Meeting transcript
BOE Meeting
March 11, 2026 · Watch on Zoom · All meetings
So it's been a lot, and we'll call the meeting to order.
So this is the regular meeting for the Board of Education on March 11. We should do the pledge of allegiance. You want the table to lead us?
Yeah. You guys wanna lead us? No. Don't. We can't go. Just start it. Okay. Start. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
We need to have kids more often. That was really robust.
K. We will start off with comments from the public. And just a reminder, to keep your comment, on something that's on tonight's agenda in less than three minutes, please. Oops. Georgette? Yes.
Yes. Do do you have any public comment for us? Oh, now our mic is off. No? Okay.
Our mic Oh, we can't hear you, hon. Hold on. Your mic is You're you're muted. Okay. Yep. Yep. Can you hear me now? We can.
I was on the board of I mean, on the board of finance for a number of years. And at the time, a gentleman named Andy Managia was the part time superintendent, and he worked very well to make the school the best that it could be without overtaxing the people in town. He cared about the people in Andover as well. And every year, he would come with a very transparent, reasonable budget, and he never had a problem passing it. And then at the end of the year, once all the budgets, you know, were closed out, he would end up giving his back the town some money because he had managed to get grants. And that amount of money went into the town's coffers to help lower the the cost of a a new you know, a later budget. So because it was usually two years away. And I don't understand why every year we come up with this budget that's 10%, 11%. We're all getting older. I mean, I've been here for almost sixty years. And as we get older, we have a lot less income. And I think there's a lot of older people in this town, and we need to be thinking about, you know, the economy and everything. You can't just keep dumping more money on us and more taxes and more taxes and more taxes. I think that that needs to be done. It's been done in the past. It can be done in the future. We don't have a 100 to $200,000
a year income coming in, and I think everybody should, think about that. Okay. Thank you. Diane Greiner?
I'm all set. Thank you very much. I'm here to listen, and thank you all for, your time.
Thanks. Thank you. Jenna Goldrick? I'm all set. Thank you. Jamie Tilden? No comment at this time. Thank you. K. Jenny Morell? Nothing for me. Thank you. Scott?
Hi. Yeah. I was going to say nothing from me, but I just wanna point out that I was on the board of ed during that time. Andy was here. And we did have a couple times where you had a hard time passing budgets, and we were in a populate a a time of falling student population. A lot easier to keep a budget under control when you have less to do and fewer kids to deal with. It's a very different situation now, and I understand that. If I read the numbers right, the board of ed budget has increased only 5% total over the last decade. Right? And that's that sounds astounding to me. So this this year, the that bill is coming due is what it sounds like to me. But,
in any case, that's it. Mostly, you're a listen.
Thank you. Holly? I'm all set at this time. Thank you. Amanda?
I'm all set at this time. Thank you. Thank you.
Together. You guys have a comment? No. This is And for me? No. Thank you. Of you kiddos wanna make a public comment? No, Kate. No, Kathy. Okay. So we'll move on to communication. I do have two to share. They were both letters that were sent to the entire board. One was from the first law firm, Jeff McGuire, specifically with questions regarding the superintendent's contract. And the other one was from Liz Cartridge expressing her unhappiness with the budget that was presented to Florida Finance from.
I have one moment. Okay. Yeah. Other communication. Yes. I did want you to yeah. Yeah. We did also receive, a letter from the board clerk, Dawn Lonley Yeah. That this will be her last meeting. She does have, other obligations, and the meetings were getting a bit long. And so, that was difficult. So she is no longer gonna be the, board clerk for us or for Ram. So thank you, Dawn, for, having served us, and that is posted. If anybody is interested, that'll be available for next month. Oh, boy. Thank you, Dawn. Yeah. Thank you, Dawn. That was Shannon. Put that in the notes.
And and I guess there is one one other communication, which has had all three boards on it, but there have been letters back and forth from the town attorney to our board and then from our board's attorney to the town attorney several times. So Does anyone have other communications? Nope. K. I will move on to celebration.
Do have some a celebration tonight. So hold on one second as I just shared.
While she's getting that going, it is also board of education education appreciation month. March is always board of ed appreciation, so, you will see small thank you in front of you for each of the board members. And, you know, we, value and appreciate, as a school, what board of education members do and give up their time to do, during the course of the year. So thank you. Mhmm.
So we've heard me talk about the invention convention as we've been moving across, but we are very excited tonight that we have our three Andover elementary school finalists. So before I introduce them to you, just give you a little bit of background, this is our fourth year participating in the Invention Convention, which has been exciting four years ago. This was something that Val had seen in other places and was passionate about and said this is gonna be good for our kids, and she was very correct. So right now, how we ran it this year and in last year, all of our fourth grade students participate as part of their curriculum. So they work on this project in class and go through the engineering process and the science and the math. And then there are students who work on this project in school in k three as part of an enrichment program. And then there are also independent inventors, those that participate at home with families and then eventually put their projects into our shop. So all different ways that kids participate. A few pictures. Yep. Some strategic kids picked. It's fine. But some so we have at the school, our first round where the kids in the other kids in our school get to come and visit the inventors and get to see their projects. And then we have judges that come in that get to study each, and they interview the kiddos and ask about their inventions. And then this year was new, so we sent 10 inventors to RAM. So we did a regional
Hebron with Hebron and Marlborough. They also participate in the invention convention. So we had 10 students who will then who then moved to the RAM. We also had another group of eight students who were honored for various awards, creativity, posters, projects for their work. So lots of celebrations. And then so then they went to the semifinals at RAM. Each district sent 10. And what was really cool is RAM not only brought in judges, but they also had student groups that were part of facilitating this, planning it, to running it. I'm totally blanking on the name of that organization, the name of that club that does it. Yes. National Technology Honor Society. It's their first year at RAM. I think they're just starting that honor society, so that was exciting. We were kind of their first project. And, certainly, as I've mentioned, our fourth grade teachers do a lot of the planning, and then Christina kind of oversees the rest of the kiddos on the building level and then brought us into the semifinal world. So were the 10 chosen here based on the judges here? Yeah? Yes. The judging was here, but the judges were not all internal. Right. But yeah. Judges came in, and then 10 were chosen from them? Correct. And then those 10 went to RAM. And then Hebron sent 10, and we all sent equal. We all got the same amount of the the invention convention, the state level, that's how many finalists we got. And we all had the same amount, so it really worked out. It's based on how many kids participate. We had 63
participants at LOG. A massive amount was awesome. Great. So then you can see at RAMP. So they did similar where they set up their projects, and they present and answer those questions for the judges. And here, I introduced you. These were our finalists and our top three who will go to the state invention convention. So we're congratulating Maggie, Weston, and Mason, and they're gonna get to present to you their invention, and so you get a little sense of what hard work they did. So Ram and the team, all the elementary schools did a really great job working together to put on this event. I'm not gonna ask who wants to go first because I know nobody likes to volunteer, but Maggie is ready to go, girl. So please welcome Maggie as she presents a fourth grader here. Her invention, the throne saver. So
my invention is called the throne saver. It is a Chromebook Chromebook case that will make sure that you don't drop or lose it, your Chromebook. And a lot of people lose and drop their Chromebook. The issue I have been having is that so, usually, there's a kid in my class. She says, I can't find my Chromebook. It's not in the Chromebook card. And she says, oh, no. I forgot it somewhere. We see and they don't know where it is. So then they have to use a backup one, and that just makes it stressful because you don't know which one which backup ones are working. And then so that's when one one part of my invention comes in, the the tracking device. So it would be a tracking device to make sure that you don't lose it by so probably, like, download a butt button on your phone or something. And you hit it, and it would, like, ring or make a noise, and then it would you type kind of make a map of your school kind of or something. So let's say
you left your homework in the library. So I'm all the way upstairs in a classroom. So my teacher would press a button and then show where it was in the I would show if it's at the top row or bottom row. It would be in the library. So and I would walk all the way down to the library and grab my Chromebook. So that's how my tracker does. And then what I did for cardboard for the base is because when we're doing an engine to project, we usually have cardboard in it because when you engine on something, the cardboard dents down. But then when you take it off, it pops back up. So I thought cardboard would be a good base because if it falls, it would just poof back up. And if you were returning a hard fall enough hard enough, you'll hear the bubble wrap pop. And the bubble wrap is making sure that since if you, like, drop it really hard, you know if okay. It went through the bubble wrap. Now it might actually be broken. And then the the fabric here is that if you can get, like, a full package for your class, if you if I go out to selling this, the the the fabric would come in different colors and shades because if, let's say, your kid student is missing their Chromebook and they keep it in their case at all times, you would know which case is yours
by the fabric colors. And you would also be like I could make these Velcro stickers kind of to where you can put them on to where they're stickers that could come on and off and to where you can make it your own personal. And my mom had the idea of having the pocket for your headphones. For example, I would need to use it for is if I have to go down to music class. I need to bring my Chromebook down and my headphones and my instrument. So then I would have to I'm like, oh, no. I got my instrument in this hand, then I got my Chromebook in this hand, then my headphones in this hand. I don't have three, do I. So you would put your Chromebook in the inside. In the inside, you put your Chromebook in here, and then you would put your headphones in here. And then you would hold the other one with your instrument or books if, let's say, for library. And then one of my favorite things about this, you mentioned, is that since that these are really loose, but not too loose, that if you keep it here at all times, you could still charge your Chromebook in there. Mhmm. Got a handle too. That's nice. Yeah. Yeah.
What I would do to approve it is put an actual tracking device, And I was thinking of doing a binder so it would be, like, more secure surface and then put more bubble wrap on in fabric and still do a handle, but I was also thinking of making it into a backpack kind of. Like, if the preschooler has a tablet they wanted to use, they could do that.
Excellent work, Maggie. We love that. So you can see, they also work through iterations. So they get a lot of questions about what would you change? Where did you start? How did this develop over time? Excellent work, Maggie. We're so excited for you to represent us at the state level in May. You. Alright. I believe we're holding mister Weston Lateskas next. So Weston is a second grader here in in at Edinburgh Elementary School and worked on his invention as an independent inventor, and we're very proud of his work. Alright,
Weston. Take it away and tell us about what you invented. Or, Weston, turn to me so I can see you. What was the problem?
That my I was at a top a cotton top of my finger, and he watched my dad and put a Band Aid on. And the next day, it just came off, and then I put another one on. And then then just came off until it just healed by itself. And the same thing happened with my dad. So that was a big problem. What did you invent to solve it? The Tic Tac bandage, it it it just slips on the top of your finger,
and then you squeeze the bottom of it, and then it'll squeeze the Can you hold your hand up so they can see that great work, you did? Nice. Who do you think would like that? I don't know. Me? Yes. You do, Winston. Who would who would your invention serve? Who would wanna buy this? Would would kids like it? Yeah. What about adults? Yeah. Yeah. Everybody will need it. What are missing? Running. Maybe a school nurse. For sure.
Oh, excellent job. Is there anything you were thinking about you would do differently if you kept working on it?
I would add rubber on it. So Mhmm. Like, because I have, like, better grip when you put on to this stuff. Was, like, have better grip, and you can add stronger tapes, and then you put grip on it. It'll just slide right off of you. Excellent.
Anything else you wanna share with us, Weston? No. Weston, you did a fantastic job. We're so excited for you. So one of the other parts is we encourage kids to find real problems that are really happening in their lives. And so that becomes the work becomes more real to them. So he's like, this is what's happening to my dad at home, and we're like, yeah. You have to solve that, which is really neat as they take ownership. And next, we introduce mister Mason Morris, a fourth grader here at Andover Elementary School, to tell you about the hot dog.
Okay. So I have a dog at home that has hair, not fur. So the normal dog coat was not serving like, wasn't keeping heat well. Mhmm. So I invented the heated dog comb. So inside of it, it has patches with so, like, they clip, and they there's electric handlers inside. Mhmm. So it keeps the dog extra warm. And, like, when it was, like, really cold this winter, it kept the animal like, him finishing them. Mhmm.
And, how do you know? Like, how do you know it works? So it
actually like, during one of like, I act I can turn them on, and they
they actually heat up really fast. Yeah. Awesome. And what about as you were thinking about if you were to make this into mass production and present it, is there anything you would shift or change? Probably,
like, wire, like, all of it through so it's just one button, and you don't have to charge, like, every single handler individually.
Absolutely. And do I have to buy it with the Patriots on it, or, like, do you make a Cowboys version? Just wondering. Just ask me. Patriots only? Got it. Wait. Way. Except for the New York Jets. Got it. So keep that in mind, friends. There are no New York Jets. Awesome job, Mason. I am so excited for you to represent us at the state level. Really good work. Mason, can I ask you a question? Yeah.
What other are there any other animals that you would like make a similar such coat for? I don't know. I can think of that could really help you for a big level. Their hair looks packed, but a lot of people have. They would love these coats.
Awesome. He's a nice job. Can you just hold it up so I can Yep. Yeah. And
it is are the warmers on the inside? Yeah. Oh, there we go. Interesting. That's great. Yes, sir. Good job. Yeah. And
so Mason highlights another cool feature of that. A lot of these kiddos test out their inventions. And so that's his dog, and he got to really work through the how it might work and not work. And prototypes, we talk a lot about. While we don't always make a prototype that is sellable, there are a lot of ways we can make prototypes that we're able to test and improve. So I'm very proud. We're very proud of our three inventors, and thank you so much for coming today. So they will don't quote me the exact date. Missus Fraser knows it, but they will go in May
to the state level and compete there and very similarly give presentations. They'll be questioned more, lots of questions. They also make a video prior to that Oh, wow. Where they talk about their invention, and that goes towards special awards. So different companies participate, and they watch the videos. They may not get the judging to look for other ways to honor that stuff. Absolutely. So that was in my report too, but I wanted to do it in celebration since they were here. Do you still have a science fair? We haven't recently. The PTA has done a science fair, I believe. The last year was, think, right before I got here. The PTA had organized science fair. Our fifth graders do a science project that is more in-depth. It has, like, either a poster board or a slideshow or virtual, but we don't have a school wide science fair right now. It has come up a little again in PTA. Is it is it something we want to reexplore?
But the invention convention at this kind of
seemed to replace it at this point. Yeah. Yeah. So seemed like because I you had said that we just started it, and I thought Yeah. I had remembered that my kids did Did the science. Inventions. You know? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because you're right. Because inventions sometimes come under that science barricula. Mhmm. Mhmm.
Great. Thank you. You're welcome. Good luck. Yeah. Good luck. I don't believe. Yeah.
Thank you for coming. If you guys want to leave your Yeah. We appreciate it. Wanna be in here. Not waste waste. The baby.
But she was clapping. Calling her brother. That's so awesome. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Good luck. And they will all receive a book vending I just did as well. Oh, yeah. You didn't see it. Yes. Enjoy their break. Thank you. Bye. Thank you. You. Bye. Thank you. Bye.
And you get no dirty Band Aid, like, a if I found that on the floor, I wouldn't be freaked out. True. Yeah.
But you can see why they wanted it. Okay. So next on our agenda, is approval of the minutes from our meeting from February 11. Does anyone have corrections? Yes. Of course. Just wanted. She always does something. I looked. Three times I read these minutes, cause I was gonna find the page on the video. Okay. Dawn,
you did a fantastic job. They're incredibly detailed. On page six, the only thing I think we have to note are the few people who voted against the bathroom project update, and that would be myself and Sharon just because you have to note it to for the particular votes. But that's it. Fantastic job.
Funny. That was the same thing I was gonna mention because it wasn't consistent with the one before that. You mentioned it. How everyone vote. Yes, ma'am. I
make a motion with that amendment to approve the minutes from the board of ed meeting on 02/11/2026.
I second that. K. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Yeah. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. I don't call her. Does
anyone have any anything to add or delete from the agenda?
The only thing I wonder is about the bathroom project. We have we're missing a bunch of people that are on the committee. Right? Jeff Murray, I don't see him here. It's a really erosion. Update. There's not Nothing really? No. And the committee isn't supposed to be here for our meeting. Okay. Well, I was just wondering if there's gonna be a discussion or vote. Nope. Okay. Just a literal update. K.
Been working really hard on it. Thank you. Okay. So in terms of reports, I don't really have anything to report as chairperson aside from the stuff concerning the bathroom project, so I'll wait until we get to that section.
Val? Okay. So I've got a few things here that aren't on ours. Let's see. So I think I'll start with the RLE. You know how we have our project that's gonna happen with Eversource? Mhmm. We got good news this week because they they did call me. I I hadn't accepted the project in Scotland because the the the incentive just wasn't enough for us there in terms of what our overall savings would be. It was, like, really tight. So he had said, thanks, but no thanks. So they called this week and said, well, we have good news. There's one other additional incentive that you qualify for. And I said, I said, does Andrew over qualify for that too?
And he said, I don't know. Let me check it out for you. And it turns out that we are gonna have an additional incentive that'll be another 12,000 off of that $1.77 Uh-huh. Which will mean that those sixty months of, like, what they call financed payments Mhmm. Would be reduced. And then it'll it'll give us a wiggle room, I guess, you could say of what they think the total monthly cash savings would be of potentially closer to 200 more. So a month. So that would be fantastic.
What does that make the the approximate total per month?
27 instead of 2,900 at, financed amount. Yeah. And then it'll go from $6.50 to $8.60. So if all goes well with, like, the solar and those things, they're saying that even with that project, we should see that in a savings. Okay. And so we all know that, you know, those first few months or whatever, it's at least, you know, a bit of a hard breath. You know, kind of thing. The first year. Right. For the whole first year. But I feel like with that additional, we'll definitely know. We'll be like, okay. This will be good. So really good. Thank you. He's yeah. I think it's great. So, you know Especially given I know.
Yes. Prices. Yes. So I think that's fantastic. So that's something. I have been working on, I didn't know that the town of Andover had been, previously, a heart safe community. And, with all of the students that we do CPR with and some of the other things, the fact that we have the AEDs, I had looked with the state, to try to see if we could get that status. And they said, oh, actually, you guys used to have that status as a town. And I was like, really? I never noticed, that there were some signs around town. And, when I spoke with Steven from the state to try to submit that application, he was very helpful. It actually then Mike was helpful to get me some of the CPR trained numbers for, our volunteer firemen. And they said, oh, it had expired, but years ago, Mindy had done it in your town. And I was like, oh, tell me more. And so I reached out to Mindy, and I said to her, I I you know, I don't wanna step on any feet or anything. I said, but tell me. And she said, yep. I still have the old application. So she brought that over. She told me where the signs had been hung, and then I realized, yeah. I recognized those signs. And so they did bring me a couple more if we need them in town,
to put up, but, now we've renewed it with the Department of Public Safety. And so for three more years, the town now is once again considered, and, we have our school ones up, but once again considered, an active heart safe, community. What does that mean? So what so what well fancy. What it'll do is a couple things. Number one, obviously, it says that we care as a town, as a community, that we have lots of people that are CPR trained, that we have more than the required AEDs in town in multiple places, and that we are committed to this. Because remember, our kids are trained in addition to our staff Mhmm. In addition to the people that work at the fire department, and now there are people next door at the senior center. Yeah. So we're doing well in that department. Next time, what I'd like to do, and I talked to Mindy about it, what I'd like to do when we're up again in three years for certification is to through the emails with the city and or with the town as well as Facebook is to try to see if we could get an even more accurate help of who in the community is CPR trained and certified. Because we meet the threshold very easily, but I think it would be fun for us next time around to see out of all of our residents how many we have. So, like, Sharon, being a nurse herself, lives in the town of Andover, she wouldn't have been on that list originally with us. But if we put out a call to say to people how many people are, she would wind up then on that list. So I just doctors,
EMTs that are Right. That. I mean, yeah, there's Teachers, other There's a lot. There are waters too. Right? Yeah. Really? So Yeah.
Yeah. Have Kind of. Great doctor. You told me that. Coaches, things like that. Yeah. So I think it would be great. I also did talk to him about the potential of seeing now usually, it's offered only to, like, fire departments, but about seeing about grants with the state coming up for replacements of AEDs. Okay. And so he's gonna see if he can put us in touch with that because at some point, our AEDs will need to be replaced, and they're over $1,000 a piece. So
Have you talked to the fire department at all? About AEDs?
Yeah. Everybody's are good right now, but within the next four or five years, what we're finding is some of the I don't wanna use the word cheaper ones, but the older, less expensive ones that we've replaced batteries on, the life is just not there. And so you do get to a point where they're like, okay. You probably aren't gonna be able to replace this battery for long. You have to upgrade. Yeah. And some of the upgradeable ones are a little bit more money, but the life on them will be longer. So that's just something that we'll work on, you know, with Nextdoor.
And Yeah. That can be a Absolutely. Collaborative. Absolutely. More funding. Fire departments are there's a lot more funding for fire departments to get AEDs. Right. Schools are beautiful buildings. And so we'll have to partner with them. Right? Yeah. Because we
have one at the community center. Yes. They do have one at the community center. Gonna do in Tahoe. Yeah. They're gonna center. Center. Yeah. Yeah. So so, yeah, so we're gonna work on that. Mindy was very helpful. I thanked her, you know, for giving me all that old information that she had when she had done it last time. So, you know, next time, I told her, well, we'll just make sure that we all do it together. The only other one we could get is called both the HeartSafe Workplace, and and we would have qualified here at the school already. But they had changed the rules when AEDs became mandatory for schools, and so now we would have to do it as a town. Mhmm. And I was like, okay. So we looked into that. And because public works guys are out on the road in a truck, they would have to have a portable one because their workplace is so I was like, oh, yeah. No. But they don't No. So maybe next time we'll work on that, but the rules just changed on that so we don't have workplace status because we would have to do the whole municipality, and that would be the next step for us. But we're gonna work on rent, so we're gonna see if we can get anything moving forward. So that was good news. The well, update to the budget. I did present to the board of finance. I know a couple of you guys were on there. So, you know, that part's done. They had a few questions. They answered the questions. There were a few follow-up questions, a couple things they asked me to send them, but we're all set with that now.
A reminder that because some of the questions that I have received from people are looking for numbers. A reminder to everybody in town that this plan of conservation and development is out. It's on the town website. It's, it's a ten year plan. You know, it's their strategic plan. There's a lot of numbers, data, information. I refer to this, as some of you guys know, in my budget presentation, so I think it's valuable for people to see. It talks about, you know, where the priorities are for the town moving forward, you know, toward infrastructure, toward education, toward moving forward, and it has the most updated numbers, percentages of people who fall under particular categories. You know, one in five kids I mean, one in five residents is somebody under the 19, so 20% of the town. So I love this. I love the that John did this, and I'm just urging people to move forward with looking at that. Actually, while we're talking about budget then, I will actually take a second and address because, obviously, it came up from Georgette. So thank you for that comment, Georgette, because that's actually along the lines of of something that I have here to communicate. I never had the pleasure of meeting Andy Managia. My predecessor was Sally, so it went from Andy to Sally to me. But you are 1000% correct that any good superintendent, when they're doing their job, if they have an opportunity to get
that using them on things that could save the taxpayer would absolutely be wise. So, I would just remind everybody that even though it wasn't every year, the fact that we have $500,000 in our capital account right now is because $360,000 was returned to the town the year that we had the grants. So thank you for bringing that up, Georgette, because, yes, in fact, that is what we've done, and that is how we're paying for the bathroom. And so Andy might have done it a little bit every year, but we did the same thing in one lump sum and rather than do a different project. So it did go back to the taxpayer. So absolutely right. That's the best way to go, and that's the way we've gone as well. When was that? That's the money two years ago that went into the capital account. So we that's how we're funding back. Oh, okay. So we went to the capital. We absolutely did it the same way. I made sure that that money went in there and so did this board of education. It just went in in one year.
So so that was a very good point. I appreciate that. The only other grant to talk about is the DRIP grant. The DRIP grant is it's it's an automatic. We didn't actually have to apply for it. The DRIP grant is to be awarded at the end of the year to each school district, each town, and it should defray the cost of a project this year or next year that has to do with our repair and maintenance. Maintenance. And so we are working right now on making sure that we obviously know all the guidelines on that. And we will, moving forward, use that on whatever our most pressing item is from our budget. I have in front of you guys three things. Let's pull this one first. Capital. As you know, we are working on we had gotten in October, the town's capital planning packet. And so that's a labor of love to make sure that we take what we had there and go through step by step. So I had given you a draft. I don't remember if I actually copied it to give it to you last time, but I had given it to you at a meeting and idea of it. Yeah. We had gone through the, AES kitchen stuff and the appliances, and it's very comprehensive. It has everything that's been installed, what the cost was, how long it should last, what the overall rating is, what the priority is so that moving forward after this year because, again, we have,
two projects that were still on our last year's list, which is the bathroom and the driveway. We had done the elevator. And so next budget season, there would be obviously a shortlist again. This will be what we use moving forward to go to the board of finance and, potentially, CIP at that time with what our needs are. And so so the kitchen, we had already talked about that before. The new sections, maintenance and facility equipment, lawn care on that third page there, this is almost done there. And I've made sure to put pictures in there, so that, you know, we know which piece of equipment we're referring to because not all of us know. And so the new one in here that I wanted to point out to you is then that third section, main school heating system and components. So I've been working with Scott, the head custodian, as well as Kevin Lennigan, who is always very proud to tell me that he went to Andover Elementary school. Mhmm. And so it's kinda cute because every time, even if it's the mechanical room or the boiler room we go into, he's like, well, I remember when I went here, and it's just so lovely to hear the stories.
You know, he really, really loves this building, which is great. It means that little extra bit of care when we're looking at the equipment is there with him, and I just so appreciate that that he, is so committed to the school that he wants to make sure that everything is done right. So, usually, the conversation is, well, we could do this. We could do that. So he was very useful and helpful bringing me around, and we're working on this. We've done steam boilers and the boiler feed tanks, as you can see there. We're talking about two to four years on the steam boilers there. The boiler feed tank, good, ten to twelve years there. The boiler room condensate receiver, this one is higher. This one we are pricing now because this is it is probably a this year thing. This would be one of those items that we would use direct money for because it is, you know, let's say, 3 to 6,000, but it's something that's gonna have to be completed soon
because of the, condition there. The top condensate receiver, the steam boilers, and the oil tank station, and, the black ball feed tank for the upper wing. So then you'll see the ones without pictures. I'm not done with this whole section yet. I did take these pictures this week. I have them on my phone. I just have not completed this section. So but this will be done, you know, fairly soon. The good news on the steam traps too, anybody who was on the board of '23, you remember we spent the money then, and we did the 117 steam traps. We had 19 that were identified that need to be replaced. We are also looking with RLE, the company that I just told you about that's doing the other energy efficiency things with us. Vince has been very helpful, the one the one of the guys that did come that night. We are looking to see if right now, there is a a new rebate for getting steam traps done, but we're looking to see if there's kind of a loophole to maybe get a reimbursement. And so fingers crossed, maybe there will be something. Sometimes that's how, like, DAS grants work and things where they do go bad. And so we're gonna keep our fingers crossed on that. And then, obviously, we need to get to the AC. I need pictures and dates in there. The electrical system,
the only one that is in here is the elevator because we are done with the elevator, you know, and I have to put in the generator and things of that nature. And then music department information's being gathered now too. So so it's a work in progress. We're getting there. We made huge progress here, so I just wanted to make sure that you guys had that so that you can see where we are with it, where we're working on it, and that we are moving forward with it. I'm happy to see the music department on here, honestly, because their budget is a bit more. It's, like, $300. I know. Kids
who can't instruments are expensive to rent and to buy, and people who don't have that, they they move down on the education, and that that just
it's it's proportionate. With that, Sharon, is normally a one instrument doesn't rise to the occasion of being put in a capital plan. Yeah. So we really have to look at the equipment as a whole. It's like a Chromebook. Right? A Chromebook's only, you know, $299. So people are like, well, that's not really capital. But if you're talking about a classroom set of something That's an investment. Right. A classroom set of something needing to be replaced at one time, it happens with bands. Because as you said, I mean, you you can't not have a flute. You can't not have a, you know, a trumpet. So I I do want us to look at that as a whole unit, because, sure, there might be a year that it's only $300 to replace something. But then there may be a year that we've got, you know, $3,000 in equipment. And so we need to know that. And it really depends on the instrument too. It does. It Like, there's huge variation. Yes. Yes. So Absolutely. That's that's really why I definitely wanted to make sure that was part of it.
Chromebooks are in the budget. Right? So Chromebooks individually are not. Is technology in the budget in terms of, Christina every year does reevaluate because we have a revaluation. So we know how many Chromebooks need to be rotated. She knows based on how many kids in which class, which ones we're using. So there are certain years that we're doing brand new ones because we have more kids that we didn't have the year before a particular grade. There are years that we're doing, refurbishments of other ones. And so that is an issue that is gonna be coming up soon. We don't have spares. We know that. Okay. Which is why we love Maggie's, take care of your Chromebooks, invention. Because,
you know, when there is an accident with one, Christina wants to have a heart Christina wants to have a heart attack. She's like, oh my gosh. Or when we get the new kids that come in and we say, yay. We're so happy. Christina, do we have a Chromebook for them? So, yes, that will be a part of,
you know, the budget moving forward. And we'll see if it rises to capital or not wherever we are in that particular moving time. They have somewhat been, like, staggered.
Yeah. Yes. We've been very lucky with that, right, that they've been able to be staggered. And the last thing I just wanted to talk about only because it was new this week in front of you is you have the single draft audit. It came in Monday. It was hot off the presses on Monday. And, I mean, it's it's it's good news for us. So, you know, I wanted to make sure that we went through this draft, very simply. There is a 96 page one, which if anybody wants it, please let me know. I'm more than happy to email it to you. Again, it's a draft, but it's not the short version. We received two versions. This is the short version. And you guys know that, you know, of course, we look at a few things. We we
definitely wanna look and see if you look on what says page eight as you flip through. Yeah. Here. The biggest thing that we wanna look at is whether or not under the summary of the auditor's results, whether or not there were, things that were reported that needed attention or assistance. And we look and see if there's any yeses. And there is one. There is one material, weakness that's identified. Remember, this is the school and the town's draft audit together. So there was one, which is good because in the past, we've had multiple between the two of us. If you look in the second section on the bottom, there were two bits of good news there.
First, though, is the one thing that's left. And if you're reading this and it's deja vu, it is. It's because it's exactly the same for the town. It is word for word that we've had for three years. And it is, material weakness and internal controls over financial reporting, the reconciliation of the town and the school district's ledgers together. And this is the one, you know, for the past couple of years that I felt very strongly we need to make sure, you know, that we are abiding by what's the auditor's recommendation is. And we are. And so this is the one where if you look at the next page, when we did the cap the cap, the corrective action plan, it says here again, we recommend, these are the auditors, that the town no longer record balances and activities that are already accounted for by the school district.
The town should limit its accounting to transactions that involve direct financial activity between the town and the school district. These may include appropriations, transfers, reimbursements, or shared service costs. In addition, we recommend that the school district just continue to provide the town with monthly financial reports to ensure that they are informed. This is kind of where it's been tough because as we try to stick with this, sometimes different people will say, well, the town needs to do stuff with that. You have to give give give the information, and the auditors are saying, you have to keep them informed. It's right to. We just give them every month our financial reports. But our account and their account our our general fund accounts are separate, So there's no reconciliation that takes place during the course of the year.
At the end of the year, sure, there is end of the year reconciliation. And that's what it says when it's done correctly.
Correct. And last year, I think you remember last year, it was the difficulty was, and I had spoken with the first electman too, and and he admitted this to me. He had said, yes, that they they do take our monthly statements and try to, like, recreate, like, a balance sheet and figure out, like, what we have. And the problem with that is that such a small snapshot, our our our regular, financial report, that if all of the information's not there, you're missing pieces. And so it does need to be done at the end of the year. So, I think that's important that this is again and we do have a new treasurer, so I think this could work out great. But, you know, what they want us to actually be involved in reconciling during the year is only anything to do with the 2% nonlapsing account because that is a shared account. If we were to do anything with our Norton account or if we were to do anything with our Capital account Mhmm. That's absolutely what they want us doing during the course of the year. If we were to go to the board of finance for an additional appropriation, that would be. If we like this DRIP money, the DRIP money will run through the town first. It won't come directly to us. Absolutely. That would mean that there would be accounting associated with that. Mhmm. That's a reimbursement. So those are the things that they're like, yes. You guys absolutely have to, like, we can do some finances.
And just the the normal appropriations that already
occur. Right? At the end of the year? No. I mean, in terms of, like, when the town transfers money to the school. The ACH transfer? Yeah. Right. There's an acknowledgment in their financials monthly Yeah. And there's an acknowledgment in ours. Yes. Absolutely. So so the good thing is if you look down on page nine there, so that one was the only one, which I think the town's gonna be thrilled too because that was really the only thing. Sure. It's a repeat, which isn't always good. But for us to have only that, that's fantastic. So if you look at the bottom there, it says under 2024002, which was in that cap plan that we did, it says is no longer being reported as a deficiency. And then I don't know if you remember, not that it's our concern, but the only other one on that cap plan had to do with their reporting of a grant that they had for the senior community side. So that was gone too. So both of them are gone. I need the one we had, the one they had, and we only have one left. So I thought that was great. The only other thing and happy reading. You can read this.
In the middle, there's a list of town funds, and they list all the 57 funds, the ones that are under capital reserve, and we do have one there. So I highlighted them for you so that if you're looking at, like, the overall it looks like this, Mark. So, if you are looking at, let's say, the budget on the town side, you'll know which ones are ours to to look at. So the one that says school capital improvement fund, that's ours. Okay? Then under the non major special revenues, if you flip the page, you'll see the one that says school lunch fund and the one that says school grant fund, those are ours as well. There's also one on top of there in my What is the Student Student acronym. Yes. I'm sorry. That is ours too. I didn't highlight it. Yep. Sorry. So you can highlight one. That one's ours. Yes, ma'am. We have those on our side, but whenever you see them listed, those are ours. So that money is sitting with us. And then under the capital projects, the one that says Andororo Metro expenditure fund, that's ours. I think getting
rid of that. I know. They're supposed to do it with the capital funds. Yes. Those both of That's been for, like, a year and a half. I know. They never merged. It's still there. Yes. Yes. So and then the permanent funds on the bottom, that Norton School Fund. That's ours too. The good news about the Norton School Fund is when you flip the page here, they have all the balances. You've got the balances in here as of July 1, all the balances for the start of this year for all of their funds with an audit. So what you're looking at here is all of them. I've highlighted the ones that are our concern on the top, the name of them. So you'll see our ABS reserve fund, that one, at the close of business on, the end of last year. So to start a business for us, July one this year, there was three forty six seven zero nine in there. So that's that 2%. Another one of concern for us would be on the next page. So the reserve fund is a two percent nonlapsing account. Correct. Yeah. Thank you. K. On the next page, there's the AES Capital Fund, and that's the one that I was just referring to with
my comments about Georgette. That one has 527841. Taylor, there's someone trying to Sorry. Thank you.
You said the reserve fund was a 2% no. Not that Yes. Was ahead of you. Sorry about that.
And then our third one on their side there is this the Norton School Fund, and that's on page 73, it says on the bottom there. Mhmm. And that one has 78,253.
And then what is those other the fund balances at the bottom line, like, the capital fund are, those are other town funds? All of the other ones in your packet are Like, multiuse building is, like, 425,000
That's theirs. Road improvement. Okay. So if you look at, like let's just pull one. Multiuse building fund, that's not ours. That's theirs. Yeah. So, like, that $4.25, 425,000, that's in the account for them. Yeah. So but I thought that would be useful for you. I highlighted, like I said, on the top, the ones that are ours. Okay? Those are the ones that Jody is looking every month with our financials to get us the, the the accurate accounts score. So, but the other ones, like I said, the AES, school activity fund, that appears here in an audit, but Jody would have that balance every month. We wouldn't have to call them because that that account actually is is in the audit, the shared audit, but it resides here. We don't ask that that resides here. So okay? Any questions on that? I think that's it, Fez. That's really, honestly, really good for the audit overall. It's great. It is. You know? I think it's it's a good thing. Like that. It is. I think it's a good thing on both sides.
You know? I think that, you know, hopefully, this year, things will get done just a little bit sooner. We'll get better. I mean, we used to be over a year behind the sound. Yeah. And now it's getting a little bit thicker. I know it's gonna move up. So
any other questions for me? I tried to keep in. Yeah? K. Taylor,
principal's report? Yeah. Just a couple other things to add on. Obviously, we did the invention convention, but we have a day and a half left of professional development this year. So next Friday on the twentieth, we have a full day of professional development. Some varied things happening in the building. We have, Barb Golub, a reading consultant, coming to, do some teaching around YouFly. It's a program I've talked about that we're piloting for phonics, targeting, in that k two range, our decoding. And then we also have some of our upper grades teachers working on social studies curriculum. But I haven't talked in-depth about it, but I I believe I mentioned there were new social studies standards that were published this year. I can't I apologize if I didn't. But, at the beginning of this school year, they redid they had been, like, a lot of years since the state had republished, and relooked at social studies standards. So we were thrilled. However, the elementary social studies standards imply that perhaps you learn social studies many hours a day in elementary school, which we love that kind of Jerry knows. That hasn't changed. I swear it's more, Jerry. And so we are
taking all of that in this year and trying, but starting to really, obviously. We we appreciate they wanted to give more direction to elementary school about what is it in fourth grade to say that you want us to kids to come away with, but I they might have put a touch a lot. So we're really working through that, and we're starting at the top. We believe we we felt strongly we wanted to start at sixth grade as, of course, they're closest to that heavier science social studies work in RAM and make sure we're building that curriculum down accordingly. Again, k one two, you'll find that that integration is just more natural and easy in your read alouds and your, you know, magazines. But, of course, three through six, we wanna make sure we have a robust session. So that work happens. Sorry. I got off topic on
that day as well. And then our pre K program, it's a big busy time for pre K because we will start to plan for all of our spring screeners, looking at our birth dates and arranging thinking about how we want to model our classrooms, and then thinking about planning. Because the requirements and accountability is so high in pre k because they're grant funded, there's a lot of fun paperwork. I'm just we have to submit in terms of our professional development plan for next year. What are all of the different things we wanna study? What what have we done already? It's just a lot, and so it's great.
But that will be work that they start working on in the spring and making sure we're ready to go. And that's all part of, like, reinsuring that you're able to get Yes. That's how we qualify. Yep. And then we will have our second visit for pre K, our liaison set in April or May, which is scheduled. No. This is for our early start, Grady, early start funding. We have a liaison that comes to make sure we're actually doing what we say. So she'll come in. She does twice a year. She'll come in April or May. So we're preparing for that. And then the last one is that half day before April break, and we'll continue Val will continue to lead us in the Atlas training thinking about our lockdowns in school safety and security. And then we have our parent spring parent teacher conferences, spring report cards. So that's all happening right now, which is a busy time in our spring student meetings. So as you know, last month, we presented some midyear data. We have some more this month. And so in the next week, we'll sit with each teacher. We meet about each kiddo and make sure they're getting what they need for the last trimester. And are they all done with testing? Because We finished. Yeah. I think we have, like, one or two kiddos that just sort of finished up. But so then we do our student meetings next week and our I Ready,
which is the assessment we take now, that all is good timing. We'll go home with the report cards and then any changes to intervention plans and things like that. So it's a busy time. March is busy because you really gear up for that last trimester and make sure it goes really smoothly.
Can you remember the year before the I Ready scores at board meetings, or was that just the SPAT? I remember. I the ones I showed were
some iReady from December. We just took it we take it in March. We don't take it in May because we can use we're not allowed to publicly share SBAC in the spring, but we get preresults that we can internally start to plan for kids, so we don't retest them. Also, I should mention, I apologize, Ram came today. And on Monday, they test our sixth graders. They give the NWEA test, which is what Ram uses. And, again, we are all about not overtesting our kids, so we don't give them I Ready as well. That would be ridiculous. Ram, of course, shares the data that they just gathered, and we're able to make sure their last trimester, that data helps them to plan for what classes they'll take, particularly in math, but in both subjects in terms of next year. So that that works out well, and we're we're
we, the state just required us to all to do an assessment audit, and so we just got those reports as a district that really looks at how many hours are you testing each grade level per year, and in what ways. And, so there's, of course, that emphasis, and we were really I was really pleased with our results because, again, I think we're very thoughtful in making sure we're assessing kids as we need to. Yeah. There are days where you're just like, I I know what they know. Teachers know what they know. They that's the gift that they have, but we're we're thoughtful in making sure we're not, you know, keeping them on those tests too. So yep. That was good. Ram came, and we're ready to go. And I'll go see Ram in just a few weeks, our sixth graders. They'll go the Ram trip. I know. The spring will come fast, all of the events. Yes, ma'am. Every report now going forward is like, we have so much going on. So
I wanna just give Taylor a little shout out here not to embarrass her. When those when the teachers do do the testing, it not only drives the instruction in the classroom, but I've watched Taylor do, an an evaluation with the teacher, the conference with the teacher in mid year, and she uses those results to assist the teachers in driving their instruction. And I watched her incredibly sit there with one of our new teachers and use that data to say, this is what you did that was fantastic. This is how you got there. This is what you can do moving forward with those one or two kids that were a surprise to you either on the upper end or not,
and she did it fantastically. So I I it it is it's awesome to see that those scores are not just used to get a number for a kid. She's using them with the teachers, and then she's also using them to help that instruction from the level of the principal. So it's it is it's fantastic to watch.
Cool. Yep. Good stuff. Busy busy. Good. And no more snow, and we'll be happy. Last day of school is that Wednesday now. Some you know, I know some of your parents were just interested is that following Wednesday we are at.
I saw that there's some, like Nope. Local seven. Hold on. I saw that there are some locals,
like, districts that had camp starting the following week, so we cannot go. It is very true. It is very true. Pool thought about that. Yep. And so they were they were debating on what to do. Yeah. You're absolutely right, Brake. Crazy. So no more. Snow is done. We cannot.
I'm glad you declared that. It's done. Yeah. Done. Excellent. Excellent. Thank you for doing that. No problem. I have that kind of authority around you. Samantha is good.
Taylor, do you have anything else for us? I do not.
Financial report. Okay. Great. Yes. So we're really excited to have the first draft of the audit, and kudos to Val and to Terry. So tourism I just I just have to really say what a great mentor she's been in in making this transition as, smooth as possible. Working on projections. So as stated in the last meeting, I mean, we will be in a deficit. I don't project it's a huge deficit, but it'll be there. We can talk numbers as you look at the the expenditure reports. Working on drawing down any of the state grants, whatever we can get. You know, typically, we, you know, spend the money and then get reimbursed. But the end of the year, we can actually start drawing those down in anticipation of the end of the year. So on that. Also wanted to mention to the the monthly reports we give to the town. I was just waiting because I was new, and then there was no treasurer for a while. So there was nobody to give the reports to. So I'm working on finishing up the February reconciliation. And then once that's done, then I will give the the the new treasurer all the reports for the time when there was no no treasurer. So I wanted to to let people know that there was a little lag because there was no treasurer. So looking at the expenditure reports, again, I don't think any surprises. It's the same categories.
But, actually, repair and maintenance is leveling out, so I don't anticipate oh, I anticipate a little bit of a a deficit in that area, and it can be covered by others. So I anticipate for repair and maintenance will be over by about 10,000. Don't hold me to those items because if something breaks, that can change it. But right now, if all goes well, printing and binding, I think I talked about this last month, is a bit over. And that's because in the past, you had machines that you own, the district owned. But what was happening is they were getting old, and then we they weren't able to service them and get parts. So this year, in addition to the printing costs, we're also paying the leasing costs.
So when you look at the printing, that's really why it's the it's the least cost because you have we have new machines. And those are really the two that have I know we've talked about instructional IA subs. If you notice that, that's a 108% expended. That's instructional assistant sub salaries, so it's a little bit over. So I anticipate between the teach the teacher subs is at 86% expended, so I anticipate we'll have a little bit of an They're bad. Yeah. They'll kinda balance and might but, again, it might be a little bit of a an overage there. So What what about oil and heating at, like it's at, like, 62%
right now? Yeah. It'll Like, relative to other years, are we in a decent
place? We won't go in and find. Yeah. We won't go over. I think we'll actually be we'll do well in that category. And when we looked at I just looked at our usage, and we'll be our we'll be 2,000 gallons under our anticipated
Great. Usage. Street. Yeah. So so that's good. How did that happen? This year is full.
Well, don't forget We locked in a really little rate. We did lock in an an excellent rate, but don't forget that the school building itself stays a few degrees cooler when we're not in session, and some of the really cold days happen to be snow days for kids. Oh. So if they fell on the Monday, Tuesday like they did two weeks ago Everything the temperature went down in this building on Friday. When we left, the custodians turned it down, and then it stayed down. Okay. And nobody was using the building. There would have been no basketball or anything, so there wouldn't have been a reason during the snowstorm us to have to turn it back up. So that would have saved us. And when you're talking 200 gallons in the course of a of a day, on a normal day, three days helps. Well,
especially when they're in conjunction instead of heat. That's what I if it's a Monday, and it's a nice day. Right, where nobody was here, we could keep that temperature down. So we did get a hit or lucky this year Yeah. In the the timing of the snowstorms. We hit it once. So
we're gonna be happy about that. Jody, just looking overall. So you had talked to us last time. I thought we were, like, 57% last month. Anyway, just looking overall, it doesn't matter. How are we faring with 63%
of the budget overall use just on the general? Yeah. I I think, again, we're in good shape. And, again, I don't think there are any big surprise. Again, looking at what your budget was and talking to them knowing last year that you had to make cuts, like Yeah. I think, hopefully, you might actually be better than you thought you were going to be. Terrific. You know? So
Don't forget. Yeah. What? So don't forget that Jody wasn't with us in the spring, but don't forget that there's that one time that you're gonna go from is it 63 now? Up. We have the encumbrance next month when Jody puts the encumbrance in for those last five paychecks for the future. The balloon payment. Yeah. So that's yes. So that's close to about 425,000
for one payroll period. Is is that actually why like, because I'm one of the things I'm noticing is that the burn rate is higher on, like, group insurance, Medicare, like, the the benefits than it is on the teacher's side. Yeah.
Because that is 12 equal payments break. Okay. When we pay the, medical benefits, it's in 12 equal payments. When we do the the teacher salaries, for example, it's it's sure. They get paid in 26 equal paychecks, but come week 21, they get week 22, 23, 24, 25, and 26 at one time. Like, altogether. Correct. So we have one payroll period in June where she puts through a payroll that's over $400,000. And remember, our allowance comes in, our ACH transfer only through April. We do not get the $425,000 from the town in May or June because we set it up on purpose originally to be 10 payments because all that money needs to be in there in June so that we can make those end of the year payments. Right? Do you ever encumber that? She's got it for next month. Yes. Okay. Yeah. That's what I would I to figure out what it is now. Though Jody's Jody's been great. Jody's she's got a ton on her plate, but she hasn't done that for us yet. Right. So she's in the process now of doing that. Yeah. I'm gonna spend But I started I started encumbering everything. That's, like, our our health insurance.
Before Terry, like, nothing was ever encumbered. So Right. It's but it it's nice to to see that because then, yeah, instead of being like, oh, we're only 58%.
Well, and what wound up happening, Kate, was there were people that didn't understand school finances. And from April to May or May to June then, they would see, oh, the school has $700,000 in there. And then all of a sudden, June would come, and we'd have 50,000, and they'd say, they must have mass spent on something. They didn't understand that there was a payroll that was over $400,000. Right. And so it did look years ago before us to the outsider that all of a sudden, you know, we went and brought a hot tub or something. Like, what what did they spend? $400,000 on it a month. It looked ridiculous. So that's where an encumbrance is important. So still working on it. Because next month, when you she shows you the encumbrance in that line, you're going to see what the salary should be for those salaried employees for the rest of the year. Mhmm. Right. Because we'll we'll be coming to you with saying this is how much money we need to transfer from the two percent. Right. So once I get everything encumbered,
then it'll really give us a better Yeah. Picture of exactly what we need to transfer over. 700,000. Oh my god. Bath at a bathroom. I
was like, I'm looking for that. I am finding it. No. It's our. We don't have. Supposed to. You can put a hot dog in. Thanks. Okay. Great. Does anyone have any other questions on financial stuff? No? Good. No. Okay. So we'll move on to discussion items or please report I have them. That's why.
So CIP met, and we met for the purpose of hearing from the fire department. They need a new compressor to fill their SCBA tanks, scuba tanks. The air compressor dates to 1991, and some parts are becoming obsolete. So they didn't have more than one quote for us when they met with us, so we're going to hopefully be meeting again next week to see more quotes and to be able to recommend
an approval of a new professor. What's the For the Like, what was their quote that they got? Do you remember? Nope.
And do you remember who? I'll look at it. It was.
Just curious. Like, are we on a scale of, like, 30,000?
No. 100,000? It's a couple 100,000. Couple 100,000. Yeah. Me look at it. I don't Yeah. Yeah.
Know. It's a common system, and you have that. I'm a special. Feel like I feel like he taught in the board of finance after this VIP meeting, and I wanna say he got two other quotes that were faster than
than what the first one was, but I don't remember. About it the board finance meeting the night that I presented. The same night as the fire department presented as well. Yes. And they did talk about it then, and they said that they were waiting for two more points. Yeah. Wally Barton's. Mhmm. Yeah. I have a. A $100,000.
Okay. Oh, that's what I was gonna guess too. I should've opened my own. I was like, I'm just curious. We wanna wanna toast. Yeah. Sorry. Just get a cookie anyway. I know. I don't have a good sense of Mhmm. How much things cost. Like, what was your boiler thing? You said a 155,000. Right? But Yeah. Amazing. It is crazy.
Okay. Anyone else have liaison reports? We had a ETA meeting last Monday. We had a very successful restaurant night at Bidwell. Thank you, Taylor. How did we do? Do you know? I do know. Hold on. I know. Tell you right now. We're out. Knows. Danny filled the Bailey's on it. Yep. I know I'd ask Jamie to a hit. She sent it. She sent me of the hold on. I'll tell you. $242.
Yeah. We got the. Good job, Jake. Good job, Greg. Yeah. The other thing that I would add is most I think all of the officers are up for reelection on PTA. So if anybody is interested, you need to email Celeste and be at the next meeting to be there to get voted on. Sure. I love being in the PTA. It's fun. It's
a fun it's a fun group. And I will say, while it's not truly, like, a liaison role, cool just appointed or, like, had new people appointed to their board, and my husband apparently did that. So I love them. You get involved. Like, I was I'm yucky around the cool board. Well, they sent the email to our joint email, and I and I was like, I did not sign up. Like, who are you? So who are I think it's Eli Eli. Yeah. You all said no. I said no. You.
But yes. No. It was like so so Cool is trying to, like, re up their parental involvement with the board and, like, facilitate how things are run, and I think that's great to keep the program going. Cool. Okay. So we'll move on to the bathroom project, which is a really exciting update. Eric Sanderson has worked his butt off for us. I have spoken to him on the phone numerous times as well as Jeff Murray as well as Valve in in terms of getting RFP up and running. It was posted to our school's website last Friday, and it was posted to the town's website on Monday. So there is a a milestone schedule within it. You guys are all welcome to pull up the ticket for yourselves. But, basically, there's a mandatory site visit on March 17. So any contractor who wants to submit a bid has to come to that and and walk through the site visit. Our plan is to have myself, Jeff Murray, and Bill DeRoziers as well as Eric Eric Sanderson present at that site visit so that we have representation from all of the boards in our town as well as from Eric who has been phenomenally helpful in doing basically doing all of this. And then the request for information is due by March 20, so three days after the site visit. And then they
get responses to those requests by March 25, and then the proposals are due on April 6. We have a board of ed meeting on the eighth, I believe. So we will be able to look at those proposals on that day. The contract award date as stated in the milestone schedule is April 15 with the construction start date of June 16 or later and then a certificate of occupancy by August 25. So, hopefully, we'll get some good contractors that give us bids, and we'll have a good good place to go. It's all good. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. Good. And if if anyone wants, I printed it just so that I could say it, but if you guys wanna look at that. I'm gonna do it. It's on the website. Yeah.
Does anyone have questions about that at all? What time is the meeting? The mandatory meeting?
Oh, Oh, the last zero? It's at 03:30, so after school runs. Anything else? Nope. Okay. So that's all I got on the bathroom project. We're in a we're in a good place now. Nice. Excellent. Nice. K. And then next item on our agenda is the policy thirty three twenty six update. Do you guys have in front of you this?
Do you look in front of your seats there? Okay.
So the original policy is on that first page. It was 2009, so that was the last revision for us. It didn't reflect, a lot of of things that have happened since then. The backup signer, to our account back then, was the chairperson and the first selectman. Our account was not separate. We were part of the town side. So we did our own checks, but we didn't have our own account, which is why we didn't, like, receive money ACH transfer. He was the chief executive officer of the town. That is why this policy absolutely would have been written for that. It was entirely appropriate. In 2017, that did change. At that time, it would have changed for us as well. The annual report for that year, I didn't know this guy, so I had to look it up. It became a guy named Joe Higgins Yep. And then Eric Anderson. So on the second page there, you have that letter from mister Burbank. What again, I don't I I never had the pleasure of meeting either. And it showed that that charter revision in 2017, changed the form of government from the first selectman as the CEO to the town administrator as the CEO. And that's kind of important. I'll show you in a sec. So from that time on, the town had decided that the two CEOs, the superintendent, which Sally Doyne was superintendent before me, the superintendent was CEO here and the CEO on the town side, which became Eric Anderson after mister Higgins. I don't know if mister Higgins was a signer on our account here. I didn't look back and see that, but it definitely then was Eric Anderson in 2018. So, unfortunately, at that time, neither the town nor the school
created a procedure, and they didn't change the policy. So we were both doing it wrong. It worked. Everybody was doing it. It was agreed upon. So, but we were kinda doing it wrong, in doing that. It became a procedure that should have been documented, and it just wasn't at that time. Then in 2020, the town voted to switch the financial software system of Edmonds at that time. That's when, you know, in 2020, they switched, and we had our M and T Bank here account here. They had a different one over there. They used QuickBooks. What happened was, mister McGuire then at the time, first electman said, you know, we've got a lot of stuff going on with the audit. Could you, do us a favor? You guys are gonna be keeping, if you guys remember, sharing homes, and we're keeping Marina on our side. And so we would love you to just do it the way Ram does. Eric and I think you guys remember this because it was kind of, like, funny that night. I had gone to the bank with Eric to open the account, and Eric and I would be the signer on our school account here. And we get to Evan T and Glastonbury, and we open the account. The two of us are proud of each other, and then they say You deposit money. You need deposit money. I had no cash.
I look at Eric, and I'm like, I don't have any cash. I'm like, do have an ATM? He's like, I have $30. So I literally had to take the $30 out of Eric's pocket to open this account, and we had to pay him back. But I was like, we that's it. And we had driven together. I'm like, I'm so sorry. I'm it was kind of a joke in the way. I'm like, wanna stop getting bumpy? Oh, sorry. I don't have any money. But that's what we did at the time. And procedurally, we were both in agreement that, you know, I was signing their checks. They were signing our checks, and that there were backups on the town side of the first and second selectmen. And we had our backups at that time, the chair and vice chair. Mhmm. You know, we had we had done that, but we never went back. I don't think any of us realized that it was actually written in this policy. So then what happened was so we decided that there was nothing official. We should have put it down, and we didn't. The town didn't have a written protocol either. That's just been what's in in existence for a while. It does need to be altered.
It needs to be altered. I I did request not to be a signer on the on the town side, so I know they're changing their signers now as well. I think it's gonna be dependent on, you know, when they get a town administrator or who they decide. Who we decide as signers does not have to be dependent on who they decide. I did consult the auditor and say, hey. Are you okay with what our existing policy says? And he said yes. Are you okay? Would you prefer, you know, that it's the town administrator or the vice chair? And he did say that he can't give us advice, but that I I pushed. What was it like in other towns that have this situation?
It does look like it would be the vice chair, but, of course, this board has that decision, to make if you would like it to be whomever the new town administrator winds up being or the the vice chair.
Question. Yep? Is there a reason that it can't be both? What do mean? Like, is there a reason you couldn't list vice chair or the town administrator?
If you wanted that person as the third backup, you could. Could. There it requires two signatures. So I know that, Marcy, you had also sent, from another tab. You had sent a sample in looking at that.
Actually, I reworded it in an email to everybody Right. Because So you were questioning the bottom part, and that that was Well, no. I was actually questioning the whole thing because
it was a sample from Salem, and Salem is a town that this one was even older than ours. Their policy was 2006, and I was like, oh, I didn't feel so bad then. Ours was 2009 that we haven't updated it. I was like, theirs was 2006. I felt a little bit better. So it was it was you know, that was part was different. But in Salem, they didn't have their two CEOs signing all the checks. And so because that wasn't done regularly, they had to put something in there that said each order for the payment of expenses by the town treasurer on behalf of the board shall be signed by a board that designee. That would have been things like if we needed to take money out of the 2% nonlapsing account, if we needed to take money out of our capital.
Anything where they were cutting a check on our behalf. Mhmm. That particular town says, then if it's on our behalf from an account over there, then they wanted a designee from the board to do that. That was really the only time they did that. And so the other things on the top were specifying times when the superintendent would enter into or pay bills for goods and services. But ours says, because we have a very limited central office here, says that I do all of the payroll accounts payable checks, which I do. So I went back to do you remember last year when we did the cave audit? Mhmm. Yeah. So I did. I was like, you know, I I I just wanna make sure. I went back to the 3 thousands here and said, what did they say, about our our policy? And if you look back, they said, appropriate as written based on the Cave model, and they had, no comments or suggestions for changing it. So that's the good news. The good news is they think that this is fine as is. The only thing you guys have to do is to change it. And it is my suggestion,
that we, just keep the protocol that we had in place, which was chair and vice chair, and make it official, because it wasn't officially in here. We had been doing it that way. We had had chair and vice chair. It just wasn't official. So I think that that's where we need to go with that. The only reason why I was
looking into I was thinking it should be a little more spelled out because it seems seemed a little vague, and it seemed like the first four sentences that I had sent seemed like it added a little more extra layer of protection so that everything's, you know, spelled out. And, you know, I was thinking about it. You know, Jeff McGuire did us a solid by not signing the check for Fuss and O'Neil because if he didn't, we might be in the middle of a $400,000 bathroom project that, you know, maybe isn't right. It's maybe you know? So that's the only way check. It was money we owed. Is that what you're talking about? Yeah. Yeah. That's what I think that's what started all this. Right? Because he wasn't gonna No. Not to do with this. Of it? It's really not Part of it.
So I think I think the other thing to talk about, right, is the difference between a policy and a procedure. And I think going back to looking at this policy happened for the most part because the procedure that has been followed by both the town and the school was then not being followed correctly, and that made people nervous about sign being asked to sign checks that were not procedurally presented correctly. Mhmm. Mhmm. But that's not in the policy. Nope. Right?
Right. And and and So where does that procedure get written down? We would have been completely fine to have followed this since 2018 if when that procedure was put in place in 2018, the board at the time realized, and you can't have them all memorized, so it's nobody's fault. But if they had realized, oh, wait a minute. We do have a policy that it was when the charter revision happened. Mhmm. So they should have gone back to the charter when they revised it and said, okay. Now we have a town administrator instead of the first elect man being CEO. But but pretty much everything in the town charter should have been revised from that. From that. And and and just like we can blame them and say they never went back through the charter and revised and took out first selectman and put in town administrator Yeah. The board then didn't think to do that in 2018 either and say, jeez. Is there anything in our policies that references the first selectman as this the chief elected or or the chief CEO? Jobs. Right. Executive. Because had anybody thought to do that at the time, and, again, I wouldn't have either, they would have seen and said, oh, we do have one policy that references his role. And if this in 2018 had been changed to reflect that procedure, and it would have said chair either the chairman of the board, superintendent, or town administrator, we would have been fine. Mhmm. Mhmm.
But it it just wasn't changed in 2018. So and it's not something Cade would have told you when they did our audit because that percentage not looking for it. So what they're looking for is, do you have two backup signers? Mhmm. That's all they're looking at. And, yes, you did. Mhmm. And so you were not out of, you know, what they would have wanted to see. They wanna see that you have two backup signers. Well, actually, one backup signer, two signers. So because we have two lines on our checks. You need two always people and a backup just in case one of them is not available. So and, again, we have had a proper protocol and procedure. It just needs to be in the policy. Yeah. Do you need a motion?
Well, I was asked about that myself, and I'll remind everybody we need to first have a month where we're doing a reading of the policy Mhmm. Before we can vote on the policy. Correct?
That's my recollection of the policy. Yes. Okay. So we're supposed to have a But Jerry's right that you have to agree upon what it is you want the policy. Right. Right. So that next month, you're finalizing it. So just to read where you say, these are these are the changes we want in it. Right. And there's a motion, and then there's discussion about
you wanna make a motion? Yeah. I can make a motion. Make a motion. I make a motion that we revise policy thirty three twenty six as indicated on what was included in the board packet, which is to change second paragraph from first electorate to vice chair of the board of education as far as signing checks. One second.
Okay. I look forward to see. So you guys don't have think that we need to add any of this
clarify clarification wording. I don't think we need that clarification wording because of how our town is set up and the fact that, like, the auditor made it very clear that the school does the school stuff, the town does the town stuff, and then you reconcile at the end of the year. Right? Versus this is like, your example from Salem is a town where they're not doing that. So the superintendent had permission to do it for only specific things and otherwise the town They would have to have a policy that said
when transferring money on the school's behalf to the school, that check has to be signed by, let's say, the town administrator or superintendent. The reason why they don't have that policy is because we already had always signed one another's checks, so out of procedure since 2018. So they could decide, you know what? Moving forward, if it's coming out of the 2%, if it's coming out of the capital, if it's coming out of the Norton, we would like to have a board of ed designee sign it. They would have to, you know, do a policy for them, not us here. We can't say, you have to make us sign your check. They would do that. And and here, the wording, since I'm it, I'm central office,
the superintendent approves all the invoices for payment prior to the board of ed signing up. So So if you wanted to sign a contract for, like, the board the bathroom project for $400,000
That's able to do that. That that's not a So I guess that's what I was gonna say. A lot of stuff is covered in other policies. So Right? Yeah. They purchase orders, yep, to pay the bills on a daily basis. Right. Right. I would argue that perhaps there should be something in there to make it a little more lenient. Like, I feel like I I was looking at a bunch of other towns, and it said, like, you know, you need another signer unless it's, you know, to pay the electric bill or unless you're gonna incur a late fee or unless there's a cost savings. I don't wanna have that in there. And so And I think that puts that that increases liability. Okay. Right? For, like, for the superintendent to do something without any of us knowing about it. Feel like that's not safe for her. It's not safe for her. A lot more liberal, I think, than that one. So so I'm I'm in agreement with this. I am. I am. And I but I see you could go kind of two extremes. Mhmm. Yeah.
But, again, it's just check signing. It's what we've been doing. It's customary that pretty much most other boards My only question do it that way. I brought up the town administrator and granted, it's an awkward discussion right now because we don't currently have one. Right. But was should that, like, title also be named on here in addition to the the vice chair? I guess I'm As a backup? Yeah. I guess I'm just As another person. Is there an issue with having, like, people available to sign check? Like, how many checks do you need signed? Do you sign a job to pay the electric bill? No.
There there isn't an issue. There there definitely isn't. The the issue the purpose of a backup signer is, obviously, if you're two main signers, if one of them is unavailable. But you wanna make sure that whether you're the town or the school, you wanna make sure that someone that's signing them is not signing them just for the purpose of signing them. They should have some kind of an interest or understanding of what they're signing. Yeah. So if I hand And actually look at it. Correct. So because Eric and myself, we had a lot of common vendors. You know? If if I looked at a check for our oil company that we both have the same oil company, you know, and I'm seeing that we paid $2.59 a gallon. So I see the purchase order, I sign it, and he signs it. If now the town check had been coming to me, and all of a sudden it says $3.99 a gallon, I might say, mom, why do you guys pay so much? Or did they bill you wrong? Like, there's a set of eyes that understands that. Mhmm. And there were times when, just out of curiosity, one of us would ask each other a question. You know? Like, just maybe it's like, oh, hey. How do you guys like this kind of company that you use? So so that actually worked out,
for the two of us to have that. But the auditor did said it's more ideal for us to have the board because you guys are the ones with the vested interest Mhmm. In, you know It was deeper understanding of what Correct. So,
yeah. So you wanna get to a deeper understanding. Oh, yeah. I I agree that. Yeah. Especially where we don't have this big central office. So, you know,
I am the one that approves the purchase orders. Mhmm. And so to have that second person, you know, and the alternate be board members, the only time I think it would be tough for us is, let's say, you know, I was unhealthy and out on leave for a while, and the two signers were just these two. After a month or two, we have to have a conversation. Mhmm. Because they would be like, okay. We don't normally approve these purchase orders, so we need to make sure we understand what's going on. Right. There are towns and cities where the superintendent does not sign a single check because the finance office is large. Yeah. And there are other people signing. In the little towns, it's us. Mhmm. You know? So that's where it becomes, you know, a a little bit sketchier in small towns. So this is ideal to have the second one be we were doing it right. We just didn't have the protocol. Do that. Yeah. Gotcha. I wanted to comment just to to reflect what I thought I heard as far as you're concerned.
There is almost never a time where there's an urgent or an emergency situation Right. That a check needs to be signed. So it's it's, in my experience, in ten years, never gotten to that point. Okay.
Correct? Correct. You know? Yeah. So with this, if we had a policy, you know, like you're proposing to do it, then we would have signed, would have sent that last check to.
Right? No. No. That did not come out of account. That's a town account. The capital account is a town account. So no one from this board or Val So nothing write those checks or sign those checks. No. I I would have signed that check because I signed the town checks. Right. However, that is not our account. And because I write it down. Right. Okay. That's not ours. We don't we don't have physical control over those three accounts. Okay. The Norton, the Capital, and the 2%. The 2%. We don't have physical control over those accounts. They do. So
this is only as it says in the in the heading for goods and services. Oh, okay. If you look at the heading on the policy. Right. More so, yeah. So it's only good for for that one of our bills. All of our bills that we're issuing checks. Gotcha.
For the discussion that we do now? Yeah. No. We want enough further discussion. Okay. We'll call the question. All in favor?
Recruiting the way that it's written. We're we're not approving, though. We're No. We're just saying that this is gonna vote on next month. Okay.
No. I just wanted to make clarify. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we're saying that we're okay with doing this for next month. Yep. All in favor. Aye. Aye. Aye. Alicia? No. She's there. Unmute, Alicia. Okay.
Alicia. We'll have to come back. Maybe Heather will message. Okay. Fantastic. Yeah.
Okay. We're up to comments from the public on agenda items. Anne? No. Hi. Christina? No? Okay. Diane Greiner? Thank you. Thank you. Jamie? No comment. Thank you. Jenny Moran? Nothing from me. Thank you. Scott Swiet?
Thank you for all the work you guys are doing. That's it. Thank you. Holly? Nothing from me. Jenna Goldrick? All set. Thanks. Amanda Beloy? I'm all set. Thank you. Amber Richard? All set. Thank you. And Georgia?
Sorry. No. Thank you very much. I'm all set. Okay. Thank you. Did I miss anyone? No. I think No. Okay.
So next up, we have an executive session to discuss the superintendent's contract and a legal issue for the Board of Us. I'll make a motion to go into the executive session All those purposes. Second. K. It's eight forty. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Name of votes? Aye. You will find out in twenty minutes.
You're recording. Okay. We are recording. So we came out of executive session. We do need to go back to item eight b to get Alicia's vote for updating the policy thirty three twenty six just if we can add Alicia for updating the policy for next month, thirty three twenty six for adding the vice chair as a secondary signer. Are you in favor? Or Aye. Okay. In favor. Okay. And then we will come out. So we discussed the superintendent's contract tonight, and we did decide to take a roll call vote on that contract to proceed with it as written from our October meeting. So we'll go around one at a time. Brie? Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Pause. And Alicia?
Breathe. She's on mute. Alyssa, can you hear us?
Sorry. I'm here. I'm gonna abstain because I wasn't there, and I haven't had a chance to update all this stuff. I'm sorry. Okay. Not a worry. No. Not a worry. I'm so sorry. The service is awful here.
You're okay. Thank you. Okay. Does anyone have other action items for tonight? K. So in terms of upcoming meetings, the town budget hearing is April 1. The mandatory site visit for contractors to come for our fee is March 17. And then our regular board of ed meeting is April 8, and then we are gonna have a board of ed budget information session thirty minutes before the town meeting. And that's April 9, which is a Thursday. Does anyone have anything else? And April 9, that is the town meeting where you need to be present
vote for what budget will be put forward to wrap For a referendum. Right.
And so we are having the informational session on the ninth beforehand. Just the half an hour before that. It's thirty. Should we be doing something on the first or no? Just the ninth. That's not their meeting. It's the board of finance's meeting. Okay. Yeah. Oh, right. Right. Right. Okay. And the only reason that we're adding this this informational session is because that meeting is run by the board of finance at the town meeting. Yeah. And often, like, the superintendent, the board of ed gets asked a lot of questions. Yeah. So I was hoping that we could alleviate some of those questions during the town meeting by having that directly. How can we get the word out that that's happening? Town has said that they're going to put it on the thing that Agenda. The agenda for the town meeting. Okay. The thing that they mail out to everybody? I believe so. Yeah. Great. That would be great. Yeah. I can I'll make sure I confirm that Terrific. With Keith. Does anyone have other items for our next meeting? So we will do the nine thousandths on.
And we also have to vote on the change to thirty three twenty six. And hopefully then no. We won't have anything yes. And we'll need to determine about the proposals. Yes. So we're back to them about Yes. Great.
And and I would imagine by that time, you know, Eric Sanderson, who's been instrumental in this, have he'll have had, you know, a day or two to review them and get his feedback. There's a week before our meeting. Right? I know they're due two days. Two days before meeting. I'm not One day before. Is that something we plan on voting on in that day? Yes. Okay. So make sure I check my email. No. No. No. Of our meeting.
So no. No. It says April 8. They're they're due April 6. Okay. You still have time. The timeline says that the The word contract isn't until fifty. Fifteenth. So if that day of your board event meeting, you're not comfortable yet deciding,
you have one full week with plenty of time to have a special meeting. You can have a special meeting. That's what we're doing. Okay. That makes more sense to me. That way, we'll be glad people will have time to see stuff. That sounds great. Yeah. I moved to adjourn at 09:39. All in favor? Alright. Thanks. Good job.