Meeting transcript
BOE Meeting
October 9, 2024 · Watch on Zoom · All meetings
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Yes. All set. All set. All set. Good evening, everyone. I wanna welcome everyone to the Andover Board of Education regular meeting. It is Wednesday, October 9. Just want to, extend a warm welcome to everyone present and to our Zoom viewers. The board, superintendent, and I are pleased that you have joined us as we celebrate achievement, review information, and make policy decisions related to the effective operation of the Andover Elementary School. This is a regular meeting and all items that will be discussed or voted on this evening have been posted as required by state law. As the Andover Elementary School Board of Education, we are here to set goals, listen to reports of the superintendent, approve budgets, contracts, and personnel appointments, and to make policy for the district. We are not here to make management decisions or solve the problems of individuals. Management is the responsibility of the superintendent. Meetings of the board are open to the public. It is the time when the board conducts its business of governing the school system in a public arena. The regular meetings are not meetings with the public. Therefore, from the public will be confined to the time designated for the public to address the board. Decorum and courtesy are important elements in effective public meetings. Please silence your cell phones or communication devices and refrain from talking while others are speaking. Since it is legally mandated that proceedings be accurately recorded, the board chair may have to ask for order periodically should noise begin to interfere with our recording capabilities. I'm pleased that you have taken the time this evening to join us. We are very proud of the school system, and thank you for your interest in the Androsa Elementary School.
So with that, I'd like to do the pledge of allegiance. Okay. Here we go. Alright. It's back. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, a foundation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Alright. Comments from the public. Missus Ms. Magoldrick? I'm all set. Thank you. How about Jenny Morell? Okay. Alright. We'll come back. And then you've said Ms. Landry is from Boston O'Neill. Okay. Okay. I think I froze for a minute. I'm all set. Hi, everyone. Miss Hawkins. Thank you. Okay. And one more time, Jenny Morell.
Can you hear me now? Yes. Okay. I'm all set. Thank you. Alright.
Oh, Anne. Anne, come by. Thank you. You're the no pro.
Did you hear Nancy? I'm good. Thank you so much. Okay. Thank Thank you, Jerry. Any any communications? No? Okay. Student celebrations?
We don't have any kids here this month, but just so you know, a little sneak peek next month, Mrs. Hopkins, will have some good news because, our fifth graders have worked with Hopkins, and we've been selected for the red, white, and blue school. And so we'll light up with another sign outside for this great achievement. Red, white, and blue schools are an honor. This year, there's 11 schools. It's a partnership between the State Department of Education, the Connecticut Old State House, and the social studies, Connecticut State Farm of Education Social Studies. They will be honoring this year,
one that's called an outstanding school, which is Cornwall. Two, that are schools of distinction, six to six magnet and William Johnson and Tolbrook, and then 11 red, white, and blue schools. And we're one of the 11 red, white, and blue schools. Yeah.
Okay. So miss Hopkins will absolutely in the month of November,
you know, have herself and both police units. The honor will take place within the next two weeks up at the steakhouse. It shows probably be sleeping there, although she probably doesn't know that yet because I've already walked here at that event, which she's done before, spoken at events there. So so we're really proud. They have topics every year, and they have, like, agendas, themes. And what Lisa was really able to do was to work with the kids on some of the agendas from our kid government. And so, she'll be able to talk more about that, next month, but, we're really proud of that. And, hopefully, by next month's meeting, we will have that red, white, and blue honor sign outside with the other two. So that was one of those. Great. Thank you, Mrs. Hopkins. Thank you, Mallory. K.
Approval of minutes of the special meeting from September 11. I wanted to approve this second meeting minutes by September 11. I
can I need to check out because there may be some correction? Okay. Yep. My name is.
B r I a n n e. Okay? Anything else?
Can we get we'll just sign out for meetings for meetings and future meetings to take all that in in minutes or June 2018?
We're gonna we don't have that on the we have that on the agenda 12 b. So that was just in our packet, but we're gonna talk about those, the 2025 meetings coming up. I'm talking about the the. Like, who's that? Oh, okay. You're okay. Just so we have Yes. Okay. Okay. I can I can get that to What's that? This is my analyst. I
could get that to Dawn, or can I get that to you? Or If you send it to me via email Okay. I'll add it to the minutes. Okay. Sorry, Archie. I see what you're saying. Okay. Yeah. Of course. I will send that to, Valerie, and she will have it added to the meeting minutes. Thank you. Yep. Anything else? Gary has seconded Okay. All in favor to approve the the minutes with those corrections and additions, say aye? Aye. Aye. Okay. 700. Thank you. I have to abstain. Okay.
Okay. So two abstain. Five and two. Five and two. Thank you.
K. Opportunity to add or delete agenda items. I would I would like to add an agenda item for 12 f, just motion to approve via playground that the PTA has raised money to to do. So I'd like to put that on the agenda for for twelve f. Okay. Any other celebrations? Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Can I get a motion to add up to the agenda? I motion to add it to the I can second. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Alright. Seven zero zero. Thank you. Okay. Other celebrations.
I think it's Jerry's birthday tomorrow, so we wanna say happy birthday to Jerry. Let's eat some cupcakes over there. Happy birthday, Jerry. Big one. Yeah. It's, like, zero.
Zero. 07/2000. All in favor? Okay. There you go. Happy birthday, Jared. Thank you. Okay. Moving right along. Next up is Fuss and O'Neil presentation on the bathroom project. I know Valerie has put in front of us the copy that we sent to us back in July. So thanks, Valerie, for taking the time to make copies of this. And I do have somebody else to get their.
Hi, miss Landry. Evening. Thank you for having me here. I'm here at superintendent miss Bruno's request. Valerie, would you like to give an introduction, or would you like me to just go ahead, and describe our proposal to you?
Well, we'll just kind of for anybody who wasn't here at the original meeting, just kind of review that. The board did already receive, as a second, potential, proposal, one from. This is miss Landry. She's the one that came here to the building to review all of the information and then after her visit to come up with the proposal that we had looked at once before. And then this is an opportunity for a new member as well as everybody else to meet with, Elizabeth and be able to ask any questions, that might be booming about that proposal before at some point you guys consider that, to go out. So take it away.
Thank you. So back on July 17, Fuss and O'Neil provided a proposal to Andover, and it's for, renovation of three bathrooms. And the existing bathrooms are nonfunctional and outdated. So the goal is to make these bathroom fully functional, co compliant with updated finishes, and this includes architectural design, electrical design, and plumbing design. So our proposal is all inclusive. It considers ADA requirements, wall finishes, floor finishes, ceilings replacement, and new fixtures, plumbing fixtures, piping, venting required for plumbing. And our proposal includes from design phase all the way to construction administration. The design is expected to be completed five to six weeks. And so we have, in our proposal, carried a full architectural scope, and that is about 60% of our fee is architectural because we've done many bathroom renovations with this particular architect as a sub. And we know that bathroom renovation is not just plumbing, and the architectural element is a significant element of this renovation. So I just wanna let you guys know what our proposal
includes. So, again, if this is very inclusive of all of the scope that is involved, in the part of the bathroom renovation. Also, we have submitted a separate proposal to miss Bruno related to the hazmat element of this. Oftentimes, when construction begins, contractor starts to question whether or not there was a asbestos inspection done beforehand, if there was a report associated with the building. To my understanding, there is no inspections done on this building. Therefore, we think this is very important to have that scope so we don't run into any surprises. So I have given miss Bruno both proposals, in July for consideration. As I mentioned, Fuss and O'Neil has done many bath school, school bathroom renovations, so we're very familiar with what needs to be done. And Fuss and O'Neil has been in business for over a hundred years, and we've worked with Andover since 2005. Most of the work is done, at the school, hazmat services, HARA services, and etcetera. So, thank you for the opportunity to speak here tonight, and, we're we're looking forward to work with you. If you have any questions regarding the proposal, I'm here.
Thank you, miss Landry. I appreciate that. Does anybody have any questions? I have one. You mentioned that you work with a subcontractor
for the architecture. How confident are you in the rate that you've included? I mean, is there
Comfortable. The the architect that I have included is Antonazi. They have just completed a large school bathroom renovation in Fairfield, and we have completed a a school renovation, for bathrooms in Stanford. So we this is not a new outfit. We've been working with them for many years.
I just have a question under assumptions, and this is because I this is not anything that I deal with. Like, I Of course. Way outside of my realm of safety. The fir the number one, it says value engineering past the SD phase is not included. What does that mean?
During SD phase, we like to have a workshop with you to understand what your construction budget is, And we like to tailor our scope of work and design to that budget. It sometimes a client would tell us that they have budget that's forthcoming, and then later on, during later phases, when that budget is no longer available, this triggers redesign, and redesign effort is oftentimes significant. So what we what we really prefer to do is to understand your budget constraints and kind of frame the project, in terms of scope in the beginning of the project. So it it doesn't mean that we're not willing to do Valley engineering. It just means that we believe this type of discussions needs to happen very early on on project. Okay. Does anybody else have any questions? Eric or Mike? No. That's good. No? I don't think
Can I ask you about Absolutely? Absolutely. Just to review, because the the one that we had gotten from the town initially, it was about half as much money as this, if I'm remembering correctly. Yes. Yes. And the significant differences between that one and this one are really just addressing things that are school specific in terms of, like, ADA compliance and compliance for being in a school.
Yeah. She read this. Elizabeth, she's asking a question about the difference between Yes. Happy to answer that.
So in the other proposal, I don't I don't know the fee because it's all blacked out, but what I can tell you is they specifically, excluded any kind of MEP, structural support. So piping support, unit support, etcetera, is not covered under that proposal. Also, most importantly, that proposal states that it's limited to general architectural. And the only architectural element that I mentioned was floor tiles, and it was very unspecific. So on the other hand, our proposal covers, as I said, walls, floors, ceiling, stalls. So all all of the architectural elements is clearly spelled out. So I think the difference between the two proposals is really the architectural scope that's missing. And, also, I've mentioned that the architectural
fee is actually 60% of our total fee. Yep.
So that So it's really not comparing apples to apples. Yep.
When they've done these renovations at other schools that have building ages or in the nineteen fifties, what issues did you typically run into if anything does come up?
It I a lot of it is, you know, you wanna pay attention to hazmat side of things. Right? You start cord drill. You start going through, building envelopes. You just have to be careful that you're not disturbing hazardous material. So that's why I said the other proposal that I gave you, it's important. Whether you go with Fuss and O'Neil or somebody else, it's just important to inspect and understand the impact of this construction ahead of time so you don't run into surprises. Right? That's number one. Number two, we are connecting piping new piping to existing piping. So it's very important in the beginning of the due due diligence phase to look at the existing conditions of piping that you're connecting into to make sure that it it is not going to create surprises. We don't like surprises. That's why SD is very important that we go in and look at this. That's why when miss Bruno called me, I I looked at everything myself to make sure that our proposal was inclusive of these things.
And, generally, are you able to control stroke rate and maintain faucet schedule?
Yes. That's why the workshop during SD phase with the owner owner's representative is important. We want a design to your budget and not not give you a gold plated design and later on having to go through the valley engineering process. And do you reserve for the unknown unknowns?
I'm sorry. What do you mean by the unknown unknowns?
You like like, if you get in there. Right? Because you mentioned the plumbing. Right? You get in there and half of it's rusted out, but you didn't know. Are you putting aside some of that budget?
Or Yeah. Or or is it gonna go over? Like I don't it's not gonna go over because I looked at the site myself. I was up in the attic to look at the the venting tie ins, and I also looked at the tunnel to look at the sewer pipe tie ins. So that's why I think the initial visit during the proposal phase is is also crucial. Thank you for explaining that. You're welcome.
I I just have a question. Under the fees for bidding, it's $3,900. What what is the the bidding for if if we already have the if we already have Antanasi and Associates? What what is the bidding for?
It is for your potential contractors to look at the project. And they will look at our design documents, and they'll oftentimes have questions about our design documents, and that is time to set aside to walk the project with the contractor, walk the drawings with the contractor, and answer any kind of questions, clarifications associated with our drawings. That is a standard phase, in the design bid bill project.
And on that note, is this, like, a firm fixed price, or if the bidding came in less, would it be, like, cost? Like, if if, say, the bidding didn't cost 3,900, would we get a return, or is it 3,900 no matter what?
It's a lump sum. So it's no matter what. This is not time and material. It's lump sum. However, if you have a, contractor that you are comfortable working with and would like to forego this bidding process, that is something to consider. Mike or Jerry, do have any questions? Mike?
No. No. I'm sorry. Alright. No. You're good. Eric, anything? Okay. Alright.
Thank you, Ms. Landry. Appreciate it. I think if nobody has any questions, we we appreciate you coming tonight. Thank you. And and we'll get back to you with with with what the next steps will be.
You very much. I'll log off now. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Alright. Jeff Murray, are you on? Yes. I am. Alrighty. You're up next. Give me one second here. Okay. So up next, we have Jeff Murray's presentation regarding the addition of fans to the AES gym. Just real quick. I know, Jeff, you you did a great job with sending us an email with some videos. I know that we all received it. Eric, I did send it to you so you could take a look at it. So just just to give some background. Jeff, take it away.
Number one, has anybody has everybody seen the videos that I sent? Yes. Yes. Okay.
So everybody understands what the the problem is we're talking about in the gym. Correct? Yes. Yeah. Okay. So, like, anybody that's ever gone up in a second floor and they notice, you know, he he will rise. And so we've got this we've got this large area with a with a high ceiling with with heat up above where we're discharging heat up in the top of the gym floor, but that heat never gets down to the floor level. And our thermostats are at the floor level. So what happens is when it gets really, really cold is we've got heaters that just run and run and run trying to push that heat down to those thermostats. The problem is you have to use excessive amount of fuel, and the the ceiling temperature can get a 100 to 120 degrees to get that gradient down to 70 degrees where those thermostats are gonna shut off. So what these ceiling fans in the past were always thought to push air down, but if as you see in the video, they create a lot of turbulence on the outside, and they never really have a column, and they never really force the air down to the ground level. So this this got popular in Europe. It's it's called de stratification. So it basically what these fans do is they take it's basically a tube with a fan in it, and it basically forces a column of air down to the floor level. And it mixes that hot hundred hundred to 120 degree air in with that floor air, which
satisfies the thermostats and allows you the heating cycles to be less and to basically conserve fuel in the magnitude of 30 to 40%. So everybody knows how much oil AES uses in a in a year. I think it's I think it's 30,000 gallons, if I'm correct?
Depends on the year, but we're we average anywhere from we've done twenty nine five on a low year. We've done 38.
Yeah. So Yeah. So and I've been in the gym on a Saturday with people who are in there, and those those those furnaces in there are just they're running constantly because they can never get that heat down to the floor level because people are opening the doors, and they're letting that cold air in, and it never allows the thermostats to shut off. So you're basically just sitting there, and that heat that furnace is just running and running and running. So what this does is it forces all that heat down to the floor level, and it will will will cycle the furnaces more efficiently. So let's just say that $30,000 I mean, a 30,000 gallon number probably I mean, if you look at a square footage at a square square ship, it probably, like, eight probably 8,000 gallons to 10,000 gallons is probably used to heat that area or even that gym because it's such a large area. If you can cut out 30% of that, you're talking about 3,000 gallons a year of savings. So that's quite a bit. So it's it it just makes us it makes this space more efficient. You're gonna have a lot more smaller carbon footprint because you're not putting all that, you know, oil up the up the up the stack. It's just a it's just a smart idea to do, especially if you're gonna go solar because you can actually
use your solar energy to power these fans. So it's just it's it's a win win. It's just it's it's a fact driven technology. I don't see for the cost, I mean I mean, we can get the cost savings back in probably a year, and then we'll be saving money from then on. So I don't know if anybody has any questions about the technology.
There? I have a couple. Absolutely. Go for it. Yeah. Go ahead. Do you have an idea of how many so you in your note, you said you would replace the existing bands. Correct.
Do you think it would be better to add additional fans too? Or
No. I spoke to the vendor, and they said that if we replace the existing fans with the space we have, it would be adequate. Okay. So
Do they have to be boxed in, like, the current fans as well?
Well, these actually are self contained. They actually have a cage on the front and the bottom. So the the existing ceiling fans would go away. Probably, if if you wanted to, you could probably remove that that mesh that's over the current fans and just leave them freestanding. I mean, they're used to being out in a gym environment hitting being hit by basketballs and other things, and it won't damage them in any way.
Have you heard of any other districts doing this in the area? LEDs that have them?
Not really. I mean, it's it's really popular in Europe, and it's just catching on here. But, I mean, I could look that up if you'd if you'd like. But, I said, it's a proven technology, and, yeah, I mean, you're you're definitely gonna save 30 to 40% right off the bat in your heating costs.
Oh, I I'm sorry. Do you have any more questions? Okay. When how long would this take for for this project to to be done and to be completed?
So if we're using if we're replacing the existing fans with these fans, I'm gonna try to we've tried to reuse the existing conduits that are there and the power that's feeding those fans. It's just we have to talk to the the electrician and see what additional conduits and wiring is necessary. Basically, you're gonna put a temperature probe up on the up on the ceiling. There's gonna be a temperature probe down at ground level. And, basically, what that is is called delta t. It's your delta temperature between let's say it's 70 degrees down at the bottom and it's a 120 degrees at the ceiling, so it's a 50 degree delta. And the speed of the fans is set based on that delta. So if it's a 10 degree delta, the fans will run at a much slower speed because they don't have to make up as much error in the the the temperature of the the ceiling to the floor. So but if it's a 50 degree delta like the middle of winter, they're gonna be running at a pretty high speed forcing that hot air down below.
Right. Go ahead. I have a question. First of all, thank you, you know, for for thinking about the gym. I really appreciate that. Did did you already tell the vendor that we are only single phase electrical?
That's not a big deal. These are single phase they're single phase fans.
I I ask is that has been something that came up when we were looking at our solar. That's been something that's come up along the way when we did AC. So sometimes it makes a difference. I just wanted to make sure you already knew that, Jeff. Yeah. I know we got single phase up there. That's been a
electrical engineer. I know we we have single phase down at Center Street, but we don't have single phase coming up the street. Well, like Elizabeth Landry said, we don't like surprises. So Okay. Yep. Sure they can hear. Yep. I've already I've already discussed this with the vendor. I mean, we just we got we got the quote for the fans. A lot of it's just gonna be the the and and a lot of this work could be done phased. I mean, if if we could do them on days off, it doesn't have to happen all at one time. We can do it in steps. Okay. You know, like, replace the fans one day, run the wiring another day. You know? It it doesn't have to happen all at once. Okay. Yep.
Because the I mean, the existing fans don't work, so it's not like we're gonna interrupt something that's not currently operating. So we're gonna be adding to it. Yeah. Is there any benefit in the summer months?
I mean, is there does it help? If it was air conditioned, I would say yes. But it's it's this is mostly gonna be a, a wintertime heat efficiency initiative.
That's when you look at the vendors. What did you compare and favor versus other ones?
I just there there's a couple of vendors that actually there's someone that just basically do a lot in Europe, they're just starting to get to United States. But there's one there's one vendor that the vendor that I chose and I and I got the quote from, they they've been doing a lot of projects in The United States, so that's the one I I chose. I mean, I can go out to other vendors and and look at some other prices, but they're all pretty similar. I mean, they're they're all pretty competitive in cost. The one thing I would do is get the, electrical work. We, you know, we get that competitively bid probably with a couple vendors just to make sure we got a we got a good, estimate on that.
Thanks. I'll ask it. Who who pays for this? Who who's gonna pay for this?
I believe it's coming out of the talent fund. Okay. Okay.
I mean, anything we can do that's environmentally friendly, it's gonna save the town money. I'm 100% behind. So I I think this is I think it's a great I think it's a great thing to do. Just asking the obvious question. Yep. I'll ask it.
Thanks, Jeff. Yep. No problem. CW Ward does all electrical stuff now. So CW Ward would be a great one for you to talk to, Jeff. Because they do know the building because they they do what they did all of our wiring for our AC and things like that. So I'm not saying that you have to go with them, but that would be a great one to talk to because they've been doing this building for years. Yeah. We could definitely talk to them, and I'd actually probably talk to Lenco too, and we just get a competitive bid and see who's, who's the lowest.
But and is it is your hope to have this done for for this winter so we can take advantage of it for this winter?
I would like to. I mean, anybody that's been in the gym knows. I I don't know if you've ever been in there on a cold day and and noticed how much that heat is running. It's just constantly we're just we're just putting money right up the ex the stack. That's all we're doing. We're just putting money up the stack because that heat never gets down to the floor level. Right. Thank you, Jeff. Does anybody else have any questions?
Jeff, I didn't. This is Shannon. I didn't see, and I don't know. I did look at the videos, but, do you have an approximate estimate about how much it all will cost?
Well, we have an estimate for the fans, but we need to get a we need to get a concrete estimate for the labor. I believe the board of finance approved $20,000 for this project. Right.
So you think the late the labor and we we knew about the fans. Okay. Yep. Does anybody else have any other questions?
Do we need to I mean, it's not written on here for us to vote. It is, is it? Okay. Yep. It's I Oh, it's on the end. It's actually Yeah. Alright. Yeah. It would be great if the board of education voiced support for this. It would be it would be I think it's a win win for everybody. Yeah. Of course. Thank
you, Jeff. Don't I don't think we have any other questions. Thank you for taking the time to put together the email, the videos. Thanks for coming on tonight. We appreciate it. It is on our agenda to to either vote or not a vote not approve this. So if you wanna stick around, you can. Or if you want to. Or
No. I'm gonna enjoy it. Okay. Enjoy your evening, Deb. Alright. Yep. And, yeah. Thanks thanks thanks again for considering this. It's good. I think it's a good idea to do it. So I hope you guys vote yes. Thank you very much. Thanks, Chelsea. Take care. Alright. Bye. Okay. Taylor Parker. Nice talking. Hey. But sorry. The tools changed here. So I am alright.
So I finally, I'm gonna it takes a little while in order to release all of the official, Smarter Balanced assessment. So, bring me to the Smarter Balanced assessment. That's math and BLA assessment that they take starting in grade three, and then science is in grade five. So three, four, five, and six take math and ELA. Grade five takes, science. So a little bit of an overview. I did it very similar to last year. If you were here, just I think that was easy to see. There's a lot of numbers and things, so I just try to gray out to draw attention. The first box is the state of Connecticut averages. So you can see they're pretty steady, from last year. Just a couple of points there. So that's gonna be ELA, your first line, 48%, and that's your percent of students at the level three or four. So meeting or above, meeting or exceeding. Overall, the state talked a lot about two improvements they saw, trends is in math and attendance, and we follow the same. Our math score went up a bit, and our, attendance was a huge improvement. We dramatically shifted our chronic, absentee rate. We were almost 24% the year before down to about 11. So that was awesome to see, and our math went up a little. Overall, we're fairly steady, in our percentage of students meeting or exceeding. So still more growth to go. But you will see here, I always find this is just a helpful chart as the board is often just curious about how we're doing in terms of people around us. Now it's always gonna be hard to compare apples to apples with every school. You know there's different numbers of students. There's different,
various buildings. Like, in Hebron, they have a 35 Building a 36 Building, whereas Bolton's a K 8 and Columbia's a K 6. Right? There's different, setups, but just so you get a sense, you'll see, again, we're kind of steady in the pack, a little higher here, a little lower there. We talked last year too a little bit about remembering that because we're so small, and you'll see a few slides later, in some grades, each student is four percentage points. Right? One student. So it can be tricky to really use percentages as the best form. Certainly, want it to continue to grow, but when we're looking at smaller classes, depending on the makeup of each grade level, you'll see. So I broke it down again for you by grade level, just so you can get a sense of where we are. You'll see in general, there's always we deep dive as far into detail as we can, but in general, they're as you would see statistically,
in the sense of we're moving towards where we wanna be in most of the grade levels. So this is the grade levels from last year. So these current sixth graders are now at grade and seventh grade. So you're calculating in your brain correctly. And these current third graders are now our current fourth. This is last year's third. So, and, again, you know, you you see there's a couple that we notice right away. Okay. Fourth grade, there's a bigger difference in ELA than that. So it's our current fifth graders. Right? So those are trends and things we look at and say, oh, that's interesting what's happening there. Versus you might see if you look in grade three, it's very similar
in terms of what you visually looks like. So so there's different things that we look at there. So science, I did include the state report, but you see they won't report us since we're too small. So, in order to not they don't wanna give away any data that could identify a student, so they don't. So I did just wanna show that. So, but I can report us for us here so you can see. We find in general, so it's about 59%. That's almost identical to our ELA. Very typical for a class to have a similar science and ELA score. There are a lot of reading on the science test. I'll show you a sample question so you have that in your mind, but you need strong reading and understanding and vocabulary skills in order to do well on the science test. So that tracks to us. State of Connecticut CS state study. You know, it's interesting when we think about what we do next. We've been talking about this now, I think, for four or five months of the curriculum piece, and we've put a lot of time and energy since
really the beginning of last year as we started the process of choosing a reading curriculum all the way through the end and now using bookworms. And then as we piloted using Illustrative last year in second and third, we're now two through five this year in Illustrative using big ideas in sixth, which is the same curriculum that Graham uses for now. So we wanted to bridge the gap in sixth. So big curriculum shifts this year, and that's really the, majority of the work we're doing. We set up really well last year with our three interventionists and how they kind of come at all students pre k to six at different angles, whether it's math, reading, social, emotional, and those pieces. So that's carrying forward. But I think bridging now with our new curriculums and being able to go towards this workaround using style questions, these curriculums do that work as well. Built into the curriculum are more SVAC style questions, and the types of responses and things they'll see. So those two pieces together, I think, will service. So I wanted to think about a way there's a lot of data pieces, right, in a school. So one of the things that missus Fraser is working on in the next few months and one of the student celebrations is kind of being able to display for the board and demonstrate a couple of the standard assessments we do frequently, things like the DIBELS, things like Acadian's math, ways that we track student data, I Ready. There's a lot of different ways. This is a nice measure that I thought I would show. So this is at the end of last year,
our I Ready score. So kids in grades two through six take I Ready. And what it does is the one they take in September, it'll say, here's your score. 428. It's an arbitrary number to anyone who doesn't know what it means. Then based on that score, it makes a growth score for that. It says if you were to achieve one year of learning, you should now be at a five thirty six. Right? Making up the numbers. Some students so, of course, we're aiming every student to get at least one year of growth. But to move our proficiency up, we need students to make more than one year of growth. Right? Not every student, but students who are becoming need to close the gap. So this is at the end of this is in March of last year, I should promise, which means not even at the end of the year.
Our median growth was already a 115%, meaning students were earning more than a 100%, more than one year's growth by March. So that that growth is happening. It's going to take us a little while to maybe play it out on a standardized assessment, and there's a lot of, as you can imagine, other factors with young children in standardized assessments. However, we're seeing the growth, and we have a lot of other data to support, and really that helped to make some of our curriculum decisions. So just kind of an interesting piece to look at. I included I always like to include the sample questions just to remind yourself what we're looking at. This is a third grade question. We, think it's rather interesting. Sometimes, at home parents are can be used to more of the traditional algorithms and traditional, like, okay. I can teach 26 plus 32. My kiddo can do that. There's a lot of asks in this question. I won't read it aloud and make you go through it, but if you picture yourself in the mind of an eight year old,
there's a lot of steps to they have to first understand. They have to be able to read the chart. They have to have some abstract. One of the teachers is Tim's teacher. Which teacher? Right? And understand what's going on and then play around with a lot of numbers. It's not solving one equation. They have to do several to figure out the right answer. So just it's always good to kinda ground ourselves in the work that kids are doing, and our new math program, Illustrated, really is is challenging in this way, helping kids get more practice with questions like these. So SBAC has a lot of practice questions and a lot of interim assessments that teachers can utilize as well. So
if you ever need to quiz yourself, I'm happy to give you the link. And
then, again, just a science question. So this on this side, this is a screenshot, so I can't scroll. But over here, you can see this scroll bar. So students have to scroll, do a lot of reading and understanding, and then be able to use various tools. So here, they're making arrows. They're using the add arrow button, talking about a life cycle. Typically, there's then some multiple choice questions or short answer questions. So the science can be a little like, what does that look like for kiddos? When I say it's heavily reading based, that's kind of what I mean. There's a lot of thinking. There's not prescribed topics, so it's not like every fifth grader in Connecticut needed to learn about phytoplankton before the test. The point is it can really be about any topic. We're learning the skills of science. Right? How do we think? How do scientists make hypothesis? All that kind of stuff. So the test could
be a wide variety of things, but students should have the critical thinking skills to attack the questions regardless if that makes sense. Yeah. That makes sense. So that's the overview. Parents did get those reports for third through From next. Right. From last year. Yes. So they'll get mailed home. So parents get a kind of an informational sheet that the state provides, and the child performed at a level. Here was their score. Here's what it looks like on the little chart and gives a little bit of information. It can be tricky for our parents because, again, it's one snapshot in time to really make a lot of sense of, but it's certainly a data point we pay attention to and look at. So I think we're on the right track as we have been, towards continuing to increase the proficiency of our. Right? Question.
Go ahead. Do we have anything that talks about growth rate 2% target G, growth rate in PTA?
Yes. The state does provide targeted growth. So last year, we were recognized for our math growth. That's the okay. Like, our school distinction. Thank you. Because of our growth rates. They are not as high this year. They were extraordinary high last year because we were moving from almost 10 percentage points there. About average, I can send them to you with the seat. They're around 50%.
So I like, I I like, I was able to tell them, like, they're publicly accessible. Yep. It's like, you know, I I've been able to see them online myself. Okay. But I think it might be useful Yeah. Yeah. For the board to see them. In the next month Happy to show them. And that's the agenda, like, looking at the growth rates trends, the PTA trends, and I think that would help just, like, inform the board more on, like, the acceleration, the intervention. Yeah. I have more information
on that. Can you explain that? Sure. What is it? It's very similar to high rating that students get a targeted goal. So if they scored like this in third grade, we expect them to score like this if you're going to close the gap. Okay. Does that make sense? So they set goals, then the state will report how we did on that. And I don't wanna misquote it, but we're right in the state average around 50% of hitting those growth scores. Whereas last year, our math growth was in the 80% because we made such a big jump back to where we average of our region, not where we wanna be yet, but right around that middle. And so our growth rate slowed, but the state would say it is on target. Not exactly where we need it to be yet. But
And say. And so what would that be the growth scores and and rate that would be on for next month? Okay. I can put that make a slide so you can Okay. Thanks, Mike. No. Thank you. Yeah.
Eric, do you have anything? Yeah. So, Taylor, what were the realistic goal and a aspirational goal that
you're taking, do you think, for these scores? Yeah. So when you look back at historical data for Andover pre COVID, Andover sat in the seventies, like, low 70 ranges. And with our population size, I think that is a good goal. It's gonna be trickier to maintain higher than that when you have such a small population because should you get students in a particular grade cohort who aren't achieving high, it's true. So, certainly, that's our first goal is to get back to where we were pre COVID. From there, I mean, we in all of our PD, we always start by talking about how all kids have access to be literate students. So we believe all students should get a grade, that there's no reason that all students cognitively able to perform should be achieving grade level expectations. So when you ask me my aspiration, always gonna be a 100%. And I think shooting for less than that is a disservice to our kiddos.
Certainly, we wanna get back to in those 70 ranges where we were. You when you say pre COVID, do I assume most districts saw a drop during that. I believe there was one district in The States. They said that first year back from COVID that maintained, but most. Like, you could I could go even farther than those five districts. I've looked obviously even more. Last year, you Yeah. I could do a million. There's gonna be I would say there are some districts certainly back into that 70. I think you saw Marlborough at 70 in math, which is awesome. So they definitely are climbing. There's also a lot of districts. I mean, you look at Columbia a little bit lower, like, you know, just not yet able to to climb that ladder. So it's a variable. I'm not sure you could spot a trend by region, so to speak. But I think with curriculum now across the state as everyone's mandated to look at reading curriculum, it'll be interesting to see how that impacts the process when math growth. If you look forward, are there additional resources to
Yeah. Six months ago, it was absolutely, and now we've gotten more. Yeah. Really, the biggest thing was curriculum. And when I got here about valued about talked about that, we were like, okay. This is a goal. And at the time, really had to consider whether that's a one year goal, two year goal, three year goal. We're very glad that they put money where towards reading curriculum so we can make that happen as soon as we were able. Illustrative, we're using as an open source curriculum, so the majority of majority of it is free access to all schools. We do purchase some of the teacher manuals and things to have in front of teachers. So that's huge. And then last year, being able to add Jenny into that, social emotional interventionist position has been, really a wonderful impact to the building to support our younger students, which, of course, you don't see their Sfax scores, K and two, but those are the kids we will see, moving up, so really being able to support their learning as well. So, I couldn't give you an item or a a thing, so to speak. I think we're doing the right things. We've increased the PD time as well. The board was great about supporting
adding the half days into the calendar last year Mhmm. As time flies last year. And so that's already been so great. We already had one in September. It was like, okay. We already had well, we know our kids. Like, we have this time to to get right to it. So I think we're doing the right things. I know. Working every day.
Because I have a question that's sort of related. Do you think just just because you guys have kind of changed the setup of, like, having those interventionists and how that's affected curriculum? I know when when we get to town meeting and we talk about budget season, the number of teachers is always a big issue. Do you think that you could do a presentation from a curriculum standpoint about having those teachers that are doing intervention? Like, what they're what they're actually doing as opposed to, like, number of student number of kids? Do know what mean? Yeah. I'm always happy to support for them. Just just to show, right, that, like like, you're seeing progress and value to having those positions be what they are. Yeah. Yeah.
And we service people, I think, just like, it would be surprised how many students we can service. So that's With is that kind of what I'm thinking? Right? How many students we support? It's not like, missus Carabonia, our reading teacher, only sees 12 kiddos a day. I mean, it's much closer in the thirties to forties. So it's To talk about that kind of stuff. You know, at least. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense.
You Mhmm. Once upon a time, there was a writing component. So
the ELA test has some short answer questions. Mhmm. And sometimes the students have to write, like, here's the beginning of here's two paragraphs of a story. Write the introduction to that story or the conclusion. But they are not writing an essay, that you can imagine from CMT's, or they did pilot when SF first came out. There was a little bit more of a writing component, but now they are short answer questions. So a paragraph at most that they're typing, which, of course, is even another skill that students have practiced to be able to type a paragraph. When you score, are you poking down into more?
Yes. So that students at the same level, and we're bringing forward and see their growth. Yeah. What also is interesting is a student could score a level two, which is below standard. And if you think of the bar of a two, you could have a student right here that's two points from a three, and a student right here that's two points from a one. What those students need is very different even though on physical, they're two. Right? So it's a lot of work of that. We go as deep into the number, and then the SPEC does provide the strands, a little bit. Most teachers would tell you it's not as much as that could be helpful to us. So more so, we're able to really look into that number and see where do you fall in that one two or three or four range. Because on the other end as well, you have students who are three, and just a point away from a four, okay, that student is ready to excel. Right? They're they're on the path to just right there. What do they need? Whereas a student who's just into that free category, we can't put our hands up now and say they're all set. Right? Like, that they might need a little bit extra as well. So that's really one place we look. Do you ever get I call them Verizon.
Yeah. That's a good question because it makes me think so I Ready is the assessment we use as our a benchmark screener that the state requires. So when we moved it up to March, we did that to see, you know what? Let's see what the correlation is. Let's make sure students who are performing at a level three on our I Ready or a three on X back. Because otherwise, what can we trust from the data? Right? Almost I mean, there's always one or two outliers, but almost all students performed the same or better on SBAP than IVAP. The ones that performed a whole level better, we were like, okay. This is this is exciting. But that was from March to May, so there was a little bit more instructional time because we moved in. We were taking that risk. But we're talking less than on my hand for students who performed worse. Mhmm. So that is an excellent indicator. We're really excited about that because that means our I Ready data can really, again, be trusted and kind of
there's more detail into I Ready, so we're able to do like, okay. It was fractions that they need. So, yeah, so it's exciting to see. Thank you, Tammy. Absolutely.
And then we do use that data from May and June to form new intervention groups in the fall, before, especially, we have our new data. So get a jump start.
Is anybody else I can Eric or Mike or Brie?
Just the intervention thing. Can we add that for next month, or is that too soon or at some point in the next month? So
do you want me to talk more about, like, what an interventionist does? How many And, like, how many kids they see and what Sure. Yeah. I can just kinda give an overview more of the day in the life of an intervention. Yeah. I can log it, but
Alright. Sure. So an overview of interventionist, Taylor. And then, again, just so I have this right, the growth scores and rates rate. Is that what Got it. Growth rate and then PTA percent.
PTA percent carbon. I have them in this show, and there's you know, they're a lot to understand. And I thought Okay. Could be too heavy, but no problem. Alright. So both rate 18%
carbon. Okay. Thanks, Mike. Thank you. And then an overview of of what an intervention does. Okay. That that would be great, and that would be it for next one. Okay. Anything else? No? Okay.
Thank you, Taylor. Appreciate putting that together. Appreciate it. Okay. Chairperson oral report. Okay. I am just I don't have much to say. I know we have a lot going on tonight, but since it wasn't put on the agenda about the monthly meetings, I had September, so I'll just talk about that in my chairperson report. I watched the board selected meeting on September 9. They talked about the couple project summaries for the town. They talked about our parking lot. It would also include the remainder of the parking lot in the town hall. They talked about how we had wanted to do the upper parking lot. We had set money aside to do it, but now plumbing is definitely our our top priority at this point. They talked about hopefully getting it done possibly next spring as long as there's money to do it. They talked about the plumbing repair that we're still working on it. They talked about the bleachers. They talked about the floor, the gym floor being completed. They talked about the fan upgrade. They talked about, Jeff Murray wanted to be a part of the discussion. They talked briefly about Steve Fuss' resignation. Then I watched the board of finance meeting on September 25. It was a lot of it majority of it was electing a new member. That was basically the the meeting. But in what's that? To replace Brian. Correct. Yep. To to replace Brian. But they did talk a little bit just about, how Terry is sending the board of finance the reports. Joanne Fiebert, had mentioned that we've been doing a good job reporting it, and if there's other, you know, additional information that the Board of Finance can look in our brackets for it. So
that's all I have for my report.
Valerie, take it away. Alright. So three things. The first one, actually, I'll bring up just because I know they brought it up Monday in terms of transportation at the board of selectments. I thought I could take a second just to address that. Actually, it ties nicely with what Taylor was just talking about. So in Taylor's slides, they were talking about acceleration intervention curriculum and practice. And as you know, for the most part, the building based curriculum, that's the principal's responsibility there. Obviously, I support her, but that's that's mostly what she does. But what wasn't said there, a couple of things in terms of other things that we have to consider with curriculum as it pertains to acceleration and intervention is, as you know, on the plus side, we've had an increase in enrollment from pre COVID till now. When I was hired, we had a 174 kids, in that, down low while we were closed that March 2020. And now, we will be up to, two forty one. So that's significant. That's, you know, 67 kids. 66 probably, and then we'll have one more. So that is significant. And it's significant when you're looking and planning, for the acceleration, for the intervention, for the practice, for Taylor, and all of the meetings that she starts with these wonderful teachers at, you know, before 08:00 in the morning, which is when they have to be here. They're here before that, so kudos to them. But you're looking at individualization for the kids. And so while Taylor's doing that work with First Gap here,
making sure that the individual needs of those kids are met, a lot of the incoming kids, they're not coming in at necessarily the same level as our current students. It may be that we have students coming in that are special education. And so it involves then, you know, Taylor and the team making sure that they can meet the needs of those students that have moved here to Andover, and we welcome them. When you look at some of those numbers, obviously, the the biggest impact to those 66 kids has been preschool and four, five, six. As Taylor told you, three, four, five, and six are testable grades. And so we're receiving some students, and we're very grateful to receive those students, but sometimes they're coming in requiring things that, you know, are a resource. The only time that I really get involved in that is if it's over and above whatever programming Taylor already has. And so, I did reach out to Graham, and I'm grateful for the fact that they were working with us because we did have a situation where we had a student that was,
we weren't able to meet every need with with what we had here on the acceleration. And so, I worked with with Kyle McNamara and Mike Searlewski, who is the principal over at Ram. And we will have a I would like to call a shared service because that is our middle high school at the town, Levy's in Bay Store, and they are wonderful. They've created a program with us where we would be able to have a student attending there and get that, you know, in class math at a much higher level, grade levels and grade levels above where they are here, and we're working on that. And so I wanted to mention that to you guys because I know at the board of selecting you on Monday night, they did talk about transportation. And so
I think it's great. We've already utilized. We have our our lease agreement with the town where we lease their van or one of our other students that you know that requires a handicap accessible vehicle. So since we're already leasing that, we will attempt to utilize that, and, hopefully, our schedule will work out with the drivers that we can do that. You know, we've already tried to plan b it and thought, okay. If there's a day that there's no driver, what do we do? Because that child would need to come back to us. They are gonna get a ride there, but then they would need to come back to us for 10AM in the morning. So I just want you to know that, you know, all of the wonderful things that Taylor and the teachers are doing in terms of meeting the needs of our students, in terms of interventionists, and in terms in terms of making sure the curriculum aligns with the standardized assessment. We're making sure that we take you saw those bars. There's the the red and the yellow and the green and the blue bars that show you, you know, who needs to do a required remediation and who's at the top end. That's done for all four bars, and that's quite a a task there is making sure that we can meet those needs. And so I just wanted you to know that because moving forward, who knows? Maybe we would find a need in the future to have more than one student that participates in that kind of shared service. But I am grateful. I'm grateful to Ram for working with us so that we can make sure that we have those resources available
for any student. And in this case, we do have them. So how often would that student go? Every day. Yep. They are they will be a part of that class
up there. From eight eight to ten in the morning or no? 09:05 to 09:47. Oh, okay. Thank you. That's okay.
Yeah. Oh, it's a it's a specific class. Classes. Oh, okay. Got it. That math class. Got it. Okay. Okay. So
So when is that starting? Two two okay. So because we've done all of the prework. You know, we've assessed that particular child from last year to this year, you know, first within the classroom setting and then through Taylor looking at the data on us back from last year. And then we also issued another assessment, the one that would be at the request of RAM. And so I'm just very grateful because it's a good partnership for us to have. That's kind of awesome. It is. And so, you know, I've done this in my other district, but not like this. They are, you know, making an exception here to make sure that we meet the needs of every one of the kids. And so I'll keep you updated on it. Great.
So that's that. Can I ask a question? Yep. Does Ki Bin and Marble have a similar thing then? No. There's no So you are this is This is an exception. Exception. This is this is absolutely an exception because normally,
I'm trying not to give too much information on the child. Normally, let's pretend it was a kindergartner. If it was a kindergartner, you would have first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth to accommodate here within the building. Right? So the chances of us not being able to accommodate that situation slim to none. In this case, the child in question required to be four grade levels above where they are for subject area. And so, you really can't ask that of teachers that are already full with doing what they do here. And so so, yeah, so this is a really good first step, I think, because it's always important to me. You guys know I was a former special ed director, so that ends my history of making sure we meet the needs of every kid. But under that same umbrella, our kids on the other end, where we say this is a situation of acceleration. We need to make sure that we accommodate them. So I am grateful. I you know, again, it goes to Mr. Suresi Doctor. Suresi of the medical school who are really working with us on that. So
The transportation is excellent. Yeah. And the parent is assisting us with transportation there, obviously, because they were there first. So, yeah, so it's a good thing. So we need everybody's new. Let's see. So there's two other things on here. The grants updates, it's a low right now in terms of the offerings from the states for the school year. We still have our title grants. Those have changed. We still have title one and title four, and we do the same thing with them. This is how we have always funded a small portion. There is, for title one, for salaries, on a yearly basis, we get 11,000. And so we use that as a portion toward one of the interventionists. We've done that almost every year there. So we just take that out of that person. We also do have our IDEA grants. IDEA grant is special education. And so, you know, that as long as we do still continue to qualify, that'll be great. As you guys know, I've been working on the school mental health grant, and that was the 2023 through the end of twenty twenty five grant that we received. And so what that's been able to do is to continue to allow us to have that extra time with our school psychologist. I mean, yeah, school psychologist, which is invaluable, absolutely invaluable. So the that ARPA mental health supports, as you know, will run through the summer. We had it this last summer and it will run through next summer as well. So,
that's all we have right now that we are working with, of course, except for the money that we receive every year for smart, strat, and screen. That's how we fund our preschools. And so it's a low right now. I keep looking, you know, and, waiting for the state to open up some more opportunities. They're just not there yet. It's early next year, but, hasn't opened up five year election. Yeah. And so that's that's the update on those. No new ones still working that month because some of them are two years. In terms of facilities, I do meet with, Scott now or Hypthistodium, pretty regularly. One of the things I asked them to do was to make sure that we could come up within you know, a couple months ago, I started adding it on here, so we do it on monthly. Just to make sure that you guys kind of know which things have taken place by needing to need, even if it's regular repair and maintenance. Obviously, it's already in on the budget. We do have our we've always had washer and dryer. We had a washer and dryer. We utilize that for the nurse does use utilizes that for some of our materials, blankets and things that need to be done, clothing that needs to be
washed and taken care of, and to accommodate, the hygiene that's required for preschool. So we've always had the washer and dryer. Last year, at the end of the school year, we did have to buy the washing machine because, you know, it wasn't working and sleeping. And so this month, in in where it's located in the work room over there, Ward that we just talked about, the electrical did have to come and do some rewiring so that we can move the washer and the dryer to the same location. So that was done. Our regular inspection through overhead door was done. Overhead door inspects our window shutters that we have that are required as well as the smoke vents. So that was done on the eleventh. That's already budgeted even, but that that does about a thousand dollars to have that done. The elevator inspection was done on the September 24. Again, just regular maintenance. Yeah. Repair maintenance. How's that? It's still okay. Yeah. Everything good? Right now, it is right So well, Eric's new to the board, but we do have to have an upgrade to the the the motherboard of the elevator. Otherwise, we won't wind up being able to have parts for that in the future. So this was just our regular inspection, but we'll have to talk about that at another time in terms of that. We've already discussed it. We kinda know where we're going with that. We just haven't decided that's a part of that story.
The boiler was serviced, and then there was one additional between September 24 and September 26, there was one additional service requirement that needed to be done. We had a large amount of slip that was built up in the boiler. And as you know, last year, we switched from our to our new vendor that we have now, US Labor Mechanical and so we're in New York. We knew knew that that sort had to be removed. That one was slightly more than what the normal inspection. We were paired with them to that by about 3,000 over. So but we're we're good to go, and then the boiler was serviced on the third. So all those things were done. The only other thing that was, I guess, unforeseen was that we had a leak with the air conditioner that was in 02/21. This is not the air conditioner the same air conditioners that were installed my first year here with the money, the COVID relief money. There
were a couple that existed in this building prior. And so this one was over six years old. The and the condition of where it was, it was explained to us by Kevin from from USA Mechanical. That they that one was failing and needed to be replaced. So that one, what they were just here on the eleventh, and they'll complete the I mean, they are coming on the eleventh. I'm sorry. They were just here two weeks ago, and then they'll complete it on the eleventh. They'll take out that old unit and replace it with a new one. We have not yet scheduled that asbestos that was already approved for us to do, but, I mentioned, before, on December 5. And so And so that upper steam burner tuning, by the way, we've asked them from here moving forward to make sure that Scott, obviously, he's our new head custodian. He can keep better records. And one of the things that they're able to do now is to make sure and Scott's fantastic with this, is that not only is he filing the quote and then when they're done with it, the receipt, but he's also trying to keep pictures of kind of where we were with things prior to the servicing and or replacement of something. So that should something happen again in the future, kinda have the morning record of each one. So that's appreciated. Fire protection team, that's a regular standard alarm service inspection that was done. So that was done between last month and this month as well. And service station equipment did come in and do the the pass fail, Let's say pressure sensor package. So these are all done for this month as well. And so these are the two to check the.
So so we're good. You know, I'm really appreciative of Scott because he's been right on the ball with us, and we've been able to really some days, I say to him, You're too good at your job. But it's we're now able then when you go once we get a lot of this done to really be working on prioritization on what would come on our list of things. That's the grants. That's the shared service with Liam, and that is the facility.
Awesome. Thanks, Matt. Thank you. Does anybody have any questions for Bob? No. What's the cost on the AC?
I just saw that bill too. I think it was 7,200. Okay. Think 72. That's okay. Yeah. So well, we were running. If you remember, anybody who was on the board when we were putting in those splitters, we were running at that time, like, $16.08 for the two rooms because they were doing them in tandem. And so, yeah, so it was it was about what what would have expected. You know? A little bit less because the electric was yeah. So yeah.
Anybody else? Shannon, you have my email? Okay. Great. Okay.
Alright. Principal, you're back at it, Tammy. Yeah. Okay. We're real this time. Nothing. I did just wanna talk, a little bit about our PD, coming up, this month. So on Friday, have a PD day, and Katie Dixon, who teaches fourth grade, she does fourth and sixth grade science and social studies, worked along with that last year, but then continued and applied for some professional development, in the area of social studies, which is not an area we always get to spend a lot of time and energy towards when we're doing math and reading. So they'll be coming Friday to do, in I'm just reading off my phone. So indigenous studies and Mohican themes for grades three through six. Cool. Yeah. So we're really excited. Yeah. That that she, worked with Val and Hathbray, so we're excited to have them come and give, like I said, our three through six teachers some more information about how to integrate that into our social studies curriculum. And then certainly, also coming up not next week, the week after, the end of October, we have two days where from the University of Delaware, we'll have a coach come in for bookworms. One of the reasons we picked bookworms is because it came out of the university and was well researched.
And so we actually will have their coaches come for two days, up to us and kind of be able to be in classrooms, get feedback, run sessions, kind of talk about that on October 23. Those are kind of the two big PD things coming up. Certainly, there's other professional development. There's some CPR Friday. There's some other, you know, odds and ends and things we do, but those are kind of the big PD updates for October.
And the the coach that's coming, that's gonna be during the day. Right? That's okay. Looking at my phone.
No. And that's that's our favorite kind of coaching because it's great for them to see us with kids. Sure. Okay. Sometimes Interactive. Pretty bright. Yes. And it's part of the grant. I did not talk about Yes. It's part of our grant. That's our favorite. And so sometimes they'll even do demonstration lessons with us. So Okay. Really really excited about that. Thank you. Because I can see you throughout the year too. So we have two two day sessions. So in October, and they'll come back in February for two days. And then we work with we have some other PD as well with a reading consultant more locally who comes. That's no problem.
You know? Both on. Yeah. That's great. Will will you at the could you let us know how that went in the November meeting just just to let us know how that Yeah. That would be great. Absolutely. Okay. Does anybody else have any questions for Taylor? Anybody? No. Shannon, you good? Nope. Are you? Alright. Carrie?
You're off my dear. Okay. About halfway through your packet, you will see the 2025 summary custom expenditure report. And I just you know, if anybody has had a chance to review these reports before tonight, the two things I'd stand out, of course, are the medical and dental benefit and then the repair and maintenance. And I think the overage on the repair and maintenance was pretty, self explanatory after Belle went through her list of things that our wonderful head custodian has has found this last couple of months. But, we're hoping those will slow down a little bit, and everything will be good. So we're just gonna leave that as an overage just for our own benefits so that we can see where the costs were and and use it as a tool going forward for, '25, '26, obviously. And then for the medical and dental benefits we had, Val and I have decided, you know, we'll put the guard a little earlier this year to do a projection out. We did have a few
employee, employees join family plan. As you know, the cost for a family, in terms is, like, 32,000 a year, and that's that's a huge, huge cost to the district. But we also work you know, along with new hires, you get, you know, you get new employees going on to the insurance. So, yes, we have had a lot of movement in the health insurance. At the next meeting, I will try to tweak that number a little bit more because we are gonna be getting some, reimbursements from from, we have retirees on the insurance, and we also have an employee that we share with another district. So I think once once I get up with that and, you know, with all that where it's supposed to go, I think the number will look a little bit better. Anybody have any other questions about this report or anything specific? Quick question. We have it's a it's about 30 grams in unencumbered the repair and maintenance. Is that just earmarked for thing like, what is that earmarked? That is that is everything that I have quotes for that we're moving forward on. Okay. That are You're not absolutely completed. Correct.
And, Terry, I know you said before that if we once we get this, if we had any questions, that we could email you prior to the meeting. Yes. Okay. Erin, if you have any questions prior to the meeting, you can absolutely email Terry, and she'll that way she can kind of prepare if she has to. And Yep. She'll address it and answer in the meeting, but you're more than welcome to to email her if you have any if you have any questions. Yes.
And the reason for that is just so that I can bring with me anything that if you're looking specifically for what we're what our expenditures are, I can bring that information with me to the next meeting. Okay. Any other questions? Yeah. Does anybody else have I just have one. Absolutely. For tuition. Mhmm. The adopted budget,
is that still, like, what what you are expecting it to be this year? Well, when you that was based on, as you remember, the tuition line is for out for out placement. Out placement. So right now, as far as As far as know, there is no but, you know, that that number will stay, and, hopefully, it won't change. Okay.
Jerry or Mike? Great. Are you good? Eric, are you good? Okay. Alright. Jerry, thank you. Hey. The meeting's out of court. Okay. Jerry or Mike, do you have any curriculum updates?
Mhmm. Okay. Caitlin, do you have any? No. I'll take that as well. I'll take that as Okay. So would will you be able to give us an update in November? Because the first meeting is this month. Okay. Are
those meetings here? Are they virtual? The first one is here. Perfect. They
may all be. We are now meeting just Amber. Right. Okay. Deepgram. So we serve the ones those of us in the building. We meet together, and we invite members. But
Okay. Okay. Great. And you said the first meeting is the twenty ninth? Yeah. It's fine. Okay. Yeah. So next month, if you could give us an update, that would be great. PTA, we're rolling right along. We had our meeting. We're lining up fundraisers. We have trivia night coming up at the end of the month. And so we're we're lining up things for this year, so we're doing well. Alright. CIP, any update? No? Okay. Alright. Thanks, Shannon. Okay. Alrighty. Items for discussion and action. Item 12 a, vote to approve addition of fans to AES gen. I wish. Group of motions, I agree. Okay. Any discussion? I know we had an opportunity, but does anybody have any discussion? No? Okay. All in favor to approve the addition of fans to the AES gen? Aye. Aye. Seven zero two. Great. Thank you.
Alright. Next up is the, vote to approve the 2025 BOE, meeting dates. I think everybody in their packet has, the proposed dates for, 2025. Does anybody have any any questions, wanna move anything? I make a motion to do the 2025
board bridge change and leave schedule, and it's contained in the permit, Which is the second. Make sure. Can I get a second?
Sure. Thanks, Eric. Call me in favor. Aye. Aye. 700. Alright. Thank you. Okay. Next up is the noncertified contract agreement. Both include the noncertified contract agreement. So I think we need to table this till next month because they have not ratified it. Correct? Right. Okay. Okay. Yes.
Sharon was just asking. Of course, we don't discuss the contract properly until they do ratify it. However, there was only one caveat, and that is that there's a new law that's already in effect for January that increases the minimum wage. And there's only one spot in that whole contract where there's one individual box, you could say, for a position. Step one, you hire where it would have been below that. So that would be the only change. It would not it would need to change because of the TA or anything. They called and said you acknowledge that. Why call them and said, you know, we acknowledge that and that they're just putting an asterisk on there that says that number will change due to the state law. Other than that, everything that the committee from this board decided on and agreed to is what we'll go. It should be their vote. Once they vote on it, you guys vote on it, and we thought it would be by tonight. It's just that the meeting stops for next week. So they do understand that you guys will have to table it tonight and put it on next November 3. Okay.
And just really quick, just jumping back. You you'll give the town the the meeting dates? I will. Right. Okay. Because this was just a formality. You guys had already decided on half of these already, but they have,
you know, policy procedure that we have to provide it for the calendar year. So January 2025 on down is why we have to do this. Alright. So you'll get that letter back as well. Absolutely. Alright. Thank you. Okay.
Alright. And then we're so we're just gonna table the the contract until November 13 for our next meeting. Did everybody receive it, though, I think? Yes. Yes. Okay. Alright. Great. Okay. SIP account. Alright. So so I know I think August, I had talked about this. So the the board of selectmen, Jeff McGuire, had reached out to me about possibly the board of ed opening up a SIF account. And a SIF account is a short term investment fund, and it is opened up by municipalities to, it's a it's a high interest fund, so it's an opportunity for, you know, municipalities to open up these these investment funds to transfer money into these funds to earn a significant amount of interest, to help kind of offset, certain costs for the town. So Jeff McGuire reached out to me and and asked if this is something that,
the the board of Ed would be interested in doing. So in my research, I, you know, I I looked at the SIP account website. I talked with some people at at at Connecticut SIP account. And then I also talked with our auditor about, number one, can boards do this? If they can, kinda how would this work? How would this go? So let me just get the notes here. So, basically, number one, my question was, can towns have multiple SIF accounts? Meaning, can can they can they have a SIF account for the town, and then can they have a SIF account for for a board of ed? And, yes, towns can have multiple SIF accounts. And and then I also ask, can boards of Ed have their own SNP accounts? Because, again, we're not a municipality. We're we're a board of Ed. So he so Michael was fantastic. You know, we talked about kind of the scenarios, how this would work. Would we open up would the town open up our civic help? And then every month, the town gives us an ACH transfer to to pay our bills. So when I was talking with Jeff McGuire, he said and and he was envisioning that when we get that monthly transfer, we would put it into a SIF account. And while it's in that SIF account, it's earning interest. And a SIF account is fluid, meaning you can take money, put money in, you can take money out. So it's not like it's locked in like a CD for six months. So if, God forbid, something happened and we had to take money out, we could do that.
So my thought was that's a lot of back and forth with moving money in, taking money out, a lot of kind of reconciling and and record keeping. So when I was talking with Michael, who's who's our auditor, he felt the same way that it that it's just a lot of back and forth. So I asked him if he could get some answers from me. Number one, can a board of ed open up their own SIP account? And he said that, yes, they would be able we would be able to open up our own SIP account using our own EIN number. However, there doesn't seem to be any local boards of ed that have established their own SNF account, so this may need to be investigated further when setting up the account. I reached out. I'm on a email listserv for chain for board, for chair boards, and I put it out to everybody. And the response that I got back was, yes. We have a 2% non lapse rate. So that's that's different than than a a SIP account. So in my, my rough research, I I don't think a local board event has their own SIP account. But, again, you know, it would be need to be further investigated.
So I went back to Jeff McGuire, and I said, look. I don't think the operational account kind of scenario would work, but what if we took money out of our 2% nonlapsing and we put it into the SIP account? And and then whatever money was generated in that interest let me back up. The the purpose of this SIF account is for money to be raised to start putting it into the capital fund that the town has has created for the AES Capital Improvement Fund. So this is the purpose of doing this this SIF account is the money that would be earned, the interest that would be earned would go into this capital fund to offset what the the town would budget in the normal budget cycle, that would get put into this capital fund. So this is an opportunity for the board of eds who generate some money to put it into that fund on top of whatever surplus or anything else that we would put into it. So that's that's the purpose of this. That's the goal of this. Can I explain that to Yeah? I thought that that
that fund Yep. That is on the town side was already in a step account. Am I wrong in thinking that? I I don't know. I don't know that.
I I don't I don't know the answer to that. Okay. Capital funds.
But I could have sworn that the capital fund was a line item within the town's stiff account because they said that that was the place it would earn the most money. Yeah. That makes sense. That's a question. Okay. Okay.
So alright. So let me just get back on track here. So so there are several towns that have set up subaccounts for local board board of education funds. And then, it's my understanding that the town can provide administrative access to the local local board of education to that subaccount, because that was my other question. When these SIP accounts are created, the administrator is the town treasurer. So my question was if we were to do this, would Terry be able to act as an administrator? And it looks like that that the town can provide administrative access to the local board of education to that subaccount. So then I asked Michael, then I went back to Jeff. I don't think the the the scenario of
getting that monthly monthly money that we get to pay our bills and putting it in a SIP and back and forth. I said, I don't think that would really work. But what if we took money out of our 2% nonlapsing, put it in the SIP account? Would would that be something that would be would be an idea? And he said, yes. Absolutely. He said, but, again, all the money that would be all the interest that would be generated in that SIP account from money from the 2% nonlapsing would go into this, capital fund. So I asked the auditor. I said, okay. How would an interest be earned on the SIP account?
So, basically, he said, generally, interest income from the investment of reserve funds, which would, for example, which would be our 2% nonlapsing, would be accounted for as an increase to the reserve funds. So so, basically, any interest that would be accrued from money that got put into the stiff account from the 2% nonlapsing would get reinvested back into the 2%, not go back not go into the capital fund. Correct. So then I asked Michael. I said, okay. I have a follow-up question. If the BOE invests money into a SIP account with money from a reserve account, I. E. A 2% nonlapsing, can the interest earned go into the fund that the town has set up for capital projects for the school, or or does it have to get reinvested back into that reserve account? And he said, generally, it will go back into the reserve account. However, the board of ed would have the authority to authorize a transfer of the interest to the capital fund. And then he said, I'm not clear on how the capital fund has been structured.
And I said, well, basically, it was created to pay you know, to help pay for capital improvements. So that's that's the SIF account. That's that's basically how what the town is looking for us to to do. And, again, it money that gets generated, interest that gets generated, the purpose of it would go into that capital fund to then fund that fund to put more money into that. So which would then offset what the taxpayers, you know, in the next budget cycle would would put into that. So that's that's it. That's the SIP account. That's the discussion.
I I open it up. So my question's the same then still is why to make this less complicated would we not just take the capital fund that the town has created on the town side Yep. And put it into its own STIP account so that it can earn its own money for itself. Yep. Okay.
Which I thought is what they were already doing. And I don't know the answer to that, Caitlin. I don't know.
And and I and I'm pretty sure that in the beginning of making that account, that was one of the primary reasons for why they wanted it on the town side was so that it could go in the SNIP account so that it could earn more money. Okay. I'm, like, 90% sure on that.
Have a question. Is there any possibility that that stick account could lose money? I don't know the answer to that. Only because, I mean, the 2% lapsing is is you know? It's our rainy day fund. It's it's rainy day fund. Yep. We can't just I mean, if we put it into an investment fund Yep. Is there a chance that we can lose money? And the other thing is the 2% lapsing fund is the board's money, but it's kept on the town side, and the board of finance approves what we can and can't use it for. Not any longer. Not any longer. Oh, not any longer. You guys State statute. State judge. Oh, yay. Okay. Sorry. I'm if I'm mistaken. Okay. So but the fund is still on the town side. Correct? Yeah. So I'm gonna cosign every check that you Right. So the fund is still on the town side. The capital fund is on the town side. If we're not gonna lose any money on those investments, I guess I'm just is there something on this?
Go ahead, though. They've jumping at the pit. I'm just presenting this. I know. This is all I'm doing. I've done I've I've been on the phone. I've I've I'm just presenting this information. That that my one
catch on this is that right. Our auditor, I had spoken with him way back when these came up, and absolutely, Celeste agrees that it's a reserve fund investment, so it wouldn't be our general fund. She just explained that that's that. But if we have the board has full access to your 2% nonlapsing account, which can be used for any educational or unforeseen expense, including capital, I don't personally and this is a board's decision. I know I don't get a vote. I don't see why that interest has to come out of there and go into a town's capital account when then that can only use the cap. And so I don't understand why you wouldn't have the capital, STIP account, earning interest to for capital expenses for later on. And if this board decided to have a STIP account of its own for the 2% nonlapsing account, why that interest wouldn't stay there. Like, so that could also earn its own. Yes. That'd be right. But I do know that it's less just explicit that it's the wishes of the first lifeman that all interest would revert to the talent account, not to yours. To the capital fund. Correct. That's gonna That was to Capital Capital for the school. Go ahead. For the capital account that the town has.
Multiple ways I wanna make sure I know it's clear. Is there a school capital account, a town capital account, or a separate accounts?
There's a fund that has been established. So what happened was there was money left over for, like, the AES. Was it? Like, a school building project. There was $8,000 there was $8,000 left over. So the town a year ago decided to take that money and establish a new line item in their budget Mhmm. For that is called the AES Capital Improvement Fund. AES. Correct. Correct. So the so so, again, the the the purpose of doing a stiff account is to generate money, to generate interest, to to start funding this account on top of what the town puts into it every year. So last year this has just started. So last year or or this budget, they put in a $100,000. So this would start building up that fund so we can start paying for for projects here. We we put in our surplus of a $109,103,000. So currently, right now, there's about $224,000 in that account right now. Mhmm. So the purpose of this is to generate interest from a SIF account to to put it into that fund, that line item to start building up that account.
Would you put that's what JEP's purposes. That's not I mean, if we wanted to, we could have a sick account on our own.
I mean, we agree. In theory, it looks like it could. However, it you know, we we we have to investigate that further. If there are boards of that out there in Connecticut that have opened up their own, it looks like we can't you we can. But I again, off the top of my head and and in my research,
I'm I'm not aware of any. But Not with your general fund. So any investment is the 2%. Right. Right. Right. I have talked to Superintendents, and she's absolutely right. We had this conversation together, Celeste and I. Yep. And we spoke with Michael on two separate occasions, and he told us about the same thing. Yep. That because your general fund money is not a revenue account, it's an expenditure account that's given to you for monthly expenses. That's why you wouldn't find any school district that would have it. We also have a Newark account, which is an adjustment account already. So those are the kind of accounts that you'd be looking at a step account for. Those regularly.
No. I'm not I'm not suggesting we put our general funds in the that not in And and it's fluid. So let's say, for example, we did this. Right? And we we we took $10,000 of our 2% nonlapsing, we put it into this Zip account, and something happens where we need that money, we can take it right out. It's not locked in there. It's not like a seed money or anything like that. So it's very fluid in that you can put money in, and you can take money out. I'm not opposed to it yet. But I do think that we should do it and and not and I don't and I'm not necessarily opposed to putting some of it towards the capital, but because we
know that there's more that's gonna happen in this building, that's probably not enough in that account right now. Right. I just think that, one, we should investigate further because it seems like there's a lot of on how much work. Mhmm. I think it's.
How much money could we make such? So let's say we did the 2% nonlax of your account. So let me Currently. Yeah. Let me just look this up because I had I I I've had it open, but Basically
so stiff daily rates. So a seven day yield is 5.02 percentage. So it's so it's
it's more than just, your standard savings account. Yeah. I just was curious if you if anybody with that calculations to say if you took all of them in account,
much we No. I I have not done that. Okay. No. No. No. You know, from the town side, you know, they've they've made they've gotten a a fairly decent return. Yeah. You know? Yeah. You know, you know, investing their money. So but it's definitely more than just, you know, a regular savings account that is about, you know, 1%. So alright. Any other questions, discussion?
I'll mention that one thing so I can the. Now I'm actually talking up a lot. Yep. There it is. With the 2% change. And they recommend that the presenter recommend that before creating a policy about how that money can expense because it's education purposes, but you find what that is in your policy as well as putting it on. So that. So they're like, like, those two items in the policy. Okay. Just have to keep that up. Absolutely.
Anybody have any other questions about the SIF account? I hope I did a good job explaining it.
Yeah. I'm I'm I'm happy to to take back any questions. You know, for example, Caitlin, I will definitely ask, you know, wasn't it already supposed to go into a SIP account? I I can certainly ask that. Is there a chance that we can lose money? I think and anytime you invest money, there's always a chance. I mean, I but I I I don't you know, there's always a chance you could lose money. But how successful these are,
you know, I I can certainly find that out. I guess I would only be concerned with we we have about, what, a 170,000 in our 02/31. That's not a whole lot of money if you're talking out placing students.
No. But, again, Terry, we can take the money out. It's not locked in there. So Great. But if it's a 170 and then, oh, now now it's a 140. But I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't be of the opinion to invest the whole thing. You know, maybe do do a little. A year. Right. Do a little. See how we do. You know? Again, it's it's very I would not be supportive of putting our whole money in there and then something happening. But but I don't know the the
I'm just playing devil's No. I get it. No. And I'm just trying to I I I don't know what if there's a loss, how successful you know, like I said, anytime you invest money, you're always running the risk. But I think if we played it safe and we put it a little bit at a time, I I don't think that we would, you know, lose the whole ball of wax. But does anybody else have any other questions?
So I I did try to reach out for clarification about whether or not it Oh, okay. Is currently in the tech account,
and I need to talk to someone. Probably Joanne, like, someone on the board of finance. Okay. So Well, so then do you wanna take the lead on that? Okay. I would appreciate that. Okay. And, Terry, I can try to find out what the success rate you know? Sure. Yep. I guess and and just email it. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. And then just clarification
on if if our accounts make money Mhmm. Are we going to be able to
grab that money and keep that money and use the money for for Well, again, that's what the auditor said. He goes if if if we if, for example, if we took money out of our 2% nonlapsing, we put it into a SIP account, and we generate $5,000 in interest. Mhmm. Yes. We would keep that money. However, the town is asking that we give them that interest to put it into the capital fund. So we could, as a board, decide, okay. We made $5,000 on the SIP account with money from our 2% nonlapsing. We're gonna give the town 3,000, and we're gonna keep 2,000. So that's according to the auditor that we would keep it. However, we would have we would agree to give it back to the town or give give some back to the town. And, again, the town is looking
for our help in
another way to fund that capital fund on top of giving back our surplus. I just need clarification if it was gonna be in an a e f it was gonna be in the AES capital fund account. That's where the interest It would go back. Yes, ma'am. Yep. Okay. Absolutely. Yep. Anybody else?
What do you mean? I'd like to see us, you know, between 2% account with our end of June. Was paying doesn't really want to get that one. So I
I just would like We'll make it through, like, this year. I'd like to see it in action. Yeah. Okay.
I I think that makes sense. But it also makes sense to hammer out, like, the details of if we were to do it,
then it's how it would actually work. And then I wanna know what it would look like. Yeah. What does it look like? My wife. Thanks a lot. Sure. Tastes like white. Tastes
like it tastes like Yeah. Five It's like 5.2% interest. Alright. Yeah.
So okay. So, Caitlin, do want me to work with you on this, or can you help me with this? Okay. I appreciate that. So I'll work with Caitlin. I I that would be good to have some help. I'll work with Caitlin. So how about for for November? We'll Caitlin and I will come back, and we'll get some answers as to if the money from that capital fund was going to be in a stiff account already, and I'll do my best to find out about just the
the risk of a sip of needle. Just the last year's rate of return Okay. And whatever are recommending
a particular account, or is this something where we would shop around for? That's another thing. I understand it's in Japanese that the Oh, they are. The return is the return is starting to drop. Yeah. So Well, that's in line. That's why I made one every every day. No. I'm just saying. Yeah. That they they got a lot of money from
the account. Two years ago, it was less than one percent, and now it's been up over five. Yep. Yeah. But now it was And it just really dropped. It's dropped. I mean, it's mortgage.
Right. Right. It's it like like I said, it's it's it's it's all it's variable. So Does that show you if it's ever negative?
Don't see a negative. I see down as low as point nine six point five. Less than, like, a half a percent in May 2022. Okay.
And, again, you're on the SNF. You know, you're welcome. If you Google SNF account, it'll take you right to the Yeah. You know, right to the state of Connecticut office of the treasurer. So alright. Caitlin and I will work on this. Thank you for your help. I appreciate it, and we'll we'll put it back on the we'll put it back on the agenda for November just so we can kinda keep keep talking about it. Does anybody else have anything else on this? No? Okay. Okay. Moving right along here. Financial liaison for budget. So, Michael, go ahead.
Yep. So just thought that I had budget season come up. I think it's always good to get started on that earlier rather than later. So I I think yeah, I'd be out there that I that not necessarily financial liaison, but the temporary budget needs on this for this year to kind of sit and get more intense experience with the budget process. Hopefully, utilize that as a springboard for maybe some ideas and thoughts on how to we can handle our budget season differently. I know right now, it's really just straightforward. Have Zoom meetings. I think we all show this idea of how we communicate to the community, our plans. I think having, you know, I think just with this budget season, see how it goes and then moving forward after that, temporarily having somebody in that role could be a big benefit for the board. And then I, you know, I wanted to kinda get to read on that with in a couple of sessions before, obviously. But I think that you know, I I have seen things both from the financial side of things, you know, from my experience acting in accounting, accounting,
but also currently in education for thirteen plus years now. I've built budgets in the educational side, you know, both on the teacher level and up with the new chairs, like the department, you know, supervisor, I think I can kind of influence me to that with the budget. Then also bring that back to the board and hopefully strike some valuable discussions about really how to do. So we're we're using as a a a screenboard to brainstorm and, you know, know, continuing discussion capability. K. So don't have that discussion.
So will this be so just so was this would be meetings with Val, and then you would kind of report back to us? Because, you know, we got November, December, and then we start rolling in. So so how how do you see this going? I foresee putting in with Vala during the process, like, as she's going through things,
seeing the steps, like, first name, discussing the drivers, the reasons behind that. Well, I understand it's it's each board member's responsibility to be educated and make decisions about where this budget lies. I think having, you know, we all can sit there and sit, lean on every every time she's going through a budgetary decision. I I think having, like, need for a curriculum, not for a facility. You know, having a rep for policy, having a a person who can spend that time and dedicate that facility, and then and possibly not make decisions for the board, but just giving the board information and to consider. Okay. Yeah.
I I guess I have a question then. I know and we've talked briefly about, like, the the Zoom meetings, like, y'all's presentations that she's done for the past. Should have been three years we've done that or two years? It's the thing I think. The the budget workshop. Budget workshops. Right? Oh, awesome. It's a big We've it in three third. Yeah. This would be the third. Yeah. Would I guess my question would be, like, could we like, if you're gonna liaise on that, like, possibly change the format of how we're doing. Yeah. So don't think that's the point. Think that's point of this is
But, I mean, some of it still needs to be done to some degree. I I hear you. Otherwise,
like, I look at this, and and then my eyes just go, like, yeah. I think the
Put it down button. I think the point is to innovate. Like, really get down to the nitty gritty, see what this budget is built like. Like, have somebody see the steps in the process, educate themselves on that, and then let's just actually work to innovate our thinking. Yeah. Let's let's reach out. Let let's let's not just I feel like we're we're just sitting on our hands opening people from Zoom meetings. Might be like, can kinda maybe spin our ideas, get more innovative about thinking.
Are you are you meeting with the community, or are you meeting with I think just with with the
but, like, telling a story of it. Like like, really explaining ourselves, and I I feel like we're we're waiting for people to come to us, and maybe we have to find ways to to really reach out more to the community. And so I think it's all about educating people on the process. And, again, like, I don't have those ideas right now. The whole thing say, how do you think You you Right. You you educate yourself. Right. You brainstorm there and then bring that back and kinda light a fire. So then my my only other comment then would be
it it sounds a little bit like you're talking about sort of being a spokesperson for the board in regards to the budget, and then I worry about, like
Well, like, that like, the, like, the the the liaison is just for for information. Like, I would not make any decisions or choices. It would be bringing back thoughts and ideas to the board so the board can discuss. The facilities would make themselves more knowledgeable about the facilities aspect of the school and then bring that back to the board. The policy liaison would make themselves more knowledgeable about policy issues that Shannon does brings that back to the board for discussion. So it's similar to our our our our standard liaison policy, but it should be just for this budget season, see how it how it goes, see if it's effective, and then you can talk and see if you wanna make it from the future. Fine.
Alright. Jerry or Graves, do have the name? No. I think. No. I
I think it's a great idea, and I so I think if if the logistics of it would be you would meet with Val to kind of brainstorm about, you know, do we do Maybe there's a different way. So then maybe next meeting and December meeting, you could come to us with what you have talked about, and then we can yeah. Val and I talked about rather than doing the the meetings in January, we do this, and then we can kinda talk about that. So I I thank you for your willingness to to do this. And I think if you wanna just provide us updates at the meetings, I think that would be great on what you and Val talked about. I would love to, to make sure we do that to make sure it's on the agenda. So That's what I say. Yep. Absolutely. Yep. Keep that open. So we could just put, financial liaison for budget. We could just put update, you know, updates.
Budget liaison. Or, yeah, budget liaison, and then we could do discussion and then possible vote if you if you have anything. Okay. Yep. I
it was just a discussion. Just discussion. So alright. So for November, we'll have liaison for budget update. And then if if there is anything possible, you know, just let Val know. Okay. Okay. So yep. Okay. Okay. Comments from the public. Okay. What are you saying? Oh, I'm sorry. The playground.
Oh, the playground. Thank you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm running all over my notes here. Yes. Okay. So, just to give an update, I know last month, I said that, we raised enough money, and, we have, ordered the playground. The playground is on its way. So my my hope tonight is well, my The hope is the playground is on its way, and, hopefully, the the time frame of it, we'll have it installed in early November. So what I'd like to do is if anybody hasn't seen it, that's the rendering of it. I know we have coming soon across there, but, that is the rendering of the the playground.
It is ADA compliant. I did check with the manufacturer. It is ADA compliant. So at this point, I'm just looking to get approval to have the playground installed. Where is the upper? The upper playground up here. So there was it's kind of two phase. So the first phase was the tables and the, like, the big awning. So we'll remove the existing equipment, and the new playground will be installed up there. Yeah. We'll remove it. My husband's coming with his crane truck, and we'll remove it. And we'll scrap the metal like we did last and donate whatever money to get back to the PTA. Yes.
But that's factored into the the price of it. Yep. Yep. Do you want any drawings? Because It's right there. No.
I'm talking about plans for because it feels like this is something that's permanent going on in school grounds, and we've never approved of it at the Board of Ed. Okay. So I'm just concerned about that. I mean, we're talking all about capital projects and stuff that's gonna be permanent. Yep. And we've never, as a board, considered any plans for it. Okay.
So do you have any drawings or measurements for I I I can give you that rendering. That's all that that's all that I have is that rendering. Yep. Celeste, is any is the tongue making any
or making any impact contribution, like mulch or anything like that? No. No. No. We don't have to do anything with that up there as far as the mulch and everything. What what's there? So just to give you some background, the the representative came out well, he's come out several times, but what what is there in the mulch and everything is fine. We're not looking to replace that or to remove it or to add to it. What's existing there is is more than more than adequate and more than enough. Discussion. Oh, discussion. Sure.
I would just like to express echo Sharon. What Sharon is saying is that I have a concern with the board member since this is happening on top of the board oversees that the board has not seen any design and planning and prep work whatsoever for this project. And eyes were more of the sip here right now being able vote yes or no on it without really having dissected this section at all. So that has an extremely concern. I'm not sure if it consumed anybody else.
I guess it doesn't concern me because I feel like it's been in the planning stages for, like For a year. Like, a year and a half. I mean, just just to get just to help you with that. So we
so so this is two phases. Right? So the upper playground,
three years ago, four years ago, received a grant to put in the the the tables and the awning with the understanding that we would do phase two. So we got the grant. We we did phase one, and then we have been, you know Fundraising. Fundraising to to come up with the the sec to come up with money to complete the second half of it. We received a quote from the vendor that did the the first half of it, and then we I reached out to another vendor to get another quote for it. We last year, at the beginning of school or the day before school started, we met with the new sales rep and to walk the property to get an idea of what could be in there, you know, different designs, you know, different layouts. We also reached out to the four, five, and sixth graders to get their input on what they would want. Do they want a slide? Do they want a rock wall? Do they want netting? So I reached out to the four, five, and sixth graders, to their teachers. The teachers came out that day, and we worked with them to design this. Because, again, that's the audience. That's who's gonna be playing up there. And then we had received a a quote based on what, again, with the input of the children and and,
you know, what what they wanted, and we put together this design. And we sent it out to the teachers, to the four, five, and sixth grade teachers, and and told them, you know, this is what you know, based on your input, this is what we came up with, and, you know, we received the support of Valerie. She sent you know, she gave me a letter that she supports this. And then we just went and fundraised. You know, last year was our goal to raise enough money for this. We had some businesses in town donate money, and then we also received a grant from the Hartford Foundation, which had given us a grant the first time around. And that was the grant that kind of put us over the top to do this. So I went back to the vendor, got an updated quote, and and here we are. You know, we've ordered it. We've been working with them closely. We've ordered it. It's on its way, and we're looking to get this installed in November. Then why is it never been bought to to the Board of Education Select? So I'm I'm just gonna be very blunt.
You just expressed something. But it has. It has never been brought to the board. Shannon, I I have
I have gave you updates the last several months, and no one has said anything. Yes. I have. Oh, you haven't? I've been congratulating you, Tory, about the fundraising. Okay. But now you are asking the board to approve of a playground
that all I'm seeing is this. Okay. I'm on the field committee for a new playground that's gonna go out in the field. Right? Okay. So we have architectural drawings and an engineer that's designed the whole thing, and we've looked over four different sets of designs so far. Okay. So you're talking about a process that if it existed for a year or two, has never been brought to this board before as far as our input. You've got input from students, teachers,
and Well, I I But This is something that's going on our property. Okay. And I didn't know that I had to. It I didn't I I didn't know that. I I didn't know that I had to bring it in front of the board, and it wasn't until it was brought to my attention that I needed to, but that's why I'm here. But I've been giving updates to the board about this. And if anybody wanted to reach out for drawings or renderings or anything, they they could have asked. But I don't think that's our obligation to ask. If you're putting something I didn't know that, Shannon. I didn't know. I didn't know, Shannon. I didn't know. Honestly, I didn't know. I really didn't know. I've I've never But it's a whole different definition of capital. I Something as permanent as I didn't realize that capital fit on that programs fit under fit in under a capital.
Let me just be clear, though. We're not like, the the intent is not to change the footprint there. It's to, like, replace existing Like replacing what's already there. I would
as a as a parent, as anybody else, I would love to have a new playground up there. That's fabulous. As a board member and seeing I I just wanna see it. I just wanna be informed rather than at a fundraising update. So I do think there's an obligation as a board member to be able to see that.
And Right? I didn't know that, Shannon. I I understand. I I understand. Feel better.
I guess I would ask if it's possible to to maybe have, like, get plans for and have a special meeting about just this prior to the November meeting because we're just pushing the timeline out further until then they can install it. And I I I personally never asked for more specific plans because I thought it was just updating the existing playground rules. It is. It's removing the existing playground, which is outdated,
and it's including it by putting in a a brand new playground. I'm
just Which is a great idea and wonderful and positive for the school. And as a board, we have a responsibility to just
They go again. What's going on? Okay. But then okay. But then what if you don't like it? I mean, the What if you don't Well, this it's going in. It's going in. It's going in. That's what you say. But Well, it is. Can't just say to the board again. Shannon. Okay. It's it's going in. Okay. It just I I I don't understand. I again, I've I've made You don't understand. And that's my problem. I've made updates. If anybody wanted to have renderings or plans, I mean, I have done due diligence with this. I sought out I sought out multiple vendors. I had him come out here to to do a site visit. I consulted with the teachers. I consulted with Valerie, with Taylor, with the children, with with everything.
Except for the board of ed. Okay. Because I didn't know that I needed to. I didn't know that. Okay. So let's go. Let's do one. My question is for Valerie.
I know that there's a playground policy in place. I don't have it in front of you. Mhmm. Sounds like you were consulted on this. I read through that. It sounds like that's what was needed. Is that your interpretation of the policy?
So I was consultant about the grant. I did give a letter of support for the grant, not for putting it out there. But I have a suggestion. Is it the issues of compliance? Does it make the issues of compliance? I I I I wasn't in the know about that. As Celeste has said, she didn't know that she needed to bring it to the clinic. So I offer suggestion. We can have the playground come, and we can post all of those red rings online by waiting to see where the board could potentially approve it tonight. And with the caveat that there's a lot of the inspection for the post. You know, we can have them on Thursday to but then also to post everything so that the public can see it as well. That's clearly available to us. So but that's just an idea that I I now remember, obviously. I because I I haven't seen them. They'll be seven three, and I may be glad to do that. But that's a good decision. So what so what do you need me to do then? Or what what what is yeah. But what would you like me to do?
So I think the the thing would be to to make a motion contingent on posting of the plans and the walk through of the And that is approved by
the boyfriend or person that comes and says, yep. You guys are good to go.
Okay. But I I still don't understand. So is when is it supposed to go in? November. I I don't I don't have a firm date, Shannon. It's being shipped. What's the company? It's Gametime, MRC Gametime Sports. The ship date is next week, so it's about five to seven days before it arrives. And then once it arrives, the installer needs to be called Mhmm. And then put on their schedule. So it could take another three weeks for the installer to come out,
and then it would take a couple of days for the playground to be installed. So
I just was asking because Caitlin and me, but I think it's a great suggestion, which is following a special meeting. So maybe what we do is get the designs Okay. And hear from the playground and and whatnot
and have a special meeting to Just just for Okay. And
you you would like the representative to to be here to to to be here for the meeting, or is that The Zoom. Okay. We could just have a Zoom meeting, like, special meeting for me. Yeah. Zoom meeting.
Alright. I I but I think she I'll I'll do that. Okay. And the the the the renderings that I have are is is what that is. I mean, I've I'll definitely ship with with everybody. Okay. So send the designs to the to all the board members, and then ask Mike to come to the meeting and to to call a special meeting. Val, you sent
him to her so you can post them online, Val. Is that what I said? Yeah. Okay. So send the designs to Val to post online? I know you'll send him to the work, but then I can also post them for you. And where are you gonna post them? On this whole website? Or because we'll post them with all the stuff. Virtually. Oh, okay. Them with that meeting. So that's when Okay. We'll get them right out there with the next meeting. Okay. Alright. And then just and then call a special meeting just for the playground. Yep. Yeah. Okay. Alright. Okay. Alright. Okay.
I mean, I'll put the agenda I'm putting on. Yeah. I guess we should wait for you. We'd have to know for him. Right? Right. Yeah. Right.
So just in terms of so if I find out he's available October 25, I have to we have to notice it so many hours in Twenty four hours in advance. Okay.
And and I would just put this out there. I don't know what everyone else's schedule is, but for something like this, if it's going to be a fairly not long meeting, like, I would be open to it being, like, just not late at night if if he didn't fail, but I'm just trying to Yeah. And I'm sorry, San sorry, Shannon. I just it's it's it's been a passion project for I know. For for two years. And and and, really, in in all honesty, I didn't know that I needed to get more approval. So so, again, I I apologize.
Okay. Alright. I will work on that. Alright. Comments from the public. Okay. Miss. No. Thanks. I'm all set. Thank you. This is Hopkins. All set. Thank you. Missus Morell? Nothing for me. Thank you.
Anne. Anne. I'm get I'm getting to her. I'm getting to her. You hush. I'm just making sure there wasn't somebody else over there. Anne.
I was just gonna say I've been looking at these different counts, and there were once a time back in 2021 where it was 0%. Oh, that was twenty twenty twenty one? 2021. But zero still on as a negative. I don't see anything negative. They didn't go down to zero. So I haven't been talking about how fantastic this is since I was elected, But it has been low in the past, so it may not be a fantastic investment. Right. But for now, it's been. Okay. Thank you, ma'am. Appreciate it. Nothing for me. Okay. Thank you. Alright. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Okay. There you go. Okay. Alrighty.
So okay. Other action items? Do you have any other action items? Mhmm. Mhmm. Okay.
Alright. Upcoming, board meeting regular board meeting is gonna be November 13. Items for next meeting, I have written down, Val. Well, I'd like to put on the the triboard policy to kinda get an update on that. So I'd like that to be on there. I have Taylor's overview of what an intervention interventionist does along with an update on the bookworm coach and then also the growth rate PTA percentage target achieved that Taylor will present. I have three. You'll give us a school readiness update. Caitlin and I will have a SIP account update. We'll move the noncertified contract agreement. We'll have a liaison budget update from you, Mike. And then if we can just make sure that we put the monthly meetings, what Okay. And I will make sure I'll get to Val the the schedule. But if we can just make sure that that's on there, that would be helpful. That's all I have. What's that? I have it written down. Yep. Thanks, Shannon. Yep. I have it written down. And I emailed it. But I'll I'll forward it to Val. That's
only reason I have all the meetings ready, doctor. Thank you. Okay. Oh, Alright. So that's all that I have. Okay. I'm hoping to adjourn. Alright. Alright. All in favor? Alright. 700. Thank you. Okay. I'm