Meeting transcript
BOE Meeting
February 2, 2023 · Watch on Zoom · All meetings
What what art. What what happened to hand? Got it? Hi, everyone. It's 07:00, and I'm calling to order the 02/08/2023 regular meeting of the Andover Connecticut Board of Education. My thanks to everyone in attendance for being here this evening. Thank you to the Board of Education members for volunteering your time to serve on this board for the town of Andover. Before I go any further, I want to just say thank you to Jenny Morell and Melissa Leteska and all the Andover Education Association teachers for bringing the refreshments to our meeting tonight. We truly appreciate all you do for us, our students, and our entire AES community. We are blessed to have you as a part of our essential team. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you.
I was gonna do that on the celebration, but I didn't want you to leave. But as I as I mentioned before, I said, you know, you're where the rubber meets the road. You you are where you make it happen for us. We wouldn't be able to do this without you. Mhmm. And and being a teacher, I know everything that's involved and everything you do. So thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the goodness. And we also thank you for the Valentine's Day. Those that they can make. Those are kids there. They
they they had the kids. They had the kids do this. They did. Beautiful. I got it. I know it's involved with having these things. I
I just wanna say, who knew that I was a senior that placed it at my place? It's accepted. I love it. But They they made, 200 of them. So in the classes because Wow. Linda Goff from Berkshire Hathaway, she does a program, for the seniors, in the community. And so every year, she asks, if we could make 200 of them for, the then she's picking them up tomorrow. And so I kept sending SOSs out. I need 40 more. I need 60 more. I need they just kept making them sort of calls.
Okay. I guess we gotta stand for the pledge of allegiance. Steve, would you like That would be good. Pledge of allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America, Thank you, Steve. Any comments from the public? I'll roll call who's up on the screen there. Amanda.
Hi, I do not have any comments at this time. Thank you. Thank you. Lisa Hopkins. Just wanna say thank you to everyone.
Thank you to you too. And Jamie Weber. I'm all set. Thank you, but thank you for all you do. Thank you. And who's the phone number? Do we know? (860) 899-8823. That's Amy Knox. Amy Knox. Welcome. You're on the air. Do you have any comments? Thank you. No. Not at this time. Thank you. Thanks. Anybody else up there? Gretchen. Gretchen. Gretchen. Gretchen. Hi. I'm good.
Thank you. Thank you for being there for our notes for us.
Anybody in here have anything that you'd like to say?
We'd like to also send our thanks to all of you. We could not do our job without you as well. Thank you for all of you. Thank you.
And communications, does anyone have anything to share? I have none.
Are there any communications in regards to any emails regarding the budget in that inbox?
Yeah. Nope. I nope. I checked the, just this afternoon around 05:00, and there wasn't anything. Not nothing at all. Okay. Okay. Thank you.
K. Approval of the minutes. I need a motion and second to approve the regular meeting on 01/11/2023. Do want me to do them all? We probably each individual. We should do them individually.
I need to approve it for me except the regular meeting of 01/11/2023. Give me a second.
Second. Alright. Thank you. Any discussion? Vote? All in favor of approving the meeting of 01/11/2023, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Gretchen has 700,
please. Okay. Who seconded? Was that Chris or Steve? Chris. K. Thank you.
I now move to, approve the minutes for the budget meeting of 01/18/2023. One second. Thanks. Any discussion?
We need a vote. All in favor of approving the minutes from the budget workshop of 01/18/2023? Say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Okay. Gretchen, it's 700 again.
I move to approve the notice of the public meeting by 01/25/2028. Thank you, Shannon. I'll second it, please. I'll second it. Thank you to us.
Any discussion? Okay. Put it to a vote. All in favor of the discussion in the budget workshop of 01/25/2023, please say aye. Aye. I have to abstain.
You are abstaining? Any opposed? K. Gretchen, six zero one abstention. Caitlin is abstaining. Opportunity to add or delete agenda items. Anybody wanna add anything or take away anything? Hearing none, we'll move on. Does anyone have any other celebrations they'd like to share? K. Hearing none. Reports. Chairperson's oral report. I really have nothing to report to you, so we'll move on down the line. And your turn, Valerie.
Well, most of it is the budget since that's what we're doing tonight. We mentioned that the, the after school, grant, We got that in January. That's up and running. Teachers, staff within the building are doing a fantastic job of filling March's calendar now. It's gonna be a a real quick jump to the email when the calendars go out because the things are filling up fast. And so as some on the board know, because they've got children here, it's like, okay. Here it comes. Here it comes. And then they click go. And so they can sign their kids up for the events because some are Just so the parents understand, a lot of the limited events will run again. We're finding out what's popular, and we're finding out what people would like repeated. The calendar always has the grades on it, where it's appropriate, if it's a two through six. There are a couple of activities that will be just the older kids. I know Archie's coming back. That's a six week commitment. It's gonna run twice, and that's only fifth and sixth graders simply because of the certification that's required for that. But we'll post the calendars online as well, and we'll make sure that everybody has them as quick as possible. And if children don't get signed up, we'll make sure that we run them again. We were awarded, that one other grant. There was a grant for CT SEDS, to assist with the implementation, and so, that helps with those extra costs associated with anybody in our special ed department that had to take webinars. We have some contractors
that had to put in extra hours, like the special ed director, to make sure that they were trained. And so it was that was very nice of the state to make sure, that the small towns received a proper allocation so, that will offset the costs of those special ed, people. And that's really it going into the oh, no. One other thing. Forgot. We have a request from who is for us once we know what our summer is gonna look like, to try at least on the March, meeting to, come up with dates for them because they are being asked by parents Mhmm. When the dates are gonna be for the summer. And I know usually March and April is when, you know, the principal and the superintendent will sit and figure it out. I know it could be a little bit difficult this summer because we could have some potential outside activity with building. So as soon as we get an answer to that, I know that Google is anxiously looking for us to be able to offer them, dates on that. So, definitely, that'll be on March's agenda. That's it. Okay.
Anybody have any questions for Tom? Just the where do we stand on the solar contract? Did that go through, get done? So, yep.
Jeff Maguire, did do the the notarized page that has to go through from the town for us to apply for that PPA application that did get it in time. Remember, we were trying to meet that February deadline. We did meet the February deadline, and so they have it. And so as soon as we know whether or not we would qualify, they'll notify us. And then, you know, from there, you know, we'll have to to talk to the town because I know that there's an ordinance or or some kind of resolution where we'll have to show them then, that the height of the arrays, fit within the guidelines of, the town. I think it's it was actually an ordinance whether or not they're gonna be up, whether or not they're gonna be flat because you have to make sure that the fire department still has access to the roof with them there. There's a couple of other questions that they have related to that on a checklist like, do you have any ground mounted equipment? And so, I did speak with both Jeff and Eric, and I let them know that we don't know that we're getting it yet. So once we get it, we'll make sure that we take all the information and offer to the board selectman.
So Yeah. One other question is, you know, the DMV saga here, what is he approved? So we're good. So
so the DMV saga, that's been going on forever and ever. So, not exactly, but there is one other senior driver that has everything all set, and they, right now, are they filled out all the paperwork here. They filled out paperwork where they have the proper endorsements already. We're not sure that they're gonna be available five days a week, and so Taylor's gonna have to work on that, that arrangement with mom and the bus company. But there is one that is completely certified and able to drive, which helps us out even if we have a couple weeks lag here. I thought we weren't allowed to use anyone driving. This is a new person that registered with senior it's Susan. And she's now registered as a driver while this saga's been going on with the seniors. And so that's great. She came in. She got her paperwork the other day. We spoke with her. And the good news is even if right now she says I can't commit to the five mornings and the five afternoons because of whatever it is she's doing over there, We've also struggled with not just the day to day, but, for example, there was one time where we had to ask the parent if they would drive the child to a field trip because Mhmm. Otherwise, that must be a thousand dollars. So we at least know that we have that going, and Taylor's gonna work with Susan to and with Kathy to
get that going. But so he's not quite finished yet. Things keep, you know, getting all wrangled up, but at least the other one now is there. Is there an end in sight? There is an end in sight. It's that the the endorsements that they they wanted, he had the CDL, and they want the PM to v. And so now it's a matter of making sure that both the p and the v are on there. So we're getting there. Is that it? Okay. Pension report,
Harry, Taylor. Yes. So we had an exciting month. I mean, you're welcome to do that. Exciting last Financial report. Yeah. No. Thanks. Month, lot to celebrate. So we had our school wide spelling bee, which was really a really fun experience. The kids did a great job, and Hillary Boris was our winner, a fifth grader, who will represent us in the regional spelling bee in the beginning of March. So that was exciting. We even had a first grader make it all the way to the school spelling bee, so that was That's great. It was nerve racking for all of us. But we we did it. She did a great job, and they all they all really did a great job. So that was exciting. Again, I know I keep mentioning it, but just to keep it on everyone's radar, we're excited about our invention convention coming up in March, and that will be right before our board meeting in March. You're all invited if you should choose, for the award ceremony prior to that. During the day, the projects will be judged, and we'll name six semifinalists, to go on to the state semifinals. When is that? March 8, so the next board meeting. So that's that's exciting. And that same night we are planning, and you'll hear soon of, again, a two, three, STEM night to correspond. So our second and third graders will get to do some STEM activities, and then should they choose to stay and get to go see the inventions, it's kind of a nice bridge to, like, here's what you're gonna be having the opportunity to do in the future. I wanted to touch base. I know we're continuing our reading program waiver before we come back to the I Ready. I'll show you, just some of that data, but, we also have had an opportunity. Our special ed teachers have worked with SERC to,
get us some professional development in adaptive technologies. That's a service that that department of the state is offering free of charge, which is exciting via Zoom. So, some specifically in the area of fourth through sixth, how we can use our tech a little bit more effectively for students with special needs, but also general ed students who could benefit from, some of those tech tools that maybe we're underutilizing, whether it's via Google or some other, device. And the state also has a lending library for that, like, of of adaptive technology too that we can try out, which is pretty cool. And then, again, for some of our lower grade students with specific adaptive needs, they're gonna help to kinda work with us and show, some of our staff those tools. So we're excited about that. Also, in the area of professional development, we have started what we call learning walks. So the teachers have had an opportunity to walk the building, essentially what it sounds like, and get into other teachers' rooms and get to see trends across the building and kind of what's happening below them and above them, which has been great for us as we continue looking at improving our curriculum, right, and and continuing to increase, the quality of our instruction. So we're excited about that too. So I just wanted to I know, it won't take too much time, but we finished our I Ready benchmark assessments just this past week, and so we've also been taking time to really dive into that data. And while I won't do a deep dive with you, I just wanted to give you a general sense of
and be able to celebrate alongside us with some of the great growth we've seen. So let me just share this so the people at home. Let me take a look. I think, hopefully, it will be big enough. So this is, just starting with our reading. And so you can see the top is our current. Like I said, we just finished, and then that bottom is our fall, when we first gave that diagnostic. So, again, it's an it's a broad overview, but, hopefully, your initial reaction is you can see the green is significantly bigger. Right. And the red is, pretty much cut in half here for reading. So this is a huge, accomplishment and the hard work of all of our teachers. And And this is the whole This is the whole school. Yeah. Pre K. K to six. Yeah. So you can see even just that red is that three or more grade levels. Again, cutting that from 12 to five. Right? And so we talk a lot when I talked about SBAC scores. Numbers, because we're so small, can start to feel a little bit deceiving and just isolating. But, again, just trend wise, you can see we are absolutely going in the right direction and really are focused on that acceleration and not just remediation, I think, is what's what's pushing us here. So this is this is the reading, and I'll just show you so you can see. I think you will be
equally as excited about the math. So Wow. It's, like, more than double. Yeah. It's crazy. It's really it's really awesome. So, you know, we say as teachers, we're always looking like, this is one data point. Right? It's one student in front of a computer for that one time. So we always take a look at a broad sense of the work. Right? Lots of different assessment points. But we do benchmark data so that we can get one snapshot of where we are. It's also fairly predictive for us for SBAC performance. So if we look at the older grades and, again, we're this is whole school, but we're diving deep into each grade, each class, and each student, right, to take a look at, okay. Where who are those kids that are right there and need that next push? Who are the kids that are ready to accelerate, and who are the kids that are still really struggling, and do we need to, you know, alter any of those interventions? So we're excited about about this data. And I just kind of wanted to just briefly, I think, share with the board what we're seeing as some of the contributing factors to the success this year. We have, as you know, increased our intervention, and we're we're
it's huge. So we are now three interventions this year and focusing, specifically, yes, on our two three where we knew there would be a lot of, needs, and we're seeing huge results there. In second, r two three, and our third. It's just been a dynamic team, and they're really we're able to meet all of those needs uniquely, whether it's in the combo or with the additional intervention support. We've also really, I think, increased our focus on curriculum. There's not a teacher in the building that I don't think is onboard and ready and doing the work to make sure what we're teaching is exactly what we wanna be teaching. And we're just being intentional with every minute and with our time. Continuing to differentiate. I know that was a focus last year. It continues to be a focus this year, and what that looks like across different grades, but also across different subject areas. And and that focus on acceleration, we're not just looking to bring students to closing the gap. We're trying to accelerate all students' learning, and so what that looks like. So,
you know, it's brief and a lot and quick, but I did wanna give you in the midst of budget time just a a look at how awesome our kids and our teachers are doing, and I'll continue to kind of report out through the rest of the year and you kinda meet your data points. Would the next testing occur, Carrie? So I Ready, we do three times a year. So SPAC will actually come next Yep. Prior to I Ready. And these results will go home to parents individually as well here? Good question. Yep. So you just like in the fall, you'll get a parent kind of a cover letter that will show their individual growth as well. So it'll show that kind of fall and then give you a little bit more information. So we hope to have those out.
Friday is a stretch, but maybe I'm hoping for Friday, but you know how that goes. But within the next few days, so that's exciting. That's great. Thank you. Other questions I can answer for you?
Yeah. I think you're doing an awesome job with those kids, and I think the teachers were backing up when I say, nobody knows your kid. Yep. Well, that that teacher knows each and every child in that room. Absolutely. And they know exactly what to do. Absolutely. Thank you, folks.
Alright. So let me see here. So I think that is all oh, I did wanna share one other quickly. We had Celeste brought us this great opportunity. I give her all the credit for to have a judge and attorney come in to see our fifth graders and present they're participating in a a program where they're gonna visit lots of classrooms and lots of schools where they talk about civic engagement. Is that what they're supposed to say? Yes. Okay. Did you get a funny I got a different story. Yeah.
I can't wait to hear it. Yeah. It's a fancy government. Oh, okay. I like that better.
So we couldn't talk about their job. So it is a judge and an attorney, not two top secret. They came in, and they they let the kids they they run through different scenarios. Right? So you're on an island, and and you're gonna be there for an an unknown amount of time. How do you create rules? What would that look like? Then they got to pick a school rule or something that was important to them and how what they change it and what that process would be like. So it was very, very cool opportunity. And next week, Lisa and I will go to Hartford just to kind of be part of their launch event, and missus Hopkins will actually be giving a little speech. Right, Lisa? Just a little baby speech about how the impact we're seeing with kids and especially as she's participated in kid governor and really how we're trying to bring the curriculum alive. And so thank you, Celeste, for bringing us that opportunity. Really cool. Yeah. And continue to engage it. So that's been great too. I think that's now I'm done. Any questions?
Ready for the financial report, Erin? K. If you'll turn to eight the fifth page in your packet, that's the beginning of the financial report. I don't know if anybody had a chance to look at this, but, the numbers haven't changed much since the last time we talked. I've been a little busy with the budget for next year, but, you know, we're I'm slowly getting things to where they should be. I think you'll see more, changes in our next report in March. But if does anybody have any specific questions to this report?
Just to confirm, Carrie. Yes. When we're looking at percentage used and whatnot Yes. That's because of that's adding together the expended and the incumbent. Yeah? Yes. Okay. And the balance And and not excuse me. Yeah. Sure. No. That's Not everything I I think I told you that the interim had started encumbering
a bunch of stuff. Okay. And I wasn't real I I wasn't real confident in the numbers yet. And, unfortunately,
I haven't really had a chance to really delve into those yet, but but I'm getting there. General, if I see a 100% of obviously, the first one, the summer school has already been expended, but it usually should be because it's not only expended but encumbered also. You already know that. Yes. Okay. Thanks. Do we
for physical therapy specifically, do you have to reallocate stuff from somewhere else to there to make that not look Yes. Like it does? I think Valid mentioned that a lot of our SPED services
will be over, and we will have to move some money around. Okay. Are you guys waiting until a certain time to do that inside of here? The normal time frame for that is usually March. We really wanna have this my office. Yeah. I feel like March is really the time where you really need to know what you have and what you don't have. Okay. And, of course, there's still some grab money out there too. There's four. Caitlin, that expire
she's been busy doing taxes too. So Yeah. We haven't sat down on four that expire, but there's four that expire June. And so when she has the availability, we'll sit down and see what's left in them that can be used Okay. First from there because that's Before you readjust those. Okay. Yep. Any
other questions? Thank you. Thank you, Terry. Thank you very much. Terry.
Items for instruction and action. Item one, board of education policies, updated policies, 1,000 queries, 1,001 hundreds, and 1,200.
Really light note there, Val. Thanks. I don't think This is just the first these guys? I went through some of them. I got through, like, half of them. Is there anything anybody wants to enter to the fact right now, or you wanna wait? I just had a general question because we're talking about community relations, and it's been something I've been curious about. How long will they continue to do Zoom meetings and offer Zoom meetings. I mean, they've been coming quite important, I think, to allow community involvement. Mhmm. But I don't know
whether we're gonna continue them or what's the general sense of how long we're gonna do that. We never had them, obviously, before the pandemic. I would personally say that I think that they should continue forever. Yeah. I mean, I think that's a change. That's a vital change, and it would be stupid to not It would be a mistake too. In fact, I think if anything, we need to, and we were talking about this earlier, make it easier to access a recorded meeting potentially, whether that's for YouTube or whatever, because they're paying for cloud storage. That's a separate conversation. But I think it would be a very huge mistake for us to stop offering that,
especially as it become the standard for every other board in the town as well. Yeah. Yeah. They're still doing all of their meetings virtually. None of them, as far as I know, have even come in to go back to in person meetings. So I guess I would say one step further. I think it's also important that we are having in person meetings Yes. Because that allows people who aren't going to access via the Internet to have a place to come if they want to.
But I I think it's important to have both. So I I'll look through the policies. I think we need to incorporate that at some point. Maybe. But it seems to do that. Like, a way we'll involve in the community is via Zoom meetings or in virtual meetings. You just wanna make by
Zoom. Sure that, you know, we don't tie ourselves to where we're violating a policy if we have technical difficulty. Yeah.
I could never. Just maybe look at that. I personally wanna thank everyone from from this board for always coming together for our meetings. It means a lot to me. I know we'll be able to actually see people and being on a screen at different times, being here sitting with us. So thank you for being in person for this. We're very good. Thank you. If anybody has any other comments that maybe notes, I what I did for myself with these, I kind of grouped them into categories. I don't think in an elementary school, you're gonna have kids disseminating a risk information to their classmates or sending things to take home. Don't think. I don't know if that happens in elementary school. In elections, I like that. Mhmm. And
For student council. I like this one about citizen participation in board meetings. That was a good one.
Ultimately, with the amount and the importance of, I think, these sections, I it would be my I haven't had a chance to read through all of these intention that next like, with the likelihood that we're not going to adopt the next meeting, really come back with next meeting after having read with any changes Yep. That sounds good. And then another month to adopt. I'm glad we're looking through them, but I think this really is a first read, and I don't think we should rush through because these are pretty important ones. Agree. Yeah. They are. Think that sounds good.
I'll just ask, missus Hopkins, when you're doing kid governor and whatnot, do is are there any students who disseminate information to other students as far as trying to get elected?
Marina in The Caribbean. So there's quite a lot of people that So if I heard you right, you're wondering if
they are sharing information or kinda, like, promoting their platform to other students? Yes. Or, like, doing handhelds. We're small school. So within our our classroom, they did that because it's only fifth graders that vote. Yep. So they weren't allowed to do it to other schools, and we're a small school. So the fact that Scarlet got on the cabinet was wonderful being such a small school. But it'll be a great experience.
Thank you. Well, that's what I was looking for. Yeah. Election system. That kind of yep.
Okay. Next item, our AES twenty twenty three twenty twenty four budget discussion. Anybody have any leads, any other questions? We had a few budget workshops. We had a public hearing.
I I think before we actually even have a discussion, we have to and then so I'll go ahead and do it. I'd like to make a look into it through the 2023, 2024 budget. I'll second. You know? Just Now would be the discussion.
I I would just say, I think I mean, I you guys know I wasn't able to attend the last meeting. I watched both the recordings. I think everything has been presented in a way that is very easy to understand. It's clear and concise where things are being allocated to, and I think it's appropriate.
I don't really have any questions. And I would say that, you know, mean, we're again, we've reached out. I feel like we've done everything we can to solicit questions. I can't think of any questions that have been brought forward that haven't been addressed or were concerned with the budget or anybody from town or any entity has come forward and said, I I have an issue with this, or can you explain that? It hasn't been addressed. So, I I think we're good at this point unless yeah. We'll we'll see what happens after we approve it. But, yeah, we we have definitely attempted to try and get as much information or address issues before they before we approve it. And at this point, we haven't heard any. I think it's a fair budget.
I think it's fair to the residents. It's fair to the school. Valerie, you've a lot of work on this, and you've done a lot to try to explain it. Thank you for taking the time to do that. I know that Terry's helped you, and a lot of people been involved. And it's a good thing. But I think that it is a fair budget, and you can read the newspaper to see what's going on around us.
It's AI. I had a meeting yesterday in her heard of the small town and the part time supers and one of the things that we addressed. There were, you know, people weighing in. There were about 12 people weighing in, and we were asked and I won't quote which towns they were, but we were asked to share with each other. You know, it's a tough time. Special ed seems to be the the biggest difficulty, and we were asked to share percentages. And, I won't hit them with the towns because they're not approved, but, unfortunately, you know, there was 11% in one town that's actually gone through the board event. It was 8.8. It was eight. It was four nine. It was six. There was only one that came in at zero because there was a loss of, outplacement and no, in placed students. I mean, it they it was the average was ranging,
between, 48%, and there there were just some, you know, pretty, window to the sales, superintendents saying this is the best that we could do. So I think that, you know, the towns are gonna see the same thing on their heads too, and it's just gonna be you know? Oh, I mean, you look at the overall budget. We were asking for an increase of a $180,000.
And if you look under simply the heating oil Just heating. Yeah. Heating oil represents Yep. Over $30,000 of that increase. After that, you go to a 150. We're looking at 3% contractual raise increase. Yeah. You take the contractual raise increase and the heating oil alone, and we're at the $1.08. So Right. The rest represents, you know, the best we can do to as far as cutting and where where we can find yeah. I don't I don't think a 180,000 when we are maintaining the same student population in this environment where I mean, if I could get a 4% increase on all the rest of my bills, I'd be very happy. You know? I just got my electric bill, and it was a lot more than I mean, it's been better all. Like, we're at least eight to 10% for almost any other industry. Yeah. I'm seeing that across the board in what I do where we're go all of our costs are going up everybody. And, you know, the minimum on my time my
bosses are pushing me to do 8% across the board just so we can maintain our margin. So we're looking at a 4.49. And, again, a lot of that is just in fixed cost, things that we can't control, electricity, heating oil, and those things. And we're taking actions such as looking into the solar and trying to move forward with that to where we can help produce that. But I think this represents a responsible budget in the current environment where we haven't seen, you know, goods increase this much Right. Ever. Right.
We have a motion on the floor to accept the budget as presented. Motion. Is there a second?
Sorry. I didn't second. You said Take take the Okay.
Any further discussion? All in favor of adopting superintendent's budget as presented, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstention? Gretchen, that's 700, please. Thank you. He is on reports. Are there any?
Oh, I'm gonna throw this under a finance liaison. It's that is my role. We disapprove the budget. It's more of if anyone who is watching this, but it is important now that we've done this. It's gonna go to board of finance, and we'll see what happens there. But we know the method in which we're approving budgets now has changed. It is very important for anyone who's watching our especially the board members to not only support this budget, you know, by standing up and talking for it, but biggest thing is voting. Making sure you talk to people, and if they have a concern, you get out and vote. You need to that needs to be hammered home until this is we can't just assume, oh, my neighbor's gonna do it or, yeah, I'm okay with it. You need to go out and you need to actually
place a vote or else it we will end up you know, we can't have 300 people show up to determine this whether or not this budget passes or else we can end up into a similar situation, which costs the town money. But we don't pass budget. Single time. It costs us more every time we push take it down the road. So About 4 to 5,000. Yeah. This is reasonable. I think this is reasonable, and, you know, I'll throw out there. And I've said this before. I mean, up until this point, if anyone personally has a question as to why I voted yes, feel free to call me or I think any of the board members could reach out and ask what's in here. You know, there's we all voted yes. We're we're here to support it, but ask the questions to people who can give you the correct answers. Not you know, someone who isn't involved or doesn't know and just making speculation. If you really want the truth, ask someone who can give you the correct answers. So I just urge everyone to hopefully support this budget, and, hopefully, we can
not go through what we've gone through the past few years.
So to add on to that, Steve, the next step would be we gotta support this to the board of finance. Mhmm. And beyond that, as many people as can attend the budget meeting. Because the first thing is the town meeting after the board of finance, and we really need everybody there, especially when we bleach your people. And then, hopefully, there won't be the division that there has been in the past, and we can get it passed at referendum. They haven't stipulated one that needed to have It's
by by statute that it has to occur so that it's usually a main meeting. Right. But they haven't set a meeting yet. No. Yep. If you ask Carol, you should probably would know because it's it has to occur within a certain number of days, like twelve days or whatnot. Yeah.
Do you know when you present me to the board finance?
So tomorrow, I will, assist in putting together their transmittal letter and the, budget in the form that our charter maintains the five columns. Terry will get that together for us, and we will send that over to them. And so they will put it on their next meeting. Once it's on their next meeting and we're on the agenda, then we'll appear to be able to speak to them on Zoom. I'm sure it is. Do you think that'll be for their March meeting? Because I think their meetings are, like, third or fourth week Yeah. Of the Okay. We we had to get it to them before our March meeting, which is why I have to be able to speak to them.
Thank you, Valerie. Anybody else? We're up to number eight. Comments from the public on agenda items. Lisa Hopkins? All set. Thank you. Amanda? I'm all set. Thank you. Thank you. Jamie? I'm all set. Thanks. Thank you. Kimberly. I'm all set. Thank you. Thanks, Kimberly.
You're welcome. Amy Knox? All set. Thanks. Thank you. Anybody in here? Okay. Thank you for being here. Thank you. And thank you everybody for attending through the, Zoom. Other action items, are there any? Upcoming meetings, regular board meeting, 03/08/2023. We'll deal with the policies and the 1,000 period. And anything else you want to discuss, make sure you let one of us know. We're convention convention. Oh, yes. We're gonna be here early for invention convention. Thank you. And
may can we come during the day too? Yes. We will be seeking a board of education judge. So let me know if that's something you're interested in. But even if you don't wanna judge, you can certainly come to see Alright. I'll I'll be here. Thanks. I already put it on my calendar. Do you know what the timing is for the whole thing? I will I will share it with you. Yeah. Let me get it specifically. I don't wanna misspeak.
You know I like doing those things. I know. We love to have you. K.
German, we need a motion, a second, and a vote. I'll make a motion.
You want a nice motion to do. Is there a second? I'll second. Thank you, Kate. A vote. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Okay. Gretchen, that's 700. Thank you. Okay. I got Caitlyn seconded. Who first?
Celeste. Oh, I think they said with them resentment. That's her motion. That's my motion.