001and uh all right who do I see I've got to move my screen around I see eight participants at the meeting we have Kate Julie John Spang Teresa Eddie Miranda Kenneth Wallace and Albert w-a-l-s-t-k that isn't Kevin is it yes it is Mr Russo how you doing this evening I'm fine thank you sir all right Eddie well you want to bring us up to speed on our year-end closing numbers well I'm going to share my screen can everyone see that okay thank you John um so two agenda items we have today are uh the fiscal year 22 year end financial report and then the second line item will be uh the 2223 uh Reserve draw down um update um John will give us an update on that and then we'll open it up with any
002questions or throughout my presentation if there's any questions I'll stop I'm gonna go to the first page it's a little bit bigger is that better is that a full page can everyone see that yes okay Eddie I think it was better before um for the screen okay I'll go back okay is that better yeah that is better okay okay thank you Kevin welcome using two screens just it looks different on mine versus uh on your on your end got it um so as we're all aware uh our budget for fiscal year 22 was 139 five eight five one five six um we used all the money as of June 30th um there were some encumbrance uh expenses you know through July and August that come in but we encumbered it throughout so there was you
003know the 3.214 million you see right there online item in the middle of uh encumbrance that's um that's the money that came in July and August and kind of really rectified with payroll any invoices we received for you know facilities updates or anything like that any invoices that were outstanding um so that's where I go in in the middle and you can see it right here where it said we continue to transfer line items to close the fiscal year if we needed to transfer money from one line item to the other uh we did that throughout the months um and I just made any adjustments made very similar to the grants to Grants were a little more uh are a little different because there's certain grants that have certain things that you can only do
004so those are things we did that's why uh this year is the first time in the last two years that we are not returning any funds if you remember we were in a pandemic we returned funds back to the city a lot of that had to do with health insurance you know in the beginning of the pandemic Transportation so a lot of that went back to the city and it's in our city Reserves um key things I wanted to we wanted to highlight last year and as we begin to open this year and I know there was a John I know you were discussing it with Teresa um you know Transportation as if you remember this time last year our transportation and shortage of drivers was it was very tough to get drivers on board
005getting kids to the schools were having a lot of issues as a district not just us in Danbury but across the state um actually I've spoken to a few other districts across the states and they're having similar uh issues um here in Danbury if John correct me if I'm wrong we actually been really good with our drivers and we have enough drivers and we have you know some that are you know subbing in um which is great uh number two is our overloads if you remember at the high school um we had a lot of overloads uh we ended up hiring Kelly Services to help us with the subs a lot of that had to do with uh when individuals tested positive or they were just we didn't have enough staff shortage of Staff um
006a teacher say I'm a teacher and I have a free period I would pick up that overload um and that's really what uh created a overload in our finance also so uh the good thing about that is the vacancies kind of helped us cover that balance there for the year and the custodial original budget um we had to move some money um last year about a million dollars to cover the custodial budget um because there was not enough there so we move some money from other line items to cover that um so that was good and this year we made sure we budgeted at least plus a certain percentage of increase this year um number four is our teacher vacancies um as I mentioned earlier it covered it helped covered our uh overloads so that
007there wasn't not if there wasn't enough in the general fund we went into Esser the Esser Grant to cover the rest um High School athletics uh back in the fall we mentioned and we sat down with a chip in the high school and Dan in past years they never budgeted for the three uh Seasons it was really uh just really fall winter and then spring wasn't really budgeted uh this year that changed last year we did transfer money back into their account so they had enough funds for uh spring Sports this year they have budgeted and in their budgets they know they have fall winter spring so they've uh chip and Dan and you know they've worked closely with us they know what their budget is they know what's a budget and we'll continue to
008monitor that throughout this throughout the year online one uh concern that if I remember um in April or May I brought to the finance committee and the board's attention that um we were alerted in April by the uh CS of the Connecticut State Department of Education that our um Magnet School Grant was reduced reason being the enrollment in the magnet school was a lot less than what was submitted back last year um so there was a shortfall of about 250 000 fiscal year 22. um we are also gonna probably experience the same thing come this year um to the fact that we really you know um submitted what was current we hope that you know come October 1st which is that census date if the number is a lot more then we will receive a
009lot more funds so we we've received the funds from the State 70 we receive in September and then the the remaining 30 we receive in April um so we're looking at you know that's something we're monitoring for this fiscal year um it looks like a shortfall of anywhere from a hundred thousand to a hundred and fifty thousand depending on what that enrollment looks October one uh so that's something that I will keep uh bringing up every uh finance committee meeting just to give you guys a heads up on that Lee can I just ask a clarifying question yes um we're talking about students coming in from other districts and choosing to enroll in this school and because it's a magnet school there's a minimum that we have to hit threshold wise we uh John was
010able to find out 75-25 um so 75 of our students have to be you know our Danbury students let's add 25 has to be from our outside districts on you know Brookfield Newtown Bethel et cetera Etc and and any sense um Kate brought it up I just want to interject and say we we experience a decline in enrollment from our other towns during the pandemic and everyone might recall that while other communities were either in-person learning full or at least offering in hybrid we did not have that option available to our families at that time and so this is going back to those school years and that's what's having an impact on our budgeting for this school year now so that's what 2020 2021 so 1920 school year in 2021 it probably would have been
011impacted 2021 I think is the year in question that's impacting this year but for the first part of that year uh we were we were uh remote and then we went hybrid in the second half and so a lot of our neighboring communities were either full in person or at least hybrid throughout the whole year so we lost a lot of um participating districts during that time students from participating districts during that time even though we wouldn't be compensated from the state we had we would have these extra seats that we could fill with Danbury students to make our class sizes a little smaller here and there yes or no so the answer is it's complicated um the answer is yes we could have uh but it also would impact ultimately our ratio and so
012the the easiest answer is to pack in fifth grade uh because the next year it wouldn't have no impact after October 1st uh but if we were to fill in those seats prior we would ultimately compromise funding for the following year um so October 1st is kind of you know when the enrollment is kind of supposed to remain kind of static and that's what counts toward the state so let's just say we you know added in more kindergarten first second third and fourth graders um those numbers would impact us for the following year and if that ratio is still not 75.25 with a compromised funding again it's a challenge and balance we continue to go back and forth trying to balance at the same time trying to maximize every seat thank you thank you just
013to let the committee know um we as a district have uh we've been brainstorming especially the last few months on um what we plan on doing are we changing the theme of the magnet school something to draw the attention um our chief of schools uh Chris uh Chris roach who's who was the principal at AIS um who's working very closely with the new uh principal over there to see um what those needs are what you know what what what a theme is is what is uh Danberry needs right now so so uh attract the outside um districts to come to Danbury so I'm going to jump right back into the the financials so the next three to four pages I'm sorry this is the summary page this is this is a breakdown of your general
014fund broken down by salaries benefits uh Property Services purchase Services supplies program Improvement is basically bundle up of what the financials look in the next few pages but as you can see you know our budget was 139 585 we've expended what was encumbered and giving us a zero balance no money going back and then you have your Grant report right here if you guys can see this what our grants are this also includes as we all are aware our Esser funds and and John and Eddie can you go back to that summary page for a second and so I I recall going have any discussions with the committee and some members of the full board as well last year uh because we had a number of line items that were in a negative throughout the
015school year and so I guess John and Eddie I guess my wondering is do you feel like after closing out the year in a zero and moving uh monies around to different line items do you feel like we're better a little better budgeted for 22.23 giving you guys experience for almost a full year last year yes more appropriately budgeted in a line items I should say the moving of you know when we I think we talked in a springtime when we were a little concerned of moving the line items and seeing where the issue was because we didn't create the budget for last year this year you know we did create the budget for this year so we know where those uh or you know those if it if the line goes over it goes
016under we really know what why the reason is versus last year so we feel a lot more comfortable and also as we close June 30th I think um John and I and the team really felt like okay we we identify some issues that we will look continue to look even come this year that was faced for example that custodial overtime you know yes we budgeted correctly this year but we you know I don't know if God forbid something happens with covet or whatever may happen so um we'll continue monitoring those lines as we always do but um to answer your question Kevin yeah we feel a lot more a lot more comfortable now okay thank you I think I I'd also add though um before we start making we'd like to have a month's um
017I don't pause before we start doing the transfers because uh we can see a lot uh this month and next month about how our how our budget is going uh particularly in the area of salaries you know we we've had quite a bit of turnover like we always do where we've brought in new staff uh people have retired and turned over uh We've budgeted uh for that uh breakage if you will but I I think if we could have enough maybe not the report that's coming up maybe we'll leave that without transfers and then the following month uh do the transfers it would help us a lot to do that foreign thanks thank you can I ask one thing how are we doing with the auditors I can address that now or we could wait
018till the report is finished what's your okay I'm sorry Al your your speakers are yeah if it pleases the group I I'd like to complete this report and then we'll take that up at the end uh and we will we will address that thank you please continue uh John and Eddie okay Matt may I ask a quick question it's relevant to what we're talking about right now with the breakdown from uh 2022 um much like was done with the general fund summary report where you guys are breaking it down into categories so we can see how those dollars are are being spent I wonder if we might be able to and I don't know if it's possible because I know the grants have very specific purposes um if we could do a similar sort of
019thing with the grants to sort of see how the grant money is being spent in the district okay that that is something we can do um very similar to the general fund um um I'll I'll sit down with John and Kevin and um create something very similar to the general fund and see if that's uh because what you're looking for is a let's use uh Alliance really out of Alliance how many um how much is going into salaries benefits etc etc correct and that's for each Grant thank you although I would be okay with just an overall an overall picture Eddie if you want to if you guys are able to provide a specifics for the alliance Grant because I know that's one of the larger ones um that's wonderful but just even a general
020sense of of how those grants are going out would be really helpful thank you okay the next as I mentioned the next three to four pages are your general fun line item by line item your salaries you have your assistant principal supervisor social workers custodial staff the first page is really salaries as we go into the second page you jump right into salary stops right about here where you see employee benefits which is a smart Social Security but it's a health insurance um then you have your life and Life Insurance Dental these four bundle up sorry into your 200 lines many goes into your 300 lines but as you can tell um prior to you know say six months ago we've uh we've seen that you know we budgeted correctly you know what was the
021year to date expenditures uh what's remaining encumbrance and then with a balanced there we go this is basically the summary this is the backup for the summary and then the next three pages are your your Grant breakdown so as you may uh mentioned Kate you would like to see something like this for all grants but say all grants and how much of that is going into salaries benefits etc etc foreign yes thank you Eddie you're very welcome it includes my updates on that do we have any other do we have any questions on this part of the report um where does the uh new Dean of the academy uh fall under or is that separate and Eddie I could answer that um of course this is the 21 uh 22 school year but for um
022the year coming up it will be in the sr3 and that's at Grant number 37. thank you the director of uh Academy's director Teresa yeah so um his name is Dean actually Brent Dina but he began in July I think right after the July 4th weekend that's when he began so like John mentioned it'll be for this fiscal year thank you any other questions just a quick um I guess observation I'm wondering if um and I see everything zeroed out which is which is very good it's unusual for us to finish right at zero so I'm just wondering were there any um was there any overage that we had to to borrow and and bring into this year's budget or did we have you know even like a dollar leftover or anything or did it
023just line up the way that it lined up of course this year you know this the um the fact that everything's zero I think uh those are the instructions uh we received from from you in the committee uh the preference was not to see uh pluses and minuses throughout the year that's we were just talking about that's why that's the exact point I asked if we could have some time before we started uh doing that again um however I I think um in the months as we approach the end of the year I think our our reports said that um there might be a little bit left we couldn't tell we wanted to wait until uh that all the health insurance was in and that kind of thing we were having a trouble forecasting uh
024what our claims might be um and uh when we and and let me point out too that you know there are still bills um that are that haven't come in yet or there's something wrong with them or products and services that haven't come in yet so we will continue yeah let's say we had a bill a purchase order for a thousand dollars and it's in those encumbrances we may get a bill um next week that's for 900 that closes it out maybe there's a back order that they can't fill or something like that so um this number could change a little bit right up until uh when the Auditors come in in November uh but uh to get to the point um there was uh probably close to fifty thousand dollars it would have been
025unencumbered at the end of the year but we did have a pro we do have a problem or at the high school we had one of our uh classrooms that needed to have some chemicals removed um it's an expensive uh process to dispose of those we had budgeted that if you remember in the facilities uh projects but that's a line item we took a cut in so um we decided to use the money to get the chemicals out of the high school and um then we wouldn't have to worry about the cut either so that that was a year-end um a decision that was made okay thanks John I I just was I figured that there were some things outstanding and that's that's why I was asking that so yeah thank you and you know
026what we know enough though um nothing's going to change much uh By now uh you know as we get to the end of this into September uh most of the bills have been paid uh they were most of them were paid in July and August and there's a few that come in but it wouldn't materially change anything at all at this point so small John just a a quick question about the 150k shortfall because of our some communities not fully returning to our magnet schools uh how do we make that up made it um through other grants we found uh we had a school priority Grant we had uh we spread it out different places where it could be permissible but it none of it went into the general fund at all there wasn't enough
027there to uh absorb it and they didn't have many choices we took care of it with grants we did yes all right thank you any other questions I am it's certainly interested in the 2223 Reserve drawdown update okay ready to proceed group there are no further questions right item number two okay so I think uh at a fight like if I could carry this one um it's in our package right the letter that we sent in May um I'm going to share it again John right so um you know there's been a change obviously a change in the um City finance department and I I tried to follow up with this um earlier in the summer and um it proved kind of difficult but about uh 10 days ago I met with um Dan Garrick
028the interim Finance director I went over to his office uh sat down to uh talk about this and I said we'd like an answer um very I have to say he's been he's been great to work with um we went on went on to his computer and what he uh discovered was that one of the staff accountants uh there had um made a a journal entry that he didn't understand I didn't quite say what it was but he thought it was a debit that should have been a credit or vice versa he wanted to uh speak with her before giving a decision on what would happen next uh there's no doubt in my mind that the the reserves the reserve is there that was our unencumbered balance from last year's report you remember but what
029he what he said um I got a voicemail back from him I I emailed him Friday and I said you know we have our our committee meeting coming up Monday can you tell me where we are on this and um a voicemail came in at five o'clock tonight uh said uh he said to me he needed to sit down with sing Dao that's the staff accountant um he said uh she was working with Dave on the entries on these Reserves and he said hopefully we'll um we'll know more towards the end of the week so what I'd like to do is maybe follow up with him again before our regular board meeting uh uh Wednesday and see if there's anything new there but those were his words as of five o'clock today definitely follow up
030with him definitely yep John can we get um like a ledger of the total Reserve funds that are there um yeah well yes I can put something together tomorrow um well if you don't mind it would be my version uh we can get I think they're short staffed over there so it's hard to get uh reports but I'll take the report that uh David saying Hilary gave us last year around this time and they've really only been uh three changes to it uh if you remember we drew down uh 2.4 million to balance our budget the one we have in front of us here we that was always our plan uh we also put 2.8 million last year's unencumbered uh balances into the reserve uh because um David St Hilaire had to go in front
031of the city council for permission to do that he did that in February so that's that's tied into the minutes that's official that's there that was the second thing and the third thing is uh underway uh that's where the the mayor's office would prefer to take the deductible for our high school gym floor from one of the health insurance reserves and it was below the line if you remember there was a section I'll explain that but other than that there have been nothing else has happened to the report we got a year ago so I can I'll put that together that would be great thank you John I'm sorry question about that so it's coming out of ours uh uh deductible Reserve or Insurance Reserve for the floor yes so it's not coming from the
032city no told you Al so city building John right the board of the board of education does not own instructions you will not get any argument from us Mr Russell okay I agree it just just blows my mind I I think when we met with them in the summer um we were just we had to get the project going um it didn't seem wise to uh try and debate it it seemed better to get the money and and hire the contractor so right kind of thanked them for what they for giving it to us honestly well I say that again thank us for giving us oh I I was pleased that we got the money because otherwise we couldn't have started fixing the floor we didn't have you know you have to we had to
033um encumber it against our school budget and we didn't have 250 000 extra to do that understood [Music] Teresa go ahead anything else I just wanted to know where we are on the auditors right um okay so also from Dan uh this afternoon I um I'd emailed him about this Friday as well and what he uh and and I I like to keep saying this uh excuse me for being repetitive but um this is not a school audit by any means what we're talking about is the city's financial report it's 200 pages long it's available on their website it's prepared by the City Finance uh Department um so uh here's what he said he said um he's meeting Thursday with the auditors he'll no more uh where we stand after that meeting surprised me a
034little bit that it wasn't more on someone's front burner but uh those were his that was his message today was the increase in this forensic audit um brought to the front burner after uh we had a change in Personnel the up in finance they haven't said anything to us at all officially okay I haven't I just don't know we should um you know I was hoping we'd have our uh 21-22 audit well underway by now uh it hasn't started last year's Mother was never completed correct that's the one they're gonna talk about Thursday the 2021 audit um I would say though um back on July 14th uh the city did go out and uh sell bonds and uh to raise money for cardis Dave Ray uh and other things they uh had a bond issue
035of a 120 million dollars uh 72 million is for Cardis and that's uh I imagine to close the sale another 32 million was to update the sewer plant and then uh 16 million for other needs so the the fact that the report is not finished did not prevent them from raising money for the Cardis purchase now 72 million is not uh 200 million uh but remember this state of Connecticut is going to pay 80 percent of the uh the uh construction and all that so they they don't need the whole amount but maybe they're planning to go into the market again later I'm not sure but that happened July 14th all right so even though we've got it we had a bound issue for 208 million right taking into consider the number of bonds we're
036selling we're taking into consideration our estimated costs coming out of the city of Danbury pocket and not the total amount of the deal well I I'd like them to say that um that's that was the only reason I could think of that they wouldn't sell bonds for the whole thing with uh interest rates Rising but they must have had their reasons um maybe they're going to finance some of it internally on a pay-as-you-go plan I'm not sure um but you know when you when you sell bonds and you know there's there's a prospectus or an official statement and in that statement particularly on the municipal side you have to say what the projects are they have to be tax exempt so it was very clear of the 200 million that uh 72 million was for
037Carters 32 was for the sewer plant you can see right there uh the purposes that they they raise the money for so okay I could ask that too it's a great question I'll say why is why is it not 150 million let's see what they say it probably yes probably be more official than if it came from yeah yep okay thank you appreciate that sir yep any other questions all right so we are up to date on in our our concerns or our questions on Where the audit stands against still a work in progress and it's my understanding correct me if I'm wrong John that that this is all right just on a Boe or Board District audit this is a complete city audit that's a big initiated we are just part of that and
038I have to say when when we were uh criticized uh for not having things done there were plenty of things that the city hadn't done at the same time and I I have email because they asked us to help them with it later so I could share some of those with you someday members Theresa okay any other questions oh good well this is just a very general question and it um and probably we're going to ask this question a lot this year um just wondering given that we're coming up against this financial cliff um what are do we have ideas that we're floating around about how we're going to find we have money to bring into the district are we working out plans as far as things that might be reduced I just want to
039kind of get a sense of if there's some way that board members in particular can support the work that's ahead of us in this next year and in anticipation of you know the year after where we're going to hit that cliff that we're informed about that and that we're trying to move forward right away with you guys I think um and then maybe Kevin if if I missed something but you know most of almost all of our attention uh in the last month has been um getting this the school year up and running and getting things operating um it it's um that's where our attention needed to be and and as I was saying I think we had a very good opening um but we're going to start the budgeting uh early uh this year
040earlier than before um I I was uh we had our agenda item uh the other night uh for an advisory committee because uh for exactly the reasons you say so um those are all of that's ready to start and and um I don't know Kevin did anything I could add to that or there have been no decisions yet I can tell you that much so so we have no resolution at this point no no we we have a long journey in front of us um John was referring to the I believe the committee that we uh brought up in discussion last Wednesday um and the idea of the committee is to begin to wrestle with the very question King just raised uh but that committee would just be making a recommendation uh one of quite
041frankly many recommendations and considerations um I will be wrestling with and considering as we make a proposal to uh to the board um but but ultimately Kate um and Theresa and Al and Julie I I think this is really about finding ways to educate our uh parent Community our staff our Council and our mayor's office around our needs um and so we you know we ended the year talking about our reality moving forward um and the fact that our Esser funds will need to be accelerated in order to cover the remainder of this school year given um the ask and the monies that we received um next year we are facing um I believe we had talked about a lot of Staff potentially being cut and we will have no choice but to make some
042really difficult decisions but I mean just at a you know first glance we're talking about 100 positions potentially that would need to be cut from the school district um and you know as appreciative as we are of the four million dollars that we received last year um you know that was I this is year five for me and that's the first time we received enough money to cover just growth in salaries for one year and still you know my predecessor plus uh John's predecessor used to always talk about the money that we need just to keep the lights on and the 4 million helped us keep the lights on for this for the existing salary salaries that we had in place everyone's going to have step movement everyone's going to make more money the following
043year it's just a a reality of contract negotiations you multiply that times 2 000 plus employees and it's around four million dollars um we we haven't received close to four million dollars since I've been here and coupled with the fact that we've had increased enrollment and because of an increased enrollment more staff that we've had to hire um and so we're dealing with all of those realities right now um and and the reality is the so monies really provided real relief for Staffing over the last two years because we would have faced this Cliff prior you know to to the pandemic um if we did not have these monies um and so now that the hello Kevin froze he froze Kevin the thunderstorm must hit the west side of town we're not alone uh that
044board Might Recall Hanford is facing explained oh there he goes again Kevin your video is frozen and your audio is just phased in and out I'll try a phone call but this is difficult and you know uh one of the things Kevin was starting to talk about is we're we're not alone uh in terms of uh the cliff and and how to deal with it I think I read a story about the city of Stamford is almost in the same exact situation we argue and we do we didn't have the money that some of the other places did that had gotten us for money and they they were able to put their money into one-time things and uh infrastructure and all that but we we didn't have that we didn't have the base uh particularly
045with enrollment growing on on Kevin's back but that's our our situ our situation in a few other places like us is very different uh than the rest of the state What We Gather especially with that especially with that enrollment John I think you know Danbury is very unique in that in that way and that's really made things complicated for Staffing oh yeah yeah especially at Danbury High School especially Evan said Al Jim yeah he was he was frozen okay muted now Mr Walston sir I left and came back in and pushed me up I guess I guess Zoom didn't like what I was saying so it froze me I'm not sure what part uh my I got I started to freeze last five minutes well it was I believe I had was talking about Stanford
046in particular and um we're not alone just in terms of uh the cliff that we're facing um and and I believe as recently as I don't know maybe the last within the last month um you may recall see there he goes again it's definitely the weather we need it but now it happens we should have a zoo meeting all the time to fill up the reservoirs Gladys would be here tonight but her power is out due to the storm hopefully she can pick up but we have nothing by Andrew Cliff uh that you will there he goes again I just sent him a quick text and asked if he could just log in without video it could be that there's just not enough bandwidth also for that to get through because of the storm yes
047Kevin uh Roger that we're standing by for you I see your video is off just try again with audio only okay I'm going to try audio maybe this will help with the connection this time so I I'm going to talk faster this time as well so Stanford and Norwalk we will oftentimes hear us compare ourselves to those those districts because in terms of demographics um and and and Democrat and City demographics these are two closest kind of counterparts in this and so you'll you'll find that most recently Stanford had a 10 million dollar shortfall that was made public um but but but Stanford unlike us has a has a sizable um general fund budget um the same is true of Norwalk and although both of those districts might have um a shortfall as a result
048of expiring um Esser funds not this year but the following year um their their Gap is probably not going to be as big as ours because their general fund budget is not as is not as small as ours um from the I don't know if it's norwalker Stanford the last time I look it's close to 300 300 million dollars um a 300 million dollar budget they have pretty much the same I think Stanford has about two thousand dollars more 2 000 students more than us um and Norwalk is about neck and neck I believe they have about twelve thousand uh but both of their budgets are considerably higher than ours um and I I think going back to your question Kate um it's going to be really important to us for us to kind of
049you know always resistant to talk about the history of funding in the district before as we were trying to build build partnership with the city uh with the mayor's office with the council but but we we can't deny the fact that it's contributed to our situation right now um and so I think you know what we do is we educate and I think we have to do an even better job at educating our community and make sure folks are informed and hopefully that will help for a different outcome this time um but but short of that and and everyone on this call probably calls from our Council meetings you know I was asked the question by council members well what do we lose if um and that you know I was resisting sharing that last
050year because I didn't want everyone fleeing this District particularly prematurely if they didn't have to uh but next year we may not have a choice and so I will be you know we will have a committee that makes recommendations my team and I will also be sitting on exploring what this means for the district moving forward and certainly you know those potential Cuts will be part of our budget process so Kevin we will maybe it's my picture is why they kept knocking me off maybe that's what it is no so we will start the cliff recommendations when sir um it will be part of the budget uh process it's probably as early as November and we will look to put together this um restructuring committee that John had talked about in the in the board
051meeting uh within the next few weeks we'll look to form that committee okay thank you sir no thank you but to your question Mr Russo it will be part of our budget conversations really throughout the year once we have our budget formed in those discussions start um when we start those meetings we will be proposing potential cuts for next year and what that means thank you sir thank you and we will start to explore when are any any additional sources of revenue is there is there anything else we can explore to increase our revenue or do we have to wait for the state of Connecticut to step up we have to wait for other sources to step up before we can be proactive so we will um and I I feel like we were aggressive
052in this in this effort last year and we'll do the same this year uh with the mayor's office uh we wrote notes to the governor's office uh requesting that our alliance monies and and uh were accelerated to help address the uh the the needs in the Danbury Community now um unfortunately that fell on deaf ears um and you know we were reminded well if danbury's acceleration if danbury's monies are accelerated it means another district is losing money at the same except de-escalated de-accelerated rate um I mean as your superintendent I'm not sure I care about the other districts um but certainly I I would imagine that played a role in the governor's decision um and so we will undoubtedly request an acceleration again you may have heard a couple of times I think second to
053Bridgeport we have more English language Learners in the state of Connecticut than any District in the state of Connecticut and Bridgeport has almost double the enrollment that we do and we're only a couple of hundred behind in ell students and I bring that up because it requires different Staffing that other districts do not have you know this same requirement and obligation and so given those different needs I think we can continue to try to make a case that we are indeed different I mean I know it's easy for us to say because we're here in Danbury but we are unique in many regards in our proximity to New York I know we're not on the 95 side of the state but our proximity to New York I think um it's part of the reason that
054you know our needs are so different because we are close to the New York border and just create some different different opportunities but also requires different supports how about our lobbyists sir we we still have them on board to speak oh absolutely absolutely Ryan and Zach uh we're in constant Communications um you know we've talked about the HVAC Grant and a couple of other grants that are knocking on our door um they don't necessarily help our bottom line with our general fund needs but we will be back in touch with them again um as those opportunities present themselves I think they start as soon as um January when um the group is in session and so these next couple of months certainly will be strategizing around that uh but they they played a big role
055supporting the mayor and I um and trying to help us with our efforts to accelerate the alliance funds um obviously it didn't work out but certainly we'll we will try to uh partner with them again in this effort yeah am I incorrect in thinking that our student population grows while other districts it's shrinking so therefore we are entitled to these additional funds that that is the case that we are definitely making this to result thank you sir no absolutely I just wish the state would be as understanding As You Are oh I just maintaining decorum sir I understand I understand the problem everyone here does I know we just have different strategies and and how to go about it but uh I I thank you and you're stabbing it cabinet with staff and and John
056and Eddie and everyone for their uh their attention to get this accomplished when they can okay any other questions Terry any other additional questions not tonight thank you all right is that Michelle the m-e-a-d-a-n that's what I mean I believe I can meet uh Teresa oh damn meat I'm sorry thank you you're welcome so I think when you see those names like that those are our email names and I think that's the defaults so that's why I changed mine immediately Mr Russo's like lost k so that's Anne's default email okay let me know thank you I just want to make sure I have it right for the yes thank you thank you medium yeah that's almost as fun as we license plates you know foreign if we have no nothing else to discuss tonight I'll
057leave the floor open for discussion for another 30 seconds and I will say thank you all for your time and effort and uh a second everyone I will see