1/3/24 Danbury Board of Education Special Meeting

001I would like to I would like to call our meeting to order who we all stand for the pledge I pledge to the FL of the United States of America and to the it stands one nation under God indivisible andice for first of all with my Bad Manners happy New Year glad to see everyone in the New Year hope everyone had a safe and beautiful holiday and enjoy family enjoy traveling or doing whatever you had to do to just relax then we will have a roll call Richard Holly here Jan here here here here Al here Michelle here Terry present Mary yeah we have 10 present and one ABS thank you I would like to thank everyone for coming out tonight this is a budget Workshop okay and I'm going to ask you when you

002have a question would you raise your hand I will put you on my this and when you ask a question I'll scratch you off and move on to the next person U we're going to be polite understand this budget Workshop ask your questions so we can be out of here at 8:00 no questions yes Mr J do we ask Kevin do you want the questions held until after or as you go through the slides please if we can wait until the end of the presentation and I since everyone has already heard the Pres presentation I'll go through it very relatively quickly to make sure John and I have plenty of time at to end questions that'll be help thank you okay any other question I know I can tease Mr Janelle any other question before

003we get started Mr you yes okay cut is not here good evening everyone and happy New Year U welcome back our comment board members and new board members to the 2024 school year and so in front of you this evening and on our screen um is our preliminary budget for the 24 25 school year um I did have an opportunity to review the preliminary budget with our new board members in the month of December I'm in two separate evenings and I want to thank them taking the time to join John and I that night um and of course I want to thank the the board um in November of course we had the opportunity to review this previously um so this will be our first opportunity as a group to ask some clarifying questions U

004and frankly um just kind of nail down any um questions that you might have going into the full presentation for January 7 and so on page two uh which is titled budget timeline and the budget timeline you will see I just want to bring your attention to the line that says January um and um these are really the activities for the month of January uh with uh from my office of course also with our chief finance officer John Sang um and that is of course board red Workshop which is this evening um I anticipate we may have a couple of extra for the month of January or February as well of course we will have a finance committee meeting in the month of January um a board eved uh meeting which hopefully there will be

005an opportunity to adopt the budget if not in January then in February certainly uh parents as partners budget discuss um is an alumni group from one of our parent University groups that I'll be also reviewing a budget with that group that I cannot get to in December and last but not least the Nea superintendent advisory overview uh that was initially planned for December um but we had a full agenda that afternoon and so that has been pushed to January so that's why that is now in the month of January as as an activity um and I will just leave the other items uh for review to see February aoit Workshop if needed budget templates due to the city uh typically by no later than um February 14th and and then of course an an adopted

006budget by the board will be submitted to the mayor's office in City Hall by that time as well push and so our next slide begins to tell the story here in danburry public schools and so the enrollment you'll see all of the blue bars the blue bars represent the numbers um dating back to 201718 and you'll see enrollment growth in the city of danburry danburry public schools um a little over 11,400 students in 1718 and as of our October one submission and in 2324 we had 12,114 students reported to the state of Connecticut um since October 1 um we have added an additional 91 families students I should say to the district and so the year today as of today is 12,25 that red bar um represents our projection for the 2425 school year uh

007based on our um demographic projections the next slide is titled enrollment growth and this represents our enrollment growth not only for our U multilanguage learners but also our special education students these last two slides uh really begin to um speak to how different and unique we are from the other districts in the entire state of con and and so you have heard me say considerably of often and often how we continue to experience growing enrollment here in danber public schools while the vast majority of the districts across the state of Connecticut are experiencing flat or declining enrolment um another thing that further distinguishes us from the rest of districts in the state of Connecticut is our continued growth amongst our multil language Learners um by far we have more the highest percentage in an entire

008state of Connecticut and despite the fact we are the sixth largest District in the state of Connecticut we by far have more multil language Learners uh to date we have 4,468 we've already grown 116 since October this next slide titled requested versus actual and this just kind of gives a historical look back going back to 1718 um and just kind of walking the board through what they ask had been from the Board of Ed to the city and what the actual funding was from the city of the so going back to 178 the request was 131 plus million uh we received 128 million and you see every year 135 million was the request or the need uh the next year was 132 million um going from left to right you will see the columns as

009such school year boarded need or request actual funding the difference and the ongoing enrolling growth uh for your slide this afternoon which is different from what you had seen previously I did not have a projection for 2425 it stopped at 2324 so I wanted to make sure 2425 represented the board of need or request the actual funding of course is empty and the difference is empty because we don't know what city funding is going to be at this time however what I did include and you'll see the two asteris 12,34 is the number we expect to be at at the minimum by the opening of school in September 24 25 School the big difference of course I want to bring your attention to and that is the $45 million over uh since 1718 that has

010been the Gap uh that we have experienc in terms of what we've asked for and what we have received from the city therefore the next slide page six and that is the cliff and the cliff is an excerpt from our uh 20 uh 2022 budget book where we were beginning to trying to forecast um not on uh not only what um the 24 25 ask might be but also to demonstrate to the community um how our funding streams are beginning to change um in subsequent years um so again going from left to right you'll see uh fiscal year 2122 22 23 23 24 24 25 25 26 um and then if you look at the column I'm going from Esther 3 Esther 2 cares act those are the three uh cover relief monies that we

011received um starting in 2122 school year during the pandemic um Alliance of course Title One Ida other grants are sustainable grants that we've continued to receive and city funding um of course is our funding from the city of danber and so you'll see at the bottom it says total funding and that's essentially and this is something I want to speak to later on in the presentation but total funding is essentially what it takes to run and operate the District of their public schools in 20 I'll stay here for a second John in 2425 you will see S3 S2 and cares act a zero that zero is there really to strongly and represent the cliff that we have been so concerned about these last 3 or 4 years we've been we benefited from the co monies

012the relief monies um because it has helped to address enrollment growth over the last couple of years and so it has essentially filled the Gap that the city has not filled and it has also filled the Gap to be fair um for the alliance funding that was not fully funded at that time right and so we have been beneficiary of those monies um and we are now in a place where none of those monies have dried up um you will hear later on throughout the presentation and our subsequent presentations the the vast majority of the monies in S3 are Staffing for danburry high school to address our enrollment growth over these last couple of years um so when we initially again when we put the budget book together for 2022 um you see an alliance

013projection um again this was a projection at that time in 2024 uh we tried to do essentially about a $2 million increase uh we will report later on that increase is projected to be higher again this is the next St from the book on Title One at uh 3.8 million during this year and projecting that will be at about 3.9 million again those numbers change depending on Rolling in the district Ida Grant U 2.8 projecting at 2.9 other grants we flat funded not knowing what would be continuing to come into the system um so we just flat funded that at 34 million the number I want to bring your attention to the funding me for 150 million for 2324 you'll see that for city funding 150 um and then you'll see an aster next to

014169 million and I want to talk about um what that number represents that 169 million again was a projection around November December when we were putting together the budget for in 2022 um frankly the number is not terribly off from what we see those projections to be now this 169 million represents um our keep the lights on maintenance budget from 23 24 to 2425 um it also includes absorbing the Essa salaries from 2324 to 2425 um so that that gets us to the 169 million the 169 million does not include the new ask for the4 25 school year because it did not assume or anticipate involment growth in this budget book um so I think when we did the math this was off by about $2 million in total um but we came pretty close

015to what we had projected at that time when we were trying to forecast what the district look like to the threee Cy so I just wanted to give you an idea how we got to the 169 again it's folding in the salaries from S3 and then it's also um to keep the light on budget keep all of the programs and services in place roll over contracts and project what utilities and transportation costs would look like that's how we got to the 150 to 150 to the 169 um and so that's what you're seeing on this page from this excert from the budget b the next slide ongoing budget drivers and mandates and this is just a quick review and overview um it upgrades and supports and I know I shared this with our new boarders

016and also cting board members um we had several grants to support on toone device um activity for all of our students in the district um those federal and state grants have since um expired and this is uh now a uh an initiative that we are funding here locally in the city of Dan the 25 credits to graduate um this is not a new initiative um but it does come as an ongoing cost for us and I I think at some point we'll have to stop saying it but it is part of our reality um 21 credits to graduate for students uh to 25 cost more money cost more classes more teachers Etc um and then that of course that's exacerbated by the fact that we continue to experience additional inov um SEO support and staff

017um post pandemic uh we have learned um of course we were um prior to the pandemic we were desperately trying to catch up making sure that we can address the kneas request to make sure we've satisfied our ratio of U 325 or less students per guidance cide at the high school as possible uh we've been able to reduce that ratio over the last couple of years um in most cases this is essentially been with s monies but it also helps us to address social emotional challenges and the supports that we need across the system so we have been able to the majority of our investments have been in guidance but we've also been able to hire some psychologists and social workers across the system for more continues to be needed um and those um those

018request continue to come and and impact the system school safety enhancements of course we can't have a building of 3900 students in building and not um continue to request additional Advocates at the high school um so that that this um incorporates that ongoing request um the board might also recall uh we had uh requested and acknowledged the request with an additional Advocate also Fair middle school as well um in addition U we are seeking out this Grant which requires um an investment On the Border head side um and so um this is again this is a school safety enhancement um and I I'll ask Mike to at a at a followup meeting through facilities to talk about the rapid program because I know some of our new board members not necessarily um um special education

019population increases and Ela population increases I talked about the MLL community and the supports needed for that population um I think it's important to know although we haven't experienced the same type of um student growth uh with a special ex students but the needs of the students have changed considerably and so the services and supports have changed uh which could mean more counseling more OT More PT um across the system last but not least on the new AR reading program I know a lot of our cting board members have heard quite a bit about the new reading program uh but the new reading program will transition uh next year for the 2425 school year that transition will start in the spring grades four and five and so new materials have already U been purchased for

020that group and then professional development plan will be implemented to help support that transition for the following year but the point being it continues to to uh require a Longo investment for the implementation of it and then last but not least and I think this is last bullet quite frankly is something we'll be talking about in this room for a long time because it's something we've been talking about for a long time has involvement growth it's just I think it's always home to be a budget driver for this District community so these next three to four slides um John Spang is going to speak to and it's talking about our budget drivers and and then he's also going to have a summary slide in addition to that as welln I think Kevin I'm going to

021stand up because um I'm going to point to a couple of those slides if it's okay people hear me okay hear me back there okay um so you have a page in your book it's called budget drivers and there's a lot going on on this page I want to take a minute and walk through I know it may look kind of small it's easier to see in your book but um what it talks about is what we're calling contract obligations and program maintenance and what that means is uh this is the budget for our existing programs and services what we have right now what it would cost next year without anything new just the things we're doing today I think that's an important first step to really understand what we're requesting so what you see

022um in the first two columns though they should be familiar um and it's it's the middle column though I'd like to take a minute and just point something first of all let me back up um the numbers are different from what you saw last month last month um what we had prepared was what we call a pro fora budget a pro fora budget is U more of a summary nature we might take what we have for supplies and say they're going up 6% for inflation or uh the teacher contract is 5% so salaries are going up 5% you do some general things uh with the the larger line items for example you know what the bus contract is and so on on uh but since then we've actually done more of a a zerob base

023budget we've gone item by item line by line we took uh individual teachers and said what step will it be on next year what Lan will they be in uh What insurances have they picked have they picked single or family uh we looked at um what um the principles want actually wanted for supplies and put that in maybe they wanted uh fewer textbooks and more library books or something like that um looked at everything much closer and when we did the what we can now call the preliminary budget it's come down from what you saw last month last month you would have seen a figure of 163 million up there that's now come down to 160 um sometimes we call it the lights on budget uh but what brought it down really a couple things

024one is we had a um a recommendation from our uh employee benefits consultant the Gallagher company we've used them for a long time uh they recommended a 5 a half% increase in health insurance for next year the pro fora budget had been predicting seven so when we filed it work that in worked down the individual choices that came down uh more than a million dollars the other thing we saw uh that came out different was uh I'll call grp them as energy costs a year ago uh the outlook for Energy prices uh was not good we all saw electric bills going up us just like uh you uh were going up everything was going high inflation was going higher and uh we had to budget uh a significant increase that was one of our drivers

025last year was energy costs but since then energy costs have come down uh and we've been able to lock in some of our prices along with the city and sort of a Cooperative Venture uh if you know the purchasing agent chick vulpi he'll go out to bid on some of these things when they think the market is favorable they'll ask us we want to join in gives them a bigger quantity so we've locked in some lower energy prices for next year already that are lower than we had in the budget so when we put it together this month it came down uh a few hundred th000 there um so that along with the actual payroll costs and things like that the lights on budget or the current programs and services are is lower than what

026you saw last month um but what I'd like to show you here um is particularly it's the 2324 budget because there's been a well I'm sure we'll be talking about um the requests we have in front of the city the savings we thought we'd have last year and didn't have but what I'd like to show you is for these line items and we'll call those like to call them major objects that's the word they use in governmental accounting you can see that the the items that we plan to spend which go right down to the 318,000 that du's fees and staff development we've projected those so we're we're projecting 153 million next year up to 160 so it's by you can see some of these individual ones are really not going up substantially higher um

027the entire budget if you look from 160 to 150 that's going up less than 7% right so a couple things in here to point out um I call it last year this year um we lost Sr 2 this the second of the three Co GRS that expired last June we had a number of staff that were an eser to if remember mostly again at the high school and we moved those staff into the school budget and when we did it we wanted to highlight it so people could see exactly what we were doing we didn't want to blend it in with the the current staff we in the budget so we put it on this line right here that said enrollment impact equipment 5.5 million dollar you can see that doesn't extend into the next

028year there now up in the salary numbers it helps explain why that 92 million is significantly higher but it's it's not a a change for next year um the the 5.5 million actually what was in that was 45 million for expiring sr2 and some uh repairs to our buildings call them uh minor repairs that we do things the city doesn't do there's about 700,000 there so that that's one of the changes um the other um the other thing I I think you need to know is we're going to make a we come back next week we're going to show this a little differently for a lot of years we've uh we here we have budgeted for our tutors our special tutors uh not in the salary lines we budgeted them up here and purchase Professional

029Services it's about $4 million of salaries that are on that line been there a long time what we're going to show you next week we're going to move 4 million up into the salaries Where We Belong where it belongs but we're going to do a restatement so we're not only we're not just going to move next year's up but we're going to move this year's up so you'll see 4 million less on the purchase Professional Services line this year and next year and 4 million more on the salaries this year and next year we we think it's a a more uh transparent way to show our budget it is salaries um we're going to we're going to do that um okay so that's the the pro the preliminary budget as Kevin explained um and I

030I don't know if many of you happen to read uh the article in the hear newspapers on Monday New Year's Day you know they do these top 10 stories all the time but they they uh wrote a story about the what what would be the top 10 news stories to watch this year and one of the ones in the middle was what in their words was the fiscal cliff exactly what we're talking about that was their term and they talked about um how to keep our eye on what's going on in Hartford uh the changes would be significant not just next year but in the years that follow so I thought that was um in interesting timing so what this is really the story of our budget this year here it's it's uh it has

031different different names um the the Hurst newspapers called it um pandemic era grants it's already an error right pandemic error grants um we call them the covid grants um the state Ed department calls them Esser grants all all the same thing there were three of them as you saw in Kevin's Slide the first one they called the cares act couple million dollars the second one was called sr2 and the third one sr3 um but the first one was a couple million the second one was $12 million that's expired and the third one was 25 million back in 2021 the board said well let's split that over three years kind of equally this is the third year uh it runs out in June um we we did a little better instead of having only 8 million

032to spend at the end of the third year uh we had 10 million5 left but if if we had the grant for another year the people that are in it primarily teachers would cost us 10 million 7 to to just do the same thing next year um you can see it's almost 7 million in salaries uh the usual employee benefit package uh but what we've also done in that Grant is we've paid for substitute teachers in that Grant and you know like like most U organizations uh with covid and and some of the labor shortages um they're very hard to fill all of our absences or I should say harder um than before the pandemic we use an outside service like many uh school districts to uh hire our subs but that that um activity

033is in the sr3 grant to that so we we need to continue this so again this is I I think I call it the story of the budget this year the declining sr3 the last of the co grants that will will add to that lights on budget you saw on the previous slide um now if you want to go to the next one Kevin the there a lot of other things going on and let me just go through those briefly these are new things to the budget so sticking with that approach um we think showing you the new things separately is a good way to go because it just it it makes sense you need to we need to highlight these new things uh for you um in special education uh we have a growing

034need um at all levels K to 12 for additional staff um including at the prek level uh and yes there's a new mandate up to age 22 uh but we need special ed support staff um prek through 12 so we' we think that's 400,000 uh next year but the uh the the ctis building the academy um we believe that will be ready for occupancy on April 1st and we'd like to move in on April 1st we don't think we can wait till July uh to move in if school's going to start in August up there so what we've uh what we're proposing housing is some uh salaries for administration and operations uh we don't quite know all the specifics of that plans are still being developed but we're going to need some Administration for both

035the high school and the middle school programs that will be housed over there now whether it's two people for half a year or two people in a secretary or one person for longer than that and an admin assistant we'll have more details on that but there's a lot of work that has to be done uh when you open a school all the little things uh you've heard the devil's in the details and there there are a number of things uh the the building committee is doing a fantastic job but uh they handle the big things and there'll be a lot of little things not just buying things but scheduling and arranging and getting ready uh that has to be done when it uh takes time so we we see the need for additional for new

036administrative staff to be housed there in April uh those positions carry employee benefits but we'll also be responsible uh for the building at that point the C the city actually turns it over to us and we we have to uh budget for the cost of running that building it's a big building um this has been a I have to be honest with you this is I described it as the most difficult line item to project uh this year um for those of you who went through the the tour over there um it it was it was nothing in there really to to go on so it's very hard uh we'll try and get better numbers as we get closer but what that number is based on is the cost to operate our current high school

037but for 3 months so we'll we'll do better with that I think I want to point that out we'll need some supplies and and things like that to get going over there for a couple months most of the expense for the Academy will come in the following budget but there'll be some things there um also knew uh you know if there was any if there was a Silver Lining or in the pandemic it was that it it pushed all of us into more technology we're doing more with systems computers things like that especially in our classrooms and um when you go down that path you uh you have to support it uh we're going to to keep going we're going to need more infrastructure more devices more support uh just to keep it running all

038the time we think that cost will be about 785,000 next year and that unfortun unfortunately unfortunately will be an ongoing expense of you know education today and its emphasis on technology um but in here um I think this is probably the second most important driver of the budget uh after uh the sr3 and I describe it this way um you know the building the cartis building has has been delayed for a year from its original estimates and nothing wrong with that um instead of U occupying it in in August of 24 it's it's August of 25 or April 25 and of course we can't move during a a school year um but just because the building's not ready uh that doesn't mean the students aren't here the students are coming they're here already if you

039talk with um principal Donovan he'll tell you that when he looks at the 8th grade the ninth grade the 10th grade and 11th grade right now it's close to 3,900 K and we knew the enrollment would be here we thought we'd have the bill we don't so what um what we are going to need for next year it's more teachers at our High School uh high school has asked for nine uh what they call Core classroom teachers nine core classes and five electives total 14 certified teachers that's the million 50,000 right there and uh the benefit packages that go with those uh 14 positions right underneath that now you saw from us earlier and we'll talk about this a little bit the ummies and the cost of that what that would cost this will be

040a reduction of that just we need them now we won't need them a year from from that um but also with the enrollment growth we need more buses some of you have been up there up to high school morning or dismissal uh the buses are full uh there tons of kids on them um and this represents four additional buses added to our current Fleet they cost about $775,000 a year per bus and the other part of that what we call the u a Roman adjustments Furniture that's nothing more than just student desks and chairs for new students and and the ones we have don't last forever sometimes they break they have to be replaced but we need um we need Student furniture for the increased in R so that's that's in the middle there um

041that's a a Big Driver um we want to do more with school security we always want to do more there's some grants that we can get if we pay a share of that uh we'd also like to add more uh safety Advocates um next year so we put that in as a a budget driver and then uh finally you know as you saw um Kevin's slide um our increase in multilanguage Learners that we have uh we have um some we call academic support staff and the benefit package I'm just going to read these off to you at the at the high school uh four bilingual teachers uh two Spanish two Portuguese uh to teach science math and social studies uh four bilingual Paris two Spanish two Portuguese and a s coach um for the high

042school we also think um we need two more bilingual Paris one Spanish one Portuguese uh K5 two for the the district and a scop coach there uh and then at the middle schools um a World Language teacher at Rogers Park and uh at um Broadview two Middle School teachers um for World Language so those are the drivers um Kev if you want to go to the next one just kind of summarizes it this is that's how we got to the 175 the 160 which you saw on the first slide uh declining Co relief funds has 11 million here are the new items that I just walked through when you add those together it's it's 1175 million uh that's 25 million over the the 150 that we're currently operating well the last one that's the last

043gu and I have two more slides and I will go through these quickly um the next slide is titled next steps for January 10th meeting and just kind of want to walk you through some initial next steps that we are plan for for our not preliminary budget but budget presentation for 2425 um so one I just want to re something that John said had said previously uh the tutors uh will be moved from purchase Professional Services into salaries and benefits on slide eight um our new board members Might Recall this conversation but I also want to remind our cting board members um we had talked about uh potentially what moving costs could cost um the district for um moving this building CRC which is our Cur building in CER Street 43 Bieber book which is

044down block um and we also hope to backfill this building with one of our programs um and so all of those moves we are estimating to be at around $100,000 um to have professional movers plus uh the payment for overtime for staff and also our um custodial staff over time I mean when I say staff I mean contractually we have to pay staff um and paid them a couple of days for actually packing up their own Goods um we will there will certainly be some cost Associated for our custodians to pack or unpack um and then of course the moves themselves and I think we had experience going back to our days from um being in at Brookfield it was between 12 to $15,000 uh per move uh as we have understood going back to

045those experiences um build an additional $100,000 for um Dam High School cafeteria tense in supervision um John is still exploring some other ways to possibly offset this cost he thinks there may be some ways to talk with our federal lunch programs to address this cost but until we have some clarification there um we are U anticipating supervision of tents during inclement weather and the actual now this this cost um is an estimate with leased tents not purchased ones um if we were to Pur purchase them certainly would reduce the cost um but then of course we would have to maintain them and have the insurance associated with that U so we will one way or the other we will have two probably numbers for the board to look at and consider and we'll get some

046feedback on what the best way to approach this uh but we are anticipating around $100,000 M for tent so we to address the Overflow from the cafeteria um out to the Courtyard so we can cover those areas uh particularly as we get to those months of inclement weather once we have the in whether the tents have to be closed in they have to be heated once those um shades are down um we have to pay someone to supervise inside of each individual tent that might be out there of course that would more than likely be um teaching staff but not necessarily uh so if we our budget projection of course will asse that it's teaching staff so that's those are the numbers that we will be based on um the next few bullets provide Staffing

047history and new position analysis this is typical of our budgets um in previous years um and so when I say provide Staffing history we'll kind of go year over year for two or three years look back to find out to get an idea of how much it's cost in the district for 2425 versus 2324 versus 2223 um and then we will do something similar where we can provide um what ECS funding looks like spending and enrollment comparison report and so last year and I know two years previously we had done um a comparison with our uh districts that are similar to us and so often times in this room I'll talk about no and Stanford but there are other districts like um East Haven and East Harford um in Mar and other districts that also

048look like us and so we want to make sure we can provide a fair uh comparison for for the board to see um how uh we are spending locally um the state monies that we get and what these other districts get as well just so the board can have an idea of what it looks like across the system uh provide key departmental budget drivers and so we'll break down you SE lot of summaries on these lines um and so John had talked about the high school and all the position right now you just see the aggregate 1 million so we'll make sure we have that detail out for you for every line item um and so I just want want you to know that's something you should anticipate and last but not least and this

049something we have not done my last my first two years as a superintendent and that's provide a full Financial summary of general and grants funding um we think it's really important um that the board and the community understands it takes a little over $220 plus million do to fully operate the school district in which we rely on 50 plus million of Grants plus our general operating budget we will make sure we have a visual we going to do the best we can to have a visual to um help folks understand that the operational serves one purpose and there kind of an overlay and maybe we'll have it 3D out where this is the grants piece that serve any other purpose um the grants are intentional meaning um the expectation is they are to as uh

050my assistant superintendent remind me all the time uh the grants are purposeful in that they are to address U interventions for students they are to address achievement gap for students they are to address um related services and mandated service for kids uh whether that's title 3 title 4 idea Alliance Etc titles and so we are mindful of that uh but but also want to share with you that we have staff to know those grants and we want to make sure we do a better job of making it clear to you who those people are the type of uh positions that we've had in these grants that we've been frankly we've RI on these grants to operate the district for years uh and one of them that I I think I've repeated a few times um

051full day kindergarten is not a requirement well day half dayk is a requirement and so years ago as a strategy Dan schools decided to put their kindergarten teachers in the alliance gr and so now to date years later we have 47 kindergarten teachers taking up space and I don't mean that in a bad way but they are taking up a significant space in Alliance as a strategy for the public schools um so these are the type of things we want to make sure is clear to the board um and why it will be so important we count on those Alliance monies certainly um and what I will share with you in the next slide um we are expecting and as you recall from our last meeting um some anticipated supplemental funding streams for the 24

05225 school year very excited I'll say it again very excited to be part one of two to be fully funded with um with our alliance funding um and it comes at a really good time as certainly we are um experienced some expiring monies from Co relief uh but our alliance right now is beginning to kick in and two years we will be fully funded the expectation is to will vote from 22 million in 2023 right now I'm sorry 2324 right now by 2627 we should be at $34 million so it we'll grow $12 million over the next two years great for danburry we need it the money should have been here yesterday but okay um and next year that number is projected to be around $29 million and so I just wanted to bring your

053attention to it so just wanted to make sure I bring to your attention these are the anticipated supplemental monies we are expecting next year uh we're anticipating leak one and two to continue again next year and I I'm sorry but I can't I I have the reserves in there because whether it's now or later um Our intention is certainly to request the reserves um um of $5 million um that that accumulated during the pandemic U and I'll just say quickly about that we probably John should also have this and I'll full full presentation on the 10 um pre pandemic we had um approximately $2.2 to $3 million in a reserves um and the IB nnr I don't remember exactly what it's for John can help me out with that sorry health insurance all right and

054so it was the health insurance kind of requirement that we had to have in there as part of the reserves um and and so we would continue to maintain that health insurance reserves um and still we would have $5.8 million additional that has been accumulated on top of that and so this is a long way of saying we have about $8.8 million in the reserves right now if we left $3 million in the reserves to cover the health insurance um kind of requirement or best practice that would still leave us with $5.8 million um and so as of right now again I know we still have an outstanding request from last school year um to uh tap the reserves for right now uh right now this this presentation is anticipating we're not going to get

055that request and so that's why you seeing up here a request of $5 million for the reserves so I don't really think I'm double counting the 3 million plus the 5 million I understand it's i' love to count them both but we can't um and so this $5 million is um expecting that we're not getting it and the 5 million is on the board as a strategy for the 2425 budget so that that is it for us but I did want to bring it to your attention we are planning to make sure next presentation includes um the things that are on slide 12 and um I want to leave this up here cuz I intend there might be some questions but I also want to make sure I walk away this evening with there's something

056you want to see in the next presentation I want to make sure the team and I and we're taking notes uh to make sure we capture what you want to see CU I want to make sure uh the presentation captures uh what the board is hoping to see and for for that is for our presentation we any questions you are there any questions could you raise your hand who thank you chair um the money that you have put aside for the the tents is that still going to be needed once the academy opens so I John I I would like you to answer that question I just want to say one thing I just want to clarify we don't have any money on the side Louisa um you know but John please go ahead yeah

057um the tents are P primarily uh for for lunch um with that number of student with 3900 students you just can't get them through the cafeteria in four waves we need more room they don't want to have the students eating somewhere else other than situation where can be monitored right so we're anticipating that as a one-ear strategy because we we anticipate this is really because the building is not open right we need tents for the Overflow because it's just too many kids in the C thank you I had Mr janelli and then will be Teresa and then Mr Harley I've got several questions I'll just go through could we do two questions at a time sure okay and then we come back and the other board members go and then you can come back with

058your second question could you put it in the form of a question not a statement from here to New York okay a question thank you you're really killing me with regard to the charts on the aroman de priest could you speak into your mic Mr Janel we can barely hear you p on your on your page where's the button are they thanks thank on your page three you shown enrollment growth when I look at this I see that the overall growth over the period of the 8 years was some 800 some students when I look at the other charts um following that that is the enrollment growth having to do with the MLL and the special ed there were also increases the MLL increase went up to some 14400 uh some 1400 students um looked

059like an increase of some 40 45% in special ed students went off can I assume assume that and in the enrollment growth on on first schedule here for the total for the district uh the growth over the the past eight years we're really only in 3 years but would that be an assumption that the enrollment we have in our district is coming principally from the body of ml into a small degree special ed very small degree special education um the uh multi language learner enrollment gr has has been like no other District in state of Connecticut to a small extent Meridan um but we're really the only two in the state of Connecticut that's experiencing this type of percentage in grow and yes um I don't know exactly the number Mr chanelli uh but a

060significant percentage of our growth has been indeed multi okay so was a valid assumption the second question uh have I refer to the page here I don't follow your it's your page called the clip I don't see the page page number six on your 2425 column your last number says funding needed 169 million do I take that to mean that that's your operating lights on budget related to in your other schedules here the number now is 160 million it was previously 163 so what's the disparity I'll take a jum um if I get it wrong jum so this this 169 is representing a couple of things uh it is representing keep the lights on from 150 to 160 um but it's also representing the salaries folded in from the expired s of3 so if you

061look at 2324 we have that number sitting at the top 11.4 and so this this this chart um really is is is really saying hey that 11.4 has to go somewhere and so now we're sliding the 11.4 over folding into the general budget and so now that budget goes from 160 uh to 169 right from from last year's budget I'm sorry from last year's budget 232 2223 to 2324 this was our projection from last year at this time right this is an excerpt from the book from last year so this is not current right now I just follow the I find it confusing to follow that in terms of if you're got to call something one place then be consistent call it the same thing some other place because I mean I would look at

062this at some point in time and try to trace the number without any explanation to say why you 160 or 163 versus 169 so there has to be some sort of a footnote or adjust one of your schedules to reflect the numbers so that they're comparable comparable to to do it I mean it's later on I'll get the other questions with regard that but that's just observation an observation word becomes confusing right that's fair that's fair and I think this is um when we when we are looking at the orange C when we were looking at the orange col um we when we developed this budget book we were in the gray right so 2223 we were in November December in the gray at that time and at that point we were projecting not what

063it would look like in 23 24 but what it would look like in 2425 2 years ahead of where we were at that time and what we were trying to project was well basically from what John was and talking about earlier basically I keep the lights on maintenance budget going from year over year year over year and what you're seeing that 169 here reflective of Maintenance budget rolling it over two times 23 24 24 25 and then folding in 11.4 so we understand it's not going to necessarily line up exactly with our real ass now because we know it doesn't represent the new staff which we did not anticipate because we didn't want to try to project what enrollment growth would look like and what Dan and the systems asked might be but what we

064did try to do was really this slide was really about listen we had the conversation about the cliff and that's the reason why we brought this slide back in to say this is not the first time we talked about the finan cliff approaching that that was really intentionality behind it but you're absolutely right the numbers don't match and I can see how that can be confusing for someone who doesn't understand that the intentionality about bringing people's attention back to it was just to say this is not the first time we've had the conversation about the flip and that's really the intention about it and I don't know if John and I did a good enough job about that's why we're talking about that's really the in you're building in a history which is not pretty

065to people I don't mean me personally but you're going to make this presentation to another audience who again going to be a good part of that audience is not going to have the history of many people here or what you're supposing that they have behind it and I said to you before I do like your concept relative to the three components of your budget the keeping the lights on I like that phraseology the the the the loss of funding the ESS money and your new needs and that's why when I looked at it I said okay how much does he need does he need $170 million because that's what I would put in there or whatever that final number is your all inclusive number and somebody can say okay what is that made up of

066you can go to your last page and it's boom boom boom okay you know without a long explanation to what you gave to to that okay thank you thank you I do have more questions but that's the first thank you um my first question is I understand there's new legislation coming down the pike are we uh being mind of those costs sorry which legislation new legislation M it's coming down the PIP think sort of program that or there's also climate change administrator that's being looked at as a mandate for 2425 is that something that we would be looking into now now who's asking the question well this was are we ever mindful of future legis in the past it doesn't seem we have been mindful of what's coming down the pipe in the legislature and

067I just wondering if we are paying attention I I will make sure that I speak with my team to incorporate any legislation that might impact the budget for sure IE kindergarten legislation Rec yeah right and my second question was moving cost is that an estimate or did you get a hope for $100,000 it's a rough estimate based on some activity we've already having but that's in the past cost have G up agre agre agreed and and and this was an estimate for this presentation we'll have something Tighter by the time we're back here thank you Michelle and D M hallz um I had so many questions that I have written down so when you talking about the salaries and have you turn your mic on it's on hear closer when you were talking about the

068adding the tutors the 4 million over to the salaries I had and then you brought it back up again in other words I think it was in the new school in in the Career Academy that we needed you know two extra people or principles or administrators and then all the additional staff that you read off which I would love to have copy of to see where we're lacking instruction in each school that' be great um is that part of the number that you've already allocated here these position like the these requests for all these additional teachers is that in the proposed budget for the spring it it it it is I'm sorry I just want to make sure you I'm just trying to figure out like have we included all those positions in the number

069that you're saying is 100 400,000 for special ed in the spring and you know if these numbers you read off a lot of teaching in under the alliance home or however we're going to do it are those all included in these figures in the spring they are they are um and we like to show the new positions isolated and separate so we can zero write it on exactly what's changing if remember the chart that had the three amounts 6 uh the second amount was the uh sr3 we're not we're not talking about those as new positions Al they they might be new to the school budget those are teachers that have been here for a couple years but it's that third section that has all of the new positions including the ones I read off

070and one of the things on our to-do list for next week is to show you exactly those in a a better summary fashion right so show um so for example I'm looking at slide 10 I know I don't have that on my page um but it's it's budget drivers three or three and John was going into detail about the new positions for the school during the Spring transition Etc um so what I'm hearing from John is we will have detailed what those positions are because right now we just have it in the aggregate in the summative and I know the board is used to seeing okay this is how many core teachers what core teachers English math science social studies so we'll have a breakdown for you so you can see how we got to

071the $1 million and 50 that 1,50,000 for D high school and then what that also means for academic support so John was beginning to give some like three Middle School um English Spanish and Portuguese so we'll have that detail as well to come up with the other million dollars so when we had spoken two years ago about overages that was a big issue regarding covering classes I think we had 56 you said this year was reduced I don't think we got a number but the number I believe you said went down about 200k are is that considered in this budget as well overages or these adding teachers take care or address any of that expense that we so the overages I I mentioned the uh substitute cost of Kelly Services but um that number also

072includes the overages so uh the overages are being paid out of the sr3 brand and we're proposing that they come over to the budget as part of the I think it's 2.4 million we put up there to bring over and then just my last question I have um you had mentioned the one to one computer you know for the district and I saw that number it looks like it's 1.2 million or something is that right is that on a separate line item 785,000 okay on slide 10 so so I guess yeah because I saw that number in two places places so we is that going to be a capital budget Improvement as it was originally discussed at the end of no this is uh in addition to the capital budget we've submitted so under the

073capital budget we've got 1.2 million for one to one and then I think it was like 400 or something thousand for staff support and now you're saying that we're going to need on top of that no Michelle you're you're right just TR to figure out put these one to is is there some distinction you can provide cuz I think when we provide our full presentation um we may need a like a slide that shows hey this is for the general operating budget and by the way this is going to go to the capital but do you have something you can share so um gosh you know well she's talking about the 785,000 now right but she's recalling appropriately so that we had a lot of things with technology in the capital budget um IE copy

074machines IE right and I just don't remember all exactly what those were I don't know if you have some the technology that was inal the technology that was in capital uh was for Chromebook refresh there was a lot of uh technology Chromebook refreshes teacher uh uh Chrome MacBook refreshes um copers of printers were in there and then a few other things uh converting our phone system to voice over Internet Protocol and then additional security measures um there's a few services that we've taken on since last year's incident um and then also something for a website we buil we have to move the high school website off the so that's within the capital budget this is separate and distinct this is okay so it's additional this is making our Network more robust ourwork cuz I'm just

075trying to figure out we know that AI is coming we obviously are trying you know our game on technology but obviously this would be the first time that we would be considering that kind of money in our and in that fashion for the capital budget for what in the past would have been pencils and paper is now technology we need to repair our schools obviously that was the intent pluming elevators we all speak that year floods so I just I'm just concerned about that high number plus all of the ones that we have and we're going to be bringing on that new school so just want to make sure that we have an understanding of what those numbers are right and I know that last year we had saved some money projecting on this s

076Side Bar on health insurance so I'm a little concerned that we are making that I almost feel like we're in a in a back in in time repeating like I think we're going to do better on our utility and our insurance and that I'm not I'm a little weary about that because at the ad hoc meeting I thought they said that we could not draw less we had to have $5 million in our health care benefit account you're saying that there's 8.8 and that we would have access to 5 million but my recall on that at hoc meeting if you remember we had to have like 5 million I think we had so we like 80 something thousand so I don't know did that change with the insurance where now you're saying we only need

0773 million in the reserves instead of 5 million which was a number that I remember at the ad hoc Irv Fox was kind of holding on to that $5 million number we only had like 85 to draw without being impacted so I'm wondering how we went to 3 million if negotiation and then I'm thank you so um the amount of reserves and the individual reserves are are set by the city finance department along with the city council um and there there is a requirement that if you are self-insured like we are um you have to keep I think it's six weeks of average claims on reserve that's what you keep hearing about that's the ibnr uh incurred but not realized as what it stands for um any other amounts you keep in reserve um what

078the this finance department tries to do in other well-run Finance departments um they want to keep um money for other things to the extent that it's reasonable so um you know there's a little bit of money for uh workers comp claim that might be crazy or uh some unemployment situation that might be unexpected and the reason they like to keep those other amounts and the reason to keep reserves is it looks good to the rating agencies when they when they come in to rate our bonds or notes when we're borrowing uh they don't just look at uh the Surplus that you have the fund balance I say they the city uh but they look at the way you're also managing your balance sheet and and they look favorably when there's reserves set aside and versus

079if they're not but so what they're they're doing is they're trying to balance things what's what's needed for the operation what's good for the rating agency where's the kind of the middle ground um we haven't heard anything other than what we heard at the ad hoc in October to be a little more specific cuz we're adding staff so I'm only assuming that those claims have a potential to be higher than less so I'm just wondering you know maybe we have a new benefits coordinator who's you know found a program but that just brings some concern to me because that's where we ran into problems last year we we we do think though and um on Gallagher our consultant would agree um that we had a very um unusual situation last spring it really um call

080it post pandemic um there were a lot of claims people began to go back to the doctor back to the hospital uh they didn't want to do that when Co was uh raging and um when the those folks in simple terms when many of them did go back um they U situations were more advanced than they had been if they had been gotten par so we think we had a a an abnormal jump in some high cost claims and we're not seeing those repeat yet um so fingers crossed thank you Mr Harley before you ask your question I just wanted to ask that we be respectful other t any questions and if another board member does not have a question then we can come back and you can ask your follow up questions okay uh

081I don't want to have anyone say that I'm letting someone else ask three or four questions I think two questions we can start off and then your other question we can go around so Mr Hall so thank you madam chair so if I look at page three you're noticing or your your ifying basically an enrollment increase of 186 students from 2324 to 2425 is that correct 122 to to 12391 yes bed on so 200 students have an increase plus adding two schools yet you're only adding 14 staff members the best of my knowledge from from looking at page 10 I mean how can that be I'm sorry could could you re ask the question so again if we're if we're adding approximately 200 students to our enrollment for school year 2425 how is it that

082we're only adding 14 staff members which is predominantly going toward DHS and Academy to to as well as opening two schools to satisfy not only the increased enrollment but opening of two schools how could that how could that Staffing level be that small I'm just I'm mildly surprised I I'm not I guess I'm not understanding the opening up two schools part well I mean you're you're opening Academy is what you're opening the academy correct s which I consider as two schools a middle and a high okay but that but that's not for 2425 budget that's for 2526 so what John was talking about was having administrators in place to help open up that school for planning for the summer um so that that's what he's referring to a middle school administrator to to be ready

083hired in the spring to open up the doors uh for planning and and then also someone whoever is going to be on the new site and administrat to also help open the doors for plan and of course that's up to the board to to determine whether or not that's something we want to agree to in terms of a strategy okay so my my misinterpretation you and then secondly I could ask um uh my apologies I'll defer I'll I'll I'll re I'll come if you think about it you can Mr Jan Oh I'm sorry Teresa um we had gone to the ad hoc committee for $3.5 million for the new reading program what's the status on that That was supposed to come out of the reserve um we didn't go to the ad hoc for the

084reading program although we talked about it in this context um the the reading program we used the expiring sr2 Grant primarily for that um and it was $3 million we didn't want any s money going back back to the federal government the Mandate was there um but what we talked about with the ad hoc was that because we chose the reading program that took away some options to use those funds for other things and we hadn't expected that until recently that's the word but car I don't know if you want to add any update to the reading program no I I think you described it accurately that was it was purchased with that Grant was specifically meant for you know closing gaps pmic related um issues can can I ask that wasn't my understanding we

085were going there for the new reading program and they asked you when did they when did they have to know what was it by Spring whether or not we needed that money so you decided to go the Esser route I was not aware of that was all regards to to the new reading program which I'm glad I'm just trying to clarify there's been gaps since we last talked thank you Mr H yes go ahead if I may do you have a wish budget I mean this as you mentioned kind of our beer bones keep the keep the windows and you you know so where do we have a wish budget I I think it's important for us and I'm glad you asked it that way uh because I think it's important as my folks are

086over here smiling looking at me um I think it's important that our January 10th requests represent what we really need because what what we're presenting to the board um is really Bare Bones just to get by and as an example and this is just one example uh John's recommendation for four additional buses is just enough it's just enough it does not address the request for as we met with parents um that Dr me set up for me to meet with parents during the month of December when families are saying my kid can't get a bus to go to practice unless my child is on a football team or the basketball team but if my kid is in band if my kid is in one of these other sports that is not one of the two

087major sports my kid can't get a bus because all the buses on a final run for their elementary schools never mind the non pubs right and and that's a whole other story I know we've had that conversation in this room but but my regular extracurricular activities we don't have enough buses just to address those needs so right now as an example this request still doesn't cover those families requests making sure that our kids can have buses for transportation something as simple I don't want to say simple but something as typical as making sure all of our kids have the necessary Transportation back to school activities um so I I think it's going to be important I'll make sure that we um write this down as we're talking about it um because as my assistant superintendent

088is always smiling um but not just Transportation um you know our budget request for security is just enough uh I I don't think we can find enough Advocates or budget for enough Advocates that we're really going to need for a building of 3900 um our request for class size at that high school for 3900 kids it's just addressing Dan's number for 26 27 28 kids in the classroom what it really should be is 25 26 that makes more sense just enough is really just keeping our numbers at 26 27 28 in our middle schools which we all know is way too high um but the reality is if we wanted to hire an additional section at the middle schools there's no room to put them like if we wanted to hire math English science social

089ladies and open up a new section at Rogers Park Middle School Chrissy doesn't have room for a new English Math Science Social Studies in another section in that building although she'd probably find it if I said you can get 500 teachers um but so I I will make sure when my team and I come back with the January 10th budget and I appreciate the challenge um that it's really a little bit more representative of the numbers we like we should be at versus the numbers just enough to get by um so I I appreciate you asking that question that way because I think it's important for us to be mindful of that ask um when we're coming back with not the non preliminary budget but the budget that the superintendent is asking to board to

090improve so thank you for asking me help okay um can I just ask clarify question about the reserve funds um so is the plan to not try down those Reserve funds that we had already requested from Council for this year and ask for the 5 million for next year maybe maybe I'm missing something translation no thank thank you k um we have in fact I just receiv received an email I don't recall what day it is I'll make sure it's in the updates of the board at the end of the week uh received an email for an invitation I believe it's next week for to meet with the ad hoc committees I believe all three ad hoc on one day uh one day next week CL the week after this one of those days and

091it is the 17th thank you John and it is to review the request um from last year uh that the board made on a District's behalf so we will be there for those requests um if the requests are honored uh then we will accept the monies and uh pay for whatever is outstanding for this year and speak with the board talk about a strategy for 2425 if the requests are not honored um we will move the requests forward for the 24 25 school year and and keep that as a strategy but this this budget proposal assumed we were not getting it given it's already January assume that we're not getting it and I I hate to say it that way but that's that's just where we were we putting this together assume that we were

092not going to get it and our strategy was to request 5 million of what we anticipate 5.8 being available for 2425 school year thank you thank you Miss haris yes thank you um super yes in the original um November yes preliminary budget there was a page in there that I would um just suggest that you continue to use and that was uh the budget priorities oh um which makes it um to me it communicates what you have or what you're going to present and how you're going to support does that make yes it does yes it so hi yes it does um question number two and again remember I'm new so I'm someone that's going to ask all the questions on page number six um for the title one we used to have Title One

093School one district is that correct that is correct except for the and high school yes in our programs yes right okay good that that helps that helps me with when I talk about the funding and so my my very last question is on page 10 and talking about the uh the staff for the academy and I think you said that you will detail who that who the request is right um and um when we talk we're talking about hiring new people into those positions is that right so we don't currently have I think we of course be following the uh collective bargaining agreement but they are new positions that will be created we hope to create I just want to make sure you're referring to Academy staff salary spring transition salaries benefit spring transition okay

094um and and just to clarify for everyone um in the event we can open up I'm sorry when we open up 2526 a new building we anticipate having two schools within that building a school that's going to serve 912 and a school that's going to serve 68 and um John as part of his preparation um is anticipating if there's going to be a middle school there we're going to need a new Middle School administrator to get a schedule ready to get whatever however we're going to get kids into that building that administrator will be hired and preparing to open the doors for this summer and so he's that's why he's budgeting for a spring transition whenever that might be decided and then the same as also true of a new person um and this is

095the conversation Teresa uh was debating uh prior to our break um and this is the idea currently as part of our um organization chart there would be a principal with twoy so a head principal and then an assistant principal charge of twoy at the building um but that principle of that site at this moment is not on staff and so those are the two positions that John Mr jel do you want to follow your question thank you and to be technical I have three statements and two questions statement number one to John's Point um there was an article again I think was January 1st and has to De with the enrollment denber is going through a propos building surge in apartments the article read that summit's looking to put in 200 Apartments mil PL Road

096Al salum place is looking for another 100 or some other apartments downtown between Maloney and and and somebody else moreart vir now to your point Kevin when your demogra demographers come in and do these assessments are they taking into account the potential of these apartments with enrollment and what the impact may be on students it's just as a statement number two the I would be cautious and just caution you to be conservative un utilizing the reserves only because of the history of the insurance the uncertainty of Self insurance and and the numbers so you don't want to be back a couple years now in the same mode but again that's that's a statement and my final statement is John when you go to restate some of these schedules if you would not only restate the

097current one but the prior years as well so they make they make sense and also if you can give an addendum to those line numbers to the the point where you mentioned this includes the buses and this includes 14 ft e if you can have you know you can uh noted you know line number 1 2 3 4 5 and then have an addendum includes 14 and it gives a narrative what I'm getting at it makes the it makes the numbers more meaningful and digestible for somebody reading it so that nobody's going to sit there and Scribe and I don't think any one of us took down all those copious notes that made up with numbers so I I think that that my two questions are as follows one of which I think Kevin answered

098but the first one I'll ask is Kevin on your slide where you say that where you indicate it's a factual indicate that we were shorted some 44 million doll my question would be what was the impact on the education and D of that shortage how did that impact us what effect did that have on the the teachers the students um the administration my next question is part of which Richard asked and I think you answered the budget you're providing I was going to ask you is this total budget of $170 million a business as usual budget in other words where are you showing me or the community that for the $170 million in addition to keeping up with growth using that and other other nuances that that we have to keep up with such as

099the academy etc etc but you're measured at different points and comes out and you have periodic meetings with academic achievements where in that $170 million can you say that that's going going to affect a decline in the achievement Gap well that's going to give me the opportunity to have improvements in my different testing scores you're the one that's on the hook for the academic perform you're on the hook for everything but it depends on which hook you know they want to to burn you want so to say um but to Richard's point the I've always thought that the the purpose of us here is to present a budget not to plate and I use that word not in a derogatory sense okay but to put a budget forth that's going to move this District ahead

100with what you need and then given the appropriation of the Appropriations on that you're justified in saying okay with that I don't have 22 kids in the class I've got 27 kids so I see what the impact is um that's what what I was trying to get at and I think your answer to Richard was that this total budget of 170 million dollar basically what I would put is the maintenance budget keep the lights on if I understand it correctly it is so what if you appr put together something that you you could say maybe is 180 190 million and it's going to move this District ahead because of the challenges we have rather than people think that you're going to do that and you come back at some point and say well I don't

101have the funds I can't do that how can I increase my scores when I got 28 kids hypothetically in a class it it's impossible for me to do that um that's the the second question that I have is to perhaps we should think about what we're proposing and what the scenario what foot we want to put forward in the district I I appreciate you braking it down that way um I my my short quick answer will be um not sure you wed an answer uh but what you just asked is certainly going to inform our January 10 presentation uh but I I will also say um because you had asked the question well by that $43 million gap um since 1718 what has this District missed and so I will start with I worked in

102Nook Once Upon a Time yes we we have um more multilanguage learning students than they did when I was in no walk and and and and the same is still true but the profile of the student is not terribly different outside of that in Norwalk public school's graduation rate is at 90 we are at 80 the supports across that building are broken down in a way where kids have support class sizes are reasonable at 24 and 25 when Dan would do back flips for 24 and 25 across the school elementary schools with supports at kindergarten this District hasn't seen supports in kindergarten classrooms I don't think I don't think they've had kindergarten supportting class since I but I know they haven't since I've been here we know the history of what it with me uh

103for K1 and two and investing in those early years the difference that can make projections what that can mean for how a kid might project when they get to three four and five um instead our class size particularly when we've experienced enrollment bumps in this District because it it didn't start at Middle School in high school it was in elementary school at first and so we were at 24 and 25 and teachers complaining about class siiz then uh we've come back from the pandemic and our staff across this system they saying our children are different the needs are different across the system meanwhile as a district we're asking just for enough to get by when we know we need more and and so the idea and and so the the guide kind of the guard

104rails on class size are 22 K1 2 and 3 we really don't want any more than 22 to try to maintain that Mr H is going to actually cost more than I'm asking for right now to be frank uh 4 and 5 we try to stay at 25 but if you ask my elementary teachers they're going to go Kevin are you crazy like this is not the same district that it was prior to the pandemic and Meanwhile my kindergarten teachers who I know I don't want to say I know them well but I know him differently before the pandemic because I was in several meetings with him during the pandemic all 47 of them in a remote meeting and it was clear Kevin we need help in our classrooms and so you're talking about 40

105something million dollar Gap this system should have always had someone in those classrooms when a third of the kids in your room do not speak English they they should have always been there and and by the way they're five and six and in some cases four right we we already know that's been a reality they very focused on some other districts as well um and then in a district where a third of our kids do not speak the language that's all the more reason to have a CL size that's manageable across this system um so again Mr H again I appreciate you asking the question the way you did um and and I think Mr J when we put our budget request together I think 175 178 million people need to understand well this is

106what you're getting for 178 and if you're not happy with that then it's going to mean 190 if you want class size to look like this um Etc and so and maybe that's the way we should do it but I I'm just an opener to just kind of open up the dialogue I think we're constantly excuse me okay are you continuing the question resp Kevin I think we're constantly asked to make lemonades at of lemon and and to have the district its administrators teachers and its students suffer because of much of what you had had explained and I think by putting uh put forward and saying if you want this District to be like a nor and have this then this is what I need to run this particular District because when the test scores

107come out and and Cara carw comes up and gives all of her statistics and supported by by Cara and that that Kelly we backpedaling and it it it's like saying I don't have the money but now is at the time when we say this is where we should be if you can't afford to give it to me this is what you're going to expect so that we put it out there as to what the impact and I keep using that word strongly what the impact of not supporting the education budget is going to be on that because to your point over the years the district demographics have changed the needs of the students has changed and we've got a change with that and that's a financial change so that's you I agree with Richard it

108is and and with you just saying that to propos a budget that it's going to be able to let you do your job and not be not be held accountable with your hands tied uh for something that you can't do our teachers in staffe Michelle one question that's it um I'm looking at page six where we look at the other grants and I'm looking forward to the next meeting where you're going to break down all those grants and who how long they are for and all that good stuff but the this number is consistent 34 million just across the board for three years is that just a general number it was at that time because that with all the you know Career Academy and all that and I know that family like we really kind

109of exponentially really grown our nonprofit so since I've been here I've seen a lot of growth but that number hasn't moved so hopefully there's more in the kitty when you come back what we're seeing and what we're looking to get our hands on for the new school we're going to have to really make sure that we maximize the grants I don't know you know who's responsible for that I know and does a lot of it for what we currently have but when we go for the Career Academy we're talking about the mentors and the Partnerships and the grants and those like is John you that you're going to be working in and trying to get grant money and whatever sponsors whatever it is to maybe increase our our numbers possible so there are competitive grants

110um that that is annually available to us as a district um and then there are competitive grants that uh folks in this room V majority people in this room who are going out and they trying to find them meeting Dr meting Dr Caso and Kelly trus in this room who are going out and uh seeking out those grants um and so like annually available um in an eant system that we have to apply for every year but they're sustainable but then there are other grants that we go out and try to bring additional resources and monies into this District um and well really quite frankly and Caren Kelly the people who are going out to get those grants uh so I'll I'll make sure they provide a kind of overview I think it's important that

111we be able to talk about kind of the intentionality behind the grants but also the restrictions uh because some of them are I don't want to say wide open but like Alliance and title and title 1 2 3 4 we have flexibility for Staffing Etc but then there's some other grants like the bar grant that we've heard about the Del May Grant not necessarily Staffing but initiative kind of driven um and those things will will will address professional development resources um speakers coming in and stuff but not necessarily people so we'll try to talk around that Abs from every area to get money but the important thing we have we don't have to go to the regular budget to go get that stuff you pull it from a grant so it all helps yeah I'm

112hoping that that number is is higher that you know a general line maybe we can get some Mone thank you thank you John I have a question on the um budget drivers on page three where there all cost and I think you said next week when we have our board Workshop you're going to be able to fill in give us more information uh on that page yes and I think that's that's what Mr janelli was asking for t to town items that make up those so you can see the names of the position so we have that next week so we don't have to worry about emailing to anyone tomorrow we have that at the budget meeting on next yes okay thank uh to board members uh you were asked to fill out uh your

113top priorities for as a board member for 2024 I only receive four I only receive six so I have some people that need to contact Carol because that's going to help us stay focused as a group and work together so we can understand what our top priorities are and we know from what I have so far from the six people that feel there is out the top priority is the budget right now so they just asking you to list your top four priority as a board member I'm sorry I don't think I understood the email so so anything that you don't understand you can call me text me or call Carol and we'll make sure that everyone get the information top have clarify for priority as a board member okay sorry and no one sees

114it except yeah I think I got it confused with the Committees and then another thing came out with others and I think that's where I I might have gotten caught up there somewhere nope you've also um asked us about the district I can't hear the district committees and the PT yes I have all that signed up I will have that I will do it next week at our Workshop okay uh I want to thank you all for coming I'm I'm looking forward to working with this group a great group of people and we can work together and share our concern and our interest and we might not all agree but we won't fight going out the door have a good night I need a motion to adjourn motion mail by K second by Teresa all

115in favor good night thank you