Special Board of Education Meeting - January 30, 2024

001B where' you put that list just so Joel can announce where it is on the okay all right may I have a motion to reconvene into public session that is Julie seconded by Greg all those in favor that is unanimous yeah okay um all right thank you all for being here this evening as I begin my chairperson remarks I first want to offer a heartfelt thank you to nen vassel on behalf of this board naen the secretary to the superintendent in the board is retiring tomorrow after working for this district for 48 years naen is well known for her kind and calm demeanor and has been the wind beneath the wings of the district's central office work working closely with several of the superintendents in this district and supporting countless board members we will deeply

002miss seeing her here in the district office and wish her well in her retirement please join me in a round of applause to recognize nabe self [Applause] thank you all I'm now going to take several minutes to provide some additional color related to the current budget process I respectfully ask for your patience before we start the public hearing as we've noted through this year's budget process this is a very challenging school budget year over the past decade proposed budget increases have averaged 3.7% ranging from a high of 5.2% in fiscal year 2015 to a low of 2.08% in fiscal year 2018 this year's proposed budget increase is almost 6.2% approximately two-thirds greater than last than the last 10 years average more broadly our Board of Selectmen is preliminarily experiencing a higher than usual operating budget

003and our entire town has gone through a revalu ation that will have tax implications for many Jim Palin the board of Finance chair will give a better overview of those factors shortly that said the budget in front of us I.E the education of our town students is what this board is deliberating there are multiple reasons for the much larger than average proposed increase some driven by item by items within the direct control of this board and others outside of our control for example significant rate increases for health insurance and bus contracts as well as new special education mandates from the state are out of the board of education's control other key items like the teacher and administrator contracts were approved and implemented by this board we are a people business business salaries and benefits among

004our District staff members represent over three4 or 78% of the total 121 million dollar proposed budget by the superintendent we're in the second year of the current teachers contract the primary goals of this contract are to recognize the hard work and dedication of our staff first and foremost and to support teacher Recruitment and Retention this contract Awards teachers a 13.86% over the current fiscal year similarly our recently settled administrative contract also so focused on Recruitment and Retention addressed quality of work and of work and life issues and even increased the number of days of work for our ele APS to better match their increased workload that contract settled at 13.47% over the three years it's important to note that both contracts were publicly reviewed by the RTM and were not rejected by the body I

005mentioned these two contracts not just because of their physical impact but importantly also to highlight this board's recent focus on the Recruitment and Retention of the district's coveted Educators darianne aims to be a competitive and desirable place to work given tonight's public hearing and our subsequent board discussion I again remind both board members and the public of the important human component of this challenging process I caution everyone to consider the impact of commentary on the morale of our respected District employees and our overall Community culture our meetings are public and recorded they are viewed not only by those with a direct interest in the district but also by Pro prospective District employees tonight we are in week four of our annual budget process the board's function in this process is to do the diligent work

006of prioritizing budget related decisions the board's discussion should be Financial in nature not evaluative this that is an operational responsibility of our Administration said another way we as a board look at positions sometimes referred to as FTE and their impact on the budget not at individual employees it is neither appropriate nor board members role to make evaluative commentary related to individuals during the budget process I will have more to add on this topic later when the board reviews the line item budget proposals put forth by individual board members I want to be very clear this board and our community stand behind both both the DEA and daa contracts and the efforts contained within them and all and other contracts to recognize our constituents constituents appreciation for the hard work and dedication of all of the

007employees of the Daran School District in this District whether our budget is considered Too High by some or too low by others we aim for continuous Improvement Dr adley's proposed budget sets out a series of changes focusing on improving Recruitment and Retention augmenting instructional and mental health services for student and augmenting instructional and mental health students for students services for students it strives to do through so through enrollment based Staffing changes redeployment of resources and identifying Staffing efficiencies the board is currently undertaking its own critical assessment and prioritization of Dr adley's budget related proposals we've heard some public statements and we've received quite a few emails all of which which we read thank you all for your commentary so far for the sake of clarity I would also like to take a moment to correct

008one narrative that is currently circulating within our community there are no proposed reductions to specials programming including music or World language classes into superintendant proposed budgets the proposed reductions pertain to the number of Staff Who deliver or administer specials in World Language as noted and as many of you are aware the board is in the process of evaluating this change to quickly review where this board currently stands in its budget process or not so quickly the first step in our assessment was a series of presentations and question and answer sessions to better understand the superintendent's priorities The Next Step which began last week is the board's discussion of how the superintendent's proposed budget aligns with board priorities and policy I would like to clarify that proposals by individual board members as part of an overall

009effort to debate board priorities should not be interpreted as the will of the board at this time after tonight's public comment period the board will hear additional perspective from middle school staff and then continue to deliberate B budgetary items we will further consider what we are about to hear from the public this evening as well as any additional information received from Administration this deliberation process will continue through evenings through the evenings of February 6th and February 13th when the board votes on the final budget upon that vote the Boe adopts the budget at its own as its own we will officially submit our budget to the Board of Finance on March 5th after Del deliberation at the board of Finance the budget will make its final stop at the RTM tonight public comment will begin

010with the chair of the board of Finance followed by the chair of RTM education and subsequently members of the public who have signed in with our secretary I have the first set of signatures here and there's another one up at the podium if you haven't signed in yet please sign into to the list if you'd like to speak in person we will then move to those who wish to speak over Zoom we are anticipating significant public commentary this evening while we value each and every one of you our decisions are not made by referendum and we need time for important deliberation as well so if someone has already said what you would like to say please feel free to Simply agree state your name and agree and pass on the microphone that said if you

011have additional contexts that would be helpful to the board please offer it after tonight there will be additional opportunity for public comment on the budget at our next two meetings and we are always available via email as always we thank you for your engagement for your work to understand what the role of the board is and what it is not and most of all for your care and concern for our students our schools and our dairan community with that I will move to public comment and begin by recognizing Jim Palin chair of the board of Finance Jim on behalf of the Board of Education thank you for joining us this evening you can just move the signup sheet to the other table please and I'll need your name and address so if you can start

012with that that would be very helpful thank you yes thank you Jill and thank you all for letting me speak uh at the beginning of this meeting it's it's very rare that I get to talk about the budget at the beginning of a meeting as you'll know from the state of the town I'm usually the one that closes down shop at around 10:30 at night when everyone's partly asleep um introduction Jim pal and I'm chairman of the board of Finance um here in darianne I've been on that board this my seventh year and before that I spent CL eight years on the RTM I live at five Hickory Lane I have two kids currently in school some of the teachers of which are back here and one that graduated two years ago so my comments

013tonight are to give you a little bit of guidance and reminder of other things that that I see in the budget as you're discussing it and um and things that I'm going to implore you to think about over the next few weeks ahead of delivering us the budget on on May 5th I'm here tonight to share some observations on the school budget which the board of that has been reviewing for the last month and some of the changes which the board are contemplating making and adopting before sending to us while you may not have heard members of the board of Finance speaking at public comment submitting a trove of questions or proposing changes to the superintendent's budget our members have been hard at work reviewing the budget listening to your baate online on channel 79

014and some of the proposed recent changes the operating budget that you are reviewing right now is a 6.2% increase versus that which was proposed last year increase of over $7 million versus what was spent what was budgeted last year and likely be spent in full this year we understand that the Administration has some updates to this budget namely around some recently negotiated Union contracts that may move it around a few basis points but nothing material we also listened during the last few meetings that you had most notably the last one the ad cut I where certain Board of Ed members discussed areas of the budget that they would like to make adjustments to presumably to either address areas where they think more resources are needed or to adjust areas where they think our school can

015continue to deliver the great services but there are Financial or operational efficiencies that will benefit the taxpayer both of these efforts are noble my focus tonight is going to be on the second area taxpayers and the all Financial effect of this budget during the state of the town on December 11th again at 10:30 at night my presentation offered near-term budget guidance to both of our operating boards Board of Selectmen that operate Town services and the Board of Ed that operates the schools that guidance was three to four% incorporating what we call Core services at the town and The Bard ofed as well as other s sort of new initiatives and that guidance Incorporated some of the inflationary pressures that I believe have crept into our operating costs of both the schools and the town including

016recently negotiated contracts some of which include the highest increases that the that the schools or the town has seen in developing this three to 4% guidance particularly around the Board of Ed I looked at a few things namely 10-year compounded annual growth rates our enrollment over the past 10 years has fallen by about 35 basis points per year the overall Board of vet expenditures net of any grants you receive have risen by 4.1% per year which has driven per pupil expenditures up north of 4.1% despite the way the state tracks it and adds and subtracts certain items it only reports 3.7% so during this period period aggregate Town expenditures Debt Service Capital Board of Ed operating expenses Board of selectman operating expenses have risen on average 2.8% when I look at these historical figures and

017incorporate the increased cost of certain inputs inflation is real labor cost have risen a 6.2% increase in the board of vet operating budget would be the highest increase in the past 10 years and would likely generate the largest ever tax increase that Daran has seen in my 16 years of being involved here given the 160 million in bonding that has been approved for the Recently completed oxridge school just under 60 million and the 101 plus million that have been that has been appropriated for the HHR Renovations as well as upcoming capital investment that we need to make in our middle school and our high schools an operating budget of over 6% is not likely what taxpayers are expecting to see this year in order to deliver the same top educational programs that we have for

018the for the past 20 years that I've been in town this is a revaluation year the average valuation of homes have risen by 29% so the average so the mill rate will go down but taxpayers don't Focus simply on the mill rate they focus on the absolute amount of dollars that they spend and this year despite the average going up by 29 29% there'll be significant sort of variation and some taxpayers will see increases much greater than what the average spending increase is in closing and I appreciate the extra minute here I implore the board to reconsider our guidance which was originally 3 to 4% I implore you to listen to the efficiencies and the student staff ratio calibrations that are being proposed by your leadership team and work with them to find more efficiencies

019to deliver the same great education that we have year after year this board should look at all programs expenses and revenues and make sure that our resources are consistently focused on the programming and the assets both hard capital and human capital assets that have the greatest effect on our students and deliver their overall the overall educational experience and health that we've come to see and demand and darianne thank you Jim but do so with less than a $7 million year-over-year increase Financial stewardship and the delivery way it's way over time we are at time last sentence the financial stewardship and the delivery of a great education can coexist and have coexisted in this town for many years so thank you thank you Jim okay Michelle would you um please queue up Ed Wasa I see

020him here good evening Mr W had his hand up edeka you are unmuted and recognized it is the chair of RTM education thank you I Ed waseka Le Warden Lane while I am the chair of the education committee on the RTM these comments on my own committee members have followed the budget process to date with Keen interest we appreciate and understand the public concerns on changes proposed by the administration however we were surprised at the board's reaction and proposals at the most recent meeting no doubt Dr adley has a tough job he is trying to balance the expectations of parents and students in a high performing district with the need to be fiscally responsible in an inflation environment while committee members may not have agreed with all of his individual changes many of us meant

021many of us felt that the administration made a solid effort at trying to manage cost increases to what we felt was an acceptable level to sorry to what he felt was an acceptable level I suspect that the RTM does not support and will not support a 6.2% increase yet after the last meeting based on proposed additions to the superintendent budget the Board of Ed budget seems to be trending higher I don't understand it are we not in the same reality as a board you all judge the necessary tradeoffs and set priorities for the school for the school system based on the increase proposed where is the tradeoff is everything a priority the RTM has been a strong supporter of our excellent school system at our last meeting we approved almost $20 million for increases in

022the HHR program we've approved almost $200 million in new spending to support improvements in our facilities and services over the last several years that said the town budget is not Limitless we must all recognize that we can't fund every good idea and that Staffing must follow enrollment with our committee will do its work and discuss the board's budget the RTM will vote on it if the RTM votes it down the result will be painful for everyone but especially for our students 9 are the best suited amongst us to figure out how to deliver a fiscally responsible budget that the RTM can approve I urge you to keep at it thank you thank you Ed okay um with that I'll turn it over to cdsp [Music] leadership good evening my name is Joanna Walsh I live

023at 17 Pleasant Street I am a co-chair of cdsp along with Crystal Hill and I'm speaking on behalf of both of us tonight tonight you will hear speeches from each of our building levels regarding their Community specific concerns cdsp is weary of nearly every one of Dr Ali's proposed changes for next year and nothing we discuss tonight will surprise you but first we'd like to take a moment to address something underlying every proposed change in this budget you've heard the saying the medium is the message in this case the medium is the superintendent's proposed budget by recommending specific changes the superintendent is telling us what He values we talk about the v v vision of The Graduate and the Strategic plan and how what we do in the classroom aligns with achieving the goals sought

024after in these guiding documents but the real life consequences in this budget tells a different story and this is what we've learned one language art Arts and Music deserve fewer resources cutting the World Language department chair cutting specialist teachers and collapsing the art and music RC's together along with creating the director of Visual and Performing Arts signals a kind of disregard for these disciplines while we believe the administration does value the Arts it's clear that they did not speak to the subject matter experts already in our schools and fully think through the Rippling effects these changes will cause to students who have found their home in these disciplines the message is clear two student experience encompasses only the explicit explicitly offered curriculum and programing programming Dr adley has said that this budget doesn't change anything

025that touches students yet we know that school is not just a place where kids go to upload information student experience is what it is like in the Halls during the passing at Middle School how chaotic it is in the Elementary classroom with one adult and 24 kids the unique touches that a specialist teacher dedicated to one building can provide are whether you feel valued by your school because your interests and talents are supported as much as anyone else's every Personnel change in this budget affects student experience and to pretend otherwise is dishonest three administrative workloads are the biggest pressing concern of the DPS Workforce Darian has already already has the lowest ratio of student to administrator in our Dirk and while we don't disagree that the number of meetings is high we don't understand how

026adding another administrator will help our children in any visceral Way teachers and AIDS are the front line they see our students every day and know firsthand what is happening and they are spread extremely thin and hurt lean towards burnout already eliminating boots on the ground will only make this untenable situation reach a Breaking Point sooner we are already seeing consequences on Recruitment and Retention of staff so now we ask the board to send the community a different message your requested modifications have already signaled that you may not fully agree with the proposed changes we need a budget that meets the needs of every one of our students you are in the position to make that happen Education costs what education costs uh Kathy Loki and Megan Sharon my name is Megan Sharon I live at

02739 baringer Road and I'm a parent to at DHS and two girls at MMS my name is Kathy Loa I live at 19 Bayberry Lane I'm a mom to three boys one in Royal uh middle sex and one at high school we are the co-chairs for Student Government on the Executive Board of the Darian High School parents Association we have the unique opportunity to attend the students government's monthly meetings and the privilege to see the impact that this group of young leaders work working hard to contribute and serve their peers in community on behalf of the high School Community we would like to encourage the board to keep and protect the rich experiences unique to our school and which support the mental health and overall development of our students Arts and Music clubs and Council

028and Athletics are all important aspects of developing students interests and identity enabling students to explore new avenues pursue passions be part of the community and engage with students and staff outside of cor curriculum are essential to preparing for college and Beyond in a community that is already struggling with school spirit it doesn't make any sense to cut programs that are designed to help Foster community and belonging the impact of this budget will be broadly felt by eliminating stiens for music staff or evening concerts other costs related to Student Government advisers and Club expenses consolidating the Arts under one department chair just to name a few you will slowly chip away at the sense of belonging and pride that students feel at DHS an overriding aspect of all of these areas is the positive impact to

029students mental health they allow students to form close relationships with adults outside of this classroom setting the district has spent the past two years focusing on how to support our students mental health challenges the creation of the DHS Wellness Center which the parent Association has also invested in the addition of the wellness coordinator to ensure it is able to be open to students throughout the day the Teen Talk have all been well received the director of mental health was fully supported by this board last year and it needs to be given the opportunity to become integrated into our schools the idea of dismantling the mental health scaffolding right after it was put into place is alarming to the high school community in closing cutting the budgets for Arts and Music club and councils and Athletics

030will undermine the focus on student mental health and the development of the skills outlined in the vision of The Graduate communication creativity curiosity empathy Independence and integrity we ask that you ensure that these programs which are a vital part of creating well-rounded students remain fully funded in the upcoming year on a more personal note I'm relatively new to darianne and also a lifetime educator and when my boy started school last year after having been schooled abroad in the Netherlands their whole lives they immediately felt welcome I was so glad to finally share with them the American way of life having grown up in Pennsylvania here schools are the center of everything and seeing that again through their eyes has been wonderful let's make sure to keep schools the happy positive fun places we know and

031want them to be I look in awe at all of these schools and what they have to offer and all we're saying is please please keep it that way thank you thank you Gina galski good evening I'm Gina galski residing at 95 Raymond Street I serve on the executive board and I'm speaking on behalf of the Darian High School parents Association and I'm a mom to students at um token and middle sex um first of all thank you so much Dr adley for everything and Jill and the entire board for all your thoughtful considerations and for putting our kids first always um we I'd like to discuss the administrative restructuring uh in the budget and some proposals by members of the board we are particularly concerned with proposals to cut certain Department chairs specifically World

032Language this department is expanding not Contracting the chair oversees class offerings in five languages including two which are actively adding courses every year no one but the department chair has the expert knowledge on developing and implementing new curriculum and overseeing the staff that are teaching these new courses for the first time similarly the proposal to remove the English Department share is worrying English is a course subject and effective reading and writing skills are integral to our students Futures in both higher education and in their careers considering the younger students who mostly learn during the covid years this is one of the hardest hits this budget can take I've read my fifth graders essays also considering the modest cost savings involved eliminating release time for supervising the art to Haron feels unnecessary just as we wouldn't

033expect a math teacher to oversee science labs lumping Visual Arts with music overlooks the unique needs of each of the Departments the music department shouldn't be in charge of ceramic supplies as for the assistant principal position the high school administration is quite concerned about the number of ppts the assistant principles need to prepare for and attend to we are not opposed to nor supportive of adding an AP while making department chair Cuts what we would really like to see is a reimagining of which administrators divide up the ppts this needs to be explored in more depth outside of the budget discussion so that dep different possibilities can be considered regarding special education we do support the change of a 10-month department chair to a 12-month program director position but we are are not in support

034of eliminating the secondary scess program director a position that specifically oversees grade six through 12 we are concerned that one person in charge of K to 12 will not be able to give the six to 12th graders the time that they need thank you so much thank you Carrie VCA and then goli fil up your on Deck Carrie Baka 14 Harbor Road I'm speaking as co-vice chair of the middle sex parent assoc assciation we continue to hear from MMS parents that they are concerned with the proposal to cut seven FTE one campus Monitor and six teachers from the middle sex budget one parent remarked to me that she felt the district had started this budgeting process by asking the wrong question we should not be looking at Roi per student we should be solving for

035how students are prepared for the world academically socially and mentally middle sex parents have significant questions about how these Cuts will be made and the functional impact on our children originally this change was presented as the removal of an entire team in either six or 7eventh grade subsequently this plan seems to have been modified to removing teachers across various teams and grade levels we've also been told that there will will be more teachers teaching across multiple teams possibly more students who have to take classes outside of their team structure and even the possibility of combined teams across grade levels the team model has been successful in managing one of the largest middle schools in the state for many years it is valued by parents students and staff any risk of an erosion of this model

036is highly concerning parents are also concerned about the removal of the campus monitor this role is another student facing adult that offers supervision and guidance on top of providing additional Safety and Security in a very large building with over 1,000 students in rolled when superintendent adley proposed this budget he justified staff reductions at middle sex by pointing to declines in student enrollment in a vacuum or to a consultant that logic might make sense however a top- down approach to cutting off critical resources for our students in one Fell Swoop is ill advised we believe a bottom-up wellth thought-out staffing plan could be proposed in the coming years to more prudently address declining enrollment over time MMS is grappling with behavioral issues and bullying alongside high levels of anxiety and mental health challenges among our students

037the next two classes to arrive at MMS are the students who were remote during critical Early Education years of kindergarten and first grade we are still assessing the impact that Co had on these Young Learners in terms of social emotional challenges and learning loss there's also no denying that there has been a significant rise in the levels of testing and IEPs given this backdrop why would we reduce seven student facing faculty members now these individuals play play crucial roles in supervision support and engagement which can most notably impact our students struggling the most but affects the school climate for everyone thank you thank you after gby Amy Reid and then Nicole Sweeney H hi gai Philip residing at 50 deepwood Road uh I'm speaking as co- Vice chair of the middle sex parent Association um

038and U there's going to be some overlap with the high school and cdsp because we want to relay uh similar concerns our uh middle sex parents have as well um we appreciate the valid reasons raised to have an additional assistant principal in the middle sex building but we worry that this addition may be coming at the expanse of other administrative administrative POS positions due to the very aggressive budget cuts elsewhere we question the rationale of removing the World Language chair who is overseeing the implementation of new coursework in Mandarin at M Ms we feel the decision to eliminate this position that oversees new curriculum writing and supervision is ill advised in special education we we also support the change to a 12 month scss program director position however if the current elementary and secondary director

039positions are combined into a single uh director one person may be stretched too thin with all the responsibilities and oversight required at the middle School level uh finally me many parents at MMS are also concerned by the proposal to combine the art coordinator and the director of music into a single position in conclusion we feel there are more questions than answers on how these administrative cuts and changes proposed in this year's budget would impact our students and staff staff at MMS we are concerned these cuss jeopardized student achievement Place addition stress on Educators and diminish the quality of Support Services thank you thank you good evening my name is Amy Reid I live at 15 McLaren Road I am a co-chair of the royal PTO along with Jess neous and we are here to voice

040Our concern about a proposed modification to the budget at last week's Board of Ed meeting on January 23rd during the ad cut night a board member made what felt like a last minute cut to elementary schools for rc9 or Royal a principal reduction of 20% for what he called an accountability issue at first it wasn't exactly clear what this cut meant even to the other board members who asked for clarity then it became apparent he wants to cut our principal Natasha tor's salary by 20% based solely on Royal school ranking by a news media Outlet this ranking was determined exclusively using teacher ratios and state test data from the 2021 school year three years before Natasha was appointed principal a ranking such as this does not reflect the multitude of factors that comprise a diverse

041School community and to be clear it does not factor into a princi compensation this proposal sends a very disturbing message to some of our most important School leaders and is disparaging to the entire Royal Community it suggests a lack of support and a disregard for the education credentials and skills our principal holds it also engenders a work environment that will fail to attract and retain the best Educators moreover this motion feels personal targeted and unfair we've been reminded many times during these budget meetings that numbers equate to real people who will be affected Natasha T is the heart of our school she has dedicated her career to education and the last 12 years to working at Royal first as an assistant principal and then interim principal in 2022 she has remained steadfast through challenging times

042including multiple administrative turnovers and covid she was ultimately appointed as the permanent principal less than one year ago and she has been remarkable her experience knowledge and professionalism have been a grounding Force throughout her tenure she is respected by the staff students and families with whom she interacts on a daily basis Natasha is present and responsive and we are lucky to have her at Royal this budget proposal is in stark contrast to the way we claim to value our schools we're fortunate to live in a town where people take pride in the reputation of our school system A system that is only successful because of its strong Educators including specials teachers AIDS assistant principles and principles it is the board's responsibility to provide not withdraw resources and support to those who make our schools succeed

043thank you thank you Nicole Sweeny and then Diane Urban and Kristen Warner so I think you actually missed my name I was supposed to be before Amy Vanessa Donatello I don't have your name okay all right then that was my mistake you're gonna have to listen to me go back sorry that's all right uh my name is Vanessa Donatello 15 Country Club Road I currently serve as the co-chair for the oxridge Elementary PTO but tonight I'm speaking on behalf of all five elementary PTO to share feedback and concerns received from our representative parent communities uh thank you very much for this opportunity to voice our concerns for your tireless commitment to our students educational experience and somewhat selfishly for the possibility to skip my kids bedtime Antics tonight time's limited I'll get straight to the

044point we do not support the vast majority of the proposed 2425 budget but areas of particular concern are the proposed cuts to instructional AIDS specials teachers and the reorganization of the sess Administration we feel that these decisions are being made in haste looking solely at the bottom line first without a proper plan and consideration for the negative impact these changes will have on our students overall educational experience looking forward as they progress through grade levels throughout this budget season it has been stated repeat repeatedly that the proposed Cuts will not have an impact on our students educational experience but to say that is to ignore the fundamentally important role that our instructional AIDS provide of course we can all agree that additional building Subs are necessary but they are not an even trade for our

045instructional AIDS as the budget suggests not to mention the fact that the budget is assuming we can even fill these building substitute roles although we currently have two open that we have not been able to fill to remove our instructional aids would place an undue burden on our teachers who we value most of all I'll remind you that our current third through fifth grade elementary population began their school during Peak Co we cannot deny that the effects are starting to show through academic lag and behavioral problems our teachers together with the support of our instructional AIDS have worked tirelessly to help students adjust postco and to remove that additional support now would have a noticeable impact on our students educational experience should you think I'm exaggerating I invite you to ride an Elementary bus to

046are from school with them one day there's no better example of what happens when you remove the support of additional supervision than riding that bus with respect to the proposed cuts to specials teaching positions should they go forward it is inconceivable that it would not impact our students from a parent perspective our specials teachers appear to already be spread very thin the time they have with our students is limited to have them split their time across schools only serves to further limit student access and place at risk the contribution that they provide to the respective School community Through art shows music shares and other events that make each School feel unique is well known that our town places value in sports programs and after last week's public comment it can't be ignored that our students

047looking for an outlet through the Arts do not feel as we hold them in the same regard finally we are concerned with the proposed elimination of the sess k25 program director position the question has been asked why this position is offered for elimination but not the more expensive director of Elementary education which we do not support at all either in response it was said that it's critically important to have someone who can provide consistency and oversight across the five elementary schools so that there's coherence and implementation of curriculum and instruction we could not agree more which is why we are concerned that the special education program could potentially not have someone providing that same consistency and oversight it is crucial that we maintain a unified approach for both special education and the general education populations

048thank you for your time thank you all right hi my name is Nicole Sweeney I live at 30 Richmond Drive and I have three children at oxridge one of which was in ELP the past two years so tonight I am speaking on behalf of El's nent PTO which is a subsidiary of the Oxbridge PTO the ELP program plays a crucial role in enhancing students educational experiences and providing parents with a valuable resource for child care however several concerns have been raised that need thoughtful consideration and action first we'd like to Express gratitude to the administration for accommodating the preference of our parents to be able to choose between the four or five-day attendance along with corresponding tuition adjustments within the context of this adjustment we think it is important to point out the broader implications

049of a five-day proposed program other districts are able to support a 5-day program because they employ a separate evaluation team this team is solely dedicated to going out into the community in order to visit children in proximate schools to determine if they qualify for services whether it be at the preschool level or when they enter kindergarten there is no evaluation team in this budget additionally we have observed challenges in communication within the parent Community a number of parents have expressed difficulties in administration returning phone calls as well as unanswered emails this highlights a crucial need for an improvement in terms of Engagement and responsiveness there is also a question of how the proposed five-day schedule will affect the rescheduling of services that are administered on Fridays parent meetings which were typically held on Fridays will

050also need a new schedule these meetings are vital for teacher and parent communication with regard to scheduling evaluations when will these evaluations take place how often will teachers need to be taken from their classrooms in order to fulfill these requests who will take over for these classes one ELP substitute for the building has parents concerned as the board debates the future of ELP we hope they take these concerns into consideration specific and explicit answers will ensure that parents feel their voices have been heard thank you thank you thank you and Kristen Warner and Jane minis after Dian hi Diane Urban ten CR Road I'm speaking as Dei co-chair of cdsp we share the concerns of parents and staff opposing cuts that may harm our District's functioning repeat repeatedly we have heard that teachers and AIDS

051are often overwhelmed with current responsibilities parents and students continue to report that school climate particularly in the middle and high school leave some students feeling vulnerable unsupported and thus unable to access their education appropriately the proposed staff reductions will only exacerbate this problem by reducing the number of caring adults not only in the classroom but that fill the spaces in between where so much of student sense of belonging is developed reductions in music art and foreign language Staffing implies these disciplines are less essential without demonstrating equal priority we risk neglecting the holistic development of our students and not fulfilling the vision of the graduate in addressing Rising special education needs budget choices should avoid unintentionally stigmatizing our students and instead uphold our commitment to the success of every student chairperson Jill mccamon asked residents to

052speak about what they value so I'll speak about mental health and efforts that Foster a climate of inclusion and belonging many staff students and parents have Express gratitude for the resources we've only recently put into place to support the well-being of our school Community yet shockingly this is an area of proposed added Cuts how could anyone forget the suicides that devastated our community or the stories students shared in recent years about bullying anxiety and overwhelm a year or so of mental health initiatives doesn't magically eliminate the darker side of a competitive achievement in sports focused culture that has shown to leave many students depleted or excluded it persists daran's 2020 three thriving youth survey found that one in four high schoolers and one in five middle schoolers reported persistent sadness and hopelessness in the last

053year teens who identified as part of the lgbtq plus Community reported significantly more risk factors and about one in three said they had considered suicide these are not just numbers these are our children we have more work to do not less to ensure all students Thrive improving School climate and students mental health not only reduces costs and administrative burden but also represents proactive measures rather than reactive ones it is investment that benefits everyone in fact hundreds of studies of more than one million students worldwide has shown that social emotional learning positively impacts students academic achievement and overall School functioning acknowledging tough decisions are ahead we urge the board to prioritize the vision of the graduates Foundation preparing well-rounded individuals for a successful future sufficient resources for the areas I've discussed here are essential to that

054goal and we feel are lacking in the current budget's proposal thank you thank you hi um I'm Kristen Warner I live at 411 West Avenue and I'm the parent of a seventh grader at middle sex I'm here tonight to share my concerns about the proposed cuts to the music program eliminating teachers at the elementary schools will require music teachers throughout the district to take on additional responsibilities throughout the school day limiting their time with students these changes are of particular importance to me because my daughter is most motivated by the chance to study music I've witnessed firsthand the magic of daran's Music Department I watched John Hanley teach third graders to play the violin over zoom and appreciated Christa Dio's skill in introducing fourth and fifth graders to win brass and percussion instruments in the

055aftermath of covid last year Jim Carter met with my daughter every Tuesday during her flex period to teach her how to play the French horn in addition to teaching her the trumpet in band class Matthew Curley spends early mornings many times a week working with groups such as the Jazz Ensemble and honor band also that kids like my daughter have the chance to develop their skills and begin to see themselves as musicians if the proposed cuts are approved our dedicated music teachers will be stretched even thinner than they already already are and their ability to offer the wonderful music education that they currently provide will certainly be compromised the art and music programs are so important to kids who may not excel in sports or academics and I would hate to see their opportunities to

056shine diminished as the result of the proposed cuts the mission of the Darian Public Schools is to inspire a love of learning in all students and the health of your music program is essential to meeting that goal please reconsider cutting music teachers thank you for your time and consideration thank you after Jane it'll be Caitlyn Irvin and then Becky parno good evening my name is Jane menace I'm the director of the Darian High School orchestra and also a string teacher at Royal school I'm a resident of Norwalk Connecticut good evening Dr adley and members of the Board of Education I'm here tonight to express my concern for the reduction in staff in the music department specifically the string program as a a product of the darianne string program myself I know firsthand the importance of

057the music education program in the Darian Public Schools I have been a string program string teacher in the district now for 27 years I have watched the Darian string program grow from less than 250 students when I first started to one now with close to 600 string players this year our third grade string program has the highest enrollment of 238 students since 2017 a notable feat since the pandemic when I first started teaching at Darian High School the orchestra had 12 students now averages 70 per year in the past the FTE for instrumental music Staffing was calculated at 35 students per day in pullout lesson groups of four to six students with the proposed cut lessons would grow to 10 to 12 students which undermines the purpose and Fidelity of the type of instruction needed

058in a lesson at the elementary level small group lessons allow for personalized attention and tailored guidance teachers can better understand the specific needs of each student provide targeted feedback and address individual concerns this personalized approach accelerates the learning process and ensures a more comprehensive understanding of their instrument if you reduce the music staff by the proposed cut we will not be able to maintain the quality of the instrumental music program that we have had and will significantly reduce and restrict students access to the opportun unities that we have historically been able to provide we would not be able to deliver the individualized instruction needed to have students perform at the level that families in darianne have come to expect and any changes at the elementary and middle school level would have a significant impact all

059the way through to the high school music programs I hope that you will continue to Champion and support our music department and the musicians of tomorrow as you have in the past and reconsider making cuts to our staff thank you thank you good evening and thank you my name is Betsy Kil Martin and I live at 8 Priscilla Lane I'm Kaitlyn Conor I live at Two Old Stone Road I am the co-chair of Royal PTO special education committee which I have served on for the last three years I have a fourth grade son outplaced a second grade son in tier srbi a kindergarten daughter who is also an srbi and in the process of being evaluated for special education services I have worked closely with our special education student service assistant principal both this year

060and last when this role was implemented the individual in this role at Royal has truly been exceptional we have started to bridge the gap at Royal because of the specific role it has helped streamline the process along with greatly improving the narrative and diminishing the stigma that sometimes comes with special education and student services I am the co-chair of the royal PTO special education committee I have a daughter in fourth grade with an IEP and a daughter in third grade who is srbi and has recently been referred to a PPT we are here tonight to express our deep concern and opposition to the board's proposal to cut two special education and student services Elementary assistant principles also known as cess APS we firmly believe that reducing the number of assistant principles is not the right

061solution to address budgetary challenges and we feel this cut will have detrimental effects specifically on the entire Royal Community not to mention a potential splintering across all elementary schools two years ago the Board of Ed approved the addition of this saap to each of the five elementary schools clearly the board understood the logic for creating this position to address the growing need for specialized in school administrators to ensure students with learning disabilities receive receive the invaluable Services they require we find it inexplicable that only one year since it's in statement the board is suggesting to cut two cess APS when in fact the necessity for this position is ever present and growing at Royal this is a need to have position not a nice to have one or of the 335 students enrolled at Royal

06245% of our student population receives level of support in addition to the general education classroom this support includes services such as srbi multilingual learner support special education services or accommodations and modifications via VIA a 504 plan furthermore the Royal Administration has led 101 PPT related meetings this school year year to date the reduction in the seap role to a shared part-time position will have significant negative impact not only on the students that receive the support services but also to to the entire Royal Community well this data clearly justifies the needs for a full-time cess AP at Royal the rationale goes deeper than just data let's be honest as a parent it's not easy to navigate the procedural complexities of a child receiving special education and support services especially for elementary school families who are new

063to the process it can be extremely overwhelming and emotional time with case loads on the rise and administrators and teachers already spread too thin it's deeply concerning that the board would suggest a cut of this nature as parents of children who receive Services we have experienced a Monumental Improvement in communication transparency and overall accessibility since the institution s the institution of a dedicated full-time cess AP at Royal it would be irresponsible for the board to propose we go backwards thanks for your time thank [Applause] you thank you Becky and then Jen idge and Courtney pre good evening my name is Becky parnoff I am a resident of Norwalk good evening Dr adley and Darian Board of Education members my name is Becky parnoff as I said and I am a dedicated music education teacher in

064the Darian public schools for 16 years I taught 13 years at token in general music and chorus and for the past three years I have been at middle sex in sixth seventh and eth grade chorus I've also been involved in the middle school and high school extracurricular theater groups since 2015 tonight I would like to address concerns regarding the proposed elimination of 2.0 FTE positions from the music department many have already spoken to this point that if Cuts go through it will have a detrimental effect on our students music education and what the Darian Community has come to expect from our performing ensembles though tonight I will be speaking primarily to how this applies to Middle sex one of the pillars of a successful music program is having dedicated staff members who know their students

065well and can support them through their middle school years it is an age group who experiences both turbulent and formative moments they benefit from strong relationships and challenges that can only be fostered by consistency and teachers that they trust if two music positions are eliminated we can assume that the holes will be filled by the remaining music staff taking us away from our students and moving us off of our area of expertise the students as a whole will suffer the music department is unique in that the product of our work is directly visible by the public the Daran Community invites our groups to perform the national anthem March in parades sing for manura and Christmas tree lightings and much more by having dedicated staff in one building we are able to prepare Advanced ensembles which

066provide an added educational benefit to our students who play an instrument or sing these groups meet before school after school during Flex during study halls if a fulltime music staff member is asked to become an itinerant teacher they will no longer be able to effectively run these highlevel performing ensembles the quality performances that the community has come to expect will cease Daran has been awarded one of the best communities for music education by the Nam Foundation which quote recognizes and celebrates schools and districts for their support and commitment to music education and efforts to assure access for music for all students as part of a well-rounded education but more importantly our students say that their middle school experience was defined by their band chorus Orchestra and theater experiences I personally have countless letters from students

067noting how important joining chorus was to them at their time at token and at middle sex and just this past weekend I watched close to 100 middle schoolers Embrace and cry after their per final final performance of foot loose we hope that you will reconsider these proposed cuts and the potential negative impact on not just our music program but the defining experience for literally hundreds of students during their time in the Darian Public Schools thank you thank hi I'm Eldridge I live at 81 Holmes Avenue uh my husband and I were born and raised in Daran and I've been an educator in new Kanan for 20 years um I'm here and support of adding back the 1.8 music FTE positions to the budget and more broadly I Ur urge the board to think carefully about

068eliminating positions that have the greatest impact on our students the people who work directly with our kids day in and day out our teachers in a time where our kids are coming to school more disregulated with more mental health concerns and less self-help skills now is not the time to be making cuts to teaching positions unfortunately the figures on your spreadsheets don't translate to the reality of the classroom my sophomore has been playing violin since oh I'm getting emotional since Miss Hanley turned those squeaky notes into music in third grade he continues to play a DHS this year when there weren't any sections of orchestra that would fit into the Matrix stop the timer just take a deep breath it's okay we'll stop the timer don't apologize it's okay all right we're talking about people

069it's okay all right when there weren't any sections of orchestra that would fit into the Matrix of his schedule not wanting him to give up his creative Outlet the connectedness and success he feels performing with his peers Miss min's solution was to give up per planning time a couple days a week to meet with him and this is not a unique situation it's an example of what our teachers do for our kids every day my middle schooler was involved in the musical this weekend where 96 cast members and 35 crew participated our music teachers found a place for everyone who wanted to be a part of the show they gave 131 kids the opportunity to feel connected to their peers to put in hard work to see the fruits of their labor and be cheered

070on by their Community you cannot have the same programs and the same quality of programming without the staff to support and who will suffer shall we be reminded of the March 2023 mental health survey of our six 12th graders were 46 students reported having attempted suicide within the past 12 months over 25% of students that said they experienced persistent anxiety and just under a quarter said they experienced persistent depression given the data from our own Community how can we make cuss to the Arts a place where so many of our kids feel accepted connected and accomplished through music we give our kids an opportunity to struggle through something make mistakes to try and fail and fail again and be successful music education is so much more than notes on a page it's impossible to cut

071staff and not expect an impact on Pro programming Miss paroff next year when you're leaving MMS to go to token one day hinley the next eating lunch in your car teaching from a cart in classroom rather than a music room unable to get to know those students because you're only there to teach a class and leave rather than be a part of the fabric of the school Community because that's what happens to traveling teachers are you going to feel supported valued expected are you going to have the bandwidth to hold space for 131 kids in the musical you don't have to answer that if we're not careful if we don't value and support these teachers they're going to leave and they're going to go where they do feel valued and supported and if we don't

072stand up and support the people who support our kids we're going to lose them and ultimately the real losers are our children thank you my name is Courtney Pere at 28 West Avenue I stand before you today as a proud Royal parent of nine years a middle sex parent three years a special education parah for five months and the biggest cheerleader you will ever find for all students both inside and outside of darianne as Amy Reed mentioned earlier a board member suggested the cut of Natasha salary by 20% due to ranking this request is inappropriate irrational and disappointing on many levels as Jill said earlier we are in so many words we are not a pay for performance District nor is the state Miss Tori has been a consistent administrator in that building since I

073joined the community in 2015 and we have had four principles according to edite on the connecticut. goov website Royal has shown a steady climb for the last several years and is in fact higher than the district average in reading and math this request has taken the spotlight off what the board is called to do for our town support education for our students Mr Brown you ow Miss Tori the Royal community and frankly the entire Darian Community an apology Miss Tor has been targeted and one might argue bullied in front of this town this is totally unacceptable now to focus on why we are here this evening add addressing the District budget darianne is known for its amazing schools instead of cutting the budget for our schools we should be increasing the budget increased tax ta

074es and reduced school budget doesn't make sense nor does the purchase of an island for 85 million if cuts are needed are we saying land is more important than the education of our students Our Town needs to look in the mirror and face the truth what do we value and where should we spend our money it has been suggested all the cuts that were mentioned tonight I'm not going to go through it less teachers at MMA specialist teachers assistant principles instructional AIDS and on and on and on all of these cuts are human resources with a nationwide teacher shortage and increase in student needs let me say that again an increase in student needs should we be cutting positions no we need to be a district where teachers staff and administrators want to work the

075culture of the school directly impacts the success of students and the culture begins with human resources inside the building board members and Dr adley I urge you to return to the deran board of finance and ask for additional financial support so we can maintain or better get strengthen our schools not take from them guys I appreciate the desire to support speakers um but we just want to keep moving so if you could limit it till the next person gets up there Tim Swift Laura Bremer lindsy doc the next three or a golf clap that's fine too okay hi my name is Lindsay doc I live at 11 Tory h Road and I'm a ninth grader Daran high school as a member of The Advisory Board of wavestrong a friend and Ally to many members of

076this community who battle and have felt the repercussions of mental illness I'm here to urge the Board of Education not to cut funding of the wellness center and Miss Judy Phillips who so passionately and patiently runs it for the many students who benefit from it the director of mental health Dr dad must also remain in Darian public schools as a resource for teachers families and students never has there been a more important time to have these programs in our school especially considering the tragedies that mental health has cost us in the last two years the mental health of my peers is utmost importance and there is an urgent and crucial need for these programs we cannot risk losing these our students and Community deserve them thank you there's going to be a theme here um

077my name is Laura Bremer I live at 25 Hill Crest Avenue in darianne I'm the mother of three kids to recent graduates of DHS and a current Junior I am also a founder of the wav strong Foundation my husband and I have quietly raised our kids and darianne for the past 20 years we aren't squeaky Wheels I've never been to a board of ed meeting let alone speak at one we've pretty much had our heads down like many of us as we have navigated the bubble that exists in this town but that changed for us in the spring of 2022 when that Bubble Burst and we lost two beautiful boys with Bright Futures to Suicide we quickly realize that we are not immune to the Mental Health crisis sweeping across our country we can no

078longer keep our heads down and think this kind of thing doesn't happen here and if we don't do everything we can to help our kids make no mistake it will happen again we have made progress and that's since that spring with the appointment of Dr dad the establishment of the wellness center and the staff the thought of even one child suffering in silence should be enough enough for us to take action but we aren't just talking about one child we are talking about hundreds of kids based on the recent thriving youth data which has been shared tonight but I'm going to highlight a few more we have hundreds hundreds of kids in the high school and the middle school reporting persistent sadness hopelessness and anxiety 388 said they felt so sad and hopeless for two

079weeks in a row or more that they stopped doing their usual activities over 450 teens said they were so anxious every day for two weeks they stopped doing their unusual activities and 163 kids shared they have seriously considered suicide with many of them actually making a plan these stats keep me up at night they should keep us all up at night we need the guidance and strategy of our mental health director Dr Alicia dad who we've barely gave enough given enough time to make progress to ensure our kids teachers and administrators have the tools and support they need we need to provide our kids with safe spaces like the wellness center to decompress and seek comfort our kids need to hear from us and from all of you that their mental health and well-being is

080a top priority we are responsible for helping our kids navigate often dark and difficult Journeys and what we should be asking ourselves is how much more do they need what can we take away thank you good evening my name is Kim Swift and I live at 177 Leroy Avenue I've lived in town for 25 years and life for me is now defined as before or after March 31st 2022 I've never spoken at a board ofed meeting and the iron is all my kids have graduated from DHS yet that hasn't stopped me and many others from dedicating the last 22 months to helping each and every kid in this community so I guess you could say I still have kids in the school system so here I am with a question for the board board why

081would you pick the two most critical and important programs we have in this town as a cut in the budget why would you extinguish something that was created with a lot of hard work during multiple tragedies to help each kid in this community just 22 months ago when almost every school in the country is adding mental health programs why would the highly touted top daring school system abolish it I know I won't get any answers to my questions because there aren't any good ones there is no reason or justification to rid ourselves of the one thing every single kid needs and even suggesting the cuts scares them our kids are in crisis and they need all of us now I was going to State all the stats but then I realize you should know them

082and if you don't you shouldn't be on this board the suggestion of a cut does nothing but spread darkness when your role is to shine light for our kids the action is irresponsible Reckless and dangerous what do you say to the kid who is struggling and sees this cut what does that tell them they don't matter that you don't care what if that was your kid what if that was your younger self what about these kids here tonight that showed up to ask you why and why can't the adults in the room do better I wish more than anything in the whole world that we could go back to March 30th 2022 I wish our beautiful boys were doing homework and hanging out with their friends and I wish their families were still whole and

083their friends were free of grief and pain so let's do better for them and for every child who needs the help and support support to Gap navigate the difficult days ahead thank you thank you thank you the next three Susan marks Beth Lane and Carolina mgoi good evening my name is Susan marks and I live at 39 Fairfield Avenue I'm a member of the RTM but tonight I'm speaking as a 34-year Darian resident and the parent of two Daren high school graduates thank you all for serving on the board of education I know it's a very difficult job last time I spoke at a board of ed public hearing was probably in 2004 after listen never thought I'd be here um after listening to Board of Ed meetings this year I felt it necessary for

084the board to hear from an empty nester there are approximately 7,300 households in darianne I stand her tonight as one of the roughly 4,700 households that do not have children in the Darian Public Schools simply said approximately 64% of all Daran households do not have children attending the school system that may surprise many of you but it is the reality one of the major reasons I moved to Darian was the great public school system I support education in darianne and I support our teachers I understand education has changed in many ways over the past 20 years but the reality is this budget increase is not sustainable discussion should continue with board priorities and board policies must be followed now more than ever the board of education has hundreds of policies if they're if if they're

085not followed why do you have them would it be fair to cherry pick What policies the board should follow and which ones you should ignore not every board member may agree or like the policies but that is not up for debate right now to be be 100% clear I have supported the Darian public school system and I want to continue to support it what I can't support are unrealistic operating budget increases as you discussing the ads and cuts please ask yourself will this decision hold up against your board's approved policies your policies give you facts to use not opinions which can vary from one board member to another specifically if supporting class- siiz policy at middle sex means reduction in staff then that is what is needed one of your primary roles as a board

086of education member is to follow slash enforce your own board's policies I know this is very difficult but it's critical to the budget process and the only way to be objective and fair to all thank you and good luck with your decision thank you Beth oh Beth good evening my name is Beth Lane 16 Hillcrest Avenue and I wanted to talk about something slightly different than everybody else has been talking about which is specifically uh Mr moroni's suggestion and regarding the Athletics budget of a 70% 30% split for all sports teams rather than just for the four sort of unique ones that we do that with now I realize that there are probably a lot of people who are not excited about that Prospect I thought that it was worth exploring it would reduce the

087athletic budget in addition it would help us with some of the inequities that we've been discussing since I started paying attention to Board of Education meetings 10 years ago nothing has really happened everybody knows that there are some teams that end up getting more support than other teams and and some teams cut and some teams don't and we've gone around and around in circles for a very long time and while this might create some new problems I think it's worth thinking about further possibly not for this budget year but it certainly has Merit to discuss so I just wanted to say that I support Mr maron's idea and think it merits further thought thank you thank you after Carolina I'll be will Moore and then Ryan Marty hello everybody Carolina mooi ton KET miss you

088all I've been closely following the budget process for eight years as a member of the RTM I've spoken in front of the border and admin countless times I'm no longer in the RTM but I decided that my limited free time is of better use in other efforts but I'm shocked at what I'm seeing during this cycle from the initial initial unveiling of what the administration is proping proposing as cuts to the efforts from member of the board Bo to make sense of those proposals to attempts from set members to find their own Cuts in order to present a lower annual percentage increase it's all shocking and the proposals of what to cut either from the administration or from Individual board members are alarming languages are fundamental in this day and age and most of the

089colleges are student applied to expect four years of language from Core Curriculum even though in the eyes of DPS this is an elective for our high school students it is not really an elective and what our chair has done since she joined the school has been remarkable cutting her position will be a massive mistake and talking about massive mistakes it seems to me that somehow we are now suffering from short-term memory loss or denial as the position of Wellness coordinator and director of mental health were just added in our prior budget cycle to our schools at a time where our students our teachers and our administrators were basically screaming for their top of their lungs the need to start providing sustainable and professional mental health support in our schools the fact that the proposal of

090cutting these positions is even on the table speaks volumes to what our priorities as a town and board members are I personally come from a family where three people died by Suicide regard from mental illness we cannot afford to experiment with cuts from the budget that would impact this particular area we waited long enough to add them we literally cannot afford to remove them because the implications will be so much worse than the possibility of having raise our taxes borrowing the words of a mental health expert in Town Toxic toxic stress impedes learning anxiety depression adverse experience can also imped learning toxic culture impedes learning mental health is a foundational part of of learning this is a nonnegotiable and should be treated as one and talking about mental health you can read study after study

091about the impact that music and the Arts have on it any cuts that will impact mag our magnificant music and art programs will be nothing but detrimental to our students mental health not to mention the fabulous shows that they put up I don't have the time to get into other cuts that impact the middle and elementary school and as someone who only know now has a DHA student I won't go there But please understand that these dart throwing to Fan Cuts in all our schools make no sense and are indefensible we knew that we would be facing a very tough budget season and sadly there is very little fact where you can make cuts that will impact significantly on a dollar base but the impact that probably is intangible in the short and medium term

092will end up costing us a lot more that we can even there to think our students will suffer our teacher will suffer and an admins will suffer an island is nice and all but our student our school constituents our teachers and administration are way more important than those 60 Acres let's make sure our priorities are where they need to be thank you hello everyone my name is Will Moore I live at five Parson walk and I'm a seventh grader at middle sex middle school and I'm Ryan Marty I live on three standand Road and I'm a seventh grader as at middle sex as well we would just like to say a few words about our experiences with the music program at derian public schools first off I want to say that music has turned me

093into the person that I am today and I have all the amazing music teachers in our schools to thank for that they have always treated each and every student with kind kindness and care they always show 110% effort and make each class or program special my experiences have ranged from musicals most recently foot loose in this past weekend and mtw's SpongeBob this past summer to honors chorus with camarada and the past two years playing piano and singing in the young composers concert the dairy End music programs have provided lifechanging experiences that I'm forever grateful for also the friends that I have made through the music programs are some of my closest and I know that it is the same for many others music provides creativity and freedom for many kids and lets you just forget

094about the everyday struggles that we all face I'm not surprised that Daren was awarded the best communities for musical education by the National Association National Association of Music Merchants foundation in 2023 I truly believe our town has earned it the music programs and teachers in this town have changed my life and the lives of many others in a remarkable way that I hope will continue for the next Generations music is such an important part of my life and so many other people's lives and is because of the amazing opportunities given to us students through the schools participating in these music programs has forever made an impact on my life and I know it has on so many others it wouldn't be the same if I was only able to be in one branch of music

095or not be able to do any music at all I would have never changed into the person I am today if it wasn't for the extra Ensemble such as camarada and honors band that have forever benefited me along with being in the theater for two years at the middle school which I would have never been interested in if it wasn't for the superb teachers at DPS encouraging me to try something new and become a part of these opportunities our town is so focused on Sports and academics that music is our only Escape our only time to be creative and find our true selves to inspire others and be inspired by others for many music is the only time people can be themselves and and truly open up which massively improves their mental health which is

096already an ongoing issue in this day and age no person in this town would ever be the same if it wasn't for the Amazing Music curriculum here in derian public schools along with the amazing teachers and I am and always will be grateful for what has done for me thank you our next meln Domino Andrew tishman and Grace sandal so miss doino hi good evening sorry um I didn't know to bring something written but my name is Andrew tishman I live at 78 homes Avenue neighbor um I have a son in U Middle sex Middle School I am a repeat offender I did live in Daran from 2009 to 2013 my daughter went to middle school a middle sex 8th grade and then all of Darian High School I then transferred to Florida for my

097job lived in Florida for 10 years my son was about to go into middle school and I could never get out of my head how good the Daran school system is although I grew up not far from here in Scarsdale New York and I went to school there but Daran had something that I could not forget which was the impeccable quality of the education and I said if my daughter can get through School my son can also so I decided I was glutton for punishment I wanted to pay state tax again and I wanted to live in a house half the size that I was living in in Florida but in today's day and age you need to prepare your children for the best and the worst in the world that's to come times have

098changed and daran's education I always tell people is the quality of a private school the public schools and my son in today's age where he only wants to watch YouTube TV and play Roblox they come to Daren and you have this musical program whereby children need to play a musical instrument the school was instrumental in four months my son started to play an instrument he took an interest in it dedicated he was in the Christmas concert playing the trumpet and I mean the whole move back to darianne for him to go to middle school and high school is worth it due to the quality of the education and if it's not broken don't fix it the quality of teachers the staff and the dedication makes all the difference with the structure and organization that Daran

099has to offer and I'm just going to say this off the record I mean Darien is a highly coveted place to live it's very expensive to live and people come to make the sacrifice because of the quality of Education in Daran so I ask you try and keep as much of the programs as you can and music is such is something that every single child should have the exposure to and experience because it teaches them dedication and discipline and distracts them from everything else in the world that's terrible today thank you very much thank you deino is there a m Gamino yeah you were sorry you were before Mr Dishman go ahead oh sorry I didn't it's okay just gotta something good evening uh my name is melline amino I live at 12 ledge Road

100I have two boys at Royal a four year old son a four-year-old Son and one on the way I am originally from Mexico grew up in New York City and chose Daran because like many of us of the school system I have prepared a show recording from the Oscar nominated documentary the last repair shop to help me get my points across I I it spoke to me regarding this year's budget and the importance of what music and the Arts bring to all of our children regardless of where it will take you in life an instrument can be an outlet for a child who is going through a stressful sit situation or a way for them to escape to a sothing mechanism sometimes a human being can give you what music and the Art of playing

101can provide at a given point my son has fallen in love with the violin please consider to keep our music special ed mental health and arts department fully funded without any Cuts this clip is less than two minutes but I highly suggest being watched in full I hope I can play if I didn't have my violin from school I would probably I don't know what I would do don't even jinx me with that my mother and father were both musicians and my mom taught me music is like [Applause] swimming conly there's no music whatever you do don't stop keep going no matter how bad of a train wreck it is just keep going you know don't quit don't give up when I was three years old my dad taught me how to play Twinkle Twinkle

102Little Star on the piano I actually vividly remember that I've been playing the piano for like nine years now you know I just have a connection with it you know I'm getting emotional I just been playing for a while playing for a long time mental health is something that's like very hard to manage sometimes especially if like everything that's going on in your life like school and thinking of what you want to be it's very stressful sometimes I guess I'm just scared of like failure you know like I'm scared like I won't like find a purpose in life but once I go on stage all that tension goes away when you play on stage you have like this overwhelming presence and like you know the audience is like somewhat like attracted to it you know

103everyone's just watching you and you feel a certain power again it's an Oscar nominated documentary the last repair shop please if you you haven't watched it watch it and it'll help you you know take a look into this and hopefully you guys can keep everything in place thank you so much thank you gra and then LA and Jen keting hello board my name is Grace sandal I reside on 22 timberlan I'm a junior at the high school and I've been in the public school since kindergarten I stand before you to speak on what my friends and mentors have also raised the health of daran's music program growing up at oxridge elementary the Pinnacle of my school week were the days in the music room interacting with my music teacher Mr Allen and losing myself in

104the joy of creating music outside of the classroom I would join our school's Honor Choir and every week I'd be dropped off at Royal to participate in our honors Town choir moving up to the middle school I found my my grounding in the community of choir class theater and the vocal groups Viva voce and camarada in high school I found myself in choir and theater 308 all of these activities were run by Daran music teachers I've been formed and founded by my musical mentors Mr Allen in Elementary Miss Sadler and Coach O'Donald in middle school and now Mr Andre and the advisers of theater 308 at the high school I've mentioned music a lot haven't I But the irony is the most vital learning that happens in the class wasn't how to read notes or

105staffs it was the development of my confidence from learning how to perform and reach an audience my time management and discipline from learning to practice music my team spirit founded in being a part of a group producing Something Beautiful additionally I got a release from the confused ion and stress of growing up through the Avenue of music I wouldn't be as full of a person without musical be education being the solid steady resource it was when I was in elementary school if musical te if music teachers become itinerant figures in the lives of our elementary schoolers students May lack the connections with their teachers necessary for real engagement with the proposed demands on remaining music teachers it's hard to imagine teachers will the time to run the outside groups that I had access to students

106may be turned off from music and fear will have the confidence and skills to join Darien High's music and theater offerings my life is saturated with music but my peers whose passion is in sports or other activities all receive the same development as me through access to music and music teachers I can't imagine the difference in their character if they lack these opportunities a reduction in our music department is a reduction in our school's education and a change in our school environment thank you thank you good evening I'm Laura PES gray I live at 11 Parsons walk I have two twin boys at middle sex um in 8th grade thank you for all the people that came out and spoke tonight it's been truly incredible and I want to thank everybody here for listening and

107not cutting people off thank you um the budget process is about cutting and shifting dollars to help areas that need it but the our coordinator salary is simply being shifted to the music director this is not creating efficiency or benefit it is just burdening the music director with addition responsibilities that are out of her expertise and preventing her from growing her Department please don't change something that's not broken actually a well-oiled machine with results Awards and high recognition I want to thank Jacqueline deont tral for basically writing this glowing article in Daran living this month January 2024 the title is darian's music department hits a high note in the article it says under Thompson's stewardship the music program has been honored as one of the best communities for music education by National Association of Music

108Merchants the largest music platform in the world this distinction is awarded to districts that demonstrate outstanding achievement in providing access to music education for all students K through 12 would she be able to do this if she was given the art Department coordinate responsibility too I doubt it the community and and the Board of Ed members have asked repeatedly for a schedule to see how cutting 1.8 FTE will impact our Stellar music program when we cut two music teachers they will be spread thin on paper all basic programs may be intact but extras such as young composers preparing students for Western regionals and honors festivals Jazz ensembles honors band honors Orchestra all these extras which many students love as you've heard tonight will be gone don't underestimate these extras they Inspire and provide foundations and

109building blocks for our future although my twins have been taking private lessons and studying Amusement since they were three years old they started kindergarten at Holmes Elementary and they were inspired by Young composers they came to me and said Mommy how do I compose I had no idea but Mr Petro basically helped them took time after school in the first first grade and they both one of them made it in kindergarten which was a travesty because the other one really wanted it but they both finally made it in first grade the article goes on to say the music department is well supported by central office the Boe and the community Dr adley sends out his weekly communication and often highlights theater music and arts music is considered a core subject area they fund the Arts

110fully says Miss Tompson please don't let the statement no longer be true Alexander was quoted in this article music is so important in this world and this program Sparks the flame that is an inspiration for the young students of Daran my son William Gray was quoted saying that he's been in rockestra honors Orchestra and this program has allowed him to be in one of the best chamber groups he's ever been part of Dr adley I know the music department has made you proud and I appreciate you utilizing the quintet that my twins were a part of and featured them at high-profile events like your retirement party part for all those Educators that retired and the top student honors at the board of ed reception please cut other areas but not art and music Remember music

111and the art satisfies the core values of the portrait of The Graduate by opening and welcoming diversity and inclusion such as neurodiversity as well as students like John rosu that was accepted into Yale a program that according to 2021 stats there's like a 5.3% aditt we don't compromise this amazing success please reconsider your budget decisions and cut other areas thank you Jen King and then Tor havoc and Willow Bashi and the last one that we have on on signed up is Curtis Butler hi are you um my name is Jen keing one Chow marks Pond Road in Daren I have a college freshman DHS 23 um and uh 11th and eighth graders at daring Public Schools I appreciated what our finance chair was saying saying about finding efficiencies and respecting the taxpayers wallets but I

112think for many of us the question is what or rather Who falls by the wayside when we talk about efficiency and how we can consider not just the mainstream but The Fringe of the the DHS in doing so first I want to in reiterate my support for music and art and my vehement objections to the cuts last week I was concerned I went too far sharing how my freshman didn't feel valued at DHS um despite being involved in music and theater and how devaluing these programs furthers that belief and Katie suggested I didn't go hard enough music and art are Havens and Inspirations for our kids and I beg you not to cut them but I'm back to actually talk about World Language um in today's globalized world I am baffled that cutting the chair

113has even been suggested there's almost no future job for our children that doesn't involve understanding World language and culture World Language unlocks doors to better colleges better jobs better opportunities it is it is a program deserving of at least as much leadership focus and priority as other core curricula I have firsthand seen this incredible program in effect in effect my oldest was at the start of World Language K through 12 studying Spanish since her first days at toeni I speak nothing save a bad rendition of Sweet Georgia Brown in Polish so imagine my surprise when our family was volunteering at coats for kids a program that delivers winter coats to young children in need a young girl came in shopping for a coat she spoke no English nor did her parents and I watched my

114child Bend to her knees and float into seamless Spanish K day a small child left beaming because she not only found a coat she felt connection and value I have since seen my kids and their peers do the same magic time and again thanks to the curriculum developed by our world language chair whether it coats for kids with special needs athletes at Challenger baseball with a patient on a post 53 call or for my sports fans on on the board my son's teammates smirking their way off the soccer pitch because they understood the opposing team chirping at them World Language is a connection to people we may not otherwise connect with it's enabling everyone's success by the grace of being from a community that can afford to broaden our Children's Horizons a department chair is

115a subject matter as expert who guides a meaningful program to grow our small humans into brilliant adults art and music are not the same World Language has no equivalent I fear this budget is making Cuts not only to salaries or positions but to our children's passions potentials and Futures when you vote please don't think of cutting an eighth of a music position think of cutting a future composer and don't just think of cutting World Language roles please imagine the little girl that coats for kids minus her future translator thank you thank you I F hold on one second there's a picture that's about to fall behind you so just be careful of that if you could maybe somehow sorry I just didn't want thank you hi I'm Tor Havoc I live at 16 Hamilton Lane

116um I I just want to Echo a couple of things I know it's been late um that you know a lot of other people have already pretty eloquently put it in World Language you know I just want to point out the large amount of sort of accepted research on the vast benefits of uh you know children's uh growth and exposure to multilingual environments especially below sixth grade so that's really important we've seen kind of very firsthand how that's really valuable and clearly having a major impact on our kids and music and Performing Arts I mean the kids and the teachers here have put it better than I could possibly put it music made me who I am for sure as well um and so you just look at those two things together and you worry

117that it's a very slippery slope cuts to the budget of Performing Arts in Humanities are hard one I think there were 12 people in the orchestra a number of years ago and it's 75 now that is earned very difficultly that doesn't come back tomorrow if we change our minds next year and I really worry you know we've heard like the bubble bit spoken a few times before connections to World Language connections to Broadway which is 40 miles from here we want to Foster an environment where our kids have that feeling of connection to the world the world has becoming more multilingual and more connected and I worry that with these Cuts we're going to cut our kids off from being able to be more part of the the larger portions of the world so please

118just you know consider that [Applause] thanks hi I'm Willow Bushi of 37 duboy Street and I haven't been here for 10 years so I have something that's been on my heart for the last 10 years that I want to mention but it's going to be my number two comment my number one comment is I come to you on behalf of the music program be as a former substitute te teacher and that I did not realize when I started substitute teaching what a unique vision of the entire school it is because you're the only one that gets to pretend you're that teacher and then pretend you're that teacher and you get a much broader view than anyone else in this room of what's actually happening in the school and I can tell you that a Elementary

119School music teacher is hands down literally the hardest job in the entire Elementary School I would bring two extra Adil I'd wear my lucky shirt when that flashed up as I was a music teacher that day I would sweat a little so I'm just telling you this isn't a place to mess around in in kindergarten it was the first special that my son was kicked out of because guess what you can't have 20 plus children trying to keep them at least alive learn teach a little bit of music play your ukulele and make sure the five-year-old isn't flashing the lights on and off at the same time it just can't happen there has to be enough people in music to actually make the music happen or it just doesn't happen and then this is from

120somebody super not Musical my second point is when I was here 10 years ago a father stood up of a high schooler and I was a parent of a kindergartener and they said a warning a caution and I give you the same warning and caution today there is a pendulum in this town on special education and it swings so far to one side and so far to the other other side and as budgets come around and as finances become a concern it is a scary scary time for special education and we have to remember all of the illegal wrongdoings that happened before Shirley was ever here and and that keep in mind that all the things that we can be doing for these kids that are with the law that are with the parents that

121are with the school district and just keep it above board and do not screw around with special education thank you Curtis good evening I'm Curtis Butler I reside at 137 hollow tree Ridge Road with my wife and two daughters both of whom attend Daran High School I am also a member of the RTM and the education Committee of the RTM but I'm here speaking on my own behalf I have only two thoughts I want to share and I will try to be brief first my first thought addresses fiscal respons responsibility the comments from the chair of the board of Finance would suggest that the administration's proposed increase is excessive and would be fiscally irresponsible potentially resulting in the largest tax increase in the town's history managing a school district of this caliber must be extremely

122challenging and overseeing the administration as our Board of Ed does must be similarly so so I thank you for your hard work and commitment ment to the town school children the board of finances guidance is closer to a 3% increase in next year's budget while the administrations Administration is seeking an increase of over six% what is the right number I don't know and neither does anybody else in this room or in this town I am all for fiscal discipline I'm a taxpayer but let's be honest there's nothing Magic about a three or three and a half% increase it's arbitrary and to suggest that passing this budget would be responsible for a record-breaking tax increase is simply disingenuous and factually incorrect as Caroline mcgui already stated this same Board of Finance only last spring approved aund

123million purchase of an island so let's not forget it's not just the education budget that we're talking about here and let's not blame our school district or our schools for any potential tax increases which may result we've made all kinds of decisions as a town the second point I want to make relates to what seems to be a disproportionate focus on our languages and arts programs when I first moved to Daran I was working at JP Morgan at the time and a colleague who lived here many many years and raised all his children here and they graduate from our high school said wow he knows my daughter's in a wheelchair and he said you're moving to a sports town and that is absolutely the view of this town within and without so when we consider

124cuts that will have to be made and of course decisions need to be made and tough decisions and cuts need to be made Let's be more balanced about it as a college rower and a painter I can tell you that both Sports and the Arts have had an equally effect equally large effect on my life and on My Success so I thank you very much for the time and your attention thank you so that's the last um of on our list so are there any other people in the room that would like to speak we have just one more and then we'll go to zoom hi uh my name is Amy Daniels and I live at 83 Locust Hill Road I have a junior at the high school um as well as a middle school

125daughter I'm also the executive director of The Depot youth center and served as co-chair of the thriving youth survey there are many hard decisions to be made in the current budget cycle I do not en Envy the job that um each of you has in terms of deciding what to keep and what to cut that said supporting the emotional well-being of our kids should not be on the table especially during a National Youth Mental Health crisis with too many recent suicides in our community and a staggering amount of depression and anxiety being reported by our stud students Daran is not immune to this we have only just started making progress and changing the dialogue around mental health we cannot shut the door that was just opened our kids and Families need it too much the

126Board of Education and our Administration did a wonderful thing for our kids when they thoughtfully developed the director of mental health role Dr Alisha dad was a fantastic hire and her collaborative Nature has allowed her to partner with in Daran schools with multiple Community organizations so that we are all working together and no longer in silos Dr dad presented to the board on September 26 and provided concrete updates on the six goals of the district's strategic plan and how the director of mental health is helping to address them if anyone is unclear on the impact that her role has had in such a brief time I would encourage you to go back and rewatch that presentation the wellness center at DHS has been making strides in providing our kids a much needed space for a

127deep breath during their busy academic and socially demanding and exhausting quite frankly days it is help helping kids many times many of our our Town's most vulnerable kids the wellness coordinator role is an important part to make this program work and we'd be moving backwards if we eliminate this program or this position we would be sending a message to our students that we don't care about their wellness and it is not a priority for us I know having watched this board for so many years that that is simply not the case thanks to each of you for volunteering your time and your expertise to serve students in our community I am confident you'll be able to find ways to adopt a balanced budget that won't put the mental health of daran's kids at risk the

128emotional well-being of our kids should not be on the table thank you thank [Applause] you that Michelle we'll move to zoom Barry Palmer you are unmuted and recognized uh good evening Barry Palmer Danberry I'm the teachers union president uh I have a hard time believing anyone on the board of education or the board of Finance is surprised by the impact of the new contracts that they have on the budget I think we can all do math and we had this understanding when we were at the negotiations table higher contracts means higher budgets the board of finances 3% guidance ignores that reality uh what's worse is the Recruitment and Retention efforts that um both the unions and the board negotiated in good faith have been damaged but quite a bit uh by this budget process already

129uh we're we're looking for the board's leadership to to um write that wrong um I do agree with Mr Palin that Financial stor and high quality programming can coexists unfortunately this budget provides neither we're now going on 3 and a half hours of public comment in the past two weeks um in opposition to this budget we're not doing this because it's fun I can tell you I can think of a lot better ways to spend my Tuesday nights than um watching board meetings uh we're doing this because we know that this budget will impact programming this isn't an opinion we know it the staff the parents the students are telling you this is going to impact programming it just is you can't simultaneously say you support mental health and school safety while also cutting the

130Arts and undermining the team model at the middle school you just can't all the directors in the world you hire will not address the needs of our students if you undermine our programming this way uh I'll just finish with I double checked the board policy on class size there is language in that policy that allows for discretion in meeting the needs of our students so I think we can all rest easy that we can do right by our students without violating board policy I'll leave you with that thank you thank you John rasof you are unmuted and recognized good evening everyone Hi joh John you muted yourself classic um how's it going hi John rasof 6 Andrew's Drive um uh I know I I know most of you on the board uh I miss you

131all very much um I hope you're all well want to say hi to swaha and Brena you're doing a great job um uh for context I'm a recent graduate of DHS a former student representative on this board and a current music Major at Yale um there are several things I would like to say but I'll try to be brief um as has been said already the reduction in music teacher FTE will put teachers in the position where they need to travel between schools meaning they will be less available for students who need them throughout the day there are many things that teachers do outside of teaching classes and this is especially apparent for music teachers whose relationships with students directly impact students performance in their ensembles in their classes the relationships between students those are

132the kind of things that directly impact performances on stage um uh teachers teach AAL lessons they're there to talk their rooms are available I know in my 13 years in the DPS system I easily spent you know an aggregate of more than a week total of my time outside of class just in music rooms talking with music teachers talking about rep having random convers and those kind of things are imperative to I think my development as a musician the development of any music student um they help me grow my emotional resilience my maturity I had so many meaningful conversations with these teachers and if they're in multiple places at once essentially they won't have any time to develop meaningful relationships like those um now a few more unorganized comments because there's quite a lot on

133this chopping block here um I honestly believe that creating a one unified Visual and performance arts department is not that bad of an idea you know on paper the M the you know prospective coordinator will have to manage a lot more things but I have always been you know appalled at the lack of communication between the Arts and the music department you know I I've never done any collaboration as a music Ensemble with a visual artist I think it would be really interesting if we could do some sort of you know you know integrate art more into the concerts integrate music especially into digital photography you know film classes I think there's talk of you know introducing a whole bunch more classes such as for example theatrical technical design which implements both elements of art

134and elements of music and I think having them under one unified umbrella would certainly be beneficial um I have no doubt that uh the department head would be able to overcome any any you know any small things that would be associated with learning about the art department and its needs and requirements and I have no doubt that the current art Department Coordinator would be able to provide any insight to the music department coordinator who would you know then oversee both um next commenting about FTE reductions at MMS I think it makes no sense to undermine the team structure it you know I've experienced it it makes a lot of sense it it cohorts well um I think if the board wants to modify this convention it should really be prepared to instigate a more comprehensive

135scheduling overhaul to facilitate simultaneously the regulation of the number of students per class and I think the necessary existence of cohorts I know there were certain classes that I was in where there were a few students from a separate team and they you know and my my my my sense of it was they just completely did not feel like part of the group because everyone else already knew each other I think you cannot stress enough the importance of having students who know each other who all have the same teacher who can all talk about the same teacher they have together that's all super important um next uh the World Language coordinator I think is an essential role especially because your proposed solution is three decentralized ones one for elementary middle and high um that doesn't

136make sense especially considering what we know is and only it's only going to increase the importance of um world languages for students in school we know most colleges now require a whole bunch of language um and also in life it's extremely important I see no reason why instruction should be not completely viewed as linear from start to finish um I agree with Beth John rasof you're running you're actually a minute over can you wrap up thank you bye thank you thank you sir Shannon day you are unmuted and recognized hi everyone I'm Shannon dy I live at 11 Thomasina Lane I have two children in the Darian school system a senior at Daran high school and an eighth grader at middle sex Middle School I have spent my entire School career in the Darian Public

137Schools having attended homeschool middle sex and a graduated DHS in the class of 1993 I'm speaking tonight to strongly encourage you not to consider or pursue any reduction of Mental Health Services or providers for this budget season it is highly concerning to our community of parents that these Mental Health Resources are even up for discussion these are important resources to our students let us not forget that our community and school system have experienced tremendous tragedy in loss that our courageous students and Community begged and pleaded for action and support just only two short years ago and that this work has only just begun please also remember that you voted to implement these resources because you believe there was a true need that need has not changed or gone away we don't need another tragedy to

138tell us that supporting our students mental health is a marathon not a Sprint Dr dad is the right person for this work but it takes time and commitment she simply has not had sufficient time to affect real sustainable change I encourage you to again review the data from the thriving youth March 2023 Darian youth survey that clearly tells us that we need to continue to support our students mental health and well-being too many children in our community are struggling starting at a younger age our students have told us plainly what their challenges are bullying feeling excluded gender identity risky behaviors and substance use isolation suicidal ideation Eating Disorders depression and anxiety and chronic stress just to name a handful our high pressure competitive academic and athletic environments only amp amplify these common challenges and the

139proposed budget cuts would severely limit our ability to Foster resilience in our students as they face these challenges are you aware that the American Foundation For Suicide Prevention just this month recognized the Daran community at their national meeting in Orlando for the mental health work that the wav strong foundation and the Daran Community are doing together the Darian Community has set an example of coming together and the Connecticut afsp chapter director Michelle Peters attributes the progress to the multi-front efforts taking place in the community and within our schools supported by the DHS Wellness Center and Dr dad's work we have just started making progress if we eliminate these positions what message does that send to our students and to our community about our commitment to their mental health and wellness their well-being is everything and

140their success as students depends on it the challenges our students face aren't going away anytime soon and neither should our resources to support them thank you thank you Kristen turos you are unmuted and recognized hi my name is Kristen turkos um I live in Woodbridge Connecticut and I have been an elementary General music educator for 18 years um 13 of which have been in Daren I'm asking the Board of Education to vote to add the two proposed cut music positions back into the budget for the next school year um worthy of note is the fact that my 13-year 10e the district was interrupted by a break to work in a community closer to home after teaching seven years at Royal school I taught five years in a well-respected district um near me in order to

141alleviate the treacherous daily commute to Daran after these years I decided to return to Darian as an itinerate music teacher to a community that values music education as a necessity not just something kids do to give classroom teachers a prep period um part of my decision to return rested heavily on the fact that in darianne music is not viewed as an afterthought but rather as an integral component of a well-rounded education the department Fosters a nurturing environment that encourages creativity with the aim of instilling a lifelong Love Of Music we have always had a dedicated and music administrator and music specific professional development to help music teachers continuously grow and flourish as Educators ours is not a music program that is available just anywhere in Connecticut and our current music staff is like no other

142I know that you have all been provided with substantial evidence of why the Arts are so important today and at past meetings from teachers parents and students this evidence is unquestionable and this proposed budget is absolutely not what is in the best interest for the students in darianne and their growth as young musicians the superintendent has stated that our current music programming will not be affected by these Cuts but I don't see how that is possible given the scheduling data that has been presented to the administration the proposed changes would bring about a very noticeable downgrade in what the music department Department currently offers to students while nominally the level of offerings are not being reduced as um the chair mentioned at the beginning of the meeting heavy cuts to the music staff would likely

143no longer allow the teachers to meet the high expectations set by the Darian Community I understand that fiscal responsibility is a huge concern in this town and in this year's budget but I am urging you to consider the children in our community and how these proposed Cuts would impact them if they went through the children in darianne deserve quality music education and the only way we can give them that is to keep our music department fully staffed with quality Educators who go above and beyond every day to help them succeed thank you so much for your time and consideration thank you Jonathan Ford you are unmuted and recognized hello uh thank you my name is Jonathan Ford I'm at 23 Edgewood Road and the parent of a child at Royal I SP many of the

144comments and concerns made by my fellow parents the cut in the budgets all seem to have significant student facing impacts which is alarming is a new parent to the community students need a support in a safe environment and that comes from having teachers that have help in their classrooms and children have access to specials and programs like the Arts uh so that everyone has a chance to succeed most of us moved to this here because of the schools and we've been so happy with our experience so far we cannot afford to jeopardize that the schools are what contribute to the value of our homes and our unique community in the great town we all live in I think if we can't find student face non-student facing synergies we should challenge the assumption that adjusting our

145request to the board of Finance is fiscally irresponsible I think it' be much more fiscally responsible not to maintain the quality of our amazing education system and protect the futures of our children thank you thank you Tracy mckoy you were unmuted and recognized hi good evening my name is Tracy McAvoy five ponfield Lane and president of the wav strong Foundation I have a 2020 DHS graduate a ninth grade daughter and Matthew McAvoy the Darian High School junior who died by Suicide 22 months ago on March 31st of 2022 I'm speaking in opposition of the omission of the budget line items concerning the positions of the director of mental health and the wellness center coordinator at Daran high it's been 670 days since Matthew's death and I reflect every day of our loss and carry the

146infinite weight of his absence in those last 16 weeks of Matthew's life when he openly expressed he needed help there was no Wellness Center at DHS and no mental health director our family did not have the knowledge or the support from the high school or his overburdened therapists to seek the right type the right type of help he needed and Matthew lost his battle the entire mental health system failed Matthew and our family just 16 weeks ago on October 30th of 2023 Ridgefield High School lost a 15-year-old student to Suicide I know that our Administration reached out immediately with support and advice on how they should handle that situation advice given after learning from the pain our community felt after Matthew died this is an example of the action of what's becoming the core of

147darianne knowing we are stronger together without Dr dad's position in place there's a high chance the administration would have remained silent and let the Ridgefield Community grieve on their own as they initially did when Matthew died in her short tenure Dr dad has made herself tangible to the Daran Community with her empathy and expertise she's an invaluable resource that will continue to benefit hundreds of families in our town she along with Dr McCarthy made our family feel like we were finally heard a year and a half after Matthew's passing Judy Phillips in the wellness center at the high school has also made a positive impact on our students by honoring their value as a member of the DHS community no matter how big or small their emotions are her gift is letting them know they

148are being seen and being heard as Shannon day mentioned Darian has proudly caught the attention of the national office of the American Foundation For Suicide Prevention the 2022 DHS campus walk was recognized as the largest campus walk in both participation and fundraising in the country at their annual meeting just two weeks ago other communities throughout the country are asking their staff how we do it and the answer is simple we recognize we are stronger together and that includes the presence of salaried mental health leaders who are committed to our students in our public school system please considering the positions of the director of mental health and the wellness center coordinator at Darian high and always remember we are stronger together thank you thank you there no more raised hands okay thank you all for being

149here this evening we appreciate um your engagement as I said before and of course your care and concern for our schools and our students um there quite a lot to contemplate and to process this evening um with that I will move to further review of the 2425 superintendent's proposed budget and further discussion on fiscal year 25 proposed budget modifications under consideration as noted the first thing we'll do is talk in more detail about the Middle School model and what's being proposed and then we'll go on to review the budget modification list if you are interested in staying for the duration of the meeting please do but if you are wanting to go home now is a good time to to do so thank you all no it do not included [Music] you sure sure that's

150fine that's fine yeah okay Alan do you want to get started yes uh thank you uh thank you again to members of the community um our our parents staff members public officials and uh to our students who participated this evening um I I'll just reiterate that um uh this budget again through efficiencies enrollment uh the administrative restruction uh builds the capacity deliver instruction and curriculum and interventions for students and support the mental health uh support for our students and also addresses the retention of the staff at the percentage that we brought it in at uh I'd like to take a couple a moment or two just to address a couple of The Correspondents to the board that I included for tonight's uh package and again just in difference to uh comments that were made this

151evening and so on uh one of my memorandums talked about clarification about add and cuts I'll talk quickly to it but no less passionately but just being respectful of comments that were made this evening but the first one I'd like to just talk about is the proposed reductions to the superintendent uh budget that I've sent to the board uh the three topics addressed which are part of professional contracts the consultants and the ELP I think the board is aware of all of those we've addressed all of those um and we're suggesting that that's a that that we should realize those efficiencies and that should be taken into account um I won't comment on those I'll just I'll pause there for a minute those if they're okay I'll just move on we have Ted we've I

152think we've talked about those three items and just to be clear you um shaded them in green rich on the on the spreadsheet basically okay and I would so we were we were asked Super Saturday and then a recent the recent budget meeting the can you look at anything about Transportation I know we don't have a bus depot and so on so forth uh so we got to work and uh Rich magic and we uh came up with this proposal there are limitations to the proposal but essentially we looked at what happens if we would just take ownership of our owners special services Transportation uh and limited it limited to that those number of vehicles it would mean that we would probably have to purchase nine new vehicles we have six already out here um

153we would need a place uh to park them we probably need we need to go to PMZ uh we would need an appropriation very very quickly I don't know if this is going to be a a possible or even a realistic outcome but if you're looking at ways to uh realize efficiencies in the first year uh with capital it's a $65,000 saving without the capital it's $1.3 million saving to the budget and as you look out you can see over time both Capital with including capital and including operating is pretty significant amount of savings you'll have to consider things like uh parking vehicles uh some of our vehicles over at um somewhere like toen uh in the actual car park itself it's probably the only one that realistically could co could hold some of the

154buses so I'll pause on well actually I'll just I'll just address the two suggestions special education Pate professionals given the new contract and that that was realized in the new salary schedule we're suggesting that the The Contract Services which already has for additional special education power professionals built into that we we actually pull them out and hire them as power professionals because now we can do it at a cheaper rate and so you can see they're at a just over $100 100,000 uh saving for the first year and you can see how it plays out those are the two suggestions uh upon consideration from the last meeting that uh we have bring before the board I'll pause there so can you just let's pop back to the special education Transportation just to clarify this certainly

155is financially attractive but in terms of the timeline you'd need Capital funding by March of this year and you'd need a planning and zoning permit so in terms of whether or not we can realize it um it's really more informational we you were asked to take a look but yes that's that's tight it best um and maybe not even possible but uh we took a look at it because we were asked to take a look at it okay uh so something we probably would have to check with some of our partners with but it looks certainly looks tight at best um okay and then on the special education pair of professionals well I guess let's stop there are there any questions on that proposal John I just have a process question Rich if we were

156to pursue that in expedited manner maybe not for this budget cycle how would we do that financially I mean we wouldn't budget for it correct but we could real realize efficiency sooner than the fiscal year 26 budget in a way so maybe just walk us through that process so the concern with pushing it out is we are working on actually having a contract with first student that is a five-year contract so the time to do it would be this year as opposed to Future years um well March is you know ideal it could be pushed into April I mean the concern with getting the buses is it's not like going to a car dealership and picking up the bus off the lot um it takes a while for that to be made get delivered then

157you have to uh letter them um so if we wanted them for the start of esy um we would really need the money by like that first week of April uh in order to issue a purchase order if we were foregoing doing this with esy and just shooting for the start of the school year so August um you know that buys is probably another month in time frame and then we'd have to work with an outside contractor to service he as well still tight it's still tight very tight you go sorry sorry sir oh can't speak all right so rich can you please walk the could you pull up the the Savings please the so keep going Michelle so right now the budget calls for K Michelle it's in the packet too guys just uh

158do you want to go through it or yes please go through it um so right now the budget calls for just over $1.3 million of Transportation cost for special education those those include five type two buses so those are the mid buses you see um in town uh it calls for one wheelchair van because we currently we're asking within the capital budget for another wheelchair van and then we have a couple of routes that are out of District that are done through a contractor uh so here would be a recommendation to to hire five uh bring in five type two vehicles to replace the ones we Contracting out so then obviously you would need five drivers and those type two buses currently have bus monitors on them so you'd need five part-time bus monitors to

159replicate the services the second would be to hire uh get a second wheelchair van so the capital budget calls for one this would be to get two to replace what we currently contract out and again you would need another driver and then a bus monitor for that as well and then an eighth Suburban so the budget right now calls for a seventh Suburban this would be an eighth Suburban however this Suburban would also need a bus monitor because that route does include a bus monitor for this year um given the impact and the amount of work associated with this we would need a transportation assistant to go along with the transportation director um and then add in the cost of the fuel because now there are buses we have to pay for the fuel the

160insurance the maintenance on the buses the training for the drivers the training for the AIDS the total cost would be about $670,000 so a savings on the operating budget of $634,000 and again that's assuming that we do esy going forward if we can't do esy esy is about a $230,000 expense um the vehicles itself would cost about $700,000 so $550,000 for the type two vehicles $888,000 for the extra wheelchair van and $62,000 for that extra Suburban um including the two that are already in the capital budget if you bundle them together that would be $850,000 so the first year you'd have an operating reduction of that 1.3 million you'd spend 670 in operating you'd have to have that $700,000 Capital infusion so the savings start to matriculate between both operating and capital in year two

161um you have about a $700,000 savings and it grow to about 770,000 so about 1.4 million over three years John Ju Just to again very tight schedule is there any way to negotiate the bus contract in which would give us flexibility around this proposal instead of locking this up for five the next five years so all bus contracts in Connecticut are five years um so we don't have the option of going to let's say a one year or two year agreement um whether we do this or not we're still going to have first student because you still need first student to do the home to school buses it's a matter of taking away just the special education transport so you can't negotiate the special education so right now sear right now the contract that we've

162proposed and that's going back and forth gives us the right to essentially look for Alternatives just as we do now with the Suburbans the question is going to be whether or not letting them know and giving them notice that we're not going to need them at all going forward for special education now I'm given a driver shortage I'm pretty sure they can redeploy those those drivers to Stanford or uh Westport or wherever um drivers are in need but we do have to give them a certain amount of notice to let them know okay Greg then Robin um are the costs that you've got here is that the gross cost or have you thought about financing the vehicles to bring down that year One cost uh so we don't Finance anything that would be a determination

163for the board of Finance and the RTM so these are just straight purchases okay Robin the Dennis um just about the driver shortage um if we have to hire eight drivers I mean is that something that we think is feasible given the shortage so right now we have six drivers in house um and we had a surplus of applications uh to fill those six and so we've actually turned drivers away Dennis going back to John's point about the contract is there a way we can do I don't even know what the words are a PR kind of approach and and we we have someone come in for September October and just pay a flat fee for a month to do this type of work and then when if if if we have to push the

164orders back and order doesn't come in until September 15 they're likely not going to agree to that because they're going to have to have that trainer when they're relocated let's say to a Stanford or a Westport uh retrained and resered and go through all that um the ability to have them do esy and then have that cut off that gap for those couple weeks that happens between the school year a lot more feasible but to go in through like you know September October November let's say and then switch would uh be a difficult s Rich two questions for you one is um would we potentially see an increase in the bus contract because we're no longer Contracting out this portion of services and secondly is there a quality difference in what our students experience in

165our own Vehicles versus and I I mean nothing about for student I'm just curious about the impact on the student experence so the cost of the buses for the daily rates are already set um they submitted a bid for those home to school prices and those bids are still locked in so there wouldn't be necessarily an increase on that component that would be the same the buses that we would purchase would be the same buses that for student purchases they're some from the same you know vendor that sells the bus um they would look exactly the same they'd still say Daran Public Schools the only difference would it would say first dune on it um rather than you know if there's an issue with the bus they do typically call the district first and then

166we have to talk to the dispatcher and the location manager and get information from their drivers you're essentially cutting out that middle person um the feedback about at least the Suburbans that we have has been very positive from those who have um who utilize that so we'd expect the same type of transition okay um did I you okay so I was just gon Dennis oh sorry um first off I apologize thank you for all the work you've done this is fantastic work um gives us a lot of lot of lot to think about um just a pragmatic kind of Point how I have no idea what a class two bus is and a would will they fit in a parking lot is it will it be difficult to get Planning and Zoning approval with that

167kind of thing or is are they you know regular siiz buses mini buses just so a type two bus is a 30 passenger bus um if you think of those home to school buses the large buses that you see essentially cut them in half right um a little bit more but cut them in half and that's about the size um they are a little bit bigger than the standard parking spot so you would think if you had five parking spots for five vehicles you're probably going to take up about seven spots um so for those Vehicles we looked at an area in the topique uh school that buts um the open field where nobody parks those would be probably the designated spot uh most likely available um the other schools simply don't really have a

168lot of available parking AJ jars going on under construction oxridge has no spots whatsoever the high school doesn't really have any available spots Middle School might have a little bit um but really probably token would be the best the Suburbans currently Park here at central office um and the expectation would be the two extra Suburbans and the wheelchair vans would be parked in central office as well John so I was just gonna say we have two weeks to figure out if this remotely feasible and we're not going to figure out that tonight but maybe we can uh expedite some discussions with the uh well with the townside um um and uh and work from there okay I I I'm happy to take that as a um as a working order takeaway Sarah did you have

169a question say I said I would I would appreciate if you would reach out to the board of finance and RTM and pnz and see if they this is even potentially feasible okay we'll do I'm on it okay um on the par professionals so back to any questions on that on what Allan is modeling yes Katie can we just get um a little more color about why these um four special education pair professionals were originally put in the Consultants versus as a as an FTE originally originally the short story was it it was more expensive and with the the current contract the old contract that we had go ahead charlee if you want to add to that we had originally put in the budget book that we were requesting um we had nine FTE that

170we were looking at uh the idea when we went back visited given the new par contract what a change was in terms of we can train our own rbts the hourly rate that's coming in on the new par contract is less than it was on those that are already grandfathered in so looking at the rate of ality rate plus but benefits would make it affordable for us to look for our own people plus we'd rather train our own people um because it would give us better opportunity for our own supervision So to that I would just say that I think um it would be helpful for the board going future um going forward it would be helpful for us to know what um what Staffing is put under Consultants that also might be under an

171FTE when you have the same person doing the same job and you put them in two buckets it can make it complicated and difficult to see a full picture um I think especially you know as we've heard this board saying for years that that we're trying to understand and support the needs of special education and that we want make sure that you have what you need and especially in the past year as we have seen you know surprises coming up once the school year start I think that would just help a lot for clarity um the other thing that I would say is that as a matter of principle I would also hope that it could be brought to this board as well that that full number that we need and then possibly have a

172decision about what the budgetary implications are because I do understand that Consultants don't report support to our building administrator right they don't have the same um standards and protocols that they have to follow in terms of you know missing Services missing days all of those things you know there's we talk a lot about how special our Daran staff are and I wouldn't think that this would be any exception so I would just like to encourage um a more complete conversation for us to understand that picture and and be able to make those choices can you help me understand what the question is I'm not totally try understand I think the first piece of it is that you want to understand in in in the Consulting line items how many FTE equivalents there are is that

173the first piece you're asking for so kind of what I what I really want to understand is what do we need to stuff our schools so for example if we need 13 special education pair of professionals then I want to know that as opposed to saying we're adding nine and then four have been put over in this bucket like I want to see one comprehensive you know bullet point on those Staffing I it's confusing when they're allocated in different places it's not a complete picture okay is that the entire thank you is that the entirety of your question there was a second piece and I don't think I did not understand the second piece was about the philosophy of of saving money on Consultants when it seems that it's a diminished return okay okay Robin

174um this might be a little bit related I was under the under the impression that when we were hiring special ed Consultants it was usually because they were very A specialized kind of thing that we were not able to provide inhouse so I kind of along similar lines I think it would be really helpful to understand if there are to Katie's Point um people that have been put in the consultant bracket that we actually could potentially do inhouse because I think that could also drive a conversation maybe longer term of some areas where we might be able to do things more cost effectively if we made a decision to do certain types of things like you're saying with rbts and I don't know enough about it but I think that that would be a very

175helpful breakdown Just for future conversations about this okay um because we have multiple reasons why we choose not to right sometimes it's the ability to train in house sometimes it's the cost of training sometimes it's it's versus the cost of Consulting availability of staff so if we're asking for that it would be helpful to qualify why we make make those choices um is that something you want to R you right now no no I I I just thought I thought that the Consulting was because it was so specialized that we couldn't provided inhouse so this was different information that I guess I'm just processing now yeah so I think for example OTS would be an example can you explain that Charlie I think the best way to explain is both things can be true so

176um so often it is there are specialized um staff that we had with our rbts that we don't have available or training so yes we do contract uh the Contracting change that make it um Fe feasible that we can also train our own and come in at a competitive rate as well um based on Staffing um we did analysis of OTS which are all contracted so we do contract them because it is um more fiscally responsible to contract than to have our own and you need them in multiple buildings so we have about seven that we contract thank you okay anything else any other questions on the par professional proposal that'll be something for us to decide it is a different price point but it is more FTE yes Katie are there any left in

177the consultant bucket did we move them all over so how many are left I'll get the number of how many left yeah that's see what I mean about how we don't know so so I will say assuming this four it's approved there would be one left for Paris I'm sorry so if these four are approved along with the nine that were requested already uh just for Paris there would be one left in the console line but there are other items in the console line could be possible I guess say would it be difficult to see the number for moving the full five over okay I someone's on the left Julie thank you um and I just clarify there which five you talking about the Paris well hold rich I don't think we're we're trying to

178figure out who we're talking about now which FTE not people for the Consultants or somebody just said there's five so five five contracted Paras currently are in the budget so if the four here are approved there'd be one one more contracted par left in the consult line there are other things in the consult line besides Paris though is that what you mean ktie just oh the five okay okay to Julie Julie this might be an easy one but Rich why is one remaining in the uh so it's specific to the specific student okay thank you okay any other questions okay I I will speak uh briefly to the Boe ad cut list memorandum that that went out uh I just think it's it's it's important to know uh context and and clarification that or the

179middle school first I'll I'll just do this real quick and then we'll to middle school so so most if not all of these um I'm I'm not supportive of um but that being said I just want to recognize the context for for these uh the recommendation to reduce the wellness center by Third uh would mean that the wellness center would only be open three days uh per week if the intention was to close it the grant funds we would have to return to the state do Dad's position I would say has been spoken to here uh this evening uh the consultancy and and rc1 would also eliminate team talk at the high school uh that's another resource uh that has been spoken about for mental health the professional development would be reducing things like the

180neas visit in the fall because that's which is accreditation requirement restorative practices uh training I think it'll be more efficient to go through this when we go through the line by line just because then we can cross reference it to what you're talking about well I just want to make sure that people understand where your your position so as we get to the lines Why don't you fill in Us in from where you are in the memo and then that way and then board members can come in or not from there okay thank you with that um i' just like invited uh Dr dolr this evening just from the middle school because there's there's been uh discussion about Middle School uh from Team uh to reductions to safety uh I did say early on in

181the process and fact flagged it a little bit for the past year the middle school was going to be one of the focuses for this budget um and it it has been and is uh from the superintendent proposed budget but I would like carollyn just to to speak to some of the issues uh as to her perspective on them I think it's important from a leadership point of view you've heard what we' have had to say and um I would like Karen to take a couple minutes just to update the board on some of these things that are in the budget sure um I only have a 20- minute presentation I promise it'll be quick um I just wanted to talk a couple minutes about the specific items that were in the middle sex budget

182um and were brought up at some of the past board meetings um so to start we talked about instructional leadership climate and culture and that really kind of looks at the leadership team um currently we have a leadership team comprised of one principal and two assistant principles where each administrator oversees the day-to-day operations of the grade level hiring an additional assistant principal will positively impact student outcomes and the teaching and learning while I recognize this is a challenging time for this request to put it in perspective a third assistant principal was added to the high school leadership team around 2005 when the student population was the size that Middle School currently is both schools have grown since then an assistant principal is a very forward- facing job an additional administrator will allow additional time to

183interact directly with the staff the students and the families the benefit of an additional assistant principal at each grade level will provide increased instructional support to teachers and students pertaining specifically to the professional learning instructional strategies within the classroom that support students student outcomes and responding to student needs as we have heard over and over tonight that have become more complex and increased in Number the administrative restructuring also has the addition additional assistant principal and a special education 12-month program director this would also allow for more focus on those important transitions in the short amount of time we have at Middle School looking from fifth to sixth grade and 8th to 9th grade we will have a dedicated administrator at each grade level and a dedicated program director for special education who will know the

184specific students and the specific needs for each transition which will only increase student engagement in terms of responding to the needs of all students this budget also looks at the flexibility of allowing teachers with an open fifth period class to support students through a tier one intervention model this will allow the knowledge and expertise of the building to be utilized in a way that further benefits student learning and student outcomes by allotting time for teachers to work with students who are struggling or need extra support in their content area it will result in a more engaged environment I also want to kind of address the team model we have really been looking at the proposed budget and I want to kind of say that the proposal will maintain the team model and should not increase

185rainbow classes for students um again I would like to provide a social emotional update on supports that we plan to integrate into the building even though we do not have a specific request in the budget it is worth noting that this was an important part of the discussion with cenal Services currently Dr adley and Dr dad are working with a community partner to hopefully secure a Teen Talk counselor at middle sex we feel a Teen Talk counselor will benefit students by offering uninterrupted availability over school breaks summer vacations and after school hours we have seen an increased demand for more and more complex needs of students especially post pandemic and a team talk counselor allows us to offer another layer layer of support for students and families finally we will continue to ensure Safety and

186Security is at the Forefront we have an SRO who is dedicated to Middle sex every day and at times an SSO who is available to us as well it is important to remember that middle sex is a closed campus which is easier to maintain than a high school open campus the goals and priorities presented to you this evening on behalf of middle sex are designed to increase student outcomes build the teacher capacity and effectively utilize building leadership to continue to facilitate a climate of high expectations and support for students thank you thank you is that yeah yeah are there what any does anyone have questions for Carolyn or I see also Caitlyn O'Keefe and Dr Bellow's here and I I see Ellen back there too in case anybody wants to ask about her impression of

187it any questions from the board I have question Sarah yes Sarah so talk to me like I'm a middle schooler I don't understand how a reduction of teachers and I know it's enrollment based how does that not increase rainbow students so you have to get creative to be honest um we've looked at various models of the team and one of those could be which is not ideal but a split team which would work for the teachers so the teachers would teach potentially three sections of eighth grade and two sections of seventh grade it' be a team they would still have the kids that go on that team so they'd be a red team so there would be a red seven and a red eight so they wouldn't be necessarily traveling off team the students wouldn't

188be rainbow and that team of teachers would still have a team meeting time they would just be discussing their five classes which are across grade levels does that yeah that's an idea that we haven't this is this is my issue with this conversation is that every time we talk about it there's something new and some new iteration and it's it's confusing you the team model we want to keep intact because we recognize the need for that especially as Middle School Educators and and administrators we believe in the team model there are various ways that you can keep that team model of you know potentially cutting a team making a cross a grade level team there are ways to do that and maintain the team model without making more rainbow classes for students so they still

189have that team feeling um Julie and Katie thank you thanks Ken is isn't the idea of a team that they're all in the same grade though aren't we starting to talk about houses if you're talking about different grades on the same team it's horizontal versus vertical generally yes so they would still have four teams in each grade it would just be the teachers that would be teaching like two seventh grade English classes and three eighth grade English classes so the kids would still be on their grade level horizontal teams the teachers the teachers would be the ones that might be so the teachers are rainbow not the kids correct okay so then we still have the challenge of the teachers having team meetings with the team of teachers because it would multiple teams no it

190would be the same team so the English the math the science and the social studies teacher all would have two seventh grade classes and three eighth grade classes and a dedicated team time okay I know it's buch of times visuals would be really helpful here guys yes okay um Katie so the only way that that works is is not really having four teams across each grade it's really having three and a half right like if you have a set of five teachers that are teaching two in seventh grade and three in eighth grade then that seventh grade red team is is two class sizes so that's that's you know it's it's two fifths the size the other one so it makes it that much harder to get all of those kids right it makes their

191classrooms that much less diverse if you're trying to keep them all on the red team and their cohort has shrunk to less than half of every other team so it's not exactly Apples to Apples like we can call it red and we can call it split but those that cohort won't get the same experience I think they would because they'd still have a team they still have their team teachers they'd still travel with each other in the core classes so what's the size of the average team at the middle school well an average team with five classes is probably 90ish students so what would the size of a split team be probably 90ish students but it would be across grades so Carolyn can you um can you guys maybe map it out for us a

192little bit for the next board meeting just so we can see what you're talking about um so we're not trying to do it in here yes please thank you John just a point of order the transaction of business one of our policies is that the board shall concern itself with questions of educational policy and not with administrative details of the district's operations the fact we're getting so detailed and not listening to our administrators in terms of how this works we're getting down into nitty-gritty uh asking about the cross-section so I'm just you know again we got to stick to our policies folks and trust their guidance in terms of how they're going to pull it off because other policies also talk about running our district efficiently okay um Julie I just again would like to

193understand better how what we're talking about is still keeping in line with the design that we've had at our middle school for many years now and hasn't been discussed and changing at all I agree with following policies but we can't follow them out the window and I think that it's important that as a board of education we understand how the school is going to function even if we make the changes that are being proposed I don't believe we're getting overly operational all right so the followup on this is the a better understanding of and maybe if there's other models you're looking at maybe I don't know just to help us understand what you're looking at please I I will say this we're maintaining the the Integrity of the of the of the teams we have

194I'm sorry I'm not trying to be argumenta but we have had no discussion of what the Integrity of the team means that's what I'm craving what are we protecting what can we give up how do we arrive at that decision in order to make all of this work I think it's our responsibility to understand what the trade-offs are and and I'm hearing again and again there aren't any trade-offs but there are changes so how does that not translate into tradeoffs and I'm just trying to understand okay so we're going to we're taking as a as a point of information for next time um Dennis do you have an additional question oh not an additional question but just a point of to to reemphasize what Mrs best is saying is that the word shall and probably

195don't lend a lot of you know confidence in I think the many of the board members and and I think that's where we need to see the the actual proposal um without getting to too nitty-gritty but I think it's a it's a large change people are concerned and just a little more clarity would help okay so we have that as an action item for next time thank you denn I just have to say though that very respectfully there's only so much more you're going to be be able to bring to the table um the schedule will have to be worked out uh that's why we went with the schedule and consultant and at some level here at some point you're going to have to go and just trust that we we you you can trust

196and verify and so on fine but at some level you're going to have to go forward with I'm putting before you a proposal that will maintain the Integrity of the the team system right we're not dismantling it and at some point you're going to have to either be ready to move forward or not ready to move forward it'll come down to that um and actually I'm asking it to come down to it so at some point you're going to have to trust the fact that I I believe and I'm telling you we can do it that principal's telling you we can do it the consultant's telling you we can do it now you may say the staff staff aren't I'm not deing into disrespectful the staff at all but we can we can implement Anda

197is in that Middle School okay Jo can I just clarify the policy to if you 9110 also says 2A to create abolish modify and maintain such positions schools divisions and classifications as may be necessary for the efficient administration of the educational Enterprise I think those of us that are looking for more detail are making sure that these positions will create efficient administration of the educational piece of our district okay we have our takeaway um any more questions on the Middle School chill just yes one question just on music because the detail that we were given did not include anything about that I just have a clarifying question on Middle School music Middle School the6 I think it is cut is that just a general is that the General Ed like music appreciation teachers or would

198that be a potential cut to band Orchestra or chorus can you answer that Carolyn or alen or Mar it's a it's a string teacher um Colleen Thompson said that she could eliminate a string teacher and still not have any diminution of services to Children okay yes Greg just a question I know that um I guess at the last board meeting someone caught the admin the um assistant principal at the middle school the ad that was being added back just talk about like the why now like the student level of population was a reason you gave but my understanding it's been going down over time which is part of the reason why we're talking about the faculty you can just talk about that a little bit please I think we have to look at the needs

199of the students post pandemic especially and being able to be visible and have more time in classroom supporting teachers instruction and really making sure that we're supporting the student needs both academically and with the mental Wellness we've seen an increase in needs that require us to be reactive um to a lot of what's happening in the building and having another administrator will allow us to do so and to be proactive of anticipating and using Trends and data to be able to further support not only the instruction in the classroom but what our students need in the building looking at the whole child having another administrator will help us have the time to do that do you guys want to add anything back there APS I mean can I just ask can I ask another question

200of them like what are you missing now that this new person will add three of them three of them go ahead whoever wants to speak to speak or you want me to talk to that you understand the question what can't you do now so if we had an additional assisted principal I would add one per grade level that can really focus on the grade level needs the transitions into Middle School the transitions out of middle school and really work with if you look at the whole thing a a 12-month program director to adequately plan for the needs of our students it also gives a responsive nature to when students have anything that pops up that needs an administrative intervention we'll be able to right now there's three of us running the building and we're trying

201to cover for each other and be visible in the classrooms as much as possible and having another one will allow more time to do that it increases our visibility it increases our coaching with staff it increases our our forward facing with students getting to know getting to know their names getting to know their needs and so we would have a dedicated assistant principal per grade level to do that it it would honestly just give us more time to help kids okay just Jill just want to follow up a question on the um the PPT meetings which I understood was close to 50% currently of the assistant principal time so how with the addition of one additional assistant principal how would you envision that that would be changing now will we be able to split them

202amongst another administrator so we'd be able to look at having one per grade level and then having me take some of the higher ones that might need the level of principal that been there I can look at certain students and programs that I can assist with the program director would be taking other you would now have five dedicated staff in the building that can look at 504s and ppts versus the 4.5 we have now try to get that right so it gives us the dedicated staff in the building to do that okay other questions on this I just want to say though that it's the assistant principal is more than ppts there's a lot that goes into the day of working with students um and working with staff and being responsive to families the ppts

203is only a piece of it thank you okay all right thank you okay we will walk through then um the add cut list Allan if you want to unless there's something else you want no I just didn't know whether you wanted to reference the questions or okay sure you want any clarification on those we can just move through them quickly if you want I I won't really pause on them too much on professional development we we've tried to address that um generally speaking there's a lot more professional development uh I'm gonna interrupt you and just say let's go to the ad cut list because all of this corresponds to different R so whoever asked about professional development on the line item if they have questions on how you answered it they can pick up on

204that okay thank you Alan for bearing with me all right okay so any additional questions on the uh the first thing on here is the basically the administrative structure on the on the addition of assistant principles is there anything else anyone wants to know or as trct Greg I just have a broad question yes Greg when when we were going I guess I think when Jim was going through like the broader budget I think there was commentary around the cons the combined Board of Ed proposed ad Cuts was adding to the budget I just misreading this because it looks like it's subtracting $922,000 in aggregate am I not reading that right or duplicative yeah go ahead so again you have all ends there that means every proposal relative to the superintendent's budget except for the

205green line items are rejected okay the green line items are the administration's new proposals which have impacted it by a net whatever number those incremental deducts adjustments that from the administration only okay everything else you receive should have an end next to it so it's as if everything was rejected I don't want to speak to Mr Palin's assumptions of what was added what was subtracted because there's no yse next to it right okay he might have gone down and don't know why who knows um or the effect of so I just wanted to make sure we had a basis for like broadly the basis now is with the green that would be a a modified administrative proposed budget okay got it okay right anything on the assistant principal either at the high school or the

206uh Middle School okay any additional information on the art coordinator change anything to explain Alan as I'm going you hop in yep that's fine okay are you two Marge and Rich please um okay any uh on Robin salary savings any commentary questions sorry I didn't mean to call you up my name Rob on the uh contract support eliminating the director of Visual and Performing Arts restore director of music do you want to comment on that one Alan is that the well I just just the way I go through these I mean I just you forgive me for calibrating myself because when we're talking about some of these as a principle that we want to eliminate the like I'm not for some of these right so clearly I think you know my position on some of

207these so some of them are passing over but I'm not I'm not saying that I agree with the change from the board so I just want okay okay yeah to make it clear these are board propos okay the additional commentary on the ad of the elementary curriculum coordinator questions comments okay uh questions comments on the um this is a okay this is the a re an unstructural education restructure side of the administrative equation any comments or questions yes Katie I just wanted to comment that when I proposed this change I wasn't necessarily suggesting that the 10-month employees at the middle school and the high school couldn't or shouldn't become 12 month I think that that got lumped into here what I was really saying was that I was not for one position um being K

208through 12 so I wanted to add back K through five okay do we need to make any changes then just just to repeat are there Rich go ahead so what's on the ad cut sheet is essentially to revert back to what you have now um so we can leave that and then insert another line item to um potentially restore the elementary program director um um that and then just keep and then so it would be retaining the K through five and then making the change would be that the current Department chairs yes would right all right uh the addback of the World Language uh well there's two things in there right you made it K through 12 SAR I made it K through 12 yeah I just anecdotally I attended the incoming ninth grade orientation

209last night at the high school which was very well done but it was um it was a panel of all the department chairs and the special education department chair and the assistant principes and um it I just sat there thinking if we don't have you know if there was just an AP in that spot in the foreign language spot I just think the message that it sends it's it doesn't it doesn't jive well with me and you know that because I put this back on here but I think this is devaluing World Language and we heard a lot that that is um that is a widely respected piece of our curriculum um and it was also interesting that during the World Language presentation the current department chair referred to it as k12 and I don't

210know whether there was a lot of talk about the Continuum K through 12 so it I didn't I don't think she did that because I put it this way but it feels like that's how the department is being thought of currently and I'm just curious thoughts of if that's the way it's being run now or not I mean how much overlap is there between the K5 language and the current department chair I would think that uh if it was put back in it would be k12 and what what would what advantages would there be to having a K12 foreign language or are there disadvantages to doing that way you're the word language teer um naturally this the um Advantage would be having one consistent person that is informing the curriculum and the pacing of curriculum

211development at each level elementary middle and high um it's not to say that that can't be done when the responsibilities are shared across grade levels but there's one person with one you know one message yeah okay and I'll ask you guys the same question I asked the middle schoolers what cannot be H what would not happen if this role was not as it is now like if you that work was spread amongst many different people what what do you think would fall through the cracks and what would what would the dis what would what would happen and I know you're gonna you're gonna say we can handle it but I I think the big look I think the biggest thing that would not happen in people's eyes or otherwise the biggest thing it's not impacting

212the uh the students I will maintain that particularly teachers having a word language person in your classroom who's in that discipline but again I say this respectfully good teaching is good teaching if um if you're looking at Chinese you like you're not going to you're not going to understand that but but teachers value in the discipline area the professional learning and the support of comes along with it and so there that would be a level of support that they would understandably feel that has been taken away from them okay uh the next one's an admin we've already we've eliminate the scheduling consultant that's in here embedded in here as is the pair professional contract settlement okay we just we've talked about the special ed pair of professionals and we've talked about Transportation we've talked about

213El tuition we are now on the uh English department chair any comments or questions can I come in cor well just me of course I just honestly don't know this comes from in the sense of this was never on discussion I'm having a hard time enough putting some of these things on on for discussion I'm not sure where this one comes from and the relevancy of it I just I just can't see that like under any circumstances that happen can we ask for more clarification from the member who put this up sure Dave can you can you El why you feel like this is an important position to be on this list I think you could argue fairly broadly about the position generally I think here if you look at some of the performance in

214English and that the lines from K through five and then following on through the high school I think that we have a real concern here to the point that was just made that if you have one strong person who's coordinating that effort uh versus if we have the centralized and unfortunate that's not being done well I think that's a real challenge and so I think in the absence of having strong central um guidance then perhaps we need to think of another model like I just have to say here we're talking about performance again yeah that's again very we just had we just went through all of this and it was again we're talking about the performance of some at the table I just like M CH we we can't be talking about the performance of

215people at the table here think I said the word performance at all I said it strong centralized guidance I didn't use the word performance at all you were talking about scores I was well okay I think there are two different kinds of performance there's performance that has to do with scores and and ways of measuring overall academic performance which is what I understood you'd be referring to in this particular instance and then there is performance of specific folks I am in agreement with you that we are not we cannot talk about the performance of specific folks as I as I said from the beginning um uh so so what we rest with is is Dave what you're basically saying is overall you think a different model is in order that would be correct okay they

216uh the next one is the wellness coordinator anything else on this one I think we we spoke to it in the in the memorandum that it just it changes the days the days if you don't spend the money in the grant you'd have to return it it's part of the wellness package but thank you can can I just ask on that front how much is left in the grant is it for the full fiscal so it's two thirds of the individual and then every year it's going to go down a third so this is the first year you'll have a third hit the operating budget and then if it stays the following year it'll be two-thirds in the operating budget one third in the Grant and then the third year it have to be 100%

217so hypothetically there could be a third 3333 FTE cut and not impact the Grant on this line so we just been keeping the wellness center open three days out of the five days a week but you could do it without impacting the grant at Point yeah you would just as long as that person stayed or you found a replacement person yeah you could just keep it open then thank you okay the elimination of teen talk any additional commentary just throw in some anecdotal and the board leades on to thriving use task force and my first meeting this year um the Teen Talk counselor was there and she mentioned that it has been very very well received and that many students are utilizing it particularly um students of color which I found interesting but that was

218they that's the person in the building that they are um gravitating towards so totally anotal but okay did we know what we're what we're cutting here did we I'm not sure if we knew what we were cutting here and if so like why why are we cutting it what do you mean by that question Alan so it's it's it's team talk as a mental health resource that that we provided that we discussed last year in the budget so we're talking about cutting it I didn't know if if board member understood what we were cutting and if it is like why we just suggesting to cut it okay is there a reason your adusting to credit it's not fallowing upon a question here this evening okay would you like to provide any additional color on go

219ahead John I'm not gonna answer for Dave but Allan we are dealing with a very large budget budget increase 83% more than last year so in some ways some of us are trying to prioritize certain elements of this proposed budget and so I don't think it's as much as I meant dis agree with some elements of this I think we should have the latitude to um ask or request or propose certain line items to uh reduce the budget and in in my in my sense I had a couple items it was to prioritize where I thought things were most important and I would just follow up to comment that I think that there's been a lot of discussion about mental health this evening I think that's one of the most important things we do as

220a district and that we do it and we do it right I'm not sure that that's the case so maybe that's performance thing and I'm not allowed to question that we just throw FTE willy-nilly and everything gets fixed I disagree with that approach and so some of these Cuts reflect that because I don't think we can just take this halfhazard take chance not do things that are effective have admin come here and misrepresent what's going on in these programs that're not actually serving the purposes they're designed to serve so I will push back and I will challenge those and I will challenge you to get those correct Dave would you like some more information on team talk sure okay Alan can you guys take as as a Next Step some efficacy data on team talk

221so that that's fine f you asked me to bring up in this memorandum anything that was in here aligned to it and this is Al line to it so but I I respect what people are saying and I'll go with the flow um yeah and we'll see where it takes us y i me I'll be clear I I appreciate the point on on uh making sure that things are done well but I do believe that mental health is absolutely a board priority I'm more than happy to do the work uh to do it better but I wouldn't I won't be cutting anything in the budget this year on Mental Health um Jill yes just one thing when we get the mental health updates which I believe are on the agenda quarterly at least yeah it

222would be helpful at least even this spring to have an update on not only what Dr dad is doing but also team talk you know all the e see data the wellness center yeah so that everyone can get an update on how these programs are working because it is very new and I think there are still questions about that yep thank you okay uh professional Library per purchase uh any that's that's $350 um professional development eliminate the neas visit and staff PD you have a comment on that Allan um I'll just point to to just for Simplicity that point three on the on the memorandum it's it's reducing restorative justice practices literacy numeracy seal play based learning udl and AP training yes CL Katie so um this potentially a two-pronged question um the first I

223would ask um to Dave um when I was reading through this packet it it seemed to me that the answers from Administration got specific in a way that I don't remember board members delineating at the table so I in this instance then I I want to ask Mr Brown if if when you were when you were eliminating the professional development were you being specific to the um neas visit or no it wasn't it was really again just with a tough budget year in that particular category looking at a situation where we do have a number of requirements have been sort of foed upon the teachers and that seems to be increasing year-over-year some comes from the state some comes from the admin and so I think by putting everything on the table that sort of

224forces the the question begs it if you will it makes us really have to do a deep dive and look through that and what's necessary what must we have what mustn't we have can we take a pause on something from the year and really you know to do that unfortunately as we all know an ad cut sometimes there's policy questions that wind up in here and it gets conflated sometimes people are sending signals are trying to attract attention to thing and public doesn't understand these opportunity to comment so you know it's an imperfect process uh that may be one where it was unclear but I really think this involves taking a step do we really have to do all this this year yeah because it's this rule yeah because it's that rule and maybe taking

225it back and I think as we're going to perhaps be cutting back on teachers or have that tough challenge what can we do to free them up and free those resources to better do their Frontline job thank you I appreciate that so then just to follow up I I would I would say that um not exactly sure how to phrase this but I was a bit uncomfortable when I was reading some of the spec specifics that admin put into the answers about what would be cut and I think coming back to John's point you know this board does have line item veto so it's not just about you know if a board member even proposed say a 10% cut like it might not be the the specific programs that were put in there so I

226just want to award word of caution on on saying what would be cut if that was not the words out of the board member the only thing that I would add to that Katy is that we have line item V2 in terms of the number but but beneath that if Allan chooses the nas visit as what he wants to put up he does have latitude over that so we don't have the ability to say I want it to be the nas visit or I don't want it to be the nas visit we're just approving the number just just for clarification okay we'll leave that for go ahead and then Greg Y in lines to that discretion you just referenced that's within budget categories not broadly within project yes correctly correctly correct thank you yes correct

227I was just gonna ask a followup to to this conversation is it possible to get a breakdown not just for this professional development Cate category but each of them in terms of what is required because I know that when I read did the followup reading there was there's certain requirements is not it's it's part of the questions U was it was it broken out across all of the different like for all professional development across everything or I see 19 well I think the question was what was the professional development required by the state so right so I can I read through that and it talks about like minimum number of hours and things like that I don't know how to translate that back into the budget line items um any you want to talk about

228that or well I would just add that we also provided information um from uh recommended legislative update from the C I should say Cave the Cave list of required trainings that was one I'm sorry the second piece was the most recent legislative update from 2023 that has specific trainings so in addition to that we looked at rc19 which most of those are in that category and we we list stood there what was required and what is not does that help Gregor do you need more information I'll take another look at it and I can follow up okay thank you okay all right we've got a couple different PD categories anything else on [Music] those uh clubs and councils any anything to add Alan well we did list all the clubs and Council that we were

229talking about so we didn't want to make a we attached the list to the Excel spreadsheet it was own one of the tabs so just to clarify this this is the stien like if you so what does this 20% rich mean so the only thing in clubs and councils for the district are the stiens everything else is either fundraised or um things like that so if you're going to do a 20% reduction to the high school clubs and councils you're cutting a club state right so you can't contractually the sien is the Sion so we can't 20% of so we are cutting you're cutting 20% of clubs and counil you're cutting 20% of the current clubs and councils at DHS yeah you have to cut specific Club okay any other questions on clubs and councils

230yes Dave and again this purposes of exercise of 20% generally was not a uh disdain for dis uh golf or anything particular it was really just taking a look what is the attend what's the attrition rate who's in it by the end of the year what's the participation do we have other ways of doing it perhaps less clubs that are poorly attended or perhaps things where people don't last for the year we have part of that answered with the listing of the clubs that exist but some of that other information was not forthcoming so this is an exercise to try and gather that information perhaps see if that 20 number per number is actually a good number or not a good number and have that information make an informed decision also maybe a challenge to

231the staff uh can we do a little more with less this year given the tough bu budget situation okay so is there more information that can be um gathered about the the clubs and whether we have any that are so we gave we gave attendance they don't check attendance every week they get updates from the people who are running the clubs and councils on what the attendance is and if it drops off you know then they don't run the club the next year but I can see if they've done a check-in okay Robin um just so looking at this list so you have on here the math Modeling club math team it's my understanding that for members of say like the math Honor Society they are required to do certain things including math Modeling club

232or math tutoring or things like that that are part of their community service hours and so if you if you were going to take away those then I think it kind of reduces the effectiveness and the intent of the Mu Alpha Theta math Honor Society as an example and I think National Honor Society might have some things in here as well I'm not sure okay so is there um do does the board is there a question that we want information on meaning that I I take your point are there this kind of a list is going to be put together there needs to be a little bit of thought into which clubs we're saying we would actually cut because I think this would actually end up disrupting some of the um student and academic kinds

233of clubs that we have that it's just just a comment when I looked at the in initial list so so the follow-up question is probably we need to see what the recommendation is over and above the actual list okay yes Dave no if that wasn't a question I'd POS that question in addition to what I was trying to get okay yeah that'd be great okay um on to teachers we have more restoring some teachers any commentary on that okay music teacher is on there Julie any commentary um well sorry thank you for the prompt um I guess if we could just look quick at what was in the packet of answers and maybe if there's a 30 second version of what we're supposed to take away from those charts I don't know from those I

234spoke to I'm not sure that they were very understandable um some of those charts like the math didn't add up and I March can you talk us through it talking about the middle school or the special areas because I'm going to defer to Rich on the Middle School um I'm speaking to the special area uh that include the cuts to the music department right so the T my takeaway would be to look at that right hand column which is the aggregate of what they're suggesting that we have for example in figure 1.3 General music he's suggesting that we have 1.5 FTE access and he does that by taking the total number of um hours available in a six- day cycle how many they're teaching how many he really feels they need to be teach teaching

235and so we have 1.5 FTE extra that 1.5 would include travel time that's why we didn't take the whole 1.5 so he has two charts one with travel time and one without and do we have one place and we may so bear with me where we capture what we presently have allocated to each school for Strings band Etc and what we're proposing and how many sections we need or how many hours of instruction we need at each of those places I feel like the summary page is missing right so 1.4 talks about Bandon strings what I will say is when you look at what we currently have somewhere we have to charge travel time and I think there's a Mis impression every strings teacher and every band teacher is itinerant so there's no they're not

236dedicated to one school so each one has travel time and so that's why I think that we were having trouble figuring out how much token he has because it can unfortunately be arbitrary where the travel time is charged and so I think that um Mr levenson has told us here that we have some excess capacity inandon strings at the elementary that's not the intention of where we would take the cuts but that's that's why it's hard to look at where we charge things now it's really travel time Joe can I just ask a followup question I mean I I had thought this was more element I'm looking at figure A1 which is the getting to your point Julie about the allocated to the schools required specials FTE capacity by school but this is not including

237travel time and the question I had looking at this at the right column um where they talk about equivalent FTE capacity I noticed that at Royal and token for music royal has 0.1 capacity for General music token has 02 but the proposed cuts to music teachers at the schools is 04 so it appears that we would be cutting beyond the actual capacity of the teachers and that's what I I wanted to just ask a question about how that again that's because at this point the travel time can get charged in I just can't say it any in any more palatable way a little bit arbitrarily so token and Royal will end up with the FTE they need and we'll talk about how to better represent travel time in the budget for you so to you're

238right token has the same number of sections as home so they should have the same amount and it's just the numbers that we were given to put into munus at the beginning of the year so it's not that those kids are not receiving lessons it's just that the travel time got charged to home I'm sorry so you're saying the travel time was in this chart because it says this chart but it's in what you were looking at what no but I'm looking at the one he did just now that's why I guess my question is if if we do this and we do the implementation with the consultant if it comes up that certain schools when you add in the travel time for in for instance would we be able to reallocate among schools just

239to make sure that we are not cutting into that that was really I'm sorry 100% okay anybody else on music so we're going down the line and I believe if I'm not the right spot it was my uh reduction of English teacher and math teacher and I think it was pretty clear when I proposed it so I don't wish to comment any further other than to say um that 6051 gives discretion to one person and one person only in terms of class size per comments earlier and that's a superintendent um then we go to elementary teacher eight any comments Mr I'm sorry are we talking about the the plus 10 teacher aids and then the plus five okay yeah good I was in the right spot um Denny uh building substitute you want anybody want

240to comment any further no okay um John may have good question oh I'm sorry I looking absolutely yeah thank you um just from a comment we heard this evening do we have two open or unfilled building sub positions presently so right now there's one at the high school and Royal but Royal is because that one is filling in um on a long-term sub position so we're looking for a temporary sub but that long-term sub position will be over soon and they'll go back into their position so it's just trans thank you thanks um then Katie's uh restoration of the art teacher any comments or questions okay rc9 principal I get the uh the glory of of talking about this item um Marge I think it first perhaps you can talk about the contractual obligation regarding

241U what this proposal if carried through would result in so the cut of the point two at Royal so under the daa contract um a tene administrator does have bumping rights so to cut a point two from the principal of Royal that person would bump into what is now the vacant Oxford position and the Royal principal position would be a point8 okay so there's no provision in the contract to do salary I thought the proposal was to eliminate a point2 FTE and that triggers bumping so hearing that Mr Brown do you have any thoughts in terms of what that means in your proposal and how that change might change your proposal no I think the proposal um you know when I posed the question initially I asked if that was you know something we could

242even consider so now we have that information and seems that that's not something that's doable seems like this is a non issue Okay so be clear we're going to eliminate that suggestion correct okay thank you okay thank you John moving on to the assistant principal any additional uh pardon not the assistant oh oh assant sorry sorry go ahead any additional questions or clarification from board members this is the elementary school ones I mean I guess my only additional commentary would be you know the reason why this was included in here was and this is my first go go through on the budget cycle in looking at kind of the procedure that that Dr adley is taken you know he brought in new solutions to look at the faculty I thought it was odd that we

243didn't also look at the administration and so as we've gotten more and more information around the administration it seemed like versus the other the rest of the dur that we are over staffed from an Administration perspective and digging into that even more it seemed like Big Driver of that is our assistant principal ratio versus students and so I think that this may not be something that's solvable during this budget season but I think it's something that I wanted to make sure was on the table so that we can deal with this well in advance of the next budget cycle and maybe that means new Sol new Solutions needs to look at our Administration do the same analysis that they did on the faculty and provide some insight there okay you don't have to I'm not

244pushing on it there are two different possibilities you want to continue to explore it in this budget cycle at all or is it something you want to explore post this budget [Music] cycle as long as we have it earmarked for future budget Cycles I'm fine with taking it off okay I I'm more than happy to take it as a as a line item to review thank you okay participation fees we'll start with John's model any comments or questions okay participation fees the model wow I have a model question just a point on that is that um you know I think we're in a difficult budget year and it's a way to raise revenue personally I don't think it's the way to do it I I don't have kids in a school my kids benefited from

245playing Athletics and they was built on taxpayers who paid that before um I think I think we we all benefit from the the the wonderful school system that we have and that to burden um School AG parents with an additional tax is unfair and unjust but it is a big line item so I will leave it in and let the rest of you decide but not a fan of it but wa so you're not try again you don't want participation fees in a vacuum but you want it left on because it is a big line item if we find we need one is that if if we and again if we're you know we had the the RTM and the board of Finance coming and say the budget is too high if the RT C

246is going to vote down our budget because it is too high then maybe it's a way to lower that number and tax and we do a a one-year tax on school age parents to not affect services to school to children but I am not a fan of that I and I don't agree with backing into a number I think we have to do what is right by the students of darianne and whatever that number is is where we come out with with what the number is and the taxpayers will pay that number okay Robin gate fees gate receipts any questions on that we are we G we didn't have any participation fee questions on the sorry fire away sorry no no I just I just my my mistake um gate fees I don't have any

247questions no okay all right uh so rc1 I think there was just a reduction which is you guys have coded to in Scholastics because that's what you would recommend and there was detail in the is that correct Rich so the request was to cut the in clastics account by 100,000 so we identified the uniforms within that account that could make up that could make up that number okay can I ask a question about that so rich with those with that list is that basically saying that you are delaying the uniform replacement cycle by a year or would those be reconditioned you'd be delaying the uniform replacement cycle by so they would so you'd be seeing these expenses in the fiscal 26 budget and the uniforms would just be using the uniforms from the prior year

248with no reconditioning uh some of them would be reconditioned but for the most part You' just be using the uniform as it okay any other questions Julie thank you I think my question was or was intended to be a 10% cut to the operating budget not to that line so uh Mr proposed $100,000 cut to that line on him but this okay so this also though says 102 o1 that's just where you took it from for the most part okay we can break that out because we did take it from other okay um and then I had asked and hadn't seen yet um two other follow-ups I'd asked for a little more detail on what's in 1021 over the years or the last three years or um Beyond just the uniform replacement which I know

249we received um what's in there for this budget um so if we could could get a little more info on that that would be helpful I'd also asked sorry so it is in the uh the P student um schedule so it's the supplies for like uniforms it's fees for competitions and the rental price that we pay for the split sports like hockey skiing Etc okay I was just trying to figure it out because it looks like the numbers don't change until then it's a year that you're getting uniforms for that team so so there's a replacement cycle so there are ups and downs when you have a big year for replacement Cycles you tend to get that big up next year Bas it's the base number though I'm saying that like most like the teams

250will they always have $5,000 for that line until they're getting a uniform for the most part so the supplies don't change prices uh very little we could break out the supplies if you want that's the only thing we've found that doesn't change prices that's amazing um and then my other question had been a little more information on the process for um setting budgets or getting estimates for uniforms we have some huge swings in uniforms so typically the athletic director will ask for like a verbal quote or an actual quote uh for it again that quote is from October uh so it's not necessarily held through uh okay the time the budget's adopted okay because like if you break them down on a per person they are all over the map we have some athletes who

251are getting $545 uniforms and some get $22 uni and I appreciate that different things are needed for different sports so there's no more information to be had there it's just a oneoff there's okay so $42,000 worth of lacrosse uniforms is is the right answer and the best place to go okay thank you okay snow renewal if you have questions God bless you but no questions all right Auditorium fees no question okay 10% increase to building rentals any questions no field rentals we had uh a couple of consultant Services the scheduling consultant is already off the table but the uh so Dave this was an aggregate cut again as I recall and so I think these are the specific things hands up if you yes Dave uh yeah so uh not looking to cut the demographer

252uh eliminating The Weather Service I think if we're not having snow that just makes perfect sense the consulting services with um with where we are on that you know let's buy some copies of the book I don't think we need to come come in and explain it to us uh in terms of legal fees same idea with the snow um you know let's just we we don't have the contracts up this year if we can make it not snow then maybe we can make us not have legal bills or maybe we can just lean on our Council a little bit and keep that in line so and I guess I have Do's membership so yeah C I think those speak for themselves and then the one for Richard lamond's organization again I think that speaks

253for itself March I'm not sure if that's another one that can be done or we have a contractual restriction on that thanks March did we have an answer on that one Alan in here yeah yeah just it's just part of my contract so that can't be cut shouldn't okay uh okay the next one is the executive assistant any comments or questions um thank you so I propose this not necessarily well certainly not um presuming that the superintendent doesn't need or deserve some uh help from an administrative assistant um I think I think my point was that were there opportunities to share Services there um I think it's an important conversation to be having this budget season in particular with all the things that are on the table um so I felt compelled to include it

254in the conversation um I understand that it it is considered to be an unreasonable ask to operate without um but I know we we have turnover at the moment um and as we work through it if there's any way to find some more efficiencies I would encourage us to do it but I will take that cut off the table at the moment okay Dave got his oh Dave I'm sorry I'm not looking can I put this cut back on now or is that not an option are we doing that tonight I'm not sure what the scope is uh you can I think we're in the middle of a hiring process okay for the for the person so I think that's the rub yeah I just don't understand the one to one coverage that doesn't seem

255at all reasonable in this day and age so just trying to understand that there go ahead said he asking about one to one coverage I'm assuming one to one coverage mean mean the superintendent having personal assistance yeah I want admin I think you look most places most CEOs have an executive assistant that's going to I don't know what the point if we're getting that but if if it's really saving money certainly have would look at that if I could um but I need a personal assistant okay so you you make a mind up you won't want it but you don't I'm sorry I didn't hear theed off said the board can make a decision whether they want to have that personal assistant or whether they don't I I I need one okay so that's what

256I would say I expect one but I'll leave that decision for the board you had some can you walk us through the narrative that you provided please well yes I just that that U Gran has uh a Communications person and we're trying to work through some Communications issues and we have you know we've talked about the communication uh a communication consult our position half time something else um and certainly the person that I would be looking to hire here would have communication expertise that would move us along in some Direction but it wouldn't be solely that it wouldn't be solely for communications if we want a Communications person we get all at in a Communications person but the person I would I would have would have high communication skills U contemporary communication skills yes sorry

257Katie you guys I'm sorry I'm keep looking at holler um so I wanted to ask if um if there had been any discussion or consideration given not necessarily to reducing the FTE but potentially the salary range um you know my understanding is that the person exiting that position had over 40 years of experience and loyalty to the school so is it possible to realiz some efficiencies just in potentially with someone you know that might be um closer to the beginning of their career that could train up and and learn um the district from from within is that an option well oh certainly expected realiz some saving in that position yes you can you quantify that not until I see I work through the work through the process any color you could give on like what

258we might be able to expect like is it possible that this could be a $60,000 position is 75 realistic I think it's probably going to be north of 75 to replace somebody with the skills that we're looking for for the superintendent it's very public facing position so it can't really be somebody who's sort of new in that realm Dave two quick follow-ups um Marge if we're doing somebody for communications separate from somebody as an executive assistant do we have any idea what that would cost ballpark so I think they're all over the place in this right uh there are only a handful in Fairfield County districts that have it and they range from a low of 75 to a high of $170,000 um so the districts that have it like grenwich has one for example

259Stanford Norwalk Fairfield uh have it uh new Kanan has one as well they're actually the low end they're at that $75,000 range U but they are all over the map got it and so for those examples you cited Rich Fairfield Greenwich they have an a single executive assistant to the super plus a Communications person so everybody with the exception grenwich has an executive assistant for the superintendent and then also a Communications person so grenwich has one superintendent or one admin assigned to one superintendent in addition to an outside so Greenwich has an admin who's shared by the superintendent and the assistant superintendent and then a full-time director of communications and then also a part-time C uh communication specialist sorry all right so the admin shared the admin is shared and then they have one and

260a half Communications thanks Rich no okay okay um Greg other to be clear are you adding cutting back in or I think that was pending whether I could or not but maybe we'll just punch for now okay so right now it's removed correct thank you uh Greg any commentary on the or Alan anything to add on the other B expenses Boe expenses or maybe Rich you want to add it's just some of the some of the this stuff here uh that we're doing at the moment that an impact uh the salary for for that particular service that that the person is providing we reduce the time of the meetings would that reduce I'm not the the person who records the meetings not is not our employee uh he is third party contractor and so the

261rates are going up and for the record the recordings are our minutes like that's what we that that is how we have the details all right we've already talked about $3,000 in a one21 million budget all right PD curriculum development the direct questions okay dues and memberships okay director of mental health questions or comments director of Elementary education question or [Music] comments the next PD line item for 19 questions or comments [Music] Julie I think my question is about what you had chosen you would cut in order to arrive at that and it was an item on the required PD list so I was curious about that choice I think it was the the responsive classroom right well we we wouldn't be um failing to adhere to the requirement we have other other opportunities within

262the district to also support that work but um we would we wouldn't have quite the same um opportunity for our new District administrators for example to have the same training that has been happening in the district historically but we would we would still requirement okay and that's still where you'd go over elective right I well I would pick I picked would have the least impact to the overall programming for professional learning for our staff okay thank you very because I we can still meet that need thank you online subscriptions EOP tuition I think you've already talked about campus monitor comments or questions all right we at the end of the uh line item list is there anything else that anyone else would like to Capital pardon capital capital actually I have a capital comment capital

263thank you I actually want to add the um high school desks back into operating we've been asked by FMB to do that so we might as well talk about it got that one anything else in capital Katie um rich just one clarifying question to make sure that I understood our last discussion but the um the snowblower at Ox Ridge can you can you just quantify like what the minimum amount of snow is that it can handle like is there a threshold of when you know the snow is below it being effective we would use it if there's at least a couple inches so the last snowstorm we had didn't quite reach that level though right so the first snowstorm we had did and uh that took six hours with five people there to clean really

264like 30 right yeah so really like 30 hours um while the school is beautiful from a maintenance standpoint there are a lot of sidewalks it's a much bigger lot um if we just look at the two storms we had now um you'd get your money back on the snowstorm within you know five or six years considering very little snow actually happening um I know we spent very little last year we've already spent about $188,000 this year in stone removal and the bulk of that is at oxridge so I mean if you wanted to lower the snow removal account in the operating budget the way to effectively do it is to provide the Machinery available to our custodians and our grounds crew to do it and then one followup question what's the um remind me of

265the average lifespan for this type of Machinery so it should last over 10 years okay so I'm happy to remove this um from the cut at it okay all right based on what we heard this evening are there any other requests or comments um in terms of an overall look at this budget no we're satisfied with where we are we have two more budget discussions um you know we've heard from a lot of people in the community we've heard from Board of Finance we've heard from FTM FTM a couple times um we have a lot to think about um we'll meet next W next Tuesday 6th yes on the budget calendar on the budget calendar I thank you all for your time you have a mo let me just check the agenda but I'd like

266a motion to right I'm right yeah Mo to motion to adjourn that's John seconded by Julie all those in favor that's thank you very much