001questions which were great. A couple of you had the same types of questions. So, um just because it didn't show up on here in this uh format doesn't mean you still can't ask it today in this in this format or call me later, call call Louisa and send it in through her. Um so, it's still an ongoing open door with with the discussions and especially with our new folks. Um there are no you know silly questions so you could ask anything you need and we're happy to explain that to you. Um, so one of the questions came in about um, you know, enrollment. It's a great question. So if if the numbers are going trending downward, do we still need the same um, you know, did we take that into account? Why isn't the budget
002asked less than three million? So it's a great question. Um, so we did have a significant decline in in in a category categorically with a a certain population across the um across the school system. So while categorically that we dipped um and it does reduce some costs um and those of you who've been um participating in this a long time every year we have a significant second language learner need right almost every year that I've been involved in the budget process we've had you know at least a half a dozen or so positions that were requested for second language learners um because that was a continually growing sector of our population and they have legally required um services. So with the decrease um we have did not really need to ask for additional staff. We
003have a couple there might be one one staff member in there um for a school that still has a number that needs to be addressed but across the board when we dip down this is incremental across the system. So between K12 um you have a sprinkling. So all of those students are spread out across the system. So we might have a couple in um in a school in grade one, grade two, grade three, and then another school. So over time, if the if we continue to trend down towards the end of the year and we'll continue to re-evaluate, we might be able to reduce a little bit terms of FTEES. However, it's not um it's not a wholesale like whoop, we don't need 20 people anymore. Um they're incremental. They're FTEEs that might be here
004and there at at the end of the year. That's what we would anticipate. So, it's not like we're a complete overhaul in the way that we're staffing for the Danbury public schools. So, um we've accounted for this in our ask. We haven't asked for any. And in fact, um some of the staff that we have internally, we might be able to move a little bit around to service some areas that were on the heavy side last year. So, what it means is it brings our numbers down um to a little bit more manageable levels, but it doesn't it's not quite enough to pull away uh the infrastructure for staffing because 65% of our staff uh I'm sorry, 30 about 36% of our students still are uh second language learners. So, we still have quite quite
005the need there. However, for the first time in many years, that did not go up. Um and we may, you know, see a little bit of of reprieve towards the end of the year if our numbers keep ticking downward and certainly the registrations over the summer will will tell another story to us to see if this kind of holds uh this pattern. Um coupled with that so you know all of that said so while the numbers I think it was I think it's in 2018 we haven't seen the enrollment numbers since pre- pandemic. Um, unfortunately the cost of special education services, regular cost of living, contract increases, and inflation are not our 2018 prices. So, I would love for that to to to also rewind. Um, but it's just really the enrollment component. So, I
006just want to make sure that that part of it was clear. Um, we did take that into account into our budget. It's one of the reasons why we're able to kind of hold steady in some areas uh and float a little bit, if you will. Um but mostly you know health insurance even though even though we um are reducing the number of people in the volume health insurance for everybody else around us is going up still right 10% 12%. Um so you know that those numbers continue to rise even though we're offsetting this year. Um transportation is a big driver. those that contract every single year from this point forward for the next three or four years will be 6% on top of the year prior which is huge. Um which accounts for another large
007driver um utilities have gone up bringing on this building that that I'm in right now is a huge utility driver as you can imagine it's fully airond conditioned um and that's something that you know over the course of the year we're seeing that those numbers are up. So, uh, in addition to the mandated services, you know, across. So, yes, the enrollment is starting to trend down. It's in a category and it's spread ac across the system. We may see more gains once we kind of break a threshold where we're past um just ratio reduction and we we can consolidate and collapse some areas, but we're not we're not quite there yet. And I will um keep the board apprised as we as we if we should reach that. Um, I don't want to forget to
008mention, you know, the picture on the the lower hand right corner of the slide. That was Danbury High School just last year before we opened this building. Okay. So, when you see that, when I say that our numbers are these numbers are incremental, I mean because we were crowded, maxed out in all areas. So reducing um some students is great in terms of being helping to thin out some of you know what our population and the crowding, but um we're not we're not quite there at the place where I'd feel comfortable removing staff from the equation if that makes sense to everybody. Okay, I'll take any follow-up questions on that if there's any. If not, I can go on to the next question. I don't see any questions on this one. >> Great. >> Okay.
009>> All right, Ken, next slide, please. There's only about five or six slides, so it's not too too not too long, but the comp the answers are are good questions. I mean, the questions are good questions. Um, one of the question is, how are we and this is a big one. It's on my mind. How are we planning for the flat funding of Alliance? Right? So, what are we going to do knowing this? So again, part of our ask um and this kind of goes back to I don't know if Wanita's on the call tonight. I don't see her on the grid. She might be. Um Oh, she is. Hi. >> She is here. >> Thank Thank you. Um you know, one of the questions Wita had is, you know, is do do and it
010was one I wrestled with and have been wrestling with. You know, do you have everything that you need? Well, we might not have have everything that we need uh at the moment. Um but knowing also uh being we're having a responsible reset period right now and we're going to fill the positions that have been vacant. But in addition to that, you know, we're we haven't planned any large scale, you know, with with staffing heading into an era where it's we're a little unsure of the funding. So in terms of alliance being flatfunded, um our budget this year assumes that flat funding in next year. we've incorporated that into our budget and took the savings that we could maximize for next year. And then for fiscal year 28, um you know, there's a there's a question
011mark on there. We don't believe we're not slated to receive an increase. However, there are aggressive conversations happening right now in the legislature around cost of living uh adjustments to to ECS. The formula base hopefully being changed, but those are we can't plan on a hope and a prayer. uh we have to plan on what we what we know to be true right now. And so our ask again, you don't see outside of opening up the last phase of the high school, you don't see a huge uh staffing ask from me. Um because I don't want to have to walk that back in the form of, you know, potential layoffs in in a year or two if we if we're continue to be flatfunded. So, we have to be very careful about jumping out of
012the box too heavy um in in an climate where we've got some unknowns with our ECS. Um again, I have confidence in our legislators that they're working on the on the formula, but uh until I see it, um we have to be we have to be very cautious. Okay. Um we intentionally not, you know, diving into a lot of um there's a lot of things with the with themies that we want to get involved in. You can see uh the pictures here. There's, you know, when you do great things with students and provide opportunities and you're heavy CTE and STEM, there's equipment that comes with that. So, we want to be able to responsibly sustain that moving forward. So, um we have some room in our budget this year to to buy a lot of
013equipment. So, we're we're planning for our needs for the next year or so by p purchasing some of that equipment now so that we can take care of themies and make sure the pathways have everything that they need. um we are going to be watching that enrollment trend super carefully um rather than just okay you know we've never had to we haven't gone backwards in a while. We haven't had a a retraction in so long. So every year we're just we've been adding adding adding adding. So this so we it this is a moment to take pause analyze our enrollment trends and then make the necessary adjustments again with a scalpel um uh very fine you know tuned decision- making. with that. Um, we're monitoring all of the policies right now that are out there.
014We're monitoring legislation, monitoring what's happening at the federal government. Um, I have a slide. I'll show you that something that it just came today. I got I got one from our state department and then they issued another one kind of confirming today and I'll pull that up. That's the next slide. Um, but you know, we are also in terms of the planning piece, you know, special ed is always a consideration. and mandated services. Um that we're always we always in those areas always plan for the unexpected. You have to plan a little bit for unexpected because that those can be volatile numbers with just a couple of students with with really high needs. Um and outside of that, you know, we're working on, you know, internal controls financially so that we're maximizing every dollar that
015comes on the table. Uh and that is something that I think, you know, the team is very proud of. We're spending a lot of time looking at budget and analyzing that budget so that um we know what's in it, what you know the and that's mostly the spending patterns and where we may have um not as been efficient in the past. So I think we're we're proud of those efforts. The budget this year takes that into consideration very heavily. Um and that's where I you know you see the the ask that you do um this year. um should we continue to get flat funded, you know, we could see a a consolidation of services. Um if if our enrollment goes down, we might be able to collapse some classes and move staff and group differently.
016Uh saving some money there, but also, you know, we if if enrollment continues to go, we may want to talk about how to consolidate across the school system um in terms of facilities staffing and and how that goes. So really depends or that enrollment uh conversation is going to be a critical one over the next year. Any questions on that? Um Minnie Minnie's question is how much does this budget rely on what? No one funds. We are those days. So so ARPA is is dries up after this year. we have that that ARPA money reimbursement that's coming back into our into our uh into our budget that we have available to spend which is great. We're going to need to maximize that. Um but we really don't there are very small grants um this year
017that may dry up but there it's nothing substantive uh like some of the money that we've had in the past which is good because that's created cliffs for us um that we've had to rely on. So, we we'll always have onetime grant money that comes and goes um you know, but it's not um we don't have large grants and large swings like we have in the past um even most recently. Okay. My biggest concern were the title grants, but this next slide should make us feel a little bit better. Ken, can you can you I'm not getting used to the floating thumbs just yet. That's a new feature. Um, okay. So, this is the note I wanted to share with everybody. So, this came in today um that Congress approved an appropriation for education. So,
018they finally settled on it between um the House and and all the groups that needed to look at this. So, um the House Representatives voted and passed uh the FY26. So, what happens is this funding gets uh set and it gets distributed in the fall and then you have two years to spend it. And so for if you want to look by the bullets, this is the most important. Um there are changes in K12 funding over last year's level. So title one is going to get a $20 million increase. IDA, Kelly, you'll like this $20 million increase. Rural education, that is not us. Head Start Child Care Development, $85 million. Um the EIR took a huge hit, but that's less less impactful at the dis at the school level, more about uh for district and
019decision makers um where a lot of we a lot of our research and data comes from to make decisions and then um K12 levels are set are funded at the fiscal 25 funding level. So, um, in terms of the title grants, it looks like, uh, I don't see anything about title two, title four, but it looks like they're stable according to this. Still digging in to finding out all the different grants that go fall in between these grants to make sure that they're stable. Um, still leaving that 500k on the table to offset anything. But outside of the federal government and Congress, which um you know seems to I have you know this remember because of our enrollment and our our second language learner category that is extra weighted in the formulas it could go
020down because of enrollment even if Congress maintains our funding levels. So that's you know again another thing that we have to continue to monitor. But I wanted to share this because this is hot off the presses. Okay, I'll go to the next question. Happy to come back to this if it there's a lot in here. Ken, could you go to the next slide, please? Uh, we had a question about uh what did the budget development process look like and were the principles involved? And so, you know, making sure that there was some stakeholder involvement and um so the budget timeline oh is was not shred. Um the budget timeline was shared and stakeholders met with the CFO and cabinet members for planning purposes. So uh we did not shred the budget. Um that's what happens
021when you rush. So basically uh we we submit we have a timeline. Ken, can you click on that budget development timeline and process uh link please? Oh lord. Okay. Yeah. Request access. Well, oh, that might that might not even come to me. That might go to Carapon Pano. That's okay. Can you go back out to the other slide? We're just going to pivot. So, this is a document. I took good thing I took a screenshot of it. So, we have got an internal calendar that gets shared with our staff um here to keep us on track during the budget development process. And I apologize I can't show you the actual full full document. Um but basically um yes. So the answer is yes. So the principles did meet. So you can see that we have
022a kind of a kickoff in December where there's a lot of development. And then in the in early months in the early weeks in January the CFO meets um along with assistant superintendent, chief of schools um principles and program leaders depending on um who supervises which department. there's a collaborative conversation about those needs. The needs are recorded. Um, and then what happens at the end of that process, I get a big packet that kind of comes to me to say, "These are all the things that that folks are requesting. Some are absolutely critical because they're service- based or they're legally legally required. Some are I would really love to have this. Yay. Thanks, Ken." That means Cara Pompiano is is home clicking on permissions. Um and so we go through and it you know it's
023pretty all-consuming process. um you know the the people are behind closed doors for weeks on end uh to develop out the the project the process um in terms of the ask and you know we this year you know many years I've been here a long time so the the the budget process looked like um don't ask for too much you know like that was the conversation uh what do you absolutely need this year we said tell us you know if you could change things if you can get you know make improvements in your building what would that look like and what what would you need to kind of pull that off? And for the most part, you know, the PLC's and I mentioned this before in another meeting, the PLC's was a is a big
024is a big issue and what those are are professional learning communities where teachers can meet during the day to collaborate around student data and to push push on that work. And to do that, you need um subs or uh extra special area teachers to do that work. And so that would equate to, you know, five, six, uh, seven additional, you know, FTEES in the budget or five or six or seven roving staff uh, substitutes that go from building to building to building on a rotating basis to release the teachers so that they can do some of that work. Um, so that was that would have been a very very big ask. So we're kind of just holding on to that. It's something that we want to get to. Um, but we need to kind of
025get through this budget budget cycle as part of the reset. um we have a difficult time getting subs in our district. So add again adding that into the budget and not being able to fund that. We had that happen this year. I've had cadre subs in our alliance grant for for almost three years in a row and haven't been able to fund it because I can't get the right staff members. So we're going to hold for a little bit on that even though it's needed and and desired. Um that's a big thing. Um the additional request on everybody's minds of course is coaching. Um the coaching is important because it helps uh you know increase uh pet increase instructional improvement right at the classroom level uh at the you know delivery to students where we
026need it most. So those are those are things that you'll see in in an upcoming budget in a future budget once we get a handle on our staffing. You'll start to see you know those those things layered in along with some of our classroom supports. But there was a lot of a lot of participation. and principles all had lengthy meetings with CFO and with the various supervisors involved. Um, and then it's it's a lot of backroom work to to assess those requests and to parse through those as absolutely critical, mission critical and, you know, nice to have or these would be really good to help move the needle here. So, you know, the one thing I'll say is, you know, we made some nice improvement um last year. You know, the that's really hard work
027and um requires a lot of staff and attention. um you know that hands in the mix. So you know for any continued improvement in the district, we're going to have to continue to sub support the student support area um in the future. But yes, the answer is yes. We've had a lot of participation in this year's budget uh and collaboration and the principles, you know, were great. It was great to hear what they needed. It was good dialogue. It was great um you know, Mike to be to to hear that from on the school side. you know, you do a lot of accounting all day long, but to really hear the needs of the school system um built helps to build an understanding and a vision for financial planning for the future. Uh what were
028the community's three type priorities? Good question. I don't have it with me, but uh on in hand, uh after school programming, safety and security was another one. Um and there was one more. After school programming was big, safety and security and I have to go back to the other one, but it was um mostly Oh, I think it was like security security class sizes was up there. >> Thank you. Class sizes, Mike, thank you for jumping in. Yeah, and class sizes making sure that those are are down. And with the enrollment, you know, if we're holding on to staff right now and as the enrollment dips down a little bit, there's a tiny bit of relief across the system. not not you know massive but just enough I think uh to make a difference. Thanks
029Mike. >> I don't see any other questions Cara. So >> okay and these did that one and Antonio doesn't know it but he's the star of one of the stars of my my PowerPoint here. I'll have to let him know. um question came in of how were decisions made on capital improvement project submissions? So like what how do we come about that list and um you know how do how does something get on the list? And I'll let Mike speak to that a little bit, but basically you know we've opened up the doors with um with the city and you know having just open conversations about the needs internally and and getting that kind of agreed upon with one of the big projects out there. there's a limited only a limited pot of money uh
030to work with. So, you know, you could put a list of a hundred things on the list. It doesn't, you know, if you get one or two things checked off the list, uh you know, it's it's a slow incremental and responsible, you know, way to slowly improve facilities. Um so, there's the stuff that we do internally and then there's just there are the the items that the the city's responsible for and um Mike, you know, submitted this um over to the city. Mike, I'll let you talk talk about it. >> Yeah. >> Thanks, Cara. So, uh, and I think we did talk through the list in one of our sites meetings, uh, prior to the holidays because we submit this over I think it's the end of October, early November. I can't remember the exact
031date. Um, a lot of times the items on this list will stay the same. And as Cara mentioned, there's a very limited pot of money that goes into capital for the entire city. Um, and only the schools will get a portion of that. So, um, for us it was it was a pretty easy, uh, uh, prioritization this year because, uh, you know, we really want to get the walls put in at KSP. We know we have that construction grant with the state. Um, but we have to put forward our piece of the of the funding initially in order to get uh, the reimbursement. So, you know, for us it's it's it was kind of a no-brainer that the the the walls at KSP were going to be right up top and then also the um
032AIS retaining wall, uh which we've talked about. Um they were able to secure the wall, make sure it stopped moving. They were able to remove the load from it. Um but we're still not able to use those parking spaces on the east side um of that area. Um and that's just causing some additional traffic problems and parking problems at AIS. Um, and also we just want to make sure that that that that wall is is is safe and secured for, you know, decades to come. So those are really the top two projects we had on here. Um, both of those projects from what I understand would would be above and beyond the total budget that that Antonia would have access to. Um, so those are those are our top two and and you know, we'll
033work with them, you know, as appropriate to to navigate those. Um, immediately below that, we know we have um needs around uh windows. We we have um you know older windows that are you know just not very efficient. They're you know the the you know they make the schools a lot colder than they need to um and that contributes to a lot of our um concerns about classroom temperatures um and also things like safety as well. So we had three schools on there that um uh needed full window replacements, three small elementary schools. Um and then beyond that is just sort of the ongoing wish list of of things that we would really love to have. Uh, but really the top of that list is is the sort of critical needs that that we know
034yeartoear. We're going to keep rolling them forward and and keep pushing on those as as our critical needs. >> Thanks, Mike. >> Any questions on this part? Committee members, non-committee members, this is open to all board members. So, anybody ask questions? Nope. Okay, >> Ken, can you go to the next slide, please? Okay, another question came in. You know, kind of a concern like what were the curricular projects kind of baked into the budget? You know, will curricular projects continue next year if we're having kind of a smaller ask. Um the answer is is yes. So, the work that we still had planned for next year will continue. So, we have a limited number of academy related curricular projects. Um, and most of those have to do with the pathway sequences for the electives. So,
035um, Ken, if you could click on I just for the new members because just to get used to the, you know, the academy plan. Um, the this image here on the left where it says Danbury High School West Campus. These are the threemies um on the west campus. These are the four if you remember the tour the four on the main campus. And so each one of these um pathways here have curriculum that needs to be written. And so uh we have program sheets. So Ken, if you click on the program guide and electives link for me, please. We develop out a program guide for each of the you could scroll down to the second page. for each of the pathways and this is the uh emerging technologies and entrepreneurship and and the pathway is
036medical technology. So we've developed out some initial curriculum for the first of the sequences down um where the blue where it says CTE courses. So exploration seminar is is written, engineering essentials is written and then in this last year um and heading into next year introduction for innovative design which is still being worked on and then the spring and into this summer we'll be working on principles of innovative design. And so these are the these are the curriculum work across 21 pathways. And so most of our folks and our content experts are really locked up doing just that right now. Um along with um our our academy pathway leads and academy leads will be working with them this spring to to get that going. Uh there's also industry partnership collaboration. So where there's a need
037to um tap industry for some expertise. So there's a lot of that. So again, that that is still baked into what we're doing and um it's really really great work, but there's a lot of this type of work happening for next year and we have some of this baked into uh the Perkins grant and then also um a little bit in alliance and some other places. So we sort of tuck some curricular money in different places to to continue the work, title four, etc. >> Okay, Carol, I have I have a quick follow-up question on that. Um, I know we're focusing a lot on themies as far as uh curriculum and stuff, but can you is there anything else in the budget on K through 8? Um, >> can you just go back up? >>
038Yep. >> So, uh, we've kicked off um some work with the with NCAAC. We'll be coming back to reimagine the middle school. So we'll in the spring you should be getting uh you'll get some contact maybe in a couple of weeks or so when they lock in the dates. So we'll be doing um visioning work around um 68 to build new pathways pre-academy pathways at the middle school level. Okay. Um in addition the middle school has done a lot of curriculum work around math in the last uh couple of years. The IM math u we have a lot more work to do there. And then K K5 um massive roll out. We're in our uh we're in our first kind of or not rolling out. We're in our first full field uh implementation of the
039art core curriculum where we've we've everyone now has it uh and we're coaching into that right now and working on uh tweaks and improvements in that curriculum. So that's ongoing work. Um with curriculum that now exists that we're continuing to make better and those are tier one improvements across the system. And same thing with math, although literacy K8 uh K5 is the real focus there and in middle school really the math pickup and then the uh pre-academy. So, um there's there's professional development. Um there's a lot of things in the work there. In addition to that, um you know, we have a we've partnered with a group called TNTP that's going to be starting some work with us to kind of build a a coherence plan around what what effective instruction looks like across the
040district. And so we'll be engaging teachers and teacher leaders in that work as well. And that's that's already we've already paid for that uh for the year. So that that's kind of also baked into the budget as well. Um sustaining that work moving forward is a little bit of a question mark, but for next year we have a plan. >> Can can you uh expand a little bit on what TNTP is? >> Right. So it's a it's Yep. It's technical support um for it. It helps with facilitation of so so if you remember FDS future design school if you remember future design school but they helped us with visioning of our portrait of the graduate and we get real right down to like the the rubric level where we're measuring ourselves against standards that we've
041agreed to and that that's a pretty um it's a challenging facilitation process and so sometimes we use outside technical support to help push on the system for that for that process. TNTP is another group that's similar that will help us do that. Um, K12 and so they're it's a technical support group. It's education based. >> So that's not in next year's budget. That's coming out of this year's budget >> right now. It's in this year's budget. Yep. And so that work is starting now and it's um it's it'll run through the summer. Uh but that is that's out of this year's budget. >> Okay. Y Okay. And I think that's is that the last slide, Ken? Oh, this was the last one. This is an important one. So, um, Ken, you don't have to click
042on it, but the FY27 is the presentation that everybody already received. So, I have it I do have it in here and I can share this with you. But, um, the question was about, you know, how are we how are we planning for like what does this look like after this year, you know? So, if you're talking about fiscal year 2028, um, and and we could start to dig into that and again with a scalpel and not a highlevel roll up like wholesale swing at things, but if if our general fund is at 175 and we're rolling up at 5% and I say 5% because you have contracts that run range anywhere from three and a half% to 6%, 7% % depending right we're still negotiating contracts. Um we have bus transportation at 6% next
043year. Um so you know contracts everything goes up supplies. We could probably hold the line on on certain project lines and supply lines or reduce those to kind of offset the contractual just cost of inflation and shipping and all those things. But if you just rolled up flat at 5% in our general fund, that's an $8.7 million increase just wholesale, right? And in grants, just Alliance. Now, we have $56 million in grants. So, I'm not including all of them, but where the the place to really focus in on is Alliance, which is a $39 million grant. It's our largest grant. And in Alliance, we have about $26 million in salaries uh and another 7.9 in in benefits. So when you if you were to roll that up 5% um or even four four and a
044half% teachers alone or I think are at four 4.6 I go back into the into the book um you know there's a there's a million dollar cost to that. So you know $26 million 5% is like 1.3 million just on the salaries there. The alliance grant unlike this year can no longer sustain its own increases. This year heading into 27 we're absorbing the increase of those contractual roll up. Um heading into and and the benefits again we were able to reduce benefits but but the health care those continues to go up. There'll be an an unknown factor there. So 5% I would say would be a on the low side of a health care increase. Um so I'm just using 5% across the board. um you know, you're looking at a double-digit ask for sure,
045unless there's some level of intervention legislatively to help with offsetting the cost of living. Um particularly in in alliance where we've got $26 million in salaries and and again, Mike, we could we have to we just finished with the FY27, so we could start to dig into a three-year projection over time uh once this budget uh lands a little bit. We can start to dig into that. >> Okay. Do we have any questions from anybody? Any board members? >> I have a I have a question. I don't know. It's about transportation. >> Um, you know, I know it I thought I saw we need eight new buses and um it's funny all of a sudden I'm noticing that so many buses have hardly anybody on them. Like they're there's like half full. And I didn't
046know if there are ways to consolidate maybe roots or things like that. And of course without too much disturbance because I would imagine kids don't want to get up any earlier or parents don't want their kids waiting. But maybe there's just a little little tweaks. I have you know I don't know. That was my thought process. And I don't know Sherry's >> or how do you I'm sorry. Excuse me. And how do you measure like all these people that just drive their kids to school? >> I mean, can you measure that in the beginning of the year? Oh, well, you know, 55% of people are bringing their kids to school anyway, or now you got 50% drivers. I don't know. I was just thinking, is there a way to >> do that? >> It's a
047great question. Um, you know, it the the writer participation fluctuates um not only year to year, but it also fluctuates within the year. So, for example, right now, um, we're having a jam up in a couple of our schools with the number of parents dropping off that's causing an issue because they don't want to students don't want to stand out. They don't want the students to stand out outside in the cold. Uh, you know, waiting for the buses. The the bus has been a little bit slower lately because of the the snow and the the narrowness of things. So, everything's taking longer. So, it the routes have become a little bit uh less predictable and parents got to go to work, so they want to come and drop off. So, um, so from from season
048to season, beginning everybody wants to drop their stu their child off at the beginning of the year. Um, and then in the winter you start to see a little bit more and then in the spring, you know, it that changes also. But in terms of the writership on the buses, um, you know, they the the bus company try like part of the rule is less than an hour. So they don't want students on for for more than an hour. And um so depending where student we're coming from traversing across the city, the routes are designed to keep it keep the riders, you know, under an hour. And so packing uh the buses in some cases, unless it's really isolated to a particular area in town, um creates inefficiencies and so and very long rides which
049causes, you know, break in our contract and others. But the the the our transportation uh director is, you know, she's very good and she does do a great job of consolidating and they're always looking at other ways to consolidate um the runs. So, um, you know, with the addition of the with the addition of Danbury High School West and students coming from all over the city for two different buildings, that does create a little bit more um traffic across all parts of the city, which is why some buses are more full than others. Um, you know, we've had some some we've combined last year to build efficiency. We combined the high school run and the middle school run it which saved us I think almost 10 buses. >> Wow. >> So, you know. >> Okay.
050Yeah. >> You know, and there's still some, you know, gruffling around having combined with middle school, the high school and the middle school. I still get those emails from time to time. It's not as much, but uh I do get them. So, you know, we could add 10 buses back in, but that's, you know, $80,000 a bus. It's quite quite an expense. So, right now, you know, I think we're in a good spot. Um, if Kelly, who our transportation person is, you know, may only need five or six buses by the time she's done >> programming the routes. And, you know, technology certainly helps. We're getting more efficient because of technology, planning the routes out, but um, you know, there's always a possibility you could need more. >> Um, And the other uh factor also
051is that our special needs students require very specialized buses and that's also very expensive. Some of them are almost one-on-one, some of them are, you know, four, five to a bus. Um the smaller buses are actually more expensive than the large buses, believe it or not. >> Wow. >> And then we have to have a monitor on there as well. But um I agree I I agree. So there's times I see the buses go by and and there was not, you know, as much as you would think on there. It's hard to tell. You know, they could have dropped off. Sometimes they fill up a bus and one or two stops and half the bus empties out. So, um, but we do have we, you know, we've had, uh, very full buses in the past.
052I think it's more, um, it's better now than it has been in the past. Uh, but, you know, the the settling of the routes will will really start to take shape once the last phase of the high schools open be a stronger predictor of where you can really consolidate. Um because even if she consolidates now, >> yeah, it'll change. >> It's going to change. So, we're kind of holding around that eight bus mark right now. And that could go up or down about 80 80,000 depending on how many buses she puts in. >> Thank you. >> That's a great question. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Sorry, I was muted. Anybody else with questions? I don't see anybody's hand up. Okay. Well, if you do have questions and um you think of something after we
053adjourn for the evening, please, you know, reach out, send in your questions. Um if you think of something in the morning, send in your questions. We're here, you know, Carol will be able to um get the answers for you uh before our meeting tomorrow night. So, um, Cara, do you have anything else to add or Mike or anybody else before we >> No, that's that's really it. >> Okay. Um, well, if nobody has any other questions, then I will ask for a motion to adjurnn. >> So, moved. >> Thank you, Kate. Do I hear a second? >> Sorry, Sher. >> I hear a second. I'll second it. >> Thanks, Cindy. Okay.