001lski please roll call here thank you please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance Al to the flag United States of America and to the for stands Nation indivisible and justice for all all right so today tonight this evening we're going to um the board finance committee will review the superintendent's recommended budget um if there is anybody in the public thank you for coming that would like to make any comments definitely go to the microphone or that microphone you switched it on me no I'll give a little longer wait time to you know seeing nobody at the mic I am going to pass the gavel to Dr herrian chair of finance committee great thank you welcome everybody tonight um we're hoping to have a good discussion uh we had two finance committee meetings um last week
002on Tuesday and Thursday evenings we got really indepth presentation masana on all of all of the items that go into and and what percentage they are without further Ado which is myself and Mr gri Mr eki are going to do is um we have talked about the superintendent's budget we wanted to um move some items like the pre-engineering and environmental science proposal forward into this budget and um as well as keeping the fencing as a Varsity Sport into into the budget but we also um wanted to consider the financial climate and we asked Dr Solen to um give us some numbers that maybe could bring down that the overall budget uh proposal to under a 6% increase which he has done and I'm going to um hand the mic over to Dr Solen to explain
003the changes that are being made from the previous um superintendent's proposal thank you Dr heran um you know as you mentioned uh there was you know in numerous conversations individually with folks uh a lot of um interest in seeing what we could do and what the implications would be to include pre-engineering and environmental science uh as well as fencing which um um the fencing was initially in included in the superintendent's recommended budget the uh two positions for pre-engineering and environmental science at the Elementary grades were not in addition to um a little more than about $200,000 worth of supplies were not included there um and you know competing that with that is the desire to uh see if we could get the budget under 6% obviously you know you guys have sat through six hours
004of myself Mr massana Miss Carrie providing an overview of the the budget and you know I think people are familiar with our history we're not um we don't really we don't believe in in pushing the numbers high so that we can cut them we we give you an honest assessment of where we think um the district needs to be in order to you know maintain our success and so pushing that and adding competing things we just really have to look at one hopefully any Evolutions that we see in financial circumstances so uh you know many of our members have been on the board for uh at least two years of not much longer and they know that between now and April some things could change with respect to our medical benefits plans or other quotes
005that we don't have yet in January and we try and budget on but uh as it sits today in order to incorporate those positions and um some of the uh supplies that would be necessary to actually facilitate a pre-engineering and environmental science uh program you know we have to make reductions in other places I think the most difficult um decision when you know our team went through and reduced many uh positions because we we always historically when when push comes to shove have tried to reduce mine items that don't impact classrooms on unfortunately you know as we sit here today again knowing things could change by April but we have to settle a budget now um have not been able to successfully stay away from classroom impact and so uh we evaluated where we thought
006um we could go with that and uh unfortunately settled on German at the middle school level predominantly uh there's a position there that teaches uh middle school and some high school instruction um I want to be clear that this is not a decision decision that we take lightly nor is it uh any sort of reflection on our German program I I would um particularly point out fraas who's in the the audience um she's a legend uh and I don't just say that based on Word of Mouth uh having been at chesher high school for four years and seeing her teach and what she does and seeing the way our kids respond um I I I know that um this that we want to retain German as a language to be clear this reduction still does
007that um over the last four years unfortunately you know with four languages being offered at DOD Middle School Latin uh French Spanish and German German has only had on average 22% of students selecting that is one of their top two choices uh the next closest is Latin at 35 5% which is significantly higher um and so when I look at the number of students that it would be impacted um you know and I have to make tough decisions like that would be the recommendation uh the obvious question is what happens with students who took German in seventh grade um we would uh ask FASSA to teach um at split between DOD and CHS next next year like we do with um a few other World Language positions and um to ensure that our students get
008the second half of German is eighth graders the second half of German one and continue to matriculate up moving forward though students who leave DOD have the option of selecting German the same way they have the option of selecting any other language when they make the transition uh a perfect example is Italian like I said some of you have been on the board a long time you know that we instituted Italian part-time many years ago and that program has grown to full-time there is strong enrollment there I would anticipate uh there continue to be strong enrollment at chesher high school in German as well um and would not certainly not uh recommend reducing that the other variable here is you know we we currently only have 600 students or so at the middle school you
009know based on the enrollment projections that will change so it wouldn't shock me that years down the road as our enrollment returns back to uh back when Kristen worked here and it was about 900 students or when I worked here um we would have to be adding language at that time and you know German would be a a first place to look would be my my recommendation so again in order to meet the uh requests my recommendations are as follows going through the lines in the uh budget book line 113 as teachers that line would increase by 48,6 189 which would reflect the addition of the two Elementary uh positions and the reduction of the German position I just spoke to uh homebound instruction uh and evaluating that with Robin uh looks like we could
010um reduce that by 10,000 um the tuition outplacement again and uh reviewing that with Robin and also uh knowing that the state next year is looking to phase in uh and I hate to count any chickens totally but we're only accounting for about 25,000 of this phase in from the state to pay uh some of the two ition of our students who attend uh vag magnet schools um Etc um line 611 would be instructional Supply that would increase by $120,000 to provide resources for pre-engineering and environmental science uh line 641 textbook software would uh decrease by 15,000 line 642 Library periodicals would decrease by 5,000 um line 644 library media supplies would Rec decrease by 1,710 line 730 replacement equipment would uh drop by 6250 line 731 new equipment would drop by 6,250 610 office
011supplies would drop by $423 uh Capital Equipment line 732 would decrease by $5,000 line 420 maintenance and repair of equipment would drop by $55,000 and the maintenance and building repair account line 430 would have to decrease by F $50,000 so in all in total these modifications to the budget which again would include VAR City fencing and the pre-engineering Environ Al science programs at the elementary schools would bring the proposed budget for 2425 to 90 milon 67,69 or a 5.97% increase over the current Year's budget thank you Dr Soul uh with that I'm going to ask for a motion um to take this proposal to the full board and um after getting a motion and a second we will put it up for discussion we'll have some discussion amongst the uh finance committee Members First and
012then it will go to the full board and then if anyone else wants to add something to the dis discussion or questions um that's the order that will go in so can I call for a motion make a motion that the finance committee submit to the full Board of Education the proposed budget for fiscal year 2425 of 9,676 an increase of 5,741 180 over the current budget do I have a second thank you Mr grippo um and now we're open for discussion Mr grippo um just a a point of clarification um so I don't exactly recall uh I do have an alternate uh motion but um I can also bring It Forward up front of a full board is that correct yes okay thank you I have a question for the finance committee yeah so
013were these details discussed last Thursday night no so where did the 6% thing come from that directed Dr Solen to find items so chair and vice chair were talking about it and we um came to some decisions that we wanted to keep this environmental um pre-engineering and environmental science program and um that we wanted to try to bring the budget under some constraints those discuss Thursday night no that since between Thursday night and tonight okay thank you Mark did you have any questions or comments about this proposal going from Finance to the full board I think it's uh I think it's a good balance between uh the needs of the school schs and being physically responsible for the town um I I support the uh the addition of the the science and the the engineering
014in the elementary schools as well as adding a new another sport co-ed sport uh that involves 40 student athletes which I think will be beneficial to uh our student body thank you um I also wanted to reiterate from Dr Sol's comments on um the German program as part of the world languages at the middle school as a language teacher myself at the college level um I'm loathed to um cut some programs out of our education because I see the Great benefit that such programs bring to um to our students and their development as people um so I had a I had a good conversation with Dr Solen on this matter and um you know hard decisions do have to be made sometime and really when we look at the number of students that we have
015at the middle school level and what the enrollment is doing um that's where decisions are made they're not made as Dr Solen said they're not made lightly so I I did want to throw that out there anything else any other comments from the board before we send this to the full board and then there'll be uh opportunities for discussion there okay seeing none we have a motion on the table that the finance committee submit to the full Board of Education the proposed budget for fiscal year 2024 2025 of 9, 67,69 an increase of 5,741 180 over the current budget um all in favor motion passes and we'll go to the full board that concludes uh the finance committee so I will you want me to ask to adjourn so I'll ask for a motion to
016adjourn thank you Mr grippo second thank you all in favor thanks next meeting starts at 730 7:30 yeah great we have nine minutes for