001finance committee of the whole um Mr jeni roll call please M here excuse me Mr here Mr Grio here Dr here Mr here M Rosenberg here thank you join us for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all first item on here is for us to um review the superintendent's recommend budget so I am going to forward this to Dr herrian chair of the finance committee hi thanks for everybody for coming out yet again tonight for more budget um I believe I am handing this off to Dr Solen to um give us an update on a second budget recommendation thank you Dr herrian um you know I mentioned
002what was that Tuesday night that uh the budget is a really fluid process uh and information you know is we have the unenviable responsibility of trying to Define how much we're going to need spend in January knowing that there are a lot of variables that change between January and July 1st um one of those variables is insurance and we got some new information uh today that influenced my budget recommendation but I just want to walk through what I just shared which is our budget proposal line by line uh is what you'll see in the table form forms on pages 2 through 4 uh and to the far right there are updates there uh recommendations um for any potential reductions now um there are also recommendations for addition in light of our insurance update today uh
003but I'm just going to walk you through real quick um potential reductions uh and so the first item is under the director's supervisor line that is maintaining the uh secondary stem director uh position again that would be like a counterpart to what Mr hanlin is doing now but at the secondary level um for the stem uh curricular responsibilities our original budget budgeted that position at the top of the pace scale for the administration um we don't ever budget any other position at the top of the pay scale so um we reduce that from Step six which is the top step for administrators to step four uh which saves $5,000 um I really always try and operate from furthest away from the classroom into the classroom but given the other reductions we've made there's not a
004lot of room to do that and not impact the classroom um just reminding folks this year is our last year of German at the uh Middle School level uh decision we made last year to try and make sure that we could provide those science opportunities uh at the Elementary grades um this is a reduction in the addition so this is not a current teaching position that we're reducing by 05 there was a request for a 1.0 art position to cover the additional sections that we've been adding for enrollment that brings this down to 05 of a of an increase instead of 1.0 in that field on the next page uh you'll see the increase in workers comp per the recommendation again I'll ask Vin to touch on that momentarily staff training we've flatlined that budget
005amount to um the amount of money that we uh dedicated in our budget this year to staff training uh $211,700 um so a reduction of 4,500 um we've made budget line reductions to um again kind of made these These are again all proposals for your consideration but replacement equipment and new equipment uh $10,000 in each of those lines um the budget for Pupil Transportation um you know Vin can elaborate on that as well but we made a a potential recommendation for a 4500 $45,000 reduction in that line the next two um lines are again reflected in the insurance quote that we received today uh dues and fees uh $15,000 reduction teach Point by Vector for Teacher evaluations upon reviewing the contracts we were able to make a reduction there um and still provide that service
006for next year um because we need to have a mechanism to record teacher evaluations and then finally maintenance repair of buildings uh $50,000 reduction there is a potential given the net additions and subtraction s uh it's a a total reduction from The Proposal of 1361 181 that would bring the total increase in our budget um to 6,238 41 or 6.94% over the current budget so that VIN if you could just hit on uh those line items that I mentioned that fall under the operations domain I appreciate you provide any color there or answer and any questions thank you Dr Solen good evening ladies and gentlemen happy to be back again on the budget topic uh really the the most important uh topic I wanted to talk about this evening Jeff hit on some of the
007insurance lines when we budgeted insurance we did not have our initial estimate from our insurance broker uh so we budgeted 5% for workers comp and our liability lines including Transportation auto insurance um we did get our initial estimate today finally and we weren't that far off the the estimate is about 7 to 8% um so workers comp for example is at 13 at 8% so we need to increase our $199,000 recommended increase at 5% by an addition additional 13,298 um the big change that is being recommended by arasur which used to be HD Seager is that because of a number of very large jury awards that have occurred you know recently not only in Connecticut but across the country they want us to take our excess liability from a $5 million to a 10 million
008policy um and they're recommending that strongly and that's a $30,000 addition so the the total increase that you is reflected on this sheet that Dr Solen walked through is 46,000 for the insurance lines again 30,000 of it just to increase our excess liability policy Sean Kimble the town manager and for the town and the Board of Ed we work together with arasur and um the town will be budgeting that additional excess liability as well so that's a $40,000 increase the minuses Dr Solen walk through all of them I'll just comment that you know as it relates to maintenance you know we had requested a $485,000 increased to continue to make sure that we're you know maintaining and doing preventative maintenance on our buildings you know we'll take it down 50,000 in order to um you
009know provide a workable budget to the board and the same thing holds true on Pupil Transportation you know as as we look at Pupil Transportation it's a 4 point3 million line item we've requested a $331,000 increase some of that has to do with the contractual increase cost of the buses but also we're anticipating our special ed and General Ed runs we're confident that we do need an additional type one bus but we think that taking that down $45,000 is not an unreasonable approach to take when we budget it's always a matter of tradeoffs so these are the trade-offs that we're recommending at this time and that concludes the uh the update from my end Dr s thank you um I know we had some questions Tuesday about um what role do the uh folks who
010don't have like a traditional classroom responsibility we have reading and math coaches um reading and math specialists at the Elementary grades uh we have a couple of coaching positions uh and we've proposed you know we have a director of K8 curriculum and we have proposed a secondary stem uh specialist for director of curriculum um Marlene do you want to just kind of elaborate on what those roles do and the new role yeah can you hear me yeah yeah okay um I guess I'll start just by talking about how the coaches impact instruction and impact the lives of students at the elementary level and I guess the best way I can describe that is to to tell you an anecdote that illustrates something that happens every day so imagine a set of twins at the elementary
011school and a parent contacts the grade level teacher to say you know I'm really concerned because one of my twins seems to really be thriving and the other one I I'm really worried about I'm not really sure what what it is but I'm concerned that they're not bringing home you know the same quality I'm not seeing the same achievement and so the teacher will say okay talk to talk to the parent and then often times as is the case the teacher will reach out to the coach or the the ram as we call them and the ram will support that teacher and being another set of eyes and a thought partner to look at all of the assessment data often times as is the is the case right now with our I ready curriculum in
012sixth grade and for Math and our aadience assessments across all the grades already has been in place for about a year and a half and aadan is is fairly new although a little bit older than I ready and they'll sit down with the teacher and help them and the teacher might say you know I'm not sure maybe this student needs some pull out support now you're talking about pulling a student out of the classroom to maybe get some additional supports and the ram might say well let me come in and let me you know look at the assessment data let's look at it together and let's figure out what this could be I'm going to come into your classroom and I'm going to do a reading conference for 5 minutes three times a week and
013so the ram pushes in and is in the classroom doing that and the teacher sort of seeing what's going on and the the ram knows that the the student is getting better but the final word is when the Scholastic Reading inventory comes back and or the aadience inventory comes back and the teacher can actually see what a difference that reading conference makes and in the process that teacher says gee I saw what you were doing with Susie I started doing that with some other kids in my class and boy I could really see the growth and so now that coach has has by their presence and by their expertise helped that student directly help that teacher directly and now that teacher has learned those skills that they're going to employ with their current class and
014for their classes for years to come and so the benefit of teaching our own people we have great people in this district and and this is something that we committed to for a long time but through our Sr money in the bounce forward plan we said we're going to put our money into coaching and support so that we can better our best and that we can make our teachers help them with the things that they need so coaches are working with individual students they're working with teachers and they're really listening to what teachers need you all have been a part of um showcases where we've talked about building thinking classrooms if you're a teacher and this is true not for all of our teachers but for some who have are veterans and may have been
015doing this for a long time you weren't taught to teach in the methods that are prevalent now and so having someone in your classroom to give you some pointers to model a way of doing something and then being able to do that for more and more students it's it's a great asset and so we talk about coaching it sounds like it's very formal but it's really those informal conversations so coaching is both um I would say it's both strategic and it's um situational so you have these strategic meetings where you're looking at data and you can pinpoint things that need to happen and then you just have those situations where your one question leads to another leads to another and you're able to impact instruction in that way and so coaching is so very powerful
016and we see it working best um right now in the elementary school because we have a a coach in every one of our buildings so when I think about the work of a science and math curriculum coordinator I think of the exemplary work that Mr hanin does every day in working with those coaches and taking those coaches on coaching walks into classrooms it really is the conduit for provid in the support to the teachers that we need helping them with curricular needs it is facilitating um data team meetings it's it's working to help better our best and when I think about our scores in grades 3 through six we have very strong math and Ela scores 79% of our students in math are above you know at at are above standard and 60% in ela
017and that doesn't hold the whole way through so in my opinion I think that our um our achievement at the higher level isn't meeting our expectation are we doing well as compared to other other um other schools in the state we are but the expectation is that we we can do better and I think having a curriculum coordinator in that position really sets us up to give our students the best that they can because we'd be giving our our teachers the best that we can to support them I talked a lot so I'll pause for questions and I can't see any of you so I'm sort of talking to the microphone out there I know this straight table is not ideal um thank you very much for that explanation I actually really appreciate that you
018gave us a concrete example and a concrete example for others to better understand what some of these positions are doing so thank you for that um also thank you to Mr Mariana and Dr Solen for um taking the that difficult information that you received just today correct yes and um and working up something that um some decreases that don't appear to to affect what happens directly in the classroom it's a way uh to save I feel to save those coaching positions to keep working in that curriculum coordinator position which do directly impact kids in classes um by trying to be trying to tighten our belts let's just say in other areas that are less impactful of of direct instruction so I thank you for um redoing the numbers and giving us the option b that
019we have before us um right now I'll open up for questions or comments from let's take uh finance committee Members First So Adam or Mark um never thought what I'd uh see the day when uh I would think that a 5.3% increase would be palatable to me but uh that's kind of where I am so that's all I have to say thanks all right he's feeling good he's feeling okay where's the 3% increase I think uh anyone else now we're off finance committee um Miss cullinan I think it's on um I I actually who's Tony next um shouldn't we uh shouldn't finance committee make a motion then we can pass the motion and then we can have a discussion from the full board yeah do sounds good I mean why not right only three of
020us can vote right now that's true yeah that's true so um I would make the motion that the finance committee submit to the full Board of Education a proposed budget for fiscal year 2025 26 of 95 million man it's hard to say that number 95 million 75645 an increase of 6 million 23841 or 6.94% over the current Year's budget that's the option b that's before us do I have a second second thank you Mr eki Question discussion discuss is there discussion I don't have any comment now thank you um so we so we'll vote we'll just vote and then we'll do the discussion okay all in favor it's unanimous with the finance committee and um now discussion Miss cenan okay so basically I I do not have a question because I think the team led
021by Dr Solen and Company um have been been very thorough and thoughtful and actually transparent with what um they have presented to us we have asked a lot of questions um they have been very available to answer any questions um and I just appreciate all the work that they have put in to uh presenting this budget to us so thank you all thanks anybody else else point of order we're discuss we're not really discussing anything shouldn't we I think since this is a you know a special well special meeting now I'm assuming now we are we in a a uh Finance we're so do we need to adjourn Finance so that we can are we then calling a meeting of the full board we did not after that full board meeting tonight so where are
022we so just so through procedure is uh you voted out of the finance committee tonight right yeah right yes um if we're going to have a full board meeting it would be on the agenda to be discussed as an item right we don't that be next Thursday is when it's actually scheduled okay I saw that that's why Tuesday you're right Tony yeah um but I I don't think it's an issue of board members on have General comments um we're not making any business decisions yeah I'm so this is finance of the whole So yeah thank you for your comments Miss cullinan anybody else want to add anything no I want to Echo uh what amme said I I I very I'm very uh uh fortunate and aware that we're we have an outstanding staff and
023team here and you know this is my 16th budget process and it's always been this detailed and uh it's always been very responsive uh the staff goes out of the way they answer our questions um and our Administration and teachers and educators are here all the time uh staying for the full meetings I think you're nuts but thank you we appreciate your support uh but it goes to your dedication so I I I just can't under uh I can't emphasize to the general public which unfortunately we didn't have any in this this year's uh process that there's a lot of work and Analysis that goes into this before we get the number and usually by the time we get it um by now I think the staff is Val verse types of questions we have
024so I just can't thank the team enough I know you guys put in long hours as it is so it's uh much appreciated thank you mic [Laughter] dropped yeah now I just exactly um what Tony and Amry stated earlier I do want to thank the administration and everybody body involved in the process and also my colleagues that are up here as well too for asking thoughtful questions digging deeper to ensure that we have a full understanding before moving this forward so I really appreciate you know this year um you know you really put thought into ensuring that we still have qu high quality instruction moving forward um and that this is mostly and should always be student driven a plan that is student driven and so I appreciate that and and what I also um
025um admire Dr Solen is that you're you're cognizant of the fact that yes we want to um sustain and maintain the extent and retain the Staffing that we have but also you know um obtain some exceptional Talent into our district and proposing that stem Position will cover all that um and I I feel whole uh once you do and hopefully get that position in here in a sense so um there's a there's a sense of coherence within this budget and I feel like we're proposing and hopefully at at our um special meeting that we move this forward to the town um and that they recognize that as well too so thank you all uh not not directly related but uh so Dr Sol and I obiously you know about the special education task Force's work
026and recommendation that came out today um I don't believe Harford could move that fast to change a formula this General Session but you never know but based on what came out the report gations in lightest budget process to are you concerned at all at this point if there's any change to es ECS formula to put a heavier weight on uh special needs um population in light of the fact that we're considered a welltoo town um is there any concern about that formula negatively impacting us at this point as a tour of the tell um good question Tony and how that play into this budget yeah good question and I think you know um like you I mean both of us have had a lot of experience trying to read the tea leaves and and do
027that and um seen situations where uh you know had a mid-year reduction in ECS at one point uh I say back in like 2017 or something um right you know in this situation uh it is not been my experience that we ever see Dems and Republicans both supporting uh increased funding for special ed um and how whether that plays out through ECS um the educational cost share or the excess cost Grant um I think both of those could be beneficial to us ultimately um you you know whether that is paid for through something like a reduction in Pilot or I I don't know um but I feel pretty optimistic actually that if anything uh and there's been a lot of I've seen a number of bills introduced about holding harmless communities like ours that um
028have seen some ECS and ECG backsliding in the last couple of years um so actually if if anything I feel kind of optimistic that by April fiscal conditions could improve for cheser that' be that' be nice to see be great yeah I won't hold you to it but thank you yeah I'm not going to hold my breath man but I to put you on a spot but I'm sure you've been thinking about that lately yeah um we actually talked a little bit about that on Tuesday as well and um there's just at this point in time no way for us to know we don't have our crystal ball although I've always suspected that VIN has one somewhere in his office um but uh the other thing that when it gets to the town and the
029town starts talking about where the education budget fits in there's just it's April there's just a lot more information at hand at that point I feel like this budget that we're putting forward has is the best number that we can um work with at this point in time and be um really cognizant of of funding what we need to fund so again thank you to the whole team Dr s canj yeah do you adjourn for the whole board of education for a whole finance committee of the whole yeah we can make a motion to adjourn okay do we have a motion to adjourn so moved Mr grippo a second Mark Mr eki thank you we are adjourned right or vote vote vote oh all in favor thank you w weer great um Thursday will that
030be here here thank that was 20 years ago