e e e call the meeting to order at 6:30 um we'll do roll call Mike jier he michaeler Hein Mike Sharon Mike Sharon Hebron uh Joe kety Joe KY Heber Kristen erinson kisten Linson and Pam farington is not here today Carrie frino Drew Goin Drew Goin Marb okay um Gabe marks Amy Roman Amy Roman Mar Scott soet that so yet and over and Heather Summer from Hein so if we can allize for the Pledge of Allegiance plge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands o
ne nation under God indivisible with liy and Justice all right item three on the agenda uh public comments Hein Andover and maror community engagement in attendance at Boe public meetings is welcome the public comment segment of the meeting agenda is set aside so the Boe may receive public comments procedurally public remarks will be limited to three minutes and citizens will be asked to identify themselves because the Boe is limited by the Freedom of Information Act to discussing only matters o
n the agenda the Boe is not permitted to engage in a discussion of the comments presented is there anybody that would like to make public comments okay so we will go on to item four which is um adding and deleting any agenda items okay that brings us to the student rep report of course hello everyone um so to start off the Juniors have their um Junior essay te um I believe this Wednesday actually so that's pretty exciting I'm sure ner breing for many Juniors um also with the Juniors there's Juni
or Prom coming up which is in a while but however tickets are being sold for the junior prom which everyone's getting pretty excited about um it's a pretty exciting time for everyone and seeing as it's their first prom um also last week there there was a blood Drive held um in the high school cafeteria and many students contributed and donated blood for a great cause so that was a tremendous success um also there is a coffee and conversation with the superintendent coming up and uh students are
welcome to come and have some coffee and just chitchat and um kind of get to know their superintendent um and that concludes my report have you guys done that before done a I've done them anybody from the community is well do do typically students I've not had students come love you're giving me an idea yeah maybe you should proot it promote it oh yeah actually that's a great idea I think that would honestly like because I think people would really get like I think it's a great way to like actua
lly engage with you and like I think it's a great way to get to know you so the message came from you I think great I can't serve coffee I'm being told by my business manager who is also my food and beverage person but I have I probably can't even serve hot chocolate because it's probably against ourly food certification too I'll give you water water the superintendent how's that sound sounds super inviting yeah coffee not healthy it is not healthy well get the point where all we can drink is wa
ter hey I mean hyre and say hello there you GOC great thank you all right then it comes to um chair report so first I want to thank everybody for taking the time to come out for um the roles and responsibility session it I thought it was really great um gave me a lot of things to think about I thought her presentation was great and I really appreciate it really taken the time to to do that um this past week I attended the ram High School winter Athletics Award night uh which I always enjoy my fa
vorite thing is the slideshow it's there's a lot of effort that goes into the slideshow representing all of the different um teams for that particular season um um thean had quite a lot to report out on because the teams have been doing exceptionally well this year there were 86 scholar athletes and those are students who um get an 87 or above in their um grades for that particular season that is um there had 18 All Conference recipients they had four All State recipients and I think um I think
chair was the first time they ever had one one that was an all state recipient um a good article about Daner yep she was in the River East last week the wrestling team uh was recognized as the CCC East Division Champs and Class M state champs cheer team was uh CCC East Division Champs Class M second runner up and they qualified to go on to New England um championships what how they do uh we're done after States if depending on if they had scored um six and above they got to go to the next tourna
ment which was called Team of the Year if they go got to Third and above they got to go to New England so um after that one Championship they Shar got two more competitions after that so I think most of the parents are little relieved that it's over because it goes on since August um and the other thing I just wanted to touch on quickly is you may have noticed that we haven't been doing the student program U rep um highlights for the past couple of months and it that's a decision that was made j
ust simply I mean I love them I I want them to come back but our agendas have been really packed um so we're trying to you know in the interest of time make sure that the meetings don't go on too long there is a policy that we have that if the meeting does go on until 9:30 we have to vote and have a two-thirds majority to to um extend the meeting past 9:30 if um we decide we vote and we don't want to extend the meeting past 9:30 then you know we have the option of either scheduling a special mee
ting or taking those agenda items and moving them onto the agenda for the next month so just as a measure of awareness when I you know looked at the agenda today I was like wow so I just wanted to bring that to everybody's attention for um it is one of the policies and over to you well so thank you I I wanted to start by thanking our board members it is March's board uh Board of Ed appreciation month and I want to thank you for the work that you do for the students staff and Community we are for
tunate to have you uh working on behalf of of all of us and advocating for us in the district um and there are some small tokens of appreciation um at your spaces uh just a little something to say thank you um little Ram schwag which uh usually is is always good to have Ram schwag so um and something that would not go for the healthy food certification say that kind of violates that policy yeah but we're not in the school day right now you we're good um so just a couple of things that I wanted t
o mention um the ram chapter of the national business Honor Society held an induction ceremony on February 27th at Ram High School in order to be eligible for uh to be a member of the society they must be a junior or a senior um they must must have completed or be currently enrolled in their third business class and have maintained um I think it's a a 3.5 GPA in those business classes and we ended up having 19 new members inducted um as the board knows we have a strong Business program a strong
Deca program and uh a strong interest in that um it's they're great great classes great program um speaking of ram students I'll talk a little bit about future students um I was invited to go to Hein Public Schools um to their Invention Convention and Dr shusi uh Mary Rose me uh joined me um as well and we served as judges at the Hein Invention Convention and so just so you know it's a it's a something that they do every year students come up with ideas about a new invention and then they have t
o create it and then they have to uh be able to show the judges what it is what it does what its intended purpose is um and then winners get moved on to the state compation it's a great event and I will tell you there's a lot of creative future Ram students um that we got to see and interact with it was a really neat neat experience one of my favorite things to to do um uh finally uh it's something that AA highlighted real quick uh we did have our blood drive last Thursday I believe I donated uh
because Kathy green uh chastised me because the last time we had a blood drive I had already donated someplace else so I may try donated for for Ram um we collected Kathy and and her her medical career students collected 81 pints of blood um and this is the third and final blood drive that they did for the year and in totality um they collected 201 pints of blood for all three drives and what um Kathy told us about uh is that each pint of blood that is donated can save up to three lives so it's
a pretty remarkable thing if you think about 600 lives being impacted by the students in Ran Community um so again just another one of the great things that we do here so that concludes my uh my report great okay so that brings us to item eight approval of minutes I just so I just I I just want to step in so approving the minutes from the February 26 meeting I I did push an email out but I didn't necessarily expect people have a chance to read it because it was this afternoon in your place is j
ust a little bit of an updated BL you is an updated version of the minutes from the February 26 meeting the changes were were minor uh we did roll call votes because because now we're doing virtual meetings if it's not unanimous we're doing roll call the initial meeting minutes didn't reflect the actual roll call vote but that has been updated to reflect the roll call votes of board members and then the only other thing that I did is I added a little bit uh we added a little bit more specific in
formation related to um the discussion related to the Strategic plan so so the meeting minutes that we would be approving are the ones that are in front of you and those are the only changes um up to to those minutes thank you sorry okay uh um so we have a motion to approve the minutes for the regular February 26 20 2024 Board of Ed meeting I'll make the motion okay a second say it second M or Hebrew Mike goer from Hein seconded the motion I have one correction my name was misspelled on the old
one they fixed that and now it's misspell a different place on this one so the very first one my name himself I don't care if we change it we'll we'll change it so we'll yes that's not a problem just in the in the call the order section right I haven't read through everything else make sure it's right elsewhere but s they got changed fix one place okay any other discussion on that all in favor I hi any Fu mik I went too fast all right um do we have a motion to approve the minutes for the special
Workshop March 4th 2024 Board of Education meeting I'll make the motion Joe ketti made the made the motion like a second I second Amy romanchuk any discussion all in favor opposed okay carries that brings us to Old business um 9.1 is the budget update so just uh I'll say a couple of things and then I'm going to turn it over to uh turn it over to Eva to to share a little bit greater detail um the good news is is uh we're we're trending in a good direction with regards to our budget increase for
next year the uh the board may recall that I had initially proposed an increase of a 2.64% um we are now at a 2.1% increase for next year um I did go and present at both Hebron and Andover to their Boards of Finance Andor Boards of Selectmen uh last week I will tell you that our the budget that I proposed to them at that time was a 264 I told them that I wanted to talk to you all as board members First share where we are with the 2.1 and that I would update those towns accordingly um I I will ju
st say anecdotally the feedback that I got on our on our budget presentation to those two towns as well as with marbor was was well received um in fact one of the board selectman from one of the towns said you know if we didn't have the bond reduction of 600 some odd thousand dollar we'd be somewhere in the neighborhood of four point something percent he said that would be reasonable in today's Economic Times and I said I appreciate you recognizing that um but again I just we're in a good place
at a 2.1 um at your places as well is a a document it's a two-sided document I believe uh it says Business Services on the top and it says um both uh it says administrative uh budget adjustments as well as adjustments to um Revenue so if uh sta is going to talk a little bit about and give a high level overview of this and we can certainly take any questions that people might have so as Colin stated um we're sitting at a 2.1 currently um we did review and your first page that the top page which i
s a little bit shorter you have some Revenue increases of $162,300 in addition you have a capital Improvement increase which is unfortunate of $1,358 for the Kabota motor uh mower that um we were proposing to purchase and the second page which is a little bit longer you have total reductions and total addition to the um General operating budget so um the reductions were $ 48,8 18025 the additions were 43,124 for overall reduction to the gross operating budget of $ 5,723 125 um in totality um thi
s Nets us out to 66,67 of reductions overall are there any questions somewhere I don't remember email or somewhere we saw that maror was asking for a reduction this more than covers what they were the amount they were asking for cover what they were so just if I could just give context I'm glad you brought this up so so yes we did receive a communication from the mar from the chair of the Marboro Board of Finance um um so uh their request was to reduce their p of the levy by $150,000 not reduce
it in totality at a 2.64% that would have required about a 420 or $410,000 reduction to our overall budget um I think that would be difficult to accomplish I did inform the the the board of Finance uh chair when I talked to him I said we are anticipating some reductions I said again I need to respect be out of respect my board talk to them about it first and then I can come back and share with you what the reduction is so there was a reduction to their Town Levy as a result of the reduction that
we're talking about it's not at $150,000 um Eva was kind enough to actually do the calculations for me today uh to tell us exactly what our budget would have needed to be reduced by to get to 150,000 from marrow and I inadvertently left that upstairs in my office but I could email the board but I'm thinking it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 280 is I feel like it was 240 that we would need more to reduce to get them down to the 150 but I feel like bringing them down to 210 was in the area of
60,000 more than got reduced to them and and I did explain to the people that I spoke with it was both the town manager from marbor who I spoke with as well as the the chair of the board of Finance I I I explained to him the the challenge associated with doing that that you know I you know I said our responsibility as a board and my responsibility as a superintendent is to bring forth a budget that is representative of the needs of the entire district and I just think that it's as much as I thi
nk we are a good partner to the to the sending towns and I think the fact that we are providing us they're having a significant credit offset with regards to the Surplus that they're getting back for the for next year which is helping reduce their Levy already um I just what I explained to him was I I can't put myself in a position where I could recommend to to the Ram Board that we start in reducing our budget and taking away things materials resources um that would negatively impact our distri
ct um to get to a certain number for a town um I I think that that just creates a a real challenge um and and again I I think if if you look and I said this to to them when I spoke to them is if you look at the landscape of budget increases for for school districts across the state a 2.1 is amongst the lowest there there's no doubt about it um we're certainly the lowest of the of the four towns of the three towns that feed in them um and in some cases by a significant amount so you know I I thin
k it would be a challenge for us to try to do much more than what we've already done um that brings us to 9.2 which is the second read of policies uh n excuse me 9.2 a policy 9314 board meeting conduct re we have a recommend do we have a motion to adopt policy 9314 board meeting conduct as presented make motion Scott so Scott so Drew Goin second Drew Goin second all favor I opposed okay carries um next 92b we have a motion to adopt policy 1331 prohibition against smoking Community as presented G
oin Mo Drew Goin do we have a second I'll second Joe K any discussion all in favor iOS all right okay 9.2 C do we have a motion to adopt policy 4154 and 4254 suspected abuse or neglect of adults with disability as presented have a motion make motion any somebody else G to trade them off scott soy do we have a second a second Amy Roman Chuck seconded any discussion okay all in favor anyone oppose all right that brings us to 9.2 d uh do we have a um a motion to adopt policy 4180 and 4280 increasin
g educator diversity as presented I'll make the motion Joe ketti do we have a second I'll second Mike bullier any discussion just that this is I I was reading the statutes and we have to have a policy pretty much exactly like this there's very little to go on here anybody else okay all in favor I I opposed okay carries um that brings us to 9.2 e do we have a motion to adopt policy 5545 use of private technology devices by students as presented I'll make motion Drew gin we have a second second Sc
ott soyat any discussion okay all in favor I I opposed all right all right 99.2f we have a motion to delete policy 994 5 board member electronic participation make the motion Mike Buller we have a second a second Scott soet any discussion okay all in favor I I oppos okay Mo passes 9.2g we have a motion to delete 4195 and 4295 prohibition against smoking Personnel I'll make a motion to delete Drew gin a second a second uh Kristen erinson any discussion just we said before this is covered elsewher
e now correct Reon we're deleting we're not advocating for smoking yes okay it's covered under the Community policy now ites personel students and members of the thank you for bringing that up okay all in favor hi oppose right 9.28 do we have a motion to delete policy 5131 prohibition against smoking for students I'll make the motion Mike Buller second second from Scott soet any discussion [Laughter] all in favor I opposed all right great good brings us to new business um 10.1 we have a motion t
o transfer $ 25,32 as presented in enclosure 10.1 to fund the costs of identified one-time purchases I'll make the motion Joe ketti a second I'll second Amy romanchuk any discussion instruments are expensive yeah the the thing that I'll just I think it's important to get this on the record um is you know by making these purchases with our current funds that we have for our net favorable position we're investing essentially in future budgets right there there's there's a few items that had initia
lly been in the 232 I'm sorry the initial 2425 budget that we took out um just because we they were things that we felt we might be able to purchase in the manner that we're doing right now um and there are other things uh that that we're purchasing that basically by purchasing where with our current funds that we have we're essentially saving money we'll have the budget less we're going to have to get them eventually so makes really good sense for us to use the funding that we have available so
I appreciate the board support this is also something that we did discuss in facilities and finance subcommittee so I have a question um so so yeah so we did discuss this and I thought the MST Moon Chairs being removed so the change was made on Friday and I believe the change was updated to the board packet on Friday so the online version you'll see it unfortunately you have a hard C so the total just so I have the total 205 433 okay that's good thank you y 323 205 32 I changed it one place 205
whatever the motion was just ignore me I I made one yeah when we had initially posted the agenda we weren't quite sure if we were going to be able to get those conference from chairs and elsewh and so we found out that we did we did update it on the website we did up in the package so but if you would printed it prior to that update which it sounds like you did that's why I had R number two okay any other discussion all right all in favor I I opposed all right motion passes 10.2 we have a motio
n to approve the reallocation of $290,000 from Capital non-recurring unallocated to the Middle School baseball field accessibility project I'll make the motion Joe ketti a second I'll second Mike Buller any discussion so uh and Mike Sharon you might want to jump in uh to this because I know that obviously been a big part of this so just just to refresh everybody's memory um this was this was actually something that we had discussed doing as a part of our capital budget for next year um we had we
had developed different tiers of capital projects we had about a $500,000 tier which is ultimately what the board accepted and and we've moved forward with we had a $750,000 tier and then we had a third tier um the the this the $750,000 tier was inclusive of this project and and and this is actually something that in I think it was 2010 an ADA compliance audit was conducted by the state and we actually had to make some Investments on the accessibility for our softball field accessibility for ou
r comp field for our concession stand and that audit that was conducted was solely for the high school however when that person was here conducting the audit they did say if we if we audited the Middle School you'd have to fix that Middle School accessibility for the baseball field as well and so um ultimately the coming out of the capital conversations and the budget was it's an important project we should be proactive as opposed to reactive which we were last time um and invest the money while
we have it Mike hopefully I captured that the you did can you hear me yes all right great yeah I think not only is it an important thing that we have to do but it's something that to your point that we will be required to do in the future future but we just don't know when so again this is an offset I think to a future expenditure that we're avoiding at this time and so uh if we're being fiscally conscious and spending uh available dollars today without building those into a future budget so I
endorse it so I have a question on the the timing yeah does this change in where it's located from capital budget to a specific fund for this project when it happens no so um the capital non-recurring fund and the CIP project are funds that can rule forward so they're not a fiscal year based project so we can start it as soon as tomorrow if if um we had the wherewithal to do that um if the board approves it tonight um if not it's it's put into our planning and Michael starts um going out to bid
and doing what needs to be done so how is this affected how does this affect the budget process so it saves like um Dr MC was stating it saves future dollars um so um we're spending money that we've already taxed taxpayers on so we don't have to ret tax them for a future project coming down the PIP right because this is from the Surplus right so but this doesn't affect the actual budget book that because that's a different allocation just pict sure I was clear I also was wondering just what kind
of accuracy do we expect from numbers like this yeah so it's a great question so in the memo that uh Michael Schoff our director of facilities have provided and is actually enclosure 10.2 um we always want to be as accurate as we can and so the uh and I might be mispronouncing it so I apologize it's lorino Engineering Associates is a company that Michael has utilized in the past um to uh give us an idea about what we should anticipate for um a budget and so you know soft cost as as it says in t
he memo you know design engineering bid document going out to bid doing all the leg work to get ready to go to bid um is is going to be approximately $40,000 uh with a construction cost at at approximately $250,000 he he does not in his memo that is with some contingency funds right we're we're we're cautiously optimistic that we can come in underneath the $250,000 for the actual construction costs um but it makes it uh a little bit easier for us if we run into a situation where um costs are you
know materials costs subcontractor costs are a little higher than we had initially anticipated we um we did get this quote really recently um which is why when we had initially had this on the second tier the total cost of the entire project was approximately $250,000 and so the 290 is reflective of that updated uh updated anticipated cost but there there are variables that come into it um but is something like this when it's you know still pretty generic is it a pessimistic estimate I mean or
do they try to be as realistic as possible they try to be as realistic as possible but I'll note the with contingency right right you can't get it right you know how close get is is is is the targ is you know is the metric here correct but I was just curious because you know rough numbers like 250 and 40 it's like okay well you know just curious any other discussion on that okay we're all all in favor I hi oppos okay yep so so the next agenda item now I'm losing my place 10.3 thank you is the di
scussion of possible action related to the completion uh to the competition field and the 316 North Field projects and and again I'm gonna um ask Mike Sharon at any point to to jump in Mike's been really intimately involved as the chair of the facility subcommittee meeting with this um so we we've been really working to address uh some some issues related to our our our Fields um our athletic fields you know uh and and it's been through the use of that 2% Capital non-recurring fund um and and la
st year the district uh worked very closely with a um consulting firm a a landscape consulting firm and we had identified uh we had identified the projects and we had them actually kind of to your point Scott we had them give us some anticip ated cost for if we were to do the different things that we we needed to do we had some Alternatives um as well based off of some of the information that they provided to us um and ultimately the finance subcommittee prioritized the two projects that we're l
ooking to uh do as as priority number one and priority number two and that is to uh continue to work to um get our competition field as from a from a um field quality perspective as as good as it can possibly be um one of the things that that field does not have is a what's called a perimeter drain um so that excess rainwater can can drain off into a um and have a drainage system right now it drains uh it doesn't dra it drains okay but it drains onto the track um which the track is in rough shap
e um I wouldn't be surprised if that comes back to us sometime soon as a as a as a something that we're going to have to address as well um but before we address the track we need to address the perimeter drain so that if we put a new track in it doesn't get um damaged um so we went out to bid for oh I'm sorry so so that's project number one and then the other project is is we we call the fields 316 North and 316 South those are the fields adjacent to uh Wall Street um that are utilized by our f
all and um uh spring Sports football soccer lacrosse boys and girls lacrosse um and there is uh the quality of the turf is not where we'd like it to be um it's it's in rough shape and then there's also uh there's dips and there's unevenness that we'd like to address as well um and so those are the two projects that we had identified the the facility subcommittee had identified to address um and so we went out to bid um we went out to bid one one time we actually didn't get uh responsive um um re
sponsive proposals that we were wanted to move forward with so we want to bid a second time and we ended up getting four proposals um in your board packet enclosure 10.3 shows the uh different bids that we received by the four different companies um and as you can see the proposals ranged from $21,995 for the base project to well over $500,000 uh by two other companies that's a huge spread that's a huge huge spread and so what we had talked about um again Eva Michael schlehofer Mike Sharon mysel
f and and our Consultants that we've been working with a landscape architect and architect and a Turf consultant felt the best thing for us to do would be to do what's called a scope meeting because when you have this variance in in the in the quotes um between the the two lower biders the one at 129 and then there's one you know the next one up is um 358 it comes to our mind is is the are the bids that are being put forward are they are they responsive to what we need done or or are they not re
sponsive and that's the technical term whether whether a bid is responsive or not responsive um and so we met with Liberty Landscapes uh and we met with aquaturf a few weeks ago to have what's known as a scope meeting that's where we developed questions um uh and and we posed those questions to those two lowest bids and um and essentially uh through that process we determined um as a collective group um that the lowest bid of Liberty Landscaping was was not responsive so I apologize thank you wa
s for aquaturf was was not responsive um and the reason for that determination is because again the the low material cost that they anticipated there was a significant concern on the part of the group that met with them that it wouldn't be able to cover the cost of the materials that were necessary it wouldn't be enough to cover the cost of the labor that was necessary and there was not concrete and consistent responses with regards to timeline um during the context of the meeting um we didn't n
ecessarily feel like they understood the scope of it to give us a definitive timeline for when how long it would take to to go through the process of of getting those projects completed so as a result of this process um again it was determined that aquaturf is is a non-responsive bid um which and and and the recommendation of the of of the group Michael Eva myself and our two consult and and Mike schlehofer and the two Consultants is is to go with Liberty Landscapes um and and I will say I don't
have the dollar amount in front of me um but I will tell you that the 358 total project cost is approximately is pretty close to what um tomwood advisers are Consultants had said the the approximate cost of of that project of these projects would be that's an awful lot of talking for me and uh I will be quiet and uh Mike I don't know if you have anything you wanted to add to that I knew you were gonna hand it over to me um you're a tough act to follow I think you covered just about every point
that I wanted to to make but it's it's important to note that the uh the advisement of our our turf uh Architects was was critical and and uh in holding that that scope uh meeting I think it was very productive and I think the outcome is is the one that um we probably anticipated but I feel good really good going forward with Liberty I think that they're going to uh be able to complete this job um and one of the most important and critical aspects is timing right our our sports teams require the
use of those fields and they require them to be available to them on a certain schedule and so Liberty was uh confident in their uh depiction of the execution of the of the project in a manner that would that would align with that timing so I think that's that was critical the other thing that I wanted to bring up and perhaps this is a topic of conversation for the board at a future time but uh Colin did mention that the um the track itself is is I would call it in a state of disrepair at this
point and it is likely going to be need to become a priority for us we've got uh two additional fields that need to be addressed baseball Outfield bless you um as well as um the other 316 field right there's two Fields as Colin mentioned um so those both still remain to be addressed but we're likely going to have to take a look at investing in in the track itself and the replacement and in order to do so the advantage of having the the perimeter drains done is it will enable us to go ahead and a
nd attack that that track replacement in the future so not necessarily something we have to get into detail now but I wanted to at least float it so that the board was aware of something that we'll need to get into in the future okay so do we have a motion to authorize the superintendent Colin mcnamer to finalize and execute a contract with Liberty Landscapes LLC for the competition field drainage and improvements to 316 Northfield projects Michael oh Sharon do I have a second Scott soy any disc
ussion we moove the decision on the drain be made where they're upgrading from 8 to 12 so um there's a facilities uh subcommittee that is scheduled for that's on the on the calendar already for next Tuesday I believe Mike if I'm correct correct and uh I actually was just talking with Mike today about that agenda um and we plan on having that conversation at the agend at that meeting is that something that will require board action uh no because it I mean Mike jump in if you if you want to but um
you know I I I think what the board is authorizing me to do here in this meeting is to enter into a contract with Liberty Landscaping whether or not we go with an 8 inch pipe or a 12-inch pipe is guidance and direction that I can get from the facility subcommittee and then I can enter into the proper contract for either an eight or 12 Ju Just Mike you might do you want to talk a little bit about just since it's out there I think it's good that we all talk about it so everybody knows what we're
discussing yep happy to do so um one of the reasons that we would consider upgrading from an 8 inch drainage to a 12in drainage is in the event that we were ever going to uh decide to go with um artificial turf um the artificial turf drains at a much more rapid Pace uh and so as a result you require the ability to move more more water at a at a quicker uh rate um my position on this and we're going to get into it as Colin mentioned next Tuesday but my position is that we're making a commitment t
o cultivating and and nurturing our our natural athletic fields and that's something that we've been talking about now for over a year um I would anticipate that that endeavor will be successful uh not only because we feel like we've got the right organizations involved in helping us understand exactly what steps need to be taken but we all already have in place an excellent program that maintains and cares for those fields so I anticipate that we'll be successful in that effort as a result of t
hat I don't necessarily think that we're going to turn toward uh artificial turf in the near future um and my anticipation is that if we did decide to do so it would likely be as much as a decade in the future and at that time uh we don't know if the requirements will change or other factors may come into play that would require us to take a different approach at the drainage in that area so my recommendation at this time would be for us to stick with the the 8 inch um I think that's probably al
l I had to offer so I was going to ask what hdp is but it's some kind of pipe correct it's a it's a plastic pipe y okay any other discussion okay do we have well actually so right now we're not making a decision to do that that pipe or we're making a decision not to to do the the 12 in pipe we're still waiting the facility subcommittee meeting we'd like to make a recommendation uh on Tuesday whether or not to pursue that okay so that's not part of this decision it's for the the main there the 20
358,000 correct so so right right now it's it's the decision is that the the most would be to allow me to enter into a contract with Liberty Landscaping it's a broad motion I would get guidance from the facility subcommittee on T after on Tuesday's meeting it'll be an agenda item for them they'll discuss it and then they'll give me the direction to say all right we we think it's best to do 8 inch pipe or we think it's best to do 12inch pipe and then the contract that I enter into Liberty will b
e reflective of that guidance Liberty is the only one who had a such a huge fee for the that pipe right it's very interesting yeah that was a significant amount of their contract yeah if it was Rad or Greenway or forgetting aquat Turf if was one of the other two that the price might be worth doing regardless but yeah $58,000 is like a change well there's it's interesting you learn so much like I didn't know I'd become so knowledgeable about drainage and pipes one of the things that they talked a
bout um and and Mike jump in if I'm mischaracterizing it but you know we talked about well the potential to does it make sense even if it's five years from now seven years from now to put in a 12 inch or even 10 years from now to to Mike's Point um you don't know what the requirements are going to be if the standards are going to change and the other thing is and this is what this is the learning for me is if you put in a 12-in pipe for a grass field there's maintenance costs that you'll have to
incur on a regular basis because it's actually not good to have too big of a pipe because it can get like sludge in it and it has to get blown out and it it again just the things that you learn so um but yeah that's AB yeah that's absolutely right I mean what happens is the the flow rate in the pipe is is uh much very low and it doesn't self clean uh in addition to that when you go from an 8 inch pipe to a 12-inch pipe you're removing more material from the from the ground you have to remove th
at material and also backfill to a greater degree with uh crushed rock and other materials to ensure that it's installed properly so there was quite a bit that went into it um we we queried Liberty a great deal on why it was so much uh and and they did a reasonable job of explaining why that would be $58,000 or $53,000 so just to be clear the vote tonight would be for the whole package and the facility subcommittee will determine down the road whether correct correct just want that in there we o
ver this in finance yeah yeah just want everybody to know than anything else okay all in favor I oppos Mike you are in favor right I'm in favor a little delayed on that little delayed I was like what is happening here I was on mute all right so um that brings us to 10.4 um this is a discussion about passible action related to healthy food certification it's your enclosure 10.4 in your packet do you want me to speak to people sure do you want to somebody question so it's good all right so basical
ly currently um we are a healthy food certified District so this is our annual renewal process that we go through to ensure that we want to stay a healthy food certified District um in the past three years so from 21 to 23 we've earned $ 26,8 127 being a healthy food District so basically the state of Connecticut is much more stringent than the federal government when it comes to snacks and um other items so again we can't sell coffee to kids we can't sell um Candy to kids selling means they can
't earn it um fundraisers um because we're healthy food need to be distributed after the close of business to um allow for certain exemptions after the close of business so close of business is considered 30 minutes after the end of the school day we can and those are a couple of items that will be um the board will be voting on um allow for um so when you're um selling at the concession stands at the event as long as you're selling it at the event you can sell the soda or the chips or those thi
ngs that everybody wants to eat and dine on um but during the school day we have to try to be as health okay so the rec recommended motion is pursuant to um Connecticut General statute section 10 215f Regional School District 8 certifies that all food items offered for sale to students in the schools under its jurisdiction and not Exempted from the Connecticut nutrition standards published by the Connecticut State Department of Education will comply with the Connecticut nutrition standards Durin
g the period of July 1 2024 through June 30th 2025 this certification shall include all food offered for sale to students separately from reimbursable meals at all times and from all sources including but not limited to school stores vending machines School cafeteras culinary programs and any fundraising activities on school premises sponsored by the school or non-school organizations and groups do we have a motion to and this is not legislative I'll wait till the discussion period so I'll make
a motion okay that's Drew gin do we have a second sure second Scott soet so this is a this is not one of the this is sort of an optional program and there's so you say we've gotten 26,000 over the last three years right so basically yeah so yes so they're not so they're still encouraging districts to comply with as opposed to forcing it down people's throats I guess is the best way to explain that um not politically correct but that's um so this is a way to encourage our children to learn and to
make healthy choices about e now how what's the estimate number of kids who are leaving here to go to Dunkin Donuts to get a coffee during the day I'm sure it's very hot no they're not allowed to leave during the day well that's what I'm saying you know and the so before school or after school maybe but during the day not not a lot okay um once they leave they're supposed to be not coming back to school so off the record I would I know I don't think the money's worth it I'll give you my I I I j
ust yeah that's my take on it it'd be nice to get you know somebody's a little tired these kids get out of bed early I'm not saying that so even if there wasn't healthy food I still can't s through the kid oh okay what about what about chocolate so so chocolate as an incentive if we didn't have this yes what about a a coffee vending machine that's outlawed too Outlaw too in schools in so this is again one of the legislative rights of but at lunch can they buy like snacks yeah yeah yeah they woul
d be able to buy different snacks they would still have to follow the Conneticut nutritional standards which are still higher than but the B can sell candy bars if we focus down um so the child can have a candy bar yes if this dis they during the school but they they can't distribute so what you're talking about the band selling remember back when I we were in high school the so technically they could they can they can do a fundraiser that could be out of compliance with this correct but they ca
n't distribute it during the context of the school day it has to be given so buy a chocolate bar yes right so Mr all you're saying so back in the day oh back in the day yeah you can okay oh yeah 100% oh yeah yeah yeah the day was great no no back the day was great okay you clarify what I think you were getting at is that if the band were to have a a chocolate bar fundraiser they could distribute them during their evening rehearsals or social Gatherings we adopt this healthy school district busin
ess nonsense whatever you want to call it the band wouldn't even be able to engage in a fundraiser selling choc B correct during the school day at all just during school so even if we're a healthy District so if you're a healthy District so if you say yes to number one you have options for two and three okay and that refers to your food items exemption and your exemption for Beverages and so that after the close of business 30 minutes after they can do that okay so not we're not precluding them
from doing that so event you can go and buy whatever and you can still sell mons it's candy bars but you just have to distribute them after school but is it I got the sense that it was limited even in after school in the sense that not a regular practice but event was okay could a regular practice at the event as long as it's at the event so if I'm having the soccer game on the soccer field and I want to do concessions I have to do the concessions at the soccer field but you can't do a concessio
n at a regular price no that's not an event and we've already been a part of this healthy for three years longer than three years I just gave you three years where the D oh okay so we've already been doing it oh yeah I just but I'm new to the board and I hear these things and I just I it just yeah you know it seems like a little heavy-handed to me and I don't think the students are fans of it and I'm not saying say that who cares I don't really care what the students think when it comes to a lot
of things but if we're offering healthy snacks and they walk by it or it's you know it I don't know philosophically I think you should eat healthy but well what I see ice cream and lots of so they have to be formularies under the national nuts can't have peanuts any I know we were just talking about this we have a few students who are highly allergic so we can't have we're not a peanut free but we're peanut I there there's terminology but we're yes we encourage you not to eat so there was also
an attempt I think it was last legislative session to turn this into just this this is the rules for schools it didn't go very far but my guess is within a few years something like that's gonna pass anyway mandated to we're not get any money back for it after that but um well it seems they just smuggling the red plls well they can have that out in the I just can't sell it no I get it right okay they can carry it with them yeah so what's the issue with reimbursing well it says they that they're n
ot covered this is why isn't the reimbursable meals fall under the federal guidelines and this is a state of a Connecticut initiative so the federal guidelines Trump trump and we can now give them some unhealthy things so it's what's more stringent so even with whatever Court Law whatever is what's more stringent we have to follow what's more stringent okay so um this Connecticut nutritional standards even if we don't go with it this way we still have to follow more stringent guidelines than the
federal USDA laws tell us to do so there there's that's why it says separately from reimbursement the wording is awkward yes so because again you are provided with you have to have five components there has to be a whole grain there has to be a fruit there has to be a veg um milk yeah that's a thanks very so there had that makes up a reimbursable meal so as long as your meal has that it doesn't fall under the snack because so a snack would be separate from the meal okay W so welcome to my yeah
any other discussion on that okay all in favor I oppose I'm a vote okay I've got to do a roll call then a then I'll say yes if I'm not going to make you guys roll roll call for a uh a no go along to get along get a right I feel you well you know there's I work in compliance and I know some of these little rules drive people can drive people crazy and you look at the money that worth it so plus the kids might feel like we gave him one yeah love the new school board the second part um of the motio
n the Regional School District 8 will allow the sale to students of food items that do not meet the Connecticut nutrition standards provided that the following conditions are met one the sale is in connection with an event a uring after the end of the regular school day or on the weekend two the sale is at a location of the event and three the food items are not sold from a vending machine or school store an event is An Occurrence that involves more than just a regularly scheduled practice meeti
ng or extracurricular activity for example soccer games school plays and Inter Scholastic debates are events but soccer practices play rehearsals and debate team meetings are not the regular school day is the period from Midnight before to 30 minutes after the end of the official school day location means where the event is being held and must be the same place as the food sales okay do I have make the motion okay Scott soy made the motion do I have a second Drew Goin made the second we have any
[Music] discussion think we covered it all yeah easier all in favor Clos okay sorry Mike I did it to you again I'll go slower the um third section of the motion the Regional School District 8 will allow the sale to students of beverages not listed in section 10- 221q of the Connecticut General statute provided the following conditions are met one the sale is in connection with an event occurring after the end of the regular school day or on the weekend two the sale is at the location of the eve
nt and three the beverages are not sold from a vending machine or school store an event is An Occurrence that involves more than just a regularly scheduled practice meeting or extracurricular activity the school day is the period from Midnight before to 30 minutes after the end of the official school day location means where the event is being held and must be the same place as the beverage sales do we have a motion okay I'll make motion Dre gin made the motion do we have a second I'll second Am
y romanu made the second any discussion go okay all in favor I I opposed all right motion passes brings us to 10.5 the discussion and possible action related to improving educator diversity plan it's inclosure 10.5 in your package and and I could just speak briefly to this um so uh as I the the enclosure starts with just a cover memo to the plan itself the state of Connecticut is now requiring school districts to submit a plan to them that outlines our efforts to uh diversify our educator Workfo
rce um prior to submission of State the plan must be approved by uh local Regional Boards of Education um so I'll just say uh anecdotally that you know the district administrators who facilitate the teacher hiring process and the educator hiring process are certainly well aware of the benefits of having a diverse diverse educator Workforce um it is something that we um talk about um it's something that we certainly advocate for um I I will say uh that as much as we advocate for it there are inhe
rent challenges associated with this um I think the percentage is 11.8% of Educators uh in the state of Connecticut identify as diverse candidates and essentially we're all vying for the same uh goal we're all trying to diversify ourselves we're required to try to do that um right now our percentage uh based off of the state information our percentage of diverse Ed Educators in our district is 6% um our approximate um student population that um for diverse students is approximately 15% um and so
you know we're we're in a place that we're better than some districts we are not as good as others um but my recommendation and just just to speak to the components of the plan um the four categories or I'm sorry the three categories of recruitment hiring and selection and retention are the required categories that need to be included in the plan and each of the components um that are under each one of those categories are required to be highlighted as a part of our plan um I could certainly an
swer any questions if people have them um but my recommendation to the board is to approve the plan so I can submit it to the state okay so the motion to approve the Regional School District 8 increasing educator diversity plan for subm to the state do I have a motion I'll make motion Joe kti do I have a second second Mike Sharon and do we have discussion on this okay all in favor I I oppose motion carries that brings us to 10.6 first read of policies so uh I'll just go through these These are p
olicies that did um were discussed at the policy subcommittee that we had last week the first one is um is uh board policy uh 411 18.5 42185 currently this is a policy this is not a policy so we'd actually be approving this policy for the first time in our in its current state in our policy book oddly enough it's a regulation not a policy so what we'd be doing is we would be adopting the language that's in Red so we have a red um a Redline version we would adopt the uh the policy is in red uh fo
nt that is recommended language from our Attorneys at Shipman and Goodwin and then you could see for the administrative regulations that is more of a crosswalk between what our current regulation says plus some language that they are recommending that be um included in the RS as well I could certainly take any questions or if there's any comments from anybody on the policy subcommittee that would like to weigh it I raised the policy sub I still have some reservations about the language and this
one I know the lawyers have reviewed and said this is fine but the the fact that it says we've installed computers um on our board premises and installed systems on our board premises um well a lot of the things that we care about now are not installed our premises they're in the cloud somewhere they're they're not things that we we've got but we still care about people abusing them and and the the policy can be reads is though those are the ones that we care about the ones that are installed on
our premises just it feels wrong um and the other thing was oh there's language it says basically the use of the computer system represents an employees acknowledgement that the employee has read and understands the policy and all applicable regulations well the you know the use of the system says that you acknowledge this if I if I said you know by reading the sentence you agree to give me a million dollars is probably not enforcable um unless they agree to it somewhere um and I just don't kno
w if we do um you know I I'm I'm bothered by this this notion that we're saying oh just by using this you're agreeing to without ever saying that you're green now maybe when they on board there you know there's something that they sign that says that they'll they'll read it in their bub policy they probably is but it's um it's weird phrasing so those my two comments on this one and the first one applies to next policy as well any other discussion on that one 10.6 a I can keep going yeah all righ
t um so uh the next one is policy 6118 student use of a district computer system again similarly similarly this is a a policy that currently does exist um and and the changes that are being made in the policy are in both the policy and the recommend uh recommended regulations are um responsive to the model policies that are provided by shitman and Goodwin and um again so our attorneys are recommending that we adop the policy as is I could certainly do my best to answer any questions same as the
first point but that's it okay is there an acknowledgement that Happ so it's a great question and I can speak so right now um there's not a specific acknowledgement that's given I I will tell you that the conversation that came out of the policy subcommittee uh is we do think that it would be a good practice to include an acknowledgement of some sort we're trying to figure out the best way to do that whether it's when they get on boarded um I will tell you that all new employees when they are hi
red into the district District this has gone over in great length what's appropriate use of technology and what's not appropriate use of Technology that's something that is discussed when we do a new teacher orientation which would include all of the Educators that we hire in District um but we are figuring out the best way to do it because I do agree with what Scott saying as far as having some type of acknowledgement that we do understand there also I will say is in the teacher handbook um or
the employee handbook there it it speaks to different policies that teachers need to aware of or employees need to be aware of and and adhere to as well so so it is it is covered in a variety of ways but to your point Scott it's not specifically reviewed with them to say you're checking the Box you're signing something and we like that for a lot of big companies in this area and all the big ones not all the small ones when you when you log into the system that you know the first time you when yo
u start it up and log in there's a a thing there it says by using this system you acknowledge whatever and everyone just skips by it you know maybe you read it once maybe you never did um but it's it's a common thing just that kind of acknowledgement know it's the same as the stupid licenses online that I agree to terms and conditions yeah sure I'm gonna read those well and the other I mean annually we do an annual certification of several things so it could you know could a couple different the
re and there's a lot of policies that that probably would be a good practice to have just an annual acknowledgement of several different things and I think that's something that we need to move forward with so all good thoughts anything else on that okay it brings us to 10.6 C so this one is assessments for students with disabilities let me just get to it um alternative assessments for students with disabilities for Statewide District assessments and again much in line with a lot of the policy w
ork that we're doing it simply is aligning the language of our policy which was last updated um eight years ago with current legislation uh the policy was reviewed by our special education administrators and they concur that the changes are appropriate any other discussion on that one 10.6 D so 10.6 D is the social networking policy which we are updating um it's a Personnel policy so it's specific to the use of social networking social media by uh employees again being updated to align with legi
slative changes that have been made since the last time it was updated 11 years ago um yeah so I will note in here that one of the uh because I know that this question was asked by somebody and I want to make sure that I'm accurate when I say it but this um one of the policies that we're looking to also make a change to is uh relates to eliminating language around the use of crowd funding activities so later on in the agenda we're going to discuss our fundraising policy where we're striking info
rmation about fund crowd sourcing and using crowdfunding activities which is like a GoFundMe type of a thing um that language the reason that we're striking it from the fundraising policy is because of the fact that it's covered under the social networking policy because it talks about the fact that um uh if you look on page three it says no no sorry basically we're adding language that address es the fact that we wouldn't use crowdsourcing so I could certainly try to answer any questions people
have any comments on that one just see the Google Plus is done from there 10. 6E 10. 6E is 4212 thank you 4212 appointments of non-certified Staff this is an easy one I like easy this is a policy that pertains specifically to the appointments of non-certified Staff which would be Care Professionals clerical staff custodial staff for some reason our current policy also has this hangout this statement that just kind of stands out at the end where it says the superintendent of schools shall be res
ponsible for appointments to all the other positions requiring a certificate issued by the state of State Board of Education the reason we can strike this from our non-certified policy is we have a completely separate policy that covers the appointment of non-certified Staff it just doesn't make sense to reference one thing in a policy that is specific spefic to something completely different so the recommendation was clean up the langage and 10.6 f is policy 1424 I just spoke to this we're stri
king the crowdfunding here because it's going to be involved someplace else um the next one is 64 10g 106g is 6146b um the and this is another one for consideration for deletion um basically there is um law that says graduation requirements that are so we have graduation requirements as board policy um if a student has an IEP there's an ability for um those modification stand I'm sorry those graduation standards to be modified in some way shape or form um and and and that's that's all a part of
Law and so essentially one of the things that we're trying to go through is that if there are simple one or two or three sentence policies that are covered in legislation the recommendation is you can eliminate those policies that's and and so this is a this is a situation where the board can choose to um uh eliminate the policy or the board could choose to say we want to maintain this policy because we feel it's important to maintain the policy if we did maintain the policy the recommendation w
as eliminate it however if we decide to keep it then I'd want to come back to the board because I want to make sure that the language is current with current legislation as well so uh again but the recommendation from the uh from our legal firm was to delete that policy okay then the last one is 10.68 policy 6154 point1 and and this is the exact same situation as the last one which is there this is one of those very quick and short and brief one or two sentence policies that is currently covered
under Connecticut General statutes it's unnecessary to have it in our policy book because even if we said uh you know even if the language of the policy uh didn't exist we have to be compliant with this anyway so any other discussion on the first read of policies why do you always look at me first no that it again I'm gonna look at my nope good all right um that brings us to financials done I can hand them over yeah yeah okay so uh in your packets enclosure 107a um is the expenditure and revenu
e report as of February 29 2024 um so um so I am projecting a net favorable position of 800 62985 however having received our first excess cost payment and um discovering that um we are slated projected to receive less than what was anticipated when we were budgeting plus some student movement um I projecting a shortfall in revenue of $26,700 and99 $78 $56,950 there I go um so on February 28th we received our first payment of excess cost in the amount of $257 $559 that amount includes any adjust
ments for the period the prior period of March 1st 2023 through June 30th 2023 and the final payment will be coming to the district if uh around May 30th 31st in that Arena Capital Improvement is focusing on the remaining projects of the central office rooftop unit there is no update as of the date that this memo was written the facility cons condition assessment there's no updates likewise um Capital non-recurring um is currently focusing on the phase one of the field Improvement and drainage p
roject will get underway um once the contract has been finalized so once um the facility set committing on Tuesday um the superintendent will be able to negotiate the contract with the selected uh vendor and then in addition pupil Services is tracking changes through their IEP process and adjusting purchase orders accordingly are there any questions with what I have to yeah I assume you've seen the questions I've got so one was if I remember your questions correctly so um I'll start with the sec
ond one so um in the in this packet that get handed out there is um you have different um reports one of the reports is the budget expenditure subject by object so that is the Excel spreadsheet um that doesn't look like an Excel spreadsheet but that's where I do my projections the next sheet is a revenue report that comes out of the um system and then um we have a quite lengthy report that's titled Boe Personnel program expenditures I feel like that's like 35 Pages or so so out of that comes um
out of that comes uh um the CU services so back in the day um before I got here there was um lots of overages in the um special ed Department area so the board at that time wanted to see that broken out to be able to Zone in and be able to ask questions as to why so that's why there's two separate reports so but that is just a portion of the first one correct okay and then you have the capital Improvement and then the capital non uh non recurring fund reports right those are separate accounts al
og together separate from the 31 million or whatever bud it is correct um so let's see your second question was I can't remember is it expected that we have so much and so little in various places so end of February so budgeting is not a science if we budget for what we know at the time that we know um unfortunately as Co has um shown us like Le many expect um many surprises for us so in terms of salaries you have substitutes you have tutors you have chapons you have overtime um additional hours
that I can't encumber those because those are things that are going to come up on a daily basis so I might need somebody to cover for the day I might not need somebody to cover for the day I might need a sub but I don't have the sub so I have to pay other people to do coverage of classes um so I can't encumber those things so you're going to see as the year goes on you're going to see more and more get used up without the incumbents being there um then unfortunately when we close the year somet
imes people have encumbered funds that they going to release because they've never spent those funds so they've held on to them but they don't do a good job of monitoring to make sure that the invoices and you know like make an educated guess of what they might need for the end of year so it's it's a given take so we do our best right I just you know the numbers struck struck me as strange is that you know end of February is 47% of the budget unspent I'm right there with okay that that's that fe
lt odd you know we what you I said I'm right there with them because unfortunately so as you saw in um the uh unallocated Personnel it is about $500,000 or almost 560 sitting there so um there's you know there's certain areas certain Pockets again with special ed they budgeted for students but the students are doing better we brought them back whatever the case may be the services may have ended they don't need those Services anymore so that's savings to the budget so it's not something that we'
re in total control of to say hey we're just going to keep giving the kid Services whether he needs them or not so yeah what I what I would say is you know so Personnel is obviously a big driver right we we just talked about the Surplus that we had that we're you know we're keeping 2% from last year we're keeping 2% and we're given a good number of towns as a credit offset and and the Personnel is was The Lion Share of that dollar I think $840,000 um and I said this I don't think I said this to
the board but I don't know what happened during the pandemic but but there was a lot of people that just decided they don't need to work anymore I I wasn't fortunate enough to be amongst that group um but but we have vacancies vacancies exist across the district vacancies exist across all the districts right sure coester is dealing with it I'm sure the maro's like and so you know I I I would be remiss if we said well hey we're short to custodians we've been short to custodians for for six months
let's just take those out of the budget because we need those two custodians right and so the same thing could be said for par professional positions and the same thing could even be said for our substitutes because we budget based off of the number of Subs we anticipate needing based off of historical use of Subs the problem is is that our sub pool is dwin and so we don't have substitutes that available in a perfect utopian World we'd be fully staffed we'd be getting substitutes for each absen
ce where we needed a substitute but it's it's far from the perfect world at this point right but if we affected I'm not saying you're suggesting this but if we if we eliminate our budget or reduce our budget and then all of a sudden circumstances change and we can hire a custodian we can hire those pairs and we can fill those sub vacancies then we don't have enough budgeted to do that right and that's that's the challenge that we have it's a final it's a fine line and that's that's the the situa
tion I mean even you know again I'll just go back to you know my conversation I talked earlier about the Marboro request and during one of those conversations somebody say well you have some vacancies why don't you just take those out of your budget I said because I would be doing a disservice to our students if I did that and I'm not going to do that and and and and I I you know and I think that we do the best that we can with the information that we have um but going back to what you initially
started with it's it's not a science I mean it is a it is just it es and flows and we we could hire a custodian for two months they move on to something else because there's tons of job opportunities for them you know we we we we're losing Paris you the board has heard me talk about that I think that we need to be more competitive with regards to our salaries for our non-certified certified staff we're we're we're people are finding at a time where employees have the choice now to move to diffe
rent places and you know it's uh I'll get off my s box but that's it's it's a challenging situation that we find ourselves in primarily do the staffing issues so when I look at the net position question I would have is I I see a budget balance of 2.4 million essentially and and I would have expected more of that to be encumbered and you seem to be taking care of that in anticipating addition additional how is that so from an accounting perspective how how you so what I go through and I make educ
ated guesses if I need to talk to the department head I talk to the Department and have to see what still is going on um so again we have about 135,000 as of today left in um teacher Subs did I incumber all of it make no because I figure we're not going to spend all of it so I do a calculation to get me to the end of the year based on what was spent in the fire month and then I encumber that so your encumber encumbrance is based on sort of your run rate correct and then you decided to add a litt
le more to that because the Run rate might not continue you might actually yeah some more or less yeah yeah so how that's why it's projected I just estimate so you added to use the word right I don't want to use the wrong word here but um you put in a margin right okay so we could end up with much more unfortun well back yeah right do that all the time that right right right okay good okay any other questions on that one no okay so um seven 10.7 b the food service so um food service again um run
s us through the end of February and the program is currently reflecting a loss of 76377 um there still is a positive fund balance but unfortunately for this year we seem to be um a little um deflated in in um getting the kids to participate and or I'm not so again you may have read the Rambler article of this week that um again we do it we try to communicate to families to explain that we don't drive um how we charge for students we we set the prices but the state of Connecticut um has decided
to allow for free breakfast this year and to treat free and reduce students as free and everybody else has to pay for lunches um unfortunately we don't have say in that matter we try to influence I if we could do Universal free that would be lovely again because then I don't feel like I'd have to do shap for everything and it's eight more because they were in there but unfortunately um some of them are boycotting it is what it is I'm trying boycotting because they don't want to pay the prices ye
ah they don't want to pay so they don't so they don't eat so they they pack it from oh they're brown B are there any additional questions or questions on that so how is the fund balance start at the start of the Year what's in there so it's what rolled forward from the prior year so we started with a fund balance of 200 $2,874 125 so seems like why would given with the track record so far that we're not getting enough recue how come we had so much to start oh because of the co years we were flus
h so um they fed all the children for free so but we got the money from the recovery act all all of that all that came okay so we got we got a lot of money from the feds yeah and got fattened us up and that's carrying us right now we're driving ourselves into the ground correct okay what's the plan then um to try to get the kids excited about eating okay um okay do we I'm sorry but do we throw away a lot of food if they're not eating it no no so um the kitchen does a great job so again that's wh
ere you try to build in your margins so actually when they come do and come through and do an administrative review the state of Connecticut does um they will look to see how much food is wasted and they try to keep it keep you at a certain amount and so they're actually doing a great job of making sure that so they know if they haveing nachos they know all the kids are going for nachos they're making less sandwiches because that line is out the door for nachos okay so [Music] nachos you're firs
t in line right Taco salads they're very yummy all right any additional questions just something you mentioned Rambler that's a student newspaper yeah is it email we believe it or not we we do old school um which is I think is great so it's actually hard and I actually have I had versions to bring down this evening but I only had eight and I didn't want to have anybody left out so I will make sure you get the copy of the most current R of the Community Edition yeah they are emailed to parents ri
ght publication so so that no what's what's emailed to parents is the um newslet from Penny brille and uh Dr shusi sends the ramler to the middle school but the Rambler that Eva is talking about is the um the quarterly Edition it's the yeah the student the student created newsletter um magazine whatever call yeah that'd be great to see I student papers when I was in high school yeah great so all right so on to um Student Activity report so as of February 29th um we are in balance with Webster Ba
nk um I know you had a question or Mr soy had a question about the digital signage so I'm G to push that over to col yeah so so there is 32$ 34,000 so so there's a line so I think back in 2017 the previous High School administration um Scott Leslie had started having conversations with our um the graduating classes uh they have money that they've gotten through fundraising and dos and whatnot and it's not uncommon for senior classes to leave money to make donations to the schools for a particula
r project right um or a particular item that that could have some some cost to it and there was a desire to have a digital sign out in front of like on Wall Street um out in front of the the school kind of in between entrance um near the 3116 field and um what's that oh so people are parent basically across from the park across from the park entrance um I think it's a great idea I've talked a little bit about this with the facility subcommittee um we have again approximately $34,000 in a Student
Activity fund so what it's been is over the years different senior classes have made donations to kind of build this fund up with the idea of once there's enough money in this particular fund that we can move forward with the digital sign um there's prohibitions in kebron uh from the planning and zoning committee uh about um digital signs are not allowed so in order for us to actually be able to move forward with doing this project two things two things would need to happen we would need more m
oney um we would need uh because the the $34,000 not adequate would not adequately um fund this project um and uh so we need to build up at least probably double the amount of money where we currently have the the other thing that could happen is the board can make a decision to allocate if it was the prohibit of the board to allocate money from Capital not recurring or potentially from funding that we might find ourselves in future years from a situation where we are our net favorable position
is is is a good one um but then we also would have to go through the process of getting the exemption from the town planning and zoning committee um and I don't know how heavy of a lift that would be um so I've had conversations with the town manager um about what what that process would look like we'd have to go there we'd have to talk to the planning and zoning committee the problem is is that they would say to us well we want to see exactly what the sign looks like I don't know what the sign
would exactly look like because of the fact that I don't know how much money I'm going to have available to me so I'm in this weird place where it's what comes first the the chicken or the egg um and that's but that's the that's the money that's what the money's intended for so what happens if we never come to agreement with the town what happens to the funds when they were donated for a purpose I have to reach back out to those classes and see what they F go okay they could redirect it correct
they could ultimately make a choice and reallocate money wow I I I think it's I I you know my my perspective on it again we've talked about it at the facility subcommittee once last year um is I think it's an advantage not only to the district to have digital signage that could provide a lot of information to members of the community about what's events that are taking place at the school but I think it would be appropriate to to have Community notifications right if there whether there's an eme
rgency situation whether there we're promoting the um was the maple you know the the maple Fest you know there's I I I think that there is an inherent benefit to it because it it would it would work for a variety you know if we once we get our generator we're going to be a shelter we're going to be a regional shelter we can we can we can talk you know like that's something that we'd want to put up you know Regional shelter here you know here's phone numbers to contact if you're in a situation so
I think there's a real benefit not only to the school district but also to the entire Community um and that is I I like the term that is the angle that I I would absolutely use with with trying to get the planning Z committee to to allow something like that can we add this to an agenda soon because I think this is a good idea and I think maybe the board could could come up with funds or you know talk to a senior class and say can you give give this much and we'll we'll pay the rest for a reason
able size sure absolutely who would get estimates on what the sign would cost so so I have had so so I've had conversations with a company that Scott had initially engaged with Scott Leslie had initially engaged with um there are a variety of uh for lack of a better term uh stands or um foundations or whatever it would be that the sign would be wrapped in right you know you can what's that yeah there you know I I think I think that we would best our best chances of um our best chances of getting
the planning and zoning committee to be agreeable based off of information that I've just picked up through anecdotal conversations is a a very traditional look right something that would match the building so a brick and mortar type of a thing instead of something that looks more modern that is you know some type of a you know aluminum or something like that so more to Vegas time yeah I don't think we no no Vegas um so you know again be because we were in this situation last year where it just
was there were so many different moving Parts I did initially have conversations after I'd spoken to the to the um facility subcommittee around the time that I was speaking with facility subcommittee um but essentially knowing that it was kind of like we were kind of stuck in this place but if if it's the desire of the board to hey this is a good idea let's let's see what we could do I could certainly get updated quotes I could certainly get them to essentially get this company to kind of mock
up what it would look like um and then we would just have to get some some estimates for what we think the uh construction cost and the material cost would be um and and that's something I could certainly do I I'd love to do it if this board is interested in helping you know fund something like that um it's something I definitely could work on it simply makes sense to me to have you know a digital sign just something we can change quickly and like you said an emergency situation in town boom it
they call you up and here's here's a new message yeah yeah yeah okay okay I'm good all right so hearing no more on that um 10.70 is the stiff account um so at the end of February we reinvested $532.92 back into the account um I also provided um The Daily rates for the month and for the most part they held steady for the whole month of February are there any questions that the board may have on that hearing none um 10.7 e is The Bu budget appropriation transfers so these are transfers that as per
board policy I have to bring so these transfers that 36 transfers are from January um through uh through the end of February um and they total $218,000 of that is um journal entry 136 that's where I moved available what we felt was going to be available um insurance or health insurance costs up to unallocated due to um changes in enrollment staff movement and um or vacancies so um if there are any questions I'd be happy to answer them if not um then a motion I'll move to make to uh approve the
transfers as presented that was Scott soet do we have a second I'll second Mike bullier any other discussion okay all in favor oppos passes thank you committee reports all right I'll start us off for facility subcommittee uh there was a joint meeting held on March 14th between the facilities and the finance subcommittees we've talked about all the topics tonight uh during the regular agenda uh but I will say that we have a meeting coming up next Tuesday the 26th um is our next meeting that's it
for facilities okay Finance audit compliance and insurance we had that that meeting not sure how much I could add to that that's right okay negotiations uh we so I we have not had a meeting yet uh there has not been uh any movement with scheduling I will tell you we just received a communication from the uh non-certified bargaining unit saying that they are ready to go which we've been waiting to get that uh information from them um and so members of the negotiation subcommittee should answer he
aring from me hopefully sometime if not this week hopefully by uh the end of next week to try to get at least our initial uh meeting with our non-certified group and just just to re remind we have now have two different non-certified groups we have our custodians and and clerical staff is kind of group one or group two depend you know so there's and then we have our our our pairs as another one so it's just going to mean a couple more meetings and I need to figure out the logistics if we're goin
g to try to do like one you know one group for a couple hours then the same night another group for couple we just have to figure out the logistics of it but you'll hear from me uh hopefully soon so they did manage to split they did yep they are they are officially split correct so policy um we've met we presented going going through you saw the second reads and the first first reads today um moving along we had some Lively discussion you know with I mean we didn't there were no issues that we w
ere going to bring to the board except but St mentioned on the first read of some of the technology related items but there was some definite probing of the legal ease and F and all of these we were satisfied in that okay program and communication haven't met um there's uh really this is a group that meets pretty infrequently just because of the fact that as things come up we meet um there what had initially been a meeting at least on the calendar for this Thursday there's really not a h need to
have a meeting so we're getting know my first introduction to that I guess go the way so uh Carrie's not here right uh yeah she's not okay that brings us to item 12 public comments Hein Andover marel Community engagement and attendance at thee public meeting is welcome public comment segment of the meeting agenda is set aside so the Boe may receive public comments procedurally public remarks will be limited to three minutes and citizens will be asked to identify themselves because the Boe is li
mited by the Freedom of Information Act to discussing only matters on the agenda the Boe is not permitted to engage in a discussion of the comments presented we have anybody that would like to make public comment okay that brings us to um item 13 the informational items uh so the first thing is just calendar events so I'll just highlight again there's there's events for both the middle school and the high school found within your board packet uh enclosure 13.1 a and 13.1 B um we have our spring
concert coming up for a high school this Thursday which I'm very much looking forward to they always put on a phenomenal show um we also have on April 4th we have um what's called project uh project empty bows or the empty bows project um I don't think it's a it's a fundraiser that's done every year I believe it's usually every couple years or maybe it was affected by covid I know they didn't have it last year um but essentially what it is just for for people to understand is um students staff l
ocal people who can throw bowls I I am not amongst that group you know on a pottery wheel will will make bows and um then what happens is uh they get glazed and uh we have a stockpile of these bowls um and what happens is um for project empty bowls or empty bowls project um members of the community can come to the school they can pick out a bowl for $15 uh they can pick out a bowl they then uh can fill that bowl with soup and and and have a that's been donated by local um organizations and the t
he proceeds for this event um are uh go to the Hein Interfaith Food Bank marbor food bank and Andover congregational CH uh church so it's a fundraiser for for our food banks I I heard about it last year um as I said they didn't do it last year so I'm super excited to do it that's April 4th if board members are interested in attending that um we do uh there's information that's sent out to uh families uh of of students but if you don't have a student in Ram anymore shoot me an email and I will pr
ovide uh you the information on how you can sign up to do that it's a sounds like it's just a great event so uh at the um Middle School um we will have I think it's next Thursday is the Middle School coffee house um it's the next wed Wednesday or Thursday I can't quite recall um really really nice event it's from six six to eight o'clock it's just highlighting the amazing talents of our middle school students um and and certainly looking forward to that um down the line there's a drama productio
n for Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief that's actually um in April um and and certainly one big upcoming event it that I think many of us students and staff alike are thinking about is uh we have spring break in a few weeks so um there there's there's some anticipation for that coming up um we're looking forward to it we loving the warm weather loving the longer days and uh you know we're getting closer to uh summertime so both of them mentioned both high school and middle school the alltow
n Jazz you You' asked about that so so if I'm remembering correctly the alltown jazz is is basically the elementary districts have their students from um have their have their bands they they'll come and they'll perform so it's it's it's I Eric am I getting this right it's more than just alltown it's it's all of the towns it's so it's Andover Elementary School Hein Elementary School and marbor Elementary School all have their bands they come to RAM and they perform then our Middle School band an
d our high school band perform and then one of the things that they I think this was last year they did this and I'm assuming they'll do it again is the teachers from those bands will then perform as kind of like an ensemble as well um and it's a really really really good event it's really good event yeah really is all talent I just wonder if it was with both schools or something Alex yeah no it's it again it's it's all the three towns that feed into us as well as our and then just uh obviously
there's information related to uh Middle School and High School in and out of school suspensions that people can and that concludes my okay we have a motion to adjourn so moved second that SM fer and the second was Scott so done all in favor opposed don't you take thank you everybody thank you good discussion good night everyone anyone ever been in a meeting where somebody voted against
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