highland now and we would require multiple buses for Chapman. Um and that's the way it's kind of projecting out okay the initial data. So we would need two. >> Thank you. And my my last question is I just want to be crystal clear that I understand this waiver program because that slide that you put up where priority is given to four through six at Chapman families redistricted to Barnum and their younger siblings. Can you explain this scenario where my oldest is in second grade? I'm at Chapman right
029now. I'm redistricted to Barnum. Am I part of this priority legacy waiver? Am I part of a standard waiver? Am I part like or do I not have any options? >> So, just to be clear, are you saying you're a Chapman parent with a second grader and they're going to Barnum? There's no waiver necessary in that case. If you are a Chapman family redistricted to Highland, >> second grader >> with a second grader and um you s submit a waiver request for Barnum. Um it we're going to take older kids first if they have to if we have to look at bumping anything, which I don't think we will. I I laid out before the um the uh class assignments like by section. Um and that was with 100% of all Barnum kids, which we
030know isn't the case. It's it's only about 65% right now. If if 100% were, we could still accommodate it. So, I could say with um some confidence that, you know, anybody from Barnum who submits the priority waiver request should be able to get in. Um, you know, it's I I don't think that somebody's going to move in with 15 second graders in one house. Um, but I I don't know that for 100% certainty, so I can't guarantee anything. But, uh, I'd say with a high degree of certainty, it's not likely that that would be rejected. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Heather. >> Hi. Um, first, thank you again for all the work to kind of wade through all these, you know, questions and scenarios. Um, [clears throat] I have a few questions, but hopefully two
031of them are easy. Just so that I, you know, understand, is it 69 currently with B2? If we looked at B2, is it 69 roughly percent of Chapman students would make it to Barnum. >> So in B2 it's about 5050. >> Oh, it's 50. The way I read that was not that. Okay. And then so on the seeking and then again with the data of the surveying that you're getting you're about you have 53% of responses roughly right now of those that you're anticipating getting responses from. Is that correct? >> Yes. >> Yeah. And then so given the numbers that you're seeing that would seek that waiver to go to Chapman to Barnum I forget the number it was like 60 odd. Are you are you assuming like you are you assuming about 120 will
032end up seeking waiverss who would be redistricted and and honestly we kind of debated that today you know is um you know from a purely psychometric perspective this is a representative sample and you should be able to say that yeah that's it's going to be um predictive that the the the survey responses we currently have should be predictive of the outcome. Um along that same line, but we're not convinced that it it exactly is. Um and I couldn't tell you I would be surprised if the people who did not yet respond to the um survey are those who are really looking for the waiver, but they might be. I you know we debated that and and so just using the round numbers and saying all right this is predictive and so it's it's double we'll
033say >> um then yeah I think that that's a good number to operate under the assumption for the moment >> about that and then um the riverside scenario just again um I like to without having the slides in front of me I'm sorry just want to make sure this the section that you know is in question that um you were kind of trying to see what would that look like. So the outcome is you've done a few you you've kind of you and Mr. Zuba have kind of played through the scenarios and trying to see if it doesn't make sense right to push that in and then move another neighborhood out somewhere in that other kind of you know region that's closer to or the moss farms or anywhere near there. So, I just want
034to make sure like you've played with it like just play back to me like you've played with that Riverside scenario, but kind of like it just it doesn't actually make sense what either from a size perspective or from like complications of busing. Yeah, I think that's a fair um you know recap that I had sent that to Mike to review and then we had the chance to discuss it today and when he was looking at I mean that's a a pretty densely populated neighborhood >> and his reservation there was moving that back in now given um the fact that one it's densely populated and the youth that's in the there that the demographics of the the people in that neighborhood um would mean that you'd have to take a pretty significant section out of Barnum.
035>> Yeah. >> Um and so there was uh apprehension about doing that and still being able to navigate both the logistics and the balance across the the buildings. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Sure. Mark, >> with the uh with the waiverss and the possible transportation, even if only 25 or whatever that number is say they want transportation, aren't we obligated to provide transportation for all the students going to that school? No, we're we're prov we're obligated to provide transportation to the students assigned to those stu that school and because they live outside the attendance zone just like we do for the 80 students who currently are on a waiver, they provide their own transportation. So, we're not obligated to provide it. >> Okay. I was just I was just concerned that, you know, they might
036come back and say, "Hey, I want to get on that bus." And now now we're going from 180,000 to whatever. >> Well, there's there is that and then there's you know the I know I think in the the emails you say well we have that question from other sections too um >> that are obviously we have 300 plus Highland students who are also being redistricted now. They weren't told the whole way that, you know, hey, you're you're probably you're going to um a certain school the way that that Chapman was, but uh there 320 people there in in a similar situation. >> And and how many elementary students do we have overall? Refresh my memory on it. >> About 2500. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Sure, Tim. >> Thank you. Can you excuse
037me? Can you hear me? Yes. Okay, cool. >> Um, yeah. So, first of all, uh, Jeff, thank you for putting all this together. Um, I am, uh, I I think the waivers are the waivers are one thing. Um, incurring the cost that you had mentioned of, you know, close to, excuse me, close to $200,000 for transportation. Um, we have a finite budget and it's about priorities and just generally speaking, teachers in the classroom are going to be a higher priority for me than for transportation. Um, with that said, I am still curious to know a little bit more about the transportation you're discussing, which is just to be clear on this. You mentioned two buses. Are we talking two tiers? So, it' be like four bus routes in the morning and four bus routes in
038the afternoon. Ohio Highland and Barnum are on two different schedules. >> Um, no, they if the Highland um numbers come back kind of the way they are, like if it was five, we would likely [clears throat] try and reroute a bus, an existing bus to capture that. Um if that got much larger um that would be obviously more problematic but with there just the geographic locations and numbers if you know following Heather's logic earlier you double it we would likely need two buses to cover that double the current uh data that we have >> for sorry if I missed something >> just for Chapman or the excuse me the currently Chapman people who are >> requesting waiverss to go to >> Barnum that would require two buses. >> Okay. So, let's just just go with
039that. Are right now is the the basic idea you have that Highland and Barnum are on two different schedules. Like Highland Highland and Japan are two different schedules. High and Barnum would be two different schedules. Okay. Okay. Um All right. Thank you. That's it for me for questions for right now. >> And I there is uh with the Y they will be continuing before and after care in each location as well. Um confirmed with them. >> So one question on that. I know when my kids started school I had looked at it and I think at that point Chapman did not the Y did not offer before Carapman. Do they do it now? Are they going to be offering before and after? So is it all four elementary schools? Your expectation is the Y would
040likely do before and after care at all four of them? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> And I think it it might have been more difficult at some point. They they do it based on enrollment. So you know their intention is to be all four. Now, if miraculously nobody enrolled out of a obviously they're not going to have it, but you know that they need to have enough students, but given the like I said relatively balanced size of the schools and the this the fact that they are a little bit larger. I mean certainly larger than what Chapman is today. I think it's easy to predict that they will have it there at Barnum as well as the other schools. And that basically runs I mean it's a long day for any kid who does it.
041An extremely long day, but it pretty much runs from like 6:30 a.m. to 6 pm. Is that right? >> It I think it depends on the building. >> Um >> Okay, fair enough. But it it does extend the day significantly if that if the situation requires it. >> They're they're available before and after care. I mean I >> Yeah, >> my kids took a bus to afterare. you know, from before care. So, I don't know like Yeah, it's just a different location, I guess. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Anna. >> Yeah, thank you. Um, my questions were mostly answered when Mark brought up his points. Um, but that 180,000 busing, I kind of have a different take on it. I mean, there's a way that we could just guarantee that or offer that for the
042first year so that we're talking about giving people the opportunity to readjust in their minds, especially concerning where younger students may be going. But that would cover the student in their last year uh who wants to go to um to finish out the school year with with their peers. Um but we could do something like that. We could just say it's going to be for a year that we'll offer it, but um but not for all six years. if you have a first grader. >> Yeah, that you could definitely do that if you wanted to. I mean, you could do anything. Um, what we're required to do is provide the transportation, you know, basically outside the walking zone uh to be able to get kids to school. >> So, that was my other question. Um,
043because I did tour some of these neighborhoods and I went around the schools. There are cross there are sidewalks or not sidewalks around Barnum. >> Sure, there are both. Um, in some locations there are sidewalks, but when you go down Moss Farms there aren't in places and that would be transportation and Luther's already factored that in. >> So you might live inside of a mile. We have people who live inside of a mile of their school now and and get a bus because >> you know what we do is evaluate the safety of the route >> and if really uh in partnership with the Cheshire Police Department who helps us with a lot of this um knowing that there are crossing guards and things available and then you know we we map our routes accordingly
044and that's where Luther is so incredibly valuable because he isn't just looking at that he also um given his extensive experience in the community knows where you can turn a bus around. No, you know, so you might think, well, there's a street here. You can't turn a bus on that street. So, you know, that's where he's invaluable when we're talking about like, all right, well, is this a route or is it not a route? Um is this more efficient or not? And um like he was explaining to me the for example Biome Road uh on that northwest corner it it will the the bus route to Barnum will be so much more incredibly efficient given the way that you are traversing in the direction that you're now heading rather than dittle apparently. So you know
045it's um it's valuable. >> Thank you for that. That answers a big question I had because we were in the Moss Farm area. >> Um, looking and it's very close to the school, but there were not sidewalks, but they would be bust whether they went to Barnum or >> right to Highland. >> Yeah. >> Thank you, Tim. >> Yeah, thank you. Um, I just want to also uh say a thanks not just to you but to all your staff, particularly Luther, who you just mentioned. When my oldest started kindergarten, I asked about changing the bus route and just to because I didn't think it really made any difference. Um, but his immediate response to me was not that the bus couldn't go there, but the bus couldn't go there on an icy day or a
046snowy day. I mean, he knows the he knows the roads that well. Um, so I just wanted to thank him and uh acknowledge that with regard to I'm gonna I just want to repeat where I was expand on it a bit. Um, with regard to uh funding for transportation, I had mentioned teachers in the classroom, but it's really just about priorities. Um, and I I gotten I got an email today. I'm not sure we may have all been on it. Um, but it was a parent raising a a concern about paper being rationed. I don't know if that's a thing that normally happens in the schools. Um I haven't heard it from my kids, but uh you know they're in fourth and sixth grade, but especially like in the younger grades. I mean they could
047just fly through paper, you know, doing artwork, whatever it is. Um, so I I would I would just be really hardressed to um to be uh voting in favor of uh funding for another for more school buses beyond what we what the what the expected plan is or whatever the plan ends up being. Adding a couple bus routes to it would just be really difficult for me to to support. And I I would say thanks Tim, but I I would also add that, you know, we design our bus routes where we're maximizing the number of students on the bus um in order to have them be as efficient as possible. That being said, you know, when even when you do that, it's like when you do math and there's a remainder, and this is the
048opposite. You can't divide maybe into that whole number and there's a few seats left over. And that happens on some of our buses. And so we do continue to offer what's called an available seat petition where um a family could apply for that. And you know, if you're on the periphery of a school zone and you've been redistricted, we could look at providing that opportunity, too. So, if I'm two blocks away from the bus stop, it's a walkable distance. >> Let's say I'm um I live in what is now the uh Barnum section, but I used to go to Highland and I want to go to Highland. I live two blocks from the line and there's an available seat. Could I walk there if there's an available classroom and get a bus? We could do
049something like that. Now um the the challenge is with timing of this uh we need to know I think as a community to um alleviate a lot of the unknowing anxiety that exists for the hundreds of students and families who don't know what what they're going to be doing next year. I think it's beneficial to make a decision sooner rather than later. I would I would hope that we could do that next week, but um you know, even in doing so, a decision about an available seat really couldn't be made until the really the start of school next year. So, I appreciate that that might feel hollow in offering it, but in terms of the timing, I need to make sure that there is available seats before we can offer that. Heather, can >> you
050hear me? [clears throat] >> Yeah. So much to consider. Um could you just at the beginning you talked about the reimbursement terms. Could you just either show that slide or kind of walk through the reimbursement terms again um of the you know we had to make sure the schools were so balanced to be able to get you know certain >> Yeah. >> What are you mean? our guiding criteria on the guiding criteria. Yeah. I just is it so it's like balancing is a is a firm is a criteria on making sure we get >> it was an objective in and it is the the state looks at what is your 10-year enrollment and what is the balance in your school when you do that enrollment. Um we need to have room for growth in the
051schools in [clears throat] case somebody moves in. We did design both Norton and uh Barnum in such a way that you could add four more classrooms to those schools. you could blow them out um by taking in a corn two corners of the building and do a double story you know twotory classroom on top of classroom in two places at each building um now obviously there it's a pretty significant cost to that but um in that you know worst case scenario that I articulated before could that happen yeah there we designed it in such a way that we protected ourselves against the worst case scenario. >> Okay. And then I don't Yeah, I'm just trying to again think through money cost busing. I assume the portables cost something and do you >> save money to
052not have the portables that you can then apply elsewhere? I'm just trying to I don't know what >> uh are you talking about like potentially selling the portable portables or >> Oh, no. So it's Oh, so we own the port. I don't know. I don't know if you >> So we purchased Yeah, we purchased those portables. The first of all, the there are four portables at the rear of Highland as we've talked about. Two of them are significantly older. Um to the point like we couldn't get anything if we wanted to try and get rid of them and sell them. The other two are also a bit more permanent. They're uh we believe we bought those used uh gently used kind of thing. uh and they are you know just like uh any other room
053in the sense that they have plumbing and and electricity wired in. Uh I think our thought was that we don't want to hold you know regular classes in the portables but they do uh have value for um storage. They do have value for um certain life skill activities. Uh like right now, one of the portables is is really all laid out for life skill activities with like a stair set of stairs in it and a variety of different manipulatives for kids that uh need that sort of sort of work. So, um there's not like a financial gain in in taking them off the table, unfortunately. >> I was just thinking I wasn't sure if we So, we own them. So, that >> Yeah, we definitely we own them. I mean, I know there's a lot
054of information as soon as um you know, I think once we cross hopefully we do cross a threshold of of 75% responses, I will share that back out with the board. this um PowerPoint. I will put it back on I'll put it up on the redistricting page and email it out to the community. I I'll put it up on the page right now, but I will email it to the community tomorrow. Unfortunately, I'm going to the next gen school building committee meeting uh that starts in a couple of minutes and I want to try and get to um right now, but I will I will send it out first thing tomorrow as well. Matt, >> it's not a question. That's just more a [clears throat] a comment. Uh as as my colleagues know, I need
055to leave here for a work commitment in in two minutes. Um traveling and out west. Um but we we need to make a decision. I I I personally don't feel it would be rushed at this point. I you know, there's a million scenarios that we could go through. Um we've heard a lot of feedback from the community. Uh, and obviously as as one of the newer board members, I don't always know what that scheduling looks like and those agenda things, but um, you know, I will make myself available for any meeting next week that that needs to happen. Um, I think at this point for the community, you know, my my feeling is it's more about the uncertainty than it is the actual which which one do we approve as as a board. So, I
056would urge us to uh make case here and and get to a vote. Not not tonight. I know that's not on the agenda, but >> yeah, I mean I agree with you, Matt. I just I wouldn't have felt comfortable until like I think this helped crystallize a lot of things um and the processes that we took to get here. Um so yeah, I would agree. >> I I know Sam, we talked at one point about December 18th. That's next Thursday, and I think most people have that available in their their calendar. if it I think it would be helpful for the community if I could communicate that out that our full intention is to adopt on the 18th. Um is that fair? >> Yeah, I think the 18th should be our hard deadline. Um unless
057any of the additional data that comes in from that survey swings us to a you know far left. Um, >> I think, you know, we'll we'll share the information, but I think it's fair to say we're planning to make a decision. It's not, you know, nothing is ever definitive. We could have a snow day on the 18th, >> right? >> You know, but we're planning to make a decision on the 18th is I think it was what I, as long as you are all comfortable with me communicating that, I will share that to the community as as a whole. >> Heather, >> I'm sorry. Just so I understand to adopt scenario does that does that decision that vote also have to include busing or not or is that something you can talk about you know
058sort through later? >> Um I it doesn't have to include that. Um I would say I think you know shortly thereafter we're asking people to make a commitment to the priority waiver or not and we'll be using that data to uh staff the buildings and if they'll you know people don't know if they're getting transportation or not I think it it makes it difficult for them to make a commitment. Okay, just with budgeting coming up, I'm trying to How do you What are the order of operations? Okay, thank you. >> And then we'll have to obviously if you know we we are presenting our budget in early January, so there's not a lot of time to say, "All right, well, we're going to add $180,000 to it." Um, >> Yeah. I I think the busing
059needs to be addressed as part of as part of our vote. >> That's just me. I think the busing is kind of an important piece to the whole thing. >> The busing definitely is going to drive obviously our future conversations with regards to, you know, are we folding that into your budget presentation? um if it's $180,000 um you know very similar to Tim we need to consider priorities here because we already have information that you know basically says we need to potentially add teachers in the classroom and so that should should be a piece of you know our conversation come the 18th hopefully Jeff you'll be able to at least kind of you know finalize or at least give us an estimated projection on that Um, but you're right, Ann, that is the last lingering
060item. Um, I'm I personally am leaning towards, you know, my issue here, Jeff, is that, you know, we approve 180,000 and then we end up a very small amount of students actually in those buses. And now we're spending money. You know, it's similar to do you run a class with 10 kids in it? Do you run a bus with just 10 kids in it either? So that's my my other kind of concern. >> Yeah, I think you know we're uh really costconscious around here. You know, I wouldn't say, Tim, that we're pulling paper away from seven-year-olds who are coloring or anything, but we are certainly very sensitive to our expenditures. And um, you know, if we had a situation where there were 10 kids on a bus, we sure as heck would try and find
061a more efficient way to deliver that and reallocate those resources. But, you know, I the I appreciate the point, too. And I would say that the problem with saying, "Okay, what if the town council said, "We're approving your budget and we're going to add $180,000 for two buses." Well, I've already staffed the buildings and told everybody, "This is where we're going." So to do that in April would not really help us. Um, and that's where, you know, I would agree with Ann and the folks that have said, you know, you too, Sam, that, you know, we really need to make a financial decision on the busing before we we go too much further uh for for people to make that decision in their mind if they want to commit to a waiver or not. >>
062Sorry, Matt. [clears throat] Go ahead. Go ahead. I was just so does that mean then assuming the 18th next week worked, we would actually bring be bringing two things to a vote, right? Which district to adopt or which redistricting scenario to adopt uh and whether or not to make necessary policy changes or waiverss or whatever to provide funding during some period. >> Correct. Okay. Yeah, I think I I think I'm at a level where we can make uh a determination on the 18th um and and allow you to kind of move forward with one of those scenarios, Jeff. Um can you just clarify what is the turnaround time for families to know? um you know every year you'll get your bus uh assignments by a certain date. Is there potential that we can inform those
063families way further in advance given you know our short time frame right now? Emily, I you know I I don't know you typically we're one of the the factors here that we're facing is kindergarten enrollment >> and kindergarten enrollment happens in the spring and it sometimes it can be really hard to get our families to enroll as quickly as we want them to and and so we're we try and design the bus routes to increase the efficiency as late in the game as we can. Um, and so that usually happens pretty close to when the start of school is. Now, don't forget, we're also now starting school after Labor Day. So, that's that might give us a little bit more grace um to say if we were trying to get it done a little before
064Labor Day, um that might be be helpful. But um in knowing that, I'm not sure the benefit it adds families over having it out on the regular time. >> Yeah, I would say like August um is is when we'd be having all those routes done. Um so not not much sooner than that. And you know, like um Dr. and said there's pretty significant swings when we look at that kindergarten enrollment that um you know we want to be as close to right as possible and that does abut the beginning of the school year which is a little bit anxietyprovoking for parents but that's what we've we've done for prior years and will be done this year as well. Yeah, I think I I I'd like for our next steps to lessen the anxiety as much
065as possible if we can, you know, prepare in advance or give them information in advance of >> Thank you, Sam, for that that point and and I think that's where everybody is coming from when we say the 18th because it's not just about making the decision. It's about all the things that we believe should happen after the decision. So if this is the decision, the next thing that really has to happen is the waiver commitment process. We have that scheduled through February right now to give people ample time to consider these decisions and submit and commit. But then once we have that in place and we know how many students are going to each building, we have to nail down the staffing [snorts] in at least as importantly if not more importantly is we need
066to start to bring those communities these new students together. Um as I mentioned there are more than 300 Highland students going to two different buildings. Um obviously we have the potential for a lot of Chapman students to go to different buildings. We have 50 dittle students going to different buildings. So we want to try and engage in efforts to bring the students, teachers and families together and that's going to take time. So the sooner we can initiate the process, the sooner we can get to that part of building family and new communities for our schools and that'll help reduce anxiety. when I'm, oh, I I wasn't a little anxious about coming to the school, but I played soccer with this kid for the last two years or I was in the show with this kid
067and and I think that'll really help. Oh, I didn't know that you were distracted here. I I know I've known you from our days at Kinderare or whatever the case may be. So, I think the sooner we can get to that, the better um everybody, their teachers will feel about getting to know families and kids and and their colleagues. um our parents and students will feel. So uh that's pushing uh the agenda for me. >> Yeah. Jeff, can you also just kind of make contact with the YMCA and just to get a sense of maybe spacing availability and so forth that way we can communicate it to families um once a decision has been made if that service is necessary as part of their planning obviously. >> Sure. >> I mean we can't dictate how
068much space or availability they may have. But it's kind of good to know, you know, a what their process is. It's been a long time since my kids went to before and after, but they were those latch key kids. So, um, and I know that the Y has expanded since my children went, Tim. >> Yeah, thank you. Um yeah, just because you had mentioned the why, uh and we're talking about next year, but even backing up before next year, if you are having a conversation with them, Jeff, um if you could get an update, they do they do I'm guessing they do the lion share of summer camp for Cheshire kids. Not sure that, but maybe get an update from them because we have an expanded summer. We're going from nine weeks to 12 weeks.
069No. >> And I know I had mentioned it to Justin Hubin whatever a few months ago back in the summer, but they weren't ready to make any decisions at that point. Um, but if we're having this conversation next week and we have eyes on it, it could be helpful just to give an update if if the Y has one. I I have no idea, but it would be uh an opportunity to help the town because I'm confident that uh some summer camp will be needed for the extended summer. Thanks. >> Sure. Happy to talk to them. >> I don't know. Any other questions? Um, >> yeah, I think we can move forward, Jeff, with the 18th. Um, have that meeting so that we can take the vote on the selected scenario. >> 7:30. Do we
070have the town hall? >> Yep. >> Okay. Yeah, at this point I feel way more comfortable with kind of the refinement of B2. Um really nervous, you know, about D again with that capacity at peak enrollment. So that's just pretty much my take currently on it, but at least um again appreciate all the work that's been put in to at least help to accommodate some of you know challenges for families as well too. So, if we can just shore up, what are the services available for families? Um, you know, when am I going to get my busing information? I think those are some of the lingering questions out there right now that, um, the majority of the public wants and needs the board to make a decision so that you can then follow up with
071the next steps in support of their planning. If there aren't any other questions, I do welcome a motion to adjurnn. Mr. White second. Mr. Eckie. All those in favor of adjournment. Looks unanimous to me. Thank you everybody. We'll see you at 7:30 town hall on the 18th. Um, I do want to just to the public, please make sure that you are writing to the BOE contact email if you have any follow-up questions after this. Thank you. >> Thank you guys. Good night. Night.