001Okay. Dante's gonna do a lot of map. [Music] That did not simple. >> I I don't I didn't think I can actually like there. Right. Okay. Oh yeah. The head is after blanket. Okay, thanks. Okay, I want to remind everybody we have another meeting coming up. So, if everyone would take their seats, please Okay. Are we ready to go? We're good. Okay. Want to call to order the uh Board of Education Regular Finance Operations Committee meeting, Wednesday, June 11th. The time is 6:17. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. Okay. Next item, approval of the minutes from the regular finance committee for 514-25. >> Motion to accept. >> Seconded. Discussions. All in favor? >> I public comment. We have regular public public comment. Anybody signed up? We have Maria O'Brien. We are going to bring
002her up and she is going to enlighten us especially with light of our last special meeting. >> Believe this is on. Yes, it is. I've asked Jeff to join me because I'd like to give you a quick report on a very successful meeting that he I superintendent Iris White, um, Controller Diane Waldrin Mohammed from the city's IT department, myself and my colleague Glenn Heiser, who also is a member of the board of finance held just last week. All right, so I think that was it, right, Chad? I think that was all of us. Oh, I'm sorry. and Amy, yes, you're an important part of this. So, get ready to come up here. Uh we were convening to go over the CLA, the same accounting firm but a different team who this past year worked on
003a $20,000 project to create a common dashboard, a live platform with um the the most current data that could be used by your board and the board of finance to answer the kind of questions that were in your earlier meeting. Jeff, I'm going to have you talk about how that particular plan aligned with what you had already begun to think about in terms of your um board of board of education and Bristol public schools. >> Absolutely. Uh thank you. Good evening. Um so as we as we had met uh we had they had discussed the CLA dashboard and what had already that had already been done uh was in regard to mapping out all of the different data structures that uh the BA public schools utilizes to provide uh information and reporting uh out to
004all the the district stakeholders. Yes. Uh it ranged across 10 different data sets uh that are actively being used uh throughout the district to track uh employees, students, uh various other uh state required uh portions of information, a lot of different requirements as a whole. Um and at this point right now we found that you know a lot of the work that's being done to provide this reporting is actually manual in nature. uh people are pulling this information from different areas and they're manually compiling it, crunching numbers just to get a result to be able to provide uh results. Um, I was brought into this this conversation uh and they didn't know this, but I actually have uh some experience utilizing some tools in the Google environment that actually would allow us to um entertain
005some of these possibilities of applying these different data sets together in a more reasonable fashion to make them more user friendly to not require as much manual work to get the results that we would. So as part of that conversation um we had decided to uh look forward in attempting to prototype uh for one of our departments here in the district uh the special education department um the uh a kind of model of a dashboard that we can do entirely else to further save the district um and city uh are notable. uh this is in comparison to a a much larger amount that was quoted to us uh to have a company come out and build the product for us. They would do it quicker uh but we would do it for a much more
006cost effective much more cost effective manner and uh be able to still uh take control over it beholden to outside stakeholders pay additional. Um, so Amy and I, we were we were uh starting to plan our conversations around when you're going to be meeting to discuss what sorts of information um we will be providing in this this entry level dashboard to our first look to bring to people really get a better idea of what location update is going to do. I'll add that uh Jeff and Mohamad in terms of a collaborative IT partnership uh met for the first time around that table last week and already had be have begun to figure out what needs to happen to execute this. It will uh be an internal initiative. Amy has agreed to step up. She voluntarily
007agreed to step up. She was the only department head among the group of us there and thought that she might even have something fairly early to present. So Amy, why don't you talk a little bit about that? >> Why we love you? >> Um I think that you know as we start of course we're going to grow as we see things but um I thought it would be a perfect time with the new budget coming out July 1 to kind of start from right in the beginning. So really some of the dashboard features had each of the lines, what was allocated in their line, what was expended within those lines, and we could talk about what that really drilled down to. And I think between the two of us are like, well, that's pretty easy
008to do. Um, so I think you'll start seeing in our end of July, August report, different way that we're going to show data. So it won't just be numbers, it will be numbers along with the expenditures and how we're seeing those fluctuations throughout them. So more to come. >> More to come. And then also from the board of finance perspective, it is to look back at least I think three years. I think we we decided that three years was sufficient um past information to include but also to be able to project forward to be able to not only compare account to account, school to school, program to program. So I think it would be very helpful in terms of what you were just trying to do over the last hour in ter giving you the
009data real time as you're making real time decisions and and thinking about how to keep our public school system at the forefront of achievement with students and with teachers. So thank you. Thanks for listening. And if I could just uh one more piece on this. Um just want you to be aware that um while this is something we are aspiring to to accomplish uh I do believe that over time we can't accomplish it. Uh the people involved right now are a very small team of people who have other full-time duties and responsibilities. So uh just know that this is something that we are going to be looking forward to to accomplishing. It just may take uh some some considerable amount of time to fully hash it out and make sure that it is the product
010that we want. >> Sure. I appreciate that. Thank you. Okay. Moving on. 2025 budget update through 5315. Yes, please. That's that's fine. Come on. Uh Christristen G Antonio, I'm currently a board of ed member but I don't participate in the committee. So I'm using public comment to ask them additional questions of the committee that they could either address tonight if they know it or provide the information to the board after tonight. Um we were handed earlier um two package offering with regards to a VSIP and then a VERIP and previously we had only seen the details of the VSIP which is a voluntary separation agreement. Um so if other details could be provided to the board members surrounding the VERP package uh that would be helpful along with um if there were any issues with
011the VSIP that since it was presented either changed or had to be addressed. So if those could be um provided and I would ask that although I know we're in time constraints but we knew we were in going to have a budget issue for quite some time. So I would just like to ask if both in the committee and through the um superintendent and deputy superintendent when you provide the board with spreadsheets without you know an explanation like in written form so it can help orient us to the differences. It makes it very inefficient to get us to con come to consensus or um get through a meeting. So, I understand that maybe there was some time constraints because we didn't get this until very late and I know everybody's pulling hard on things, but
012um you know, we're we're members of the public. We're elected representatives. We don't see this every day. We need explanations. It would be a lot more helpful and whenever those could be provided, it would definitely benefit everyone involved. Thank you for taking my comments. you know, we want to try to get this information to everybody in in the best way possible. And again, you know, with a short budget workshop, we we're still going to have to hash this and we've got a budget that's that's going to go get through to the state by 6:20. So, yeah, we've got a we've got work to do. >> Yeah. So, I you know, there's some of us that would participate in additional meetings. I know not everybody can, but if that's the best forum, then that's the best
013forum. >> Okay. >> Yes, sure. >> I do just want to mention that we were all very hopeful that the special ed money from the city would come through at a level where we would not have any cuts at all. And so, we're not responding to public comments generally. We're giving feedback that this is the worst situation that we thought we could possibly be in and that we do have superintendent and the deputy superintendent for provident have come up with some additional recommendations. And so I struggle between trusting the people that we've appointed to make decisions as we have in the past and understanding that people want to feel a lot more involved. There are ways to ask questions outside of meetings and send questions in for response. So I think we cannot we can
014definitely look to that as well as other options. Uh one of nine. So I don't have total control over how this all plays out in the end. But I think no one wants to be in a situation that we're in right now and we all want to come up with the best solutions. Personally, I feel that we're in a situation where we have very transparent people in in place that would give us the answers that we need. And so any kind of questions that you have outside of the meeting, we can even make a frequently asked question and post all of those responses online for the public as well. So, however we need to get there, we'll we will get >> Yep. I uh I agree with that. And I've never been afraid to ask
015questions both in writing and in meetings. I can only ask questions when I'm given the information. Don't have the information until 7 o'clock at night. It's hard to do that. So, I'm just saying I know it's not anybody's fault. But that's why there's confusion with understanding something that we're given without a single written explanation that corresponded with it. That that wasn't helpful. Thank you. >> You know, we all have to deal with the information as we get it. will never budgets are never a fun thing to deal with. >> So through through the chair just um >> yes >> just as a uh housekeeping item there was a revised agenda that included item three which was review and approval of 2526 recommended budget reductions. I know we're on public comment right now but it looked
016like we're about to move to item five which was budget update. So I just want to make sure that we do talk about item three which was the revised agenda that was sent around I don't know if you have that in front of you, but >> I I don't have that in front of me. I have item item three is public comment. Item four is budget updates. >> Yeah, that's so there was a revised agenda that uh was sent out on >> with regarding this meeting and so the only thing that was added was item three. >> So what is item three, Susan? >> Yes. review and approval of the 25 recommended budget reductions. >> What we just talked about in the workshop is item three. >> Okay. >> The discussion. >> Okay. So, um
017there there was a lot of discuss um in the workshop and I know there's a lot of confusion right now. Um, a couple things just off the top of my head. Um, it's my understanding that the board needs to have an upload to the city in Munice by the 13th if I'm not mistaken. And I know Jody is probably still there, so she could probably >> tell us. >> Okay. >> Hi. Thank you. Um, yes. So Diane Waldron at the city has to have it uploaded to the state by 6:20. I need time to get it into Munis prior to that. Um the 19th is a holiday. >> Right. >> So it has to be this week or the very beginning of next week. >> Gotcha. And the reason I Thank you, Jody. I appreciate
018that because the reason I'm saying that is because I I just heard you know someone say more meetings, right? And I'm not saying I would disagree that perhaps another meeting would work, but we also need to give our time the ability to upload this and be accurate and not be a rust job. So, um there we received a cut spreadsheet for board of ed uh yesterday evening. The total of cuts listed on that spreadsheet are $3.1 million. Now, we received prior to that in May two other spreadsheets. One spreadsheet had reductions on various line items that totaled $4 million. The other spreadsheet included a multi-option. One would have been an additional $1 million of cuts. The other would be an additional $2 million of cuts. That gets you to the $6 million. When I look
019at the spreadsheet that we received last night, there were only a couple of items that I noted that were overlaps. And the reason I know that is because the $6 million spreadsheet or the it's the $2 million spreadsheet that had specific teachers, library media, specialists, etc. had organization codes tied to that. The spreadsheet we received last night has organization codes. So when I tie out the overlaps and I even use the highest salaries for those organization codes, that reduces the cuts we received last night to about 2.1. It's a little bit over what we need to cut as part of the final budget. The reason I'm saying this is because there's a discussion about what's in the $6 million. My thought is, well, we know what's in the $6 million if we use the template
020that was presented to us at the prior meeting. I know that there are positions on that that people don't like and there's ways to get about that. I mean, we were just told that the KTAs were not part of that because they've always been an alliance. So, I'm not even sure how it made its way onto the initial spreadsheet. But we also have a variety of vacancies that if we do not fill will make up the difference for the KTA number. So my point is I don't think it's wise that people try to start from ground zero. Not when we have a deadline to meet and not when we need to give the staff the time to meet that deadline. um of and so that's going to just lead me to the question of the
021the spreadsheet that we are sent last night who prepared the spreadsheet. >> So the spreadsheet um all of the documents spreadsheets were prepared by our former director of finance. >> Okay. And so, um, Jod was tasked with trying to review the spreadsheets that, uh, Miss Forbear had created >> to try to come to a number, uh, which I asked her for. What is the balance? What how much more do we need to cut? How much have we cut so far? How much more do we need to cut so I can inform the commissioners what we're working for, what we're working with, and what what more we need to do. So without having Miss Boy here to explain every spreadsheet and every cut she made when she made the cut is difficult. So really Jod's was
022unfortunately tasked with trying to recreate and mix and match >> right >> to figure out using program codes using all the information she had from lens files. Okay, that's helpful for us to understand and I get that we're in the process of trying to reconstruct where um proposal are. The reason I'm asking is because I want my hope is that we can lend some level of credibility to what was sent to us last night to be able to layer that in to what was proposed previously. I mean, I think there I can understand anyone who would be frustrated where it feels like it's unclear as to if what was initially proposed as a template for 6 million actually got us there because it it doesn't it's hard to see how that all unwinds. But if
023the process was that we've gone through what we've already previously done and now the spreadsheet that was delivered to us yesterday is what if if I'm understanding you correctly is what remains potentially to be cut. Is that correct? I.e. the 3.1 million that has uh all these various lines, office supplies, teacher salaries, library media specialist, heating fuel, all of that is would be in addition to that's that's what we're saying, correct? >> Yeah, Julie, I just want to she's nodding yes. >> Okay. Well, that's helpful to know. Um, and like I said, I mean, I could be wrong in suggesting there's overlap here, but when I look at column A that has or the first column, I put this into Excel so it's easier for me to see, but the first column that says or
024I have about 1 2 3 4 5 eight items that overlap. The rest I was not able to overlap between what was provided to us in the 4 million sheet and what was provided to us in um in the $2 million sheet which would have been all the BFT BAPS um positions. And so if what I'm trying to say is this seems like it is a blueprint to get us to where we need to be. Now, we have to caveat that with what was previously explained to us is part of the total $6 million included a 380 or so thousand or 20 $320,000 cut to KTA, which we're not cutting because we're keeping it where it's always been. And so we have to make up if we were to agree to the rest of these
025cuts that we received last night. All we'd have to do is find it to make up for the KTAs. And I'm just going to ask members of the committee if they're tracking with what I'm saying. You don't have to agree. Just asking if you understand. Dante, what I understand you're saying is that you can draw a map between the three documents that we received. One was a $4 million reduction. Another had a decision between a1 and $2 million reduction and then what we received tonight was that we need to make an additional $2.1 million reduction. and you have been able to compare these things and see that there could be a slight differential but that it's pretty spot up. >> Well, basically, yeah. I mean, what I would say instead of what you've concluded with,
026what I would say is of the documents we had previously, I removed about $1 million worth of identifiable overlap between all three documents. And so what we received last night, if we're saying it's an addition to what we've already cut, we received 3.1 million in cuts. of what we received last night, about a million dollars I can identify as overlap of cuts that we had already in in theory agreed to make. And so therefore, from the sheet last night, it gets you to the $2.1 million, >> which is what we've been asked to cut in addition. >> That's correct. Now, the only additional caveat to that is that in the prior $6 million, $300 and change is off the table because we're not cutting the KTAs, i.e. they were listed as a cut, but the
027funding source was Alliance and we were just told that the funding source was always alliance. So, you have now have to replace that 300 and change with additional cuts. if it wasn't already done and we don't have the explanation because we had a change in staff. >> What? I'm sorry. Was that a response? >> The question is we have to figure out if that was already moved and an additional cut was made and we don't have that information or if we need to make the additional cut. That's the question. >> Well, is that a question? cuz I thought Jod had just told us that. >> Well, Jod said it has been moved, but >> she said they were always there. >> If it's been moved, it's been cut. >> No, I'm sorry. That's not how
028I understood it. >> Can I just answer that? >> Yeah. >> The KTAs were always funded in alliance, but if you do want to, you could still cut them. That's up to the board to decide if you're cutting them. they'll be removed from the alliance grant and then you can move other general fund expenses totaling that 300,000 into alliance. I'm just saying that on all the documents that I have from prior administration, the KTAs have not been removed. They're on that spreadsheet. >> Perfect. That's exactly how I understand. >> Okay, great. Great. Thank you. The only other question I guess I would ask is and I know this is a delicate question but have we have we proposed a furlow day of any kind? that was going to be one of our um items to
029possibly discuss because we did have a workshop with BAPS. Um and one of the suggestions that came up was the idea of a furlow day. Um some of the members discussed past years when a furlow day was um instituted. Do we know how much that would save? Just curious. >> I think Jody, do you want to respond? I know you responded to our question earlier. Sorry, Jody. >> I'm so sorry. I can't remember. It was a couple of years ago. I want to say it was it was prior to COVID, I believe it was 2020, fiscal year 2020. Uh we did a furlow day. I can't remember the total and I would have to work with our payroll officer in order to calculate that and she's on vacation until Monday. So, >> I really cannot
030for the life of me remember the dollar amount. Um, I apologize. >> Gotcha. Okay, that's that's fine. I just wanted to bring it up as potential option as well. certainly want to certainly want to consider furlow day just >> as as a general purpose savings. >> I mean you yeah such as the other potential savings from retirement right wouldn't be counting toward this particular number but would lead to some savings um if it were agreed to. One of the other areas that I think we would have discussed it had we had more time um was insurance. And I'm not sure that it would have been brought up by the district, but it is something that I've been uh really mindful of as someone who has to look at all of these numbers that aren't going
031to be able to equate and figure out why we outside of the deficit uh because of being underfunded, we also are facing over $3 million of an increase in our benefits. And while I know in a lot of circumstances people say, "Well, benefits just cost us a lot." But when I look back over the trends and I ask the questions, we don't see this type of increase. We've never seen this type of increase. Um, it's a over $3 million increase in one year in the benefits for our staff at Bristol Public Schools. And looking at that number and looking at previous years to see the difference in the percentage of that increase, it's very substantial. And what I'm not sure that the public understands is that we're self-insured. And so what that means is the
032city has an insurance that they have us pay into and then they don't. they pay a secondary insurance in case of a catastrophic uh you know situation, but that pretty much it can be a for-profit situation or not. I mean, it's it's a risk that there's a risk with being self-insured. And I really wasn't very familiar with self- insurance being state employee um until I was in this position. And every year the city decides that they're going to offset our boss based on their monies that they have in reserve. And last year we were offset by $750,000. This year we've been offered 500,000. It doesn't get calculated in our minimum budget requirement, which is there's state law that mandates that a city can never pay us less to run our school district than the year
033before. Now, last year was the first time ever that we were given less than the year before, and the city received a letter saying that they couldn't do that and that they had to pay us the difference and that they had to give us the difference in the following year, which was over $3 million, coincidentally almost what the difference is in our self insurance plan this year. Um, so when I look at the over $3 million that were being increased when we've never been increased even 500,000 or a million dollars, it's really difficult to balance a budget with that type of increase without any additional benefits to our people that we're insuring. And so I put this out there only because I think there needs to be discussions between the board of education and the
034insurance committee of the board of finance to find out why our increase was so big this year in a year when we're in a deficit. Because had we not received an increase at this level or had we received level funding from the reserve, level funding would be 250,000 more, not giving us that funding means 250 comes out of our budget that was paying for the things that we need to operate our school district. So when you look at an increase of over $3 million 3.2 to and then the 250,000 that's more money than we're talking about having this budget workshop for. So it's a it's it's a significant issue to have something raised that much in a year when we're in a deficit after we were underfunded year after year to the point where the
035state had to get involved to bring us back to just level funding. I just think it's important for the board for the finance committee to really look into this insurance issue and have these conversations and ask for these meetings because it's the difference between what this budget workshop was supposed to be on plus a million and more. And if self- insurance isn't working for us and we need to go into a different insurance situation so that we don't have a $3 million increase in one year so that we can spend our resources on teachers and supports for our students. I think those are conversations that need to be had. And as much as that's probably not going to be popular, I think we need to prioritize our kids over conversations that are hard right now.
036Thank you much. Um, right now what we got before us is the uh we have a budget we have to vote on. So we don't have all the cuts in there. We are we have to have a number to bring forward a motion to bring it forward this budget as we have >> what was the request I'm sorry it was hard to hear you >> um sorry the motion to to to uh approve the budget >> um even in light of the fact that we don't have the cuts in there that we expect we do have to have a budget >> we have Are we I so >> sure >> I guess the question that I have about that is are you asking us to approve the additional proposed cuts from the spreadsheet we received
037um yesterday evening? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Then I make the motion. >> I second. >> Oh. >> Yes. >> I'll second. Okay. Discussion. So, um, the only other item I guess and maybe we haven't necessarily, uh, well, never mind. I'm fine because we're only voting on the >> I mean, I mean, we're essentially presenting we're pushing a budget that we don't have all the cuts in there yet identified, but we do have a number we need to deal with. >> Well, we have line items identified, right? We have when we have >> we are still going to fine tune those in future. >> We have to we're about to find our future. >> Yeah, our budgets are always well they're a pain in the ass plain and simple but um because we're we're again
038we're waiting on state money. We're waiting on you know whatever whatever the governor signs. So, we have a motion made and seconded further discussion. >> Yeah, I just uh I I will make uh one other discussion. I'm I'm frankly I'm I'm I'm disappointed at the lateness and the hour of getting this information. Um it's kind of discouraging for us to to go through all this data and then try to make a decision um and on such short notice. As a general rule, I don't I'm usually a no on stuff like this because I haven't had enough time to really think about it. Um the way it was presented was uh it it doesn't fill me up with a whole lot of confidence. Um and I'm I'm really discouraged. Basically, the whole process up to this
039point. Um I will vote for this just because we have to get a number through, but uh I'm not happy with with any of this. That's my comment. I agree with you. It it's it is it's disappointing to deal with. Um and again, we're between the rosace. Uh but we do have to push this through and deal with it. Deal with the situation. Uh and make the best of it. All in favor? I >> I motion passes. >> Budget update 253125. >> Hi. The fiscal year 2025 general fund balance as of May 31st was a negative 9,951492. Um as reported in the past month's general control, transportation, pupil personnel services, operations and maintenance of plant remain the most significant areas of concern. The general control budget is over by 187,732 due to increased professional services
040expenses. Transportation budget remains over budget at 262,811. Pupil services are over budget by 7,529 while operations and maintenance of plant are over by 612,264. That's mainly due to the increase in electricity, which still has a large number um encumbered out there. And I'm hopeful that once all of the bills are received, maybe some of that money can come back in and um the maintenance of plant is over by 310,214. That's because of the repairs and maintenance that you mentioned earlier. Um we're still obviously on a budget freeze. We're really approving nothing. Diane Waldrin is not approving anything. Anything that does get into her queue, I need to explain to her. Mostly it's been grant expenditures and some endofear graduation expenses. Um we have right now we have 629 purchase orders that are still open. Most
041of which are special services that will have to remain open until end of year when all of the invoices come through. Um are there any questions? >> Yeah, I do. Um what was that number of POS that were open? >> 629. And then it's mostly on sped. >> Mostly special ed and transportation. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. And some some utilities obviously. >> Okay. Um when is our uh I should know this but I can't remember allow stuff today. Um for transportation when when is our um uh our contract open? >> I believe it's next year. Yes. Yes. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Jeff Tur report. >> Okay. The cafeteria snapshots shows a surplus of 618,047 at the end of May. Uh we no longer receive any additional COVID funding which was approximately 180,000 per year.
042This past um well to date we've we served 42,388 breakfasts or that was actually that was just for the month of May. Sorry. um 92,480 lunches and 1,82026 after school snacks. >> Questions? >> Thank you very much. Appropriation transfers over 10,000. >> So last month I only made one appropriation transfer over 10,000. It was 15,000. It was for the fiscal year 2024 title 3 grant. I had to move funds from software maintenance over to um oh gosh licensing uh just because I had to align it with EGMS but it all stayed within title three that was the only one. >> Thank you. >> People personnel services report. >> Good evening. Tonight I'll be reporting on the special education enrollment count. As of June 1st, 2025, 1,850 of the 8,094 enrolled students require special education programming.
043This enrollment reflects 22.86% of the total BPS student population. As of June 1st, 129 students with disabilities required out of district programming. There were 94 students requiring special education programming at other public out ofd district schools which includes magnet schools. During the month of May 2025, 31% of the newly registered students required special education programming at the time of enrollment. None of the students required out of district programming at that time. And during the month of May, there were 39 211 and 10 911. Are there any questions about this report? >> Uh, I have a question in general. >> Yes. So, I mean, I think, as I'm sure you're aware, there were a lot of um good things that were passed this this cycle um related to special education, including um House Bill 501, which
044increased oversight and um created mechanisms to put in um or preventative measures to increase tuition rates um on districts. Um there were also some other things that were presented tonight to us including the C grant money um potential. I was curious how we arrived at the 800,000 number um for future fiscal years in anticipation. I know that the total allocated was about 30 million over two years. So is there is there a formula associated with with how we came up with that number? It was in the budget presentation tonight. So I was just curious. Right. It was in one of the legislative summaries that we received. Um I believe it's a formula. It's tied in a BCS >> and that was from uh Representative Forier. Is that the spreadsheet you're referring to? >> I believe
045so. Okay. I think that's where I got the third year because I think that's what I quoted last week at the board. >> So that would be represented for you. And then there's also the special education I think it's innovation grant which is about reducing outplacement which they allocated about $9.9 million. So it just there's there's a bunch of things I think we can think about as we look to the future. I'm sure there's plenty of our programs that qualify for these grants. Um I also know that there's the child care trust fund that was created which is about $300 million for um early childhood education preschool. So just things to think about as we move forward. I know that we, you know, I feel that we spend a lot of time focusing negative attention
046on uh people personnel services due to cost overruns, but we also um don't spend as much time highlighting the fact that we have creative innovative programs to reduce outplacement and that we have talked about over and over in this committee. um at the very least that if we work toward investing in our people personnel services while may be costly initially there's a lot of long-term benefit from that and I think many of the grants that were passed this particular session reflect that type of thinking and so it's just things for us to think about as we go forward um I know I won't be on the board but it definitely is something um that you know I think we've seen over time be a pain point that really can be um not a pain point
047but something to showcase >> you through the chair can I just share a few more details in addition to the numbers um that I shared today you know you'll see in the special education uh yearly snapshot that each June were at the highest um in terms of uh special education identification but then also out of district and the magnet schools as well you'll see that number drastically decrease increase. Um, I have shared that over the last 5 years, however, from a statistical standpoint, we've really stayed fairly stagnant. The costs really are fluctuating between um the tuition for out of district schools. I do have to say that I in many ways like that the state is getting involved in kind of putting tier systems in place. Um I will share like as a district uh
048inhouse we have added to our contracts that no facility can charge us anything without another contract and agreement by the district. So regardless of if the state takes care of that we have a secondary fee piece and every contract that has come through um I will not sign unless it has that statement in. We also have started to prioritize the district the out of district programs that we want to um really focus on. So, we're always about making sure students get the services that they need. But the difference between a facility that costs $40,000 and one that costs $250,000, we're really looking at, you know, if the child can get what they need at the $40,000 placement, well, that's a priority site. So, we really started to categorize different facilities, making sure that students are
049still getting what they need. Um and really kind of saying to out of districts, well, unfortunately, you're not going to be one of our preferred locations because of some of these costs. Um and then lastly, we've really started to scrutinize the eligibility around services. So, for example, some out of districts will say, well, every student that comes here requires this service, this service, and this. And we're kind of saying, well, hold on a second. IDA doesn't say every child gets every service. Says what does that child need? That's why it's individualized. So I have to give kudos to Miss Decker who is our new out of district coordinator, also Miss Cassen who brings students home every year. Um they've really really spent a lot of time going through line items and um attempting to reduce
050the cost. So I just wanted to share that you may see more impact as some of these uh legislative changes come to fruition. Um but nothing else. Just wanted to say a few. Okay. >> Okay. Student activity accounts report. Uh, I'll start with Bristol Central. Bristol Central Athletics began the year with 35,7629 and 30,47906 in expenditures and 36,66684, leaving them with a May balance, May 31st balance of 41,9507. The central student activity, the school account began the year with 141,74738. They had 147,199 and 19986 in expenditures and 192,61149 in receipts, leaving them an ending balance of 1871 15901. Bristol Eastern Athletics started the year with 2,38304. They had 27,62633 in expenditures and 40 43,55543 in receipts leaving them with an ending balance of 18,31214. And the Bristol Eastern School account began the year with 147,1189.
051They had 172,18875 in expenditures and 177,4958 in receipts leaving them with an ending balance of 152 33272. Questions >> questions? Thank you. >> All right. Item number nine, finance and operation committee acting as building committee. A recommended for approval. Student accident insurance. >> Is it on? >> Um, so the first one, student accident insurance. This insurance is offered to students that participate in sports and all non-sport extracurricular activities. This plan is different from the plan that we've had in the past because this specific plan includes a mandatory coverage which means that all of our students are covered in the student accident insurance that we had previously. There would be a volunteer option for the parents to purchase at a cost. Um, so this new one that we're looking at this year actually does cover all
052of our students, whether it be sports, extracurricular, or just being in school, recess, anything they like. Um, 100% during those school hours. Any question? >> Questions? Motion to approve. I moved >> made >> seconded discussion. >> Favor I >> I passes recommended for approval design services for BCHS push box. >> So as you're all aware we received a $50,000 donation that we used towards the press box at Crystal Central. The operations committee will be serving as the um as the building committee for this project. The RFP was sent out for the extra architectural engineering services relative to the project in April. Three bids were received that range from 36850 to just under $175,000. After reviewing the qualifications and the proposals, it's recommended by the director of of athletics, the purchasing agent, and myself to engage
053with Amara Associates for these design services in the amount of $36,8 discussion. All in favor? I >> I passes recommended for approval design services for video surveillance system. >> So again the same situation. This committee will be the acting building committee for this video surveillance system upgrades at all of our schools. The purchasing department received four bids for the design services relative to this project. The bids ranged from $81,168 to $210,000. The two firms with the lowest bids were interviewed and it is recommended after the interviews with the two from the director of security the purchasing agent and myself to engage with good harbor tech mark for the services in the amount of 81,000 >> I'll second but I do have >> what was the uh what was the winning contract the name of the
054company and the amount um it was good harbor tech mark in the amount of $81,168 that they previously worked for our system. >> They actually are the ones who did all of our exterior cameras no 2019 was um and so they were already familiar with our schools and they didn't have to work with so >> which would that explain why they were able to come in because they already had experience. I think that that is why because part of the RFP was inclusive of the needs assessment and it's the same condition. So they were already familiar with what we had in our school. So it made it easier for them to come down. >> Thank you very much. >> In favor I >> I chair votes I motion passes. Item number 10 hold business. Item
055number 11 new business. With no further business, this meeting is adjourned.