001call this meeting 2018 finance department of order take the attendance Teresa B pres K Cana here Monita Bush Harris here and Mr janelli is here have 100% I'm going to ask my friend Kate to take the minutes thank you very much okay we've got a lengthy agenda tonight so everybody has copy of the package we're going to start off with the first item on the agenda and we're going to turn that over to John SP talk thank you Rich so um so this is about the bus contract and U extending it or not extending it and we uh our bu contracted as everybody knows is with SDA student transportation for America and we currently are in the middle year contract that was started in July of 2021 and the contract um so it has two
002more years to run starting in July and that contract would call for increases of 3.75% next year and another 3.75% in year five and it's uh it's common in with u contractors in the bu business when they get to the end towards the end of their contract they'll come in and ask uh for some type of extension or they'll offer um an incentive and so generally it's at the end of year four that the contractor comes in and may say okay I'll I'll offer you uh 1% next year uh if you give me a new 5ye contract it happens a lot if you um you know if your if your bus company has a good safety record which are ours does and if they've had U enough bus drivers and uh you haven't had late
003buses and things like that generally it's probably in your best interest uh to extend or do something um in particular in a place like we are because there only some big bus companies could take it on vehicles um first student would be big enough to do it that Coe would be big enough to do it but there aren't a whole lot of others so uh were we to go out to bid maybe three or four bids there AR aren't a lot that could capable um so that that's normally what happens and uh but what we did this time when we saw that uh the budget was going to be as difficult as it was we said to ourselves Maybe we should approach them uh they had compared to our neighbors uh they've uh had plenty
004of drivers we haven't had some of the problems that other towns around us have had with Service uh their safety record has been good and um generally they're pretty pleased so we reached out to them and said we think we're going to have a difficult uh budget season um would you like to maybe at uh doing some starting a new contract um 2 years earlier um in exchange we would expect a 0% increase in year one we would be interested and uh they were and so we started some conversations uh back and forth and uh they made uh they said a couple things they had just themselves settled a a new contract with their drivers a little higher than they expected so they they felt some cost pressure whether some of that was posturing just
005trying to get an edge I don't know uh but we um came to what was a verbal understanding uh that we would have a start a new contract of course we would come to you first and to the board uh that would have a 0% increase next year instead of the 3.75 and that would save us roughly $350,000 we could cut the budget line next year um they we talked about the second year and the third year and what we agreed to was a zero of CA uh 4.75 in year two followed by 3 years of 6 6% 6 and6 or an average of 4.55 over the five years um and we're did we we thought it was a good idea we um even talked about putting it on the board's agenda tomorrow night but
006as we uh thought about some more uh meeting with Rich and some others um we'd like to uh continue to negotiate and to see if we could do uh even better than this it's a big contract it's more than1 million um they don't want to give it up to a competitor um so we'd like to we' like to try and so that's what we're here tonight to ask U if you you would agree that we could continue probably I'm sure by August we' have an answer well before the school year starts the savings would be lost highlights Pi up John to to to to John I agree because when he came back and indicated what the proposal was my feeling is if you don't ask for something you're not going to get it I'm not
007too happy with the three consecutive years of 6% particularly there's nothing in this in the calculations that we have I did a quick calculations that at the end of the contract based on the information we have we would have increased over the current year $2.5 million just incrementally and when you get 6% it's 6% this year on top of 6% higher year so it's high compounding um we're not in the rush and I think that and and an important thing to remember too it does not include right now it's 136 buses I believe it doesn't include the additional buses that could be anywhere from 20 28 buses I'm not sure in terms of the academy at about $70,000 of bus so again that's going to increase costs um the contract that was attached I'm not
008interested in that because I don't have expertise in that so the people that with contracts relative to D that's their expertise our purpose tonight was just to see if we can get a consensus from you all that there be no rush in accepting this we have place hold in the budget for approximately 350 and if you think it wise as as John and I do and others that we go back and see if we can get a little bit more money uh we'd like to get out of that consensus okay um I I for the most part I would I would agree I think we you know we got the time to try to bargain with them a little bit we should take advantage of that time that we have worst case scenario where we
009are now um I'm wondering if those 6% increases you know if some of their tactic is in consideration from the previous contract that we had because if I remember correctly that was negotiated before the pandemic broke and we had negotiated that pretty well and then the pandemic happened it really um threw their operations into flux and subsequent uh area um schools that were negotiating districts that were negotiating found that they we're seeing higher and higher rates and so we kind of patted ourselves on the back at that point and said hey we did a good job here so I'm just wondering if that 6% is their attempt to kind of reclaim and position us where some of these other districts are and you know I I say that out loud because I wonder in the
010continued negotiation with them if there's some way to sort of bring that forward and and sort of um not leverage it against them per se but um you know make it part of the conversation so to whoever the the district lik to do negotiations at least we could and tell them that we agree that we'd like to go back to have further conversations on this I'm going to assume that it would be unanimous that we then do this that be correct I'm all for yes thank you very much the second item we can I just one thing and I know at some point we had discussed this a little bit um but the the buses will be parked um so my understanding that there's a desire to have the buses be parked at the new
011site in the back lot so there's a value to that for them as in not renting or leasing additional space for the added buses and so I think it would be who us to to get an appraisal on what that value component is we could use it to negotiate Marg the contract thank you second item on the agenda is the May 24 financial report I'll turn that over both John and Mike package I was presented was for the 11 months ending May 30 versus said uh the this month the total expenditures came in at 15 milon which is about $3 million higher than our 8 month average PRI it's around 12.4 and the reason for that is um just about every year there are two months out of the year since we pay by weekly
012where there are three payrolls December is usually one in May so this may there were three payrolls um and each payroll is about $3.3 million so that that makes up that difference um and if you'll not along with that you'll see that the average benefit cost didn't move much and that's because benefits are are deducted from paycheck twice so um we pck monthly on board so that's that's not going to change that that that increment was offset partially by Transportation cost so um as we said before we pay kind of as we go where our cash bases so we um did not pay for the transportation income out of the the bank in in May you'll see that in the financial report since that you'll see came out in April probably come out again next
013month so that additional incremental expense in that third paer will partially offset by that Transportation cost for the year we $19.1 million in expenditure with another 31 million encumbered and that is leading us with a $231,000 favorable VAR the the note to watch was carried forward again from last month was our brok AJ Gallagher has shared concern with the expense of healthare that's still a concern we typically see our plan year ends in August of every year and we typically see the second half of the year the latter part of the year of the plan year is where most of the expense come so this is um while it's still in line with their original projections is worth that might just add M said so the unencumbered balance uh right now is about $230,000 um
014that will drop a little bit um by the end of June but no way will that turn red or go into the minus um we've opened up the new budget year and people are principles and things people like that are placing their orders for the fall against the new budget and once you open the new budget that takes all the pressure off the budget so there's very few things that are coming in it will chew up that $230,000 we have one more payroll to go but it's only the 12mth people all the 10mon people or our teaching staff our Paris most of the secretaries they've all received their final paychecks so next week's final payroll uh is much smaller we a very good idea of what that is so we're um confident that um this
015number or slightly less will what we'll look at at the end of juny the the first payroll of June as John mentioned that that last payroll for the 10mth employees some of our employees have the option of taking a balloon payment at the end of the year so that 3.3 that I said is our about our average payroll you're going to see that increase with the first payroll in June but rich as you always point out it is incom that was how much how much that $21 million so when you look at current month next month when I show you the cash flow next month that monthly figure is going to jump because of that the the I like the the monthly it has strawb back course it's a cash basis but it it does
016explain certain idiosyncrasies that that's to pick up and if you understand the the reasons why you know it helps us better understand the the implications so the fact that we didn't pay the transportation it's just a payment cycle doesn't mean we have money or things like that so um it it's it's only used as a guide what is import is at this particular stage game is that uncovered balance of $231,000 which on M seem to feel looking at the the the accounting expenses weekly that we seem to we seem to be I'm going to say we myself based what they tell me comfortable that we'll wind up in Black this year um so we keep our fingers crossed uh but that being the case we've come a long way from what we Lally started the
017year at so things work that well I'm hoping next year that with the the budget the alignments and and the the accounting of work expenses go we can get more involved into variances Mike I and John are talking more about incumbrances because there's some synes with the way the software works and and basically even my of thinking of what incence includes um it did may not always include a an estimate or the so we we're trying to figure out a way to present a financial statement that basically is all inclus that being said we we'll go through the the grants uh in a minute but are question fin I just um you had said that there were two months out of our school year that there's a three paycheck is that uh the December and
018may yes so if you look at you'll see that de is about million okay thank you and then once every 10 years there are 27 payrolls it's just enough to everybody F okay notifications when you look at the summary and also when we look at the details Financial I recommended to for next year that we continue the same format that is breaking the report two parts that showing the the first part is part of the budget expenditures against the budget City appropriation of $160 million and then the second part when you look at it that's comparable here to the the money the reement we got for the U for the Cyber and special ed uh that's $7.5 million will be listed separately with own budget items and expenses against it so we don't com into
019it and makes clearer and better accounting is to be the use and the source of funds I'd like to move to the grants um my comment before I ask John Mike on that my comment on the grants is over my experience in time on the board we' never really spent much time dealing with grants the numbers have grown with the exception of the years they really it became High um the grants really weren't weren't looked at very much but I'd like to do is focus next year and to to further that is to get a better understanding as to what these grants are what they mean the difference between title one two three and four Le all the other stuff uh which we I personally hear about but I really don't understand what they mean
020so I I think better understanding that we have for these grants the better off we are and then also graas some sort of notation as to put of these GRS go for more one year my point to John there's an unincumbered balance here about $6 million does could you share the page that you'll read in front on the grant page when you look at the grants it's two pages Grant says Grant fund summary second page thank you sorry there is an unincumbered B of $6 million um does that $6 million include funding that are for a period greater than this physical year or I guess also what I'm saying is how much of that we anticipate can expect that could be favor favorably left over maybe at the end of the year I think it
021would be um uh less than a million dollars some grants the two-year grants you mention you can carry over unused budgets some of those have limits formulas how much you can carry over and those you can't but um what you'll see um certainly next month is the the bigger grants uh will all be fully utilized the alliance the sr3 uh some of those the state Ed Department um accelerated a usual process that we follow uh of all times of year they're closing their system down for maintenance couldn't pick a worse week so they asked all of the school districts to uh put in their expenditures either what they've spent or what they've recovered and expect to spend through the end of June we had to do that by last Friday so we did uh but
022as we did it we made sure that all of the grants that we could utilize reutilize set aside so there there'll be very little left uh at the end of next conf normally we would do that next week early July there was a grace period but we had to didn't have that luxury this um is it possible or is it worthwhile breaking down the grants to uh federal grants state grants private grants I mean is it worthwhile doing that I think it is I think that's come up before and I I believe we promised to do that I'm sorry we have it so I'll make sure on our next report we have that yeah along with expiration date or whatever if I can just if I could just add to that it is helpful to
023categorize them because some of them have very similar characteristics so a Federal grant versus the state tlement grants um there are you know onetime grants there are competitive grants there are grants that we get every year is automatically some go up so it it is a lot to Wrangle and and and while there's you know there are so many oneoff small smaller grants that are I wouldn't say they're inconsequential because we rely on all of them but they're um it it's at least a worth a walk through the the largest grants that we have to understand how they support the district and then what we're allowed categorically to spend on it's going important and also I asked John and Mike for next year that we have a budget in the set aside for the alliance
024being the only Grant was it's close to $30 million I'd like to see that historically we've never had a budget for that so that maybe you know I don't know how my number in there but it's big enough you know it represents close to you know more than let's say 50% of the total budgets but again what we're doing the more we understand about what we're looking at the more questions you have the more we can refine it so that it has a significance and a meaning to us the whole purpose of all of this is to be good stewards of the some $200 million that we're entrusted with and that we can feel comfortable that we understand what's being presented uh to us and then have any questions to you know the that would
025satisfy our interests so and just to add the request for the information the additional information um as I'm looking at this and understanding it we have um a budgeted amount from a grant we have um year to date the amount that has been used or dispersed correct the encumbrance and then the budget balance so I'm a little concerned that we have um year to dat some are zero and so are we and because I don't know the span of time to use the Grant have we turned it back I mean in other words it went to waste we got the grant we didn't use it and now it's dead in the W right um I'm not sure and that's why I think that additional information gives us something to go on um when we look
026and say so what's the reason you know we got the grant we didn't so that's I'm just the process um process I described that we had to go through last week uh told us that we would not be turning back we made the effort to use the money before while we could um our grant accountant told me that was $2500 it would have been left over he asked the state for a special waiver and they said okay so we think that's gone too um so right now we don't expect anything going back and that's you that's what we try and do you know as you get into the second half of June like we are we try to First make sure that no money goes back to the state um at all back to the
027federal government that kind of guides our activities um and we you know we fight hard for our budgets so we try and make sure that they're used for the reasons we originally set down and I don't want to say not turn it back to the city um but if we had to turn something back rather turn it back to the city than to the state or the federal government because stays Within and that's that kind of drives our actions well that will be helpful because um the amounts of some of these and then to go over and see Zero it would be helpful to know if it's a a city or estate Grant and um to know a little bit of then I would be able to ask the question of and now how was
028that used how was it displayed um maybe from what my understanding is sometimes grants have stipulations of how it can be used most GRS most of course most do but I mean we may not be able to pay certain things salaries or different things but those would be the questions that would I would ask on the year-to DAT items that currently have a zero but I think what you're telling me is that when we get the next report those zeros may not be there correct okay so then the question would be so tell me how that thatone thank you what I'd like to do what I'd like to do is add to the minutes temporarly we can Define this and correct it as we go ahead is is that for next year that we look
029to have the a budget for the alliance grant that we hope to have the presentation of the grants done by category by category would be by state federal agencies private agencies however you need to see it and also the the term of the grant whether it's a one year 2year Grant and for starters I think that would help dress up the the information and then enable us to to get appointed with it and then go on from there to ref find it that's okay that $6 million uh balance that can go roll over till next year I think less than a million would be we call it carried over roll over same thing um the rest of those will be obligated oh there AR a lot of carryovers well I shouldn't say that not a
030lot of money that the carry over probably the biggest might have a little left in ID here's a and just to add there's as John mentioned you know this sheet runs through 531 and the end of the year is like a frenzy of you know finishing ordering the things that haven't been ordered yet and finalizing those invoices and asking companies can you please bill us so we can we could you know pay for this service um so that is what makes June kind of a crazy month for and that we we spend a lot of time during spend down period to to rectify and reconcile Grant so um and again that that date did catch everybody that uh maintenance thing through everybody so it's been it's been hectic but that those those bigger numbers especially
031will go down and then of course some of these are are two year over two years um there's also a lot of grants that run through December not a lot but at least aware of a few that you have to spend through December so I think we can safely say let nobody go on St suggest a motion that the finance committee recommend to the full board that they accept financial statements for May 31st ter app so moving ahead next item on the agenda is the exempt staff compensation 2425 I'm going to open that with suggesting that car start the presentation on that sure thank you um so there's I believe it's labeled document three in your packet if you have that um and so there there there is a schedule of um the proposed raises
032for the exempt staff the exempt staff has broken out into two categories um one based on a um cabinet extended cabinet on contract and the other as a list of our typical exempt staff um the proposed increases for the regular exempt staff are 3.49 and the remaining contractual staff cabinet staff extended sta at 3% um This falls in line with the raises um and percentage increases that um our other groups have um have been offered or heading into this year and coming out of last year um so for example we have the teachers at 5% and 4.3 and then administrators at 3.61 and 267 and so the 349 is a smooth over average of those two comparable groups and and the 3% is below that um uh is below that but that is that is
033what's proposed you'll notice on the sheet as presented that there are a few positions that we do not have uh this heading into next year um or that are are in the process of having to be replaced so um you'll see adjustments on that on that proposal in those areas um overall as a group as the entire group um the the increases represent a netive 2.39 when you remove out some of the positions uh that were not filled not back filled for overall of a negative 120 I think it's 12540 um so this is a a group um that we definitely trying to retain I think retention heading into this school year and next school year with our staff is going to be very important um and uh we have certainly you um kept this
034in line with the other groups um as presented and we've negotiated across the last two years before we start the conversation just and I want to clarify something it's been my experience and I just want to get a clarification that with my absence in the last couple of years prior to that the the board hasn't voted on this this is nothing that we vote on it's something that the superintendent as their job recommends recommends guess it's the best word I can think of or advises us as to what they are looking to do this money is already incorporated into the budget we have place all across the board with 4% this is the superintendent's way of saying this is the way they going allocate money spent for for these people it's my understanding also this
035that these number of people are the only people that are not is that right so to the point that K all the other unions that received increases um is a fact so I I guess at the end of the the conversation is there's I I don't believe there's a v here to be taken and I want to clarify with Kim am I correct on that or how do we proceed you are correct on that um there you do have a policy about it um the um the policy is in keeping with the general understanding of the wall which is that your superintendent is the CEO of your organization and um once she has been allotted a a sum of money an amount of money that it's her um to provide a system of compensation and
036so she comes to advise you about that and that's what your policy says that's and it doesn't preclude us from expressing an opinion so that's you know that's fine uh being involved in this it's this is totally about money this has got nothing you do personalities or anything but because we um had asked 180 million and we've gotten 167 million we're short million uh and K did a wonderful job saving jobs um with minimal uh Cuts but for example the elementary school students um have been cut some of their band instruments and we're weighing we're taking that away from them and giving raises we gave raises last year how come we need to do it again this year when we're also going to face another fiscal crisis financial crisis next spring that's all I'm going
037to say thank you thank you um you know you rich you just made a statement prior to this presentation um on the agenda saying that it is important that we do our due diligence that we make sure that we are using our funding and monies in a responsible manner um that we continue to sit before the city to show them that we have indeed done just that um listen I just feel that we would be remiss in um adding on to the salaries at this point and Stage when the comments over and over and over again are that we are at a fiscal cliff that is not going to go away next year this does not mean that people are not doing their job nor are they um not worthy you know of that addition
038it's just the position that our school system is in right now and our integrity with the community and our school system um as we St a raise was was given last year um I don't agree with increasing it beyond that right now right now um and so that is my and the other thing that had come up in our meeting and I do need clarification is that this is from my understanding this is not a pool of raises in other words they could be individualized um position by position so to be to be handed and say here here's the group and this is what and I think that we need to be very careful how we present ourselves in stepping forward with this that's number that's one comment the other thing is we had a
039[Music] um and I'm I guess we will get to this point also is that we have a number of um the contracts and when they are due and I'd like to know when they will be looked at and we talked about realigning some duties and positions so I don't know if that's part this um but at some point no it's not at some point I would like a discussion on that thank you okay thank you I'm don't you take questions do two parts one if I care to respond to to your question as to why she feels that this is necessary then the the issue on contract side maybe K could answer that or care you know I'm not in position to answer question we all have our own opinion there's when I look at
040opinions there's no right or wrong in an opinion and so it's a belief I tend to think that on a conceptual point of view we've got there are 50 people here that we penalizing 50 people out of the 2,000 that we employ it be simpler if we just told these people to get a bargaining unit we don't have to do this which creates you know more a problem but the the I'm not in charge of the school districts I'm not the CEO I'll let Cara answer why she thinks this is important and how she feels it it would help her with the morale and and if not what the consequences she feels would be um I do that because we put her in charge and she's got to at the end of the day we
041hold her accountable for making manage you know I guess they say take care sure thank you and I appreciate I appreciate all questions um and it is it is a challenging time um but I would say you know ever more so it is important and imperative to retain a quality staff the the duties here particularly in this office and I I do want to point out that that the the rates were differentiated down here so they are they have been differentiated um by by group so I did do that that is separated out on here um with the cabinet staff receiving 3% and you know it is it is important to maintain comp to retain uh competitiveness here um the there are less people here than there were um not too long ago the absence
042of of my former role has created an additional workload on everyone here um you know we are we're heading into another tumultuous period it is very difficult to um say to this staff here as well as the other folks on this list that they're different um in terms of their what they're able to secure in terms of um a percentage for their performance um particularly some of the folks here in this building who night Day weekend around the clock to help um land the plane so that we have $200,000 in the bank and and um um and and heading into uh another crisy situation and to be able to retain a staff that has institutional knowledge um and able to calm the waters here in the way that we're able to do so this year
043um you know it is U Danbury has struggled to retain competitiveness I think there's been a thoughtful due diligence with negotiating the contracts that have come before us in the last year and two year to maintain that competitive competitiveness um and and certainly the the positions that are in here on this on this paper um you know if we if we do not keep up with that even in that range of that um Danbury becomes the next you know revolving door of of folks um it's happening now currently um and I think it's something that is of great concern um you know the the folks who at the top of the scale tend to be the targets on a regular basis for um you know these types of situations and I think it's important to
044acknowledge the work that they do and in a district of this size that is already underst staffed um at all levels and I don't I don't make that argument for just the group on this paper I make that argument for all groups um and I think that the negotiations that we've engaged in as over the last couple of years have reflected that same commitment and so I'm saying that we wouldn't treat another group differently um particularly in this climate and particularly with with in the spirit of retaining staff um who who can go elsewhere right now heading into where we're heading so I do think it's important um we have a lot of strategic goals to make to to execute um I need a team that's going to be committed to doing that um already
045it is um experiencing the shifting Sands of turnover where it is hard to grasp um and get people to the table because they are leaving um and that number is is growing by the minute so um I think it's going to be a conversation for us for all groups moving forward how are we going to retain um a quality Workforce thank you if I could to reiterate your question regard the contracts toim so it's clear and that you get the answer you're looking for or I believe K is the one that before sorry I'm sorry I've heard excuse me I've sit on the board many many years and and I've heard this discussion many many times when it always came to giving out raises and the superintendent always brought the cabinet and exempt people to
046the board and say this is what I'm recommending to you I never thought as it looking at it to be a name or a person or what they're getting because during negotiations we talked about keeping it at 4% okay and I most of you sit on quite a few of those teams and you know how it is okay people work hard we do not have the resources that we really need and I know people keep saying that they don't want to work in this District because we are right now so fragile okay so if we don't do this to me in the face of looking at people and being honest with people and trying to maintain some type of people that's going to be honest and work along with our superintendent to help us move
047forward this is not money that they we going to have to go out and seek and we find this money is already budgeted into our budget am I correct and when we sit down and negotiate we try to keep it within that 4% I'm comfortable Common counsil People whoever want to ask me why do you give race okay so no one wants to work a whole year for nothing and I remember and I'm going to call Dr s when on sit on this board and I think it was for a year or two years he did not get a raise or would not accept the raise because he wanted his cabin and his support St to get a raise I'm comfortable it's not my money I believe it's the right thing for us to do
048to to move forward on accepting this what superintendent is bringing forth to us that's all I have to say mine is a separate issue contract so I'll continue discussion I can't I can't accept this um especially when we are depriving our elementary school students without instruments in exchange for this I am I was involved in the budget process we faced the ad hoc committee city council we Face the ire of the Union President right here in the boardroom for mismanagement and out of all that that was most upsetting cuz we tried and and I know these people try but we got to draw the line um the budget is tough and to neglect items for our children for raises at this time is I took not appropriate thank you I just want to address the
049music for a second um so we do have our staff right now has been working very hard to um separate out uh and and redefine some things and so we are very close to being able to offer strings in grade four for the kids who took it in grade three to keep that going and we've also embedded and purchased ukuleles and um recorders teach all students music so we before we haven't had that so we we're adding that in and we are we do believe that the way we did a creative way reorganizing the staff and they're working on those schedules now and the new music teachers will be getting new schedules over the summer um so the group is working very very diligently on that to maintain those instruments uh in grade four and
050five grade three is much different story um but it's also not that common that we have to pull out individual semi-private lessons gr three um but we that is going to be difficult to maintain moving forward in almost any budget but um we are we've definitely come around and have been able to add on that and I I don't want I do want to say it's not necessarily A tradeoff for salaries for instruments I don't I I don't think that's a fair comparison and I understand because it hurts us just the same but every year since I've worked here it is books it's computers it's laptops it's infrastructure it's other Staffing that we don't have um it's you know there's been a quiet Slow Burn here in this District in the form of just not
051filling jobs and so last year was more public in the sense that we actually had to physically cut real people and give a pink slip uh for the first time in a while but every single year this this district has done uh more with less uh across the board every group you name it um and and and we certainly here in central office you the pressure of that dynamic um on a regular basis and so whether it's books whether it's computers this year the instruments um were part of that um but I but but what does it say then about next year and the year after as the budget crisis continues to unfold that that that if you work in Danberry you will just continue to um you know lose the competitiveness of your salary
052not be um not get U an increase cost a CPI adjustment for the time that you're here we've been in a we've been in a budget cycle for for quite a while um that is not been positive and in the next couple of years I think we're going to continue to experience the same um but in order to run an operate this place we need a minimum threshold of staff and we need them to stay with us and so that is that is why I put forward the raises that I have Lise if I called on you in the notom commit I'll never hear the end for Mrs co wait until the end no committed Members First committtee Members First try understand policy proced get in so um I I understand I I really I
053feel the concerns that financially as a district what the consequences are for our students for our staff um you know to the point that you're making Terry about what does it look like for us to give raises well we've already given out raises to all the paring that's already taken place and and so I'm just saying that just because I I want to Circle back to what car is saying which is that you have a group of approximately 50 people here who are not part of a bargaining and we are qualitatively treating them and quantitatively treating them differently than everyone else and I know it looks different it looks different and it feels different because the numbers on the page are different they're larger than some of the other numbers that we see but the
054message that we deliver is the same that we deliver with the bargaining unit what we sit down for those conversations which is either that we value with the work that you contribute here and we're negotiating for you to see an increase in your salaries for the terms of your contract in a way that that validates you know that value um that's the first piece and then the second piece for me is is you know sort of to what Dr Casmir was talking about to me it's about the functioning of our organization and while I love to be able to say you know I'm not concerned about whether or not people leave the reality is that bringing people into these higher level positions who don't have experience in our district or who are going to need
055some training to get to the point to where they become functional cabinet members that's a big operational loss for the district and everybody is going to pay for that so I am concerned that if we don't value this employee group the way that we evalue other employee groups and some of them decide you know what I can go to a neighboring district and I can make more money that I'm making here and I'm going to have less aggravation and I'm going to have a board that you know values me enough to uh incentivize me to stay that's just reality and maybe it does make me feel a little bit like I'm being held hostage a little bit but my choice is either acknowledge the reality which is that some of these folks who are very
056valuable and integral to our operations are going to leave and we're going to be faced with the reality of replacing those folks and Dr kmir is going to be faced with that reality which is going to take her away from any other work at the table or make a decision to move forward with something that optically doesn't look great to other folks even though and and then maybe they're not going to understand fully why I'm making the decision that I'm making but I'm doing it for the health of the over the overall health of the organization because the problems we have to work on are not going to get easier with fewer experienced people that's just the way I look at it thank you yes I want to uh Circle back around um when we
057elected to come on to the board I don't think um that we came before the board without having courage and sometimes that courage requires Us in in the face of a storm to stand grounded I'm again I'm new to the board but when I look at this and try to out our our responsibility to the district and our community and to our students I cannot in good faith um accept um what's what's on the paper um I don't know if that's negotiable or not um and that's something that I would I don't know if you want me to go to my next question about the contracts or you want to stay with us you can ask the question I to answer on one of the presentations one of the screens um were the cabinet executive
058members okay um and their um we were interested in the role and responsibili of each of those um as well as um the contract endings and so um I don't think and then also on the screen it was proposed changes to the contracts is that information that would be forthcoming prior to the end of those contracts and that has nothing to do with this so they're separate from from the raises for next year and so the contract so obviously we're we need to do a little reorganization um you know some of that from time to time happens very informally internally in terms of so I'll give you an example uh one year we might say uh Mike you're going to be in charge of x uh handling this and John you're you know you've been
059very busy because you're doing another project so your assignments this year will look like like this and so those are in formal internal organ organizational U just operational things that we would do from year to year so some of those in the contracts uh will be delineated so this summer as we sit down um with the existing staff that we'll do those things other major like a major change would be like a major change to someone's role and so one of the in the you know presentation that we made to the board that there were three positions in particular that we were looking to uh reduce that there was three cheap positions and that we were looking to go down to two and so there would have to be some reorganization there so there' be
060some larger chunks to those jobs that would be redistributed so we plan to do that and sit down the summer to do that um there are some things in the works now that will be deciding factors on how that work gets distributed based on my knowledge of where things are with some some of our folks okay um other changes that that were discussed were about creating some structural changes here um in terms of our staffing operationally um to provide some uh a different structure uh provision with um some folks and so that requires some staffing additional Staffing Staffing changes to look similar to other organizations who've accomplished what was what was discussed um and so that doesn't mean that a person's contract would not continue to move or roll forward but rather that that person
061uh would or people or a group would continue to work for us but the the operational roles may look different moving forward so but that would be you know we talked about um that we would need to add organizational staff to some things we're down the the finance office is down like four people HR department I mean if we look at other comparable organizations there's like 10 and 15 people we've got three people um running things so there's there are folks that are covering tremendous amount of ground doing multiple roles and so over time we're going to have to add you know Kelly's department is the same thing there's a couple positions that we'd like to add under that people Services um pound for pound I I have a you know I'd love to to
062review it with with this group in particular the um just in our dur by comparison um I think we have 18 we have 18 central office staff members um and in other districts compared L if we were similar to the number of staff and students that they have to us it would be the double it would be a double digit increase in central office staffing um and I have I have that just just a simple math equation it's available on on public um public websites at the Staffing levels we're very underst staffed here and I say that and I don't not recognize the fact that our schools are underst staffed as well um but to make some of the substantive Chang es that I think that we're talking about um they require additional Staffing because
063we have people covering a lot of basis here a lot of ground and so um the contract the contracts get renewed each year based on performance um so that's and that is under my purview to renew those each year based on performance and that would be a a function that would be reviewed each year um so the the the contractual changes that you saw with the dates are as a result result of decisions that we're moving forward with um for next year and the year after so as we move forward um the dates that you see there will be will be implemented now the there could be some changes to the role and the functions as we reorganize um but the contractual extensions are are what was listed there um you saw some indicators of
064uh not sure how I indicated them I took some put some notes realign realignment right but but also um some kind in a in a situation where a role would change very dramatically we would have a whole new contract written up with a different job description um and so the contract now is sunset um and there's one position that falls under that uh in that group and I think I put a little little indicator on that okay I just want to add to the seriousness that I've observed the leanness in the leanness of the staff the last month I've been spending a lot of hours here work with John Mike and as was mentioned earlier the largest per of the year was just done it was done by John the Director of Finance because the
065young lady who handles the P was out before with a operation uh was then came back was held again because of an illness uh he had to jump in and to to do the Peril this is a serious issue God forbid something happened to him you have 2,000 people that not getting paid uh they're going to be knocking on your door you know saying this is all baloney uh we are dangerously low from where I could look at I really don't have any areas that knowledgeable other than the financial area that I would not want to to be in charge of a place this me with the possib so we're really working but the I'm going to Teresa before I get to you Mrs Cooper do I do I entertain the question from louiser the
066end of the the meeting or at the end of just this session um for for her to make the comment well if know other board members have any particular question concerning what we're talking about there then you will answer Teresa do you have any uh from listening to everything and being on the board for the last couple years finally realized there are no caps on these positions this could go on and on and on on and on I mean some of these salaries are whoa um not to say they're not justified but where does it end there's no caps the management here is off the charts um there's got to be and not and that's where the raise is coming every year you got to give a raise you got to give a raise you
067got to give a raise that's not true in the real world it's not true and you do want to keep your people you do but people know it's tough times and this financial crisis it was tough so to say 3.49 it's just too much too too too much thank you so any other board members have any other questions on this subject it's not thee go ahead thank you uh first question was were these raises budgeted in the 180 million yes so because we didn't receive the 180 million was it ever discussed when we're looking at all the cuts or adjustments that we were doing to the district how did this how did this come into play when we when we we're balancing it out and I and I know that we've had to make a
068lot of shifts and adjustments with positions and that kind of thing but I'm I'm you know and I know that we're bringing in different musical instruction but it's very difficult to look at a third grader and say well next year you can't play band if you can do it in fifth grade and then the parents are going to get wind of this and how do we balance that how how does that how do we do that and the fact that it was budgeted in 181 million was fine if we got 181 million that I have no issue um but we didn't even come close to that and we had to get an additional 7 and a half from the city to help us on top of that so um I do not doubt anybody's worthiness
069of this at all I do not I I don't question question that um I just I'm trying to wrap my head around all all of this and it's it's sometimes it gets a little hard to figure that thank you I in my opinion is is that the I still look at it that the 50 or some of people that were talking about we putting all the s in the district and financial you know problems we're having on these 50 where every other bargaining unit has been uh and the current bargaining units that we're doing um has been in range an acceptable range here um I high look at it as I said that it's conversation that that we had each of us has their own opinion which I think is is is correct to have
070that opinion at the end of the day this is the opinion orom of the superintendent um I think to close this out I I don't know but I asked for I there's no vote on here the only thing I can say as far as the minutes goes is that with regard to the proposed recommendation on salaries that 50% of the committee members agree with the the proposal and 50% don't but there's no as I look at am I correct there's no board Vote or no motion on on the thing for Wednesday so list is is that this car was introducing a new curriculum uh in here for holding her responsible to achieve certain things and the are one of the the assets or tools that she feels necessary in order to achieve her her objectives
071gos how do I phrase this for for the for for the meeting on Thursday so K can I just introd before you you respond to that and and I and I I want you to know I do take um everything that you're saying seriously and and I too have had to weigh the optical look um but I'm also very cognizant of area salaries positions I'm cognizant of the difficulty we've had in filling positions positions that already exist right now um the competitiveness of area systems where there is more money on the table for folks and benefits with in a stable work environment um and that has been you know we have reached out to folks to try to get people back and they won't come back um it is these types of you know especially
072in this category here this is this is a perennial an annual you know discussion and this always seems to be the the group that you know does does bear a lot of of the grunt but um I can tell you that you know these are these are all high in demand jobs that are on on these Pages here and again people here cover a lot of ground there's a tremendous amount of institutional knowledge attached to a lot of these jobs um replacing folks who leave and we're experiencing that now is extraordinarily taxing on district and we don't have manpower to train other people we have no people underneath the people here so when when when when someone leaves there's no understudy and there's no two or three people in the office ready to step in
073and and take over that doesn't exist in this location here and so that is one of the reasons while you know there's some salaries that many people would would say that's it's a wonderful salary um the Heth and the support underneath that is not here and again um you know we're experiencing that now where folks are leaving and there is no one else they are we joke about it all the time here that person if they ever get in a car crash we're in trouble here don't ride together in the same car I that's how that is how much um that a lot of the people here do do carry and do cover um covering ground we are a district that has been on the verge of um a large District but still at a
074small and medium Staffing level um in many areas and so that has we just have not grown with the demands of this place and then you throw in and people have stayed with us out of the out of Goodwill out of loyalty um true D varians but that the sentiment is changing um and I just think it's very important to make sure that we're that we're taking care of everybody um CU we cannot afford to head into next year and at even with the Skeleton Crew that we have right now I'm very concerned thank you um just a point of clarification so um at the board meeting um you will present this document um for it it would be wonderful if if being entire is here here but um are they going to ask the
075chair what the board thought or the committee thought about that presentation I I know they well it should be well that was my next question I was going to phrase it this way from a finance committee when I report what we've done is that as I said here when we get to this particular item is that half committee members agre and have it didn't and there was no no vote necessary with regard to the motion I'll leave that up to Kim and GL car to decide if there's any motion or how that's reced on there's no motion are you what I'm trying to say is I think it should be clear that at the meeting there's you know not ultimately we're not looking for a vote on this it's just 11 people expressing the opinion
076as five of us did here correct I I guess what I'm asking is is as usual you may be called by the media to give your opinion on the presentation to the board for the um raises in the salar will you and in your response are you going to be responding um with regard to the committee or I would be responding the committee has the superintendent made a recommendation to the committee for the exempt and cabinet the committee discuss this and the committee is in favor of moving this for no that's not only % of us are in favor of it but it's it's not a vote just saying that b no I'm I still hear what you're saying but I'm still saying if you're bringing it from the committee to the board because at
077some point the board has to know right that are not here right and they the 11 people could then Express their opinion and it could be six to can in that public setting okay great thank you you my final thing and I'll be real quick okay and again we've heard the discussion and I would just like to for us as a board as we get past this or however you want to discuss how you feel and you have that right as a board as an effective official as we look at this list here and there's some things in some position that we should be looking at as a board come September when we start back up that we need some restructures some redirection some accountability for those positions and I think that's a lot of
078position that we have talked about earlier that you know even with this what we're going through now there are some position that need to be restructured in order for this District to move forward in a positive way now Mr but we we also discuss that but we can only recommend that from what I understand that will be a discussion in SE shift or change yeah where does that leave a dead discussion or and so um what I've always said is nothing changes if nothing changes and if we don't have that courage to speak up to ask to recomend men to suggest and to expect changes then have we don't but I think also you know and I don't want to you know I think what yeah the board has asked questions over the years you
079know the information that we have given as board members okay we don't know if that information was 100% when we got it we went on the faith of the person that was bringing it to us and we base our questions on that information that was brought to us so maybe we didn't ask the question that n that you're asking because you're different on the board and you bring a different perspective okay I'm talking about what information that was brought to us as board members how we saw to judge what we was going to ask I'm going to say I you know again I don't hold the money part I think it's the right thing to do is to move this recommendation for that the superintendent had brought for to us the next item on the
080agenda we have is is review report fund sources I ask John to put something together just so that in a global picture we are all aware of the amount of money that's being spent on education for the kids in not to say it's not enough but we keep talking about the city appropriation of the 160 million Etc when you look at this it's far greater than that and as I said earlier each of these components eventually will get to understand more specifically what's involv in it so it could be better stents at least understanding spending of the money so John just briefly go through in your page and very briefly uh it's estimated for next year and what I've done there is just shown the different sources of funds so U you see the local
081sources that's what comes from the city council and underneath that uh direct State Grant from as pointed out some Grant are State some are federal underneath that are the federal I've shown the the larger ones and then grouped everything else together um there are few non I call them non-governmental grants uh the bar Foundation you're familiar with that will fall in there and then another category of city services that called inine services but that's um the city mows our Lawns and clears our snow and things like that so there's a a value for that but um kind of interesting it it'll add up to about $250 million uh next year and 2third of that is from uh say from the city council from the the taxpayers but a third is coming from other sources and
082one out of every $3 we spend is coming U from these other places I thought it's kind of interesting U this is just a snapshot to us idea of who is how much thank you my opinion that we should be the city and the taxpayers US should not be the ones supporting this much of Theo we should be looking to get ways to get more federal state money also this schedule does answer one of the questions we had in terms of the format of the grant schedule laying it out by by category so things thank you the the other question the um I wonder if it be um helpful to share this with City Council shot um because I've heard different information come for about what you know what out of every dollar comes from
083uh local funding um and I feel like this might help clarify some of the understanding there so could send it to the City Finance directive tomorrow and ask them to share I think it would be helpful also for the council thank the next item is the status of due diligence on rund to contracts including health insurance when I met with Mike and John on this and again going to look at every so being not unturned it it's part of our due diligence to be respectful relative to the expenses we have and princi the large ticket items here the salary is a large ticket items we we do that by negotiations health insurance Transportation uh cop paper going down the line or large St items what we and it's always good to review this just as
084as I review and maybe yourself you reviewing your own personal life uh things at home whether it be your health insurance your water Insurance your house insurance just to make sure that there's something out there that could be a little bit cheaper that gives you the same the same benefit this is all we're trying to do here is at the end of the day you go before the council we can actually say we've done our due diligence we review let's say I talk about health insurance something that was good 13 15 years ago may or may not be I don't know the answer to that but if we have an independent evaluation comes back and and blesses whichever way we go on that we can say that this is a huge expense for us and
085we've checked it off indicating that we're safe similar to the the transportation contract we're doing the due diligence on it so again we are being better stewards of the money and being proactive to to uh to to the city government to the people that that we responsible for for the money that we're doing a good job John briefly just go through you know what what you're talking about and the possibility of who would do such a evaluation U so our our agenda tonight as you can see got longer as the weeks got closer and originally we're going to start on the the program that rich was talking about where each month we look at a different vendor and questions um but and so but we didn't want to give up on the idea of introducing
086the concept and so what I uh put in front of you today tonight is U report on what's called this the state partnership plan it's a health insurance plan um if you could just look at page two I'm it's going to stay very high level let say um fiscal year 2023 I'm just going to point a couple things out um you know insurance is all about size the more you the more the bigger your pool uh the more risk you can spread within that pool and what the U state has done uh really going back to 2011 um I'll skip the history there was they put together a health insurance program that combines local cities towns and boards with the state employees themselves to make gigantic plan and what what you see here is just
087the um the plan that's for the local board cities and towns um but as you can see just on the fourth line here under executive summary the claims from both plans the state employees and the local employees get pulled to determine the premium cost that's where you get the the benefits of size um so today there's 2,000 employees in the plan who are work for local governments uh along with their dependence if you add their dependence there's 52,000 people who are covered under the this part of the plan um and just to give you an idea here in danber we have between 1100 and 12200 people who sign up for health insurance probably 20 2200 members so if the the 22,000 were in it right now employees we would be another thousand to that so
088um I won't go through U the details uh too much if you look um if you just want to look to page eight what they do in their report is they show what each board or town contributed in premiums and what they paid out in claims some PID some places uh paid more than they got it back in claims others paid less but they show it here uh but after that I just I printed out the list for you of who the members are now I checked off a couple that uh we recognized the B field Board of new MILF Stanford and nor of the cities in town you can look at that for yourself Bridgeport is in it they're the biggest um and then on the on the last page I think it's kind
089of interesting the way they look a black and gray page and the way they uh they do their pricing is uh they they segregate some groups uh they have their active employees uh single employee plus one family then they have a group of pre-65 retirees those are U retirees who are not yet eligible for Medicare uh so that's it's more expensive for them to participate and then uh post 65 non-medicare retirees that's even more expensive so they they separated out what they've started doing the reason you see these different counties listed going down the left is a doctor here in Fairfield County uh charges more than say a doctor in Colin County or in London so it's it's more expensive for us to buide and uh for the same benefits than someone up the line
090so um the state plan um want to point out uh benefits are one of the three mandatory subjects of collective bargaining wages benefits working conditions so um any changes uh would have to be bar can't be things we unilaterally pick so as rich said I think more of these will be on the finance committee agendas going forward we just want to preview of kind of any comments couple questions um the first would be so you're John you're saying that 1100 of our employees would be eligible to participate well uh you know we go through an open enrollment every year like other employers and U right now there are 1100 employees who have signed up for health insurance okay with your dependence I think it's 2200 cover lives and that some people don't maybe they have
091insurance with their spouse or something else okay and would this plan also cover dependence would the plan would this would the state insurance cover dependence it does something John said was important is that this is a mandatory and and we have to discuss teachers union on the last couple of Cycles so we order to get those people maret over that so all of our units that are in the sign plan right now are in the sign plan because that is cont depy thank you I just I have just one thing to point out and I don't know if I noticed it before but it is nice to have an employee plus one category on here I and I think that could even if we just stick with our current wondering if that's something we could
092ever look into because it could save folks some money we do look into it regularly every maybe every other year and our census numbers are such that we actually don't have a lot of plus one so it's a better premium deal for us to only do two cies people thank you the next item discussion creating of an sub committee this is a pet peeve mine um just recently there was an article in the paper that indicated that the June 22nd a was just completed I haven't seen the audit yet but it it took maybe two years to do this it went on to indicate the Staffing uh limitations relative to the city city government that they were short they hired people and then one of the last couple of paragraphs there was a com people
093indicating that the delay which created a downgrade in our bonding rating from tripa to a a which essentially means you pay high interest rate for taking out du bonds or refinancing but this council person made a statement that appeared to make it sound as if the Board of Ed was responsible for this and this happened a year or two ago it was that I wasn't on a board and so all I was doing is reading the the stuff that was in the paper in my experience it it's criminal that we as an entity do not have a seat at the table of discussing issues with the the the city the audit period I took the opportunity John gave me the name of the partner of the audit firm to reach out to him telling that
094it was my suggestion that the Board of Ed and its members being a chairperson the superintendent of schools the Director of Finance and the chair of the finance department that we as a committee want to have access to these committee meetings with the the order committee so that we can be apprised of what they're doing any issues improvements and more importantly to to me is hopefully to get a management letter that tells us what we're deficient in the accounting cycle he responded to me this afternoon right before the meeting and to say yes he would certainly do that and he would recommend it to the the audit Committee of the of the city so we I Look to have SE at the table with the the people so that at least we can report back
095to the board what's happening on on the audit the June 23rd audit is just starting generally the beginning of the audit there's a whole bunch of schedules and wish list that that's furnished the clients I'm not sure how much of that yet has done but my personal feeling is that this audit this year although should be done by December is going to be perhaps whe Aid maybe not so much to the out for it and it might be another consideration so that we avoid this mess this is something in the future to see that we since we do pay a sum of money to the city for the share of the audit it may be something that we can get our own independent audit firm to commit audit our books so that we don't have
096to be tied into schedule with City or is we do it on our schedule that is is um in line with what the schedule is and have the city accounting firm rely on the certification of the public accting but you know that's something for down the road but at least I think we made headways here to to have seated the table regarding this particular function U Teresa um I agree but being on the finance committee for the last couple years and working with John um I find they uh they omitted one important point in that article was that this all happened during Co and as John told us numerous times when he replied to their requests he didn't hear anymore instead of meeting around a table say well we need this paper and so he
097would give it you would give it to him fine but in Zoom you didn't it just went into the ether realm um to me these Auditors I don't want them anymore I don't know if there's any other Auditors I expressed my displeasure in the past to the city these people like I said it's it was Co during Co but going forward if they don't meet in person this is crazy what was happening am I right John the the entire audit that they just finished not one time did any of their staff put a foot into the damre Board of Education to any of their facilities they never walked in here that may be how the bigger firms do it now I suspect it probably is um but what's going unet I believe is um the
098Auditors have changed the way they they audit uh in terms of some closing entries and you would just make that they don't do that anymore they they make you make them change your books give it back to them they check it out they look it again um they also very briefly a municipal audit takes our monthly report say and then uh the Auditors recasted in terms of generally accepted accounting principles that used to be something the Auditors just used to do themselves before they publish the report nowadays they want us in in the city to do that for them do it as we go along or to recast things ourselves and it it's really created a whole U new element of getting these things done that uh just two years ago was not there now
099when I've asked them they said well you know what happened with andiron and we have to be careful we have to cover ourselves I think there's there's part of that too so there's a lot of different things that play here but um I'm not going to disagree with you what you say I feel this gives as I said it's a seat at the table something where we actually need we pay for the service we should have a right to voice our opinion and we should have the right being a board to understand if there are any challenges or differences um that Rel to us there any other discussions on that just like to say when we get the seat at the table that's the right people that's sitting at the table and that we be
100very careful when we sit at the table and who we're sitting with so you know if we're going to move forward on this I have no problem with it and coming through uh our superintendent and the finance director and possibly the chairperson of the finance but let's make sure that this is the way that we want this to be handled the item number seven presentation to Grant Willow eliminate because we've had conversations on that item number eight is something I put on here I've asked before and I'd like you to think about what other kind of reporting that you would like to see the the I've asked John and Mike that in the near future I like to see reporting on the what I refer to as an Enterprise fund there there is a fund
101that's held by that used to have a substantial amount of money in it a number of years ago uh for the rental of the facilities the high school and stuff like that um I don't know perhaps 3 four years ago was the last time that that was done um but those are uh funds that we should be aware of the other thing there is is aesco accounting that we should be looking at but point if there are other reports or issues that you feel that you need or that you'd like to see whether it be Financial or academic I think it gives us the opportunity the reason I came up with this is because when the first got on the board one of the board members made a statement relative to the past that we're
102given a financial statements and so yes you give the financial statements and we try to interpret the financial stats have a conversation about but if there's something in those statements that you feel that you need in order to make you more comfortable with understanding it then it behooves you to to at least speak up and ask about it or if there's something else within the educational system that you feel you need in order to do your job or to to understand it better then speak up so um when you get a chance just let me know those and try to put it on the list of wish thank you can I can I recommend um a list of scholarships you recommend whatever you put in listate yeah what what scholarships we got and what's the
103word okay where they come from um item number nine forget will be pretty much cover and with that I know it was a lengthy agenda I thought the items were important um but uh we got through thank you for your participation if there are no if there no other questions U I would ask for a motion to Second seconds all in favor