Board of Education. Oh. No, you're good. Okay, all right, okay. Good evening, everyone. I'd like to welcome everybody to the Andover Board of Education special meeting, the budget planning seminar for today, January 3rd, 2024. I would like to any comments from the public. I don't think we have any other members of the public. All right, so, topics to be discussed. The budget building seminar ground rules. So, I just would like to just kind of go over the ground rules and the purposes, the purpose of these seminars. You know, it's to keep the board and to keep everyone informed of the budget process and what and explain what goes into every line item in the budget. I know Steve Fuss had this idea. If we've been doing it the last couple budgets seasons and what we do is we just break down the budget section by section. And we go over every line item and it's an opportunity for everyone to really understand the budget process and what goes into every line item. We're going to have these next couple Wednesdays in January. This one is today January 3rd. We have our regular board of ed meeting next week, January 10th. We're not going to discuss the budget at that meeting. And then we will have another budget seminar on the 17th, one on January 24th. And then one on January 31st. And then we will have a public meeting on February 7th.
Our goal is at that point to have a kind of a rough draft of the budget to present to anybody that comes to the meeting. So we can discuss it. And then our goal is to vote on the budget on February 14th. These are 90 minutes. We have a hard stop at 90 minutes. They are taped. All of the slides that Valerie is going to go over will be posted on the AES website under the DOE tab. They will create a new budget 2024 tab where all of this information will be there. And if anybody, any members or if any members of the public have any questions about the budget, we do have a dedicated email. That AES budget at and over elementary CT dot board. So we can anybody can send in questions regarding the budget. We'll be happy to answer them. I think that's it. Valerie, do you have anything to add with the round rules? Or did I miss anything? So that's not what I can do. So I kind of on the ground rules is to how each of these are going to go, which we discussed before, is a number one hard, hard stop at 90 minutes. And the one primary thing is we're going to stay focused on the topic that was brought up. We are not going to EBA because every topic will eventually be brought up. So the goal in order to keep make our time frame is at any point, you know, Celeste being the chair moderating meeting and say hey, that's we're going to cover that at another time. So just to keep us on topic. Yep. And actually Steve, thanks for saying that because that reminds me.
At the next meeting, we will do a brief recap of what we discussed at this meeting. And tonight's topic is where you're going to talk about curriculum. So then at the next budget seminar meeting, Valerie will just do a quick recap of what we discussed here. And then we'll go into the next topic for the next meeting. So thank you, Steve, for bringing that up. Valerie, if you're ready to go, take it away. All right. And that while you're pulling something up, I just want to make sure I didn't miss anything. We haven't gotten anything yet that we should be looking at correct. You're going to just share. Okay, awesome. All right. I remember I can't see you guys now because I'm sharing my screen. So so you'll have to interrupt if you have a question because I won't be able to see raise your hands. Okay. So okay, so this is just the first information. I mean, I'm sorry, but I can't see it. Did you already share it? I did. Does anyone? No, no, no. It's still you, Val. Hold on one sec. Zoom wants to do something weird. Hold on. Please don't let it update now. I know. That's what my did before I started.
Um. Uh. Tell me if it worked. Just do it work. No. This is Zoom. Open. It says Zoom would like to. Hold on one sec. You share it with me too. I can always do it if you want. Um. Oh, tell me if it does it now. You're good. Yep. You're looking good here. Okay. We got it. Thanks, Val. It's. Zoom wanted to do something, but I told it now. Okay. So this is the first of our informational sessions here as Celeste said. And so. The topic tonight's going to be a little bit limited. This is probably the easiest topic for the for the evening because it's it's not the largest percentage of the budget. But it's one that kind of lets everybody know. What drives the curriculum in the instruction within the building. Um. Oops. Okay. So I wanted to start with just a couple of things to kind of give kudos to what's going on here in terms of curriculum and instruction. For a while. We focused a little bit on COVID. We focused on the. The things that we had to ensure we regained after the March of 2020 closure. I want us to look just very briefly at the academic growth. It's very strong. Um, the enrollment is strong.
The staff professional development is strong and staff retention is excellent. We are really truly one of the few schools. Um, not only in our local region here, but statewide that can say that not only did people stay. But when we did have openings from 2020 until now. We were able to fill them with highly qualified people. And so I feel very grateful for the fact that our. Our staff is full and we haven't had a ton of openings during the course of the year where we had to fill in with substitutes because that really does affect. The academics that affects staff developments in making sure that staff is is prepared to implement instruction. If you look at academic growth. I know that Taylor had presented this earlier in the year. We looked at our aspect scores and although obviously we're never where we want to be exactly. We were very proud of the fact that we had about a 10% improvement. Over the year before and we do attribute this to curriculum instruction. We've had more differentiated instruction and individualized learning opportunities. Which is allowed us to take a more laser focused approach to the strategies that are utilized within. Or utilized within the classroom. But an increased number of activities for both remedial students grade level students and enrichment opportunities. And I think that this is made a big difference. All curriculum revisions and changes have been aligned to things that are scientifically based things that are evidence based. Just very thoughtful in nature that necessarily expensive just thoughtful in nature. And that's been instrumental in the success of our students. Looking at benchmark assessments and other data points have also helped to drive the instruction.
Not just focusing on one point aspect scores. Not just focusing on one grade. Not just focusing on the students of cookie cutters within the middle. Just really making sure that we look at a lot of different data points to drive the instruction. And one of the things that I'm really proud that Taylor and the teachers we have a great learning teams going on here right now. They have great level planning that occurs weekly where the second grade and third grade teachers will get together the fourth and sixth grade teachers will get together. And really make sure that we look at both you know vertical and horizontal alignment with our curriculum and instruction. Everybody kind of knows what's going on and everybody else is classroom and how they can reinforce and assist one another. If you're a third grade teacher, how can I make sure that I reinforce the second grade and the fourth grade at the same time. The grade level planning is not the only meeting that occurs.
There's data team meetings that occur weekly. There are grade level collaborative gatherings and I call them collaborative gatherings because they don't always take place in Taylor's office. Sometimes it's planning periods where teachers are elsewhere sharing and modeling. SRBI meetings which is that scientifically research based interventions. These meetings are very important to make sure that we are looking at students in meeting them where they are now but not keeping them there making sure that as soon as they need a certain benchmark they move on. And of course the PPT process for special education. Progressance last year when we look at enrollment. We're always very proud of this not that we have everything to do with who moves into the town.
But I do think that having a good school having a good program is something that does draw people into the town. You know in 2020 when I got here you know that was really the lowest enrollment for us. We were at like 174 that year and there were a lot of factors that drove that including COVID and including some people that were at that time still homeschooling. In 2021 the enrollment had grown a little bit was slow and steady to 183 and we always had that goal of 222. We hit the goal of 200 and we were holding steady there as a October November I'm sorry of this year it says October here but a couple started in November we're at 215 and we anticipate this enrollment for next year will be a solid 215 and we. Absolutely think there's a possibility when we look at KK enrollment that's that's our strongest grade level right now in terms of numbers that there's a possibility that we could be looking at 232 35 by the end of next year.
So in the long term this not only affects us but this does affect the middle and high school as well. And again we're here to try to support them as our kids move up our classes are bigger that are going to be moving up right now they're at their lowest as we were years ago back in 2020. And so the AES population of three year olds preschoolers all the way on to grade six we actually represent 60% of all of the students in pre-cated 12 now in the town of Andover. So it's great all of you know when you come into the building for events that it's so nice to see the hustle and bustle of the kids again so. So we mentioned that because we really want to look to make sure that we continue with the stellar preschool program that we have now that's going to feed into K and then one. This is likely to secure enrollment moving forward in the future. When we look at professional development professional development has been very purposeful not that it wasn't in the past but I think with Taylor and the leadership teams that we now have in the building. We look to make sure that we're not just going through the process. One of the things the Board of Education does is support our calendar and you know two years in a row now we've been very thoughtful in terms of looking at those PD days as really important to the development of the teacher who's in the classroom with the students and so.
We never want a staff member to walk away from professional development and think well that was wasted my time we want them to walk away and say I'm really excited to implement some of these things that I have learned and so we've been focusing on the science of reading. I know we mentioned this at the last meeting we talked about the waiver that we had put in when we look at the science of reading what we're looking at is those five tenants the phonics the phonemic awareness fluency comprehension and vocabulary. And just for anybody who wasn't at our last meeting when they did look at our waiver they said you know we agree that the program that you have now not only checks the box but is is a strong enough program in phonics and phonemic awareness and fluency and. The only thing they did want us to make sure we focus on moving forward is to creating a little bit more robust that the K3 level reading comprehension vocabulary so that's really where the professional development's going for the science of reading now is making sure that we make that even more robust.
For social emotional learning we are and we will continue through the 24 25 school year to focus on zones of regulation and PMT training we know that it's not necessary to train every staff member. And we want to make sure that everybody within the building because we are in essence one giant cohort we want to make sure that everybody has all of the professional development opportunities should they want them. required or mandated to have the PMT training as it and anybody else who wanted to attend we also made sure that they had that opportunity just like with CPR which isn't on your as a PD but any of the safety professional development. Of course we have staff that must have it and then we offer it to the rest of the staff and as you guys know that professional development has also spread down to grades five and six who are also CPR on first aid trained and certified. We continue to train and sensory integration and the use of our sensory resources for our kids this was a huge growth area for us to recognize that it wasn't just OT and PT and special education teachers and social workers. That could benefit from being trained in sensory integration because our classroom teachers are with a fair number of our students that may need some of those strategies on a regular basis and so that continues to evolve as we move along.
IAC accreditation is in process right now normally and historically here at AES we had the preschool that was NIAC accredited and. Through all we see as well we have guidelines but NIAC accredited and we made the decision about 18 months ago that we really wanted pre K and kindergarten to be accredited. I felt that it not only gave us a little bit of a feather to our cap in that department since really nobody in the area has a kindergarten that is accredited but I also felt that that. Further aligns in terms of curriculum and instruction to making sure that we have a pathway that we have a curriculum there are people that think well kindergarten and pre K don't they just play well actually there's play involved. And there's professional development that a lot of our staff have attended but there is a method to teaching play and instructions so.
I'm very excited about this I know that this accreditation will go through in the next year and so we will then have accredited pre K and kindergarten classes and I do believe that that is one of the reasons why you know we've gotten a lot of. Falls about what our program offers because I think we're top notch in the area. We have been and we will continue to focus on building numbers sense and computational fluency as well through the number talks math is going to be a lot more of a focus next year not that it wasn't equal to reading this year but the mandates for reading kind of made it so that we had to put that a little bit more on the front burner but math does continue in terms of professional development as well. So curriculum and instruction within the budgets it's funny because this is so very important if you ask the teachers this is one of the most important things for them on a daily basis.
However, it really is the smallest portion it's less than one percent of our overall budget the current total is roughly about twenty nine thousand dollars spent on a curriculum and instruction not on staff not on salaries directly on just curriculum instruction and when we talk about those kinds of expenditures that are related directly and solely to curriculum and instruction. These are things like manipulatives in a math class for example the things that they use to help them learn a strategy consumables consumables mean things that you use like a workbook. That's the simplest form and then you would have to replace so they are utilized in this particular unit or this particular budget year calendar year school year and then they need to be replaced. new initiatives that are brought about enrichment opportunities books content specific supplies science supplies ELA supplies math supplies fees for student participation in curriculum related activities. That that come up for example we do have a fee that's associated a student fee that's associated when are musicians with music attends the conference and perform there there's a fee that we pay for that.
So this area is also what of the reasons why we're looking at only about twenty nine thousand currently is because this is the area that's also most likely. In my opinion anyways to be supplementally supported by state grants by student fundraisers and activity funds by the PTSA where they will oftentimes speak directly to the teachers and say kind of what you guys need for your classroom. It's usually something that falls under curriculum and instruction by parents usually through donations hey we've got these extra you know pencils and pens and we've got things of that nature that we thought maybe could use in the classroom that are children of grown out of. And through specific grants like the right to read grant which is what we currently have been given to implement a new reading program to to use with our existing program. So this grant for example I'm going to show you two of them I have the grant management system and this shows you FY 2024 it was received for the fiscal year 2023 and ARPA are the funds.
The grant is called right to read and we were allocated thirteen thousand to put toward whatever new program it is that we do invest to further that reading comprehension component and that vocabulary component. And I show you this because I also want you to know that ARPA S sir they have been God sends for us in the last few years since COVID in terms of outside funding sources and so as everybody probably knows they are drying up soon and another 12 months from now they'll all be gone. And so we will have to look again at our curriculum and instruction at the end of 2024 25 school year and that will be one area that this conversation that we're having will be very different next year. It won't be that it's twenty nine thousand dollars and we don't necessarily need to invest in in that going forward so this is what we do have to spend specifically for reading that's the other reason I put this one on the screen is it's the small town right to read and the ARPA right to read so.
If we utilize this money for the approved reading programs then they will reimburse that expense but it can't be used for anything else and so sometimes I think that's a misnomer for people as well they're like well if you have all these grants well they're very specifically earmarked like this one is it's right to read small town grant and it's a reimbursement and so we're confident that the new reading program will be covered under this. And so we're not going to be putting that as a suggestion in the budget but I just kind of wanted to share with you and anybody else who winds up watching this that they are very specific and earmarked.
So if somebody was looking at our budget and they're looking at our monthly financials they'll notice numbers the notice numbers on the side and any newcomer will look and say or all these numbers for so you'll notice that all of our categories are objects in our functions they all start with zero zero two that's not going to change regardless of what our expenditure is. The next line there the 108 the 610 the 611 that tells you what the object is and the tonight we're going to be looking specifically at curriculum and instruction well there's not one section of the budget that says curriculum and instruction and it's all listed right there. Those expenditures are kind of peppered throughout the budget in different places and you can find some of those $29,000 worth of expenses in each of the categories that I have listed there you may find one in 108 one in 610 I'm going to show you them in a moment but they'll be peppered throughout. Here's an example of when Terry gives us the monthly report the one that comes on two pages. This is what I'm talking about you'll see it starts with zero zero two and I highlighted what one oh wait is when you look at one oh wait it says extra curricular you'll see that that budget line item for the adopted budget is $6100. The $6100 is actually contractually I know this one's coming from the past because on the financial expenditure report underneath extra curricular when it's expanded it says coaching and clubs.
And I remember a citizen saying coaching let you guys have sports is a different kind of coaching it's a curriculum and instruction type of coaching of others so it's not sports related. But it is extra curricular now one of the reasons why we've been very lucky as to not have to increase this even though there are clubs and activities that are by contract and the teachers contract that we have to offer for example yearbook. Is because we've had the after school program last year in this year and because we've had the after school program we offer some extra curriculars that were covered by the grants this line if we put everything by contract in here two years ago I believe it was 12,000 and as we got.
Were the recipients of different revenue sources for grants and we were able to have them legitimately covered by the grant we were able to reduce this I mentioned that because if there is no after school funding after next year this may be another category that would be affected by that because right now it's being positively affected by the revenue source. You look down a little further you'll see general supplies which as Celeste mentioned at the beginning the general portion of it will be broken down a little bit further in one of the other topics but for our purposes we look at that six 10 and when we look at six 10 we just separated out into. What effects curriculum and instruction right now and if we look into that section it's not really big at all we have world language supplies we have supplies for. the the PE for the music for the arch for third grade fourth grade fifth grade it's not ideal and Terry and I talked about this and but even before Terry was here sharing I had talked about this. This budget has looked the same for a number of years and a lot of those categories probably should be merged together. Because it's not often that we buy something for let's say third grade in the sum of $300 where we're not also buying it for another grade especially for example since we have a two three combination right now so we probably could put all of the curriculum and instruction general supplies in one line. and going forward but the overall expenditure itself is not a large one as you can see the only thing that we do separate out if you were to look at this section and I've highlighted in a yellow here to make it easier.
but the only thing that we do separate out which is also somewhat antiquated is we separate out books so ELA books and periodicals science books and periodicals. those are separated out those textbooks we probably don't even have to do that anymore it's just always been done that way moving forward that would be something that I know Terry and I are going to look at all and all again we're talking about about 3000 dollars for content area. for the overall there. I've included books and periodicals in this line for reasons 640 there that normally would fall just simply under library but I did want to point out and mention once again that. this is the category where we tend to have other revenue sources and I know that PTA board of Ed members parents have all worked together with us. to do the book fairs and so very often times there's money that comes in from the book fair some of it goes to PTA and often times the library is the recipient of some of the donations of those books.
and so it's worked out that we've been able to do some funding but there's only fifteen hundred dollars currently in the budget which doesn't buy a whole lot but you know right now it's working solely because we have the other revenue sources. so we'll take a quick look here and then as I go through real quick here the different topics in terms of curriculum I know the tailories on so when we're done with the next few slides if anybody has specific questions related to each of the content areas I'm sure she'll be able to answer them for you. when we look at our current reading curriculum we have the core reading program this is that core that due to the science of reading in the mandates we will have to choose. one major umbrella we will still be able to supplement with what we currently use which is foundations for the K through three and we're focusing on K three here simply because that's the mandate. we utilize heggardy as a supplemental approach for K one we do also have a variety of interventions and SRBI strategies. your children may be using the U.S. ally they may be using O.G. or in going ham they may be using curriculum that's related to Wilson. and word connections not every child in the building is utilizing those interventions in SRBI strategies but foundations and heggardy would be supplemental to K through three.
where we are in this process now the board of ed will be hearing much more about in the coming months but we're looking at piloting. one of the ones from the approved programs list and I know that Taylor and that team have been working diligently right now to try to figure out which one's best for us. maybe it's wonders that's best for us maybe it's bookworms that's best for us you know maybe it's integrating that's best for us. we're looking at neighboring communities that are a little bit like us not only demographically but in terms of our student achievement. and trying to figure out which one will be best for us but again once they figure out which one we want to pilot any of the materials that need to be purchased for this for just for reading. to be able to be funded through that ARPA right to read rant. additional resources that we do pay for story works Lexi and Razz Kids and I will say a little you know Kudo there to Castina and to Mrs. Carabone they work with Taylor every year to revisit at the end of a year which resources are being utilized. which you resources do teachers prefer which resources do students prefer and over the past few years sometimes they say you know what this one is no longer serving our need so we don't renew. and that comes off or they would prefer to use this and so we supplement with that so in some schools unfortunately they they get into something like Lexi and they say we're going to keep it forever.
and that really isn't the way the process works here when we reevaluate the curriculum is all of those additional supplemental materials are looked at on a regular basis as well. and decided whether or not they're useful just like years ago they had newspaper subscriptions for every classroom well it's the kids operating newspapers they got rid of. the assessments it's the same process um we look at what serves the needs of our students in terms of the assessments we currently have I ready. we have FNP Fantes and Penel we have IDI they can't afford inventory dibbles site words in unit assessments and the data then. is examined from the assessments at those meetings that I mentioned earlier and the teachers in the leadership team can look at you know what would we like to continue to use this useful moving forward and what do we maybe need to revisit.
Dibbles for example is one of the assessments that is approved through our reading grant and so what we know we have to order for dibbles for the 2425 school year will be ordered through that grant so that's another thing that we had to take into consideration when we figured out what would we need to add in this category and dibbles wasn't one of them because we have a funding source for that. the writing curriculum the core writing program the new program will be language arts. they currently use TC units of study this is going to be something that will be revisited as the new reading curriculum is piloted to see if there's something else that maybe better fits the five tenets that we spoke about in reading.
and in the writing curriculum these patterns of power and words their way and they do also use the I ready and I demand assessments in writing. that curriculum and again this will be one probably more heavily visited in another 18 months once the implementation of the new. sites of reading approved programs comes in but K one uses the common course standards. grades two and three uses illustrative math which is fairly new this had been piloted only recently and it seems to be something that is working. and grades four through six day last year this is the last year of goal math. but the plan moving forward for 2425 school year is to also take the illustrative math and move it up so would not just be a two three program that math program would move all the way up through six it seems to be something that is working and for the needs of our students. just like with reading earlier there are interventions for students as well as SRBI instruction so just like we talked about haggardy and we talked about some of the other supplemental materials those will follow suit in math there are things that are used in addition to illustrative math. social studies follow the NGSS standards there's only two grades only one in this school the others the middle school that are tested currently on science so. there is a little bit more leeway in terms of the curriculum for science and social studies is not a tested content area. but there are new standards that are approved by the state board of education recently in social studies and as soon as we are given them.
they will be used to build more effective social studies curriculum here we will have to refine what we currently use were aware of that but that's going to take place during the next school year when we really can look at the meat. what's the new social studies standards are what's different what's the same and the resources I'm sure the additional resources will continue to be used the scholastic news the great pop in the mystery science they seem to be very popular year after year but we may wind up having to integrate some newer materials if what we're currently using is not as closely aligned to those new social studies standards but that'll be down the pipe just a little bit. additionally let's not forget everything else that falls under curriculum and instruction all of our students received PE instruction this year and they will of course next year.
health we have health at all of our grade levels we have music art enrichment we still have continued with the sign language that we started in 2020 as an enrichment program. Spanish is offered to students in grades two to six they do have library and all the students have access to all the resources in the library. a fair amount of the resources for library are also integrated into our four five six cohorts as. a lot of us a wide's up working with those students and research projects and things of that nature the maker space and stem is embedded programming into four five six wing right now and the other students still have access and are able to utilize. and so the units that take place at the lower grade levels under four still a car on a regular basis and again maker space and stem have been the recipients this year of some of the materials that were utilized we do a lot with science and social studies.
and the after school programs maker space and stem you guys know Miss Hayson is one of our most popular after school science programs but we also have Miss Frazier that's been doing some programming after school and so. we don't return that stuff when the after school program is over it stays here so again there are some things that were very grateful we've been able to acquire as a result of the enrichment activities that we have after school that will remain here and be utilized next school year within the maker space and stem classroom. and then of course access to technology at one point everybody at Chromebooks and we still have Chromebooks but we've been integrating as revenue sources have allowed us to iPads.
I into the building there are you know three locations within the school right now that utilize them on a fairly regular basis and we have the robots with maker space and stem and with some of the programming that Miss Frazier does and other tech resources so. as those grants have come up we've absolutely taken advantage of them and use them to make sure that we had assets that we could utilize within the school in the future. so how are curriculum and instruction communicated to the family how is progress shared I think this is really important since I know this is you know one of the goals and the responsibilities of the board of education as well. I would not ever want anyone to look at what we just talked about and say no idea what goes on in there so this past year we really made sure that we started to do a lot more with something called seesaw and sending messages home to parents but we do have a variety of methods that we utilize. This can access student achievement daily through interactions with the teachers and the staff. We have other methods parent teacher conferences communication through school messenger here within the building the utilization of the student information system which is power school.
This seesaw emails are school website social media and phone messages so I think that we are really moving in the right direction on making sure that we keep up with the changing needs of all of the families side seesaw is probably the newest in the most effective this this year because you can send more than just right messages it allows you to send other things as well. So all of the other enrichment programs that have been you know so popular this year that I know the board has a lot of parents on the board and some of the other people who may watch this will say oh yeah we've really loved those this year those are grand fund grant funded and they will end the summer of 2024. We're going to continue to seek other sources of revenue to continue some of those extra programming. Hamden Haad about whether or not we build this into the general fund but I'm just not certain where we would put that in terms of a line item without knowing exactly what it is we're purchasing it's hard to say what we're going to build in a couple of thousand dollars to do enrichment programs if we don't have a plan. So I've just hedging my bets that there will be other great opportunities when these do dry up will not affect our curriculum and instruction they would be the enrichment activities that we're currently experiencing now.
As Celeste said at the beginning we have utilized once again the email address that we had last year in the year before AES budget. Any questions or things that the public would like to know that they can't find within each presentation. This is an email that I do check on a regular basis and I will be forwarding it to the board. If there are any we got one last year some hoping the share to get two or more now be wonderful. So any questions from any of the board members. I have a question if the what is curriculum coaching of others. You mean like in that line item where it's said extra curriculars. So because we don't have sports teams so there's no coaching so what what is the curriculum coaching of others. And that's actually a question every year that someone asks so in the teachers contract for example if a teacher attends professional development. And then they come back into the school community and they share it by contract there's a set rate that they're paid. We can't just say you know hey you want to stay after and share this with the crowd. Their union contract and most union contracts do for teachers so I don't want anybody to just think it's an oddity says you know what if Taylor were to say that was a great workshop I'd love for you to share it with the staff. That person would prepare and be the coach for the rest of the school I'm not particular topic and their time would be compensated and there's a rate in the teachers contract that says this is what they get paid and it's not an exorbitant amount but that is why that's in there.
So less because anybody who does union contracts you know should should be aware that if there's something by contract that needs to be offered it has to be in here. We've planned for it because we know that it could happen that number as I said it was 12,000 a few years ago and we were finding that more staff or attending some of the professional development more of the. Union clubs that existed after school were actually taking place in our offer school programs so that's all it is. Celeste is just simply not easy in there and that does happen and you know we've been fortunate that we have had some staff that have come back just with this fantastic experience at a professional development opportunity and said it to Taylor I want to share it and if they share it then they're compensated for their presentation.
Okay, thank you. I've got a couple of no one's. Yep, go ahead Steve. All right. To start when I looked at all the line items so there were a total of 11 different objects that you brought up. Currently when I looked at the budget as of the end of November, seven of the 11 or less and two percent in combat. So as we budget ahead. And out of the seven four of them have zero in conferences so we're here we are halfway through the year. We're getting ready to plan next year's budget and I get there not big items, but how do we know how much we're expending and what how to plan for next year. When do those get used because I saw even the previous year. As of June and the previous year's budget for of the 11 ended up with zero percent in conferences so. Yep, so Steve that's a great let me start with that one because that's a great question. Just like for example, if you were to look at what oh nine which is summer school.
When the budget fiscal year starts in July. We come to our August meeting and it says 100% spent used and everybody goes, what how could you be 100% used in that line and we haven't even gone back to school yet because it was summer school. When we look at a lot of these Steve because it's curriculum instruction and it's. Planning ahead for the next school year it's consumables that's manipulative since those supplies for the classroom. They won't be ordered until the spring. We haven't even gotten to that season yet because we want to know did fundations work this year like it has for the past three years. If so, then as we get closer to the end of the school year, we order it for the following year. We wouldn't want to order it in November because what happens if in December Taylor gets some assessment results and says, you know what this isn't working for us anymore. So because Steve and it's not a lot of money, but because it's basically supplies to teach with. Because it's curriculum supplies we do have to wait that is one that we're probably not going to use a lot of until we get later in the school year. So I'm glad you brought that up so that people could understand that that one is not one that's going to be continuous on a month to month basis.
It's going to be purchased all at one time. And it looks like that time is typically the end of the school year is that. It is, yeah, because remember teachers aren't here over the summer. By contract, we say, please, go take a break. And so we make that assessment usually we start to look in like February and March. We look at we've got about three quarters of the year done. We look and see. By then we also know a little bit better than make up of the classes. Well, I have 25 kids in that grade or well, I have 13 kids in that grade so that we know really what we're placing that order what do we need. And that would be when they'd be ordered so that they're ordered oftentimes they don't come in in June because every other school district is already known as well. So they'll come in, you know, during the course of the summer, but they need to be ordered by the end of the year. So, yeah, those would be the line items. This would be the 29,000 Steve definitely for sure that you really can't start to take a very effective look at what it is you want to continue into the next year until about February. And my current.
Assuming this is one of the ones you're talking about where we almost from a variability standpoint in an art level being able to discern how much third grade versus fifth grade supply. You need when you but you budgeted 500 and 200 would these be ones that you're talking about possibly might make sense to combine and just say classroom supplies so you can give us a number that's more steady. As I said, if we buy you know an interreding if we buy a wonders if we buy a bookworms we're going to place that order for K to three. And so, you know, absolutely now again the reason here Steve why this actually you know at the end of the year. What saved us is in this department we would have been anticipating right now how many thousands of dollars is it going to cost us the buy a new program but we have the grant. And so right now we know that what's in here right now is looking very good it's looking very steady. Terry of Taylor myself of sat down and had a conversation and we're like what's the variability here do we think that this is going to increase significantly in your right it's 29,000 but do we think it's going to increase significantly from next year. And this might be spoiler alert probably the only section that I can confidently say going into these budgets workshops informational workshops that I feel very confident that we will be able to. Make sure that we get all of the curriculum and instruction. Needs and supplies either through the rest of the grants that we have now that are expiring at the end of the year or through what we have currently in the budget.
All right so and one of the other things you touched based on earlier, but I'm trying to see where it's covered in here was the current accreditation of the kindergarten through NIAC. Is that going to be so number one, can you explain if there was a cost associated with that and then what the benefits are the offsets and calls. Yep so. There's a very small cost for the accreditation process and we would have had to do it anyways so that was already in our. Pre-K thought process are our costs there and as you know you don't see pre-K normally in here because pre-K has traditionally when we had the the couple classrooms was traditionally funded through. Our smart start grant through our school readiness grant and through our tuition and as you know from the meetings that we've talked about that's the explosive grade right now, which we're very happy about in terms of enrollment. It's not going to double in cost for us to go through the accreditation process because when they come here and they accredited us.
They go through our classrooms, they don't say we're going to charge a double in an accreditation fee because you now have one more room for us to look at. So in terms of that cost on Steve, I mean, it isn't significant enough for us to worry about that now were there other costs and will be other costs in the future sure. Conversation I had had with Taylor for example, we were looking at when they do do an accreditation. Your room has to look a certain way in kindergarten if you're going to be kindergarten accredited you have guidelines for example, I'll give you one that sounds boring to other people but bear with me I don't think it's boring. When you walk into a preschool room you have to be able to see while you're little guys and so the furniture height has specific requirements you have to be able to see over the furniture so that you can see your students in the room. Some of the kindergarten rooms have had furniture that would be too high a bookshelf for example, that's too high. So what Taylor's been doing and she's had a lot of assistance and so I credit everybody in the downstairs with this is as part of our self evaluation that's what they do is they go downstairs and they look through the room and they say,
what do we have that meets the guidelines what do we not have that we have to make sure we get now we do have a few things that will need to be purchased there. However, when we look at what our grants are that we have currently available to us and what we will have next year. We do think that some of those changes that need to occur to make sure that our kindergarten rooms also meet the guidelines for accreditation. It wouldn't be significant enough for us to have to put in the general fund going into the 2425 year because we have other sources now we do know that there's a possibility that with the explosion we could wind up in a year with four preschool rooms. If that happens Steve that would definitely be a conversation for 25 where we say no longer can it be sufficient there's just too many classrooms and so that would definitely be something but for this year. We're not looking at significant enough increases over and above what revenue sources we have available for pre king k the pre king k but so what other than maybe just. I understand I guess it's good but for the layman's up to myself what is NIAC accreditation how does that make this district in kind of in the kindergarten level better like why how do we get or whatever investment is or long term investment. So it gives families a guideline you know it's kind of like when you go to a doctor and everyone says yep I would doctor and you're like okay like what makes you better than everybody else and they really start to tell their credentials which they should.
They should say well I've done this surgery Steve a hundred times you know and a hundred out of a hundred times I've done it successfully. What it does is it allows families to be able to see that there have been a set of guidelines that have been established by the office of early childhood OEC that there is a set of guidelines that have been clearly established by NIAC that says. We look at your curriculum we don't just say. What do you do there we say what do you do there and these are the things that we think are important in the growth in the development of three year old four year olds and five year olds this is what we'd like to see in your curriculum and for you to be NIAC accredited you have to prove to them. You said why this make us better. We actually had a family that was looking at our program and the one of the parents said you know I really just I just want my child to play I want them to have that experience in preschool where they just play. And the other parents said I am really interested in having my child play but I'd also like them to learn how can you show us that you're meeting them both of our our needs. And we were able to say well here is what NIAC accreditation is and here are the guidelines we need to make sure that the students are. Learning about health and hygiene making sure the students play areas for example include if you walk into any of these preschools I'd love to take you on a walk.
Or kindergarten you walk in and you go this looks like the room next door and it does look like the room next door because there's an area for dramatic play. There's an area that meets the needs of science experimentations there's a math area there's a writing area there's a reading nook there's an art nook. And so anybody who thinks that the preschool and the kindergarten curriculum in our building it's not it's going to be not accredited is not very definitive it is they absolutely are planning out play time in these areas and what that looks like. Taylor do you have anything that you want to add to that because I know that she is needy maybe even head deep right now into the accreditation so what did I miss. I mean you said so much I just wanted to offer two things the state is really working to incentivize incentivize districts to become NIAC accredited because the standard is so high so they actually did just confirm that they're covering the cost the fee for accreditation for districts so that's right for us this year since that's is our year. The other thing I will just say everything Val said is true on the research and developmentally appropriate but anecdotally even this year in our current kindergarten and some of the the big shifts we've made from the NIAC guidelines in the research we already have just seen a big impact in our classrooms so.
The kids are really engaged in this developmentally appropriate play but as Val said making tremendous growth academically too because it's engaging. It's just really at their level and I think we even had a family it said can we pay tuition to stay in kindergarten if they're connected. So I think they're just seeing this this also this crossover between pre-K and K can be very easy for pre-K to feel like a separate entity because it's. It feels different curriculum wise but this really kind of builds our lower school our pre-KK and grade one even though there's not a NIAC accreditation for grade one it carries over so our lower school feels very connected. So it's a lot of work but we're seeing the benefits for sure. Thanks, Taylor. Thank you. Sorry can I follow up on Steve's question a little bit and I'm not saying. From an outside or looking in right what you're saying is great and the curriculum sounds awesome right however what I would want to know as a parent is what Steve I think was getting it was that return on your investment. How does when you can institute that curriculum without accreditation so how does that accreditation make.
The school district scores better or like what what is the data based evidence that tells me that this is important. Sure so we don't have standardized testing in kindergarten rates so I can't I can't tell you that. The standardized scores are greater will we hopefully see as the kids move on and increase continue to increase in our in our standardized scores but. One of the pieces of NIAC is accountability and so I think you know we can yes implement the program and we can do this curriculum but what NIAC does is says but you have to do it to a standard that's up here all the time and prove it. And that's important for us because there are a million details right that we deal with in a school teachers data day but I think the accountability piece we build large portfolios they come and visit. We also are in a grant with EastCon our risk and they come monthly to support our pre-KNK now so we get additional professional development support because we're going through NIAC which we wouldn't if we weren't in that process so it benefits our teachers as well because they're continuing to be in.
You know cohorts with other districts that are in this process so it builds their capacity and again that accountability to high quality instruction with what's developmentally appropriate. And I think as the state continues to provide mandates mandates they're also talking about play base learning and putting that into law and so there's a lot of pieces that we want to be ahead of the curve and really is knowledgeable as possible. Because it's very different than teaching fifth and sixth grade and teachers we remember are certified often a wide range of grade levels so really providing more specific. Professional development but also that standard of instruction is is important to us and I think important to the board. Well now that that you got to my answer without the availability of development the availability of grants that wouldn't otherwise be available to me would be return on investments. I think that's the type of thing that we would want to express as important and happiness.
Any other I'm sorry Steve are you if you have any more questions. I think I'm good. Thanks. Okay. Thank you Taylor for the explanation appreciate it. Does anybody else have any questions I don't see any any other board members have any questions for Val or for Taylor on this particular section. I did have one other. Looking at the time can we pull up the account ideas again I just wanted to. Have that to have Val or can you go back and share your screen. Or put pace them in the chat I'm just certainly tired with the last expenditure or and I'm. I can't remember like 15 numbers like that.
No no that's good that's that's why we're doing these so is this which which. Okay. Yep you'll find them in one or eight six ten six eleven twelve thirteen fourteen six forty six forty one forty two forty four and eight ten. And it's not all of them within those sections free but it is fair number of them. Okay. Does that help there could be other. Yes. Especially under the supplies section because that includes all of the general supplies so you'll see there's forty thousand dollars worth of supplies in there but they're not all curriculum and instruction. All right. You could read you do have any other. No I'm good right now you're good okay. Anybody else is anybody else have any other questions for Val or your for Taylor. Okay. None I'm hearing none I don't see any other. Any members of the public so we don't have any buddy there. Thank you Val thank you Taylor I appreciate it unless anybody has. Anything else I could get a. Do I need a motion to adjourn for this one. This is a special meeting. I don't think officially but go ahead. All right. Let me do. Okay. Thanks Steve. All right.
Good. Caitlin will second and I'm all in favor. All right. All right. Awesome. All right. Thanks everyone.