001for the pledge of of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation under God indivisible withy and justice for all Madam Vice chair will you do the roll call please pres Terry pres Michelle here Kate hereis here here Lauren here Richard janelli here okay thank you at this time Dr Casmir are you going to do the recognition sure will okay um we have Dr Jill Russell Benner come up to the public stand for a moment the danry public schools have been selected again as the best community for music education the ass otherwise known as the N foundation for the sixth consecutive year so Jill you did it again and we'd love to find out how you did that well all I did was fill out the survey it's really
002going um it's all of our staff members it's the things that we're able to provide our students in the dver schools and music program that make this possible usually I've been singing all week and teaching Elementary music like Z usually I think about when we when we come here how important it is to hear our students and to see our students perform but I think this time around kind of got me thinking like what exactly makes us the best community for music um and it starts with what their award means which is that it's recognizing school districts for the support and commitment to music education and efforts to ensure access to music for all students excuse me as part of a education we were one of 975 districts Nationwide and one of I believe it's
00336 districts in Connecticut that would us um some of the things that we do have in the community that support us in in the theme of community it's the qu Club of danber is one example they have a wonderful program called music is instrumental they get donated instruments uh of all kinds B string classroom keyboard guar name bring in we've been able to and um then they go right into the hands of students we have West United State University which is for many of us our Mo but also we have a great relationship with them we have a lot of student teachers and student observers that come in our high school goes there performs and Umar but instrumental program as well D music center is right in town we offer scholarships to our students every
004year Music learing Center is businesses that not only D surrounding Town also for instruments private lessons Etc and if you do a have trick you have seen many of our schools perform and they're pretty awesome uh some things that we've been able to require over the years we have we sa music Foundation School District so we're up to nine schools and eight elementary schools that um that have been given a core band Grant um that includes 32 instruments uh includes music music whole professional development over time that's able to give us access to kids music well which you might heard of K rock is another organization we work with they provide us with training modern band instruments um spread music though is the place that has been highlighting our students and our teachers the students
005and teachers of the month and um and they have Kota every year which is just a really wonderful accumulation of of everything that we do you to have one teacher Department that's been uh nominated as a brand new music educator so she's in the process of completing her application hopefully makes it for it will be very well deserving for this teacher and and also for the district thank you very certificate for if you want to come on take a quick photo board chair I do have yeah know thank you very much for coming thank you chill thank you thank you congratulations than you [Applause] the board welcomes public participation and ask that the speakers please limit their comments to 3 minutes speakers may offer objective comments of school operations and programs that concern them the
006board will not permit any expression of personal complaints or defamatory comments about Board of Education personnel and students nor against any person connected with the B public school system thank you uh first I going to sign up list I have Kon evening I kelseyi School DS has been overed ever since I in school I've been in classes that extended capacity to the point where there are enough deaths for every student in between classes the hallways are so that students can't get to class in time but are still fought for it class for students and teachers to have to share guidance counselors to provide acad support to each student that need there AR enough resources for students to learn such as academic texts and Noels for Eng class students AR even able to eat lunch due
007to the long lines that stretch down the entire cafeteria having this allice I have not seen enough action to find a resolution as a long solution I suggest providing alternative for students such Asing the school into two days of academic students could be offered an opportunity to to attend school after the regular school day for 4 hours or the state minimum alna to the regular school day this can limit the amount of students in our building at the same time I hope that this program will be considered as an ongoing program for a solution to over our space is extended to the newest so that the future students of G have a school that thank you thank you for bringing your comments to before the board thank you is there anyone else that didn't get
008an opportunity to sign the sign up sheet move on I need to um move with the consent C yes I make the motion that the board of Education approved consent calendar exhibit 86 as recommended motion made by second by C discussion on the agenda concerning the consent Cal see now all in favor could I hear I I any oppose any Obion motion so move thank you very much uh education sta hello everybody good evening good evening I feel like I just saw most of you last night so it's nice to see you again so I have a couple of things I want to talk to you about tonight um the first is the issue with our members reporting in large numbers that many of their tax returns have placed on hold by the IRS so
009this afternoon um we sent out a survey because we weren't really sure of how widespread the issue was and we s the survey at at 2:00 and by 4:00 I already had 30 confirmed members who have had their taxes placed on hold so we're really concerned about this obviously I don't know if you have heard about it in other um groups of employees I know the administrator Union has also had some numbers have the same thing happened to them so I just wanted to kind of let you know that we we spoke about this back in January and we were concerned when we were issued uh the wrong W2s and we had the district had to issue us secondary W2s later on several weeks later um because there was inaccurate reporting on those so we're
010tracking this and my guess is that with 30 responses and not every rep has even sent the survey out yet that we're going to see a lot more um you know we're we're almost at 5% right now um of our membership so we're going to be tracking this and we'll share the data with you but we may be coming back to you and asking the district to take responsibility to help us fix this because it is obviously something that's putting great stress on a lot of our members if it we do connect it back to that W2 issue um the second issue and I know it's on your agenda for updates this even evening um is the reduction in force issues as you can imagine our folks especially are untenured folks are worried and unsettled
011about all of the the rumors that are flying around and the facts that are flying around about position cuts that are looming so we're looking for updates on the number of positions in specific areas to be cut including most specifically the central office positions and we are expecting as the largest bargaining unit we're expecting that heavy cuts to be made at central office that will restore Staffing to central office at a minimum to prepandemic levels teachers are reporting to us that they are seeking out letters of recommendation from their administrators and beginning Job searches elsewhere no one feels like they're safe from impending upheaval and that's very understandable as we can all agree many of our veteran teachers close to retirement continue to ask us if there will be any sort of incentive packages offered
012for early retirement I strongly urge the board to consider a package offering for these folks to reduce your top top step salary expenditures for the next few years that is something that I've been asking for since 2020 when we still had extra Monies to work with the sooner that we can move forward with a plan of action the better it will be for the mental well-being of our staff being in a holding pattern of uncertainty is creating Havoc as we enter the last two months of school this afternoon any held a reduction and force workshop for un your teachers as you could imagine it was widely attended the third issue that I wanted to bring up and this is probably one that's not on your radar but it's one that is really disturbing and actually
013very annoying um to elementary teachers specifically um um it is what we think is a Danbury school lunch program overstep so we were notified um a few weeks ago probably about a month ago um Elementary School teachers there was a new policy in place coming from the school lunch office to um go through a series of steps in order to book a field trip and have lunches ready for our students in days of old ever since I have been a teach sure for 20 years our kids go on a field trip we order lunches for them like we do normally for any other day except we ask them to be bagged lunches simple as that take lunch count that we do every day well this year the school lunch program sent us uh a list
014of things that we need to do in order to take our kids on a field trip I want to go through the steps for you and you can kind of just play it out in your mind how long this would take so first is a PDF that must be filled out two weeks in advance before field trip and provide it to the kitchen so they'll know how many meals to prepare no problem there that's what we normally do the second is an Excel spreadsheet the spreadsheet must be filled out by the teacher to include the students district ID numbers as well as their first and last name for all the students ordering meals both of those documents then need to be scanned and returned to Douglas language operations manager at the school lunch office at
015the time of lunch teachers need to check off on the same spreadsheet so open the document up again and check off which students then receive a a meal then we have to scan and return those final documents to the school lunch office the day after the field trip to do all these steps takes one full 40 minute prep period so as you can imagine this is time spent away from planning and readying our lessons it's an unnecessary and non-job related task placed on only Elementary teachers so rather than the D School bu program employees doing this they have decided it was okay to pass this on directly to teachers which we to greatly so those are my three negative issues if you want to call them that but obviously as a teacher I like to
016talk about positives and we all know we had such a wonderful evening last night so let's talk a little bit about the teacher of the year ceremony last evening was such a lovely celebration of all that is good in our schools the celebration of teachers and our teachers of the Year from each school was a joyous event and a much needed boost of positivity for our community I went to school this morning and people had Smiles on their faces and obviously the teacher of the year was from my school so we were all in a very happy place it's so important for our district to continue the teacher of the year award and ceremony having a teacher of the year award within our district serves as a powerful me means to recognize excellence in teaching
017and it's crucial for several reasons as you know teaching is often a challenging and underappreciated profession highlighting exceptional Educators through a teacher of the year award allows us to celebrate and showcase the dedication passion and hard work of our outstanding teachers it's our way to honor their contributions to education in the community it also serves as a motivation and morale boost we need that being recognized as teacher of the year can be a tremendous morale boost for educators it not only validates their efforts but also motivates them to continue striving for excellence moreover it inspires other teachers to improve their practice and aspire to similar levels of achievement it also is great for professional development the teacher of the year award can serve as a platform for for professional development winners often become ambassadors for
018their profession sharing their best practices Innovative teaching methods and insights with their colleagues I want to once again congratulate all the individual School teachers of the Year sitting on that stage last night in the presence of so many outstanding Educators was both empowering and energizing and I know everyone here knows just how lucky we all are to have such amazing Educators in Danberry absolute best of the best last evening during my remarks I urge the audience not just to celebrate teachers with lip service on one day of the year but to work together to come together as a community to advocate for Real Change Change in funding that lets us show our teachers that we value and appreciate their hard work and ensuring that they have the reasonable class sizes support tools and resources they
019need to succeed for our children of course I finally want to extend a heartfelt and personal congratulations to my friend and colleague of many years Sarah sealon who was named the DPS District teacher of the year last evening way Sarah is such a wonderful Choice she embodies all that is good in teaching and if you don't know her you should get to know her because she's a pretty amazing person she has an unyielding passion for teaching and she exhibits genuine enthusiasm for instruction and fostering growth in her classroom she has a tireless commitment for her students and she really cares about their well-being growth and success both academically and personally and she is the best Communicator the nicest Communicator both in and out of the classroom she actively engages with the broader Community forging Partnerships
020with parents to enhance the educational experience for all of her students and her families she also is a leader in our building whether it's through mentoring new teachers colleagues supporting professional development workshops or taking on extra leadership roles in extracurricular activities Sarah is the go-to helper for our building most of all and this is the thing that strikes me the most about Sarah she demonstrates empathy and understanding and builds positive relationships with all no one I've never heard anyone say a negative word about Sarah she is as kind as she appears and she Fosters a supportive and inclusive classroom environment once again Sarah we are so proud of you and we're sending out many hugs of congratulations to her as always honorable board members thank you for your attention this evening and I will see
021you in two weeks have a great night thank you next on the uh students represent do we have anyone from the high school no so we have Ace hello good evening members cabinet community members thank you for allowing to represent speak on of the Alternative Center for excellence a is happy to announce the students SER four sessions in theis which has a 10 session residency movement this bring a during our time movement is a movement residency that bring together students abilities ages and backgrounds together to create a student Community students goingn together how to express themselves through collaborative inal movement with physicality and humor workshops focus on social emotional skills teamwork collaboration and self expression Jo HS in the a journalism class we also like to invite you all to check out articles in the
022alternative times the alternative times can be accessed at Ace alternative times.com and as a alternative times a like to invite you all to Happ day on Saturday May 11th from 1:00 to 4:00 the EV will to appreciate and Ace we will have guest speakers Community organizations music face painting frog painting hamburgers and products merchandise T pleas special days the E project is called means of healing for pro the students are creating large butterfly forms decorated with spring graphics and a personal personized message of heing and hope these will be delivered to the cancer center during the first week in May children L for classes continuing its second year collaboration with Miss Huntington's thir class at El Elementary School the a student serve as reading mentors to the third graders they also partner with the grade
023school class to draw illustrations for the a students original children's books which is the final project for the children's lature class Ace post accompanied by Dan diardo will be Hing St Rock Reserve in Washington Connecticut at the sen they will sit for one hour without talking texting music to listen to the sounds of nature and draw or write what they hear and see po will will share their work and have together this is the 10th poetry he since Inception in 2017 K and K CH will be Ching 10 students in the van to visit the American Museum of Natural History on Tuesday May 14th students attending asy and in the African American black and classes thank you for letting us share the speci hoing the scen A and good night good night don't go on
024Kay thank you on behalf of the board for always being here and being supportive and bringing us information from Ace thank you so very much you okay we're going to move on down I know this is something new on the agenda but I discussed it with all my or chairperson so we're going to start with Community relation committee okay sure I don't have a tremendous update for community relations we do have our next meeting um tomorrow evening at 5:30 p.m. um and I hope folks will be able to tune in for that it is going to be conducted via Zoom so uh I look forward to seeing committee members and starting some conversation around some of our initiatives and uh that's about it thank you K curriculum committee so um so we have our next
025meeting um on May 22nd um the last meeting we were talking about theis and um and the next meeting we'll go over a little bit about the curriculum and the programming for theis thank you finance Mr Janell um I first like this evening to recognize that Mr Spang is not here he is on his way to visit with his daughter who's expecting a baby on Friday uh and to be with a son-in-law that'll be their first grandchild um so on behalf of the board I'd like to extend congratulations and best wishes for a healthy and happy baby this is a great a great time I know being a grandparent is is tremendous as well as well as being a first time parent um that being said we we had a u finance committee report on
026April 10th it was attended essentially by Bo members except Mr H in addition to that uh pretty much all of the board members the excepting Mr was also at attendance at that particular meeting we opened a meeting um by turning it over to Mr Spang and Mr Weaver who went through the financials for March 28th but was an early uh cash uh cut off they explained that the expenses for the balance that month were encumbered um they discussed the various uh variances and some of the exceptions and the expenses essentially indicating that the unencumbered balance as at the end of March for9 mon was approximately $320,000 favorable uh that being said there was a comment made uh by myself which indicated that we had anticipated in the month of April an unexpected charge of some
027$70,000 that will impact this that's yet to be um to to be to be seen or or materialized um there were comments made to references to the sched that were attached to part of the financial statements um that pretty much covered the the financial aspect of that uh we had recommended as a committee that the board accept the financial statements at this particular meeting um Mr span then went on to discuss his uh reduction plan that he had uh that was sucess if you recall in the beginning of the year there was a shortfall of approximately $4.7 million um and then John Spang and Kevin wson Went before the atoc committee of the council and was asking them to take down up to if needed $3 million which was still outstanding part of this particular
028plan was uh to be put in place and as of the 10th of April John explained that all of the uh all of the strategies that were used to transfer funds to out of the operating budget into some of the existing uh Grant accounts that had available monies as well as getting um I'm going to use the word waivers for the eser money balances um that there for about $1. million was successfully approved so in essence the case is pretty much closed in terms of our need to go back to the council and ask for that particular $3 million not to say that we may that need something in the end of this year but that particular issue was uh was resolved I'm very happy it took a lot of cre ity on the part
029of I think Mr Spang Dr casm her staff in order to be able to accommodate this this is a great savings for the for the district Mr jela do you have any additional meeting plan for your finance committee do you have an additional meeting plan for your Finance Comm not yet I have to wait for Mr spank to get back so we confirm up the date okay cling okay thank you uh policy K so uh policy committee we're in the middle of going through the 4,000 series which relates to school Personnel U and we will continue that work on April 29th at 6 p.m. we also have a meeting sched for May atth 6 p.m. and we will be scheding the meeting for June as well thank Z Louis thank you madam chair um we
030just our last sites and facility sites and Facilities committee meeting prior to right before this meeting so it's h fresh on our minds um we had a very productive meeting uh Dr kmo updated us on the academy and we that uh stands far as construction and move forward and the adjustments and changes that are kind of flowing through that um but more importantly um the district um has also uh looked into a lot of the concerns expressed by the students and the City meeting so I'm happy to let everybody know that they have been on it they have been looking into a lot of the concerns that the students expressed and anything else we will report back um they're still ongoing so we have another SE facilities meeting that we'll have in May and another
031one in June uh dates to be determined um so we will continue to follow up on all of that thank you were any committee members have any questions to the chairperson at this time before we move on this your opportunity yes to Res uh the sites and Facilities there's a update about the artist building how we're going to use it yes so the update is we are going to rather than having a middle school and the high school we're going to move it all to a high school and that because Americans speak more that is it still going to be two cies in that building go so 3D so instead of having a 360 seat middle school so uh what we did was we looked at the enrollment we went back to look at the
032enrollment projections coming up to re-evaluate the need to have a such an expensive project dedicated to only 360 seats at the middle school um and to reevaluate that space for better return on investment through the expansion of an additional High School Academy model and so through that work uh we did in fact come to the conclusion that that was the best best case scenario for us to explore that um and so we're going to continue to work in that area um the high school the Middle School um as you know have just some crowding in one of the schools right now it's mainly uh due to the distribution of students as opposed to a capacity across all three um and so while we've uh the original project called for the Cara site called for a
033612 project that was due to the enrollment projections way back at the conception of that original design and we have since lived through that enrollment bubble it's it's there now and it's moving into the high school that's really where the the big problem is we have a second grade group that's coming up that's on the larger side that we're going to keep our eye on um and we're going to look at our our slam study that's going to come in in June to reassess whether or not we think we need to maybe add a couple of Portables somewhere to help with that bubble but um but right now it doesn't look at the moment that we'll need to do that and that we'll be able to tolerate um a little uncomfortability for a couple of
034years and then will stabilize and so kind of pound for pound square footage the cost of the project it's far um uh it's far less money to expand the high school that the square footage to high school um then to have a separate middle school and high school compl so the academy so we have six those there's going to be three at that pepp brid and three at ctis so four career connected theme cies at deny high school and then there would be three instead of two at the caret site so we couldn't we expand the exra one what is the subject going to be so we discussed uh very exciting uh green and clean energy which is a very um upand cominging and highly needed uh research based um concept um that is part
035of the original design we had a renewable energy um pathway we wanted to if we could have had an extra Academy at that time and we were building it that would have been one and so we're really Reviving that original idea and expanding on that renewable energy concept thank you you're welcome Madam chair you do have some additional um workshops coming up or meetings or sites in facility that we can fill in and and board members can get a better understanding as to where we're leading concerning the information that Dr CL just gave us right yes okay thank you so move on down the agenda I want to thank uh my chairpersons uh for this report I have been trying to move the agenda in this way to make it a little bit easier because
036at some time when we have the meeting we can't be every place and then when we get to action item we got to sit here for two and three and 45 minutes to go over these questions we can sort of kill some of these question questions and and get through because we have a lot of work to move forward to do and and I know you guys are ready to work so this is not going to work for you just tell me we'll uh look at it again but thank my chair person again action item a Teresa a March 2024 financial report motion that the Board of Education accept the March 2024 financial report as recommended by the finance committee in accordance with 24-87 motion made by Teresa could I hear a second second about
037the Reon any a discussion seeing none all in favor of the motion could I hear I I any oppos any Obion motion so Carri action item B Kate I'll make a motion that the Board of Education accept the letter of resignation from board member Richard Holly dated April 2 2024 and in accordance with exhibit 24-8 motion made by K second second about Teresa Michelle oh I'm sorry Michelle I'm sorry Michelle second about Michelle are there any questions uh the attachments in the back the date of the resonation in the back it's okay just so anyway uh we want to send Mr Harley a letter uh thanking him for his time that he served on the board and I appreciate what he brought to the board I worked and served with him quite a few years
038before and U the process is now we as a board have the opportunity to fill this position I think on the stature or the law states that we have up to 30 days to his position his resonation was sent to us on April the 22nd so we're looking I think it's 14 days K you can help me out you know 14 days then the applicants that are applying for that job it goes to the newspaper all the areas around Community groups and the Republican Town committee and the Democratic town committee uh get the information and people wanted to apply okay we know that this is a republican seat okay so but you have to be fair send it out to all the other agency okay and after that we the board will set up uh
039time to interview those candidates that have applied for that position and I think we received an email today around about the 13th to 14th we sort of realize that that's not going to work for us on the 13th because we want to be up at the high school okay so we're going to have to only 13 so we going to have to work let me work that out with Carol tomorrow okay let's not get excited let's work it out we can change it yes Teresa uh the 13th they're having the honor ceremony so just let me look at the schedule and see how we can work this out but we had sort of had car looked at the DAT that we can look at doing this Within a time frame because it has to be
040done with the time frame to do the interview and and put that person in place so we looked at the 14th that's why that dat came out first because that would be within that initial time that we need to bring that person in and get an interview and get them see so uh let me work on that okay okay am I okay K okay thank you so V oh I'm sorry I thought we did all in favor of accepting Mr Harley resonation with you know with s a heavy heart and all in faor say I hi motion so Care thank you all superintendent report thank you um so sometime last year towards last spring um Senator Richard glum's office US every year on an annual basis posts for um solicits for funding requests um for
041high impact Connecticut based projects that be can be completed with the assistance from the federal government and so um the de Public Schools threw in an application uh related to the Academy's curriculum design Project based learning um teacher training all related to um redesign to re-engage students making sure that all of our ccul is accessible and exciting and engaging and um we were awarded a $1.8 million appropriation for that um application so we're super excited about that um right now we're in the process of um they just had a webinar for all the recipients um that just happened yesterday there's a process where you have to set up a.gov site to start receiving Communications and entering it's uh there's a lot of monitoring uh there's a lot of oversight process we be assigned um some
042on Federal who who will oversee the grant the grant spending and all the parameters around in there um that that go with it and so we'll have an opportunity to readjust some of the plan because the plan's already a year old so any work that we've already completed or things that we want to do we have a little bit of an opportunity to TW to tweak a few things um but we'll work with our U the person who will be assigned to us um to learn about how to appropriately spend Congressional appropriation um and to do that efficiently um we intend to uh engage in a lot of professional development for our teachers I'm happy to report that's coming in a great time uh right now given what what what's happening um and we'll be
043able to provide them a great deal of professional technical support um related to that so um we probably get some supplies in there as well depending on how we make some tweaks so given the circumstances that we're in we'll be looking to maximize every dollar and that I don't think we're going to be saving any staff members per se um because it's one time funding certainly will make the most of a of a plan that is efficient and and supports the teachers as we go through this curriculum change um together so very happy about that um and as we learn more about how we are to engage uh with the federal government around this we'll be repor that um is there a sub date so it's a oneye it's a one-year Grant um it doesn't
044necessarily sunset in the sense that you can't continue to spend money beyond the year but the scope the grant is a year it's actually kind of hard to spend $1.8 million in one year by the time you you give up I'm pretty good at at spending it but it is just from past experience um you know there's a lot of work so you have to articulate and orchestrate a tremendous amount of work in a short period of time and so it's not as easy as it as it appears um and by the time you get lift off and organize and organize it um you turn around in the year's almost over so um I have some questions around that with our um with whoever it will be assigned to us on how we can navigate
045that process so I think we'll be able to extend the expend expenditures Beyond a year but generally the time frame is for the the fiscal year that you're that you're Award of the appropriation thank you you're welcome okay and the next item uh under the superintendent report is really about the reduction enforced process and we're not necessarily going to talk about the categories and the the staff in 's meeting um that is coming and then during your term but we thought it was really important to for that folks would understand what the process that we're engaging in right now and what that's going to look like um because folks are nervous and we're super super sensitive uh to the stress that everybody's under um we're feeling questions all the time um you know especially some
046of our our younger newer staff um you know I tend to be nervous and sure Aon is also feeling lots of questions so we're doing our best to to a very thorough process and I thought it would be best if Kim could speak a little a little bit to that process so just so that the board understands what is happening behind the scenes and what will take place once those decisions are are released and then um you know what how we proceed to close out the year with that thank you thanks um I I want to start by saying you know whenever we go into a process like this there's a couple of things that really need to be our Hallmarks and our our true north star um um one is collaboration with Union leadership
047um and so I appreciate actually eron's remarks tonight we have had some experience in the past with reductions in force and um those conversations have always been marked by collaboration um in addition to being their union members they're also your employees and so we try very hard to make sure that we collaborate that we're all on the same page with how we go through the process because it gets a little bit complex um the second Hallmark or the second guidance I think needs to be transparency um it is really critical when you were talking about people's jobs and people's livelihoods that we communicate as much as we can um and we walk that fine line between alarm and transparency but transparency really needs to be the second hmark and the third really needs to be
048sound communication and so what we um Define as we go through this process will be um a an effort at really comprehensive communication for all of our employees um this is just a difficult process this district has not been through something that size in quite a very long time so um I think that that if we can maintain those true north um as we go through this process that will be important um I want to start just by giving you a little bit of an overview of what we have here what we're looking at um we have right now 1,31 teachers um and we have just under, 1700 employees and that's with quite a few vacancies in our educator rank so um you know you're you're bumping up around 2,000 employees or so um all
049of which are going to be touched in some way by this process so it's important that we remember that they are spread across eight different collective bargaining agreements they're all different they all have different processes for reductions in force they all have different recall procedures so this becomes very much of a of a manual um we need to lay out all of the manuals bargaining byg un and and we need to follow the road map that is in those um agreements as we go through the process of reductions and how people get placed um so those become critical documents for us and then where there are gaps in those documents um and I'll talk a little bit about some of the Oddball situations that we had we need to look at practice and we don't
050have a whole lot of past practice um in this area but we need to look at house practice and how we um walk through the reduction and then we need to that we are collaborating with our with our union leaders so with that in mind um the other group of folks in addition to these bargaining unit um and exempt folks um who are all employees at will are we had uh about 150 leaves of absence this year that was a really big number for us um and so we also need to think about those folks who have been out temporarily who are planning on returning and making sure that we have home for them as well in keeping with these rules so let me talk through a little bit about what we've been doing in
051anticipation of getting to today um and and just to give you a sense of scope um this is uh myself and the cabinet working on what these positions look like but also it's myself and I have two people in my office um I'm down to two and those will be the people that will be running these this information for me um all of the work that we do will come out of Tyler um Tyler has work real well for us on the HR side and so that gives us a really solid database for pulling um basically employee information so the first big project that we have come around and completed is a list of open positions um these are all openings that do not currently have bodies in them there are not currently people in
052them some of them might be fractional positions some of them might be duplicates um that emerge over time um of them are hard to fill positions that we we're using overages for so this list of vacancies needs to be clean and accurate and the reason why is because as we talk about eliminating some positions the first place those folks go is into open vacancies okay so that list of openings becomes really critical and its accuracy becomes critical um it's a little bit of a moving Target because we are now getting retirements and resignations in so we we're trying to keep a stat list that's not super satic so issue number one era that we'll talk about is kind of when is the cut off going to be and how are we going to make sure
053that we get all of these open positions available for folks who may be um displaced um we've been double-checking that Tyler Run and we've run it several times now to make sure that we have an accurate list we've been double checking that against our hiring list and our internal protocols to make sure that we haven't missed anybody we haven't duplicated um and anything that we have taken out of that list that vacancy list has gone onto a master cut list so that we can start keeping track of estimates of what we think has been saved by cleaning out that list and making it accurate we have looked at the list of all of our leads of absence um and for those folks who are requesting an additional year of leave or making some decisions about
054making those positions open and available um possibly for next year but we've also made sure as I mentioned earlier that we have a spot for folks who are returning and that they will then filter into these rules about reductions and Force and and bumping so that piece has also been completed the next piece was to look at all of our resignations and retirements um FYI I know this becomes a budget issue but we're up to eight retirements so far um we did budget for more than that I expect we will have more than that this is just kind of the number of the moment um with about 30 resignations to date this year so that's also part of these open positions that are showing up um we'll continue to monitor that list and from what
055I can tell right now it looks like about 125 open positions about 55 of which are for certified teachers so that's the number I think we're zeroing in on now is open positions where there are no bodies in them that as we have to reduce those will we will filter displaced teachers into those 55 spots and I'll talk about how we're going to do that in a second um we don't think that's going to be enough um so we need to also make some critical decisions about what the other positions will be and that's a conversation that happens um with building principles with central office and those decisions are being finalized now so those are conversations we'll have you about that so I don't have that information yet and and and waiting on that piece
056um but that's going to be the harder work and that work is going to involve things like um you know enrollment decreases where we can collapse section restructuring those kinds of things so um that work is what's being done now um but not finalized we're still pushing and pulling the next piece is to make a list once we finalize that of every person who is in a position that is going to be eliminated and that list needs to be name needs to be location needs to be positioned needs to be date of hire which may or may not be the same as senority date um we've had some people work for us as Subs who then come on in workless or in other positions they may have been out on leaves and come back so
057seniority date becomes very important and area of certification for teachers also becomes very important those lists are run I actually shared one with eron I think a couple weeks ago um and we continue to update those so that they have accurate information she mentioned her riff meeting so that's all critical information that we've been sharing as we go along other bargaining units has have also received similar census of their members so that they can start looking at those lists and figuring out the impact um the next piece then becomes tricky because we now have a list of folks who've been displaced and we have to figure out once we fill the open positions where did they go next how do they B now in selecting some of those positions there's different kinds of rules for
058example um in the past we have had sections removed out of an elementary school when we remove a section out of an elementary school we take any volunteer first and if we don't have a volunteer we take the most Junior person to the building that's another seniority dat so we have to figure out who the most Junior person is in the building and that will be the person who goes onto the displacement list in areas that are programs for example several years ago we reduced a language arts coach specialist in that situation it was seniority to the program first and then seniority districtwide so a slightly different seniority list so for each one of these reductions we're making the first effort has got to be how do we select folks that are going to go
059on to the displac list the par educator um contract also has Lanes so because certain people are being eliminated in one lane does not necessarily mean they have bumping rights into another Lane so another contract that needs to be reviewed we sit with the Union leadership we all we look at the names we agree that we're doing this the right way so when we follow all of those rules to then determine what happens and who's going on to this displace list when we've completed filling the vacant positions where do those folks go next so the next list that my team has run have been who have we hired and we've gone back two years just in over the caution we don't want to be running these lists over and over but we've gone back a
060couple of years and we've organized new hires by dat of hire in some cases it's down to the minute we do digital hiring now and we have had that situation where somebody signed at 4:00 and somebody signed at 5:00 um I would anticipate we'll get to that situation um but we look at the new hires and then we determine whether any of those new hires may be bumped out of their position by more senior teachers who are only dis licensed okay so that pumping needs to take place now we can't necessarily take the bottom 20 people because some of them are special ed certified some of them are social workers and let's say that the teachers were eliminating our math certified so the bumping process becomes really tricky and again in the collaboration and cooperation
061the plan here is for us finalize these lists to sit in a room with Aon and her team to say this is how I think this goes do agree are we missing something um because I think that what's the expression you measure twice and cut once like we're going to measure eight times um again because this is really important to people I mean these are people's jobs and so we need to make sure not only that our lists are accurate but that we're using the right kind of seniority date that we're using the right bumping rules and each one of those targeting is is different so you're not looking at the people who were hired under the Esser Grant you're looking at the total pictures in other words uh by position right our work is
062without regard to source of funding our employment work is without regard to source of funding so it gets complicated um so once we do all of that um then we will take a look at each bargain units rules for recall some of them have a 2-year recall period some have a threeyear recall if we cannot offer a comparable position to someone who's displaced then they go onto a recall list and they sit on that list for however many years the contractor requires and if a position opens during that time then there's rules about is it certified do you call by phone how do you communicate with these folks to say hey um par educator we now have a new opening and it's yours for the offering um so that's another set of rules that you
063know we put in the parking lot for a sec um if there be situations where we have additional retirements that we didn't expect or people leave or we have a you know a flood of folks who who leave the district we may have more open positions and I think we'll be in a situation where we need to use the call because we're going to have already moved we have to pick a date and start and we'll have already moved some people so that's going to be a bit of a moving Target for us this so um that's a long way of saying it it's really complex um I my eyes are going a little funny with all the spreadsheets um some of them some lines are quoted red and some are blue and some are
064yellow and we're doing what we can to make sure that um Tyler is accurate um we are running what they call position control which means there are only so many boxes for only so many positions so we kind of can't screw it up that way we can't create anything new or you know eliminate anything that's that's already there um so we're really trying hard to make sure that that is completely accurate um and we're really making sure that we've got the right lists with the right information so that we can work with our partners to make this as transparent as possible and that we communicate to folks what the rules are um I'm sure I heard car reference earlier and I think ER did too um I'm starting to get emails and and I appreciate
065um greatly that people are nervous um and I think that we are moving a lot of data with a very few number of people in a very short time so um that tends to be a recipe for error and I'm really trying hard to make sure that's not the case question Mr this is logistical nightmare yes Mr Janelle could you speak into the mic so we all can hear your question please this is not I said this is a logistical nightmare I assume times of the essence with you indicating yourself and to other people what type of timetable are you putting on for for this so that at least you have all of theator and eyes and cross thees relative to the uh bargaining units etc etc so I know we reached out I think
066and I don't know if you've seen that yet but we've reached out to try to schedule a meeting for next week with eron I am hopeful that we will have at least um the world of positions um and that we can talk through some of these odd situations with different seniority Gates so we can have those conversations um next week is May 1st so we need to this as quickly as we can so that for folks that are being displaced that they can look elsewhere um I think that um with our par educator population um we do have a lot of open positions in that bargaining unit so I'm reasonably comfortable that we'll be able to provide you know some sort of um comparable position to those folks um but the teachers I'm more worried
067about and so that really is the the focus of the next week or so um we have probably already put in just this week alone about 35 hours we're kind of tracking how many hours we're putting in and what we're doing with them that's just um really Kelly and I were we really looking at um special ed folks recently we've been looking at the buildings recently to try to make sure that we've captured everybody um my team has has you know they've run their list and they're ready to go so I'm hoping that we'll get those kind of early meetings with um any gurry done in the middle of next week so that we can actually start I haven't even thought and I don't know if Aon has about how we're going to be transparent
068and communicate with folks I mean we're talking about a lot of people is that virtual meetings is that group meetings we haven't even approached that topic um and we need to kind of come around a way that is fair that makes people feel that it's hum need um but we're down to only a couple people that are going to be doing that so I don't know whether we spre heal on that that's those are the conversations that we need to have about how we're going to work with our with our employees these are folks that we recruited we invested in we've trained we've brought them in and we want to make sure that you know we can keep them and then you're treated respectfully yeah can we as a board then be a priz so
069that um the the procedures and the processes as they continue we updated so that we are at least aware of the process and not caught by surprise of course of course yeah I think the worst thing would be that you all start to get bombarded with people saying I don't have any information that's the worst case scenario so we really need to stay in Fr of that uh one thank you um for that report and I don't know um who would have the answer um whe care um and so the data that you're giving realistic and everything and as I have brought up before this board over and over again I'd like to and we've talked about the teachers union we talked about the Paris un um I'd like to have some type of detailed
070report of the effect of the cuts that will be happening on the administrative level um I think our goal as a board is to keep the necessary people in front of our students um and so tonight we've talked about uh the numbers and you know it's their jobs and um you know the the effect I think I heard a number 1,31 teachers um right 1,31 teachers I didn't hear anything about admin um I you talk about open positions I don't know if any of those open positions are just um professional Educators or do they also include administrators um so I as a board member um I'm requesting some detailed report of how the cuts are also going to affect the administrative level and the uh the cabinet on the board level thank you I think
071I can respond to that um certainly I I didn't mean to exclude any group we have eight bargaining units and we have exempt staff so on our list um we have actually run total numbers um I think that's important by tab by group so that we can look to see the percentage of the group that may be effective so that's why we've run T you know totals for every bargaining unit in each tab so that we can see you what was the percentage of exemp staff that may have been cut what was the percentage of Administrators nurses um so there are as I said there's eight groups plus exacts so there's nine groups really to be worried about so I I agree with you and and I think as soon as we can make those
072reports um available once the decisions are made about the positions there are open positions in all bargaining units on that list of go ahead okay so um I'm not so much um okay open positions I did mention that I guess um you've already you know you're talking about meeting with the teachers union and how many and this position and um how you have to go through the resignations the retirements the elim list of um having a list of every eliminated position I guess what I am looking for it's already been established from what I understand is the um actual professional educator positions that will be affected please put forward my request is to put forward before the board the list of administrative and cabinet positions that you are putting up um for elimination or being
073affected by the cuts that's the the work that's on that we haven't made decision focused on so let me just follow up so I I understand but rich just asked about a timeline we're headed to Med and so we're looking at a timeline for those also um and so that should be just as important as what you're bringing before the board tonight I I don't dise yeah um so just address that so and I think you know there's there's going to be expected Cuts in all all categories um I think you know I thank you for explaining tonight and perhaps maybe because Aaron was here you're focused more on that on that on that but there there'll be reductions in in all areas at different levels we're still having discussions um based on um how
074to reorganize so there's one thing to do uh to have a reduction in elimination uh when you're talking about the administrative ranks someone has to pick up the work and still do the work so it's it's complicated to redistribute and to reorganize so there don't have to be some we're still working through through the process of um what administrative reductions look like in certain ways so I you know I I will respond and probably because just you know we're just trying to uh get the wording out on the table but I assume when you say that somebody has to pick up the administrative when you eliminate professional Educators somebody has to pick up what they were doing on you see what I'm saying I'm not I'm not disagreeing with you but in terms of you
075know unist we're still working through that I guess Point great thank you to and uh you have um that number 125 positions to be eliminated no no sorry 125 vacancies right now and about 55 of them are certified staff the are an AUM of others those are open positions that we do not have bodies in right now now what is the dollar amount gold that you're trying [Music] to that's a tough one um so because we you know our funding request was based on the full need of needing of everything so it's really a matter of prioritization around um a combination of how much can can we tolerate to reduce and still achieve some level of operational effectiveness and so it's hovering around on our side around that $10 million mark from the current existing
076um structure that exists now as of today so that lights on budget um so we need to reduce around $10 million in order to achieve some of the things preserve the core of what's on the left of that light on budget while still ating things that are truly needed that are to the right of that in terms of the new asss um I know you said that you're going to be meting there and we're going to get names you know of their actual positions and everything like that and Rich had asked that the board be surprised with that but is there a point where the board is presented with the information and there's like a discussion about um the positions and how this all came to be before those final decisions are Joe Mo's really
077out the door kind of thing yes okay good thank you yes you know I want to say that I'm really frustrated in the procedure the process because this is a cat Mouse game historically we've never been in this position we've always had differences between the superintendent budget or spending plan versus the appropriation but never never in the magnitude of having this differential and I don't ever recall as how of losing or letting go teaches because it's always been that we keep teaches in front of the classrooms but my frustration is with all of this work that's pending and the possibility of people being informed of losing their jobs I'm a poana and so let's say at the last minute we get additional funding and therefore it's an embarrassment but a nice embarrassment to go back
078and say you've been saved we have X number of dollars so my frustration is with the way it's working I would consider that under this situation that there' be a serious talk with the mayor as to ultimately what is is in in the plan what's NE game plan okay so that we don't go through this exercise and mislead people or hurt people and on a positive side need can bring it back because we have this in addition to that there may be other issues on the table that we could throw into the pot such as utilizing the reserve that would add some extra money to this particular issue we understand the reserve is a onetime spending but the budget does allow for onetime spending uh items there as well so I guess what I'm saying
079if we have more components of what we have for the revenue side it would certainly make this exercise a lot more fruitful and not as much of a I w't say a waste of time but to go through a whole lot of pain and ultimately I would like to see a positive reaction to this so maybe something like that can be considered in the course of the unique times we have the May might be able to you know reconsider or you know not want to hold this Rel a whole to to uh to to talk about at a particular meeting because time is I'm talking about the many council meeting because times of the essence so it's it's a consideration and I think it might help in the at least in the process that you
080guys have G through thank you and I and I agree with you you know it it has definitely crossed our minds that there could be a late um you know funding source late in the game as as the final iation of the state budget you know then turns into something that the mayor may become aware of I will say I you know I do feel confident that Roberto and I have an open door communication right now which I feel good about and so I feel like if we knew something coming or if that was you know going to happen that that we he would be really good about making sure that we knew about it right away I do know that there's a lot of hard work happening um in Harford on our behalf I
081don't think um you know I think the thought process on this though is that whatever if we did get a late infusion of any kind whether it be something that came down from the state perhaps some additional exra money that gets that's tossed around there there's a lot of decisions that Harford is still making um you know I I don't necessarily think it could be used to save staff um because of the timing that it would come to us as well as the fact it would be one time a one time funding and so one of the thought one of the things I would welcome any amount of funding that would come in right now um something that that would likely be used for student laptops copers infrastructure some of the issues that we have
082that we can fix one time and the reason I would would say that is because one of the things that concerns me is that 2526 is going to be equally as challenging as 2425 and the thought you know the the amount of hours that have been going in I mean this is a night and day process there's a handful of table at people at the table that are doing this doing work and it's extraordinarily overwhelming and the thought of having to go through and so I'm not even thinking of the people doing the work let's put that aside for a second I'm thinking of the fact that if we um don't you know do the cuts the right way we could be back here in 2425 rebump everybody again um you know because because it
083just continues that bumping effect continues and I think this is going to be really a disruptive process in 2425 um I think going to be difficult for everybody um and I and I you know would rather I guess um make sure that we're not inhibiting you know creating a double a double cut process that where we have to do the same thing all over again disrup teachers across all the levels and and move staff again so um any late infusion that that we get if we get it in order for soy to get something I think we have to be really careful about how we apply funding type of funding um and making sure that the funds that we get from the city that we can rely on year on year over year are the
084ones that we using in with the thoughtfulness of the Staffing component so um again I will take any money on the record so that or not but I agree with you it would be wonderful to get I agree I'm not advocating that we you know gr to the payer so Kick the Can down the road again and using one time money for for current liabilities andr expenses um but if we can just get a finalization on this so that it it sort of puts us all on the same page and and we can just move forward with a clear conscience to come in with an additional infusion of onetime money if there is that million dollars or even greater than that we could use as you and I discussed for the computers uh that can
085have utilization for those funds that are part of our budget but not necessarily personel all right thanks M um I just want to First say thank you because I know that this is a huge lift I know that board members have been here and that people are really working 247 is when I'm thinking to try to you know make this I want to say seamless as possible you know um so I just want to say thank you to everybody for that and my request is just I know it's a snapshot in time because of all the moving you mentioned 125 open positions 55 certified could you just like let the board know what does that look like monetarily like monitor like we're looking at 10 million to try to cut and we're looking at this
086and we had just had a meeting on sites and Facilities about trying to um we're saving some positions that we might not have um utilized and so what all those numbers kind of we drill down are we looking at because you had mentioned some here some today how far are we really is I'm wondering as a board member how far are we you know looking at cutting or what is that number like reality with everything you've been looking and turning over every Lea which I appreciate um I just want to see if you could provide that to so okay um so you know we're talking 100 you right now it depends on them so you're talking about a pair of professional certified teacher versus admin administrator so when you kind of put a lot of
087those in the bucket you say somewhere between 125 and 145 positions that's that's around $10 million so that's you're in the ballpark of that range of around $10 million Bas in the configuration of the staff so not not all staff and if you say 125 staff members and the bulk of thatare professionals that V1 cost but in terms of you know the bulk of of of Staffing opening and things that we're talking about now that's around 1010 million so we're close to so all Essence we you we're positions are and where certifications are and where those openings are are completely different different uh matches so that's the match game that needs to is that me yeah that's the match game that needs to occur um that you know it's not going to be a pretty
088matches yeah I'm assuming 55 gives us a different um yeah it's a different number than the other than the remaining so if you could just try to get us something to give us an idea of where we are and how far we need to to go thank you any other questions Kim no I just I want to than Kelly and Kim in particular this last week has been they've been in the office nonstop like lights out here after meetings I just want to say thank you agenda um I think at one of my meetings we saw brought up to have a discussion about cellones and I know we've been so busy that we didn't have but eventually we're going to get to having cell phones in the classroom because that was a topic and then
089I think government ofont have given a big recit on on 6:00 news weeks ago So eventually we will get to that discussion okay you have anything for information board chairperson report I'm going be very brief I just would like to say to my colleagues I really want to thank you for showing up on April the 11 to support our Administration and our budget and those that could not be there you let me knew ahead of time that you had other obligation and I just certainly appreciate it we were there I've been on this board 32 years and out of 32 years I have only seen three people stand up and go before the counsel and support our budget we had six seven people down here supporting our budget and I really want to say thank
090you thank you thank you because we all could be doing something else and when you have made Family commitments it's very hard to sort of break those ties and and and go over to something else so I just like to say thank you last night was beautiful it was a beautiful experience and I am just thank our leader who was there and she hugged everybody she embraced everybody and it was beautiful and I had the opportunity to just really I couldn't hug everybody but it was just nice being there to see what a wonderful group of Educators that we have working in our system so again thank you I'm Memorial Day Parade we have a CL so and and her husband is going to provide us supp Flo and we'll get that information um to
091you as we get closer toori parade um chair person my final thought is and I say this from my heart I love working with everyone I would say every time that we have a meeting we will continue to work together Republicans and Democrats we are educational people that's here to make sure that we support our educational system and I want to say we I continue to look forward to working each and every of and if you have any concerns if you don't like me call me up and tell me don't send me to text them okay call me up we have a discussion about it okay so I just want to say I enjoy working with you I like the communication that we have between us and it has not always been that way so
092let's just keep up the work and keep doing what we need to do to move this District forward so with that and nobody else have anything else to say okay I'll be great um I just want to give a quick shout out to dran and also to brra and I apologize not mispronouncing anybody's names um I understand that they helped uh some of our Broadview middle school students in 8th grade applied for um participation in the Scholastic art writing Awards and that we had uh 12 students who on a total of 30 different awards that were given out on April 7th at M College Castle so thank you to those teachers I need a motion to adjourn I make the motion to adjourn so motion made by Al second by K all in favor all
093wait a minute afterwards yes