001good evening we are calling the meeting to order welcome to the West Hartford Public Schools regular Board of Education meeting it is Tuesday April the 4th 2023. may we begin with the roll call please Charlotte Dr Chang here Mr Goldman here Dr Harris president doctor came off here Ms nazarella present Dr Steinberg here Dr Thomas focuson here student representative Megan Murphy excused student representative Caitlin strip cave here thank you Caitlin will you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance foreign thank you we do not have a revision to the agenda order now it is time for public Communications this is where we're able to hear from you your thoughts your questions your concerns your suggestions each person is allowed three minutes to speak we ask when you go to the podium to please share
002your name in the town that you live in Please be aware of Charlotte over there who will hold up a yellow card when you have just one minute remaining in your time and when your time has ended you'll see a red card and we ask that you politely take your seat at that time now we have quite a crowd here today understandably so and we do have with our policy where we start with agenda items first in terms of public comments from those speaking on agenda items and I don't think I need to remind those what that is but I will for the purpose of documentation tonight's agenda is on the adoption of the 2023-2024 board of education budget as well as approval of financial report period ending February the 28th 2023 now we do
003have a list here of several that have signed up to speak and we're going to go by this list I will ask though for some courtesy in that with all that we have to discuss today very important conversations not only do we have our public comments we have the budget to discuss and to vote on so I'm going to go by who is on the list for comments however if you signed up on the list here and we had the pleasure of hearing your comments already before if you could politely allow someone else who did not get to sign up to speak so again I'm going to go down the list name those on the list however if I call your name and you have already spoken if there's someone who did not sign up
004on the list if you can please respectfully defer and share your time for that person to speak we thank you so much for all of the communication we have received from our last from our public hearing from previous Board of Ed meetings and also the emails so very much appreciate hearing from you and want to be able to hear from as many as we can tonight so again I'm going to go buy this list alone for public comments if your name is called and you have already spoken please respectfully allow someone else who has not had a chance to speak to share with that we have Anita again if you have spoken already we're going to ask you to politely share your time for others to speak foreign do you want to hold this so
005my name is Anita and uh I have brought to the attention of the Board of Education that I found on 42 million of 5 to 10 million discrepancy I sent an email I have not received that response I'm still waiting second point is at the last uh Workshop Claire nessarila spoke about a 700 person decrease that's not the important number the important number is the per student expenditure so when we look is my microphone on okay so when we look in 2013 it was 14 394. per student that was a hundred and forty eight million 03022 for 9900 as you we can see on the graph we see a decrease correct of the enrollment what we see is a strong increase in the per student expenditure that's the number that is more important than the
006number of 700. I see a room filled with people we have increased them per student expenditure but we are decreasing in the number of services that needs to be explained point one point two last year Claire nessarella for a hundred thousand wanted to get a PR firm excuse me Claire nessarella how is a PR firm going to help our students learn arithmetic reading mathematics if I know what I know it came from public education if I know what I know it it came because our superintendent cared that his students learned and would be able to stand here 30 years later to speak up and the last thing is the idea of conflict of interest Lorna Thomas farquson I want to hear what you have to say but I do with the reigning of the time
007that's left what specifically to the current budget would you like to comment on again we're speaking on agenda items I recognize you're talking about it why time frame is there anything that pertains to the current 2023-2024 budget that you would like to comment on okay two things I don't trust your numbers and I've given reports on that second thing Lorna Thomas farqueson you are employed by the state of Connecticut and the office of Early Childhood your department gives funds to this town I am asking you to recuse yourself because there is a conflict of interest thank you next we have Addie I'm speaking on the budget interim superintendents uh Morrow's salary in 2021 stood at two hundred and eleven thousand one hundred and thirteen dollars thereabouts that is four times the medium house the household
008median in West Hartford yes he nickels and dimes our students to be reimbursed with twenty dollars for his phone case and fifteen dollars for his mouth Mouse but it's quoted in weehan news as saying while respecting the contributions and sacrifices being made by our taxpayers in relation to the budget our student body is decreasing our budget is increasing this year by almost 9 million 10 million of which Andrew Morrow has the discretion to move around as he wishes without the Board of Education knowing yet the administration led right now by interim superintendent moral and Dr Lorna Thomas Ferguson are stripping positions and programs vital to ensure a well-rounded and excellent education for our students all our students every student is equal literacy and math scores have been declining since 2017. especially amongst black students art
009access which the state says it aims for 60. what whps scores 39.4 in 2021 and to 2022. we barely barely hit 44 pre-pandemic so stop blaming the pandemic for what is your problem you have a bad budget your figures do not add up everything is under random supplies and and and not explained no records when you ask for records you don't get them you also have members of whps creating records to supply under Freedom of Information Act you cannot create documents yet we have money to have registered Behavior technicians whose only requirement has to be 18 years old with a high school diploma and 40 hours of instruction we have enough money to hire them we have one esal Higher One Elementary one secondary I am Webster hill we had two ESO we speak 30
010languages in that school but you can hire you can hire psychologists and behavioral technicians over trained teachers and teachers assistants that is what our students need they need math they need art they need languages they need literacy they need all of that and you are not providing it you are failing our children you get a big F and I know I'm 16 years in and I'll be 24 years in 2031. my eldest got an excellent education my youngest I hope to God she gets one too think thank you our young people are so polite all right next we have Tony thank you so much Tony I appreciate that very much Jonathan fish okay good evening Jonathan Fish from West Hartford Thank you for the opportunity tonight to speak in opposition to the proposed superintendent's budget
011for 2023 and 2024. I urge the board to reject the budget as currently written and asked ask them to ask the superintendent to resubmit the budget without the eliminations of the elementary music and Smith stem positions the interim superintendent's lack of vision in choosing to eliminate student-facing positions should not be an excuse for the board to do nothing when I was in the Navy I was taught to never bring up a problem without also having some sort of thoughtful solution to offer and as a CPA now I think I have the knowledge and experience in budgeting to offer three reasonable Alternatives that could have been considered uh for consolidations that would not have had that would not have the detrimental impact on our elementary students that the current proposed Cuts would number one instead of
012not replacing a retiring Elementary music teacher let's choose to not replace the superintendent position after the previous one has left if we think that a science teacher can perform the duties of two people then certainly the two assistant superintendents could work together to perform the duties of that one person they s they seem to have done a fine job this year after take after Tom Moore's absence and I doubt that a single student has noticed the difference this year this proposed consolidation would save the district 222 thousand dollars how about number two we could consolidate the director of the gifted and talented program we could require that the two other directors the elementary and the secondary directors fulfill those responsibilities of the other one again if if we think a ninety thousand dollar per year
013science teacher can do the job of two people then two one hundred eighty thousand dollar directors could certainly work together to fill the other role this proposed consolidation would save the district a hundred and eighty thousand dollars my my third and final offer of an alternative is uh I want to give a little context so the um principle of the largest Elementary School in this district has 490 students while the principles of the two smallest elementary schools each serve about 280 students so each of those two print other two principles are performing about two-thirds of the work of the the one from the largest school yet they are all making exactly the same salary or nearly the same salary let's consolidate the principles of the two smallest schools and then we could add an assistant
014principal position for those two schools this would say the district twenty thousand dollars excuse me your time is expired thank you thank you before I call the next person I want to say that really appreciate the advocacy and how it's visualized with the signs however I'm going to ask to please politely not to have the signs raised and we certainly want to hear what you have to say at the podium but we're going to ask please to keep your signs lower we've done this in other situations as well so just want to be fair with that but greatly appreciate the artwork that we see thank you thank you next we have Nora foreign McHugh I am a lifelong West Hartford resident a proud Hall High graduate and a current West Hartford teacher however tonight I
015am here as a parent of a current charred Road Pre-K student the implications of the push to downsize to Penny pinch will have long lasting impacts on the children in our district as a parent I am deeply concerned that collapsing cohorts across the elementary level will increase class sizes which means less attention spent on individual students many Upper Elementary classes already have over 20 students next year the elementary enrollment is projected to increase by 20 but we're still eliminating classrooms the decision to eliminate a substantial number of ftes looks at the Historical needs of the district not the needs of the students in the classrooms we currently have find the reduction of ftes due to increa decreasing enrollment doesn't consider how the social emotional and academic needs of students have ballooned since a pandemic teachers
016are also getting burned out with all the demand we need more staff to help students in need not fewer if we continue to spread resources then students will suffer if they have not already cutting ftes is a major issue of equity students who are behind will continue to fall behind looking to the Future I'm greatly concerned about what high school classes will look like by the time my son reaches 9th grade in recent years the district has increasingly relied on having teachers teachers traveled between schools to teach multiple classes simultaneously or to teach at multiple schools to save a few bucks at present there are World language classes that have two levels of students being taught simultaneously in the same class period and tech ed classes with three entirely different classes being taught at the
017same time these are not decisions I support as a taxpayer or a parent a teacher split between two or more buildings or Simon's simultaneously teaching multiple levels is automatically less available to their students how do traveling teachers offer after school help how do traveling teachers touch base with struggling students the answer is they just don't in a good way like a normal teacher in one building could these are intangible costs to our students when we look at more traveling teachers and more multi-level classes even more egregious in the increasing time we are paying teachers to travel rather than to teach and work with their students is that there is a map class currently offered where it's taught in one building and streamed out the other the teacher is only physically with their students every other
018week as parents are they even aware that this is happening as a district we have an obligation to be honest with our parents and students and not create this type of bait and switch situation where we can deny a student a real live-in live person 50 of the time I thought our society and this District acknowledged that during the pandemic there was just no substitute for Quality in-person instruction as a tax paying citizen we expect our money to be put to good use it seems that this board is planning on undermining the education of our children by cramming more and more kids into classes and stretching teachers further and further what is the outcome of this misguided approach the outcome is students who are less prepared for their future and teachers who are overly stressed
019and less able to meet the needs of their students in the time my teachers are fleeing their profession this is misguided fund our schools thank you next we have Heather thank you very much thank you Lindsay okay thank you really appreciate your your patience and respect thank you Ruby good evening my name is Ruby I'm a West Hartford resident I live in 21 Royal Oak Drive if there's one thing that I've learned this week it's the importance of remaining Vigilant and engaged in local decisions and not take for granted our responsibility as voters in speaking truth to power I've sent multiple emails to anybody who will listen and have received several responses from members of the Town Council state representative Derek slapp K Ferrar and even our mayor Sherry Cantor all have referred me back
020to you the Board of Education and Dr Morrow who have been radio silent in response to our opposition of this consolidation that would in Practical terms gut our stem curriculum at Smith you've heard the facts presented here multiple times about our demographics diverse student body both culturally and socioeconomically large population of students living below the poverty line and our impressive performance on state exams despite these challenges what I want to do in my three minutes is remind you of why you're here being a member of the board of education is a privilege given to you by us the residents of West Hartford who voted you into office it is literally our job as voters to hold you accountable for your actions speak up when decisions you're making harm our kids I remind you that you
021work for us that said I would like to remind you of the promise that you made back in 2020 when you voted to adopt a vision for West Hartford Public Schools that emphasize educational equity and I quote we the members of the West Hartford Public School dedicate ourselves to the pursuit of equity Equitable schools are those that value and honor all in our community as Unique Individuals capable of maximizing their true potential we'll make a solemn promise to identify and dismantle all M elements of systemic racism and historical inequities we vowed to clear paths with a Relentless duty to those in traditionally marginalized groups we pledge to partner with all families in the service of the success of each child as a board of education we have a statutory duty to implement the state's educational
022interest which includes the duty to reduce racial ethnic and economic isolation of our students you went on to identify budget and resource allocation as the way that you would strive to achieve this goal and went on to State West Hartford Public Schools will strive to allocate resources and funds to meet the needs of all students while directly targeting interventions and supports that address identified inequities and help maintain main School cultures that support our mission to enhance our Global community this proposal represents a contradiction to our equity and anti-racism policy and a broken promise to hundreds of students who rely on you to fulfill this Mission I urge you to do better [Applause] [Music] if I have a few more minutes am I out of time okay so she wants me to help read with her
023um her name is Sophia and she lives in West Hartford as well and she wants to say that a stem education is important to her because it has helped her be more creative at home and elsewhere everywhere she goes she's always noticing wondering and exploring as is the Smith model and if she had to pick between fun science experiments with Mrs Deja or more Computer Learning she would always pick science kids like her and all of these that kids that are here need to learn with their hands their eyes or ears their nose and that's what we do at Smith and she urges you to make a different Choice thank you [Applause] escaping hi my name is Alex and I'm from West Hartford I'm here to talk about how Miss Sajak's job might get lemonade
024if Miss Ajax leaves then a lot of other things leave like making pizza raising salmon eggs steam pm and motion pool only stem and I'm respectfully asking you to vote against this budget cut thank you questions thank you next we have Teresa let's see if I could do this good evening my name is Teresa McEwen and I am the President of the West Hartford Education Association that's also known as the teachers union this is my sixth year as president and as some of you may recognize it is not a habit of mine to speak to the Board of Ed at your meetings but I feel however I must with this current budget proposal I have heard too much about scheduling to find staff efficiencies over the last few years sorry I just ran here from
025another meeting with legislators we were discussing dual teaching um to me and I hope you we understand those are the code words for a cut in programming to ask teachers to do more with less as our business is Personnel driven with less personnel there will be less programming I believe prior speakers have spoken about programming and the reality of the proposed efficiencies cuts to the music department in addition the quest department is looking at two retirements this year that total 1.3 teachers to my knowledge there are no less students being identified to be placed in quest programming so how will we do the same district-wide work with less staff hypothetically speaking we will not be pushing in for enrichment we will have more traveling teachers which will impact the number of Duties we are asking
026all other teachers to pick up to me that is a programming cut there are real world impacts and realities to your decisions on this school budget I do appreciate the complexity of the job that you do but please remember your children's learning conditions are my teachers learning conditions okay they're working conditions we are in a historic teacher shortage we are hiring teachers continuously in West Hartford like other Urban school districts not just in the summer to the start at the end of August I encourage you to look hard at our seniority list and in our turnover please ask yourself what essential Personnel should each school have should it have one full-time art music and physical education teacher or should we ask those teachers to cover one build and then more how do we determine caseloads
027between and within the buildings when do you split an elementary class for an elementary grade of 50 students do we have two classes of 25 or three classes of 16 to 17. for a high-level High School course excuse me pardon me your time has expired oh thank you [Applause] thank you next we have Brooke [Applause] hi there my name is Brooke Daly and I live in West Hartford I have two children my oldest goes to Sedgwick Middle School my youngest his name is Finn and he goes to Wolcott I am here today to oppose the budget due to the cut in the music program my son Finn is in fourth grade and was able to finally choose an instrument he was very excited we love our music teacher Mr Longo Finn is disabled he has
028Down syndrome and autism so I didn't know if he'd be able to participate but Mr Longo was very supportive and uh currently he is able to give him one-on-one attention if this budget cut happens most likely that would not happen he would only be able to provide group lessons that would not work for my son so inadvertently um there would be a whole population of disabled students that would not be able to participate Finn cannot operate that way and I think many times people think of music as a nice to have and it's so much more than that because for Finn it's a huge part of his learning um he learns differently and music provides him with fine motor skills memory math skills all of these things are so important to him and yes it's
029it's fun but that's that's a bonus so I'm just asking politely to please not approve the budget as it is and thank you very much for your time thank you next we have Steve hi there so because we're discussing what most of us here are discussing I'm sorry no you said you could state your name and where you live okay I'm sorry I'm Steve Chamberlain uh 25 Clearview Avenue um we're here from most of us are here from the Smith stem School we're here to discuss uh the curriculum specifically the stem curriculum I'd like to quickly read to you a statement from the Connecticut Department of education's position statement on comprehensive stem education for all students K through 12. it says that the board believes that the Comprehensive Science technology engineering and mathematics education is
030key to Preparing students to be Innovative problem solvers and critical thinkers the board believes that every student deserves comprehensive stem education that integrates the knowledge skills and practices of individual stem disciplines it goes on to say that stem education requires adequate time adequate resources and adequate instruction that includes engaging opportunities it says that stem instructions must provide students with the time to investigate question and solve complex problems and the board believes that the Connecticut schools must increase efforts to provide a comprehensive stem education to all students the same document moves on to say that the school district's responsibilities are to provide opportunity for teachers across disciplines to collaborate and plan a development they're also there to provide a safe and effective stem learning environment and that they are there to provide meaningful professional development resources
031in meaningful and Structural Materials and Technologies to support that stem education it is my belief that your decision to possibly cut specifically out of the stem specific faculty at the school would would undermine completely exactly what I just read to you from the state of Connecticut Board of education's mission on stem and the importance of stem to have all the resources they can possibly get I feel that there's opportunity here for you guys folks tonight to find different places in your budget to make the cuts needed while recognizing that a stem School needs to have all of the possible stem resources as it can and there's been plenty of people that have sat up here last meeting and talked about all the data that we've compiled and given to you in many documents we're showing
032out how what kind of advantages these stem education programs do for our students and highly disadvantaged neighborhood we need to get you guys on board with us on our team and recognize the importance of the stem faculty at Smith's temp thank you [Applause] that is everyone who signed up on the list however there were three individuals who are very kind to share their time so I'm going to allow three speakers who have not spoken today or spoken at public comments or spoken public hearing if you would like to share your thoughts please just three again thank you so much to those individuals who shared their time please yes go to the podium share your name and your town of residence please and then we'll have two more if there are following this individual hi my
033name is Dean uh batchelder I live in West Hartford um I'm here to talk about the music position specifically but obviously the budget in general my son came to walk it late he previously attended a magnet school the transition was concerning that the reality was very different Wolcott became a home he is excited every day to go to school music is an integral part of that love it is impossible to overstate How Deeply impacted my son has been by Mr Longo instrumental instrumental music is indeed instrumental to a Wolcott student's musical education music enriches other fields of study music includes mathematics language geography it would be hard in fact to find an academic field which wouldn't be enhanced by the study of music Plato wrote music is a more potent instrument than any other for
034Education because Rhythm and Harmony find their way into the inward places of the Soul I have two quick antidotes anecdotes about this that may help to illustrate what's at stake first when my son was contemplating staying in the magnet program or coming to Wolcott I spoke to the teacher who would be his teacher at the magnet school he said as much as I would love to have him as a student we just can't provide as many resources and as much enrichment as he will get at Wilkin secondly one of my best friends is a music teacher and teacher of the year recipient in a neighboring town when a position was cut in a similar fashion and music education was made to be spread thinner it was Soul crushing for both my friend the teacher and
035the students he tried to continue to provide the best education possible but it was truly an impossible task it has left him exhausted and denied the students access to what they loved and what they feel what I feel they deserved who are we as a community we will provide students will we provide students with the environment that challenges them academically and artistically will we provide them an opportunity to continue to feel passionate about coming to school music is our Ally and we will do well to keep that in mind the town meetings at wool cutting happen every Friday afternoon it's where the woolcats play one of the programs which would be crushed by by this position elimination and it's an exciting glimpse into what's possible when you give children a great musical education the entirety
036of the student body sings and claps along as the wool cats play the woolcats is the musical group they cheer as academic achievement is champion they sing together in joy and celebration Wolcott has a magnificent blend of cultures but music is their second language the music program is a part of the soul of Wolcott this is an excerpt from a poem my son Cameron wrote called the truth about music is for the soul yes music comes in many styles and many cultures but somehow still music is the universal language thanks for your time thank you you too and then that we're going to pause after Public Communication yes you two young people I saw your both of your hands go up okay thank you oh I'm so sorry pardon I didn't realize you were coming
037to the podium pardon me please yes go ahead you as well yes go ahead I'm so tall I can just sneak in my name is Jacob wordlo I live at 27 Howland Road appreciate your time appreciate the opportunity um what can I say that would uh that others haven't said um in November I had the opportunity to go to to Norway the country in Europe and I spent most of the time in prisons I wasn't incarcerated like uh someone in the news might be today but um I was visiting to study their model which is a world-class it's really the leading model of uh the justice system and it was so inspiring to talk to not only people who are incarcerated but also the staff that worked in the prison and the quality of life
038was so good they really believe that incarceration is is the loss of freedom but everything else in prison is about rehabilitation but what's interesting is that we use the same words here in Connecticut but our model is totally different and one thing I learned from our Norwegian neighbors across the ocean is that words really matter there so when we look at the mission statement when we look at the motto that I just pulled up just now waiting it says clear pass this is the motto for West Hartford Public Schools clear paths Bright Futures and no limits so why are we here tonight limiting the education like and I know that you're I know that you are not paid your this is your service and I can only imagine the time that you've already put into
039this so to to ask you to to revisit the budget and to go back through it no one wants that of course not in an ideal situation you would have the resources that that we all feel that we need so the question is is it possible to what does it look like to go back and to to leverage the mayor and to say we need we need more like this is not sufficient like what is what is what would that what would need to happen for us to do that as a community and so that's my uh request and um and I just really think that we have the mottos we have the vision we have the mission we have the words but what we don't have systemically is we don't have practices that align
040to that whether it's our prisons or whether it's our educational system and I think that we can tonight we can change that we can change that and work together to have the budget that we need so thank you so much thank you and for our last public comment I pointed to two young people out there I'm going to ask if you both would like to come up to share your time so again the two young people who I saw your hands pop up if you would come to the podium please and thank you for Patiently Waiting I'm Jack Bowman and I live in West Hartford I walk with Mrs stingle in a Solo in the morning and afternoon and I know that she works tirelessly sometimes her projects take over days same as Mrs zajac
041and I know that no one could replace both of them in one job thank you [Applause] thank you um hi my name is Gigi Guzman and I am now in sixth grade but I just graduated from Smith and I absolutely every year would look forward to like those after school activities that Miss Sajak would um prepare for all of us and I know that I think everyone would agree that those are just so fun and there are so many choices and who doesn't love the pizza of course it's so and I just think that miss zajac is amazing and she said she should stay at Smith [Applause] thank you that is all who we have speaking on agenda items and we're going to pause on Public Communication at this time we do have Public Communication
042at the end of the meeting as well continuing with the agenda we now will move to non-staff Communications and reports where we hear from our student Representatives will first begin hearing from Caitlin speaking on behalf of Hall hi hi everyone um I don't have too much to report from this past few weeks but um the main things is that we had our spirit week this past week um we ended it off on Friday with a pep rally um we had individuals go to um Allstate for music and uh spring sports are moving along I just came from my track meet earlier today can you tell um and my friend here is at her own tennis match but other than that it's just spring and waiting until spring break in a few days thank you thank
043you Caitlin and as you referenced Megan is at a tennis match at this time so speaking on her behalf we'll have Dr Murrell giving an update on conard uh Megan only sent a couple of items here so on Monday April 3rd Connor had hosted a breakfast where they honored the military child members of the American Legion as well as students whose parents are currently serving or have served in the military where the guests that connored I believe that Paul spoke at the event as well and although it is a short week it's Spirit Week at Conor Monday was celebrity day today was Jersey day Wednesday is vacay slay day and Thursday is PJ day and so Canada is also having a pep rally this week to celebrate the end of winter and the beginning of
044an exciting spring something thank you now moving on to unfinished business where we have the recommendation the Board of Education review the superintendent's proposed budget in the amount of 189 million 941 121 make revisions as necessary and adopt the 2023-2024 board of education budget is there a motion I'll make the motion thank you Ethan is there a second second thank you Renee now we will engage in discussion so thank you teammates for coming to see as they're as they're setting up again to thank all of the team uh here who have worked this year with you in the board to deliver you know a comprehensive budget that's also physically responsible and so I wanted to review again as as Liz is getting set up that uh what I shared with you last week about the
045final insurance rates for the state partnership plan have come in below our initial budget estimate based on the state guidance we had loaded into the budget and had estimated with the town in eight percent total increase in rates uh there's different rates based on single family retiree coverage our average rate increase that we've now received from the state is 7.5 percent allowing for the general fund appropriation for Health and Medical call for the 2023-24 budget to be reduced by 138 871 dollars as Liz will will begin with sorry thank you so much we will take advantage of this time young people who are out there this is what happens when you plan for things and things don't always happen according to plan you have to be calm and collected so we're so appreciative for this
046time for that so young people who are out there question for you what season are we in right now is it fall spring who likes spring raise your hand if you like spring all right the weather today was beautiful who had a chance to go outside yes adults you can raise your hands as well yes beautiful beautiful beautiful we're going to have more of that weather really all right terrific thank you for your patience as we got that working uh what you see here is our standard form that we review each year as we make adjustments to the budget that superintendent has proposed so what you see on the screen starts with the adopted budget for the current year that we're in and you will see that the current year budget is 181 million 187
047thousand dollars based upon what the superintendent uh proposed and recommended uh the proposed budget is 189 million 000 an increase of 8 million seven hundred and fifty four thousand or four point eight three percent so what we'll do tonight is make amendments um and adjustments based on your recommendations uh as we vote on each of those um our final figure will change and you'll be able to see um what the new increase and the new percentage increase is as well as any changes to positions that you make so as Dr Morrow mentioned we did have a reduction in our final Health appropriation based upon the final premium rates that we received from the state so I will add that in um I don't know if you want to vote on each one as you do
048them or if you want to wait till the end but I will leave that to you so thank you so much Liz so what we information we have received uh teammates is that there is available to us additional funding because the funds for the health Reserve came in less than what was initially anticipated so if I'm seeing correctly the 138 000 871 that is uh I don't say extra but that is funding that we do now have access to all right again we're in discussion do we have thoughts or suggestions Renee and then Ethan um I'd like to make a motion to reinstate the stem specialist position using the savings from the state partnership plan is there a second Ed Jason thank you Renee Jason for a second discussion yes yes so don't we have
049to approve the health reduction which I realize is a obvious we do we have to ask you we're not going to turn down savings but no and you can do that in whatever order you want if you want to vote on each one as you go you can so to to make sure we check and balance correctly thank you Ethan yes let us first vote to accept or account for the additional funding because of the health reduction based on financial premium so is there a motion to accept that so moved thank you Renee is there a second second thank you Ethan a discussion all of those in favor say aye aye any opposed abstentions the eyes have it all right recognizing we now have those available funds returning back to what was initially proposed I'm
050going to ask you to please restate your emotion um I moved to um reinstate the Smith School stem specialist using the the health reduction premium funds thank you Renee is there is there a second Ed Jason thank you Jason for the second discussion um the wording is incorrect because there was never a motion to eliminate the stem position there was a motion in the budget to combine the science and stem positions so there was never any if I understand correctly there was never any determination of what position would be eliminated there was a proposal to combine those two jobs that's correct yes then taking it from three to two yes so with that let us recommend to modify the motion and with that latimases work together so we can accurately have the motion reflect what
051we're striving to do no longer oh I moved to no longer combine the Smith stem specialist with the science teacher position thank you is there a second that thank you any discussion all of those in favor of no longer merging the two positions say I I any oppos any abstentions the eyes have it right [Music] [Applause] continuing on are there other thoughts suggestions recommendations Ethan yes so I have two one is more a question for Liz going through the various or back and forth wall cut is a music is a position being cut at wall cut for music no so um Wolcott currently has 0.9 music positions in total our elementary schools have 10.5 positions in total we would go down to 9.5 positions so that cut of one FTE would be spread across all
052of our elementary schools based upon class size with wall cut there's no it's not being negatively impacted uh no no okay no that was question one did Paul did you wanna yeah let's just share some more specifics I believe as Liz said right now the 0.9 that means that there are four and a half days of instruction during the five-day week for wool cut uh under the under the proposed model in all likelihood Wolcott would go to four days per week um as opposed to four and a half so that that's the incremental kind of slice and you'll see that at some of the other schools based on the enrollment um and how many days of instruction would be necessary based on the enrollment but it wouldn't be would wouldn't be cutting any less or
053it wouldn't be depriving anybody of any lessons or I don't know the the uh assignment on the lessons is based on I mean a number of factors in fourth grade you know realistically everyone's new uh in fifth grade it's a question of how many students are returning Wolcott is had just a dramatically strong program for years and years they have a 95 participation rate they're one of the highest schools teachers do an amazing job they're looking at some of the numbers and I can only speak for averages across every instrument and every grade it would look like Wolcott would be between four and five students per instrumental group on average how that dials down to in a particular fourth grade if someone's a newcomer or not and how much leeway or leverage the teacher has
054I I can't particularly say but I can tell you that if I did the ballpark average right now I believe the average in Mass would be in around four so it does go up by about a half of a student per group so somewhere along the line the groups would be you know that slightly larger and if more students came in what I thought I read somewhere was you guys would adjust accordingly yeah we we will do our staffing at the end of the day you know when the Smoke Clears based on what the enrollments end up to be at each of the individual schools okay thank you my second question or second point is right now with the totally on a different track um since Lauren asked what season it was it was baseball
055season but um my question is right now we cap the athletic fee at 700 which is is that correct um So currently we are supplementing our pay to play fee with our Esser funds so each family has a 100 per sport fee with a cap of 400 per family uh we had planned to go back to our uh fees that were in place prior to our Essa Grant which was 175 dollars per Sport with a 700 cap per family so in the budget is a 700 cap it is so I calculated if we went to a 350 cap approximately sixty one thousand dollars is there a way you can check that uh certainly I can do it while we talk okay and if so I'd like to make a motion that we cap the sports
056fee at 350 per family just because I think it's important to get as many kids to participate as possible and money shouldn't be a detriment so I'd like to make that motion should we wait till we get confirmation yeah you probably better get confirmation clarification are you proposing then that at the at the current rate yeah the 175. okay so you so you're proposing that it actually will be rolled back to the current rate as well as the cap of 350. the budget is saying that's already in the budget so I'm assuming yeah but if somebody wants to reduce it I'm I'd support that as well but I'm assuming that doesn't have the votes okay just as a point of clarification that is what I have in the budget um but you do need to
057actually um adopt that rate and adopt the cap this evening just so that you know yes yes Caitlyn am I allowed to ask a question you I absolutely absolutely yes um just a clarifying question do students that qualify for free and reduced lunch qualify for like a fee waiver or some sort of thing for the sports that they sign up for they do any student who requests a fee waiver because of financial hardship is granted one okay thank you uh Ari and then Claire and we'll come back to you yes so I just want to return back to follow on Ethan's question about the music program um as a parent who who's both children through the West Hartford Public Schools um I mean that was their thing my son's at a send off to Disney
058right now concert in the Jazz Band so I and my family value music education and that's part of the reason that we came here um so I guess I just have a pretty direct question um I know that there are concerns about access to Services um children not receiving instruction appropriate to their needs and I guess my question is is there going to be a major change from the day-to-day music program in terms of offerings and access to music instruction given um what the budget proposed budget for next year will do when you when you qualified as a major change area I mean my conversations um Within the instructional leaders my answer would be no I don't perceive it as a major change it will be a change I couldn't I couldn't lie about that
059and I and I certainly don't want to take anything away from the outstanding efforts of our music teachers they're they're just incredibly skilled and they do an amazing job and I think the public support really reflects that yeah how much it's valued um I I just wanna I feel like the community letters that we're getting and I just that's why I just want to give you the opportunity to clarify people are implying or under are thinking that somebody somebody is going to lose their position or somebody is no longer going to be part of the music program and I from my understanding that is not the case we have someone who is retiring of their own accord is is anyone going to lose their job is what I'm asking you there there should be no
060loss of job however there will be reassignment the retirement that we have is not at the elementary level so at this time it would be a shift to a different level yep um but there would be but you know we have open positions in music in general um in terms of identifying this as a place where we could have some savings our staffing level within instrumental music specifically has been flat for 10 years during that time um we've seen from 2013 until present we've had a reduction of about 300 students so when you when you divide out 300 students and you say okay I mean average that across who's fourth grader fifth grade and fourth grade has uh at least within strings they have typically two rehearsals per week versus all the other instruments one
061um it equates to about that difference of 300 equates to about a an ability to staff it at a 1.0 FTE fewer to return it to the Staffing levels from 2013. when you look at that in real numbers what does that mean it's about um if I if I just look average across it's about a half a student difference in terms of each individual group okay so we all recognize there's no such thing as a half a student yep but you know so some groups will be one maybe at a particular School two students larger for that group some places would be unfazed and it really depends on variables such as the skill level of the child the flexibility of that teacher's schedule the number of students interested in a particular instrument versus a different
062instrument so it you know I'd be lying if I'd say there's zero impact right but I would not qualify it as programmatic change wonderful thank you yeah were out of order excuse me please model appropriate behavior please please model appropriate behavior thank you Claire um so people have mentioned that children with special needs might need individualized lessons do you believe that can continue and I guess the big question is are there groups with one or two students over the last few years where there wasn't special needs I mean has there been room in the schedule for private lessons so that's an excellent question I I think what we're talking about when I as I understand the numbers our participation rate averages between 80 to 95 percent with 80 really being only at one school 95
063really being at one school when you look across the remainder of the schools participation averages around 85 percent among all fourth and fifth graders probably slightly higher in fourth grade and perhaps a small fall off in fifth grade but I would I would imagine that varies um I believe what I've heard from a lot of the public comment is the strength of the Wolcott program no questions asked at one point in time Wolcott had a theme and they've maintained that that town meeting atmosphere where where they are performing on a regular basis so it is a very high engagement School in terms of the music program and therefore I do believe they're they're likely capturing um a greater percentage of students with special needs and from what I've heard both here at public comment and
064in some of the conversations with the music department they are able to do some groups of two I couldn't tell you if they were doing one I don't I don't have that information first hand so that when you increase across the board to an average you know going up by about a half a student could that have an impact certainly it can um I could not answer for you more definitively than that to be able to say it would impact and you know to what degree um now you had mentioned that you don't foresee anyone losing their position but do you foresee um staff quitting over having a half a day at another school to help cover um so my understanding of teachers who travel a half a day um well I'll say hap I
065mean that half a day is very specific my understanding of teachers who travel currently there are there are three schools with you know Duffy Smith and Charter Oak that have teachers that do not need to travel at all under under this revision Duffy would travel potential Duffy would potentially have to travel Smith and Charter won't have to because the teacher that is there um does half instrumental and half um celisti um Suzuki excuse me celisti's on the other end of that Spectrum um and uh so that split assignment means that there is a second teacher that is coming into Smith and a second teacher that's coming into Charter Oak to pick up the other half of those instrumental lessons so at the end of the day um we'd be adding travel to one teacher's schedule
066um we might be changing the number of days for which a teacher is traveling from maybe they were only traveling one day to now they might be uh and and I shouldn't say traveling I should say in different schools maybe previously they were in one school for one day and now they'd be in that school for two days um that's the impact on travel um and so um a music teacher gym teacher classroom teacher are they all on the same teacher contract in the elementary guaranteed a duty-free lunch and one planning period every day yes and so just a scenario if you had a situation where you had um unfortunately we're not lowering our special ed numbers but if you had two special ed providers that had smaller case loads in a subsequent year would
067you then most likely look if they don't have a full caseload um and they have up to two three planning periods would you evaluate and possibly reallocate a special ed teacher in those circumstances yeah I could answer that question so we do look at caseloads annually and we do reallocate based on where student need is on an annual basis [Music] other questions comments thoughts [Music] again with the current topic regarding the music music program any questions comments or thoughts [Music] Ethan it looks like you have I just want to clarify so wall cut right now is four and a half days and it'll go to four days that's the current projection okay thank you I have a question um thank you again for for what has been shared and and thank you for helping to
068explain that it's not a matter of eliminating a position it's um trying to be efficient with um time and schedule one thing I do want to know and I appreciate hearing you just mention in terms of flexibility where there's a student need um and appreciate overall throughout the year there's always attentiveness to what is happening with with scheduling and all of those pieces and how we do want to be responsive to those needs for those young people that may need more more time and more attention when it comes to learning with the music piece will that be compromised because of what is being currently proposed so what I can offer um I don't know if I can speak to that specifically but what I can offer is that a reduction of about a half a
069day from from what I understand uh generally the music teachers are able to provide on average I'm I'm told about nine lessons in a day in terms of scheduling them out having the breaks in between and all of that so that would that would be somewhere between four or five fewer lessons which is where the average group size would potentially increase um depending on if the student is in a fourth grade or a fifth grade and there's the opportunity there's more with strings specifically there's more flexibility if you're having two lesson periods per week to maybe have some smaller group sizes and then have a larger group kind of an ensemble approach but um that's that's probably the best amount of detail that I'm able to provide specifically until we get to see who the
070students are in the classroom what their needs are and so on and so forth but if you can imagine at the end of the day it would be for the student population projected for next year for wolka or for any school that reduction of a half a day translates into four or five fewer lessons some of that might be gobbled up just by fewer students that are technically attending some of that might be hey I have two or three fewer opportunities for a lesson and therefore I have to have those students in a in a group of again on an average of somewhere about four to five students and with that projection and again I know there's no crystal ball so thank you so much for speaking as best as possible with the projection of
071an increase to about four or five what is the with where things are now in terms of this number of students in a group to what is projected may happen is there what is what difference would you say so using the you know just the raw numbers that we have for fourth grade and dividing it out by the number of lessons on average uh it it averages currently to four and so it would go up to four point five but what that what it really means at the end of the day is you know the number of fewer lessons I think thank you Gail is your hand raised yes um I just wanted to make a comment so if we had us Health we had this Savings of about 138 thousand dollars and we've agreed
072to reinstate the stem position that does leave us about thirty four thousand dollars um so my question is if we were to uh potentially reinstate part of the music position um maybe as a half time position or something to that effect we could potentially use the rest of that money and more or less because I believe you Liz you said that the last time I asked the music position was approximately the same amount of money as the stem position am I correct on that yeah so the full-time music position is a little over 92 000. this I'm sorry a little over 92 000. Okay so if we and again it may not you know I'm just curious Paul if if if that would even be possible to reinstate the position 50 as opposed to a
073hundred percent oh it's certainly possible it's it's a staffing question that I think you're asking um it would just mean within our um within our open positions that we'd hire for uh and I don't know Julia if you know based on what that FTE looks like we might be hiring in someone we could create a split we'd be hiring in someone at halftime yeah I'm just if we're going by and I'll defer to Liz as the numbers person but if we did 92 and I think you're talking 000 is that what you're saying about 34 000. so whatever that percentage would come out there's probably a 0.4 position so a point four um I don't know I don't know what that would be like if what the market would be for that because um it
074wouldn't entail benefits or anything so it may not be a very marketable position but certainly something that we could look for yeah no I appreciate that um I I guess I'm not really stuck on the point fourth I guess if it was to go to 0.5 it to me it's fairly within the same number what is what is the number where you do offer benefits 0.5 0.5 so then I propose like a 0.5 and is that a different number you add in the benefits on your number no it's not okay yeah so again it would be essentially posting for a 0.5 position um which certainly is something we could do and um you know I don't know what the market is out there right now for music I know we did meet with several Folks
075at UConn during the career fair that we're graduating so it's something that could be possible I just don't know if it's something that someone would want can I just say one more question so I I'm just under understanding the person that would be reduced in the current budget correct well a person's being re -reallocated right but no one's being there no position is being reduced as far as their FTE allotment is okay okay thanks any other questions or comments yes Caitlyn I was just wondering in your conversations that I believe I'm pretty sure you said this that you had conversations with the music teachers and and like or in the music department of what this would look like if there were any other issues that they felt were very important or pressing that we haven't
076yet brought up or anything that they had like serious concerns about in terms of bringing the positions down to 9.5 right no I would I would say it's fair to uh it's fair to say that the music teachers would would prefer to not see this reduction it's going to do the most for their flexibility to be able to provide you know obviously an excellent program there were other concerns when I talked with music I talked with music supervisor we have different elements of the music program that we were leveraging to find basically to find funding for so that there was not a programmatic impact places you know High School is a place where if you don't get the student enrollments um that a program may not run and so when you run into some we
077had a situation where we had a lower enrollment and if we weren't able to fund the position that meant that that element of the music program simply would not run that's an example uh while it's not us cutting the program it's a de facto program cut because the opportunity for that program to live no longer exists um and so that was something that we were able to find you know we made that a priority to fund and found Savings in other places so they were just uh you know in this particular budget climate there were there were a lot of needs and we were trying to spread those needs across so that no first of all so that no program was going to be implicated in a major way certainly there'd be impacts anywhere where
078we cut in the budget um so there were there were those other concerns that they talked with us about Middle School is another one in terms of just how the how the team size is going to happen and once that team size is set that dictates the number of musical groups that run so that that's another place where we were working with the music department and others to to assure the appropriate funding is available to to run the program the way that we want okay Claire so um if if I can be um directly asked a question will any student in fourth or fifth grade not get instrument lessons and do you think there'll be a negative impact from a a pull-out group of five or you know five students in a practice once a
079week so we don't have a model where we would to my knowledge where we would tell a student they couldn't could not participate um I think a student's choice to participate is sometimes based on their ability for individual attention um if I'm able to run a group of three or two versus I'm running a group of four or five there is there is a difference in terms of the amount of individual attention uh it's it's an impact I don't know if it's a negative impact it's not the same obviously if I were able to fund the whole thing in a one-on-one two-on-one that would be ideal um where you know it will have it will it will reduce on average um by about across the whole District it'll it'll it'll impact group size by an
080average of about half a student so that translates into a student or so extra in a group okay let's have Jason and then Gail just because you've had a question so let's have Jason ask a question oh yes you if you based yes you would have to fully make a motion yes do you want to hear the question um Jason's piece first or do you want to okay thank you um does the district currently offer or has it ever offered in the past um subsidized purchase or rental fees for instruments not expert in this I do know we have a gift of music program which I believe does offer financial support can you speak to that list I can we have a um an instrument rental program where students pay 105 dollars a year to
081rent one of our instruments in addition again if there's any sort of financial hardship we waive the whole annual fee for instruments thank you um I'd like to make a motion that we take the remaining money that is from the health reduction and we fund um I'm gonna say half a music position bring back half of the music position that we are reallocating and before calling for a second thank you for the motion before calling for a second is there a way in not to put you on the spot again list to see what that difference additional difference would be because again we just have the 34 000 there okay so my estimate is that that would be approximately forty six thousand um of an addition to the budget based on a 0.5 position yes
082um so you can see that the net adjustments the net amendments if we did that would be a positive twelve thousand dollars would be adding twelve thousand to the proposed budget so may I suggest Gail to rescate your motion specifying that amount there the dollar amount yeah you could say 0.5 in the amount of okay um I'd like to make a motion that we reinstate the music position of 0.5 of the music position and allocate the remaining money from the health reduction for a total of forty six thousand and three hundred and five dollars is there a second I'll suck at it discussion question is it possible to get because it depends on how much if anything else is there in terms of my vote whether for or against so is it possible to see
083what else is anybody's going to propose because you know people could do that well we have the motion and it's been seconded so we could we can vote on we have to vote on it on the motion um however I'll just pause with that so any other discussion so again the motion on the floor is to add the 0.5 Elementary instrumental music position in the amount of forty six thousand three hundred and five dollars all of those in favor say aye aye I'll go I all those opposed any abstentions okay the motion does not pass let us continue on because hearing from what you said that there are other things that may contribute to um a path forward so other pieces concerns questions suggestions to put out other suggested motions if you don't mind Lorna
084I just wanted to respond to Ethan's question regarding what the dollar value would be if we were to put the cap in of 300 unfortunately I don't have enough information to um to calculate that if we did a three sport cap which would be 525 per family we would have 233 families qualify for that as opposed to 115 and the financial impact of that would be twenty thousand six hundred and fifty dollars but unfortunately I I just don't have the numbers as to what a two sport cap would be yes you had said in the emails this today it was 115 I think that we're doing four Sports yes so I calculated 115 times 350. so that was 30. well so there would be many more families I mean there are many families where students
085play three Sports per year so rather than you know at four Sports 115 families hit the four at three Sports 233 families hit right if we were to go to a two sport cap I would think that number would increase significantly because many more families would hit a two sport cap right so it could be five or six hundred families or it could be you know we have 2 600 participants yeah so I just don't know how many would hit it so so I figured 115 families meet the four sport cap so that's 115 times 350. well currently we just don't get that that funding it we have a cap if those 115 families do not pay anything more than the four Sports no I got that I'm trying to go from four to two
086so um that'd be roughly 40 000 and then the 175 for the three sport families um to be 119 because I figured the ones unless I misunderstood I assume they're either if they're a four sport family they fit in the three is that incorrect so I guess the way I would calculate the Lost revenue is to determine how many families would hit the cap okay so I know that if 233 families hit the cap versus the 115 that's a loss of Revenue of 20 000. right unfortunately without knowing how many families would hit the two sport cap I don't know how much revenue I'm going to lose so we have a whole group of families that now are not going to pay for their third sport right and I I just don't know how many
087that is without getting that information from our athletic director and I I don't think it's um I don't think it's an even ratio because I think many more families have students who play two sports okay I I to me the numbers but I may be missing the information based on what I assumed you said so what what I may suggest and appreciate the questions however in in the moment we're bored I feel like I'm an accounting class right now in the moment but um yeah absolutely so yes um however bringing it a little higher level I in terms it seems like play to play is what you're speaking about that's the subject we're talking about and as we know that we have paid a play we know that uh two years ago we used Esser
088funding to apply to pay to play where there was no pay-to-play fee for families we know last year that we pivoted and we added half of Esser funding going towards pay to play and the other half about 218 000 pardon my numbers are not exactly correct was to address um providing supports addressing mental health and learning loss of our students and we clearly have heard that quite often it was certainly well spent and so I hear you um rightfully so bringing up the topic again in terms of moving forward because what's currently proposed in the budget is reinstating the full pay to play and thank you Liz as you summarize with the full reinstatement of pay to play that would be a hundred and seventy five thousand oh no no no no pardon me 100
08975 dollars per sport 700 per family that would be the cat that's currently where it is and so there's some discussion of how to possibly modify that are there any other thoughts or suggestions in terms of addressing or responding to uh pay to play Jason yeah thank you for um presenting that alternative now I want to see if I understand the math correctly by lowering the cap that means that there's additional support that's needed from the general fund in order to make up the difference is that right yeah um yeah yeah okay and so uh for this year the cap is at um is at a hundred and so this year families are paying 100 per Sport with a cap of 400 per family per family and then the user funds are supporting the other
09075 dollars per sport for our students okay so the Esser funds this year are supporting 218 000 to go towards pay to play sports and so if if we rolled that over to this year 218 to this year that that would maintain the the cost of of paying uh for pay to play this year yes so I think you're saying if we if the general fund uh offered a subsidy or support of 218 000 then the fee for families would remain at 100 per Sport with a 400 cap per family is that the question yeah yeah okay okay Claire um I was uh I had thought that it was 000 um for next year as far as the full funding and we were in the 400s 480. the Esser funding two years ago I believe
091was 480 000 so two years ago to fully pay it was 480. this year we did not split it evenly in half our families are paying a hundred and essers paying 75 so just proportionally that equated to 218 000. and so 480 would be the cost for next year if you funded oh if we funded all of it it would be around 480 to 500 000 but I think what Jason was saying is that we would still continue to charge families a hundred dollars the general fund would just pick up the portion that Esser is currently picking up is I believe what you were suggesting okay thank you yes I just want to make sure I'm understanding so if we maintain it at the same level then the budget next year not this year next
092year would be 215 000 more because we don't have the Esser funds right because we no longer have the answer funds to use for that if we wanted to keep the fee for our families at a hundred dollars with a 400 cap the uh general fund would have to make up that difference which is approximately two hundred and eighteen thousand dollars okay but is it are we talking about this budget are we yes okay we're just budget so we'd have to add in 218 000 to this budget correct so recognizing where we are with discussion regarding pay to play and have heard a couple of different proposals but the most recent one has been along the lines that if we were to continue what we're doing now with it being a hundred dollars per sport
093cap at 400 per family that would require adding two hundred and eighteen thousand dollars to the general fund that is okay [Applause] teammates thoughts any action steps with that what's been discussed speaking for myself I'm fine with it as long as we trying to stay below five percent which I believe I come out with 4.93 so would you like to make a motion to I will because last year we talked about trying to maintain helping the families with pay for play and I realize things change and the economy what's best with the Esser is difficult but I'll I'm willing to make that proposal as post of mine which Liz can't figure out so which is on me but I should have asked you earlier so so you think you're you're making a motion to to
094go continue what we're doing which is a hundred dollars per Sport with a cap of 400. is there a second Ed discussion so again the motion on the floor is to contribute discussion please no I just think it's important I think Sports is important we heard how important music listed families I think Sports is also important and I think even though families may qualify through the government to pay I still think it becomes a you know it's a obstacle and handicapped and I'd hate to see kids not get the chance to play because I think it's critical to give them everybody the opportunity other comments yes Jason yeah thank you um Okay so this original scheme that uh that was proposed uh was a compromise proposal that allowed for us to fund Mental Health uh
095for our youngest learners and also to support families in uh and paying for uh for sports participation um no I I believe this is you know an effort to you know stay with that proposal that I made last year and to stabilize the the cost of of participation in sports um we've seen several different kinds of of payment schemes over the last couple years and I think this is something that putting it into general fund helps to stabilize that create uh more long-term expectations for families um and you know I'm also heartened by the conversation at the Town Council their support for uh for funding Sports in our town is um is also welcomed and um you know one of the things that is that I've learned in you know last couple years and um
096looking at participation in in sports despite the variations in in payments and payment schemes is that participation has remained relatively stable uh so that suggests that that whether or not there are changes that families continue to participate and and there are many options for uh for families to to utilize uh the the waiver if they do qualify for free and reduced lunch that requires no um no in-office uh you know um sort of application it is an anonymous process and um and benefits everyone there's no questions asked I think this is you know something that continues uh the the plan that we had on the last year of course it'd be great to add um the 500 000 for everything but this is um a modest stabilization I believe sorry um I just wanna second
097what what Jason is saying um I was supposed to attend the Board of Ed um Town council meeting um but I wasn't feeling well so I actually watched it um and and I was actually pretty surprised at the Town council's support of pay to play it was really the the hottest topic of the discussion um so I do think kind of having some level of compromise where we're not asking for the full amount of pay to play but looking to kind of maintain what we've been able to offer this year um with their support um I think it would it would really benefit a lot of families in the town other comments discussion right regarding the current motion on the floor to contribute to pay to play keeping things as they currently are with a
098hundred dollars per sport 400 cat per family all of those in favor say aye aye any opposed no any abstentions the eyes have it all right other pieces to discuss suggest regarding the budget again with where we currently are we had recognized because of the health Reserve additional funding with that we have now reinstated rather no longer having the merge of the position at Smith we have also are keeping the current pay-to-play fees in term 100 per sport 400 cap per family anything else with respect to the 2023-2024 budget to suggest or comment on Ethan yes I have a proposal which actually won't cost any money um what I one of the concerns I have is I look at the budget and I look at how it impacted people this year particularly the stem and
099the music program is it's going to get worse next year we had two million dollars that rolled off of almost 2 million of Esther funds have another 4 million coming next year I think as great a job as I think Liz does in her team and I appreciate all the information I don't think doing it from a march to April time frame is sufficient time for us I think we should be more active and I'd like to request whether it's a committee or task force that we work with the administration to look for opportunities just Savings of costs as opposed to getting into mid-march in being presented with stuff I think it's incumbent upon us to take more responsibility so like to make a motion I'm not sure exactly how this fits but that we
100set up a task force with members of the board whether two or three people working with the school administration and maybe the public to look at the budget for next year um is probably starting in July as opposed to waiting until next march fully receive the motion however it is not at this time to make that motion because we're talking about the budget and specific line items dollar and cents wise I hear what you're saying in terms of process wise certainly so but I'm going to ask if we can reserve that motion for another time not at this particular time right now we didn't do it today though let's get to the budget let's budget first start with that thank you thank you any other specific suggestions uh comments regarding the proposed budget yes Jason
101yes um I'm curious about the teacher in Residence program that we have here at um at West Hartford Public Schools and as I understand it's a successful model for recruiting uh teachers from underrepresented groups and I'd like to understand if the leftover of the remaining funding from from the health reduction funds would be able to cover an additional teacher in Residence I I can't speak from the fun aspect I think what I would just tackle that from is just the capacity to actually find folks to do it so right now we I've signed a contract to have two folks come on board next year um we've been our principal has been working really hard to tap people on the shoulder to try to find someone that is a West Hartford person that wants to do
102it and unfortunately we haven't had a lot of luck right now so I've reached out to crack and crack has said that they will partner with us and send us essentially two folks from another District that would become ours again with the caveat that we would have to find and the promises that we would have two jobs for them and so I know as we've talked about and gone over the budget for this year and taking a look at the elementary world as we've seen there is a reduction in some of the Staffing at the elementary really wanted to make sure that our two candidates from this year have spots and so certainly it's something that I would be happy to talk about I just want to make sure that if we're making promises that
103our promises or promises and I'm a little concerned to say hey let's go to three one if we could find the actual three candidates but then do we have three actual Elementary openings next year um and so like I said I I I'm trying to be cautious with my uh promises to people um these days and so if that's something the board wants me to do I'm happy to look at that but like I said I think one of the key components to the program is essentially making a commitment that we will find spaces for them in our classrooms and they will be our actual teachers so if we have three for next year you know that that's uh could be a hard number to staff but again I don't know if that answers your
104question completely Jason yeah thank you um are those positions um strictly for classroom instruction yeah so right now that's what the program is doing they are opening up the opportunity to do a special ed and so I was one of the first to jump on board that so what I was told is right now they really want to Pilot that with a few districts but that we are on the wait list to get in so if we got into the wait list um I would certainly come back and and talk to Liz and certainly kind of figure out that piece because that would be something I know I've spoken to Melissa and she and I are very excited about partnering in that but at the current point in time they're saying that we're gonna have
105to wait till next year to get enrolled in that and that's really where that program stands we haven't heard any other contingencies for other positions or other disciplines would it be possible to have the teacher in Residence position um do music instruction no so that program is specific to Elementary classroom and I'll give a plug or two folks are phenomenal foreign so this is our first year with a teacher in Residence and correct yes correct okay and um those two teachers will then work in elementary and part of the reason we do it in elementary is because at the higher levels you don't know if you're going to need a science teacher or social studies where Elementary can go to any grade correct correct yeah unless you're kindergarten so really right now we're looking at
106one five is what our um K5 really but probably one five is what our thinking is okay and do you have any shortage of Mentor teachers that are interested in mentoring and having the resident work with them so right now that hasn't been the concern last year when we was our first year in the program we had a nice robust pool of folks that wanted to be mentors so we went through a pretty uh competitive selection process and um like I said I don't know that that's really the hold up though it's really looking at folks that want to go into the program um and then making sure that the following year that we have essentially two to three open classrooms for them um so I wanted to ask a question about um the equity
107director I know that Rosanna Haskins is going to leave at the end of the year and I had a question I guess Paul I would probably direct this mostly to you um if we were to hold that position open for a year and not fill it just kind of leave it open realizing that there are almost four people working in the equity office and um you know I think that the program has been fairly successful under Dr Haskins and her team I just was curious in terms of savings to the district for a year and and what your thoughts were in terms of how that might look or work because I also know that we've left other positions open when we've come to budget before in a position has sort of been open we haven't
108necessarily filled it sure so we do actually have a position that's open in the equity office when you talk about I believe it's three and a half total staff um and I know we have another position that we've held open just uh based on a person leaving mid-year so honestly given the choice between the leadership position someone who's going to set the vision for that work that's carrying forward our Equity you know our Equity Mission from a from a visioning and planning point of view to me that that would be uh the most critical um out of out of the positions there that are that are currently open within that office are you saying there's another position in that in the equity office that's also open or somebody look okay so that would leave another
109position there's a position that isn't filled and Dr Haskins position correct what's what's the plan on the position so is the position that isn't filled in the budget yes so you know if a position like for instance we have and I'll just use a different example um we have um with one of our assistant principals that had left we had we had moved someone into an assistant principal position their position currently you know in that move with our administrators we left the other position unfilled for the remainder of the year because it's it's honestly too um when someone's on coming in on an interim contract in the middle of the year um you know shifting someone out of what would more than likely be a teaching position or trying to recruit someone from another District
110mid-stream to take an interim contract is unlikely so when a position remains unfilled like that we leave that position in the contract or in the budget excuse me and we realize the savings if it rain if it remains unfilled in a situation that we are right now with our Equity I think this is a dramatically important area for us um uh I would definitely want to fill that leadership position and we wouldn't be moving on any other positions until we had the leader in place who would be able to do that so it's possible that we could um you know delay that or see where we are closer to the start of the school year in terms of in terms of how that all fills up other questions or comments points for discussion Alaska again
111all right so with that Liz pardon me all of the num thank you okay yes so with where we are now the final budget proposed budget is 190 million 124 680 that is the amount before us again before calling for the vote any other discussion points regarding the budget all right Charlotte may you please call the roll we're going to do a roll vote Dr Chang yes Mr Goldman yes Dr Harris no doctor came off yes Ms nazarella yes Dr Steinberg yes Dr Thomas fockerson yes so the budget passes at the amount seen before is 190 million 124 680. all right team thank you so very much for all that you've done to get to this point I just want to say as we wrap things up this is not a an easy process for
112anyone um those that are watching online those that are here in the audience not audience but who are here in the chambers and those that are here as we know it's not something that we just do in a one quick vote it's not that the budget is presented to us we vote that same night we've had workshops two workshops we've had discussions we've had emails we've had public comment we've had public hearing please know that we put a lot of thought into this budget and when doing so it's not just about thinking about the budget and the here and now it's recognizing that we will have to come before you again next year and we know that next year things are going to look a lot different regarding the budget we have been able to
113do certain things and make certain modifications because of Esser funding the reality is there there is no Esser funding next year and so if this was any indication of real talk real discussions it's going to be all the more next year however please do not be mistaken with however real talk or serious our conversations are are priority collectively is always to ensure we are doing the best that we can with the young people we are charged to serve and the families we are charged to serve that will always be our mission I will always be our passion and so again thank you so much again for your time and we'll see you again all right now moving on to new business and there is no new business oh can we bring up my proposal when
114you come to agenda items I'm gonna ask for it then thank you all right thank you uh no Noob is we'll we'll take a one minute pause as folks adjust themselves excuse me those are in the chambers we are still in in a meeting thank you so much now moving on to staff Communications and reports well I respectfully we'll see if there are any superintendent reports the only other uh the only other report is the next chapter bookstore will be featured on FOX 61 after the break and continues to be an amazing experience for our students in the community keep an eye out for more information on the Unified sports fling uh Spring Fling event which is uh being put together to celebrate all of our students and lastly uh as I believe our student
115had mentioned spring Sports begin on Monday uh begin on Monday and it was great seeing all of our courts and Fields and tracks teaming with activity thank you so much staff reports board discussions seeing none now moving on to routine matters the financial report seeking a motion that the Board of Education approved the financial report for the period ending February 28 2023 is there a motion I'll make the motion thank you Ethan is there a second I'll second thank you Claire discussion thank you so much Liz for being here and who is going to present our financial report to us I drew the straw all right Ethan thank you he uh broken out the funds are basically in four categories first being the general fund report which was budgeted for fiscal year 22. sorry fiscal
116year 23. this year 23 at 181.2 million uh second category of state federal grants fund at this point the school system has 17.1 million in funds entering the beginning of the fiscal year and the third category is special funds this covers eight different funds and then the fourth is a nutrition service funds which at the end of February had 3.1 million as of the February year to date number it's a general fund had year-to-date expenditures of 107.9 million dollars against the total year budget of 181.2 at this point the school administration is projecting a positive 75 000 variance to the 2023 budget uh full year projections are so that's the four year projection of 75 000. uh while positive the variance is less than 0.1 percent for the full fiscal year and the overall variance
117did not change from the December update um so the number has changed in terms of the categories salaries has a positive variance of 1.1 million the largest positive variance in the teachers assistance category line of 500 000 and 225 000 for teachers on the negative side the large experience is a paraprofessional salaries of 225 000 and the variance that had a positive increase since the December report of 405 thousand dollars benefits had a positive fifty thousand dollar variance basically the unemployment unknown unemployment tax line third categories of purchase Services which had a negative variance of a million sixty and that variance increased 460 000 since December largest category is contractual services with the negative variance of 850 000. in terms of the state and federal grants there was 11.9 expected in the expenditures for this
118year fiscal year and that'll leave 4.6 million for future or not not a science directly I got that right uh that we as I think you mentioned Lauren that we will become important when we budget for the year after next in terms of special funds the different funds are projected in the June fiscal year with 1.9 million balance which is a net increase to 35 000 from June 2022. um year-over-year changes was minimal in terms of the individual balance and then in terms of the nutrition service funds there's been a significant increase in the fund balance going from being over 1.6 million at the end of February 2022 to bound to 3.1 at the end of February 23. um and that includes an estimated 118 000 in equipment purchases as it has been discussed the
119fun is recently gone from funding all students to those in need now going back I believe to all students at them now and that's all I have thank you any discussion questions regarding what we've received concerning our financial report seeing and hearing none all of those in favor for its approval say aye aye aye opposed the abstentions the eyes have it thank you so much Ethan approval of the minutes now seeking in motion that the Board of Education approved the minutes of the regular Board of Education meeting of March 21st 2023 so moved thank you Jason is there a second second thank you Renee discussion all of those in favor say aye aye aye opposed abstentions the eyes have it continuing on any other information or discussions we do not have any now looking to
120Future business announcement to Future meeting dates the next Board of Education meeting is on Tuesday April the 18th 2023 where we'll have our regular board event meeting at seven o'clock here in room 314 followed by Tuesday May the 2nd 2023 regular Board of Education meeting seven o'clock here in room 314. Then followed again Tuesday May 16th regular Board of Education meeting seven o'clock here in room 314. is there a request for any future agenda items uh yeah I'd like to make my proposal that we set up a task force or finance committee however you want to Define it to um get more immediacy in terms of looking at the budget for next year and seeing if there's creative ways we can work with the school administration I realize they're doing it already but I think
121we should be part of the solution not be waiting at passively thank you Ethan duly noted recognize thank you and I know that there are some other recommended agenda items that have surfaced as well and now that we are at the point to pass the budget we can certainly recognize those also there's a motion well with it being what I'm suggest so I'm going to give you you choose if you make it as a motion that means it has to be voted on and a majority vote would allow it but not majority of vote means it's done or if it's a suggested future agenda item then that allows us to discuss it as an agenda item so it's your choice do you care to make it as a motion yeah I'm not really sure it's
122either um but I'm not sure what the alternative is I'm trying um the young so respecting the suggestion if you keep it as a suggested future agenda items item rather that is something that will allow us to come together to look at it as an agenda item as opposed to if you raise it as a motion and then it fits seconded and then it's open for vote if you receive majority vote then it will come before us if it does not receive majority vote at this particular time if a vote were put on to it that means it does not go anywhere and so the choice is is it's it's up to you you can leave it as a future agenda item which so far I've received it as that but if you choose to
123make it as a motion yes so um what it takes to pull the budget together and but all the information that goes into each director and person within the district and when that budget money is available is is one issue that we would need to find out okay because you can't they start in September and and so in September they start putting the budget together and then we meet multiple times in March to hear about the different things and have workshops so the sooner you want them to put it together to get in sooner there's a lot of discussion that should be had and if you keep it as an agenda item we're not going to vote right now on it um if you want to vote right now on it we're not going to
124have the background information so if I can clarify what I was looking to do wasn't look for a budget go look at where the costs are now and then have discussions are there different ways to do things so one of the things and I forget where I read it where I think it was one of the nearby town I think was Glastonbury but it could be wrong where they talked about they were able to bring some of the uh as classes in Tech the other I'm going to say it wrong with pupil Services into the Glastonbury schools and have kids instead of going out of town to have to take classes there is a better experience I assume for the students and it costs us the budget yeah and and I I assumed you guys
125we yeah Melissa talked about in her budget we extensively uh work on keeping students in our district and bringing students back from out placements for that reason alone because of the financial cost of that I I appreciate it I think that's great I just feel as members of the school board we should be more active in supporting the administration and I feel neglectful or negligent because I'm sort of sitting here reading the data and saying I'll choose column A versus column b i I just think I mean I'm fine postponing to have a discussion with everybody individually so I'm fine doing that because I think it sounds like I'll have better success but it's it's not to create extra work for them it's to be hopefully supportive and my hope is we could get more
126Community suggestions because the more Minds you get involved because I think next year is going to be a very difficult year with literally four million dollars rolling off of the Esser funds in inflation in general thank you Ethan you're yes do lead noted yes Ari I just I'm gonna give you my honest reaction to the request I think you have to have someone as the head of the ship and being on the board of ed that that some of our responsibility is being able to trust our admin and know that our superintendent is doing what's best um I feel like this request is kind of a trying to not stay in your lane type of situation we haven't had this in the past um and we've you know this district has been doing this for
127years and it just feels a little invasive and and kind of stepping outside of our Board of Ed role and trying to kind of do their job for them and that doesn't feel good to me so I wouldn't I I don't have the knowledge base nor the ideas that they do on the other hand I just think we need to be more supportive you know because we get the budget we sort of ask we ask questions but we don't make that many changes so it's basically I I just think the more eyes you have the more questions you ask year I think this year in particular there weren't a lot of changes and and we kind of looked at it as it was but that's not the case for every year there have been many
128years where the board sits and asks questions and there are issues to kind of debate and not debate and I guess for me that I feel like that's the appropriate level of involvement for a board of ed member as opposed to being a part of the process my thought is as a board of ed member the budget is presented to me I'm giving a month's opportunity to review it ask questions have the public come and and give public comment um I just there's part of me that feels like that's not staying in my Lane that's just my I'm just giving you my honest response so I thank you thank you appreciate um the suggestion and and the feedback and this is actually a great and a great reminder of us and in terms of the
129wonderful role that we have and certainly the difference between governance and management So based on the suggested agenda item we will um have this discussion at another time so but thank you for bringing but thank you for bringing it up and um with that we now will any other future agenda items and seeing hearing none all right comments from visitors anyone here care to make a comment seeing none we do have an executive session and so without objection I move that we enter executive session for the purpose of strategy and negotiation with respect to claim number l003764232 is there any objection hearing no objection we will enter executive session I would like to invite the Acting Superintendent Corporation Council assistant Corporation counsel and attorney Tom Gerard to join us in an executive session [Applause] we
130shall return thereafter just one one moment uh teammates just a moment uh thank you ma'am chair Dallas Dodge Corporation Council attorney Gerard will not be able to uh join us this evening I would suggest also inviting the assistant superintendent uh into the executive session as well duly noted thank you and also asking for the assistant superintendent to join the executive session thank you thank you all right we have returned from executive session now seeking a motion to adjourn so moved thank you Jason is there a second second thank you Ari meeting adjourned at 9 35. good now