23rd 2024 the time is 6:08 PM calling this meeting of the Westport school committee to order if we could stand for the Pledge of Allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation indivisible with liberty Justice okay thank you everyone um on March 29th 2023 Governor moraly signed into law chapter 2 of the acts of 2023 which includes a two-year extension of the option for public bodies to hold remote meetings effective immediately this legislation simply extends the the current option for remote meetings for March 31st 2025 and does not otherwise affect the ability of public bodies to conduct their meetings remotely through video and or audio conferencing under chapter 20 of the acts of 2021 so first I'll entertain uh comments and statements from the public I am not seeing any Lori are there any on your end that you're seeing any comments or hands or anything no I don't see anything no okay seeing none we'll move on to the informational agenda um we can pass over the superintendance report for tonight if that's okay with the committee and we'll go to committee Leah on reports I know I don't have anything um from the audit committee or the long-term building committee I think we already discussed the updates from the long-term building committee so I'll defer if any committee members have updates from their respective uh committees I have not been contacted by any committees I haven't had any um since the last meeting no uh no additional updates here except for of course the uh continuing continual long-term building issues but uh I'm sure we'll discuss that shortly okay thank you okay moving to discussion of moving district offices so the select board met last night and I was in attendance as well and and uh discussed this with them um along with the Town Administrator uh so a a concern of the towns uh um that we had that had been brought up after we sent the correspondence following our last meeting um was on potential increase to the insurance cost for the building and I think that there was an expectation that the quote for uh the insurance if the district were to move would have come in by this point and it has not um so I think that makes uh it difficult for us to decide uh that we'll be moving out entirely because if we're not sure of the cost then we may not know the impact to either our budget or the town's budget this year or next year um so I think that's a big unknown for us to to act on um there's also a a consideration here of time frame because you know we don't really have the the luxury of time here with but you know buting up against the beginning of the school year um to move all offices over and the I think what was also important from the conversation with the select board last night was that there may be some flexibility or possibility for assistance with the $90,000 that we've discussed um that you know they brought up a number of Warrant articles in the past that were uh that were part of that building um so there there may be some flexibility there there you know at the at the high end the town's like at an increase of 114,000 in insurance cost but um I know some of those those warrant articles were above that so you know they mentioned that there there may be some potential for um assistance with the costs that we're bearing from the building currently um so we can continue to explore that with them but I think you know absent us having a a number from the town or the insurance on what the increase would be in the building if it were vacated um my recommendation and I'll I'll open up for discussion is that the district you know part of our goal with this was not only to save $90,000 um but also was to support some of the administrative staff in the in our buildings and that's a key aspect of this in my mind um so I think what what my recommendation would be is that some student facing positions would would continue with the move to the new high school such as our registar our curriculum director Our Food Services director um our special education uh staff and uh superintendent's office and then staying at the building which this is the majority of the staff um numbers wise this is this makes up the majority would be the business office HR and the out of school time program would remain at the building at least through this year and the committee can reassess you know next year if there's a vote on the building that the town makes or whatever the situation may be uh April or uh through the April election or at at town meeting so um that would be my recommendation so that allows us to still move over a few staff to our new building so we you know achiev that goal of of giving some support while also um you know maintaining a presence at the old building um with most of the staff staying and uh you know hopefully mitigating any potential increase or impact to our budget um in the town's budget this year and next year so I I will um open up to the committee for discussion I know we briefly discussed this at our work session but given the the you know the insurance cost I think this is something that that we should consider doing as opposed to a full move as originally planned but I will I will open up for discussion to the committee Evan it's Lori I just want to say that Melissa is on the call okay thank you Melissa I see that your hands raised hi Evan thank you and my apologies uh for the delay and the technical difficulties um I was um I did watch I was able to watch the meeting last night um and it's my understanding that it's a it's a possibility that we can stay there and not incur additional costs and if that's something that we can do and you know again not incur those additional costs I think that that would also make the most sense so um I just want to share my my thoughts on it thank you yeah thank you and and as I noted I think that our our initial two goals goals with when we had originally considered the move given the number that was approved at town meeting was to save uh 990,000 in our budget and support our staff and I think that um by staying there given both the warrant articles that were brought up by the board last night and also by moving over a few staff members and M and keeping uh the majority there I think we can still achieve that um Gloria I see your hands raised I agree I think you know the the move is good for some parts of it now put a whole big move right now might be it's a lot on everybody so uh this way you can actually like it's like putting your foot in the water to see what's um going to happen so I feel like the partial move is fine and you know see what the town's going to do on their half of it thank you Chris thank you Mr chair uh so just to follow up a little bit on last night's meeting I am um somewhat disappointed that there is not yet a uh number attached to the insurance cost potential insurance cost there has been some delay in getting that and hopefully uh that can be ascertained sooner rather than later but in terms of uh of the school department of school committee's uh plans at this point um I would also note I think everyone saw an email uh from the Westport Federation of teachers mentioning some concerns with moving in especially the extended day programs to the buildings um I I am very much of the opinion that moving student facing administrative positions as has been previously discussed to uh the Middle High School specifically is is certainly in the best interest of of the the students as well as the uh the faculty of of the schools there and I think that that we should certainly proceed with that I do agree that at this time it seems like the most prudent course of action is to pursue this this partial move especially as the time crunch continues to uh continues to affect these these conversations so um I I'm not sure at this time Mr chair are you looking for a motion uh for for such a such a move or what's uh what is your pleasure at this time uh I I would uh like to look for a motion but I just want to make sure every you know the committee members have had a chance to weigh on this before so I'll just see if there's any further discussion before we do that I will note one other thing that you know um a full move at this time I think without having information on what the actual cost increase would be from the town side would be difficult I think if we're in a POS it may be difficult if we're in a position where you know the there was a situation where if we stayed that an increase would have been mitigated um so I wouldn't want to put the district in that position I think that that's why I'm I'm one of one of the other reasons I'm recommending this uh this this option but I'll defer if there's any other discussion before we entertain a motion here Evan um yes it's um Melissa again um I'm not sure if um Christopher is going to make the motion or what the pledge of the committee is but I would prefer that the motion have something that we're not going to move as long as it doesn't cost the district additional funds that's really important that because that was our whole reason for moving um well I mean it was the the major reason is to save the funds um for the school department so I want to make sure that this isn't going to cost us additional just so I'm clear when you say additional do you mean in addition to what we've previously budgeted for that so understand does that does that mean the like the uh in other words if if the if there was an increase in insurance and And We Were Somehow uh you know made to pay that or or asked to pay that is that what you're referring to so well actually both so one would be um that one would be that if um one would be that we do not um incur any additional fees for above the amount budgeted so originally we were saving 990,000 um we don't we no longer have the money to go to pay for utilities right so I don't want us to pay more like I don't want us to have to pay that 990,000 now and that's one and then two if it comes out that we have to pay more for insurance because for some reason the town didn't inform the insurance company that of what is transpired with that school that we will not be responsible for paying anything additional and while it will you know it might be difficult to make the move if we need to make the move then we need we need to make the move I mean I still think that it's plausible to do now I mean I I don't think that it's not impossible to do um so I I'm not willing to cost the district extra money to stay there no I you following that yes know and I agree I think that that's a big concern I think my my thought on that is that you know that there's a there's a Time consideration here right I think that the the the town wouldn't be able to officially decide on whether or not they could you know use money from that warrant article to reduce our bill I think at least until the next select board meeting I'm not sure what the mechanism is for that if that has to go to fincom or what it may what that process looks like so and that I think the next select board meeting is in three weeks um so I think it it may be difficult planning wise to to commit to that and then if we're in a situation in late August where that hasn't happened yet I'm not sure if we could pull off a you know a full move so I'm that's my that's my only concern there I think that that you know we should certainly pursue that and I agree that if there is availability within those warrant articles to help reduce our bill I 100% agree that that's something we should pursue um my concern is just with the with the time frame piece I think the the administration may need some direction in a you know in a in a shorter time frame um that's my thoughts there yeah no and I I agree with that at at the same time though we're looking at moving um the business office um we're not going to be moving classrooms so if for some reason it should happen when our students go back to school like if this doesn't H let's say they're like nope sorry can't do it well we might have to move over a weekend we might have to move over like a three day like we might have to move over time um the first month that the students are back in school I mean we might have to do that because I don't think that I don't I do not want to say that yes that we're going to do this and there's a potential that we could have any impact to our budget and if that's the case then I think we need to be prepared to say okay we're going to have to move I I don't I I be and I I believe and having conversations with Tom and maybe he can um you know can say something about that that he feels that we should be able to still move I mean I I'd like to get his sense of it sure Tom do you have anything on that yeah I mean we we we certainly you know obviously you know we started this with the idea that we we had to quite honestly um we can definitely rally the troops uh Dr Pico if we have to uh I'm hoping that we won't have to but I mean we'll do whatever we need to do in order to make sure one we have as many uh face funding uh people to support our students that we can we can bring over I don't know if that that answers the question Dr pajo it does Tom so here's my concern that we'll say okay we're going to wait we're gonna pause we're not going to move the town has indicated that they should be able to cover you know the excess amount through the the funding that was available um it might also be possible that they could you know by reducing the um some of the utilities but it is also possible that the insurance company could come back and say oh no it's going to be a lot more expensive the insurance because we didn't know that this wasn't a school and I don't want us to be on the hook for that because we are occupying the building so those two things one we are already said that we're not going to be paying additional funding for staying there so again that 990,000 and two if indeed the insurance comes back which I'm not sure who's following up with the insurance company or not um if they come back and say that it's going to be more I don't want us to be on the hook I will note that from from our our conversations with the with you know the town administ even last night it was mentioned also that that um I think that there is the the town from what it seems from those warant articles would be able to absorb the cost of uh the higher end of the increase on the insurance um if they needed to I don't think that at least from what I gathered last night um at the meeting was that the it wasn't part of the conversation yesterday um that this that the school department would be on the hook for for some of that but Chris I see your hands raised yes thank you Mr chair uh so just to follow up on Dr Pico's concerns there uh the the situation with the insurance cost uh if it were such that the town came back and said that we would be on the hook for the insurance cost I mean that is that is just an absolutely unacceptable outcome and I do not anticipate that uh being the case considering that there are there are worn articles totaling over $200,000 at least that we are aware of uh that it that have been set aside for uh utility cost at the old high school uh through uh previous year's Town meetings I believe there's actually I believe there might even be an additional one uh in uh in excess of what was elucidated by the Town Administrator last night um also just to follow up there was a mention of being able to to use that that funds uh by by members the select board uh being able to use those funds no matter what uh for the utility cost in general now uh I I just I want to be real clear here that there is also to to me the the issues here are not just the uncertainty surrounding the cost and still not having figures with those uh those potential estimates but also the time crunch I I will note that a the select board members of of the select board also indicated that they may be interested in trying to uh perhaps move some Town Offices over uh sooner rather than later because it seems that through the the communications with the insurance company that even if status quo was to be maintained the occupancy rate that the insurance company requires would not be met so so no matter what even if we did nothing there would still be an issue with occupancy uh to me that that is an issue that is is frankly on the on the town's uh responsibility uh that that that is that's not uh there's no way that can be put upon the the school committee as as the cause of of such a such an issue with the insurance now uh also the schedule uh as far as uh what's the next steps are with this building I I have been in touch with uh the administrator Mr hardnet and uh I believe there's a tentative schedule for a walkth through with members of the long-term building committee as well as a select board on August the 6th so that gets us into you know that's two weeks from now as it is so no matter what there's there's certainly a time crunch if if anything additional if the a full move was still going to be talked about so again just to just to Circle back it seems to me that the the best course of action is to to move student facing ad Administration as planned and uh keep the the business office and it and other other uh positions that that uh aren't necessarily student facing in the old high school but again just to just to underline I I share your concern and Echo your sentiment Dr Pico that that the any additional cost to the school budget uh School Department's budget uh is is is a non-starter as far as I'm concerned uh based on this based on what what what's transpired here so right I yeah thank you Chris I I agree with that and I agree with you Melissa that that's a concern and we should pursue that um and make sure that it doesn't impact our budget negatively um I think the the difficult part about putting the contingency of us getting the or or assuring that we get the 990,000 from those warrant articles is is like I said it's just the the time frame issue but um you know I think we can certainly pursue that and make sure that you know there's not a negative impact on on our uh on our budget um so I share I share the concern um on that thank you I appreciate both of you and I think that's a continued effort for us too on on making sure that we stay on top of it um regardless of what we decide tonight that we make sure that that if there is uh funding available to help us in know budget that we that we pursue that and continue those conversations because that's you know we're always in a difficult position as I understand the town is also um but you know we we're we're always looking for for funding to to help out with some of these these cost increases that we see so um that's that's certainly a conversation that we can um continue to have and make sure that we stay on top of because it's very important um with that especially if there is funding available in those more articles that's above um what any increase in the insurance would be Gloria I see that your hands raised right uh a lot of what that both of them said is you know we just have to remember we'll have probably two-thirds to three quarters of the people already moved in before the next select board meeting so if you decide that we have to move the business and uh Administration out it's not going to be as bad as moving everybody out because you the moves have already started so if they decide all right no we're not going to help you you're going to be responsible that then we can just move everybody out and it won't be as bad because you've already made your big moves already that right because they're already moving now are they I believe they I believe that process has started yeah so the process has started so by the time the next select board meeting is probably most of that move is done so the only thing will be left is your business office you know an IT office and um Tom's office that area so it's not in the um after school program so either way it's not going to be like huge moves because you've already made the huge move so we we have you know it's up to them to say okay you guys can stay then we can say all right we'll put you off for another year or whatever but um and if they say no you can go if you have to go you know you have to pay for it and then we make that move we come over um it will only be a smaller amount of it's not like we moving everybody all at once so that's that's the Plus and like U Melissa said anything we're not budgeted for this $90,000 so anything over zero is should be on them and if they you know if they can figure out that go with that let me take my hand down right okay is there any other Is there further discussion from the committee I have nothing further um than just to uh agree with what was said um you know we did this for the reason um of saving money for the district because you know we had a pretty major budget shortfall um and agreed on this in a way of um saving so um it the hope is that it isn't going to cost us um anything additional um because we simply just don't have it so um I think we've been uh pretty um not only ambitious but um upfront with uh our thoughts and and and the move and the save um and if uh it hasn't been taken care of um by other uh other um groups then you know it certainly shouldn't um fall on us um because we just simply don't have the uh have the funds to uh to absorb it thank you Mr Pico uh Gloria for anybody who's watching that you know this move wasn't what we wanted to do it's what the town forced us into doing and we're trying to M appease everybody uh the best that we can within our boundaries you know because I you know some people may not like it some people may like it we're just trying to do what's best for the students and best for the school and that's you know that was just one of the concerns that you know I heard so I just wanted to make sure you know it's not we're doing it to somebody it's they're doing it you know their choices so we're just trying to make the best for everybody no thank you for for raising That Glory I think that's important to to note that the the goal of the of the committee I think through all these conversations has always been to you know what you know we know that we had to cut X dollar from our budget and what's a way to do that that has the least impact on our on our students um and that's always been at I think the core of of what the intent of the committee has been um and we also realize I think that you know for our conversations that um you know there's a there's a there's a concern from the town uh as part of this there's a there's additional concerns that we've you know I think tried to to resolve and and work through and work with them on um and collaborate so that's an important part of maintaining that relationship especially you know as we approach you know our budget our budget season and preparing for that um you know those are some considerations um but in in my in my mind based on the the conversation I think the lack of of um of a concrete figure on what any increase would be I think it it may be best for the district as I noted earlier to remain in the building and only moving over those few positions that are more student facing um at least for this year and then you know depending on what the town decides and where the committee's at where our budget's at next year we can we can reassess towards the end of the year and have this conversation but I think for the time being that this may be the best option um and again uh as as Melissa raised and as other committee members raised that um we stay on top of it with with the warrant article funding and see if there's any uh you know how we can work with the town on on reducing uh some of the the the cost burden uh on the district um so we help alleviate that issue um so I think that's important to note there is there any further discussion from the committee comment ments questions okay I don't see any um with that I will entertain a motion if there's a motion on this item Mr chair I will move I just wanted to tell you you have um under the action agenda you have act on the district move so do you want to do it then yeah we can we can take that out of order and do that now if that works for the committee okay out of all right thank you Sharon you're welcome Chris yes Mr chair I will move that the school committee pursue a partial move of student facing student facing administrators let's see I'm I'm trying to figure out how exactly we want to word this at this time uh I I mean we can always we can you can take it from the angle of who's staying too we can say you know business HR out of school time um you know yes I I think I think the positions that I that I had listed um for the move and I think some of these are already occurring but would be um special education uh the superintendent's office the Food Services director register and curriculum director are the positions so that would mean that the majority of the staff which consist of business HR and the out of school time program would remain in the building so Mr chair I will move that the uh the school committee pursue a a partial move leaving the business office and uh the the other departments you just elcid in the uh in the building for the remainder of this or this school year I will second that okay a motion has been made and seconded do we have any further discussion the only discussion I have is again just to reiter reiterate that the this move will be made at no cost to the district so I don't I mean the us staying will be at no cost to the district right thank you yeah and I think that that's that's you know on on the committee now to to I think that the select board is hopefully hearing this week on on some numbers I would I would hope um there's no indication from the insurance on what that would be or when coming um but I think at that time that's important for us to to have that you know continue the conversation about those warrant articles um so thank you for for raising that is there anything further okay hearing none we are remote so we will take a roll call vote hi Gloria cabal hi Christopher thr hi Melissa Pacho hi Jason Pacho hi EV gendro okay that passes unanimously okay next uh on our action agenda we took that out of order so our other item on our action agenda is review and act on school committee meeting minutes of Tuesday July 9th 2024 is there a motion I'll make a motion I will second okay motion second any discussion hearing none we'll take a roller call vote I Gloria cabal hi Christopher thr hi Melissa Pacho hi Jason Pico I Evan gendro okay that carries unanimously routine matters correspondences and notices I have non topics to chair could not reasonably anticipate 48 hours in advance of the meeting and I have none there as well uh with that being said if there are no further items I will entertain a motion to adjourn moved second okay motion made seconded we'll take a roll call vote I Gloria cabal I Christopher th hi Melissa Pacho hi Jason Pacho Ian gendro that's unanimous thank you very much everyone this meeting is have a good night