##VIDEO ID:3LrjMN21Zfc## all right this is the East Long meal Public Schools school committee meeting um January 27 2025 and it's 508 would everyone please stand for the question allegiance to of the United States of America and to the repu for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all right I'd like to call the meeting to order this meeting is being both audio and video recorded if there's anyone else recording would you please let us know right um roll call Samantha your Samantha ask secretary assistant superintendent for business Sarah trulio Gordon Smith superintendent of schools rilla W Cur Amy denta hether Brown director of curriculum Manel Garcia student represent our first item on the agenda approval of minutes I move to approve the January 6 2025 regular session meeting minutes right so Sarah and William seconded all those in favor I that's four to zero uh he's just absent so okay yep zero all right um move on to committee and subcommittee Communications Sarah would you like start um so Amy and I both attended the diversity um committee meeting last week I believe um we spoke about different opportunities to diversify the um Force here in E Metal Public Schools um there's going to be some subcommittees formed from that and again we have a great cross-section of individuals um from both the school department from local um Community organizations and from within the school committee itself and both Heather and Gordon uh facilitated that conversation um and then I also was at the collaborative meeting this past week uh we talked about the educator support Personnel award which is really what the state is looking or Des is looking to use to rename when we talk about par professional so thinking about recognizing and honoring those individuals who are going above and beyond through an education support Personnel award and we also um later on when we get to the calendar I'll bring back the feedback from the collaborative committee Bas onk you uh William no report at this time nothing additional to what Sarah spoke about thank you there's the e leaf Gala that'll be February 8th but tomorrow is that last day to buy tickets online Wednesday WN Wednesday the 29th and that's Wednesday I told administrators it was Wednesday yeah no you're right I saw that it was the 29th Manel only thing I have was uh Varsity wrestling had their senior night last week very nice thanks how did it go going pretty good and any opportunity for visitors to address the committee uh presentations uh approval of the ELA J student exchange for the fall of 2025 and April 2026 with a school in we have Miss Rivera with us this evening who is one of our world language teachers at the high school and in your packets you have a proposal from Miss Rivera uh regarding this exchange which um is not a full school year I know that that was one of the questions um it's more around a week or a week and some days on in the fall and then in the spring and I'll let Miss Rivera pick it up from there so as you read in your proposal um we've kids from Spain to East Longo High School giving um families and students in the town an opportunity to host just for about two weeks um usually between 10 and 15 kids come and so we will be looking uh for families that are available to host and willing to do that ideally um 10 of those host families will have kids who plan to travel in April of the following year so those kids will already know each other they will have already met um and then our students will have an opportunity to go to Spain um during both exchanges they attend classes so they'll be able to see how the educational system works um they'll be living with families so they'll have a direct view of food culture family all of those different things even like living situations they're in a bigger city they might be an apartment something like that um and as I've experienced just from hosting yearly there's this incredible ripple effect um bringing the students to our school really affects our whole community at eang mow high school and then even if the the host families have smaller siblings or whatever and then when our students go they're obviously going to bring back um their experience and if we can continue this maybe encourage future students to go if there are questions regarding that we think it coincides with the April vacation which why we selected April and um from what Miss Rivera was telling me earlier um the uh School in Spain has some type of vacation in the fall so missing only a few school days in either District I don't know if they call it District over there I no either school system so will their their kids will come here for two weeks and our kids will only go there for one our kids one and change okay change yeah yeah so like definitely during our we will plan it so it's definitely during our April break and then they might but because it's educational and academic I'm trying to support that yeah any other question and I'm sorry is this just to get the planning started exactly so once I have your approval I can start um filling out the the paperwork to match the schools and stuff like that oh that's good thank you make a motion to approve the elhs student exchange for the fall of 2025 in April 2026 with a school in Spain as proposed second William second thank you for doing this sure no you thank you I ran from my house wow I I had it that far from the parking lot my apologies everyone please all right next item on the the agenda um fiscal year 25 second quarter financial report yeah so good evening everyone uh in your packet as Mr just said we we have the update for you um if you go right to page six that's where the spreadsheet is where I always tell you I put the salary on the top section and the expense side on the bottom um the first thing I would like to bring to your attention is halfway down on the salary side the t uh that line item there the revised budget is now 21,1 14763 back in November that was 21, 643 956 so I've reduced that by $496,500 from that line item there in the salmon color down below to the out of District tuition line um that was the first thing I wanted to remind you of what page is that oh I'm so sorry page six okay so the salmon color there the top you'll see and then the bottom where it was moved to uh uh the second thing was journal entry has been done to reclass the ex and the teacher line item to the school choice so that's the green color there and if you looked back at any reports from November you would see that that was higher so I just wanted to again to be transparent and remind everybody of that the third thing is in the blue and that's the overage in the circuit breaker expenditures that were reported to you have been reclassified to the operating budget out of District tuition account but that we report special ed expenditures accurately remember just a reminder that line item was a projected deficit of 757 929 and now you're going to see it's at 2971 96 so it has not completely gone away um which we kind of had talked about we didn't want to move it all because there's always moving pieces behind the scenes um what I do want you to know is uh the last thing where I have those asteris over to the right there to the account numbers those are line items that I am projecting will have available balances will be able to offset that uh potential deficit there in the AO district line item the 297 correct the 297 and I just would like to remind everybody that these things can change all the time um as of right now this is how I see the picture um what I also would like you to know is that after uh talking um internally here in central office and with the leadership team and I wanted to bring it to you as the school committee we are going to put a freeze on non-essential IAL purchases so we can sure that we can C the um the out of District tuition so I am going to message that out tomorrow so again just to be clear that's non-essential purchases okay if we need paper if we need toilet paper whatever we need we're going to get it for the schools but we do need to really look at that because if you look at the educational supplies there there's 200,000 sitting there or or at least when I ran this report there was you know if you look up at the teacher line item the um retirement line item so be looking at those and um monitoring them and bring It Forward again next month to you and anything um does anyone have any specific questions on the operating budget just keep that 297 in mind that's in addition to the other four that's correct yeah it's already been transferred from school choice right that will be there next year and we'll have to F that's correct okay I think this is helpful though like doing this on monthly basis especially given the current financial situation I think it's helpful I know it's a lot of work Pam so thank you appreciate that you're updating us regularly so that we can make that both jce in real time I'm yeah so on the next page um are your grants and again you know grants these are our entitlement grants so we get them every year and the amounts stay pretty much the same from year to year I just like you to see uh we did roll two over at the top um there which we're expending down um those will be completely expended and and I foresee most of these grants will be fully expended by year end if they ever are not fully expended just so that you know we always can roll them over if that were the option uh but at this point I don't see that happening um they're pretty straightforward I don't know if anyone has any specific questions on any of the grants no so the third page this one gets a little more challenging right it's our uh revolving accounts and um very first one that I wanted to bring to your attention which I think I did at the last um meeeting was the athletic revolving um as of right now I'm I'm projecting that there would be a a deficit however there are revenues that are going to come in from gate receipts and uh user fees so um I projected an additional $35,000 in Revenue so I do think we'll be okay whole at the end of the year the next line item is about 3quarter of the way down circuit breaker um that's been a Hot Topic as we've talked about just as a reminder a million 38 ,000 was rolled over from last year uh which was part of our budget plan for this year anyways uh the revenue to date is 1 million 29488 that consists of the fourth quarter from FY 24 the first and second quarters from this fiscal year uh we have expended to date A1 59,000 encumbered $1.6 million uh without including any projected Revenue I we would have a deficit of 386,000 that I would be projecting however we are going to get $863,000 in additional Revenue that's the third and fourth quarters for circuit breaker we talked about the fact that uh FY 24 the fourth quarter actually got posted into July we and we left it there but we've talked internally with the town accountant and she's going to back because most of the time it does come in July like early July July 1st July 3rd something like that so it's going to come back um in this fiscal year this is a revolving account so kind of is IR relevant whether it's n FY 25 or 26 but it's going to be there for us so I am projecting that we would um at this point in time uh roll over about $476,000 less than much so to be fa which is that five quarters yeah and the Fifth Quarter is getting rolled over so if not for that Fifth Quarter we would have no roll over hardly any yes any and then it's that one 038 that's the rollover from the prior year that we've expended we've expelled the 1.6 yes well it's encumbered encumbered I'm sorry spent but you see the Gap there as well Gap yeah okay the last line uh is the school choice account there at the bottom and uh we carried over 789,6 Revenue 167,000 we've expended 637000 because 496 892 okay and encumbered uh 34,653 projects that you had already um approved to be uh used for during this school year I am projecting that there will be additional revenue of $169,000 that is a monthly amount of 28,37 so the projected endof year balance and school choice that I see right now is about $450,000 um which of course will be hopefully be used for next year um just to remind you we will get an additional um approximately $300,000 in revenue for the school choice student with the numbers if they stayed the same it always fluctuates a little bit as a reminder that's $5,000 per um student there's also a special ed increment that goes on top of that um so seniors in in school choice do we know we have some graduating look at that in terms of numbers I can't be more than six but so we'll have 455 and that's after we even Ed that money this year that's as I'm seeing it right now if nothing were to change also if we look to other line items to cover the 290 or 246 yep 297 yeah we would normally do anyway although that's a large number correct yes it's larger than normal so so we're working with the leadership team right now so it's not a freeze on anything that's essential or urgent it's just now we're going to scrutinize a little bit more so so we can look at Supply and accounts that where you might be able to do some transfers because you may need school choice to help with next budget right um You exhaust it all this year you won't have that oh I always end by saying it's imperative to remember that the balances provided are a snapshot in time and we are changing constantly because thank you thank you Pam know it's to talk year but don't let it dissuade you I know it's a lot of work as Sarah alluded to but we'll get through it we're all looking through Le yeah thank you suede don't wear sede we feeling a little downtrodden before the meeting but uh okay now you're feeling more bored good that's all it takes what's next Anella our next it is budget develop okay so that's me again um so I just took that document that we had and I thought that the best way or easiest way would be for us to just kind of walk through it again remind people anything that has changed ask any questions so what is new January 22nd the governor's budget came out uh I now have that figure in there I'm sorry to say I was really hoping it would be more um it's we got the minimum Aid they increased minimum aid from it used to be $30 per student last year they increased it to $60 per student and this year they're increasing it $75 per student um that gets multiplied by our uh enrollment which is 2468 isn't that funny um two that's our enrollment and um the increase is $185,100 that will be increased um you know that goes directly to the town so I don't have the other numbers um I don't want to throw out any kind of projection I will have it for the next meeting um I'm honing in on that number um it'll probably be this this week I still want to um i' I've put in some placeholders for special ed and our employees at will but I really would like to go over that again with Jenny the new um Services director so we can ensure what are what do we really project are our expenses and what are our Revenue lines so we make sure we have it covered so um you know again I apologize I don't have it there's just not enough hours in the day and it's just the governor's proposal but for it's pretty close to the governor's proposal and it's not the Savior we were looking for right at least chapter 7 along the theme of Hope though um last year the governor's proposal kept the $30 per student and I think it was the Senate ways and means that knocked it up to 60 I think Governor came out of the gates with 75 maybe Ways and Means not again um because any any additional increase to Chapter 70 would be helpful it's nice that we're getting and increase but we were hoping for more than you know 1.2% is every District they get the same amount per child uh minimum Aid that's minimum yeah so it really depends on other factors if you look at the history um you can see that there are years where we got you know 7% or one year which challenging to explain but I think it's due to the student Opportunity Act we got 15% increase and then the year after that we got a 1.7% increase so there's definitely es and flows um but in the Years where we were seeing 7% and 15% which was really an aberration but anyway 7% which would had been an increase that was dissimilar to years past I think it's because a few things one you know that um uh they had redefined what low income me and we had a growing student um population that was already designated as low income and when they redefined that it got even larger and so that is something that's recognized in the student Opportunity Act um we also had a growing though to um at a slower rate um English language learner population and our special education um percentage was about 5 years ago it's probably closer to 17 18% and now it's over 20% probably closer to 22% so all of those things have a little bit more significance in the Chapter 70 formula and certainly in the student opportunity um act and we're down 50 students from the prior year which is 2% decrease in itself so that skewes that 1.2 correct per because we're 50 student 55 students4 Y and we still get that money for school choice students as well you do but you don't get they're not the Chapter 70 formula you subtract 38 students from our foundation enrollment that money's already gone that doesn't never we never see the money for those students that the district okay right but the money that comes into the district goes in that revolving account which is what we just spent right the the benefit there is it goes into a revolving account and so you can maintain it year toe where operational budget you either expend it or you return it so the next one is your grants again I'm just listing them there as I said these your entitlement grants we can pretty much um expect these from year to year they might fluctuate a little bit I thought it's important to remind you that we do have staff there and I behind the scenes in creating FY 26 I've done the same thing um bring forward these positions under the grants the only thing I want to remind you that does change is as salaries go up and the revenue comes down the percent right it's it the FTE just starts to change a little bit if that all makes sense to what I'm saying um are we not covering full ftes then no some of them are percentage based on we cover full we still you might have um 177% of a position paid under an early childhood Grant and the rest is under the operating budget but then full League yes through the grants there's only one or two that it's really only that true there there's just a few okay I just understood y yeah it it can change um Title One 1.65 teachers and then the rest is funded through the operating budget correct yes so does that fluctuate our FTE that's what I'm trying to say is that just by it doesn't change the full FTE but it might 17 might become 18 opal budget we distinguish the budgeted FTE versus the grf funded FTE right and in that list that we have that La last year you wanted that full chart and I listed them out on where they were yeah yes can we do that again yes for okay can I just jump in in terms of one we have to make sure that we're supplementing and not supp planting so they do compare Maple Shade and Mountain View so we want we always have to make sure that we're using the operate operat operating funds uh for the salaries and not supplementing Title One funds for that so just keeping that in mind basically they don't look a pair professionals though and with type of one as opposed to just balancing yeah yeah and Heather overseas the title one title two all the title grants um so thank you heather so on the next page on your revolving accounts same chart I had something different that I thought oh we should just have the same chart we're talking about the same conversation here um the only thing that's different here is uh the tuition revolving uh which I put down below there again I wanted to remind you um this is right now for the prek uh tuition um what is not reflected in here and I apologize but I will have it at the next meeting I know that Miss Lo came and and talked to you all at the last meeting about changing the model um I don't have updated Revenue figures here I did increase it a bit from the 75 to uh 125 but I don't know if that's an accurate figure so I will have that updated for you um and again I just wanted to remind you you know what what are we expecting in and actually that 75,000 in projected Revenue this year might be a little high I I I think it came in or is coming in a little lower because of the exact reasons that Miss Lo explained to everybody um so I'll I'll have updated more accurate information for you but again um those are positions that we are covering um under that preschool uh tuition account so going forward with um any budget challenges we have um you know we'll be talking about that if we want to fund anything else there how long you know can it sustain it um so all of those conversations do that make sense uh the next page is your circuit breaker and again I know a lot of this is repetitive so I apologize but um circuit breaker is is a big moving piece and again for folks out there that don't know what circuit breaker is um there's a a per pupil threshold of this year it changes yearly $2,419 and any expenditures per pupil under special ed with eligible there's certain criteria and I don't know a ton about it that's more at student services but they have to be eligible expenditures if it goes up and over that $52,000 that amount that's over that threshold we get 75% reimbursement back and that's the revenue that we were talking about that we rolled over a million 38 that this year uh we're getting the 1.6 plus the fourth quarter that I uh talked about um you know this is one of the many uh moving pieces one thing I am hoping happens if you look on this chart over to the right you'll see additional extraordinary relief and that we've only the district has only at least since I've been here only received this twice um however it was a pretty significant amount um in FY 23 and that was $343,000 and those expenditures correct me if I'm wrong um Gordon but I believe that it's if you go from one year to the next with 125% more expenditures for certain eligible items than you can qualify for this extraordinary relief they don't do it until I think it's the February March time frame it happens sooner than the other circuit breaker and it happens faster so you find out like within a few weeks I believe if you're going to get it and then you get it and it's meant to help you right now you cannot roll it over so I am really hoping that we get some extraordinary relief so this would be another one of those moving pieces behind the scenes that could potentially help us you see what I'm saying have we looked at that in terms of meeting that criteria the% they're starting to look at it now yeah they're just the window isn't open until February late February yeah I think it's like mid-February or something but but they are starting to look at it now in terms of who might be eligible our claims have gone down our net claims are down so I wondered if we're not as from last year weren't eligible last year oh I see what you mean so you have eligible expenses of 4.2 million the net claim 2 million I mean we can hope see yeah got a few things to hope for we did have we do significant tuition increases yeah yeah I'm reminding everybody those out of District tuitions went up 14% that's definitely had an impact on all districts um the next one is your school choice again we've had these um conversations I put a couple of different charts in here for you I thought you might want to see where the students are coming from from the other districts um so I put that information in there for you um top one there you see the enrollment Trends um we're happy to say that the last few years our receiving choice is higher than our sending in so this is all uh you know good information as well and again this is um a school committee decision annually on whether we participate in school choice and if we do at what grade levels and how many students so you're in complete control of that we're already getting calls into central office I'm sure Samantha can attest um lots of phone calls coming in to find out does that happen in February March March okay thank you so that'll be coming up in in March um but just wanted to remind you and and again I'm expecting right now about 450,000 to roll over in that account um then it's just your you know I I wanted to remind everybody we have approximately 36 million budget 83% is your s on all under the salary side um about $30 million of course now it's down $496,000 because of what I moved um teachers 21, 643,000 we have four retirees as it right now um one might pull that that uh resend that retirement um in the placeholder uh in my spreadsheet behind the scenes I always want to be very transparent what I do um we put in a master's 8 level of 74,4 as a placeholder um so when someone goes out at a higher rate we higher lower we're hoping to you know reap those benefits Sometimes some positions you can't so some come in lower some come in higher but that's an average um your Unity paas you have 100 oh I forgot to say we have 260 uh Unita teachers on that pay scale we have 105 pair professionals that's $2.4 million we have three retirees at the end of this year um secretaries we have 19 secretaries it's about a million dollars we have one retiring your custodians another million dollars there uh one retiree at the end of the year we have 18 custodians Administration there's 15 total administrators and four central office clerical staff with individual contracts that's about $1.8 million seven of those contracts are up this year so we'll be in negotiations with them uh we're also going to be in negotiations with secretaries and custodians this year uh employment at will agreements these are for um was about $450,000 um in that group and and it varies from year to year on our and our needs it really is determined by um special ed needs and you know do do we need additional OT or PT or speech and and we need to um you know have some folks come in some are just for five hours a week some might be 30 hours a week uh so they're all different and I'm when I referenced earlier that I wanted to look at I was still looking at employment at will agreements that's what I'm referring to kind of working with the administrator Health Services as well as um student services put our heads together to make sure that we're covering what we need FY 26 um then your expense side of the budget uh 177% that's just shy of $6 million but I'm just reminding you is that $3 million of that $6 million is in the operating budget under your special ed line items those are real line items right there um in addition we have the uh Early Childhood Grant we have the idea Grant we have have the $1 million we rolled over that we expended and the $1.6 million plus the $496 so that's all another $4 million the grand total there is $7 million um again just being transparent I mean we are mandated to take care of all of our students but this is a large portion and I feel compelled to make sure it's very clear where our expenditures are going um you know as I write down here my concern is that we're down $1.5 million between lack of rollover and school choice having to cover the 500,000 this year in addition to the contractual obligations again I don't have that number but I'm getting close for you uh any say that again yeah oh definitely the next meeting yes thank you um any questions before I go on to the next page okay um our Esser Grant is is no longer with us um that was a $2.2 million Grant we have uh programs that have been funded under Esser and you know we need to talk about those and that will come up during the budget proc process just as a reminder we funded the Summer Academy programs we funded professional development curriculum materials software licenses we had uh some discussion on digital licenses so we've listed it out here and um we've also listed you know some items that were funded by Esser that now we need to take over um I'm going to let Miss Brown uh take it from here because there are some items that uh we have not renewed and she's much better at this and thank you heather okay um so what you see here is really a mix of curricular materials Universal assessment tools and personalized learning and I just wanted you to know that um what Pam alluded to every year we look at or I look at usage and see where we can cut things so one thing that's not on here that we are do have this year but the usage is so low we won't be renewing turn it in which will save us $99,000 in the past we had high usage of newa and the the usage went way down so that cut was $25,000 we used to have a platform called Mastery connect which is replaced by Panorama and it's $112,000 less um there's really no redundancy here in terms of I ready and and the personalized learning and some of the other licenses we have so for example stmath we have uh K to five and in those grades while we have I math assessment licenses we don't have the personalized learning and the reason being is because we didn't want that redundancy during covid we had the exra money we had a little bit of flexibility we've removed wherever we can cut back same with the Dibbles has replaced the I ready assessment for reading K2 um so we're not play paying for I ready assessment licenses so there's no redundancy there um we went to school messenger that replaced blooms which was $9,000 um so we have made some cuts um and we are looking further here here so uh edpuzzle while it's very well used is not necessarily essential for the curriculum so that's one thing we're looking at uh flocabulary is uh highly used at the two three to five schools so we need to talk to the buildings about that um Lexia is is quite expensive um but it's high usage it's personalized reading learning uh reading instruction that they use at the K2 at metab Brook and then uh also at um burchin for their interventions and then there are some individual licenses that I get for Maple Shade and Mountain View for kids who need who aren on Ed plant and need some extra support that's more appropriate with Lexia um and if you have questions about any of the other ones those are really the only ones that um we're kind of looking at because everything else like I said is curricular it's assessment or it really uh provides universal access for all of our students and I'm sorry I should have put totals on this for you I'll do that going forward on the top section there that's an increase of 17,19 and the bottom section there is an additional 10456 so Al together $121,300 increase Pam do you know the budget FY 24 for this I'm sorry say that FY 24 budget yeah budgeted amount oh for did we drop significantly to that 120 is that why well because in FY we just 24 we had had grant funding yeah and our curricul things were changing curricular was changing um there was a big 524 we bought so we we we used exra money for this in addition to um grants that additional grants so desie was really pushing for high quality instructional material so we got I would say at least half a million of grants for all of our new literacy materials all of our math materials so we were able to imp lement that curriculum the professional development and so now what we're paying for is our licenses um that you see on here um but in terms of getting us started it was really um the competitive grants that helped us so Esther paded it a little bit but really it about the grants yeah we um were able to get quite a few um through this not probably paid part of the licensing at least it paid for licensing that year paid for all the teacher manuals it paid for all the professional development it paid for workbooks so it's great when those funds are available right however you do need to know that the high quality curricular materials are now something that desie pushes and while unlike other states where they don't mandate that you use certain things they have incentives and decentivize us initial grants were pre so that allowed us to get in and purchase the curricular materials and have the initial professional which we would have funded had to have funded by ourselves with our tiny title 2A budget that used to be 60,000 and now it's 37 and where's textbook renewal where does that fall um so that's actually we have curriculum curricular renewal ,000 um and so that's a cycle for different departments to go through however there was one year and Sam you might be able to remember I don't have it in front of me where we kind of put that on pause so that we could uh get additional workbooks and things for folks five years ago I had to I don't think it was five years ago really it was just out of Co I think out of Co I was thinking right before Co sorry um soor came for I'm just thinking of things like the I am licensing that would be curriculum renewal well right now just so you know prek is up so I'm they're also kind of expecting to get some curricular materials so prek um the high school science and uh sixth to eth grade ELA so they're working on finding things so that money is kind of set aside for them obviously things happen but renewal historically would be similar to what the Desi grants did for us with the literacy program so that was a year where we could use curriculum renewal for other things um but it's we give to the departments in the cycle who are next up so that they can research new materials and we can look at what the professional development cost will be and make sure that they have that support that's how we and then we do have supply lines at each of the buildings with textbooks for workbooks and things like that but traditionally we haven't had uh really software lines on there because that's kind of increased over the time and a lot of these things it's much more affordable and cost effective to do it centrally than to have each building purchasing their own could the building line items be used to supplement the cost at the district level I think that's where we have to have discussions around Lexia and FL cabulary um you know because those at one time in building and then we started to centralize because it seemed more efficient okay and we had more purchasing power that way so we have to have those discussions for the the leadership team and specific buildings using those uh to answer your question regarding FY 24 one of the bigger cost shifts was but we're not Rene reer to Power School the reer I want to say had a cost somewhere around 50,000 a year yeah Power School jump to power school which was a needed jump I mean we needed to be in the 21st century um but it went to 102,000 um with power school um Miss Brown was talking about school messenger so Power School um purchase School messenger and so that's a program that's linked to power school and should be easier to use and incorporate and so we did go to school Messenger as well and so we've started to cut back on some of the other communication software um so we're run lean we don't redundancies yeah um the and the area that were there was one other item oh stmath stmath there was as we were running um I ready and stmath there was some redundancy there we had actually gotten into stmath because we had a grant and we had professional development I want to say that comes back maybe it's funny because we're not getting Grant funds but we're still part of a um I think I can't remember the word sorship no I guess so but that's not cohort so we're they one of the first cohorts and so we're still grandfathered in so we still have reduced cost on stmath um so that saves us some money as well rather than paying the about grants I was just thinking about even this um uh professional software that for the nurses this the snap software there that was covered under the grant the dph grant but then they disallowed it so she can't so we we didn't have a choice we have to pick up that you know right $99,000 off so it's a little here a little there and well even power school's gone up 10% in one year and we didn't have to pay for the digital privacy legal protection for a while we should have been but you know that was a new thing that we we have so um yeah we just have to watch these I guess going forward in terms of it's the way things are going and we just can't overdo it I suppose we are I think yeah to keep the Prof personalized learning lean um and not have redundancies and assessments and the one place that we really can't cut back on or is the um curriculum licenses because that's basically how you get access to the curriculum so and your support I mean don't doesn't the curriculum have resources for them to use like so that they wouldn't have to use edpuzzle for example so edpuzzle not something that you can really replicate um but you know if you it's you know you're looking at some of these things you're like ah there is a free version but the teachers um only have a certain amount that they can do but basically it's it's really used a lot in the science and social studies classes because it creates accountability for watching videos so if a kid's watching videos it makes stop and actually answer questions so they're not like watching the video um so I have to say like all of these tools have a good use um but we are aware that we have to see where we you know where there might be um places where we have to make hard decisions but yes to answer your question Greg we're not out there like looking for new things to BU okay yeah which it would be nice if we could yeah but we're not there yeah and so ever since Esser we've best definitely been cutting cutting back yeah so we're going to continue we had um discussions around all of this with the leadership team last week we'll continue those discussions um on this Thursday um we talked to them a little bit about Supply accounts because we've gone through a lot of what we've gone through with you over the last few meetings in terms of what we've transferred from school choice what it looks like as we start to really look at um what level Services would be for next year's budget um and there's a good chance that we're going to need some school choice money to offset what that may be in terms of what we're getting in Chapter 70 what we may get from um and then there's still maybe some hard discussions yeah unfortunately um the last page in your packet is just an update on the lpvec um I had told you that they were requesting additional positions um I wanted you to know that the lpvc lpvec board voted not to add an assistant principal position in FY 26 so I thought that was important for you to know you're part of that discussion you had already done the work in your meeting they already felt it yes yes there was conversation I brought it up the rest of the board would run along because yeah we have to look at everybody's numbers and the impact it has on us so um do you have any questions on anything okay so again the next meeting I will have our number and discussion and welcome all right our next item just jump into it yes update on the William J memory of daughter Rox so I'm happy it is really nice I'm the nicest most generous kind man um I called him right before our meeting to let him know that um we had received the paperwork and that I is going to be bringing this forward to the school committee that you know the scholarship had already been set up that we received his $40,000 check that he can be confident that that scholarship is going to be in place this year and given to uh students um but that we have now received it's just amazing when I say this 2500 shares of Apple stock and you know that is at a market value of uh 500 almost $575,000 so this is you know this is going to live on for a very very long time forever um in his daughter's name and um we will happily send kids uh what I think it's $330,000 each year to students going into the medical field um as long as there's a financial need and um he's leaving that to the administration uh to go over to find those students and he doesn't care if this is a doctor a nurse a c a pa um an x-ray lab technician as long as they're going in the medical field and we'll be helping people that's his so I just wanted to bring that up to you because that how do we use this These funds is it uh dividends that we get to cash out yes okay it will come back to the town uh we have a financial person so I've worked with uh don fonte the town Treasurer collector as well as uh Kim Collins the finance director and then them working with our finance people that work Town um you know a third party contracted service and so our person worked with his person and uh the Shar so so great very very exciting so yes very generous man you're thinking this year is a $40,000 well he sent a $40,000 check but it's 30,000 that he feels will be the scholarship uh interest on it so he wanted to make sure that there was enough funds there you think he'll come to the awards name I I highly doubt it he's 91 he lives in another state um I I will certainly I I send an invite in yeah yeah yeah we talked about that things like having him do a message or something yeah' be nice nice I mean he's he's very he's very he's a lot of fun to talk got that you can do Jamie we'll we'll talk so that was just an update thank you good news let's just end it there I know that's I'm sorry I'm not running the meeting I'm running all right the next four items are acceptance of some money from Barrett of our you want me just start to go through them okay the first one is from Principal Renee Loi uh from Bren and Barrett photography as the commission check uh to go into the gift account and that amount is 2,794 75 each one has to be I move that we accept the uh check from grin and Barrett for $2,794 75 and place it in the meal Brook uh count get the count second right and second by William all those in favor I I to I move that we accept the one I'm sorry yeah right ahead they're all the same right they are $ 13749 from grin and Barrett to be put in the Mountain View gift account second thank you Sarah those in favor I I I five to zero two for Mountain View Pam uh yeah it's a sign on bonus y yeah I accept or I move to accept the $500 check from Grim Barrett for the um be put into the Mountain View get account moot by Greg second second ADV by Sarah all those in favor I I five to zero and I move that we accept the 2,150 $966 and Barett who you put into the GI account B PCH Park I'm sorry B Park account GRE second by William all those in favor I next thank you I'll get those into the next business def for this in your packet um have the uh draft version of the 2526 calendar and uh the current version of 2425 um as trulio was saying uh we did have discussion um at the collaborative committee Lively uh exchange uh uh around the calendar and um I don't know if you want to go through the notes or want me to recall some or so some of the um concerns that were brought forward by uh collaborative committee were uh concerns around food insecurity for students during that time is this what is this so yeah made up of Union representation from each of the sites what part of the calendar are you so yeah let me back last time sorry look at the winter break looking at taking the 20 22nd 23rd yep and then having the second having the 10 days school days closed for school for students students nine days closed for educators with a day of professional development on the tail ENT so that was a concern was um if students would have um concerns around food and there was concerns brought forward around special education and MLL students and what the additional day and a half off would do for them in terms of continuity of instruction um there were some concerns around building air conditioners if we went further into the month of June another concern um there was a note about AP testing but I will say that post that meeting I went back through the two calendars and according and how you can correct me if I'm wrong AP testing is typically the first two weeks of May yeah there's there's not a discrepancy in terms of the number of seniors need to get it done before they okay but there's not a discrepancy in the number of teaching days right this year in this year's calendar compared to if we were to make that adjustment for next year's calendar it's equal between September and December and then from January to the end of April because I wasn't sure when like if they counted the first full week of May or if it began like May one so there's no discrepancy in terms of teaching days prior to that um occurring so that was a conc ER but like I said I did May 5th through May 16th and it's like I said so that's the first full week of May it's equal in terms of the end of April um last year to this year um it was also made mention that if there were a professional development day on the 2nd that um because access testing begins in the month of January that there' be some concession made for educators to have some time to plan for access testing as a results um there was also a concern around if elps was to open for educators and other local districts were closed there was concerns around employee Child Care um the only thing I would say to that is we don't always follow other districts in terms of when our professional development days are so there's a also a chance that that could come up in terms of child's care and absences but the union did make note that they have talked to their membership broadly about not not using an absence on a professional development day unless it was absolutely necessary they said that they had some conversation about that at a recent union meeting um and then there was conversation around how the days leading up to school breaks are used um there was an invitation made to any of the members of the committee who want to go to a school on the day uh before a break to see what happens so I said I would pass that along to make sure that everyone was aware of that um and you know there was conversation around some individuals said that there are times when that's not as academic as maybe we've been describing um and some individuals said that they're giving quizzes and tests so it's very mixed but overall Gordon you were there so you can tell me if I misrepresented any of the information hit the point um basically their uh proposal would be to come in on the 22nd and 23rd um and sort of reverse this year's vacation into next year um and then everybody's off on the second and the only other point I think they uh made around the 22nd and 23rd as they thought there definitely was discussion around that there is a mixture of how those days are used in terms of lesson planning and so forth um but they thought there was more value in what was going on on the 22nd and 23rd than there might be on the 15th and uh 12th and 15th of June or depending on how far you go into June right how many of our students take the access test we have a good amount of kiddos exactly 60 I would say around because even kindergarteners kindergarten screening so about 20 to 30 I have to find the exact number 20 to 30 in the whole District but there's less Educators who can service those 20 to 30 students across all the sub tests right so the scheduling becomes more challenging so do we have like one person that does elementary and one person that does high school so we have one person who does K to2 one person does three to five and helps out K to2 and then somebody who does uh six to 12 you only have three there's three but they share the case load travel between the sites which makes the scheduling a little bit more challenging 20 something students uh probably more around 30 well not including flep kids who don't have to take the access anymore well that was the feedback um I said I would bring it back I like we said last time yeah we did uh bring it also on Thursday we talked a little bit about it the leadership team um there you know they didn't necessarily uh have concerns around the 22nd and 23rd they were okay however that went but they were concerned about attendance on the second for educators yeah in terms of if we did profession development on the second on that Friday for a variety of reasons numbers have increased their 46 kiddos oh well 4 so we should go back to the original calendar is what we're thinking in terms of the feedback that we asked for I mean it's I said I was clear that it was feedback yep that it was no guarantee no guarantee but the feedback makes sense and Beth you can make a motion what do you think an AM I did express my concerns last time about having Educators come back on that Friday the second but the one piece that I do really like about it especially now coming up this week um there's a professional day midweek and um I definitely see the value of having that not interrupting instruction in the M of January so I see both sides I think that there's going to be opinions either way but that's kind of one thing I'm a little bit Focus about the 22nd and 23rd or the 23rd and yeah 22 23rd if we went the second we wouldn't do one we do one or the other right and 23rd would be saying if we were going to do the second for educators we were saying we were going to take the 22nd and 23rd off that's right right yes oh we were yeah yes we were saying we would close the 22nd and exactly exactly not in the feedback which we got though that's all I'm saying no it sounds like people didn't second want the 22nd 23rd yeah they want to come in that's what I'm saying yeah yes and um there are some calendars around us posted that have exactly that so you have I think it was Long Meadow AGA maybe Westfield so we should plan on the 23rd and 22nd and 23rd and the question is whether they come we come the second or not no I'm saying you can make a proposal for the calendar based on what you think what what is attendance to like the day before these vacations for students for students yes I don't have the numbers but it's going to happen whether it's the Friday or the Tuesday exactly I know but that's two days we'll have more people on Friday if we come to school till Tuesday if we don't if we don't have school Monday or Tuesday we'll have a lot less on Friday you actually have lower attendance I think on that Wednesday before Thanksgiving then you do on say the 22nd and 23rd you know but we shouldn't I'm not sure what families before becomes the day before when you have the week a half day a half day and it counts as a full day which is instructional minutes that we're not capitalizing on that's fair and we've talked about this in the past we were already dangerously close as a district we look at academic learning time and now you factor in breakfast and you factor in lunch and those are compensatory on half days we are very very close to not meeting our academic Learning Time requirements by the State I've said it many many years now but we do meet it Greg barely and that's being generous in terms of what we call arrival and what we call there are districts we call that are way less uh a very short academic day to begin with well we should lengthen the academic day then we could do that as well you want to lengthen the school day I think that's a negotiable item okay anyway how you gonna handle this chair I just asked someone to make a motion yeah but I do I feel like attendance is going to be low for two days instead of the 22nd 23rd yes what about the second you want the second I think it makes sense to have that's that's different attendance though you're talking verus staff yeah but I think if we go to the 22nd and 23rd we don't do the second right that's like the way it used to be go back we haven't had this many days off in a while it happens like every four to five years basic I mean was last year but this year this year yeah this year and next reversal was yeah it's a reversal right um but it's that we have all these days off what you thinking William where you at again I had the the position that the the teachers we need to consider giving teachers as much break as possible you know we want them to come back refreshed and ready I personally didn't see a problem with coming back on on that Friday um we they come back on that Friday on the second but they've got the 20 they've got the 22nd and 23rd off but it sounds like they as a collective body don't want they don't want to come back on Friday uh they were not in favor of coming back not necessarily on the Friday they were not in favor of having the 22nd and the 23rd off more so and we had presented that you had made that um contribution and and around that that we're looking not just at students um getting a break and so forth but that everybody by the time you reach December um the December break that is everybody is in need of a break right but it was a lively discussion and it C want so if we don't go to the second though is it worth the Monday and Tuesday for the students which I think it is because it pushes us into the June which is always a problem and you're saying is a half a day yeah Monday's a full day Tuesday is a half a day and then nobody comes back to school until the six correct correct third report fifth right and uh the way the original draft calendar yes then you had you you have with um May was talking about the 28th PD day it is on a Wednesday mhm that's what I wanted let give it to so I move the we approv the 2025 2026 calendar including class for students on December 22nd half day December 23rd and all staff and students returning on January 5th second said different things you said second said fifth no second like second moot um motion made by Greg seconded by William any further discussion all those in favor say I I I all those not in favor n n so that passes three to two Okay and I would love the schedules on those days I will make it a point to go out the classrooms posted absolutely I encourage everybody to do it absolutely I'll go all right you can tell the administrators as well because that was another that was brought up was that administrators sometimes endorse what this looks like and the comment was also made that this should be concern brought forward to them and not just to the union membership and I did but re iterate it now that the calendars all right new business the 2025 2026 school committee meeting calendar so in your packet you have um dates recommended dates starting in well you have your July 1 reorganization meeting it's tentative traditionally we've tried to do it on July 1 if possible then um pick up again in August and then you see uh just the two meetings per month uh going throughout looks goodone like to make a motion I move that we approve the 2025 2026 school committee meeting calendar as presented second motion by Greg second by Sarah any further discussion all those in favor say I I I passes 5 to zero uh the next item approval of the Mountain View fifth grade field trip Sunny's place in Summers Connecticut on May 27th 2025 100 students 35 adults PTO is going to subsidize the cost the whole cost uh I think no I think they're subsidize so that it brings it down for per student but the majority great great all right I move that we approve the um fifth graded field trip to Sunny's Place Summers Connecticut scheduled for May 27 2025 as presented made by Greg seconded by Amy any further discussion all those in favor say I I that pass 5 to zero next item select of a school committee member for negotiations for the so we have two um groups and actually was highlighted by Mrs Blair's um financial report that uh two groups that we'll be negotiating with hopefully starting in February and um one of which is the custodians Union and then the next item is uh seeking member for the negotiations team for the secretary's Union has anyone done any of those before no anyone have interest in doing any of those teachers and Paris I'm happy to do one of them which one no one I can do one too so all right which one uh you want Anella to pick which one we get yes okay um Greg you can do the secretaries do the all right all right would someone like to make a motion we make a motion we we we appoint to make the appointments we should yeah can I do it s's gonna do it go ahead Sarah I move to app Point Greg to be the bargaining member for the school committee on the secretary Harry's Union second oh all those in favor say I I 5 to zero and I move to appoint Amy to be the bargaining member of the school committee for the custodians unit second all those in favor say that's five to zero okay our last item thank you for both volunteering to do that um joint meeting of the school committee in Town Council on year 26 budget development February 11th so this is just another opportunity for us since we didn't post the last meeting there any right um we can sit again with the council con sh had offered the 11 they had a pretty lengthy agenda tomorrow night so they asked that we come we'll have more information a better date yeah so the 10th no but the 10th is our regular meeting and then the 11th will be their meeting six o'clock they last time I joined online and they had adjusted the agenda oh yeah the first time nice for us because we were there but I joined and then I realized that I was yes I got on right as the public hearing ended on I was like oh yeah they bumped us never happens anticipate that I'll look at the agenda I'll let you know I can I just don't want to not be there on time tomorrow's agenda is pretty full I don't know what the 11 it's that's full but it'll probably be full their budget items too option yes they have member yeah so should be able that yes yeah because we'll post it as a meeting so we'll open if we have a quum we know people at elcat so we'll be able to best Jamie hey take this thing home Anella um would like to make a motion to close the meeting so moved seconded by William all those in favor say I I I to zero everyone