001Thank you. Uh, good morning. It's Thursday, May 15, 2025. This is the Darren Public Schools Finance Committee meeting, and it's about 8:00 a.m. and our next meeting is June 19th. And um, Rich, you're good. 2025 financial report. Uh so this is the financial report through April. We are forecasting a surplus of 572,310. Uh this is an improvement of 145,370 from the prior month. Um the changes include excess cost reimbursement based on the March filing. So as we talked about in the last month, uh the update was based on the December filing. The March filing has been processed by the state and the state did indicate we'd get about $66,000 more. Um, and out of district tuition, we had a placeholder for a unilateral settlement that came in less uh than anticipated and so that freed
002up $62,000. Um, we had some turnover in the building sub account across a couple schools and that's 7,600. We had some salary savings um due to some turnover positions and that's a little over 6,000. Um, we did have an adjustment to the placeholder we put in there for the superintendent search firm. Um, so that is freeing up 3,000. Um we had some step and level savings on a club of 118 and then a couple operating accounts uh totaling a small amount of money of $73. Uh overall the general education RC's are forecasted a positive balance of 10,849 while the special education RC's are a positive 564,461 and again uh the bulk of that is excess cost related. Uh just moving through to the individual RC's um you'll see uh Henley Holmes Oxridge and Token Inc.
003have some small balances in uh building subs. And again, that's a combination of turnover in that. Um and then in terms of building subs, those are employees that don't have things like personal days or vacation days. And so if they miss a day, it is an unpaid day. Um if we move forward to maintenance, you'll see a positive balance of 5,30. We did have some turnover in the painter position, and so there's a gap in payment for salaries. That position has been filled as of the end of May. Uh the copy center does show a small positive balance of 2268 as there's been uh less additional hours needed at the copy center. And then as I mentioned in RC16 uh the board has selected um school leadership LLC and so the deficit is a projected
004$27,000 um and that is the transfer that we'll talk about shortly. And then moving on to RC24 tuition is a positive 281,000. We did have a couple of students return to district as we mentioned previously and then um two unilateral settlements that came in less than anticipated and then uh the state of Connecticut in terms of VCR did pass the additional $40 million. That money is set to be released right around Memorial Day. Uh so in a couple weeks we should have that money in hand. Um and that is the financial report. Questions Joanna? Um, thank you. So, it says under um RC24 that you still have a student that will need a new placement. So, do you uh will that number go down of our savings or is that not until next year? Uh,
005so it'll be for next year and so next year we won't actually have the savings we're seeing for this year. So, there was kind of a gap in the placement for that individual student. Thank you. Anybody else? Says two students return to the district. What were their circumstances? Um, well, I would have to defer to Shirley, but I'm assuming that the PPT determined that they were better off Okay. in district. Yeah. I don't think you couldn't I couldn't speak to the actual details of that. It's just through that PBT presence. Okay. Any others? Go ahead, bro. Or was that not Oh, sorry. Uh, okay. So, then we'll go to the budget transfer. Uh so there is one transfer um recommended and it is to fund the superintendent search uh with school leadership LLC for 27,000.
006Uh we are recommending taking it from a variety accounts including some salary savings at a custodian position some step and level savings in a variety of clubs and councils. Some of those savings I mentioned in building subs um high school inter murals which is not running and the salary savings in the copy center. So, one of the questions is given the way the contract is structured, can you why are we accounting for it now versus kind of So, once that contract is executed, uh, we do owe a payment of $5,000 upon execution of that contract. So, we would have to pay for that here. Um, and then additionally, some of those services are starting effectively now. And so, because the services are starting now, you have to expense them now. Um, and it'll be similar
007to some other POS that we've had in the past where maybe you've started the service in the spring, it's carried on a little bit in the summer. You you'll hold that PO in a reserve for encumbrance account and then draw the expenses off that reserve for so it's viewed as encumbered basically. Any other questions along this? How long can you hold encumbered funds from the previous year? I mean really you can hold it for an entire year. It's not great to hold it for the entire year. Um, typically when we give you the financial report at the end of the year, there are still certain things that are encumbered. It could be anything from a item that hasn't shipped yet that it was delayed, um, a service like this. Usually, we'll try to have something
008like that, you know, closed out by Decemberish time. Um, but you can certainly have it held up for the whole year. Okay. Any other questions? So, I'll just mention it's not a transfer type thing, but it just comes under superintendent transfers. Next month, I will probably have a internal um transfer, but that's that's what the superintendent adjustment or superintendent adjustment just to make sure that the end of reading books, $40,000 that the end reading books are here uh and the online version is here before the before our teachers leave. the the actual t the actual manuals themselves probably won't be but the digital version will be and that accompanies the textbook I just want to flag that now just so as okay so it's not going to be a transfer it's just it'll be a
009superintendent adjustment but those are funds that you weren't anticipating those weren't budgeted funds that we were anticipating spending so this would be in a way um so there's um money earmarked in RC19 there's about $200,000 of unencumbered money but we're flagged as anticipated spend spending it. And of that 200, about 80 is curriculum development. So about another 120 is uh being held as anticipated being spending and 40 of that will come from this. So but you're is that included in this surplus? Correct. Yep. So the surplus won't go down as a result of adjustment. So it's not included in this surplus figure. Well, I'm sorry. Let me let me phrase it a different way just to be 100% clear that this those dollars we're assuming we're going to specify we're Yes. Okay. So this this
010surplus number is not going to change because of that. Correct. Okay. Is that clear to everybody? Did I make that clear? Sorry, but I just wanted to flag it just No, that's that's absolutely. So, and just go a little further there just so it's it's pretty crystal clear. So, this is for the literacy changes that we're This is $40,000 for the teacher version and the teacher digital version. We'll probably only end up getting the digital version by the time the teachers step out uh because they step out in the 16th basically of June. Um but we'll quickly thereafter get the their copy as well. So, and because it stays within the RC, you just sign off on correct. So, okay. Go ahead. Um, and so since we're paying for that upfront, does that come out
011of the cost of what we've budgeted for next year or do we still anticipate needing that full amount for next year as well? Well, it'll be it'll be offset by that particular month. So, so instead of the 218 um you know, you'll be like 180 instead. Okay. And that that all went into play based on the vote um Tuesday night. Correct. Okay. So, you couldn't we couldn't do anything until you presented and uh the board made an approval to a curriculum change. Okay. Just want to make sure it's crystal clear, timelines, all that good stuff. Uh okay. I would recommend uh that the committee uh brings it forward to the uh the board as a a recommended transfer. I'm seeing consensus amongst us all. Okay. Right. So, the next is discussion lapsing account possible accelerated
012expenditures. Could I just request that you start with the possible accelerated expenditures first before we talk about um so we discussed this at the March finance committee um that obviously we have a pending surplus for the year and there are options available to the board. Um so we've outlined six options um that the board can consider. Um in terms of accelerated purchases, there are items that were removed um from the fiscal year 26 budget including the Vonics. We did highlight in this the Vonics are 15 years old and we do have 11 of them that are starting to fail. Um so there are 11 that will likely not be operable for the start of next school year. Um the middle school desktops were also listed as an item that was deferred. Um and then board
013docs as well. Um, we had talked about in uh the March meeting that if the board wished to expand down the entire items, they could look forward even another future year and look at other technology items such as the third year of the Vonic replacement um office desk desktops wireless access points um laptop replacement and a BMS software. Um moving forward as another option we've uh the board did approve a transfer at the last meeting for the trial purchase of the cell phone lock bags. Um, if the board is wishing to extend that uh to the high school for uh next school year, it is something that you would have to purchase this year in order to have it available for the start of the school year. Um, otherwise it would not start at the
014beginning of the school year. Um, that would be about $17,000 assuming the same use of the bags that were used as a trial purchase. Um, there's an option to restore some eliminated positions. Um, for example, um, you could pre- buy the Chromebooks and the elementary teacher laptops that were in um, the fiscal year 26 approved budget. That would free up 271,000 and then effectively you would transfer those money those monies to an eliminated position. We have detailed out what those positions were. Um, the instructional powers would get you about three. So, two schools would not have as many. Um, the purpose secretary, the campus monitor at the high school, and the floating SSO were the other um, items. um we'll talk about a little bit later. You could establish a non-lapsing account and then obviously
015you could just return the funds back to the town. Um just one quick question on the cell phone lock bags. Where does that stand from a policy decision by the administration? So uh at the next meeting uh at the next meeting it'll be coming forward to the board with the recommendation of um for implementation. at the last time. Currently, where it stands is that a recommendation on the table for nothing at 9, 10 and 11 and a and a a variation of um uh use for the seniors as a transition into college. Uh so that recommendation is coming forward at the next meeting. Uh this accounts for what I actually think is actually going to be that recommendation, which will be the use of the uh uh cell phone banks for the rest of the
016the kids. and it's it's it's the cheaper of the versions. Um it's I think it's Faraday it's called as opposed to the underbacks. Okay. And that that's so that's kind of a highlight that we're going to be voting on at the board and then we'll have to fund it if the board agrees with the Correct. Okay. So all all the kids get the pouches or just the seniors? 9 10 11 get the pouches. They get they put the on the pouch and then and then the seniors are open. The seniors will have a different variation. That's still a we bit of a work in progress about the seniors. Uh but essentially 910 11 will have the bags. Stay tuned for the next one one question on that. When you say that it wouldn't start if
017you didn't get it bag. So so if you don't order the bags this year obviously the bags are not in the budget for fiscal 26. So the first time the board could approve a transfer would be the September meeting um out of fiscal year 26 which means then you wouldn't get those bags probably until the beginning of October. So it's just making sure that so if you want them for the start of okay the school year next year in August that is something you would have to buy out of and we we sort of have flagged to people and even a communication with the high school staff our high school parents and stuff I think the community relatively with more communication is ready anticipating for the fall and that's that seems to be the natural
018thing to do. Okay. Um John why can you not approve a transfer until September? Is that because of So you don't have a financial report for the new year? But if we had one, we could do it. It's Is it because of the cadence of our meetings or is there a different We wouldn't have a financial report ready um in July or August. You don't Well, we're busy trying to close out the deal here. So, okay. So, that's something that we're going to have to consider. Um do you when you look at this list of things does the administration have a recommendation what they would do? Well, yes. Um, in a tactical like I know there's a wish list, but well, if you're if you're asking if you were Yeah, the cell phone bag is
019is I'll say as a given as a recommendation like I might otherwise the implications that we just discussed the few sonics uh the I mean at some point the offset of these cycles are going to catch up and it's catching up right now. Um, so we bet just more than probably bit off that we can chew and the few sonics themselves at least 11 of the 30 I think are just not working anymore. Right. I mean now that they have actually there's going to be out of commission. Uh so I would recommend that can we take this get do the fusics and the and the cell phone bags and that's the most that's the highest priority at this point. Okay. For for me. Okay. No. So, I guess in anticipation of our board of ed
020meeting, can you make sure you enumerate those uh those two? I mean, you have them there, but just put them together as one recommendation from the uh administration. And before I forget, Rich, if the what Alan was discussing about his internal transfer, if you can make sure that number is um you know uh uh outlined in them, we can pro provide that to the RTM, right? because they have they voted on the final budget yet. I'm sorry. I was away. No, that's okay. Yeah. Well, wait while you were away. Yeah, I was away. I missed that. Okay, that's okay. So, just but just make sure that number's out there for for people to look at. Okay. Um Okay. Uh what else did I wanted to say? Oh, I I know certain other town bodies made
021assumptions along the uh along the budget process in terms of returning funds or not returning funds. I know that's going to be a decision of this board. I know, you know, we tried to be as transparent as possible so they can make their assumptions. What's interesting is actually our surplus has grown through this process as the assumptions were made. Um, so I think you know when uh board of finance talked about it, the number was about 460,000 but we flagged that we would be hiring consultants. So the surplus was actually 430,000ish at that time. And then I think again I was away but the RTM made an assumption somewhere in the $400,000 range. So just to kind of put that in the scope. Um I'm all towards uh fiscal management and transparency but I think
022there are a couple items at least personally and that we can go around the room talk about it. Um but that think that we deferred that I think would be appropriate. You know the cell phone bag is another example but like those V sonics. Um, I have the my personal thought is I'd love to follow the administration recommendation on a couple adjustments and still return a decent sum to the town as people were expecting. I'll let everybody else go. I I would agree with that personally because if the bonics are not working, I don't want to leave 11 classrooms without technology and the the bags. I think it would be best to be able to start out the school year with the behavior practices in place just to help that whole process. Um I generally
023agree. I think that uh it's there's three there's three buckets. There's use some of the money now, there's get some back in the town now. And then there's the um lapsing. Was it called the lapsing account? Get there too. So I maybe we put a little bit of money into all three. And that way we're setting something up. I mean, some of these items in here like says like for fiscal 27, maybe the lapsing account, we put the money in there and say like we're going to use this money for that market. I don't know. But I I do agree with the idea if there's expenditures or things that we know are near-term, there's like let's not wait. Let's just do it. Especially if it's getting outdated. So, I feel like the cell phone bags
024um are almost entirely separate from the surplus discussion because that's like we said an immediate need. Part of our future programming, you know, what are we going to do? Just give half of 9 through 11 the bag and help the other half also follows the rules. you know, if we're trying to, you know, I feel like that's something a chance we would make otherwise um if we didn't have this surplus and because, you know, we're talking about it coming out of a specific bucket, even though like money can be funible. Um, generally speaking, I've been grown very uncomfortable talking about what we should or shouldn't do about with the money that we have um with without the full board sitting here. you know, why discuss what should we should do with the money in general
025if we haven't even discussed definitively that we're going to send it back or we're going to keep it. Like I I feel like we're putting the cart before the horse as we go down through this memo. Um and I do appreciate all the work that's gone into it. Um but I I'd really rather have a discussion with the full board. To be clear, we are going to have discussion, right? But I'm saying even after the Well, I view it as like curriculum and talking about curriculum until the full board sees it. But I I hear your point. We're not going to make any decisions today to be very clear. We're maybe not even a recommendation. Joe, would you like to finally Well, I think I have a question back to the committee, which is do
026you want to recommend because you could send this entire memo or your committee could say based on the administrative recommendation, we recommend that the board consider based on what I'm hearing you all say, bonics and cell phone bags. And you don't necessarily for the board to discuss this entire thing. I think there's things on here that are non-starters. Um I'm asking you as a committee I I as the chair of the committee I would say forge look put this whole thing over side um whether or not we want to provide preferences amongst ourselves I think is the question but I think we're a little bit all little bit differing so I my bias would be just let's you know we're talking about it we're unearthing things hopefully the board members will watch it we don't
027have to go through every line of line item and people will come with their preferences. Um, we haven't talked about the non-lapsing account. Um, and so, and we've talked about it a couple times, but Rich, would you just, you know, what's appropriate use of a non-lapsing account? And, you know, from a finance director's standpoint, what would you use it for if you had it or is there a need for it right now? Or is there a need to create it but not fund it? You know, that's I'd really like to take your recommendation. Um, so the ideal use of a non-lapsing account would be things that are considered one-time expenditures. The worst thing that you could use a non-lapsing account for would be to fund reoccurring expenditures because by definition, it's a one-time source of
028revenue and then if you fund a reoccurring expenditure, let's say like a staff personnel or something like that. The following year, you're just going to create this budget gap. Um, so the best use really is technology is almost to create like a technology account. So districts like New Town, for example, they do have a non-lapsing account. they typically just use it for technology, whether it's um buying Chromebooks or Bonics and things like that. And usually what it ends up doing is you pull that money out of your um your budget proposal. So you get a little bit of a benefit of having a lower budget proposal going forward and you kind of create a technology account. Um some districts will use it as almost like a reserve for um special education. So like if you
029were to get like unexpected outplacements um that could fluctuate your budget um they'll use it as that because they they're a little hesitant to ask for an appropriation. Um so this board has asked for an appropriation but the town has provided appropriations in cases like that. So I don't necessarily think you need that. A few years ago the board um board of finance had historically carried I think it was like a $100,000 special ed reserve account. Um and it was decided just to kind of close that because if you have a deficit for special education, doesn't matter whether you have a reserve account for special ed, you're just going to ask for those funds. Um but but in the case of a non-alapsing, if that was fun, you could choose to take that first. You
030could use it without approval from other talent. Correct. You would just need the board of uh eds approval. Um you know, Westport does have a non-lapsing account, for example, and they do primarily use it for either things like textbooks or they use it for technology. Uh again, really those one-time expenditures are what you want to use it for. And if you have it, you want to be able to use it in a way that allows you to plan for um budget mitigation strategies going forward, which is why technology really is the best use for a plan like that. I mean, the reason the non-lapsing account was put forward by the legislature is in a lot of districts, um, you know, come May, they find out maybe they have a bigger balance for whatever reason, maybe
031it's excess cost related, maybe they had a lot of turnover, whatever it is, and there's this mad rush to spend money because they don't want to give it back to the town, um, and they don't necessarily make a lot of thoughtful purchases. And so the thought behind the non-lapsing account was create this account, allow boards to put money in that account, and then allow them to determine what they want to use that money for thoughtfully so that you're not having this kind of like mad rush to spend money at the end of the year. Um, and so in that case, then sometimes they look at long-term technology purchases, uh, maybe, um, you know, other things that the district needs, but they're maybe they're not quite ready at that moment to purchase. Um, so it's it
032it's just another reserve account that allows, you know, a board to have a little bit more flexibility. So, and and you know, candidly, the town has been going the other way and trying to collapse these reserve accounts and use a general fund. So, it's with all that in mind, do you have see a need for funding a non-lapsing account for the Darren Public School District? Either of you, or I'll answer that for you from my perspective. Rich can be different. That's fine. Okay. Um the other reason that Richard alluded to is some some particularly inner city districts like they're they're at odds with each other. Yeah. Right. And it's some of them see as a way of guaranteeing some money to carry it forward. Um I'm not a big proponent of it. Okay. Um we
033have gone away from uh the balance that we had sitting there. No one could remember what it was for and how we'd use it and so on so forth. Uh I think it comes down to a trust and a relationship thing um with the town bodies. Uh the board of finance has said if you want something come back to date that has relatively played out. Okay, they make us jump through some hoops. Okay, that's okay. Um uh but that has relatively worked out. I just see it as a like to be able to work things out. I would test a theory until proven otherwise. Um and uh honestly that's that's my answer. So you don't see a specific need at the moment for it? Uh I tend to agree. I I like the option that
034in the future. I mean, so that was my second question. Is there a reason to just create it without funding it? So, you could certainly create it and either not fund it, create it and fund it a little bit and create it and fund it a lot. I mean, there's a lot of options. Okay. Um, but I don't I don't see the inherent need, you know, based on a lot of things Allan said and our work in relationship with the other town bodies has at least for the last several years been pretty good. But I'll let others opine as well. How does the t I mean that was gonna be my followup question is like do we have a updated view of how the town the board of finance or otherwise is going to view
035any of this stuff catch the first part of that Greg do we have a do we have a sense of how the town or the yeah board of finance is going to view any of this stuff any of the three buckets that I mentioned and then the other question I have is like we have this list of stuff is there is there other stuff that either the board or anybody else thinks should be on the list that I mean, I don't know. We could create we could create a great wish list, but we put this I think if I speak for these guys, we we asked to what the options are and like what in each bucket what the poss the true possibilities are where an e somewhat efficient use of capital. I'll let Jill
036answer the questions about what other people are saying because Yeah. So, I've heard during the actual budget process, I spoke to I think six out of seven of the board of finance members. They're they've made pretty aggressive and they said it publicly as well. They made pretty aggressive assumptions with how much money they took out of the general fund. Um, and they pushed our budget through all the way. They also didn't cut us assuming that we might get some excess cost funding because that was uncertain. So there is definitely a feeling from the board of finance that there's not interest in us viewing this as a pot of money to spend there. It's really important to them to hit their targets and that we return dollars so that they can hit the the financial targets
037that they um put forward with the assumption sorry with the assumption of passing our budget. So it's like one, you know, it's one whole estimate including at the time though 4 430,000 or 460. So that number's grown since then. Just Yes. Sorry. Keep going. Um so you know I think we are at a period where we need to be looking at not only are we looking at high budgets but we're also looking at I think a few areas um where we might need to be thinking about making long-term investments. um and that is also relatively more expensive so that we can bring down or maybe short-term investments so that we can or medium-term so we can bring down longer term costs. So I think we have to be very careful about any decisions we make.
038I don't think we want 11 classrooms with non-working bonics. I think that's a conversation to have um because I don't think we're at that point but I think we need to be very strategic in in the relationships. I think the non-lapsing account um is counter to the fiscal direction that the RTM, the board of finance and the board of selectmen have been going. As Alan described, we've been moving away from keeping buckets of cash at different points in time towards the use of a general fund that has greater flexibility but also keeps our our lending rates low and we are in a period where we have a lot of debt uh because of two two-thirds of it is is to threequarters is school construction. I mean the only thing like on the VSonic point I
039hear the point. My only concern is like optically we just took it out of the budget and if we really needed them why did we take it out of the budget? Well, we deferred like the way I look at that is like in order to get to number in several of the last years we deferred a year. And it's not a nice to have, it's a have to have. Like we deferred uniforms previously. we've deferred some other kind of capital items. Um so okay so like again it's but proper budgeting right we going to be responsible of dollars and there's certain things we can push but we know it's going to be spent that following fiscal year which has an impact to that following fiscal year budget. So I again like I I can't I
040totally agree with Jill like we got to be responsible with this but at the same time you know there's certain things that we kind of pulled out that if we had a little more room on the budget side we probably would have been we're building up deferred stuff that's going to eventually hit then I know the deferred stuff of the deferred stuff that we did do now I've got stuff isn't actually now just timing of it is now falling apart basically Right. That's not working. Yeah. So, so, so there's something called compromise. And I think you know what I'd love to see is you guys come with a uh recommendation as you've outlined to this committee to the full board with the supporting data behind it. If any other board member wants to talk about
041any other options, we're going to have that discussion. But I think we've set unless people agree otherwise we sent pretty good groundwork to go to the board meeting uh with that. But it but it does seem like based on I thought I read in here that we we need to I think it says vote on any pre pre- purchases during the 27th meeting. That's the next meeting. The board would have to vote on the 27th on uh if they want to do it and the transfer associated with it in order for us to execute the purchase. So Joan's point, like how do we get the board the information and make sure they actually look at it and reflect on it, iterate on it in advance so that other board members don't feel like they're being
042put on the spot, which we know people have flagged. Yeah. Can is your nonlapsing account saying this? So I do think a non-lapsing account could be effective depending on what you use it for. Um I would only really use it for technology to be perfectly honest. Um you know we do have a tendency and not just Darian but every district that has a replacement cycle for technology. Budgets get tough and rather than maybe having to cut programs or positions. You look at technology and then you create these artificial bubbles within your within your budget. Um, and so we're going to have an artificial bubble in fiscal year 27 because we brought our equipment spending down from about 750 to about 275. And it's going to spike right back up. And if you think about a
043half a million dollars, you're, you know, you're it's decent amount. It's a decent amount on your budget before you've done anything with teacher salaries or benefits or special education, whatever it might be. And so when you have a non-lapsing account, you know, nobody wants to have a classroom without a a without technology. And when something breaks like that, it's hard to just go out and, you know, spend $55,000 on 11 Vonics um on a whim. And so it depending on what it's used for, I think it could be a valuable tool. You you certainly get in a lot of districts where a district might have a non-lapsing account. Let's say they have $200,000 in that non-lapsing account and the board's ready to vote in their budget for the next year. The board of finance and
044that community said, "Well, you got $200,000 there. Yeah, we're going to cut you $200,000." And you kind of end up in the same spot. Um the benefit really is for those kind of like emergency purchases. So Oh, so uh for the idea of using it for like longer term projects like a bus depot or more sustainable kitchens or Sure. So for things like a bus depot, um if the district ever wanted to get a bus depot, that is something that they're going to have to do off cycle. There's never going to be a scenario where you're going to be able to implement that in a budget cycle. Um and we'll talk about that at the next board meeting when we have our transportation presentation. The reason being is so first student rents a depot, right?
045Um if we were to get a depot tomorrow, they're not just going to bring their buses over here because they're on the hook for their lease payments at that depot. So that means you're going to have to find another bus company. That bus company's going to have to get buses. They're going to have to get drivers. I mean, you're talking about like an 18month long-term process. Um so I don't necessarily think like a non-lapsing account for a bus depot would be an appropriate use for um like sustainable kitchens and things like that. Um, we've we have talked about how we could fund some of those things whether it's the there is a reserve account in the food service fund and you know buying like physical equipment when I say like dishwashers not the person who's
046washing the dishes but the actual piece of equipment that's a great use of that money um and things like that could be used for um I don't necessarily think you'd want to use a non-lapsing account on that. It is true like districts for instance like what Richard talks about technology handle it differently. Some districts don't have the technology line item in their operating budget. It's in a capital somewhere. It's in it's leased and somewhere else it's it's in an unlapsed account. That's a true statement like I mean different districts handle that particular expenditure in a different way. What what I might suggest is because this is a like a I think a awesome topic that can be explored further in terms of how we integrate that concept like we'll just throw out the technology as
047an idea. how you integrate it into our budget process and then in the town's budget process and there might be a constructive conversation to say yeah it makes sense for technology because then it's so transparent in terms of and we know how a technology work it doesn't work on fiscal years so that I think it'd be really cool to explore I'm just I don't know I think it'd be too quick to kind of jump to the conclusion that we want to use it for and create it with the use of these surplus dollars my my only concern about it if if you were to go down that route and have a non-lapsing account which was solely for technology that I would not want to then have to rely solely on a non-lapsing account to fund
048all of our technology needs. So my per personal preference would be to leave it in the operating budget and just to you know because I'm I'm talking about extremes potentially here and you know how people view our use of a pot of money. So I think right now I'm kind of of the mindset that like we had talked about before ideally trying to return some amount of money to the town because that was what they um voted to approve our budget without cuts and th those were their internal calculations which I think it it helps to create and have an on ongoing relationship and trust that I think we will need in the future especially to the extent that we might have to make significant the investments to help decrease future costs and those are
049things that I think we probably would have to have a special appropriation for depending on what it might be. So, um that's my personal Yeah, fully agree. Anybody else? Just real quick, just thinking about the numbers. So, we've got 575. That's the current number. The first group, if you include the cell phone things, if you add it all up, it's 200. It's about 240. So, that leaves about 335. So we could do all those things which replace future spending that's going to be in theory gonna have to be spent anyways and we would still have 335 to deal with. I think the other group which is like reinstate stuff that's going to actually increase future budgets. No, because either increase future budgets or now we have to make those hard decisions a second time. I
050have a tougher time with those personally just because we already made the decision to my earlier point which I I agree John with your line of thinking in terms of deferred cost those are the opposite like we put those back in those are now permanent costs so I don't know that's in my mind that's sort of like a framework any other things that reduce the future stuff spending which I think the board of finance would get behind like we're going to have to get approval for it later so it's either now or later um my issue with pre-bying is that we are taking money and using it for things that might not necessarily be our highest priority. Like if we already knew that we were going to have this money and we're scrambling to spend
051it. If we had had it for next year, we would have kept maybe more, you know, kept nurse, kept more paras or whatever. I feel like by pre- buying, we are forced to spend the money on something that might not be our highest priority. And I don't know um how comfortable I am with that. Okay. I think that so just to take on that point like my only thought there is I do think there's a difference between like this money seems like it's one-time money like it's not recurring so the some of those hard decision that's the kind of the point I was making recurring costs those are harder decisions to cut like a person who's continuing like that's a budget like where we start with the budget these things are like one-time costs that
052we're going to have to spend in the future versus like you know you cut a parah the parah was going to be in the budget not just next year, but every year after that, at least in my head, I'm I'm trying to differentiate between one-time future costs and recurring future costs. Um, for the purposes of the board discussion on the 27th, um, can you please also give us the cost of replacing the 11 uh, Vonics? Is that not the 150,000? No, the 150 is the full 30. So they're 5,000. So 55,000 for the because it says V sonic slated for fiscal 27. It's also the whole 30 was eliminated from the budget next year. So uh the Vonics aren't a four-year replacement cycle. Okay. Um of the 30 that would have been replaced, 11 of
053them are failed. Okay. So the 150 is to replace all 30. Oh, I didn't realize that. Sorry. Yeah. And that's what Okay. Can So the 150 is really what that you're talking about. you only got deferred. 150 is what was deferred. Okay. Of the 30 bonics that were deferred, 11 are currently failing. So if you were to only do the 11, that's 55,000. Yeah, please have that kind of outlics that cost different amounts of money. So this is the least expensive option. Okay. So if other districts are paying less for theirs, is that because the deal, the person that we work with, um, whoever we get our sonics from have priced it based on other factors like it could be installation cost, it could be a number of things that go for it. We do
054get it off state bid, which is through CDW. Okay. Um, which I believe is where most districts will get it. Um, I will say if you only do the 11, there's no uh guarantee that the other um 19 won't fail because they're all 15 years old. Joanna, are you are you talking about No, I just factor in or this is like in the weeds and it's not really my job, but just out of curiosity. I've talked to other people around this the Yeah, I have friends in other districts and I know that they've paid significantly less for their views. So, I was just curious if that's like based on our size or just based on factors I don't know about like installation or whatever. Want to pass the influence along it? So sometimes like the
055software companies like you know Google or whoever if you're using one a lot and you're like hey we're not going to be able to use it anymore because we don't have the hardware they may pony up for the hardware or provide you with some money for that. You're confident you're getting decent pricing off the stand. Okay. Okay. So I think we have a good uh framework for the discussion on what sorry my date 27 27th um all agree does anybody else want to I think what I'll do is a we bit like we did with the um K to3 reading uh front load desk give the opportunity to the board to view this particular meeting the these particular materials flag anything that right and yeah and I'll send around a little commentary to everybody to
056watch the meeting just to so everybody's thoroughly prepared for this one. Yeah. Do you want Do you want to do that or were you suggesting that you would do that, Alan? I'm happy. What? I'm happy to do that. That's fine. Thank you. Um, sorry, I lost. Is that it? Uh, public comment. Good morning. If anybody online would like to participate in public comment, please use the raised hand icon. Please state your name and address for the record and note that you'll have up to three minutes to comment. We have no raised hands at this time. We got nobody here. So, could you get a motion to adjurnn?