Meeting transcript
BOE Meeting Part 1
January 14, 2026 · Watch on Zoom · All meetings
You're all set. Goodbye.
Good evening. I'd like to welcome everyone to the regular board meeting for the Board of Education dated January 14. We'll do the pledge of allegiance first. Before we get to public comment, just briefly, we do have a lot on our agenda tonight. So if you're here for public comment, please keep it short and sweet, less than three minutes, and two something on the agenda. Thank you very much. Alex, that's you guys. Right? Yes. Yes? K. IPad four. If you could also state your name. Okay. Doris.
Good evening. My name is Doris Mountainado Mendez, and I'm a proud parent of two students at Andover Elementary. As we know, Connecticut is facing a serious challenge with a 100 over a 119,000 young people, about one in five statewide that are considered at risk or disconnected from school, community, or both. Rural towns like ours feel this more deeply, with distance and limited services. That's why the work happening here at Andover Elementary is so important. This year's student and family centered enrichment opportunities in literacy, social emotional learning, dance through life, STEM enrichment, the WAES news media now, and the upcoming junior achievement of South, Southern New England program are intentional pathways that build belonging and future skills. I reached out to Connecticut's Junior Achievement Bank, back in June, of this summer through a finance colleague, and I'm ecstatic to see, today's message sent out by missus Fraser that, we're gonna have AES, AES is having a one day program coming this March to our kids. As someone who represents Andover's birth to five families, I've seen how strong foundations shape futures, and Andover's youngest leaders are entering a school filled with accessible, inclusive opportunities that and that's something to celebrate and protect protect. I wanted to to share those kudos. Thank you for your loyalty to our children, and thank you for your time.
Thank you very much. Alicia Lee, just so everyone knows, Alicia was added to the board event, but she hasn't been sworn in yet. So do you have any public comment, Alicia? Okay? No. Not right now. Thank you. Thank you.
Liz? Nothing for now. Okay. Carol? I'm all set. Thank you. Scott? Not sure if you said no comment, but that's we'll move on. We'll come back to you if you need Joanne?
I am all set. I'm here to listen. Thank you. Thank you. Robert? Same deal. Here to listen. Thanks. Bye. Jenny? Nothing for me. Thank you. Ron? Nothing for me. Thank you. Just here to listen.
Luis? I need to know his name. I'm all set. Thanks.
Okay. And then, Ron, can you just state your last name? Langlois, l a n g l I s. Thank you. Anne? Nothing to ring. Okay. And Jesse? Hey. No. No. That's it. Okay.
So we'll move on to communications. We do have a few this month. There's been a lot of communications behind the scenes, just so everyone's aware of that. So we we have had some communication from the first electman in regards to the corrective action plan that is as an item later in the agenda, so we won't address it right now. I have had communications with two companies as we decided last meeting in regards to additional estimates for the bathroom project. Those companies are Downs Constructions and ONG Industries. I do not have actual estimates yet, and both of them are interested in coming for a walk through. So that is that is where we are with that. And then we do we did all receive some communications to the board from the superintendent.
Did you wanna I'll address them when I get to my report, then if that's okay. That way Okay. Time wise, we we're okay with them. Alright. Okay. Student or other celebrations?
I do have one. We're very excited. We got an email. I'm just looking at the date. Last week from the Connecticut Sun, the WNBA, we were nominated for a program that they do to bring WNBA basketball directly to the local schools, and we were selected as one of 15 districts to receive a Sun Academy clinic. So they essentially come in. They run, you know, an extended gym class, and then we get 15 Connecticut Sun basketballs for our gym, a Connecticut Sun banner, and discounted ticket links for students and families. So we're very excited about that, and we are special, special thank you to Brie because I believe she was who nominated us. So thank you if that's true.
Did you know I'll get all that? Oh, did I even know? All I did was, like, hit submit. Like because, like, my daughter loves basketball, but I'm just gonna get sun. So I was like Yes.
Cool. Thank you. So we're we're so excited. So thank you, Brie. We it was so out of the blue, and I was like, is this real? And then we, you know, we give them a call. So we're very excited. They're gonna come and take over a gym class for fourth grade, of course, and then we will get all of those perks. So that was a big celebration for us. Super cool. Anything else on celebrations? Pardon me? Okay. So
we have approval of minutes. So we have the approval of the minutes from our last regular meeting, which was December 10, and then also from the bathroom committee meeting, which was January 5. We did have quite a few board members present at that meeting.
I'll make a motion, and then I have just some quick corrections on the regular meeting minutes from the seventeenth. Okay. But before we just cancel it, we have to have the seventh. Someone wants a second? Definitely. Thanks. Great. The two things I noticed, Dawn, were number one, that Alicia, participated virtually. You had put out a lot of virtual attendees on the first page. And then with the two abstentions, I think it's on the top of page two, it should be a vote of four zero two instead of four zero zero. Page three. Page page three. Yes. Or I don't remember.
Wherever it says four zero zero, it should be four zero two. They're true abstentions. Yep. You're talking about the minutes? The minutes
from the last meeting. Right. That's what we're reporting to approve now. Page Yeah. No. Is it page three? Page three. Great. Yeah. Never mind.
You talk about the approval of minutes from November. December. On top of page three where it says, Shannon allowed to made a motion to approve the minutes from 11/12/2025.
Is that the one you're talking about? That's what I'm talking about. Okay. Now we're now I understand what you're saying, Marcy. Thank you. Because the because the page two has a similar Right. Thank you. Yeah. There's a bunch of there's a bunch of votes in there. So The phone's out. That should be four zero three. Right? 402. 402.
Because I can do math then. K. We should listen to
And then adding virtual after Alicia's name. Okay? So Nothing. Okay? Yep. Thank you. So
we can vote to approve those minutes with those two changes. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? No? Okay. And
then, Val, I'm gonna ask you for the bathroom committee meeting. How does that even work? Are we actually voting to approve those, or we're just approving them? Like, I read through them. I think they are fine. So Why wouldn't they? Because it's a committee meeting. Committee meeting. It wasn't a board meeting, and not all of the members of the committee are here.
So You have to take the the minutes? There's a lot of omissions
on the on the minutes. What do you mean? Well, in the discussion by the VOE number four, Jeff Murray read the school policy, the purchase policy, and asked why we were disregarding the policy. And say where are Number four? Number four. Yep.
Spice is going to battle. So your question is that there's not enough in the minutes? Right. Yeah. Yeah. So so then I think probably if we wanna table it for right now, Val wrote these for us. We didn't have a secretary at the meeting. I took brief minute notes, but it's difficult to do when you're running the meeting. If you wanna help work with us on modifying them, that would be greatly appreciated, and then we could put it to next month. Okay. Okay. Do we need to vote on that, or we're good to just go ahead? Okay. And then in terms of adding or deleting agenda items, I would like to delete agenda item nine f from tonight, which is a bathroom project update. We don't have bids back from the two other contractors that we've reached out to yet, so I don't there's not really anything further to discuss. If you guys want to read through the minutes from the the meeting that we had last week and or watch the recording on that, that would be great to get yourselves updated. But there's really nothing further on that project to discuss tonight. Are you sure about that?
Yeah. We voted as a board to go get two other quotes. Right. Right. And I don't we don't have those quotes back yet. So Are there are did we get quotes? No. I don't have them back yet. The last communication I had with both those companies today was that they might get me something by Friday. Okay. They had wanted hazmat the hazmat report, which I sent to them. Mhmm. And then
they said maybe by this Friday. Maybe we could reach out to some other contractors or or put it out on a public for
you know? Well, I think what we voted as a board was to to try to get two other quotes for right now. Right. We could advertise it. We could get other bids. We we probably get an advertisement for more than a year, year and a half. Oh, you're speculating. Does it? Yeah. So we'll once I have consideration. Once I have those bids back, we'll schedule a special meeting
probably just to discuss that. Okay. Okay? I would I would ask you not to take that off the agenda. Please leave that on the agenda. There's nothing to talk about it tonight. There is. There's there's There's Yes. There's plot. The second date. There's How are thinking about? We're discussion. Right? You're in discussion. I'm still a member. We're in discussion. I think there are many issues that you guys have to sit there and and at least talk about with the community. Because, you know, this is this is not just Jeff Maguire issue. This there's a lot of people that are concerned about how this project is handled and going to be handled. So I'd ask you to talk about it because I'm not here to argue. I definitely don't wanna argue. I I only wanna help this become
the best project it can for the benefit of the community for the amount of money we're spending. Yeah. I'm asking you not to take Is there a big question? I think I think that same page with Yeah. Just Yeah. If we have enough information tonight to to discuss it more with everything else we have on the agenda, I think it deserves its own meeting. But I'm tell you, Deb, it's not an opportunity for input from the the community.
So if we want input from the community I asked would need that meeting. I asked.
There was an email chain going that I asked for a triboard meeting so we could discuss this project. That was rejected. It was rejected because you were going to have a meeting of the building committee. But only the second meeting only the second meeting that you had at the building. Monday. And and listen and listen. Listen. I'm just I'm I'm ready. I'm I'm this discussion. Don't have a signed contract. So we've paid $42,000 We do. On a project contract. Never been provided to the board. And I'm I'm discussing.
I'm discussing. I'm discussing. You're we're discussing. I'm discussing. We're adding I know. I know. And I'm able to discuss it. Before you take it off the agenda, I'd like to discuss why you should keep it on the agenda.
You should just keep it on the agenda. It it doesn't have to be adversarial.
Nothing. Please just leave it on the agenda. There's nothing adversarial about it. I move the move the question, please. K. So the motion at hand, Shannon voted. Did we have a second? Second visit. I made the motion, your seconding, to remove the bathroom project update, which is item nine f from the agenda for tonight. And we will likely call a special meeting for that just so that everyone is aware. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. I'm staying. Opposed?
I'm abstain. I don't really understand all the nuances. Yeah. Okay. Five zero one.
So the carriers, it's deleted. Yeah. So we'll take that off the agenda. And then the other thing that I would like to do is to move item 13, which is announcements for the upcoming meetings and items for our next meeting to after public comment so that we can go to executive session and not need to announce those things after.
Does anyone any. K. Do I need to vote on that? I think he's okay with that. We need to vote on the bill. K. All in favor?
What if I'm sorry. I misunderstood what you're 13? Item 13. Mhmm. Go between ten and eleven. To move it between ten and eleven. Okay. Okay? That's just so we don't have to open
Resume again? Correct. Right. Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. That's fine. We have to resume after the executive session, does it? Just to to put our vote in formally Okay. On the executive session. John. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. All in favor? Aye. Aye.
Six zeros. Yeah. K. So we'll move on. We do have some people here from the are you guys actually good? Our own. Yeah. Resource Lighting and Energy. Resource Lighting and Energy regarding the energy audit, which we do have from was it a couple months ago? Right? Right.
And then there's some we had some discussion that night about it, and there's been some changes Yeah. That we had asked for consideration. And so Alex and Vince are here.
And This is this is the right thing, right, that I have from before? Yes. That the first one, and they'll talk about changes and things. And then
what you sent me, if it's still the same, I have those if we need them for them for after your presentation. I have copies here. Yep. Okay.
Was it in share? Yeah. So so, Taylor, you might have to give is it it's Alex, right, on the screen? Yes. Taylor, can you give Alex permission to share his screen?
Yes. I I think I did, but let me know if it's okay. Alex, I think that you have to open your video.
Do I? I think so. Yeah. They're right. They can't see your screen.
There you go. Double click to enter. There you go. Okay. Once again. I'll look back.
Or you can send people, but I will make the. Well, thank you all. Always come in. No
cost any charge that we did. Thank you, Valerie, for allowing us to do that and come in. We appreciate it.
So I'll say this before we get started. It couldn't be a better time to do, to move forward with this because of the new incentive that Eversource has out. It's called a micromunicipality sign off. So they've never had this. They've had it out for about four months now. Not sure how long it's gonna last. Actually, makes it more affordable for you guys to do the project. So I just wanted to put that out there. Quick introductions. Vince Costanza. I've been with the company now for two and a half years, working with municipalities, school systems, C and I customers. Alex is our general manager. Alex? Nice to meet you. Alex Embers. Yep. Book agenda. We'll talk a little bit about our company, some case studies that we've done, project overview, financing options, next steps. So our earliest been around since 2009. Our mission is to provide turnkey design, build energy efficiency solutions. Jay Benson's our president. Nick Prakka's our CAO. Both are veterans. Jay, navy veteran. Nick is a, Coast Guard veteran. They bring that same passion and commitment to our company every day. A matter of fact, as a company, we have about two hundred years of combined experience in design build energy solutions.
Our core values, partnership. You know, we adapt your goals with our goals. We cater your project to figure your needs. Reliability. We pride ourselves in being reliable. Tenable service. You can rely on our team of insightful to provide top tier tier service. And, of course, sustainability. We're about to provide service that are not only sustainable for your growth, but for the planet as as well. Our solutions, obviously, LED lighting and lighting controls, electrical vehicle supply equipment, HVAC upgrades, VRF systems installs, mechanical and electrical equipment upgrades, weatherization. So we do pipe wrapping, also insulation as well. And I think our resource down the road will be coming out some windows as well, window incentives. Case studies. Go ahead, Alex. So
a little bit about I don't know. Have worked with multiple cities and towns. City Of New London is one prime example. Actually, we have a an office in New London, so we have done an extensive amount of work for the city. Specifically for this project, so we did a lighting project and an EV charging project. Annual savings from the lighting project, it was a $187,000, and then we had utility incentives of about $367,000. And in terms of energy, 833,000 kWh. It was a big project, multiple buildings, which, you know, helped the community, and we keep doing projects there. Real quickly, what's a utility incentive?
So the utility incentives are the rebates that the utility is going to give against an energy conservation project. And Eversource has a big program out there, so does UI. The state of Connecticut probably has the best program in the country, which is a big advantage.
Can I ask just further clarification? Is that, like, if I have an electric car and I charge it only during certain hours when they mail me a check? That's that's, like, part of their incentive program. It's a it's a rebate thing? It's it's a rebate for the equipment and the installation. Okay.
So the municipal program, which these fall under Yeah. They for EV charging, for example, they have a program where they give you money up to a certain cap to do, to buy the equipment and install it. Yeah. In terms of the operation, it's up to the owner how to use it. Thank you. Last thing I'm gonna say oh, for this project, Waterford Public Schools, we we've done this project about three years ago. It was I think it was every school in the town. It was a LED lighting and lighting control solution with the transformers, kitchen hood exhaust fans, and refrigeration controls. The the one thing to take away from this is the multitude of measures we can do.
And as a rule of thumb, the more you add, the higher the rebate, the hybrid incentive. 2.7 a year of payback, 1,500,000 kWh of savings, which is great. It's a big number, and $360,000 of annual savings. Now specifically for this project, a little bit about what we did. We did a no cost energy audit. That took us about eight eight hours to complete. We looked at everything we could in the amount of time we had. Our team at the office, we looked at the data. We analyzed it. We got pricing. We looked at, you know, ways to save energy. We find good equipment, and the proposal generation took us about four hours. We have done discussions with Eversource. That took us about two hours with them, our time and and their time, to prequalify these projects. And I'll get to it in a little bit. So total hours invested about thirty eight hours. Now specifically for this project, initially, we came up with a project that it was LED lights that they're volumetric, single basket. They're aesthetically nice looking. After discussion with Valerie and the team here, we wanted a solution more of, a flat panel, which is the lights above us, which is generally a
a more cost effective solution. It's a cheaper product, just to keep the cost down, which we did. In this go around, we came up with a new proposal for these lights, but we have other measures. That was the key thing that we found out because, like I said earlier, the more you add, the more money you get back, and the savings are greater. So estimated incentive for the whole project, it's about $146,000. As Vince said, never been better because the Everest has this micro municipality program that basically kicks up everything that they have as a baseline. This works with three measures and above. So when I say measures, I mean energy conservation measures. Lighting and controls is one measure. Pipe insulation would be another measure. Doing aerators, faucet or sink aerators, would be another measure. So they need three to kick us a bonus for the project, which they do, and I'll show you what it is. Oh, for pipe insulation, which is actually pretty good, the uses in the school is oil. And by insulating all of your pipes, for the most part, plus the air air savings,
we have about 7,500 gallons of oil that we could save, which is a big number. And we we get into these situations basically every day, and the potential of savings just for oil savings is great. Now for the project, as I mentioned, three measures, lighting, which is flat panels with sensors. This program works because there's a baseline incentive, and if you add controls, the incentive goes up. By adding controls, occupancy, daylight sensor, you're saving about 24% extra on top of your wattage savings from going to fluorescent to LED. So you're adding those savings on top of your just, you know, fixture to fixture replacements. 20, about just the lighting alone, it's about 87,000 kWh of savings annually. That equates to $20,000, and we're estimating that's gonna save you about $4,000 in o and m savings. Overall project, we have $190,000 incentive, and the bonus that the utility gives us is about $37,000. So from the volumetric project, it was about $60,000 more expensive. So the price for the flat panels, the lighting alone came down. Now differences between flat panels and volumetric fixtures is that the flat panels that don't save as much energy as the volumetric. The volumetric lights are more efficient in a way and they last longer. So the savings before, they were a little higher. Now they're a little lower. But overall, you can see it's a three point seven year payback project. And we have the pipe insulation plus the jackets. So the jackets are general you can imagine it's kind of like a hood that goes over a valve, something exposed that's losing a lot of heat
and thirds or CCFs as what the utility counts. So now I'm gonna get into the financing. Actually, incentive wise, 146,000 compared to 324,000. It's a pretty good number. It's a little bit less than 50%. It's about 40 I think I have it here. 45%
of the overall project, which is great. You don't see this often. Can I stop you for one sec? Yes. So on the incentive, I'm just trying to compare to the last time you guys presented. Last time, it was, like, one eighteen, and now you're saying one forty six. Is that because of a change in, like, whatever source is giving? Or change the micromunicipality incentive. It's a change in the incentive, not not just a change in
what lights you're using. I'm comparing it to this number or this number?
This is what she's looking at. It says incentive fine measure, and then the the total for the lighting pipe insulation and aerator was $1.18 Correct. So
as I said, the savings between the previous lights and these lights, these lights that we're proposing now are less efficient. These flat panels are usually less efficient than the volumetric lights. So the utility likes to see kWh, which is a measure of electricity. The more you have, the more they give you. So it's a certain dollar value per kWh saved Since this project or this project that you're looking at Yeah. Is saving more, the individual incentive for that project was higher compared to Okay. This lighting project. Okay. That doesn't mean that's bad. It's still saving quite a lot of energy. And overall,
you have a pretty good amount of savings. But it's it's the changes mostly because of the change in the type Correct. Of light. Okay. Okay.
One thing I'm gonna say about how the municipal municipal program and the financing, you can see at the bottom. The whole project monthly, it saves $3,600. K? And all Eversource offers financing up to sixty months at 0%, which by itself is pretty good. Now what the the financing cost of the project is $2,900 a month. That makes the project cash positive. Meaning, your expenses, your when you have this project, you're gonna have a loan at the end of it. Right? Sixty months, 0%. So on the energy bill, you're gonna have a line that says, this is the amount of money that you use to finance this project. But the savings that we generate are actually higher than that month. So as you can see, it's $653 cash positive. Now one thing I'm gonna say is the basis of consumption and the cost you're paying now is flat. Over five years, they tend to go up. So theoretically, the savings could be even higher. I don't have a crystal ball. I'm not I can't predict what they're gonna charge later down the road, but they usually go up significantly.
Can I interrupt really quickly? Because I'm still trying to wrap my head around how do we save 7,500 gallons of oil by wrapping the pipe. How do you get to that number? I mean, I know it's a big building. We use a lot of oil. That's a lot of oil. I mean, that's huge savings. Like, how do you calculate that? And maybe that's It's it's all dependent on the heat loss. Yeah. Right? So if you have exposed pipe Well, like, where are pipes? Like, they're underground across space. Right? And so that's part of the Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so we're losing a lot. Get a pipe. Yeah. It's a lot of pipe. And so I'm sure that's the Energy, the heat, it's just it's. That's
how it went to the air. And it's a lot of oil. It is all. Is that per year? Or Per year. Annual. Yeah. I started looking. It must be only the payment price, sixty months or something. It's like used year. 7,500
gallons oil a year? Oh, yes. We do oil year. That's true. We use between twenty six and thirty four thousand. Wow. Yeah. And who's not out of a significant school? Right? I mean, it's it for large buildings. And what is it? We're gonna use the overall What is the gallons. Oh, gallon price that you figured on that? It's whatever we estimated on based on your bill. Yeah. Okay. They collect the data, Marci, ahead of time. They ask for our trend data. They Yeah. I just wanna Yeah. What data used. Yep. Yep. It's the actual bills that you you pay. Yeah.
Any other questions? No. I'll move on mentally now. Yeah. Sorry. Just couldn't get past that. Like, yeah, the question. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Good. On the same page. Yeah.
Alright. Out of what that equates to, 87,000 kWh annually, and we have some data from the EPA's website what that equates to about 3,000 bags of waste. This is power for 12 homes for electricity for the full year. That equates to six six hundred and thirty five trees or 40 roughly 42,000 pounds of burnt coal. Just some environmental data. Now for the financing, as I said earlier, the finest amount is $177,000 on the flat panel option. 60 monthly financing, it's $2,905.55 dollars per month. We're saving about $3,600 a month, so more than what we are gonna pay, making the projects about $653 cash positive. Overall, that is annual savings, $43,000. This is a per month number. This is a per year number. I think that's Yep. It.
And then total savings is calculated not only by the monthly cash savings but by the savings and savings too. Yes. Okay. Thank you. And save in addition. Thank you. Vince? Yes.
You said at the very end we're gonna have a loan at the end of the project deployed. So how does that fit? We have 0% financing for sixty months. What are we looking at potentially at the end of those sixty months? You're done. You paid up the project. Paid. The whole thing is paid off. And it's under electric bill. So it's paid off, and we've actually had a net savings every month? Yeah. Yes. Mhmm. That seems miraculous. Okay.
So okay. So sixty months. How I mean, what does the efficiency of the lights dim over time? So, like, how does that work? So, like, we're getting savings in the first, you know, like, six years. But beyond that, are we still going to see savings for those lights, and how long are they gonna provide saving? What's gonna be the difference? Yeah. Right. And how long do they last? Right. Well, Thanos compared to me. So yeah.
Volumetric lights, volumetric troughers, which are not these Right. The previous option, they're about a hundred and twenty thousand hours. So on average, the average hours of the school or of an elementary school are about three thousand hours per year. Depending on the space, hallways are usually running higher for more hours per year. Right? So you can imagine hundred and twenty thousand hours that could be twenty years. Flat panels are usually seventy thousand hours, which still quite a lot of time, probably between twelve and fourteen years. Mhmm.
Now next steps for the project. This contract that this project that we came up with, it's nonbinding up until Eversource comes in. They do a pre inspection. They verify our application to them. They review it for about four to four to five weeks. Then they come in. They do a pre inspection of what we found and we applied for, and they're gonna issue an LOA, which is a letter of agreement. Up until that point, nothing is binding. Where it gets binding is after you sign the LOA. After you sign the LOA, you're telling the utility, yes. We're gonna proceed with this project, and we're gonna do it. So after the LOA is issued, we buy the material. Takes about five weeks. And then we do a kickoff meeting with you guys, make sure you understand, you're all on the same page. We usually we always have one of our staff members on-site for the duration of the project so you have a face, a person to talk to every time. And we're gonna figure out a way to put dumpster, a convex box for storage,
the material. And then in about ten weeks, we're gonna be ready for installation. The installation overall, I'm not sure how long it's gonna take, but usually on a project of this size, it's about three weeks. And we're gonna work after hours. So this the kids are out, we're in, we work after 03:00, let's say, when they're out. We're here till midnight or whatever however long you're gonna let us be here. We wanna be flexible. If you want us to get in the morning, we can. If we want us to get in the night, we can. At the end, we usually have a punch list items. We work with you. We program every light. So every light has a sensor and is programmable. So we program every light, and at the end of the project, we're gonna give you an option by a phone or a tablet or something that you would be able to control these lights on your own. In the end of it all, the utility likes to do a post inspection where they verify that we actually installed it. Check it off. They say, yes. You did the project. You followed the parameters of your application. And then they're gonna say, okay. Let's do the loan. So they're gonna send us a loan. They're gonna verify the data. They're gonna take the incentive that they prequalified in the beginning of the project. They're gonna deduct it from the project cost, and we are going to get paid through that. There's no, financial transaction happening between Andover and RLE. We're paid by Eversource at the very, very, very end of the project. So at the end of it, of course, we have to make sure you're satisfied. So we're here every step of the way, and we have the track record. We have worked with over 20 towns in Connecticut.
This process is very familiar to us.
How often or, like, how many times have you gotten to the final walk through and had the financing process, like, had it be drastically or different from what all of this is that you're presenting right now? Or, like, how different does the final end up being?
Not different. It's the same. Interesting. So in the LOA, they're gonna say, this is your incentive. Yeah. So they're gonna come up with the number. We're gonna install it. But we don't sign for the financing until the end. Yes.
So what guarantees? Is there something in the LOA that says this is what your financing will be?
Yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna show you all the financial data of the project. Okay. Because Eversource has the financial freight Yeah. Data of the project. Okay. We're gonna say it's gonna cost $324,000. This is the application we're doing for it. Yeah. They're gonna inspect it, come up with the incentive number. Yeah. And at the end of it, they they know we've told them we're gonna put a loan out. Yeah. So they know already. And at the end, once it's done and they verify it, they say, okay. We said it's a $146,000 per incentive. That's what it was because it was installed, and here's your loan.
Okay. So the numbers that you presented to us, there's a chance they could be different from Eversource with the LOA? They could be a little bit different. Little bit different. Yes. But once we sign that, then they do not change. Gotcha. Okay. Also, Yeah. One. Yep.
That's it. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Does anyone else have questions? Never mind.
Would everyone like a copy of this? Make a copy? Please leave it. Yes. Yes. Thank you.
Well, I have a question. When you guys say it's missing a probe Yes. Do you the other accounts that you worked on, did you just do the public schools, or did you do a combination of the public schools and the municipals?
We have done municipal buildings, public schools, all of the above. The the program, they can do alone separately for the border bed and the tap, or they could combine it all together. So that's the program only applies for these entities, public entities.
Public entities, but can it be combined? Yes. So And does it make more sense than we could get more incentive dollars back as a, you know, prime entity? Just I'm just asking to just a hypothetical. I'm not interrupting. I'm not trying to Right. Walk out. I'm just asking. If the whole town came in, we have four other people. Not a lot of other bills. Yeah. But we did it all at the same time, would we get a greater incentive probably possibly to the school? Yeah. Maybe a
better price because it's a combination. And can you can say no? Yeah. So for this project Yeah. For the the elementary school? Yeah. No. Right. But for the whole project overall? Yeah. Yes. Because the municipal kicker incentive that they have right now, it's an addition, certain dollar amount or top of every kWh gallon of oil, therm saved. So the bonus that they're gonna give us at the end, yes, it will be greater, which could benefit this project, to answer your question, yes, down growth.
K. I believe the town's already upgraded the line. They checked with the upgrades. Yeah. But it could be other measures then. There could be. Yeah. So the name of your company is Resource Lighting
Energy. Energy. Do you subcontract that with the work, or do you guys set it up? We are an energy general contractor. Okay. That's that's what we do. Mhmm. Cool. Okay. How
long does the process take, like, if the town wanted to go through this whole process that you guys have done for the school prior to us all saying yes, how long does that process take? And then secondly, does it matter if the the energy bills from Eversource are paid separately? Like, the board of ed pays their bill and the town pays their bill, and they're not together. That's how the financing is. Okay. So this
is a hypothetical in in terms if we added more buildings, you mean. Right? Yes.
But paid by a separate entity. The loan the loan generated,
it's on a per building basis. Right. So the elementary would have a loan. Right. And let's say the town hall would have a different loan because they have a different bill. But it would be under the same project because it's the same entity.
Okay. And how long would the process that you guys went through for us with the numbers you gave us tonight, how long would it take to do that for the town? Thirty eight hours.
That's what it said on the page. Yeah. Right? That's Well, but but the things are substantially smaller, so I wasn't sure if it's the same. Thirty, know, in the Mhmm.
So we already can survey about 120 to a 150,000 square feet per day. So our auditing services could do that. And the project design could take anywhere from two to three weeks. So we can come up with a project theoretically in, like, three weeks Okay.
From auditing till proposal. Okay. We need the data, though. So we we like to be thorough. Yes. That's why we ask the bills. That's why we we're trying to be accurate.
I can ask. So there's nothing that prohibits, though, from the school project being separate from the municipal project. Right? Not at all. Is there any advantage to having it together, or you feel the savings if they were two separate projects would be the same? I think that's what Jeff might have said. Yeah. Well, I'm just not clear.
So the more you add, the better it yes. Yes. Where the longest thing to take? I don't know how to answer it. But this project is good enough by itself that it can stand on its own. If you add to it oh, actually, I should say this. You have about twelve months if you want to add. After this project is done, in twelve months, if you add, you still keep the bonus. So Emersys will honor the bonus. So if you wanted to do this project now, for example, and then in three months down the road, you want to see other buildings, they will honor the bonus of this project,
and they're gonna Okay. Maximize it. So, basically, the town, if they wanted to, could add on to this project, and it would still qualify altogether? Yes. Okay. Perfect. Thank you for explaining that. Yeah. How is the bonus calculated?
So that that it's it's a long question. Right? So Eversource has three tiers of incentives. So you start with your 20¢ a kW rate. It's base. Kilowatts. Right? Kilowatt hours. Okay. Yeah. 20¢. That's nothing without any sensors at all, meaning it's a plain light. Mhmm. They go up to 45¢ if you have a sensor. One measure. Let's say we do only a lighting project, 45¢ kWh. If you have two, three or more measures, they go up to 65¢ a kWh. And the kicker incentive for the micro municipality, they give you an extra 20¢. So it's almost a dollar per kW rates, which, like I mean, 85¢. Right? But I'm trying to emphasize the fact that you add more, you get more. That's for the KWH. For the gallon save, your base is $4. Your comprehensive bonus is another full $4,
and your micromunicipality incentive is another $2 on top of that. Mhmm. So we're looking at 10. Kilowatts
that are saved, the more the higher the bonuses. Yes. Mhmm.
And the other measures too. So they will give us an incentive for the gallons of oil saved plus the kWH saved plus the bonus. And it was three measures or more to realize that savings? Yes. It doesn't matter if you have five, six, seven. It's It doesn't matter. Okay. It only helps, but it doesn't give you extra. Extra bonus. This is the higher tier of the highest tiers. There's no higher than that. You can't go higher. No. Okay. Got it. I wish it did.
Alright. What other towns have you done? You said 20 towns. Danbury, Stanford, New London, Meriden, Waterford, Torrington. Killingworth. Killingworth, Barkhamstead. Sterling. Okay. Anything?
So Danbury? Danbury is, like, five times in its own. Yeah.
Danbury, we we we just We just finished the project for every school in Danbury. Yeah. That's So it's it's big. In Greenwich.
We did Greenwich. That was the first one you did.
The first project we ever did? Or No. The first one first town. First town? Disincentive.
I think it was Maybe Hill. No. Rocky Hill was another one. No. The first one, I think it was Meriden. Okay. I believe. And how long ago was that? Six years ago, maybe. Okay.
But this is like a municipality The micro municipalities are in the last four months. Yes. Yeah. Which is great. Yeah.
Yep. Thank you guys so much for coming. You're welcome. Okay. You're taking the time. Just copy the presentation if you want. Thank you. You. Oh, nice. I'm so sorry. Donuts. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You can hit us on sharing. Yeah. Perfect. Alright.
Thank you very much. Yeah. It's alright. Do you know how to keep you're gonna go go back to Yeah. Mhmm. Okay.
So we'll we'll move on. Next on the agenda is chairperson's oral report. I don't honestly have anything tonight that isn't addressed elsewhere, especially kinda given where we are and working with what we have in getting into budget season. So Valerie, superintendent's report.
Okay. So, normally good night. Thank you. So, we have our three topics here about the new facilities, plans for new grants. We're still working on after school grant. Things are going well. We had one of our staff members attend workshop yesterday to do the accounting incubate
system that we have to do. This is along very well with that one.
Budget, we are gonna take care of a little bit further during our time here. So I really kind of wanted to use my time tonight in the superintendent's reports to do a little bit of oversight of some of the things information wise that I feel like has super important, that I needed to to share with you guys. If you don't mind, I'd like to take my time to do that. This is where some of it will be some of the information that I sent out via email to you guys. So, I will ask Taylor so that anybody is not out of the conversation, and Alicia's on here as well. So, I'll just go in random order here. I see Robert on here, which is great. I know Jeff's here. So one of the things that I I would like to say that that the opening of this is this is not anything to be confrontational. But, the the meetings of the board of finance and the meetings of the board of Select, and there's a lot of conversations that have occurred, about food based stuff. And some of it I I find as an accusation, but I mostly find it as misinformation. So I'd like to take an opportunity to really look at some of the misinformation as we go forward into budget season, which starts tonight. You know? Well, actually, it'll be second time because we did part of it last time. So,
and making sure that there's just some accurate accurate information, that we'll address. So,
in meeting Monday night at the board of selectmen, there was a mention of,
statues. So I just wanna make sure going into this season, Taylor, can you put up the one that says Connecticut general statute? It is. Thank you. We passed that this way. Pass it this way. There was a mention of here we go. Pass. There was a mention of it might have been Scott that's on there. There was a mention of a statute that said that we were in violation. We were not following a statute. When you're looking at statutes, I think the particular one that was mentioned was seven dash one four eight v. And it said that this the the school was not following the statute. So I thought, let's take an opportunity as we're talking about policy and statutes and laws to really look in terms of, that statute that they referenced at the board of selectmen meeting, it is a municipal statute. All of title seven statutes deal with, rightly so, the board of selectmen, which is where they were talking about it, so that's where it belongs. But, they don't cover The school statutes do not begin with a seven.
The school statutes, the one that the state has as Connecticut General Statutes that pertain to education, those start with a 10. And all of us have these big giant books, this big huge school blah blah. This is the explanation for all of those title 10 statutes. So as we move forward, if there are things that we're addressing on the town side, sure, they wouldn't be tens. They would be sevens. But if they pertain to this board of education, they are tens. And we are not a part of a statute that rep it starts with the seventh. So I thought it was very important because we do have people that don't know the sevenths or the tenths in town. And whether they're at our meeting or board of selecting meeting, I don't want them to look at a statute and say the school's not following it, or, likewise, in the other direction, the board of selectmen's not following a statute that starts with 10. They don't have to. That is a school. So I thought that was very important that we start with that so that everybody knows that they don't have to follow our statutes, and our statutes are not put out there, by the state for them. So I thought that was important. A couple of other things. I did send you guys the
and I will give you another copy of it. Taylor, let's see. Let's go to next the enrollment report. This was shared with the board, and the public last year during the budget season. Differently. Oh, okay. Yeah. Let me just pass those on. This was with the public. Thank you. Last year. And as we start talking about the budget, I do know that there's been conversation already out there, and I just wanna correct misinformation. The conversation in the public by some parents as well, so this this you know, it's it's it's just people in general. The talk is about class size. And we know every year we hear class size used to be bigger than it is now, and we are trying to decrease class size lower than ever before. When the reality is, and I have in here for you 2010 all the way through to 2026 right now. Thank you. You're welcome. The class sizes have always in this town been what some towns would consider on the smaller side. And so the the fact is it's it's kind of not fair to me and accusatory when people say she's just trying to keep class size small. I actually don't believe in really small classes. I think that that could be as detrimental as very large classes. And if you've been with me during budget season, I'm very passionate about it. I was a teacher. I was a school administrator. I was a special ed director. So I know that sometimes, depending on the students, the class sizes are pretty okay being larger. Sometimes they need to be smaller. It depends on the kids.
And so you've seen me in six years fight for smaller class sizes right after COVID. Combined, grades two and three, when it was appropriate for us not to pay to hire a teacher, we did that twice. And the past two years, we've had the largest classes that Andover has ever And that's what's in here. Is under me, the past six years, you've seen the largest classes ever. So and Taylor's going through. I circled every class that was 22 or higher. And if you look in this packet, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, it was eight times since I've gotten here and only two times the ten years prior. So I have kept class sizes as small as I can when it's appropriate. And when we didn't have two, we didn't add. And last year, we've had to add a fourth and a fifth, and we do have to add a sixth grade for next year. This is kind of a good problem to have in some ways because we know that that lull of people living here with children is now over. Without children. No. The the lull of that I'm sorry. Yeah. Having families with children before.
So it just is what it is. But I definitely needed to make sure that that was out there and, you know, here's the receipts. Here's the proof that it is not accurate to say that class sizes had been bigger before. They were quite the opposite, much smaller before. The other thing that this will show you is I know there were a couple of questions from people about, well, how long have we ever even had preschool? And you'll see in here and that's not a general plunge question, but this was a question that people have. And, again, there's misinformation out there. This shows you that all the way back to 2010, we had a fairly robust number of preschoolers. In 2010, there were 33. The average, number of births per year here is if you go back so now the incoming class class that comes in this year, that year in 2022, there were 32 births. And then the other three, there's 24, 24, and I think 26. I'd have to look it up. I do have the numbers upstairs. But, I mean, that's been where we are on terms of the tax. In Andover. That doesn't include the kids that have moved in, the families, the new families that have moved in, and then the new families that have moved in that
had small children under the age of after birth, but under the age of five. So I think that's really important because as you look in here, there were years where there were 40 preschoolers. So we're not at an oddity right now. The other thing that I wanted you to notice that I had put in there, and if anybody needs it, it's here. This one. Taylor, can you then move to where it says school year budget and enrollment? This is what? Thank you. Sorry to make you to do all that work for me, but I thought that way people who are on the screen can see it. So the other bit of information then that, you know, I wanna make sure we accurately depict is, this chart on the top there. I have it highlighted in red on the right for enrollment because we are about where we were. Oh, is there enough marks? Yeah. Okay. We are about where we were in 2015. It was February then. It's February now. So give or take, we're roughly where we were. And it's in red because up until 2020 for that five year period, we had, every year, we had had a reduction in students all the way up until, COVID there. That one seventy five is the year I came.
And since then, we have had an increase, one ninety three all the way up to two fifty nine. So and I do know again, yes, those numbers are the numbers from the sheets that I just sent around, and that is it includes every grade. So it's apples to apples. So if we were to take out, pre k, someone said, should we take that out? It wouldn't be apples to apples then because the the paper that I just sent around that I showed you, the up all the way back to 2010, it includes all of the students. So this is really important. It's really important number to show so that people can see that we actually have
have gotten back to where we once were in 2015 in terms of the number of students. So that's important.
When did we start adding out of towners or preschool?
Two years ago. And just so you know, Marcy, because I actually thought you might ask this question this week, Taylor and I looked, and right now, there will be four for next year. That's it. We started filling our empty spots with nine. Four out of town? Yes. That's how many out of counters we have. So when we added that fourth class Oh, classes. Yes. I have The fourth yeah. No. No. I have kids. But, Marcy, when we added the fourth class something. For next year. When we added that class, I come to the board and said, hey. Wanna add that fourth class? We will have some empty seats, but the good news is out of towners, get that full tuition, and that will keep the room sustained as we start to grow. And we did. And, nine out of towners, non AES families, non Andover residents. There were nine.
And now as we move forward, we've gotten so many more Andover residents that next year, there will only be the four. So, Taylor and I actually looked that up so that we would know. So of 67 kids, four of them are out of towners next year? No. Next year next year, with the existing preschoolers that are here, the Edover kids, the AES families, there will only be four next year. So we had nine spots last year to fill. There will only be four, left to fill. Now Taylor can't, at this point, give us the definitive. She's probably getting mad going, don't don't don't give them that. We don't know how many kids. Because as I said, we had 32 kids born in 2022. If they all still live here, and they all have birthdays that exactly mean they're gonna enroll in August,
then we won't we won't be able to take any. The the other part for you, Mercy, in terms of wrapping your head around the number of kids is they changed the cutoff date. Was it two years ago now? So we have kids that are in preschool for three years now instead of just two because they have to be five before they start kindergarten, where we used to have kids that were four. Like, both of my kids were four when they started kindergarten.
And so a kid so a kid born in 2022, it depends what month they were born as to Yeah. If they're gonna meet the cutoff or not when they turn five. So it gets a little complicated,
there. Indeed. So in the pre K, how many how many grades or ages are you at? You're at two, three, four,
five now? Three and four. It depends on now five. It is four, Okay. It depends on the child four, five. Not at two, but at three. Oh, no. There are kids that come in at 2.1. 2.1? Yes. So if you divide the number, your
class size is gonna be fairly consistent moving forward. Oh, yes. So we do know that. No. No. We do know that for next year that based on the numbers we know right now, kindergarten next year will be between remember, there's kids that don't come to preschool here that live in town that will come for kindergarten. So right now, I just asked Taylor this today. I said, what is your estimate for kindergarten? And she said between '22 and '28, which is consistent right now. So okay. So the other things that I added on here, so that's going into, this budget season is I I know that there's usually a comment, you know, made about, wow. Over the last ten years, the budget has gone up so much. And I needed to make sure that we really understood that the truth is, and you can see it in the middle, we had a reduction of zero, a reduction, a reduction, a reduction, a reduction, a zero, and then increases during those four years. So if you take the budget from 2015
for, 35 School Road, AES, and you look at where we were last year, we have gone up a total of $244,000 in a decade that includes all of the increases to salaries, which, you know, it's 3% per year, all of the increases to the benefits and everything related to the repair, maintenance, and operation upkeep of 35 School Road because the capital budget's due this past year. I see. I see. See. Increase is three three point two five or 3.2 the same. It It's differs from year to year. Really? Yes. You guys just did a new budget. You just did a new contract. Right? Yes. It still differs from year to year. You can have one union contract where each of the four years are different percentages. What does it make as we look at the The negotiations. Third break. We need those So, like, more teachers, the number of teachers who
might be retiring versus the number of teachers who are gonna be at top step. So we try to calculate that when we're calculating the interest or excuse me, the cost of living adjustments that we're gonna add, the increase
in salaries from year to year. It's never the same every year. So that's something that's negotiated in a unique contract. So if they sign a four year contract, it could be they get two and a half, they get three. They get two, they get four. It depends. And then contract by contract. So you never know. I'm using the number three because, overall, if you looked from 2015 until now, it's safe to say it was about 3%,
each of those years. But the AES teachers contract definitely has escalation in the years is what you're telling us. It's not the same every year. Not the same. Yep. That's right. And and in escalation, know, sometimes you go down, so but I'm just it's different each year. Correct. Okay.
All of the contracts are. Okay. So, every union is different. So yes. So if you look at 2015 to now, we've gone up $244,000. And if we wanna talk about, like, cost of living and things, let's keep in mind that I know, I mean, it was needed, but that was the price of a lawnmower. So that's not a lot of money in the overall scope of 2015 till now. That was what that that one cost. Now I do wanna point out and, Taylor, actually, can you go to the last page for a second? And then I'll go back. I do wanna point out, and in your packet here, it was the last page.
You might have to turn that on. That in the same amount of time, because I don't want people to say it well, the school only saw 244,000, but what did the town see? In the same amount of time, the town has seen, and there are the numbers up there, from 2019 on, 02/2000. So I'm not saying that wasn't needed. I'm just saying that if you're gonna compare apples to apples, just know that that is very comparable to run this versus that property. So we do have to be fair about that. I'm not gonna mention RAM because that would be something entirely different since we're levied and our levy changes from year to year. That wouldn't be apples to apples for us to look at RAM in the same comparison.
So now you can go back to the other one, Taylor. I included two other things in here because sorry. Because it was presented actually at the Hebron Board of Ed last week, so that's why the word Hebron in there is highlighted. I did not wanna alter their slides, and I didn't wanna alter their slides because they put them together. It was their numbers that they took from the state. It was a representation, and they're accurate. But it is not my slot, and that's why they're highlighted instead of us. Don't love anybody who's watched me during budget season for the past six years. I don't love talking about per pupil expenditures as a number for a small district. And the reason why I don't is because it's very difficult to take our budget, which includes the upkeep of 35 School Road, the repair, maintenance, and operation of the largest building in the whole town,
and the expenditures in the classroom of books and computers and things for kids and say, let's take that divided by the number of kids and then call that a per pupil expenditure. That's not really fair because the majority of that money is not directly spent on kids. So that's why in a small town, I don't love that number. I'll be honest with you. However, I know that when people are looking at comparisons, they do like to have a reference. And that's why if you look, it says DRGC. The state has what's called a a DERG, a district reference group. And what they do is they are a b C D E F g h I.
And they take all of the towns in the state of Connecticut with a formula,
and they figure out what the similarities are. And in our Durg, we're Durg C, and in our Derg, we have 30 towns. And you'll notice a lot of them, you'll say, oh, yeah. These are our neighboring towns. There's Bolton, and there's Hebron, and there's Marlborough, and there's Regenate. So it's the towns that have things in common with one another as far as the state's concerned. In 2223, we were number 11 out of 30. And if you notice, our number on there was 22832. And you'll notice that Region 8 on there was 22687. So we're fairly comfortable, even with a little bit less. However, the reason why I don't love this formula too is because it minuses your outplaced students for special education. And so if a district has a million dollars in out placed students, it's not considering that, although that's a cost to the taxpayer. So that's why I don't think that that's fair. Which can be a giant Yes. So huge. Right. Right. So look at the next page, and you will see that from 22 to 23 in the same dirg with the same 30 towns, we dropped from 11 to 17. And when we dropped, we and if you look at the numbers there and compare them side by side town to town, we actually spent less per student than we did the year before. Our per pupil spending went down, not up. And so we dropped from 11 to 17 in the. Do you have a question?
Where did your student increase come from? What do you mean where did our student increase? Well, you increased students to drive that multiple higher down. So where did it come from? Like, if I go back let's go back no. Let's go let's go back to your list of student population. Right?
No. That is not a factor in that. The state calculates this. I know where it's going with it. I'm just asking a question. That's not a factor in it. So what number did we use to get the multiple? The state looks in ESIS, which is the online system of registered k Okay. Six students in the PowerSchool. It's registered k through six. Yes. But the state calculates that number. Correct. It's not us. The state calculates that number, not us. K. So that's why I'm also showing you these slides because I don't calculate those numbers. So so you'll see that our what? This is from UPennsylvania in the presentation. And then I did ask permission. What? How do they figure the towns? I feel like we there's a lot of these towns that are kind of far away. They are. But the when they take their formula, Varcy, for which ones would be similar, their, their formula has us, have a lot of similarities. They're towns with the same number of people roughly, with the same demographics roughly. Most of the time, I will tell you if you're looking like you're looking at mostly, like, you see most of Tolland County up here in the right. The only ones that are well, no. Actually, none of them are. Cornwall is the only one that's probably really far, and that is
that's really the only one for Kansas City. I mean, Bethany's fall far, but we answer them hard. But in terms of the demographic of the They're regional too. They're regional. Like, Bethany is the Amity District. So when you look at the these are the towns that make up those other districts is is probably a better way for me to say it. So see how District 8 is on there? That's Ram. So he, Bernando, and Marlborough are on here. So they choose the similar districts, it looks like. Correct. Twelve, thirteen, seven. They're And then the ones that bake up them Yes. Or it them. Okay. Right. So That makes sense. Yes. Similar district. Right. Okay. So, anyways, so you'll notice now at the point that we're at, a year later, we're 17 out of 30. We're $3,000 a student less than RAM. And even though we had more kids, our number went down. We are reducing our per child spending. And by DERC standards then, if you only compared us to the other towns that are in here, we would be underfunding in comparison to them. So, Kate, you did ask me to get one number for you. You said, I know that it doesn't include preschool, but Mhmm. You wanted me to speak to the idea that if we didn't have preschool altogether Yes. What how would that change things for the tax payers? So understand that, first of all, that would be frowned upon by the state because, we are expected to, be responsible for our children from birth all the way on up. But if we said we were just hypothetically not going to have preschool at all for our regular education kids, we still, by law, have to provide these services
to birth to three and special education students by law. And so, if we said, let's just close the four rooms and just go with what you are legally obligated to provide. First and foremost, most important factor is and this is currently because in 2027, it's gonna change. There's universal preschool. We're gonna be having a separate conversation, ladies and gentlemen, in eighteen months. But for right now, the special education laws require us to, provide services to those children birth through, their entrance to kindergarten. And so those services, what do we mean by services? Occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech language, testing and consultations, academic services, psychological and social programming, and then anything else that birth to three, which is an agency, tells us we have to provide. And so when they tell us we have to provide that, then understand that they don't pay tuition. Special education students don't pay tuition for preschool, which means that we would have to fund it all in our general fund. This is gonna cost this this would cost the taxpayers money. Yes. We are currently just not. Correct. We would not be able to offset it with tuition from other students that are nonspecial ed. To do that, you would have to have one room minimum for the children to come and receive their services. And don't get me wrong. There are still towns in the state of Connecticut that do this,
that only provide preschool services for the most part to special education students and then a few others. That's it. They're nondisabled peers, and they don't have big, huge programs. But it's all in their general fund then. And so you'd have to have a teacher. And in our case, by seniority, it'd be 93,000. You have to have a para for the room for that particular room for them to provide services at twenty three or one. Can you just get that off the screen for a sec, Tay? And then we'll take that question. Thank you. And then if, hypothetically I'm not saying this is the case, but hypothetically, you had six kids, and that was it even. Those kids, if they had high needs like autism, they would each have a one to one adult because they're all in the room together at the same time. So, potentially, you'd have one to three other adults in the room at 23,000 to 60 nine. You'd be talking about a minimum of $200,000 that would have to be added to only service those kids. That's a minimum. With the number of children that we have in town in general, the odds are good it would be even more than that. And I will remind you that we are the only one in the region. If you look at all of the
towns and the budgets, you will see that just there's yeah. I can't Go ahead. Hey, Robert. I'll ask, I'll ask Taylor to show us those in just a sec. It's just I can't see them while this is on the screen. Taylor can read them to me in just a minute. And so that is something that we have to consider. And then, like I said, moving forward in eighteen months, just know that this all changes, and there will be universal preschool, and we will be required to do so much more. So I hope that that is a lot of information there that will help to get rid of some misinformation
out there. The last thing I would say is in terms of information while I have this stage, and thank you for allowing me to do that. There's a copy here for every board member. Here, if you can please pass that around. Charter. Is the charter. Some other misinformation is about the rights, rules, and responsibilities of the Board of Education by charter. And so I encourage, just like you guys know, I always say, this is your bible. Go ahead and read it like it's your bible, because it's got everything in there. I also will say that I I get to the I do think thank you. I did pass them back. I do think that you need to make sure that you are well versed on the charter. So, Taylor, I think this might be another if you could go to I'm not sure if I uploaded it or not. Did I upload something from the charter? No? You do the highlighted. It's when you send us the email. No? Not that. Nope. I'm still I gotta go to that in a minute. Okay. No. Probably not. I don't think that's okay. Charter fees. Sorry. So, I thought I did send it to you. Look and see if it says, like, 701 or something.
But I would urge you to go to the charter because there are a number of places in here that do specify. And, you know, there was a lot of misinformation around this as well. If you go to section seven zero one, for example, it does tell us in the charter that the town administrator is the CEO over there. I am here. They are there. And so the agencies and offices fall under the town administrator except for the board of education. If we go to eight zero four, the expenditures, Tay, look again and see if I sent that to you just so can put it on the screen. If not, you can go to the town of Andover website that's on there. Under supplemental appropriations, under eight zero five, you'll see things in here like duties of the board of select, in the event of a department board agency or commission requesting supplemental appropriations, excluding the board of education. So our charter does very clearly leave a lot of roles, responsibilities, and rights to the board of education and not to the other boards. So when we're talking about supplementary, supplemental appropriations, it says in here, any request from the local board of education goes directly to the board of finance. The next page on eight zero six, expenditures. It says, when you're looking at purchases, the section that says you have to ask permission from the town administrator, it says, does not apply to the board of them because the board of education decides its own expenditures. It doesn't take permission from the town. The next one says when an agency desires to transfer funds, excluding the board of education.
So these are your roles and responsibilities. Dee in there says, this section shall not affect the board of education. When we get to 807, there was a conversation on Monday night that dealt with something pertaining to purchasing. And when that conversation occurred Ron, 807. Thank you. When that conversation occurred, it was stated as a fact that we were not filing a purchasing arrangement. And it doesn't really matter what we were talking about at the time, but it stated that we weren't filing a purchase arrangement. And this is the charter. And according to the charter, it says, except for the board of education, when they are talking about adhering to TAP procedures and policies. We don't adhere to theirs because you create your own, and you guys know that. You have the big policy book. So that's just a couple of examples. There's more when we get to talking about the budget, but I really urge you all to go back because there is a lot of misinformation out there as to the rights, rules, and responsibilities. And I get some of those questions, and and and it's needs to be an understanding. We're gonna do the nine thousands policies again tonight. Your policies are what sets the rules for us. So I think that that's very, very important that we do that. So I think that's it for, let's see. Oh, there is one more, because this was brought Refocuses. Yes. Because this was brought up the other day as well, and I just wanna make sure that anybody who is interested can find it. Taylor, can you go to the 3323?
Because I wrote that down after Monday's meeting. After Monday's meeting, there was a question about 3323 and 3320. And so I I just wanna be clear there too because that was the misinformation, about what this actually said. So we'll notice on this one, and, again, I don't wanna discuss a particular purchase because that's not really my intent. My intent is just to send people the right direction. This is is not to discuss the, project itself. It's so that people can go look at these on their own. 3323 does give us options in here of bidding or quoting. And in the middle, then there's a definition of quoting and bidding. And at the bottom, it does acknowledge that even when we're talking about quotes, there is oral or written quotes. And not until we get to number three on the bottom are we setting ourselves a requirement for the number that we need? The biggest thing is on the next page. The biggest thing is in addition to having the option to bid workflow, on the next page, under number five. And, of course, this was not, a responsibility or a role that I did decide to take. But in number five, I just wanted to be clear there that there is an emergency situation quote in here that says, in an emergency situation, procedures of two through four are eliminated. Whether the situation is an emergency situation shall be decided by the superintendent.
So I didn't think it was an emergency situation when we got into this other thing. You know, in terms of plumbing, we we we definitely didn't. But I want people to know that's there because should something occur in the future, and I do deem that it needs to be handled right then and there as an emergency situation, the last thing that I want would be for the general population to say or or think or believe that I acted out of policy because that is in there in the policy. And then the last one on here is for purchase orders. Under purchase orders, the superintendent develops and administers other purchasing program, obviously, with the help of our finance office here, and that we are authorized to issue purchase orders upon receipt of requisitions. That's gonna form a bid. So I urge everybody else as the board goes through our policy audit, and we're in the 9 thousands now, everybody. We did the 2 thousands, but all of our meetings moving forward will have policies on them. So I I do urge people to take a look at them, and, you know, moving forward. So okay. Thank you for allowing me to do that. That is my report for now. So
we did the two thousands already. Before you've got on the board. Yeah. Yep. And we haven't done any other ones, so now we're nine nine. Thousands.
Why did we skip around? So it's funny she says that because they were appropriate at the time, and what we did was we cheated a little bit. We went through their audit, Cave's audit, and the 2,000 since we had done this for the yes. We gave it for last time at the last meeting. Yeah. Oh, okay. So yeah. They're using my paperwork. They wouldn't be the one, Marcy. The 2 thousands, we had, like, almost nothing to face. We're just gonna feel good. She should feel, like, accomplished.
Yeah. So And then the 9 thousands are the next Next easiest? Yeah. Well, not as easiest because of the volume, but but had the fewest to To modify. To modify. Not as many months in these boxes. Yeah. That makes it. That's
So we'll have to we'll have to pick after the, but it wasn't it was intentional to get this around. K. Okay. Taylor, you're up.
Hi. So I decided to forego our more formal presentation on math tonight. I know you guys had a very busy agenda, and so I'm sure you won't mind. So I won't be too long for you, but I thought I'd talk a little bit more about just professional development tonight, and then we'll regroup next month certainly with data and math. So Val obviously covered enrollment, but just a note that we do anticipate two new Andover pre k students next month anticipated from the beginning of the year. I know we've been talking about that. So you will see them reflected in your February report, which is great. And then she also mentioned what I was gonna say just about kindergarten is looking pretty spot on as we always anticipate, so that's great. We had just formally opened that registration policy registration process. You'll see that in the River East, and then we share that with families. And Doris, as our early child ambassador, will help as well to spread that news and make sure all families have access. Like Val said, as much as I love 32 new preschoolers, we don't actually have 32 spots, so we'll see what the enrollment looks like, but I will keep you guys posted.
So in terms of professional development, we had a lot going on this month and and kind of in the next few months, so I just wanted to share. Yesterday, we hosted the first regional professional learning community at Andover. So this was an idea that came up at a regional administrative meeting with Hebron, Marlboro, Ram, and ourselves back in the fall. How do we increase can. Yep.
Is there are you trying to share do you need to share anything on the screen, or you're just talking? Just talking. Oh, the comments from before. Okay.
We were just wondering if we could see the the notes from before that were bad. Comments? I'm sorry, Taylor, to interrupt you. But were there any comments there that we had needed to address? Because remember they popped up on the screen, and I said, wait a sec. Do we wanna do entertain No. No. That's conference. No. No. No. That's why I wanted to see if she had comments from the public. They're not Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you for checking for us. Sure. I forgot what she's on there, so I wanted to make it her. Yep. Yep. Dawn's okay just from the public.
Okay. Yeah. So I was like, sure. Let's do it. So we decided to have Andover to run a math PLC. So we had 22 participants yesterday, seven of which were Andover and then from the surrounding Marlborough, Hebron, and RAM. And that was really exciting. We met for almost two hours, and we started to discuss some vertical planning from grades three through eight, specifically focusing on fractions, which any math people out there will be excited about. And then we'll have a follow-up in March, a second PLC meeting. And if that's just something that the teachers really find valuable, we'll continue that work. That was exciting, and it was really a great opportunity to let the teachers connect and really see what's going on in the different buildings. Very similarly, we are leading the way again on Friday with pre k. So I've been working really hard with Terry Supernaut, who works for EastCon, and really just how do we bring our local principals. I I run a principal group of very similar kind of districts. How do we bring high quality professional development to our pre K teachers and increase their network? So we'll be hosting
what I anticipate, between twenty and twenty five pre k teachers and paraprofessionals on Friday. We have that half day professional development. So that's exciting. They're coming here, and Terry will be running a training on supporting five year olds in the pre k classroom, as Caitlin mentioned, as kids are now a little bit older, some of them, in that third year. So that's really exciting to get really the first time in our region in a long time where our early childhood educators have been able to come together. So we're we're looking forward to that. And then restorative practice, I started to mention last month that restorative practices is gonna be a new area for us to grow in, and so we have three staff attending a training in a couple months on that, which is also exciting. We had two staff tonight through EastCon attend an atomic math conference called Dine and Learn that EastCon put on. They're really trying to again, we appreciate them bringing more professional development to the Eastern Side and to the smaller districts. So that was great. They went and participated on that, all about inquiry in the math classroom. And then in we have a full day PD and one other half day, you know, in in the spring, March and April. We'll continue to work on climate and safety with Alice training that Val brings to us,
and then continue working on the math. And that's really exciting because, you know, you've heard me talk about really math being our focus this year. And I know I'm gonna present midyear data hopefully next month, but it's good news. We have just an incredible amount of our upper grade students really hitting their growth goal. So while we're not they may not yet be to proficiency, our benchmark exams set goals that if they're gonna close that gap, they need to not just hit this much by the end of the year. They're gonna need to do that plus a little. And we had kiddos hitting that growth goal in December, so that was really exciting. I do believe that making those five, six math classes smaller has really led to incredible gains in just three months. So we're really excited about that, and I'm, like I said, looking forward to presenting more of that data. But, hopefully, this was just a little bit more information on some of the professional development going on.
Thank you so much. Thank you. Questions for me? For Taylor? Oh, okay. We'll move on to the financial report.
Hello, everybody. You have your finance reports in your packet on the customer expenditure report and the the detailed report.
You could see we are I'm gonna hand this sheet out too. This is a nice, like, one pager too, and this is why I sent to the sent to the board of finance. But, basically, if you look at the percent used of the budget, we're at 47% expended, which is right where we wanna be. It would be in the middle of the year, this time of year. So we're looking good there. And the only thing I really wanted to bring to you tonight, and, of course, I'll answer any questions, But we do have an outstanding invoice from Fuss and O'Neil that was the hazardous waste, assessment that actually Caitlin mentioned that it was something that the, the companies that she's getting quotes from wanted to see before quoting. Part the the contract with Fuss and O'Neil had this saying that it needed to be done, but the cost wasn't included in the contract. So the money that was approved for Fuss and O'Neil was 84 sorry. $48,600 did not include that 8 $8,100 invoice. So what I need from the board tonight is hopefully a motion to
write a check or ask the town to write a check. What what we'd like to do is take that from the 2%
nonlapsing fund. I think they did that work in August. I think that's the best way to get that money out there. And then as the dust settles with some of the the committee meetings and things, then if we wanted to then go to the board of finance and then have that transferred from the capital fund, we could do that. But I think right now, your 2% nonlapsing, that is at the discretion of the Board of Education only. And I would ask you tonight to give me permission to authorize to ask the town to cut that check for us. So it's $8,100.
So this is work that they've done already? Yes. And It's an opportunity to buy some goods that have some of Yeah. Right. And but this was something that was pretty much standard, needs to be done whenever there's projects. Right? Yes. Wouldn't we have wanted to get a quote, like, other bids? It's a lot of money, $8,100. We just hired them to let them mean, if it's standard. Done
our asbestos in the past. We had quoted out for years. Every three years, the AHERA asbestos is redone. They had done that in the past, and we had done, eighteen months ago in HVAC, a mandatory state, whatever it was. It was a new mandate that needs to be done for HVAC. So Oh, the air quality. Yeah. Air quality. Have have every three years or something? Nope. Ahara
says that we have to have the asbestos done every three years, but that new HVAC was new and that needed to be done within five years. This board had voted to have it done because DAS had at the time funding available. So a lot of little districts jumped to get it done even though they said you have five years. Mhmm. We had gotten it done in hopes of getting funding, and then they froze the DAS funding. So we had already gone through, some other companies, and it just happened that that one has been done through them. So we did chose choose to to to go with the vendor that we knew.
And then if I'm remembering correctly, because this was back was it was the end of last school year or over the summer? I don't quite remember exactly when that was. The HVAC? Yeah. That was a year ago. It was a year ago. Mhmm. When but when they came to do the asbestos,
they were the hazmat was gonna cost less money because they were already adhered to the asbestos. When they did that hazmat Yeah. Right. They Yeah. Did that component had already been done under our AHIRA Yeah. Inspection. Yes. So that's why.
So do we wanna make a motion that we're Well, we can do that, or we can talk about does anyone have questions on the financial reporting as it is? And then can we come back Sure. Of that? Absolutely. Of course. Does anyone have questions on the expense reporting?
The the only thing that jumped out at me, and maybe I didn't notice it last month, that we do spend a lot on energy. But
we we do a lot on Now that you're got oil all the time. I know. I really but I did. I highlighted this at home earlier because I was like, our budget, we're
we've expended 38,000, and we only budgeted 79. And we're not quite halfway through the school year. That makes me a little bit nervous.
What do we do? Like, yeah, let's That's why we're putting solar on. You're right. That's why I'm so lucky. Yeah. I mean, because, yeah, those
numbers stuck out at me before this presentation. It's kinda funny. And so, yeah, it
just kind of makes the path scene all the more important more important to And so I know there were some areas too. So when the budget got cut last year because I've asked you the same questions like, we're we're gonna be short on that 100 and We're gonna be short. Yeah. I don't know last year. Be okay on electric, but there are areas within the budget because that that's areas that got cut. And then the plan was, okay. If we're over, then we'll have to take that from the 2% non lapsing. So there there have been a few areas where I've gone to that one said, what happened here, and that's that's what happened. But if you also think about, like, your home energy bill or your electric bill at home, the winter months are generally lower than
the the the summer months. Right. So your electric my electric bill is lower in the winter. Well, mine's way higher. Oh, really? Yep. Mine is always lower. It's heavier. Use the gym not true right now. That's what I'm talking about. Depends on how much you use the air I use a lot of air conditioning. I'm with where we go. This is cool. We use a lot of air conditioning. That's fluctuates. Right? It's not like a set. I'm using the gym a lot now. Oh. And and we're using the gym more now so that And so we see it's, like, this time of the year hurt in the reports at the end. Hopefully, by March,
we'll be all safe. Right. Okay. Alright. Yeah. The cold day. Just stuck out at me. Yeah. The question that I had was in regards to repair and maintenance services just in terms of, like, where where those items are, and and do we think that others, like, that things are gonna continue to go over. So it's an R and M building operation HVAC was adopted at 17000, and then you'd expended,
like, '15. Yeah. So HVAC is an area that we're looking at. And, actually, we're we're already starting to look at getting different quotes and proposals for a new boiler. We're looking at, like, eighteen to twenty four months down the road. So right. So not for this year, but we're investigating because that is going to be an area. So we're noticing that the repairs and things lot it's a lot of money for Yeah. It's it's definitely increasing, and it's an area that we
we're looking at, and our head custodian is is looking at that. And then the other question I had was on on the next page, but still in the same category, the facility maintenance interior.
Let me look at that. I should have brought those numbers. But that's we put a lot in there. I'm trying to think of the I'm trying to think of the sprinkler systems. I can tell tell you it costs, like, over $10,000 a year for the sprinkler maintenance.
So I'll look at that line item. Actually within that? Yeah. And see what what's within that really, like, where does that put us? Like, do we think we're gonna be way over for that category? I guess, was my bigger question.
Yeah. Where are we at the whole thing? Look at the whole thing. We do.
Yeah. Our balance right there is only we only have 1,000 left in that. That's why I'm asking. We are gonna be over. So let me well, I'll look at that in more detail. And then the next meeting, I can just I'll send a follow-up via email on that interior maintenance,
and I'll take a deeper dive on that. Okay. Yeah. That was the only category, like, for me when I looked through that. I was, like, worried about it. That was repair and maintenance building operations. Was that Yeah. Okay. Yeah. If you look on the yeah.
They have the percentage on the summary, but not on the expenditure.
And I don't know just for Mercy and and for you. It at least for me when I look through these, like, I find it helpful to look at the summary first, and I look at the, like, the percentages of things, and then I look at the detail after. That's what I was doing. Yeah. Because I couldn't find the percentage on the detail. It's not on the detail. Right. Hang on. Yeah. But it'll give you the actual categories where it Magenta. Higher. Yeah. Okay. Does anyone have other questions about the reporting in general or specific areas?
Stephanie, okay, you got you got questions for her about stuff? No. Thank you very much. That was very helpful information. I appreciate it. Yep.
Everyone else good? Yeah? Yep. Okay. So now I think we can look at staffing if we could pay the outstanding bill for the hazardous waste assessment inspection, which is 8,100.
Yeah. And whether or not we would want to pay that from the tube of bat. I make a motion to pay $8,100 for the hazmat work done last August from our two percent. K. Any discussion?
And we can request those funds to be replaced. So Is that what I have? The
2% non lapsing, that is our account. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We are allowed to spend it as we need to for unforeseen expenditures or expenditures not in the budget.
We don't have to ask permission to No. I thought I heard we could ask for it to be transferred back. So we have the two yeah. Two accounts. And I didn't include it because the treasurer without a treasurer, they didn't they didn't get the reports to me. So we have the 2% nonlapsing. I think we have, like, two fifty, 250 grams in in that amount. And that is that the only the board of that needs to approve that. The other one, the capital fund, is at up 500,000. Right? And then but we need the board of board of ed and board of finance. So what we could do later on is if we decide we'd rather that money be coming from the capital, which is where the other money was taken for the project, we could then ask ask that that expense be I mean, we could ask for it later. But Yeah. But given that it's been outstanding since August, we Yeah. Pay now. Need to pay. Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah. Gotcha. So they'll work with us some more Yeah. If we need them to. Plus to pay our bills. Yeah. Any further discussion on that? Okay. All in favor?
Aye. Aye. Aye. Great. So we can pay that at 2%. K. Does anyone have liaison reports or further updates? No. See, have your meeting on Thursday tomorrow.
You have one on Thursday? No. You don't have one. Because we don't have any business to consider. Brie, do you have anything from us? I have to say meeting was canceled because of the This. The bathroom project. Bathroom project meeting. But we'll just say we are having the Wolfpack game on February 7. So if everybody come out to that, and we should be having a visit from sonar on January 20. So And then anything from the now that I forget what is it called? I keep forgetting. The school readiness control that is not school readiness. Early startle. Thank you. I I don't know why that can't Early startle. Or the roots? The or. That's the name.
Yeah. There's a name that you see in that. Is there any updates from that? Nope. Not at this time. I know last month, Doris talked a little bit about her role, and I know she's been out in the community and at our events. And then our next meeting is not right in front of me, but they are not monthly. There is five five to six per year, so I will certainly keep you updated. Okay. Thank you.
Okay. Then we'll move on to item nine. So nine a is the corrective action plan.
Do you wanna speak to her? Yep. This one is actually thank you. As of today, we've gotten this done. So this is ready to be submitted because we we got the final death threat. It was Monday. They said it had to be done by Monday, and we had some language issues that we worked through. Jeff and I were able to find something that we both agreed upon to submit to this the town submits it to OPM, and I submit it to the Connecticut State Department of Education. And so we do have that. We'll make our deadline on Monday, unless that's been submitted, or it's just been completed? It was completed today. So it'll be Now it's been submitted. Okay. It'll be submitted tomorrow. Right? So I don't is there anything else you'd like to add?
Nope. We're good. Okay. Great. Great. And then next item is the school calendar for next school year. That doesn't pop you. We're good. I think I got an email. But I noted the on the school calendar just real quick. I do. I find. So Guess I I
oh, sorry. I think Diane caught them for me, but go ahead. I think I have them. Just to make sure. So the August, September, it should say the eleventh instead of the nineteenth early dismissal? Yes.
You found that one? Yes. The other thing is it just should say amended is, that has one m instead of two. At the very bottom, amended by the. And then should that say any additional makeups is just to pull that in so it's not cut off Got it. On the
June The June 11. Thanks. Taylor, can you just speak briefly? Like, how much does this differ from RAM and from the other two towns' schedules? Yeah.
Absolutely. Do you want me to share the screen so people see it? Does it matter? I don't know. The board has a preference. All that could probably help. Yeah. Sure. Share. I'm getting very good at it now. So alright. So, yes, so I used RAM, and, certainly, Hebron and Marlborough, we look at, but Ram, of course, is kind of our biggest alignment as we have, as you know, many families who have kiddos both here in Andover and at Ram. So similar to this current school year, we will start on the Thursday just as we did, I'm proposing, this year as Ram does. So we'll have the same first day of school. That was a really positive change for us to not only start on the same school day, but also have the additional professional development day at the beginning of the year instead of in May. So I'm I'm would like to continue that. We kept the same amount. As you know, I've talked about Hebron and RAM and Marlborough certainly have more half day PDs. I did not increase them. I feel really confident with the four that we have and feeling like that's a sufficient amount of time in addition to the three contractual full day PDs. So I'm sorry. Six full day PDs. So I did not adjust that, and we matched the dates. So, again, for transportation with RAM,
we typically follow theirs. They have more than us, so we don't do them all, but we keep the ones that they the ones we do have on their date. That makes sense? A little bit different just because of the way holidays fall this year, you know, with Good Friday, so that just looks different because it's in March. Then in oh.
Sorry. Have we always had Friday off, and I just missed it? I might be asking that as as the only Jewish person here, but Yes.
Every once in a while, it's within April break. So sometimes that can get confusing. It's, like, every twenty years. You know how that goes. Yeah.
Whenever you guys wanna add young people or a bunch of Shauna in there, I'd be all for it. Yeah. There are certainly districts that do that depending on the population. We don't have a kid with your district. Was my family. Yeah.
So not not this year, but you never know. Well, the only other change, I mean, I can that would maybe seem stand out is our conferences. They were the week of Veterans Day this year. Because Veterans Day next year is on a Wednesday, we don't wanna cut them up. I know November is just a a tough month. November, December always are, and so we moved them back a week. But, really, I don't think you'll find anything else new or different, but if you have any questions, let me know.
Anyone have questions? Okay. We need to vote to pass this with a couple Yep. Changes that that you've noted.
I make a motion to adopt the, Andover twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven academic calendar with a few corrections, as provided to the ward event.
K. So You guys are the first and second of everything. I do. Wanna go. All in favor. Aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Okay. Thank you.
K. We have the energy update. Next steps on here as our next item on the agenda. What's that? Did I just totally skip the budget? Did. Because in my head attention. Yeah. Timing. K. Big one. Budget.
So remember last time we started by just highlighting? There's actually a few that you can pass that way, I think, if you want to. There we go. Because I think Actually,
Kelly, do you have that that you put it on the screen for us? I think you have it so you can put it on the screen for the general Yes. Okay. So thank you. So do you remember last time, you know, Jody and I had the the yellow highlights on here. And the yellow highlights were the ones that we have already talked about, so we don't have to, you know, be the dead horse on that one. We went through when we did the salaries, and we went through and said that that how we get to those numbers are the contractual obligations of each of them. The only difference is that we were adding in for next year a six three each. Other than that, it's just the contractual obligations. We went down, and we did the pink as well last time. So this time, we were looking is green the first one this time? Green. Yeah. It's all green. Okay. So green is the first one here for us to look at so we can get
kind of through this section.
Can you go back just for one sec? Yep. On teachers, we're adding one teacher. How many paras is that adding?
None. It's the existing numbers. That's not adding any. Right. The ones that are currently on staff. Yeah. Okay. So, yes, it's just one six foot teacher. K. Thank you. So in the green on the second page so oh, good. She's got the green up there. So you see a fair amount in that section there under, like, psych services. That says zero. We talked about this a little bit when we did the yellow, the salaries. It's not that we're eliminating a psychologist. It's that we had been funding, our psych services through the mental health grant, and now the psychologist is in the teachers' union. And so that is why it says zero there because you'll see it added to the teachers on the top. So it's just a relocation. It is not an elimination. I don't even get nervous when I'm eliminating the symphologist. OT and PT services, it is our understanding by the data that we have now that we look through the IEPs, we look through the services for the children, and we look to see is is it possible that that's gonna go up, down, or stay the same? And based on the data we have now, we expect the amount of services through these contractors to remain the same as the budget for this year.
Let's see. If we move further down, most of them are at a 0% increase. You'll see dollar to dollar, they are spent professional services. The physician, that is we share a contract with Ram, Hebron, and Marlboro for the physician. And what is the physician for? They do our orders. So we have a contract for a doctor that is kind of our consultant, and we, again, share that regionally with them. I don't know if there's anything else in this section since it's the same that jumps out at anybody where you have questions, but the section itself went from 52 to 50 with the reduction in the other professional services for the board. That's mostly, you know, due to the fact that there's no contract negotiation this year. So there is a savings in two places in the budget for that. The white sections in the next where it says facility on down, we have not done yet. We are still working on that as some of the questions that you guys raised in the financials financials tonight are the reason why we haven't got to that section because we need to make sure that those numbers are as accurate as possible. So that'll be the next one at the next move. Can I ask you a question on
sorry? At the bottom of page two, admin tech professional services? And it's just can you refresh my memory? Like What's the number on that? It's 2580.
2580. See. 20 I know Edmunds comes out of that. Our annual contract is $6,000.
I'm just trying to remember, and I'm sure if something changed category, but, like, why did it go to from 55 to 12? Where? Hold on. I think I will look. Yeah. 55 to 12. Like, it was 5,500?
I I know now it went up because this is our full bulk bread mass. Okay. So the increase from 5,500 to 12,000
was That's what you're the cost of Edmonds? Yeah. I can check. No. There's Edmonds. There's other stuff in there. There's others that have been there, but the $57.17 itself is the cost for Edmonds. So there's probably two of them in there, but Edmunds is $57.17 under that. Okay. What is Edmunds? Edmunds is our financial software system. Okay. For the administrative office. Yeah. So you can find out. I know you just put that up. Yeah. I can Pick it up right now. Yeah. What other one is. Yeah. Let's see. So under the $4.32 section there, again, we're not looking at a whole lot of changes to these sections. When Jody runs the numbers, what we do is we look at what the contracts are that we currently have in those sections and see from there. Let's see. For example, of the three fifty, twenty five seventy, this is PrimePay. There was a 5%, contingency increase there with PrimePay. PrimePay is who does our foot checks. So that annual service is under the 03/2570. If you go a little bit further down, the 04/2230 area there, this is our EastCon IT.
Where was that again? I'm sorry. Dam lost. A little softer. 432 EastCon. Yeah. 2230.
Gotcha. EastCon. And 2580. Those two there. Those are our contracts for, tech with EastCon. And, usually, there's a 60% increase. They haven't given our, total this year, but they've been we've been in the 38 to $40,000 range for quite some time. And remember, they're on-site two months. So transportation. So transportation, we have a contract with DATCO that we share with Andover, Barbara, and Ram. We do have a contract that tells us what the daily amount is. We add in the field trips for the kids that are, curriculum based. We add in there, the costs that we know that exist, and that's where that number comes from. And it is estimated for us at $1.20 for next year. Special ed transportation, we have currently one student that is transported, and we pay 10,000 to the town for, roughly, for the van use of the van. And we have another student that is, transported to and from RAM, daily for an individualized program there. And then we have a student that is attends another school, an outplacement, and the reimbursement is given to the parent who drives them.
So that's for three students is what you're saying? Yes. Yes. Thank you.
The next section, you'll notice, and it's ironic that our librarian is here this evening because the library software at 07:50 here, let me tell you. If we could give her what she really needs to have here, an upgraded system that, is quite expensive that she's been fundraising and working for things for, I she would be happy. But in all seriousness, the Destiny program does need an upgrade. Melissa is working pretty hard to work with Castle, to work with Scholastic, and to work with other places for us to try to upgrade that. So it's how many years old is that system now?
Right. So what is that? That's just, like, the database of all of those? It's how I check out books. It's a keeps track of what place have what books.
It's It also mostly input books, which I can't now because it's just slow. So we're working on that separately. We did not add that in here. This is just for the maintenance of what we currently have. Let's see. Where are we? The next one, the instructional technology. I know that people ask. Those are things here like seesaw where Taylor sends messages home, where teachers send messages home, the school messenger, power school, which is our our our student information system, PSIS is done through there. So those are the licenses for those. Doubling?
I'm sorry? Looks like they're doubling. No. It's going up from it's going from 15,000 to 18,000.
Oh, so that doubled last year? It doubled from well, no. It was remember that first column was oh, yeah. It was '25 the year before. We did not have Marcy until a few years ago, the full boat of PowerSchool. We brought that in. We trained three and a half years ago and brought it in full fledged, probably 24 to 25, full fledged. So we had been working on not a full PowerSchool system. Okay. Yeah. So It's what Graham uses. You know, the same time the line. Oh, almost everybody in the state uses PowerSchool. Yeah. Because it talks to the other systems that we have as well, so in the state. So so that's a good one to have. The same the same advertising I'm looking for. Something else that goes up here that's that. The same the same. Looking for any increases for you.
Supplies. I I do want you to see in the second when we get to the six tens. We haven't always loved the fact that, you know, certain supplies are just pushed together there, without an explanation. But under instructional supplies, when you look at it this way, $6.10, keep in mind that that $6,300 is for all of the passives. The years prior, one advantage for us was that we were able to get a fair number of supplies with the larger after school grant that we had two years ago and three years ago. We are able to get some supplies under IDEA for some of our special education students. We are able to get some supplies when we participate in EastCon grant programs. So 6,300 is the bare necessities. That is the pencils, prints, and things like that, in the classroom. And then the other ones, we don't have any increases this year at all to those.
Doesn't mean we don't need them, but we usually, during the course of the year, are able to supplement those in another in another year. We did the purple section already. Let's see. Textbooks, that section down there in the June. There's no increase to it because and we don't spend a lot on textbooks here. The program that was purchased, the k three reading program that was purchased, Bookworms, a year and a half ago, two years ago. Some of it was, I don't wanna use the word free, but the resources were available online. And then the rest was paid for with our Right to Read grant then. And so that was pretty much a three year program. Doesn't mean we're not gonna need anything, but it means that we're still working on that three year allotment of materials. And you'll notice we haven't gotten to it yet, but you'll notice that there is a fair amount of, like, copying that is done. Yes. Printing that is done with that one. So it's not books. Right? It isn't books for that program. So okay. And then that's really it. The other one's the other section's the same. Anybody who's interested, I I think we did have a question last year on six fifty twelve hundred. What would you have as tech supplies for special education? And that's testing supplies. Fourth graders all get screened for talented and gifted. We do need to identify those kids. The test is called, the oldest, Lennon, Olsat. That falls under here. Edmark, speech testing, the WIAT, any of those tests that we need to use that fall under special education, services, they fall under there as well. And it's usually about the same number given year to year.
Now the biggest thing is, you guys are going to have to have, a special meeting so that we can, just focus on this. The reality is as we come to, the table now, January. As we said, we've been saying all along, we need a sixth grade teacher that we know. As far as insurance goes, the insurance consortium, we don't have the option of going elsewhere. Andover, Hebron, Marlborough, and Graham, we all participated in insurance consortium, and they are thinking of expanding it to include other districts. But at this given moment in time, it's us being of AHM. I don't know AHM. The increase this year is 15%. That's what that that's where they are. The increase is 15% for the insurance.
So we have, obviously Which insurance is Medical insurance. It's going up 15%. It's going up 15%. Percent. The the premiums are going up 15%. That's a tough one for us. It's a tough one for us because of the number of people that we have in our building. And so that and and trust me. The staff members have a percentage of their premium that they have to pay themselves, so it's going up for them as well. So, you know, they'll feel that hit as well. In the past, about this time with the insurance consortium, we had hopes that between January and May, as the data came in, the claims came in because we're self insured as a as a consortium, that those numbers would go down. And we knew every year we would have conversations. There's representatives, one from each town that I mentioned, one from each board of education and AHM. It's just not going in that direction for us right now. So the 15 is gonna be the 15. Wasn't it 6% this past year? It's gone up and down. And last year, it was it started off bigger than that. And it did get Right. It's an 88%. It did lower to six. And that's why I'm saying this is because in the past Right. It has happened that they start off with a number that's that's fairly high. And we also always had the opportunity to use our our fund reserves
in the past. And, this year, that's not really an option for us. And so it's it's gonna be a tough year. It just is, for the entities. So we have to keep that 15% in there. And we do have to be reminded that we are starting the year as a board, in the whole three and a half percent because we had our expenditures last year. We knew what they were when we added the fourth and fifth grade teacher. We were at eight and a half percent, and we did get eight and a half percent. And so we did still have the same expenditures. We did still have to hire the teachers. We just moved it over to, the 2%. And so we were starting in the hole by three and a half percent already, this year. So the the the reality of it is and this is where we're gonna need to have to think about this and have another, meeting where we just talked about this. The reality is is we are gonna have, you know, probably $430,000 in expenditures. And there is no way for us to say, let's just cut the expenditures. We just can't. So I think where we have to change our thought process is where else can we find revenue. That's gonna be really what we're gonna have to do. Like last year where we had to say we couldn't cut the expenditures, so we had to move it to the 2%. I've gone around with some ideas.
Ultimately, it's gonna be the board's decision as to where we go with trying to find that revenue possibilities. We do have the Nord Fund. We do have that, and we know that that is, you know, Bank of America stock. That's a possible option for the board to decide that we can't really afford to have the stock right now, turn that in. I'm pretty sure the last accounting we had, it said it was worth about 70¢. Does. That's a possibility to Let's put the dent in. I was thinking you were saying there's, like, No. No. We used to have that kind of money sitting around. But yeah. So we did. We would have used it long ago then. Right? Yeah. Okay. So that's a possibility of something for us to consider. The other thing that we could look at is we do have one, outplacement that I wanna be careful because you never wanna that, will cease to exist after next school year. So if that outplacement was moved to the two percent nonlapsing account, we wouldn't fall off a cliff the next year. So if we said, let's move that to the 2%, unlike last year when we hired the fourth and fifth grade teacher, now it's coming back to us in the budget, that one wouldn't. That expense is not here to stay. Right. That expense will be gone at the end of the year. Right. So Which doesn't mean you're not gonna get Right. If another So right. Absolutely. But if we chose to do that, we don't have to worry that the following year, we would wind up back in the hole at the start of the school year again.
So, the budget season rather, not the school year. So that's a possibility. We saw the numbers tonight. If we choose to take the Eversource, energy advantage there, like we did with the solar. If we choose to do that and we can anticipate between the solar this year and the energy savings from some of the things that Vince and Alex were talking about if we said, yeah. Let's do that. Let's do it now before, July 1, between the solar and that one, we could be looking at a savings of 10,000. So, that's a possibility for us to look at. The whole whole hard facts are we actually also if we're looking at revenue, we may absolutely have to start looking at the fact that and we saw it tonight. We use a lot of energy, energy when we're not in this building. So every night and weekends are used for somebody else who uses our facility. And I can tell you that we have our own gym tank when we talk about oil, and that uses about $10,000 worth of oil a year. And so that's a lot. And that is you know, we're only in that gym for a portion of the day for a hundred and eighty days. That's half a year. So we may have to you guys you guys may have to look at that and say, you know, do we wanna start to charge to get back that huge expense that we pay that really has nothing to do with our day to day operations with the children charge to use it? So that's a possibility. Does that sound like it sounds too? Yes. I mean, that's not really any different than charging to use, like, the community center for an event or something like that. Ram does. They do? Well, Ram charges quite a bit. Next door that they're also going to. That is a common thing.
So we we really should look at that. Because a lot of the programs, they make their own money. Like, rec charges kids for basketball, but over and they charge kid the adults charge for pickleball. Could increase
the charge for preschool and then put all of preschool into the general fund? So all this one.
So you could. You could. But if you did that, as we mentioned before, you'd be adding expenses into a budget and getting that budget passed by the town Mhmm. To then say, we're hoping to offset it with revenue. Mhmm. That revenue is not guaranteed. Let me just give you an example, a hypothetical. Let's say you said we're gonna do that. We're gonna take all of our current expenses, and you know from the The preschool sheet. From the preschool sheet we have that comes in $435,000 in grants and tuition. 235,000 is tuition. So let's say we said, you know what? Take all of the expenses from preschool, move them over, put them in the budget. I'm not sure that the town would wanna do that for a variety of reasons. Number one, if our budget increases by a half $1,000,000, our MBR increases, which means that you can never go below that. And that is a risk, which is why I have tried to keep it to the side. Because if our MBR goes up, you never lower that then. That's the minimum that you can give us every year after that. And the risk to that is what if 30 kids decide they don't wanna go to preschool here and they say, we're leaving? You lose that tuition from those kids, and yet that expenditure is still in the budget, which means the following year, your MBR is still that high. And so it is a risk to them that you don't have that much revenue to come in. What we could do if because you you brought up that. What you could do is two options, and I know they're not gonna be discussed tonight, so don't shoot the messenger, but these are options for you guys to think about before your budget meeting.
You could consider two things. You could consider increasing the tuition to preschool. Let's say it's $6,000 now. Let's say you increase it to 7, and you got that extra thousand. If you increase that, we could then take other expenditures because we're a pre k k, DIACA credited to, and move them to that program. You could also actually open a fifth room, and it would be pure revenue. How does this change with universal pre k, though? So universal preschool, when it happens, if a family makes less than a $100,000 a year in the state of Connecticut, they won't pay for preschool. So the town will be responsible for paying for all of them. However, if your town has what used to be called, smart start Head start. No. Smart start. I mean, school readiness. School readiness slots. Thank you. School readiness slots where we currently get $6,000 for tuition for them, that's gonna increase to 10 in 2027. So that is one of the reasons why I have been pushing. Let's get all the slots right now we can get assigned to us because they won't use the word waiver. It's not a waiver. But when 2027 happens and, Sharon, you have a preschooler and you live in Andover, you're gonna be able to go on a website and say, where can I find preschool for my baby? And it's gonna say, Sharon, here are 10 preschools in your area, one in your town two in your town, actually, because the private one will have the same ability to apply for those slots if they're accredited. And it will say if they're accredited. And it will say, you can go to Andover Elementary School preschool. And if you make under a $100,000,
and we have a slot open for you, basically, it's not a real voucher, but you're gonna be worth $10,000. So you come and apply to us, and we say, ah, Sharon's baby's gonna come in here, and we're gonna get $10,000 for that baby to be sure to make 10,000. Right. If you make Just for the Oh, yes. And if you make more If you make more than $10,000 A 100. I mean, a $100,000, we can charge up to 7% of your income. So there's gonna be a lot of shopping around going on for families. And a lot of families that make a 100,000, if, obviously, they live here Yeah. They're gonna wanna stay here. So we need to have enough slots for those families. And so every six months to this point right now, and Taylor's probably like, she's missing stuff. Sorry, Taylor. Every few months, I won't say six months because it was less than that last time, they've been sending out the ability to reapply for additional slots. And so you have to be able to fill them with the criteria that they have. But with us having four rooms right now, it's been great. We've been able to apply for extra slots.
What what percent of our current and I don't know if you can share this, but what percent of our current preschool kids would qualify?
I can't tell you that, but I can tell you that we have Taylor, do we have 25 slots?
We have 23, and we just applied for three more that we can already fill.
Okay. So that we could already fill. So we had So you can fill you could fill 26 slots.
Okay. And we have slots through another grant called Smart Start. So that is one of the reasons why we've been increasing the numbers and applying for them because our Andover families then will have those slots available. They'll stay here. And in 2027, they'll either pay tuition, we'll get grant slots, or we'll get those slots that are worth $10,000 instead of 6. Prepared to take the kids. Absolutely. We're I'm guessing a lot of districts around us are not. They don't a lot of them don't have the room to have it. The physical space even. Physical space too. They don't. And there there are programs that didn't realize what was coming
to no fault of their own, but didn't realize, and they may never have had school readiness before. So it's all new for them. Yeah. Yeah. We've had school readiness for a long time. Is the mandate full day pre k? We have full day pre k. Yeah. I mean, is is the the voucher, is that that's for full day kids? No.
Are districts that still do half day. Yeah. But the majority of districts that do have that half day program, they're special night. Those half day The twenty twenty seven mandate, is it for full day pre K? Right. Yes.
But people will be able to have partial early start slots because there could be programs that aren't open all day. Okay. And then to make it worse, there are programs that are also, like, night programs, which are more hours. So, like, doctors and nurses that work at night, there's actually daycares out there that are open overnight to watch your kids. Yes. Those programs will be able to apply. So for us, I'm just saying, we do have an option in terms of bringing in more revenue. We do have an option of increasing the tuition there. We do have an option of opening up another room so that it brings in more revenue, makes it way more self sufficient, and there are other things that are allowable to be put in there that we haven't put in there now because they're not just preschool expenses.
How does adding these kids add to, like, the support staff? You know, the administration
and, you know Right now, Marcy, we haven't had to add another administrator or anything like that. However, that's what I'm saying is if we, let's pretend in the future, added a fifth room, an allowable thing to do would be then to say, well, now that we have so many, we can take part of I'll just hypothetically say Taylor's, salary if she's overseeing this and and move that there. So there are ways moving forward if you have that extra revenue in there to move expenditures that aren't necessarily their expenditures, but they're allowable to move in there. And it's unfortunately, what do they keep saying at these meetings? They keep saying they're building the plane as we're flying because the state's not quite sure what it's gonna look like in 2027, but the details I've shared for you right now are things that they are certain of.
Yeah. I just you know, whenever we add there's gotta be someone has thought about when you add a kid or five kids or even a classroom, what it does to the rest of the building. You know, the administrators, the janitors, the, you know, the transportation, the gas. Preschools aren't transportable.
Because they're more expenditures. Right. Yeah. They're gonna cost more money than that. It costs more money. Though springing in money Preschool kids are not busted annually, so the transportation cost is a big one. You're right. That's a big one. Unless they're special ed, and then we have to do it anyway. But we're not a separate yeah. So yeah. I would consider almost every two year old a special ed kid. You know?
So those are just ideas. I don't know when you're gonna wind up scheduling the meeting, but, you know, obviously,
food for thought for you guys to come up with ideas in terms of Remind us again. What is our date for when we have to submit the budget to So you do have to have the other meetings by the end of January. You have to have the meeting so that we have a chance to put together the budget for February.
And when do you guys think that you'll have the other On this week. By the end of this week. Yeah. Not So what is Not today. Next week. Thank you. The earliest date that you would think that we could have a special meeting for the. So it's the week of her telling you then.
Which is the last week. The last week of day. Right? Yeah. And then that gives you really two weeks before you would have to. You could vote on it on the eleventh,
which is our next That's our regular board meeting. So Both of these are from the
between the meeting. The special meeting was between now and then
so that you guys could discuss it Yeah. And then finalize whatever Yeah. You could then have it voted on by then. So it makes sense that we should have a special meeting for the budget sometime the week of The twenty sixth. The twenty sixth. Yes. Yes? Mhmm. Yes. Do we know what other town meetings are already occurring?
So you could put the calendar? Calendar. Is it the town calendar?
Off of the This is the last week of January? Yeah. There's the AES concert on Thursday.
There's a blink of flick. I guess that's only 05:30, but there's people in the I don't. I'm not gonna get some.
I could have put it on the wrong spot, but that's where I Yeah. Board of finance meeting is seven to nine that Wednesday. On the twenty eighth? Yes. Right. What about the Tuesday? Conservation Commission is the only one. Is Conservation Commission
an important meeting that we should not conflict with? I don't. I think we'd be on that. Okay. Twenty seventh? April? That's the twenty seventh. I
don't if the twenty ninth. Let's see. Robert the like, the concert you said. Right? Yeah. Could you unmute Robert? There you go. Board of Finance is at Wednesday, Taylor. Hey.
Go ahead, Robert. Oh, I was just gonna say, you know, we have our regular meeting on January 28. But then in February, we really kick it off. We have meetings on the eleventh, eighteenth, and twenty fifth.
But you need our budget by I believe the date is the fifteenth, which is a Sunday. Right. Yeah. I mean, obviously, so, you know, we're looking at You would plan to vote on our budget on the eleventh, which is our regular board of ed meeting. Right. You have a February 11 board of ed meeting? Yes. Okay.
So that could that's the same night as one of our special meetings. Okay. I you guys did that, I guess. We did.
I don't know how ago they changed the the town meeting, which is a different issue that last year was scheduled on our board of ed meeting night. And, again, this year was recommended to be scheduled on our board of ed meeting night. So that that's a separate issue. But It's unfortunate because the new charter revisions really tighten up the timeline.
They don't make it need to be a Wednesday night. I know that. Yep. I
know. It and and for a lot of us, at least for me specifically, one of the reasons why our meetings are on Wednesday nights is me. I apologize. But that's that's one of my good nights. And so, you know, vis a vis kids and everything like that. So, you know, we're in this situation where the charter require has this tight timeline for our budget proceeding. So, you know, anything you guys can do, I I understand you're on the same constraints we are. But, you know, anything you can do to to speed things along with is appreciated. That's all that's all I have to say. Okay. Thank you.
Is it would anyone not be available on the twenty sixth, which is a Monday night? What's that? You are available.
Is Alicia on there still? There she is. Alicia, are you available on January 26? It's a Monday night. She's prepping everything. Yes. I am. I'm available. Thank you.
And and everyone else, does that work? Yeah. The twenty sixth? Okay. So so then we would do a budget meeting on January 26 at 7PM. Great. And
then, Val, would you be presenting to us on the twenty eighth or, you know, in terms of bringing your budget to us?
Hold on. Let me look at the twenty eighth. We have to We have to vote on it. It's the the on the eleventh. Oh, okay. Apologies. Alright. Very good. So let's see. How many 100,000?
You could bring it on So then you could we could submit it to you guys after the eleventh.
Right. So did you say that you have one on the eighteenth?
Yeah. We do. We have the eleventh, the eighteenth, and the twenty fifth. Bang. Bang. Bang. I can't remember which ones, just looking at my phone, are special meetings and which ones are I think the eleventh and the eighteenth are special meetings, and the twenty fifth is our regular.
Okay. So if you could send an email, Robert, just to remind me, I'll look and see, which of those other ones after our meeting we can arrange. Okay? So it'd be either the eighteenth or the twenty fifth. Alright. I'll shoot you and Caitlin an email with our schedule.
Yeah. The '20 twenty fifth is your regular meeting, Robert. According to the town. Thank you. Agreed. The the other two are special meeting. Yep.
Great. And then that meeting on the '20 what did we say? Twenty sixth? Yes? Mhmm. In person, hybrid, only, written. Does anyone have preferences? I'll do that in a second. Yeah. Okay. So that I can make it hybrid. Yeah. Okay. Bye.
I have one question that I didn't get to ask. The the pre K tuition expenses for the salaries, does that include the benefits?
We've had this conversation before about not talking about, who does or does not have benefits in such a small group.
It is I'm not asking who. I'm just asking, does this do these numbers include the benefits? It is the salaries. Okay. K. Okay. Anyone have other questions in regards to the budget?
No? Okay. And I guess I just wanna say if you have questions about certain line items, feel free to, you know, like, email and say, you know, can you give me more information about this particular line item? Yep. Are you an email friend with all of us?
Probably not. Temi j. So Can you just send an email to everyone Yeah. On the board? And then they can reply to that Okay. Sure. With specific budget questions. Okay? So we'll move on to nine d, which is the energy update and or next steps. So based off of the presentation that we had earlier tonight, Does anyone want to have discussion about that? Reading the line.
Sounds fantastic. I need a little time to digest it. I mean, it it seems like a no brainer to me, but I'm, you know, always looking for loopholes. Or Yeah. Like, looking for those. Why is it? I think it's not good. I'm not. It's because it's Eversource.
Mhmm. Just like we did, you know, the solar with them. I've done projects in other districts with them. Eversource as that, you know, responsible party there, they are always putting out programs and other incentives.
So, you know, that is we know that everybody's just And I would say personally as a as a personal homeowner who has taken advantage of several of their programs, I, like, I have not been let down by them yet in terms of the seemingly too good to be true. Yeah. I mean, it sounds well, this company isn't Eversource.
This is a this is a separate company from Eversource. So all of the Eversource
Incentives. Incentives and programs work like this where it's a separate company that does the audit and does the the work. But the Solar was payment is through Eversource.
Right. Right. Like Solar, you probably got a bunch of bids.
And like this one, you could probably get other bids to actually confirm that what they're saying is correct. You know, a lot of times they wanna smoke, you know, blow smoke rings, you know, to make you feel like you're trying to save a lot of money. They
might not be selling get a different bid. Like, they're all set. What's that? Like, when you go to Eversource to look at it, like, and say, hey. I wanna do this energy assessment. They give you, like, this is who you go to. Right. And then they just send them out. You can book a different person, but you're gonna get the same numbers because it's their program.
They give homeowners free light bulbs in the past when they do your home energy audit. Those Like, yeah. Right. Exactly. It's I mean, it's the same type of deal. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Exactly. Eversource based of all these things in the month. So so you've echoed that you're not really ready to vote on it tonight.
Do other people feel that way as well? Does anyone feel like they're ready to vote on it? Do we wanna just pause for now and we'll come back to it Yeah. Next month? What? I would pause. Okay. So we'll pause for now. We'll come back to it next month. Are you excited? Because we're up to your policies. K. Okay. So the 9,000 series policy,
which we're gonna we're gonna We're gonna do right through. K. Okay. Here's what we're gonna do.
Is there anybody that doesn't have yours that needs I don't have mine. So what I did was
I took the chart that we have, and I separated my 9,000 policies into three packages. And I'll tell you what they are. Fortunately, the the most substantial packages, either they were acceptable, as written, or there are minor changes that we need to make. The second, even though some of them were acceptable as written to Keith, we determined that there were substantive changes that we wanted to make. And then the third packet that I did were that they needed modification based on things reviewed. So they need a lot of modification.
Mhmm. Okay? So We're not doing all of this tonight, are we? Absolutely. Every single one. This has been two eighty seven contracts. Yes. And we're supposed to get through six this year. Six this year. Yeah. So So next time we're doing three no. We want okay. So what I wanna do is
go through the ones that hopefully are gonna be acceptable or with minor changes and see what progress we can make there really quickly. Because I know you've all read them and digested them. I only have two piles. So Oh, yeah. Okay. That would be so That's the final answer. I'm going back Thanks. To go through all of those. I know. Okay. You ready? But I only divide it into one. So 9,000.
Does anyone else need a copy that doesn't have does anyone want this copy? Oh, I'll I mean, I'll You have I well, I have Val's. But I I also want this on that? Yeah. That's okay. I have my old copy. Yes. That's okay. K. Val, I have other stuff stuck in the middle. No. But I'll that's extra. I'll take it if you don't want it. Go for it. Thank you. It has guidelines on it? Yeah. Thanks.
Okay. So here's what I'm gonna do. I don't think that's part of I'm just gonna tell you what policies I think fall into the acceptable or minor changes category and see if we can make it through any of these. Right? Okay. So I thought 9,000 Yeah. Was in that category. Oh, and, Marci, it's very confusing, but every policy it looks like it's a 9,000 a policy and a 9,000 b policy. That actually is page one and page two of the same policy. It's just designated as a and b. Don't know why they don't put page numbers, but that's Kate's system. Okay. On 9010 was the easy peasy. Yeah. I just have to start with Okay. On there. Yeah. 9012 was the easy peasy. I'm just going through them very quickly without the changes. 9020. Yep. K? '9 new '30. Yep. 9040. Yep. Did I hear Val, we are missing two policies, and I didn't have time to get to you about them. We are missing ninety one ten and 9120 unless my package was different than other people. You got shortchanged.
Did I? You have ninety one ten and 9120. Yeah.
I got shortchanged. Okay. So I'll take a look at those another time. Because they're '91. Oh, so it's got a lot of changes? To change things. Yes. Okay. So we'll put that in the change. But how about 9120? Thank you.
Ninety one ten? Oh, ninety one ninety one twenty, I also have in that pile. And most of those, the changes are about the dates of when things
the changes Yeah. File. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. And I'll get them off of the system. No worries. Okay. The 9121 Yeah. Was in that file. 9122 is in that file. 9131, 9132, 9212. Yep. 9230. Oh, okay. 9230. Yep.
New board member orientation. So that one also has to change. We need anything at a legal reference.
Yeah. But anything, like, really insignificant changes. November was the change, and we just needed to add a legal reference. Okay. That's why I thought it could it easy. Okay. Yep. K. K? 9250. Mhmm.
9260? Mhmm. Yep. Mhmm. 9270? Yep. 9271? Yep. 9300. Wow. Yep. 93251, 93253, 9350, and 9420. What'd you say? Are you ready to pause all? 94 what? 9420. Ninety four twenty. Is recognition for accomplishments. I are we supposed to read this first?
Yeah. No. We're not. What that's I would be past it if we haven't read. No. No. No. I'm just teasing. So I wanted to I
wanted to do it all. We started them before you, though. You guys have the red the copy that has red stuff on it? Nope. Just no. No red. I don't know what the changes are. But these are no changes. Right? These are They're very, very accurate changes. Oh, okay. Even though it was appropriate as written, we made little typo Yeah. Typographical Yeah. Yeah. Like changing his, like, his vision for her. Oh, changed. Right. So I have questions on two. Yes, ma'am. Didn't say that I did say Okay. 9312? No. I think 9010. Get diagnosed with that. Yeah. 9314. I'm a child here. You wanted me to put it into English?
Yeah. I had that in they were both from Robert's rules. So you just need to be worried about it because Robert's rules. So we're the Mundo. K.
Okay. That's why. So they needed substantive changes. Okay. Right.
Why do I disagree with my Yeah. Those are the only board agents? Separated. Yeah. Okay. Great. Now.
Valerie, what's that little book that I'm burning with the colors on?
I have this just came in the mail, and it's just the maybe I only specifically have. Was it supposed to be mailed? Were they mailed? They did. What
do wanna do? You wanna just read one and just look at different changes? Or Oh, no. Do you wanna explain the grammar? So So I guess my
question is because there are grammar changes that are written in the red line version of those for all of these policies that we just went through.
Oh, I haven't seen the red line version. Okay. I didn't know she looked like that. I don't know. Diane did the math for the last meeting. I thought she put those with the. No. No. She didn't. Uh-uh. Uh-uh.
Somehow, I got a hard copy of them. Right. Let's go to her special.
The the things that you guys had decided to do at that meeting were redlined in there. But that was before she was on the board, and she was on the board. Yeah. That's why. Yeah. Okay. So all those ones that we mentioned, they're in their own pile. They have very simple red line changes,
which most of which were done. But then if people have not read through the red line changes, we probably need to actually do that so that we can Yep. Yeah. That's all of them. Yep. And approve them next month. Right? I guess Well, I mean Okay. People aren't gonna read through all those.
Yeah. Yeah. Really? You can email them. So you want Diane to send the red lines of all of the nine Let me work with Diane, make sure we tell the red lines in the mailbox,
though. Yeah. Email? Is that what saying? Yep. Yeah. Yeah. The paper. Yeah. It too much to ask to email them as separate groups? They were working on them on that one. So Okay. I do it. So have her email the ones that we just went through that are, like, easy changes. Yes, ma'am. Read those ones first so you don't feel like you're dying. Some of us love this thing. Some of us are lawyers. Some of us are. Some of us are not. Some of us are. David, next meeting, is that where we're going with this? So
We're just dividing categories. All the other stuff is need substantive changes or, like, need significant modification. So I would say at our next meeting, I'll do what I can to try to work with Diane to get those to you guys. Okay? To rework that. We'll see what we can do. I really would love to get the nine thousands behind us. Yes. So I will make a commitment to work with Diane on that. Hopefully, we can put the red lines in and send it as a separate A separate document. Okay? Okay.
So then our goal would be hopefully But then yeah. So but we're supposed to read
at one meeting before already passed it. We already read all of these at one meeting. Excellent. I agree with that, like, three or four months ago. I agree with you. Yeah. I'm happy reading it over the next We're supposed to read them as modified, but we're gonna just put that by the wayside.
So what we're gonna do is we're gonna send them as mail. Keep them as modified. Exactly. And then we'll vote on them on February 11 because we have nothing more to do that date.
Okay. So you can That was that was pretty good. You got through the next thousands easy peasy. We are not gonna talk about the next step we're gonna do, however.
Let's talk about the company. We'll talk about it the next day. Like, you're gonna tell us what one you're gonna focus on. Right? Oh, all the other ones need changes.
You want me to check those, what those are? That's what I was asking. So when they email them out Yep. I'm gonna have her they're gonna email them as two separate packets. Right? One is the packet of very easy changes. Shouldn't be difficult for you to read through and see the red changes. Yep. The other packet will be substantial changes.
Of the same things or different ones? Different policy. So all the other policies in the nine thousands that she didn't say tonight Right. Are the ones that need substantial changes. Yeah. Which means So but to be clear, to let us know which ones so we can read only the ones that we're gonna be talking about. I
I checked them here when Shannon went through them, so we'll make sure that they get sent to you. The ones Yep. And I and then I think, Marcy, just so so that we're all clear, we are planning to try to go through
all of them. Yes. Yes. But we'll go through them in two groups. The group with minor changes and then the group with many changes. No. I won't need my melatonin. Okay. K. That's great. Okay. Feel good about that. Okay. Okay?
Else on the 9,000 series? Everyone okay with our small amount of legalese for tonight? We made progress. Mhmm. That's good. Okay. So we will move on to public comment. Hi. Anne? Okay. Sounds good. Okay. No? Good. No. Hi. Robert.
Hey there. Just wanna say, please keep me in the loop and the board of finance in general in the loop on whenever that special meeting's gonna happen regarding the bathroom project. Obviously, that's still a live issue. So just let us know when you got those bids in and when there can be further productive discussion. I appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah. Will do.
Jenny? I'm all set. Thank you. Okay. Liz? No. I I have nothing to say. Okay. Carol? I'm all set. Thank you. Hi. Joanne?
Hi there. I know it was a long meeting, so I'm gonna make it really, really brief. But I think it's important to say, I am a little disappointed that you didn't discuss the bathroom project tonight. I understand what you said, Caitlin, and I understood that you had no further information to bring forward. But I had been listening to a lot of the meetings, and everyone that I heard at those meetings is very invested and, you know, want that bathroom project to go through and to go through correctly, and in the the proper fashion. So, again, you know, having been on the board of finance when the original Fuss and O'Neil contract got approved, I was in a lot of support for that because I knew a good company would be seeing overseeing three facets of the whole project. I know that the project has pivoted, and I would be in favor of competitive bids. I mean, it's it's a 400,000 plus project, it seems to be now, And that's just my opinion. I sat through your meeting because I I'm very interested and very involved in town even though I'm no longer on the board of finance.
But we all want that project to get completed. We want that com project to get completed in the correct way with the right companies working on it. So it would have been nice to seed a few competitive bids so that, you know, you would be able to see I know Fuss and O'Neil came up with a they pivoted, and you're on a design build way that way, and you have someone coming forward. But, again, I would have preferred to see three competitive bids for that new process. So that's all. Thank you. Good luck with all you do. Thank you. Ron? All set. And Louise? Nothing to add. Thanks. Okay. Thank you.
So our next regular board meeting is February 11. We did just add a budget meeting, a special meeting for January 26, and we will be sure to update everyone when we have the next meeting for the bathroom project committee. Obviously, anyone is welcome to attend that. I would I really appreciated having other board of ed members there. One thing I did forget to ask earlier, and I'm asking now, if anyone else would like from the board of ed to officially be on that committee, I would appreciate it as the other two people besides myself that were on it are no longer on the board. So, Mercy? Mhmm. Anyone else? No. Okay. I really appreciate that, Mercy. So as as soon as we're able to set a meeting date for that committee meeting,
that will be forthcoming.
So It's something I'd consider. I need to just think about that commitment. Right? I just Okay. Budget season, there's a lot of meetings, and so it's a tough time of year
to commit to that, but we get with the budget. That's perfect. That's good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Or she could sound dizzy. And
then one other thing in terms of items for the next meeting, I just wanted to reiterate the meeting notes from the bathroom committee meeting. Marcy, you're gonna work on updating those, and then we'll have that for our next board of ed meeting to pass. Okay. Yes? Okay. And I will work on the 9 thousands to get those to all of you with my hands. Great. Does anyone have anything else for her thing?
No. And we can't go into executive session. Or Students matter. Matter regarding residency policy. Oh my goodness. 948. 948. Yeah. We're not inviting anyone right now.
Thank you, guys. I'm gonna close take these people out. Okay. Yep. Thank you, Taylor. See you then. Bye. Hear that I'm boxing