Board of Education: April 6th, 2026

001is uh 601 and I'd like to call the Eastline Board of Ed the meeting to order for Monday, April 6th. For those of you stand al to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay, first order of business is we have some special recognition. Bring it over to I turn over Mr. Kid. Yes. He's going to introduce uh teachers and guests. >> Perfect. Thank you everybody for having us. I'm joined by some wonderful people this evening. Uh I'll just mention really quickly that last um week um Superintendent Newton, myself, Miss Gada, and Miss Latanzi had the um privilege of joining some of our students up at the Cass Arts Banquet um which was a wonderful evening. And we got to hear from a keynote

002speaker. I think he was assistant professor of jazz up at um Yukon and he talked a lot about how the arts are the place where our humanity lives. Um and you know it's these experiences that our students get um you know because of the hard work of our teachers and the power of that creation and in producing something out of nothing. I think that really speaks to um the importance of the arts at Eastland High School, but just in general for all of us in an era where, you know, AI can duplicate a lot of things quickly. What it can't duplicate is that human emotion. So, um the arts are really important to us at East Lime High School and really proud to have this group of people here to celebrate today. Um these students

003have reached a high level. Um and they are representatives. They do not they we have a lot of students who are you know achieving a lot of things and who are very successful at the high school. Uh but these students uh are creating expressing and contributing something very meaningful to our community. Um and we're very fortunate to have Mr. Maize and Mascada here this evening who have been at the high school with me same amount of time that I have been here exactly I think what 21 year we came in together 21 years ago. So, I'm going to invite them each up and they're going to tell you a little bit about the students that they are um recognizing this evening. Um so, Miss Gator, we can start with you. >> Thank you for having

004me. So, I would like to introduce Ellie Mansfield. Um her list of accomplishments is long, so I'll try to keep it brief. Uh she was uh like Henry had said the past art award winner for 2026. She's also the Rotary art award winner for 2026. Um she's been involved with the Panagans atit art center as an intern and that was in the summer of 2025. Her duties have included being a teachers aid for art classes at a summer camp in New London. And she also helped create a mural for East Line Park and Wreck which she received a stipen for. She is also the leader of the East Lang High School Art Club and her duties include running and promoting the club, welcoming new members, helping organize beautifification efforts at East Lang High School through

005creating murals for teachers classrooms on Tuesdays. And she also hosts and runs an open studio time for this club on Fridays after school. Uh her work was recently submitted for consideration at the Shoreline Arts Alliance jury exhibition in Westboro, Connecticut. So, we're waiting to hear back about what has been accepted for that, which is really exciting. And Ellie is currently deciding between Maryland Institute College of Art and the National College of Art and Design in Dublin for college next year, which is really exciting. And she has brought some artwork to share with you. Want to come up? This is a watercolor illustration to pass around. We can touch it. Yes. I have two other pieces I'll show with you guys. I'll do it on the other side of the bathroom. So kind of diagnosed. >>

006Who's your favorite artist? >> Uh, I like Van Go a lot. also Alice Neil is the second line right the port artist I like uh Nora McInness also >> you're very talented I don't think you sharing >> do you sell any of your >> not yet >> you should go to the east workshop >> how long does it take you to >> um it depends the like medium pencil I can get done quicker um like that the still the drawing of the man um I got done maybe like an hour and a half. Um but obviously the marker and watercolor take a little longer. Yeah. >> What's your favorite medium? >> I do like watercolor a lot but I also like colored pencil. >> Nice. >> Very talented. Incredible. >> Have you done this since

007you were little? >> Yes. >> With the astronaut and the snail, >> you know. the cross was like remember what it was but the meaning of that is like life on Mars so like extraterrestrial life um >> yeah how would you describe your art >> um I like like story book styles a lot you know that's what I try to achieve the best >> very cool very thank you for sharing >> and you had good instruction ction here at the ICS from a very hard worker but that it's definitely a huge part of it and Ellie um she walks the walk like her actions speak volumes about her work ethic and what she's got very proud >> thank you so Hello, >> I'm Anthony May. It's actually been Oh, thanks. It's actually been 22 years.

008I'm sorry. Good point. Um, I'm here to represent the entire music department. Uh, so when Henry asked me, you know, what what who would be good to highlight and it just immediately popped because we just had two festivals almost in a row. Uh we did the New England f New England music festival which was a few weeks ago. We had two students attend that. We had Grace Tuscillo plays the obo and Josh Payne who plays the violin. Um so what these festivals uh entail is a lot of extra work outside of the classroom. These kids are always uh you know putting in so much effort in rehearsals preparing the music for our concerts. Completely different repertoire, completely different program. and they're putting out a lot of time rehearsing the music assuming they've gotten in. There's

009a lot of preparation that goes into uh before so they can be ready when they arrive at these festivals. Essentially, I'm getting ahead of myself. So, if you don't know, uh they need to go on a Saturday to do an audition and basically you get a qualifying score or not, but these students have uh and if you get a qualifying score, you're invited to perform at the festival. What that entails is they like basically say shovel a whole bunch more music, learn this in a few weeks and then you're going to come rehearse it with probably some college professor and all of the other students in the area whatever that you know encompasses for the different festival. Uh and you they're there in some cases two nights. So you got a most of the day

010Thursday, all day Friday, they wake up early, they do it again Saturday, and the performance is uh incredible usually uh on Saturday afternoon, evening. Um so it's the preparation for the audition piece or pieces in some cases. Uh the courage that it takes to put yourself out there and do something like that, uh the passion and then of course if you get accepted, it's all that extra work as well. Um, so we just wanted to uh recognize the students that have done that this year. So I'd already talked about Grace and Josh who did the New England festival. Uh, was it the following week or two weeks later? >> Um, >> it was just the following week. So Josh and six other of our students did All State the week before uh the week after

011New England Festival. Um, which is very very similar except it's as you can imagine it's just Connecticut. Um, in a lot of ways it's actually uh even more competitive than the New England Festival, although it's kind of subjective. Uh, the New England Festival, anyone in New England can do it, but not all schools do. But they're both extremely competitive. Uh, but there's first step, which is regionals. So, we're in the Eastern Region, as you can imagine. So, all of the seven kids that got into All State first had to audition and participate in the festival for regionals was at the beginning of January. Uh, so we have again Joshua Payne also did all state two weekends in a row. He didn't go to a lot of class a couple weeks. I'm sure it didn't stress

012him out even a tiny bit as he's not an overachiever at all. Um, and then Aubrey Dalton represented us at All State this year as a sophomore. She was in the choir. So, thank you Aubrey for representing us. Uh, I think I can remember it. The other kids that did All State, we had Tyler Chantrell who is a percussionist, Aiden Arasco, also a percussionist. We had Erin Hang who plays violin. Uh we had Isabella Villa Royale who played she plays the flute and the piccolo. She got in on piccolo which is incredibly competitive as well because they only usually need one. Um who am I missing? Danielle Kim plays the clarinet. Did I skip anybody? Was that seven kids? >> All right. But I just love to really recognize if you would to stand perspective.

013Uh sometimes people will ask me would kids make it to all states? Is that like in track when you make it to states? And I always answer yes and no. It is just as paramount and incredible of an accomplishment. But the cool thing about these music festivals is that once you've competed and gotten accepted, then it's just an experience. They just get to make music together as a brand new team. There's no more you're at this school, you're at that school. And what's really cool is that a lot of these festivals, kids make friends, especially if they start getting in freshman, sophomore year, and they see these kids year after year, and they make these bonds and these friendships with kids from all over the state or sometimes all over New England. And that's one

014of the coolest things about ensemble music is that community. So, thank you so much for representing our school. Thank you. Everybody's got a picture for you. >> Hey, >> perfect. Congratulations. >> Thank you. Thanks. Appreciate >> it. Thank you very much. >> we did have a question. If any are any of the performances somewhere where you can watch them online or >> I can try to give them to someone. It changes year to year. It's very often recorded. Sometimes parents have to like >> order like buy it >> and sometimes they just put it on YouTube. It depends. So, >> okay. >> I'll try to figure that out. >> Okay. >> Great. Thank you. >> Who wants to listen? >> I do. >> You're welcome to stay, but you can >> go if you'd like.

015>> Our feelings will Thank you. >> Okay. Next order of business is public comment. Any public comment state name and address and three minutes and then mark 21 road. At the last meeting, some people cited statistical studies that seem to argue against armed security officers or school resource officers. These studies do not predict where, when, or why a school shooting might occur or why. They do not explain why districts like Sandy Hook and many other similarly situated instituted armed security measures post incident. If the data doesn't support it, then why build it? Postmortem statistics do not prevent attacks. And what comfort do they offer to the parents of a dead or an injured child? None. Crime statistics are in fact routinely manipulated to show a desired outcome. I've seen it firsthand. Always ask who funded

016or conducted the study and whether the results are being presented to support. As Don Hall said, having a fire suppression system in place before a fire is not overkill. It is a necessary common sense precaution. This measure is an insurance policy, a risk reduction strategy. Our children and staff deserve nothing less. Some argue that even more resources should go to mental health services. Excuse me. Mental health support is important and has its place. But in over 30 years of combined military and law enforcement experience, you know what I've never seen? I've never seen a mental health counselor respond to subdue a violent armed attack. Never. Somebody must be ready to respond to gun violence immediately with equal or overwhelming force in the right here in the right now. Others suggested logic that assumes attackers are

017necessarily students or that mental illness somehow excuses violence. That is patently not true. Entering a school or any other facility to harm others is never acceptable. Someone must stop the attack first. Everything else comes later. Our children and staff should not bear the cost of political ideology or flawed assumption. If recent events have taught us anything, it is that the reason for attacks span the lexicon and are committed by all manner of misreads. Comparing the number of school shootings to the total number of school days is completely disingenuous and it's a stark denial of reality. Statistically, your chances of perishing in an airplane crash. Our infiniteesimally small vis the number of flight cycles occurring daily. Yet we constantly strive to make airs travel safer. We should not and must not ignore real threats. How many

018more incidents must occur before this board acts? If tragedy struck your child, would you dismiss it as a statistical anomaly? I certainly will not. And that's a promise. If government wants to maintain their monopoly on sanctioned violence and providing education, then you must act to strengthen the institutions that make them possible and stop ringing your hands. You cannot cast your good judgment to the whims of a few and realistically expect parents to subjugate their judgment to yours in return. I can appreciate your efforts to be over egalitarian and accommodating at this and other issues, but there are times when you must act in schools and children's best interests alone. This is one of those stunts. Voters and malent be his and your staff deserve nothing less than that of those security groups. Threat is real

019and slime is not immune. The responsibility and viability now rest with this board. Do the right thing. Implement this measure for with hopefully it will never be tested. So if it if it is, let's be ready. Thank you. Thank you. Any other public comment? Name, address, and minutes. Bill Ricks 38 Bill Harris. Um, I gave a lot of my testimony and background info at the special meeting. One thing I didn't mention to everyone up was for years we've had uniform officers in and out of our schools caring openly and now we have the opportunity to have the same uh trained individuals protecting our kids day in and day out. I just think it's a no-brainer not to do this. There's no difference between uniform and the non-uniform. And now we're going to have a bigger

020error of safety. Thanks. Any other public comment? >> I'mia 46 road. >> Sorry. Sorry. Did you repeat that one more time? >> 46 Bravo. Thank you. >> I'm sorry. I have a call. Sorry. >> Um I'm here to speak up my concerns. I hope we are all here to listen and discuss the real events that are happening in our schools. And if you are not here to listen to the people who elected you and trusted you with our kids education, then I don't know why we all here. I was hoping that we are not the school district that ignore concerns and complaints. Um I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I was hoping that we are not the school district that ignore concerns in place but so far we have been ignored by by all of you. I

021previously sent an email to all of you and the respond that I got from Mr. Newton was thank you for sharing your thoughts that shows no care for what your community have to say. I would like to share these pictures with all of you. U those are pictures of my grandson's heights all over his body which are which are reactions of high levels of stress for being in an environment that we call school. These are not just those that I want to share. Those are real events that are harming my grandson. There is no full day that I can go without thinking that we are putting him through this because he's an innocent kid that don't make his own choices just like all of your kids. We made these choices for him. We are defining

022his future. And I just can't let this kid happen. He deserves like any other kid to have a a happy education experience. And right now he's not even having an education. There is issues in our system that is leading to our kids pay the consequences. Please give it a chance to talk about it and find solutions. I am very sure there is more families like us that are going through situation like us and they either don't have the time to advocate for their kids or they choose to move out of town or simply they give up and have their their kids suffer the consequences. Other families choice choice to hire the services of lawyers which is ridiculous that we have to do that when education is a right for everyone. But if I you're not

023open to listening and you're not open to discuss and find solutions, there will be more kids out there suffering for as long parents don't advocate for their own children. Please give the opportunity to discuss alternatives change for change not just for my child but for all our kids with special needs. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any other public comments? Any other public comment? Oh, >> good evening. 764. >> What was your name one more time? I don't know why I'm having trouble hearing this evening. I'm sorry, >> Earl Smith, sorry, Earl. >> No worries. So, I'm both an educator and a parent to raise similar policy concerns regarding the use of out of district placements and special education decision making. My experience, I've observed cases in which students placed out of district are placed out

024of district and subsequently experience significant increases in serious behaviors, including self-injury and aggression. These increases occur after placement alongside a substantial loss of access to their home schools, peers, and local school communities. In these situations, students are effectively removed from their neighborhood schools and required to remain in more restrictive environments, often without meaningful access to the setting in which their peers are educated and the setting in which their parents start funding. This is not inclusion. This is exclusion by placement. We need to be honest about what is happening in systems like this. When out of district placement becomes the default response or when it is used in ways that result in permanent separation from a student's home school, we risk creating a system that does not support students within their schools, but instead removes them

025from them. We cannot allow a system in which students are separated from their own school communities in ways that are not necessary to their education or consistent with the intent least restrictive environment. When that happens, we are no longer ensuring access to education. We are restricting it. History has already shown us where this leads. Segregated schools were once justified through language of appropriateness. separate but equal institution institutionalization in state hospitals was once justified as specialized care. In both cases, separation was framed as support. We now recognize these systems for what they were. Exclusionary structures that remove people from the communities instead of building capacity to serve them. We must be careful not to repeat that pattern in modern form. If we truly believe in equity, then our systems must be designed not around who is

026easiest to place elsewhere, but around serving all students within their least restrictive environment and most connected to their community. Right now, that is not what happen. I'm asking the board to examine how out of district placements are being used, whether they being applied in ways that unnecessarily sever access to homeschool communities, and whether current practices are fully aligned with the intent, spirit, and requirements of special education law. This is not a request for comfort. It is a request for accountability and how we define access, placement, and belonging for students with disabilities in this district. Thank you. Any other public comment? Hearing none, I close this public comment and we move on to special reports and we have S here for our high school representative. >> Yeah. Hello everyone. So, uh, just starting off last month,

027senior class hosted comedy hypnotist of Jim Benado as a fundraiser for Safegrad. Um, they've had him a couple years in the past and I went to that. It was really fun. It was a good experience. basically just came and I think probably around 15 seniors got to volunteer and they were all hypnotized or they I don't know some people were kind of questioning the reality of it all but they were hypnotized in my opinion and it was really funny and I know there raised a lot of money for safe grads that was pretty successful fundraising. Moving to April 2nd we had our SAT PSAT school day for grades 9 to 11 that went really well. A lot of the freshman had a lot of great things to say in terms of like how everything went

028and flow. As a junior taking the SAT, I think it went really well. I think a lot of my peers also found that process to be pretty smooth and and been great. Moving over to April 8th through 10th, our junior prom tickets will begin to go on sale for $65. This year, junior prom is at Port Starboard in London on May 9th. on April 9th, that Thursday, our is our spring armed services day in the commons. And during advisory, students can go down and interact with different members of the armed forces to examine potential job opportunities or ask any questions in the field that they may have. Uh next week, we have our spring break starting and that's their April 13th through 17th. On April 20th, junior prom tickets will increase to $75 with the

029sale ending on the 30th. On April 20th, 21st, and 23rd, our scholarship interviews will start at 5 to through 10 p.m. in the library. And then on the 23rd, we'll have our college fair, our college fair at Mitchell College for uh for juniors. And then moving on to academic counseling, our course selection is still ongoing for all uh for freshman through juniors. And then counselors are still meeting with juniors individually for junior meetings to set up course selection and continue talking about plans after high school such as college and career pathways and juniors. And yeah, so those are all post high school planning which will probably wrap up around midmay. And some of some other fundraisers that took place over the last month were Hannah fundraiser for the cultural uh cultural awareness club that took

030place on March 23rd and wrapped up on April 1st. That was during lunch. So students could buy a henna service where they got hand on the pants. And there was a Easter egg fundraiser through the deck of chapter here. And then um I know I mentioned the Wizard of Oz play last meeting. I also went to that and that was a great show. They did a great job there. And I know I think first and last night they sold out and it it was really a phenomenal production. Did they did a really great job. And then for uh spring sports, the triyouts closed around March 19th. And this is just just a personal opinion, all the sports looking really good right now. A lot of the teams are looking really great. I played golf and

031we haven't had our first match yet, but the team's definitely looking strong and Rudy Beos is doing a great job. Then over the baseball team's having the game right now. I was over there before this yet. I think they were winning like 6-0. So definitely definitely a strong side there. Lacrosse team's also looking great. I know they had a couple preseason scrimmages in a game last week, another game tomorrow, and they're also, like I said, doing doing really great and have a lot of talent. I think um the some of the students that were here actually competed in this the math league uh championship on March 11th. The math league finished second at the meet and at third overall for the year. Uh senior Spencer Soulik was in the top was the top 12th grade

032student for the entire league while Daniel Lee was the top 10th grade student for the entire league. Then I know I also mentioned the go that we had brought back this year. Our school champion was seniors Cooper Kulic. He defeated junior runner up Nathaniel Scott by a single question. So now he's going on to attempt to qualify for that national competition at Harvard. And then our national merit scholarship finalists were announced. I think three students from East High School were selected for that. Moving over to arts and music as Mr. Place or Mr. May mentioned the music festival and some of our students were gain awards there. I won't go too much into that. And then al also the Connecticut poetry out loud contest took place on March 25th. Student Emma Frisbee won first place

033for the entire state. So she will go on to represent Connecticut in the national competition which takes place in DC. Emma also won the Congressional Award Medal Gold Medal, one of the highest honors a young person in the United States can achieve through the Congressional Award program. This recognition is earned through years of dedication and goal setting across four areas. voluntary voluntary public service, personal development and physical fitness and expedition. I think you guys if you saw the Viking song, she's on the front here. This is an example of the stuff she does. I know she likes to host peaceful protests downtown. And then um our EMT certification program was highlighted by the day recently. I don't know if any of you guys saw that, but that was pretty successful. A lot of students are

034participating there. So that's it. Good. Go. You go. Nice job. >> Thanks. have any questions for Sal? >> Um, I do. Are you going to stick around for the discussion on armed security or are you going to go finish the game? >> Is that next? >> Um, yes. >> Yeah. I'll stick around. >> I can give you an update of the school when >> I I would appreciate to hear student feedback other than my own kids. Any other questions for S? Hey, moving on. We have Candace as our selectman's representative. >> Hi there. Good evening, everyone. At our last board of selectman meeting, we entered into an agreement with Ultimate, which is a third-party entity that will be contracted for the automated traffic enforcement safety devices. We also filled the board vacancy seat and we

035authorized funds from the town's opioid grant to be utilized by the Eastline Police Department to create a bike police unit. Community policing where parole cars um patrol cars, excuse me, cannot and of course they will carry Narcan. Additionally, we have the annual Nyanic Bay Boardwalk 5K coming up on April 18th for any of those that would like to participate. It's a great day, great community event that helps raise funds for our Nyanic Main Street and is sure to be a great day. And that's all I have. >> Thanks, Candace. Any questions for Candace? >> Thanks, Candace. >> Oh, you're very welcome. Okay. Next on the agenda, we have our consent agenda. I think there's a couple that um been told. >> Yeah. Thanks, Eric. I'd like to pull out of the consent agenda items um

036sorry the items C unaffiliated staff only condition wage proposal and item F the field trip please. Any others? Okay, let's move those to discussion action other and we'll move them to C. We'll make unaffiliated wage proposal C and only field trip B. And so I want to make a motion for the rest of the consent agenda items C and F >> consent agenda for A, B, D, E to be um approved for under our consent agenda. >> M K. Do I hear a second? >> I second. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. Are you favor of the consent? Opposed abstain we have anyway. Um, for those of you at home, we are here. We had some meeting minutes to approve. Um, we had a donation um couple donations. One from uh thank

037you to Nanic Lawn and Caretaker Service giving a donation of $1,500 to East Line High School cheer activity account. and a donation from Stop and Shop. Thank you for a donation to Eastline Middle School in the amount of $988.31 uh from their 80 plus rewards program. So, thanks to both of them those donations. And we'll move on to discussion action items. finance facilities community. Um item a we have discussion action from security personnel strategy. So, you know, just so everybody, you know, is aware, we've we've we as a board had talked about this for a long time or a few months, uh, going through and understanding and and, uh, getting us all kind of in depth to understand what this means and and what the action could be. And then our next step was to

038get information from the public. So we did uh send an email and um to the parent staff um and others in the community to get feedback. Uh we got feedback through email. We also had a public forum few weeks ago the date when that was but we had a public forum where we had 40ish people. >> I count it. >> Keep going. >> Okay. 40 50 people. um or so who came out and we had we got you know probably 15 people 40 >> um and probably had about 15 people come and and talk uh and and give comments. So we we have gotten a lot of feedback. We we've um and now it's time I don't think that there's much a lot more information that we can get and we probably need to get

039to a decision. I'm hoping on on something like this that we can move towards a unanimous decision, but um if we can't, we still need to, you know, we need to this is a topic we've talked about for a long time and I think we need to kind of reach like a decision we believe we should be. So, with that being said, I thought I'd give uh Jeff a chance to comment or give any thoughts from him. Yeah, I mean I think I'll kind of reiterate um that you know I think the board has done a very thorough job you know get over this uh and a lot of reach out a lot of feedback opportunities from the community um the forum is very helpful said we force people there um variations of people speaking

040which is great to hear um I think it's time to move forward with a decision is what it's time for so I'm I'm pushing for decisions >> does anyone want to start comments or questions or I'll then leave. >> Um yeah, I think I have a couple minutes. >> Both of you, Eric and John mentioned um the uh community feedback and I know know you touched on it. I think people had the opportunity to hear the public comment but just to kind of reiterate that we did receive it in a variety of different ways. So I think that was you know one component but you know just to reiterate um what you touched on already that you know we saw it in the form of individual emails conversations uh that were in addition to you

041know I think um the public comment that was spoken. So just wanted to touch on that. Um and also to to thank um everyone for for sharing we heard um a range um of views. So you know kind of from supporting the the proposal with the number of questions concerns um I think there's I'll just touch on the three pieces briefly because um I think there were some themes that came through. uh one was um mental health um and you know I think there's absolutely always opportunities to do more not just with school across multiple different um levels. Um I for this conversation I just um wanted us to be careful about um framing it as sort of a eitheror um in terms of our investment on mental health and armed security um in particular

042the response and um so I think that I would say it's looking at both of them in different ways. Um the other element around that I think we talked or heard a lot about um the prevention aspects but I I I think that we need to be also thinking about the response piece and what we're deciding in this vote. Um, and that we shared the multi-tiered I forget the name of that document, but we did share that multi-tered security structure framework plan. Um and while we address the prevention, I think there's the piece around the um uh positioning our security staff on the response aspect at this moment. I think that we do um have a gap. Um, finally up to up to the mid summer August or so, we did have the SRO A

043line. Um, and I'm looking kind of at that as our as our foundation. I think that um that's the piece that you know we're continuing with the direct staffing model and I we talked about the inability to fulfill the backfilling of the SRO now but I think that um and you know hopefully we'll finalize the vote today but I think that's still sort of this this um you know open conversation that we have um and if we are able to uh have that SRO piece backfilled I I'd really like that discussion to come back to the board at that time I am looking at this our conversation today or both today as kind of what we need to address doesn't and I you know not as our forever plan right but I think it start

044today >> absolutely and that did come up a thought that the uh public forum was around what if we do get SRO's, how does that change our strategy? And I think I think in the short term um we're not going to get an SRO in the next I would guess at least a year, year and a half. So you know at that time I think your point is at that point another discussion is that any >> I was just going to share some similar sentiments that just shared and also would double click on some of the thoughts that I shared at the public forum which is I think this very much needs to or I would like to see us approach this as one piece in a much larger picture of what it means to

045keep our kids safe and also support um kind of mentally, socially. I think it's it's obviously important for us to engage in this specific piece right now, but I walked away from that community forum with the realization that I think a lot of our community members are hungry to get more insights and opportunities to engage on the rest of that kind of larger picture. And so I very much hope that after this meeting this is something that continues to show up on our agenda and we continue to kind of dig to provide a opportunities to increase our supports across all of those other elements and also continue opportunities for the community feedback because I found um all the engagement just very grateful for all the engagement that we've received from this project or sorry just

046a conf question. I think it's more of a question um in terms of the motion. Um it's which I have that second ago. Um, I think the motion says to move forward with the armed security officers for public schools and we had talked a lot about um that uh our director of security um having that having Donald Don armed as part of that model and it's not um explicitly stated in here but I I think the motion is um it addresses that as part of the motion. >> You're seeing calling out kind of as a >> Luis is saying so >> ASO Don is director of security. So is Don director of security and ASO is Don? So I think there's some like how do we word that piece of it? I I don't I

047don't know that either like because if Don's director of security but we're also saying armed you know yeah is are you ASL right director of security and ASL or what what is that I thought >> I've looked at it as both >> looking a little at Don no I would say any security team member that qualifies to under those requirements uh including myself yesterday And it would be director security and ASL. Correct. >> But we could call it >> could include that in the motion if that just to make sure that's clear because sounds like it was not clear previously. >> I wouldn't um oppose having that in the motion just for clarity and transparency. >> Sure. Support that. give everyone a chance. Thanks. I have a I I have a lot of test. So

048I have to like organize myself around this. So I might be waiting for some of it. So first I want to say that I so I come to this know as I'm reasoning and like thinking about this this first come as a somebody that has really a vested interest in the safety of our schools right like I have I think I'm the only board member that has a loved one in each of the ele like each of the levels I have a elementary schooler I have a middle schooler and my wife works at the high school right so I I and much to her uh she would like to retire soon. She's probably going to be there in the next 15 to 20 years. >> I didn't tell her I was going to say that.

049So, so I say that I say that like you know like uh one of the few people that like you know with this decision like it's I you know I'll see the you know thing back then like impact my family for for for many many years. Um, one of the things that you know that that was brought up a few times at the the uh public hearing was uh some of the uh studies right like some of the questions were asked like what what kind of data have we reviewed uh what studies what like you know information from from all different sources. So um I know individually all of us have done our own research. I went back and and in and that and did some research again and again I wanted to bring up

050again the the point that was made by by a few of the family members and staff members uh that you know the statistical evidence of whether an armed personnel whether it's an ASO or an SRO actually prevents mass casualty events is it really is not conclusive right uh we can have feelings about that but there's a lot of body of evidence uh and sometimes you And also some some of the evidence shows that it could be counterintuitive. Um there's some studies that suggest that actually arm presses can intervenently serves as a challenge uh or or a target or somebody that's trying to pursue what so-called suicide by right like so actually uh there were some studies that actually saw a higher casual base rates on that. Um the other part that that was really concerning

051to me uh was some of the research has shown that in schools with armed security whether it's ASO or SRO u marginalized students are more likely to have negative discipline outcomes and higher rates of referrals to uh law enforcement and and by marginalized students I'm referring to students with disabilities uh in black and latino students. uh right so and it's important so the data that was looked at finding the research it's prior to George Floyd black prior to black liv matter so it wasn't like a response to those uh events that you know some people have been considered polarizing but uh this is data that existed from before uh and there's been updates after that um but those are national studies right like national like how does that relate to peace like we're talking about

052a decision that we're making here uh in generally the feedback back public feedback that we've gotten about our security was very positive right I think we we heard that u um publicly and some of the comments uh but I also wanted to share with the board and the in the publics you know some comments that I've received privately right as well as uh uh not a lot of comments but like uh but specifically from from uh black and latino parents and students uh and some teachers as well uh that that had less than perfect interactions with social security personnel over the last few years like you know even before I joined the board um uh they shared the situations where they felt profiled had concerns ignored and felt that they have been overdisiplined again this

053anecdotes don't come necessarily just from students but also from parents and staff members that work in district uh I don't work for the school nor I do have the authority to like investigate any of that so all situations I suggested like you should talk to the administration and whatnot. So I don't know necessarily the outcome of those situations uh whether uh the people that you know like that that they had not so good interactions with still work with us uh or whether they would be one of the people that would be armed. I do not know that. Uh I do want to say that in one of the situations um actually uh the parent contacted Don when he was seen in the role as SRO actually had a really good experience with that uh and

054I felt like they felt more supported by Don than by the uh uh the school security team uh and that kind of like also makes me think there was a mention about like what's the difference between an SRO and an ASO and I think having that level of like you know you're not necessar like you're like outside person and have like you know like a impartial kind of view like that that that was helpful in that situation. Uh, also wanted to bring up, this didn't come up in the public hearing, but back in uh, January this year, uh, the Connecticut Insider published an investigative series examining like hiring practices of ASOS uh, in Connecticut. And they found that at least 10 school districts, they they were found to be employing personnel that have been pushed

055out of previous police departments uh, for misconduct, these people that were not desertified. So there was still a loophole in the law that like they were still could qualify for that. I do not believe any of the people that we have are in that situation, right? I think we have like a good sense that like we have a really good team, but we're making a decision for the long term, right? So like the people that we have here might not be the same people that we have two, three, five years down the road. Um lastly uh and this is really not like as important to me in the points but also that we need to consider especially in the context that you know in next agenda item we're going to be talking about the budget

056has to cut $1.2 $2 million. Uh and um you know like looking at like the budgetary impact of of the ASOS uh like object code 51170 that is the um nonsecurity uh non-certified security personnel is proposed to be increased by 17.3%. 95,000 $97,000 from last from this current year to next year. Uh even though and maybe you guys correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think we're adding any new security personnel uh from what we have this year to next year. Um that that's necessarily like the the selling point for this, but it's something that we need to consider as we're looking at cutting positions of all buildings. Um I think we really have to consider again like the great success that we've had with the SRO program especially they do like their challenge

057program that's something that we have lost and I and think it's you know something that like it's really useful for our schools. Um and you know right now at this same time the board of finance is having their meeting with the police department and with the fire department. They're making those decisions. So I would say to the public out there too like to know this the challenging situation that we are and to maybe advocate on behalf of the police department so they can also fill that that those those staffing needs so we can have maybe it's not a year and a half or two years but maybe is six months to a year where we would have an SRO you know uh that's that's something that definitely people can u uh you know and the

058last point I wanted to make is that you know looking at from you the you know the the importance of having SRO in is that there's three in this town any given day there's more than a thousand people in a very small vicinity one is this campus in Flanders one of them was middle school and Lily B and the other one is the prison and the prison has enough law enforcement they're fully covered but you know I think it's really important for us as the school and for the police department the person to make sure that we have that partnership because this is in a given day where most people are congregated in a small area uh in a day but um I know I threw a lot out of you but uh that's where

059I'm coming from but again reiterating like most of the decisions that we make here at the board are um you know from the educational lens like data based and data driven and seeing what's that u you know and like I said I have a lot of feelings about that because I have uh you know uh about serious because I have like loved ones that are going to be here for for a long time. So, but that's that's part of what to share with all of you. >> I think I should just make a quick comment and I will I will make it length, but you all know that I lost my oldest to gunshot wound to his head 16 years ago. And so I've been involved with Connecticut against gun violence and um a lot

060of what I do in my life is in my son's memory to be honest with you. So um it informs my philosophical practical and policy and my approach to pretty much everything I do. So um guns don't make us more safe. I was at a Connecticut Against Gun Violent um symposium that they had um on the 26 and they had people from Sandy Hook there and people who were actually in the rooms when the when the perpetrator showed up and killed 17 people and had a little movie that they put together to talk about it. So, and I had done an interview with Earl Bworth and Stacy Meyer, the uh CEO and assistant for Connecticut Against Gun Violence. So, it's just such an important um matter that we look at very seriously because we have

061more guns in our country than we have people. And people really like to think that it's okay to have guns, but we're not doing enough as far as maintaining our guns, keeping them safe, keeping them locked, keeping them giving good education. And I know we had when I was first on the board, we had mobs against what were they bad? It was an acronym. Mobs against >> No, there's a gun violent. >> They wore orange and they were all about but I don't remember what their acronym was, but it was all about that. And there's so much that we could do to talk about it. There's so much more that we can do. And we've talked a lot about it. We've spent hours as a board, private sessions discussing this and I've been very consistent

062my perspective and my opinion and I've shared my interview with people on the board with my interview with Earl Buckworth and it's worth watching and it's worth being worth being informed and Earl would actually welcome the opportunity as the CEO of Connecticut against gun violence because nobody wants anybody to be shot and I actually met some teachers who were at Sandy Hook when all of those kids lost their lives and she was one of the teachers that are present. So I guess I really invested myself in understanding this to help mitigate it as an issue. So you understand I've really um got strong feelings again against it um increasing the existence of guns and per perpetuating this and I think that there's so many other ways of addressing it as an issue. So I won't

063I won't continue. But that's those are my strong opinions. >> I'm going to use my daughter's words to say it's my 12-year-old. Those are her words and I talk to her about it. She says it's complicated and she's not lying. It's complicated. Um, it is something that we do talk about at home because you can't not talk about it because it seems like every day there's some tragedy that is on TV or in the news or radio or internet or wherever it is that you get your information from. Um, it's hard to talk about it with your kids. I will say that I um am a little disappointed that we did not hear from any kids and I'm disappointed that the only teacher we heard from was Jessica Garcia. I know you did give us

064a little TED talk head talk data point. >> Teachers, >> but yeah, you guys heard from teachers. We didn't hear from any teachers except Jessica. >> Well, they knew the form is No, I know. It doesn't make me any was disappointed that we didn't hear from >> I I would have liked to heard back from teachers on what their thoughts and feelings were on it. >> I would have liked to hear from the students on what their thoughts and feelings are on it because it does affect their daily life. Um besides my 12-year-old telling me it's complicated. Um I wish we had a Dawn in every building. I wish we had an SRO in every building. You haven't been to the town meetings, budget board of finance meetings. It's awful. It's dirty, nasty. I don't

065think we're going to get an SRO next year. I would be shocked if we got one the year after. I can't speak to it because I'm not at the town meeting right now. I would prefer an SRO over an ASO. I'll be honest. Having an ASO versus an SRO scares me. Um, having a gun in school scares me. Um, I've grown up with guns my whole life, but I've also grown up with a person who's a certified NRA instructor and I grew up with very strict gun safety rules in my home. Um, I can't say that a person who would be in the school has grown up with the exact same certified gun safety to rules that I know. It scares me to put my life, my kids life in the hands of anybody. But

066on the flip side of that, I don't want to have somebody come into my kids school with a gun. So, like my 10, 12year-old says, it's complicated. I don't want someone to come into the kids school and harm them. I don't want anybody's kids to get harmed. I don't want anybody's friends or loved ones. Um I have such a mixed bag of feelings about this. I've had a mixed bag feelings about this since we've started the discussions. It hasn't it hasn't gone up. It hasn't gone down. has just gotten more mixed bag of fields. Um it changes every day. I just want to just take it in big plastic bubble of bubble wrap and just wrap around everybody and not let anybody get harmed. Um and unfortunately we do have to make a decision and

067since we don't have a dog the sick in every single school in bar um we do have a discriminical decision. I don't know what the right answer is, especially since we don't have any sorrow and they're not going to get that make a few daughter say very nicely. It's complicated. It's the simplest thing you can say for for for this. And >> can you speak up please? >> Yeah. Uh Jimmy's daughter said it in a bit, you know, as eloquently as anybody could that it is complicated. And my my assessment of the situation is that this is this you know this is this is more a practical thing that we have to we as a board have to decide on and at least I am trying to set my emotions aside and trying to make

068an assessment of okay what's what can we do as much as I would like the the school to be supported by the town and have SRO's uh since that's not happening. U I have to take the practical route and and I'm in the absence of of the town supporting us. We have to figure out what what are the choices we have and and that's that's the direction unfortunately we that's the decision we have to make and decide what direction we want. um that you know that um that in mind I I want to make sure that our kids kids are are safe and uh we are pro providing them the best environment to grow. Um when it comes to what would you know what what the responsibilities of u um of of of the armed

069officer would be. I'm hoping that they are not involved in any kind of disciplinary uh administrative activities or uh any uh anything else u related to the functioning of the school other than to keep it secure and I'm hoping this is this is more of a temporary situation until we have town supported SRO's. This is the most practical thing that we as a group can think of and maybe that's and that's the decision we have to make today that is this is this practical consideration of of of of the situation is this the best way to do it. So you don't have to Bill does have >> Bill. >> Yes, I'm mute. >> Bill, we can hear you now. We can hear you now. >> Um, I'm sorry. We You're asking for comments from everyone.

070Is that what we're coming down to? >> No. Uh, we thought you had your hand. So, yes, if everybody wants to comment, that would be great. You don't have to. We thought you had your hand up. >> Sorry. Nope. I'm just >> Okay. >> Holding my head up. >> Okay. >> And again, we don't >> um I would just repeat things that have already been said. Okay. >> Um let me No, no, I just let me a couple and then um and then we can go. Anybody else who wants to speak? So, um, you know, this is something that we've spent a lot of time talking about from my perspective, been thinking about it for at least a few years. um at least for myself and as I've said a thousand times and Don keeps

071saying uh so when my kids were in school I always felt comfortable because Don was there that that right wrong or indifferent I always felt comfortable it does um you know Don being in a different role Don as SRO was there Don now being in a different role in being unarmed Uh that that definitely um resurrected some of my thinking of saying, "Well, now Don's there, but he's not there." And as you know, an armed police officer, Don's there as director of security, which is great and appreciate that. Um and I do appreciate all our security that we have um because I do think they do a really nice job uh across our schools. But so for me, you know, we're at a point I'd love to have an SRO at every school. I'd love

072to have Don at every school, Don uniform police officer at every school and run the challenge program towards the DARE program and other activities right now. We don't that's not an option for us. So for me, I can't think about that um at this point because it's not an option. if it comes back in a year or two and it sounds like in our conversations with the police chief that we've had and his conversations I think with our first selectman and stuff is that is where he'd like to go. He'd like to have an SRO with each of the schools. How we get there as a town we have to figure that out. That is his direction which I think we'd fully support. The problem is that's not going to be in you know 2026.

073We're not going to be in 2027 and who knows maybe 2028. And the issue is we are where we are now. So SRO versus ASO for me is not it's not a decision because we don't there's no decision of SRO. So it's left of do I want an ASO in the school or not. And for me I'm a datadriven decision maker. For those know me I'm very much a data driven decision maker. But I'm also one where um if there's not enough data um which I don't think there is the statistical relevance and all the uncertainty even of collecting the data because you don't know what you what prevented uh things that maybe didn't occur because you had it's very hard to to navigate through that. So for me, I just go to logic and

074say if kids are out of this school here now, but if my kids were in school, if an incident happened, would I rather have a chance that there's someone in armed security here or would I rather um not have that as an option because of other risks or things that come up? You know, for me, I'd rather my logic says then something does happen and we unfortunately see it too often in the news, I want I want to at least have someone here who maybe could stop it, prevent it, m minimize it. Uh the impact. So that that's that's where I am is I just that's that's that's where I am in ter. And then it comes down to our hiring practices and and kind of safety. So our hiring practices, our hiring practices have

075to be stellar. uh we cannot you know our background checks are making sure of anyone who's becomes an ASO at each slide you know we has to go through all the scrutiny and levels um in terms of the hiring and then the training is to make sure that we they they are getting the training that is needed to make sure they upkeep all of their gun safety and and situational um training. uh you know, we have to make sure it goes and um you know, I think to Kate's point on the gun safety and and stuff in our communities, it would be great if we can work with our police department and, you know, have talks at at different forums and with our youth and family services and other things to to get that because

076you're right, I remember that them coming, but I haven't heard from them in years just they may be still around. Okay. I mean we are still >> great. Um Sarah it would be good to hear um more what can we do to you know let our at least our parent and staff community know more about you know having done safety classes and things like that make sure they're publicly. So those are my thoughts on the leave. >> It was obviously more of a question than a thought. A little uh estab mentioning that you know yes we know our current security staff who are in schools like I see every day that drop off. I have a level of comfort there. And I think the push to think through what this looks like in planning for

077x number of years down the road. I don't know that I I know you just were referencing our our practices and I obviously think our district has a great job of bringing in wonderful people and I don't know that I personally have enough clarity on what that process looks like to hire an ASO to feel um I just that's still a bit of a question mark for me as far as what exactly that would look like kind of in a more granular way than we have strong hiring practices. It's I mean anybody that we bring in to work with our kids it's very high stakes but this is you know obviously another layer. So I don't I don't want to put Don on the spot or I don't know you know if that's something that

078folks have dug into. I just I don't know that I have strong visibility there. >> I mean I mean hiring officer right away you know what the police go through and hiring a you know police officer right away. >> Yeah. So, we do have five members of our security team right now that work for us, six actually part-time that have been with us for many, many years, some 10 years for some of them. Um, the those retired police officers, law enforcement people, uh, three of the six were all tactical firearms instructors. Um, they've been with us. That's uh, for me personally, because when I was here as an SRO, working side by side with these security officers, get to know what they're like as a person was more important than anything. And like you said,

079most of the people know when they come into our buildings, they meet our security people, they're phenomenal, wonderful deescalation, they're great with the kids, they're great with the staff. That's the best part, I think, for this implementation. It's these are the people we're talking about, not somebody we haven't hired yet. Obviously, going forward, state statute, stringent, uh, you know, thing. I totally agree. Uh, there was a loophole that's kind of been covered now. um we can set whatever parameters we want for that hiring process for future employees. Um and I think we're all on the same page. It's the last thing we want to do is bring in somebody that has any kind of questional background or uh separation and there's a lot of different avenues. We've uh discussed it uh many times whether it's

080post website for descertified background checks from their prior employment, their retirement, uh what their status is there. there's a a great deal of information we can gather as part of that normal uh hiring process. There will be uh I think many additions to that. I hope that helps at all. So if um thanks Don and and if if we go down this path um can we action that you know Jeff you and Don work together to bring something that kind of walks through the hiring process so we get something that you know when you retire at some point in the future and whoever takes your place and go through the hiring that we have something that um we we're clear on, you know, the the criteria and what we're looking for that our board of

081ed can get comfortable with that, you know, that it is, you know, strong hiring practices. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Yeah, this time you've heard um a lot of discussion. You may have heard a little bit previously, but I think this pretty well summed up uh everything of what we've talked about for uh months now. Do you have some perspective and I don't know if any of you you've talked to if any of your friends or classmates have >> Well, yeah, definitely. I definitely wanted to hear everyone's opinion at the table and I think it's really important that of course everyone everyone's opinion has value and I see the value in everyone's opinion here and first of all I think your your story is incredibly inspiring and I definitely see uh your side of it as

082well and just through conversations with my friends like you mentioned I know that's not necessarily representative of the entire student population here but I I liked the analogy first of all of the airplanes because I think it is really important that school system And then the safety of students is prioritizing continues to escalate as time goes on. But I I I I don't I I don't necessarily want to like dig myself in like a rabbit hole because I'm not entirely educated on everything. Haven't been able to necessarily retain all the information that you guys have. But just like personally and through conversations with my conversations with my peers, armed security at our schools has always been seen as something that's only going to improve the safety of our students. And I was kind of just

083thinking here like if a security guard such as officer or or Mr. Mr. Hall were say confronted with an armed perpetrator if they like like you mentioned were armed or not is definitely going to be a major factor in how that entire scenario plays out. And just as a student knowing that the security at our school or one of the security out postures at our school is armed may provide you know a little bit more security as like you said in the news as much as these events do do happen. It's alarming, scary as a student, but just like I'm really trying hard not to like generalize my opinion to like to be something entirely representative of like my classmates because I know there's definitely students that may see it differently than I do. But

084I purposely are I'm more leaning towards the idea just because I think it improves the improves the safety of our school and provides more assurance of a better it's a better conclusion to a potentially terrible situation. And I think that the security across our entire district has only ever done a phenomenal job throughout my academic career here. I've built like great connections with everyone here including officer Donald Mr. And I think that they've done a great job and like you said, a lot of the parents also see that see that they do a great job and feel comfortable and assured that their students are safe under their protection. And I think just knowing that security is armed, security is is ready to I guess defensively to be defensive against perpetrator is like really important. But

085again like that's just my opinion and the generalization of this conversation and how my not necessarily represented every appreciate that's exactly what we very >> that's just what I wanted. >> Thank you. >> We have admin on the call too. I know uh Brian in a different district Bruce >> did Bill did you raise your hand? Yeah, I guess I guess I gotta just I mean I do want to make a couple of comments um without dragging this on too long. I I want to remind everyone that the one other student we did hear from um at our special meeting was not in favor of it and she was concerned um about having somebody armed. So, um I I like Eric, I wish I had data that would made this decision clear. I think um

086you know, I'm elected to this position. I'm not going to vote for what I would do with my own house. I'm going to vote for what I what I perceive the public wants. And my perception is the public uh wants armed security. Um, however, I think that we as a board should schedule reports on the multi-tered approach that we're doing to security because my experience as an educator, all of the training that goes into lockdown drills, you know, not propping doors open, um, all the protocols about that is critically important. And that's really skills that the students can leave with that may help them in other situations as well. So I really think we should we should make sure that we're keeping that part of it. We shouldn't be saying okay we're good now or

087we've got RM security. We've got to look at that multi-ter approach. And I also want us to be aware and you know the the administrators and the guidance people need to be aware that you know if we move forward with this there's going to be some level of people that are less comfortable and we should be prepared to address that as well. >> Thanks Bill. Um, worth noting the student who did speak at the public forum, at least isn't currently a student in East Line School. I think at some point she was, but she isn't currently. I don't know that that changes anything. Um, just worth noting. Also, I do want to Jill is not here, but she did ask just that she that I represent. She obviously has no vote if she is not

088here, but she is in in favor of moving that. She asked me to kind of state that that she is in favor of armed security or whatever that's worth. She's not here. She can't Jeff was asking. >> Oh, I didn't know. You know, there's Yeah, there was one perspective, you know, admin too. Um, they didn't really speak at the forum, but we had call too, so I don't know. I I thought of Brian because, you know, Brian was in a different district as well and, uh, you know, had an experience, you know, with this. I think I think your district was armed, wasn't it, Brian where you came from? >> They were. Yep. And so, um, I can kind of speak to that. >> Sure. >> A little bit. >> Um, >> that' be good.

089And if you could tell us where you uh were previously, remind us where you were previously in the town. Was. >> Sure. Yeah. I um I was in Sherman which was um quite rural and you know one of the um the most consistent you know I think talking points in that setting um that initially I wasn't sure translated here but after having thought about it more I think actually does the underlying principle anyways is just that of response time and so you know there was a regional uh or a residential trooper um response times were you know higher than people were comfortable and so ultim imately they had they had moved toward that model um the ASO model prior to um to hiring me. Um but in my you know supervision actually that was part

090of my my role there was um supervising that team um hiring making sure training you know was fulfilled um etc. It went um it went really smoothly and really well and um you know I know many families um you know less students but I you know I I so I don't want to speak to that but staff uh and families particularly um pretty regularly voiced their support for that for that for that reason. you know, just the, you know, we know that in uh times of crisis, seconds and minutes matter. And so, you know, anything that can be done to reduce response time um was, you know, something that they had wanted to prioritize and is something that, you know, I I um I hold as you know, my my own personal preference as well.

091Um so, you know, I think there's been a ton of really good conversation around this. I think we we should be careful about um you know asking them to handle certain disciplinary things you know given that there aren't but um you know at least for where I came from in Sherman um they were concealed um they had great interactions with uh our our students and our staff and families much to the same you know all the the anecdotes that we hear about our current staff um thankfully too. So it it you know it was it was a overall I think pretty positive um move >> and again I think we've heard the information but I just want to kind of for the record as a superintendent of the district you know I will support it

092moving forward security. So I just want that note in the record whatever the decision. Thanks. Anyone want to make a motion? Oh, >> I'd like to make a motion to approve moving forward with armed security offer search to include the director of security for East Public Schools. Need some further discussion? All those in favor say I. And if you please raise your hands just so we've been seated. All those in favor say I. Six opposed. Three abstained. Motion passes. 63. Thanks everyone. Um that was a that's been a long uh process and and a tough one. So appreciate everybody kind of handling it really well and we have good discussion and and going back and forth. So appreciate that. Um, moving forward, uh, we've got discussion action for the non-lapsing non-lapsing funding for strategic school

093balancing study. Phase phase two of high school vision school vision feasibility study and CHRO litigation. So uh if you recall um so we have our our non-lapsing account we agreed on the how we were going to balance and the types of things that we would fund. These were three items that came up uh and we can talk about them individually or collectively but these were items that we thought might be good to cover in our non-lapsing account as they're one-time in nature. They do help fund um some of kind of one-time issues or or funding studies or or looking forward. So that was the thought process of including this and having it with the non-lapsing count. Um, I don't know if you have anything from NFO perspective to add to that or um, and you

094don't I'm not putting out if you had anything to add, you don't have to. Otherwise, is there just any kind of conversation or discussion or piece of >> I think we've pretty much covered it. We talked about it previously times the same pretty well >> unless there's a question. >> Yeah. >> I have the same question. How much is in that account again? >> 31,000 and change. So that opportunity >> uh CHRO litigation is an addition to what we already had before this is an addition. >> No addition >> right the board. It's just where the money comes at all. Okay. >> Not established. >> No, I thought I just thought that this was in addition to what we already talked about. >> Yeah. So, it's actually it's really things that come through here. We've

095already somewhat talked about and approved. It's just this is a funding source question. operating budget or is it coming from the none question discussion? Anyone want to make a motion? So move >> motion to approve the funding. >> I can't speak phase two of the HS feasibility study and CHRO litigation settlement in the total amount of 107,192.75. This will cover the strategic scope balancing study, the phase two of the feasibility study and CHRO litigation. Uh anybody want to second further discussion? All those in favor say I. I opposed. Bill you and favor or opposed to to favor. Okay. Just hand that stain. >> Okay. Motion passes. Next item uh discussion action for the discussion. Sorry. Thank you. Discussion 2026. >> Okay. >> Yes. 2020. um discussion of the 2026 2027 budget discussions. Jeff has attached

096the potential funding. Uh so recall everyone we had um from our proposed budget 6131 there was a $1.2 million reduction from the board of finance. It still does need to go to public forum which is uh April 27th and then obviously to a vote to referendum. But in the interim where we are now is it's a $1.2 million reduction to what we had we had proposed as a board of ed. We do have about $400,000 from the health insurance lower than what we had put in there from when we had done our we had approved our 6131 budget. So there's about $800,000 um that we would need to find assuming it gets all the way from referendum. But we do need to start having those conversations now. Um not yet. >> Yeah. Yeah. There considerations

097basically um to to get to that we'll call the 1.2 million um that first reduction is as pointed out health insurance the 420,000. So that brings us down to working 78 78,000 in finding. So what we did is we circle back to the documentation. see that it's hard to see. Why not? So, um yeah. So, take out the health insurance down to the 780. Um we started with just circling back and looking at that list initial list that we brought to the board today. Um we had a couple of additions too. Those are all kind of considerations. This list could you know get to change tomorrow come forward um have somebody that will ask somebody else and you know what we don't have to fill that so things can shift and they will shift but

098um we're looking at reducing you know two gallon building cells. from high school, ones from schools, which you say was the 60,000. We brought back the 1.0 high school library secretary as a reduction. Um we pushed pushing forward. This is one area where we just got more information this afternoon. This one we might have to kind of look at. This is might not work for multiple reasons which I'm not going to get into. The 1.0 high school MTSS multist position story down below middle one of high school TSS um so that one could shift and change so we're still looking at that um with um the guys we have a one year um position in high school guidance right now we look to alleviate that one position um addition additional repair educator uh positions um

099which were unfilled. Um we looked at a revenue offset um which help offsets some instructional supplies and that really rapidly this was rounded up to the 7,000 um reducing sports officials using gate receipts for utilizing those gate receipts to offset some of the officials cost uh and we provide some curriculum summer town dollars at 10,000 Um when we look at through our potential configuration security we will be thinking at this point. Uh security step on that we're waiting to decision. So that may or may not >> Yes. Yes. So yeah there I'll get to the one there impacts potential impacts um facilities needs equipment um just some further reductions working also working back on the high schools feel that we can move set up of our staff so we can reduce the school um carpeting

100and we've gone back and forth but we ended up putting it in uh something we can discuss that conversation about you know it's a pretty big size number I don't like to get in down the road when he does um but you know kind of bring something we did talk further dive into the fact that we intend to reduce one bus going into the next year it's a sizable savings um we don't know what's going to happen with that you know a couple years back and it was night but we're trying to reduce one and see what what happens then also the bus so middle school to high school that's something that discuss work you consideration ideas um you know like we should do this that's not what pension reduction um t reduce their pension

101um so there savings there um with doing so we were able to reduce our pension cost and then program adoption process that equates out to that 1.2 to um other considerations just saying that you could grade NCSS position that would make classes at grade two um grade three that would be made class size at grade 22.5. Um then history language high school PE would impact an elementary teacher would lose their job. >> Are all of the staffing positions bumping? >> Um the at the bottom the grade two one would bump. Right now we have a seat for every elementary teacher. Um, but if we if we made additional reductions, then we would begin to see people lose their >> So, all of these would bump somebody out of something. >> Everything but history. >> That's

102the only >> history and world language. History and world language >> both are currently >> history would go back down to the middle school, but there's potentially some configurations that occur down there. >> So, history and world language would not fall. >> History and world language, nobody would lose their job at this current one. >> But the other ones language is open. Yeah. The other ones, the other three, somebody would lose their job current. >> They could take another position. >> They would out of >> Yeah. There's no other position open for >> in the whole district. >> So, excuse me. Under their certificate certification. Correct. So, there would be no seat for them. So, be no job opening available for >> up at the top. Um the only one um there's there's two. The

103security one potentially. We could see some movement there though that somebody, you know, might leave. Um, but there will be somebody that would lose their their position there potentially. And then the high school custodian is the other. >> They can bump. That's right. And they'll bump. So, somebody at the bottom of the of the club will lose their >> Those are the only two on that. >> Libraries of vacancy. >> MTSS. That's the one we're still playing with. >> Guidance. >> Yeah. United spouse is a one-year-old Lee and then >> um I need to process pushing this out and we need to obviously have much more discussion. It's it's a start. >> Yes. And I obviously I think >> keeping as all of our talented people in district is kind of going to be my

104top priority here. I do want to call out and I think it's probably because of the conversation we just came from. I am deeply uncomfortable cutting a guidance counselor uh after having just brought on kind of the the ASO model. We were talking about how you know this is one part in a larger process when we're thinking about kind of safety of our schools and supporting our students and um this feels very counterintuitive to I think that commitment and priority. Um, and I know that it was initially a one-year position. So, I guess I would like to learn additionally as kind of that there is a reason why that is on here, but um, that jumped out to me. And >> sure, thanks. >> I concur with what Lee just said, but I also wanted

105to ask about adult child ratios for the second and third grade classrooms for Dianic Center. You said 21.5 and 22.5 but that's teacher student. Are there pairs also in that room at the same time? >> Um I can't say at any every given moment there's a pair. It could depend on whether a student has a onetoone or whether a parah is available to float through and support during the period of the day but no to the fact that there would be a par in there all day long. >> Well that would not be the case. Generally speaking, I guess I'm looking at holes because I know when we wrote IEPs, we didn't say one-on-one par. Most of the time we said PAR support as needed kind of thing. So often times there were paras and

106oftentimes it's to the detriment of a student to have somebody glued to somebody's hip and it's better if somebody is more available to all of the classroom learning and can help facilitate that relationship. So, y >> just speaking more to that because I know I've heard complaints from people at Lily B where there's four or five teachers in a room and it's too crowded because there's too many pairs and there's one or two teachers and then three. I mean, there are scenarios that are most conducive for educational practices and I'm just hoping that we can follow that. >> Yeah. And and let me be clear, you know, these other considerations to me are are next level. Um I would be looking at the the top ones before going to that. I just we decided to,

107you know, to show that there these are some other areas that the board could be thinking about if in asking questions about if we wanted that deeper. >> Well, I just think sometimes we need to be clear. I think sometimes just say 21.5 or 22.5 might be just ingenuous. I think it's really important to say how many adult books might be available or could be available or should be available. >> I can't answer that. I don't I don't know but I do know exactly what the numbers will be about students. That's why I just wish that. >> Thank you. Um I'm troubled by the guidance counselor position. I I recognize that it was the one year only position, but that's that's a position that uh works very intimately with the the students um and helps

108them kind of prepares them for their next next uh stage in life. At the same time also is helping on a day-to-day basis um not from a instruction perspective and picking classes as they go through the high school system. So uh I know that if I'm if I'm if I'm following correctly uh one of one of the guidance counselors is I think uh the assistant principal and I believe this was this this one year position was for that. Uh would this mean if he if he follow if you go through with this would this mean that we would have one less guidance counselor uh for the high school? >> Yes. >> Yeah. And there's there's some moving parts to that too. Um, which you know I got to get into publicly right now, but >>

109but it would be so I think they have to consider this. This is this is somewhat of a difficult difficult one to justify. >> Yeah. It's you know that's what it's it's on here for discussion sort of thing. You know, I think it was kind of looked at and it's been it was discussed a little bit maybe back when we were talking to you know initial budget conversations maybe not but it was part of because of the fact that you know it's got a one year person you know probably not only so it has some flexibility I guess because nobody would be potentially losing their job other than the person that knows that they're doing supposed to be there for full one year but totally uh totally understand you know need you know everything that

110we talked about 72 And then sorry. >> Yes. For the exact same reasons that Lee mentioned. I I I would say the same thing about the library secretary. Uh people were unequivocally against that across the board. People made some very moving comments about the value of having those people in the school in the library as a service to students. And I think it would be in bad faith to do that the same. >> Yeah. So big question comments. Uh one so for the for the guidance counselor I think it'll be useful for us to have some information as to like this counselor to student ratios right like how do we we have a lot of like you know teacher student ratio but like we had that conversation I think maybe two years ago when this

111wasn't the traveling block but it would be like good to know like how do we compare >> yeah new numbers >> right um so that that would be useful to make an informed decision in that um second part is actually a question so like where the other other considerations I know they're like, you know, if we don't do some of the top ones, we look at the bottom ones. Why is why is why are some salaries like way much higher than others? Like >> want to talk it's step. >> Yeah, it's the step that it's the step that they're >> all right. But if you're bumping then you wouldn't bump like the newest person though. >> You use the person that potentially bumped right around, >> right? But but so that MTSS one that one

112is something I think we have to talk about. >> Exactly. Yeah. That's there's there's moving parts to that. >> So that one that's why I do see that full amount right now because I think we're not sure with that. Um but you can the only the only other reduction um is the guidance counseling right now which would be um salary but that is >> that's current. >> Yeah. And then with regard to the one stand at the bottom, some of those salaries, the lower the people on the low, you know, lowest seniority came in at just higher steps because they have previous experience. So they don't necessarily come in at a BA too. So >> Okay. And then the last questions, last comments. So it's something that is not on this list but just kind

113of mentioned uh you know during the public comment is like you know like can we revisit some of those uh students that might be outplaced and consider like are there would they be a better fit being in house? That's those significant swings you know when you outplay some bills like being 50 to 100 grand. So I don't know if um you know obviously we can't know specifics in public but like something to look for in the administration like are the students out there that can be brought back and we have the ability to support them for what they need here in house as opposed to them. Yeah, and again I think it's a good point that you know won't talk publicly about facility identifying students but um it's based on you know PP decisions needs

114of students um the goal is always to try and bring students back you know into district as appropriate we have to have the appropriate stat so I know Kim Davis um some she works uh diligent to try to to do those things but comes down Um, I'm going to ditto the library secretary only because and it's going to go back to the previous conversation on with the guns only because to mental health and having access to the library go hand in hand because for some of us we can't talk to people but we can escape into a world of make believe. um it helps us with our mental health. Um so I believe that's very important for students to have that outlet and I know I've spoken at length about it. So I don't really

115want to get into it again but um I'm going to again give my I think it should go back into the budget speech and that's it. But if you have other ideas too kind of adding things back in your zero sum there's nothing easy about any of this. Exactly. So you know >> this isn't a new idea but in the spirit of that I am happy to see um a not late bus reduction but a 1.0 bus reduction considered here. I know that we were talking about that a lot. I also still have very painful memories of when we tried to do that years ago and my kid did not get home until two hours after school. So, I'm going to try to approach this with uh with a lot of faith, but I I

116I think we haven't just been speaking about the support, but we've also heard from a lot of our constituents some concerns around buses. So, I I appreciate an item like that that is not impacting staff and there is some hopefully some wiggle room there. So, >> we're going to try. Yeah, we're gonna do everything we can. I know Kim is uh Kim brought it up and you know I give her a lot of credit for trying to work work through that. So, thank you Kim. >> So, um can you take the the history teacher um open so it's an open position? >> No, there's a lot of moving parts with that. Let me just The only thing I can preface is that it can be done without somebody losing a job if you're high school.

117That's all I can say. >> Eliminate any courses, any course opportunities. How about with world language if we wait hold on wait back sorry at the at the high school? Yeah. Yeah. There would be an impact obviously because you're decreasing a staff high school. >> Would it be a new course or just larger classes? >> Very well could be a new course. >> Is that the same with world language as well? um world language the you know the retirement that we have is in Spanish um which is our largest class sizes um so that would be an effect as well so um to do with history um need to learn more about maybe understand exactly what that would be um couple other thoughts So the Nanic Center in Flanders I I really struggle moving. Oh,

118so when I look at class sizes in elementary this this particular year, but it happens in other years, but this particular year is our class sizes are are are low. I mean half of them are below our guideline. Okay. But there's nowhere where you can take one out that doesn't put us well above our guideline and it's like across the board you know whether it's you have 29 students two classes okay well either 14 and a half or you have 29 uh that's it that's your choice so um for me this really kind of highlights you know when we talk about the school reorganization committee you know this is something I I don't know what where we end up with that but and and it should be academic first, budget second. Um, but if there

119there could be some real benefit of consolidating these and just being able to have more consistent class sizes across uh schools. So, I think see that there's some benefit in that. I don't agree. I I would not be in favor of the and I know there are the other considerations. I wouldn't be in favor of either of those because I think then the class sizes get pretty high especially compared to class sizes in the other schools at those same grades. So for that's the world language one um when it came up in deliberations that we could be at three it was at least mentioned a 3% number which would have been like the couple million dollar reduction or something >> 2.2 too. Um, you know, I was trying to rack in my head after that.

120I was like, well, what could you do? Like, how could you what could we do to even come close to that and what would the uh impact? One thing that I was looking at the class sizes at the high school and then there was also email or chairs um about so I'm going to go to world language. So a number of schools have Mandarin actually offer Mandarin as as a language. Um and if we were starting from scratch, my personal opinion and you say we don't have anything history uh of of what we offer. I think if we were offering Spanish and Mandarin, those would be my top choices of languages to offer. Um, I know Latin's really I would love to also have Latin, but Latin probably is too hard and nobody teaches it

121anymore anyway, but I would love to have but anyway, manner and Spanish would be my priority. So then I started looking at class sizes and when you look at class sizes at the high school, um, Spanish is tons of students who take Spanish. um German, you know, unusually and I think it's we have a great teacher who teaches German. So I think we get a lot of students who was like taking the the teacher which I've done uh over my uh career is like great teacher I just want to learn. I I'm having to do it. Our French numbers have really been declining. Um, and if you look at them, they're pretty low um, at at all levels. And so my question would be, and when I was thinking this, my original thinking was when

122we had to cut 2.2 million. So, I don't know where I am currently on this, but would we consider at middle school only offering Spanish and then phasing out French in high school and only offering German and Spanish. And if we had um teachers who will do or dual certified French, Spanish, which are both one languages. So um there's reason reasonability that there might be some dual certifications that some of the French could move to Spanish because Spanish will get larger. Um there'll be more students taking Spanish. So is so for me this world language is hey there's an opening is this something we think about this is bigger if we were cutting 2.2 million I think we'd be having to have these all these conversations. I don't think at 1.2 too that we necessarily

123have to have this conversation, but it is one I know, you know, Estabbon, you're leading the that global language more on the elementary and we haven't done much on it. >> Um, but it's just something that starts to, you know, start to think about of what makes the most sense. And I know, you know, when I went to high school and middle school, you offered English and Spanish and French. Those were the two languages. And I think there's some history that that just is has kind of moved on. But I I don't know those are if the French is the right language. And I see if students are voting with their feet and they're not go, you know, they're not their class, you know, the the classes are small. Um then maybe that's something we

124do phase out. So that's something again I probably picks off a long discussion, but that is something that I've thought about. um is is maybe something we can consider and look into is whether um if we remove French for middle school probably almost half the people from high school don't have to we have German we don't have German middle school but anyway those are the things that I was uh looking at I'm I'm kind of I'm struggling from the upper section of a lot of tough some some of these I'm pretty well in favor of and then there's a lot of tough decisions. I I'm not going to um be too, but I really want to do the middle school high school carpeting and I don't know if we can use the drips grant for

125that but or or what we can do. But my worry is that next year we're going to be in the same situation and are we going to be talking about 90,000 or 100,000 because we have to replace two car picks or then we defer one and we still have 40 and then I've seen this too many times where we just keep pushing it off um because I don't know that next year is going to be easier. So those are my thoughts. I don't know how helpful but those are my thoughts. So I wanted to to not respond to the look for language but I sold I was trying to remember off the top of my head but like over the last 10 years I think with the world language department at the high school has

126lost like I think three full-time employ three three uh so there's been you know because unfortunately like people have been retiring so it's been like easy pickings for for budget so I I would really worry like to continue to like that trend, right? They were like decimating that. So, uh, >> yeah, just to be clear, my thought was not, so I would not remove I I would have we need the Spanish teacher at the high school. >> Yeah. No, I'm just saying languages in general, but we used to have >> middle school. Yeah, we used to have Lat teacher, right? >> So, sometimes it gets hard because it's hard to replace that, right, >> specific. But I I I would think the question is what we do at the middle school. And if you only

127offered Spanish at the middle school, then um you could take a dual subcertified and move them to the high school um to teach Spanish because we're going to have a larger. So that was my my thinking. Um >> yeah, I would just be cautious to go to go around. The other question though or maybe like thought that I had which you mentioned the carpeting too like I remember listening to the board of finance meeting last week they mentioned and I don't know like how it works but like so they mentioned that like some of these things could go into the capital budget as opposed to I don't know there was like a monetary threshold or is like a time >> 25 >> so if this is 50,000 can it go carp they can go into

128the We've never put it there before. >> Yeah. I mean, if if you were doing uh like the whole middle school carpeting, carpeting, that I would say, you know, that probably would be something we would put in um >> typically capital budget. >> Typically, it's considered recurring maintenance. Yeah. Just like painting for whatever reason. >> Yeah. >> So, >> consider a capital. Can you ask and just double check and I don't know heaven or member and just see if that because Yeah. Yeah. It's a good question and it's over 25,000 and they were pushing. You're right. They were pushing like what else can we get in capital? Um >> they wanted nothing in capital. >> Yeah, I know. >> Yes, I know. So >> we have capital. So, two items in our capital have been

129produced plus >> tonight. >> That's right. >> Just a clarification. Can you tell me about the pension reduction what that is? >> Mary, we're talking about the pension piece. the um every year the actuary recommends what we should contribute to the pension um then you know what percentage is it's allocated what our percentage is. So they made a decision at the board of finance last week to not fund the full amount that the actuary tells them to fund. So I proportionately reduced our contribution because if they're not going to contribute their fully recommended contribution, then I don't see why we should contribute the full contribution. Um, their pension, last time I checked, I mean, they're at 100% funding funded, which is like unheard of. Like 70 to 75% funding level is kind of best practice

130type thing, industry standard. So I think that was why I think probably recommended that they not certified staff. >> Yeah, it's basically um the uh um custodian secretaries union. Those are the members that are in there. And then there are of the grandfathered unaffiliated staff that um are in it um until it loads several years ago. >> So, thanks. I I um kind of to repeat what other members have said. I there's a lot that I do um agree with and resonates. I think um you know a lot of things on this list make sense. Um I sort of in from a a principal standpoint I think um other considerations that bucket for me would be more of the um job job loss category like that's sort of the you know kind of those would

131be the others for me um generally speaking um I think the world language there's you know I think there's opportunities to look at our structure and um I I think Jeff you said this was open currently understanding you know the implication is you know if we lose things it likely it won't come back but if we overlay having a new approach to our world language and what the structure looks like are we um you know are we are we covered or or you know do we have um what we would need um to kind of restructure that program. Um I I react to when I saw the carpeting come back on the list um just because it's you know it's come up so many times and if there's some other you know thing that we

132can um bucket in there instead of the carpeting um or have some you know creative solution or other other way to fund that. Um I I hate to lose that. Um the um guidance counselor was another one that you know that stood out. Um in terms of of keeping that I don't know that there are any other you know super specific the the library sector. We did spend an awful lot of time talking about the library secretary position and in in our meeting and hearing from you know other others. I think it went out and we kind of brought it back in. I wasn't surprised to see it. Um but I would think about that one in the other bucket as well. >> Excellent. >> So um we don't have to make we're not making

133decisions. So this is just no cycle change. >> So I think the big action for each of us is you know there's a straw man on how you get from you know what how do you add up to 1.2 million or 780,000 with the health insurance we're doing that that one is done. So everything else is decision all and I would say the pension reduction sounds like that one's probably you should just do that. Um so that gets you to uh 740. Uh so we need to find 740,000. Here are some options on this sheet. Are there other anything else? Not for tonight, but if you think of anything that you want to look at a little deeper, understand a little bit more you want to let Jeff um you can provide at our next

134meeting a little more information. >> Just real quick, you know, I I've my I've moved around a lot. My husband and I have moved I've lived in six different states and worked in five different states. So I know it's New England and I know we like to do things the way things have been done for the last 200 years. But I've worked in other places where there's a one two combination or a two three combination. But I even worked in a school where there was a one through four combination and and they kept the class sizes this small and the teachers were amazingly talented. They were amazing. they could do it and the kids had good outcomes. I'm just saying I'm just bringing it up as an idea and I know it's not I know

135it's a radical crazy from the West Coast idea, but I'm just saying other places do things a little bit differently that might afford still to have that student teacher ratio that we are that Mary Broadick was so adamant getting into our school system that we adhere to and continue today. But it's just something to think about. >> Okay. Could you just share what what I'm not is that like both the teacher is teaching first and second graders. >> Yeah. It would be like a onetwo combination. So you have some kids like your kids are in the class and my kids are in the class and your kids are first grade, mine's a second grader and they're both functioning at the same level and the teacher is able to, you know, I think we thought that

136maybe there would be some changes in how we taught with COVID, but it didn't really happen. you know, you teach to the skill set, you teach to the level, not to the curriculum and not to the age necessarily, but what the kids actually need. So then it also actually reduces the need for identification for special education. So maybe our numbers would go down that way too. It's just a different way of looking at education, how you do me as a speech pathologist, I worked prek through adult, so I always worked with people of different skill sets and different levels and constantly pulling them. So, it's just a it's a paradigm shift. And, you know, I I know we're probably not fighting for it, but I just want to I brought it up previously, probably five

137or six years ago. So, I'll bring it up again just as a thing like, hey, it's possible. It's going to stay. So, let's um if everyone can can we don't have another meeting until well, we have to talk about that later in the gym, but we don't have another meeting for a long time. Um there's April 27th is the public forum which is on the overall budget. Um you know sometime in May we have another meeting. I'd like to talk about the adding a meeting because do think we need to spend a little more time on this. Um but uh if if everyone can you know um take your time think about um anything that you'd like more information or just like hey I've always been wondering can we combine first and second grade and

138Nanic center and instead of you know five teachers we only need four just an example uh not so those are things you know any anything that you come up with um see if We can do that and then for our next meeting discuss it >> just communication wise you I'll be sending out a bit of letter and information out to staff and uh you know parents just kind of where things stand. Um you know I think we want to be careful with you know that public hearing on the 27th and you know there's obviously some reductions here. um have to kind of see what the parent community wants to do with that sort of thing. That sort of thing. So, it's good that we're kind of starting having this conversation, you know, tonight. So, a

139lot of it's getting out there, which is important. So, good. Um moving on to um discussion action items for U other and we have discussion action proposed East Line High School graduation date for class of 2026 to be June 18th. So that's that's a third story and we used all our snowflake days, right? We we were two beyond we went five into >> and that's a Thursday. >> That's a Thursday. June 19th is a uh questions discussion question. >> It says last day of school students only. >> What would be the last day of school for staff? Same thing, June 18th. Does anyone want to make a motion? >> Motion to set the graduation day high school 2026 to be June 18th, 2026. Second Vic. Further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. post

140stay. You good with this? Good. Thank you. >> I think you blind. >> It's actually hard to see. His shirt is kind of blending in the background like that. >> Yes. >> Just to be clear to Wednesday night is the middle school. So the 17th would be the school. All the go back to back and both on. So I'll throw that out there as well. Henry works. We'll see on that >> and that'll be here at the high school. >> Correct. Yes. Same location. Okay. Um next is discussion of the board event meeting schedule. So um if you look your meeting tonight and then our next regular meeting is not until May 18th. >> So we have a public hearing on the so that these meetings are oh these town meetings are over always overlapping

141with our meetings which makes it very hard. I was hoping we could add a meeting on May 4th. It's Monday, May 4th. Um, everyone can kind of take a look at your calendars. We'll have person send out a email to kind of verify that we get a forum, but that that gives us a little time. And the biggest thing is, you know, we'll get past that April 27th meeting where the board of finance may will keep this number or change it. But at that point, we kind of know our number other than referendum where it may not it could pass or not pass. Um, but that would give us a good indication of where >> board of finance said that they are going to have two town meetings, one at the community center and one

142at the high school. So I don't know if we need to be at both just >> said one was going to be town focus and one was going to be education focus. That was my understand. Yeah. A good question. >> Just I don't know. We should probably >> that's just what they said they were doing. >> Well, but that's just what they said they were doing. So I just I think we should probably be on both since they said they were going to do both. people get ready to the subcommittee meetings we'll talk about as well just sorry with people the participation we got a lot of meetings happening just in the subcommittee meetings participation >> oh yeah yeah yeah thank you for >> so um yes sorry Jeff forgot um so I guess so

143we've had we have obviously great attendance at our board of ed meetings and our standing committees we have very good attendance as well. But some of the other meetings um there's been some struggle to get I mean we're all busy and we're going to a thousand different meetings. So some of those um and starting maybe some of the um like the union conversation um >> negotiation meetings and stuff. So, um, if everyone can I I guess, you know, let PEP know as soon as you can. If you can't make those meetings, I'll personally offer up and any my view is if anyone for those meetings I I know I'm very comfortable if I couldn't make a meeting and it we're getting low like on teachers negotiations like we could one of us could cover as

144well even if you're not on that committee. That's my that's a a view of mine. So I you know so if Lisa can't make a meeting and she calls me up and says hey I can't make that can you go so at least we have you know two or three people you know I'd be happy I'm happy for us to have that practice so that we can so are people okay obviously we have to it can't be that then we add and we end up with six people at a meeting or something like that but if we're struggling and you know just trying to have a meeting and we end up only one person is mayor that's hard, you know, he needs other opinions. He needs uh more than just one person's opinion. Are people

145okay with us trying to find substitutes? >> I think that's purely a >> I'm okay to be on the list by the way too if there's other things that you know. So we we can have the practice if you can't make it Jeff do you or or I can text people or you can text or group them to say hey or short by however you want to see >> of course but but if people are generally okay with having substitutes kind of filling in so there's other opinions at least um that would be good. >> Thank you. Um so May 4th we're going to shoot to add meeting and um that'll give us an opportunity after the 27th to discuss these potential changes. So then um moving on we have the unaffiliated so we have

146the two items that were in consent that we pulled off consent. The first was the unaffiliated wage for host proposal and Alisa you had a question or two >> I did I thanks for letting me pull this out and add it to our discussion and lengthen this meeting if you want button um I you know I think one just from this standpoint of you know being in budget season and you're dressing in this document um wages and benefits and salary increases. I think that um just gives us the opportunity to bring up the document itself and make sure that everyone has the opportunity to kind of look at it. And when I did open it, I I had some questions which was really my screen just um bring this up. I think I was trying

147to um match up the staff names to kind of how we're structured and how we're set up here. And also just kind of tying it back to like, okay, where do these things fit in the in the budget and all of that. So, you know, a couple I just wanted to ask about Jeeoff because I don't recognize we I know we don't have like a director of HR that I know like like we have we have HR generalist on the list. That was one that I was like is that a person we have as a role? What does that mean? And then the other one um because it's probably easy for you to consider this but the other one is just the when under the next bucket of staffing the technology p the technology ones

148there's technology lead and IT technician both with the in parentheses technology work reorganization. So I guess you know like are these are these people in roles that we have um not familiar with some of the names with reorganization and something we're doing is what does that mean? >> Yeah let me explain. So the technology um reorganization piece if you remember that was when we brought the staff members away from custom and had them join our team Dr. Wana took overseeing uh technology. >> I think we already did. Exactly. That's that's been >> I forgot to take that out. >> That shouldn't make that. >> Yeah. You know what? You're right. We should have taken it out last year. >> Sheet and I left it on batch. So, >> yeah. So, that's that already happened uh

149last year. So, we shouldn't Sorry about that. >> That's good a good point and a good question, but that's already been done. The human resource um generalist that's um kind of like a an u a secretarial position. um that person reports to Stacy Muscarella who's the systems operation analyst. Those are the only two people we have in HR side of the work that myself and Elise our central office you know administrators do. So, um, that person filing, uh, when we're onboarding and hiring new people, that individual takes care of getting all the information together, packets, that whole process. And then, um, Stacy, who's the systems operation analyst, she oversees all the state boarding. Um, she does all of the, uh, running the platform, hiring platform, um, fingerprinting. Uh, she's the bridge to the finance office.

150does all FMLA all of those HR functions are what her and that next level person down do outside of any of staff behavior staff discipline that's what we take care of >> that's a different >> really helpful because I know we we do the work and it's kind of spread out amongst different people but I think seeing the list of names that I you know I'm not necessarily >> yeah but on that list there's only two people that do H that do HR outside of central office and by how much staff does Eastland have in the school systems for >> how much school staff how much staff does 70 hours you've got close to 700 >> thank you >> yeah it's really >> we should have let you know how many people the two four

151of you for >> we have made this work with good people but you know it is it is getting that much more challenging too because of you know FMLA is a great example I mentioned board of finance we have 50 people 50 people out >> which the amount of the Connecticut laws around that is you know it's just you have one person doing that job alone >> we have 50 people out right now >> whether that's again you can take full FMLA you can take intermittent FMLA the laws around FMLA significantly changed over the last two years >> which is extremely challenging. >> It's over 700 staff. >> Correct. >> Um but yeah, so that's that's what those those two are. >> But I just have one question. Student student services. What does a physical

152therapist do? >> I can't hear you. Physical physical therapist. >> Physical therapist. Kim, do you want to just speak to physical therapists? >> Yeah, sure. A physical therapist um works on students uh core gross motor skills that are related to learning. So um for example, sitting up in your desk, you know, as a student with two feet on the floor and having the posture um to maintain is something that if a student was struggling with that, they may receive physical therapy. So we have one position um that works across all five schools for that. So then there's other gross motor examples, coordination, balance, um you know those developmental gross motor is a um considered a related service like fine motor with the occupational therapists. >> Thank you. I just just curious >> how many do

153we have? How many do they serve? I'm wondering >> we have one physical therapist that serves all five schools. her case load at the moment I don't have at my fingertips but certainly could follow up. >> Great. Thanks, Kim. >> Sure. >> So, I'll make a motion to get >> Wait, can I ask one more? Sorry. >> Sorry, I didn't see you. Oh no, no, I just thought so like under the facilities technology. So the facilities manager and the project manager I know one of them is Diane I'm assuming but like which was the role and what is the other role? >> Dian's the project and well is the facilities manager. >> Okay. Yeah. What is the facilities manager? >> Basically that next level right above the facilities. Um well you know Chris talked about

154it as finding himself spending a lot of time here dealing with projects with Diane Noel takes care of all of those building issues. Um and also overseeing work with maintenance uh distilled staff repairs and workers and processing etc etc. >> Thank you. Yep. We're >> going to talk about Peru. >> Oh we got to make a motion. Hold on. I make a motion to approve the unaffiliated staff conditions for 2026 second. Further discussion all those in favor say I. I opposed >> Bill. Is that a a approved? >> Yes. Okay. Thank you. >> Well, he's got a blue shirt. >> Yeah. I didn't say camouflage screen. >> Uh opposed abstain. >> Was that abstain? >> Okay. Motion passes. Okay. And then moving on to the next sent agenda item which was um the group field

155trip request for 2026. I love the idea of this trip. I wish I was going on it. I did not hold to too to um in opposition, but I really wanted to um ask a few questions. Um when I was looking at the trip, I noticed the background that said that, you know, this trip to Peru is similar to other trips offered to students in years past. Um and I and I'm and then at the next line is the cost um at almost $4,500. And I I I know we've looked at out of country trips and I I definitely reacted to that that cost. I feel like that's higher. I I don't know. I guess I wanted to ask about um you know is this is this costing similar to what we've done in in

156years past. And and the side question to that is is um understanding um the uh if we've talked about or or or how we're addressing kind of equity and access to this this trip being so rather >> Yeah. I I mean the cost is higher than I I recall last trip that I think we agree with. >> I would recommend you invite um it Garcia. >> I don't I don't think we should put her on the spot. That's fair. I think we should invite her to the next meeting. Um her in high school. >> I I am here if you want me to answer questions. >> I mean if if you want to spot you weren't prepared for that. So >> So yeah, I mean this the cost is a little bit higher but it's

157barely higher than what we're used to. Um, for example, there's a trip uh next week to Europe, and it's it is a similar price. As you guys all know, the price of travel has gone up dramatically, just like everything else. Um, and that price also includes all of the airfare, all of the hotels, all of the meals, all of the the costs that are associated with the with the entrances. So, it's it's it is higher, but it's barely higher, and it's right in line with the trip that they're going on next week. Um, yeah, I fully understand these trips are expensive, but I I are we looking at um the accessibility and and making these equitable where Not all families have this financial flexibility. >> Yeah, it's come up over the years um you know

158quite a bit. Um I don't know uh Scarcia, I don't know if you any fundraising or anything that occurs to to try and support those that want to go on the trip that uh that can. >> Yes, of course we always do fundraising and and you know I would love to bring every single student um despite their ability to to pay, but you know that's not feasible. But yes, we always do fundraising and I ask my students if they would, you know, would like to do that. Some of the things that we've done in the past have been the concession stands. We sell um Deans, beans, coffee, and chocolate to students. Um so, you know, to families. That's been a very popular fundraiser. So, we do that. A lot of families have a fundraising page

159that's through the company EF and people will gift to the students. Um, so yeah, we do those types of things. >> Great. Um, that you do that. You know, as you're talking, I was wondering, you know, we have the education foundation. I wonder if they would want to sponsor, let's say, just a scholarship for one student that they apply for. Idea, you know, where they apply and say, "Hey, here's what I want to do." that that does at least give one student or or people a chance for um you know if they're not able to you know pay themselves >> or some yeah partial or something partial yeah it could be something we could break up with you know foundation >> I mean because the trips get more expensive >> the gap you know inflation

160Yeah, >> the possible flight of themselves are just ridiculous right now. >> Just real quick, um, and I bring this up every time there's a big trip like this because, um, I'm sure Mrs. IA you've checked or done serious work for code of conduct and code of behavior and that there is some kind of contract with all the 20 students who sign up to go that there are going to be ambassadors for our school and you know stellar behavior and not engaging in anything that would be suspicious or suspect. Well, actually, Katie, you guys have already done that for me because there's board of ed um code of conduct that all of the students have to sign. So, I print that off of your website under your policies and then they all sign it as

161um a contract for the, you know, different code of conduct. Um and we, you know, don't travel just, it's just not just me. I'm I have like a whole support system, uh with traveling with EF and I have had to utilize their supports in the past. So, >> well, I appreciate the I mean, you are basically doing extra work for us. So, I appreciate all of that. The organization of it, your time away. I don't know if it's a family trip, too, but >> No, >> thank you, Kate. And you know what? The older I get, I do ask. >> Sorry. >> No, I guess you'll have a good time. The older I get, I I do wonder actually why I want to travel with other people's children when I could just travel with my

162family. And that's why I only every other year travel with other people's children. And this every other year I'll travel with my own family. But the the true reason why I do it is because I am a Spanish teacher and I cannot bring all of my students out into the world to show them all of the reasons why it is important to learn another language. So, if I can do that every other year with 20 or so students, um it renews my passion for my profession and it can at least inspire some of the students. Um and we've been really successful in the past, especially our most recent trip had more boys than ever in our Costa Rica trip. So, I thought that that was really successful. >> Well, kudos to you. Thank you. Because

163I know it's a stretch and it's such a rich experience that you give them. So, thank you. Thanks. >> Thanks, Jess. And for what it's worth, I did most of this trip this past September and it was phenomenal. So, I I You're going to have a This is really cool. So, >> must volunteer to go for >> I can be the uh tour director. No, enjoy. >> Great trip. Well, >> if I may, just my my final ask would just be for us to have a little bit more visibility and to um the the the trips that are I mean, I don't know if there's a a threshold or but it's, you know, as they're going up um and they're, you know, fantastic trips, but I think we do have to be sensitive to what

164the families are being asked to contribute and I think just get a little bit more um >> information in terms of I I I love the idea of providing a scholarship for or you know doing that for um for a student to be able to participate in the trip. Um but knowing that and presuming that you know fundraisers are not going to fill this gap like what what kinds of things are we doing? We have these you know individual field trips. So, not specific to this one necessarily, but um how how far does that get us? Just to kind of get a little bit more sense on what our um you know, what our travelers are being asked to and and help us get a sense of um you know, are we really um being

165able to have um you know, an equitable operating? >> Yes. So maybe we could bring not this is not specific to this one but in general is when we have these trips >> how much do are students able to fund raise you know how to offset some of this cost you know how much do the families have to bear on their own? Um or are there ways for students to get both scholarships from do we ever have where a student is is this trip is in what year? >> Yeah, I see. Right. Yeah. >> Yeah. A year. But so in in the next six or nine months, can someone fund raise as do people fund raise 70%? You know, someone get a lot of the way there even. >> Yeah. Okay. We do need a

166motion for this. >> I'll make a motion to approve the proposed trip to it equals way 27. >> Further discussion. All those in favor say I. I. Oppos. >> Okay. Um that yeah that closes our discussion action items for the night. Moving on to administration reports and we have >> um yeah just in the essence of time. Uh I was just going to re a couple things in the weekly update. go down look at the weekly weekly update you can have for ask >> and uh that's that's it >> and I will ditto Jeff's message some good in there see >> good things going on this week and thanks Emily thanks Mariana moving on to committee reports we did have fo before this um gave any update on >> sard single single things on our

167agenda. Non latitude account versus town contingency account. Um so how contingency well we have 250,000 in that personnel we have 308,275 contracts Oxburg talked about facilities charges for youth programs and that we're going to did you want me to give this kind of detail or no? >> Yeah. Well, I think that one's important that we had talked about remember a year ago we had talked about um where some of the youth sports were in kind giving us money for like custodial services and stuff. So they put in the bleachers and the lever and stuff but we as a let them give us the money and we decide if you want to put in bleachers or other things. So that that was we are going forward with that. So that's basically going to give us a

168little bit of oversight and control over how things are operated. Next is Sale facility and security oversight. We did kind of a deep dive into all of what we do for Salem. We provided an enormous amount of support and I don't think we want to go into that too deep. Um and then the drip grant discussion, there's a yearly allocation and we're looking at how we're going to um disperse those fundings. And um then the last is fiscal year 2526 quarter rate projections and we talked about sped as a roller coaster and reduction in Paris and health service um for the surv the health insurance. So that's running up cost for us as well. Thanks. Any questions for Kate? Okay. Uh, moving on. Hey. Um, we leave for San Antonio on Thursday. Leonard is going

169to be sworn in as the president of NSBA on Friday. So, it's going to be really exciting. It's going to be fun weekend in Texas. It's going to rain thunderstorms the entire time that we're there, >> but it's going to be 80. So, it won't be 50. So, >> rain and 80 and rain and 50 are going to be great. Um, legislative wrapup is May 12th. Uh, delegate assembly will be November 19th. Convention will be November 20th to 21st. Um, we have some really cool things coming for convention. Look for your stuff to come in. Um, we are going to do a something new. We are going to do an art gallery in the hotel lobby. They have agreed to let us turn the lobby into an art gallery. Cool. So, we are going to

170put out a request for all the the schools to bring us some art and they have let us turn the lobby into an art gallery of all the students artworks from across the state. >> So, student art. So we're going to do certain art because we always do certain music and I've asked for us to do certain art this year. So we are going to just like >> we have an artist who came in. >> So that was my >> for my convention. My big thing was art this year. So I've asked for all the art to come in this year. So it was really cool. >> Um >> so we're going to turn the lobby into an artist's display. So that's going to be my cool thing for the convention this year. Um conventions,

171you know, doing its thing. But that's it. So I got Oh wait, sorry. I got the convention was November 20th with 20 charts. What was the other date you said right before that? >> Sunday is the 19th. >> Thank you. >> Okay. And my learn board meeting is uh Thursday. So no update there. Um we'll be on board comments in future agenda. >> Just real quick, Miracle League Sports starts within the next week or two. Great. Thanks, Steve. >> Um, no, I think we'll stop vention at some point tonight, but it's starting to flirt together. Um, would love at some upcoming board meeting perhaps after budgeting season to revisit the topic of out of district student placements. Um, I think it'd be helpful for us to learn a little bit more about kind of the

172ins and outs of that process. And we obviously get feedback on it both from a budget standpoint as well as, you know, how we're serving our kids. Obviously, it's something we have mindful of when it comes to student privacy. But I'm thinking from a high level kind of our overall kind of process and trends on that would be helpful to have as a little >> Yeah, let's let me talk to Kim. EBT process decision sort of thing. But let me talk to Kim to see >> what high level we might be able to. >> I think going along with that too would be talking about identification rates. 20% seems high to me. >> I see. Yeah, across the state they're all going up. Yeah, unfortunately. >> Going to throw one more. Touch a truck is

173the first weekend in May. I just realized we don't have time for quite some time. So touch is the first weekend in May at um it benefits Children's Museum, Houston Family Human Services, and the Miracle League. >> Saturday the 9th the set. So for Saturday is the second it's youth family human services children museum and miracle league are the sponsors is it rain >> off the top of my head I cannot remember it one year pushed it to the fall. Yes, he did do that, but I can't read. I can't remember. >> Honestly, I can't remember. I don't >> I think the wire will say when it comes out, but I don't >> remember to second. Okay. Second. All those in favor say I.