Board of Education: September 22nd, 2025

0016 p.m. >> The whole obviously I need to check that now. >> Yeah. >> Well, did you see Google Docs or Glass? >> Okay, it is 6 PM. I'd like to call the Slime Board of Ed regular meeting to order for Monday, September 22nd. For those of you who can stand and stand for the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Next order of business. At the beginning of each meeting, we read the East Line Public School mission statement. East Line Public Schools will inspire, engage, and educate each student to become a contributing citizen and res and a responsible, independent, and critical thinker. And for you those of you at

002home, you can also see it right behind us. Um or those of you here I guess can see that as well. So uh next order of business public comment public comment. public comment hearing none. Public comment closes. We move on to special reports and we have our high school representative Xavier doing his first report of the year. Welcome. >> Hello guys. Uh so the first month of school as you all know and it is all it's going great so far. The um freshmen are getting comfortable to the new atmosphere along with getting into their new classes. Um seniors have started preparing for college as they're introduced if not already to the common app during one of their English blocks. Um the student senate members are helping the freshman senate members uh getting organized how things

003work. So kind of just getting them all for the school year. Um the full senate is starting to prepare for spirit week which is later this year and is starting around starting on the week of November 10th to the 14th which is also veterans week. Um the senior's official prom date has been uh is now out and is May 30th and they're starting to prepare for that. Um, seniors uh have recently um painted their parking spots so this weekend on Sunday from 8 to 2. And if you couldn't see already, they're very wonderful and colorful outside. Um, this upcoming Wednesday is a half day and this Wednesday and Thursday, there's also picture days during one of the students English classes. Tuesday, the 30th is the club fair during lunch where they'll go to the gym

004to look around and get used to the clubs. On Wednesday, um, H Wednesday um next month on the 1st is the try intro uh adoption ceremony into the auditorium and following that on the 13th there is no school due to Columbus Day. Um then on the 16th there is a PSAT testing juniors starting at uh 10:45 in the morning and if you guys haven't known already it is Hispanic Heritage Month. So we have started um decorating the school if you guys couldn't see. Um and along with that during the morning we are singing the pledge of allegiance in both English and Spanish which is very nice. Uh the boys varsity soccer team is not only undefeated this year but actually haven't let up a single goal. They recently won um against Waterford two-0 last Saturday

005winning the school the ALS go. Uh they are currently second in the whole state. Um, girls f uh field hockey also won 3 to2 against uh Laurelton Hall last Saturday with an overall record of six and one this year so far. The girls varsity swimming team had a match against Waterford today at 5 along with the girls varsity soccer team against Bacon Academy at 4 and the girls varsity volleyball is playing right now against Windham. Um, boys varsity football unfortunately lost to killing last week. However, it was a um white out. So, what our school does, we do different um post different things on social media, white out, blackout, where the student body can come and dress accordingly to represent and cheer for their team. And we are happy to announce that a lot of

006kids went to the football team, went to the football game wearing white. So, we are very happy and we're looking forward to being a student bond for future games and even other sports. questions. >> Yeah, Xavier, you didn't say that's your sport, the soccer. >> Yeah, I am on the soccer team. >> Are you the captain? >> I am the captain. >> See, we need to do a little something. It's okay. Proud of you. >> That's great. >> Thanks so much for being here. >> Uh we don't have a selectman for representative today. So, we'll move on to the consent agenda. Anyone want to make the motion? >> I will move a motion to approve the consent agenda as posted. Those >> in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed agenda passes. There's two items

007in the consent agenda. One was the meeting minutes from the September 15th last week's meeting. And then we also have our cave recognition board of distinction application. We apply applying for level two recognition which we've received for numerous years. I don't know received it but it's the application to receive that certification. Um and uh hopefully we'll find out at the end of October I think if we if and when we receive that. Um we now move on to discussion action items. personnel discuss health insurance five-year review with Brown and Brown. >> Yeah. And u Chuck uh Patricion is here uh to give us an update. We shared the slides um with you that that uh Chuck had uh had sent over. Um Grant, can you pull those up on uh >> Yeah, give me a

008second. Yeah, >> we'll do claims first. You want to do the other uh I would say claims first. >> Okay. >> So, uh give everybody a little background. Chuck Patrusion, Brown and Brown Insurance. Uh we've been the health insurance brokers for East Line Town and Public Schools for 15 years or so, give or take. Uh I have, you know, in in my mind kind of no news is good news. So you haven't had to see my face in a couple years because insurance has been running fairly smoothly here for for quite some time. Uh that wasn't the case, let's call it, 10 years ago. Uh I was out here quite frequently at that time. Uh East Lime had made the decision uh Eastime had been with Anthem for a long time on a direct basis.

009Uh the Anthem rates started to go up. Made the decision to move to Etna. Uh had a bumpy couple of years of Etna claims continued to increase and then in 2019 town and board both made the decision to move to the state partnership plan for health insurance. Uh, and like I said, it's been a it's been a pretty smooth ride in the grand scheme of things since then. Uh, like all insurance plans in this day and age. It's not cheap. Uh, the insurance rates do continue to rise year-over-year, but no more so necessarily with where you're at today than all the other groups I deal with that have Anthem or Sigma or United Healthcare. It's it's a rough market regardless. Uh so Jeff had reached out recently and said hey it has been some time

010I want I want to give the board an update uh on how things are running. So uh one of the presentations we have prepared for tonight is uh claim review over the last couple years. So yeah Chuck or um uh Grant the the other uh >> another link. Yep. >> You just got to swap that to the it says claims June. Yep. There we go. And if we're able to possibly zoom in a little on the second page there, >> don't get me wrong, the font is smaller anyway, but I don't know that anybody's >> be able to You need a copy, too. >> I have my own copy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> Have it in front of us, too. >> So, guess we can make it because I know Grace and Cher >> folks

011in the audience might >> There you go. You have right >> We're in good shape now. making sure. >> Okay. So, so what we're looking at on this page, this is uh the board of ed's claims history for the medical and pharmacy plan over the last 24 months. Uh prior to that, the claims experience we were getting from the state was actually town and board combined. So, we have the total claims experience all the way back to 2019. But in 23, we started having it broken apart town and board so we could get a better look at how each entity was running. lot of data on this slide, but the easiest thing to look at for everybody is the far right column, which is titled loss ratio. And a loss ratio in insurance is how

012do our claims run compared to what we pay in premium. So basically, if your loss ratio was 100% that would mean for every dollar that you pay to Anthem, they pay out a dollar in claims. So you can see that from July 23 to June 24, your loss ratios were pretty good. A lot of months in the 70s and 80s, only a couple of months over 100%. So at the bottom of this column, way down at in the very bottom section that's broken out, you can see that 2324 your overall loss ratio was 85.7%. So a year ago, the 23 24 year, every dollar you paid Anthem, they paid out 85 cents in claims. If you were on a fully insured plan, that's exactly where the insurance carrier wants you to be. You're at an

01385% loss ratio. You'll get a reasonable renewal and everybody's happy. The next year, especially the last couple months of the year, utilization ticked up. And you can see that your last four months of the 2425 plan year were all over 100%. And on the whole, the average for the entire year was 96%. So starting to creep back up kind of to a place you wouldn't necessarily want to be. If you guys were on your own for insurance like you were prior to 2019, this would be a pretty bad story. We would not want to see our loss ratios getting up to 96%. We'd be looking at higher and higher increases. The good news is as part of the state partnership plan, how good or bad East Lime is running has zero impact on how much

014you're going to pay because you can see you guys have 300 as of the most recent month on the report, you have 359 contracts on your plan. Those are your activives and any retirees you cover on the plan. That's 359 out of about 26,000 people the state has on their plan. So you are a very very very tiny drop in the bucket in the overall thing. So the fact that you're running at 96% is not harming you guys or the state as a whole. While this year was not pretty, you're actually outperforming how the state plan as a whole performed. The state's loss ratio for uh the last 12 months was 106.8%. Uh which is what led to the state taking I think its largest ever increase this year at about 10 or 11%. That

015varied a little by county. Uh but we're in that kind of 11% range for the state. So higher than normal increase for the state this year. Uh but again you guys are kind of insulated on against how good or bad you run. The story on kind of where that happened. So the next slide has your dental claims. Um your dental loss ratios have actually also been high 110 107%. Uh but again good thing is we're part of the state and you're protected. The next two slides are large claimment activity for the previous two years. uh no names. This is all deidentified. This is very high level information. What we have on the screen there is the most recent 12 months. So that's the 2425 plan year. You can see that you guys had 34 people

016on your plan who had $50,000 or more in claims. So a pretty good chunk of large claimment activity. That's what led to us going from 85% loss ratio one year to 96% the next year. Uh and a couple of real heavy hitters in there. Almost $600,000 on the top claimment, 447 on the next, 357 on the next. Uh so again, if you guys were self-funded like you were 10 years ago, this would be leading to a very large stop-loss renewal. The next page is where you were at last year at this time, just so you can see how much of an uptick there was in large claims. So 34 this most recent year. There were only 25 $50,000 claimants the year before. The highest of whom was at 370,000. So it's pretty simple to see

017the story. Oh, a lot of large claim activity. And that's not uh just an Eastline thing, right? This is what we're seeing all over the industry. Uh there's a lot of new medications on the market and these are medications that are legitimate lifesaving medications. People have rare gene disorders that were incurable 5 years ago and now there's a medication that literally cures them. They live. Those medications might have a price tag of $2 million. So it's not hard for a large claimant to pop up out of nowhere and that's you know just driving the increasing cost across the whole industry. So if you want to go back to the other uh slide. So uh the other dial. Yeah. Uh so what we did here was we said all right let's take a look especially because

018last year you guys ran the previous year right 23 24 you ran so good not as much this year. So what our underwriters did was said, "Hey, let's look at East Lines claims activity and let's underwrite it as if we were to say, "Hey, how would you guys be priced on your own?" So what we came what we came apart with is, and I don't know if we're going to see it here, but you guys should have this slide as well. Uh the part where it says total, the first column that's got all the data kind of right in the middle of the slide by our math. There we go. uh if you look at all your medical claims, all your pharmacy claims, and we've had groups do this. We have helped about 11 of

019the groups that we represent exit the state partnership since 2022 because they were running well and were able to get better pricing elsewhere. This is the type of analysis we would do. What would you guys be spending if you were outside the partnership plan? We've got you down at $12.7 million is what health insurance plan would cost if you were out on your own. Under the state partnership plan, you're at $12.2 million. So you can see about a $500,000 lower price tag by being right where you're at. So we're always looking out for our groups to say, "Hey, are you where you're supposed to be? Should we be exploring other things?" And the story for East Lime is now as it has been for a while, you guys are in the right place. You're doing

020the right thing. So that was everything I had prepared. Wanted to get that message over to you guys. But if anybody has any questions, certainly happy to help. >> Can I just ask what does PEPM mean? >> Uh per employee per month. >> Per employee per month. So that so all the all the numbers from the total column that just breaks down what each each one of those component looks like on a per employee basis >> that include the families as well. >> So yeah so this looks at it total number of like total spend divided by those 360 employees that were used for this. It doesn't differentiate for this if somebody's a single or a family. Right. >> Right. that this is just per employee. >> Are there any well my question is are

021there any wellness programs that go with this to help people you know think about the fabulous five getting out getting some exercise eating well all of those things that we all should do every day. Is that part of this at all or how does >> So the main wellness component of the state plan. So a lot of times when we look at wellness programs and different things that groups enact kind of two methodologies is is carrot or stick and do we want to incentivize our employees to like you said take a walk that I have lots of groups that do walking programs and if you know whether you're using your Fitbit to track it or you're logging in and saying oh I did two miles today or whatever and then you incentivize hey everybody who

022did that is entered into a drawing for XYZ right that's the carrot method. >> The state has a firm stick method. So the state's method is if you don't do your basic wellness stuff that you should be doing, which is getting an annual physical every year or every two years depending on your age. Uh and then other gender and age requirements, mammogram, colonoscopy, uh prostate exam, uh routine blood work. There are schedules depending on your age and your gender that you need to adhere to. If you do not adhere to those, the state charges you a $100 a month penalty and moves you into a plan design that has an upfront deductible instead of the state's very rich $15 co-ay plan. So, people are heavily incentivized to get their annual physicals and do that kind

023of thing. not so much on the hey let's go take a walk, let's eat healthier, but I think they're kind of hoping one follows the other because of the heavy stick that hits people if they aren't compliant. Uh the state's uh compliance ratio on their wellness program is around 95%. Which most employers that just have a voluntary wellness program are probably lucky to get to 40%. Uh, so 95% is a very very very high adherence rate. Um, most people don't want to pay an extra $100 out of their paycheck every month for not being compliant. >> So that's for any family member, too. >> Any family members out of >> Yeah. They they did tone it down a little bit this past year. It used to be Yeah. Everybody had to get physicals, everybody had

024to do this. state crunched their numbers over time and said, you know, the whole purpose of the state's wellness design is to catch things early, right? If you go and you get your mammogram or your colonoscopy and you they find something right away, they can nip it in the bud and you're a $10,000 claimant instead of a $500,000 claimment. Right? What they found was not a ton of concern in that area with 22 year olds. Right? If a 22-year-old is going to get a rare cancer or something, that's a freak situation that them having gone to their annual physical wasn't necessarily going to bring to light. So whereas, you know, from a costbenefit analysis, that's the number one complaint the state would always get. I'm non-compliant because my 23-year-old doesn't live at home and I

025can't force them to go to the doctor. Right? So then that that employee is getting hit with a $100 penalty when the only thing they were non-compliant on was their older kid not getting stuff done. So the state looked at it they revamped the wellness plan and now the only thing dependent need to do is get a once a year dental cleaning. >> So important. >> Absolutely. That's why that it's still on the list but it's a a much lower bar for people to have to meet. But employees and spouses they've still got to do all the other requirements. So my last question is there strength in numbers? I saw you at the health fair at the community center last not last week the week before >> last week I think. Yeah. >> Right. So

026is there strength in number because we service both the town and the school. Is that beneficial? >> In the current arrangement with the state it does not matter. Um the state purely does their pricing based on county. So I've got 800 life groups in the partnership. I've got 10 life groups in the partnership. they pay the same thing because they're in the same county. Uh if you were outside and you were shopping for insurance on your own, yeah, you would be better partnering with the town because now you'd be about 500 total employees instead of 360. That would be beneficial, but where you're at today doesn't matter. >> Thank you so much. >> I had a question. Are are you seeing any towns partner together outside of the state plan but doing their own >>

027partnership and >> because if the state's at 106 I think that's what you said. >> Yep. >> We're at 85 96 blended two years 90. We found other towns that were similar to our experience maybe could do better than uh so what what are you seeing? >> Uh so there are a couple of regional collaborives around the state. Um in your neck of the woods there is one that learn runs uh and there's some towns and boards there. Uh my office coordinates a few of them around the state. Uh ACES which is the the regional educational service center in greater New Haven. uh we coordinate one that they have with several towns and boards. We also work with region 8 uh Hebrin and over Marlboro and they have a collaborative uh what we did those

02811 groups that I mentioned that left the state over the last three years. We kind of packaged them all up together and were able to get decent pricing and they were they they're a collaborative of their own. With that though, there's got to be a couple steps groups need to take to really generate some savings long term because though the state is running high relative to its premium now, the plan design itself is still very rich. Whenever an East Lime employee goes to the doctor, they're paying $15 copay or a Z copay if that provider is one of Anthem's preferred providers. really hard to beat that plan design. Also hard to compete with that plan design outside the state. Even though the state's loss ratios are high, they're still subsidizing that, right? The state took,

029like I said, about an 11% increase this year. Any plan that was running at 106 outside the state would have had a 20 or 25% increase because again, the carriers want to get you back to that kind of 85% range. the state is able to use the state employees insurance fund kind of as a backs stop to the partnership plan and they've been very transparent about that the last several years. We were kind of calling them out on this seven or eight years ago and said, "Hey guys, you're routinely running at 103%. How does that work?" Because and and they've now come out and said, "You know what? We're not obligated to run in the black. we we can use the backing of the state employees and if need be the taxpayers of Connecticut to

030kind of subsidize how the partnership's running. So our groups that left the state what most of them have done now is negotiate high deductible health plans right lower costing plans. So yes they banded together with other well-run groups but then also coupled that with less expensive plan designs. So there's a pro and a con. I could we find a mechanism to make East Slime's overall cost lower? We probably could. The trade-off would be a less rich plan design for the employees. >> Thank you. >> Just a curiosity question. Um are there any rules against hopping in and out of the SP program? So, when you enter the state plan, it's effectively a three-year lock in. You could leave after year one or you could leave after year two. You're allowed to, but they can hit

031you with penalties for early exit. Once you've been in for at least three years, there's no more early exit penalties. East Line's been in the partnership since 2019, so you guys could definitely leave u if you so choose. We do have some groups that left in 2022 and then did go back to the state two years later. Their claims shot up. They were going to be looking at a 20 plus renewal. State was back to being less expensive for them. So what happened in those cases? The state brought them in and they were essentially treated as a brand new group with a new three-year commitment. So you're not you wouldn't really be hopping in and out. You don't want to be anyway, right? Nobody wants to do that. But there are scenarios where hey let's

032see what else we can get. Oh we tried it didn't work and you can go back. >> Just one one addition to that though in the the teacher contract for instance there's a certain percentage or or um increase in the rate that you have to meet before you can we can jump out. Yeah. So there's some some need >> all these collective bargaining concerns. >> Yeah. So yeah I knew it was not it was not going to be easy. So I just >> and this and and it's difficult not only from a business perspective but all of our staff who might have doctors who were in network and now some of them are not in network and then that really throws their >> Yeah. anytime any type of carrier change, there's always bumps in the

033road, right? I mean, I've done we represent 50 or 60 different towns in in Connecticut, so we've done lots of carrier changes over the years, and there's always some amount of headaches. Now, the carriers have gotten a lot better with their networks in recent years. So, anytime we look at doing a carrier change, we do that analysis. All right, let's get all the doctors being seen over the last year, compare it to the new carriers network. Those matches are all in excess of 95% now. Um, yeah, all the major I mean, at least, you know, if we're going to do a public sector carrier change, it's going to be with Anthem, Sigma, United, or Etna. Connecticut used to be on that list, but Connecticut is not around really going to be around anymore much after

034this year. So, those four major carriers, they all have significant networks. The network actually getting lower on the list of concerns with a carrier change. Drug list is one, right? Not every carrier covers the same drugs and you know, someone's got a medication they've been taking for 10 years and they move to this carrier and they say, "Nope, we don't cover that." Those are the types of headaches you see more of. >> Interesting. >> I have one more. >> Yeah. >> I don't know if it's the right question to ask. It's a 12.2 to minimum estimate that you have. How high is it relative to lock the previous previous previous years? >> Uh so we are assume this is us assuming the state's going to have about another 10 or 11% increase for next year.

035Uh on the most recent quarterly update. So every 3 months or so the state does uh a team's call that anybody can jump on and listen to what they have to say and they go over their claims experience and all that. Uh, one of the announcements they made on the most recent uh, quarterly update was the state's fund balance, so the money for the plan is currently sitting at negative $18 million. >> So that's why we're saying, yep, we think doubledigit increase again next year is likely. So that 12.2 is assuming a 10 or 11% increase for next year. >> Quick question, and maybe this is more of an internal one. How are are teachers then families liking the program and are they happy with Yeah, >> we haven't heard any negative, Kate. Um I

036think as um Chuck said it's a it's a rich plan. Um which I think has been very favorable. So >> yeah, >> good. That's what we want. >> Yeah. And I'm sure if you pulled every single No one loves insurance, right? I'm sure if you pulled every single person, somebody would have a problem with the but definitely noise levels a lot lower than they again they were all six or seven years ago before you guys joined here. At >> the end of the day, that's what we want. We want our administration, faculty, families to feel like they've got the medical coverage and what they need. So, >> thank you. >> Thanks. >> Thank you so much. Really informative. Appreciate it, Chuck. Yes, of course. Thank you. We will keep it. So, >> all right. >>

037See you. Thank you, Jeff. Appreciate. See you soon. Okay. Yes. Absolutely. Have a good night, everybody. >> Thank you. >> Hey, moving on. Discussion, action items, instruction, discussion, AI, initial plan for the 2526 school year. >> Yeah, Elise. Uh, yeah, we just wanted to give a quick overview. um some goals, timelines. Uh this is a goal of the board of beds obviously. Uh so we're doing quarterly reports. This is the first one. It's just going to kind of give a picture of what we're looking at for uh course of uh of this year. Um anybody has it pulled up? Grant can pull it up uh as well there. Analise is gonna do the first slide and I'm going to do the timeline and then we'll I'm open to questions from there. >> Yeah. So I

038mean ultimately you know our goal this year is to sort of ensure that our kids are ready for what they're going to encounter in the future while at the same time you know ensuring that there's um integrity involved with regards to the use of AI both for our staff and for our students. So that's sort of our our our driving force um you know balancing innovation uh with that integrity and ensuring to build our teacher capacity over the course of the next year. So our goals for this year are to first and foremost finalize a decision on our student and teacherf facing AI platform. You all know that we've been piloting magic school AI. We took some time this summer to look at school AI um which was going to be another program that we

039were considering piloting. Um our tech committee will come back in October and I'm going to um share out with them essentially my findings with my the the meeting I had had with the school AI. We weren't thrilled with the platform um just in a presentation standpoint. We didn't see it much different from school AI. We're six months into the use of school AI. Um, but the committee will ultimately make the decision on whether or not we're going to just forge ahead with school AI. Excuse me. Magic school. I see Le >> Magic School. >> I know because they're also so similar. The >> difference you don't we are like magic but you don't like school. >> Correct. >> School also used by both teachers and students. Yes, it is >> using both for magic, right?

040>> Yes. Yep. Yeah. So, um and I would say loosely at this point, but once we finalize that decision, that can then obviously give us some leverage to clearly articulate what the expectation and experience should be for students uh across elementary, middle, and high school. Um so that will be a driving force of the committee this year. Um, the other piece that we really want to look into is research, explore, and pilot a student AI literacy curriculum. So, this isn't this isn't just about the use of AI. This is about learning about AI, its implications. Um Jeff and I met with Matt MVvis and um they are in the midst of developing an AI literacy curriculum right now very um close to a teacher sort of uh training that's going on with different modules that

041are online um easy to implement um you know teacher as facilitator kind of thing um and a more asynchronous experience for kids. But what I really loved about what we saw so far in that um development of that program is um it really there's a whole module on careers and its implication on careers for kids and future planning. So um that is due to be finished in October at which point we'll take a closer look at that and perhaps pilot that at some point over the course of this school year this year. Um we still need to continue staff capacity, building staff capacity. um with regards to Magic School and other AI platforms. So we hope to leverage actually our curriculum fellows and our curriculum instructional leaders a little bit more in that capacity and

042start thinking about how do our AI platforms support departmentbased goals um or content area goals. So that is a part of our plan this year. Um obviously we want to continue that ethical and safe use of AI. We've got our AI guidelines. We don't want to lose sight of those guidelines. So, in every aspect of this work, those guidelines have to be first and foremost. Um, continue to gather feedback and track usage. Magic School AI has a is very easy to track who's using it and on what. Right now, I have to say our highest users are elementary principles um supporting their report card development. That's one of our biggest uh report card comment development which is great and it's an area of efficiency and we want to work smarter not harder. However, we want

043to see it used on a way broader capacity than that. And so that's about that that just anchors back to the building capacity and um we need to figure out a really great way to engage family and community partners around this. Um you know Jeff and I have had some initial conversations around that. I want to engage the district-wide committee on their thoughts. We don't get great turnout when we offer evenings for parents on any kind of topic. So, I suspect that's not going to be the best way to do that. But how do we leverage our social media platforms, our website, maybe some other events that are happening in town to continue to um you know share the message with regards to AI, its implications on our work and um plans for East Line

044Public School students and staff. Then as it pertains to uh the timeline with that, you know, kind of breaking that out and again I want to preface you know fluid um and things are going to continue to uh evolve and change. Um and hence you know we want to keep that mindset but this first quarter September through November um utilizing the districtwide technology committee their first meeting um and said finalizing on that uh platform school platform uh launching um some PD refreshers uh getting more involved with that and then going over those guidelines um again and making sure that again those are going to continue to morph uh as well Um then quarter two uh which we looked at December to January um CIL's our curriculum fellows you taking some deeper dives and classroom pilots

045take place uh within there uh obviously back gathering tracking the usage um to be able to gather data in that sense and February to March um finalizing the plan you know for that AI literacy curriculum. This is still kind of up in the air based on how this goes with uh Ed Advance and uh and Matt Bervvis uh and we're signed up uh you know for it. Uh it starts in October. We'll see how quickly that evolves uh as well as it pertains to AI literacy uh curriculum uh and a platform for that. Um and then quarter four um you know again collecting data, sharing the data out uh and then attempting to kind of build a road map um with with this in an continually evolving uh world around AI um based on you

046know a platform and the PD that we uh engage ourselves in. Um we want to continue to bring to the board some representatives um to share out as well. We did that, you know, last year. So we'll plan on on you know that uh for some time periods too um through these quarterly quarterly reporting. But again I think as we roll through this year this is going to morph. This is going to evolve um and I think that's important as uh AI continues to evolve weekly. So so just as of right now kind of a snapshot of what we're thinking and then I think we'll be able to dive you know much deeper when we get into that November time frame and do our next center report. before she report questions. Um, was that >>

047Yes. So, yeah, I'm ready. Xavier, actually, I'm going to give you we're going to get a couple questions and then we're going to ask you kind of how do you feel as a student? How how's AI impacting your day as a student? Because you middle school didn't have it. probably early high school, maybe on the fringe, and then probably sophomore year, maybe all of a sudden it probably hit. So, we'd be interested. I'll give you a chance to think about it, but uh be interested in your perspective on AI and what we're doing and how it's changed kind of your but let me get I'll go for a couple questions and give you a chance to think. >> My first question was asking if we're here a little bit. >> Thank you. Thank you for

048staying. Yes. I appreciate you the health insurance. Um, so that was my first one. And then second one, just curious for the like AI literacy curriculum. Is the scope of that kind of all grade levels? Are we thinking about that from our youngest learners? Obviously, I know probably we're seeing kind of most of the the impact at, you know, higher grades, but I'm curious kind of how broad we're thinking when it comes to that. Well, I think our long-term goal would be K12, right? Our target audience right now is high school. Um the curriculum that's being developed by um Ed Advance is geared towards high school students. Um I think that that it would make sense that it's a common assured experience for kids in a certain grade level. What grade level that would I

049would want to work with the CILs on that decision and where that would happen. Um we need those are decisions we still need to make. um because I don't the the way the modules run, I don't know how long the modules are, but I I don't even think it would be the length of a semester class, that curriculum in particular. Um but it's a good place to start and it's, you know, I'm always about start small, grow it out. So, I think that's a great place to start. But Matt had already said they're already in the midst of building a middle school modules and then and then we talk backing that down to elementary what's appropriate. >> Yeah, >> that makes sense. important getting that, you know, the feedback from um those that will engage,

050whether it be the districtwide committee or our teachers in the classroom. >> Yeah, exactly. >> Might want to do some highlight. >> Um thank you for this update. Um still early days, but I I'm I'm happy to see the progress. Um, couple of things to think about and I'll leave it up to you and this the subject matter experts that that you're working with to figure out how to how to do this. But I given the way AI is going um I would expect pretty much everybody coming out of our high school should have exposure and complete knowledge of how how AI is be used and yeah would you consider doing this as like a core curriculum where everybody will have you know graduate high school you would need that similar to our core curriculum

051that we apply and we thinking it in that sense >> I I I am yes for sure I think it's it's absolutely essential um and it also provides us an opportunity like a starting place where we know every student has had access to this curriculum that's tied to that AI literacy component and then from there the departments can pick and choose depending on what makes sense on how it's integrated into the curriculum for its use or application but I do think It's just a a great way to create a common assured experience for all kids. It's a good starting place. >> All right. Thank you. That I I it's good that you're thinking that way. I you know I think I think that's going to be necessary with that. Also just you know as it

052pertains to course offerings you know we we need to begin to thinking about next year even if you know schools are offering engineering which is you know a course that's you know the high school where um basically you know getting kids involved in understanding how are we prompting GP >> that is a that is a whole new field actually get into all sorts of complicated machine learning and all that stuff I I leave it to you guys. Okay, that's that's not really that's not an easy area to negotiate. So I I'll leave it to the experts. Um but yes, thank you. You know, so we are all thinking the same thing. >> Yeah. >> The second question is again as we are developing this, you know, students who are u not thinking of a college

053uh or thinking of getting into the trade, would they have specific needs of for for training with AI? Would they would they have any kind of special considerations that we will have to develop a specific program for them? >> Possibly. Yeah. >> Good point. >> It's even more so. >> So, it's again something to think about, you know, early days, but this is this is great. Thank you for the claimate. >> Yeah. >> Alisa, and then we're going to go to Savior. So, >> I'm not sure if my question is similar or on the same thread, but um and I think it it's great to hear how the curriculum that's being built in parallel and you we talked about the um the career prep piece and are we able to use just knowing that like

054there's so many different tools or or platforms of the different AI and I think they may have like different functionalities or you can use them in a different way. Are we able to um get a sense of you know once kids are off into the next thing more education and like their career um use cases of what is it that they are needing to know and kind of being able to map them to their experience that they're having here and just kind of from the technology platform that we're going to decide on is it does that also kind of give us the allowance of you know this field might need these kinds of use cases are we able to kind of make that happen with the technology that we're offering here to kind of that

055together so I think it's a great idea to get a sense of what our immediate postsecary students and are those who are entering the career field need in the way of skill sets uh as it as it relates to AI Um, but this other component, oh my god, I just totally lost my train of thought. >> That is crazy. >> Well, I bet you're thinking I bet thinking comes in where they need to have those analysis skills and >> Right. Right. Man, I lost it. It'll come back to me. Um, but it had it had to do with your question. It's about postsecond. You're asking about postsec. Oh, here it is. Okay. All right. >> So, magic school AI is essentially, you know, a an AI source that has guard rails on it, right? It's

056it's it magic school we know has these, you know, kind of I like to make the analogy of bowling with the guard rails, right? So that we keep kids. But in our in our our conversation consultation with with Matt Murvvis, he talks about taking down those guard rails as kids get older to be more accustomed to what are they going to be accessing after high school. So maybe in 11th and 12th grade it's more of a shift to um you know whether it be Gemini which is connected to our Google platform. chat is not data privacy compliant. So we can't go in that direction but you know it's about that progression and that release of responsibility over to kids over time. Um so magic school is the platform with guard rails. It's the one we're

057using but I think this three-year roadmap may include what does it look like to take the guard rails down as kids get a little bit older and we're preparing them for a postsecary or career. >> Perfect. >> Yeah. It's it's very very strongly tied to ethical decision making and my you know I have this underlying fear and concern around learning because the neuro connections in the brain we talk about this all of the time do not happen by prompt engineering right it happens through you know work and that this can't replace that and so we have to be really mindful ful about how we're utilizing it to support the learning experience, not replace it. >> Also, I don't know, but there's a teaching students I'm learning myself. I kind of trust but verify and I

058don't even know if it's trust but verify. Maybe it's just verify because when you do use um AI tools, whichever one it is, you get information that feels very factually correct. >> Yeah. >> Isn't always factually correct. >> So, you have to go do your own go to some source data just to make sure. And I I I told once as I was doing some looking for some information analytics and it provided me data that kind of supported a point I was going to make that I asked what was the source of that data said oh there's no there wasn't one this is just something I came up with based on things that I looked at like well that different than what I read what I read was oh there's some paper someone did a

059study here's the information and that was not really what so that piece is is also important. We're all waiting to hear that the build up here. All right. So, um AI for me um the exposure AI came around I'd say of sophomore year. That's kind of when the famous chatbt has just been spread across and everyone starts to like learn about it. Um that was kind of like the first step into AI for a lot of kids. It's very accessible now on phone. Anyone can get it download. In fact, you have made a shortcut for it like you can swipe down to the flashlight turning. So it's really built into like phones and it's extremely accessible. Um I'd say it is replaced the typical if you just have like a question there's like any sorts

060go to Google search engine it's kind of like replace that I mean there's different there's different types of AI which I will also talk about um so yeah you could just ask it and it will come up with answers and sometimes it will give us source from where it gets it from sometimes it like it's very vague but it's basically is kind of amazing to be honest. Like it talks to you like almost a real human being. Now there's different kinds of AI. You can actually send it pictures now also has an AI. I'm pretty sure some guys found you pictures. You can take picture of anything. Ask anything. It'll do anything honestly. And thing about Google AI is it will give you source of that uses to find information for that. In terms of

061social media, it's everywhere. It's Tik Tok, Instagram, like every single social media platform you can possibly think of Snapchat, all this, they have their own AI and they all run smoothly to be honest. Um, so everyone's been kind of AI, it's literally everywhere. It's extremely accessible and I'd also say it's also easy to use. It's not really that complicated. It's literally asking it any question you can possibly think of and will give you a sophisticated answer with background detail for like I mean personally I haven't really tested but they can go as far as like some of my friends you can even look up a name actually every possible search that name that person a little freaky sometimes yeah like anyone. So, it's really accessible, easy, and honestly any Yeah, it's very out there. You

062feel that students all students do they do they understand because there's purpose yeah of course you use it but it won't replace I mean it'll give you the answer it will show you step by step how like how did it just like jumps you like it actually teaches you throughout the way I all them out step by step anyway. So it is kind of I know Rachel used it a lot when she was studying because she didn't understand the question. though it did break down the ele notebook where you could upload things and it would provide a study guide for you. So there are lots of different ways to use it to support your learning. Um and sometimes she argued that the explanation that chat gave more sense than the teacher in the classroom. So

063it is another way having it explain something. You know what we want is we want students using magic school AI to do that which I don't know if you've been on magic school actually that work to do right because he has in his in um Raina and Rea is essentially a school safe chat GPT that he doesn't even know about. So >> you're protected under data privacy law. So >> he's got a phone in his pocket with it. >> It's it's insane. >> I have a question. So you So you the experience you describe is that through school or through outside school? >> Um it's through it's everywhere. I mean basically what I've experienced is like I've heard it through my friends. I've heard it's like from what I saw as well like I can

064see it everywhere. Um yeah like it's not really that hard to find because I'm I am on many social media so like you can see so okay so okay so okay so okay so okay so okay so okay so okay so okay so okay so talking about not this is not >> no no this is not school provided now this is >> this is personal >> okay all right thank you I just want I was just curious because >> um you have not really really experienced real use of AI means what what you are using what what you you have experienced is more more casual use of AI I so the actual workrelated use of AI you have not yet experienced I'm guessing >> I'm not no I don't think so but but let's just

065>> and Xavier's in a tough spot so let's put the husband let's just talk the general student population they are asking you know they're writing papers they're putting their paper into AI to have it write forget about the magic you know they're putting their paper in to better wording, whatever. They don't understand something. The worst case is someone just takes the prompt for their essay, they throw it in chat GPT or claude or wherever and they say, "Give me a paper and I'm a B student so write it like a B student." And it just spits it out. >> That's still casual use. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> I consider that as casual. Okay. Right. So, so what I define as a as as actual use is is a little bit of of different. So, but

066but that again that doesn't apply to the school population. I'm just trying to understand what Xavier and his his peers are experiencing. But that that Thank you. >> that No, no, no. That's good. >> Jamie and then Bill. >> Well, I completely Thank you. I'm glad you stayed. Thank you for staying. Um, but so we use AI just for math homework because we have a hard time with some of the ge geometry concepts because I haven't taken geometry in >> a long time. So I don't remember. So we will when we have homework problems we will sit there and I my husband or I will ask AI to how to solve it and then that goes to the side. That's our parent reminder of how to do it. And then we go and we sit

067down with our child and we help them because I mean I don't math like I don't use algebra anymore like and it's easy. We just have a little calculator and it fills it out for us. >> So it's for us we're using it to help us teach math or reinforce the math that our child is learning during the day. So it helps out >> that way which is a nice little perk. But for I was thinking about your community parent engagement. >> Yeah. Maybe it would be something to talk to Sarah about for the youth family human services to maybe do like a tutoring for maybe some of the seniors and adults in the community can sit down with some students and the students can teach them how to use the AI on their phones

068or their computers. Maybe that's a good way to get engagement because then the parents will come with their students. Um and then you can get seniors and other members involved too. >> Yeah. So maybe reach out to Sarah and maybe we can try. >> I don't know. You and I both know that we try set up all these things and we never get anybody. But if we get the kids and the seniors and other community members and like it's like a lesson, >> maybe they'll come. >> Yep. >> I think students love to love to teach like Yeah. >> older generations like all these little tips and tricks. I think that's I I love them too. >> I think that's a great idea. >> Yeah. as we are working so closely with them. Yeah. No,

069>> and we've had some Yeah. some nice part successful partnerships so far doing things like that. So, it's a great idea. >> I had a un uh not education related question about AI, which is one of my concerns. I I get that people use it to help with problems. I get people use it for a shortcut, but you were talking about people using it in social media, people using it searching somebody's name and doing, you know, just goofy kind of uses of it. Do you see your friends and others maybe getting pulled into AI for, you know, hey, I'll ask it this or goofy questions or maybe even turning it to to ask a question that they didn't want to ask one of their friends or for advice or I I I'm I'm curious to

070see as an adult. I I see that kids, you know, spend an incredible amount of time on phones already. Do you think that the AI edition is pulling your friends further into that or do you think it's no different than it was prior to that? >> In terms of hanging out with my peers, I don't find them on the AI app specifically most of the time when we're hanging out or like when they're even on their phone. So that app hasn't really meanted much of screen time when you're like around with your friends. Um it's kind of replaced the typical going on to Google and just like searching up in the search bar or anything like it's just something to ask a question and get a quick answer to most of the time. Like if

071you're just with a friend is like oh question no one knows the answer quick. And it's like, but it hasn't really replaced much like hasn't really drawn kids in to their screen when we're like socializing or really with friends. If that answers your question. >> Yeah. Yeah. That I was curious to see whether it's whether you saw it as another distraction from your own interaction with your friends. >> Yeah. It seems to be more personal use away out of like social atmospheres than like I haven't really seen anyone use it in social atmosphere much. So just a couple quick points. Um one is I noticed on the slides you have inspire, engage and educate. I loved it. >> Yeah. uh very noticeable those words, you know, it's like just do it for Nike, right? We

072have a long mission statement, but those three words are pretty impactful. So, that does seem I like that uh a lot. So, I did notice it uh and thought that was great. >> Um or Jamie mentioned as well about the engaging community members and trying to get them to come. Is back to school night our biggest ended function or parents? >> I mean we have a few over the course of the year but that's one of the biggest. Yeah >> probably just the timing too conferences. >> Yeah probably. Yeah. >> Yeah. So I didn't know if that there's some way to tie in something about AI into the back to school nights. Um I was also thinking is there something to engage parents community members where you talk about hey do you book your travel

073like AI can help you with that and here's how your kid you know by the way your kids are using this as well and here's I don't know if there's something creative but the back to school night I was just thinking that's where you know the most people come so is there something if they're already coming there's some way to fold it in >> or have the teachers fold it in and And a last comment is this was really helpful. Um on the quarterly ones if we can also the more we can kind of well show and tell but whatever you want to call where we're interacting >> on you know what's happening and we see it or you have students or teachers come and and all that's really helpful as well. >> Sure. >>

074Okay. Uh thanks Anelise. Clearly thanks Xavier uh for being on the on the spot and speaking for your for a thousand students. Um okay moving on we have discussion action item finance facilities and community and discussion action on the non-laps and belt also called the unextended funds account and um if you know rewind last week we agreed to um Three. >> Yeah. Right. >> 30 something,000. >> 30 something 231 >> and change. >> I do have one. So, >> okay. 230 something uh into that account for the first time ever. that did prompt um questions and and others from community members, other boards and and stuff and and um if people had a chance and want to go back and watch the board of finance meeting, they did have a discussion about it with a

075lot of questions and uncertainty of what does that all mean? Um we pulled together uh Jeff Mariana has pul have pulled together um a few slides that we can go through to kind of give background and and overview or kind of some of the history and what we've done. And then um in addition to that there's two one thing that be great if we can resolve tonight. The second one if we don't resolve tonight that's fine but um first is I think when we talked about it we said the state um or the legislation allows um us to have a balance of up to 4% of our budget which for round numbers about two and a half million and in a given year can put in 2% which round numbers 1.2 1.3 million in a

076given year. I think that >> the state doesn't limit what you can the limit. It doesn't limit >> what was the 4% and 2% >> decide the 2% is what they allow us to do. We can >> year >> per year. I think we decided on 4% because we felt like we didn't want to just uh that was the lowest >> I thought that was the statue the 4%. Yeah. >> Two and four. Sorry. >> I think the four is the max you can have. >> Yeah. I thought so. Yeah. Yeah, the two is uh but extremely highly high. >> Those are those are big and and as you think about it from a board of finance perspective, if we whatever we have in that fund does not the town does not get credit for

077in their rainy day fund or whatever you want to call it, which is something that our when we get our credit rating and we're looking at interest on our debt that we don't get credit towards that. So the board of finance really wants to get as much funds into their account uh so that we have a very good credit rating which then drives lower interest rates which then helps our town overall um from a borrowing perspective. I think when we talked about it I I got a sense I think Jeff got a sense across the room that the 2% and 4% are pretty high uh and that we would never go there. um that that we don't want, you know, $2.5 million just sitting in an account. There's a lot of questions that that potentially

078could raise and we can go into that. And um so so the one topic we'd like to talk about is okay, if it's not two and four, well then what should it be? And and send you an email just for the proposal of, you know, 0.5 and one, but those are just numbers for us to think about and kind of come up. 0.5 would be about 600 thou um sorry 0.5 would be about 300,000 in a given year and the 1% would be about 600,000 plus or minus um as as a balance so um so that's one second top and then the sorry the topic that I hope we can come to some conclusion tonight would be great then the other is what types of items would we spend it on and that one I

079I don't want to I we have a few more items on our agenda and things to talk about. So I don't want to spend too much time. Um but we can started talking about it last week, maybe have some continued discussions if we have some time and then we'll can continue into you know October meetings and stuff and talk a little bit more as we had a frame of the types of things we would spend it on the types of things we won't spend it on and both I think are so um maybe sorry should we go quickly through the slides Jeff? Yeah, because we planned on sharing these with the uh or sending these to the board of finance. And I think an important point is to um we needed to clarify a few

080things that came up at the board of finance meeting um that were inaccurate in in statements and information that was shared. So, uh the slides help to do that. Um >> did you excuse you? Did you want to just stay? >> You can go either way. Yeah, that's up. That's up to you, Xavier. So, you're welcome to stay and listen, obviously. >> Listen. All right. Um so, um yeah. So, so the slide that that first slide is just a breakdown and we've we've shared this um in the past um just a little bit differently and you know what we had given back you know to the town um and also what we had carved out and set aside of some most of you probably remember and if maybe if you're a newer board member you

081don't you know we we had a lawsuit that had been going on since 2008 um that had just carried on uh for many many years and there was some heavy funding that needed to be um brought forward for to to cover. So you see that in 1617 171 18 d20 as that was kind of coming to his conclusion. Um and then on the unexpended fund side um this is what has been given back total tally to uh to the town 2324 that's unudited just to be clear not audited that dollar amount. So that could down based on the audit but you're looking at you know almost $1.8 $98 million of all that's been given back to the uh to the town since uh since 1617. Um then if you scroll uh scroll down, we wanted

082to clarify an additional appropriation um that uh had come forth and this was um part of was this the insurance runoff? Uh yeah, this was when before we moved to the state partnership plan. When we left the previous um insurance plan that we were on, there were still claim runoffs that we needed to fund both the town and the board of ed. Um it was not accurately uh shared uh at the board of finance meeting. It sound like you know it was the board's responsibility to pay this and it was a combined board and town responsibility you know to fund this. Um and we did a special appropriation, the town did a special appropriation for both the board of ed and the town um in this uh this amount the 597544 is necessary to fund

083that uh that final self insurance account and allow us to to move over to the state partnership plan. So um we just clarified some information you know there and Mariana or Eric chime in uh time. >> Yeah, may maybe I'll just real quick. So I think there was a >> I think the board of finance was making a point that um you know why why do you why do we board of ed need this account? If there's ever trouble, we'll give you an appropriation. And this was an example that was used that they had provided 394,000 back in 201819. And you know, I kind of I you know, I think want to clarify this because it's a little different than we didn't do anything in terms of it's not like our utilities overran. It's not

084like our special we had a special ed um you know projection we missed on a special ed projection or we our supplies are over or we overhired or we needed more subs or any of that. This was something that really that the broker who was the insurance broker was providing this information after our budgets both the town and the board of ed budgets were finalized. the broker provided a new estimate to um the town finance director which previous one not Kevin it was >> Adam Johnson um so that was provided late so then the town decided we you know I just finalized your budget this just dropped in your lap we we'll just solve this as a town which was good but it wasn't anything that we drove it wasn't any our calculations It wasn't

085any decisions that we had made. This was just really new information. Um and it's really important I think also because um two years ago when we were did get hit with health insurance that was higher than we had put in our budget um we were not we we did ask um for funding numerous times and we're not given an appropriation for that. That's if I remember that's when we froze. Oh, sorry. Did I jump? Okay, I'll >> No, but that's Yeah, you're segueing. >> Okay. Yeah, sorry. Um and you know, we 680,000. We froze everything. You know, we froze vacant positions, we froze um programming, we froze uh supplies, hiring, everything. I mean, we and we were able to cover it, but it came at a a major impact. And I think the feeling of

086the board of ed at the time, I think there's a couple members who may not have been at the time here. Um, I think as a board of ed, we didn't feel that we were protected in that the town would cover us in a unusual case. And you can see we give back every year. So this was unusual. It's not like we're always asking for funding. And that I think helps drive the rationale for why we created that account is now we do have a cushion if something does go happen in a given year. We do have some funds that we can go after without having to ask the town for an appropriation >> potentially freeze and impact classrooms and teachers you know etc. Um to a degree that could be significant. >> So I

087think that's And then the last >> we created. Yeah. And that brush. So >> um >> any thoughts or questions on Jamie? >> We did that. Um 528,000. Was that a give back because we had shut schools and we staff wasn't getting paid or things weren't getting used? I can't remember why that was so big that year. >> Yeah, staff did get paid but we negotiated like first student negotiated. um as things did run. Yeah. >> But there were a bunch of different contracts liar year >> because of COVID and everything. >> Exactly. >> I just wanted to clarify because I thought that's what the outlier was on that one. I don't know what the outlier is on the 2017 2018 because that seems not something we would have as an outlier. >> That was

088a mid-year cuts the governor had proposed uh had cut down and the board um that year. uh like in December. So the town and the board proh prorated the the cut and so we to like help with the with the cut from the cup froze. >> So yeah. So, um, so in terms of, uh, Jeff and I and anyone else is more than welcome didn't go to the October 8th, I think it's the 8th board of finance meeting to give. We're going to send these slides if people are in alignment. We're going to send these slides this week. uh if there's general alignment with the slides and then we're going to go on the ETH and be able to answer questions and and clarifying any anything just I I think it's good that if both

089the board of finance and board of ed are on the the same page as to what this account is and how we use it and why we why we established it. So then the next uh piece of it is which is a big question I think for the port of finance and and for us is you know while 4% 2 and a.5 million or 1.2 million in a given year is a lot of money to go put inside. So, it would be helpful if we don't get there, we don't get there. It would be helpful for us if we can also provide to the board of finance to say we have some guard like we're not we're not looking at two and 4%. We're looking for things that you know if provide us some some

090a safety net for us uh in case something happens in a given year um resolve that I'll pause. I mean, I hope you guys had a chance to Sorry, my email was a little long, but if you had a chance to read it. Um, anybody have any thoughts on putting the guard rails in? What guardrails should be? Amy got >> um I say we don't put the guardrails in and I'll tell you why. Um, I'll start with the high school track and turf field because the town has been looking at us to pay the bulk of that for years. Um, and we wouldn't be able to do that without a non-lapsing account. We wouldn't be able to save those funds up without a non-lapsing account. My second example is the EV buses that passed a

091couple years ago that I keep asking about. That's going to cost us a lot of money and we wouldn't be able to save up for that without an elapsing account. you have to go to the town for all of that. Um, and if I understood, well, if I interpreted what I heard correctly at the board of finance meeting last week, they weren't unhappy that they fund so many of our capital plans. They didn't sound pleased with the fact that the board of ed is the highest capital improvement costs in town. So, if we did not put in guardrails, we wouldn't be able to save up for those big projects. also have a clarification. So the issue that happened in 2022 23 where a shortfall is the board of finance um not acknowledging that that that

092happened. Is there is there contention? >> You know, I think they acknowledge it, but I think they viewed it differently than we viewed it. >> So, it Yeah. So, I think my feeling is um you know, we recognized that we had that issue. You know, our fiscal year starts in July. We recognized it in July because the state insurance plan came in much higher than we had put in our budget, but they told us leaked. we had 6% and it was 11%. >> Give or take. So we went right away and said this is a number we can't manage and we knew in July and the board of select and board of finance I think both were like well why don't you give it some time and let's see if it you work it works

093its way out. I think where we were is it every month that goes by reduces our ability to save to fund that. So we had to put things in place immediately because we can't just wait. If we wait till, you know, December, January, half the year's gone, the levers that we can pull to cover 800, $700,000, we don't have levers that can cover $700,000. So we had to take action. And then, you know, we were able to by shutting everything down, we got on track, but it was at a a significant cost. So um we asked them numerous times. We presented them to them numerous numerous times both board of ed sorry board of finance and board of select >> provided reports regularly. >> Yeah the same message was keep working on it basically. Yeah

094>> you know so now to coming back to your question of whether we should have guard rails or not. I am I'm of the opinion that we should have some guard rails and we should have u something to say that what what we are willing to the money on or not. The only reason why I say that is is that because of some of this history, I feel having the guard rails will make us make us in the in in in the eyes of the town uh u quite a clear clear definition of why we are doing this and what we are going to do it for. That's how I feel. Now I can be convinced other ways if if if you know there is more discussion to be had. But I do feel that

095just given the history and and the fact that there is this is a you know as much as I think we should we should be able to control some of these things if especially when we are being good citizens of of the town as a board. um still we still owe it owe some something back to the town in terms of making sure that we are doing things responsibly. That's how I feel. But again I I I'm willing to listen to other other arguments and other double discussion points. See where we arrive at that >> reacting to the last two comments. I think that it does I think the examples carry you know a lot of context behind it. I like the idea of saying these are the things that we're and then we don't

096know everything that's going to fill in fill in the blank of what we might need those funds for. But I I like the idea of kind of setting up, you know, some some kind of scoping, right? >> And it gives a gives a little flexibility I think too for sort of unknowns things that fall into, you know, the senses that are not falling in the things that we will want to use it for. >> Well, at the end of the day, it's all about relationship. So, what we want to do is to foster that relationship with the board of finance as much as possible because they are they hold the first turn, right? They can't tell us how to spend our money. they can only tell us the budget amount that they can appropriate for

097us to do the work that we want to do. So, I think first and foremost, I think I said this last week, is that whoever is going to be the designated uh spokesperson in the room needs to go and have the conversations with the board of finance. Some of it, like you said, Jeff, is misinformation. So, we need to clarify the information. And we need to help them to understand, you know, they they're they're, you know, they've got a huge task, my opinion, to balance the budget to try to keep the mill rate down because they have constituents who are saying taxes are too high. We don't have a, you know, you know, they have this whole another ear that they have to listen to that we don't hear necessarily, right? So, we need to

098be respectful of that, I think, too. But I think most importantly, it's just having the conversation, having that heartfelt, you know, we both we all want a good school. We all want a good town and how can we do it? How can we build your trust? Because it sounds to some extent there's some trust that's been broken for whatever reason. I don't know, but it's just an important conversation that occurs. And I know you guys are scheduled to do it, but um and probably you had some off the table kinds of conversations to clarify some different things, but I don't think just like we're not um meanspirited and evil, we try to do the right thing. I think they are too. They're they're uh we're doing it because they want us to have what's best

099for us. And not saying that we're not being judicious or rather just last week or kept coming up last week. We all want to be careful. We all want to do the right thing. It's communication. >> I was just around. Waterford has a board of education on lapsing account policy. Is That's a good point. >> Well, it's older because it goes into the old way the fund used to be set up. >> So, it says that the board town holds the board's reserve fund and has it as part of their general balance sheet. So that but doesn't really put it says that the nonlap the board of ed finance does deposit into a non-lapsing account up to 50% of any unexpended funds from the budgeted appropriation for education from the previous fiscal year and this

100amount may not exceed 2% of the total budgeted appropriation but because that language is based on the old but I mean it's something to look at. I don't know if other boards of eds have it. I just figured I would check Waterford because they were there. But >> you have our document that we drafted and >> document and then I have other ones. >> Yeah. And and we put Mariana is accurate too. The 4% is not uh statute. >> Yeah. There's you cannot exceed the 2%. >> I think we put it in there because we didn't want finance thinking we're just going to keep accumulating. >> That's right. We talked about this a year ago. Yeah. >> Yeah. I didn't find the 4 percentage, but >> I think that's more you had bothered to take

101to the board of finance, say other towns are doing it. It's nothing to be afraid of. It's >> Yeah, that's that's part that's why the discussion of do you do you have a cap? Um, you know, I I don't foresee us ever putting, you know, an excessive amount of money. We shouldn't be putting an excessive amount of money, >> but that's not what our business is. That's not what we're >> No, it should be going towards education and, you know, the needs of uh kids. we look at it and you know some protections as well as some potential things that we might need to do for the district. >> I remember we went to Camille and Lisa and they asked us to do this non-lapsing fund years ago. Is that do am I remembering that

102correctly? When Camille and Lisa were on the board of finance, they asked us >> asked us to set >> us to do set up a non-lapsing account so that we could save money for the track. >> Okay. Okay. So, Mary old office downstairs. Do you remember that? It was like my first year. >> But again, it goes back to But they wanted control of what the money was spent on and they would tell us whether or not we could spend it once we saved it on the track or not. >> Long gone. >> No, I know. But this conversation has been going on that long about a non-apsing account, whether or not we can save money for community capital improvement projects that we need to accomplish. I mean, I'm just I'm just putting the history

103out there that it's it's a it's a long >> term talk point that we've had >> or capital improvement projects. >> So, it's I think we need opinions on this. Sorry, but I think we do uh because we're emotion a motion, but I I I don't I don't think we're ready. I don't >> changing it. >> I don't know that we're >> I'm not ready for a motion because I I have thoughts. >> I think we need to hear from some folks. >> You think about it more and bring it. Like you said, there's no rush and >> but you can go and then I'll >> I thought we were going to take this to FFO and have FFO kind of do a deep dive on it and maybe it could be with a subcommittee

104that could produce some >> the FFO. We were the second part was around how we're going to spend it. We did action FFO to kind of be able to do that second part of it. We can action them to look at the first part as well. But I think even for FFO on the first part, >> we probably need some feedback or like directionally what are people thinking. I think >> I just a thought that popped into my mind is you know we we want to keep and and credit Jeff with doing good job of getting budgets passed over the years that were higher than maybe some neighboring towns. So and I that can't be with a or relationship with the board of finance. It's been bumpy, sure, but it's been better than prior times.

105And my concern is that, you know, they're obviously going to know how much is in this account. So are is that going to be pulled into their decision making process when they say okay you're going to get this much this year because we know that you have accumulated x amount in this account and you know you think you need more just go spend what's in the bucket anyway. So, in some ways, I mean, it's going to maybe be nice to have this. In other ways, it's just going to be another way of looking at, you know, is what do we say? Um, last year we filled the auditorium and we got them to put some money back in. Um, but if we had if we had that money in our account, would that have happened?

106Or would they have said use that money? So if we so if we say you know well we're not going to use it for this or that and then they have decided to cut us by what they see is in our bucket. Um in the end what's the difference? I I don't that's my concern. On the flip side, I think, you know, if something like that boiler happens or silly stuff that comes up, it's really great. I know you wish that we could use it to fund some things that we can never get off the ground, but problem is doing that then we got to try to fund that the next year after that and that's nearly impossible to do. So, that's my thoughts on sorry on that. It's just it's one time cost. So

107nothing that would >> if there's one time cost that you need one again like that year. But if it's ongoing >> that's basically co again. We got the co money we put all this stuff in and then the co money went away. It's like well the costs are continuing. What are we going to do? That's right. We can't be in that situation again. Maybe I can just give so you know what are you know when you look at using the 4% we could talk about the 2% but using that that balance in kind of the pros and cons of that having up to $2.5 million give or take in that pros are you know Jamie I think laid it out is if we get questions you know if we want it the roof that's needed

108or you know the the whole roof roof, which we got a bid and then it went up a lot, or if we needed to help that, or we got the track, or we want to renovate the auditorium or something like that, or there's things there's big ticket items that we want to fund, we would have a balance to do that. Um, whether it's for new initiatives or whatever, you have a balance to do that. I think the cons, so there may be other pros, but I think the cons from my perspective, there's um and again, if you haven't watched the board of finance meeting, it's a it's a five minute 10-minute clip, so it it not going to take you a lot of time from the September 10th meeting. I think it was September 10th.

109Uh but one thing so one thing they said is how do we know that the board of ed doesn't quote unquote pad their budget when they come to tell us what they need because we're somewhat trusting that they're coming at what they really need but they could pad it because they know at the end they could then take whatever they don't take and then we can put it to this other account and build this account. That is something that if there is that distrust between the board of ed and board of finance of that thinking that that would happen, we're in a bad place, right? So that that that's really bad place if if we got to that. I don't think we're there. I don't think but that doing this prompted that question. Um so

110that's something of the trust relationship Kate brought up between the board of ed and board of finance I think is really important. I think that um if we have again two million two and a half million I mentioned you know the town and the how the town has their reserve and and it's a credit and stuff and and this doesn't count. That sounds like maybe Waterford maybe it does hit their designated fund balance and how they keep it maybe they can I'm not sure how that works and if it would and help their credit rating um in in their way. Um well the other one that you know and I I'm sitting here looking at our teachers. Um I don't know how you know board of ed we're sitting two and a half million sit

111on a couple million dollars that are in this account and something happens in a given year and we say we're going to cut supply budgets or we're going to do this or we can't hire that. You have two and a half million. Why aren't you why aren't you hitting that? How do we answer that? I don't know how to answer that question. Um, and if the answer is, well, we keep going to that. Well, then if we keep going to that, then it'll never get to, we don't have to worry. It'll never be two and a half million because there's always something we're going to spend it on. And then I think we risk that we end up with that distrust with the board of finance. um you know back years ago I remember them

112saying different board of finance that um you know you get reduction we cut you 500,000 you always seem to make it work out like it never seems like it's a big deal you know we go through all this girrations we cut you half a million dollars and then you you complain about it and then we never hear another thing and you solve your budget and you end up with money at the end of the year that was years ago I don't I haven't heard that recently, but you could see where that resurrects itself of gotcha, but you always have that fund and and stuff. So, it it worries me having a big number there. Um, and other than I guess and the question is the capital projects, I guess, is is the big question, but

113that's my perspective of, you know, having a big number in in my concerns with the commons both. good at one point, but it' be interesting to hear from Lee and Estebon because I don't think we've heard from >> Yeah, I'm generally aligned with wanting to put some I guess it's already been shared, right? I don't think we need to get overly super explicit, right? The whole point of having, you know, the fund is so that can tackle critical unexpected items that come up. So, I think there's a way to kind of put some guard rails and guidelines in place without really putting us into a specific box, right? I don't think those things need to be mutually exclusive. I guess my question, Eric, as far as kind of you're looking for as far as getting

114that input to move forward, are you looking for like a specific list of kind of what what is exactly like what is the outcome kind of your >> Yeah. So, I think it's two. I think that the first one is more and I don't know that we're going to get there is could we agree um if we were going to put guard rails on what would they be? And I I I do think it needs to be a percent, not a dollar amount. And the rationale is as our budgets grow then that grows with it. So in 10 years 500,000 may sound like a lot now and 10 years 500,000 may not sound like a lot. >> Ideally a percentage we're comfortable with. The second question in terms of the what we'll fund and stuff

115that was an action given to FFL like if we had if people had done some more thinking to help inform the finance FFL we could hear some of that but I wasn't expecting to get to a resolution on the >> more it's around the percentage that we're comfortable with and if we want to put >> if and we can resolve this in six month like >> like to be honest we're not going to put more money into this account until August or September of 2026. So, we have 230,000 in there and it's not going to change. So, there's nothing nothing imminent that we have to make a decision today or next week or next month or in two months. The only thing the decision if we were all aligned and we may not. If we're

116all aligned, hey, let's put these caps and just say half and 1% or point whatever. And then when Jeff and I talk to the board of finance, we can talk, we can say, hey, we're not talking about a few million dollars being there. We're talking about that. If we're not sure, that's okay. Um, and what we will say is, you know, we aren't talking about there are guard rails of two and four percent. what we are talking about others as well. >> We'll get back to you and as we discuss it we'll get back to you. So that's another options thoughts. I think for me the most important part is not like the percentage or like dollar amount that we've got like maybe the conversation about what are we going to spend the money on

117because that's really going to be like the trust factor like are we just patting it so that we can like buy new TVs forever something that wasn't in the budget or so it's something or is truly for something unexpected like the health insurance >> boiler broke car broke no yeah broke so >> just for that reason and also because of the uh I'm not I'm not in general in favor of putting like a specific guideline just because you know maybe five years from now maybe five of us no longer here that the board had no we're tying everybody you know other people's pants in the future to make any changes if something changes. Same thing with the board of finance. I think three of them are not coming for re-election for next year. So it's

118a different makeup of the board. So maybe what I would recommend is maybe have like a joint workshop know after the election is we see like who's you know who's still next cycle have that conversation like what is the review >> um >> similar to what we did with our budget workshop like have that conversation see like hey let's let's talk about like what are some ideas for guardrails that you would like that you think from your point of view that you would like us to to see and u and do that because as you said, we have time before uh we might even have to um look at this and I mean I think this year compared to the other years is an outlier how much money we ended up with because we had

119a lucky break in winter and you know and you know hitting you know all those other things that I don't think based on what we've had the last five years we I end up with $1,000 like we did in 2020 you know so it it's just I think the sticker shock too of like 200 $131,000 uh is also what like maybe disrupted the relationship as well. So, but knowing that it's also an outlier, it's not >> that we planned for and >> cared as much if it was 7,000 or 23,000, >> right? Yeah. And it and it only ended up that large for those of you at home and we will let the board of uh finance know is you know we had some unexpected costs come in and we did shut down supplies early

120and we shut we really shut everything down and by shutting everything down it ended up accumulating but we were struggling early in the year where Mar was like well it's tight we'll be okay but then having shut over corrected we it up um this way. So as someone say so how about because what it sounds like is we need to >> but just real quick I think that's the kind of kind of conversation that needs to go out with the board of finance. So like if they give us the message that we're spending and that we know it's tight this is what we do and and then I think Jeeoff this is where you and Anelise come in and say this is what happens as a result of that. What happens? Morale goes down. People

121get nervous. Education perhaps is it. I mean, talk about that stuff. That's where this communication really needs to happen because we all know if you're like all of a sudden you're worried about whether or not you can pay, you know, from a personal standpoint, pay your next month's rent or buy the groceries, you have to give up something. How does that feel? We all know. I mean, that's the conversation I think that means to occur. And if you I know I'm a broken record, but that that's how we need to describe it and define it so that they could understand it at a personal level. >> Sorry. >> Completely. No, completely agree. And I think we'll try to do that on in a couple weeks. So, how about um I think it sounds like on

122this topic we're not going to get quick alignment tonight, which is fine. So, let's push this to FFO and let FFO talk about what types of things could be funded, what types of things would not be funded and and maybe FFO can also have some we'll see. I was going to say discussion board of finance, but there's three potentially four um turnovers. So, yeah. Well, no. in terms of coming up with the potential what the guard rails would be, but I think we got to wait on that. So, why don't FFO take this on for a little bit, >> come back to us um with a little more meat and then something that everyone can then, you know, throw stones at or whatever and and see uh what they like, what they don't like, and

123then that'll help help frame this. So, why why don't we do that? So, um no action now. Jeff and I are going to meet with the board of finance and kind of be able to answer questions of them and tell them that this is also something that we're looking at um and spending more time on that than our finance committee is spending. >> Perfect. Okay. Um actually so we closes items for the night. Moving on to administration reports and Jeff. >> Um I'll there's nothing of great significance. Uh we just met last week and uh I'll put a couple things in the weekly update. Just I know we have a decade session. >> Yes. So >> many reports we had a policy meeting this afternoon. We did um before this meeting we met um I

124think we had a learning that the agenda looks like it's we're going to cover like because it has a section for each policy category but we had we did one policy today others will be coming in future meetings um but that's the new setup I think using diligent software that will be the structure of the agenda um so the policy um meeting took the from I think it was two meetings ago that a little bit off but I think it was two meetings ago where the policy meeting was asked to um reook at the 9,000 series or um recommendations around statement. So, we did discuss that and um looked at you kind of laid out a bunch of options and um we'll be presenting I think at the next board meeting. >> Yeah, we'll bring

125it forward. >> We'll have um we'll have that come forward as an agenda, a consent agenda for the next meeting. >> Alisa uh K. So, we had a board of directors meeting on Thursday night and I'm just going to throw some stats at you because we met with the state board of education. Darlene was there and she's always so much fun to listen to because we she loves education and kids. But I'm going to give you two dates. First 9:29 at noon civil discourse and effective communication webinar and 10:21 an administrative professionals records retention seminar I believe not webinar I think that's it in person um so Connecticut has 202 school districts we have 1554 school programs we have 53,616 cert certified full-time staff We have 69,000 non-certified staff and 58,42 students. We have 54.9%

126of our population is students of color. 45.1% are white students. 44.8 students are free and reduced lunch. 18 and a.5% of students are have disabilities. You can't tell if that's an 11 or a 16, but we're going to go with 11.3% are multil- language learners. 100. We have over 180 languages spoken in Connecticut public schools. We have 5,483 students who have been exposed to homelessness last year. And our chronic absenteeism rate has dropped by for the third year in a row. Um, and CAB has also put together a Connecticut board of education alumni network. So for those board of education members who are no longer board of ed members but would still like to be involved with CABE in education, um, they are starting an alumni network. Um, I don't know yet whether or not

127there will be a due, but you will get access to the CA website. You'll have your own section on there. you will get member rates for any um webinars or conventions or anything like that. Um but you won't get the journal, but you will get access to it offline. So that's something that's coming down the pike. So it was a good meeting with the state board of education last week, last week Thursday. >> I just had a question. Could you remind me about um started the two webinars that are that are coming? I did see the one that was that they were talking about on the 29th about civil discourse. Can you remind me if there's a cost associated signing up for those webinars? >> Those there is not the webinars that are those there

128are no costs. It's the inpersons because they have to pay for the rental of places and foods and stuff like that. The only one that I think I don't know 100%. I believe that the 129 new board member orientation, not the leadership part of it, but I believe the new board part of it is covered by the state department of education grant. I just I let me get back to you on that one. >> Okay. >> I think followup question. >> Okay. There's not a cost but if you register to attend and have end up landing have having >> not and you get a link >> to go and watch it on your own time. >> Okay. >> If you register it and you can't make it, you do get a link so you can

129go watch it on your own time on the archive. Thanks >> Jamie. Sorry, there was a lot of numbers. now have our agenda our new district-wide ad hoc committees and where committee met. Blade, you want to give a quick update? >> Sure. Won't have a ton of like concrete details. It was more just a kickoff to kind of make sure that we we met this past Wednesday. Um to make sure that we were aligned on like the goal of the charter and some of the key questions that we want, you know, to answer before we, you know, approach pulling in additional stakeholders, admin, teachers, families, students, um to kind of dig into the work. We want to be really clear on what core questions we were answering, what data and insights we need before, uh,

130that's going to, you know, shape the the direction that we go. And so, um, yeah, we we spoke a little bit about some of the feedback that folks provided at the board meeting on Monday. It was a really helpful springboard to continue those conversations and in the committee. And uh aside from kind of just general alignment, we walked away with some core questions uh a lot around kind of making sure that we're really like grounding what we're doing. Obviously like the logistics piece and kind of generating a list of some of those considerations, but also just like general best practices and um what other districts in the state and beyond uh how they've approached uh kind of similar transitions and what the results were. so that we're kind of grounding all of that in in

131data and thinking what's going to be best for kids long term. So, um yeah, not a ton of outcomes yet, but it was a really good conversation and our we've got some marching orders as far as some of the kind of, you know, insights and data that we're going to be looking to compile to help drive, you know, expanding that committee and and further. >> We are working on it. Carissa. Yeah, actually Carissa just sent out a kind of recap um uh kind of of our discussion today and is going to start uh sourcing some some fees. So hopefully soon. I think we said what did we agree on? >> Yeah. Yeah. Three to four weeks. So >> to four weeks. Yeah. Yeah. >> October. >> Yep. >> Okay. Uh closes committee reports, board comments,

132future agenda items. I just want to thank everybody who came to Oyster Fest this weekend. It was crazy busy. Um our numbers, I don't have them yet, but they were lemonary were more than the year previous all the years prior. So, thank you everybody who supported us. We're still raising money for that playground, all accessible playground somewhere hopefully in town. who came >> few things. Is BJC camp still our medical? He posted an article on LinkedIn today that was talking about the importance of screening for mental health purposes and the high suicide ideiation rate that's happening even at kids at the middle school level. And I just wanted to uh he's on LinkedIn and that's where I read the article and this is really I don't know are we do a screen, right? There is

133a screen that goes on >> at the high school >> only at the high school. >> Is that something that we should talk about at some point as a future agenda item where we need to pull it down to because he was saying in this or this article I have to be careful I can't it was article that he had posted that he had found not something that he had written but in the article it was kids as low I think as fifth or sixth grade having some conversations about that. So I just wanted to bring that up. Yeah. >> Yeah. Something to think about. Um, yep. >> More about at that that lower level though. >> Yeah. Today we we you know do a lot of proactive workings and the QPR building capacity. We

134run the SOS program at the high school which is you know signs of suicide and it's it is has the opportunity for students to speak with someone immediately after the presentation. That was the thing that was really scary is that even though people had the opportunity to have a conversation, they chose not to. So, it'd be a really good article to take a look at. And then the second thing was um we're still calling October 10th approximately Columbus Day. Are we going to move towards maybe indigenous school? >> It's on the calendar. It's a school holiday. I think people call it >> fall break or something. Yeah. >> Well, I saw it on holiday. I saw it on >> it's always a they're all school holiday that we don't we don't designate one or the

135other. I think people different preference like if you go to our calendar right now and look at it'll say school holiday. >> Okay. >> We don't designate it as a specific uh >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Little board comment. Okay. We do need am I board comment Xavier? Thanks for staying the entire we really do appreciate uh that and getting your insights and hopefully you hear a little bit about what we're talking about and the issues that we're trying to hopefully there's some interest maybe not but maybe hopefully um can I make >> yeah thank again thank you for staying I'm going to just echo what Eric said and you can ask us questions too if you have questions for us please do so >> Mr. kids working on our other board reps as

136well. So, you won't be alone. Yeah, we're actually going to have three uh I think this year. >> Give me the rundown. Everything is changing for me. >> Yeah. Yep. Yep. So, we appreciate uh your your input. Thanks for staying again. >> Thank you. We do have need for executive session. So I would make a motion to go into executive session with Don Hull >> and lease two >> and Elise Baziano and Superintendent Newton for the purpose of discussions on security strategy or the deployment of security personnel or devices in accordance with Connecticut General Statute 1-20. >> All those in favor say I. I opposed abstain order and executive