##VIDEO ID:mAnLCZ7P8Uk## call the meeting to order at 601 um first order of business is to review and approved minutes of November 133 2024 any comments or motions motion approve all in favor oh you I I that's right all righty long to financial statements so Shelly did send us ahead of time I did um for the record there were 21 warrant signed since the last meeting totaling $3,761 128 there shouldn't be any surprises on the reports we've talked about all of the items that are negative um couple of quick reminders uh one of our teacher lines is over because we had a teacher on a paid L of absence so we have substitute coverage and then the other big one is the heating fuel which we've talked about already um I do expect that we're going to have some other wage savings there's been some vacancies between IAS um and then a teacher position that hasn't been replaced yet in the wings program so there may be some things that can help us recoup to pay cover that heating oil worst case we'll have a conversation at year end about transfering money from school choice make sure that we can cover that and then um on the school choice expense report special transportation is overdrawn on that account we have adequate funds to cover um I did talk with Penny smow and Karen fandino in our special department and one um rates are up compared to Prior Years yet again and uh that's just for specialized trans Transportation not a regular contract um we also do have some funds available in our special education revolving account so the money that we receed for tuition and for wings that if we did have to do an adjustment we could so no concerns just wanted to remind you those things and make sure you understood why the choice account was negative yeah that's all I have for final um is that anything that we need to think about for the following budget year so Karen does her best to estimate what she thinks transportation is going to be right now while we're in budget season for the next year but we never really know um the number of companies providing specialized transportation is getting smaller and smaller and so liability insurance they must have to carry is huge um so it's sort of out of our control a little bit and we try we usually put a bit of a buffer in there but it's one of those things that's really difficult to predict thank what the rate of increases been year on year year to year um I know in the current year it might not go $50 a day compared to last year which I don't have what the exact totals are but you know if it was 300 last year it's 350 a day now and it it probably really is $350 a day if not more yeah yeah if you need another career it might be something retirement plan bu a couple Vans yeah my niece actually drives a school bus with two kids in the school bus with two of her her kids she has four not quite up to you but yeah and yeah she it's she says it's a great gig when you can have your kids with her I have no idea how she entertains them while she's doing the root but she's actually a certified teacher but this is her young kid plan it's working we're trying to convince June Chamberlin our former Wings teacher to open our own special ed Transportation can you imagine how good that would be it' be like education on your way to school oh my God totally alrighty uh thank you Shelly we are on to the president's report which Kristen did send us ahead so I sent a a little January update like they usually do with the school Improvement plan we're doing all of our assessment right now so I'll be able to give you a um much more detailed and better snapshot at you know at the next meeting because January is the month that we do um we you know we did our dibles testing which I gave you an overview of that and um certainly students have improved in general throughout the school again it's one little snapshot for third fourth and fifth grade it's how many minutes U two minute reading session three minute silent reading yeah yeah one minute we yeah but it's a it's a little dipstick for us to look at and you know how we do this we look at the students we actually have an instructional leadership meeting tomorrow we try to check to see if we have to use some of our resources different places if new students need intervention if the students were getting interventions don't need interventions anymore we have to move to the new stuff after a new step after um interventions also just a little fun one Mr be always um uses donor chws for his book collection in kindergarten he did it again this year I mean he's done this so many years it's just my first time I was like oh I should let the school comme know about this and he's building he's built a huge library in his classroom and so he's just keeps adding to it um just a quick update on the PTO I don't know if Darius will talk a little bit more about this but our PTO submitted a currently we're a farm to farm to school district we have a committee and we've had a mentor this year a coach this year um there was a training about come becoming the farm to school school and further District which we're all interested in um in this school and so um the PTO president submitted a a grant for the USDA firearm to school and then the mass fresh core Grant and one of the grants I don't remember which one is about 60,000 the other grants about 150,000 and um some of the goals of the grant is to create positions that can you know help continue this the Farms to school program I know here at Conway we have a goal of if we get the grant seven more gardens maybe each class having a garden um we're currently doing along with Pat McCarthy who's the head of food service we're doing um oh what do we call them tasting so every month it's a new fruit or vegetables last month it was kale chips and the students take the kale chips and then they vote whether they like them or not and then we put it on the Whiteboard at the end of the day so they're trying all sorts of new things and the likes have been really up there wow so this is some really great work I never even heard of kale until I was probably 50 yeah be like eips yeah so do it once a month it's fun for them and so fingers crossed I know they had a meeting with Darius today so um again more to come on that we haven't sat down really to establish you know have the money for are some of the goals meeing with darus I know they met with you right so again we're just chicken out there now you know chicken egg prices or yes yes so um business we got the grants that that'd be exciting to we we kind of have a leg up because we've done been doing this mentorship and coaching but we'll see Nature's Classroom heading out in sixth grade again this year may in this is the first time in a couple years that we've had 100% of the students sign up to go so that's great I thought it was fifth grade don't even ask her I fought mag does this hurt it used to be oh somebody who had a sixth grader just two years ago be the first in the cohort of sixth graders yeah and they all got to go from different all the different towns go together I think it was a nice experience yeah is know each other so did they go twice when they changed it did they go no there was of years where it didn't happen at all oh oh okay you know it's pretty pricey this year it's $480 a student and we are all four of the schools do it and so it is getting more and more difficult our sixth grade I have to say they do a great job with fundraisers last year I think we were able to knock off about 170 per family um but it's it's more and more difficult we we've never had a child that wants to go not go um and so it's just it's it's you know and the Nature's Classroom cost didn't change much it's the transportation so and then I just gave a list of activities because I get to do the fun stuff here and um I think that's it this is the best job in the world thank you I love it always say thank you not even a job always say um all righty so we are on to public comment you know everybody up there on the screen any public to comment hi all right um unfinished business F FY 26 budget all the fun stuff sorry I got to do the fun it's okay it's okay uh so this is just the first pass of the report as we go through the process and we start having more um information we're sharing with the towns we'll make sure that the presentations are more elaborate because I know Veron had talked about wanting some different data as well so um for now first first eyes on this this is really brief summary uh we're looking at level Services presenting as a 7.05% increase over FY 25 um 1% is about 22,000 roughly it's a little bit more than that but um about 22,000 uh we started off adjusting for Grants so we used um $50,000 of grant money and fy2 to offset the budget so 30,000 of that was from Esser and those funds are no longer available and then we used 20,000 from rural Aid which we're going to talk about possible funding for that again in the new year but to start off and where we were in the budget process when I began this in um early fall we didn't know what the rural Aid allocation was going to be at that point they hadn't put out the number so rather be safe and sorry and cover our basis so that's included here uh there is a cola increase applied to all employees so teachers and IAS that we're in negotiations with uh school-based staff and central office there is colet increase in that and that is a large chunk of um this increase you know it accounts for at least a couple percentage points of that 7% uh we do in we will have a sick buyback retirement benefit to be paid out for one retiring teacher that is estimated to be about 21,000 and then uh I did account for wage reductions so the Personnel change whenever we have a teacher retirement we look to see if we can hire at lower column so they have less Advanced degrees and usually retiring teachers are veterans so can we come in at a lower point in the salary schedule so that's been taken into consideration I also moved the food service director to the school lunch revolving fund which um filler Lane hukin account that in the past we we would never be able to do this no always was years we were negative um given the way that reimbursements have gone since covid um every child that eats lunch here we are receiving credit for from the state or federally depending on if they're free and reduced um and those fees tend to be more than we were collecting when parents were paying so we've been able to build up reserves I think we're in a safe spot that even if something changed with lunch reimbursement we would be able to continue to cover those wages for years to Great use it saves some money there and then uh we have a a technology specialist That's a central office position and I went ahead and adjusted that position this in this year's budget for all of the schools and Conway is seeing a reduction in their cost share there which is minimal but you know $4,000 when your 1% is 22,000 makes a big difference in your budget so that was um a savings for us of about 30,000 there is a cost share increase for central office expenses um Conway's enrollment has gone up compared to the other schools in the district so they're paying a little bit more not a huge amount you know we're not talking $10 $220,000 but four or five again makes a difference these other expenses we can continue to have a conversation about as we go through the process because we may not want to increase them in their entirety I want to give you data based on actuals for the last several years for you to consider recommendations to make increas es and we have several accounts that have been overdrawn from prior years we've been able to move money around and cover them but Conway has one of the tighter budgets in the district there's not a lot of um wiggle room in accounts like there are elsewhere um for example you know deerfield's substitute budget is significantly higher because they have more teaching staff and more IAS but they often use internal staff to cover positions because for whatever reason they can't find Subs in Deerfield compared to Conway um and Kristen has been successful in finding Subs when staff are out of the building so there may not be those kinds of lines available where they are in other schools so love those college students coming home that's right great they had great experience here they want to come back that's why great um so we may want to consider this with that said it adds another you know just over 1% to the budget so when we're at 7% we know we're not going to bring a 7% budget to the town that's just not going to be something that any of us are comfortable moving forward with or that the town can afford so while I'm saying yes we should increase these things I think we continue the conversation and see where we can peel things back if we K keep kicking the can that percentage just and we keep kicking it bigger and bigger right so like the grant adjustment right we kind of knew that was coming um but you know we didn't take a hit last year uh the the col know's coming every um trying to think something else we've been talking about the retirement benefit buyback and I feel like we kick can on that perhaps last year as well so in the current year you didn't have anyone to pay out so we benefit from it you know was two years ago we had multiple um two actually might have been three years ago we had four and we had to ask the town to fund those so we funded them out of the budget Town paid for it out ofh or whatever we paid for it out of um the covid stimulus payment um and that was that's no longer there it was the only payment that we that the town paid for um outside of the building the new build you know the the Public Works project for the public safety building which could have used that extra1 20,000 that be paid for that beneficial that it was it was super that was a great thing that the federal government did for us that year I I just comment that what I bring up is like careful to K can and end up being now we're looking at 10% and then we what what are you cutting because now we can't have a 10% increase now the the the um sick pay buyback is a legacy of 20 or 30 years ago of a a negotiated contract and we're stuck with it we did negotiate six years ago um and end to this for new hire so I think there's 14 more years it all depends the last one in on that contract yeah right right um but but uh you know the it is it is according to the research that was done um by somebody that the it is the most jistic pay buyback provision in the state and it was at the time it was done I don't think the people that did it knew uh KN knew about it but it's still it's 1% that that 21,000 is 1% of our budget or stick to pay buyback and um it's also very tough and then when you look when you look at schools like Amhurst and northamp and you know real big budget compared to us like schools their s pay buyback Provisions are capped at like 2500 something so I think you just brought up a really good point jar where you said it's a variable you know there are years where you could have multiple retirees and there are years where you have none so it's a difficult thing to add to your budget because you don't want to inflate it in years that you don't need it then you're wasting taxpayer dollars and and town funds um but when it comes to a point where you're consistently for year after year after year seeing retirees which I don't think Conway's on yet um it is worth considering uh I am darus and I are going to ask you to consider and we would recommend that we pull that sick buy back out of the budget and that we use school choice funds to cover that which is also a delicate balance and we've had conversations about that you know we we want to be mindful of depleting school choice funds but it's a good use of a one-time expenditure and a non-recurring expense so and to be honest you know one employee do one employee per year is is much better than two or three or four and so like if you know of situation coming down the pipe where there might be two or three or four if we can sit down with them and say hey can you stick it out one more year can you stick it out one more year just I've already done that with one yeah if you could just if if the retiring soon if the want to be thinking about retiring teachers could just stagger their retirement so that it's just one per year that would really that would really help the budget October okay yeah so we know it early on so anyone that put in for it now even if they retired this June they wouldn't receive their buyout until 27 okay got two questions one is um mentions rural Aid if we don't use it this year is it e earmarked already for something it's not earmarked so why don't I keep going um so you'll see under principal's office request there are no new requests this year Christen I'll let you speak to this more but I might request pencils or AV the Hightech pencils my first year she's like don't buy the cheap pencils right you waste money on but like we've done a lot though like the Mini Splits and yes the building stuff and whatever that's different we're going to have a capital request this is just principal but we don't need any new Staffing you know we've made adjustments for summer programming over the years um and we feel like we have adequate dollars for supplies and materials so we feel like we're in a good spot there which is a good year to be that in that position when we're talking about a 7% level service so right okay and I do always put that in context because you know we have to take care of the gem we have here and if people think we're going cheap on it they're going to start thinking we're not as good as we are and start looking for other options you know when I when I worked in the district we had a lot of out of District placements for things that we could actually handle in District because people got some sense that they couldn't be handled in the district and that wasn't accurate I thought we did a from as a professional seeing the programs out of district and the ones in District are in in District were way better and the kids stayed in their own community so you know invest in your school and it pays off in your community right so that's why I make sure we take care of it right without waste of course so things for us to cons consider and conversations to continue having as we go through the process as Michael just said I have a note on here about rural Aid so Conway's rural Aid this year is um $3,236 uh I don't anticipate any needs in the current year uh some of our schools are having other challenges where they might actually have to spend that money this year and not use it towards next year's budget I do expect that Conway will be able to apply those funds so you know we're looking at almost 1.4% that we would reduce the budget down to um and I think that's the the conversation like when we talk about world that's what it's for it really is for to reduce what you're not getting in Chapter 70 because we're you know we're just not getting more money from the state so it is kind of do that the problem is that they're not guaranteeing it from year to year right and so it's the way we're kind of setting this up now is kind of like we talk about school choice years ago is like don't spend next year's money in next year's budget so don't say okay we're gonna offset next year's you know we'll drop another percent because we'll get some ring right because you don't know if they're going to they're going to approve it so right now we're kind of spending you know are we truly spending rural Aid not really sh's going to shift stuff off of school choice onto rural Aid save the school choice and then apply it next year because you have to suspend it by the end of the year so just kind of like when you get into technicality of it but we are spending that money a year in the rear as we say right we're just we're just we're paying for stuff we would pay for something else so but you it's important to recognize that if the rural Aid doesn't come through next year Year we're starting a percent and a half down with nothing to fill it just as we started this year with we Ed the realated 20,000 last year so we started with $20,000 deficit going into our budget it's just something that you have to be cognizant of as you watch the politics of whether or not we get more World maybe we'll keep on going and maybe they'll stabilize it but we've been trying to get in our conversation with our state legislators I've been trying to say can you make it that you cannot reduce it by more more than 50% from one year to the next so that way we can at least start applying it to our budgets and if we're going to reduce it we can slowly take it off so you know in this case we are spending $30,000 you know next year at least we'll get $155,000 so that you know so I asked them to consider something like that because we are using it to apply to our budgets and um you know we all started getting nervous when they were very late to give these numbers out and then if you may have heard they gave the wrong numbers out and they actually gave took money away after they gave it to us um but there were concerns that they were going to be C cuts and these would be on the nine c cut list so you know nine c cut is you know if the budget if the revenue in the state goes down the governor is allowed to start slashing certain areas in NC is Regional Transportation which would hit Frontier reimbursement on special education circuit breaker and um R A those are kind of the big things that there's other stuff out there but things that would visually affect our budgets well but then you get right then you get you know we start freaking out and then they're like oh no no she's just late getting the budget out so but there were you know economic signs that they they could have been delaying to see how in December was a good month I guess so we were h a nice bounce back but um November and October were not but financially for the state so getting more information you have to know but it's understanding where that money comes and goes and why when just apply it there is kind of a cautionary thing to apply because if they was were cut this year we have friends in other districts their colleagues in other districts that we're using that are spending ahead because they have no choice or they going have do major cuts to affect programming and that's two choice they made so if they don't get at least the same amount as year before then they will have to cut mid year and they still could cut it you know right now they're saying that that's not going to happen but technically it could so it is a it's a risk that we're taking either way right I would say it's a high risk but it's one to especially we're spending in well if they cut it between now and the end of year we'd have meaning we'd adjust our budget yeah we'd find another funding source you know that kind of stuff so sorry go ahead that I think it's great um so the next bullet point we've already talked about the sick buyback uh we would recommend that you consider moving those retirement payment to school choice for FY 26 I'm G pause I'm G talk about that too so um and within school choice so right now we have a healthy balance in there and um School choices stabilized here you're unlike some of the other schools in the district the greater District where they're reducing in size and you know your one classroom thing so you've been able to stabilize your um your choice revenues um and what was I to say about that in some towns we've had to ask the town for paper at separately outside a budget so the fact that you the sickly buy back we actually go and you say hey we're actually like a capital request we're asking like we did it before before you're paying for it inside your own budget um I'm saying that because you're phisically healthier than some of the other small schools in our own District um but it's also important to talk about like yeah this is a thing that we pulled out of the budget we're going to pay for on the side but it's also one of those things it's a town liability not just the school liability right it's a town employee so um anyway I'm just kind of saying that loud that other schools are doing that differently as you watch other people's budgets like what the town's pay for that and we're looking at we do have a healthy enough choice where we didn't have to spend it last year we can take those funds you this year on that and not have to go to the town along the lines of a healthy school choice so maybe I'm but I thought I heard prek is very like it's full right prek is full we prek is full with waiting list all the time right and and a lot of more Conway kids as well right like yeah we couldn't accept anyone that didn't have a family member already in our system in our school so hypothetically if if this baby boom and Conway is coming from but if if we don't have the capacity to take I mean a lot of families m in also a lot of families moved in but so then does that hypothetically leave us no room for school choice students moving forward so like what has like I know Chase's class just graduated it was like 75% school choice or something so we start seeing a shift of all a sudden it's all Conway kids the funding going to look different so what we look at is the same document you guys got as part of your packet is you know it does say who's you know who's going out and who's coming in so if you look at the sixth grade um you know we're at 19 and you know nine of those are choice or tuition in students and the you know the class coming in right now well that prek doesn't really tell you what the kindergarten class right so for example we always keep our eyeing on that so last year we had um let's say eight school choice students leave sixth grade and we knew we had a kindergarten of 20 over 23 you know we knew that so we knew that kindergarten was going to take a hit on school choice and we're losing eight so somewhere in the school we have to make up at least nine to stay ahead of the game right if we have capacity to do so yeah so that's we're always like every year trying to keep our eye on the ball and saying okay we got so you know what one family comes in they love the tour they love it blah blah they go tell the next family a lot of our stuff is just coming and visiting the school you know but we try to keep our right but there's only so much we can do three years in a row where there's only enough room for one or two Choice students your revenue is going to be but the thing consider the revenue is that there is also there is also um special ed increments connected to them as well as those students you get the 5,000 but let's say you're receiving speech services you do a percentage of you get a little bit more than that so the needs of those students which you know you can't discriminate against that kind we can't say let's get a hire let's get Let's get someone mediocrities get you know that kind of thing you can't do any of that so you get what you get but sometimes some of those students leading could actually be more than just $5,000 ahead that's your that's your base point but aren't you just looking at one side of the equation or one side of the coin when you do that because if those spots are filled with Conway residents don't we get Chapter 70 money for each we're in whole harmless we're not going to be able to grow enough to out we could technically if we go up I think go up like six or eight students because that's about what weight had right and they got a little bit more for one year they got for one year one year so understand work so let's say you do two classes of let's say you got two classes of 20 comwe students your enrollment will then have a small bump to it you will get more in one year because you'll be out of hold haras the following we as long as you're not gonna to keep up the same growth so you're going to be backing it's like we're and that's why you know they're talking about you know opening up how schools are funded because schools are old harmless you can't get out you know unless you really grow as a community and well we have 23 time kindergart you do they're out there they're out there but you bring up exactly the point of why we talk about this every year because while we say yes our our balance is healthy let's use it it only takes a couple of years before yeah you're in trouble and having to figure out how to cover those expenses on budget and I guess you know in the Realties is that so let's say you have great years for year after year your school choice numbers go way down and you deplete that budget away would that the budget of the school choice the one thing that school choices has has allowed the schools to work um a little bit with more autonomy from the town and whereas if you if you let's say we end up having to spend all the choice money and then we have a special ed placement we would have to go to this s board for money every dollar goes to yeah right and so you know what I mean and then they would have to create a reserve fund for the school in order to deal with school emergencies because right now the school can handle most of its own emergencies you know you know within the degree and you know that kind of thing so if we have you know we're $220,000 difference get to send a child out for their needs you know we can cover that inhouse you know um we also pay every IIA from another funding source outside of the budget so if we are losing that month school choice if we are losing special education Revenue um it's going to result in having to cut staff we will not be able to absorb significant levels of Staff increases on the budget but I don't think we're anywhere near it's just good to have that we want Count parents to have a lot more kids not just a few more kids so maybe maybe congress's coming attempt to Outlaw birth control might help us out gosh so I think this was a really healthy conversation you guys have asked great questions and I'm I'm glad that we're talking about this um couple more things before we close out so I just want to point out if we were to implement the couple of pieces that we talked about moving something to school choice applying real Aid maybe cutting down some of those expenses that have been overdrawn for a few years um we're still probably looking to be around 4% which could be still a bit high for the town's been three right push was last year and that's without the new negotiated contracts so we do have a placeholder in the budget we did get to three last year we don't know what we're going to settle that I'm going to look right now what we were at last year yes three usually goes through without you say 1% about 2000 thank you yeah yeah right and so those budget numbers will come out on the 22nd um the governor's budgets do on the 22nd so then we have an the towns will have an idea what they're getting for revenues so everybody's going to quickly scramble do a quick envelope math to see where you know and that's where the conversation the town will start in the sense of it was conly up or down this year based on revenue and as we know sometimes this you know know the frontier is going to get its assessment right set up by the the governor's budget and then um you you find out how how rich or how not rich the town is you want to call it poor you know but um you know the town is very up then 4% is not going to be a problem Town's really down that's where that conversation Town's down you can you usually some people usually know predict you have an idea no the the town's growth Municipal Revenue not from the state but its own Municipal revenue from this year last year to this year is less than 1% even with all them stickers yeah no that's that that'll count next year the bulky stuff the bulky stuff went I think you made but big big savings there um so historical information I just pulled up here going back to 22 we were at 3.79 232 .96 24 2.36 and then 25 was 4.87 so we were higher last year so it might be challenging to do a second year at a significant level um so we'll have to continue the process you know yeah the schools were were higher the overall Municipal budget was 3% last year um one other point that we want to talk about quickly and I'm I'm going to defer to Darius and Kristen for the most part but can certainly jump in on on budget conversations but we just wanted to Loop you in on an update about the wings program which is our specialist program where we bring in students from other districts and they pay tuition I know you know that I'm just sort of saying it so that the public knows what we're talking about so for the past three four years we haven't been able to find um a sustainable candidate for the program after Jun and Tracy retired you know there are so many special ed teacher positions open just throughout the state and I no farther um that anyone getting into special ed understandably might choose working with students with learning disabilities or um with cognitive delays versus working with children with behavioral and or emotional it's just it's just harder I should I don't want to insult anyone I shouldn't say that but it's just all day every day yeah yeah yeah unique it's a uni position um and you really need a uh you know some really special I mean we had a special a teacher and a school psychologist in the program right and it was a wonderful program and so when we take students we really want to do the best I mean the wings programs has changed children's lives have changed family's lives absolutely and right now currently we're really piecing it together um we had someone that was with us for a couple months and then left Carol konus is um doing a huge part of the Wings program she still has some children who are on her case load and we're sort of dividing up between some of our staff and and it's it's daunting it's a daunting so we're going to try again to post for a position but boy it's going to have to be someone who you know the principal saying wow don't steal this person um or we're going to start to grad um gradually release the student and I say gradually have two sixth graders now we have some fifth graders some fifth graders who districts start middle school and sixth grade so that's sort of a nice transition um and we're it's really sad because the programs had added so much to the school diversity and right um just this was inclusion for some of the students just being in a public school and I've had a j and shelle know that I've had a really hard time with this because you do fall in love with the kids and students I don't feel like we'll be doing any um families or students in Injustice as a matter of fact if we can't continue the program the way that we've do been doing it districts can do it themselves and we just is BU of the job so more to come on that but um please try to keep it going try please try to keep it going if it's I mean just it's been such a part of this school's identity from from when they built the building I know um and it's just sort of we've always we've always done it better than the other schools in our district people certified special ed teacher who really you know I when I first got out of college I did um this type of classroom for seven years you really have to love your work so you have to understand Behavior you have to know what to do with behavior you have to not take things personally and you know it takes a of not only skill but just that realization you have to really love and understand the Misunderstood children that men you know and help families and all of those things and it's really been hard to think about Phil it really has but I also know that um we're not changing kids and F familes lives and but we are you know obviously right now we're sort of divide and coner um and the kids are doing well and we're doing a certain but that can't that's not sustainable right how many kids are in there currently there are um there were nine and now there are seven and we'd be looking what we talk about today six for next year yeah one student from Conway and then um like I said several who they're their home District goes to middle school in sixth grade so that might not be as big of them um that kind of comes back to question I had earlier um for the wage reductions it does make sense budget for someone with less years of teaching experience and that line item but does that limit our options in hiring like if we're getting veteran teachers that are highly qualified that does that limit our options so if we get if we get a teacher who's highly qualified um you can add more students to the program so then you can look at but then you can look for wings there's not I don't think we would pay higher on the scale that's not what you're talking about here I'm not talking about that for here no he was just talking right well I guess estimate in the savings because you have a retirement you could get somebody in any for a regular so we don't do I don't lock the principles into a number I give them a number where they a step where they should be aiming toward getting below if they have someone above and it happens more often than um we would like in the sense of in the sense we'd like to be able to find well qualified teachers that are cheaper but they're not out there right now um Christen we're also I'm telling you the past District I I worked in and I told the staff this when I was I was told you can hire someone at $442,000 right Darius and Shel say you know and they give a very reasonable very reasonable very reasonable um let's try to aim for here and I know that in any way being an administrator but if if we can't yeah I you can call daras and talk about we talk about the conversation say with Kristen because with principles talk about what's the candidate pool this is the person this what the person can bring and then sometimes we go we go back we say okay we're going have to I also want to say we're not cutting it so extremely that we can't find someone you know we could have somebody on the highest step here that's 20 they've been here for 25 years it's still a lot different than sure step 10 if Step 13 or 14 and then um right we're not saying it means that that person also ends up on Step 13 quickly if they're exactly and then they're there at that spot for and we've had to increase that number I remember my first year here my first budget cycle we were cutting back positions to um Step six or seven and the market just they're not those young teachers aren't there anymore so you know I think we're at 10 or 11 right now and we which is so reasonable it hasn't happened here at Conway but it's definitely happened at other schools where we do have conversations about what kind of wiggle room do we have if you're talking about getting this really great candidate for a couple thousand dollars more we'll find the money to make that happen next step you looking talking about the high school all the way down is that you're also looking at it you can only have a capacity and balance of experience and non-experience you know what I mean so sometimes you're paying more because you you have a team that needs more experience on it and so you know have to build capacity right it's small it's hard in the smaller schools but in the larger schools let's say you have three positions open they got to average out to that you know what I mean so it's like hey you want to go high here you got to go lower there and then sometimes that works out gu part of the question is like event if we hired somebody higher than what we budgeted for we would have to absorb that into our budget somehow some right maybe rur a comes in handy I know are you wi Wing no no I just mean so you have some level to absorb in a given budget year because you're talking about a few thousand dollars you talk talking about steps and how many steps you're talking about but if you're doing if it was a $20,000 increase or something crazy like that we would be back here if we had to alter the budget right and then say we're going to have to take more to this do to cover that line is the wing salary pretty competitive it can be we just haven't have to have a candidat you know we got a great candidate tomorrow and sometime the way to offset that is you can introduce more kids to the program so you know I I would feel very comfortable having conversation with with darus if someone came in higher and how we would do that but we haven't had the candidates and like Kristen said there's more flexibility there because if you have a very qualified teacher you can accept more students in we're talking about in the next year for potentially not adding students we're keeping the current base that we have because if we find a teacher we want to make sure that it can be successful so that we can keep so Darius doesn't know about the sort of ads that I've been doing are you looking for your perfect Paradise you you like what's all this you should Target those those residential those residential schools true so one last comment on this before we um move on unless you have other questions is I wanted to bring this up now because this could be a multi-year plan where we are phasing out the program we can't find a qualified teacher which will have a general fund impact at some point um it would mean that we don't need the same volume of staff that we have in that program currently but we do use that to offset some other expenditures it doesn't just cover Wings it helps cover special expenses for the district so you know it could be conversations much like we've had already about revolving fund adjustments and school choice adjustments that we haveed to have down the road so just wanted you to have the heads up what would you do with the physical space Oh we believe it or not we're crammed aren't we we are crammed I can't tell you how many people have already given me prop proposals for that yeah yeah we're cred right some more to come we'll continue working on our end and come back in February with with more information and possibly some decisions that have to be made great can I just mention can I just mention something that report I want to let you know real quickly that years ago when we were had the kids back during Co we bought sleds we bought tons of sleds best thing we ever did what AM my nuts at the time but um the French family who owned oesco yeah they were driving by got beautiful letter they were driving by one day they unrolled their windows and they could hear the laughter of the children like sliding down the hill and from that year on including recently they've given a Siz level donation to our Student Activities fund so I just want to in case you're over there you know the frenches or whatever every year yeah they're amazing they're great they're so good for the town that business is so good for the town that's awesome so we Sciences roll down your window people listen just like time for the gr hey Deus we got $15,000 for the playground I also you're B the con currents was great like getting trying to get local people to come and share because there's so many interesting talented people in this town I hope you get a good response for that so awesome all right thank you for that shell more to come we're on to new business and the desie district review which we were sent a document about so I gave you the FAQ on the district review just kind of reading through it can give you the general overview but um basically desie picks um about a dozen or a few dozen to 15 schools in the state so not many um and we were chosen um as a district to be um reviewed and so right now um they will be coming in the first week of March and will interview School committees about their function and running of the district they're also going to look at finances um I've already uploaded from Shell so it's a lot of work on the administration and pulling all this information together um but you know they want the budgets from the last three years from all five districts presentation of the budgets from all five districts um general what is shared at school committees for all five budgets and so it's kind of like you know this is where the five schools really kills us because you know is kind of rep like really someone's goingon to read all this like I didn't read all of it I was there all three years but um so but anyway going through all of it that was a joke but they also want our you know all our planning all you know from our district Improvement plans schools Improvement plan strategic plans curriculum plans true but we have all those things which which is a good thing you have things to upload and not you don't have to they come in and right they're going to come in they're going to go through all that and they're going to give us a big report um I read um I read Pioneer was done last year apparently and I read their report you know it's one of those they look at everything there'll be things that they're grading themselves they're grading themselves right well I mean there's things they're going to show things that you know they're going to be any consultant we tell you what time your watch says so I think some of that will be occurring um is also desie doesn't do anymore they now contracted it out to some firm that does it in keep in job right so right so um they picked us because we're the ringer they got to up the up that Statewide numbers up so you know I I wonder it's the first time they moved to the new system of doing this or the second year of it where they've expanded more um Greenfield also got selected I was like you do 12 to 15 schools in Greenfield and Frontier were selected like you're going for a certain size school or I don't know whether just picking western Mass or just happens to be the way EFG I don't know I don't know I was my yeah my funny line to them was I didn't get back to him right away so like what and then like a week later I'm like I'm sorry I didn't get back to did you move on to someone else they said that's very happy to hear we have the ilt for three hours tomorrow and we are looking at three of those Jessy reports so we can get on charge right right they want all the ilt agendas they want you know and I don't know what do good luck okay well there they'll have artificial intelligence review all people report exactly about how you're in compliance or not yes that's what we have to look forward to um all right now we need to establish a gift donation account as per mgl chapter 4 section 53a for the purpose of funding any school related expense this is actually from pickle Ballers hey um who for using the facility are collecting donations that they want to give to the school for Kristen to use at her discretion and the school does not have a donation account already set up and then you'll vote to accept the donations when they actually make that right so can I have a motion to set up this account second all in favor all righty pickle Ballers basketball gave 10 grand to Deerfield because we've moved to Deerfield for the past couple of years you never gave us 10 grand we we want to move back on Wednesday nights I got to talk to you about it only if you get 10 grand a minute here now look like sred up you got to beat that though sred up committee chair I do not have a report I did get something from the collaborative asking for a member but we really don't have anybody that wants to do that this year so we're gonna tell them no thank you but follow their minutes um Darius actually sent us a yeah the only update I wanted do that is you know kind of get an update on the data breach um that happened last week um what didn't happen last week prior but we were notified last week so power school which their student if you saw I saw the information but um it's a nationwide company so someone went in and extracted information and pulled it out and then to put it really in layment terms said they pulled it out and they said look what we have would you like it back and then they negotiated to get that information back so um whether or not they paid Ransom or not is that is that really clear they say it was negotiated to that the information was destroyed instead of given back um and that's what um that's the new type of um kind of cyber um hacking that's been happening they're no longer planting in information because they know you'll revert to a previous version or whatnot um they're taking information out and selling your own information back or threatening to share it so um they did pull files from our system they did pull student in staff information files um they contained um addresses and phone numbers um and everything on that on that on that directory directory page we don't store Social Security numbers on that page for students or staff so or other financial information so those that's kind of the big because that's where you can get credit taken out you need that kind of information to apply for credit so we're fortunate other schools do not have that um so we have filed with the town's insurance company to let them know that you know this is you know possible liability in the school district but right now there has been no reported damages because it appears that the information was destroyed because we're hearing about I'm talking about this not in our district but just Nationwide that that um you want to be a reputable thief in the Cyber War it sounds weird but there's a business to it and the business model is you pay off if they sell off they no one's going to pay them again and so um and they're actually there is the name of the company that did it I'm sure they're not company but it's a group that did it like I don't know if I don't know if it's a rating scale like oh great we got whatever they're not making light of it because it's extremely unsettling that that's what the world is but there are you know out of you know whatever country that's doing this and um you know that's what they do they play the game and it's the same thing about when we talk about you guys are going to you know do double application systems to get in not every school deser is doing that um we're moving to that because other school district's information has been hacked off their own servers or they lock your server you can't get into it and they don't ask for amount you can't pay they do their research and they say we know you can afford this you will give us a million dollars like if they can't do our district you will find a million dollar they're not going ask for 20 million because we could never afford and we say oh I guess we're just going to go without computer they give you they they're what's that savy what what did Power School do to strengthen their computer so they are um supposed to give us a full report about what they're going to do and what they're um they're continue doing to do their forensics of what was taken from who and what and so there's so many schools and um how they go into and I'm not an expert in this area but um what they took and how took and you know that kind of stuff um but apparently from how they got in they got in through a repair thing on a you know from a party site not through a school was how they're saying it um but there's also what we may be able to get some things from it I'm waiting to see um I'm hoping that the settlement will be that we get um fraud protection on all our students for um you know whatever amount of time so they can watch at least offered them a sure par will sign up for it but um it is interesting that you know one of the new crimes is to go after student information and open accounts um before they even become active opening their own accounts and so um I'm waiting to get that information because if they're going to provide that service in the next few weeks we'll get thatone data that people can buy some private Brokers is just staggering and get in Conway almost every cell phone number that's registered to a Conway address got a text in the past couple of weeks um from a some reporting to be easy pass asking for less than $106 yeah and um a bunch of people went on there with a crow yeah just it's just less and and uh I tools yeah yeah usually pass and if you check the phone number you found out that it's from the Philippines but very very few people yeah do that I just ignored it but um yeah I say Catch Me If You Can all righty um the I did have one question from the finance committee brought up they wondered as they're doing their planning we had talked about the life of our boilers how much money we have set aside they're curious if that will be enough and we were also talking about the smart system in the whole school and where are I think that fund has like 200,000 in it right now and I can't remember what it's more like 230 do you remember what suing cost um so if we were to replace the BS we would we would wipe out all you know all of our Capital Savings but that's what there they're not worried about that they're worried if if is there enough in capital and should they be planning on some free cash to have to go if that should happen um sorry is there only one boiler in this building two only one one being used at a time two Inland the Sunderland just did though theirs I think the town are fun so I can just check that's one of the questions can we get by with just one no just get by but can we is one one okay I think it is no it ended up being about 50 in the end I think um but isn't our yeah they have to bust the wall out to get so the boilers they built around the boilers so that'll be part of the engineering fee of what type of Boer can get put in there do they have to take out a wall to do the boiler um yes and well you say that I mean taking it out is easy you just cut it up it's bringing the new one in and so how would you do that um and where it's currently located you probably would take a wallet and you know that's not it sounds crazy but that's not a crazy take out a wall put back up but it is cost you know it'll add to it but um so we're looking at that $150,000 we probably is what we would need for the boers and we have that would be well if we're taking a wall out okay so we think we have enough in our fund that should be have come to that point because it is pass it's life so we talked with we gave the energy committee they don't call themselves energy sustainab sustainability committee came through and I believe they've had a full turnover right yep so problem is we gave that last spring where I gave a tour kind of talked about building management system and adding that to um here de just got $180,000 of green energy Grant to for the energy management system now and so I really wanted them to follow right you know follow what deerfield's doing like deer you know and I sent along what Deerfield applied how they applied this is what it is and so and what they got um but you know they were on it they might be on it they may not be coming talking to when it comes time to do the Contracting for that and the bidding if you can do a separate bid for the wall for the removal and the re and the redo of the wall Conway has like massachus his best Mason and and he would cut as a break and his regular prices are much better than we're going to get from Joe schoke Corporation right and well we got we'll be careful we can't we can't um yeah we can't we can't split bit bit split but if it's under 50 Grand we can we'll look into it but there I just want to say it because we're in we're break possible save substantial so the BMS system is probably going to end up being the building management system would be more expensive than the boil Y is one important thing to make note of and that if there is not a grant funding for that um probably at least 150,000 I think that's what talking about for Sunland okay I think I think they got to look at I think we should get the if deari can get the Grant come get the grant you know like interested so let's y all right I'll get back on that with them all righty now we are going to go into executive session M okay so we need to close this meeting you need to stay whyde you don't to ex executive session we doing both or one just just the B just the first one just the first one okay okay executive SE uh session pursuant mgl chapter 30A section 21A three to discuss strategies respect to collective bargaining teachers and instructural assistance and that we will not be resuming public session that we will be adjourning direct not be resuming public session right need a roll call Vote Yes yes yes yes all right thank you everyone at home thank you