001Oh, it's not letting me do that now. >> Um, were higher than we originally budgeted due to the new um the increase in their contract. And I I think there were maybe just more subs than than we really anticipated because there were quite a lot of subs also this past summer, but it was mostly from the salaries and our and the services were in there also. Services are always a little bit higher than anticipated. So those did cause an increase also. Um given that feel relatively comfortable um when we look to the future um are we seeing anything that may upset the apple cart here >> as we move along? >> There's always a few issues that are a little bit of concern. So the substitute line is always a concern for me. Um right
002now the ES you know we have our ESS that's our sub the company we we outsource we sub we have that PO opened for the full amount of the budget. So right now you know there's no room for anything over and I know we're going to go over in that line just will um that line and perhaps we probably will go over in the rents and leases line because of that joy prek. though I know we have a little bit of money that we can maybe move from some of the Edgewood utilities to cover some of those expenditures but that will probably go over also. >> Okay. And then in particular in the area of substitutes um are we working to try to mitigate as much as possible um in terms of contracting substitutes or
003uh I'm just thinking because we've encumbered most of the line and we're assuming that we're basically going to use it up. Um, has been any planning done to try to mitigate use of that line? So, >> yeah. So, well, the talent management office is working really closely, you know, I'm looking at that. We try to tell, you know, the the administrators, you can't just call for a sub, but just for no reason. You really have to have a valid reason. Okay. >> Um, for calling in a sub, but we have a lot of people out on leave right now. >> Okay. Um, Gotcha. And then um special education again seems to be doing relatively fine given the fact that um say the vast majority of it is based on encumbrance. >> So in theory we
004need to draw down what's been but um we also have basically nothing in terms of revenue. So there's a lot when all the microphones are going it's fine. Do we >> But she's I mean I know that we still feel relatively comfortable about where we are. Um have we seen a big influx of new new students to the programs? >> I think Amy will report on that. I feel like I was speaking with our special ed accountant today. She sees a she thinks she thinks we're going to go over >> Yeah. She still has a lot of uh information and EOS to enter still. So she does feel that limited help. >> Yeah. And I think the reason I bring it up is because um an official from the city had mentioned that we feel
005extremely comfortable in our special education >> down by we feel more comfortable. I've done that before than any year I can remember. Sure. Yes. we have a a nice appropriate amount of funding in there, but I do think it'll go over unless we happen to get all the excess cost that we're really anticipating and then it would be nice. I think break even. But >> yeah, I don't think you'll have that view until you get >> we won't know through half the year. Unfortunately, >> that is always a struggle. >> I just have a few questions. So when we need a substitute teacher for a paraprofessional does that come out of the general budget or does that come out of special ed? >> It comes out of special ed. We have a line for special
006education errors. >> Okay. >> Within the special ed budget. >> Okay. And both interappropriately. And when you say we are better than we've been in the past in special ed for our budget, what you're saying is we have the amount at least that we spent last year in Munice in the line item. So, we didn't put millions of dollars less than last year in the line item, but we are still not projecting whether or not we get an influx of students or other students are identified >> and the costs the cost significantly. So, as much as you're we're were able to say, okay, with what we were provided, we put the amount in the budget that we spent last year. >> Yes. >> But we're seeing 20% increases every year. So, the probability is that
007it could be very different than what we are right now. >> Yes. >> We want to be honest. >> Thank you. If I may, I just another question with regards to uh staffing for um special needs. Um how are we um positioned with regards to to staffing more specifically to like support staff for uh for students uh of special needs like with uh with parents and and various support staff like that? >> I I would want Amy to answer that question. I don't know if we can hear her. Can you hear me? She's shaking. >> Can you hear me now? >> Oh, we can't hear her. We can't hear you. >> We do. We try to circle back to that question. >> So Jeff's on his way. He'll be here in about three minutes. >>
008Okay. Jeff, >> any other questions? >> That's all I have. Moving on to cafeteria report. >> Great. The cafeteria snapshot at September 30th shows a surplus of 439,606. We served 48,691 breakfasts and 108,645 lunches in September. >> Questions? Okay. Appropriation transfers over 10,000. >> Last month I made one appropriation transfer 14,000 um all within the athletic budget. I moved uh 14,000 out of districtwide athletic memberships to high school athletic memberships just to get it in the appropriate line. >> Any questions? >> Um I you know I did have one and I didn't kind of relate to the to this particular subject but like with the uh the um the budget snapshot I know that's something that that's a work in progress. Um it'll give us kind of like an overview of what you've what you've
009always been telling us quite well here. Um, do you know when we can anticipate to be seeing like that rolled out? I think you' said something last week, but I won't catch you on the date. >> Um, like a snapshot like Amy is using for special education. >> Yes, that's correct. >> Um, well, I would like to think over the next couple of months, I'm very happy to announce that I now have a replacement for myself. Um, so we have an accounting supervisor who is actually our grant manager. she's going to move into my role and we also hired a grant manager. So, we will be fully staffed for the first time in months. So, that'll free up my time. So, I'm going to start working on that over the next few months. >> Excellent.
010Thank you, >> Mrs. Martino. Do you want to try? >> I certainly can. Would you like me to start? Do you want me to wait a moment? Do you want me to do the athletic accounts until Amy? Until Jeff is here. >> Jeff, we can circle back. >> Wait for Jeff. >> Sure. >> You can go do the activity. >> Okay. Sorry. Okay. Um I'll start with the Bristol Central High School um the athletics account. They began the year with 53,781-55. They had 9,260 in expenses, 1,767 in receipts, leaving them with a balance of 46,28926. The Bristol Central School account began the year with 155,10557. They had 18,4511 in expenditures and 10,92298 in receipts, leaving them with a balance of 147,62344. Bristol Eastern Athletics began the year with 18,57298 at 12,58 12,58812 in expenses 285181
011in receipts leaving them with a balance of 8,8367. The Bristol Eastern School Account began the year with 147,12242. They had 19,299 in expenditures and 15,7734 in receipts, leaving them with a balance of 143,59644. Questions? >> Questions? Okay. Um, wait, do we do we have >> Yes. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. No, I did have a question. So, the expenses on the athletic accounts, are those for mostly for the first half of the year, i.e. for the fall season? >> Just for the fall season. Yes, just for the fall season. Um, and most of the expenses I'm looking at the Bristol Eastern, for example, um, some of their expenses was in girls volleyball because now we have their their individual sport fundraisers in these lines. So, some of the expenses were from that, some were just regular
012expenses, but they would all be related to the fall season and the same for Bristol Central. It looks like they had some expenses in the track and field um fundraiser line and then just regular fall expenditures. >> Okay. And then um just for planning and the overall health um I mean Bristol Eastern is obviously falling quite a bit short um in terms of a balance. Have there been just discussions around this? Do they feel confident they'll re raise their money? I know that, you know, this been an open discussion, but when we ended the year last year, they actually did what I thought was a phenomenal job in terms >> they did. They pretty much brought in everything that they that they paid out. So, >> okay. I just wanted Okay. >> Yeah. >> And
013all of the sports have been doing great fundraising efforts. Oh, >> okay. Good to know. Thank you. >> Good. >> Are you able to hear me by chance? and operations acting building committee. >> I was short until I stood up here after you. Good evening, commissioners. Um, was the Edgewood on first? >> Yes. >> All right. So, in full transparency, I'm going to prepare with an Edgewood update. Um, I had gone over and reviewed the costs again for the Edmond project and I just wanted to be totally honest with all of you and all of the committees that I'm going to be reporting to. The city cost share that was originally presented was assuming 100% eligibility on all of the costs to complete the renovation and there's always an eligible cost associated with the construction
014projects and as a rule of thumb I like to use 5% of the reimburseable amount to offset those costs. That being said, we would use a 79.64% reimbursement versus the 84.64, which is what the full reimbursement would be. And using those costs provided by the design team of 28.8 million, the city share would be approximately 5.8 million, not the 4.42 million. Just as the city's cost share for the renovation increased, so would the city's cost share for the targeted alteration. We already know that there was 16.8 million budgeted and that that would be short around $4 million. So, we were using the 20.8 million, which is a more accurate number. And there would be 64.64 versus the 69.64. And that would increase the city's cost share for targeted alterations to approximately $7.3 million, which is
015a significant increase as well. That being said, the city's already committed bonding 1.3 million for the original roof project and 2 million for the alterations project. So that's 3.3 million leaves us a shortfall of 2.5 million which we are um coming which we're going to be receiving that in a reimbursement for the Southside HVAC roof. So the total that we're actually getting or the Southside HVAC project. So the total that we're actually getting is $5.8 $8 million, which still covers that additional 12 million that we're going to be asking for. We are on the board of finance for the October 28th to ask for that increase to the Edgewood prek renovation budget and um assuming it's going to be getting approved, we'll be going to joint board on November 12th. Any questions on that? >>
016Uh yes. Um so there I I appreciate the update and I think obviously you know it is it's always disappointing when you see some any form of escalation whether you know um it's a small amount or a large amount. Um and I know that there have been discussions around potential contingencies with the lower number that was available to us. I did want to ask I guess some pointed questions given uh comments that I have seen which was essentially the mayor said that he's going to try and table this project at the October meeting. Can you do you know what happens to that reimbursement of the 2.5 million if we don't move forward with this project? Do we have other projects available to us that we would use that reimbursement money for? Is it there forever?
017>> That would probably be a question that you would want to ask Diane Waldron. Okay. Ultimately, it would go back into the city coffers somewhere. We would get that reimbursement. Um, it would probably go back to the Southside HVAC that we paid out of. That was not a state funded project to begin with. That was fully projected that was fully funded by the city. So, I don't I don't know what their intention is or what they would want to use that money for. Um, but they may have a different idea. We would I mean, we're still applying for that money, right? >> So, we would still get that money, but what they choose to do with that at that point, I don't know what it would be. >> I think it's helpful to know who
018owns the money piece. just and I'm just saying that because you know unfortunately we don't know what's going to happen comments get made whether they're for whatever reason and so I mean this board I think and ever since I've been on it you know we've been talking about Edgewood forever um there have been disagreements about what to do with it um unfortunately we've had to table it more than once for many years um and so the other piece of it is if it does get tabled at the board of finance What's does that that significantly jeopardize the project I assume or is there an option? >> Well, it depends. So, it does it puts us into a position because we would then be se like we'd be off schedule at that point because it is
019approved as a renovation project. It was approved last uh last year, right? Last July 1, >> right, >> through the state, right? >> So, we technically have two years to break ground. So, we still have a design that we're working on and we can't go out to bid for any construction services until we have a design that's approved by the committee. >> So, the longer we push that off, the further out that gets. Now, we could potentially go back to the city and ask for a bit of a reprieve so they could come back to us and say, "Okay, we'll give you x amount more months." Or they could say, "No, we wanted you to start. We wanted you to break ground by such and such a date and we did not do that. So,
020we're withholding the money." I don't know. I've never ran into that before because that's what our options are, right? >> So I it would just push that schedule out which is already if we're doing the renovation would be a significantly tight schedule to get those kids back in that school within the the 18 months of once we get a that's very helpful. Um I mean I know there are instances where that the recision has happened. And I think that's partially how we got some of the money for the boulevard is that another school was um approved for money and then they never did anything for a couple years and it got rescended by the legislature and that's how um we got our funding for that. So, I think it's important. I also just want to
021say from the staff end of error, I think um have showcasing what that inevitability may look like and perhaps if that does endanger us from a redistricting perspective, whether that's looking at equity across classrooms and those types of things. is very important that we need to consider because you know this reimagining plan has been in the works for a long time but this phase 2 you know was uh voted on and approved by the board and suddenly people who voted for it don't like it anymore but the reality is that you know uh I think uh unwinding a strategy that has been in place for a long time is not a good use of our time and money and it's definitely not good from a efficiency standpoint but I do because we have folks who
022are going to present to the board at some point for redistricting. They should be aware that this is a potential and um go from there. And I know that there's also other buildings that, you know, need new roofs. There's Stafford, which you know, I know has been potentially discussed for renovation of some kind. I know at one point we even discussed moving uh this this whole building over there if we weren't going to have it as a school. And so there's a lot to be discussed here and I think you know when people don't connect the dots and just decide that projects are no longer valuable and for them that we run into problems and we also run into deficits. So doesn't want to comment on that. >> So Tara I really appreciate you providing
023um the update and I did share when you sent that to me uh with our leazison on the board of finance Maria O'Brien immediately. So, wanted to make sure that you knew that we're really happy that you're staying on top of things and being very transparent and honest. Um, what I I just want to verify that you said as of right now, if we move forward and put this to the board of finance, which is on the agenda for October 28th, to change from a roof renovation, which would cost us um I I think 2 million more than a full rena is what you said. 7 >> 5.8 8 million for the renovate as new and it would be 7.3 million as a targeted alteration. >> Okay. So, um almost 2 million more for just
024a roof and we have 5.8 million right now for the renovate as new. So, we wouldn't be asking for more money. We would just be asking to change the scope of the project. And we also still have that possibility of up to another 15% reimbursement once the state department of ed decides the process for the priority 15% that is for special ed. >> That's correct. >> So the 5.8 million that we currently have, we could need much less of that. Correct. Right. So, we're still in the same place essentially that we were when we all voted in a majority way on our board. We're bringing it to the board of finance on the 28th. And I um I'm very very optimistic that a no-brainer once in a-lifetime unicorn type of thing to get a brand
025new one floor facility for our youngest, most vulnerable learners. that will make our community be able to meet their needs. Um it it would make no sense to not support this. So I do appreciate all your work. >> Thank you. >> Um if I may, I I a couple questions later. Um, so, uh, one of the questions I have is is actually predicated around, you know, what part of the decision-making process that came with, uh, you know, determining, at least for me, uh, you know, voting for Edgewood, and that was that, um, that the, uh, there was no other schools that had the same same level access, uh, as as Edgewood. And that was one of the determinations that we made. Um, and I I regret not actually thinking about it at the time, but
026um, from my understanding is correct. uh Green Hills, which you know was one of the schools that was mentioned as having extra classrooms, actually has two levels of ground floor access. And I just wanted to know um was that accounted for um in that decision-m process with, you know, with with the students with with that particular student segment? >> I guess I'm not following what you're asking. Well, we were told that that Green Hills only had one level, but if you if you look in Green Hills, it actually has two. There's the front and then there. >> There's an eress on both the first and the second floor. That is an accurate statement. Yes. >> Yes. Um, so I just want to know were were those classes taken into account as well because it's technically
027two ground floor levels, not one >> into account for what I think is what I'm asking for simply because >> it's probably more for like Amy. she's she was brought up. Um but it was uh that was one of the things that was that was mentioned that um out of the two schools it was uh um it was Southside I'm sorry um Stafford and Green Hills they only have um x number of floors right now for access for for that student segment and they each only had one floor um you know but technically greenhouse has two so >> are you asking bas >> that was a common floor >> so are you asking based on whether we made that decision to stay at Edgewood versus trying to relocate it. So that would I'm going to
028defer that probably to Iris because I think that that she would probably better be able to answer that question. >> I'm sorry. Can you read? >> So the question was you know you know whether we could relocate the students or or open up Edgewood. Um and you know um so Green Hills has like two floors. Um you know the whole reason why we do edgewood right is because you know the one floor access and we were looking at you know Green Hills and and stuff >> for accommodate for a total of like I think like 23 open class what we were what we were told initially. Um but then we were told that like Green Hills and in that meeting four or four of the Edgewood uh vote was that uh Green Hills only had
029like one floor or one ground level access when it actually in fact asked wanted to know if that wasn't accounted for that was if that was figured into the calculation for the number of classrooms that were truly available >> through the chair. Did we share that? Um Pat Gallagher. >> So um Pat Gallagher from MP planning um we visited both Green Hills and West. He took a tour of both both schools. Um and so the number of classrooms available. Did we ever say the number of classrooms? I think that that's part of the redistricting pro process. So I I don't think that there was an answer to that. >> I think there was well there was in Amy's presentation I know she wrote that she'd answer this question but she had talked about how there
030were 10 or so on each ground floor and the problem was that when we decentralized the program is that there weren't there wasn't enough space on each ground floor to accommodate the actual program itself because it because it requires flex space, it requires conference space and all the other things that come along with that. And so because we have not just pre kindergarten but first grade that needs to be on the first floor as well. We just don't have the space to do that. And I know that this keeps coming out into the ether because the mayor of the city has determined that he's the superintendent of public schools on top of his job and keeps putting stuff out there as if he understands. >> No, this isn't mayor had nothing to do with >>
031well he mentioned this at the most recent appearance he was at. So >> no, this is the question that I had after voting. >> It's been answered. So this is a question that I honestly had. It was Green Hills asked to ground level access. I just wanted to know if that was taken into accommodation or into consideration. Can you know can uh you know could you know could the prek be accommodated at that at those schools if we're if we're accounting for that second floor access? >> I don't think that's an unreasonable question. I don't I don't think it's even a reasonable question if we didn't already vote and if we didn't already have a feasibility plan that is complete in stage one and is uh stage two is only to confirm stage one. So
032continues to be a conversation that we don't have a plan and that we didn't uh publish the outcome of a plan that goes till 2035 and shows the projections for enrollment. So there is no confusion of this board where we are with enrollment. There's no confusion that the entire board voted to renovate as you would and turn it into a preschool academy. It is we need those classrooms because when full day kindergarten happened we lost half of those classrooms for kindergarten. So we doubled our kindergarten size moving us into preschool facility. Now we have special education classrooms that are districtwide that are crowded in our elementary schools and need to be relocated into the schools that will have open space when Northeast opens. This is very clear planned out researchbased. We've paid for feasibility studies.
033There isn't a reason to continue to discuss a plan that allows someone to sell Edgewood School, which is shortsighted and doesn't value the resource that it brings to our community and our lowest um not our lowest, our actually most vulnerable and youngest students in the district who need this space and it's mandated by law. >> If I may just with respect to this available classrooms, I believe the the uh the lack of classroom space was in both West Bristol and and Greenhouse. Again, whether you're two classes short or five classes short, it's irrelevant. It wasn't enough. It wasn't. The projection was that they that both those schools could not cover it. So, I'm just asking was that projection made with both those floors and grinding >> through the chair? >> I'm asking, >> can you
034guys hear me? >> Yes, >> we can. >> Wonderful. Um, I just wanted to add, so at the last meeting, uh, it was me who shared that we did vet both West Bristol and Green Hills and that was part of the reason we were recommending that, uh, Edgewood PreK should not go into West Bristol and Green Hills. So, I spoke with both principles and I shared with the team that uh, vacant classrooms on the bottom level, the bottom floor are were 10 open classrooms. If you uh statutoily we have to have prek K and one uh on that bottom floor. If we were to put preschool into West Bristol and Green Hills, the challenge is is that Edgewood Preschool already has 14 classrooms. We have two autism classrooms. We have an evaluation team that supports
035students. We have an OT, a PT, a BCBA, five speech and language pathologists, and a registration center. So when you're looking at all of those aspects, plus ensuring that we meet legislative requirements on the bottom floor, it actually there actually is not enough space at West Bristol and Green Hills. So to answer the question, yes, we did consider all of those options uh in making this decision. >> Okay, I appreciate that. I wasn't sure if uh if that second floor in Green Hills was was uh was u you know considered as a as another option. So I'm I'm glad you that you did look at that. I appreciate that. Um as far as the um the enrollment goes though um I know that there were you know that we have been waiting on the feasibility
036study. I understand that it has been completed and that it's been already gone back to the company that's doing our um our redistricting. Uh I haven't seen it. Uh but I've been told that it's done. Is that accurate? So, we've given initial October 1st enrollment counts, which I think u we're at 99%. I don't know if Jeff's still here. 99% um correct for that enrollment count. So, I think there's some confusion where people are using the term feasibility study. When I mentioned at the last board meeting, I was talking about October 1st through enrollment. That's what we're working on setting to the um MD planning was working with us on phase two that we just talked about. >> Okay. Okay. Because I that that must be what the mixup was because I heard the feasibility
037study had been complete. So I appreciate that for everything. >> Okay. Let's um move on and back to people personnel services report. >> Thank you and good evening. I apologize that I need to be virtual tonight but thank you for uh making it work so that I can speak. As of October 1st, 1,763 of the 7,872 students uh are students who require special education programming. What you might notice when you look at that entire grid is that you see that the numbers of our students have gone down. And I know that that tends to be uh a number that people focus on. What I do want to point out though is that the special education portion of those numbers continues to remain at 22.4%. 4%. And I'll talk about why that's important in a moment.
038As of October 1st, we have 119 students that require outofd private special education programs. 93 uh students that are receiving services in public out of district programs. That includes magnet schools. And then in the month of September, 22% of our newly registered students required special education programming. we did not have any students that required uh out of district programs and that's why that number remained consistent from September 1st to October 1st. And then lastly during the month of September we had 49 211 and 0911 calls. Um I do want to I know one of the questions that was asked earlier was around are we seeing trends of the students moving in. So I just want to recount something that I shared at last month's meeting. So my September 1 report uh noted that 30.2% of
039the students who moved in required special education, one of which required out of district. But what was most alarming and that's why I really highlighted it that month was that eight of the students who moved in did require an in district program. Four of the students required one-on-one services. and we're seeing a pretty significant need uh across that grouping. I can say you'll see that consistently shown again. I can tell you just within the last week a few students that have moved in um have some pretty significant profiles. Um, so, um, I will go over budgets in a moment, but I will share with you that at next month, now that I have October 1 data, I will be sharing with you those trends that we're seeing as of October one across a 5-year timeline
040because it's, as I think you hear me say it all the time, it's not about the numbers that are coming in and out of the district. It's about what each of those students represents or needs, as well as the costs that are associated that we have less prediction over. So, I'll stop for a moment if there's questions about enrollment numbers. >> Sure. Go ahead. >> Um, thank you and I appreciate you following up with what uh you had previously presented um because that's helpful. I mean, I won't be here at the next meeting, but I I think that um you showing a five-year trend is a fabulous idea, and I think it'll give um folks who will be here and anyone in the public um a sort of sense of where we've, you know, where
041we start and where we're going. And so, that's very helpful. The one question I had is um I know um we had previously talked about sort of seat capacity in some of our specialized programs. And so you had said that you know eight of the students required some sort of indistrict need. Has that um caused uh stress on the capacity of um our specific programs? Um do we foresee um going over additional capacity as we move along? I know that might be a little bit tougher of a question to answer, but just just sort of the full view because again, you know, I know we always talk that that since you've taken over, there's been what I view as a smart and aggressive push to invest in these programs so we can keep them in
042house. So, I just sort of want to get some context around that. >> Um, actually, I appreciate the fact that you asked that question because um I believe it was last month's month's uh last year's budget presentation. Um, I think it was you who mentioned that, you know, like let's show all of our programs and the seat capacity. Um, and now we can never say that a program is fully capped, right? We can't deny a child's access. We typically know when a program is is really kind of met their threshold. Starting off the year, our every single one of our programs with the exception of the Excel program was at that capacity mark if not over by one. I can tell you from July 1 to October 1, uh, specifically, our autism programs are well
043over seat capacity in all six classrooms at the elementary level. Um, that actually caused me to say to Iris, you know, my worry is that I either need to go out of district for a number of these students or we need to build another classroom. So, I think we both agreed and we're in the process of building another classroom. Um, that may contribute to us going over budget. However, I also need to say like while it cost us this much to create the program, I saved out of eight out of district program that referrals that could have happened. So, I think that's the fluidity of the special education budget that I, you know, I really think it would help for people to have an understanding that we can try to predict as much as possible,
044but there are conditions that we truly have no control over and that I think there's intentionality of what is the most coste effective ways to give children what they need in district. And while we did spend this and went over, we saved this significant amount of money. Sorry, that was long-winded, but um our programs are well over capacity and we absolutely need to expand. >> Again, I don't think that was uh long-winded at all. I think that's the exact context that people need to hear. And I know that, you know, you you have a a dashboard settled, which is great, which will be helpful for the folks on the board of finance. I do think it would help to show monthly when you report to the board of finance that seat capacity in in theory,
045right? said, "We can't, you know, deny anyone." And that's true. I think they need to know that. But I think what you you can show is, you know, we started in uh June. This is where we're at. This is where we are today. And because, you know, we always talk about, oh, you know, special ed's over and, you know, it's it's so volatile. Well, we can show like you said, if we we may be going over budget against special ed, but if we do and invest in these in district classrooms, it'll save you another $5 million, right? In in theory, I know we can't perfectly project those amounts, but putting it to um pen and paper is really helpful to see. So, I do appreciate that and I appreciate the efforts that you have put
046in to be as transparent as possible. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any other questions about enrollment before I move to the budget lines? >> I had a question not necessarily about enrollment, more about like uh staffing or for you know for children in the special needs program. I I wanted to know um as far as the staffing for paris um how are you uh how you positioned from a sta you know from a staff line and do you feel you have enough to uh to to handle the needs of all the students? A lot of them need oneonone. So >> yeah, um, in between comments, I'll actually count the actual number. We we did have 14 open pair of positions at one point. I want to say we're down to 10 open positions, but I
047never I like to be as accurate as possible, so don't hang me up on the 10. Let me count them for sure. >> Um, I will say in this next budget presentation, you um I think it's important to when we think about like our capacity of programs, right? in order for me to build more programs and to bring students home that will actually help us fiscally, I cannot do that unless I add staff. And so it's kind of like an all or nothing. Like if we're truly going to invest in these programs and there's grants that are being built to support that, um it will require additional staffing, certified staff as well as PARA educators. Um, I know we have 221 plus our additional students that came into district that I've had to add. Um,
048but I can tell you that we have spread them across the district equitably. And I have to say that I would I truly feel that we've met capacity of using the staff as best as humanly possible. I'm not sure we could sp spread things any thinner than we already have. >> Yeah, I I appreciate that. And you know, I do want to say I I do agree with with Mr. Tagello that as far as um you know, if we are going to be going over budget on on something by having to build out another classroom. I think it's important not only just to show that yeah, you know, this is how much it cost for us to build out that classroom, but this is also how much it would cost us more, how much more
049would it cost us if we have to outplace these children. And not only that, but it's not just even like uh frankly in my in my own perspective, it's not even just a matter of just the commute time for the kids. It's just, you know, the the kids out of not in in the Bristol school system. >> Absolutely. And you know, even just quick math, you know, of what I need to build, if I had to send what is needed out of district, minimally, it is a $1 million cost. Yet, I can build a classroom for, you know, $250,000. So, it's a three it's threequarters of a million dollars of a savings, but I worry that people don't see that sometimes. So, I will be as as transparent as I can to show why the
050decisions are made and what the benefit is of that. >> And I think it'd be important to try to show that, you know, um um like a graph or you know, some sort of a an easy to read, you know, system that everybody could follow and kind of get behind and understand. >> Absolutely. All right. In terms of the budget lines, um that is the sheet. You'll see this month I changed it again a little bit and again whatever uh seems to work for the majority I I will go forward. But this month you'll see instead of me uh highlighting appropriations as compared to expenditures, I'm sorry, um appropriations versus uh incumbrances. I really looked at expenditures because I worry that when we focus on what has been uh encumbered, there's so much fluctuation in
051that because kids moving in and out that I thought, you know what, I think I'm going to start paying more attention about how much we're spending each month um while I'm also working on like the encumbered pieces if I start to feel uncomfortable. So, I just wanted to start with that. Um, but when you look at this month's chart, uh, as of October 1st, all budget lines represented are trending as I would expect. The extended school year line, which I've highlighted over the past couple of months, and Miss, uh, Miss Jod had shared as well, um, is over. Um you you might notice that in this month though I removed the extended school year section 504 and equipment uh as well as preschool from this line because their budgeted amounts are so different than some
052of our topline items that it really makes it hard to read the data. But I wanted it to be transparent just to just remind people that I had noted in September 1st that the preschool line was over by $54,9547. That was due to salary the salary line being uncumbered as uh Jod had shared the section 504 and equipment lines um are unremarkable. They have been unchanged for this month. But again, you know, putting that in there with the variance just it skews the data line. Um, so I just wanted to say that, you know, they're trending as expected. Now, I have said throughout, I think people have wondered my predictions. Um, and I have to say for the first time, uh, I think since I've worked in Bristol, I feel more confident that perhaps we
053could break even this year. With that said, I think that is a result of, you know, being more closely funded to where we have spent. Um, but also, you know, I think it's also critical to note that like the fluctuations that we just talked about from a one-mon period of time does impact us. So, I while I can never predict if we'll go over or not, um, I'm hopeful that we'll get close to breaking even. But if we are to go over, I at least have the data to share with the why and what contributed to that. Are there any questions about the current budget lines I highlighted? Okay, questions. >> Thank you. Uh we're back to finance and operations for the high school projects. >> Is your mic on? >> It's on. Yes. All
054right. So, uh we'll start with the Bristol Central roof. The roof was approved at the by the city this spring and we are in the process of forming the building committee for this project. The city gave us 8.8 million for design and replacement for the roof only. Although rooftop mechanicals were part of that original ask, the city did only approve us that 8.8 million which is the number for the roof. Um we are going to go out for uh design fees and they'll design the roof. They'll give us a cost estimate for that and we'll then be able to uh go for an RFP and get a contractor on board. Um Bristol Eastern roof was on the 5-year CIP for funding in 2627 which is going to be this upcoming cycle. That being said, soft
055cost for that project are what we're going to be asking for $3.2 million and we are going to be asking again for the roof and mechanicals in hopes that they'll fund us appropriately for that. Um, both of the roofs this past summer received funding for thermal imaging to determine where the wet spots were because we had some roof leaks at both of the high schools. Uh, once they determined the wet spots, we went over with a large patch at both schools. That was all done um over the summer. Any questions on either of those? >> I just have one. uh for the mechanicals are they critical for I mean I I assume obviously they're we'll call them critical because we asked for them but what I mean is we didn't get them on one so
056I'm just asking how critical is Eastern's more critical centrals or >> so we're going to let Pete get to that >> I feel very tall tonight >> okay so yeah they are critical because the mechanicals rooftops that are there right now have R22 refrigerant which talk about adnauseium in these meetings and we skipped over 410A which was the next refrigerant now we're at 454. So we won we missed a whole generation of refrigerants. Uh so we're at a point now where if we were to lose one of the rooftop units and when I say rooftop units mechanicals they're makeup area units. So they're they're needed. They're sorely needed. Y >> where we're bringing our fresh air for the building. Half of the unit is a DX coil with the R22. The other half is a
057steam coil, which you know at Eastern we just put two new boilers in when somebody has our money. With that being said, we have to determine and one of the reasons why the number was so large is we don't really want to go for a life forlike replacement. That's not help us because in 1999 it was considered tempered air. But all you're doing is you get one pass over the evaporator coil and then you're exiting all that air out of the building. Nobody does that and can't control humidity to be frank. You just humidity is a real problem. So what you'll see in like Bames the new northeast they have DOS units which are dedicated outside air systems. That's what the DOS stands for. And then you have redundant cooling where you're recirculating air. So
058you're able to really control your humidity which is our biggest enemy in the school as you know. aird. So I've asked we bundled we've taken the approach with the city a few years in a row. I know last year the numbers were a little staggering and we stood in front of you and folks looked at them. The reality of it is prior to co you were looking at $30 a square foot for mechanicals. Now you're over $100 a square foot for the same. And it is what it is, right? And now they may even be higher than that where you've got tariffs to contend with potentially. Uh the new refrigerants, they're so new that it's hard to really put a number to them just yet because they're manufacturing and gas and a lot of other
059things that are going on. But as of January of this past year, they outbought 410A, which was what I was hoping we could we could get. But with that being said, we missed the bus and we're going to have to wait for the next one to come through. Got it. We'll continue to advocate. I'm going to we're going to put that C in front of you folks again this year. Yeah. Or a vote so I can go over and we'll advocate for roofs and we'll advocate for mechanicals and we'll advocate for all the things that the schools need. We advocated for a bundle of theater, auditorium upgrades, gym upgrades and selfishly I wanted some secondary switch gear upgrades which they gave me this last round. Um because I listen when we come to these meetings.
060I understand the auditorium, the theater kids have a voice just like the sports kids, right? And then the facilities guy wants a secondary switch gear just make my day happy. So I ended up getting my Christmas gift, but I didn't give everybody else something. So the goal is to continue to advocate. We'll do our best. And to answer your question without getting too long, yes, they have they're 26 years old. Got it. I just want to follow up. So, in the event of a failure, does that make the and I'm using the word inhabitable uninhabitable? I know people don't live there, but does it make it unbearable for people to be in? Is it a safety issue in the event of failure? >> You go back to open windows, which circumvents filtration, a lot of
061those things. >> Okay. Now, I don't want to totally scare everybody, but the reality of it is we're paying a king's ransom for 30 lb can of 22. You can still buy it, but you pay it's a commodity now. It's the price is soaring and we will run into problems is we we won't be able to get coils, meaning uh evaporator coils, condensing coils, we'll have problems getting metering devices, maybe compressors, they just won't support it. There will be a point where they just don't support it. We'll pay a lot of money if you can get it. So, that's what we're up against. It's good to know. Thank you. Excuse me. I I I have a question for you too actually with regards to that. Um for those systems that you're currently using, I know
062you like those rooftop units because they're kind of like plugandplay. Um and I I agree with that. That makes a lot of sense. Will uh will the upgraded systems that you're looking to, you know, down the road be able to get? Will they will they work with with the footprint and the connections that the current system has or will you have to um will you have to um impact the roof? >> That's an excellent question. to make to make those. >> Yeah, excellent question because currently you have steam heat. We know that right at the high schools. What I was hoping in talking with some engineers is that we could potentially start to wean off of the steam because steam is also very difficult to support. Nobody makes cast iron boilers the size that we
063need. We bought steel boilers. They were knockown boilers, which means they had to build them in the school on site about a month because we couldn't fit boilers. when they built the school, the original boilers went in the building they built around. With that being said, it's it's tough to score. You have steam tracks, condensate pumps, you have a you you've been in Eastern. I showed you the tunnels and the piping. So, I think the initial thought was if we we have natural gas available. If you specify hot air furnaces in your package, the package units that I like, right? If you put bypass dampers in, you have modulating duct uh outside air dampers and you put VFD variable frequency drives on the blowers. Now you can control everything and maybe grab heat from natural
064gas heat and see how much you can wean off of the steam plant and then in time over 20 25 years I would think that steam plant those steam plants will be gone. That's my my my guessing today. I won't be around in 25 years at this capacity to see it. But that's kind of I'm not gonna be around. But the point is this is this is the trend and you have to follow the trend. The package unit makes the best sense because if there's a refrigerant change, you'll buy a new unit with a new refrigerator being loaded into it. And then it's just a matter of doing a curb adaptation and making sure you have power. The other thing that I left out of the equation, Commissioner Carlson could appreciate it, is with the
065new units, sometimes there's different electrical capacities. So, we would have to go all the way back with the engineer to the switch gear, which is now mid life cycle, 20, 22, 23 years in. We'd have to that could be part of that $30 million price. So, I kind of gave you a comprehensive number. Hopefully, that number is still good when the job gets accepted. >> Okay. So, um, so we're, you know, and I know the plan right now is to currently re- roof with, with the units that we currently have. So, I just wanted to make sure that when we do the roof, when we replace those units, we're not having to dig back into the roof because that's obviously, you know, can cause issues down the road in those sites. Yeah. My my mind
066works in in a sequential order. Um, I don't necessarily the sequential order of putting mechanicals on after you do a roof. not necessarily that that just like confliction here with me internally, but uh I have to do I have to do what the money permits us to do and the moves do need to be done. So u I did express my concerns with the CIP committee and it is what it is. >> Okay. Thank you. I appreciate >> So I tried to follow I really did and I think I got most of it but I what I just want to clarify and my husband's a lot like you. He likes to do things in the right order. Is that when we put this roof on central without the mechanicals, we are going to have to
067drill into it to do mechanicals after the roof is brand new and gone. >> You will have a lot of traffic on top of after >> will that um jeopardize our warranty? >> We will have to look in at that. Uh, I can't tell you 100% with 100% certainty what the warranty language is. I will tell you we will be specifying a finer stone 90 mil rubber membrane roof. Um, we could have some issues with with warranty. Uh, if somebody drops a a sharp tool, it's not a warranty. What was the amount that it would cost versus what was approved if we did it in the order that you and my husband would want to do it? >> I we're in the $30 million range and and I can tell you where the number came
068from. So, and I can tell you it ties into Edgewood's failure to be able to do their work. We have to encumber a number. We have to give you a cost estimate, right? We don't want to overenccumber because then we take money away from education for a building project and that's not our goal here. Our goal is to get you close so we can be successful. That's I'm talking about facility department. So again, $30, $32 a square used to be a very good number back in the day when you did a roofing project. Usually had a little bit left over. We tightened our numbers. Precoid for Edgewood. And the same thing with the high schools. I went out and said instead of we did $100 a square foot for mechanicals and I believe we did
069like 35 for the roof. So we came up with like 32 or 33 million. Some of that was going to be soft cost because you need an architect to design the roof and a mechanical engineer to stamp the drawings for your your new system. So uh we're in the 30 plus million dollar range >> and we were given eight >> we're given eight we pursed out the roof only and we we came out at 8.8 million >> 8.8 million for the roof >> central high school >> with Yeah. just for one school and Nova Campus. It's just >> I appreciate you explaining it all such great detail. Thank you. >> All right, don't go anywhere. >> Oh, Eric wants you. >> You know what? Okay, we're going to bring it up on our old business,
070the LED lighting project and process to get these things going and uh yes, ready to change it up. >> Tara and I have had uh meetings with procurement office. One of the challenges we had, I know when the company came in and addressed the board a few months ago, they spoke of an open book procurement process that they used in another town or city. Unfortunately, that particular process doesn't work here in Bristol. So, with the dollar value of the project, it's a lot more than a couple hundred dollars. And because the guy did kind of look a little like me, it was, you know, he you're talking about a multi-million dollar project. So, we need to be able to vet this. The initial uh ask was could we come in and do an energy audit.
071They were at the city at the time. I had dialogue. I said, "Sure, we'll open the doors, see if we can come up with some numbers. We're all about green and reducing our carbon footprint." With that being said, they did. They came up with with their plan, but that's not just something we can award to them. It's not like they have a DAS contract or it's the one company that Eversource uses. when we open the door and we have to, we really can't use their notes. That's not fair to the other biders. So, we are working with Nancy in procurement to try to come up with a process that will work that will be fair to anybody who wants to compete for that perk. Um, and we are getting very close. I have to be
072able to satisfy her procurement we do on this side so we can get it out on the street. And that's our intention. Great. >> Thank you. No business or motion to return. >> I did have I did have something I didn't want to ask. >> Um, so I just want to um I I would like to give uh Chair Ponds an opportunity to recant her uh um her report uh last week um insinuating that the um the board of finance has um has violated the the NVR. >> We can't that they violated the MVR. Yeah, that that was your claim that they violated the MBR. Well, they did, but >> we have a letter from sleep. >> Yeah, but that Yeah, but the money is the monies that you were referring to were from 2021
0732022. The law that you were referring to was from passed in 2024. They were not grandfathered in and therefore those funds that you were referring to were not part of that. But the city needs supplemental funding to write the wrongs that they have to receive a letter from the state. Motion to adjourn. >> And so I've copy other business. >> Thank you very the statute that you're referring to. I'm not yelling. How you doing? >> Back.