001e e e our audio they all right Al it of course thank you all right so once again good evening and with that we do not have a revision to the agenda order uh and we now will receive the superintendent's presentation where we will have presentation of the finalist for the West Hartford board of education teacher of the year Mr vies thank you very much mam chairperson um and it is truly an honor during this uh Teacher Appreciation Week to again have our annual recognition of our teacher of the year finalists um this is a peer-driven program by our teacher of the year committee I'm very grateful uh to our committee chairpersons and all of those that are involved um and it's a rigorous process and it and it serves to recognize the the outstanding
002work that is ongoing in our classrooms every day and and this year is no different than any other in terms of the exceptional caliber of the finalists that we have representing our schools um given that the actual teacher of the year will not be announced until much later um in the school year and that is kept uh tight Secret by our teacher the year committee uh I am going to recognize these finalists in alphabetical order by last name um and so it is my distinct pleasure to begin with Miss Jill Daly of Duffy Elementary School quick round the thank you Jill pleas sit here Jill is completing her 29th year and I'm going to embarrass as best I can each each person here Jill is completing her 29th year in education her 23rd with West
003Harford Public Schools where she has served with distinction as a library a specialist at Elementary Jill is a graduate of St Joseph University in West Harford where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in American studies and a MERS in education she's a 2001 graduate of the alternate root certification LMS certification program sponsored by Aces she is extremely active in the school in the larger educational Community Jill has hosted a school author visit to Duffy every year since 2001 except for the 2020 pandemic and I'll give you a pass on that one she serves and has served over a period of more than a decade on School Technology enrichment committees she was a presenter and a host site facilitator for the American Association of school libraries National Conference supporting 53 visiting teachers and administrators she was
004a 2014 and 2015 Ronald McDonald House Charities Local Hero award recipient a 2014 Connecticut Association of schools exemplary teacher finalist she is a published author with books titled gnomes and unknowns poems of hidden creatures and friends and anemones ocean poems for children Jill's colleagues remarked about her dedicated service to over 500 students weekly an ability to inspire a love of reading while developing literacy technology and digital citizenship skills Jill builds community and develops a sense of belonging by creating a library space that serves as the Hub of the Duffy Community she partners with 50 parent caregivers who volunteer weekly to assist their child's class with Library tasks and she collaborates with specials and classroom teachers to make cross-curricular connections that enrich our students lives she builds Community Partnerships by establishing and maintaining little free libraries
005and Book Fairs Jill is a committed and passionate library media specialist um and has created that feeling as a pervasive one throughout the school congratulations on 2023 24 teacher of the year finalist thank you say our library media Pera Paulie and Rosel is here who's dedicated to the library every single [Applause] day may I have Kim [Applause] fine congratulations Kim also of Duffy Elementary School Duffy's two for two for three here this year uh Kim's resume boasts 30 years of teaching experience having been with West Harford public school since 2004 uh she earned her Duffy dragon scales in 2013 with the bulk of that time spent um since that time spent within fifth grade Kim has served on scores of committee to include School Improvement Connecticut team mentoring curriculum writing and artists and residence programming
006she is a leader in her school and the district for efforts such as responsive classroom as well as new teacher training Kim demonstrates genuine impact beyond the classroom through her participation in state curriculum committees to include the smarter balanced procurement study and the math review team for bias and sensitivity she has served as a teacher leader in the district with six years as a curriculum specialist and scores of professional development leadership experience Kim's colleagues remarked about her care and deep understanding of the complexities of that which is the fifth grade student I'll leave it there Kim has a genuine passion for helping them succeed both at Duffy and in their transition to middle school she develops strong and meaningful family Partnerships and put systems in place to celebrate her students successes both big and small
007she not only imparts knowledge but instills a love of learning that will stay with her students for a lifetime Kim congratulations on being the 2324 teacher of the year [Applause] finalist and third in alphabetical or Nora McHugh [Applause] congratulations Nora has 14 years of experience as a secondary science teacher having started in the district at Hall High and recently moving to Connor Norah is a well-respected teacher in her Department having earned her Bachelor's of Science and animal science from the University of Connecticut and a master's in teaching from Central Connecticut State University she has worked as an Adjunct professor of chemistry at Goodwin University and supervised and invalu valuated Science teaching candidates while on staff with the alternate route to certification program Norah is involved beyond the classroom as a link crew advisor and a
008Relay for Life advisor Norah demonstrates interests and talents Outside The Sciences having served as a pops and Jazz guest choreographer in in addition she claims Service as a North American Irish dance teacher scholarship program chairperson awarding over $40,000 to deserving dance students for college that I did not see coming I like giving away other people's money for good causes and she is an expert at Irish step dance needless to say noris colleagues remark that she shines as both a remarkable collaborator and educator she inspires students to engage in the wonders of science through Dynamic and Hands-On activities that hone skills and scientific thinking Norah always goes the extra mile supporting students after school through special programs such as chem for kids a high school elementary partnership and mentorship experience nor is deep knowledge of science
009content and pedagogy coupled with her unyielding commitment to students has made a measurable impact on her students by way of achievement in the development of self-confidence and a love for learning Nora thank you and congratulations on being the 24 23 24 teacher of the year [Applause] finalist all right my oh my well certainly hearing the description of the finalist can see why you made it thus far this far and so once again want to say thank you so very much Jill Kim and yes lights Jill Kim and Nora for all that you do and all that you're doing and yes this is teacher appreciation week but we know that we appreciate all that you do and all teachers in the district year round so thank you once again let's please collectively give a round of
010applause for our [Applause] finalists and as we move along we now will move to public Communications this is where we're able to hear from you your thoughts your question your suggestions and your concerns each individual is permitted 3 minutes to speak we ask you to please go to the podium and sh your name and your town of residence as you are speaking please be mindful of Charlotte who will hold up a yellow card when 1 minute is remaining in your time and when your time has expired you will see a red card and we ask for you please to respectfully take your seat at that time with this being the first meeting of the month we are receiving comments on both agenda and non-agenda items however so we all are kept a breast of what
011the agenda items for this evening are they include recommended 2024 2025 budget revisions Personnel report and approval of financial report period ending March 31st 2024 and so we have a list here one for those on agenda items and those on General comments there were no names listed here for those speaking on agenda items however I will ask those in the audience is there anyone who cares to speak on an agenda item I'll ask once again all right and we'll move now to to those speaking on General comments or non-agenda items and I will go based on the order of the list here we have Tali kest and I will apologize in advance if I mispronounce anyone's name but we have Tali please and while you come Tali this is for you and all of those
012giving public comments please also be mindful that we as a board are attentively listening to all comments that are being made however it is policy that we do not respond to comments while they're being made thank you you did did say my name correctly so thank very few do so um my name is tally kest and I live in West Hartford um good evening and thank you for this opportunity to say a few words my name is t cast as you heard and I'm here tonight as a concerned Jewish parent of three children and resident of West Hartford and I'm also a member of the Grassroots Jewish women's group of Connecticut I wanted to reiterate the need for inclusion of education on anti-Semitism both in its unfortunately current and historic form in our school curriculum
013we are asking for a systemic approach to incorporating it in the curriculum as well as to having visual posters or Graphics against anti-Semitism similar to what has been done for example for the lgbtq and black communities Barry Bari Weiss said in her state of world jury that where Freedom flourishes so do Jewish people and that we are only as free as our ideas so with all of these outside influences from Iran to radicalize our college campuses we need to ensure that we teach tolerance and that we teach about anti-Semitism in the curriculum it is imperative that Jews are recognized as the ethnic religious minority that we are the current levels of anti-Semitism are unprecedented and surely you have seen what the Jewish Community is facing across the United States and how we are having security
014at all of our events even locally I want to thank you in advance for being an ally to the Jewish community and for standing up against anti-Semitism thank you thank you next we have Rael Garcia [Music] Morales Raquel sorry um I apologize in advance I got a lot of skills from whps but public speaking is not one of them um okay I am here as a a mother a woman of color of sapharic Jewish and lentine ancestry because I find myself increasingly um worried about the divisiveness in our community that could affect our schools and I would like to provide the board with a point of view um that they might not have heard yet um I want to start off with one of the poignant memories I have of my time in whps and
015the pedagogy that I loved and impacted me as a student um during my four years at conard I had two different teachers teach us about uh the horror of genocide and the consequences of nationalism through a viewing of life is beautiful and then assigning us ordinary men to read this movie and book forced us students to be introspective and ask you know what does love self-sacrifice and solidarity look like beyond the boundary of faith and how could I or people I know become radicalized to hate their neighbors this curriculum challenged us it made us itical thinkers and it impressed upon us that there is no such thing as a one-sided narrative there also growing pains in my time as the school system in the 90s and 2000s um a few years into my time at
016Cedric Middle School my classmates and I walked in one morning to some of our lockers being covered in multiple multiple black swas in this instance I think our school responded beautifully they brought in representatives from the paperclip project Who fostered real conversations on the dangerous uh dangerous results of nationalism and a narrative of raal racial or ethnic superiority and that was how West Hartford lived up to um its amazing reputation of teaching us through exposure to other perspectives and thinking it also did this with a variety of other subject and other peoples knowing letting us know that our town was diverse I understand the pain and fear behind uh the current climate right now and I do understand the response of some parents for a request on anti-Semitism education I do not however sympathize or
017agree with the inclusion of a curriculum that would push a narrative of the Congressional definition of anti-semitism which bars criticism of the actions of Israel or its military this definition of anti-semitism labels some of us Jews as anti-semites ourselves because we do not interpret the tenants of Judaism that we were raised with to be synonymous with super our superiority to other peoples my experiences in school here are what compelled me to come tonight um to beseech the board not to fall into a trap where we only show one side of a narrative West Harford has an amazing reputation as a school that includes diverse viewpoints and I wish we will continue to do that so that not only Jewish students but arab-american students can feel included in their curriculum and see themselves well represented in
018this town thank you thank you and pardon me I don't want to assume your town of residence your town of thank you okay yes thank you next we have Stephanie Levine hi there uh my name is Stephanie LaVine and I live in West Hartford um first I just want to say Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to all the teachers here and for all of them who work so hard in our Public Schools um I'm also um Jewish incidentally um but I am here because I'm concerned um about uh potential curriculums related to diversity that are exclusive and only show you know one side of various narratives um I've heard a lot of divisiveness among community members and I'm really concerned that there might be community members who want Public School our Public School curriculum to reflect
019um their bigotry and specific speically islamophobic anti-arab and anti-palestinian racism um so I do you know urge you to um you know approach the rise in anti-Semitism as well as the rise of islamophobia and you know all other systems of Oppression which I think are linked um you know when making any additions U or changes to the curriculum um I urge you all to ensure the curriculums in line with the West har for public school's vision for equity and anti-racism which includes a solemn promise to identify and dismantle all elements of systemic racism and historical inequities um thank you thank you next we have Alexander last initial I my name is Alex Ingram uh I live uh right off of Maple Street here in West Hartford um I am a teacher uh I'm kind of
020tired but uh so happy Teacher Appreciation Week um I've been a teacher for a decade uh more than a decade actually uh and I am proud to say that I have been a public school teacher my entire career um I have taught seventh grade civics through three presidential elections uh I have uh uh persevered through a pandemic and yes even after gy class when the air conditioner goes out um I have also taught at the college level uh and um now currently teach for crack um the air conditioning comment might be a little bit unusual uh you guys don't have air a lot of air conditioning up here I'm from Florida uh my uh while in Florida I witnessed a wave of book bands cowed as uh parental rights um this ended up culminating in
021two specific laws that gained national attention the uh so-called don't say gay law which forcefully required teachers to out students to their parents regardless of what their home situation would be potentially resulting in violence or death uh the second uh was the so-called stop woke act which was particularly problematic as I not only taught sth grade civics but I also taught a 10th grade black history course which was therefore made illegal under that uh law uh these laws are antithetical to proper pedagogy and the total opposite of what I think we can agree a classroom ought to look like warm opening welcome one where a child can flourish I often refer to my classroom my Civic course as an incubator for good Democratic citizens uh and people often ask me how did you teach through
022the presidential elections and the answer is the the nice thing about teaching Civics is that you teach the Constitution and nice thing about the Constitution is we don't change it that often uh so of the 27 times we've changed it the first one in my opinion was probably the best um the first amendment is uh uh incredible it is a work of art and so uh I have a great deal of reverence for the Constitution uh and it is one of the things that drives my uh love and joy of teaching uh my Jewish plus family and I moved up here as for lack of a better word political refugees from Florida um I helped my colleagues empty their bookshelves of wonderful literature that um expands the world from their for their students uh and
023uh my own classroom course was subsequently cancelled uh and and replaced with a course significantly uh different which was history of the Vietnam War a great course but uh not something that I was particularly uh Adept at um I I want to be careful on this I don't want to argue that there's a potential for a slip slope here what I do want to make you aware of is that um excuse me I'm so sorry no please finish your sentence please finish um I do want to uh be careful of what you'll likely hear is slippery slope arguments um books are good that's up thank you next we have Sasha Kaufman hi good evening um my name is Sasha calman I live on troutbrook drive here in West Hartford and um I am a uh
024Jewish resident and I wanted to um follow my other colleagues and um comment on any you know um expansion in terms of uh curriculum um I just moved here not too long ago and um me and my my partner hope to um foster adopt older children very soon and um one of the reasons why we moved here is we had heard such great things about the West Hartford school district and um I just wanted to say as a Jewish resident that I just hope it would be um fair and balanced yes there has been a rise in anti-Semitism but there also has been a rise in islamophobia um and as another speaker said too I would encourage to um keep a a diverse perspective in terms of um the definition of anti-semitism um so I
025appreciate you um taking the time to hear my public comment and um thank you again thank you is there anyone else who would like to make a public comment I'll ask once again okay we will pause on public Communications now moving to non-staff Communications and reports this where we're able to hear from our student Representatives what's happening in our high schools so Liam please share what's going on at Hall yes so early May is a busy time at Hall uh we have just begun our AP exams and they will run through next week uh we will also be having one last blackbox show uh which will is The Importance of Being Earnest Junior Prom will be this Saturday at the aquaf club in Southerton uh student government elections occurred last week uh where the executive
026board members were elected and also the next year's Board of bed member was elected so you guys will have the pleasure of meeting Sarah granquist next year um there was an assembly last Monday where Mr zun alongside town and local officials uh addressed hate crimes how to report them and also how to how to identify them uh there was the National Honor Society and National Honor Society for World Language induction ceremonies which occurred last week where students attended to ceremony in the auditorium to be inducted uh the black student union had their second black cultural night last week there was also a unified theater show at Connor uh which was May 2nd and 3rd and also law day occurred last week where students went to tour the Connecticut Supreme Court after meeting with a panel
027of Attorneys at Shipman goodwi and finally there were uh Futures in Manu there was a Futures in manufacturing career fair last week alongside a construction career day thank you thank you Maya lot is going on thank you so much and we know lamb that your first and primary responsibility is to be a student so if you need to depart early we certainly welcome and support that thank you and we assume and know that wonderful things are happening at Connor as well so we look forward to that update the next time and as we continue continue on to unfinished business which we do not have any of we now will move on to new business where we have a recommended 2024 2025 budget revision and the recommendation is that the Board of Education adopt a revised
0282024 2025 budget of I'm just going to say the numbers 2000 83 856 by making the following reduction to the previously adopted 2024 2025 board of education budget and the recommendation is to reduce the appropriation for health insurance in the amount of $555,500 and so we will pass the Baton to our superintendent and thank you so much Liz for being here as well you thank you very much Laura so um as you said uh the Town Council did uh vote to reduce the Board of Education recommended budget by a total of 555,000 um and they've improved they've approved a sum of $2,838 156 now despite this cut the Town Council spoke in in great support of the education budget overall uh the programming uh for our schools um and therefore in order to achieve this
029cut what what I am recommending is that we address it through a reduction to our appropriation to our risk management fund which is primarily used to uh support retiree health insurance um and uh meet those obligations so uh as you may know um years ago we had uh when we were self-insured we had money that was being put aside for retire healthy or OPB other post employment benefit post employment benefits so years the Board of Education and the town have both been contributing to that uh OPB trust but rather than move all of our money uh that we had previously set aside uh we have a step down plan through a risk management fund uh that is managed and tracked at the Town level and uh We've historically contributed um a portion of uh the
030previous Reserve that we had uh garnered uh in order to offset and and be able to control uh costs within our board of education budget so what we would seek to do is simply reduce uh the amount of our Board of Education contribution by that $555,000 and uh and make that up through a contribution in kind from the reserve fund uh that will guarantee all of uh the programming and the efforts that uh we we saw great support for throughout the public hearing process are able to be continued it would be inine line with um recommendations that we have received from the Town Council and I think also in keeping with the best interest of the operation of the schools so uh pending your questions I I have my very esteemed colleague Liz who can
031uh answer with with much greater Acuity on some of these uh matters but uh we're prepared to answer any questions thank you before doing so I will formally propose the motion and so with that seeking a motion that the Board of Education adopt a revised 2024 2025 budget of $2,838 56 by making the following reduction to the previously adopted 2024 2025 board of education budget again with reducing the appropriation for health insurance the amount of $555,500 is there a motion so moved thank you Shannon is there a second second thank you Jason discussion so yes please uh teammates here we are uh we know that we were able to before adopt a proposed budget and with that it went to the Town Council we're so thankful collectively for their support of our efforts as a
032board they very much do value what we do value what our teachers do value the education of our students and we know that there is a recommendation to make a reduction in the dollar amount however the line item that is solely within our perview and so that what brings us here so questions you may have pardon me Jason I was just okay questions we may have Jason uh so I just want to make sure just by the way the sounds and I'm going to ask a question I know the answer to but I think it's important to to have the discussion this reduction is not going to lead to a reduction and any benefits for for any teachers or retired teachers correct you are correct thank you Ethan so I guess this a continuation of
033my emails oh Sor it's gonna hit me in the face um The Reserve fund I've been on the board now three years and the first I've heard of The Reserve fund that I can remember in the in the budget discussions is the intent and and I realize this is coming from the Town Council not from you guys but is the intent to ex eventually use that money over a certain period of time um my concern is that anytime you have a reserve as the town found out with this pension fund if you overspend it you have a problem so I'm just trying to understand because it came out of nowhere and it's a significant amount of money so there is a overall plan um to utilize the reserve fund that we have which again was
034uh funded through our contributions basically opep contributions prior to the establishment of the trust fund by the town um to use that over uh an additional 8 to 10 year period or significant you know a number of years again to offset so this would simply in this given year um increase the amount of of contribution from the reserve fund that we would use but we have been using that fund for the last 10 years with with the expectation that over over the long term that all of that money would be expended I you could probably add to that no I I think that really um summarizes it and so we will be eventually spending the entire amount down because we will instead be accumulating funds in the opep trust which is the recommended method um
035from our governmental Accounting Standards Board to fund these future benefits how just question how much has that fund been utilized say the last three years uh so uh I think that amount was in Paul's email the reserve uh reached a high of 15.7 million at the end of 2021 and so uh we have used approximately about 5 million at this point and go ahead and I was just going to say in in uh past budgets it has been mentioned that we uh have a health appropriation and that the amount that is being charged to the general fund has been offset by use of the retiring Health Reserve so that has been disclosed in previous budgets particularly in the Years you may recall that um we joined the state partnership plan which is a fully insured
036plan whereas prior to that we were self-insured for our health insurance uh that plan has been very beneficial for us and we had very low increases for many years or I guess really for the first three years of that plan but then we had premium increases of 10% for the state partnership plan for two years in a row and in order to mitigate the impact of that on the general fund we talked about in the budget that we would be use Excuse me using some of our sounds like we've been using a million dollars a year out of the fund to reduce the cost of Health it's been a little bit more than that so um I had proposed originally or I guess Paul had proposed that we would use 1.5 million in the upcoming
037year and this will have us use two million okay So eventually we're going to get to a point where it is going to have we're going to have to start making up the difference yes and in fact that's the plan it's a step down methodology so we're required to make this contribution but we're trying to minimize and miate the impact on the general fund and our taxpayers so as our contribution is increasing we are using um this so you know if we're using 2 million this year and then next year we're using 1.6 I'm just making up numbers but 1.6 and then 1.2 by the time the reserve is finally used we will have very gradually uh stepped up to a point where we can make our entire required contribution from the general fund okay
038I'm good for now any other questions or comments I will oh please so in this year's budget 1.5 was already listed as a contribution and we are now adding $555,500 because of the um Town Council saying we had to cut by that much essentially yeah we our total contribution to the opep trust for the year was in and around 2 million we were going to fund one and a half million of that through the use of the reserves and only about a half a million in that through the general fund with this change uh from the Town Council will fund the full 2 million from the healthcare reserves and and uh and step that appropriation from the general fund back other questions or comments I will say I appreciate very much the proposal and and
039the discussion and I think that we know collectively as our board that we certainly advocate for the needs of our students and families and thank you so much for doing that and and we know the Town Council has their role of what they are to advocate for and and very much appreciate uh that the community recognizes that it takes many to help support this Budget on a state level as well and so we know that there are delegation is advocating in that regard um to support a compensation that we very much need to support our budget and that is not just a Hear and Now piece that is something down the road so these conversations will continue but we need all hands on deck to support our our budget and so we welcome all all
040contributions in that regard but with respect to where we are right now we do have this motion on the floor are there other questions or comments yes scale um yeah I just wanted to make one comment I I had brought this up when we had the budget discussions as well um and you know it may be that I not entirely clear what how this is going to work but to me this this you know like we're not the town the town Council came and said that we had to reduce the budget by 5 500,000 555,000 um and instead of that we're not really reducing anything we're just sort of pulling the money out of a different account and I I don't really see how in the long term I mean I understand how it would
041work for this year but I I don't really see in the long term how um you know it seems to me like we're we're essentially like kicking the can down the road um because we're not really making Cuts we're just kind trying to pull it out of a different account which eventually we're going to deplete as well so so to you know I in some regard I understand your uh your criticism you know constructive criticism and concern that that comes from that um you know I was able to uh to be present for the Town Council uh conversations where they looked at the overall Town budget um and that was that was really um kind of the the bulk of the conversation that they had collectively as well that uh there were some necessary cuts
042that they were seeking to to make overall in order to reduce the tax burden um on the community but at the same time they weren't necessarily um uh looking for any reduction in Services uh whether that was on the town side or the board side um and they felt that you know they were they were kind of um between this Rock in this hard place where they're expecting a fair amount of additional Revenue that's going to come in next year as as a significant number of building projects are finalized and and that supports the revenue stream so um realistically I think it was the majority if not all of some of the cuts that were proposed at the Town Council those that lived within the town um you know they were looking to support with
043uh whether that be different reserves or some um Advanced spending with some with some excess that the Surplus dollars that they had available to them we don't have that luxury um you know uh any surplus that we have at the end of the year uh we turn over to the town um but but this this uh funding source of the healthc Care Reserve is something that's been part of our budgeting strategy and something that we have used for a 10year period so it it really is uh money that separate from our general fund so it does achieve the one-year goal um and uh and is something you know aligned with our long-term strategy to reduce an a large overall impact of of that particular item you know healthare um healthcare for our retirees opep contributions
044to be able to kind of offset that and have and have a means by which to utilize funds that we've already um accumulated through through previous years um general fund contributions in in order to kind of preserve and protect where we are today so um it it will not impede our ability next year you know we will we will move forward um I think as Liz described we don't necessarily have immediate numbers but we've been in that neighborhood of utilizing about a million and a half of the reserve Fund in a given year and and looking at half anywhere from half a million to perhaps three4 of a million of a contribution from the general fund and we'll we'll continueing that strategy until such time that the the reserve itself is um is fully expensed
045and and the general fund can fully support the future opep trust contributions Ethan so this is more a comment than a question so and I appreciate all you guys are doing and I'm frustrated with the Town Council not that they care um just in the last year we went through dealing with Esser funds going away and it caused difficulty when we tried to look at the budget and try and keep it within reason um the town and this predates us off but recently or a couple years ago went out and sold I think it was like 180 million but I could be off but it was significant amount of bonds because they did not put enough reserves into their pension fund my fear is we are deleting a reserve which we're not you know it's
046just this is the wrong way to do it I would prefer this is just my opinion is we added three um Elementary counselor positions at the when we voted on the bo budget would like to reverse that and put the rest into the the reserve just because I just I'm very uncomfortable dipping into reserves without a real plan or to me what is a real plan it's just unhealthy financially so if I I may thank you appreciate what you appreciate the thoughts that have been shared and I think what a couple of thoughts one is that I think with what's been proposed in terms of how to modify the budget it's with intentionality of not trying to have an impact in the classroom um with the students and so I think that is one thing
047to consider and I also want um to to recognize a pain point and and please correct me if I'm wrong a pain point that we continue to experience is not being reimbursed at the amount that we were intended to be ined being reimbursed by by the state um this year was just 67% ideally it would be 100% it should be 85% we were hoping for 75% but it was 67% that's a significant amount and that has impacted our budget so want to make sure that we are aligning the challenges we're facing where they're manifesting from in areas that are within our purview we certainly are entitled to our thoughts and our views I I want to respect the Town Council and their purview and their Lane um just as they respect our purview in our
048lane and what we are to speak on and so I think that this we knew this was going to be a challenging uh budget season but we collectively wanted to approach it in a way of prioritizing the needs of our students and and our families and so with that with the motion on the floor it is to make use of what is available within the reserve and therefore that does preserve Integrity for what we voted on with the individual motions within the classroom but nonetheless this is our time for discussion and so if there are other thoughts or questions please do share yes so Ethan um you didn't recall that this was being stepped down for the past 10 years would you have objected two years ago if you knew it was being stepped down
049two years ago if it was being accelerated yes if the acceleration is if there was a plan it's just from a financial world that I've experienced you you don't want to underfund their various reserves or various like the pension fund the town was down to like 30% of the value of the pensions and it put itself in a predicament the pension board anymore so I have no idea what's going on in the last couple years but it was something that you did as a last resort I believe because they wouldn't it just reserves you want to you want to respect so I don't know if I could just make one comment I just don't want anyone to walk away with the idea that we are taking money out of this res reserve and using it
050for any kind of operating expense it is staying as a reserve but it will now be a reserve in the opep trust was that which is actually the preferred method of accounting for and saving for these obligations so the uh governmental Accounting Standards Board issued Gaz number 75 several years ago and it talked about the best way to measure and then to save funds and accumulate the necessary resources to meet opep obligations the town adopted um that gby set up the opep trust and has continued to make their annual uh contribution called an ADC an actu actuarially determined employer contribution which is hard to say and that's why we call it ADC um each year and so you know by implementing uh that gasby uh there's certainly Financial impact of that to make sure that
051we're accumulating enough resources because we already had resources for this purpose we're leveraging those to meet our financial obligation so I just don't want anyone to think that we're using a reserve for a purpose that was not intended in fact we're using that and putting it in a trust account which is a more appropriate and a safer way to um save for these obligations so I I just don't want anyone to think that I want to piggyback on that I want to thank you for that because it this this I think is sometimes uh is not necessarily here at the board table but for anyone listening at home um I don't I also want that confusion that essentially what what we're talking about the opep trust that's our our new form of reserve for reti
052um benefits and we have been consistently funding that and what we're talking about is we had an old form of um which was not a trust fund which was a reserve fund from which um you know there was a change in the recommendation as Liz more um very much more expertly described than than I'll be able to um but we had that old money sitting there in this old reserve and rather again rather than take all the money that was in the old reserve and just deposit it into the new account um we said we would hold that money in reserve and we would make incremental step down contributions to the new Reserve fund to the opep trust so we are fully funding our our um Actuarial obligation to this to this new Reserve fund
053we're just we're just taking a a greater share of it from the from the older uh money that had already been set aside for exactly the same purpose so so I guess where I see the Gap right now is um this is all the first I knew about the or this was reading the email that came out about a week ago and then just going back and forth a little um it would have probably been helpful if we gone through this in more detail and not on this tonight so I I mean I feel like it's all new stuff I like to understand it especially if I'm voting for it that's just me Jason so since this was a fund that we were going to be drawing down anyways incrementally stepping down do you have
054any idea of what the impact of us doing you know a bigger contribution this year or or not making as big contribution this year out of the general fund is going to be on those next incremental steps I'm sorry can you say that again so are you looking at the impact on the general fund or the impact on the reserve fund uh so on what we would be appropriating out of the general fund each year the idea is each year the general fund is going to be taking on a little bit more of that burden correct exactly exactly so um I would expect that next year the general fund will take on 500,000 more and then each year going forward it will take on an additional 100,000 and over the course of 7 years um
055our Reserve fund will then be fully depleted and we will be making our full opep contri bution out of the general fund were we to not use this Reserve um so for example next year our budget would need to increase $2 million solely to meet this obligation which is why we're trying to do a a long-term Financial look at it uh really do a step down and be financially responsible about that did that answer your question yes so and overall this is a reserve fund that's ultimately meant to be spent it is and it it was originally saved for this purpose the intent of the use of the fund it is still going to retire health and to meet the obligations of our collective bargaining agreements Claire um in a year where we're losing so
056much um Sr funding and we have been using federal funds to deal with the impact of covid and the learning loss and how to support the kids and we have cut every single year because of the federal funding and I'm in full support of using These funds to handle the heavy impact that we have financially on this year's budget with the loss of the covid funds other comments um I just have one comment too I I see the whole situation which I might have already said tonight but I'll say it one more time as sort of an unsustainable situation I brought that up when we talked about the budget I see this as just sort of one more kind of chain in the length where it just we're not really we're not really making decisions
057that are going to let us be sustainable going forward and one of the things that um Lorna brought up about um I mean there are many there are many aspects to this but one thing that Lura brought up about um you know us not getting the funding that we're supposed to be getting from the state and and some of the other things that are sort of obviously impacting big time our our budget um I feel like we should be pushing hard and and I'm not sure exactly what the venue to do that is uh but those are the places where I think we could we could make this budget more sustainable going forward instead of trying to sort of Band-Aid it by taking you know money out of a fund that wasn't exactly really meant
058to use that for this and we're we're kind of like band-aiding it together um so just my general um impression is that going forward we have to look at the sustainability of this budget in general it went up tremendously this year um and you know there's really no end in sight particularly if we're not getting funding that would do us from the state um and other places that we should be getting you know funding instead of trying to to cut in places that seem to me I'm not a financial person but it seems to me like this is not really a way to to kind of make the budget work going forward other comments or thoughts and I will say Gail I think there are many other districts that would agree with you in terms
059of collectively wanting to address how the state can better support our budgets so yes all right I'll ask again if there are any other questions or comments seeing none I will ask for a a roll call vote with the motion on the floor again we know that the amount that we have for our budget is what it is the motion on the floor is how to recognizing the reduction how to apply the reduction and so with the motion on the floor seeking a roll call vot please Charlotte Mr Gagner I Mr Goldman no Dr Harris yes misss maramon yes Mrs nazarella yes Miss Dr Thomas farus yes Mrs jolof yes so the motion passes all right well thank you all so very much Liz thank you so very much for your fiscal expertise and Mr
060VZ for your leadership as well all right moving on now to staff Communications and reports we now will receive our superintendent report Mr vas thank you very much um lot of positive shares uh this this meeting uh I'd like to start with wil at elementary who hosted Unified sports they did so at Connor High School uh during the last weekend in April it was an amazing time um sent you all a picture of that and in a similar vein uh this past weekend Connor hosted unified theater uh boasting a cast that was well over 125 I I want to say I heard something in the60s uh the theme of the play was a travel through time and as an audience member um it was impossible not to smile for the entirety of the performance it
061was pure joy um this past Saturday over 100 attendees participated in our annual openchoice social which was hosted on the beautiful grounds of the Boys and Girls Club of Hartford uh there was fun there was food activities coordinated by our schools and supported by over seven different Community groups so a huge Kudos uh to all involved on that successful event um also this Friday our adult education program presented certificates for the national diploma program uh recipients as well as presentations by our adult English language learner classes um there was an incredible array of food uh with family in attendance many of our Esau children who uh receive those services in class their their a lot of their um Family attended U adult education to learn English and they all brought amazing amazing cultural treats I'd
062like to offer a congratulations to Connor seniors Lily nwin and Neeve canr as well as Hall seniors Ryland priest and Thomas Nash for being named uh Connecticut Association of schools CIA 2024 Connecticut high school scholar athletes The Scholar athlete program annually recognizes two High School seniors from each member School whose academic and athletic careers have been exemplary whose personal standards and achievements are a model model for others and who possess high levels of Integrity self-discipline and courage so congratulations um much going on in this month of May it is jewi Heritage appreciation month Hall High School recently hosted Edie tenser who is a lifelong student teacher and professor of Holocaust studies Professor tenser presented to an audience of approximately 80 students from Dr Dr peling and Mr sat loff's modern world history classes sharing personal
063anecdotes and answering all range of student questions um coming up on May 10th Bristo Middle School will host uh parent and NYU professor of judaic studies AI Pratt along with Gail tempkin who is the daughter of a Connecticut Holocaust Survivor as part of an eighth grade program related to this Jewish heritage month on the subject of welcoming schools we heard a bit from uh Liam about Hall High recently post hosting a panel of speakers that included Assistant Attorney General Anastasia king and a panel of law enforcement professionals local state and federal uh the panel provided a presentation on prevention and awareness of hate crimes hate spee hate speech and acts of discrimination this was the first such presentation to any High School group uh nationally On a related note King philli recently hosted a showing
064of the film screenagers with conversation and discussion that followed um to support parents with raising children in the age of social media this effort was undertaken in collaboration with community of concern um I'd also like to uh recognize and proudly acknowledge Asian-American Pacific Islander month this month celebrating the rich cultural tapestry and invaluable contributions of our aapi communities um the recognition serves as a vital opportunity for students and Educators alike to delve into the diverse histories traditions and experiences of asian-americans and Pacific Islanders Sedwick Quest students represented uh the district very well this past weekend at Connecticut State History Day which was hosted at CCSU congratulations to seventh grader Annabella Brooks who came in first place in the state in her uh in the junior individual exhibit category Annabelle was uh competing with the top
065middle school exhibits from all across the state of Connecticut and by winning her category she has qualified to participate in National History Day which is upcoming in June congratulations are also in order for eth grader Caroline uh Caroline wentland who earned state History Day award for outstanding entry related to civics government or citizenship for her Junior individual website connard's EMS health careers exploration class recently visited St Francis hospital where they participated in simulation training to promote injury prevention they were highlighted on NBC Connecticut hope you saw that post um and on April the 22 un day of action choka Elementary School students from um fifth grade spent time learning about sustainability while taking action to improve their school tomorrow May the 8th is National Bike To School day I know there's a big effort underf
066foot across our middle schools I'm excited for that um I'm also excited to announce two very special celebrations for two of our incredibly dedicated coaching staff you have Flyers at your stations Sue Kus will be honored at a short reception on at Hall on Tuesday May the 14th at 3:15 p.m. just prior to the hall Conor track meet and Jim Solomon will likewise be honored on Saturday May 18th at 10: a.m. at the hall High tennis courts each is celebrating their golden anniversary of coaching with a combined Century of dedicated and inspiring service to our youth a youth athletes thank you immensely coach Kus and Coach Solomon um as part of the budget process I proposed an administrative restructure which included the establishment of an assistant director to pupil Services uh this is a critical
067position and uh very important role in the strategic planning uh for the efficient and effective special education program progaming and will serve as a this person will serve as a direct support to our new Elementary assistant principles for their work within ppts and FAL force and this evening I am very very excited to announce that our own Kelly Brouse principal at bugby elementary school will transition into that role next [Applause] year Kelly has been the quintessential principal at bugby for the last eight years in meeting where their staff earlier today they expressed tremendous respect for her lead leadership gratitude for her caring and appreciation for the compassion with which she leads congratulations Kelly I'm so excited um and by way of a reminder our last day of school currently scheduled can't believe we're talking about
068it June 13th Thursday June 13th will follow as been our practice a Wednesday early release schedule so we will continue to uh provide that reminder to our families through our school newsletters and our websites pending your questions that is my report thank you so very much questions or comments regarding the superintendence report we received Latoya yes Latoya and then Claire um so just a couple of things one amazing um and I wanted to share that I I got to go to um Earth Day and and in the center and Hall High School students had you know that I think it was their science club that was out there and they had this amazing cor Reef project and the way they were engaging the community was just phenomenal um it was just wonderful to see students
069out there I mean they were there was a teacher there but the students were completely running the show um and talking about all of the wonderful things that they're doing with science and composting and so I just thought it was really great to to see that in the community and to see students celebrating Earth Day in that way um and the other thing that I wanted to just throw out there um especially thinking about uh celebrating Jewish heritage month and and um and how we acknowledge that and I know I brought this up when I believe when I first came on the board but um there is a Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles um I used to take teachers there multiple groups of teachers there um and also supported um School leaders all around
070the country with taking teachers there so they have a really great professional development program and they also support with funding with bringing teachers there um and and tailoring professional development around um a holocaust experience and and talking about anti-Semitism and then um human rights violations from around all the uh all around the world so really great program um a lot of good curriculum there um and and very just powerful experience for educators so just wanted to throw that out there the Museum of Tolerance um they still have those programs going on today and might be something to think about excellent thank you and you're taking notes on that all right Clea yeah so um I just want to add something about the unified theater I believe if I'm right at 22 years ago was started
071by a Conor student and she um started the program at the school and I think it's now in 17 States um but the most empowerful thing that happened on Friday night was that 48 seniors got honored to um their gradu uating and they've been in the program before but there are over 16 um rehearsals and nights that students had to go for this program and to think that um you know 48 seniors would find that time um the number of General ed students far outnumber the kids with special needs but they're so wonderful with all the students and I just think it's a win-win for everybody it's a unique program progr and I'm proud that um we started it and and it's going into other states thank you for sharing that thank you all right
072any other comments regarding our superintendent report all right thank you very much again now moving on to staff reports and board discussions we will receive our Personnel report and we have Mr Julio dwarte here pass in the microphone to you good evening everyone our Personnel report can be found on page two of your board packet as you know District policy requires that I update the board on any changes in our certified staff for both teachers and administrators tonight I will provide you with a rundown of the numbers since my last Personnel report back on February 21st please note that the numbers are a bit higher than normal as they reflect our endof year um numbers this year we had 15 end ofe resignations which were for various reasons anywhere from relocation to managing family personal
073needs we also had 16 endof year retirements these numbers are fairly consistent with our numbers from the past in fact our turnover rate heading into the summer is at approximately 3% which is 1% down from uh last year with that said we do anticipate some additional um resignations as we always do within the summer so we are planning for all of those speeches as well I would like to take a moment to extend my heartfelt appreciation to all of our remarkable retirees each of them has played an integral role in shaping the educational journey of our students their dedication and commitment to Excellence has certainly left a mark on all of our school communities as they embark on this new chapter in their lives I want to publicly express my gratitude for their years of
074service and the countless lives that they've touched transitioning to staff recruit I'm delighted with our progress thus far while our retirees have undoubtedly left behind some big shoes to fill I have full confidence that our new hires will step up and are ready for the task having personally met with each one of them I have been thoroughly impressed by their qualifications and perhaps even more importantly their enthusiasm to join the West Harper public schools family and to fully support our mission seeing such a strong commitment to our community among our new staff members is truly reassuring for me and I know for all of our uh folks in terms of leadership openings we are at various steps in the process depending on the position as superintendent vicus mentioned today we've uh very excitedly hired our
075assistant director of pupil Services I know that miss brous is going to be outstanding um we've also hired our pupil service department supervisor so we're excited about that and again uh strong applicant pools in both of those positions our elementary assistant principal uh process is well along the way so we actually closed our applic yesterday um we had over 30 applicants um for those positions so um I'll be very busy over the next couple weeks and then we will start um another process which is for our bug me elementary school and so as Mr vicina said certainly some big shoes to fill there but I am confident that we'll have again a very strong applicant pool and Kelly will be able to pass the torch on continue the great work that she's been doing there
076and that that staff does for all of those students so um I am happy to answer any questions that the board may have at this time thank you very much teammates any questions regarding the Personnel report that we received seeing none thank you again now moving on to routine matters where we will receive the financial report seeking a motion that the Board of Education approve the financial report for the period ending March 31st 2024 is there a motion so moved thank you Jason is there a second second thank you Ethan discussion and Liz good to see you once again who will do the honors for us this evening Ethan you all right um School funds report are in four categories the first category being the general fund report which has a budget for fiscal year
07723 of $19.2 million second category of funds is the state and federal grants fund at this point the school system has 12.3 million in identified funds third Cate special funds report which covers eight different unique funds and there's approximately 1.6 million currently projected for the eight funds at the end of the year and then the fourth category is the nutrition service funds which at the end of March had a $3.1 million balance as of the March 24th uh as of the end of March the general fund had a year- to-day expenditures of 131.8 million against the full year budget of 190.2 at this point the school administration is projecting a positive $225,000 to the full year fiscal budget of [Music] 190.2 um basically just above break even the overall variance is unchanged from the prior
078basically while the projected projections month-to month have had changes they were relatively small and there were changes in different line items and again the individually for that month was small in total or looking at in in the overview the salary Group which accounts for 121.9 million of the budget had a positive variance of 335,000 and the significant line items that have changed since the original budget was a negative variance of 400,000 in the teacher salary line a negative variance of 550,000 the pair of professional uh line and on the positive side was a positive of 525 on the teachers assistant line and a positive 450 in teacher substitution teacher substitutes variance uh in terms of purchase Services where we've had problems which counts for 30 million of the expense the most significant uh count in
079the tuition account is a negative variance of 500,000 but the actual variance is A50 um we if you include the 550,000 that the school administration had moved early in the year out of Education Service reimbursement funds that's one of the eight special funds um to cover the reduction of State funding hopefully I got that right uh there was a positive 50,000 in the benefits category and offset by a negative 60,000 purchase Services the net being a positive $25,000 variance to the projected 190.2 million full year General budget again a redu or reduction of 25,000 from the prior month budget variances um that takes care of the general funds unless there's any questions in terms of the state and federal grants there is over 12.3 million um expected and estimated fund expenditures 11.7 million of that
080is for the prior for the current fiscal year sorry 5 million of that is the Esser funds that we know are being used up at the end of this fiscal year or in September in terms of special fund the eight different funds are projected to end the fiscal June fiscal year with $1.6 million bar uh balance a net decrease of 490,000 from the June 23 balances the largest negative activity coming from the Education Service reimbursement of 550 which as previously mentioned was used to replace a reduction of the funding from the state of Connecticut for special needs in terms of the nutrition service funds there's been a significant increase in the nutrition service fund balance going I screwed up all right it's basically going to be a 3.1 1 million at the end of March
081uh that includes uh identified amount of 890,000 in terms of equipment purchases um and more spending is anticipated as time goes on and that's all I have on the different financial reporting and the funds there's any questions all right thank you Ethan questions teammates regarding the financial report we received all right with the motion on the floor all of those in favor say I I I any opposed and the abstain the eyes have it thank you very much now moving on to approval of the minutes thank you Liz as well thank you seeking a motion that the Board of Education approved the minutes of the regular Board of Education meeting of April the 16th 2024 is there a motion I make the motion thank you Claire is there a second second thank you Jason discussion
082any suggested edits or discussion all right all of those in favor say I I any oppose any abstain I abstain and the minutes approve thank you I abstained because I was not here for that meeting all right moving on now to information and reports board members do we have any communication and reports from other boards or organizations yeah so this isn't a report um but in Prior meetings at this point in the meeting there have been references by different board MERS to different Heritage or dates or events so I wanted to take the opportunity to note that yesterday was see if I could say it right yamasha the Holocaust Remembrance Day the day chosen to remember the Six Million Jews who perished in the Holocaust it was marked the day when the Allied troops liberated
083the first Nazi concentration camp at Bren wall that was 79 years ago yesterday uh I will note on a personal note although he never mentioned it that my father-in-law was among the initial groups of troops US troops that liberated the camp so that's all I had but I thought it was worth mentioning thank you Ean thank you Jason the West Harford prevention Council would like us to to acknowledge that may is mental health awareness month and I know there are a lot of activities going around townwide I know within the schools as well um and also that in particular the week of May 12th is Substance Abuse Prevention Week thank you Jason important to know that thank you moving on to other information and discussion so Ethan you already um you shared what that piece
084thank you very much for um reminding us of that significant historical piece thank you any other information or discussions from other board members their teammates seeing none moving on to Future business announcement of future meeting dates our next meeting will be Tuesday May the 21st 2024 we'll have our regular board of Education meeting here at 7:00 in room 3:14 followed by the last meeting of this Academic Year on Tuesday June the 4th 2024 our regular Board of Education meeting at 7:00 here in room 314 do we have a request for any future agenda items we've gone a full year now with public comment being changed and I'd like to see if we could rediscussed at the last meeting in June because we'll have a feel for there have been times in the last year where
085people have come to speak on the second Tuesday and we've made exceptions I just think we should relook and see where we stand is it doing what we wanted it to do so if we can discuss at the last meeting that would be appreciated I'm pausing only because that would be a policy um the policy subcommittee would convene first um and then to bring that to the board and so not I'm receiving what you're saying well I just want to follow the so received and we'll we'll follow due process but thank you for for that uh suggestion thank you any other suggestions for future agenda items seeing none do we have any visitors who would like to make a comment seeing none we do not have an executive session therefore seeking a motion to adjourn
086so moved thank you Shannon is there a second second second all right we have a we have a second yes we do meeting adjourned at 8:22