e e e e e e e e e e
e e e oh uh p all right before we begin if there's any room on any of the the rows can you just slide over so we can get everyone in the
room if possible thank you so much all right good evening everyone and welcome the public has been duly informed to this meeting in accordance with chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975 by posting it least 48 hours in
advance a notice on the bulletin boards in Stevenson and Churchill schools a notice to the Township Clerk any notice to the Harold News and the progress please join us for the flag salute I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to
the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all once again good evening Mr Gupta with nothing on the president's report I would like to turn
it over to you thanks Anthony thank you guys for coming this is this is awesome I can't wait to get this before we jump for all those people at home maybe my parents on the Friday before the Super Bowl both schools participated in the Super Bowl of caring it's actually a a
30-year-old National event that raises money to fight hunger uh students and staff were their favorite football jerseys and brought in donations Churchill raised $527 and Stevenson raised $227 um and what may be even more impressive than all of that is we had
two third grade students and I'm not sure if they're here but Nicollet deuso and Madison Ally who took it upon themselves to do their own fundraising and they actually raised $37 for the cause um so a check for $754 will be donated to the calwell food pantry so
thank you to our student council advisers for organizing the event that's miss melanowski and miss galtier at Churchill and Miss lizo at Stevenson and thank you to everybody who participated for that Event Y thank [Applause]
you and now I'll kick it over to our ual principal Mr Ray Santana all right hi um so I I love our Bulldogs of the month um award I was a a lifelong career-long coach so it kind of reminds me of the coaching award that I
used to give out or the coaches award um where we would really honor those people that do all the little things uh that really help the big cause so the Bulldog of the month award recognizes One Church Hill student from each grade who exemplifies the core values of
honesty Integrity kindness and dedication to their studies these students consistently demonstrate these qualities in the classroom hallways cafeteria and playgrounds as Role Models they lead by example setting a standard of Excellence for their peers at
Churchill so at this time I would like if are there any Churchill teachers that would like to come up and join us you're more than welcome to you're coming up anyway all right so thank you all right
I'm Sorry Miss in Con on the way in she's like don't you dare I did I'm sorry all right so um our Bulldogs of the month for September uh Samy D Samantha Drexel
you're GNA stay up here okay all right grade four hasher Hassan oh hasher all right uh grade five there was a question mark whether or not he was gonna be able to make it tonight James Morrow no
[Applause] ah and grade six Rachel valenzano [Applause] you're welcome all right for the month of
October uh grade three Stella Stella [Applause] Renee by the way she gets that every morning all right grade four Lola andrada
[Applause] you're welcome grade five Paris [Applause]
Quon and grade six noce Anthony [Applause] noce all right and November uh unfortunately Bailey Johnson couldn't join us tonight but Bailey [Applause]
Johnson grade four Luke [Applause] Breslin and unfortunately grade five Nicki Nava couldn't be here tonight so Nicholas [Applause]
Nava and grade six Autumn Les [Applause] all right we move our way to December grade three Logan [Applause]
little grade four Ariana Mahia [Applause] you're welcome grade five Penny Penelope [Applause] laruso and grade
six Marley rosadia [Applause] sorry Mom sorry Marley I had to pause my mom's calling me I really apologize all right uh
January grade three Charles [Applause] Zang grade four Morgan Zelo there she is come over here Mars Mar you can come on
this side too L take everyone over there and come over here on that there you go there you balance it out out a little bit very nice all right and grade five Andrew [Applause] Ada be careful
all right you pick a side you stand here you're taller than him you're good you want to talk no you don't I didn't think so and grade six unfortunately couldn't be here tonight but Vincent [Applause]
petone um I do I I Mr GP and I were talking today and and um we are at the 105th day of school for those of you that don't know and I just started looking at attendance and I actually noticed that there are a large number of
Churchill students who have perfect attendance right now so I just want to recognize them real quick um one of them's actually here is she here I don't know pinky Zang Katherine Zang Dylan
Yip Jack Sher Gabriel Raina [Applause] Vincent penus Nicholas Molson Jean Carlo
manah Alexandra McCauley Joanna Lee Marcus kyes Mia Lapras bod latch Christian kincher
Roco [Music] fatulo kidan sapra Ellison sapra Austin Buffa and Dennis um Dennis I butcher your name all
the time Baran baranin yes all right uh thank you all very much um uh we let's can we do a picture with all of them and then miss naran's got a the the half Awards abely all right let's do a quick picture with Mr Santana would you
like them to come up here with us or us to come down there it's up to you you want to do it like I'll put them all here perfect yeah absolutely let's try that all right come on guys Morgan Triple Threat player all right Triple Threat player so wait a minute hold on we're GNA do this right
aw Andrew come here come here Andrew go gentl here it's still plugged in that good look at you such any parents in the back want to rotate up front to take a picture you're more
than welcome [Music] to ladies and gentlemen have out one more big round of applause all of our Bulldogs of the month congratulations
right good I'm going to move her to the side a little bit so this shouldn't trip on that all right and now I would like to introduce our steam SLP teacher Miss Dory
narian I'm trying not to eat the microphone but like just be close enough is that good we can hear me okay hi um as you said I'm Dory narian and I am the Steam and the Hep teacher at Churchill and part of our high enrichment program
is competing in a variety of tournaments with gifted and talented students from all across New Jersey offered through the two consortiums of which we're members and I am so proud to honor the following six students first for
advancing um into and then beyond the semi-finals of the interpretive forensics competition hosted by the Essex County steering committee for gifted and talented education so if um if you could come up when I call you and
just kind of come to the side um all of the students who competed made it through two intense rounds of expressive reading front and center at Montclair State University and did a much better job than I'm doing right now and um okay so if you could please
welcome up Cameron [Applause] Carter great job Kennedy share thank you vivana
[Applause] Hernandez mateline pierelli Alexander [Applause] pinkoski and Vivian Gabriel uh moreover I wanted to say that viven
actually made it into the finals and [Applause] this and this means that out of all the fifth and the sixth graders in the JV competition and there were a ton just imagine an entire lecture hall just filled to the
brim full of fifth and sixth graders viven ranked in the top six out of the whole state this is for you thank you um but I'd also like to take this opportunity because we actually just participated in another competition with
the fifth graders and so I'd like to further uh honor vivana and meline again because in the fifth grade totally Global tournament um I was thrilled actually to see that all of our with all of our Fairfield kids really took
leadership roles in their groups and although we're used to seeing that in general when they're around regular ed students they were around other gifted and talented students and they still took the leadership roles in their teams um so I was thrilled to see that but I
was actually really ecstatic at the end because out of the 20 teams Viv team ranked third overall [Applause] and Maddie's team actually ranked in the first
[Applause] place so we still have a few competitions to go this year and we're eagerly awaiting the results of the huge fairy house and gnome home competition and if you are ever in the Church Hill
Library I highly encourage you to take a look at all the incredible constructions that all of the students did through out third through sixth grade um it's really my honor to get to teach such amazing kids and um I even have some like of my H students that are out here um and it
just it's just really great and I want to also give a little plug to invite everybody in the community to come to our first gifted and talented parent night on March 24th over in the gym at Churchill um thank you to the board and the administration and all the parents
in the community for all your support of the high enrichment program thank you very much and congratulations Mrs Arian great job with everyone absolutely you guys can come up here with us come up here come around and that would be awesome yeah of
course oh we don't need to move it we're good probably needed spun though right [Laughter] once again let's give them all a big round of applause and at this time ladies and gentlemen we're going to break for just a moment
for those of you that would like to leave with your children you're more than welcome to and for those that would like to stay for the remainder of the meeting please do so e e e
e e e reports in the beginning or the end right now no now we used to do it at the end we don't do the no it's first thing all right for those of you that decided to stay Thank you very much we're glad you did at this time we'd
like to call up Cindy Halen from the Fairfield Education Foundation who is going to be honoring some of the teachers this evening for such great work so yeah we'll we'll spin it can you spin
that around a minute please thank you so much Cindy we'll turn it for you yeah yeah we're already good okay oh now that we cleared out okay good evening everyone it's an honor to be here on behalf of the Fairfield Education
Foundation um so I am Cindy hen one of the um ex one of the Board of Trustees but before we introduce our grant recipients we just wanted to take a moment to express our gratitude towards the Fairfield Community so your support has once again made it possible to give back in a meaningful way so because of
the generosity between our small fundraisers our local donations corporate matches and our Cupid's cocktail party we are thrilled to announce that the foundation has awarded over $344,000 in Grants this year These funds will directly benefit
our students and teachers creating opportunities for Innovative learning and growth in our schools a special thank you do does go to our grant committee it's a group of dedicated volunteers who spent countless hours carefully reviewing each proposal ensuring that every dollar awarded would
make the greatest possible impact their hard work and commitment to this process are invaluable we also want to take a moment to recognize all the teachers who did apply for a grant this year the application process was extensive and every teacher who participated put in a
great amount of time and effort to develop creative and thoughtful proposals so it took definitely took a risk and some courage to share their ideas and although we couldn't Grant all of them this year we hope that they will come back next year and we could see
some of their Innovative and inspiring um ideas in future future applications so the 2425 fef grants are funding exciting projects this year including prometheum board in the MD classroom promethium boards in every
second grade classroom we have the century path way for the hallways in the schools and steam bins for every kindergarten classroom which is awesome we are so proud we're so proud to support these initiatives and the Educators behind them so at this time we'd like to invite
up all of the recipients so they can briefly share their projects and the impact it'll make on the students and again we want to thank everyone who made these grants possible [Applause] I'm jeen Peron kindergarten Stevenson
School this is Lori asman she's going to be presenting with me so this year the administration set a goal and asked the teachers to infuse steam into the classroom kindergarten kindergarteners love to build and create in the steam class so we thought that
steam buckets would be a best the best way for the teachers to meet this goal so we sat there we like how are we going to meet this goal and we said this was the perfect way the students will plan what they so here are some steam buckets this is what we mean so there's little
toys these are Flakes and there's little building um manipulatives and materials for them to build any want to come up and play so we were and oh I figured of
course so although they're small they're very you know useful in the classroom but so what we did is we we ordered 21 different or 23 two or three different materials to play with and we implemented three different materials
for like a two week span so they could get used to those materials then we introduced the next few buckets and we added on and on and on so with this the students will plan what to build independently through imagination and personal experiences like today some
kids said I'm I'm building a monster truck and then went to the library for book swap and he picked out a monster truck so obviously he went to see a monster truck show and he brought his personal experience into the classroom the students will have the opportunity to explore these materials develop
Independence and higher level thinking the students will be able to use their knowledge of 2D and 3D shapes to construct the students will compose and decompose throughout their time with the specific bucket we're having a little trouble with decomposing because it's
they build these beautiful things and when the time is up and they have to decompose there are some tears and they just don't want to break it down but they have to break it down to put it back so that we could play again so we're working on that
part um most of all students will be able to work individually or with a small group to set a purpose and then reach that purp Purpose By working together so collaboration with peers promote the positive behavior in the classroom and a very happy classroom
room we have some pictures here of some kids engaging in the buckets or there yeah so that's how it it's working in the classroom so when they're done with their work they can go to a steam bucket and
build so I just wanted to tell two little stories that happened because you you would like to know how it's being used in the classroom so I came back yesterday from lunch and a kid showed me what he built he said look at Mrs Bru I built this and I said oh it's fabulous
what is it and he said it's a Tesla and I said a Tesla and he said yes I said well what made you build a Tesla and he said well I tried to build a dump truck and I it didn't work out and I said what didn't work out he said well the doors I couldn't get the door to open the door
only opened this way like a Tesla so I turned my you know invention into a Tesla and I said this is fascinating that I'm having this conversation with a year old you know after lunch and I said well what made you build the dump truck
to be to begin with and he said um to get rid of all the snow that's around so then you know there It Is the personal experiences they bring it into the classroom so then there was another little girl I have to tell the story who speaks in this nice kind little voice
and after everybody was clean and she said Mrs brone I built a flower garden and I said it's beautiful and he she said and it's it's a windy day and I said okay and it was the gears that I just put out so there was a green slate and then all the gears with the flower
and she said watch and she turned it and the flowers were moving and she said say it's a windy day and I said it really is it's a windy day in room 32 so that's we say thank you to you because what you
don't see in the pictures and what you don't hear is the conversation that having you know who's leading the group who's sitting back and watching who's like trying to chime in but doesn't have the confidence just yet that's what we see you don't see it in a picture but
you see it in the classroom so you're all more than welcome to come in pick a time and we'll make sure y that it happens and you as well are welcome to come in just to hear the the conversation
[Applause] do this okay good evening I'm Donna Lisa one of the second grade teach teachers at Stevenson School um I'm Andrea Goldsmith and Vanessa mayor Michelle Mana Cheryl molinsky and Sarah Goodman
couldn't be here tonight but our we're I'm speaking on behalf of everyone first of all we'd like to uh give a big thank you to the FBF for your extremely generous donation to our classrooms second grade teachers are now enabl to enhance learning through the Implement implementation of Technology into our
daily instruction the promethian boards will update the use of technology for instruction and differentiated lessons these boards benefit 100% of the current second grade students but will also benefit all second grade students for years to come for language arts we're
able to show books and to do interactive writing and reading activities um social studies were able to put up videos and mapping and they're able to come up and interact with the board in math they're able to again very interactive come up solve problems take turns they love
writing on it they love I don't know about you guys but they love when I'm confused and I'm like wait I don't know what I just hit or what just happened and then you're hitting something so we're definitely still learning definitely still working on the training with that but I love when a seven-year-old tells me no no no don't
hit that button hit that one and I'm like seriously okay and they're usually right um we're able to do interactive um foundations lessons and phonics and they're really just having a good time with it when they see the board get lowered they're like like yes we're
going to get called up because they know that's when the markers are out for them and it's just very exciting um the differentiated instruction that it provides allows us to meet the needs of all the individual students in a very diverse population technology allows the
personal experience while supporting students with IEPs interactive lessons um lastly we're really bringing them into the 21st century with skills and the technology and critical thinking collaboration
creativity and literacy um it's really been amazing I don't know I mean I know we talk about it all the time just the impact like we turn that on and it's like the whole room lights up and they're just they're so excited and then
I'll be like okay let's try this and then I'm like hitting things and they're like no drag it this way and it just really is a lot of um fun we're really seeing the benefits um you know student engage engagement is high and we're all excited to learn more about implementing
all of the different you know technology into our daily instruction so there are some pictures of them coming up and doing different things in the classroom um the boards are great because as I said you can raise them and lower them up to their personal height and lots of
interactive things which um we're definitely still working on you know figuring everything out and how to implement it so thank you again it has been amazing thank you once again let's give all our
teachers a big round of applause thank you for coming out yeah I just want to clap for everyone hi my name is Sono Patel I'm the occupational therapist for the district thank you so much for this grant um my grant which I wrote was for
sensory Pathways um something that we can have in all both Churchill and Steven school school the amount of funding which was provided to us my plan is to put it in 10 hallways between both schools um we
have not implemented it yet because we need the uh floor clean and wax so during the summer we are planning to put them in so that they stay on the on the ground um I had a slide
on the first one no the first slide it was the pyramid but okay B on anyways I had a pyramid up it was the learning pyramid and the found Foundation skills of learning are
sensory perceptual skills mindfulness um visual motor and neuro reflexes so the whole purpose of bringing this uh Grant was that not only special ed students but regular ed students can Ben benefit from these activities without taking time away from
their academics as they will be doing these activities while transitioning between classrooms or a teacher who is seeing that a student is in need of a break can send a student out in the hallway and the student can access the sensory pathway in the hallway which
they are um in in that moment um I also feel like this would benefit winter months when students don't get to go outside for a recess they will get some sort of structural movement break in in the hallways where they can go into a
different hallway and access a different uh pathway because each hallway will have different activities different inputs that they get we also will have some sort of yoga and mindful activities which will be on the walls which will help um their neurop Pathways which will
increase positive learning environment thank you absolutely can we have all the teachers come up with our FF members and this overwhelming [Laughter]
check do you want to stand in where do you want here come on over you guys hold this try don't touch it yeah you can't sit because they actually that thank you all right oh once again ladies and gentlemen a big round of
applause for all of our teachers and our FF members that's a an pretty incredible feat to put over $34,000 back into the back into the schools in just one year so congratulations we look forward to uh
2025 we're going to take another minute for those of you that would like to leave any of the teachers or FF members that would like to leave coach Mike all right at this time we'd like to move on to our business administrator's
report I just had a couple things um um Mr gupa the finance committee and I have prepared a preliminary budget depending on the state age figures which are expected to release on February 27th that budget may need to be adjusted accordingly this tenative budget will be
adopted at the March thir 13th meeting and submitted to the executive county superintendent of schools for approval uh earlier this week the doe released a broadcast announcing the 2526 school aid will not decrease by more than an amount
greater than % of the 2425 Aid so that represents a maximum deduction of $3,945 to Fairfield so we weren't hit too hard hopefully we're not going to get hit but that that would be the max so that means they'll all definitely decrease or is that just no that means
that's the maximum they'll if if the state comes out it won't decrease more than that by more than that okay so it could go up though yeah my next question in years past it's generally gone up has gone higher yes for us so the likelihood of that is still POS Poss it is a possibility okay
great that was it that was it great board committee reports yeah finance committee met as uh Wally mentioned um obviously we're working on a draft budget but I guess my communication will be from the meeting
is that look we're uh you know this is nothing you most of you have been here multiple times and you've heard me say this uh we continue to think about ways to run the the district more efficiently um I think Wally's done a great job and Ryan Kathleen did a great
job last year as well obviously the big benefit for us was the November 23 uh ballot question next year we're still going to be helped from that ballot question but that's the last year um and that's for Reserve reasons and and carrying over and things like that
at a high level you know ideally a district would run like this you'd have your budget you would spend less than you budget every year uh that money would move into cap reserve and then next year your increases would be covered by the increase in taxes for as long as anybody here knows it's it
hasn't been that way it's been the 2% increase since 2011 and fund balance has been brought into cover other increases in expenses that's gone down thanks to the work we've done and that ballot question so we've gotten that to we're still taking out a fund balance but
we've gotten that to a manageable amount um granted some of that is strategic and some of that is a little luck which we managed to do that with the carryover and even with that $300,000 increase in uh in health insurance um look we're still treading
water it's great but we have to get to a point where we're not always relying on fund balance and luck for our budgets every year so we're still working on new ballot questions for next year as I mentioned in the past we're going to try to do smaller ones over time uh as a
comparable District right now if you look at the district similar to us in our region and you could all figure out which one it is we run the same district at $900,000 less in total tax revenue it's not fair it's not fair to the people that are up here it's not fair to the teachers that
teach our kids so we have to find a way to be efficient be lean and spend money on education so that whatever whatever teachers are facing our kids are doing it with the uh the best at their disposal and if that could more money or
if that's just different programs whatever that is we have to we have to work that out so we're going to hopefully work on two questions they won't be they won't be the size of the ones that were proposed in the last um election two years ago they'll probably be about half of that one of them will
be permanent meaning it'll be for education and it'll be a permanent tax increase the other one will be more strategic as to maybe a one-time tax increase where whatever it is probably a capital expenditure um goes up one year we do the project and then the next year
there's no more tax increase for that because the Project's done uh that's that's a good idea because of the amount of projects we have to do the dollar value and the fact that we only have about half of that value in our cap Reserve account now we don't have all of
those um you know every year in a couple months we'll have another committee meeting for buildings and grounds where we'll talk about the projects that should be done some are health and safety so they have to be to be done no matter what some are nice to have and some are just because our buildings are old I think that number last year was
around 8 and a half million we did the roof we're doing the boilers which is coming up hopefully we can get some savings from PSG there but more to come on that uh if we had about 75% of that total number in our capex I'd say doesn't make sense to do uh a one-time
ballot question just for that because you don't always want to be increasing taxes for every single little thing but right now it makes sense um overall I think we're doing a pretty good job we just just got to keep going and rather than be reactive the way we
were two years ago I think we have to be a little bit more proactive and W's doing a nice job Ryan's doing a great job but keep going you know you guys didn't do nothing yet so but that's all I have thank you Joe just to uh just ask a question this was ultimately this
board's goal correct when we set out in 2023 we had uh the foresight to know that two years later we would need a question right so we we're very fortunate the money that's left over I said on finance with Joe like you said Wally's doing a great job and Ryan is really you know trying to run the school
as lean as possible without affecting education right which is ultimately what we said we'd like to shift Our concern with with this board it not always be about Finance but it be about educating the kids so we don't want this to come to a surprise we knew this was you know
what we were looking for in 2023 when we put the ballot questions on we we knew every two years um this is something that we wanted to do um it to segue into buildings and grounds which I sit on with Joe as well uh Wally could you just give an idea for the people that are in
the audience and for those that are listening at home just a ballpark on what the boiler project itself alone cost uh the AR Architects estimate with all cost is about a $1.1 million project to replace the boilers at uh Churchill
so it's it's not a cheap project so we're looking for some Direct reimbursement from psng where they help subsidize some of that cost um but it it is an expensive project yeah and um with Wally and Joe touched on about PSG subsidizing some of this it's uh it's a
very intricate process where you PSG is willing to replace some of the boiler at like a 40% cost savings but it's uh it's very involved because what they don't cover has to be specked out fire our
engineers and then different contractors basically have to come in and finish the for instance if PG was doing 50% of the work the school district the engineers would be responsible for the other 50% so say if they drop the boilers in place
we'd have to have them fit it sized hooked up tested so I I mean you know when Joe says Wally's really you know doing a good job of really trying to find every savings he can for the district he absolutely is and it's it's a lot of work and and it's a it's a
never- ending job but you know kudos to uh to Wally and Ryan and and Joe for being on finance so um with that being said I'd like to move on to any other committee reports if anyone has anything nothing no okay great we'll close that portion of the
meeting out public comments on agenda items only anyone wonderful Finance yeah okay so page four finance the following Finance motions are made at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools anything
placed on this agenda items one to five will be voted upon in one motion I'd like to motion items one through five second roll call Mr aiti yes M Street yes Miss alai yes and Mr dcot
yes okay moving on to person the following Personnel motions are made at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools anything placed on this agenda items 1 through eight will be voted upon in one motion I so move have a second second roll call Mr
feedi yes M Street yes Miss alai yes and Mr D Pesco yes okay curriculum the following curriculum program motions are made at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools anything placed on this agenda items 1 and two will be voted upon in one motion I so move have second
second roll call Mr feti yes M Street yes M alar yes Mr dco yes policy the following policy motions are made at the recommendation of the superintend of schools anything placed on this agenda items one to two will be
voted on in one motion motion second second roll call Mr feii yes m yes m al yes and M yes all right with that being said we'd
like to open up the floor to public comments on non-agenda items we were so close knew you can't get by one Mr lamort I so I got no you go
so yes but before we put the cart before the horse we feel like we should get our finances straight right and work with the administration to see what the school really needs right to address all the kids general education basic skills and our he students so uh until we have
we do have grand ideas on what we would like to do in regards to a referendum but until we can kind of get our hands around capital reserve the buildings and grounds the Capital Improvements that we need but more importantly securing our teachers and making sure that they're here year after year we feel like our
efforts for the next year should be on that and then once uh Mr Gupta and and uh and Mr Lindley you know basically say hey we're we're in a better plac than we were in the past and don't get me wrong we definitely are from where we were three
years ago to where we sit right now the the deficit is definitely shrinking but it's it's to the point where we would like to get it to where we're not relying on any of that additional funding we're actually working on a couple different things to generate some source of income uh for the district
which would be helpful in the future but yeah I think we need to see meet the the goals of the district now and then figure out what we need to do moving forward in regards to size yeah and can I just add yes of course it's it's it's definitely
obviously it's for that but what you have to also realize is from the time we've done the last one to now you're going to get half for the same cost you have to get the full support of the town for any of these questions and on top of it there are bigger items like
for the state if the state all of a sudden turns around and mandates preschool you know we can't start a referendum do that referendum and oh the next year now we're going to have to you know we have this mandated preschool that we're going to have to build out for it's just it's it's more manageable
and safer for the district to do what they can control small small wins couple singles and doubles here and there and then I think one of the the the real reasons the last referendum failed is because it wasn't thought out properly and I and I'll I'll say that publicly
and what I what I mean is it's great to have a new school and a new wing and new technology but if you can't afford to staff those rooms with teachers and the supplies need it what's the point right so we we want bigger schools we want state-of-the-art technology but if we
can't get ourselves fiscally responsible to retain the teachers that we have why would we go out and bond like Joe said at the time $28 million was an average of less than $300 a year to the average
taxpayer now you're probably going to get a third maybe half of what we gotten then for for more money so we're kind of taking the approach of taking care of what's necessary now and then once we're
financially sound which I think we are on our our way to being then we will see what goals we need to meet next for bigger classrooms you know more technology and again with you know something as silly as it's a big deal for what these
organizations are doing right when you talk about the FF and 33 or 34 $35,000 in their first year when you talk about HSA $100,000 a year this is all very important to this district and without that right it would things would be very
difficult to so to have a new organization come on in their first year uh you know donate $35,000 to something that's benefiting the kids directly it's it's phenomenal so you know if 35 last
year turns into 40 this year and 45 the year after you know before you know it three years we have $140,000 $30,000 of technology in the schools that we didn't have before so it's because of those organizations that support the school and the district and
that make it possible but believe me we do members on this board are passionate about a referendum yeah thank you public comments and non-agenda items okay uh does the state contribute
at all to some of these Capital expenditures it depends on and the architex will uh put a rendering to the state and depending on it sometimes the state will subsidize some of those projects but it's all project dependent are they do we know yet or is it too early are they contributing towards the
boiler no no yeah um Joe can you explain what you mean by rely on fund balance does that mean like rely on a savings account no so when and Wally correct me if I go Rogue here if you you have your budget number yep you always spend less you can't spend more
anyway um like your Surplus whatever you didn't spend you didn't spend it but now whatever that number is only 2% of that is allowed to be put into fund balance and that portion you could bring in what happens with the rest goes to cap Reserve got it okay right so 2% of
what's left over from last year you can roll 2% of our expenses is the max it's the same it's the same for what you can use in future years no is what you're allowed to maintain as a as a like a fund balance like like a cushion yes okay which isn't much I got it um I back
to the boiler did we think they were going to contribute toward towards that and they didn't or that's something that they would not contribute towards no that's something they wouldn't contribute to actually that for the PSG program that we're looking into now looks like that's the direction we're going to go that's something that we sought out ourselves right so that 40% s
like we're 1.1 now including that if we didn't have it after their contribution after the contribution right no so if we can save so we like 660 well $440,000 you know and it only cost us
600 that's a savings of you have to spend the money before you get anything back this is not like you know we have to spend it do it and then we get the money with and we take is trying to cover they will cover the fixture so they will cover the actual furnace and the pumps but you have to do it all first and then you get your check when
you get your check PG does run a lot of programs and I we've mentioned this in the past before uh our board was able to replace every single outdoor light in all of the schools all of the cafeterias and all the gymnasiums for zero cost of the district that's awesome that
information was passed along to the town and the town utilized it as well throughout the park uh Recreation uh DPW so we really are truly looking for every savings that we can I know we're looking to do that inside the buildings now the same lighting program unfortunately some of those incentives aren't as lucrative
as they were with zero um they they're starting to dry up but we're looking to do the same thing for the interior of the entire school um hopefully this year coming up um I have one more sure how much is in our cap Reserve uh I don't top of my head um you
can let me know I don't want to put you on the spot yeah okay that's it yeah that's okay several that's okay coup million yeah several yeah I want to say it's several million dollars a lot of big projects too un unfortunately when we met with our Engineers uh Joe and I
were in a meeting uh the later part of last year and they estimated around $8 million in repairs so there's a shortfall you also have to this was your point about why we might need to ask for more money because we we're not going to be able to afford it with just the reserve that we have not every project
needs to be done yeah in the next two years years but at some point they're gonna have to be done got it okay thank you thank you anyone else on public comments non- aggenda items okay with seeing no one I'll close that portion
out next meeting be resolved that the next meeting will be held in person on March 13 2025 Public Work session beginning at 6 PM followed by executive session with public session resuming at approximately 7:30 p.m. at the Fairfield Municipal Building
I have a motion for adjournment motion second second roll all eyes eyes thank you all for coming out despite the weather thank you for the Fairfield