Meeting transcript
BOE Meeting
June 10, 2026 · Watch on Zoom · All meetings
On the board. You're all set, Caitlin. Okay.
It is 07:02PM on June 10. If they could call to order the regular meeting for the annual board of education for the month of June. We'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. So we'll start with public comment. It looks like there's a lot of people on here tonight. So just make sure that you can keep your comments to three minutes or less, please. And if I skip anyone, we'll try to go back with the end. Christina Fraser? Charlene Domastro? Nothing right now. Thank you. Jenna Goldrick? I'm all set. Thank you. Ashley Johnson. All good. Thank you. Diane Grineer. All set. Thank you. Let's go check. All set. Thank you. Okay. Liz?
Hi. Thanks. I just I just had a quick question and if you guys have a chance to address it. I did have one question that I emailed the board about, and I guess Valerie is gonna address that tonight. Thank you. My my other question was kind of about I know you guys transferred money out of the 2% non lapsing last month, and I know that you're of being over budget. But in looking at the the the financial statements, it looks like it looks like without having done that, you would still have a balance of over $40,000. So and it and from what I could see, Jodi Ann had entered all the encumbrances. So I'm just I was just kind of wondering why you did that and if maybe you could just address that because it does look like there would be $40,000 left even after thinking you guys would be in a deficit for the year. So that's all I wanted to ask about.
Okay. Thank you. We will address that. Jamie, Tilda, Bailey.
Yes. Hi. I just wanted to thank the board of Ed and Val for all of the hard work, time, and dedication you give to our students, staff, and community. I know this budget season has been especially challenging, and I can only imagine the amount of thought, effort, and difficult conversations that have gone into this process. As both a parent and an employee, I see firsthand how much our schools mean to our children and families. I appreciate your continued commitment to providing the best possible education and opportunities for our students. Please continue to advocate for our schools and fight for the resources our students and staff need. Your efforts are valued and they do not go unnoticed. Thank you so very much for all that you do. Jessica Wayne? I'm all set. Thank you. Patricia Kelly? I'm set for now. Thank you. K.
Anna? And if you could just state your last name.
Sorry. Anna Glowacki, Spanish teacher at the school, and I'm just kinda here to figure see what my fate is. Thank you.
Timberson? All set right now. Thank you. Temperature's dropping. It's the name of Yeah. Fine. All set. Okay. Did I miss anyone? I think Like, we're all on one page, Jen? Yeah. I think you're good. Okay. In terms of communications, I don't believe that there's anything that I have that was communicated directly to myself that I need to share with the board aside from things that were everyone was cc'd on. So does anyone else have other communications? No? Nope. K. Do we have celebrations?
Well, there are five days of school. That's good as bad. So no. Yeah. It's it's busy. You know? So there's a lot of celebrations. I'm gonna share during my report, just some end of year data because I just can't bear to wait until September when we have we, of course, then have our state testing available, but I will share that as kind of our biggest celebration. And that the staff and teachers did take home the kickball victory for sixth grade. So I just didn't want anyone worried about that. Very exciting last week. So, yeah, a lot of exciting things happening, but I'm looking forward to sharing some data soon. My child also disappointed. They told me that the blue Oh, house of rewards took the second win. Brutal. Right? Really? I can't I know. Stop. No. Brutal.
And I have to hear all about it. I don't know. Like, I don't know if it's true or not, but she's saying that they're the largest house, and they're an unfair advantage. They like that line. They're the spread of houses between kids is no more than 10. So they have a perception that
all the all the kids do. But you know what? We thought, sure. Could we have rigged it? But we wouldn't dream of it. Right? Because it's character building. So you know what? It's just gonna be more exciting to take Blue down, you know, the following year. But, yes, House of River did pull out the Amistad was close behind.
K. Okay. So we have approval of minutes from our regular meeting last month. Did look those over. The only thing that stuck out to me was the votes were wonky, but I feel like we might have lost votes from some remote folks. Right? Is that what happened? There's some seven zero o, some 60O. Because I got a note. Yeah. Which So what happened? Yeah. Probably. So it was probably some and not the other. Yeah. That would be okay. Alright. Because I came on late. Yeah. Came on towards the end of the day. Right. Yeah. So So the one that was six, like, she wasn't 77. Okay. That that makes sense. Okay. No. Other than that, I'd everything checked out as far as. And then I just had a question because it says Jen and Goldberg. Is is Jen and Goldberg our nurse now officially? Yeah. I'm gonna have a Oh, awesome. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Okay. I don't know how much you have to be bribed to do that, but we appreciate it. Model. Model. Model's all over for me. Yeah. She's good. She's a twin player. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. Does anyone wanna make a motion to approve those? Make a motion. Okay. Jerry, make a motion. And I want a second. Second. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Okay. So is that done? Yeah. So it's yeah. Yeah. Are there any agenda items to add or delete? No? We're addressing that question anyway. There's a question that anybody Sorry. I did ask. In the financial report. Yeah. Perfect. Fine. Okay. In terms of chairperson's oral report, I did write a little bit of something just because I think it's been a fairly contentious budget season, and I feel like, you know, between in person contact and online contact, people's emotions are very heightened on both sides of whichever fence you're standing on. I like to try to think of myself as in the middle most of the time,
and I I just wanna make sure that we're, you know, trying to to keep our role at the Board of Ed as being, like, one of stewardship and policymaking and not political. You know, we're really here. We're entrusted representing, like, our entire community of our little town to try to make informed decisions and work together for the better of the kids and of the school. And I think, you know, regardless of whether or not we agree on things, at the end of the day, like, we still have to be respectful. We have to be ethical. We have to, you know, talk with morals and have a conscience. And And I think that has been lost by a lot of people in our town this budget seen them as as has been evidenced by many other town meetings and ongoings. So I I think, you know, as a board of education, I I feel strongly that all of us on this board have done a good job at trying to put those things aside and and maintain profession professional interactions with each other. I also wanna remind everyone that our code of ethics requires us to maintain professional relationship with the superintendent. We're getting to the time of year when we will do evaluations for both our board and for the superintendent. So concerns that any member of our board has with ourselves as a board or with the superintendent should be approached through the means of our annual evaluations and not through letters to the public or posting online or any other ways that the public might approach our board because we're on the board. So it's it's important for us to hold ourselves
to that standard. I think equally important for members of the board of selectmen to do that as well, and we should not follow the suit or the example that was set this year by members on that board and try to continue to act ethically and cooperatively. It's just my 2¢ with kinda what's gone on thus far, and we'll see what happens when we have the budget vote. That's that's all I have to say. Thank you. Yeah. Stuffy what you said. I appreciate that. Okay.
So we have a couple of things that will be on the agenda a little bit later on for you guys, bathroom capital and budget transfers. So I'll just kind of, with my time here, talk a little bit about grant facilities and budget here. Let's start with grants. So they're lean in terms of which grants are out there, as we know. Jody will be speaking when she talks about her financial report. Some of them, we still have. We might just have them in a lesser capacity. And so that means trying to make up for things with them. The grants for preschool next year will actually be a little bit more. We do not have exact numbers yet on what would be brought in for, obviously, tuition because those agreements haven't even gone out yet. So we won't know what we'll bring in. Reminder, we brought in two forty seven in or we'll build we will be bringing in two forty seven this year in tuition. We're anticipating that that early start grant will go up by about $500 a kid. Estimates of either $6.40 or $4.60 depending on how you look at that. So that will give us a little bit more there. However, we haven't filled all the spots yet. We were holding some of them for the 11 missing kids that we know were born in Andover during that time period. I think two of them have been found.
So the rest of them, whether they opt to come to preschool this year or not because remember, with the change of age, our preschoolers are 2.9 to five. And so it's very common that they will wait a year, but they don't wanna be three year preschoolers depending on their birth date. So those numbers, we'll be able to give you over the summer once those agreements are returned, and we know what the total number of anticipated revenue will be for tuition as well as the finalized number, for the early start grant. Smart start grant is exactly the same. That one will remain at 65,000.
Title one, two, four, REAP and I d e a, six eleven and six nineteen, those, we do have the numbers for next year, and it's exactly the same as this year. The numbers are slightly down from what they've been in the past. So Jody, I'm sure, will be talking a little bit about what that means, you know, for making up the difference, in salary, which is, not much, but enough for us to have to do that. In terms of other grants that are available, we know next year, we have DRIP to assist us with some of the, things that need to be done, with facilities, but it's repair and maintenance. So it's not capital projects. So we wouldn't be going then to CIP or to the board of finance to utilize our capital account on those for DRIP. That would just be something we do in house because DRIP is a repair and maintenance. It's not a capital project, and it's a very small amount of money in this scope of things. We do still have a couple of
repairs that can be done to security because we were originally told no in 2023 when we put in for a match to some fixes to school security, some locks that needed to be fixed, those doors that needed to be fixed. And so, you know, we're still working on sending in the reimbursements to say this is the money we've already spent since that time. And as soon as they approve that, then we'll have a small lot of money to be able to do those fixes that we had hoped to do back then, that we've been milking since 2023. And so, again, they're not things that are in the budget. They're not things that are, you know, capital projects. They are other things that we know will be able to get done once that money comes along. And the state on it that one goes through DAS, so, that one will take a little bit longer.
The last one that we're putting in for is high quality incentive special education grant. We're probably not going to get that one because they generally there's about 20 that'll be awarded in each category capital and in programming. But we are putting in for it in hopes that maybe we can get something for next year to assist in special ed program. So that's where we stand with grants. No horrible news, but no great news.
And, hopefully, with summer, there will be a couple of other things. The eleven eleven kids, that's just based on, like, reports from town hall of kids born. So those kids. So
I actually, the last time I got the list was a little over a year ago. Carol was still the the the town clerk, and they have those records that can tell you how many births there were Okay. In each year. So I have them all the way up to 25. Okay. And then this year, I'll ask Roberta at the end of the year to give us 26. And we just keep track of those. We know how many families that live in the town of Andover have babies during the course of the year. So and that's how we kinda know then three years later Yep. About how many to expect. And those numbers have stayed pretty consistent, so so that's good. For facilities, we're gonna get to back in project updates, so I'll save that for us to talk about. We do have another contract there. Capital plan, we're gonna talk about too, so I'll save that for us to get there. And so then, I guess, that's budget. So we know that the budget referendum is Tuesday. So, hopefully, you know, we'll have a a high turnover turnout from people who go and vote on Tuesday. We will not know, obviously, what we do to deal with the loss of the budgeted amount until after it passes. So when it passes on Tuesday, then after that, you would have to schedule a special meeting. It could be done via Zoom, but you have to have a meeting to officially vote on once we know the exact number on what the board would like to see done like we did last year Mhmm. With the reductions. And if you remember anybody who was here either as a guest or on the board last year, we
then took all of the possibilities and decided at that point for the least interference with student learning, what we would do, where we would take money from. Because in the end, whatever the number is that's approved is the number that has to be on the budget. So things have to come out so that that number equals it. And if they came out like last year, they went to another revenue source, that's one thing. But the actual bottom line budget has to match what the budget is that's approved on Tuesday. So with that said, I have met with Jody and Taylor and our outgoing special ed director, spoken with the union, and really had to brainstorm what your options are. And I wanna go over them tonight because I want you to have an opportunity to really think about them. I don't want it to be that we're talking about them at a special meeting of the board of ed after Tuesday,
and then you're trying to make a decision in five minutes. So for anybody who then says, you know, not only do I wanna think about this, but I wanna talk to my friends, I want to potentially look some stuff up and research things. I really thought that we should put that on this meeting so that you can have an opportunity to be an informed decision maker at that meeting. So
we've come up with quite a few of them. So options to consider once it passes.
Consolidation and collapse of grade three. If we consolidate and collapse grade three, it would be quite a large class. But it then would be that one of those teachers would move to another grade. Or my bet that would be 24 kids, right, if I'm reading The for Two from this year. Yeah. Yes. So it'll be 24. So it's over that 22 mark that we always talk about being the ideal mark. And I know that there are people my age or older. I see it on Facebook that say, well, in my day, we had lots of classes that big. But I will say it was nice to see that there were a number of people that also at the meeting and in the general public that do recognize that it is different. Well, things are a lot different because parents have to work more because the cost of living. So they're not giving to their kids what we got when we were younger. Yep. In terms of yes. And, Alicia, it's changes in special education, changes in lot lots of other things within the classroom. Just general requirements too. We have a lot more requirements for things that need to be taught in the classroom as well. So student needs are definitely big. Is it ideal? No. But the other thing to consider is that we have been collapsing the four, five, six grade level for the last few years till this year, and
we weren't seeing the same results with those large classes. And so, you know, in all fairness, it it it wouldn't be those upper grades.
So the special education, though, in those grades gonna still get the help they need? Well, that's why, you know, it is a concern. I will tell you that second grade is also, on the
list here. Which that that one's 22 currently in first grade? Mhmm. Yes.
And I will tell you that that grade in terms of exceptionality and when I say exceptionality, I mean individualized instruction. That would include, a five zero four plan. That would include an IEP. That would include an ELL student where English is their second language, and that would include academically talented and gifted as well. So it spans all of the ends of the spectrum there. More than 50%
of grade two falls in that category. Alright. Grade one. Or something. Grade one. So are a lot of those kids already being pulled out for other things where, like, collapsing wouldn't be as much as Well, you know So
the thing is is I'm just learning to read. I was just gonna say the thing is, well, yes, that is true in some cases. But I just told you that that includes five o fours, IEPs, ELLs, and talented and gifted. And a fair amount of that individualized instruction occurs within the classroom, either through push in or working with peers. And so it is not in today's day and age that all of those children just come out because you have to have someone for them to come out too. Yeah. And so unless you have a team of 25 paraprofessionals, paraeducators in the building that just pull out all of those children, that's not happening, number one. And number two, that's not ideal because there's something that's called least restrictive environment and making sure that, students that are considered disabled who would be IEP students have certain percentage of time, more than 70% in most cases, of time with their nondisabled peers, and that's a lot. So that's not ideal for people to say, well, you know, an hour a day, there's four kids that aren't in that classroom, so it doesn't really matter the rest of the time. So it's not ideal. We certainly have had probably two or three hours worth of conversation, Taylor, right, on this particular one.
I don't think Taylor even wanted me to put it on the list, but it it has to be on the list. For for either grade? No. The second. Yeah. She doesn't want any of this on the list. Of course, it's principal. But Okay. So so then, yeah, like, pose it a different way. Like, if you have to collapse one of the grades, which one do you pick?
I don't think I could make that decision today. No. I think especially with enrollment fluctuations sometimes that happen in the summer. Like, that might end up changing. I do think, and the staff's aware, that some of that that decision in terms of if the board chooses to collapse a section, that I would probably ask for a little bit of time so that we're making sure with enough notice, of course, for the teachers, but to make it the best decision possible based on what you're saying. You know, last year, that's where a lot of our move ins were, the second and third. It just happened. But it doesn't mean the year before, remember, we're getting so many sixth graders. It was, like, wild. And so You might not know that until You might not. The end of July. Right. And so I think it's just gonna be a matter of taking all of that into account
and looking at at teacher you know, our teachers right now are indicating preferences certainly that, hey. If option a, b, or c, this is would be ideal. And so that's something to keep in mind for us too is we wanna make sure we're putting teachers where their strengths are.
And if one of them has collapsed and that teacher, be it a second grade or a third grade teacher, goes elsewhere in the building, now you're talking about a domino effect of where that happens. Yes. And so it isn't as easy as, well, we just collapse and take one person out because then something else has to give or go. Yeah. Is there any possibility to do
they did, like, when they were keeping my daughter's The combo? The combo combo? That's in that group.
But I I was more thinking, like, the the three fours.
Oh, no. Okay. Definitely not for the three fours. Okay. I did that two years in a row here because that was the right group of kids to do it with. Okay. Of course, we've talked about that, Brie, again. And because we did do it twice when it was appropriate, that was a conversation that we had. It just we don't have a grade right now where that is appropriate.
Okay. So there's no grades that No. Could instead of four sections, like, a combination two. Right? Yeah. Because their big the big one is is grade four right now, which would be grade five next year. And and then, you know, look at a combo for three four or four five doesn't work. Curriculum also gets Because of the challenging Yeah. To set your multigrade. That's why I was more looking at the The two three. Yeah. Right. Which, you know For one for one and two?
No. We would have Keep in mind our current first, as Val mentioned, our current first grade is 50%
well, varied needs. 50% all the end All bed. Spectrum. So and, again, you know me. You know that that's not off the table with me with the right group of kids. I'm a product of having gone through because as a twin, people don't know this as a twin. I was in a combination class, like, four times through school. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it didn't. And my twin had to have the constant grade class for particular needs, and I was always then in that mixed class. So I'm not opposed to it. When it's the right teacher and the right group of kids, it works very well. And it was successful here on those two occasions. So that's definitely not off the table when it fits it. It just doesn't fit it this year. And is there any option, like, when you're talking about consolidation,
like like, financially to have another para in that classroom, or do you end up not Paraeducators
many years ago were the gold standard for saving money. They absolutely 100% like, every district did it. It saved you money. You're talking about 22 to $30,000 max for a salary. However benefit. It it's not even benefits because you have benefits whether it's a teacher or a para. The issue becomes in many towns over the years, they've gone on the municipal pensions. And the municipal pensions started off just like the town of Andover has for the their employees. The municipal pensions began years ago as fairly reasonable, as a co cost for the town, Murph Murph, and now it's at 17 and a half percent that we pay. And so your, contribution as an employer is almost the same in many cases as the salary. I'm not saying that it shouldn't happen that that they pay it. That is why oftentimes starting teachers are actually cheaper. The brand spanking new ones with their bachelor's and no other benefits are cheaper than a para in some cases. Not because of the salary, but because of the fact that that employer contribution to the pension is is pretty high right now. The teachers pay into their own pensions. We pay nothing for teacher pensions. So that's why for the first couple of years in a lot of districts, that cost differential isn't worth it for them because paraeducators are fantastic. We love them, you know, absolutely. But in a lot of districts, that difference for them, it it just that person cannot teach a class. They are very valuable in a class. They can't teach it. And so districts have looked at that now and, you know, kinda weighed their odds. So so, again, let's move to the rest of the list. But those are on the list. The potential to collapse,
you know, second referred, not ideal. Again, we don't ask Taylor because nothing on this list is is okay with the principle of a building.
Do we excuse me. Yeah. The paras, did they used to be part time? Is that why it was a cost saving so much more?
Nope, Marcy. It was because it many years ago, towns didn't even offer the poor paras a pension at all in towns. I can tell you that I know of four towns, my other one included, where the town does not offer pensions because they don't offer it to their own townside employees. And so we do in the town of Andover. And before I even got here, it was decided that all of those town employees, including people that were in the noncertified unions here, would get that benefit. And at the time, Marcy, I don't think anybody realized how much of an increase over the last six years it would happen that the employers would have to pay, town side too, for the pensions. It went up significantly. I wanna say it was, like, ten percent, six and a half years ago when I first looked at it, and it's 17 and a half percent now. So it's just one of I know. Yeah. So and it's not that anybody did anything wrong. It's just, it's a reality.
Okay. So third on the list then would be the potential of keeping sixth grade at, 25 kids and, not hiring a sixth grade teacher at all. So not taking it out and not, putting in a person at all. Again, this one's very low on my list because those are the kids that this year have grown by leaps and bounds, as Taylor will talk about, because this board supported the additional fourth and fifth grade class. And so to merge that class back again, absolutely would not be in their best interest. No. Sorry. Talking like that. You mean?
You're all done. So, that is is certainly on the list as a possibility. I don't wanna leave it off there, because it's there. Repurposing another staff member into grade six, goes along with us talking about that could happen if third is collapsed. That could happen if second's collapsed. It could also happen if an intervention was collapsed, and it could happen if we collapse the library, which is next on the list. The current librarian was the last person in the building to be the second, sixth grade teacher. So, if we look at collapsing one area of the building to move that person to the second, sixth grade and take out of our budget the money that's in there for the second, sixth grade teacher, again, the thing we have to consider is how does it affect children first and then the rest of the staff? Because every person in this building that currently works here, I've said this a million times before, and I mean it 1000%. When somebody's absent from this building, you know it. Everybody knows they're not here. You don't even need to look at a list. Nobody goes, I hadn't noticed ever to a single person in this building because you notice when anybody's absent. So the idea of collapsing and moving somebody that's currently here in the budget to that sixth grade, you have to ask yourselves then
if it's an interventionist, who does the intervention? Do we lose intervention for the school for reading? Do we lose intervention for the school for math or in science and technology and innovation? So, again, I don't think Taylor wanted me to put this one on the list at all. It's a possibility.
The one that would make sense would be the library. She's been the last sixth grade teacher. Do we have legal requirements in terms of Library? Well, no. Just special in general. Tell me what it looks like. Spanish, art, music. So I have reading, math, STEM, library. Is there another option
of repurposing a person? I mean No. Okay. Reading, introverted, then
Yeah. Them and a lot of that. Ones who do the academics. Yes. And, again Perfusing them to Correct. And, again, the reason why I specifically put the librarian on here is she was the last sixth grade teacher in the building. And so when we had the last two sixth grades, she was there. And I would hope, and I'll say it now to the board, I would hope that it would be a one year anyways. And I would hope that if we're sitting here in this position next year trying to figure things out, that, if the library is what goes, that it would come back in a year. That would be my hope, that when we're sitting here during budget season next year, that it would happen. I can't predict the future. I don't know if you guys would would, you know, do that or not, but, you know, that that would be my hope. Are there legal mandates, like, state mandates regarding, like Actually, let's start at the lowest level first. There's mandates where Taylor does the schedule or scheduling enough specials in first and foremost so that the teachers have their required prep time. So that she does need enough places for children to go for specials so that the teachers can get their mandated prep period and their lunch. So that part is is absolutely a matter of a fact. Whether it's somebody who watches those children, which is still a body in the building that has to go there, or it's a special. So in scheduling, it's very, very comprehensive when and principal of any building, not just this one, does that master schedule. There are all those things. You know? Who's break? Who's lunch? Who's
meeting? Who's Study. All those things. Prep time. So that takes them a very long time to come up with that schedule. Then, yes, there are minimum requirements for specials. Can there be activities that are enrichment? Sure. Are there activities that don't have to take place every day, unlike middle and high school where there's a certain number of specific times in a week or a month that the kids have to have specials? We have a little bit more flexibility there. Certainly, we do. That's true. So would Taylor still be able to meet the requirements if one special were altered? Yes. If one and a half were altered, yes, but no more than that. So that's why it's on the list to close the library next year and repurpose Melissa to the other grade.
And just maybe point out too, closing the library doesn't just mean nobody's checking out library books. Like, educates kids. Right? Like, libraries But I don't think she does with that. She teaches with practice to the older kids on It's different than, you know, learning to doom death mold and and how to find books. I mean, like, absolutely creating slide shows, doing research. Yeah. Even it's an education. My quick class did presentation this year. Absolutely. For a good year.
There's a reason why she has to have certification as library media specialist. Right. And she's not, you know,
not well qualified. Right. Well, a classroom teacher certainly could come in and check out books, but the educational piece that they'd be making up in the classroom are those research skills Right. And research projects.
And would you be able to put those into the classroom somehow? We don't we don't know. That that's what we've been able conversation that we again,
I've kept her a lot of late nights having these conversations since the last meeting. So
What does the math specialist do? And we have a science specialist and a math specialist and a So they they're they're they're not just specialists, Marcy. They're interventionists,
which means that the interventionists in the building, they meet with students individually and small groups, and, also, they go into push into classes because we have students that due to SRBI, which is that scientifically research based intervention, other districts call it other things. I still call it SRBI. Intervention, is to me. And what they do is they take kids that are having a hiccup in the road in terms of, being able to master something specific in reading and or in math, and they bring them up to speed. And so it's an intervention for, students, singular group or sometimes half of a class, so that the teacher can move on to another, concept with the rest of the class and bring them up to speed on something. It's the ability to reteach and the ability to meet the needs of those individual learners through and I always call it a hiccup just because I think people can understand that. It's just a little little time period where they just need a little extra on something. Interventionists normally, for those particular students, work with them for up to twenty six weeks. And along the way, there's progress monitoring, and they go through and make sure that the students are, making progress. The reason why it's imperative that you have that is if you don't have that middle of the road step, what you wind up with is classroom teachers realizing that they're not meeting the needs of the students. And And if you don't have that step in the middle, the next step becomes referral for special education. And so that's never what you wanna do legally or otherwise
because Or financially. Right. Because if you move to and you miss that very important step of recognizing intervention in the middle, students can be misdiagnosed. Students can be placed into programs that I say overprescribed, can be placed in programs that they actually don't belong in. So there is a process that should take place prior. And, again, we won't spend all night on special education, but interventionists do play a very important role in this school and other schools. So For intervention,
also, can correct me if I'm wrong. We don't it's not like we have an accelerated or advanced course as well. So those people are also providing enrichment. They are.
Know that they have. Yes. They are. A student does go through the PPT process to be identified as talented and gifted. And so they go through it the same way that a student would be identified on the other end of the spectrum as a student may need. But, like, if you compared us to, like, Hebron, for example, they have a program. They do. They have teachers that just That just do that. That just teach enrichment. Yeah. That just teach. Right? We do not. Weird. It's all under the same program. Intervention person is doing They're as tightly intervention staffed as we be. The spectrum. We are, as Taylor says, as tightly staffed as we can be. With the intervention. And that that's you know, we've worked hard on that. And, again, we're gonna see some good data support the work that Right. You know, they've contributed to. And then you you said something about
1.2 or 1.5
special like, that you'd have to get rid of So more of them? Any more than that, and Taylor can't meet the needs of the state in terms of what we need to what we're required to give to the kids and And the teachers. The teachers. Okay. Because as I said, you know, they have to have that prep period, and they have to have lunch. Of course, we would be taking these things away from them even if it wasn't in the contract, but that requires somebody to be covering the children during that time period. Because as an elementary school, we don't leave children unattended, so there has to be an adult supervision and support there at all times. And so Taylor and her team, that that is schedule together is amazing. When I did scheduling for middle school, computer did it for me. I punched in how many sections I needed of this and that. But in an elementary school, when you have itinerants like this, they do it by hand first. So kudos to all of you guys, Taylor, who put that schedule together. So are there more than library that you would Yes. So Spanish. Spanish is next on our list of possibilities. We currently have Spanish two days a week. I think that there are a lot of parents out there that not only agree that it is not just a worthwhile
component for kids, but I know there's a few parents that see this opportunity for students, diversity wise, to be exposed to foreign language. And let's not forget that once they get to the middle and high school, foreign language is required. It's not necessarily Spanish, but that's all we offer. At one time in my tenure here, we offered to the smaller kids with COVID money. We offered sign language Yeah. Which does now fit the requirements for the state for a language, but we don't have the money for that anymore. So that's gone. One year that I was here with COVID money as well, we did a pilot for Chinese. And, you know, there were a lot of kids interested in that, and there was there's the money to continue with that either. So that pilot went to the wayside. So Spanish is the only foreign language that we have, and she only works two days a week. So it's already so limited in comparison to other communities, but it is not a requirement.
And so What is that relative to, like, Hebron and Marlborough in terms of, like, what exposure? Like, how much are we taking away from our kids if we don't have Spanish when they get to middle school compared to those school systems?
That's a good question. I don't know the answer to that. People have Spanish. But they do have other specials that we don't because they have a full time enrichment. Right. They did. They run it a little bit.
I don't believe it's foreign language, but, I mean, certainly, I could get that information for you. Right. That's why I thought they did have Spanish, but I couldn't I think those Spanish and what?
What's this? So that in the elementary school. Know, when they get to They get to middle school, there's Spanish and French. Don't think And sign language.
Maybe that's a team dependent. Yeah. Because at one point, I did wanna share their person so that we could keep it, and they didn't have extra hours in the schedule up there to do that. But I would I feel like I would wanna know what other elementary schools that feed into our middle point, what they Yep. Have before. A quick text. We'll see if they Yeah. We'll see if they answer. Art. We actually had, you know, really worked hard for our art teacher to get to the point where we were at enough students to go from point six to point eight. She's been part time. But we went up to point eight because, as you can imagine, obviously, you know, a teacher in an art class trying to especially with younger grades, not necessarily with sixth, but everything's hands on. And so they need help with everything. And so I've been in those rooms before, whether it's kindergarteners or fourth graders, and everyone's going, miss Wayne, can you help me? Miss Wayne, because they need to have some help figuring things out. And so if that one does have to reduce back to point six, again, just like with the Spanish, just like with the library, just like with the cons collapsing of a class, it does have a direct impact on kids. Because what Taylor would have to do with the schedule, is to consolidate some of the classes where she's had with a point eight
an opportunity to maybe separate, not have to have every fifth grader in the room at one time, every fourth grader in the room at one time because there's 37 of them. It was shit. Yeah. She's been able to to remain in. Separate and do some more reasonable. But if she was dropped from a point eight to a point six, Taylor certainly would have to
consolidate some of those classes. So I can just add Marlboro does have Spanish as a special once a week. And Hebron, it's steams with an s. So steam, but at the end of the s is Spanish, so it's rotated in. Gotcha. I thought every I thought everybody that's fed into Does have it in some capacity. Yeah. So
music. Now, again, we never put that on the table till now. It's also on the table. The problem with music is and I know they're going through this in Hebron right now, is it is very different programmatically than, let's say, our our library. If we decided and even Spanish. If we decided to reduce Spanish, you could say, we're just not gonna offer it to third grade. We're just gonna offer it to fourth, fifth, and sixth. You could do the same thing with art. You could say we're just gonna, you know, reduce the amount of time that kindergarten has it versus sixth grade. And not that that's fair, but scheduling wise, it can be done. When you look at a music program, you have bands and instrumental, and you have general music.
So if you have band and instrumental, you have band and instrumental. You don't just say, well, we're just gonna do flutes and not clarinets. We're gonna do keyboards and not recorders. So then because when you go to do a performance then, you don't do a performance with just half the number of instruments. You don't do you know what I mean? You don't say, we'll do chorus for sixth grade only because then your whole program at her presentation is just that one grade. So are there towns that have eliminated it with some of these severe cuts that we're all facing? Yes. But just understand then. You eliminate that whole portion of the program. It's all or nothing. And it can't be general music because that's a requirement. So it would have to be band. Banded and chorus. Yeah. Correct. Which we had the 67 performers at. Yes. That's what was just gonna say. We know that from that event that parents come to, yeah, there's 67 kids involved.
So that would be a very not that any of these aren't large impacts. They are. But that would be not only a large impact, but if it's done for a year, you are affecting band here and at the middle and high school in perpetuity. Yeah. I get it. I mean, think about after COVID when the kids had a year where they couldn't play, they lost a huge chunk of that program in seventh grade and then the middle school to the high school because that's a whole year of learning loss on an instrument. So, again, I have it on the list just because we're gonna be fair and put every possibility on here for you to consider. But on that one, remember, you can't just say, let's just drop it down by point two. It would be that whole portion of the music program. K?
What about PhysEd? Can't reduce PhysEd. Can't. Like, you can't at all. That does have a statement. The only time that you can't reduce that, but you can reduce So that doesn't stick in my mind. Because they're not both required They don't want to it. Children. In
PE, I should tell you because they do PE and health, that when I arrived in 2020, I knew that that year prior, my predecessor had, on the chopping block to go from one point o to point eight, but that was because they were gonna do what we were talking about with the consolidation of classes. So everybody was still gonna have PE and health the same amount of time. More kid than John was just gonna have right. That year, if they needed to go down to a point eight because of a budget cut, they were just going to have huge classes. The requirements were still gonna be met. Thankfully, they didn't have to do that because now we do have enough classes, of course, that, you know, he is full because he teaches PE
and he teaches half hour. We actually need to add a section because we do have a need now for a growing need for adaptive PE. Just for So for students who require Okay. More specialized instruction in physical education. So that will be an added section, which is exciting. We need that. But, again, it's just Gonna fit into he would not schedule. It would be very difficult for him to be on the table.
The reduction of paraeducators. This is one that we actually can't wait for, for you guys to make a decision because of the requirements for us to tell them, prior to the last day of school that we are making a reduction. It's one thing for us to tell, let's say, an ARC teacher. You're still an ARC teacher next year. We just don't know if you are a point six or a point eight. That's one thing. Legally, if we are eliminating somebody's position completely, they have to know. We have made the decision to eliminate two paraeducated positions. How many do we have right now? I'm sorry? How many do we have
for 11. 11. Okay. So that would be nine. It would be nine. And keep in mind that we don't have building pairs. And for anybody who doesn't understand, you know, because they haven't been in a school, what a paraeducator does, many school buildings have, building paras. And they serve in, yep, multiple capacities. Some of what they do is actually gen ed, general education, paraeducators. They assist with things like I think one of you guys just mentioned, like, putting a paraeducator into a class because you have 26 kids. And it may not be a special education need. It may just be that that teacher does need assistance in there. So, traditionally, there were schools that did that. Those were gen ed paraeducators, general education. All of our paraeducators in this building are here for a reason. They are here for compliance, reasons only, not just to assist. How are you going from eleven to nine? Can you show what it looks like? So it wasn't easy. And, you know, again, I'm thanking Taylor and teasing her at the same time about the number of hours I've been seeing her face at night. But there is she's worked with our outgoing and incoming special ed director and worked with the special ed team to look at what can be consolidated for student services next year
in terms of resources to make sure that we legally meet the needs of all of our children's IEPs, five zero fours, and their individualized instructional needs, but at the same time, making sure that the programming remains strong. Just trying to be careful with my words here. So although it's not ideal, the team has, been able to decide that they can make it work next year solely because of, the loss of one particular need that we have with a student that was a large percentage of the day. So it's not ideal, but we've looked at it on paper multiple times, and it will
it will work. And that particular need won't be a need next year?
That we know of now? No. Oh, correct. And so, again, anytime you reduce from as I said, when somebody's absent in this building, we all know it. So when you do that, sure, you're taking a little bit of a risk, and we are. But that's the decision that we had to make because we already know even prior to this Tuesday what the cut was. Do you feel, though, the kids that are in need are gonna get the help they need? Well, that's one of the reasons why put it in hope that this grant comes through for, special ed. Alicia, it is it is painstaking. I thank Jamie for saying what she said at the beginning about, you know, you guys and us. It's very difficult. You know, it is it is heart wrenching because I I know how hard the paraeducators and the teachers and the special ed department work. But this is this is something that we have to look at. We don't have a choice. $225,000 is a lot of money. So so yes. So that decision is is already had to go in action
because we did have to tell those two positions that they wouldn't be joining us past next week. And so yep. So that one is that one's a done deal, but that brings us nowhere close to where we need to be. Right. Any one of these things isn't enough. Oh, no. No. Forward No. This in again.
All of these things. 13 classes, and we have 11 paras.
Right? Work that. It is in the class. We have four. I didn't tell many kids are in special ed. So they're not in the pre k budget, though?
No. No. No. It's not about that, Marcy. We're not talking about budgets. We're not talking about pre k. The paraprofessionals that are being put are special education paraeducators. Yeah. So, I mean, I can tell you that five zero fours, IEPs, those students that have needs, you're talking about close to 30 kids, with five zero fours and IEPs and students with exceptional needs. So those 30 kids have IEPs or five zero four plans or behavioral intervention plans 30 kids. That require a person at some point during the course of the day to tend to them, if not the whole day. For the whole day. Right. If not the whole day. So fine. It's not a ratio that you can that you can just look and say, well, if you have 13 classrooms, that works if you have a paraeducator assigned to each classroom and they're gen ed. They are educators, sure, by all means, but not special education. So we have 30 special education
students? We have 30 kids with individualized needs because five zero four is five zero four is also a legal binding document that says that students have needs that need to be tended to. They have accommodations or modifications that need to be given to them, and it may not require para support. It may be something that the teachers within the classroom take care of, but it varies
on an individual basis. Children who may be on the spectrum or Correct. Yeah. Whatever it Some children have shared para support. Yeah. Some children require a one on one. It's different each one. Depending on the needs of their
Well, someone that's on the spectrum, wouldn't they be considered special ed?
Correct. Yes. Yep. But that spectrum is so large that it could go it could vary from a few needs to all day every day with an adult or two. So, or outplacement. So that's why they call it a spectrum because the spectrum is so wide ranging that it could be very little to a lot a lot a lot.
But someone that's on some like, a special needs child would have a special person that would be with them the whole time? Some Not necessarily. Not necessarily.
Because I know there's difference between special ed and special needs.
No. So students so we have, you know, close to 30 students who are in special education. Those students all have individual individualized education plans that are determined as a team, and each one of those plans look different. So a kiddo could have a plan that says they need access to a paraeducator to help with a particular subject of the day, or it could be self care, or it could be mobility. Another special education student might not require para support. So it's it's or may require more small group instruction, and a para support para might support that. So it's individualized to each kiddo. And then the additional students who have a five zero four plan would have accommodations that need to be in place for them to access their education.
That makes sense? But we don't have any para that is, like, the para assigned to classroom a. No. We might have a para assigned to kid a or kid b. Yep. All of our parents. B at this time and kid d at this time. All of are, like, the kind of first grade No. Para. I
wish. Correct. We'd like to add some of those ones. Okay. Well, I mean, if you have 30 kids in this situation, if there's a para for them, each one, that would be a lot of para's. Right. They have individualized
needs. Right. Not every But, actually, Marcy, there are schools that because of the needs of the students, it is it is in some cases, I've seen elementary schools with, let's say, 300 kids in it, and you look and you're like, wow. They have 30 parents. Yeah. And it's without knowing the needs of their kids, that ratio looks huge. It's like, you know, what are they? Just giving them out to every teacher. But then you find out the needs of the students and you realize, okay. This is in lieu about placing these students that they have these, paraeducators within the school. So the number to the ratio of students in the building is not the important part. It's the number and ratio to the number of special education students and their needs that you look at. So we And I think as a reminder,
outplacement is far more expensive expensive. Oh, yes. And We're talking about a $100,000.
Children what they need with the support. Yes. Let's not do that. And remember, Brie, bring up a good point because when a student is placed in a program outside of this building, there is tuition. And if they require a paraprofessional in that building, you have to pay for that too. For example So they may say the tuition there is 75,000, but then on top of that, you're paying for the one to one para and the transportation and all of their other needs. So what we say, that's the tip of the iceberg at the very beginning for them. So
okay. So would tell different than special education because that's what the reason why we have a lot of the preschool classes was for special education that we need for, the the birth to five. Right?
So a preschool student could have an IEP as well and could require para support, or they could have an IEP and not require para support.
They that any student with an IEP, whether they're pre k to grade six, we would be responsible for Yeah. Support. So what other what other cuts are you So the other things on the list would be to look at the use of the 2% nonlapsing account again as we did last year. Remember, ultimately, in the end, the board agreed that any other cuts were too substantial and would affect children too much. So we opted to decide that if at the end of the year, there wasn't enough of course, it was a $160,000 cut last year, so it's a little bit easier to say, let's go that route. If that wouldn't cut it this year, we're well aware of that. But that's always an option for you to look at that. Also on the list is liquidation of the Norton account. However, I would say that that is something that I would recommend the board consider for during the course of the year, but not as a budgeting strategy. Because remember, we have a lot of research to do to liquidate that account. It could take six to nine to twelve months, so you're not guaranteed that money before the end of the school year. So I am encouraging you to look at it liquidating that this year. We really can't afford to have investment when we have other expenses now. But I am not comfortable as a superintendent recommending to the board that you use that as an opportunity to balance the budget this year, maybe as an opportunity to come up with some money so that you'd be asking for less money next year for the budget. If that was able to be liquidated prior to June 30, then you knew, you could say, okay. We're gonna liquidate that, use that for cost a so that we don't have to put it into the 2728
budget. But I do not recommend using it this year as a way to balance this budget because who knows exactly how much that investment's gonna be worth, and who knows when on what date we'd be able to liquidate it. Well, honestly, it's a onetime use. It is a onetime use. So I I personally don't think anything that Agree. You It doesn't
the problem. I do have to put it on the list for you. I don't. Whatever your assets. I
personal opinion, something like that, I think, is probably something that should be saved for, like, an enrichment opportunity or something that we wouldn't normally have.
Agreed. I do think that during the course of the next twelve months, you should consider that meeting, putting it on an agenda so that we can vote to figure out that we would take that path to liquidate it so that you'd have that money available like you do with the 2%, just not as a budgetary option. But I have to put it on the list because it's one of your assets. Okay? We could consider, again, this is on here as a potential moving forward, not necessarily a budgetary solution for you, but, charging for the use of the gym. We've spoken about this before. This is an asset for us. You know, that the town charges for, use of other things, and they currently are coming up with fee schedule to, utilize the community center. So you could opt to do that.
Again, that's an undefined amount of money. So it's a little risky to say we're gonna use it to balance our budget, but it's certainly on the list because, again, that's an asset that you have available to you to
use moving forward. Have you looked at because the the heating for that is separate. Thousand dollars for the gym oils. Okay. And then how many hour like, do you guys know on a year basis?
We've looked it up. It would be a fifty fifty. The number of hours that it's used by us for a hundred and eighty school days because it it's three hundred sixty days in a year. We're here a hundred and eighty. The number of hours that they use at nights and weekends, that gym for other things versus our use in the gym, it's almost even. Yeah. Because it's, like, pickleball. Correct. So it tell still a 180. No. So it would be $5,000. We did the trend data. It's $10,000
to heat that. Oh, I get what you're So so you so, basically, like, $5,000 worth of the 10,000 is probably from not the school unit. So
then so and how many hours is that? Like, if you divide the 5,000, right, to get even, like That's well, that's such thing. That's where you guys would have to decide this year. Sure. We wanna come up with whatever our fee is gonna be to use the gym. Maybe you make more than 5,000. Maybe you make less than 5,000. So that's always a possibility for you guys. I do think it's something for you to look at this year. Again, because we don't have a definitive number for how much that is, not sure that you want to do that, but that's my recommendation
for budgetary reasons. Yeah. But this year is probably gonna be all about you trying to figure out how to come up with some money. I I mean, I'm writing grants, but that is a possibility for this board to decide that we are going to start charging for the use of the gym to offset costs.
Do you know how much it cost to save money the how much the savings was? I guess they added fans for the heat.
Do you know how much the savings just wanted, Marcy. So we don't have a complete year on that. And one of the things that I had explained to mister Murray when he asked was they didn't do an analysis prior to putting the fans in on electricity meter solely for the gym. We have an oil tank solely for the gym, so we know how much oil is used, but we don't know, in terms of electricity, what was saved there.
What about oil? Did did you know how much oil you saved? You should have saved some oil. Right?
So, again, that tank, we know it's 10,000, a year, to eat the gym. It has its own tank. That's what we know. We know that we use it 50 of the time. So at the end of this year, at the end of twenty six, Jody can do an analysis of that boat and see the difference from last year to this Which really then like, you'd be looking at, like, how much, like, how much oil was still in the tank. Right? Well, we have that. We know. Yeah. We know what was in there, how much they delivered. So but, again, it's just something that you wanna look at to see if you wanna start charging to use the gym the way the town charges to to use other facilities. We can't ask in terms of money savings. We can't ask the town. This has come up before. I know that we won't air for still here. It was Cathy, who had suggested potentially having us take the van that we currently use and rent from the towns for our special ed transportation with two students.
So the board could decide to write a letter to the board selectman to the town and ask for them to give the gift in kind above that May for that or not. 10,000 last year. So that's a possibility as well as of what we pay per month. So, again, not sure if that's a budgetary thing where you could say we're gonna count down that because you don't make that decision if they give us that mutant or not. Or Yes. A lot of things we act for anyway. Right. But not as part of the process. So
you'd have to wait for that decision, and I'm not sure that you would get that decision No. Before you needed to balance the budget. I mean, and, like, let's be honest. Like, this is pocket change to what we actually Yes. I do just have to do my job and give you all your assets and all your possible choices here. So we also, will be asking the teachers union to sign an MOU for the one line. It's only $3,000, but there's one line in the budget for coaching. And it includes the teacher in their teacher's union contract, there are certain things that they are paid extra for, like the yearbook, certain clubs that they do. The teachers have been fantastic.
Every year that we've had after school club, they've run them through the after school club as opposed to saying, we're running them through, like, our union contract, and we'd like to get paid this much for doing that. They've run them through after school grant because it was a different revenue source, and it saved us that money. So I'm fairly certain I don't wanna speak on behalf of the union at all, but I'm fairly certain that they would agree since we do still have after school programs next year to say we won't, be opposed to any of those activities that the teachers normally run, running them through the after school. So that would That's $3,000. Right. So that right there, I'm going to I'm not gonna speak on behalf of the teachers' union, but I'm sure that they would probably say, sure. Take that 3,000 out for one year as long as it goes back in the following year. We'll run them next year through the after school program. So that's $3,000. Small amount of money, but it's $3,000. So and then two other things that I'm not gonna suggest we do, but, again, it's my responsibility to give you all of your possibilities. In looking at what other towns have done, because I do know there's a lot of other small towns whose budgets haven't passed yet, and I do speak to them on a regular basis and say, hey. What are you doing?
I
don't wanna say this out loud. Some of them are going to have to cut nursing services and not have a nurse five days a week. I don't agree with that. I think that puts children in harm even if you say we're gonna cut two hours a day because nurses are paid by the hour. How are you legally allowed to do that? Because medicine can be administered by administrators. So just understand, I'm putting this out here not because I think I should be an outlet. Could Where you go to fire zone to do that? It's administrators. It's weird stuff. It's superintendent or It's Uh-huh. Principal. Yeah. So, I am not suggesting this, But, but, again, it's my job to give you all the options out on the table. There are How money would that actually save? It would depend on how much That's districts who have multiple schools, though. So there's one nurse that could go to another building. We have one nurse. Yes. One school Yes. In her district, so that wouldn't make sense for us. And I know that Sharon is a school nurse herself, so that's why I was like, I didn't even wanna say this out loud.
Right. Is it legal to do that? It is. Yeah. Would I recommend it? I would not. I'm throwing it out there because if you investigate other towns, so I think it's my job to tell you that, and where they are cutting, there are some that will cut a few hours and shave it off there. I don't suggest it. I can tell you that our nurse does have patients and clients that she sees from when they get off the bus in the morning until they get on the bus in the afternoon. So, that is a risk. I will tell you that there is also, in a couple of districts, shaving off of hours for custodians. We do not have five custodians in this building. We have one full time day guy and one full time night guy, and we have a five hour person at night part time. And I will tell you that if,
if there are hours shaved off, it would have to be from the five hour guy. And I can tell you that that would definitely, also not only affect children, but affect the cleanliness of the building. Mhmm. So, again, is it done in districts? It is. Do I recommend it? I do not. But I do have to tell you that that is something that would have to be on your list of possibilities just because I know that other districts have gone that route. So that's our list, comprehensive list. I see you all taking notes, and I would just suggest that you guys
go back and Would not Can I ask if you may not know the answer to it right now, but you get the information? What hours does the nurse work currently, and, like, how much money would it save if we reduce the hour, like, from an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon? It would not be much. She were So 15. If we pretended
Wouldn't it make sense to, reduce the hours for pairs so they would be more part time than full time? And then
So in theory, Marcy, I I agree with you that in theory for somebody who isn't in the school and, Marcy, my background was middle and high school, for most of my career, not elementary school. And so it was a different world for me when I came to elementary school and realized, yeah. Yeah. It's different for a paraeducator who works with a six year old than with a 16 year old. I agree with you in theory that it would say, hey. Just take an hour off the beginning of the day or the end of the day. But, again, in this building, all the paraeducators, their schedules are already packed for the day. It is very rare that you ever get a paraeducator to have a few minutes extra in the day. So if we're cutting an hour to their time in the morning or in the afternoon, somebody else is going out to fill in for them because their assignment starts at the start of the school day and ends at the end of the day. As a matter of fact, because
we have to pay our own drivers, we don't use the town's drivers for our special education van. We had to, last year or the year before, train people, and it was the paraeducators that stepped up and said, I will train and become the bus driver. So we have paraeducators that are also driving the bus for our kids who take the vehicle, the special education van. And so in that case, if we were to cut hours to save a thousand or $2,000 over the stretch of things, we would be shooting ourselves in the foot for our drivers as well. Because the ones that drive then would potentially have to come and stay and cover for those people that whose hours were dismissed. So I agree, Marcy, that that's a thinking outside the box kinda thing. And, you know, it it sounds great theory, but we don't have extra paraeducators. And so they are literally with children at all times. So
And I and I remind you that the more we cut the needs of the children that need these the support, the risk to costing us more and outplacement becomes higher. Because outplacement need in yours to cut. Is about a $100,000. We can't afford that. Well, the same to you of the kids, obviously. And and Well, if you don't help them when they're young, they're gonna need more when they get older. And we and that's, like that would be my list. Doctor. Bruno, it sounds to me just one quick comment. It sounds to me like just back on the paraeducator thing, every block of time for every paraeducator in the building is legally required, it sounds like. Right? It's not negotiable. Is. I mean This whole list that you gave us here, these are the things that we could cut because they're not legally required. Like, PE's on the list because that's Right. There's a mandate. Right? So, like, we can't legally cut that until care educator time. Yes. So there's nothing that this list We haven't violated the law Thank you. Parent. At time parent, would. Well, any more than the two. Yes. Assessor at the point, you're you're you're not and that's giving the needs that they need. Right. You don't
Correct. So this is the best, the most comprehensive list I could give you, Jared. Well, I I appreciate a lot that you put into
We hated making this list. I want you to know. I realize that. And I look at it, and I can't understand how people in this town would not give you the money that you'd have to cut all the things out of the a child's elementary school experience. You know? Maybe you can't take away Brie's lunch. But I can help Brie out because she doesn't have a substitute. Let's say she comes in, and she's sick. She wants to go home, and you can't get her stuff. Who's gonna take Who's the extra?
There there isn't Tim Taylor Parker or Valberno goes in there. So that is the way they or the nurse. Or I look at this, and I think, what are we gonna go through this? A year from now again? Yep.
We're gonna we're gonna experience this again? How can we handle?
Jerry, I hear your frustration. I I just it is our job at this point to make it through Tuesday. Hopefully, we then can solidify because the teachers are done on Wednesday, and we're hoping to solidify this for this year. So I hear you that there's a potential that we'll be going through this next year, but we just need to to get through this one. One foot at a time. And and and just figure out something that works for the children and for the staff. That's what partners me. I know. Me too. To the state. I
know how it impacts the kids and teachers and staff, and it's not pretty. I'm embarrassed. Mhmm. So
that's my comprehensive list, guys. Thank you for for enough. You can talk about possibly, you know, income that we could be getting. So which income would that be? Well, if
we have 14 out of teners, they should pay more than 6,000. Preschool tuition remains in preschool. You're not gonna balance your budget with preschool tuition money. That stays in that
You shut me down when I was talking about paras. We have four paras for preschool. They're not in general fund, Marcy. So
those those four paras, we talked about this before, are not in the general fund. So hypothetically, let's just say you could cut the four paras to preschool. They don't currently exist in the budget. So it doesn't do the job that you guys need to do, which is to come up with, if this passes on Tuesday, $225,000
in cuts. Yeah. Absolutely wouldn't be What about substitutes? Do they have substitutes for preschool?
If there is a preschool teacher that is out and there is a substitute, it goes into the preschool, line. They pay for their own subs. I don't see that in this preschool line. They they they pay for their own subs. It's taken out of salaries
for this If teacher a is on maternity leave and there's a sub for teacher a, it goes into the line item for teacher a. There's actually a line in the pres k budget that says pre k soft. Oh, that's Yeah. But but it's but it's for that person. It it goes in there. It has nothing to do with the general fund. So, hypothetically, you could cut off four of those paras, and it doesn't save us any of this $225,000. So the one thing I also if does anybody have any questions on this? Because I do wanna address that what do call it on the end of my time now? Alright. Email from Liz. Yeah. Yeah. Are there any other questions on this one? I gave you a big list to think about.
Going forward, just one last question. Would we get, like, a rough dollar amount for each of these categories? Because you're gonna have sort of puzzle pieces together. That's your next meeting. And so it's Yes. I still don't know that I'll decide the next meeting even with all this information and balancing how much each thing's cost. I I mean, just yeah. It seems like an impossible thing. And even that is unfortunately the next time that we meet, we people have to just Yeah. Yeah. Right? I mean, good.
I was going after thousand dollar bills with nickels and pennies.
Yeah. So sorry. I won't hold it up. Hold on. So that's grants. That's budget. Facilities, we're gonna get to when we do the capital plan. I did just wanna address, Caitlin, you asked you received an email from Liz from the board of finance, and it was looking at the Zoom presentation earlier this season. Her question was about the number of students that were anticipated by the end of next year to be in the budget. I mean, in the, school enrollment figures. And she was questioning whether there was an error in the presentation, and could we, speak to that. So, Taylor, can you put up that slide from that that that she was referring to?
The slide. Mhmm.
Nope. Yeah. Takes me The one with the two squares. I know. It's taking a second.
I think it was on the bottom. It was on the bottom when you said share your screen. I know, but it has to just
reload them. So Sorry. I'm not Yep. There we go. So this was the slide that that, you know, the member of the board of finance sent us an email about. The slide that was presented, we said we anticipate the number for k six to be 200. Although we aren't addressing on the budget, we anticipate that number to be 70 with a total count of two seventy by the end of next school year within the walls of the school building. Three of those students would be financially supported at other facilities. The rationale for that was on the right hand side. The data was supported by the monthly enrollment reports as well as the town of Andover's POCD, which is the new plan of conservation and development that came out for 2026. The document recommended that the town plan for the fact that we had seen a 26% increase to the elementary school enrollment. And moving forward, it cited the data to support the growth and for our strategy.
So, Taylor, can you show the other picture? Mhmm. I had been working with I gave her a different picture because I had been working with their draft, and now this is Onatown website. This is their final version. So if you could just get to the top right there or the bottom of the left and the top of the right. So in addition to our own enrollment you just have to make it bigger. In addition, thank you, to our and move it up, Amy. My mom doesn't like to In addition to our own data, I am utilizing the town's POCD because they do trend and data based on what they collect from the town. So this was a support for this. It said on the bottom that, yes, although I'm trying to read it from a distance here now. Andover, let's at proud, performs state averages and everything on the measure. Between 2010 and 2020, on the bottom there Yeah. Student enrollment had declined significantly at AES. However, starting
what did it say at the bottom? Oh, this Zoom is really Starting starting that year in 2021 or starting with keep going. There was 2727% lower into 2010. Okay. Make it a little bigger again. My eyes are going. Thank you. Sorry. Go away. I know. Go away on the top there. I just want people to be able to see us with rapid sync. Okay. There's been a There has been a 26% increase since 2021, which was in part attributable to the decision to accept enrollment into the pre k program of children who are residents outside of Andover. But in doing so, the school district hopes to expose students and their parents to the high quality of education in Andover and encourage them to become residents and relocate. We have had this, in the last twelve months, one, two, three, four, five, six children that were out of town children who became residents between last school year and this school year by moving in. So they were here, and then they said we wanna stay here, and they moved in. So this conversation was a pretty detailed conversation between the town planner and I. And he went back and checked the data and did agree that that was what was occurring. So moving forward, again, I gotta read you at a distance. Let's see. Continue to monitor overall student enrollment? Yes. Education Andover. Encourage the town of Andover. They should continue to monitor overall student enrollment
and available spaces within Andover Elementary School to ensure the most efficient use of that building. They may wanna consider working with other nearby districts to look at programs. If the other programs, in the other districts, you know, had a decrease of enrollment, perhaps they would wanna look at our increase of enrollment, for regional programs, but that we were expected to grow. And I'm not going by the 26. Thank you, Taylor. I'm not going by the 26% number. But if we grew by seven and a half percent even when I was doing this planning and, again, we don't have a crystal ball, so we don't know what can happen. We don't know who will move in, how many children they'll have, how many babies will be born. We don't have a crystal ball. But even if that a 186 number, even if we used 8% over the next this school year and next school year or the '27 to the '28 school year, 8% of a 186 kids is 14. If we only consider an 8% increase to preschool, we were talking about an increase up to that 70 number because we had between sixty five and sixty seven this year. So,
again, we are absolutely thank you, Ruth. We are absolutely looking at the POCD trend as well as our own and looking to best plan for what a reasonable number would be. Is a reasonable number 40? No. Is a reasonable number 30? Not necessary. But by next year, for us to say that we could potentially have 200 in the building was a reasonable number to plan for, and that's why I used that numbers. So I just wanted people to know if you look on the town's website at that plan of conservation and development at that page. And then in the back, they have a list of all the recommendations. There's only one that says board of ed and superintendent, and that says to keep an eye on the number of seats that you have in each class for planning moving forward. So, again, we don't know what could happen. We could have, you know, family that moves in with 10 kids, or we could have only a couple of families move in this year. But if the trend stands from 21 till now, that that will be that slow and steady increase. And so it was appropriate for us to say that by the end of the year, we're gonna plan to be close to 200.
We do already have 26 Kinders registered, which is great. That's what I was gonna ask for. I knew it was coming here. Yeah. We're already at 26, which, again, Kinder tends to be the one for some reason at the summer. Sometimes people wait. Yeah. I don't know. Just sneaks up on my guess, kindergarten.
So it looks like I'm sorry. I'm just It looks like the, the report is saying that, we increased because we increased our preschool and especially also that we increased, accepting out of towners.
Nope. There was twofold. We were increasing slowly the number of students in k through six, but what they were mentioning was one of the strategies that we were utilizing, as a school district in trying to promote the town of Andover was in hoping that and it was it was spelled out in there. It's on the town website. You can look at that. One of the strategies that we utilized was to promote, the preschoolers that were filling those out of town empty slots to to come aboard.
And that moved expensive strategy. I'm sorry? That's an expensive strategy. You're asking the taxpayers to pay for all these preschoolers in the hopes that they might move into town.
I'm gonna ask one point of order because We're not says, we're not paying for preschoolers. This is, like, ad nauseam that we're talking about preschool. Can we can we actually move on to the principal's report, or do you have other things? I just don't like it. No. You just keep dwelling on it. Get over it. Oh, really? Good attitude, Alicia. Yeah. Point of order.
Alright. So I'm I know it's already 08:30, so I will not take too long, but I do wanna share. Let's try it again. So, hopefully, it shares easier this time. Some exciting data with you. So I'm just gonna talk about two assessments today. The first is called the DIBELS, and I'm not gonna read the whole thing, but certainly a slide you can see all these things. The DIBELS is the state required reading assessment for k three. This is the most standardized kind of predictor of reading ability. And so we actually administer this test to k six, but it's required in k three. And so we use this website called Amplify, and the state of Connecticut actually
gets the data of our k three students. And then we continue in four, five, six, but we don't use the actual website for that. We do it by hand. And so this is a a one on one interview style assessment that is brief and is done three times per year, and as Norm referenced, and it's used across the country. And so that, again, the purpose of this reading assessment is to predict success in reading. And so it starts all the way down to phonological awareness and works its way up to comprehension. Students are also progress monitored. So if for some reason they're performing below level on any of the subtests, then every two to four weeks, they're progress monitored to make sure that they're responding to any intervention we're getting. Alright. So some exciting things here. Oh, we're gonna get rid of this. Someday, I'm gonna figure it out. Hey. I'm get it. So here, the top is our district, our total scores. So you can see at the beginning of the year, that's what BOIS stands for, the beginning of the year. Blue would be, as you can imagine above, green is on, yellow is approaching, red is well below. And what it's saying is students who are falling here are gonna require significant intervention. Some intervention should respond to tier one, you know, above grade level. So we were looking starting at about 50% at the beginning of the year proficiency.
We ended last year at about 64%. So when you think about often, you'll hear teachers talk about summer slide, and so that's what you kind of look at We are now ending the year, as you can see, at 71%. What's significant about that, I'm already jumping ahead to my next slide, is, again, we're ending higher than we ended last year. So when we're looking at cohort to cohort, we're seeing those gains. Because we don't just wanna go sixty four fifty. Sixty four fifty. That that's not growth. It's great, but it's not growth. So this is really exciting because we're moving above where we ended last year at 71% proficiency. And you can see, actually, in Amplify, they will show you the national scores. It's over, I believe, it was close to a 1,000,000 students that this data at the bottom is just for the national average on this assessment. So that's just interesting to see a little bit lower than where we are. Before you move on, just can I make a comment on that slide? So I would I could assume that that twenty six percent beginning of year,
some of those kids could have potentially that with the reading interventionist Mhmm. And that brought that down to the sixteen percent. Like, that's that's the work that those schools are doing? Yes. Any student in that red is receiving
either specialized services through special education or reading intervention services, and then many students in that yellow zone are also receiving tiered support. And that could be by the reading teacher or also by the classroom teacher during those blocks.
Is it normal to see that also, like, if you look from beginning to middle, like, that you have more growth of the green initially and then
but the but the, like, the red stayed the same. Like, it takes longer to get the kids at the bottom. So Which would make sense. Right? You can kind of see they're gonna require more time to make up any skills. And I'm gonna break it down a little bit more for you here. And, also, the next one, move this guy down. So this is one subtest, and the reason I pulled it out, it's called the ORF. And so that's their oral reading fluency. So kindergartners, right, what do you think they need to learn? Oh, they need to learn their letters, then they need to learn the sounds, then they need to learn when the sounds go together, then they need to learn when it blends. Oh, there's right? All we call them the building blocks. They're stair steps. At the end, at the top, before comprehension,
we need to put it all together and read a passage. Right? And so there's standardized norms of how many words per minute a student should be able to read at grade level text, so an appropriate complexity. This is essentially, are they putting all the skills together at that grade level? Can they read this passage? And this is that really, that number one indicator that we're gonna look for on whether a student is achieving. 75% is wildly high. We're so excited about that number because if seventy five percent of kiddos, and this is, again, just k three, are already meeting that ORF we call, you know, for short the ORF, the oral reading fluency, then they're able to attack grade level text, which is what we want. That's the the most important standard. I also broke it down here. What I just mentioned before, the 2425 school year are these top three bars. So you can see we had nice growth, but, again, we ended there at 65%. Right? And now this year, you can see coming back in, same thing. We were a little like, okay. We're we kinda slid back, but our growth is higher than we ended last year, which is just continuing to show the work we're doing, making a positive influence.
I do break it down by year. Maybe I can move this. Maybe I can't. And so you can just see some of the incredible growth, and you're gonna see current grade one and two being in those small sections. Look at that growth. As you can see, I'm not excited at the ideas of collapsing grade two and grade three next year. And this is this is why. Because this is the growth we were able to do. They were coming in at really low proficiency, particularly our grade one, and have exceptionally progressed. And you can see grade two moving to 88%. So really, really exceptional growth. Kindergarten, typically, because there's there's less subtests, right, they're gonna a little bit less skills that they're acquiring.
So first grade is where we see much of that growth. And by third, we'd really like that's where you want that proficiency to be high. We want kids to end second grade without needing additional decoding instruction. Some multisyllabic words, you know, as they get into three, four, five, six, but really the basics. This is just a really, really interesting way to look at it, so I'm gonna kinda show you. So at the beginning of the year, there were about a quarter of all of our students. Again, sorry. That says 25%. Was about a quarter of our students at each band when you think at the beginning of the year. So let's just for the sake of the sales, about a 100 students tested. 25 were red, 25 yellow, 25 green, 25 blue. Now at the end of the year, this is showing, of those 26%, where did they end? So of those 26%, 54% were still red of those 26 kids. However, that means 46%
of them had moved into the yellow, green, or even blue band from the red at the beginning of the year. Then you look at this one, and you it's even you know, continues to grow. Of those 24% who were yellow in September, now you're looking at 77% of them in that green and blue. I mean, that's just exceptional work from our staff in terms of moving that we sometimes call those kids striving. Right? They're right there. They're they're trying to hit that grade level expectation. We've continued to maintain. Right? So these are kids that were green. Where are they now? Some 60% remained green, 27% moved to blue. And then, of course, you can imagine we look really closely. Right? Who are these couple kiddos that didn't maintain that proficiency? And then, I mean, you look at this one, and it's a 100%. So any students who started the year and above and I think that's important to say sometimes
people don't always always see the value of enrichment. But just because you're a high achieving student, you don't just stay that way on your own. You have to be enriched and challenged, and we were able to do that too. So that's just, like, I thought a very interesting data point there. The second assessment is the M class math. Again, you don't have to read it all, but similarly, it's not an interview. It is at the youngest at kinder, but it's not an interview necessarily. It's a assessment they take on the computer, but it's quick. It's about maybe it takes about thirty minutes, give or take, and it a little different than iReady, which is a touch more for lack of a better word. M class is really getting to student thinking. So they can manipulate. They can write out. They can draw so we can see what's happening in their brains. And so when you look at our composite, we gave this one k five. So remember we were looking at k three before. Now we're looking at k five, and we ended the year at 77% proficient. Now our math SPAC score last year was 53%. And, you know, I came and presented like, you know, we're we're in trouble. We're in math trouble here. We, of course the SBAC scores, we can't share until the fall as they're still in projected stages. We're really excited that the state has allowed us to at least start celebrating some of those wins with kids this year and with some families, so that's great. But as we look at these, we feel strongly
that all of these scores that I'm showing you are gonna represent on the state scores as well, which is exciting. Again, national scores were performing higher. Looking at that growth, again, the we we laugh in first grade. I mean, where did your green go? So it's exciting to see. Right? You know, there's a lot of growth. And, again, what's what this program allows too is for the teacher facing. I mean, again, they can dive in, of course, individually to each kiddo. It can set goal it sets goals for them. They work on the progress monitoring, and so we're able to see really to the skill. And it will break it down just like in reading, and it might go phonemic awareness, nonsense word fluency, word segmenting. It does the same in math. Right? So it's gonna go numeracy, geometry, fractions. It's gonna really break it down for them. And, again, in our four, five our three, four, five. And last but not least, I did wanna show you I Ready. Now I Ready is interesting because we do this in March. So keep this kind of in your brain. We do I Ready in March. Historically here, since I've been here, it's a very strong indicator for our state testing results are always been
pretty solidly four to five points higher than our I Ready because they take it in March. So there's still another two months of instruction, and this is the end of year, so to speak. Right? It's it's it's testing them on the standards for their whole grade. And so that's a good indicator, and what we can do in March then is make some last minute adjustments to intervention groups. Hey. This kiddo needs a little extra support on fractions. We're gonna go ahead and add him into that group, you know, do what he needs to do so that we can see that payoff. So, again, you can see 62, 63. We're very excited as we come into that state testing season that we're gonna see some incredible growth from our last year. So exciting things. It's it's, again, as you can imagine why all of these cuts, I know, are hard for all of us. But I do believe that class size has made an incredible impact as well as increasing that intervention
and allowing us to service all kiddos through whatever avenue or need they have. Any questions for me? I have to go through kind of quick. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Exciting to see. And the only small curriculum update just, we're excited. No brand new curriculum. Nothing major next year. You meant you will remember we were piloting UFLAB, which is k through three. We used to be some teachers were doing foundations, which is our original phonics program, and some were piloting UFLY. Teachers are thrilled with the UFLY results. We actually also think that's an indicator of what's showing here. And so there were other two teachers who were still doing foundations will move to UFLY next year, which is great. So we're excited about that as well. But other than that, you should see curriculum remain pretty stable. We'll continue working on social studies. And I know I've mentioned that briefly, but we do have Jamie and Melissa who have been slowly, steadily starting to break down those new standards and putting them into practice. I think that's all for I
think this is a tribute to you Mhmm. Thank you. The way you have performed your task as principal of this development. And I appreciate what you've done. I'm worried about this Mhmm.
And the cuts and how they're gonna impact that kind of progress. Yeah. K. That's what I I'm a figure. You should do a terrific job.
Thank you. I mean, the staff has just worked tremendously. It's like I said, we just keep being relentless towards high expectations, and I think that's really, really paying off this year. But it's exciting. Sure. It's, yeah, it's just really, really exciting to see, especially those younger kids kinda coming in strong now as they enter that tougher curriculum. Great. Okay. Thank you. That's exciting.
As a former teacher, I'm, like, super excited. It's amazing.
Right. So we'll just kind of give you some a big overview of the the finances. So if you can see on the summary sheet, we actually are in better shape than I had thought. I just wanna take you back. When we did going to Liz's question. When we did the transfer, what we were what I was doing is looking at the big buckets and where we were maybe going to where we're going to have deficits. So if you look at our sheet and you see where we transferred some of that 2% money into, all of those buckets, we needed money in those buckets. However, we didn't look at every single line item. So since that time and now, we've had some areas where we have done well. So I can highlight that for you. So we're we're probably very, very close to actually being within our budget. I've talked to the auditor. So if we do not need that $97.05 that we transferred, all we have to do is give it back. It goes back in the 2% nonlapsing, and we can even do that in July. So he's it just kind of it came from 2%. It can go back. So I do wanna tell everybody in the board too, like, I operate under the better safe than sorry
mantra. Right? I do I'd rather be safe knowing that money was there, knowing we could potentially have been in the hole than be at the end of the year saying, oh my god. We we don't have enough money. So, you know, I stand by that choice, and Val and I talked about it that I think transferring that money was the right thing to do.
Jody, can I just interject for one second? Jody's new with us this year, but understand the reason why she would do that would be because even if you're down to $40,000 in the account, that is less than 1% Mhmm. Of our total budget. So I know that the number that the town had used during budget season with their reserve was that 15.5% that they reserve in that, like, rainy day account because that's a fiscally responsible thing for them to do. To have a finance person understand and thank you, Jody, for that professionalism. To have a finance person understand that liability wise on our account, which is not connected to the town side. When you're getting down, it's like your car. When you get down to e and you go 15 more miles, it's a risk I'll take. She's below 1%
in there Yeah. In planning. She had to get to that point where she said, just in case there's a little bit of error in my 1%, I need to put that in there because 1% was all that she was forecasting
was gonna be left in there if nothing else happened. We also haven't been in the situation for a number of years because of the number of grants and stuff that you've been able to get. Right. Like, we've been the opposite. And, also, I have to say too, we our 2%, we don't have control over it. So it's not something I could say, oh, we're getting down to 10,000. Let me transfer the money. Yes. So, you know, it actually As is it. Took quite a while. It took quite a while. So I did not wanna be in a situation where we're we're getting low. And but I'll tell you where we what where we did do well. And, also, at the time too, we're waiting so 16,000,
we're waiting on seed money that wasn't coming through from the town. Yeah. So I said to Val, I said, Val, until that money's in our bank account, in our hands, I am not going to rely on that, especially and I, you know, I feel bad for the town. Lots going on with with the changes in in employees there and Chris leaving. I, you know, I I didn't necessarily have a 100% confidence that that money was gonna come to us on time. So, thankfully, it did. We got it just a couple of weeks ago. So, you know, that was 16,000 that just came through in May. From October. October. Right. We did. The payments were We got one. Yeah. And just so the other areas, if you look through, and I can just show you if you're questioning, like, where why where we did well, teacher salaries. One thing also, we had two maternity leaves. So part of their maternity leaves were unpaid, so that's why we wound up with a bit of a balance there that I had not anticipated. But that's why the sub
That's why subs is over. Yes. Yes. It is subline is over. We're doing well with electricity, though I am still waiting on bills. The oil and heating, I've encumbered, you know, 5,700, which is my estimate. But, you know, we did we are we'll we'll have the oil tank spilled prior to the end of the year, so that's my estimate there. I'm trying to think if there were other where were the other areas. Again, we did well with diesel, though I'm still waiting. That's the other thing. I have not gotten all the bills from the town. I've asked them for the van bill and the the diesel bill. So we you know, I I we're looking at probably ending the year right on budget, which is great news, and that money can go back if not having a little bit a little bit more there. Do You have your the transfers here. I know it's a separate line item, but if you have any questions about those transfers again and one thing too I wanna note that all of these don't need to be brought to the board level. So for example, if you look at the the second set of numbers, 230280.
So any of those, I could have just transferred. We could have just transferred, but I thought it was important for the board to see. I kind of looked where we had deficits, I should say, and I wanted the board to see where those were. And I wanted you to know that those were areas that I was looking at and money did need to be trained for having it this way, right, like, on this sheet, that helps. Like, when you guys go to planning a budget for next year,
like, for us to be able to look at, like, where where did you end up having to like, it makes it a little bit easier to look at than looking at
being Yeah. And it was the big buckets, and that's why I wanted to and we'll still need to do, like, end of the year cleanup transfers, which happens, you know, after after the budget closes in July. But I did. I wanted you to see the buckets where, you know, we were we had a significant chunk or, again, of just highlighting different areas where you we could see that. So
And the big one that she has on here so that's a good point, Kate. On the left hand side for transfer, if you wanna say, if there was surplus money in that account, have we already accounted for that in this proposed budget? Mhmm. And you'll see in the middle, those two for psych services, that 44,000, the 30 and the 14, we have already taken that out of our proposed budget as you guys know Mhmm. Because that was the grant that was expiring. So, yes, those two potential, what some people would say, well, that would be a surplus for next year. We talked about that ad nauseam. We have already accounted Yes. For that
in in here. And it was good for me. Like, when I look like, in the last one, FICA and Medicare. Right? So we were short 9,000, But it made me look at this year's budget and said, okay. And maybe go back to all the numbers, you know, and just look at all the charts from last year and the charts from this year. And, you know, I noticed that this year or for next year, you know, it's our FICA Medicare is significantly more. So for example, we had 84 budgeted for FICA, but for next year, it's 96. So maybe say, okay. For next year's budget, we're where we where we need to be. So it's a nice little double check as well. So, yeah, any any questions?
Does anyone have questions about any of the the transfers that she has on this transfer form? I feel like we've talked about the repair and maintenance HVAC Yep. Already a few meetings ago. Right? So that's not new. The repair and maintenance safety. I mean, I think we've already discussed
the big ones. Yeah. But even the little ones, I think, were all things that we've discussed at previous meetings that we knew. And then printing,
that's curriculum. Right. A change from consumable books to things that needed to be done in copies. We talked about that, and we talked about curriculum.
Yeah. Maybe look. And the the second to last personnel, that was actually our prime pay, and it actually because that's on a calendar year too. So the contract went up, and, also, the w twos cost money at it's our April bill is bigger. So, again, put it on my radar too that if we're looking so, for example, if PrimePay, we pay $900 a month, which is where we get the the number from. But now I know, oh, we have the we have the w two month where it will have a little bit extra being billed for the w two. So it's good certainly good for me to see all these. And one last thing. Sorry. And if we go to the fourth line down, Kate, before I have you sign, I actually have the wrong number. So we'll just change that. And the fourth line down is 002, not 432. Instead of 432, it's 650. For the instructional For the instructional tech. And it's it's the line is called instructional tech small equipment Okay. And stuff.
So I know we talked about repair and maintenance before, but the only answer I remember is that we have a large building. What what what specific things have we incurred that we didn't expect?
I will talk about HVAC, and Vals has a capital Varsity has a plan. Just put that on hold just until we get to eight b because, on eight b, it's in the packet for, the capital stuff. I don't know. Okay? Okay. Thanks.
Okay. So I do need a motion for the board to approve, these transfers.
I don't even like to make a motion. I make a motion that we approve the recommendation. K. Next and second? Transfer.
All in favor of approving the transfers? Aye. Aye. Anyone opposed?
I oppose. I didn't get my answers to the reasons why you're we're transferring. I wanted to talk about this repair and maintenance.
Oh, actually, is that it should have come later, the budget transfer. Is it alright if we're not in order?
Actually, I'm I'm sorry. It's it's a different budget. Sorry. I'm looking. It's 8 it's 8. Oh, because you've seen you have it listed as an item. Oh, yeah. See. Yeah. So then so then let's wait, and then we'll talk about the capital stuff, and then you'll get your answers. Okay. Okay. Sorry about that. No. It's my fault. I was the one who said I needed a motion now. You're jumping the gun. Okay. Do you have anything else? That's it. Does anyone else have any other questions for Jody? Mm-mm. Okay. Liaison reports. I know there were you guys had a meeting for
the thing that I'm not gonna remember the meeting for it. For the early cigar? Yeah. So it was we've had two different meetings. There's that I can just quickly mention. One is for, it was a family, meeting of sorts with our parent ambassador for the local council, for the Early Start Council, the local governance council. And I don't see her on, and I don't wanna speak for her. But one of the things that our our parent ambassador, Doris Maldonado, has done is to, try to encourage the local governance partnership to have the meetings and talk about some of the data that's coming from the surveys. So if anybody in the community does see meetings of the local governance council, k, and they want to join, there's usually a a QR code, and you register for the meeting, and then the Zoom link will be sent. Please keep in mind that it's open to all three communities. Our local governance partnership is Hebron, Lebanon, and the town of Andover, and so it's called Early Brutes. So you'll also see it abbreviated ERC, Early Brutes, the latter. So there's that. I will along the lines, just of updates and liaison reports, there was another meeting this month for the insurance consortium. Matt Streeter did log on with Jody and I, and we do have a member of the board finance that's been logging on, and that is Heather Muncar. That's a bit of a background for her. And so because it's a bit of a background for her,
she has chosen Dilavana and just learn a little bit more about it. Yeah. That's good.
Taking Polka? I don't know if you just wanna address that we don't take public comment in the middle. Yeah. We'll we'll Yeah. Jen's left. Public comment again towards the end of the meeting for your hand that's raised. Okay. Does anyone have any other liaison reports or updates? No. No? Okay. Next on the agenda is project update. So I can tell you guys that I fortuitously met with our representatives from Secondino and Sons on Tuesday. They were in the building when I came in, I was like, oh, I recognize you from the walk through. So we have a signed contract. I can email this out to everyone if you want. It's a 136 pages. I'll pass it around for now. But our lawyer as well as Eric have done a lot of work on Vowel to to kinda get this to where it is, and it's signed I signed it as well as.
And then I did email this out to all of you guys. Mercy, you should have a copy in your email. It's a PDF that Eric made. So he said that he's going to make this on a weekly basis for us from here on out, But it basically has, like, a project update. It shows ongoing financials and kind of a summary of where the project is thus far. They did kinda go through stuff this week, and they wanna start demolition on the afternoon of the seventeenth in order to stick with a schedule and abatement that's necessary because they have concerns about
possibly, like, whether or not they find asbestos during that abatement, which then makes the time period take longer. I think the only thing under that if you look under project updates in the upper right hand corner, He he's waiting. He need they need the school to pick epoxy floor color samples. Mhmm. So so things are moving along. Like Nice. Everything's good so far. And Eric is definitely necessary for helping us manage this.
You know, the guy that was hand raised, Luke, probably could put some message in the chat if it's something he wants to ask somebody.
Yeah. If there's open We'll we'll we'll do it during public speak.
Yeah. So along that line, for the possible action, the so the contract is already completed and signed. Kate's already taken care of that. That's there. That's done. The only thing, Kate, that you do need approval from the board for you to sign is I know that everybody agreed to have oversight by Eric Sanderson.
My question what's the what's the bill? Right. So the,
the quote here, the bill from for his time at $1.25 an hour for the eight weeks is not to exceed $8,958,900.
So it's within what we already got approved for. It's a project from our capital account with the board of finance. Perfect. K. And the only other thing on this on this sheet from Eric, if if you guys look at where it says, like, forecasted budget, and it says construction, soft cost, design. The cost under the soft cost and design, that is the hazmat study as well as the contract with Foss and O'Neill. So it looks like a high number, but it's it's there's multiple things I thought you put into that line item. No. No. Just this. Yeah.
So someone would need to make a motion for Kate to sign this so that we can put this through. I make the motion to sign the contract for
for Eric to to do the oversight. Oversight. So Okay. And Jerry. Can I You wanna see it? At it? Yeah. I mean, I thought I don't trust you. I just wanna see what it says. So this is a contract, the 136 pages?
No. No. The 136 page contract is with the contractor. Secondino and Zones. Okay. And the contract itself is about 30 pages, and then there's addendum that gets you up to a 136, which includes all of Fuss and O'Neil's plans as well as, like, the addendums on the addendums of that. But both the contractors' lawyers and our lawyer, reviewed the contract multiple times back and forth. So it's probably about the best capital contract that our town has seen in over thirty years because we looked at all of the contracts that the town has signed in the past thirty years, and none of them were Match. Appropriate. So they were all written from protection of the contractor and just signed as opposed to protection of the building owner. So I I hope, like, on a go forward, having this will actually be a good thing for our town, like, for any future town projects as well as for any future school projects because there's a lot of work that went into making sure it's protective for both the facility as well as for a contractor. Anyways. So we do have a motion on the table for the contract for Eric Sanderson to oversee the project, and he'll email one of these every week, which I can continue to email on to you guys in terms of an update. But it's a it's a pretty easy layout in terms of looking at where things are, and I think it will get
much more important and probably more confusing in terms of what is where as they actually start things.
Thank you for re reiterating that. You said a bunch of things about different contracts.
Yeah. There's there's so there's there's two. One is the main, like, the main main contract, and then the other one is, like, a it's two two pages, basically, for what his oversight includes, which is, like, weekly meetings, weekly updates, and all of the facilitation of communication between the contractor and the school.
So one contract is for Eric Sanderson, and then the other one is
for It's Eric already signed with the actual with second email.
Okay. You said Fuss and O'Neil. I didn't figure out where that was what that was about. So Fuss and O'Neil was the contract that we signed
actually, Celeste signed, I think, for for the original plans. For the design. For the design. Yeah. So that that is an addendum within the second Vino contract with all of their plans. An addendum to the
It's just it's it's just information within it's a it's an appendix within the contract for the contractor because those are the plans that they're following. Okay.
So I can't I can wrap my brain around the addendum to the contract with I I can email it to you. It's it's a 136
pages, but the contract itself is 30 pages. Yeah. I But that's not what we're voting on. Right? But that's not what we're voting on. What we're voting on is the the contract for Eric Sanderson to oversee the project for us. So Jerry three motioned, and Jerry seconded. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Okay. Thank Thanks. And just for it is not uncommon to have an attachment or something in a contract if they're following somebody else's plans. It's basically saying, I'm gonna go do this that you're telling me to go do. That's a simple way to explain it. Thank you. That was perfect. Okay.
Plan I just passed around. Again, we said this will be done during the course of the summer, but I wanna just give you a couple of updates here because we are talking about capital stuff. The first section didn't change. We had I had done this back during the course of the beginning of this year. Those were the kitchen appliances, and those were the updates to the kitchen areas. Nothing that needs to be done in that particular area. You can pass the number down. In that particular area of the building for facilities maintenance and capital projects. Under maintenance lawn care, last year, remember well, this year, in 2025, we purchased this gag, so that's okay. The only thing in here of note and in the July meeting, I will have it on the agenda to go to the board of finance and ask for us to consider over the summer from the capital account is we have a nonworking snowblower. So what we don't wanna do is wait until the fall on that one. The snowblower itself was purchased in July of two thousand nine, twenty six hundred. It's lasted seventeen years. I did meet with Eric Johansson. We had a meeting regarding what they would or wouldn't be able to do for us in the fall and if we were to get early snow. He was very gracious. He's very helpful. He said, unfortunately, Val, we don't have an extra one. We only have two snow blowers, so we wouldn't be able to loan you one. And we talked about whether or not we'd be able to, you know, like, pay our employees to help us with that, and they don't have an abundance of employees themselves. So
the recommendation was for us to do our best, before November to be able to get that. So we are, currently getting quotes for it. Looks like it's gonna be between 3,100 and $4,100. So at the next meeting, I'll have those quotes for you guys, and then it'll be on the agenda for you to vote for us to write a letter and go over to the Board of Finance and ask for us to take that at a better time. So that's that. Paving and parking lots, I don't feel like you happen to notice, and it is in this packet on the next page, actually, after the picture page on the top earlier this week. So there are pictures here, and you see the little the the little cone there. Earlier this week, there was a large sinkhole that fit two small preschoolers in at one time to the right of that drain that is in the parking lot in front of the music room door by the gym. It came on suddenly at the end of the weekend. And, thankfully, a teacher noticed it outside and was like, there's a pretty large hole. Find. It was terrifying. It it really was. I'm not exaggerating. I I literally could have climbed in there myself at at my four eleven size. So the scarier part was this sinkhole is right to the right of the drain.
So if something fell in there, it was also gonna go into the drain. So I will give kudos to Eric Johansson. I contacted him on Monday afternoon, and by Tuesday morning, they were here to fix it. So that was fantastic, wonderful. He said, wow. It happened that quick. So Public Works did come out and fix that immediately. He and I have had conversations, and I believe his conversations have already made it to the board of selectmen about our parking lot. Because, you know, we both agree that right now, actually, for compliance reasons, we should have the lines in the parking lot. Usually, historically, we used to have that as part of our budget, and we would get the parking lot lined in a couple of years so that you can see the the the lines for point in relining our parking lot in it? No. That's fine. That's why we didn't even put it into a budget. We didn't ask because at this point, we've we've been asking as a board, you know, to have the parking lot done. We had the money put in the capital account to do the upper lot, and it wasn't done. But I do believe that Eric Johansson, who's the public works director, has already
spoken with the first selectman and to the board of selectmen and is working on trying to expedite getting the lots
all done because they're that badly. Because whatever the ceiling was that they did, I mean, I had it all over my side. Like, I I had to replace two tires Yep. From it. So then And it's about to get What should have been five years for that chip sale didn't work. Was literally, like, coat of, like, tar on your tire. It looked like tack. Like,
this thick. We had a dozen a dozen tires that had stuck to the bottom of, and our poor custodian would have to go out there literally with equipment and get it out of people's tires. Getting out of there. Yeah. It was it was awful. Yeah. So, thankfully, Eric Johansson, health works director, is right on top of this. He understands that there's a few things that need to be done in the interim, and he has met with me a couple times about this. And so I appreciate the fact that he's absolutely on top of it, and I do believe that he has spoken with the board of selectmen and that they are going to try to move that forward with capital planning with the town. So that that'll be great. But apt to answer your question, absolutely, moving forward, there's no sense in because it's about 15,000 to line the the parking lot, so we would be lining a parking lot when we know it needs to be fixed. So, let's just hope that that happens, sooner rather than later. Then I put a picture in there for you in the middle of some pipes. And these are pipes that aren't labeled because they're in random locations. One of the things that we had spoken about was the, fact that especially when the RLE program occurs where we're doing more energy efficiency and one of them is having pipe wrapping, we do have a fair number, with a lot of pipes all over the building, but we have a fair number of pipes that,
you know, over time, there were, small leaks, small cracks in them, not uncommon. And over time, you have where you'll have certain pieces of the pipe fixed replaced. And we've been doing that along the way, and there's probably about let's see. There's one underneath the kitchen right now that is about 20 feet out that does need to have some repairs to that. So we're looking to get that done sooner rather than later. There's also another one on the other side of kindergarten over here, where there's, two pieces, about five feet that need, replacing as well. So these are things that we are hoping to get done, you know, through our contractor that we use for repair and maintenance, which is USA Mechanical before the end of the year. There is one that we have found that's not in the picture here that we are going to have to get quotes over the summer for because it's not a water pipeline. It is a sewage line that has a crack in it. The cast iron has a crack in it. So it is not currently doing damage where we're like, uh-oh. Let's, shut things down and not use that bathroom. But, that is, there's a piece of the cast iron piping in there that will need to be replaced. Where is is the other side of kindergarten. Okay. And so we just saw that one about a week and a half ago when they were coming in to look at any place where we had condensation or known smaller leaks for the pipes, that had been, just, kind of, band aided for a while. And,
so we're looking to make sure that those all get done before we do, pipe wrapping for the leak pipes. So, Scott's amazing. He's on top of that, and he's identified those, locations. So I put a picture in so you could see what we're referring to. And you'll see some of them, you know, just have maybe two to three feet of pipe that is not in the best form. There's rusting rusting out, and so the whole pipe may not need to be replaced. There's small areas that need to be replaced, and so we're working on that. Heating components, again, you know, the biggest thing for us to get done over the next six months is what we had looked at with RLE, which is the measures for efficiency. So we'll be looking at the pipe insulation. We'll be looking at the lighting and the aerators.
The original round did come round. We were Eversource. Remember, RLE told us they will come and do their own inspection, and they will make a confirmation of so I pulled this to show you. Remember, make confirmation of RLE's numbers here. Mhmm. They've come through the first time and proposed an LOA. Did not sign the LOA because they are in the middle of a restructuring of one of their measures program. So do you know how on this the first one said that the measure first measure was lighting, second measure was pipe insulation, and the third was aerators? With their new change, pipe insulation is going to be the pipe wrapping is gonna be part of a measure, not a measure in of itself. So, obviously, you know, we're not gonna sign that LOA until that's the measure because we want this to to to stand. So the next meeting, I should have that LOA. I I couldn't bring it to you at this meeting because we need to make sure that our original plan matches up with their new incentive. Because what would it mean? It would mean if we signed that, we wouldn't get as much for the incentive. Yeah. There wouldn't be three measures. So that would just unfold temporarily while they look back through those three measures for us.
Do you when was when did we last have that? Because I thought I was looking in my folder, and I don't have it because it's not in the packet. Which this one, Marcy? The capital plan? Didn't you didn't you give that to us at another meeting? Yeah. Yeah. I wanna say it was, like,
November. Yeah. Marcy, I will email you the one that we are looking at right now. Okay? Alright.
Yeah. Thanks. Appreciate it. I feel like I'm lost here. I'm sorry to bear my I twisted my ankle today, so it's about the same size as my knee.
That's okay. So, the top of this will say June 2026. Okay? Okay. Thank you. So any questions on where we are with this now? As you can see, there's a couple of areas that we still are adding to
and working on. There's a thing in blue under broiler room that Yes. That one some tank a tank failing.
So that one is, already, contracted. That will be done, by the end of July. So this is one of the line items in the transferred? K. Yes. That's 777775.
Mhmm. That one is already submitted. So, Marcy, for the within the capital packet that you don't have, there's a boiler room condenser receiver, and there's a there's a tank pump that's failing currently, and the repairs for that are $7,775.
There's a two combined. Yep. It's already two. It's already been encumbered, that one. That originally, would have been a plan for the, DRIP money, but then that hadn't come in, and that needed to be contracted for because it was down. And so that went through, the general fund plan. And then there is just a repair to the sump pump. And so, yeah, that's a mini throw. So but So that was $7,000. I'm sorry? That was $7,000,
the repair for that? It's closer to 8,000. Yeah. There were two repairs on that one bill for the for the $77.75. So, and normally then, when the projects are completed in the summer, then we'll have a list of, the ones that are completed. And this summer, Marcy, we'll also have a list of the ones that'll go through that DRIP grant, which we don't normally have the DRIP grant. But this summer, we will have a list. Can't promise it'll be at the July meeting, but it'll definitely be at the August meeting as to where that the the funding that we got for that that DRIP grant will go.
So I guess I'll probably ask the question for Mercy because I'm also confused. On your transfers sheet, where so that's I'm, like, 8,000. Where's the rest of the 30, and and then there's 14,000 under safety? Like, what Thank what's best of that?
Thank you. I didn't know if we were still in capital plan or transfers.
Yep. Nope. There were six minor projects that were ported during the year for things like the pipes that needed to be cut and fixed in other locations, The heating the the what do you call it? Room over here, the electrical room over here, downstairs in the pit, there was The outdoor lights part of us too? Nope. Not this particular one. No. And so there was a leak over there, and it was a leak that was, causing a smell. And so they did have to come there. They they did, change and replace, two things in that room over there. So, a combination of pipe work, the the leaks, the sump pump, and so that list like I said, the original list was to be used with the DRIP money. When the the projects need to be completed, we've got a a small discount for those four floats in doing them together of $1,800 to get those projects done. And so You saved 1,800. We saved Not the contract. To get them done. But, again, we will have the comprehensive list for you. If if it sounds the July, we would we had the August meeting of what was done and the list of the repairs and maintenance that'll be done with the drip on the incident. But some of the safety line item was sprinklers when they did the inspection. They found areas that that
Oh, good. That needed to be fixed. Right.
Is that the keypads too? Oh, no. That's gonna be that's the safety grant. That's the grant. Okay. We we haven't gotten the money for that yet, so that project hasn't been done Yeah. Because we first had to get an approval for the ones that we had spent prior to. So, again, the hope is that the July meeting that this particular plan will be completed by then, but I need to factor in the jobs that we've done already this year. Are there other sections in terms of the capital stuff, like other sections? But I see you have music department added in here. Are there other departments still No. There's no other departments to add. And, again, the reason why I added music is because individually, the instruments themselves don't meet the thresholds of being in capital. However, because of the age of all of our instruments, it's not likely that they're gonna be repaired or replaced one at a time. It's gonna be likely that they're gonna need multiple instruments at a time. And so I've asked Julie or Deb to work with me to put that in here because at that time, I do believe that it will rise the level of us needing to potentially use money from capital because it would be a replacement of multiple instruments at one time. And so I just want us to be prepared for that so people are not like, they never told us about that.
So that's it on this one for now. Does anyone have other questions on capital plan? I? Nope. Okay. So we'll move on to the budget transfer form. Marcy, do you have other questions on the budget transfer form with those line items to repair and maintenance for HVAC and for safety?
Yes. Extra instructional tech too. I'm just kinda looking at the big numbers.
The instructional tech, Marcy, if it's coming out of the correct line item now, Jody just said the number was wrong on there. It's supposed to be 650. That is our small tech replacement. So it's been five years since we have, fixed and or gotten up to speed with the correct number of, Chromebooks and, a ViewSonic. And so what happens then is instead of we have not been in the position every year where we could throw some money into that line item. I'm not complaining about that. But it meant that now to get us up to speed, there was a significant cost to replace or to add the needed ones this year for the teacher laptops that were required to give them, as well as the Chromebooks. So, this will not be a a recurring 15,000 for next year, but that was the cost to, get the needed, amount of small technology that we needed this year. The only ones we would have been able to purchase in the last twelve months were the ones that were were required
for adaptive tech for certain special education Yeah. So where we had a small lot of money and said, oh, we're gonna use this for four Chromebooks. Unfortunately, we wound up having to use it for another item for a student with a special need. And so we just kept getting behind the eight ball on that, and we couldn't now. Otherwise, we would not have enough technology next year. And remember, our state testing is done on technology. And so it wasn't that we just wanted more Chromebooks and laptops for teachers. It's a requirement because they take their tests on, devices. Otherwise, those purchases are typically staggers. Right? That's a little bit Correct. Every year. Yes. And and Christina's done an amazing job every year of making sure that, we were able to milk the existing ones, and fix them and get them working, but they do have to have certain capabilities for state testing. And since our student window for state testing means that all of our students need to have a device that's usable during the same stretch of time, It's not a matter of sharing where you can say, well, today, you can use it. But tomorrow, you can use it. We do have to have an availability for state testing for the students to all use them on the same day.
K. Does anyone have other questions on the transfer form? So how many Chromebooks is that? 15,000.
It's not just Chromebooks. It is teacher laptops. Again, there has to be a laptop available since grades and, everything else is done via computer. So that is to, ensure that there were enough working devices for adults as well as the students and to make sure that there's a working ViewSonic in each of the classrooms, the, screens at the front of the room. So, again, it was repair of some and replacement of others.
And how come we were supposed to be doing this one or you know, a few at a time, and how come that wasn't happening?
Because that it's it's stuff that's been cut from the budget. So, anything that was in the budget last year that was out of necessity, for that year was forced to be cut. And, unfortunately, since 2021, that's really where we would wind up having to cut. And as I said, any money that was set aside for the repair repair and replacement, unfortunately, during the course of the year, if there is a student who requires an adaptive technology device,
it has to come from that line item as well. I'm pretty sure I don't remember if it was a year or a year and a half ago. Christina did a presentation for us on, like, instructional tech stuff and, like, what our entire inventory was of it. I'm sure we can get you a copy of that.
Yeah. That'd be great. Last time that we looked at it as an overhaul. We have it in our reevaluation that we do every year as well Yeah. Of what is tagged in the building. So, yes, we do have that. Kinda the same thing that we're doing with the music instruments instruments right now. Yeah.
Okay. Bless you, sweetheart. Bless you. So we did make a motion earlier. Great. I think Jerry made it, and I seconded for the for approving the budget transfer form. We made it. Jerry seconded it. I think that was the other thing, but that's okay. Right. Okay. So all in favor?
I'm sorry. I didn't hear you. What was the motion for?
To approve the budget transfer form that Jody wrote as is with the change of the account number for instructional tech.
I didn't hear the the HVAC line, the 30,000. You didn't talk about that. You said 8,000 for something.
For a variety of things that needed to be repaired in that, room, in the, mechanical room. So, at the next meeting, we will have a list jobs that were completed.
Okay? But should we have that in front of us before we, you know, agree to these transfers?
That's cumulative. Right? It's it's been going it hasn't been been over that line item for months. Right? Over. It's been running over. Right? So I and, again, I can't remember every little thing either. I just know we've talked about it at meetings, everybody says, why are we over? Why we keep asking why we're over. Yeah. We're gonna list these for the next month. Yeah. That is one of the When you went into that with budget, we were over. I don't know. Back to you. Just that we're over. That's all. Okay. So we'll go ahead and vote. All in favor? Aye. Aye. I'm gonna abstain.
Okay. Mercy's gonna abstain. So have Five. Yeah. Zero. Okay. Okay. We're up to comment from the public, so just go around the room. Luke, and if you could state your last name as well just for the record. Okay. We'll come back. Diane Greiner. Thank
you. I'm speaking on behalf of a dear friend of mine, missus Mary Claus. She has asked me to, thank you for inviting her to visit and read to the pre k and kindergarten class. It's always a delight to to be in, Andover and visiting the children there, and, she appreciates your invite. So she thanks you very much. Thanks, Elliot. Thank you for coming. Charlene Del Mastro.
Hi. I'm Charlene Del Mastro. I've taught at Andover Elementary for over twenty years. I wanted to say that we teach our students even in the youngest grades about community and that a community is made up of all the people that live and work there, all the people that belong, and we tell them that they are an important part of this town. But during budget season, it seems that the community becomes focused only on the taxpayers, and we forget those of us who spend our days contributing to this community and love this town despite the fact that we don't live here. But what hurts the most is that we forget the littlest community members. I know that you on the board of education do your best to advocate for them and that now as a board, you have to decide how to hurt them the least. Because if we're being honest, we know these cuts will hurt and that they will be felt. I just want you to keep, the kids in mind as you think about the options that Val gave you, and I'm really sorry for all of you that your community put you in this position. That's all. Thank you. Jamie, Talvin, Bailey? I'm all set. Thank you. Patricia, Kelly?
Hi. I wanna first thank you for your extensive your extensive potential cuts and their impact. And I especially wanna thank the principal for discussing the results of the DIBELS. That was very enlightening and nice to see this success. I am disappointed to hear a person say get over it when someone's asking a question. I don't think that that creates good relations. Thank you very much. Anna Glockey? Nothing. Thank you. Liz? Hi.
I'm I'm not really sure what to say. I I guess I'm I'm a little disappointed in the in the response to my email about the enrollment question because the slide the slide sounded a little I don't wanna I don't wanna use the word deceiving, but it it it kinda sounded deceiving to say that we will we are expecting to have 200 k through sixth graders with 270 children within the walls of the school next year. I mean, it sounds like to use the the excuse of the POCD, just the POCD report, when you can look at your own numbers and really make a pretty good estimate of how many students you expect to be in the building next year, it's really not that difficult. Anyway, I just wanted to share my disappointment with the response because I I kinda think it was a non answer. Thank you. Christina Frieder?
All set. Thank you. Melissa Litaska? All set. Thank you.
Donna Boldrick? All set. Thanks. Same for May. Mhmm. K. Does anyone have any other action items that we missed tonight?
Do you wanna set the date down, or do you wanna wait until after Tuesday? And who's supposed to be emailed with the board first?
Suppose we'd probably wait until after Tuesday. Yeah. And we'll definitely do it probably via Zoom as opposed to, like, an in person meeting. Okay. There's a lot going on next week. So Mhmm. Okay. Then board received their invites to step up?
Yes. Yes. Okay. So our next meeting, regular board meeting, is July 8. Is anyone not gonna be at that meeting? I will not be on that meeting. It may not be at that meeting. I'll probably be on Zoom. I'll be fine now. A little bit. I suppose I could join Zoom if that's why. And then just a reminder, we did move our August meeting to be a special meeting on August 5 instead of on the twelfth. So just Step forward. Step forward. Okay. Does anyone have anything, like, items that they want to put on the agenda for our next regular meeting? No. Not really. Yeah.
Okay. There was four for the final. Right? Yep. And you daily did that note to them and gave them? I think it would be helpful.
Like, could I have them come a little later? Yeah. Because Yeah.
Yeah. So on August 5, we'll try to do some more policy, like, a lot of policy. And just be aware between now and when we meet on August 5, I will probably send you guys emails in terms of board evaluation and superintendent evaluation. So just know that will be coming. Alright. Anyone like to make a motion to adjourn? Oh, yes. I will make a motion to adjourn. Okay. It's 09:34. Anyone want a second? Second? Bye.