So it's an a lot of them and we'll probably meeting the order. So this is the regular meeting for the Board of Education on March 11. We should do the five different pieces. Can we get this? Yeah, you guys want to lead us? No, no. Sorry. I thought it was a lie. I was a lie. I think it was a matter of fact. And it should be very public for which it stands. Planation on your own. In a little bit of pain from the others as well. We need to have kids more often. That was really robust. Thank you. We will start out with comments from the public.
I'm just a reminder. If you're coming on something on tonight's agenda, and less than three minutes. You. Oh, so. Do you have any public comments for us? Yes. Do you have any public comments for us? Yes. Do you have any public comments for us? No. No. Okay. Are my. We can hear you once. Hold on. Your. Your. Your. Okay. Yes. Can you hear me now? Can. I was on the board of edging. I mean on the board of finance for a number of years. And at the time. A gentleman named Annie Managia was the part time superintendent. And he worked very well to. Make the school the best that it could be without. Overtaxing the people in town. He cared about the people in the end over as well. And every year he would come with a very transparent reason. A little budget. And he never had a problem passing it. And then at the end of the year. Once all the budgets, you know, were closed out.
He would end up giving me back the town. Some money because he had managed to get grants. And that amount of money went into the town's. coffers to help. Lower the cost of a new, you know, a later budget. So because it was usually it two years away. And I don't understand why every year we come up with this budget. That's 10 percent. 11 percent. We're all getting older. I mean, I've been here for almost 60 years. And as we get older, we have a lot less income. And I think there's a lot of older people in this town. And we need to be thinking about, you know, the economy and everything. You can't just keep dumping more money on us. And more taxes and more taxes. I think that that needs to be done. It's been done in the past. It can be done in the future. We don't have 100 to $200,000 a year income coming in. And I think everybody should. Think about that. Okay. Thank you. On Diane Grinier. I'm all set. Thank you very much. I'm here to listen. Thank you all for your time. Thank you. I'm all set. Thank you. Can you tell them? No comment at this time. Thank you. Jenny Morrell. Nothing for me. Thank you. Got play out. Yeah. I was going to say nothing for me. But I just wanted to point out that I was on the board of ed during that time.
And the manager. And we did have a couple times where you had a hard time passing budgets. And we were in a populate a time of falling student population. A lot easier to keep a budget under control when you have less to do. But if you are considered to deal with. It's a very different situation now and I understand that. If I read the numbers right. The board of ed budget has increased only 5% total over the last decade. Right. That sounds astounding to me. So this year. The. That bill is coming to us. What it sounds like to me. But. Okay. That's it. Mostly you're listening. Thank you. Allie. Um. I'm all set at this time. Thank you. Amanda. I'm all set at this time. Thank you. I'm all set at this time. Thank you. I'm all set at this time. Thank you. Yes. You know. And some of those. You know. This. No. I need you to get us on make a public having. No. No. No. No. Amazing. So we'll move on. Second communication. Um. I do have two to share on the record. Um specifically with questions regarding this we burned with its contact and the other one was from Liz Partridge expressing for unhappiness with the budget that was presented before if I answer on the script. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Other communication? Yes. I didn't want to do that. We did also receive a letter from the board clerk, Dawn Lonely, that this will be her last meeting. She does have other obligations and the meetings were getting a bit long and so that was difficult. So she is no longer going to be the board clerk for us or for ram. So thank you, Dawn, for having served us and that is posted.
So if anybody is interested, that will be available for next month. Hopefully. Thank you, Dawn. Yeah. Thank you. That was Shannon. Then the notes. And I guess there is one of our communication which has had all three boards on it. There have been letters back and forth from the pound attorney to our board and then from our board's attorney to the pound attorney several times. Does anyone have other communications? Okay. I will move on to celebration. We do have some celebration tonight, so hold on one second as nice to ask you to share. Well she is getting that going. It is also board of education, appreciation month, March is always board of ad appreciation. So you will see small thank you in front of you to reach the board members and you know we value and appreciate as a school of what board of education members do and give up their time to do during the course of the year. So thank you. So we've heard we talk about the invention convention as we've been moving across but we are very excited tonight that we have our three and over elementary school finalists. So before I introduce them to you, just give you a little bit of background. This is our fourth year participating in the invention convention, which has been exciting four years ago. This was something that Val had seen in other places and was passionate about that this is going to be good for our kids and she was very craft. So right now how we ran it this year and in last year all of our fourth grade students participate as part of their curriculum. So they work on this project in class and go through the engineering process and the
science and the math and then there are students who work on this project in school and K3 as part of an enrichment program and then there are also independent inventors those that participate at home with families and then eventually put their projects into our shop. So all different ways that kids participate. A few pictures. Yeah, some strategic kids picked it's fine. So we have at the school our first round where the kids in the other kids in our school get to come and visit the inventors and get to see their projects and then we have judges that come in that get to study each and they interview the kiddos and ask about their inventions. And then this year was new so we sent 10 inventors to ram so we did a regional, with he written a marble they also participated in the invention convention. So we had 10 students who then moved to the ram we also had another group of eight students who were honored for various awards, creativity, posters, projects for their work. So lots of celebrations and then so then they went to the semi-finals at ram. Each district said 10 and what was really cool is ram not only brought in judges but they also had student groups that were part of facilitating this, planning it, running it, I'm
totally blanking on the name of that organization, running that club that does it. Yes, national technology on our society, it's their first year at ram, I think they're just starting that on our society so that was exciting when we were kind of their first project and certainly as I've mentioned our fourth grade teachers do a lot of the planning and then Castina kind of oversees the rest of the kiddos on the building level and then brought us into the semi-final world. So we're the 10 chosen here based on the judges here, yeah. Yes, the judging was here but the judges were not all internal, right, but the judges came in and the 10 were chosen from that correcting and then those 10 went to ram and then he
was sent 10 and we all sent equal, we all got the same amount of the the invention convention the state level so that's how many finals we got, we all had the same amount so it really worked out. It's based on how many kids participate. We had 63 participants a lot, a massive amount was all that great. So then you can see at ram so they did similar where they set up their projects and they present and answer those questions for the judges and here I introduce you these where our finalists and our top three people will go to the state invention convention so we're congratulating Maggie Weston and Mason and they're going to get to present tonight to you
their invention and so you get a little sense of what her work they did. So ram and the team, all the elementary schools did a really great job working together to put on this event. That's not, I'm not going to answer one step first and then I know what nobody likes to volunteer but Maggie is ready to go girl. So please welcome Maggie as she present a fourth grade of you. For invention the prom saver. So my invention is called the prom saver. It is a prom look sit, a prom look case that will make sure that you don't drop losers at your prom look and a lot of people lose in drop that prom look. The issue I have been having is that so usually physically in my class she says I can't find my prom look is not in the prom look okay and this is oh no I forgot it somewhere and they don't know where it is. So you may have to use a back up one and that just makes it stressful because you don't know which back up ones were working and then so that's one part of my invention nonsense. It's a tracking device. So it would be a tracking device to make sure that you don't lose it by. So probably like
down on the button or on your phone or something and you shouldn't enter the green or make a noise and then you have kind of make a map of your school and jump for something. So let's say you left your comic in the library. So I'm all the way upstairs in the classroom so my teacher would press a button and then show where it was and I would show the truth if this top row or bottom row it would be in the library. So now I walk all the way down to the library and back my prom look. So that's how my chapter does and then what I do for a cardboard from the base is because we learn to do an engine tune project. Usually a cardboard in it because we and then on something the cardboard tends down but then when you take it off it pops back up. So I thought cardboard would be a good base because if it falls it would just move back up and if you were material hard to fall enough, you'll see the bubble wrap pop and the bubble wrap is making sure that since if you drop it really hard
you know if okay it went to the bubble wrap now it might actually be broken and then the the fabric here is that if you get a lot of full packing for your class if I go up to sewing this the fabric would come in different colors and shades because if let's say your kit students is missing their prom look and they keep it in their case at all times you would know which case is yours by the fabric colors and you would also be like I could make these velcro stickers kind of twing with them on to where they're stickers that come on and off and where you can make it your own personal and my mom had the idea of having the pocket for your headphones for example I would be to use it for is if I had to put on some
music class I need to be my comb up down my headphones and my instrument so then I would have to I'm like oh no I got my instrument this hand did I got my comb up in this hand then I have something to say I don't have three to do it so you put your comb up in and you can slide in the inside you can come look up here and then you would figure out front and here and then you will pull the other one with your instrument or books if let's say for library and then one of my favorite things about this origin is that since that these are really loose but not too loose that if you see many of it all times you can still charge your comb look it there would be kind of handle so that's nice yeah would I do too for this but actual charging device and I was thinking of doing a binder so it would be like more secure surface and then put more of a wrap on in fabric and still do a handle but I was also thinking of making an actual backpack kind of like if the preschooler has a tablet they want to use they could do that excellent work mate so you can see they also work through iteration so they get a lot of questions about what would you change where did you start out of this develop over time excellent work mate we're so excited for you to represent us at the state level in
they yeah all right I believe we're holding Mr. Weston Latestia's next so Weston is a second creator here in at the number elementary school and worked on his invention as an independent inventor and we're very proud of his work all right Weston taken away and tell us about what you invented for Weston turned to me so I can see what was the problem well that my I wanted to have a car on top of my finger anyone's my dad and for the bandie on in the next day it just came off and then I kind of got another one on and then this came off and told us you but so interesting I think it was my dad so that was a big problem what did you invent to solve it would take up landing it it just looks on the top of your finger and I use the bottom of it and you hold your hand up so they can see that break our tutan
what do you think would like that I mean that's what you would your invention serve who would want to buy this would would kids like it yeah what about adults yeah yeah how do you like it maybe a school nurse for sure excellent job is there anything you were thinking about you would do differently if you kept working on it well I would I rubber on it so like because I was better burp when you put on it so it has better grip a extra to take some of the grip on it you just want to know if anything else you want to share with us why so I guess you did a fantastic job we're so excited for you so one of the other parts is we encourage kids to find real problems that are really happening in their lives so that becomes the work becomes more real to them so he's like this is what's happening to my dad at home and we're like yeah you have to solve that which is really
neat as they take ownership and next we introduce Mr. Mason Miller's a fourth grader here at and over elementary school that tell you about the hot dog okay so I have a guy at home that has hair now fur so the long dog coat was not serving like wasn't keeping heat well so I invented the heated dog coat so inside of it it has patches with so like the clip and they there's electric hammerers inside we saw it keeps the dog extra warm and like when it was like really full of the structure it kept the animal like the him fishing him and how do you know like how do you not work so it's actually like during what if like I can turn them on and they they actually heat up really fast and also and one of what as you're thinking about if you were to make this into
mass production and presented is or anything you would shift or change I'm probably like wider like all of it through so it's just one button and you don't have to charge like every single handler individually and do I have to buy it with the patriots on it or like do they help me patriots only thought it was wrong they're right yeah but the New York's got sure that is friends there are no New York has awesome job me's and I'm so excited for you to represent us at the state level really good work make a good question if what other are there any other animals that you would like me a similar stuff to her for I don't know I can think of it I'm really happy for you thank you they're there there's a lot of people how they would help me because it's awesome it's awesome it's awesome it's awesome it's awesome and it is are the warmers on the inside oh there it is that's great yeah that's the job yeah and so Mason highlights another full feature of that a lot of these students test out their inventions and so that's his dog and he got to really work through the how it might work and not work and prototypes we talk a lot about while we don't always make a prototype that is sellable for a lot of ways we can make prototypes that we're able to test and improve so
I'm very proud we're very proud of our three inventors and thank you so thank you guys so they will um don't want me to exact date Mrs. Fraser knows it but they will go in May to the state level and compete there and very similarly give presentations they'll be questioned more lots of questions they also make a video prior to that where they talk about their invention and that goes towards special words so different companies participate and they watch the videos they may not get the judging to look for other ways to honor that's a lot so that was in my report too but I wanted to do it in celebration since they were here just to have a science fair um we haven't recently the PTA has done a science fair I believe the last year was something right before I got here the PTA had organized science fair our fifth graders do a
science project that is more in depth than has like either a poster board or a slide show or virtual but we don't have a schoolwide science fair right now it has come up a little again in PTA is it's something we want to re-explore but the invention convention at this kind of seem to replace it at this point yeah yeah it's just like because I you had suddenly just started it and I thought yeah I had remembered that my kids did the science engines you know yeah yeah because you're right because invention sometimes come under that science fair right all of them um thank you you're welcome yeah yeah thank you for coming if you guys want to leave your yeah yeah we originally want to be in here home but not with you please please leave the baby her brother and so thank you guys thank you very much and they will all receive a book oh yeah you didn't see it yes I thank thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you and you get no 30 day in date like finding a by sound that on the floor I wouldn't be freaked out true is okay no next on our agenda is approval of the minutes of our meeting from February 11 so that anyone had corrections yes of course you just have done I look three times I read these minutes because I was going to find a page you know okay don't you did a fantastic job there have been incredibly detailed on page six the only thing I think we have to know are the few people who voted against the bathroom project update and that would be myself and Sharon just because you have to
note it to for the particular votes but that's it and hashtag job it's funny that was the same thing I was kind of mentioned because it wasn't consistent with the one before that you mentioned however yes well I have a commotion with that amendment to approve the minutes for the board of that meeting on February 11 2020 sis okay on paper hi hi okay yeah I don't color excuse anyone have any anything to add or to read from the agenda the only thing I wonder is about the bathroom projects we have we're missing a bunch of people that are on the menu right just my reality I'll see him here it's a really the version date there's not nothing really no and the committee isn't supposed to be here for our meeting okay well just one if there's gonna be a discussion or vote no okay just does there will update good working really hard okay so in terms of reports I don't really have anything to report as chairperson aside from the stuff concerning the bathroom projects will wait until we get to that section um well okay so I'm like that a few things here that aren't on our spot let's see so I think I'll start with the RLA you know how we have our project that's gonna happen with ever source we got good news this week because they they did call me I hadn't accepted the project in Scotland because the the incentive just wasn't enough for us there in terms of what our
overall savings would be it was like really tight so we had said thanks but no thanks so they called this week and said well we have good news there's one other additional incentive that you qualify to work and I said I said does the envelope qualify for that too and can you say I don't know let me check it out for you and it turns out that we are going to have an additional incentive that will be another 12,000 off of that 177 which will mean that those 60 months of like what they call finance payments would be reduced and then it'll it'll give us a wiggle room I guess you could say of what they think the total monthly cash savings would be of potentially closer to 200 more so a month so that will be fantastic what if I make the total per month uh 27 instead of 2900 and we finance them out yeah and then it'll go from 650 to 860 so if all goes well with like the solar and those things they're saying that even with that project we should see that in the savings okay and so we all know that you know
those first few months or whatever it's always seen I've been on our breath but I haven't been right for the whole first year but I feel like with that additional we'll definitely know we'll be like okay this will be good so really good yeah I think it's great so you know so she's given I know so yeah so I think that's fantastic so that's something um I have been working on um I didn't know that the town of the end over had been um previously um a part-save community and um with all of the students that we do CPR with and some of the other things the fact that we have the AEDDs um I had looked with this state um to try to see if we could get that status and they said oh
actually you guys you stop that status as a town that was like really I never noticed um that there were some signs around town and um when I spoke with Steven from the state to try to submit that application um it was very helpful it actually um then Mike was helpful to get me some of the CPR trained numbers for um our volunteer fireman and they said oh it didn't expired but years ago Nindi had done it in your town and I was like oh tell me more and so I reached out to Nindi and I said to her I don't want to step on any feet or anything I said but tell me and she said yeah I still have the old application um so she brought that over she told me where the signs had been hung and then I realized um yeah I recognized those signs and so they did bring me a couple more if we need them in town um to put up but um now we've renewed it with the department of public safety and so for three more years the town now is once again considered and um we have our school ones up but once again considered um an active part safe um community and so that means so what well what it'll do
is a couple things number one obviously it says that we care as a town as a community that we have lots of people that are CPR trained that we have more than the required ATDs in town in multiple places um and that we are committed to this because remember our kids are trained in addition to our staff in addition to the people that worked on at the fire department and now there are people next door um at the senior sense of yeah so um we're doing well in that department um next time what I'd like to do and I talked to Mindy about it what I'd like to do when we're up again in three years for certification is to through the emails with the city and or with the town as well as Facebook is to try to see if we could get even more accurate help of who in the community is CPR trained and certified um because we meet the threshold very easily but I think it would be fun for us next time around to see out of all of our residents how many oh we have so like um Sharon being a nurse herself lives in the town at the end over she wouldn't have been on that list
originally with us but if we put out a call to say to people how many people are she would wind up them on that list I just know this is doctors the M.T. who are writing them in the other teachers another thing there are orders to write us so thank you very much I think would be great I also did talk to him about the potential of seeing now usually so often only to like fire departments but about seeing about grants with the state coming up for replacements of A.E.D. so he's got to see if he can put us in touch with that because at some point our A.E.D.s will need to be replaced and they're over a thousand dollars a month so you talk to a fire department I don't know about A.E.D.s everybody's are good right now but within the next four or five years what we're finding is some of the I don't use the word cheaper ones but the older less expensive ones that we throw place batteries on the life is just not there so you do get to a point where they're like okay probably I can be able to replace this battery for long you have to upgrade and some of the upgradable ones are a little bit more money but the life on that will be longer so that's just something that will work on you know with next to work and yeah I can be an absolutely much more funding fire departments are a little lot more funding for fire departments to get A.E.D.s rights schools or municipal gatherings and so we'll have to partner with them right? Yeah we have one at the community center yes they're really fun at the community center
I don't know if it's the own top all yeah yeah yeah so yeah so yeah so when I work on that maybe it was very helpful I think turn you know for giving me all that old information that she had when she had done it last time so you know next time I told them what we'll just make sure that we all do it together the only other one we could get is pulled the heart safe workplace and we would have qualified to hear at the school already but they had changed the rules when A.E.D.s became mandatory for schools and so now we would have to do it as a town and I was like okay so we looked into that and because public works guys are out on the road into truck they would have to have a portable one because their workplace is and so I was like oh yeah they don't know so maybe next time we'll work on that but the rules just changed on that so we don't have workplace status because we would have to do the whole municipality and that would be the next step for us but we're gonna work on for it so we're gonna see if we can get anything moving forward so that was good news um the uh well update to the budget um I did present in the board of finance I know a couple of you guys will I'm here um so you know that parts down they had a few questions answered the questions there were a few follow-up questions a couple of things they asked me to send them but um we're all set with that now um a reminder that because some of the
questions said I have received from people are looking for numbers a reminder to everybody in town that this plan of conservation and development is out it's on the town website it's uh it's a 10-year plan you know it's their strategic plan there's a lot of numbers data information I refer to this as some of you guys know in my budget presentation so I think it's valuable for people to see it talks about you know where the priorities are for the town moving forward um you know toward infrastructure toward education toward moving forward and it has the most updated numbers percentages of people who fall under particular categories um you know one in five kids I mean one in five residents he is somebody under the age of 19 so 20% of the town so I love this I love the that John did this and I'm just urging people to move forward with looking at that um actually well we're talking about budget then um I will actually take a second and um address because obviously came up from Georgia so um thank you for that comment Georgia because that's actually along the lines
of of something that I have here to communicate um I did never had the pleasure of meeting Andy Managia uh my predecessor was Sally so it went from Andy to Sally to me um but you are 1,000% correct that any good superintendent um when they're doing their job if they have an opportunity to get grants that using them on things that could save the taxpayer would absolutely be wise so um I would just remind everybody that even though it wasn't every year the fact that we have five hundred thousand dollars in our capital account right now is because 360 thousand dollars was returned to the town the year that we had the grants so thank you for bringing that up Georgia because yes in fact that is what we've done and that is how we're paying for that one and so Andy might have done it a little bit every year but we did the same thing in one lump sum and um rather than do a different project so it did go back to the taxpayer so absolutely right that's the best way to go and that's the way we've gone as well when wasn't um that's the money two years ago right into your capital account so we that's how we're finding back oh and so yeah absolutely did it the same way um I made sure that that money went in there and sort of this board of education it just went in in one year so um so that was a very good point I appreciate that um the only
other grant to talk about is the drip grant the drip grant um is it's it's it's an automatic we didn't actually have to have a plan for it um the drip grant is to be awarded at the end of the year to each school district each town um and it should defray the cost of um a project this year or next year that has to do with our repair maintenance and so um we are working right now I'm making sure that we um obviously know all the guidelines on that and um we will moving forward use that on whatever our most pressing plate of is um from our budget uh I have in front of you guys three things let's hold this one first capital as you know we are working on um we had gotten in October the towns um uh capital planning packet and so that's a neighbor of love to make sure that we take what we had there and go through step by step um so I had given you a draft I don't remember I actually copied it to give it to you last time but I gave it to you out of meeting and I do you have it yeah um we had gone through the it has kitchen stuff and the appliances and it's very
comprehensive um it has everything that's been installed what the cost was how long it should last with the overall rating is what the priority is so that moving forward after this year because again we have um two projects that were still on our last year's list which is the bathroom in the driveway um we had done the elevator and so next budget season um there would be obviously a short list again this will be what we use moving forward to go to the board of finance and um potentially see I pee at that time with what our needs are and so um so the kitchen we had already talked about that
before um the new sections maintenance and facility equipment long here on that third page there this is almost done there um and I've made sure to put pictures in there um so that you know we know which piece of equipment we're referring to is not all let's know um and so the new one in here that I wanted to point out to you is then that third section um main school heating system and components so I've been working with staff the pistol head bestowing in as well as Kevin Williams again who is always very proud to tell me that he went to and a elementary school so it's kind of cute because every time even if it's the mechanical room on the boiler room we go into he's like well I remember what I went here and it's just a lovely to hear the stories um you know he really really loves this building um which is great um it means that little extra bit of care when we're
looking at the equipment is there with him and I just so appreciate that that he is so committed to this school that he wants to make sure that everything is done to great so usually the conversation is well we could do this we could do that so he was very useful and how cool bringing around um and working on this we've done steam boilers and the boiler feed tanks um as you can see there oh we're talking about two to four years on a steam boilers there um the boiler feed tank good 10 to 12 years there the boiler room kind of state receiver um this one is higher this one we are pricing now um because this is uh it is probably this year thing this would be one of those items that we've been used to at manifold um because it is you know let's say three to six thousand but it's something that's gonna have to be completed soon um because of the uh condition there
the telepods and say receiver uh the steam boilers and the boiler tank station and um the wipe off the tank for the other way um so then you'll see the ones without pictures and not done with this whole section yet I did take these pictures this week I have him on my phone I just have not completed this section so but this will be done you know very soon um the good news on the steam traps two um anybody who was on the board of 23 you remember we spent the money then and we did the 117 steam traps we had 19 that were identified that needed to be replaced um we are also looking with um Ara Lee the company that I just told you about that's doing the other energy efficiency things with us um then since it's been very helpful one uh the one the guys that had come that night we are looking to see if um right now there is a new rebate for getting steam traps done but we're looking to see if there's kind of a loophole to maybe get a reimbursement and so um fingers crossed
maybe there will be something sometimes that's how like DA ask grants work and things where they do go back and so we're gonna keep arpingers crossed on that then um and then obviously we need to get to the AC and the pictures and dates in there um the electrical system uh the only one that is in here is the elevator because we are uh down the elevator um you know and I have to put in the generator and things of that nature and then um music department information is being gathered in so it's a work in progress we're getting there we um make his progress here so I just wanted to make sure that you guys had that so that you can see where we are with it we're working on it and um that we are moving forward. I'm happy to see the music department on here honestly because their budget is a business and it's like 300 dollars. I know you two can't instruments are expensive
to rent and divide and people don't have that it they do that on the education that just and the proportion with that sharing is normally a one instrument doesn't rise the occasion of being put in a capital plan so we really have to look at the equipment as they hold it's like a Chromebook right a Chromebook sold in you know $299 so people are like well that's not really capital but if you're talking about a classroom set of something right a classroom set of something needed to be replaced at one time it happens with bands because as you said I mean you can't not have a flute you can't not have a you know trumpet so I do want us to look at that as a whole unit um because sure that might be a year that it's only $300 or a place something but then then maybe a year that we've got you know $3,000 in equipment and so we need to know that and it really depends on the instrument. It does. It does. It does. Yes. So that's that's really why I definitely wanted to make sure that was part of it um Chromebooks are in the budget right so Chromebooks individually are not. It's technology in the budget in terms of testing it every year does reevaluate because we have a reevaluations so we know how many Chromebooks need to be rotated she knows based on how many kids in which class with friends we're using so there are certain
years that we're doing um brand new ones because we have more kids that we didn't have the year before in particular grade there are years that we're doing refurbishments of other ones and so that is an issue that is going to be coming up soon um we don't have spares we know that um which is why we love naggies um take care of your phone books um in that shit because you know when there is an accident with one Christina wants to have a heart Christina wants to have a heart attack but like my gosh for when we get the kids that come in and we say yay we're so happy Christina do we have a problem for them so yes that will be a part of um you know the budget moving forward um and we'll see what rises to capital or not wherever we are in that particular move in time um there have some more things like staggered yes we've been very lucky with that right that they've been able to be staggered and the last thing I just wanted to talk about only because it was new this week in front of you as you have the um single um draft on um it came in Monday it was how to press this on Monday um and I mean it's it's it's good news for us so you know I wanted to make sure that we went through this draft um very simply there is a 96 page one when you've
any good you want sick please let me know I'm more than happy to be well it's you again it's a draft but it's not the short version when you're seeing two versions this is the short version and you guys know that you know of course we look at a few things we we definitely want to look and see if you look on what says each eight as you've went through um yep here um the biggest thing that we want to look at is whether or not under the summary of the auditors results whether or not there were um things that were reported that needed a tension for assistance and we look and see if there's any guesses and there is one there is one material uh weakness that's identified remember this is the school and the towns web loved draft bought it together so there was one which is good because in the past we've had multiple between two of us um but you look in the second section on the bottom there were two bits of good news there um first though is the
one thing that's left and if you're reading this and it's deja vu it is because it's exactly the same word in her mouth it is word for word that we've had for three years and it is um material weakness and internal controls over financial reporting the reconciliation of the town and school districts ledgers together and this is the one you know for the past couple of years that I felt very strongly we need to make sure you know that's we are body by what's the orders recommendation and we are and so this is the one where if you look at the next page what we did the cap of the cap the uh corrective action plan it says here again we recommend these are the auditors that the town no longer record balances and activities that are all ready counted for by the school district the town should limit it's accounting to transactions that involve direct financial activity between the town and the school district these may include appropriations transfers reimbursements were shared service costs in addition we recommend that the school district is continue to provide the town with monthly financial reports to ensure that they are informed this is kind of where it's been tough because as we try to stick with this sometimes different people will say well the town needs to do stuff with that you have to give give give the
information and the auditors are saying you have to keep them informed it's right too we skip them every month or financial reports but our account in their account are our general fund accounts are separate so there's no reconciliation that takes place during the course of the year at the end of the year sure there is end of the year reconciliation that's what it's on the woman done for a report and last year I think you remember last year it was the difficulty was and I had spoken with the first black mature and he admitted this to me he had said yes that
they they do take our monthly statements and try to like recreate like a balance sheet and figure out like what we have and the problem with that is that such a small snapshot are our regular financial report that if all of the information is not there you're missing pieces and so it does need to be done at the end of the year so I think that's important that this is again and we do have a new treasure or so this can work out great but you know what they want us to actually be involved in reconcile during the year is only anything to do with the two percent non-lapsing account because that is a share account if we were to do anything with our northern account or if we were to do anything with our capital that's absolutely what they want us to do during the course of the year if we were to go to the border finance for an additional appropriation that would be if we like this drip money the drip money will run through the town first it won't come directly to us absolutely that would mean that there would be accounting associated with that that's a reinforcement so those are the things that they're like yes you guys absolutely have to like we do some finances and just
the normal appropriation that are the current right at the end of the year no I mean in terms of like one of the town transfers money to the school the aged transfer yeah they're right there's an acknowledgement and their financials monthly and there's acknowledgement and all just absolutely so so the good thing is if you look down on page nine there so that one was the only one which I think the town's gonna be thrilled to because that was really the only thing sure it's a repeat which isn't always good but for us to have only that that's fantastic so if you look at the bottom there it says under 2024 dash zero zero two which was in that cap plan that we did it says is no longer being reported as a deficiency and then I don't know if you remember not that it's our concern but the only other one on that cap plan had to do with their reporting of a grant that they had were the senior community stuff so that was going to so both of them are going and if the one we had the one they had and we only have one left so I thought that was great the only other thing and happy reading you can read this in the middle there's a list of town funds and they list all the 57 funds the ones that are under capitals there and we do have one there so I highlighted them for you so that if you're looking at like the overall ill-factist marks so if you are looking at let's say the budget on the town side you'll know which ones are ours
to to look at so the one that says school capital improvement funds that's almost okay then under the non-major special revenues if you flip the page you'll see the one that says school lunch fund and the one that says school grant fund those are ours as well there's also one on top what is the should not that you're talking about yes I'm sorry that is ours to I didn't highlight it yes sorry so you could highlight when that is ours is when we have those on our side but whenever you see them listed those are so that money sitting with us and then under the capital projects the one that says the end of real metrics and that's ours and giving rid of that I know later so go do with that capital fund yes this goes because that's been for like a year and a half I know they never merge so there yeah that's so and then the permanent funds on the bottom that northern school fund that's ours too the good news about
the north school fund is when you flip the page here they have all the balances you've got the balances in here as of July 1 on all the balances for the start of this year for all of their funds with an audit so what you're looking at here's all of them I've highlighted the ones that are our concern on the top the name of them so you'll see our AES reserve funds that one at the close of business on the end of last year so to start a business for us July 1 this year there was 346 709 in there so that's that 2% another one of concern for us would be on the next page so the reserve funds that you present on laps in account yeah thank you on the next page there's the AES capital fund and that's the one that I was just referring to with my comments about Georgeette that one has 527,841 teller there's someone trying to do them for anything you said the reserve funds is 50% on another yes yeah we had to be never about that and then our third one on their side there is this the northern school fund and that's on page 73 it says on the bottom there and that one has 78,253 and then what does this other
fund balances at the bottom line like we're in a capital fund there are those are other towns funds all of the other one are your packet are all you the other thing is like 125,000 that's there so if you look at like uh which is for one multi-use building fund that's not ours that's theirs yeah they're like that 425 425 that's that's in in the count for them yeah so but I thought that would be useful for you I highlighted like I said on the top the ones that are okay those are the ones that Jody is looking every month with our financials to get us the the accurate counselor so um but the other ones like I said the AES school activity fund that appears here in an audit but Jody would have that balance every month we wouldn't have to call them because that that that account actually is is in the audit the shared audit but it resides here we don't ask that if that doesn't resides here so okay thank questions on that that I think that's it that's really honestly really done for audit overall it's great it is you know
and I think it's it's good or it's like it is I think it's a good thing on both sides um you know I think that um you know hopefully this year uh things will get done just a little bit sooner we're getting better I mean we used to be over a year behind the south and now it's getting a little bit thicker um I don't know about it's on any other questions for me I try to give it yep okay Taylor I'm supposed to report that just a couple of things to add on obviously we did the invention convention but um we have a day and a half left has professional development this year so next Friday on the Tonya we have a full-day professional development some very things happening in the building we have um our goal of a reading consultant coming to um do some teaching around you fly look because a um program I've talked about that we're piloting for phonics um targeting in that K2 range are decoding and then we also have some of our upper grades teachers working on social studies curriculum to have it talked in depth about it but I believe I mentioned the new social studies standards I published was here okay I apologize by didn't but um at the
beginning of this school year they read did they had been like a lot of years since the state had republished um and re-looked as social studies standards so we were thrilled however um the elementary social studies standards implied perhaps you learned social studies many hours a day you know which we love that kind of jury now that hasn't changed I swear it's more jury um and so we are taking all of that in this year and trying but starting to really obviously we appreciate they wanted to give more direction to elementary school about what is it in fourth grade say that you want us to kids to come away with um but I think they might have put a touch a lot so we're really working through that and we're starting at the top we believe we felt strongly we wanted to start at sixth grade as of course there are closest to that heavier science social studies work in RAM and make sure we're building that curriculum down accordingly again K12 you'll find that that integration's just more natural and easy and your read allows and you're you know magazines um but of course three through six we want to make sure we have a robust such as so that work happens so I got off topic um on that day as well and then our pre-k program it's a big uh busy time for pre-k because we will start to plan for all of our spring screeners um looking at our birth dates and our ranging thinking about how we want to model our classrooms um and then thinking about planning
because the requirements um and accountability is so high in pre-k because they're grant funded there's a lot of fun paperwork um just we have to submit in terms of our professional development plan for next year um what are all of the um different things we want to study what what have we done already it's just a lot and so it's great um but that will be work that they start working on in the spring and making sure um we're ready to go and that's all part of like reassuring that you're able to get yes that's how we qualify yep and then we will have our second um visit for pre-k our liaison set in April or mag where did you schedule um no this is for our early start great early start funding we have a liaison that comes to make sure we're actually doing what was um so she'll come and she just twice a year she'll come and eat for a minute um so we're preparing for that and then um the last one is that half day before April break and we'll continue
Val will continue to leave us in the Alice training thinking about um our lockdowns and supposed safety is security and then we have our parent a spring parent teacher conferences for in report card so that's all happening um right now which is a busy time and our spring student meeting so as you know last month we presented some mid-year data we have some more this month and so in the next week we'll sit with each teacher we meet about each kiddo and make sure they're getting um what they need for the last try and us and our day all gone one fast day we finish yeah we really I think we have like one or two kiddos that just started finish up but so that we do our student meetings next week um and our I ready uh which is the assessment we take now that all um it's good timing we'll go home with the report cards and then and we change us to intervention plates
and it's like that so it's a busy time march is busy um because we really gear up for that last try master and make sure it goes really smoothly I can't remember it's weird but I already scores at board meetings or with that just the aspect remember um I let with the ones I showed were some I ready from December and we just took it we take it in um March we don't take it in May because we can use we're not allowed to publicly share s back in the spring but we get pre-results that um we can internally start to play in our kids so we don't retest them um also I should mention I apologize I'm ram came today and at Monday they test our subscribers they give the NWEA test which is what ram uses and again we are all about not over-testing our kids so we don't
give them I ready as well that would be ridiculous ram of course shares the deed of it they just gathered and we're able to make sure they're last try master that data helps them to plan for um what classes they'll take particularly in math but in full subjects um in terms of next year uh so that that works out well and we're we um the state just required us to all to do an assessment audit and so we just got those reports as a district that really looks at how many hours are you testing each grade level per year um and in what ways and um so there's of course that emphasis and we were really I was really pleased with our results because again I think we're very thoughtful and making sure we're assessing kids as we need to um yeah there are days where you're just like I know what they know teachers know what they know I think that's the gifts that they have um but we're we're thoughtful and making sure we're not you know keeping them on those tests too so yep that was good ram came
and we're ready to go we'll go see ram in just a few weeks our sixth graders they'll build the ram we trip I know the sprang will come fast all of the events and every report now going forward is like we have so what's going on so I want to just give Taylor a little shadow here and that's um when those when the teachers do do the testing it not only drives the instruction in the classroom but I've watched Taylor do um in evaluation with the teacher the conference with the teacher and with here and she uses those results to assist the teachers in driving their instruction and I watched her incredibly sit there with one of our new teachers and use that data to say this is what you do that was fantastic this is how you got there this is what you can do moving forward with those one or two kids that were surprised to you either um the upper end were not and she didn't fantastically um so it is it's awesome um to see that those scores are not just used to get a number for a clip she's using them with the teachers and then she's also using them to help that instruction from the level of the principal so it's it's it's it's fantastic to watch oh yeah is he busy cut and no more snow and we'll be happy last day of school that Wednesday now so you know I know some of your parents but just interested in this that following Wednesday we are at welcome I saw that there's some like nope no no no no it's
a full notch I saw that there are some locals like districts that had campstarring the following week so we cannot go in as very true it is very true cool so yeah and so they were they were debating I'm watching it yeah you're absolutely right break that crazy so no more snow is done we cannot You can clear that. It's done. Yeah, absolutely. Excellent. Thank you for doing that. No problem. I have that kind of authority run. I'm sorry. That's good. I'm telling you about anything else for us. I do not. Financial report. Okay. Yes. We're really excited to have the first draft of the audit. And Kudos to Val and to Terry. So terrorism. I just thought I'd really say what a great mentor she's been and making was transition as smooth as possible. Working on projections. So I stayed in the last meeting. I mean, we will be in a deficit. I don't project it. It's a huge deficit, but it'll be there. We can talk numbers as you look at the expenditure reports. Working on drawing down any of the state grants. Whatever we can get. You know, typically we, you know, spend the money and then get reimbursed. But the end of the year. We can actually start drawing those down in anticipation of the end of the year. So I think on that. I also wanted to mention to the monthly reports. We give to the town. I was just waiting because I was new. And then there was no treasure for a while.
So there was nobody to give the reports to. So I'm working on finishing up the February reconciliation. And then once that's done. Then I will give the, the, the new treasure. All the reports for the time when there was no, no treasure. So wanted to let people know. That there was a little lag because there was no treasure. So looking at the expenditure reports. Again, I don't think any surprises is the same categories. But actually repair and maintenance is leveling out. So I don't anticipate. I anticipate a little bit about a deficit in that area. And it can be covered by others. So I anticipate for repair and maintenance will be over by about 10,000. Don't hold me to those. Because if something breaks that can change it. But right now, if all goes well printing and binding. I think I talked about this last month is a bit over. And that's because in the past you had machines that you own the district owned. But what was happening is they were getting old. And then we weren't able to service them and get parts. So this year in addition to the printing costs were also paying the leasing costs.
So when you look at the printing, that's really why it's the, it's the lease boss because you have new machines. And those are really the two that have, I know we've talked about instructional IA subs. If you notice that, that's 100% expanded. That's instructional assistant sub salaries. So it's a little bit over. So I anticipate between the teacher. The teacher subs is at 86% expanded. So I anticipate we'll have a little bit of an, a little bit of an average. Yeah, I have a kind of balance. And my butt again, it might get a little bit of an overage there. So what about oil and heating? Like, it's not like 62% right now. Yeah. If like, relative to other years, are we, you know, decent. But you want to learn. Yeah, we walk over. I think we'll actually be, we'll do well in that category.
And when we looked at, I just looked at our usage. And we'll be, um, we'll be 2,000 gallons under our anticipated. Great. You would say. Yeah, so, um, so that's good. That happened. In this year, oh. Well, don't forget, don't really worry. We can walk in in an excellent rate. But, um, don't forget that, um, those school building itself stays a few degrees. We'll learn when we're not in the session. And some of the really old days happen to be snow days. So if they fell on the Monday, Tuesday, like they did two weeks ago, the temperature went down in this building on Friday. When we left, it's the custodians turn it down, and then it stayed down. And nobody was using the building. There would have been no basketball or anything. So there's going to be a reason during the snowstorm for us to have to turn it back up. So that would save us. And when you're talking to under gallons in the course of a day, on a day, on a normal day, three days helps. I lost my luck on there in conjunction. It's better if you keep it. Yeah, that's what I did. And it was a nice day. But where nobody was here, we could keep that temperature down. So we didn't interlock through this year. And the timing of this snowstorm. So, we're going to be happy about that. So he's looking overall. So, um, you had talked to us last time when I thought, we were like 37% last month. Anyway, just looking overall, it doesn't matter.
How are we varying with 63% of the budget overall use just on the general? Yeah, I think again, we're in good shape. And again, I don't think there are any big surprise. Again, right? You know what your budget was in talking about the knowing last year. You had to make cuts. Yeah. I think hopefully you might actually be better than you thought. You're going to be. You know, so. Don't forget that. Yeah. So don't forget that. Um, Jordan wasn't with us in the spring, but don't forget that there's that one time that you're going to go from. This is 63 now. Pop. We have the in conference next month. We're Judy puts the in conference in for those last five pay checks for the. Oh, sure. There's a balloon pay. Yeah. So that's yes. So that's close to about 425,000 dollars for one payroll period. Is that actually why, like, because I'm one of the things I'm noticing is that the burn rate is higher and like group insurance. Medicate like the benefits and it is on the teacher sounds. Yeah. It applies that is 12 equal payments break. When we pay the medical benefits, it's in 12 equal payments. When we do the teacher salaries, for example, it's it's sure they get paid in 26 equal pay checks, but come link 21 they get week 22 23 24 25 26 at one time.
So we have one payroll period in June, where she puts through a payroll that's over 400,000 dollars. And remember, our allowance comes in our ACH transfer only through April. We do not get the 425,000 dollars from the town in May or June, because we set it up on purpose originally to be 10 payments. Because all that money needs to be in there and being June, so that we can make those end in your payments, right? Do you ever in Comberna? She's done it for next month, yes. Okay. Yeah. And to figure out what it is now. Joanne has been great.
Joanne has got a ton on her plate, but she hasn't done that for us yet. Great. So she's in the process now. She's doing that. She's doing that. She's doing that. She's doing that. She's doing that. She's doing that. She's doing that. She's doing that. She's doing that. But it's nice to see that. Because then, yeah. But it being like, oh, we're only 58%. Well, and well, well, the package was there were people that didn't understand school finances. Yes. And from April to May or May to June then, they would see, oh, this school has $700,000 in there. And then all of a sudden, June would come. And we have 50,000. And they'd say, they must have passed on something. They didn't understand that there was a payroll that was over $400,000.
And so it did look years ago before us to the outsider that all of a sudden, you know, we went brought hot tub or something like that. Well, what have they said? $400,000 on it. I'm still not going to look ridiculous. So that's where an encounter is. It's important. It's still working on it. Because next month, when you, she shows you the incumbents in that line, you're going to see what the salary should be for those salary employees for the rest of the year. Right. And because we'll be coming to you with saying, this is how much money we need to transfer
from the two percent. Right. And so once I get everything in comfort, then it'll really give us a better picture of exactly what we need to transfer over. $400,000. That's a whole lot of bad. That's a bad word. So you're looking for that on that. I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine. Thank you. Okay. Did anyone have any other questions on financial stuff? No? No. No. Okay. So a little bit on to discussion items. First of all, please report. I have a report. I have a report. Okay. So CIP met and we met for the purpose of hearing from the fire department. They need a new compressor to fill their SCBA tanks with tanks. The air compressor dates to 1991. And some parts are becoming obsolete. So they get it kind of more than one quote for us. When they met with us, so we're going to hopefully be meeting again next week to see you on quotes. And to be able to be able to acknowledge and approve of a new compressor. What was their quote that they got? Yeah. And do you remember me? I'll look at it. It works like this. It's like, are we going to scale up like, what have you found? No. It's like $100,000. It's like $100,000. Yeah. Let me look at it five. I know. Yeah. But it's not a new building. Yeah. I'm going to have a new system. I'm going to be a special one. Um. I feel like that's you like. He taught me that on the board of finance. After the CIP meeting. And I want to say he got two other folks that were
on the board of finance. They talked about a great work finance meeting. It was the same night. It was the fire department. Yeah. I presented as well. Yeah. And they did talk about it then. Yeah. That they were waiting for two more. Yes. Yeah. While they bargained. Yeah. Hold on. I have a radio. Um. $100,000. Okay. That's what I was going to get. Yeah. Yeah. I was like. I just wanted to go. Yeah. Sorry. I don't know. I don't have a way to do that. And so. Hmm. How much things cost? Like what was her. Well, I think it's at $155,000. Great. Yeah. Jesus. It is Chris. Okay. Anyone? I'll probably even have a. Um. We had a. We had a very successful restaurant night. Uh. How did they do you know? I do now hold on. We're out there. Yeah. She sent it. She sent me the hold on. I'll tell you. $242. Good job, Jane. Good job. Yeah. The other thing that I would add is Most, I think all of the officers are up for on PTA. So if anybody is interested, you need to email Slust and be at the next meeting to be there to get broken up. I love being in the PTA. It's fun. It's a fun group. And I will say, well, it's not truly like
in the years on roll. Cool, just a pointed or like had new people who pointed to their board. And my husband apparently. I've got it, so. It's awesome. Yeah. Well, they sent it email to her joint. No, and I was like, I didn't know. I said, I didn't know. You want to know? I don't know. So cool is trying to like re-up their parental involvement with the board and like facilitate how things are run. I think that's great to keep the program going. Cool. Okay. So we'll go on to the bathroom project, which is a really exciting update. Eric Sanderson has worked his butt off for us. I have spoken to him on the phone numerous times as well as Chef Murray as well as Valve. In terms of getting RFP up and running, it was posted to our school's website last Friday. And it was posted to the town's website on Monday. So there is a milestone schedule within it. You guys are welcome to hopefully get through. Oh, so that basically, there's a mandatory site visit on March 17.
So any contractor who wants to submit a bid has to come to that and walk through the site visit on our plan as to have myself, Jeff Murray and Delta Rojas as well as Eric Sanderson at that site visit so that we have representation from all of the boards in our town, as well as from Eric who has been phenomenally helpful in doing basically doing call of this. And then the request for information is due by March 20th. So three days after the site visit. And then they get responses to those requests by March 25th. And then the proposals are due on April 6th. We have a board of ad meeting on that eighth, I believe. So we will be able to look at those proposals on that day. The contractor more data stated in the milestone schedule is April 15th. With a construction start date of June 16th or later. And then a certificate of occupancy by August 25th. So hopefully we'll get some good contractors that give us goods. And we'll have a good place to go. It's sort of a good thinking. Yeah, that's great. And if anyone wants, I printed it just so that I could say it about a few days along with that. It's on about saying, yeah. Is anyone for questions about that at all? What time is the meeting? Man for a meeting. Oh, I was like, is that free?
After. It's cool. And then. Okay. So that's all I got. I'm Dr. Hitchie. We're going to burn a good place now. Absolutely. Okay. And then the next item on our agenda is the policy 3326. I'll see. Two days having front of you. This. You look in front of your seats there. Okay. So the original policy. Is on that first page. It was 2009. So that was the last revision for us. It didn't reflect. A lot of things that have happened since then. The backup signer. To our accounts back then. Was the chair person and the first. New Absolutely. To the public's seat. And then that wasn't. Plus the rest of the plans that. If you don't comment. That means it was active whether or not we, but if not. It's not blocked that activities It's not blocked that these matters, like there was last 2 years of contract agreement. would have changed for us as well. The annual report for that year, I didn't build this guy, so I had to look it up. It became a guy named Joe Higgins and then Eric Anderson. So on the second page there, you have that letter from Mr. Burbank. What, again, I don't, I never had the pleasure meeting either.
And it's shown that that charter revision in 2017 changed the form of government from the first select men as the CEO to the touting administrator as the CEO. And that's kind of important. I'll show you in a sec. So from that time on the town, it had decided that the two CEOs, the Supercannon, which Sally Williams, Supercannon, before me. The Supercannon, who was CEO here in the CEO on the town side, which became Eric Anderson after Mr. Higgins. I don't know if Mr. Higgins was a signer. On our account here, I didn't look back and see that, but it definitely then was Eric Anderson in 2018. So unfortunately, at that time, neither the town nor the school created a procedure and they didn't change the policy. So we were both doing it wrong. It worked.
Everybody was doing it. It was agreed upon. So, but we were happy doing it long in doing that. It became a procedure that should have been documented and it just wasn't at that time. Then in 2020, the town voted to switch the financial software system, called Edmunds at that time. That's when, you know, in 2020 they switched and we had our M&T bank here account here. They had a different one over there. They used QuickBooks. What happened was Mr. McGuire then at the time. First Lankman said, you know, we've got a lot of stuff going on. We could be audit good view, do us a favor. You guys are going to be keeping and you guys remember sharing homes. And we're keeping Marina on our side. And so we would love you to just do it the way Ram does. Eric and I think you guys remember this because it was kind of like funny that night. I was going to the bank with Eric to open the account and Eric and I
would be the signer on our school account here. And we get to Edmunds in class of Eric and we open the account. And two of us are proud of each other. And then they say, you need to pause and running. I had no cash. I didn't look at Eric in a line. I didn't have a cash. I'm like, you have an ATM. He's like, I have 30 bucks. So I literally had to take the 30 bucks that Eric's pocket. So open this account. And we had to pay him back. But I was like, we, that's it. We had driven together. I'm like, I'm so sorry. I was kind of joking away. I'm a lifeline. So I'm getting Bobby. Oh, sorry, I'm getting money. Um, but that's what we did at the time. And procedurally, we were both in agreement that, you know, I was signing their checks. They were signing our checks. Um, and that there were backups on the town side of the first and second slatman. And we had our backups at that time, the chair by share. Um, you know, we had done that. But we never went back. I don't think any of us realized that it was actually written in this policy. So, um, then what happened was, um, so we decided that there was nothing official. We should have put it down. And we didn't, the town didn't have a written protocol either. That's just been once in an existence for a while.
Um, it does need to be altered. Um, it needs to be altered. Um, I, I did request not to be a signer on the, on the town side. So I know they're changing their signers now as well. Um, I think it's going to be dependent on, you know, when they get a town administrator or who they decide, all who we decide as signers does not have to be dependent on who they decide. I did consult the auditor and say, hey, are you okay with what our ability to policy says? And he said, yes, are you okay, would you prefer, you know, that it's the town administrator or the vice chair? And, um, he did say that he can't give us advice, um, but that I pushed, um, what was it like in other towns that have this situation? Um, it does look like it would be the vice chair. But of course, this board has that decision to make it, you would like it to be, whoever the new town administrator wants a green board of the, the vice chair. Um, and it's a question. Yeah. Is there a reason that it can't be both? What do you mean? Because the reason you couldn't list vice chair or the town administrator. If you wanted that person as the third backup, you could, there were two signatures. Um, so I know that Marcy, you had also sent, um, from another town. Um, you had sent a sample and looking at that, um, and actually I reverted it in an email to everybody. Right. Because so you're questioning the bottom part. And that was, well, no, I was actually questioning the whole thing because, um,
it was a sample from Salem, um, and Salem is in town that, um, this one was even older than ours. Their policy was 2006. And I was like, oh, I didn't feel so bad. Then that ours was 2009. And that we have an updated, and I was like, there's was 2006. I thought the little bit better. Um, so it was, you know, that was part of this different. Um, but in Salem, they didn't have their two CEOs signing all the checks. And so because that wasn't done regularly, they had to put something in there that said, each order for the payment of expenses by the town treasure or on behalf of the board shall be signed by a board of that designate. That would have been things like if we needed to take money out of the 3% non-lapsing account. If we needed to take money out of our capital, anything where they were cutting a check on our behalf was that particular town says, then, if it's on our behalf from an account over there, then they wanted a designate from the board to do that. So that was really the only time they did that. And so the other things on the top were specifying times when the superintendent would enter into or pay bills for goods and services. But ours says, because we have a very limited central office here says that I do all of the payroll accounts payable checks, which I do. So I went back to, do you remember last year when we did the
cable audit? So I did. I was like, you know, I just want to make sure I went back to the 3,000 here and said, what did they say about our policy? And if you look back, they said appropriate is written based on the K-model. And they had no comments or suggestions for changing it. So that's the good news. The good news is they think that this is fine as is the only thing you guys have to do is to change it. And it is my suggestion that we just keep the protocol that we had in place, which was chair vice chair, making it official. Because it wasn't official in here. We had been doing it that way. We had had chair vice chair, but just wasn't official. So I think that that's what we need to vote that. The only reason why I was looking into, I was thinking it should be a little
more spelled out, because it seems to seem a little vague. And it seemed like the first four sentences that I had sent seemed like it added a little more extra layer of protection so that everything's now spelled out. And I was thinking about, you know, Jeff McGuire did us a solid by not signing the check for a fuss and on yield, because if he did it, we might be in the middle of a $400,000 bathroom project that, you know, maybe isn't right. So that's the only way, Jeff. It was really old. Is that what you're talking about? Yeah. Yeah, that's what I think that's what started all this, right? Because he wasn't going to go back to that. So it's not to do with the part of it, if really not, part of it. So I think I take the other thing to talk about right is the difference between a policy and a procedure. And I think going back to looking at this policy happens for the most part, because the procedure that has been followed by both the town in the school was then not being followed correctly. And that made people nervous about signing, being asked to sign checks that were not procedureally presented correctly. But that's not in a policy, you know, right. Right. And so where does that procedure get? Right. So, now you would have been completely fine to have followed this since 2018. If when that procedure was put in place in 2018,
the board at the time realized and you can't have them all memorized. So it's nobody's fault. But if they have realized, oh wait a minute, we do have a policy that it was when the charter revision so they should have gone back to the charter when they revised it and said, okay, now we have a town administrator instead of the first selectment being CEO. But pretty much everything in the town charter should have been revised. Correct. But I'm that. And just like we can blame them and say, they never went back to the charter and revised and took out first selectment and put in town
administrator. Yeah. The board then didn't think to do that in 2018, either and say, geez, is there anything in our policies that references the first selectment as this the chief elected or the chief CEO? Right. Executive because had anybody thought to do that at the time. And again, I wouldn't have either. They would have seen and said, oh, we do have one policy that references his role. And if this in 2018 had been changed to reflect that procedure and it would have just that either the chairman of the board, superintendent, or town administrator, we would have been caught. But it just wasn't changed in 2018. So again, it's not something K would have told you when they did our audit because that procedure. They're not with Mary's life. So what they're looking for is, do you have two backup science? That's all they're looking at. And yes, you did. And so you were not out of, you know, what they would have wanted to see. They want to see that you have
two backup science. Well, actually, one backup signer, two signers. So because we have two lines that are just you need to always people and a backup just in case one of them's not available. So, and again, we have had a proper protocol and procedure. It just needs to be in a policy. Yeah. Well, and it was asked about that myself. And I remind everybody we need to first have a month where we're doing a reading of the policy before we can vote on the policy. Correct. That's my recommendation of the policy. Yes. Okay. So we're supposed to have a, but what if Jerry's right that you have to agree upon what it is you want. So that next month, you're finalizing it. So it's a read where you say these are these are the changes we want me.
Right. And there's a motion and then there's discussion about you want to make a motion. Yeah, I'll make a motion. I don't know. I make a motion that we revised policy 3326 as indicated on what was included in the board of packet, which is to change second paragraph and first electron to vice chair of the board of education as far as signing checks. That's certainly. Thank you. Oh, you guys don't have thank that we need to add any of this clarifying certification wording. I don't think we need that clarification wording because of how our town is set up in the fact that like the auditor meeting very clear that the school does the school stuff, the town does the town stuff and then you reconcile at the end of the year. Great versus this is like your example from town in the town where they're not doing that. So the superintendent had permission to do it for only specific things and otherwise the town
would have to have a policy that said when transferring money on the school's behalf to the school, that check has to be signed by let's say the town minister of superintendent. The reason why they don't have that policy is because we already had always signed one another's checks. So out of procedure since 2018. So they could decide you know what moving forward if it's coming out of the two percent, if it's coming out of the capital, if it's coming out of the Northin, we would like to have a board of Ed Designee signed it. They would have to pull you a policy for them. Not us here. We can't say you have to make us on your check. They would do that. And here the wording's signed it. I'm central office. It is to pretend in the fruit all the invoices for payment. Prior to the board of Ed Designee. So if you wanted to sign a contract for like the bathroom project for $400,000, that's not it. I guess that's why I was going to put a lot of stuff that's covered in other policies. Yeah, so right. Yeah, they weren't just orders to jump up to pay the bills on the database. I would argue that perhaps there should be something in there to make it a little more lenient. Like I feel like I was looking at a bunch of other towns and it said like you need another side or unless it's you know to pay the electric bill or unless you're
going to incur a late fee or unless there's a cost savings. I don't want to have that and they're into them and I think that's what's that and she says liability. Right for like for the super intended to do something without any of us know about it. I feel like that's not for her. But I do for her. I'm not working for her. Probably a lot more liberal I think than that or that. So I'm going to agree with this. I am. But I see you could go kind of two extremes on yet. But again, it's just check finding it's what we've been doing. It's customary that pretty much most other. My only question I knew that when I brought up the town administrator and granted it's an awkward discussion right now because we don't currently have one. But was should that title also be named on here in addition to the vice chair? I guess I'm as a backup. Yeah, I guess I'm just another person. Is there an issue with having like a people available to sign check like how many checks do you need sound? Do you sign the job? Maybe electric bill and mom, no, there isn't an issue. There definitely isn't. But the issue, the purpose of a backup signer is obviously if you're two main signers, it's one of them is unavailable. But you want to make sure that whether you're the town or the school,
you want to make sure that some of that signing them is not signing them just for the purpose of signing them. They should have some kind of an interest or understanding of what they're signing. So if I hand and actually look at it. So being the vice, Eric and myself, we had a lot of common vendors. You know, if I looked at a check for our oil company that we both have the same oil company, you know, and I'm seeing that we date 259 a gallon. So I see the purchase order and I sign it and he signed it. If now the town check had been coming to me and all of a sudden it says $399 a gallon. I might say, oh, why do you guys pay so much? Did they bill you wrong? Like there's a set of eyes that understands that. And there were times when just at a curiosity, one of us would ask each other a question, you know, like just maybe it's like, oh, hey, how do you guys like this kind of company that you use? So that actually worked out for the two of us to have that. But the auditor just said it's more ideal for us to have the work because you guys are the ones with the vested interests in, you know, for understanding of what we're having. So, yeah, so you want to give you a deeper understanding? Oh, yeah, yeah. Especially if we don't have this big central office. So, you know, I am the one that approves the purchase orders. And so to have that second person, you know, and the alternate be board members. The only time I think it would be
tough for us is let's say, you know, I was unhealthy and out on leave for a while. And the two signers were just these two. After a month or two, we have to have a conversation because they would be like, okay, we don't normally prove these purchase orders. So we need to make sure we understand what's going on. There are towns and cities where the student intended does not sign a single check because the finance office is large and there are other people's signing. In the little towns, it's us. You know, so that's where it becomes, you know, a little bit sketchier. It's all towns. So this is ideal to have the second one. We were doing it right. We just did have the portal. Yeah. I wanted to comment just to reflect what I thought I heard as far as you're concerned, there is almost never a time where there's an urgent or an emergency situation that a check need to be signed. So it's in my experience and 10 years never gotten to that point. Correct. Correct. I know. Yeah. So with this, if we had a policy, you know, like you're proposing to do it, then we would have signed, would have sent that last check to Boston, I mean, right? No, no, that did not happen. That's a town count. The capital count is a town of town of no one from this board or a mile. So none of them might those checks or sign those checks. I know, I would have signed that check because I signed the town checks. Right. However, um, that is not our account. And because I wrote it down. Right. Oh, that's not ours. We don't have physical control over those
three accounts. The North in the capital and the two percent. The two production. We don't have physical control over those accounts. They do. Hmm. So this is only as it says in the and the heading for goods and services. Oh, okay. And we looked at the heading on the policy. Right. Or so, yes, or so, but for for that. And of course, all of our bills that we're sharing, Jess. That for the discussion, no, we do that. Yeah, that they're always asking. Okay. We'll call the question on the favor, grabbing the way. And so, in what are we're not approving, we're, we're just saying, this is a big episode of I'm going to vote on next one. No, I just want to make clarify. Yeah, so we're saying that we're okay with it. Doing this for next month. Yep. All in there. Five, five, five. Alicia. Alicia. You're not lost. She's there. On mute Alicia. Okay. We'll have to come back. Maybe better or we'll message. Okay. Okay. We're up to comments from the public on agenda items. Um, and. I see you know. Okay. Um, Diane Vernier. So thank you. You're. Uh, Jamie. No comment. Thank you. I've done any wrong. Nothing for me. Thank you. That's why up. Thank you for all the work you guys are doing.
That's it. Holly. Nothing for me. Jamie Goldrich. All set. Thanks. Amanda. I'm all set. Thank you. Amber Richard. All set. Thank you. Verget. Sorry. No. Thank you very much. I'm also. Okay. Thank you. Did I miss anyone? No. No. Okay. Um, so next up. We have an executive session. To discuss the superintendent's contract. Um, and a legal issue for it and for us. We'll make a motion involved in the executive session. The settings for. edges. Carson Oh. Okay. We're recording. So we came out of executive session, we do need to go back to item 8B to get Alicia's vote for updating the policy 3326. Just if we can add Alicia for updating the policy for next month, 3326 for adding the vice chair as a secondary signer. And then we will come out. So we discussed the superintendents contract tonight and we did decide to take a roll call vote on that contract to proceed with it as written from our October meeting. So we'll go around one at a time. Okay. Alicia, can you hear us? Sorry, I'm here. I'm going to be seeing because I wasn't there and I haven't had a chance to update all the stuff. I'm sorry. Okay. Thank you. I'm so sorry. The service is awful here. Okay. Okay. Does anyone have other action items for tonight? Okay. So in terms of upcoming meetings, the town budget hearing is April 1st. The mandatory site visit for contractors to come for our fee is March 17th. And then our regular Board of Ed meeting is April 8th. And then we are going to have a Board of Ed budget information session 30 minutes before the town meeting. And that's April 9th, which is at Thursday.
Does anyone have anything else? And April 9th, that is the town meeting where you need to be present to vote. What budget will be put forward to report on it? And so we are having the informational session on the night before hand. Does that happen? It should be doing something on the first or no. That's not their meeting. It's the Board of Finance is meeting. Okay. Oh, right. And then we're adding this this informational session is because that meeting is run by the Board of Finance at the town meeting. And often like the superintendent, the Board of Ed gets asked a lot of questions. So I was hoping that we could alleviate some of those questions during the town meeting by having that directly. How can we get the word out that that happened? Good. How does that that they're going to put it on the thing in the agenda for the town meeting? Okay. We may allow everybody to leave. Yes. Great. That would be great. Yeah. I can make sure I can burn out to that that would keep. All right.
Does anyone have other items for our next meeting? So we will do the 9,000. And we also have to vote on the change to 3336. And hopefully then we won't have anything. Yes. And we'll need to determine about the proposals. Yes. So that's what we say. Yes. Great. And I would imagine by that time, you know, Eric Sanderson has been instrumental in this uphill. Have had, you know, a day or two to review them. And that has been active weeks before our meeting. I know they're new two days today. I'm not one day before something we plan on voting on. And that's day. Yes. So make sure I check my email. You both will do them in a day of our meeting. So no. No. No. No. Okay. You still have time. The timeline says that the. And we're talking about. Is the 15th. So if that day of your Board of Ed meeting, you're not comfortable yet deciding. You have one full week. We plenty of time to have a special meeting. We can have a meeting. Okay. Okay. That makes sense. Yeah. People will have time to see stuff. Great. Um. Yes. I'm going to turn. 9. 9. 39. Looks. Typical. All in favor. All right. Thanks. So. 3. 9.