okay being six o'cl call us meeting of the CH school committee AIC we all please stand for the pledge of Alle pledge Alle to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and Justice thank you uh this meeting is being live streamed by chel for Tel media and posted the CPS website for interested community members to access and watch inperson public participation will be taking place tonight in accordance with the Chelson school committee public participation policy anyone speaking tonight during the public input portion of this meeting has been notified has notified the superintendent's office of the desire to speak provided with these guidelines upon request written comments received no later than 12:00 p.m. on the day of this meeting will also be read and made part of the record of the meeting during the SE second public input session so welcome to this meeting of the choun school committee our first order of business to approve our minutes for our meeting on May 7th okay I make a motion to approve the minutes from our May 7th meeting I'll second that okay anybody have any corrections on the minutes okay all in favor I 4 Z all right next up our student Representatives hi everyone so this past weekend was our line um Club student leadership and Community Services 24-hour relay at the high school which called for teams of students to spend 24 hours at the high school and participate in events such as a midnight ice cream social and last week was the senior's last week of school and they had spirit days going up until their last day with Pajama Day beach day chumford day College day where they all were their college shirts and a jersey and sun dresses but seniors who have to take their class finals can return back to class and those who have participated in the senior inter internship program will return this Thursday to do their internship present presentation sharing what they've done and learned over their time and today was the junior classes job shadow Day meaning rather than attending school juniors were able to job shadow anyone in any field they'd liked and today I went to the Timberland headquarters in New Hampshire and I spoke to adults in the comp's finance team and got to listen into two of their meetings which was pretty cool and tonight is the alumni award ceremony in which sen in which seniors can win different scholarships that have specific requirements for people um who do certain activities and have meant like outstanding requirements so K is there actually right now congrats to her I was gonna say this proba with K is tonight um you know I wanted to congratulate too I guess she was named salutatorian of her class so stand for so I don't know if she'll be here for our next meeting not since she's graduating I think she may all right you know um hopefully you'll be too and then again speaking of seniors their senior events will be starting next week with a senior breakfast on Tuesday and the students will also be returning to their elementary schools in Middle midle schools they also have a barbecue that day and then prom will be the next day at the Castleton Banquet Center in Windam New Hampshire from 6:00 to 10: and then there after prom will follow at the senior center from 11: to 5: a.m. and then Saturday will be their graduation at the songus center from 4 to7 great thank you for everything all right anybody else oh have any good news we have some good news I just wanted to report that uh we received all of our um access testing back and we had 69 students which is the largest amount of students that have exited from L services in our district so they no longer need L Services 69 is pretty good very very good yeah we're very excited about that and then by the time we meet the next time we will have graduated the the 107th graduating class of CHS when we by the time we meet the next time it's be great great is that a record on the number of students that's that's very high for us that's very good that's amazing that is really that's across all age ranges yes that's K through 12 anyone that was receiving Services nice right anybody else have any good news they would like to share just want to share I was at the Parker uh Pride run on gosh was it Sunday my son ran in it and uh I got to be a spectator and I just wanted to give them uh Kudos it was a really great event lots of people were present community members parents and students from all age groups in the district were um either there to compete or there to to walk and have fun um I think the winning time was something like 11 minutes um so just super fast for a two mile run so um it was a great event great like my one mile what's that it's like my one mile half miles all right anybody else have any good news okay I don't think we have any public comments we don't we'll actually um jump right into the um the agenda tonight so on a new business we have um a number of different reports it's kind of a spotlight on Joanna we'll get to a little later because there's a lot of financial reports but for U the first one I always provide excuse me to you a student enrollment update after we do our second set of registration for kindergarten and sometimes we get a couple of trickling in um first graders who maybe did a private kindergarten or who didn't do um kindergarten at all so um we just provided the excuse me provided you those numbers through um last week on May 16th um so overall we've had a um pretty good enrollment our overall number is um relatively on par with where we expected to be um at this point of the year we do um still obviously take any students in for kindergarten right through the you know the first day of school and even after depending if people move to um to town but um at this point in time I'm going to keep a close eye on Bome and Center because um those numbers you know are trickling up close to the you know biome is approaching 90 and Center is at 93 usually once we hit 95 96 is when we would consider um adding a an additional section of the classes so we're going to keep monitoring that through um like around July 4th see what the numbers are looking like at that point and if we ever did need to add a fifth class I'd obviously work with the principles to do so and uh and I would let you know but um the numbers as I stand right now are actually um pretty good I'm pleasantly surprised about um Harrington and South Row um those numbers being uh low usually it's Harrington that we get a little bit of an increase from over the summer time so for them only being at 81 is good at this point and then as far as our first grade numbers go not too too significant just six additional kids have registered for first grade so um we're going to maintain our classes for first grade for the fall but I am keeping a close eye on kindergarten for you particularly at B and Center any number six is that usual like an average of what we usually get as additional yeah honestly that's not a number I track too too closely just because it's it's it's typically under 10 so it's it's spread out over the four schools so a couple of kids here or there really isn't going to throw the numbers off we've already kind of locked into the enrollments for those grades uh if that ever hit you know 20 or 25 that would be significant for us but it's typically under 10 students um and again most of those are kids coming maybe from like a private um kindergarten that are coming to us for first grade for the fall okay so there will be a some more coming as kindergarten years end for some of these kids well no these kids well they kind of know they kindergarten ending so they're registering ahead of time for the fall for first grade I was told today by a parent that she had to wait until after her the last day of kindergarten before she was allowed to register her child for first grade no we have we have kids that come in now like preemptively to to get ready for the fall yeah as long as they're I mean again the numbers are not significant so as long as they do so um you know if they could try to do it the sooner the better just for us for planning purposes really for them allows us to get them on the distribution list they sat to get the communications for the fall um but six kids isn't GNA throw us off let you know it's someone you've talked to someone I talked to you've talked to them so maybe you already know yeah we can talk about it offline thanks any other questions do we know of any occupancy permitting that's coming along this Summer that would add a substantial number of new units because I know signs have been going up for for sale which usually happens over you know the spring into the summer um and so there's more so potentially that could lead to more numbers but do we know of any new units that are coming on that uh over the summer no so um obviously we're in the spring housing market if homes are going to uh sell often times in the spring is is when they put them up so we may see some turnover um there um as far as like newer bigger developments coming online nothing specific for September I think the biggest one we're kind of keeping an eye on is the West Campus you know they have Broken Ground they are building but they're at least a year away if not a little longer from uh being at a point where they would actually start to um to lease or or rent out any of those properties um as a total aside I did forward to you um last week that application that the town had received for new potential 40b development on River Neck Road yes obviously that isn't going to affect us for a number of years but I am starting to include that as we're doing our longer term enrollment planning with um msba for the school building project um I'll work with the town to kind of estimate you know based on the number of bedrooms that they have what potential um students could be like the design and plan looks very similar to West Campus as far as the type of units what they would be um number bedrooms and things like that and what they would be renting for so I think we'll be able to um utilize some of our data from West Campus um to make some projections on that but you're probably four plus years out from actually having any inhabitants well I know we have really good communication where the town and what happen and I know select board we we are we have you know a Del delegate to the select board not planning board which is where we might hear more about what's coming on in terms of developments um so does do we regular is there a way that we regularly keep in touch with them on what's Happening yeah I mean just ironically Evan balansky is the the and I met with him today because um I need some data from them for our enrollment projection with the msba and um we kind of flag that potential 40b development anytime there's something big that comes along between Evan and Paul on the town side very good about letting us know um you know obviously the housing Market's a little bit different like if someone sells a single family home and things like that you know there's there's no one to really like alert us to that but I'm not that concerned about a house it's the developments um in particular again for schools it's the under 55s because like there there are some over 55 communities being planned but they're not going to generate school students so I'm not too too concerned about that we can obviously track those if we need to but um no they've been very good about telling us and even when we had nesda come in to help us with the longer term demographic study um they had already identified anything that had been permitted um so that was included in the projection and then like this new 40b one will be added on as an additional unpermitted but potential and there's a way to project out like what year it would actually come online so um I feel pretty good about that I do yeah nothing major for the fall nine Acton Road the one right in the center there where the used to be the dance studio used to be behind the bowling alley on the back in the day bowling alley back in the day over there by Bartlett Street n Acton Road it's right at it's a smaller complex yeah but i' I 20 units probably like that yeah yeah it looks almost done yeah yes so that would be Center School I will gladly take a peek I can't visualiz like where that is but if you fill me in afterward I'll I'll take it is almost done going up a road on the right okay yeah don't it's when you're coming around the circle and all where the library is it's just just off there you can see it from that all that wraparound that goes around oh up on the right you're going to go out the road to buy him on the right there okay yeah looks more like Town Housey right okay um I I can find out when that's going to open up but something like that as long as it was permitted would already be in the projection so that would be but if they're not moved in yet they wouldn't be registered so well we wouldn't have the students yet right but as far as like the NASDAQ and even the msba longer term planning we'd be okay but I'll find out when they come in online because it looks close yeah that would definitely Feed Center yeah and um obviously the middle schools but um yeah we'll take a peek at that the biggest concern for me I mean again this is years down the line is if something did happen with the riverneck property that is also Center and um you know if we saw you know even if it falls a similar trajectory to UMass L you know another 50 to 75 kids coming from that development right to um Center we just don't know what grade levels they'd be and things like that hopefully they'd be a good distribution but um we're starting to get a couple that would be pretty significant over there and we just don't have the capacity um so at least it is you know four plus years out but it's on the radar okay that's actually make question so so this current year we have four SE of kindergarten in all four schools as of right now okay if we had to add a fifth is there room to add a fifth good question yeah I mean in certain schools it's a lot easier yeah um than it is in others um Center School I'd have to look at my numbers I believe they actually may have had a fourth grade that's kind of filtering out now um so they would have capacity if they had to but um it's getting tight yeah with buy them is pretty much five across the board so bam really would not have capacity to go beyond the five you know but uh most grade levels it's kindergarten going to be their only grade level as of right now with four but if we ever got in a situation where we had to do like six that would be really really tight yeah okay so we have a new Middle School let's let's hope but uh no I'm not none of the the bigger projects are going to significantly impact us for the fall but I I have my eye on it and Paul and Evan have been very good okay you need to build a little more slow slowly so it lines up we to the school finally just little build would certainly be absolutely yeah any other questions on kindergarten first grade okay great thank you uh second up tonight is um update for you this is the time of the year that we start to talk about our um student transportation program um we share the fees and the dates for registration with you so I would ask Joanna to walk us through this information thank you so for the transportation section we're going to do a little year and review this year and then we're going to talk about the fees for next year um which she'll need to take a vote on and then our flyer that we put on the website and send out and connect messages is also in the packet each year we transport about 3600 students actually this year was a record year and we had 3625 29 buses run daily and and they make uh three runs they do the high school and drop those kids off then they go to the middle school and drop those kids off and then go to the elementary school the fee structure it and also just a reminder we also do late runs so for the after school programs we provide the transportation Tuesday Wednesday and Thursdays to the U Middle School and High School October through uh this year the end of May the feast structure is um there's a little chart there and everyone pays a fee for the bus except if you're in grades K to six over 2 miles and every year we ask families to register to ride the bus even if there's no fee I'm going to repeat that one more time every year we ask families to register to ride the bus yeah even if there's no fee we need to know you're out there and then we um put you we develop our routes we develop our bus stops so please register to ride the bus the second page of the memo is um when the registrations came in this year so we had you know over 2,000 students register early 578 in July and then this is where we get um a big bubble in August you know we had almost 700 students register so we really appreciate families registering early and that helps us with our planning and then the next section is all the schools and how many buses run at each School how many students are on the bus and the average count and remember the bus capacity is like 83 students the big difference this year was um with the McCarthy and Parker Middle School grade reconfiguration um those students you know they ride the same bus so grades um five six seven and eight you know they go pick up the students they do the drop off at McCarthy and then they carry on to Parker and then the reverse on the way home so I kind of did a little uh line to show you how many students are riding for McCarthy how many are riding for Parker but it still keeps the average at about 48 on those big buses um we plan to uh after the fam's register it's the same system as we've used the past few years you go on to my school buck and you register and you um pay or not pay there's a little box for that we'll gather all that information we'll develop the routes and we will send out the bus passes uh in mid August and then this information will also be in x2 in the parent portal under the busing tab so you can see what bus number your students on the time of um their pickup and drop off and that's about all that's on the bus P location stop oh yeah location stop thank you and then the last page is just a little summary of how we've improved it the program over the years with uh bringing on our transportation coordinator Peter and developing our own routes rather than the bus company and our own stops and that's kind of the update on this year's 3600 plus students riding the bus any questions I have a couple of questions um one of mine is that I I'm curious ious what the logic is um behind K to six that are over 2 miles not paying a fee but students in 7th 8th 9th grade still not old enough to drive not having that same waiver yep that's in the Mass General law like section 74 or something yeah so it's a it's a legal thing yep okay and my other question was um I noticed that at the high school with the 23 buses there is a lower count per bus of students um on average than any of the other sites um is there a reason for that I think what we've seen is the older the student gets the less they ride the bus and they um are driving themselves or riding with friends and then we can't we run into time so you don't want your route to be so long that you pick up the student too early where you got to get them to school by 719 and then still make it in time for the Middle School run so 23 is the fewest number of buses that can kind of efficiently pick up the students that's the yes we'd actually we' it'd be better for us if we had more than 23 um we're contracted for 29 but if we don't need it we're not going to take it but um okay thank you yep any other questions I just want to emphasize you said you know they if you read the memo they they try to start routing the buses in mid August so getting those registrations before that just makes it that much easier and and that way everybody you know gets that's what they they would like to have for a stop whereas if you have the late registrations those 700 people they may come in the middle of the process and then have to kind of work it in with whatever's out there so I just want to thank you it would be really important do we send notices with the kids um we've we've tried several forms of communication okay through um when they come and register um connect ads certainly get emails yep you get emails great y That's super try to find that balance of not over communicating where they just people don't like to read anymore but let them know of important dates but clearly a large number of people are aware of the early bird because that number is so much bigger than the others so yes most people are getting a message and signing up early so that's good okay great okay uh the next part of transportation is this is where you need to um take a peek at the fee structure we're recommending and it's the same which is um just going to the transportation fee structure is $200 per student with a family cap of 500 if you register early um you would get $25 discount so it would be 175 per student and a family cap of 400 if you register in July that's the regular $200 per student the 500 c cap if you register in August or Beyond goes up a little bit 225 per student still the $500 cap and then if you register February 1st or later it's um $100 a student and still with a family cap of 500 so this is the same rate structure we've had for several years now so we recommend we adopt this fee structure again for next school year I do have one question if someone moves here like right before the school year starts do they still pay that late fee yeah okay any other questions on the rates of times so this has been our rate for I don't for a long time right Dr said her students pay this right children p and and just so people know this does not cover our transportation fees for the district this is just is a small offset to help cover these fees we haven't like I said we haven't rais them for for quite a few years so right the bus the big buses it's about 2 million a year year to run the big buses and this brings in a little less than $400,000 doll so it it does help but it doesn't pay the full thing I did hear today that the millionaire tax I don't know if you saw this um is now close to two billion 1.8 Milli billion has been accounted for as and it's for transportation and education so let's hope right okay so I need to make a motion you do oh wow I motion to accept I would like to move to accept the transportation registration calendar and the 2024 25 transportation fees as they have been presented by Joanne second okay any further questions or comments right all in favor I was Z and the last little handout is the little flyer that's on the website and um in our connected connected message still with the same little cute bus on the top thank your familiarity consistent consistent with the with the marketing so yes so we'll get that um we'll get that out y inide advertising great um third item on the agenda this evening is um the school committee warrant signing schedule um joa prepared this um for you just updating the dates for the next fiscal year fiscal 25 so this will begin in July and then once approved we'll put this in the Dropbox for you just to you reference over the time but this has been going well correct Joanna yes any questions take a motion make a motion I make I move to accept the 2024 25 warrant signing schedule as presented second any other comments right all in favor thank you great um next item uh what's it can make her do the whole meeting well I told you this is a spotlight on Jo in the business office tonight it's almost like present today yeah it is uh fourth item is a vote to approve the non-affiliated staff salary increases for fiscal 25 okay each year are these both in here yep um each year we bring forward the uh request to um a cost of living rate adjustment for the non-affiliate ated employees and it ties to what we put in the um budget that you approved earlier in the year so there's actually two memos here the first one is um the traditional non-affiliated list of employees and this is a 3% cost of living increase to their salary or hourly rate and again this is in line with what you approved in February for our 2025 budget I also added to the bottom of the list uh three categories that haven't had a rate increase in several years um at least 7even years likely more the event custodians uh so those are people part-time people who come in and help with um the work you know when we rent out a facility or if we need extra help here if we have people on vacations that rate has been $20 an hour for several years and we're recommending that go to $25 an hour again it's part-time hourly uh the student technicians uh this we're recommending we keep at minimum wage these are the students who help out uh with the events the lighting the audio and then um we also have an event technician uh so they're not a student anymore maybe they're a graduate they come back and help and that rate has been $20 for several years and we're recommending that go up to 25 similar to the event custodian so one's an event custodian one's an event technician so that's the first memo why we do that one first anybody have any questions on this particular one this is all right so mostly if you the list is a lot of people in the tech office and secretaries and things like that is that it yeah central office um Personnel who and all these people are not in a collective bargaining unit okay what is I curious what is the he High School Duty supervisor what are they they're like the Sub sub coordinator verus the high school all right that's okay right um I make a motion to approve a 3% increase to the annual salary or hourly rate of nonaffiliated staff are specified effective July 1 2024 I second that all right any further questions I think we have to do roll call on this one yeah okay uh Diana oh uh I Susan yes Maria yes I FL zero okay thank you the second memo is a another a group of non-affiliated employees and this is in the community ed program um last year in April um you had approved um the hourly rate increases for several of these categories for uh part-time hourly people who help with the extended day program the adul head program uh Robin Adams had put together a nice summary of um what other programs are paying and in that um we adjusted what hadn't been adjusted in several years and that's kind of the center column of what they're making now so we don't fall behind again um we decided to come forward each year with an increase and we're recommending 3% for this group for all of the categories except the summer programs because we're coming forward to you in um May and we posted for these summer positions in February so those postings already had the old rate on it and so we're not going to adjust any of those higher letters or anything we're going to go with our summer rates that people have committed to but then we'll bring this forward earlier in future year so that we're talking about the summer program and the school year programs does that make sense so given the rate that we have now for the summer program how has recruitment been pretty good yeah and I think part of it though is because they got out there early to get the recuitment done that's right okay given they hire them in February so this something we should be doing like next fall or something just to kind of so I in talking with uh Robin Adams we I I think we'll probably bring forward recommendations in February around the time when we do budgets and then um we'll probably Post in like March um Community ad usually presents to US during the summer do we have Well Community Yeti and chips are presenting at the next meeting they're the first we usually have them be like right before we break through the summer just because people are thinking about summer activities so um Robin are maying to comment at the next meeting thank you now a lot of these position are they funded through Community Ed all of these are correct yep great Point um all of these are funded from the community aded revolving fund okay okay right not part of the local budget not part of the local budget okay all right yep I move to approve an increase to the hourly rate of pay or the stipend of non-affiliate part-time staff as presented effective July 1 2024 second okay any further questions Diana I Susan I Ria I I for thank you j y y um fifth item this evening is a report for you on uh fiscal 24 this is a new one fiscal 24 circuit breaker extraordinary and um Reserve relief um so I'll let you we to walk you through this this doesn't we typically don't qualify for this so this is like a new new thing for us would you like to kind of walk us through that a little bit and then this particular um revenue is Jo will talk about is going to um be noted a little bit afterward when we talk about the onetime expenditures and our budget projection because this affects that that's right okay all right so um every year we apply for circuit breaker relief and every year we get around $2 million okay um this this year we um filed for Extraordinary relief which you have to fit a certain criteria and it's basically 25% increase over your prior year so Amy Reese did the filing in March so it's like doing your circuit breaker claim that you normally do in July you do it early and we qualified for 53,9 8 that's onetime money this year that does not impact any future circuit breaker claims however you have to spend the money this year it's meant to be immediate relief so that was uh wonderful news and like superintendent said that impacts um the budget projection because now um we will um put more of our Auto District tuitions over to the circuit breaker fund now that we have an extra $53,900 your net School spending and so on and there's a file there's a letter attached from desie explaining all this we qualified for another $48,990 of Reserve relief this however is tied to our future circuit breaker claim that we will Amy will file again in July she'll do an updated claim in July taking that March data and just updating it for any changes that happened plus Transportation so she'll still do that claim we'll wait for over the summer to see where we land with our claim what percent the legislature reimburse rate reimbursement rate is is it going to be 75% plus transportation is it going to be something less than that and whatever that number is they are going to say you already received 48963 of that number so therefore your quarterly increment will be less because you received the 48,000 in May but the um you don't have to spend that 40 8 963 this year it's on the same schedule as if we would would have filed just the one claim in July so we will we know this number we will see what our claim number is we'll probably know in the fall of 2024 it's typically when it comes out in October and then we'll monitor our cap of what we can keep our circuit breaker fund at and then i' just like to thank Amy ree for doing the claim early it's a lot of work to do it twice um so thank her again for uh doing the claim and so we could be evaluated for Extraordinary relief and Reserve relief questions amazing wonderful yeah do so we qualified we haven't qualified for because we're over that percentage is it because of we have more students or because of the increase in out of District cost what what was the driver that I think the tri the primary even though we budgeted for the for 1% increase in outof District tuition rates we budgeted for that we knew about that when we put together the 24 plan it was still higher than our 2023 actuals they're looking at actuals over actuals we did have though some uh students go out of District we did have some students who moved in who were already out of District so it's a little bit of both but I would say the the primary reason was the 14% increase in the ostd rates okay and we've you know included this in the next year's budget projections that we have these yes extra students or extra yeah so again like two things on this one the if you look at like the 530 number that's kind of like free extra money for us for this year and that was something that a lot of districts were kind of lobbying the state for because that OSD rate increase was so dramatically High um some of the districts hadn't budgeted for that so that's going to kind of fill a onetime hole if you think about our actuals for 24 when we file we're potentially going to get circuit breaker reimbursement for that in 25 so they'll be part of our claim going forward but this the 500,000 is kind of like the makeup money almost for this year it's like onetime money um other districts are really still struggling to get through fiscal 24 and they had again petitioned the state to try to get some additional money coming in so the state was able to use like their versions of Esser to free up for districts to almost prepay um some of the special ed um circuit breaker for next year so they were able to do that with their grants that's why they have different grants that are funding this so we technically didn't need the money this year we can just use it next year but in talking to Joanna if it's there and we can account for it why not take it now and have it be in our accounts and and then obviously we'll just adjust for when the claims come in next year but then when we get to 26 a year from now we anticipate just going back to normal you know I don't see this happening again but this was done at the request of a lot of districts who are just struggling to get through 24 making the money available ahead of time so um we know why so the the 530 is kind of free and the others is just like a prepayment of money we were going to be due next next fiscal year but um it's good news all around um and we have encountered for that you'll see it when we do projections we've accounted for that in the our kind of version of free cash for this year and then um obviously next year circuit breaker we did budget what we anticipated the true tuitions and they include those increases okay right any other questions no happy to see that seven years I've never seen this like where does it come from that's great yes this yeah this is the first time and Amy really did in working with Joan a nice job of filing the claim because um if we hadn't we wouldn't have been receiving an extra half million doar you know so that was uh was well worth the effort yeah thank you great um so there's no Vote or anything on that that was just kind of more news for you um the next item on the agenda is just a Rec um I'm sorry recommended one time budget expenses um so we had brought to you a list of uh some budget items a couple of meetings back and we're still going through a process of refining some additional quotes that we had um out so you previously approved approved um 1.6 million in onetime expenses and so we have a second list this evening for you of a little over half a million dollars of some additional items to recommend Jolina did you want to walk through the the second attachment is just the updated um projection slide you want to kind of walk through that and then maybe we can talk a little bit about some of these additional costs sure so the one page of the projection um number you saw this in at the end of March and then so you're seeing this again but it's adjusted one more time okay so it's different from last year I think you only saw it once and then we just kind of kept uh working towards uh I never changed the projection number but this time I did because we already did it once and we have this new $530,000 that we didn't know about in March so there's our budget of 7,700 th000 by the different uh Desi category just like the budget book on the left then there's the budget transfers those are the ones you've already approved throughout the year for the first set of one-time purchases for the 1.6 million and now that column the adjustments um my projection is that we'll still be favorable uh 1, 899,000 so that is uh the number we were going on when we brought forward this second set of one-time purchases and you'll see in the memo uh we're going to recommend that we prepay out of district tuitions for fiscal 25 with some of this money too the only other thing I'd want to point out is like right now Jo is projecting the 1.9 that includes the extra half million in um the extraordinary relief so we would have been at about 1.4 involved in rounder numbers if we hadn't received that extra half a million and that would have been in line with the the first projection we did but that extra half million is included in this one nine um any questions on the just the projection piece projections okay so then when you do you want me to walk through a couple of these sure okay so then when we get into some of the items that we've been able to um kind of refine at this point um with you know quotes that we can act on immediately um couple of the bigger ones were um related to the art rooms at Chumps high school we had talked about this originally trying to that was one of our items on the town Capital plan that wasn't ultimately um included in funding but we wanted to be able to get a head start on renovating some of the art rooms so we do have funding on here for some new Furnishings for three of the art rooms um ceiling tiles we're going to install a new door on the Kil run so it can be accessed through a different um art room at the high school so that is a significant um purchase in the stadium um adding heat and air conditioning to the Press Box which um quite honestly is overheating and then cooling too much in the winter time and we have um Electronics in there um which potentially can be compromised one of the things we also want to add at the high school um if you're out in the field area is some additional uh storage units um so this would be to actually pour a concrete pad to put them on and then some kind of like a modular building almost just so that we can actually store the fette athletic equipment away in the offseason so it's not out on the side of fields and things like that to clean up the space a little bit when um Tom and um Brian and Bill Silva were looking at the pack in the McCarthy Auditorium trying to um kind of have those two Lighting systems because we had previously approved some lighting upgrades to have them have a very similar setup which will be um easier for any of the technicians who are actually using the spaces it'll be a little bit more interchangeable um we needed about another 40,000 to uh to make that all come together um uh John Morris and the science uh department just continuing to update at the high school specifically I think this will actually finish the high school science labs with new um T tables and shars for all the students um we talked about doing um again some additional security improvements or enhancements to the schools so that single wire is the name of the check-in checkout system um that we have a very similar product at the high school that we're going to be adding to all of our schools for the fall um so that uh number is going to be able to um allow us to have that visitor management software and setup in each of our schools um so that's included there we talked about like McCarthy the the vestibule we're going to be creating that's very similar to the high school that'll be that same Software System at the other schools we're going to start using the software system without necessarily that same um physical structure but uh that'll let us get off the ground with that and then lastly um for the last number of years actually this kind of goes into um I guess the year before Co um we had some available funding so we started to kind of as a a benefit to parents by the back to school supplies for the kids um if you recall we used to kind of post up on the website all the different wish lists and class lists and parents would be out trying to buy everything for their kids to go back to school and we actually funded that and then kind of streamlined the whole hiring process so that not the hiring the uh procurement process so the goods are at the schools in the fall when they come back and parents have really been um happy about that and for the kids too they're all getting the same product and the same uh item so it works well so we've included funding for that again so the title the total tonight uh would be just just over 550,000 of additional onetime um spending that we' recommend any questions on any I just wonder on the the storage units where are they going to put them at the stadium all right so if you if you walk into the stadium and you take a you look left at the scoreboard out in the back you know where the ambulance comes in is it open area where there actually used to be a cement Hut that got knocked down but in the back corner is where they're going to pour the pad and then put the storage units okay so they'll have access to the field because there's that rolling gate um and you'll also have access to the outside because that's where the ambulance comes in so it'd be back in that back corner so out of the way you know kind of discreet but um just a good secure though oh yeah they'll be secure and um I can show you a picture of them but they're like locked buildings that you can put all of the um the equipment in another question on these art supplies uh it's um classroom furniture for three CHS art rooms yes um is that I remember that came up when we were trying to decide the order of what to do with capital right um so is this that yes so it didn't get funded in our priority list with capital I want to say that that was like project number seven or eight and we only got to project five um but this is something that we wanted to jump start so they technically five spaces at the high school that are part of the what we call the art lab so we are actually going to be going in this summer previously we've um funded some of it and this is kind of the followup now that we have the final quotes so it'll be all new flooring consistent through the four rooms um adding a wall to one of the out teachers's room doesn't actually have a wall right now it's more of an open space so it'll be creating an actual classroom space for that individual um new paint in the entire area new ceiling tiles and LED lights and the the ceiling like a drop ceiling like this so that'll just kind of bring it all together and then the three rooms that have the dedicated AR te we have three dedicated AR tees it's all new Furnishings for their rooms for the start the only thing that we're going to have to come back to and follow up on is um the on the technical side we have almost two computer labs that are also kind of tied into the graphic um graphic art type program um so they includes the new flooring and paint and ceilings and lights for those rooms but does not include new technology so that may be something we look at a future year or that that is still technically on the town Capital plan but this lets us kind of jump start the project um by ourselves because it just this particular project just wasn't getting Traction in the regular process right okay that's great and this will cut the number down to when we do well it will when we go back significantly might have a better more than yeah that's good news in part of the rational use when we talk to the um um the teachers is we have put a significant amount of money into you know we always do athletics and the pack and um you know musicals and things like that we haven't really made a significant investment specifically in the art rooms and I think this is um you know certainly going to help them and um just make it much much more conducive space at the high school the teachers are very excited about it and we have the ability within our own budget to start this project and I think it would be worthwhile and this is work that'll get done this summer yes okay great that's super yeah any other questions on the list okay I'll take a motion make a motion to approve the FY 2024 local operating budget transfers totaling 55672 um shifting from the 15 Desi categories that are favorable to five Desi categories where the items should be purchased as presented I'll second the motion okay any questions okay Diana hi Susan hi Maria I I thank you very much um so there is a just a second M maybe Joanna can jump in on so this next request is recommending that we take some of our favorable variants this year and put it towards uh prepaying out of district tuitions for fiscal 25 um I put a up to amount just to give us a little flexibility um as we get closer to year end of the up to amount is 1.8 million all right do you know what we prepaid this year 1 523 okay so a little bit more than right okay y right any other sorry any other questions okay okay I make a motion to approve the FY 2024 local operating budget transfer to totaling up to 1,800,000 to fund prepaid out of district tuitions for the chumford public schools second the motion any further questions or comments I think this worked out well for us for the last couple years so I think you know as long as we can do it you know just give you a little it's allowable it gives you flexibility in the budgeting for next year and um it has it really has worked well for us great all right Diana I Susan hi Maria I I 4 Z and thank you and then we'll obviously when we do our kind of closing report either July of the 1 meeting in August we'll report out what the actual number was for you but this just gives us a target number as we're closing the books oh can I ask an UNR question I noticed that Sharon isn't here we have somebody else taking the minutes because I was worried I was no no you're you're good it's Sharon's birthday so uh yeah we'll do it all over again now it's Sharon's birthday so she was off of the night but what Sharon does if she ever can't come for some reason is she'll take the minutes from the recording so she goes back after the fact and she'll watch the minutes I mean I'm sorry she'll watch the meeting she'll take the minutes and she'll send them to us so you don't have to worry about anything no no no you're you're good so and she's done that a couple of times for us and happy birthday Sharon when you do that's great um a through point this evening is a kind of a final Esser Grant fund summary that Joan is going to share with us um since 2021 we received three Federal cares act grants which the acronym is Esser s r um we've spent out Sr one and Sr 2 we finished those out um by the end of fiscal 2023 we have not uh finished spending three and that has an end date of September 30th 2024 we have spent well the total Grant is about 1.4 million we've um spent 845,000 through the three fiscal years uh we have a small incumbrance of 415 and we still have an available budget of $541,500 the um we've spent the money on um custodial cleaning hours and during uh the pandemic the contract tracing hours we had contracted Services of 800,000 through the three years for the online tutoring platform for our strategic plan development for special education opportunities review and PD in the areas of equity achievement equity and achievement and our safe audit and review was funded through here um we have not purchased any supplies um when we wrote the Grant in November of 2021 we thought we would be purchasing technology for um distance learning and also for custodial supplies to keep things clean and we never needed to do that because um by the time we got to this grant those needs weren't there anymore so we will be doing an amendment uh to shift the funds to where we will spend the money before September 30th 2024 we plan to spend it in the areas of Mental Health Services um more strategic planning and um items the student progress monitoring tools that Dr H has talked about some network security items and like I said strategic plan initiatives and the next page is a little onepage summ of what we've spent through the three fiscal years and then about seven items where we plan to spend the $540,000 by September and that's our update anybody have any questions I don't have a question but I just have a comment I really commend everyone for doing a great job making sure we take advantage of this money I've read so many times in the globe or heard on the news about districts who haven't been able to make good use of this money that would have helped them a lot and I commend all of you for um making sure we make good use of this money that we have available so and you too you too for supporting it you know I think you know from the get-go when we received the money um and I think a lot of districts struggled because it was coming obviously as a result of Co and it was very difficult a lot of times District um we didn't take the tact where we were going to try to hire a lot of people or positions on the grant because I think what you're seeing is a lot of districts now struggling with the grants coming to an end and now they've kind of souped up on their Staffing it's not sustainable in they're talking budget cuts they would have been regularly looking at budget cuts anyway because the um the Chapter 70 numbers just didn't hold to to last year's numbers but they also now were carrying all these extra positions they had on grants so we were very kind of strategic and how we went about it and um purchased a lot of services early on to try to help our kids we did a lot of like online tutoring and remote tutoring and things like that when Co hit um we had earmarked a lot of funding for extra cleaning in the buildings the town's version of Esser is called Opa and they actually put a lot of arpa funding into some of the uh HVAC system improvements and air filtering and things like that so they were actually a good partner in this as well but we really did kind of focus on improvements that we could make to technology um Bill had done a lot of purchasing on obviously like equipment um keeping our back end up and running which was huge um Shannon Bish off and the Counseling group with the different Services we had whether it be catwell or car Solace um has certainly been well utilized and then our partnership with um DM group and our strategic planning and our spad opportunities review this year that report's coming at the next meeting you're going to be excited you're going to love it and uh so we actually did a lot of that kind of work which was more kind of like onetime um work and it's not positions within having a carry into another year so I know we've talked a couple of times and even with NS as far as kind of like showing kind of what the plan is but we are in a good trajectory to fully expend our funds by the end of September um we've done a good job with and Joanna really has done a great job with her and her staff doing all the reporting because every time you get a Federal grant you get some type of federal entitlement the reporting is is ridiculous um and they do an excellent job of kind of keeping that up keeping keeping us in the good graces having all of our audits completed and financial reports filed on time um and this is kind of how we anticipate closing this out and then obviously at the end of September October whenever we're fully done we can give like the final spend um all districts are going to be doing that with desie uh but we're in very good shape and I would totally agree the transparency on this reporting is really appreciated so thank you I would agree you know I think you you said you reading the paper about the districts in trouble because they were spending their money unwisely I guess and we haven't so having said that are some of these things things we are going to have to pick up in the future like the Panorama the cartwheel the carus those are things yeah I mean those are things that we um obviously have come to rely on you know they're not people they're not positions but they services that we are going to have to figure out a funding source and a mechanism for but uh they're not immediate you know they're not immediate next year and it's not like a million dollars worth of things we have to add but yet we are going to have to start adding these into our operating budget okay right take a motion to accept the um I moved to accept the final ESS aser Grant fund summary as presented I second all in favor I I okay thank you um item number nine tonight is just an update on uh it's our Personnel report for the month and this details activity through April and um rhr office um Diane Cary and Tina Bradshaw and Nancy Souza have been really busy um doing hiring for our fall season so this is the report we start to see uh people's names Associated anytime there's an effect Ive date of August 26th that means the individual signed and joining us next year um so that's our opening day orientation but um we have a number of new hires uh that are coming into the district that we're really excited about um I forget who it asked but um our two new elementary math Specialists You by Dan um they're actually on here um so they're going to be coming over the summer we're excited about those hires we're really in a pretty good uh place we still have a few that we need to wrap up um we you know obviously have been challenged in a couple of areas I mentioned at the last meeting like psychologists has been in areas where we you know typically if you have one in a year to hire that's a big thing we end up unfortunately had three phenomenal ones who are retiring so filling three jobs in one year is tough so that's taken us a little bit longer but um we're really moving along um fairly well um couple of resignations uh and then some assignment changes and those the staff who already work within our school system um who have um applied for and been considered and accepted into different positions and different buildings next year so um even though they're not new staff to us they'll be new in a different role and we just highlight that for you just so that you can kind of keep track of the comings and goings of Staff of the district um so just sharing for information purposes and happy to answer any questions I did have a quick question yeah um has I I know there's been some work from the district um to try to increase the diversity of the applicants coming into our district I'm curious if we have any data yet on the Unity of um the workforce that is applying for these roles I can certainly when we get a little deeper into the process maybe like another month or two just as we're kind of closing things up I could have um Diane put a little report together for you on the hiring I do know um applicant Wise It's still very competitive and it's still very challenging to get diverse candidates to even apply for jobs um I know we try to get them in and interview as many as we possibly can um their work in HR has really been focused on going to new job fairs that we traditionally haven't in the past and we have actually gotten some candidates from job fairs that we haven't um in the past but I think she would be best to speak to exactly what that's been um but I'm happy to follow up on that thank you that would be great sure any other questions or comments I two comments number one good job finding two unicorns I know we said we're going to be a hard time finding the B specialist and they already have two that's great yeah and secondly I just wanted to um you know put it out I saw we we got a um uh guidance Council for the step program at McCarthy um yes the transfers I just want I happen to bump into somebody the other day whose daughter went through the program at the high school and did nothing but good things to say said it was the best thing in the world as his daughter came back from you know an illness and you know to the point where the the daughter now in college wants to study and become a you know a guidance counselor and and get or counselor of some sweat and get well so just figured I'd mention that because it it just been very timely the conversation probably last week and I saw we were able to do this at the middle school so that's great help those kidss out yeah Julia who was a social worker over at Parker um applied for the job over at McCarthy and so she's going to be heading over to be the counselor for that new program she's really excited about it um so yeah that that program is really shaping up uh well I'm excited about it too great but that's good good feedback yep okay okay right uh I we don't I don't think we didn't motion on that one I don't need a motion my I me motions something you you could prove it as a report of progress if you'd like or I mean there's technically no like voting action it's just me kind of sharing yeah this is really good um I know there are key positions I'm not going to ask about them tonight but and I think we always get some kind of report as well in the summer from uh HR we usually do oh will you get these every I do them once a month so you the second meeting of the month we usually do the update for you you're just going to now start to see all the hirings next year but I certainly can when we come to like July I can flag any open positions we have just so you know like what's still open what working on because it's really a concern yeah right now yeah and we can add you a diversity thing to the um to it that would be well it thank you yeah um last for me is just approval of um some field trip requests okay the U the first four this evening our um Community Ed related um so again these are our summer programs we have a couple of different series we have um Summer Fest um going to so these are all day trips these are not overnight trips but they just happen to be out of state so um they go to to canab Lake Park on July 10th uh there's a different program called Summer Quest um and they're also looking to go to canab Lake on July 11th 25th and August 8th uh and then summer Quest going to Stevens Park and chunky Cinema up in Manchester on July 23rd um summer Quest I believe is the program that they do it's more field trip based and it's different groups of kids so it's not the same kids going every time right it could be like different kids going but uh those are the trips for our community ed and they're pretty historic those are the ones we've always approved can we just put them together oh you can do them all together if you want we do yes let's do these three first yeah you want me to do them separately no just do the the community ed ones and then we'll do the high school okay uh I make a motion to approve the community educational um Summerfest program field trips I believe there are three as presented that's fine second second okay all those in favor I I okay I make a motion to approve the chumford high school student cultural experience Panama and Costa Rica April 17 to 27 2025 field trip do you want to give us a quick summary of that sure and that's just a field trip that's on where this is a um it's kind of like an um not an exchange but it's our kids going on a cultural experience they have to set fundraising now the trip isn't until the next April school vacation but um we always come early on these trips so that you have enough time to be able to uh approve and then the groups can set to do their fundraising because there is a cost for the kids so that's before we this evening for approval as well and hopefully they go through it wasn't your daughter supposed to go to the Costa Ric they did go to and they promised me that no they swore when they came back they're never going again too many bugs in the middle of the night in the forest told maybe not though not a good advertisement for this program no but they really enjoyed it they had a great time okay so we have a motion I'll take a a second I'll second the motion okay any other questions or comments right all those in favor all zero and that's all I had for tonight great uh anyone have any leaves on reports yeah do um I must been my last meeting I went to the Harrington PTO meeting they have they had a math night a family math night they are having Thursday night they have their art show and their ice cream show social will be there scooping ice cream so that'll be fun um and I'm really happy for them that they were able to get a Full Slate of candidates to carry their PTO board forward next year I was a little worried for them but they have enough people to even have um co-presidents and the vice president so they they all be nice and solid for next year and it um June 5th meeting they'll be voting for that so for their board so I'm glad good di you have anything I actually have not there's a meeting on Thursday I'm going to and the other one hasn't met since we last great for me too centers coming up and then the council okay I I just had um CPAC met Thursday after we we met last and they had just a general turn a general meeting and actually good turnout there were 18 19 people um they're really like a lot of PS they're really looking for other people to step there's been two or three people that really kind of carried it since Co um you know done a great job but they they would like to you know see some some some new blood on the board so they're they're they're asking you know people to kind of consider that they'll have another meeting next month um they're going to send out a survey to parents um just to see what they'd be interested for um workshops next year um so they put on workshops throughout the year um speaking of which they also have a workshop this Thursday it's a virtual uh workshop on the new IEP so if anybody's interested in that um you can see their their information on Facebook uh under cha CPAC and uh log into it it'll be a zoom meeting so that's terrific and the other thing is we already mentioned but Alumni Association have this scholarship meeting tonight so all right anyone have any new things they would like to see in agendas oh that's good right must be doing a good job thank you it was a lot tonight we I worked out all right um no second public comment I don't think anybody we don't see with any emails or any messages nope okay all right so if not then I will take a motion to adjourn okay first I'd like to thank Dennis for making me look good tonight because he prepared all my motions for for me so really thank you very much denn I saw there was a lot of motion I felt really good doing this I had highlighted everything but this was stop Notch great and so I make a motion to adjourn I'll say it all in favor I all right thank you thank you very this made me look good here this was a lot I looked at like holy ma very impressed with e