001Mr. Reky here here. Dr. Harrian here. Mr. Perini, Miss Rosenberg here. Mr. White here. Merry to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisibley andice for all. Heather would like to do reports. Yeah, I'm moving the finance right over to Mr. to explain our end of the year. Okay. Well, good morning everybody. Welcome to the last business day of the 2024 2025 school year. Uh we did provide the board a memo that has quite a bit of information related to year end including the year end budget transfers. So um before we get to the the proposed motion, if you want to just take a look at um page two I provide some budget commentary. If you um see there's there's five categories that
002the board will be asked to approve. Final transfers. Those are total salaries, employee benefits, instructional programs, support services, operations, and maintenance. And you'll see if you look at that chart up at the you know upper third of the page this year we are leaving a final balance of $255,933. You know that that remaining balance we managed toward because when the budget for the 2526 school year was passed, it was reduced fairly significantly by the town council because of fiscal limitations at the town level. And there was agreement from the board and the town council that we could carry over funds to be used in the 25 26 budget year to supplement that budget year. So the first point that I want to make is that we did manage our budget to include this surplus that
003will be asking in the motion to carry over. Um just a couple of you know bullets that are on that page. You know we did get a break this year related to energy cost. you know, one, it was a milder winter, uh, and two, we were able to lock prices for our heating oil and our propane, um, as well as for our bus fuel, you know, both diesel and our leaded. So, you know, one of the, if you look at the pluses and minuses, you know, we were under budget by about 293,000 in our energy categories. So, that helped us to, you know, to the final balance. Uh special education, you know, this year pretty much ended on budget. Special education, especially outplace tuition and transportation, can be a wild card, but this year it
004was not a wild card. You know, came in just about on budget. Uh teacher salaries and substitute costs. You know, our teacher line was under budget by 881,000. And that was driven by really a couple of factors. one um coming into this year we had 13 teacher retirements. We had budgeted for savings from six. So that that definitely helped us. We also had uh quite a few leaves this year. You know, one workers comp leave that um you know ran almost half the year. Um and also uh quite a few maternity leaves that were extended duration. So even our teacher salary line was under budget. What was over budget which is typical is the cost of teacher substitutes. So those two offset each other with about 200,000 on the plus side from teacher salaries net
005of the substitute cost. The um student transportation that account finished 11% over budget. So that didn't help us this year. And there are a couple of things that were driving that. One, we did have to add a type one uh bus route um at, you know, at the 11th hour that was for the Norton district. And we also had additional spe special education routes that were beyond what we would typically have. Um there were two in particular that were about $60,000 each. And these are special ed students that required solo transportation to and from home meaning that they couldn't be with other students. And then we had a pretty substantial increase in the number of bus aids we had one of the dot buses we had at a the entire year. So our bus aid
006costs were about 70,000 higher than last year. um unpaid student meals. We um did end the year with about $24,600 unpaid student meals. Included in our budget cost this year is the reimbursement to the Food and Nutrition Department under state law. As you know, the board of ed is responsible to reimburse that program for unpaid student meals. U that's up from 18,000 the year before um and 4,000 or so the year before that. I know board is aware that the unpaid meal balances across the state have been much much higher. You know, not not so much postco but post the period where the state stopped providing free lunches which was a couple of years after the pandemic ended. Um, and we did make a concerted effort to collect as much of those funds as possible.
007It would have been higher had it not been for the work that a food service staff did and trying to collect on a I'll call it a gentle basis. Um, so those are, you know, really the highlights while we're on the memo. I'll just turn your attention to attachment A in the memo and just run through the um you know included in the year end you know balances which we we managed the budget this year as you know we had a expenditure cap throughout the year um and we kept it at 70% or less so we were able to fund summer projects um you know what we are working this summer. If you look at the top of attachment a, the capital projects that are being funded through the capital, you know, project approvals from
008council. We're replacing roof ladders um across the district. That's an OSHA requirement. We're replacing a section of roof at DOD and that that DOD roof will be 100% complete. We've been working on replacing roof sections. So, we're good, you know, quite a few years with the dod roofs, which is which is really, really good. And also on this screen show this morning, we're replacing one of the three dot boilers that are in the front portion of the original portion of the building. Um, so those are three projects that nobody will ever know that we did, right? Roof ladders, roof replacement, and boilers. Nobody sees the projects that will be seen are we're replacing the cafeteria at DOT and we're upgrading the lighting. So when the budget workshops take place, you know, later this year, you'll
009get to see that. It already looks good. And that's just with the ceiling grid replaced. And we're also replacing quite a few of the vinyl, excuse me, quite a few of the top floors at Cheshire High School. Those will be pretty visible. On the capital budget side, we have quite a few projects in design that will be hopefully funding in the following summer, including replacing the fire alarm system at the high school. Um, that fire alarm system is fully functional. It's the same vintage as the one at Highland that we had to replace the U core computer panel in that one. So, we we won't want that to happen at the high school. So, we're trying to get ahead of that one. And then the rest of of attachment aid talks about all the maintenance
010and repair projects that we're doing across the district. I I won't go through them, but we did have sufficient funding as we close out the year to do a number of maintenance projects. Made all our new equipment and furniture replacement p purchases at the schools. We had about $875,000 worth of requests between maintenance and furniture and equipment replacement. We couldn't fulfill all of that. We build somewhere around $500,000 based on the yearly balance. So all in all um despite the fact that we had a carry over 250 thou 5,000 for next year you know I would say it was a successful year financially and I'm happy that we were able to you know get us into a place where we had carryover. The last thing I'll say on the carryover is that we did uh
011designate three accounts that we reduced in the 25 26 budget that most of the carryover will be attributed to. One is new uh equipment, one is replacement equipment and the third is the computer capital equipment account which we use to buy Chromebooks or desktops or other computer equipments. the following school year. So that is the backdrop. The proposed motion is at the bottom of the first page and I will be happy to answer any questions before you have to look at the motion. So, um, if we didn't have to hold over that carryover amount, is there anything that was taken off this summer that is should be maybe in future priority there? Yes, there were a couple of things. The ones that uh come to mind, the bigger ones were dogs cafeteria tables. That's about
012$109,000. We couldn't approve that one. Also, God, they uh we need to do some work on the stage. Replace the stage curtains. It would have gone nice with the ceiling replacement. Um now you can see we need a curtain more than ever though the new lighting. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. I mean that's what happens. You know your eyes will be attracted to the ugliest thing in a room. So it won't be the ceiling and the lighting anymore. you know, it would be the stage and the stage curtains. Um, and then we we did um we were able to get into some of quite a few door replacements around the district, but we had to pull about $50,000 worth of interior door replacements at the high school. So, those are some that come to mind. But I
013will say that as we go through the summer project list, you know, we are very diligent about okay, what's what are the priorities? What are the things that we can, you know, push out for another year? And that includes conversations with, you know, Rich, our facilities director, and the school principles as well to make, you know, those decisions on, you know, the items we have to do and the items that we can put off a little bit longer. Thank you. Two things. Do we continue to try to collect on the unpaid student meals? We do. And and if we do collect it, it obviously comes back to the board's budget. Um and the GMA access who who does that? Is it the original manufacturer? Is it um want to say yes, it's it's Shaw Sportex,
014the the manufacturer that comes back every year. We have a service contract on on that field. Clock's ticking. It's in the capital budget. Yeah, it is in the capital budget for replacement. I mean, the GMAX testing every year we've, you know, we've never had an issue that, you know, there was a spot on the field that would be of concern. And we we do add infill. Um, and they they do work on the field under the maintenance contract to make sure that it's a safe surface. Uh, can't be too hard, can't be too soft either, otherwise it wears the kids legs. You know that. So, yes, clock sticking still looks great, still feels great, but Yeah. Yeah. You put a good product there. Yeah. Yeah. And put a lot of time into maintaining it over
015the years, and it's lasted really well. But to your point, yeah, I mean eventually it's going to need to be replaced and eventually closer. Yeah. Yeah. You're we're getting more than our value worth. Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you. Um so I want to talk a little bit about first of all that the the roofing project been going on for years is not as unvisible as you think it is because I just remember conversations about water dripping into classrooms from the children and I I'm assuming maybe that that's not happening anymore. So I'm sure parents are appreciative of our efforts for that. But I wanted to make a larger point like the boilers and roofing and those big capital projects. Those are going to continue over the years because we chose to build elementary schools over um
016taking care of the middle school, which you know is fine. But people need to realize that because we didn't do the middle school there and the high school there there are big big maintenance projects that need to be done to those school buildings because they're still aging and they're still beyond um Yeah. So, at any rate, I just wanted to make that point that those are going to continue to be big expenses on those those two buildings. But I'm appreciative of of the work that we are doing and um we can't always put dog at the bottom of the list of things to work on in terms of because we need to balance our budget moving forward. So I appreciated um you asking that question. Um, the only other thing I wanted to ask Jen
017was which one of those big categories do the energy costs fall into the very first operations. That's operations and maintenance support services. Is that basically the over most of it? Yeah. A little over 400,000. Yeah. Transportation cost. Okay. Thank you. Um see three points. So number one um on personnel. So when I when I first read it, I guess I I read it incorrectly. Um leaves were you said majority maternity leaves, not leaves like people left, right? So, we don't have a retention problem. No. No. And do do we have a do we still have a shortage problem? Um, no. I wouldn't say that. And if you're talking about certified staff, right? Yeah. No. I I wouldn't say that we quote ever had a a traction problem or anything, a shortage. The the problem that
018we have is that we used to be able to hire people out of college for jobs and now we can't. Um, hiring uh hopefully after this meeting um a teacher with 28 years experience. It's not um typical to have choice particularly in certain areas like math and science today that we would have had uh 5 10 years ago. But we still we don't have openings and things like that. Um and then uh Mark and I were like about the the football field. Um, but I did notice anecdot anecdotally uh walking across it at the graduation felt a little less squishy. Um, very sensitive feet. Yeah, it's Adam could do this thing forward $4,000. Um, yeah. So, the princess and the Yeah, right. Um, yeah, because I was thinking about because we're going to be I
019guess we'll be talking about the uh the school rescheduling I think and I was thinking about that extra cost and I was like, "Oh, the cost of field replacement." It's like, boy, that's just about the same amount of money. Um, so that is great. And we do collect, if you remember, we do collect some money off ticket sales. It's not a lot of money, but how much do we have? Is it less than 100,000 now? It's 50. It's 53 and we're expecting another 3,000 in change. So about 56,000. That's from the dollar sir charge uh for ticket sales whenever there's an event athletic event. Um so we requested in the capital budget 600,000. It's not enough even if you had 56,000 but the we do expect contributions from to support um you know organizations whether
020it's Quallion or Booster Club or soccer or lacrosse. Yeah, I was going to ask I guess it's going to be a situation where we're going to have to look to the community to make up the shortfall again. Yeah, I think that is what would you estimate that to be is 300,000. So about about the same as last time it was we're just replacing the carpet this time, you know. So you would have to pull out. What's the car go for now? Yeah, it's about a million all in. Yeah. So our infrastructure is okay. It's just Okay. Drainage. That's still a million dollars. Okay. That's that's We didn't get a firm quote. That's just a order of magnitude that we were told they're running about a million dollars for replacement of the carpet. But you said
021that's from the operation from the capital. Capital budget. Yeah. And it's not something that's imminent in our capital. And I know John Perina, our athletic director, has been talking to sport organizations. It's on everybody's radar. And the track is okay right now. You know, it's not going to last forever. So, the track will need to be redone. Whether we're going to try and redo it at the same time as the field replacement, we'll have to take that up. But, um, yeah, we'll be talking to the council about replacement of that field. Um, and then lastly, I guess to to Ann's point, um, and we were kind of talking about this before about our changing reimbursement rates. Is there any advantage to trying to bundle any of these projects into one big project to increase our
022reimbursement rates at all or or to have reimbursement rates to begin with? Um, yeah, I mean, some of these we will some of not these, but some of the items in that capital in a budget, we will seek reimbursement and then bundling them. We're kind of trying to do that under the energy performance contract at least with those items that do have, you know, an energy savings component. You know, one of the key um improvements that we'd like to make are at Dittle. You know, we've made that a high priority. So, we need a new roof, we need new windows, and we'd like to have, you know, building wide air conditioning at So that's all being looked at under the energy performance contract which we're in the midst of you know working on right now.
023So that would be considered renovation that that could be affected. It could. Yes. Yeah. So we we would have not only energy savings but reimbursement from the state for those types of projects. So that's all being factored in that like that 50 what are we at 50% 605% that was a 15% addition with the uh the preschool um plan okay yeah that only applies to construction that's it then do you and I do next I mean we're only asked But we have $5,000 more. So we have an idea of the allocations for next year with regards to DCS's whole. Yeah. Yeah. Which was a uptick. Uh we were supposed to lose 50. Yeah. But we ended up collecting that. I want to say we the town collects that money. Um the there were some other
024fiscal adjustments that were favorable to us in the state budget as well. Um, so it's, you know, the fact that it's banning budget too that gives some stability which is nice. So kind of know what we're looking for next year. We're going pretty healthy next year. Perspective we it's predictable at least which was a frustration. It's a frustration every time we are submitting our budget. This is how not just to work but to not know how much money because everybody deals with that. For next year we will start very conservatively. We're going to start the year with about right now we have the memo ready to go 40% expenditure cap as we open. We used to open at 70%. But you know the budget is tight next year. you know most of the support instructional
025line items were reduced you know anywhere from 10 to 25% so it doesn't give us much wiggle room so the 255 carryover will help but you know we always we don't have a choice as as a as a board and a school district to go over budget so we're going to be really conservative with the spending until we know that we're past that halfway mark and you know hopefully that'll no surprises that you know the close out next year will be as smooth as this year was. I want to have the floor. I do want to acknowledge and thank Heather Santi who is our finance manager. You know I get to talk about this year in closing but Heather does a lot of the work in the background. It is kind of a daunting process
026as we do the final payrolls, do the final check runs, close out the POS, figure out, you know, how we balance out all our grants. So, thank you, Heather, for that work. And I do want to also acknowledge Emily Taylor who's who's, you know, assisted this year and we'll be doing this whole thing next year, right Emily? Y the summer cut to prepare for that. Exactly. Um for special ed though, I mean that's great. We're going is there early exit to transportation separate from which Tim asked, but did we have the out placement? Out placement is there. Yeah, I think we've had a little bit exiting the program. It's always fluid, but um we we have brought some students back and I can put together a report to send to the board. Uh end of
027year kind of thing to uh illustrate the transitions that we've had. I know it's gone up. We've had more net out returning, but Robin and the team always does a really good job of identifying students who are ready to transition back. Um even sometimes from a more restrictive placement to a less restrictive placement or you know that can often impact cost too. So I'll ask Rob to put something together. We did budget an increase in place tuition. I the reality is that student enrollment grows especially that student enrollment is going to continue to grow. I know it's ever fluctuating, but you know, you don't really hear much until the budget, right, goes around. So just to kind of get end of year I was very curious as to whether or not the unpaid student balances
028came from particular whether it was secondary or elementary that would be the concern but I know it's too identifiable I don't want to discuss it. Yeah, it was it was definitely higher at the secondary level. Um, but we'll continue to follow up and if we can collect some of that 24,000, we will. And I will add that some parents at the end of the year do donate funds, you know, that are remaining in their student lunch balance, you know, for the seniors who are graduating. So, but presumably that's already brought that down. Not yet. Sometimes it hasn't parents haven't facilitated that yet. Oh, okay. But they still will Yeah. I mean, it's not a big number. It's not three grand, you know, but it's But I know it's usually encouraged through some of the club
029awareness and so forth, too. Did you medical? Oh, yeah. One uh one thing that came up and I have no idea if this is would be material in any way and one parent was telling me that they only realized like in the past two weeks that uh their kids had both been using the same account and so one account was in deficit and the other balance. Okay. and the mom tried to net the two and she couldn't do it. So, she had to pay off the deficit. I I don't know if that if there's if it's a oneoff or if there's more people like that. Um just pointing that out. Um anyway, you could tell that that parent to talk to Erica. She said she was just rotate off because her kids aren't graduated by
030any next year. But it's not going anywhere. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um so just to be clear on this uh with regard to um as an example both fields but as an example the turf high school does that qualify for 50% reimbursement from the state construction and if you don't only a new high school or a renovation of a high school. So they don't like for example we put athletic fields in you know if you're putting extended athletic fields in an elementary school that's not reversible. Okay. Only at the high school level, but even then I think like it's only the field and not like you can't do the press box for example and you know there are nuances to that from what I recall the conversations you had with the architects over the years. Okay.
031Okay. Thank you. Sure. So maybe the performance contract will count as a renovation then we can do the 50% double it down on savings there. Uh and then uh another thought that just crossed my mind is interest rates have gone up in the last couple years. So do we are we getting any interest revenue or is that all do we have like a I'm assuming we've got some sort of working capital you put into into an account and get any revenue on it. The town the town does. Yeah. How much do you sit on on like a a monthly basis? I mean, do you sit you've got a $100 million budget, so it' be$8 million bucks a month in general just to pay your bills or does that all get paid out of the town
032anyway? It's all paid through the town. So So you don't really have a you don't really have a bank account per se. No, no, that general fund is all controlled through the town. So our budget runs through the general fund just just like police and public works. So that so that makes sense to me. So, I'm just going to wonder about what really piques my interest on this one, which you were talking about um the uh money collected for gate sales, ticket sales at football games. That doesn't sit with the town. We've got all those I think there's a number of accounts that sit here. Yeah. So, gate receipts that goes into student activity. Okay. Does that or similar accounts that you control does that go into an interesting account at this point? So, the
033student activity accounts have do they draw interest? They do not draw interest. It's just a regular account like a checking account. Yeah. Okay. I'm just uh So, it's just food for thought. I mean, if you're sitting on, you know, if you're sitting on an account that's got $100,000 in one, isn't the student the total student activity like a million dollars? Well, a million dollars runs through the student activity account and it's Yeah. So, at the high school, if it but if a million dollars and you're using it and it's flowing through, I get it. But if it got 5% interest, that's $50,000 by the end of the year. And I I realize there's cash flows related to it, but just something I have in mind. That's all. Thank you. That's information. Okay. So, medical benefits,
034I did include the report for May. The claims for the month of May were 1.458 million. We didn't receive June claims yet. Obviously, it's it's June 30th today, so we won't receive those for a couple weeks. The balance as of the end of May, 1.95 million. Um, however, there's a couple of things that we'll add to that. We have a payment of 140,000 coming as our final payment for um rebates on prescription drugs. So that'll get us over 2 million. Our final contribution, which we did um to settle up, added another 136,000 to that balance. So that'll get us to about 2.2 million or so. Um, so I pretty sure I've got about a 100,000 more of stop loss reimbursement coming in as well. Uh, unfortunately we have pretty significant high dollar claims the last
035couple of months, April and May. Um, so you could see on the report that we've received 494,000 in stop loss. So far I expect another 100,000. So the bottom line is I do expect after we get the June report and all those payments coming in, we'll have a reserve balance of about 2.3 million, which is where we started, which is what we had planned for that balance to be based on how we budgeted. So not too bad on medical benefits. Um, you know, even though we did have some significant claims, those um stop loss reimbursements and prescription rebates will help us again this year. So that's medical is that um April May numbers being so high was that expected is that is that a year does that match with the cycle of what we usually
036see? Yeah, higher than the 1 2 million that we were expecting. Now, I will say the April at 1.8 million that was offset by March's uh 660,000. So, you know, if you look if you look at those two months, there were just some adjustments that were made in April that fell into May. So, those two months, if you average them, they were about 1.2 million. Thank you. And what's the ongoing like activity stuff you get involved in to you know maintain health and wellness within the district? Yeah, we still um you know use Sigma's funding of about um you know 80,000 a year between town and board of ed to run our health and wellness programs. And you know those include things like walking challenges and healthy food eating uh yoga. Um but beyond that
037you know Sigma you know and I'm I am a participant in Sigma. Sigma is very aggressive with their members about making sure you're doing your annual you know physicals that you're on track and taking the meds that you're supposed to be taking. So there's what we do that's outside of Sigma, but for our employees, you know, Sigma is pretty aggressive and you know, we we do the best we can trying to manage the claims, but claims claims and and things that are out of our control. And I assume they provide free employee EPA. Yeah, we have a employee assistance program and we also um have a program uh through the group negotiations in a couple of our contracts where employees do engage in a few different um activities like an annual physical things which can
038be preventive and catch situations before they can get worse and more costly. They are entitled to a small discount off their pay as well or their their co they pay. Yeah. They have to go annual physical um annual biometric screening meaning that they're getting blood work and they also have to complete Sigma's health survey which they could do online or on their app. Again, all initiatives to try and make people aware of their health and what they should be doing and catch any obviously you engage in your physical how do participation in these programs like the health and wellness uh well you know our health our health and wellness programs I know like the walking challenge we just had we had 200 or so employees yoga people engage in yoga There are a ton of
039informative um programs. There's one coming up on sugar all the time. We have those. The problem is you know we have one person split between us and the town who you know can only one. We have eight locations right like eight different buildings and one person and the timing scheduling it can be tough. But we do engage like Vince said the walking challenge but there are other challenges. We did a sleep um program that was really popular not during the day we have fitness on demand. I mean the participation can always be higher you know and we keep pushing and sometimes you know people that should be participating aren't and those are the ones that you want to try and capture and you know signal focuses as you would expect anyone that you know is
040is pre-diabetic or diabetic you know hypertension high cholesterol you know they're you know trying to work with those members because that's where the big costs come in later in life people get sick I utilize the health coach for a while. These are all resour I need to finance. So, are we ready to move on to our motion? That's right at the bottom of the first page. From here, um, I move that the board of education approve line item transfer for the 202425 fiscal year end as follows with the remaining balance of 255, 933, and 31 cents. be placed into a budget carryover fund to be used in in accordance with section seven of public act 24 through 45. Is there a second? I think I need to highlight um in the area of salaries from
041nothing to 4 413,370 95. Is that a plus? Is that Yeah, we're moving uh 4133795 from the salary line. from the salary line. We're adding to the employee benefits 71,8629 um to the instruction line we are moving out 245,5659 and into support services we are moving 519,23967 and out of operation and maintenance 188,983 for a total of um moving out well remaining balance to be transferred to the carryover account is the 255,9331 but the total out It's the total into uh categories is 591,10176 and the total out of balance of balances is 84735 and7 Carol still. Yes. Is there any discussion? All those in favor of the motion that is on the table. Thank you, Ben. Thank you. Then I I just want to say um I think this might be maybe your last end
042of year finance and I want to start at finance because that's usually the most comprehensive reporting that you do. So I just wanted to say thank you for all that you've done for us. I know you're going to continue to do right? We're going to continue. Oh, here it begins on a farewell tour. [Applause] Not just yet, but uh yeah, I you know, I would second that the amount of time that coordinates and obviously he's got a lot of muscle behind him with Heather and Emily doing a lot of heavy lifting. I see. um Heather here really early and really late u especially lately trying to make sure that all this is squared away on her first time really through the process. So I would echo his sentiments there, but also echo Sam's point about,
043you know, this um process does not generally take a ton of heavy lifting on my part because Vinn is so confident and uh experienced and knowledgeable um and really thoughtful about forward planning and um so that you get to this point in June and you're not scrambling to cover anything. And so kudos and thanks. What's really behind the scenes? It's not the original. We just make it look like this. It's like the lake with a very placid surface, but underneath there's a lot of churn going on that you don't see. And it's perception. So thank you. Next committee personnel. Uh that's Oh, are we posting on that? Yeah, that was a um that was a potential contract approval, but that hasn't been ratified yet by the instructional assistant party. But we did reach a tenative
044agreement, you know, between the parties. So, the process is they need to, you know, vote on the new contract and after they do then we'll bring it to the board. What's the anticipated closure dates? Well, I mean, I'm assuming they're going to vote sometime in July. So, we've got a couple of items. You know, I've shared with our talked a little bit about things transition. Um, we've got that appointment and then this contract approval kind of on the horizon. Do we want to revisit this later in July? We're going to have to. Yeah, because they haven't ratified it yet. And this This relates to the upcoming school year. Yes. Okay. Includes wages and you the wages would be, you know, they're always retroactive to the, you know, July first date. Not that the parents work
045over the summer, but um yeah, I mean, you're going to have another meeting in mid July. You know, I'll see if we can Yeah, we've already had that been out there for a while, too. So, it's not like it's fresh. So hopefully they'll approve that soon. Great. Thank you. All right. We got a few things going on in policy. Um couple things we have to push through because as of July 1st they're law anyway we have to follow. So would you like to discuss the animal policy? Sure. This isn't one that um is implicated in in Mark's comments about the new law July 1. This has been on books for a long time, but it's not really been it's law that we haven't had policy for, which is fine. A lot of districts do that,
046but we um had a situation arise where um thought policy would be helpful to guide practice. And so, uh, the federal law, uh, Americans with Disability Act, requires all public entities, uh, to allow service animals. And we've looked at this and, um, I think to some of our surprise, that service animal means two things. It's two animals, a dog or a miniature horse. um which is much less frequently observed. Um but a service animal is much different than a therapy animal. Uh I think it's really important to understand that uh there are very strict definitions about what a service animal can can do and uh how they're trained and everything like that. Um things like mobility u for example. So uh we have a situation where that is going to be necessary. And um it's
047in very limited use, frankly, but um we want it to be very clear for all parties what that entails. And so the policy that we outline is really everything that the law indicates that you have to do. And I know Adam had a a question. about like what happens with allergies and things like that, which is a potential concern. Our goal would be to try and educate everybody where the dog will be present and give them as much advanced notice as possible so that we can work out any um issues like that that arise. Uh and then you know maybe if it's something unforeseen uh that we would look at potential accommodations uh like a maybe a filter in the room or something like that. Um worst case is is maybe having to move somebody
048but we would want to try and avoid that at all costs and we want to try and do that through a lot of advanced communication and planning. Um but again in this instance u and I've been in the district for 20 years and can't remember other service animals. Um so it's it is pretty limited uh the use of service animals and so we're adopting this policy in order to make sure that everybody's clear. We can have something to point people back to when we do have a service animal in the district. at the start of next year, but again it'll be very limited use and even if you don't have a policy we're required by law to permit service animal. So um this is just I think of for us it's a point of communication
049and clarification for people outside the obvious disability that would require it. Are there any other Yeah, sometimes it can be things like um somebody has epilepsy and the dog can alert procedure or visual impairment, physical um you know, so if the individual has uh could benefit from a service animal with uh mobility um is one that is maybe not as common that uh is also a qualifier, but the the policy outlines what some of those um issues may be and because it is pretty restrictive It's not like, well, you know, I just don't like Thursdays and so this service animal makes me feel better when so I bring my dog every Thursday. Uh, that certainly wouldn't wouldn't work. And it applies to staff and students. Anybody who has a service animal, right? So again, the
050the definition of who qualifies for a service animal is very restrictive and so that's why you don't all that often said. Well, to be clear, we don't make those determinations. We do not make that determination. Um, that's a medical determination. And with this situation with with student who's coming in, it's not going to be an everyday thing. You said it might be every day, but not all day. Okay. Very little use. That could change over time. Yeah. But uh initially I know it to be very limited use. So what's the difference with the therapy animal? Do we need a policy on that? So a therapy animal is not necessarily permitted at all. We do not allow people to bring um their own therapy animal. Um that's you you know you start to get into that
051and as you see on like flights and stuff you know peacock peacock whatever. So um the educational disruption is considered in that process. So this is strictly limited to service animals. We do however as an organization as a school system um welcome therapeutic animals in the therapeutic process and support process. So, we've um engaged pet partners for many years. We bring in um dogs to help deal with trauma and things like that. Not even we have a Jersey the bunny, you know, was it a Darcy for a while massive rabbit that had like was pushed in a stroller first. But yeah, so we we we definitely have a very good relationship um you know with animals and we're very open to that. But um this is very different than that. This is an animal providing
052a medical service for a person. Um the second I don't know if you want to do all discussion all discuss it all at once. The second um policy was suspension and expulsion due process. The only thing being changed here and that's why you know Mark said the statuto change um this statute around the bullying definition was changed actually last year for adoption this year. But the legislative session there were conversations about again modifying and or postponing it. So, we didn't engage in the board event policy process until close to the close of the session. Unfortunately, um I had a family emergency where we had to cancel a policy meeting. And so, we get to the three readings on um the definition of bullying. Um, it's been refined to mean bullying means unwanted and aggressive behavior
053among children in grades K to 12 inclusive that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. That is the whole definition. It used to be like much much longer. Um, and so the only thing being changed in the entire policy is that definition from the old definition to the new definition which again even if we didn't adopt today is the law. So it's in place anyway. Um and the third and final policy for review uh this is a third reading uh and that is the change in the climate law. Um and that you know as we discussed that the policy is an update to the overall climate law at the state level. There are uh new prescriptions for who has to be on uh school climate team and district. Uh there's district team, although we will
054still monitor that at the district level. So those all those changes are baked into the the new policy. So I'm assuming though that there'll be some training because I I just find that it involves a real or perceived power imbalance a little bit difficult to decide. It's subjective, right? Um and uh it is nuanced and I think even two reasonable people could potentially disagree right the perceived power and balance. So we are working with our attorneys to help you know it's never going to be as black and white as maybe we would want. Um and that being totally black and white isn't always the best thing either but trying to take a little bit of the gray out of it. But there needs to be some common thread within the district seven schools that we're
055all clearer understanding. Yeah. You're going to have a parent in one school and a parent another school and if it's interpreted differently. Yeah. So what really is bullying? Yeah. And I think it's No, no, no. I'm just saying it used to be black and white. We had a very good definition of work years. Closer to black and white. Yeah. Yeah. We did work on it forever and we were really happy I think with it by the time it was said. You didn't even say cutting edge before there was a law but uh then it was you know the legislation changed on it. It's but even that mean spirited thing was a little bit right. So you know I think the reality is every situation of bullying is individually treated anyway. So and there's a lot
056of to consider the age of the child, you know, frequency, you know, the history there's and I think that's part of what's made administrative administration, the principal's job much more sophisticated over the years u being an investigator and all these things. But again, this uh policy coming back to the policy is is a change in the law that we are required to adopt. So in essence what we have to do is agree to fasttrack for adoption um the first two policies which is indicated in the um in the uh requested suggested uh motions and then we will if we agree on that then we will adopt the policies for implementation. I make a motion that the board of education wave the second and third readings for policy 6163.32 service animals in the school discussion. Yeah.
057Um I've been reviewing it conversing with Jeff said plenty of commentary during our polic I think it's a poorly written law. Um because the the the main point that I have a problem with is that the responsibility of the animal because Jeff just gave the examples of our therapy partners that are with animals that come into a potentially chaotic environment through with experienced handlers, adults. And this law says that the minor student is solely responsible for the service animal, not the teacher, not anybody else. Um, so that's the problem I have with the law. Um, so I think it should be reviewed and tightened up or something. Certain, you know, certainly the having a service animal would be necessary if it's determined. But, um, for me personally, I think to to bring a service animal
058is a potentially chaotic environment with the only car is for the student who needs the animal to be in control of the animal. I know a little shortsided in my opinion. I just want to say that and I think we need a two3 vote for it to for the u fast tracking. Fastrack. Again, even if we didn't have that, it would delay the process until the fall, but the law we would still have to do anyway. I would just counter what you just said about the minor being in control of their service animal. Just to remind people that those the even a minor child is highly trained with their service animal in order to get that uh certification to be able to bring that animal into public places. So, um I have less concerns about
059that because I really feel like that child, no matter what age, has been highly trained and I don't it is right to put that responsibility on a teacher in the classroom. My my biggest concern about the whole thing is kids wanting to engage the service animal, adults wanting to engage the service animal. Um because a lot of people um myself included see a dog and they want to go up and engage the dog. Um so that's for some education. Yeah. And so, you know, I'm working with the principal to um address that and to provide more opportunities for people in the school community to engage with dogs that are appropriate to engage with and to understand like this is a dog that you don't engage because they're doing their job and these are dogs that
060you do. So, that's part of our plan. Yeah. The education is that you always ask. Yeah. And the handler, the student with the service animal is knows to say, "No, this is a working dog." Yeah. So, I'm wondering like at an airport, I mean, they have, right? And there's a big sign on them, right? Do not engage, you know. Same thing with this. Yeah. But I don't know if that would work with, for example, kindergarteners who may not even leave yet. It doesn't work for all adults at the airport, you know. So, um, it's it's going to take some reminders. And I think again, it's it's not just saying no, like don't touch this dog or, you know, we certainly don't want to send a message to all of our kids like don't ever engage
061dogs. That's not what we're saying. And so we want to provide other opportunities to engage dogs just not with that dog. And when you see a dog doing that work, it's educating students and adults alike on respecting this person that has a disability. Yeah. And they're working and they're discussion on the floor. Can you read one more time? Move that the chest board of education read the second and third readings policy 6163.32 service animals in schools. Second by Dr. Eric. All those in favor of motion that is on the floor 245. All those opposed one. Motion passes. Thank you. Next motion. Move that the chesh board of education wave the third reading for policy 5114 suspension and expulsion due process. Second discussion. None. All those in favor of the motion that's on the floor unanimous.
062Thank you. Next motion. Move that the chest board of education twice policies 6163.32 service analyst in schools 5114 suspension and expulsion/d process and 5131.911 school climate and instruct superintendent puts that policies into immediate effect. Second and discussion. I I do want to make at least a point on this one. Um for the superintendent, back to the education piece, is there any possible supports in again training professional development for restorative practices for our staff that so that we can deescalate so that we're able to approach concerns and problems in a more structured format strategies as opposed to you know escalating to your level? Sure. I mean certainly organizationally that's something that we try and embrace but u Marley couldn't be here today but it's something that we spent time with our administrative team on at our
063administrative retreat last week really emphasizing the social emotional component of our uh two goals focused on restorative practice and supporting the social emotional growth of our kids which mitates or the likelihood that you know you'll have conflict. It's going to happen. Conflict is going to happen. But how do we address that and support growth opportunities through that conflict has been a focus of ours? Are you referring to the expulsion due process policy? I'm referring to the whole the school climate policy that's coming back from the state in general. Um you know yeah you have the concern of bullying but before he gets to that definition of bullying what are we doing preemptively to prevent um that level you know so I think just an ongoing Dr. instead of going especially for our students to have
064strategies to help them navigate their differences and what to do with their encounter with you know any potential um issue that might threaten them and whatnot. It's a relationship building and just in general. But I think overall if there is a concern even with staff, how do we, you know, resolve some of those in a way that demonstrates growth, you know, it's not just a black and white. Okay, you're wrong. You're not we go into this basically. Yeah, thanks for bringing that up, Sam. And we've had indepth discussions about those in community meetings as well. I know this at the state level um specifically I don't know if you're aware of Jo you know they promote restorative practices I'm just not sure how prevalent that providing for our staff and we talked about the came
065up in the policy meeting we were pulling from their poweroint conversation So is there training on the state level around the definition of a climate committee now since it's changed from when there was you know school or climate person in the school then climate committee district committee um a lot of it's similar the more of the um shift in the law is around who participates in that uh committee um there hasn't been much in the way recently that I've seen from state training. Um that's why you know our SCAS group we had Pat and Joanne come in and talk to our superintendents about that about that process. And so we're you know kind of gearing up transition over um for next year but that is a area of focus obviously for us with the change
066of law. I know other districts have had all of their staff members go through that with that. just have a plan for at least not just the administrative level but you know the teaching staff as well. So I just want to be clear are we talking about the um the third one? Yes. Okay. Third question. All right. So I don't know if this is if this is better for policy or for personnel but just so question about it which is with regard to the climate surveys we I recall often hearing about the inclusion the survey including students staff and parents right now what I'm wondering about is where I've seen the most problems falling into what I'll call categories of bus recess and launch the unstructured time. The unstructured time typically been an issue yeah
067completely 40 years ago when I was there 50 years ago whatever it was. Um, so what I'm wondering about is are staff included in those those three times because first of all busing they're not our they're not our employees and then recess and lunch would uh include I'm thinking lunch aids. Are those staff? Yes. Okay. So when you do a staff survey it includes lunch aids. Correct. Yeah. And then the last piece of the puzzle that's going through my mind actually falls, excuse me, they fall outside those buckets to some extent, which is substitutes. Are substitutes considered staff? We have some that are, some that aren't. So, specifically with regards like a climate survey, are they included in it? because I feel like uh if there's a substitute in the classroom, that's also probably a
068higher likelihood of problems rather than having the normal teacher. Yeah. So, we're gonna we include building substitutes who are assigned to the building and are there every day? You mean like long-term ones? No. Um long-term sub would be if a teacher's out with, let's say, an illness for three weeks, right? And we uh hire somebody to be in there. Yes. they would get that survey if um we also have substitutes that are assigned to buildings. So, you know that this person uh Mr. Jones is going to be at the school every day taking vacancies um for people that are are ill or whatever. Um those people would get the survey, too. If you work for Kelly and maybe every third Tuesday you pick up a job uh as a sub, you're not going to get
069the the survey. Um it's it's really for the people we know who are high frequency substitutes like those people would get the survey. Okay. But you know for somebody who's you know could have done three sub jobs in Cheshure and 48 Midan and 17 we're not we're not serving those the regular substitutes right would get it. Okay. I'm sorry it's under curriculum. I remember you said if it's under personnel or well kind of it touches everywhere but the the um the survey we the state Oh the survey under surve we we used the state survey first time this year there were some glitches we didn't we didn't get great participation and so you know I said to Marley we got to do this again in October or something you know people been in the building
070for a little while, but we need to do find a different way to ensure I don't I say participation, we can get student participation, but you know, setting up structured time for staff participation and and parent participation because we really want need to get more results. Not that the results were bad, but you can't really glean anything if you get such a small percentage of respondents. We talked about it in our maybe during opens to fill out while they're waiting in line. Yeah, we've done that more so um at the uh parent conferences because when the parents show up and those are a little bit later um because open house is usually like the first two weeks where there's not really real good sense yet. And when we've done it um before with success is
071like parent conferences where we'll have an iPad available or something where the Chromebook where they can just bang out the survey right there while they wait that's had higher response rates which we want because if you just send it to people um I guess maybe it's a good thing that they don't participate but we don't know if it's a good thing if you know they till they fill it out. So it's not ownorous the survey was very brief but It's just people don't have the time to take the time. So if we can give them structure time, we want to take advantage of that. Yeah, I agree. And definitely not the end of the year because everybody's in the end of school year mentality. How long is it? It's very It's like 12 questions. Is
072very straightforward. Yeah. Yeah. Very straightforward. Any other discussions? Um, all those in favor of the motion that's on floor, can you just read one more time? Move the chest board of education give the give a final read of policy 61633.32 service animal samples in school 5114 suspension and expulsion due process and 5131.91 school climate instruct superintendent to put said policies into immediate effect. All those in favor of the motion. Thank you. Is any correspondence? No correspondence. Uh we've talked about school start times before. Uh this is a relatively hot off the presses draft. the um survey and information we want to share with parents um and staff members. I've signaled to the community that there will be information forthcoming. Uh this is just to follow up on that. Uh in essence, just to walk you
073through real quick, it's a survey. We have three different survey designs. One is for um parents, one's for um for uh employees, and another another one for um for community members business. We'll have another for uh students in the secondary grades. Um that asks your perspective on the schedule changes to refresh your memory with the new buildings, their locations in town, etc. and the reality that we don't really adhere well to our current schedule. We have a schedule on paper, but we don't always get there because of transportation times in town. Um, as things have evolved, route 10 and whatnot. Um, we need to make changes to the schedule anyway. So you what you see where it says on page five section two all stakeholders complete this current school start times are identified on the
074left hand side. What's also there is the daily bus cost in 2062. This is projected daily bus cost that day. So, we know we're going to be paying about $15,000 a day for if we ran the current schedule, we'd be paying 15,000 because our projection with the new schools is that we will require uh some more busing um given the north end location. Um the proposal a uh is basically adhering to our current start times roughly. Um, and the cost for that would be about 16,700 a day. So, you can see, okay, here's the time implications and here's the cost implication. So, then you have proposal B, which outlines the same sort of idea. if we tweak some things and build in a later start for Treasure High School, proposal C, proposal D. We There
075is no C. It's labeled B and E because we used to have a proposal C that we've dropped, but um we're renaming them proposal C and proposal D before it goes out just to avoid any confusion. It's a C and D E, right? We're going to drop the the D, make that C, drop the E, make that D. Um, just for clarity, because people will think we missed one, but they won't know that we actually had one, but dropped it. Um, then why did we drop C? It was kind of a mix of what D, but it wasn't cost effective. It didn't have a lot of benefits. we can get the benefits from. Correct. These are the four most viable that we could actually execute and we have a sense of what the cost would
076be. The estimates are I think conservative um fiscally but um we want to rather uh come in under hopefully what we have. But um so you can kind of see what the time implications are, what the implications are and then we're going to shift away from what it has here like giving feedback on each individual one and asking people to rank them ABCD rank them um and with any additional comments so just wanted to make you aware that that's going out I know this isn't the superintendent's report but we also had two other things oh I'm sorry go ahead no I just had a question and now that taking cost into consideration. It's all about proposal C. It really seems like we're sort of being pigeonhold in the proposal B it seems like in my
077opinion which which increases the the start time at the high school. And so has that um ra has the ramifications been thoroughly analyzed with the rest of the DUR about ending at 245 instead of 2:00 as a big time shift. So um I want to be clear when we put this out and I will be clear to families when we put this out. This is feedback. This is not making a decision on schedule. If there are ones that we should obviously rule out, then we'll obviously rule out. if they're these are going to tell us where do we need to spend our time communic like investigating and communicating out. So if people said, "Well, I definitely want to know more about proposal B because it's the cheapest." Okay, here's what the ramifications of that are
078more globally. Um, in terms of, you know, athletics and whatever, employment, whatever our kids are dealing with. And if, you know, people said, "No way, 8:15 is too late. I don't want to go." Now, we can add a little bit more detail there. Um, but the the differences between them, there's so many elements to all these things and they're so personalized for people. Uh, we want to just get a a handle on what people want. It's not like we're going to popular vote and select this. This is a first phase. We'll get your feedback. We'll come back to you with more information and then make decisions at that point. the proposal B the least expensive one. Yeah. I also see that we have an hour 40 minute gap between the start times on elementary schools.
079So just generally speaking um do you have staff even students staff administrators who shuttle back and forth among schools? Re not really at the elementary level. Okay. Um that's very limited at the elementary level. Um some special ed staff, but um so you don't see you don't foresee that as being any sort of issue. Bigger issue middle and high where we share um languages between DO and CHS. Okay. And we do we've been doing that for a long time. Okay. But from both the the perspective of the union contract and costs because one way to spread that needle is to say we'll give you extra money, right? We wouldn't do that unless we were um we had additional sections where you'd be teaching more than the full day. You don't foresee that as any any
080significant hurdle. The 40 gap between start times. No, it would be a bigger problem like I said if it was middle and high school with a huge gap because you know we have a fair number of people that are teaching both at least a larger number of people. Thank you. So, I do know there were some questions though about um when the new schools open up, will there be some families who have kids finishing at say Highland and going to the new school? So, two different schedules for that family might cause problem. Are you talking about like staying in fifth and sixth grade or something? We don't anticipate that. Our when you get redistricted, you go to the new school. Yeah. Because, you know, we don't have space necessarily to accommodate that. And we can't
081have a half filled north end for two years and maxing out trailers at Highland so that you can finish there. And you're just not feasible. You're also not shifting one kid. We're shifting like two or 300 kids to Norton and to Chapman plus part of Highland Chapman saw the new development at the end north end of town. So the kids who are what's going to my mind is the kids who are moving out of at least out of Highland and into North if we move forward something similar to what the redistricting plan was a couple years ago. If that's what happens, they're not they may be moving without their friends, but it'll be a cohort of probably 200 kids. There will be hundreds of kids that and go to Norton. So there's they will recognize
082faces and stuff. They're they're not going and it will be their neighbors, the people that live in their neighborhood. Um you know, it won't be a random fifth grader off of the street. It'll be communities that that shift and and I don't mean to say like this is something that any of us look forward to as a parent elementary school of course they they may not be with their bestie anymore but you know for the kid who has three or four friends probably at least one of them would be going Sure. Yeah I think it's safe to suggest that you know kids will like I said it's hundreds of kids that are coming out of high um they'll they'll know people but Um, and then so many of our kids are integrated with kids from
083other elementary communities through athletics and music and arts and things that I'm sure that they will know people. That being said, we will still work very diligently and try and create connections um leading into the school year and throughout the school year. So, we also have the same issue with our staff where there'll be a significant number of staff who will not be at Highland and be you know, integrating with other staff members from across the district. So, um there's a lot of a lot of work to be done on that front to create a school community um at all of our elementary schools, frankly, that'll be experiencing some new life um in 2627. There were two other real quick things. Um I think I sent you how to break up with your phone video
084that out very late on Thursday. 30 people signed up already. Um so if you're interested in that, I will send reminders on that too. We also please tell me are sending out our um information on our always successful trades um nights where our students can sign up to visit. Sure. We have East Coast Pano, Richard Chevy, Marian Manufacturing. So um I'm sure have people signing up for that throughout the month of July, too. So, just share those. Quick question. Supreme Court versus Taylor. What was that one? That was the opt out of uh LG. Are are we do we have anything in our curriculum that people do we have the option to opt out or are we do we have any books that are Yeah. I I first of all I'm not familiar with the
085case yet. I can't tell you that I know that case. So I can't really intelligently speak about the implications for us in terms of what our historical practice is if it's part of our adopted curriculum. There's there's very limited scope of what you can opt out for. Okay, which is defined in the law. Um and not having you know not um seeing I can't tell you if that fits that scope or not. Um so there is a process for challenging books that's in our codified our board policy. If anybody wanted more information, they could look on our board policy or contact me or the curriculum office. I was just curious if that Yeah, I'm not really familiar with it affect the actual books in our inventory. Just lessons was the intent. So a parent would
086opt out of lessons would be the question, but we don't if you're engaged in the public schools, there are clearly defined lessons that you can opt out of. Um, you know, handpicking lessons isn't part of this law. But I'd have to look and see what the ruling wants to better understand that. Jeff, when are we sending stuff? Exactly. This week. This week. Yeah. We want to make sure that all the bugs are out of the survey that you know and then we will send it out this week and next week um to try and get feedback and then toward the end of the month refining anything that we need to recommunicate out. Um hopefully for the early start of the year we should have a plan about what the start times will be because that's
087going to influence what our staff want to do in terms of transfers and things like that because we'll be asking them do you want to go to Barnum do you know are you going to stay if there are dramatic time changes that might impact family needs and what so we'll start hopefully nail that down and then in the fall We'll be getting the um redistricting information back empty plan um and then hopefully you know by the end of the calendar year everybody's got a sense of where they're going just for the public access. I know you know besides this meeting and the previous meetings that we discussed this in um planning how do you individuals that need clarification on some of this or just the initial like what was the thinking behind do you want
088them to just email you through the cheshure correspondence line or I just feel like there might be some confusion so maybe a possible like virtual meeting for people to just express sure what they're confused about and so on yeah we can set that up set opportunities for for people to connect. Is there go ahead is there going to be an opportunity for when when you take the survey to to write in stuff like I like this but I didn't like this. Yep. There's one opened question on here. So the rank after the ranking you know feedback. Yeah. Yeah. There are some some points about concerns like show up through the survey that you can what are you most concerned about that sort of stuff that that data will help us kind of again reevaluate the
089dates and times or reevaluate the times and make any refinements that we need to I was going to say number nine for families is very open do you have any suggestions ideas how we can support during the transition. That's right. I really appreciate that question. I do, but I also am concerned like if you did your homework prior to that or at least reach the superintendent, you know, or you get this long narrative. Yeah. So that's why I'm just thinking what ways can we just ensure that people understand what we intend here so that they can give us their feedback. Well, I'm also wondering um what's the part of the pro next part of the process for the board? Uh is it going to be presented to us with here's a recommendation or does it
090come to us first so that we can have a form for again for um community members to come and talk to us about? Yeah. So we'll receive the feedback on what the drafts that we have out there. I mean it could be 98% of the people come back and say I want option A. Well, that's really telling data to come back to the board with ultimately we'll go probably a planning meeting in a whole to just say, "All right, here's here's the feedback we got. Here's what we're recommending next steps are. Everybody okay with that?" And that might just be a virtual meeting um and to get more feedback to have more sessions, but we're hoping to just get the pulse um right now. so that we can make sure that we're not going um
091putting together an hour presentation on all four options only to find out that you know nobody really likes three of them. You know that would be a total waste of time. So, let's get the pulse and make any revisions that we need to. Um, maybe after we get the pulse, option X comes out like, well, all right, hearing everybody's feedback, this is what we want. We only want Hum to be open on Sunday. You know, you know, who knows? Just throwing something crazy out there, but something we hadn't thought about yet. Um, so we'll get that feedback. We'll come back to the board planning committee meeting. How long is this open? Couple of weeks. I just think because what I'm hearing you say, Jeff, is that this is to get kind of a post out
092what's out there. Yep. Some feedback for planning purposes. I just feel that a lot of people out there are going to think they're voting on Yeah. what is going to be the winner. So, we'll be real clear about that. Yeah. That's my concern. Yeah. Because I want, you know, proposal B. I have more votes or whatever. Yeah. And and you know 60% of the people selected proposal B. Why aren't we doing B? Yeah. Well, because when we all looked at it that was going to cost us $8 billion more a year, so we decided not to do it. Okay. It's just we do have to be clear that you're not picking the winner. You're providing feedback on these four options. Right. Um concentrates. Yeah. Right. But to that point too, you know, back to kind
093of the climate survey, I don't want 50 people basically kind of dictating our next move too, right? So, what is our strategy on response rate retrieval? Yeah. It's it's the we we're looking for feedback. Yeah. Um and we will reiterate numerous times that we need your feedback. again like I've signaled to the community already at some of our biggest events um at promotion ceremonies that hey we need your feedback on this and we'll send it out and send it and send it again and um I guess my question would be what do you need from us because we are right now some just advocate you know if you have a place to post this or ask a friend or tell your neighbor like hey did you do the survey yet this is really important for
094us. Um, the more that you can do that, the better the participation rate we can get only once. Adam, I don't want you option B, but I'm conflicted. I don't even know how if you're sitting there answering this is my favorite all four of them. That doesn't help. So anyway, but the more that we can uh advertise and elevate the response rate, the better I think we'll all be. When you send this out, I'm just I'm thinking it could be helpful if you had that the YouTube the meeting that we had. My guess is not a lot of people would watch it, but it wasn't an in-depth discussion. Y and it could proliferate a little bit further. Yep. Yep. Yep. Beyond that. That's good. And what's really going through my mind is the point it's
095totally accurate point that you're making later dismissal will impact intercolastic athletic opportunities at the middle school. I see that and I know what that means and I have a feeling. Let's clarify that. A lot of parents be like, "Well, yeah, you put it in there, but I I didn't know what it meant like impacted like, oh, you're going to have an extra sport or something like Right. Right. Right. Um because I feel like that because the reality it would limit almost eliminate our ability to offer intercolastic middle school sports. It's so funny because I had a conversation with a parent last week about this about the school start times just somebody I happen to be having a conversation with talking about start times and that person whose child participates in intercolastic athletics the middle school
096level or will be parent sixth grader said yeah the inter in intercolastic sports not that big a deal for me in middle school because I know My son's going to participate in a lot of athletics outside of middle school. That's what I'm sleep better at the high school if that's part of the deal, you know. So, people will want to know that information. Um, which I honestly I was a little surprised by because my and he might be an outlier, but my default is to think that people preference sports. The thing is though that goes through my mind is how big of a how big of the dot population is the United Travel League where they're already involved or or or what I'll say is and so my kids are not really into sports but
097my guess is a lot of the kids who were involved in United and Travel are probably the better more intense kids in terms of sports and I saw an article in the New York Times probably five years ago about how public school sports are declining to a certain extent because all the many of the better athletes are moving to these private leagues, Premier Leagues, Premier Leagues. And so kids who may have been good at high school baseball, uh not good enough for United or Travel, they would have been, you know, they would have been playing routinely in high school baseball and they just don't even participate in the sport anymore because they don't feel like they're getting challenged like improving. game in a certain way. Uh, and this has been a long time coming because
098we probably started it right here in Chester with Brian when he left. Yeah. Um, so we're we're part of it, the the transition, how it happened. Um, but because of that, I I do wonder if it will be if it will be a really big concern. I'm sure it'll be for some parents if we did go down that path. But anyway, um, just clarify that. highlight that a little bit parents, but we're going to pull that out. That's why I say it'll go out this week. It's not going to go out today. We want to take another look at this again and your feedback is really helpful. So, thanks for the conversation and we'll circle back with you guys. Um certainly I'll let you know as soon as it go does go out uh that
099it's gone out um so you're aware of that to be able to publicize it. Great. Thanks, Jeff. I mean, I don't have much to say for the next item. Thank you for a great school year. Thought it was kind of well semi. Had a little rocky start in November. 6.1 million trending on Twitter. That's a little concern, but I think that was great. Um, and I do I I really appreciate that you, you know, on the graduation tour that you made this kind of initial awareness plant the seeds and people were talking about it at graduation especially since they experienced the traffic flow that was happening um when we were going to the dod and cher high school graduation so I think there's an early buzz as you already experienced with some people asking you
100um but I I do feel like this is valuable and that getting it out to the public and us as members somehow just supporting that would be great because The other opposite end is well I didn't hear about it right and I want to make sure that we put it out there uh to as many mediums as we can on this but that's a great idea because Emily did a great job explaining that to us thoroughly. Um so I hope people watch that and then vote accordingly I guess which we don't want them to assume to. So thank you for that. Um, I finished my book. Thank you. So, for anybody who's interested, do we still want to join the club even though we finished our book? Yes. Yeah, you can join the club. There's
101an option for people. We've put together an option um if you want to have check-ins. Um, first of all, just to debrief or talk about how your breakup is going. Um, that is sometimes a little sitting next to me. A little collective accountability, right? Exactly. We all have something to learn. And as I said too in the video like um you know I'm never it's not quit your phone alto together. It's like I love the analogy G she makes in the book like if you break up with somebody you're dating. It doesn't mean you've given up on relationships at all for the rest of your life. You just need to find a healthier relationship perhaps a more fulfilling relationship and that's what we're going for. So there is sometimes strength and accountability for people. So
102we're providing some accountability options if people are interested and so far 70% of the respondents said that they yes they wanted to do a virtual checkin. And the other 30% were maybe I thought the charts were interesting. You know, like six and a half hours a day or whatever you're on and then how many days of your life? It's equates to Yeah, you have this appendage, but I'm looking forward to it. Monopoly go is like how many days? Um and the other piece just as a reminder um if you can ensure that the contracts are posted people are inquiring about that especially on the CPS website as well as the town website too. So that's it. Thank you. Any other questions or thoughts? If not I would take a motion to right second Mr. Gripple.
103All those favor of adjournment. Thank you. It's unanimous.