Board of Education 5-21-20

001I have a call to order mr. zesty we do a roll call please mr krepo your miss helen here did you hear me no no I do miss ham here miss Harrigan here mr. Martelli yeah mr. Perry Jeannie here mr. white here mr. chairman you have a quorum Thank You Carol we will stand for the pledge you think just gonna put the flag I think we're gonna have a special guest talk us through the Pledge of Allegiance for me good job course of course Hey Murphy's Law obviously after the like what seems like literally thousands of hours ooh meanings of has since March I've never seen that happen yet well Marlene thank you very much for that welcome everyone we have two other special guests tonight we have Isabel and RJ who we've missed for

002some time welcome back guys and but we have your student report what are you guys up to what's going on it's been a while okay so a new group called carts against Corona was created and cards against Corona was created by grace you as she come right in team and Morgan zoo of CHS juniors and they are inspired by stories about social media in what they've seen about the quarantine and the purpose of this donation drive is to have residents from all over Cheshire donate handmade cards to show their support and appreciation for health care workers and they all who made big posters and collages and then they donated them to Yale Harvard and st. Francis Hospital and they've also teamed up with the Yellow House and multiple CHS clubs and organizations such as NHS

003and young Dems in order to spread the news of the donation drive and to get more people involved and they collected about two hundred and fifty cards and also numerous PPE and yeah that's carts against chroma okay so we'd also like to add that Ct kids against Corona was created to help health workers also and a hundred percent of donations will go to Saint Francis Hospital and we do have a venmo and a PayPal number and a link for a GoFundMe in our report which we can provide if anyone is interested in link crew has also been creating lots of videos to send messages and of positivity to freshmen because obviously we can't really have like a freshman orientation during this time and so we have to kind of compensate for that digitally CHS students

004and staff have created a video of poetry in honor of the annual poem in your pocket and we can send you guys a link to that YouTube video I think it's unlisted but we have anonymous document we created we could share with you and the chester ram has been visiting and surprising the class of 2020 so don't look out across town for that hand on facebook and social media so there's been a lot of discussion about what is going to happen for the seniors because it is their biggest year of high school and they will be graduating obviously not in traditional way so we have met on May 13th and May 17th to discuss the events of planning graduation with dr. Sola and dr. GAD and our class advisors mr. Luigi and mr. hunter and

005we had 23 people on this meeting which was great and they all contributed and gave forth their great opinions on this topic and finalized survey about graduation options was sent by email and for those parents and students who haven't submitted their responses I would recommend doing that I don't know if the forum is still open but hopefully it is and there's many options there's six options and they're all kind of complicated so I won't go through all of them so be sure to check out rampage media for current news reports and writing topics spilled ink we'll also be releasing their yearly magazine with arts and other poetry and essays and writings that have also been included PE and health classes are also encouraging CHS students to get out and enjoy some fresh air as an

006alternative to PE class and it's a great way to relax and kind of take a break from the remote learning in the stress of Kovan 19 and be sure to follow and check out CHS underscore 2020 underscore College Board Instagram account to celebrate the seniors accomplishments and future plans Z you can this Sunday May 24 the Cheshire high school music department in k-12 music system will be compiling a Memorial Day service in place of the parade the rain date is May 25th CHS drama the CHS drama department has also been recording rehearsals for there is their musical beauty the beasts they rehearsed two times a week working with logistics and they film with mr. Solomon on Thursdays the actors are recording music at home with their phones and Chromebooks and our music director has played

007some for some of the music for them to sing from on blast day that they were in school and we were all able to oh sorry we just want to say thank you to mr. Solomon for all the help and we'll there his willingness to work with them and they're really excited to share that link with the community in order to get a chance to kind of see in order for the community to kind of get to see what these kids have produced yeah so that's really great students are taking AP exams which have started on Monday May 13th and will end on Friday tomorrow May 22nd and we wish some good luck and success and I think tests are 45 minutes it depends on some of the tests some are two questions so it's

008a bit different from the regular process and lastly remote learning has been a major transition we are still trying to adjust to this major process and the staff and CPS have done a wonderful time supporting us during this unprecedented time and a new grading system was sent out for CHS and implemented to ease the workload for students including for a core quarter for grades being 15% of the final grade an optional pass/fail for students who are struggling and/or need at this time and lastly is II and I would like to thank everyone for supporting us all the staff you guys health care workers during this time and we are grateful and appreciative for all that you guys are doing and continuing to make our world a better place that's all we have thank you I

009just want to say thank thank you and almost all the students everyone in that area school especially the high school for the seniors I mean there's a way I know it's been a very quick change to go online and learning but it's seen everyone well students have been my opinion phenomenal not just doing the work of the writing feedback and you know being honest make things better so I I was a little worried at first when you kick this off because we really haven't done this to Cheshire but it was real nice to see everybody come together I'm not there weren't any issues but those got to work through pretty quickly so you know thank thank you back for for your help as well I believe yeah thank you Tony all right I don't know

010if I missed it or either of you graduating sorry into the situation but congratulations I think we get him back for one more meeting there's one more business meeting in June so I hope you guys can attend and we can say goodbye but well do Tony do we do we have a center Jeff do we have a sense of who might be representative next year at this time do we know who might be it not yet okay thank you it's not easy to pick this sort of talent but they're our next business meeting will be after they graduate fourth before oh okay okay all right thank you any other questions Khan is from the border in yeah I just wanted to say I feel like we've been robbed a little bit of your presence Izzie

011and RJ you've done a wonderful job I do hope that you're here in for our June meeting but if not congratulations and thank you for all of your reporting this year it's it's really wonderful for us on the board to have these student representatives out there just reporting to us and it's a different kind of contact with the schools when we hear from the students themselves so thank you very much for all your efforts this year and boy best of best of luck and best of best in your futures going into college this fall is going to be a whole different experience also so hang in there if you guys are going to succeed I know it I know it in my heart and thank you for everything that you've done this year for us

012thank you so much likewise any board members seen as there is none Isabel and RJ welcome to stay I think a little bit later Jeff we'll have an update on the survey resource but you don't stay for now I'm sure I'll get your results you know we're meeting but moving on we're gonna get into audience I'm not sure there's any public cue question answer at this point or not Jeff it's one of mine anyone that may be watching we have another one towards the end so nothing I was watching it all Mike but hopefully get something later there are there aren't any comments yet but you can email CPS a CBS kovat 19 at TRADOC k12 dot CT us it's on our website so it's easier to just link then try and remember CPS kovat

01319h sure dot k12 that CT dot us the only say that yeah god thanks Jeff moving on next time I agenda is the consent calendar and this is an approval of a grants resolution which I think we're an update and the grants apply for so further in the school year so it wants to walk us through that is that you Jeff yep so you have a copy of some of this in your in your packet but these are all federal grants so we receive funding for title one improving basic skills title to teacher support title three for English language learners title for student support and academic enrichment you've also heard through our board some meetings this year about the Perkins Career and Technical Education grant and that grant that Shawn McEwen was present for at

014one of our meetings that he applied for we did to enough forty nine thousand seven hundred and eighteen dollars we also get the individuals with Disabilities Education Act grant one special education and one for a preschool education we get some money also for open choice adult education you know about the Peck Jones money because you're always involved in in that process as well as Smart Start preschool so the total award grants for 2018-2019 was 1 million four hundred and eighty five thousand seven hundred and fifty five dollars the total grant awards for this year were increased a bit to 1 million five hundred ninety one thousand two hundred and seventy six what was notable this year is that the state of Canaan for a waiver for us because well for the state in that not

015all districts had the opportunity to spend some of that money for example we use title for money too in the grant that we proposed last year it was to hire some trainers around eureka math for our April PD day and then a day in the summer obviously those didn't happen during due to the campus closure so we are able to hold over some of this grant money until September thirtieth 2021 we're still waiting to see if they get a waiver for the title for funds so all of this money is used for its professional development it's used towards supplies some of it goes towards salaries as you know the Peck Jones money has been used for science and funding some field trips so it's it's a it's a we're happy to receive it and continue

016to apply for it every year thanks Marlene and has a quote actually I think Ann was first would question than Adam go ahead now let us listen earlier yeah actually Adam was first but I'll go since my mic is sorry Adam Marlene I'm just wondering if these grants are in line with Otton in past years or are they exceeding are there some new ones which ones are new which ones are sort of repeating and I asked this just a brief synopsis so not everyone individually but just to give us an idea they are very much in line with what we've done in the past I'll remind you that this is my first year in this new position but in doing a brief history of what we've received in the past yes a molar for example

017title for ten thousand last year or ten thousand next year this year last year so yes they're all about the same thank you thanks Adam okay there we go ah thank you um Marlene did I hear you correctly that the the 49 thousand dollar grant for the manufacturing equipment was approved yes it was oh that's great that's we're very excited now we would just like everything to open up so we can get the training and get the equipment and get it delivered and then for title one and if I recall that's where all of the what's it called is the federal the federal grants that are coming through for the we call it stimulus I know if it's a stimulus package or whatever save your package it is is there any hope that we're gonna

018be getting any more title one money because I think right now is that like ninety nine thousand was there gonna be any more from from those I think we're talking about two different things with the title one money is about one hundred and nineteen thousand the past meeting Jeff was referring to the percentage that we are able eligible to apply for based on our title one funding numbers okay all right thank you I believe in ninety nine thousand I was talking about was what came from the state food because as it airs Act yes yeah it was clear tonight and withing last week in town council meeting just thought I just thought I forgot it seems like January was so long ago these are these grant details in terms of the monies is listed in

019our budget book and section twelve details out the Perkins grant ID a grants kind of one title for but we do have in case folks want to refresh your minds but so awesome here we have the machinery is machine cut gotten in yet or it's just we know we're planning for and organizing all of the details to that which would be challenging on any but in the day it's you know little more I guess the OS that's thank you so glamour me know I didn't know if you wanted me to go into the details of the approval of the grants resolution or if you wanted to do that you go ahead yeah thank you I want to make sure I heard that right Marlene you this makes sense to me what you're saying but I

020just want to understand if I'm looking at this stuff correctly because I thought you had said before you sort of Rob I think for different things you said that it was in the packet somewhere do you have the Grant's report end-of-year yeah that's actually further down in the finance report Tim and maybe jump the gun a little bit on the detail the resolution basically is in our policy where you basically give me authority to apply for grants okay that's the shall endure and we can touch a little bit more on detail kind of go back to that when we get down to Finance yeah I pull up if again to deepen that grant stuff early on that was sorry it's okay sooner or later yeah no no no I just want to be careful about

021truthfully as I'm sitting here and I'm trying to click on a million different things we after last meeting I kind of mentioned something that was it just wasn't perfect which is fine if it's things aren't perfect but I just want to be I just want to be able to find what we're discussing quickly yeah that's why we kind of jump the gun a little bit that's all no no no it's not it's not a problem it's just I I want to be able to get to the stuff so that this is no big deal Thank You Marlene I appreciate it yeah I'm sorry so this is we're under a consent calendar on the agenda and the grants resolution is what we're really going to be discussing so Marlene yes and you have a great voice

022and you know once you walk us through the resolution since I did so well with the pledge Tony barking dog so in accordance with foreign policy three to nine Oh business and non-instructional operations grants and other revenue the Board of Education by resolution shall the superintendent to apply for and accept any and all grants as may be determined appropriate by the administration therefore the superintendent shall and to get new sources of revenue whether state local or federal proposed new revenue sources and associated programs to the Board for approval and implement measures necessary to apply for and receive additional revenues so in accordance with this policy the superintendent or his designee is authorized to sign all required forms for state and federal programs in addition the superintendent child informed the board II love all grants applied

023for and received with the exception of those pursuant to chapter 1973 of the Connecticut General Statutes at this meeting under the report of Finance Committee that says that I will provide you all with a report of the grant activity for the current school year Thank You Marlene so there is a motion it's listed on our agenda in packets to someone to make the motion to approve the consent calendar yeah go ahead okay I move that the Treasury Board of Education approves the consent calendar as presented thank you is very second Adam began tans got it any this any further discussion on the motion hey Gretchen yeah so I mean this too I just want to know I want to be clear on it if Jeff goes and does something and it's a grant with which

024a majority the board does not agree do we have to vote on it before he applies for it or spend up this this resolution provides me the authority to apply for grants and you know I notified the board the I would think that it would be beyond extraordinary for me to find a grant that would be applicable to our mission and vision that the board would disagree with but typically it's the same list of grants that Marlene just walked through it's the the federal grants the Peck Jones grant you know it's it's a rare bird that we find an appropriate grant that we qualify for that I can apply for but this allows us the facility is we've had historically to just allow me to sign off for the grant and notify you rather than

025try and get you to approve each individual grant in the time it takes for that okay and how many times since you've been superintendent in the last four years how many times has it been you've become aware of a grant and needed to needed to apply for it say in less than a month outside of these grants zero but these grants do sometimes pop up you're not aware I mean if it's a real yeah the the last Perkins grant for example okay that was the Supplemental Perkins grant that came up it had a very short window and that we did bring that to you okay I think I sign that one of them out mister yeah okay all right so they do come up and it's it can be a window of say less than

026two weeks it can occasionally be a short window yes last summer Jeff I don't think we ended up getting it but it was a federal grant right and it was like I was on vacation that's y'all talking and trying to get it through yeah it was an SEL grant we had applied for and didn't ultimately receive but okay and is this something that we vote on annually yes yes okay okay the provision for this grant pieces explicitly in the policy in the board policy okay so I think that you know when the board policy was written it was with the intent to provide the superintendent flexibility to be able to pursue fiscal resources as expeditiously as possible but nevertheless still notify the board okay okay all right okay thank you no problem any other question

027is a comment from the board members seeing it is none the motion presented is that the cheshire broad education approves the consent calendar as presented now all those in favor aye those opposed what one opposes ten motion passes thank you next up on the agenda is reports of standing committees starting with curriculum okay the committee subcommittee unanimously approved a recommendation to the full board for approval of a new textbook entitled essentials of comparative politics with cases it is available for community review and review by full board members at the office for I believe the next week is that our four-week period Marlene or you're a mute okay yep doing me Marlene I'm checking on the calendar it's either about a week or ten days the policy states two weeks we were giving it four weeks

028to Dakota right so anyone interested in reviewing should email or call the superintendent's office or any one of us and we can get in touch with everybody then Kevin Hamlin presented the results of the great three Otis Lennon school ability tests are all set a the test measures students abilities and helps instructors identify enrichment needs among among individual students 241 students took the test average score was 104 which is about the 50th percentile and only slightly lower from last year's test results so again these are to identify enrichment needs among individual students so next mr. Hamlin presented the results of the Elias Lynx tests which tests for al proficiency 51 students in elementary middle and high school took the test and based on the results 21 students met the exit criteria which indicate language proficiency

029capable of accessing the curriculum um Marlene Solano then presented a survey of student feedback regarding remote learning it's a rather detailed survey so in the interest of time I will refer those who are interested in what was recorded to go to the curriculum committee link and the CPS website heads up that the administration has started posting a day-in-the-life videos and CPS Facebook page features staff and faculty in the district and I'd encourage you to take a look at these short clips they're fun and informative finally and you've already heard about this the treasure high school music department chair John Koerner gave an overview of the CPS memorial day community performance will be held May 24th at 1:30 with May 25th as the brain day it be put on by the K to 12 bands choruses

030and music classes to honor memories of our fallen warriors participants will perform from porches Stoops lawns driveways with neighbors joining in and we're asking everybody to make videos to share on the cps website links to the music and arrangements are posted under the news tab or news page on the cps website and it's hoped that the whole community families of students as well as those without kids come out and support the kids and there was no public comment thank you faith and he because any questions on the curriculum report excellent seeing as there is none next up is Thank You faith next up there's reports of the Finance Committee we have a few areas starting with the finance report Thank You mr. chairman I think what I'll do first since the everything is a little

031more relevant I'll just go through the to report on the April 27th meeting which is sort of a nice lead-in to everything else we have here but basically the April 27th meeting is caught up here we go essentially dr. Solan gave a presentation to the board regarding the status of the operating budget noted we are at the time six weeks into the pandemic which has created a monumental shift and how our district is providing instruction and reminded the board that they are a very efficient and lean organization then we went through a whole bunch of different budget scenarios which I believe mr. Massey Anna will discuss a little later on in this meeting and that's essentially the gist of the entire meeting for April um I suppose I will go into the finance report narrative

032here if the state of the state as of May 18th this report is based on actual fiscal year expenditures through May 18 2020 the projected year-end totals reflect an ending balance of 1 million forty seven thousand six hundred dollars which incorporates estimated savings and expenditure reductions resulting from the closure of our school buildings and migration to remote learning due to the Cova 19 pandemic the remote learning period effectively began after our schools dismissed on march 13th and will continue through the end of the school year in line with the governor's executive orders it's important to note that the ending balance is still an estimate and may need to be adjusted as we continue through the rest of May and the month of June the Board of Education will need to pass a motion at its

033fiscal year-end meeting scheduled for 7:30 a.m. on June 30 2020 to request that the Town Council allocate the remaining balance to either an unexpected unexpended education funds account or back to the town's general fund for a cup or a combination of both the 1 million 47,000 $600 ending balance is a result of an estimating that expenditure reduction of 750 six thousand three at $17 directly attributable to moving to a remote learning model in response to Coe vyd with the largest reductions in our transportation costs of 315 thousand eight hundred $40 cancellation of our spring sports of $100,000 reduction of contracted cleaning services of 80 thousand net reduction of substitute teacher costs of 75,000 and reduction of staff hours of 58,000 the remaining net expenditure reduction of 291 thousand twenty eighty three dollars is expected to

034come primarily from placing in 80 percent expenditure cap of non payroll accounts for our schools and departments please note that the net reduction includes a two hundred and dollar increase required to provide services for special education students due to potential awesome skills during the remote learning period a more detailed analysis of the above summary information is included in the in company the accompanying financial report as with May 18 20 20 the timeline of key past and tentative future events related Ovid 19 are as follows March 13 2020 is the last day of classes with students in our school buildings March 18 2020 remote teaching and learning begins for students March 18 20 20 grand go program for student meals begin March 25 2020 governor governor stay safe stay home executive order takes effect and most

035district employees begin working from home excluded from remote work our facilities management and staff as well as the staff working in the gravel go program which includes food service nurses instructional assistants bus drivers in our building maintainer x' Thursday June 11 scheduled last day of remote school for students June 16 scheduled last work day for teachers and Monday July 6 2020 scheduled start date of extended school year services for special education subject to change I believe this concludes my speaking now hand it over to mr. Massey Anna okay Thank You mr. grip oh I will just talk briefly because the board members do have in the package the detailed numbers you know for each line item how we got to the total expected million forty seven thousand six hundred dollar budget reduction I will comment

036that that improved by a hundred thousand dollars over what we had reported last month and that's primarily because of two things one the bus contract we did reach the final agreement with dacow and then when we projected out the numbers that increase you the total savings there by approximately $80,000 over what we had reported previously we also have an additional month of contracted cleaning that we won't be paying for so that was approximately forty thousand dollars and then we had some offsets that went the other way so you know I suppose the good news here is that the you know projected savings that we have between COBIT and the expenditure reduction does seem to be holding up you know I always note that you know we still have a lot of work to do to

037close our purchase orders and cumber for the things that we need to purchase over the summer you know some of the maintenance items but I I feel pretty confident that we should be able to end you know with this balance the the board as mr. Griffo reported will have to decide at the fiscal meeting on June 30th you know how they want to you know allocate and make a recommendation to the council for the allocation of the remaining balance that's available this is not typical typically you know we do pose the the books with a zero balance but you know this year because of kovat and and the other savings we're trying to achieve to help offset a potential budget reduction for next year we do intend you know to have that ending balance I'll

038stop there and see if there are any questions or comments or concerns on the numbers I can bring up the spreadsheet but I won't do that unless somebody wants to see it well I don't see questions come in yet but as wondering I was gonna talk briefly about this later but do you want to give an update on the meeting Town Council had deer night there was a Tuesday night what I think it was just you myself and Jeff that just trained in they had some last questions on the budget but basically you covered this and the the list you shared which I just sent out as well from that presentation you gave indicate the changes what do you want to talk about the access funds account that was approved by the town council that

039we voted on things like over a month ago to hold some of these funds I do believe they are gonna put in at least that $200,000 that we're gonna need for the summer there from Agra thought about it later and all true no I think we could talk about it now I know that the correlated somebody's over at some of the savings that we do earth so the you know Connecticut state law allows for unexpended education funds to be deposited into a non lapsing account and it's subject to approval by the Town Council in our case or any fiscal Authority depending on what it is for each town so that the council did pass a resolution essentially setting that up but technically the Board of Education has to pass a motion and a recommendation ultimately

040to the council for the amount to be deposited and so we won't have that until we're at the close of the fiscal year on June 30th and we could plant for it notify the council but you know that the good news is that essentially that structure has been approved you know by motion of the council they were you know a couple of caveats that were added as part of the motion which you know I think a relatively a standard you know the council has the authority to approve the rollover you know the initial deposit and then the roll over into subsequent years if the nun lapsing funds aren't spent on the council also has the authority to you know take the funds that are in that non lapsing account and transfer it to you know

041general fund if they so choose but you know the one there you know I guess the important part of it whatever is deposited into that unexpended education funds account is for the you know Board of Education funding to you so once it's there it's at the discretion of the board to use those funds for it yes clarified I'm glad he buffers a couple minor changers and I did talk to Sean and Rob actually use final detail to Jeff and us yesterday so it's because the Town Council's responsible for setting up the account there's not responsible ones foreclosing it so I'm not worried about that change and as far as you know could you know I'm comfortable with the size of close that account you're slowly not going to just take the money put it somewhere

042without talking to us that again all intent of this is once the money is there is used educational purposes the idea was we don't want to keep this around forever you know have it be kinda like this I don't additional fund this is an odd year where we have somebody's savings so but I'm pretty confident these money's not gonna be different very long but so I'm just glad he passed it I don't have specifics yet I guess we're gonna talk about it before the end of June if not sooner probably a finance once we get a budget number back it must get closer toward the end of June what you know what number has we put this account you know to go into next year so we'll figure that out what makes sense there's a

043question on the floor yeah yeah sorry I muted so oh sorry so alright so let me make sure I understand this so if we decide to put in whatever it is to 200-250 into the account out of this the surplus this year and we don't spend it within some period of time the Town Council can take that money back why would we my understanding was that that when that money went into that account it became Board of Ed funds permanently you know to use but so maybe I've missed something they can they can undo it whenever whenever they like is that really what we're saying the way there were solutions and I'm going from memory there's there's two options that the council has one is at the end of the following fiscal year after the

044deposit was made but they can roll it over you know so in the resolution its states specifically that it's for the council to roll it over and do it but the Board of Ed to roll it over okay no one sits in there as long as it's not fold over it's there for Board of Ed use when you say roll and I apologize if we want we don't need to belabor this but when you say roll over are you saying we have a surplus and we want to put it have it put into that account for no use or okay there's an initial deposit and let's use what's gonna happen you know this year so at the end of 1920 the board will you know pass a motion to deposit let's say 200 thousand dollars

045to that unexplained education funds account so we'll be there for 2021 if we don't use it by the end of 2021 the town council can vote to roll it over into 21 22 or they can then write the same account for the following in other words extend no I understand that but the point is that at at the end of the fiscal year at the end of the next fiscal year even if we still have some money in the account the following count it's not our decision to make we will ask them to roll it over but it's not for the Board of Ed to be able to control right it's the council's decision to allow that money to be used in the following fiscal year okay I don't understand the reason behind that but

046okay Anna Europe my my comment was covered by both the you and Vince comments already something go ahead ten yeah thank you yeah I'm just gonna follow up on Katherine for one second try to keep this really simple then are you saying that it gets the council chooses to roll it over into the following year's operating budget no ticket to keep it in that same account another unexpended education account and extend the use of it for for one more year maybe that's an easier way to explain it and call it a roll over we're gonna have we gonna have a discussion offline because I'm yeah okay thank you you know probably the best thing to do is for the Brutes and you know everybody can take a look at it and then we can look

047Gus yeah I'll do two is I'll forward the information Shawn and Rob explains what's behind these decisions and how it works we're just going to talk about it that would be quite helpful thank you that's good music up there we have some place to roll money into and that's a good that's a good morning for us I think it will be very helpful for 2021 to have this ability you know to move some of this year's unspent funds to next year because you know we will very likely need them and I'd be surprised depending on the amount that that's put into this unexpended education funds that can I'd be surprised if we don't lose it right no I'm sure it's more the principle of the thing I suppose so this account and I just want

048to ask the question if we did not create this account we're going to end the year with unspent monies correct what wouldn't happen to those then it would go and that funds goes to the general fund of the town yes so this is preserving up to two hundred thousand dollars of those unspent funds for us to use either through 20 through fiscal year twenty and then 2021 is that correct or actually even but I mean we lose all these funds if we don't set up this account well yes the only thing I want to say is it there are two hundred thousand its what is what's being discussed as special education but the board you know can make a motion that all if it's one thousand you know forty seven thousand yeah one million forty

049thousand six hundred is deposited to that unexpended funds account the board has the option to do that and then it's up to the council to decide if they will accept that full amount of partial amount so I'm just trying to you know green the possibilities but I just wanted to clarify that the option is if we don't create this account the money goes back into the general fund and we have we don't have any control over it is that correct correct correct and we've had years where you know in years where our medical trust fund balance was a little low if we had a surplus that year I think there were times we put a little bit towards our trust fund but the rest chillin went back to general fund and you know you can

050argue lose control over it absolutely but you know if we have a surplus and they'll spend it we don't have legal means that to preserve money and store it somewhere ourselves for next year I mean that's that's why this accounts kind of there to help us with that we would go back to the general fund in general but then town councils past present future where argue that well goes back on general fund that's my little towards your budget next year so you're not necessarily losing control of it but you know again it's once it leaves our budget our purview it's out of our hands and that's unfortunately it is what it is I'm not worried about negativity around that feels back to the general fund but this year is an anomaly because as we all

051know and I'm sorry to keep going on this value when I go on to the medical trust fund report that's why we're gonna have a balance we all know the discussions we've been having on the budget process I believe this sir well the savings is gonna help our budget next year so you know we're going to discussion soon where this staining is going to go we put it all to make wearing additions put it all into this access account seems logical but we're going to talk about that a future of Finance Committee meeting okay can I just follow up to clarify yes so you're the 200,000 we're talking about is a hypothetical we can't ask for that hole 1 million plus yes we can ask to put the whole thing in there okay thank you

052hundred thousand dollars it's not so much a hypothetical it's just the initial outlay that you know Jeff Marlina team think we're gonna need to help make up some special education cost and prepare for opening of schools for the fall better can go up or down but so far they know that's going to be something has to happen any other questions all right I think we're off that topic next okay I will move on the next thing I just wanted to show the board members quickly I'm going to share my screen is an update from ear a ear eight is a program that's sponsored by the federal government and we use it to offset some of the cost that we have related to technology so can everyone see this you know screen with the nice pie

053charts and blue and orange on it anybody yes I see it but it's fuzzy so I don't know I'm not sure if people at home could follow along I'm following along on our document okay so very quickly you could see that this thirty six thousand four hundred thirty-two dollars that's the funding that we are approved to receive from ear eight and this is for two things that we use here in the Cheshire Public Schools this eleven thousand five hundred twenty dollars is the funding we're receiving for internet access which we purchase from the Connecticut Education Network our ear eight funding is forty percent so the total cost is 28,800 ear eight is paying eleven thousand five hundred twenty of it this twenty four thousand nine hundred twelve dollars that's the cost that we pay for

054the ten gigabit per second fiber-optic that we run between buildings to you know ensure that our network speed is what it needs to be so the total cost of of that service is sixty-two thousand to 80 and the 20 4912 represents 40 percent of that and you could see a little bit lower if you could see my mouse we've received a total of eight hundred thirty seven thousand two hundred ninety six in category two budget over the life of the program that we've been basically requesting ear eight funding and you could see all the way down the bottom here eight hundred seventy six thousand two hundred sixty three dollars that's the total ear eight funding that we've received since the beginning of this program in 1999 so the the only point that I wanted to

055make the board is just to share and I do try and update the board annually that this is a good way to help us maximize the technology services we provide you know it is a federal government program that we take advantage of the funding that we're getting this year is just for those two services because that's all where he qualify for in the prior two fiscal years we received about $190,000 from Irae and that's because we had upgraded our Wi-Fi across all our school buildings and that's been completed so it is a good way for us to take advantage it's not you know that's this is money that when we apply for a rate it's deducted from the bill so it's not like we lay it out and get it reimbursed in the form of

056a grant it just comes right off the top and the last point that I will make on this is that a rate is funded by anyone who has telephone service if you have a look at your own bill and you see a little line there for you know earache all of you are paying ear a tani rate is used for schools and libraries to help offset costs of you know technology services that are very very specific so just wanted to share that any questions okay next thing I wanted to provide a a date on grab-and-go program and can the board members see this these are the days that we distributed meals for students or actually all Cheshire resident children 18 and under since the program began March 18th this was the food distribution that we

057did today May 21st we we served five meal days today 397 cars arrived that we served the total of meals for 914 children we had a breakfast and a lunch so we distributed a total of nine thousand 140 meals today and the cumulative meal count is 118 thousand three hundred sixty-six meals served and this dollar amount all the way to the far right that is the total reimbursement we will get from the USDA based on the stated and the programmatic reimbursement that we get for meal services so the program continues you know to go very very well the the number of students that are being served has has not dropped you know it's laying around this eight to nine hundred range every every meal distribution and the program does and on June 8th I did

058want to also let the board know that even though this program is ending you know we are notifying families that there are alternative food distribution programs that will continue through the summer Meriden is the closest but you know they will be notified of that and also any families that are eligible for free and reduced lunch the state has passed the program where you know a essentially a debit card will be provided in the amount of $360 I believe you know per eligible student for the purchase of meals over the course of the summer so that's the grab-and-go update are there any questions on that I believe Adam has one yes sir all right thank you firstly I when I I don't know if with this if this was a news headline perhaps I must have

059thought it has seen it on in the paper but to see that over a hundred thousand meals were served I was absolutely shocked by the number and I was like man that can't be right but now then looking at the report I'm seeing it right there and I'm completely shocked at the number of meals and you know kudos firstly to all of the staff who had to put together a hundred thousand meals you know every year except for this year Tony and I we cook a little pasta supper and that's just for two hundred and that's quite a that's quite an effort to do for one day never mind all the days that the staff it has done this so kudos to the staff and it just goes to show you know how the community

060has really been depending on this program during these hard times and it's great great that we have it even though it all the ending I guess in a few weeks but it was great that we were able we were able to do that for the community so thank you I mean it's kind of stream lis well and you know I would like to acknowledge you you know one of the nice things about my job is that I get to you know share with the board you know in the community you know the you know the great things that we do in in the school district and in school district operations so I don't really do any of it mantle and duiker is the manager of the food service program and her and her staff have

061done it an awesome job with that you know and then going back to the e-rate funding that's Michael Papa is our technology manager you know and he is you know excellent at you know not only getting us e-rate funding but saving saving us money and he's a very skillful negotiator so when we're buying any technology including Chromebooks it's you know I never worry about the price we're getting because you know it's not gonna be any lower than Mike Papa can to get us so Mike and and the technology staff will do a great job you know to help us not only deliver technology but save money where we thanks Tim and then Andrew have questions yeah just because the comment that Adam made it sounded like you you were saying that they're making the meals

062is that correct I thought this was distribution well everything was prepared we're preparing the meal yeah so there's a couple of days of with distributing two days a week but we're prepping you know right now they've really got efficient at it so they're they're prepping for days and serving too and maybe on some weeks they're even consolidating you know the total program down to three days and so prepping means that you know they'll take all the components of the meal you know milk a protein a vegetable a fruit package it you know into a bag and you know that's that's considered a meal and again these are meals that meet the USDA requirements so if we're serving you know for you know a typical car has 2.3 students and it on average so we're stand

063if we're serving for five days we're serving breakfast and lunch so they're getting ten bags that have you know five breakfasts and five lunches times the number of children that are in that vehicle that we provide for and actually I could share some pictures so later on in the meeting I'll do that well someone else was presenting I'll show you what the meal looks like it's it's pretty fascinating you know not only the hundred eighteen thousand but the component of each of those meals it's staggering you know and it's awesome to watch how quickly they prep and provide the food how many I'm curious in terms of the distribution and the prepping how many people are involved in that sort of on a daily basis it's between thirty and forty and that includes food service

064staff you know our custodians because if you imagine you know we're serving I forgot the count of number of tons of food that has been distributed but you're moving a lot of you know cartons you know to get the food prepped and then once it's prepped to load it back into the refrigerated truck so that it's placed in storage until it needs to be distributed so it is you know again it's awesome to watch it's a true assembly line and everybody's doing it with a smile on their face and I think the people that are doing the the prep and distribution feel you know that they're doing the right thing for the community and they get a great deal of satisfaction we also have a school nurse that's there every day to take people's temperature

065you know before and after make sure people are properly social distance wearing that mask those types of things instructional assistants some of our bus drivers are also involved you know in that total count you just chime in really quickly faith brought up the videos that we have streaming on all of our social media platforms we do like 30 seconds minute minute and a half depending on you know the video one of them is on the meal service process so for you guys or anybody who's watching at home they want to jump on Instagram or Twitter or our Facebook page you can see it see that there and as well as a number of other really interesting videos Andrew and you mentioned that the meal program is working on a reimbursement with I'm assuming the federal

066government how is that work are we gonna submit the spreadsheet showing how many meals we serve it's a dollar-for-dollar reimbursement or it's a fixed price per meal the the fixed price is for each lunch that we serve it's three dollars and 41 cents and each breakfast is a dollar eighty four so we basically you know Madeline Tyco the food service manager will take each of these meal camps there's a report that gets submitted to the state you know the program is funded by the federal government but it's administered by the state and yes we will you know the reimbursement will come in and you I know I say we but it's the food service program that is out laying the funds to purchase the food and they're gonna get the reimbursement so you know one

067of the things that I had mentioned that our prior meetings is that you know whether or not the reimbursement we get will cover in this case you know our labor and the cost of the food and to the extent it doesn't we would have to make a reimbursement you know back to the food service program and we're still working through those numbers but you know I don't expect it to be a substantive amount it's not gonna be a budget changer for us okay thank you okay I'm not seeing other questions medical campus yeah okay I did share with the board members the updated report through April 30th you know we had a relatively high claim month in April of 931 thousand dollars however as I reported previously you know this year's high claims are primarily

068well you know are predominated by some very very large claims that we've had to incur for individuals so you know the good news here is that this month you know or through this month we've received four hundred seventy five thousand six hundred forty four dollars in payments from our stop loss insurance because whenever a claim for an individual exceeds $175,000 we have stop-loss insurance that reimburses us for everything above the hundred seventy five thousand and we're not done with the stop-loss reimbursements there will be some more coming in May and June because again we have some extraordinarily high claims the fun balance we started at three point seven million dollars this year is currently at two million six hundred ninety one thousand five hundred fifty five dollars so we're still in the in the three

069to three and a half month of claim reserve range the average claims though I'd want to point out is running about eight hundred sixty-five thousand dollars per month this year last year was about seven hundred fifty nine thousand and the funding that we're making is six hundred eighty one thousand per month so you know the reason how reserve balance has dropped is because we're contributing six hundred eighty one thousand dollars per month but claims are eight hundred sixty five thousand dollars per month hopefully this is just one of those high claim or large claim years that subsides and I'll just cross my fingers and hope that you know we can we can get through year-end and still have three months of reserve and you know I know that we'll we'll continue to discuss this when

070we get to the next budget phase and then stop-loss you know we are working on the renewal for stop-loss for next year and it's been chopped out we we buy our stop loss as a member of CT prime it it's looking like this year's renewal will probably be around thirteen and a half percent you know the market is running twenty percent and above so considering our claims are large and that they're not only large for us but large for the town side and we do I've stopped lost together like we do our medical benefits but the renewal will be reasonable but not as low as you know I was hoping for so and I'm still working through that process so that's the good news bad news we're getting stop-loss reimbursements but you know they're well

071you know we may approach the total stop-loss reimbursements equal to the premiums we paid which is why our rates going to go up the next year Thanks that's medical benefits thank you mrs. faith had a question yeah Vincent I think you you touched on it just want to make sure that the increase in the average claim that is because of the nature of the claim or is it inflation no it's mostly because you know of our eight point six million dollars in claims so far this year well above 1.2 million is from for claims okay it's it's really predominantly driven by some extraordinarily large claims this year okay thank you yeah where there's several classes of very expensive claim types for insurance company's procedures things that can get into but it it's not just treasurer

072that sees these it's and I it's I also I think for GAF and I and and and they're longer I think this is probably most we've seen in one year I think these higher dollar claims so I'm not sure of a trend but it is happening and I will add it's not related to Kovac you know Kovac costs is are actually being tracked separately you know by Cigna and they're they're very small right now now we haven't gotten all all our claims in but so far you know it's literally hundreds of dollars that are attributed attributable directly to Kovac so far so if that continues that's a good thing for us any questions on the medical report everybody so happy it's great I know we're tired Thank You Ven and I think we have one

073more item is that the grants a report or we I think think you did it yeah and I sure as much more to add to it I think we covered that one can I ask one question sorry yeah he does have to do with the grand I just think yer eise about and I got in too late before the mechanical or the manufacturing equipment what is that what was getting remember it was the Sean Hanlon wave Board of Ed meeting and it was the the manufacturing equipment in that room that we toured it was the knee yeah yeah okay all right cool all right just curious thank you good question so much times gone by I almost forgot about that grant so thank you everyone up next with school modernization committee Andrew alright and if

074anyone wants to and if you want to add anything just let me know and we've had two meetings in May the first meeting was on May 4th both cool ears and our Cadis the two firms that responded to our owners project manager RFP did a zoom call with the committee and presented both highly qualified firms both did a wonderful job at the presentation both had knowledge of the school district and what our goals and objectives are with the modernization plan the consensus of the committee after the presentations was to move forward with Cole ears and to authorize Vincent and others to negotiate with them on their feet proposal which the RFP allowed us to do by town charter that was done and last night we had a meeting on the 20th and at that meeting

075we unanimously aside from before with Cole ears also the proposal that we agreed to move forward on was just with the phase one phase two work in the amount of forty one thousand dollars which can be amended from time to time as the work continues to move forward there's question about the timing of initially we were going to be looking to submit for referendum in November this coming November it was talked about and decided that we're going to be cautiously moving forward and we don't think we're gonna have a project ready for the November deadline which I think everyone here knows that kovat has affected everything and school modernization is not short of that also Richard Gustin burg did a great job there's been a lot of teacher staff input sessions at all of our

076schools where they have faculty and staff and I think that the theme of all of those meetings were the aging facilities the lack of space in order for teachers who are out learning new programs and initiatives that they'd like to bring back to their classrooms they're constructed by our aging facilities so that was the big push as well as some maintenance issues which are going to definitely be addressed this summer and moving forward with as we move the program forward other than that that's pretty much my report for school modernization of a-maz and questions comments I believe an imposed thank you I missed last night's meeting but the meeting before where he chose cool ears it sounded like the committee was committed to moving forward to bring something for referendum in November and it sounds

077like maybe that's not going to happen any longer that was the and that was the sense that the committee came forward with yesterday yes I mean there wasn't a former resolution saying that we're gonna we're gonna hit the ground running and we're gonna begin the process but in order to go to referent and we'd have to have something in September which would have to be a project which we out to bed out to the voters so yeah I want a basic math not common core math just basic math room you know simply sadly the committee's there's two months plus lost if we had Coulier as I say back in March then and one things are gonna have to deal with us a draw a Gantt chart timeline of things have to happen to give something

078defined as a project and beyond that not just define what it is when I'm doing costs but have ample time to get public engagement to understand what the cost will be and trying to market that and communicate that so we really didn't have last time if you look at the the timeline is concerns that we're gonna try to you know get there and crispiness you know the cutter or no display or a face and just doesn't want to explore how my any means and quite frankly it's still chance to probably do it but you know again there's just a little bit of cautious that we don't the committee does not want to rush to referendum without having a solid plan solid numbers that the public understands that's what it comes down to but will be

079more discussion this is next meeting but and just I mean the overall climate and we're looking at a zero percent tax increase and looking for you know no increases in cost to go forward with eighty million dollar project whatever the numbers gonna be it just doesn't seem really palatable at this time so so does that push the timeline out another year you don't know yet we don't know there was talking cream could be early next year we don't know yet okay I believe him a question yes yeah thank you Tony I'm just gonna highlight this for everybody probably all of us are aware this people sitting at home may be thinking about it so I just want to say it although I wish this were not the case we are talking we are likely talking

080about a different electorate different turnout presidential election in Cheshire probably you know 80 to 90 percent local election 12 month another 12 months later probably 35 to 40 percent a special election and word special referendum you're probably dropped down to like 10% easily and you could have wildly different results based on different electorates and that is that I don't know that that has anything to do with party affiliation or anything like that it's just different people who turn out at different times so just highlighting that there is I personally feel at this moment in time it would be rushing it to try to get it done like Andrew said by September with the project fully vetted and public support and stuff but the electorate electorates change with each each time they're asked to turn out

081Election Day or referendum there thanks yeah one last thing and I asked a question last night what was Colliers feedback you know our timeline and you know it Angela you're probably closer to about the feet I got from the committee was that yeah it's you know the panel is what is what they'll do it takes to get us there but you know we do want to hear from them too when hit the ground running soon you know what has to happen to gets to that point so I guess yeah it's list it's nobody's fault can't say that the committee by any means was wasting time they've been working incredibly hard it just that this coated thing really threw a wrench into I'm already an aggressive timeline but again I don't at no one I tell

082you the entitlement with the Town Council Rob nobody wants to see has prolonged in perpetuity we don't can't have an ongoing you know facility massive plant story for two years three years that's not going to be a case so I'm confident we can't do this year then I'll have to be you know early next year or at a time that you know we all think it's appropriate but we're still gonna move as quick as we can it's not an idea that we would be going to the voters but it has to be an actual project I mean it's the 20th of May we don't even have anybody under contract yet they need to that we need to sell they need to design I mean it's just unrealistic awesome any other questions there's one more apologized

083Adam did you have something yeah just just so I get a sense of of what could happen so if we miss the November referendum which sounds likely the the actual time the actual grant application has to be in by June 30 2021 is that correct and if town charter I believe says that if you do decide to hold a referendum you need six weeks notice is that correct I wasn't sure if that's like if it's something where you missed November you could pick it up and push it forward you know if we met if we're if we're saying that we missed two months does that mean that we could push it out two months and I don't know I guess vote on it in the dead of winter or something like that in order to

084hit the the the bonding deadline for June 30 I don't recall I mean the critical date for which which is that we have to file a construction grant application with the state is June 30th the idea of trying to hold a referendum in November is you know to Tim's point to try and take advantage of the you know electorate the the folks will be coming out to vote for the presidential election so because and we still would have had to meet the June 30th that the following June 30th deadline you can apply earlier but you can't apply later than that so we essentially what you'd have to do is is a special referendum let's say in the spring if you had a building project ready to go that you wanted to get referendum approval on

085mix it has an opinion or honor yeah yeah so Andrew when when you were speaking before about the likelihood of this project moving forward say by December by November just to confirm this is basically your profession not not that you're not getting paid for this at all but this is where you work in this space right okay correct okay all right thank you yeah I just wanted to comment on we can go to a special referendum any time that we designate and in in response to Tim's comments really it's our job to inform the public and to get this information out and and to get them to the polls whenever we decide that we're ready that we have the information and you know that's not a bad thing we we can work we can whip

086up the the electorate get them to the polls I mean if this is a this is a big-money project they'll be interest in it and I don't I don't see that as a as a problem having a special election a special referendum specifically for this one item I just wanted to throw that out there nice harmony I think Adam has a smile I'm sure I'll say something I'm in a rare convergence of ideas I agree with an and and that this whenever we do decide to hold this referendum it will be I think well attended just because of the I think even mr. Solon had put out I think they put out on a survey a survey a while back about you know when when people come out to vote and it was something like

08785% of parents come out to vote when education is on the ballot so I think that the the referendum question whenever we decide to hold it it's you know and I think it is good since we lost time to have the project fully vetted and and and fully understood by everyone and that I think people will will come out and to enthusiastically vote however they choose to vote agreed and again I can't emphasize and you know and ruin an on a committee and Katherine helped start it so she knows that you know the goal behind us is we got to produce enough information that the FBI's proof to the public that we looked any milk and cranny justifying the cost of whatever comes out as ideas and definitely do not want to skip you know

088the part where we get the public to take a gander and test what we have so anyway again I'm not again I want to saw any was a bullet now we're not gonna do it but there's just some of the issues came up there we had some concerns we're gonna talk about that I'm sure we'll know by the middle of June all this is trending and you know we'll just as necessary but the stay tuned was more come at one last thing I think Anjali mentioned it is that the other thing that Vincent is going to start looking at for the committee is a couple of quotes for an updated enrollment study was gonna need that as well so that's coming underway soon that's all I had well Jeff is wanting any more about that

089and even in that meet those meetings as well no I just again thank rich custom bird Jen Bates Emery Kemp the people who spent a lot of time visiting all of our faculty built our facilities around the district and the faculty hearing them out and soliciting our staff for their feedback their input in the process it's greatly appreciated oh yeah I agree it's a great work is that presentation on the website from last night I don't know if our net upload video okay we have a send out to the group okay in fact you know what I have the person that sent it out to us I got together today so sorry been showing it's public information anyway so I'll get out after the meeting all righty I'll try to move things on low hung

090up next other standing committees we don't have the other standing community towards approval of minutes in our yoni yeah it's just on personnel did we have personnel meeting no but I just wanted to make a comment because probably have it upcoming okay good yeah so we will begin as the chair of the Personnel Committee we will be convening in beginning soon to do the superintendent's annual review and one other question one question for Jeff since the kovat locked down so-called March 13th have we had any separations of any teachers from the district Zig nation you don't have an art teacher it do them okay thank you thank you awesome thanks tonight forgot we're just talking about the personnel stuff yesterday I forgot it's uh it's June next week so thank you yeah we're talking about

091that soon and I don't please any other standing committees so moving on in our in our agenda we have links to our Board of Ed meeting minutes which now I just lost my time here in one second so we had meetings how of April 23rd 2020 and May 7th are there any changes from the board members from those two sets of meeting minutes I personally do not have any changes to make seen as there is none would someone like to make a motion to approve the meaning meds mr. chairman like make emotion please do I move that the Cheshire Board of Education approved the minutes of the board of education meetings held April 23 2020 and May 7 2012 and any further discussion seen as there is none the motion is that the Cheshire Board

092of Education approved the minutes of the board of education meetings held April 23rd 2020 and May 7th 2020 all those in favor aye aye it is the Animus awesome thank you teen up next is superintendent report I'm sorry most important one the secretary Katherine do we have any correspondence mr. chair we do not have any correspondence up next is superintendents report thank you very much mr. Perry Jeanne given that tonight is Victoria Perry Jeannie's 16th birthday and we want to get Tony out of here before her 17th birthday as quickly as I possibly can miss Solano and I have been planning for teachers student and parent debriefs to be held at the end of the year around remote learning the unfortunate reality is that we may be in a similar circumstance come the fall and

093the surveys have been fantastic but we want to do a little bit more to learn about the experience and see how we can improve on that the results are not in to you know steal a line from Seacrest but we are having a lot of feedback from our parents our senior parents and our senior students around graduation we've said many times this is their ceremony our job is to just do the best we can with it particularly given the fact that this spring has been so difficult and their seniors have lost so much we want them to really drive the boat on this one and the early returns are that it looks like there's a strong consensus around August rather than having in June ceremony in the hopes that we can have a more traditional

094ceremony I didn't have more flexibility with social distancing come August I know all of us are hopeful for that our students and their parents seemingly as well so that looks like that's going to be the case but we hope to send out more information tomorrow when more people have had the chance to respond I did not get an exact count on the students I know the parents were 240 when I last checked the fall when we come back number one priority if if we're not here is connecting with kids Adam and I had a great conversation about that the other day and the fact that I think our remote learning went so well because our students and our staff were already connected to one another there's just more personal accountability on both sides to be

095invested in that in the relationship and we hope that if one of the things that Marlene and I and our team are spending a lot of time on now is if we are not able to meet face face to face come August how do we forge those commitment connections from a remote perspective and this is one of those where we're absolutely hoping for the best and planning for the worst-case scenario I just want to give a shout out to our town manager Sean Kimball today back in I think it was January February I was in a first-grade class for a morning meeting and it was really great except one of our our students and Miss Marron golas class Graham Healy was was disappointed he had a great Cheshire pin that he had lost and the

096whole class seemed to know about this so he was apparently fairly bummed about it and so I reached out to Sean they didn't have any pins left we made ped like months go on KO vid strikes but today Sean and I had the opportunity to visit Graham at his house and give him a pin it was a real thrill for him to me Shawn and just be part of that so I do want to give Shawn a shout out on that one this at this point we started collecting library books this year the end of this year is unlike anything we've ever had to deal with because of the emphasis on safety and social distancing so we initiated the library book collection process yesterday that is ongoing it's going to take a while Highland alone

097has 2,400 library books out so what we're doing is collecting the books and bins in front of the school if any of our parents are watching you should have received an email indicating what books your child had out from the library we're collecting those separately just to get those out of the way and then we'll start collecting things the other items like classroom library books and classroom textbooks and other items is things go on and exchanging will be providing you know kids everything out of their locker and stuff it's it's gonna be a process and so we've just kicked that off now and that'll be continuing through the rest of the year the state is asked our students to engage in a survey called thought exchange there's no personally identifiable data collected but what they're

098trying to do and working on the committee through aces as I do one of the state committees we take that information that kids provide about their remote learning experience and try and use that information to better plan for the fall so unless there is any objection I'm going to be sending out it's a very brief survey where kids just write their ideas around you know different elements of being working in a remote environment and then they rate what other people have said it's actually something that Marlene and I have already started looking into for next year with our mission and vision revamp on our 10-year plan thought exchanges is really a neat tool that we've been using and I saw the the parent results it gives you just basically a word chart where the words

099that are most often responded to or bigger and the words that were less often responded to her a little bit smaller so they vary in size by the number of people who you know comment on each word safety to nobody's surprise was the number one word that that parents had mentioned with respect to opening next year finally I just want to say that we are very close to the end of the process in the Darcy interviews I want to thank all of our staff who've participated in that process as well as tomorrow the two finalists that we have will be taking tours of Darcy and parents will have the opportunity to interview them we have a group of parents that'll be meeting with those two candidates and providing us feedback as well we hope to

100appoint that person in a meeting later this year in June so that that person can be on board to start next year that's all I have for this I tried to shoot through it as quick as I could and I don't know if anybody had I saw a couple of questions pop up I have when I stated for Deanne so we work back here I think starting with Adam fate managers though um Europe yeah and you know and hopefully this won't be needed for the fall but as I know but before our meeting so that I was kind of messing around with our Google meet a little bit our I was you know I I discovered a couple of different new tools for backgrounds and that sort of thing and you know I'm just wondering

101if there's a there seems to be a lot of extensions and stuff they can be added for to help teachers for attendance and interviewing classrooms and stuff and I wasn't sure if if that was things that that were being used with the teachers already and also perhaps that if we are going to begin next year like this possibly that there could be some some additional tutoring for the students on how to better or more effectively use the technology just because it seems like there's a lot of powerful tools that that the Google Suites had sort of set up an anticipation for some day that a school system would switch over to this sort of system so I just thought you know that I know our IT folks have been doing a great job and that

102perhaps the technology should be further examined just even on the student side so yeah so first I would just say that since this Coban situation happened there have been an explosion of extensions available on the Google platform some of which you know I think lend themselves really well to us some of them are not so relevant but today we had a meeting of our tech leaders across the district our as well as our instructional leaders across the district who met with Marleen provided tremendous feedback and part of that was you know we realized that we need to provide more coaching to our staff so that there's a deeper understanding about some of these new tools we did that in April but already things have up so as they continue to evolve we're providing more professional

103development or staff some of that will be doing it done in this June with the extra teacher days some of it will be done in the in August when our teachers come back but part of that training will be how to support kids and understanding all these different extensions and trying to create some consistency in Google classroom so it's more familiar for kids to know how to submit work and things like that and Marlene I don't want to leave you out because you you'd spend a lot of time other folks today is there anything I was missing that no I think you I think you got it all and one just what you said Adams some of our kids around the use of this technology they know how to use the apps and things that

104they're familiar with so that was a point that I was sharing earlier with Jeff that we need to spend some time with that so that's being baked into our plan if we start teaching on tick-tock our kids we'll crush it it's that a problem true so that a faith you were up and then the Andrew I'm not sure if you're in any and then and after Andrew yeah Jeff is there any way that the public can access these meetings that you're involved with the way basis you know I don't know that faith I don't know if they're I'll look into that my next meeting is Tuesday but I'm not sure I know I think it might be a closed meeting the information is public but you know like the camp I don't know that people

105can participate just like we have you know some of our committee meetings could be work done in public but not a public meeting this I think this is the same way but I'll look into it okay cuz and the other thing I understood and I'm just reading something from Cade it came out yesterday these rats you see guidelines well love their acronyms but the regional advisory teams I understand yeah that's the one all right there was going to be an even more localized team involving parents board members whole nine yards is that going to happen because I do think that just in talking to parents there is a sense that they want to be involved beyond a survey yeah want their ideas heard well don't worry about this governor I do okay well the first

106thing that I think all of the groups have substantiated you know within their the rest groups is that this really has to be driven by medical guidance so we're working closely with the medical guidance like the CDC guidelines that came out yesterday though we're reviewing all of that to ensure that we adhere to that that's what our local health department is adhering to and then we have to plan education around that so when we get to that point I think we'll be communicating more with parents right now we're just trying to look at what potential options may look like in the event of a variety of medical situations everything from absolute entire remote learning to you know if we return as normal and every option in between okay I just I would just I don't

107know who you take it to but I have been speaking to some parents and there's a real concern that this is going to be for stood on them and with it and I just don't want us to get caught short with a plan that doesn't necessarily fit our district but I you know we'll see what happens so I just wanted to raise that yeah in nor do Marlene or Vinny our staff or myself so we're certainly working toward that end okay yep awesome Andrew Europe this is back to the parent and student surveys Ron Oh whose idea was to do that who actually drafted the questions because what I've been hearing is a lot of positive feedback from folks about the survey and other districts have not been doing that remote learning yeah some other

108remote learning survey yeah that was a collective effort Marlene I think Marlene drafted most of the questions we decided very early that it was going to be important for us to get feedback from all constituents so we've also I mean only mentioned parents and students but we also surveyed teachers and I think you know we're really proud of that fact I know we've been cited and national publications twice in the last couple of months for our work around our remote learning rollout and we're really proud of that fact and yeah Marlene gets the credit on drafting the questions okay Chad okay Chad agree and you're wrong great thank you I agree with Andrew I also have been hearing a lot from parents especially in the neighborhood because I'm walking every day again lauding the efforts

109of the teachers and everything that teachers have been doing which brings me to the comment that I wanted to make very briefly was one of the first things that you said Jeff in your report which was on having meetings for debriefing which I think are really really important I have been just involved in a debrief at Quinnipiac University with the language Department in which I was teaching and I can't emphasize enough yes you get can get training and all that on online teaching and learning and remote instruction and all of that but to share ideas with what worked first other teachers is so valuable because you'll just come up with so many ideas and different things work and some things don't work and this is what teachers do and we have really superior staff of

110teachers in our school district and but but nobody's perfect right you do things in the classroom and when you're forced into these unusual circumstances some things just don't work and other things work really well and you need to bring those nuggets out so that everybody he can hear about them and and work those into their scheduling for next year because there will be some remote learning come the fall I'm pretty sure we're not it's not going to be it's not going to maybe never be business as usual again in the classroom yeah and then thank you ma'am Adam let me gear up thank you just just a quick one in regards to the the plan for reopen in the fall is does chest' bracket have any say in that or is it is it strictly

111a top-down from the state from secretary as a super secretary Cardona and the healthy the health department from the state side or it's tresh Mercado sign up on something right well the the governor can issue an executive order when things are relaxed however so for example our graduation you know that the executive order was in effect modified to be more relaxed and in that situation we do consult with the local health district now I say the local health district because almost always it's it's more esposito in Farmington or in inter but for example when we're looking at Farmington Polo Club is an option for our graduation we would have to consult with the Health District there and so we've already done that so yes the Health District is involved but you know if it's an

112executive order to close the schools it's really not a it's a moot point then you know thank you I really have a question I just want to go back to my answer that I agree you know it is impressive I mean listen we I know Jeff liked to throw up that slide that shows our ranking and a per-pupil expenditure and you know I always kind of joke that it seems the less we spend the better we do oh you know we look at those numbers and it's not really it's kind of seizures but you know so there's a reason I think the district does well in general a number of fronts because our staff is because our leader our educators and all the support that goes around that so the fact that you know within

113five days we were to get on learning up and running and grant the note wasn't perfect and we evolved since I that does speak a lot to the CPS School District I think everyone involved I mean everyone that's been helping so I know other school districts the other board chairs I said that you know they they gave up on that you know initially because eighty weren't ready or some districts just and have the funding or economic equity you know in town to make things happen so I decided the fact that as we're heading into June it's been a very tough but I think we warned in three months so I do want to give kudos to all the CPS so big and for for making that on the forefront again they don't get it bothers

114me I got to tell you I the where we stay online the more concern I get about our students not so much from state perspective I was just reading something in an article I think the times couple days ago where you know some experts talking about what's happening with learning development especially with younger students that are online that are missing out on the interaction the social building skills they have in class and so forth you know longer this goes on you know what those effects might look like so I plot online learning but there could be a point where we have too much of it so but I know given a feedback and you know the dial is going on or try to make that as impactful as possible for but we just don't yet

115know what the Falls gonna look like although I think we're starting to see some inkling of some of the restrictions and I have I mean I just go back to the state's guidelines on colleges and campuses this summer and early fall I believe they already said it a few weeks ago six feet apart we're masks at all times teachers wear masks cafeteria I don't know how we're gonna be able to do that in our classrooms or in our cafeterias or you know have our teachers try to give a short lecture wearing a mask so we'll see what happens but I think once June winds down that's next hurdle is that unknown planning to fall so it's gonna be a little bit busy summer unfortunately but but I want to thank your mom for the hard-working

116Thank You Jeffery poor are they another any other questions and superinterns report Anna sorry I just want to add one last thing to piggyback on your comments Tony yeah when you say with the less we spend the better we do but you know when it really comes down to it it's it's not only is it the devoted staff but it's also the devoted parent or guardian who's sitting next to that child to help them get the work done we're you know in this community we're fortunate perhaps they have parents or guardians who are I don't we'll say more dedicated or at least apparently well I'll just leave it as that we have dedicated parents and guardians in our community and and you know just from our personal experience at least with a younger child is

117that sometimes there's a force of will on the parents part to help that child get through the the great curriculum that's been put together by our staff but that and I so I think that you know if you're gonna do a debrief of the staff that's one thing but to have to piggyback with faith is to have a debrief of the parents I don't know how you can do that and I don't know if Google Chat has that ability I know there are other tools out there to handle like 200 people out of time to be able to do more of a town meeting type thing but I think it would be important to have the parents be able to deep deep brief and decompress all of their pent-up observations of what's going on the

118last many weeks so I think it would be good to be able to do both we we did plan on a parent one and I don't think you know two hundred people in a meet is really effective so we'll you know keep the groups smaller even if you know they're a drop shorter and time and smaller it's more effective and more efficient for people to do that anyway so yeah that's that's definitely part of the equation and you know there's no doubt that there's a partnership that exists between our parents our staff and I don't want to forget it certainly most importantly our students yeah and thanks I'm for the parents I had things I think we're well it's a mixed blessing right we we know we have some employment issues all over a state

119country there are parents out of work at home even in Cheshire I think the the sohliang there is that at least they're home now with their kids you know I'm lying trying to you know help out where they can I'm hopeful that you know it was the fall summer fall picks up and I hope folks get back to work you know when people get back to work it's just it's got to happen but if they're not gonna be around there today and the kids don't online learning I think they may have some ideas and we want to share so I take you back you know planning ahead for that so so thanks and we'll try to find a way to get you know it's just said more of their debrief as we move for us

120Wendy very important thank you anybody else see us there is none I think we're almost there I lost my agenda link any audience I have no old business we have none in the agenda do we have any audience questioner comments matter of fact we do Mary Burnham patiently watching from home she just wanted to indicate that she's concerned that the budget does not take into account the additional needs that may occur when schools reopen in the fall do to covet 19 especially the need for smaller class sizes just wanted me to share that I agree you know obviously that's a real concern it's from a budget perspective things could be very difficult they could who knows if if we do start remotely and there's there could savings there so it's a little bit of a

121wild card but certainly a one of our we have two things that we're very sensitive to right now staffing we want to make sure that there's you know really good ratios to spread kids out and create relationships and maintenance because if kids are coming in we don't know what sort of you know sanitation steps are going to be required to ensure a safe environment or a cleaner environment so that I mean just the idea of face masks alone if we bought one per week for our students it's gonna cost us two hundred grand a year Ben was doing the math on that today so that's once a week you know I don't know how that's gonna be feasible yep any other questions that was the only the only comment thank you Mary I know Mary's

122kind of helping me keep me in check and make sure the agendas are posted and she's been trying to help get more community and public input so thank you Mary and team for your help in the word out there I'm my updates really quick I we don't have much of one so for public watching I I not sure how much the public is aware that over the last four five weeks that the town and board education and to looking at our budgets in great detail to see what we could possibly postpone or trim back the hell up a-town achieve a potential zero mill rate increase or I guess no increase going into 2021 solely because of the couvade economic impacts that or we're starting to feel not just in Cheshire but around the state and

123so much obviously the the immediate impact is it is you know next year the year after because you know a lot of jobs are lost and I could tell you in the clients for my company a lot of employees are laid off I'm not gonna iron most of them back anytime soon so we're worried about poor tracted downturn and you know can't really forecast all that but you know people are hurting a little bit in Cheshire so one of the things the town was trying to do is hey can we keep the status quo the next year to write this out and you know keep people employed and without losing a lot of services or frankly you know devastating education what can we do to our budgets and thanks for a lot of time on

124this tonight all those meetings are up recorded between the Town Council budget sessions and our meetings but we did have a summary meeting just a quick touch base last this past Tuesday night because the Town Council will be of dumping adopting a yeah adopting a budget next week they have until May 29th that leave Tuesday they'll finalize number and I think Thursday to be voting on it so Vince and Jeff gave him a quick update on the savings that he talked about earlier and that Leo's David Bowery a task hey you know if we get any any more detail on what those other costs might look like for school when you co but let them know before a weeks over so you know I would just ask that if we have you know I would

125bring up the issue of PPP II protection because we don't know the state some require for that we don't know what they're gonna fund if anybody make that happen so I err on the side of caution but long story short our budget request increase this year was two point 1 million honestly you know if we got a near zero increase that's a pretty huge number to try and make up I believe we identify close to a million dollars in potential reductions and light ions we've talked about a month ago plus some of the savings I have from code word that'll probably use again anyway it's gonna be very tight and so it's not just a board that's been looked at looking into this has been a town and and basically every employee bargaining units been

126to see if there's anything they can do to help just over the next couple years so that's the own process by imagine by June 4th we'll have a budget number and we'll start talking about what that's gonna entail moon 4 so stay tuned and for those that are watching I urge you to into town council meetings when they have their final approval and see what's what's happening it's a lot going on that being said I don't have anything else and it's kind of close to 9:30 so we do have one more item on the agenda let me just bring it up here I can announce I don't actually have the new upcoming meetings yeah we do have a board i visiting on june 4th for channel have the calendar in front of me but we

127can post that up on our board website i did ask the chairs to schedule or think about scheduling any remaining means before June 30th we have personnel coming up finance certainly with a budget Posse planning and potentially personnel so once those dates are known we'll have them out there and put in published for for review that being said we do have one more item it's executive session so I want a motion to adjourn the executive session we will not be with no volta fouls so essentially beginning the meeting there do I have a motion from the board to adjourn into executive session once I think that mr. Chairman I would like to make a motion ok mr. Gribble please do move that the Board of Education adjourn into executive session including the superintendent and then

128a superintendent and chief operating officer to discuss collective bargaining agreements and the superintendent's evaluation with no action to follow thank you is there a second second thank you faith all those in favor it's unanimous thank you we will be during executive session we will not be coming back to me no lapse in the follow thank you for everyone Mary for watching and Mike let us know we're ready we'll transition