##VIDEO ID:97vfrc46WVs## e e e e e e e e e oh all right good evening everyone welcome the public has been duly informed of this meeting in accordance with chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975 by posting at least 48 hours in advance a notice on the bulletin boards in Stevenson and Church Hill schools a notice to the Township Clerk and a notice to The Herald news and the progress news now please stand for pledge allegiance I pledge allegiance to 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 we're going to begin with our president's report I'd like to start off by thanking the Fairfield Education Foundation they recently awarded over $40,000 worth of Grants to our schools and for a first year organization I have to say that that is absolutely impressive and we are looking forward to great things in the future with you guys and I know the teachers are very happy I know it was a lengthly process I I know you guys worked diligently and we are so happy and proud of everything you've accomplished and I'm sure the teachers are as well so thank you we'll hear from you in a bit and we look forward to great things I'd like to thank our a b and football teams for making it to the Super Bowl I'd like to congratulate a special uh thanks to coach lennin on bringing home a b Squad Super Bowl victory they did a great job I'd also like to acknowledge coach Ryan Hartman for his Fifth and six grain boys soccer team that made it to the finals Unfortunately they fell short to rosand but we appreciate our student athletes and we want you to know that we're we're thinking about you guys I'd also like to announced that beginning December the board is going to begin celebrating academic achievements and recently we had a student who scored perfectly on the njs slas so in our December meeting we're going to bring that student here and we are going to bring the students that scored the highest in both math and Ela in each grade level and we're going to honor them at our December board meeting so with that being said we're very very excited to announce that and I think we're going to incorporate our student of the months as well correct so we're looking forward to that now on to our superintendent report all right thank you just a couple of things um going back a little bit on Veterans Day we had events going on in both schools at Church Hill we had three guest speakers Brian Gallagher a veteran whose children were previously uh attended church Hill he spoke to fourth grade students he also delivered letters that Churchill students wrote to the veterans veterans who are members at the Fairfield BFW and Veterans residing at uh Sunrise Assisted Living Stevenson the student council held our annual Veterans Day assembly where they also honored Mr Bob for his 11 years of service in the Marine Corps um Mr Bob answered questions from the students he said um you know do you have any questions for me as a veteran and one of the students asked what's four time three and then he also asked uh a kindergartner to guess what branch of the military he served in and the girl thought about it and said cafeteria so they're learning at their own levels um but it was a great time he explained everything to their level and it was great to see and it was also wonderful to honor um Bob among us so that was a good time and then on the 12th Churchill held their annual mad science assembly so if you don't know what that is we have a presenter come in as the mad scientist she presented the science behind numerous demonstrations the kids loved it they were engaged she explained all the science behind it had a lot of demonstration they got to touch things see things so that was great I just want to thank HSA for always sponsoring that event every year there's lots of other stuff going on I'm not going to go through all of it but please check out the newsletters that our principles send out and those are going to come out shortly and that's all I have for super tense report thank you Mr Gupta and on to Mr Lindsley with our ba report I'm going to defer my report to the auditor who's uh going to give the June 30 um audit presentation for us thank you very much good evening everyone there we go good evening uh we discussed a lot more in finance committee earlier so I went into a lot of detail so I don't put anybody to sleep before the main meeting tonight uh I just want to start out and and let you know fund balance-wise everybody wants to know how they end the year and what they could be doing better Well you ended the year pretty healthy this year uh since we 've been here with Fairfield we've always seen a healthy Trend with your Surplus and your fund balance and your use of fund balance we expected to see that again this year and we did you are as healthy as the state will allow you to be because you're only allowed to maintain a certain percentage 2% of expenditures as your unassigned fund balance we went into greater detail of how we come up with that in the meeting previously um but you are your unassigned fund balance you're roughly at $291,000 to me my my opinion that is not enough right you don't have enough of a of a cushion uh in a district any size I mean 2% is is very low a couple years ago they were at 4% you were able to increase it to 4% then that sunsetted and now we're back to 2% so that's where we're at you like I said you did have a good year we were able to put more money back into capital reserve but with reserves you're only allowed to use those funds for the specific reserves and for certain purposes within those reserves so it's not like you could tap into your capital reserve to put money into your budget unless it's for something that's in your longrange facility plan and you're planning to do that um there were a couple of questions a couple of budget questions that had passed you were able to add line items to your budget this year uh we account for those separately because any unused portion of those funds have to come back in a subsequent year to offset the tax rate and there was about 653,000 that was unspent so that's designated your in your audit report and we'll use that in a subsequent year budget uh again to offset taxes reason why that came into the number that it did positions weren't filled until Midway through the year when you went for the budget question you asked for the entire amount we've seen this before Not Unusual you have some left over we identify it we put it aside and we take care of it at a future time just because you're having a good year or you had a good year in 2024 does not mean you're not going to see budget limits and and constraints on your budget going into 25 and Beyond uh we do know that you are limited and you are constrainted and we discussed other ways of how to fund your budget uh anything short of a new Revenue stream or more budget questions and it's going to be very difficult to bring the revenue in to increase the expenditure side of the budget so please keep that in mind other funds are functioning the way they should you're doing very good across the board and when it comes to the recommendations even though we have have some uh transitions here in the business office we had a very clean audit this year uh and again that's what we expect to have year after year Kathleen did an excellent job while she was here uh W's doing an excellent job now that he's here uh we get everything that we ask for we're able to come in this is like my third presentation so it's nice to get them done early and not have to worry about Thanksgiving and Christmas and you know coming in on December 19th and so we appreciate that and and we commend the efforts of of the entire administrative body as they help us get out the door and get our audits done with that I'll ask you if you have any questions yeah I just have two parts so uh and this is more for the audience I want to make sure everybody understands can you just slowly explain again the 2% obviously there's a 2% tax levy and then there's a 2% Max on fund balance and how that process works so they understand and they can bridge for themselves because I think that's what a lot of the frustration here happens where you come up everything looks great right and then the budget comes and everybody hears concessions constraints Cuts so there is a flow to that just explain it so we all understand it so this way we're all more informed come the next couple of months when this is all going to go on your fund balance as a whole is and our fund balance is everybody's checking account right so that's that's the school's account where everything's going to be spent out of your fund balances after all of the bills are paid after all of the receivables are collected what you have at the end of the day the bottom line number if we don't spend all our money right this is what we have this is our fund balance right correct and your fund balance in the general fund and I say general fund because that's the main operating fund of the school that's the one we focus on your fund balance there is $6.8 million of that it's broken down into different categories some reserves that you can only use for specific purposes some items that have to be used in future budgets and then eventually it pairs down to what you have left over after all of that so your capital reserve of the 6.8 million capital reserve is about 5.1 million can only be used on Capital items that are in your longrange facility plan then you have a maintenance Reserve 150,000 hasn't changed from one year to the next you can only use that and bring that into the budget to maintain existing Capital that you've brought in all right you have that legally restricted item of 653,000 that's the excess that you did not spend on the items from the budget questions there is an excess Surplus that's going into the 25 budget it's already being used but because it carries over for two years it's still on the face of the balance sheet all right encumbrances or are just the cost of doing business it's an item that has been put aside to to be spent but the work or the service hasn't been done yet so you haven't spent it that's about 200,000 in your audit this year and it boils down to what you have left over at the end right it's like you get a paycheck and you don't own this money because it's taxes this pay this part here is pension this part here and then you come down to that net number and the net number for you for fund balance is $291,000 right that's what I'm saying you're healthy as the state will allow you to be because there's a big calculation that we do it's in the back last page of the management report to come up with what your excess Surplus calculation is and the state says that you're allowed to keep this 291,000 and that's it right and if it's any more than that it should go into cap Reserve benefit if there's any more than that it's excess Surplus but you do a resolution on an annual basis to take some of that and put it into capital reserve uh we like that I personally like that I mean I'm I'm just your auditor if it's me you're an expert too if it's me sitting in in the audience I like that because the taxpayers sit in the audience and you've already asked me for the money right I know that you're being good stewards of this I know the number is being audited on an annual basis I know that the money is sitting there so if you need something Capital related I've given you the money if you want to use it go use it right it's rather than giving it back to the taxpayer only to ask for it again in this future you know it keeps going back and forth we like the tax rate to be level and flat or increasing slightly each year because again we all have the inflation word that floats around and you have to maintain a pace of inflation and that's where you see the increases in tax but inflation has been outpacing the increase in that tax that's why you have the constraints that you do especially in this year from last year as well you did put a freeze on spending in Prior year budget and that that enabled you to to recoup some money that was going back into capital reserve all right yeah thank you I uh you know not so much a question but a general topic of conversation I you I know you your your firm does a lot of these type of audits I know and I think a lot of the audience knows that everybody's struggling with this our plan is to spend where necessary be conservative go offer ballot questions every other year I mean that seemed like a good plan to you it's like what else what else can we really do here because a lot of a lot I know a lot of districts are struggling I mean I do my own research and I know you probably know more than I do so what else is there anything again it's a revenue stream right if you could come up with another Revenue stream if you can find ways to uh you know we were going into a couple of specifics but it all has to because you have to balance out the expenditure side and you're limited to what you can ask for as an increase in taxation unless you go out and do a ballot question you did a ballot question you were able to get a couple of of line item in your budget a few teachers right so that's a way to do it because now they're in the budget and they're in the budget going forward and forward one way to do it you just you know the the question becomes when does that when does the public say we're not doing you know we're going to vote it down this year right you and then you're exactly so are there things well find another Revenue stream that would be one way another budget question would be another way you know putting budget questions and even when you say that though right we're limited to we can't just go out and start selling computers like we we're limited to what we can do here you are very limited to what you can do I appreciate it thank you absolutely I just have one question for you you mentioned earlier that there was a time the state increased it to 4% yes do you see that happening in the foreseeable future no uh state raised it to 4% because of covid and they felt that there might be some strain on districts with having to prepare for students coming back and and what necessary PPP items or I don't I forget what the acronyms are but you get the you know cleaners cleansers masks this that the other they they saw a lot of of an influx of expense for that so they allowed you to increase it to 4% it was a two-year period and we were hopeful that it was going to become law but it sunsetted they let it sunset and it went away and now it's back to 2% and I don't see that that was when they had their chance to make it permanent at 4% now I I don't see it happening anytime soon and I don't hear anything either thank you so much sure anyone have any other questions thank you thank you very much have a great night have a great Thanksgiving everyone likewise thank you yeah we'll move on to board committee reports I'll start off with the municipal Alliance and let everyone know that the winter wonderland is going to take place on 127 2024 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Fairfield recreation center and we'd love to see everyone there I just have an update on negotiations uh we have not met recently we haven't had any inperson meetings but the lines of communication remain open and both parties are willing to meet if needed the contract is currently not yet ratified the only remaining open item is that both parties need to mutually agree on the salary guide so most recently the FAA presented their proposed Guide to the board um which was reviewed it was given to NJ School boards for them to review and offer the analysis and their professional opinion and recommendations it actually just came back this afternoon so we received that back today we will review it and then when we're ready to share if we are in agreeance we will present that to the FEA um just to be specific and in full transparency there were just some bubbles in the guide so that's just an increment that's over 5% that the board is just looking to massage throughout the guide just to make it a little bit more Equitable that's it thank you welcome uh no update on buildings and grounds Finance we met today went over a little bit of what we just spoke about with the auditor obviously it's early in the budget season but we did go over some items there uh and more to come as we as we meet further nothing on HSA uh I was asked to just mention that the CPAC will hold a meeting on January 16th uh at 7 pm at the rec center and they're going to do a presentation on social media so please try to mark your calendars and get out there I know they bring us a lot of wonderful things and we really want to support them thank you very much uh in regards to buildings and grounds Ryan if you just want to touch on the paving project that's going to take place at Stevenson in the coming days that would be great uh so at Stevenson the second grade as you know if you have a second grader loads in the back so right now parents have been driving through the curb around the circle and into the grass as we know once snow heavy rain we're looking at the situation now with all the rain having the cars go through there could be an issue so um we're ready to go uh in start in fact it's starting tomorrow we're going to have actual paved Lanes two lanes one lane into the into the black top area where you park and wait for your kids and then another Lane leaving that way there's no issue with any cars getting stuck and it's actually safer because now we're going to have two separate Lanes so that's going to start depending on weather we hope it to be done by next week we hope it hope it's it's done but we're going to start right away that's going to start tomorrow I believe Dr Shugo already sent something out to families letting you know that because they're going to be working on that curb you might see some differences and in fact on Friday because that area there's going to be machines and there's going to be things going on we're actually going to end enter through Jorgenson the opposite side of that gate we'll enter through there go to the same black top and come back out we're going to test run in the morning so if there if the rain has done damage on that grass and it's sinking or anything like that we're going to run the pickup truck if it can handle it fine if there's any issues with there then we'll reach back at to you and let you know and we'll have a plan B which is already ready to go but hopefully that situation will be much better and you guys W have to worry about driving on wet grass or snow if that comes eventually so wonderful thank you thank you thank you public comments on agenda items only yes just name and address Frank Lort for Suzie Lane hi the he mentioned I heard about the extra whatever was from the ballot questions that we didn't you the left over so what like I'm just curious so what is the deal with that we NE it could be transferred to year or it automatically rolls into next year's budget it's legally restricted meaning we can't use it for anything else but um for what it was specified for but when it rolls into next year's budget we have the opportunity to allocate it where we need it for all those things that we voted on for that or whatever else whatever else is needed oh even even if it's not part of the like oh okay do you know what the amount of money I'm just curious 653,000 and uh St change all right thank you thank you Frank anyone else on agenda items on all right moving on okay page four finance uh the following Finance motions are made at the recommendation of superintendent and schools anything pleas on this agenda items 1 through eight will be voted upon in one motion I'd like to motion items 1 through eight for approval second roll call uh yes yes yes yes okay page seven grants the following Grant motion is made at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools anything placed on this agenda in item one will be voted upon in one motion and I would like to make that motion second roll call yes yes yes yes page eight buildings and grounds uh the following buildings and grounds motions are made at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools anything placed on this agenda items 1 through two will be voted upon in one motion uh I motion to approve items one and two second R yes yes yes yes to all and I abstain from 1B uh page nine the following Personnel motions are made at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools anything placed on this agenda items 1 through 10 will be voted on in one motion imotion second roll call yes yes yes yes curriculum and program the following curriculum program motion is made at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools anything placed on this agenda item one will be voted upon in one motion I motion to approve second R yes yes yes yes okay page 12 policy uh the following policy motion is made at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools uh item one I'd like to motion item one on this agenda second Mr yes yes yes yes all right now we'd like to welcome public comments on non- agendum items only you'd like to make a comment please come up speak your name and your address Hi how are you Paula dick 45 Hollywood AV um my question is in regard to the email that came out today about the dismissal for next week um I did notice that there's like a 12 minute window of dismissal and I was just curious as to why so every school day there's about a 15minute if you look at that schedule there's a 15-minute window for dismissal every every day okay so for the same thing is going to is going to happen with delayed opening so the confusion was you look at dismissal time and people are like well is that when the kids leave when it but the dismissal time for both buildings it takes about 12 to 15 minutes for the kids to dismiss does that include packing up or is that yes well yes they're told the dismissal starts that means the period ends and so for the next 12 minutes they're Gathering their stuff walking from their classroom to the different locations of exiting going with their parents that's that's what that time is so that is no different than any other day but because this was the first time we're doing a two-hour delayed opening I wanted to make sure everybody knew because you look when you look at it and just says dismissal you're thinking oh dismissal is 102 at Stevenson so my child's going to be let out at 102 it's always about 12 to 15 minutes prior the dismissal starts so your child could be depending on how quickly the class makes it to the front your child could be with the teacher as early as 10 minutes before the actual end time of the day okay I was just concerned only because I feel like I was at the meeting last month when we presented test scores and I just was looking at that and I was like wow that's like a 12 minute Interruption and instruction right and um so my concern was is it actually longer if we're packing up and you know before that time and now it's like a 20 minute interruption in instruction but if you're the ninth period ends when that 12 minutes starts okay yes all right thank you thank you you're welcome anyone else non-agenda items only hi Aliso 7 Southampton Drive I have a the administrative or logistical favor to request um I think many of us know tonight was the start of parent teacher conferences and I realize it's too late for this year but if perhaps next year when planning the schedule if there's any way we could try to either schedule around or maybe do a slightly delayed start so that the parents that want to participate have an opportunity to you saw me sneaking kind of bit late um and I know some of the teachers also are watching on their phones actually I waved to Dr truko Who was watching on his phone as I was walking up the building um so I think that's at all possible and then Mr gupto one favor to ask when considering the planning for parent teacher conferences next year in Churchill I have a fifth grader and we were pre-informed at back to school night that it's a very popular um and very limited window that the teachers have with the way that they do the scheduling and there's not enough slots for all students and myself and a number of parents were unable to get and scheduled slot now the teachers are being accommodating they did safely reach out they will try to make alternative Arrangements in their prep or their lunch periods which were very grateful for and appreciative to but also realize that's another favor that we're asking them to extend of their personal time so I don't know if there's a way to evaluate and see if there's any way to think about reworking the schedule to make sure that there's at least available slots for all the students to participate where parents want to I'll definitely take a look at it if every slot is filled it could be the fifth grade class is larger so if every slot is fil that that's the case so that maybe that's why they're allocating other times for it but I'll definitely take a look I will tell you that the reason there was a conflict when I first started there was an a mistake on the original school calendar that was previously approved so the conferences were on the wrong days dates so when we when we figured out when the board meetings would be it looked like there was no conflict and then when the school calendar changed to revise the conference dates that's when it created the the um conflict but going forward that won't be an issue my understanding is it's not specific to which calendar day it's on but it's just that the current number of available slots in the days that we have for conferences and the number of students are mismatched and it's not just exclusively this year it happened in previous years as well yes go ahead am I allowed to be confused as a board member yeah absolutely if we have if we have 25 kids in a class example we have 25 slots right like everybody gets a no but how is that possible you have up to 20 every every every kid's going to have a meeting every kid parent have a certain number of hours that you fill up so I believe there's 21 slots that would fill up a teacher's contractual time yeah once it's beyond 21 they're out of contract time yes and then it has to go to this is back to the time this is back to the time I'm not because then you started talking about personal time and if I have 25 kids in my class and I'm the teacher I'm talking to all 25 parents if they want you know I I that's that where I lost I lost something throughout the day yes because during their job actions recently the signs say for your CH we're here for your children so if you have four extra kids in your class you have to accommodate those parents that would be beneficial to the kids and the parents so can I please clarify um so fifth grade they begin having cohorts of teachers and my understanding is that they do the conferences together and I think that also complicates the scheduling because now you're trying to meet with more than one teacher in a very limited slot that's number one number two my comments around the scheduling have nothing to do with the negotiations of the job AC and I can express at least for the teachers I'm exposed to and my son's and a three team teacher I unfortunately was unable to get a scheduled slot because they filled up before I clicked the link I was too slow in clicking um and they've been accommodating and so every teacher I've engaged with has been more than accommodating despite the current process with job actions and negotiations so I do not mean in any ways to imply the teachers have not been flexible my request is that as we look at the logistics of the scheduling and it may be having to evaluate what opportunities there are they also offered if you chose not to have a conference they would provide you an email-based feedback on your child which is another accommodation that they've made but I know myself and a number of fellow parents in the fifth grade were disappointed that we weren't able to get slots for our children when we wanted to participate and we felt poorly that we were having to ask the teachers to make alternative arrangements for us yeah I wouldn't feel bad about that that's was part of my point it really had nothing to do with the job action I just don't understand you have your kid should be you should be meeting with the teachers that's just not we should make sure that's a thing can I ask one question like are they meeting together as a team the fifth grade team so maybe we split it up by home room or something like that and the other yeah we could talk we could talk out of the out of the board by no means am I asking no and to be honest with you that's something that that our superintendent will look at and he'll figure out how to make sure that every parent is accommodated because you have that right obviously to have that one-on-one time and I think it's wonderful that the parents want to engage and again we appreciate abely 100% and we're cautious about the timing we get thank you thank you thank you anyone else on public comments absolutely it's if yeah sure topic um so I'm looking at the schedule for Churchill and there actually is no window it actually says ninth period um goes until from 250 to 3:20 and dismissal is at 3:20 so that tells me that at 3:20 my kids's going back packing up and being dismissed so I don't see a window on a normal school day so I'm not really there's a window every single day whether it's printed on that calendar that's posted on the website I'm not positive because it would it does get confusing to parents if we put a dismissal time of two different ones because they do ask well when do I expect my child at so we probably it should be on that calendar the end date but I can tell you every single school day okay in a regular day it's backed up 15 minutes we we narrowed it down to 12 minutes for the early dismissal days which was today and then 3 days next week okay so you're probably only seeing the end time yes yes it's showing that that last period is what 40 45 minutes whatever and then dismissal which I I teach I realize that you need passing time I get that but the dismissal is separate from that full length period period nine is full it says that but then it also says dismissal is 320 it goes ninth period goes till 320 dismissal is 320 and I know you can't be in two places at once I get it but I was just I don't know it's just new what's making it confusing is that writing dismissal time some parents think is that the end of 9th period or is that when they're coming out of the building right so I can tell you that ninth period is a full block like all the other periods and then we have 15 minutes after for actual dismiss out because I don't pick up yeah so so I think that's something that needs to be looked into because three the kids are usually let out around 320 three Stevenson is 327 what about 38 319 I have Churchill yeah I have Churchill and I don't pick up because I'm at work at that time I think to Mrs Dick's point is if they are moving coming out at 320 or 318 or 319 there's pup time that pack up time is impeding on and instru time and and you know I get the whole score thing again I teach I'm a tested grade level I appreciate the rigor my son's teacher is killing it you know she's really doing it but if we're looking at rigor and we're looking at instructional time and yet there's Windows of 15 minutes for dismissal plus packing you know we're just losing we're losing time a lot of that has to do with um the old contract and the a lot of time that the teachers are in the building so we what we've done in the past is work towards getting them out while we have teacher coverage so that that's one of the things that we're looking at now and with the new contract that's already um that's with our possible new contract that we've already worked out a lot of those details so so that perhaps the teachers stay a little bit longer after dismissal to make sure the kids like I have to do I have to stay x amount of time after my kids are dismissed the same time with with my contract I have to stay later to make sure dismissal is done care unfortunately our last contract was not written that way the teachers have the ability to walk in in some cases and walk out with the students you also have to remember like from high school district to this District when the ninth period ends the teachers are done at a high school they don't have to escort the kids there's no time to put them in the cars so here like I'm going to go back to Stevenson because that's where my office is so I deal with it every day 3:27 is the end of the block by the time pickup is done and all the cars are done it's 3:42 so their time can't be in the classroom planning because they have to be out with the kids es escorting them and helping them get to the car so there's a big difference between if you do a high school contract or K to 12 versus only Elementary so unfortunately when it ends at 327 their next 15 minutes is spent escorting the kids you have little kids in there so it was a high school 327 okay guys goodbye and then 15 minutes they could be in their classroom planning they could be doing whatever here they're spending that time with actual dismissal correct but we are what you brought up we are looking at every aspect of the schedule right now we're evaluating everything about it to do those things you're talking about to make sure we are maximizing instructional time not pulling kids from certain courses trying to do activities trying to move them to lunch where in the past sometimes they're in the afternoons and they're pulling from the classes so we are looking at all of that stuff so it will make sense now some of it I know seems like well right why are they missing class time for this weren't we raising but we can't do all everything at once and we certainly can't touch this schedule that's already again I get it like you have can't be in two places at the same time sometimes I'm expected to be in my classroom and in the art room at the same time it doesn't which is why in the beginning of the negotiation process time was of an issue so when we when we began this process um the board's uh proposal to the foundation for the FAA was you know over what we settled it was close to 4% so we were willing to give higher than the county average much higher than the county average for an exchange of time that would benefit things like this things as simple as dismissal but unfortunately that was met with resistance well thank you thank you on that note name and address please Prince sty a k I'm a high school teacher um your job is thankless and I appreciate you guys being here it's amazing I just want to add to what was just said by Paula I work in a school our students are let out at 2:30 we have to I have to be there until 3:00 I can't leave I am in contract negotiations at they while for me 4% I like thank god um but I don't know where you guys are at and I do think as long as you're offering to compensate them that's amazing yeah their time is valuable and if you could compensate them for that time I I know there's three sides to every story always say that I just hope for our kids that we have a safer way of them getting out I can't even imagine the teachers being able to leave the same time the kids that being a safe time I can't leave a 23 there's no way we appreciate that and we want to stress that it's not necessarily their fault it's not the teacher's fault this is uh the result of a contract 5 years ago that was negotiated by them and our old superintendent so 5 years ago the board of education did not take part in the process of the the guide or the contract it was kind of written the guide was written by the teachers uh and the old Board of Education at that time five years ago which were here I'm the negotiation chair at my school so full disclosure I understand everything you're saying I'm right now trying to fix stuff that was done 19 years ago and we are working in that direction but it takes years to fix a bad contract yes but to their benefit it's also difficult because they've been operating this way for five years and now we're you know we're looking for change so there has to be that give and take give and take and some of this is a little bit of a leadership issue because some teachers are in the dark plain and simple they just want to get to they want to come to work every day they want to get paid fairly but they're not hearing that we're close and we are and we try to tell we try to say that as much as we're allowed to say that in these meetings and since the beginning of the school year they haven't really done anything like that's gone on the last few days it's it's the tone at the top is not strong enough to sit there and say listen we're there everybody just you know we're we're taking our time with the most important piece of this negotiation and you'll understand that because the salary guide is just it's everything yeah we want to stop seeing teachers leave for an extra five grand somewhere well this is the time we're not going to rush now at the most important piece so yeah their guys put together a guide our experts put together a guide we go back and forth we're only on the third draft that's not a lot in my opinion we're almost there we'll be a happy family very soon hope it all works out yeah thank you very much anyone else non-agenda items okay with that being said next meeting be resolved that the next meeting will be held in person on December 19th 2024 Public Work session beginning at 6 p.m. followed by executive session with public session resuming approximately 7:30 p.m. at the Fairfield Municipal building can I have a motion for adjournment motion rooll i i i i Happy Thanksgiving Happy Thanksgiving everyone