 Is there any public comment? Okay. Hearing none. Um, act to approve the minutes of Monday, November 23rd. So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion on the minutes? All right, so moved. Jamie, just in time. Sorry about that. Good evening, everyone. That's okay. I know where. Can you hear me? Yep, I was just gonna let you know where to the superintendent report. Yeah. So I know we have a packed agenda tonight. We're going to be looking at some projections in regards to how our trajectory is right now this year at the SU level on the expenditure and revenue side as well as you looking at a budget. Um, it's budget season that continues to take up a great deal of time at the moment. I am proud and Amy and Charlie can highlight in their report of the professional development that's been occurring across the SU today and again will happen tomorrow. There's a lot of great work happening. I want to acknowledge that, um, you know, in regards to remote learning, I want folks to know that we use that as a tool last week. That doesn't mean that that's what we're going to use all the time. Um, and so what I want you to know is I wanted to leverage that mostly to ensure that we could go remote if we needed to immediately at the event that we have a COVID-19 outbreak. Um, huge success that we haven't had one. We made it to December 18th. I'm really proud of that. Teachers worked incredibly hard. Families did. Students did. The good news is we were able to move remote after notifying teachers that was the time to plan at a one o'clock the day before if it indeed we did have snow that we would go remote and we're able to move to that and implement it. So that's good news for us as we move forward as we navigate COVID-19. Um, I had a lot of feedback that folks appreciated a remote learning day and the materials. Um, I was out in buildings all day on Friday. Most elementary students indicated it took them about one and a half hours to complete the work at the elementary level. Some parents emailed me and thanked me for that. Some folks felt like I took snow days away permanently, which, you know, was never fun either. So it comes with the territory of the job. Most decisions, you know, make some folks happy and then maybe some others not. But we have it in our toolkit. We may use it when we need to. And I'm happy that we implemented it and know that we can move to remote in the event that we need to do COVID-19. So that's my report in hand. I'll entertain any question folks have. You'll hear from me later in regards to budget and things of that nature. Jamie. Yeah, how are you, Bob? Good. Let's give us snow day once in a while. Duly noted. Just a team. I said, you know, one of the things that becoming a superintendent, you can't wait to call your first snow day. I didn't even get the chance to do that this year. I think you should do it. Give everybody a break and a surprise. Good for mental health. Anyone else for Jamie? Okay, then we'll move on to the business manager report. I did have one more quick thing. I'm sorry, Kathy. I meant to note that just came across my desk today. I will be joining a meeting on Wednesday with secretary, with representative Welch. He's going to give superintendent an update on what the new potential funding package may have to do with increased revenues in regards to education. So I will attend that on Wednesday and have that information as we move forward and share it with you once I find out what that all means. Are we ready? Okay. Ready, Tara? Go. Okay. So you all have my report. I had sent it out in the original packets. I don't have any specific updates as to the information that was provided. So if you have any questions specific to that, I will happily answer them. Otherwise, I'm going to share with you the first draft of our projected revenue and expenses for the supervisory union and special education. Okay. I don't hear any questions, Tara. Okay. Ray, do you want to put the email file I sent up to you? I just want to let you know we held off on submitting this to you all because not everyone's seen this style projection report and so I wanted Tara to walk you through it. It's been well received at one of the districts that we've been using it in and Rudd. If it's working well for folks at the SU, you'll get this in your report when you get the rest of the documents that we sent. Like you did the budget at the end of last week prior to the meeting. But I wanted Tara to walk you through it before you just received it. Thank you, Jamie. We have another committee meeting going on. Maybe Ray's caught up on that. There it is. Yeah. I was just thinking that too. So this is the revenue side of it. So you'll see on the far left side of the screen, it identifies each of the revenue sources which line up with the budgets. And this is a combined SU and special education report. So the first top half of it is the SU revenue side that matched up with the budget. The FY21 budget is the next column. And then over to the right is the FY21 projected and then the difference between the two. So the very top one is where we have our indirect rate, which is a portion of revenue that we receive as a result of our federal funding. So we had budgeted $24,000. I'm projecting just based on what we've received so far to date that we'll get about $18,968. And please remember these are just projections. These numbers are subject to change. That tuition, there was no tuition budgeted for. And that tuition that is showing there is actually for a student that we receive in our restorative classroom. And then the next line down is our interest income. That's the interest that we receive monthly based on our bank account balances. And then the next line down is our Medicaid. So the funding sources for Medicaid is based on what we submit to Medicaid for reimbursements for IEP services. So based on what we've seen to date, we have 24 less students in our student count as of our October 1st report. And based on what we received for our first billing, which only covered the periods of July 1st through September 30th, I use that number and projected it out through the remaining payments. We may see an increase in that reimbursement once we do the next billing cycle, which is October 1st through December 31st because we'll have more active student days and service days during that time frame. So we can see some fluctuation in that section. So that's a projection just based on what we got from the July 1 through September 30th reimbursement. We didn't budget for anything under idea B under our state and federal revenue. And then our federal title funds, we budgeted $95,008. I project that we should hopefully receive all of that in the SU for the positions that are offset by title funds for the central office. And then the last one is our assessment that we bill out to each of you as member districts. And we should receive all of that back. The next section down is special education. As you all may recall, that was moved to the supervisory union by law back in FY 18. So this goes pretty consistent also with what you saw on the revenue side of the special education budget. We have our mainstream block grant, which is a number that's provided to us by the agency of education. We have our intensive reimbursement. So that's based on our special education expenditure report that we submit up to the agency of education to receive reimbursement. We do project that we will receive less in that. And that's based on the savings that we're seeing on the expenditure side of the budget specific to special education. We don't have anything in for the extraordinary reimbursement. I don't project to receive anything there. The local share of the block grant, that's the 456.620. That's also a number issued by the agency of education. We should receive all of our idea B basic flow through in our idea B preschool. And we've received a little bit more than we budgeted for in our triple E grant by $1,695 to date. And then we offset salaries under our special education budget with some Medicaid funds. So we should receive that $35,000 for that offset. And then the member assessment by each of the towns. So we'll receive all of that. So down below the next section, that's the combined SU and special education budget, both revenue and expenditure, which should balance. We're projecting $9,454,444,000 on revenue. So a shortfall of 308,512. The projected expenditure total when we go to this next page, you'll see this, that I project that will, we have about a $27,000 surplus on the expenditure side of the budget for the time being. And then the last section on the revenue page is just the balances that were in the FY19 audit. And then the projections that I shared with you back, I believe it was in August as to how we would end FY20 prior to the audit being completed. Any questions on the revenue side before we move over to the expenditure side? Yes, Tara, this is Don. Up above, you didn't budget anything for an IEDA grant, but down below you said we have some. Yeah, we use all of our IDA B funds for special education. We don't offset any of the central office. So does that mean you're not projecting any? Not in the central office. No, it'll be down in the special education portion of the revenue. That's why it's all down there. We don't have any of that locally. Why don't we just take it right out of the up above then so it doesn't get confused? I can do that if you would like. I have it there because you're going to see it again in your FY22 budget. So I was trying to be consistent with what you were seeing. But I can take it out if that's what you all prefer. Don, we can choose to budget that as a revenue stream at the SU level if we want. Tara, this is Mika. I missed it if you explained the intensive reimbursement shortfall. That is based on our projected savings in the special education expenditure side of the budget. That section of revenue is based on what we submit through our special education expenditure report and then we get reimbursed for that. So if we have a savings in expenditures, we're not going to get as much revenue. And does that explain the deficit or? I can jump into it. I mean, if you go up, Ray, the biggest part of your deficit right now is that we overstated Medicaid revenue. You look at the $2,617 and when you see your budget tonight that we're hoping to see you approve, you're going to notice that the Medicaid revenue is dropped significantly. And so the biggest thing that we're projecting right now is that Medicaid got overstated as a revenue source when the 21 budget was approved. So you're saying that our estimate was off. That's our problem. I'm saying that your estimate and the fact that you budgeted that both at the SU level and some of the local district levels and we're making certainly fund you locally first is that there may not be enough revenue that comes in to meet as much revenue as you budgeted. And do we know why that revenue? Do we know why the discrepancy? Why do we think we were getting more than we ultimately got? Well, I wasn't here to build your budget, so I can't speak to that necessarily. And when we built the revenue side of the budget last year, Mika, we use as if you go back to FY20, we use the same revenue projections because that was the information that was provided to me at the time that we built the budget. Okay, but like why did we think that? You know, ultimately there had to have been some rationale other than we're just moving a number from one year to the other. It was based on a projected reimbursement amount given when the budgets were built. I understand that we projected that revenue amount. Why did we project that revenue amount and why didn't we meet it is my question. Well, I can't speak to why that original number was done in the FY19-20 term because I wasn't here then either. What I can say is when we built the 21 budgets, I was told to use the same revenue projection. And that's based on at some point, we felt that we were going to get that quantity of reimbursement from Medicaid. We had used the majority of our Medicaid funds at one point to cover our reading initiative. So back three years ago, that may have been a valid projection, but then we also use those funds locally to the districts to offset their local revenue and the revenue that they receive in taxes. So I mean, I only can speak to what was done in FY21 and their rationale behind that and then what we're doing in the FY22 budget. Right, I get why. This is the 600,000, I think this is the 600,000 that Bruce kept saying that we had sitting in Medicaid funds that we could buy all of the books for the reading program. And I think we spent that money on those book programs that we started and we didn't really have it there to spend. Well, first of all, I don't remember it being 600,000. And second of all, we're projecting it as new revenue for this cycle, not as an old reimbursement, which is what we used to pay for the books. My question is, we projected it. I get it. I understand that we looked back and we said, let's project that for the next season, for the next budget season. My question is, why didn't we meet that? Was it that we didn't have enough? Where does the Medicaid funding? Mika, the revenue was over-projected. Okay, so we get Medicaid funds based on re-eligible real reimbursable expenses for students who are on an IEP plan. So at some point, we had projected that we had enough students who would qualify and we would get reimbursed for their services on their IEP. That number changes every year based on the needs of our students, what's written into their IEP programs and what's actually eligible for reimbursement. That's how where the money actually comes from is reimbursed IEP services that are Medicaid-eligible. Can I buy it here? Just so you know, it wasn't that the income was so much off. You cannot report income from Medicaid unless you have a corresponding expense. So the money can come in, but it cannot be used to offset any other expense other than a Medicaid-related expense that you have put in a program before. For example, if one of the schools said, we are going to use $20,000 of Medicaid funds, then we'd say we have an expense of $20,000 and we have a revenue of $20,000. So it's not so much that it's been overinflated. It's just been under-budgeted on the expense side. Does that make any sense? Yes, that makes a lot of sense. I know this is boring people, but this is really important to me because it shouldn't not work. It does have to do with how we're spending this money, whether or not we can actually access this money. I'm hearing you that we should be more conservative about what we project for Medicaid, but I think it's really important to know. So thank you for indulging me and helping me understand the shortfall. No, it's really important. And if you look in this, again, our revenue side is part of our issue, right? And so we just we got to make certain that we're getting when we are projecting revenue in this next year's budget and all your upcoming local budgets that it is accurate because we can't sell things, right? And we're trying to trim cost, but if we don't get the revenue right, then we're still left with a shortfall. And Tara's absolutely correct. If you look at that 318.021 number, that's the same exact number that would use in the previous year. And that number should fluctuate, Cynthia just indicated. I do have a question. It sounds like that is supposed to be, you know, offsetting expenses. So if the revenue that we're getting is less than what we expected, because we're not submitting as many expenses, shouldn't our expenses also be down? And it seemed like that should be the same thing for one of the other categories that was down to the spend. We're going to go into the expenses next and they are down some, Andrew, and we're going to we're going to go into those now. Okay, it just didn't seem like they were down as much as the revenue side. So well, I think as we get to the next page, it will tell the full picture a little more, right? You want to go down? So the next section is on the expenditure. So you'll see at the top we have that that's the combined SU and special education budget of that $9,762,956. The next section down are items that we're not budgeted for. The first one is I found out that we have a lease on our infinite visions software that we have to pay. So that was not in the previous budgets from what I can tell. So I have added that into the FY 22 budget. And also we have a maintenance contract that we have to pay IV every year that I also could not find was in the prior budgets. So those are the two items there that are unbudgeted for that we have to come up with the revenue or sorry to pay for this year. And I've put in the expenditure budget for next year. COVID cost, where about $66,000 just in the SU right now that I'm hoping to be able to get fully reimbursed through either our CRF funds or our ESSER funds when we get to those reimbursement request. The next section down are areas that I'm watching that I'm concerned that we're going to be overspending or under budgeted for. And right now just looking at health insurance based on what was budgeted versus what we've paid through the fiscal year with a reminder that January one is our open enrollment period. So in February in March, I will see adjustments to our health insurance bills based on the changes that were made for open enrollment. So I'll have a more solid projection as to where we're going to be. I would expect in the February and March meetings as well. So we'll update that one as we continue to go forward. And then I had spoken about this at the last board meeting that I attended. We have to pay in a new teacher health assessment to the Vermont State Teachers Retirement System. My understanding from staff here is they believed that was a one-time expense, but in fact it is not. It is an annual expense that we have to pay as long as they these new teachers who have entered into the teacher's retirement system are employed by our supervisory union. So the bill that we had that we needed to pay for this year was $11,071. So that was not budgeted for in the local budget. So I have put that in here as an unbudgeted mine item that we'll need to and I've also put that into the budget for FY22. So Tara that's a per teacher cost? Yes, right this year it's $13.40 I think it is per teacher and then it goes up a little bit each year. And each individual district got that bill. So you'll all see it in your AP warrants. So that gives us the projected overspending of $311,071. And then the next section down is potential areas of savings that we've come up with as an admin team. Salaries and benefits for people who have left that were originally budgeted for throughout the first half of this fiscal year gives us the savings of about $204,000. We cut out some stipends at the very beginning of the school year and I had talked about that back in our meeting in August as well. So that was a $26,000 savings. We still had in our budget $110,000 for an HRA expense which from what I could gather in the research that I did that was the initial deposit that we had to pay to Datapath. So that is not something that we have to pay every year. So we'll see some savings on that line item and I have removed it from the FY22 budget. And then we have based on what we spent to date on IDAB tuition it looks like we'll have about a $90,000 savings there as well. For a total projected savings of $430,261. So as you go down you'll see that gives us the projected surplus of $27,397. So I will update this report each month. You'll see it if you like this format if you have any suggestions changes anything that you'd like to make or any just general questions be happy to answer any I can. Can I just jump in real quick? And then the board can ask Tara questions. So we as far as the expenditures go we do expect Cynthia and Tara have been working hard on getting CRF funds completely funded. So I expect that when you look up at that unanticipated expenditure there will be an offsetting revenue we'll be able to show you next month. I don't have any reason not to believe that the grant was fully funded. So I think we're going to be pretty close and Cynthia or Tara if I'm incorrect give me a shake of the head but I'm feeling pretty good about that. No I think that will be quite helpful and I just heard tonight on the radio that we don't have to spend all the CRF funds by December 31st. It's part of the new bill out of Congress. Now I'll probably be hearing more about Wednesday. So I mean that's good news. The health insurance we need to dig into some more. I'm concerned about that and why that expenditure line is off so much. I don't understand it. And so you know also you know I think that in general as far as the revenues go sometimes that you know there was a lot of complicating factors that are not excuses but why you should be frustrated in regards to how we were building budgets before and just where all the players talking and you know there was some decisions made on your budget building last year where I just you know I'm trying to dig into and better understand it and so do know that when you see your SU budget coming up for next year that we're going to show you tonight you're going to see your revenue projections are down in areas and so there are cuts in some expenditure areas but do know that you know we also have projected decreases in revenue. The revenues are not held the same. So like you know like we said earlier they're tied together with the personnel. So I hope that this this you know projected deficit gets better and better every month. That's our goal but that's where we're at right now and you know that's our conservative approach to it. I don't see it growing because we've dug into these numbers a lot. If anything I see it getting better but it could be this way. Okay anybody got questions? Will we be getting that document in the email later tonight or tomorrow? Yeah I just wanted to walk folks through it. You'll go out tonight. Great and are we looking at when we're looking at payroll projections are we looking at that with what we're currently paying or are we looking at that with a with a mind to our projected contract settlements? We've projected contracts. When my one suggestion for the report would be when there is something where you have a potential savings on the expense side and a potential revenue decrease because you're not getting a reimbursement because of the decrease of the expense it'd be good to note that so that you know we can see where it's tied in on both sides like if the salary expense decrease this year is causing some of the decrease of the reimbursements it'd be good to see. We can definitely do that for next month Andrew. Likewise I got a good education tonight on Medicaid this is Mika but if there are any areas where the the expense and funding is limited so the the funding can only be used in certain areas and it's not general at all it would be helpful just to have an asterisk by it or something so we know but in general this is the first time I feel like I've really understood what I was looking at so thanks so much Tara and Jamie I really appreciate it. The plan would be if the board if they appreciate seeing a document this way we'll project your expenditures and revenues for all your districts in the same fashion if it's helpful. I liked it. I also think consistency would be great. Yay. I just I'd like to say one thing I think that that Medicaid was way over budgeted I don't I don't understand I don't understand where that figure came from it was just an it was an inflated figure. Can I ask a question about is that something our auditors have caught or should have picked up I'm just wondering because that was two years ago and I remember hearing that figure being really excited that we had all this money just they're not an awesome literary program and and I'm still excited by what it was able to kind of put in motion but if but if there was a mistake in that calculation I think that's my understanding and this is not my bailiwick that that would be the job of some of auditors to pick up on after the fact. Well they might this is Cynthia again. Hi Cynthia. I've been lurking around for long enough to have come up against this. I appreciate it. The number was not incorrect. What was incorrect is that it didn't have correspond the thing is with Medicaid is yes we get that money but you cannot use that money just willy-nilly to cut your budget so it has to be attributed to specific cost areas and it wasn't it was just kind of lumped in to the into the revenue and and in fact that revenue did come but it didn't have a corresponding expense against it so it couldn't be counted. Do you get what I mean? I mean we might have a little bit left over for next year but you have with Medicaid the problem is at the moment particularly you don't know how much you're going to get and it has been cut significantly but also so you have to kind of guess what your expenditures are going to be that you put against it. The only guaranteed expenditures that we've been using are to offset some of a worry-blues salary and some of the early education programs but they're worth about $50,000 and that's it. When we had that program the literacy program what happened was that it they took what was on paper and spent the money and it wasn't really there anymore. Does that make any sense? That makes perfect sense. I've in fact done that once or twice. Thank you for that. I always spend everything twice. Thanks. Well I look back in the minutes and in the minutes the superintendent said that he would pay for that reading program with grant funds and Medicaid funds. When I added just what was in the budget for Medicaid funds and grant funds was around $400,000. Where did he get the other $200,000 to buy the program? From unspent Medicaid funds from the years before. I didn't see those anywhere in the budget. Yeah there were reports. This is Lisa and I was there and I apologize that I keep muting my camera but my internet's been wonky this evening so when I mute the camera it makes it so you don't all sound like robots. Anyway we were told that there was $642,000. I've been looking for the minutes that tell us that but that was the figure that we were told we had to put toward this literacy program. I remember some pretty pointed conversations. I think Andrew could probably remember and Rodney asking questions making sure that we had that and we were shown that that was available to us and I just feel like we continue to get to the bottom of the fact that there wasn't a real awareness of what we actually had. Anyway it's just another symptom of the problematic you know shifts in the business office that I think we're now rooting out. I have a more general question. I'm sorry if it's an uncomfortable one. Hopefully it's an easy one but I'm just wondering Tara at what point do you think we will have a budget where we can answer all like where there are big items that are attributable to the olden days like at what music next year will be kind of out of that hole and fresh do you think there will always this stuff will continue to creep up? Based on what we have found and uncovered just in this fiscal year I would say we are in a much better place understanding how we got to where we are today and when you see the budget when we go over the budget that I sent to you all we have gone over that budget with a fine tooth comb and when I say we I mean Jamie and I and Cynthia and Don to really just to make sure that what we're budgeting for is appropriate and we actually used current staffing current benefit enrollment and we built it from what we have today which I can say from you know being a part of the budget building last year that is not how the supervisory union and the special education budget was built last year. You know as we've all you know not to keep you know digging up the trenches of the past but you know I had assistance in guiding me through how to build the budget and we've made many discoveries that you know just those numbers were not valid numbers and when you keep building off invalid numbers you keep having issues so I feel very confident about the budget that we are presenting tonight as far as it being a reflection as to who we have in place today and the needs that we are expecting to have in FY 22 and I'm hoping that Don and Jamie also feel the same way and in the budget process this year. Can I offer a I'd like to offer a suggestion. I think that I think that the board members should get a copy of the SU audit for 2019 and read it and there's a hard copy in the central office. I think you should get it. I know it's a hundred pages but it's pretty interesting reading and you get a good gist of what was going on at the time. We were spending a lot of money we didn't have and if you take the time to read that it's worth your time. Sounds like delightful holiday reading Bob. Does a digital copy of that exist? Yes it's on our website as are all the audits. Good. Sounds like bah humbug type of reading to me but I agree that it would be good to do. Is there any recourse on this? I mean I'm just disgusted and not at you and not at I'm just disgusted at what happened and you know is there any recourse? Well you know I was just going to chime in. I mean the question of are we going to fix this in a year? No. I think that this is a marathon because we have districts with deficits. We're going to have to you know either budget or bond our way out of it and we're going to be in tough and lean times over the next several years and I just think that that's our reality you know and frankly you know to be candid with you I had no idea when I came on it as your superintendent that that was the reality. I knew that we had some difficult financial situations did I ever think it was this at this level? Absolutely not. And I can second Jamie's statement there. I had no idea what I was coming into until we start to dig further into each of our 98 funds that we have throughout the supervisory union and continue to identify the areas that were a problem fix them and make sure they don't happen moving forward. My team has spent hours and weeks and months doing just that exercise identifying fixing and making sure it doesn't continue to happen. I think I'm going to chime in here as the oldie of the group. I think the problem started when as soon as I came in I realized that every budget for one year was just adjusted for the next year and then it was adjusted and then it was adjusted and nobody really looked at whether things had changed because some principles and some other people would just say oh we don't have any money in that one I'll charge it to this one. So I don't I think there was a lack of transparency all the way around and the fact that they they built everybody built their budget on what happened last year and we all know things have changed dramatically even in the years that I've been there. You spend your money on this and now you don't spend your money on that anymore and I think that's how we got into our major problems and the other is what's on paper isn't really in the bank so you have to really check on those kinds of things. All right guys are we ready to see the budget? No no we got a whole bunch of reports left that's that's later sorry. That's later we've been talking about it a lot. Jamie do you want Cynthia to go now on the grants because it's a good segue prior to? Cynthia you just want to highlight your report and ask if folks have any questions. Yes if anybody has any questions but what I really wanted to emphasize was the fact that we have used these the grant funds that we get to subsidize the interventionists. We've been able to subsidize a lot of professional development and I think of course my area of concern is pre-K and K and we've taken the CARIS funds and used it for a lot of equipment for outdoor learning for pre-K and K and Tara and I are going through the expenditure the COVID expenditures and that will equal well over $400,000 so I think that will look a little bit better on your balance sheet. So if anybody else has a question about what we spend money on please give me a wiggle. Any questions? I don't have a question on the specific grants I just request that these reports maybe have a title and a date on them just so as they get printed out. I know where it came all time sorry. Thank you I just appreciate that for the future thanks. Okay there's no other questions of Cynthia Ray do you have a report tonight? You over? I do okay. Do you have my report in hand? I'll try to bring it up here in a second. In addition to the report I wanted to mention that in support of virtual learning week we have sent out over 500 devices and 23 additional MIFIs for students to use that week. Are there any questions? Anyone? Okay thank you Ray. Of course. Can I just chime in? Sure. I just want the Board in a race taking on a lot of responsibility with running these virtual meetings that we all have he's on with me every night and example he's on a committee meeting right now and I don't think Ray knew he was signing up for that when he came on as the tech director in addition to the fact that he's helped me a great deal with trying to provide more proactive communication across the SU so I just wanted to acknowledge Ray and thank you Ray because I know that your title definitely never said that you are going to be on board meetings four nights a week in your job description that's any and all opportunities. So thank you. I echo that thank you Ray. Yep yep but he's right I've got one ear listening to Rochester Stockwood over here. All right um director of student support services. Good evening everyone I didn't have a lot to report this time but I just want to keep the you informed that time studies are our schedules are on the front burner I'm still working trying to wrap those up with related services just a little time consuming and then I have I finished up all the special educators so I'll be meeting with principals just to go over those. Each individual had received the letter from me outlining what my findings were but now I'll go over it with the principals. Principals do have a copy of it but I like to like just follow up with them. One project that I want to start looking into is job descriptions or position descriptions. I'm noticing that we don't have a lot of up-to-date or certain job positions don't have descriptions so we're going to be working on those. Child count Lori Ballew is submitted to the AOA for the December 1st. We're about 19 percent of our population is on the special ed roles. Two major disabilities I outlined a specific learning disability in emotional disturbance and I gave you descriptions of both of those if anybody has any questions I'll field those now. Don you estimate the Medicaid funds don't you? I don't I don't I work with Lori Ballew but Tara and Lori are the ones that you know estimate those. You have the students that are that are qualifying for Medicaid funds. Yeah yeah they're the students that generate the Medicaid funds. Special Ed doesn't necessarily see those those funds. I know that. I wonder if the board really understands how Medicaid funds are generated. You want to explain that Don? Well services provided to individuals through either special education or related service providers. They are billed on a monthly basis submitted to Lori Ballew who files those. So it's really it's really services provided to special education students. Can you give them an example of what that might be? So if I have a child and I think I when I did my the time schedules I I'm given a scenario if a child that had math services three times a week for 30 minutes those services are recorded and submitted to Lori as the Medicaid clerk and those generate the funding. So if it's if it's a related service such as SLP services speech and language and they're at different rates so a professional is at a different rate than a paraprofessional. Is that what am I answering that okay Bob or is it? You are for me I don't I don't know if other people understand that. Yeah I mean I can I can pull together and work with Lori to give you a presentation of you know we have to get for instance when you say Medicaid funds are down we might have a lot of kids who are on Medicaid but we don't have physicians signatures to sign off. So we can't bill for those. So there's it's pretty complicated. It's more than just services generating or services provided generating those revenues but I can pull something together with with the help of Lori and we can present something to you at a later date. Yeah and I want everyone to know that if if you don't if you don't apply for them you don't get them. Right and you have like a six month window to file for them and so if you don't get those in time or if you know for whatever reason they don't get submitted you lose that revenue. And one of the things the auditor said in their audit report was that we were late getting information like that to the state and therefore didn't get all of our reimbursement. So I think read that audit report and you'll understand a little bit more about why things didn't happen. Yeah Lori works with a rep from the state so that rep comes in every month to review her reporting and calibrates that so we get as much as we can. But if the yeah and it's important that the special ed teachers turn their reports in. Yeah very very important. So if people are lax in getting your reports in or don't get them in then we don't get the reimbursement. Yeah and I've asked Lori to let me know who's who's the straggler so I can remind them. Make sure that we get those in. Thank you Don. Well anything else for Don? A curriculum instruction assessment did we do that already? No that's Amy and Charlie. Amy do you want to highlight? Yeah sure. I'm really excited to share with you all of the exciting opportunities we have for teacher learning and the ways we're improving instruction for students in the SU. So you can see the 21st and 22nd as Jamie mentioned teachers have been able to sign up for a wide variety of sessions that relate to our strategic plan. In addition to this Charlie's been doing work on some proficiency work with transferables. We've had the ENOA training which will deepen our teacher's understanding of developmentally how math and numbers progress. And then finally we have some kind of feedback at the end that's coming out of my literacy coaching as far as what teachers are working on and what we have to celebrate there. Teachers are working extraordinarily hard and if you have any questions I'd be happy to take any questions right now. Any questions? Thank you Amy. And I'll just jump in. I mean everyone you know has been stepping up across the SU as you know Mary Ellen left and we chose not to replace Mary Ellen and so I just want to thank Amy and Charlie and Cynthia for taking on some additional responsibilities as we get ready to pursue how we move best move forward but thank you guys. Amy I have a question. Yes sir. You work directly with the principals and are they you know curriculum leadership people? The principals have been very open to you know the work that we've been doing particularly in literacy and they were actually instrumental in helping to come up with the menus of offerings. I partnered with many of them to who pulled in some extraordinary sessions that teachers have really been enjoying today and will be enjoying tomorrow so you know I think that's some somewhere we always can be developing in our capacity building but I see a tremendous willingness and many have you know their own areas of expertise as we saw today as Bonnie was presenting in math and we had many other principals contributing today. Are they curriculum leaders? How would you define that Bob? Well in my case I was totally involved. Are they or are they on the surface looking at you? I just want to know. I just want to know that our principals are involved in curriculum leadership. I don't just say to you well do this or do that or you know to the teachers. I mean I led. I just want them I want to know that they are leading. You don't have to answer that question but Amy if I can help I mean I think Bob we're over I think that it's it's a continuum you know I think that in regards to instructional leadership I think that in some places you know we still have a ways to go and in other places principals are more comfortable with instructional approaches so part of what if you look at my reports I keep talking about training up the admin team so that we have a common instructional language I think that's really important right because how we can't ask folks to be an instructional leader if folks don't have a proficient understanding of what we're trying to implement and so you know I think we have certain principals who are a little more comfortable instructionally in certain areas than others and the other thing we're looking to try to do is foster the idea that they can learn from each other because none of us are experts in everything so how do we try to learn from each other because we all bring different expertise to the you know the game and how do we make certain that we're tapping each other's expertise. I've seen a lot of your I've read a lot of your I don't know when you talk about training them in direct instruction and I'm just curious as to how involved in curriculum leadership within their schools are they I would expect that they'd be very involved and I think you would too Jamie so I'm you know I don't think we should always have lay it on the consultants to do the work I think the I think that the principals need to jump in and be a major part of that. Fully agree one of the things Amy and I talked about is I was hoping in a non-covid year to have started instructional rounds by now where we were doing instructional rounds as an admin team to calibrate instructional expectations right so we could go pick something in a building and look just to observe that one thing and then speak to it so it could be the components of a literacy block and then we would sit down and talk about what did you notice this is what I noticed and calibrate much like teachers do in regards to assessment so I mean I look forward to the ability for us to do that after we get past COVID because I think you know again Bob duly noted you can you can we can do professional development we can talk about it but then often as principals you're observing it alone so there's no calibration and so one of the things I talked to Amy about is the important that we're helping principals calibrate and so that's the work she's looking to do as she's moving forward for the remainder of this year but in addition how do we carry that work moving forward um after this year and specifically past COVID and so we're going to look to adopt some instructional round protocols to make certain we've calibrated those expectations okay just so you know how I feel I think okay any other questions of Amy one planet hi folks um well hopefully I had a chance to read my report I just wanted to highlight a couple of things um first a long overdue celebration of a successful summer program we operated six sites for all eight of our schools uh we were really I don't know if you can go back in time or remember where everyone was mentally with um COVID in late spring early summer um we were surrounded by SUs that decided not to run in-person summer camps we had a lot of pressure within our um regional SU group not to run in-person summer camps um our one planet administrators uh and teachers really advocated for in-person we were looking closely at the data and um we had done a lot of homework and we had secured our PPE and felt that it was really in the best interests of kids to to operate um so thank thankfully um um Jamie supported that and um so we operated had a great summer we were only 15 of 30 21st projects to run in-person camps and only of those 15 about five operated a comprehensive five day a week program like we did so um our our SU was really one of very few in the state to do that um we um served around 250 kids um we were the first to introduce them to wearing masks and physical distancing it was uh you know all very new for all of us um but I think it really gave our families and our kids the confidence that this was doable and um I really do think it helped us um be prepared for in-person school um so I'm I'm really proud of the work that we did this summer with kids and um and and also we were thrilled at how excited the kids were to to just be back together um and kind of relearning those social skills that um they'd lost over the um over the the spring um what else do I want to highlight this fall we we the principals proposed um to Jamie and to myself this summer the possibility of um running uh ending the school day a little early at 130 um with one planet um operating an enrichment block from 133 um Jamie felt you know that we really needed to run buses starting at three o'clock and so uh one planet um took up that challenge and um for the most part it was really successful we used um one planet staff as well as essential teachers school day essential teachers counselors pair educators um to run that enrichment block and I I've heard from families that that really made the difference that they you know weren't quite ready to bite off a five day a week um uh school day that ended at three o'clock they were willing to try it till 130 and so I think that really just helped families ease into this new environment um we are serving about 210 kids at the moment we really are focusing on making our program welcoming and comfortable and we're doing a lot of outdoor programming um we're really focusing on student voice and choice um and just kind of continuing those um uh safety guidelines into the afternoon um and uh we'll be hopefully starting tutoring um this winter we wanted to give kids a chance to kind of get used to the full three o'clock school day um but we have a lot of catch up to do with kids and so we want to jump on that soon and I think that's about it we're right on right on budget for where we are in the school year that's it anybody get questions for kary thank you kary I will tell kary that great work with one planet it all all the things that she was saying really um did a lot for families this this summer and that whole transition and and since so I'm very happy we were able to do what we've done so thank you kary thank you White River Valley the president and food service hi good evening folks I'm bill vaughn senior I've been working with your child nutrition directors uh actually since way back in march uh to provide meals to our kids even during the shutdown uh we also ran the summer food service program through one planet this summer uh in a partnership with uh bill bill I'm sorry to interrupt I don't know if you're here knows your actual official title and how you're involved in the food system they certainly didn't bring on a new person um you know you want to explain what you do I um I'm the other administrator that works for works with kary and and running the uh the one planet after school and summer learning program and part of the reason I ended up with the food service piece is that I've I've run the summer food service program uh through one planet for the last five years so nothing necessarily special other than I've had the experience with the program and experience of how the program works and and the compliance pieces of it so it was a bit of a natural fit for me to to try to help these folks folks out so um as we were all trying to figure out the craziness that has been COVID this was one of the places where where work intersected and it made sense that that I start working with these folks a little bit and helping them out but my official title is uh assistant director of the one planet program so we continued uh we continued uh food service through the summer we actually had a nice partnership with stage coach out of randolph they actually did a lot of delivery of our meals we did something we've never done before we operated programs in at at all aid of our schools normally we just do the programs at the six summer camps we run we have uh rochester and stockbridge and chelsea and tumbridge are both combined camps and so usually we only offer food at the sites where we're having camp but this year we expanded it so we're able to offer offer food breakfast and lunch to all our communities through summer this emergency order stayed on and then we continued to operate the summer food service program the nice part about it is we get a higher reimbursement rate than we do through the regular program that we use which is called the national school lunch program and we will be continuing in this program for the rest of the year and we're hoping that um this this can help us out as I said in my report in a number of areas only your sites are operating the fresh fruit and vegetable uh grant program where kids get fresh fruits and vegetables and some learning and nutritional objectives every day that's happening at their schools um you can see sort of where we are um you know meal total wise they're you know 23 000 plus breakfast 30 000 plus lunches we're approaching the 200 000 dollar mark for reimbursements this year um some of the things the um you're trying nutrition directors wanted to come back to just uh thinking about a more streamlined debt collections procedure we're working on that in red pretty heavy right now with uh with nisha and and the principals and scott putney to uh to get that get that settled and they one of the things they were also talking about was was saying if they could get a little bit more professional development time uh to uh to just get better at their jobs some of the things that um you know jamie terron I wanted to talk with you folks about just as we move forward you've got a really good group of people we have been reaching out to other fruit service programs as well as the state uh for council and for information we've had some meetings with other uh food service or child nutrition directors in different locations in the state about how they do things we're continuing to learn we're continuing to grow one of the things we did want to talk with you folks about is for compliance reasons for financial reasons for efficiency reasons you know we'd like to suggest a consideration that we do a rearrangement and perhaps pull uh child nutrition programs underneath underneath the su this would allow us um we believe just just to operate the programs you know better holistically so um just wanted to share that that will be on the agenda for january um and for us to discuss the pros and cons and I we don't really need to make any decisions around that because it's an enterprise fund until february so that doesn't affect your budgeting purposes in the su but I do think we need to weigh whether or not this is a appropriate step to consider for potential savings in uh menu planning across the su bulk purchasing um trying to play off each other's strengths and we look around the expertise across our kitchens across the su and I got to say bill's done a great job coordinating folks this year they're meeting on a regular basis now and that's new I mean you know there's a lot of pluses to covet that weren't anticipated and I think many of them is the fact that folks have become a lot more comfortable with technology so our ability now to pull our food service workers together on a regular basis is much more significant than it was in the past where we would be asking them all to drive to a location and so participation in our meetings across the su has gone up significantly due to the leverage of technology so again this was just to start you thinking about it know that it'll be a discussion item as we move forward and something that we're going to need to chew on when we have more time going into the numbers and potential savings and I know it's not the first time you've had these conversations I don't know if anybody has any questions or they think we do address but I'm happy to do my best to answer those if you have any questions anyone all right um thank you bill um river valley vla principle statson yes um so jamie asked me to just write up something and it's very simple in comparison I'll work on getting it in our normal format here for next month just kind of as an update we've made it through the first trimester of the virtual learning academy um k through eight there were 123 kids who completed the first trimester from start to finish so uh they also all received in k through six we piloted a proficiency based report card for mathematics and literacy and Amy Choth and I worked on that together and Amy was very supportive and helping roll that out with teachers as well because that was something new for teachers we've offered up to parents and we're going to establish a night for like question and answer about the grading process around proficiencies because just as it's new for a lot of folks it's especially different to read it as a parent as well and that was the majority of our focus so those have all gone out students have access to pretty much all the essentials classes there are live music and library classes happening k through five and then there are our activities uh sent out every week so it's not a screen-based activity the goal is to keep kids off the computer a little bit for something like art uh we are working with the arts bus who has agreed to help put together arts kits to get out to those students so they have access to more materials um two three or two three virtual class had a very successful and enjoyable uh virtual field trip to billings farm last week and um I actually met with our teacher monica fairington afterwards and she highly recommended that all all classes do that and she shared out a bunch of different resources of how to access because it's something even in-person classes could do in january and she said it was a lot of fun and a great way to build on some science activities um what else here uh students in grades six through eight as we started second trimester are doing a inquiry-based learning project specifically on science um and they seem to have really enjoyed that so far and actually are asking me to up the pace of that because they'd like to do more on that um probably more so than some other things and the all the virtual learning staff participated in yesterday or today's in service excuse me i'm a day ahead of myself and will tomorrow and actually several of our virtual learning staff members um actually joined our suds math in service today to really work on their math instruction because i had observed several math virtual learning math classes last week and we had really talked about our language and how specific we are with our instruction in math because sometimes that's where some of the confusion and lies for kids so it's great to have them join us for that and i think that's it sure there's a lot more but i'm happy to answer any questions lindy yes how is the math instruction going um and what i have observed it's definitely one of the harder transitions from in person uh just in the past week since i spoke to you last bob um it's definitely one of the harder uh forms of instruction to transition from in person to virtual just in terms of using manipulatives making sure you can see what students are doing their thought process how to share that i've seen some great strategies from like i almost just did it and then you would have saw my keyboard moving your um camera down so the teacher can watch what kids are writing while they're doing it so they can see their thought process but a lot of um the instruction that i have seen so far is uh no different than what i see in person in that our language as instructors is what is causing some of the confusion in mathematics so an example is i watched a lesson on place value in estimation last week and there were kids who definitely got the concepts i could see it i could hear it in their answers their explanations um what was confusing is when we got to larger numbers and the instructor was not specific or explicit in what place value to use which made it all that more confusing for the kids to try and decipher what step they should use or where they should start so because that language wasn't there from the get go um it made it there were kids that had missteps and they needed to be backed up and we needed to re-teach and re-explain and that's something i see in person as well our language as instructors is what frequently causes uh misinformation or mislearning in mathematics does a teacher use a whiteboard in front of the computer screen i've seen three different strategies so far i've seen there's an actual and you can even don't click too far but you can actually see the tool if you are on a meet under the three dots there is this thing called a whiteboard it's at the very top um i'd encourage you at some point it's going to open a different tab if you click on it now just a heads up but it is a tool that a teacher can use and everybody gets on at the same time it's kind of like a google doc but it has more tools that can be used um to build things like circles and triangles or dear fractions so i've seen that uh instructional tool use i've seen like the mini whiteboards or teachers write on it or demonstrate or build with manipulatives on it and then i've just seen chart paper so i've seen those three strategies at this point for instruction lindy i'd like to thank you for being involved in curriculum oh thank you i appreciate i really enjoy it it's a great way to see kids i've i've learned a lot too um i will be the first one to admit and if bonnie borne were on here she would shame me for saying this but math is something that tends to give me anxiety especially if we get to the fraction level and she'll say that's because of the instruction i received um so i i tried and i'm pretty sure that's why every example she gave today when we were analyzing our instruction was around fractions to make me feel more comfortable as we were learning uh together and teaching together but um it's definitely been fun to learn and be a part of and i really really enjoy it so how are kids doing you know in this virtual learning academically i think they're doing well i um will always say that my concern virtually is the social emotional piece and for some kids especially with the current restrictions like there's no rec sports there's no getting together in your you know closest covid bubble uh friend group right now um i'm i'm concerned socially emotionally we've tried to put things like lunch bunches into place and some other things where they can just get together and interact um but that's one major difference or need i see uh in kids you know the difference between working with in-person kiddos and uh the virtual learning academy kiddos is they're craving more time together with kids their own age even if it's only through a screen academically are they grade level um i think so i'm curious and excited to see you know start testing to get some firm assessment data behind that if we've seen some great growth in um i can specifically speak to fifth grade uh literacy just because i've seen that data more recently that teacher did some running records before we went on vacation and most of those kiddos have moved right along just as much as those that are in person so at a very quick rate and a majority are meeting this standard or above the standard for this point in the year lindy i was curious if you're getting enough engagement and support at the family level from those families involved with kids with virtual with the remote learning academy and um if there are any issues with technology or if those have all been sorted out um so in terms of engagement level we i would say we have a really high engagement level i i was shocked especially considering the spring and you know kind of what seemed like a little bit of uh chasing some families around those for the most part um those who have committed to this have committed to this pretty much every level there is um you know of course that looks really different if your child is in kindergarten or first grade than it does if you have a middle schooler um because it's not just your kid committing it's like you committing as well and making sure that they're sitting and paying attention um at some of the younger grade levels but for the most part it's doing really well we did send home with report cards if we were concerned about some kids who hadn't engaged either attendance wise and or lack of evidence of learning jamie and i did send a letter that said we're not really sure this is working you need to establish a meeting with the two of us to talk about how this can change um and that was i was just counting that was sent out of 123 families that was sent to 10 households so that's that's not bad it's not great we always want everybody in terms of technology the biggest hurdles were at the beginning we definitely have overcome that and families have figured out ways um to kind of work around that uh when there are problems they communicate with teachers reset up times if you know the internet's down in the morning they set up a time to meet with the teacher in the afternoon so there's some flexibility around that um i would say the only other panic that occurred in poor ray and jamie can attest to this is 7 30 monday morning when google was just not working uh so that it thankfully it was back up by 7 45 but um that did give us the think time to think like we need to make sure that virtual learning is its own group that we can do a robot call to and say hey we understand this is happening everybody here's how we're gonna adjust and move forward so um for the most part i would say the technology hurdles we've overcome and um you know no different than your cell phone the kids can actually teach you quite a bit too that's what i've learned thanks a lot i know that you like many did not sign up for this necessary part of the job so thank you thank you it's actually been a lot of fun i get to i start my day every day with the middle school group the six seven and eight we do morning meeting together and i was sharing with the principals they're just an amazing group of kids and it's really fun to be connected with kids from other buildings s u wide so it's been great then you have a question this is a tough one probably um how would you compare the um learning the sixth grade math students have had compared to that which would happen in face face every class in the Rochester so i have to be honest i'm slightly biased because the sixth grade uh math teacher for virtual learning is also the sixth grade math teacher in Stockbridge so i happen to know a little bit more and get to see the differences you know in person in person versus um versus uh virtually i would say in in particular with the sixth grade group they are getting everything and probably more than in person because the makeup of that group wants more they are a math oriented uh group they really enjoy math so they're like pushing for more um which is great and they also i would say means they move at a pace that's pretty comparable to what's going on in person sometimes there's things don't happen necessarily as quickly as what's going on in person it's not the kids aren't getting the same it's just the pacing slightly different um that's not the case with sixth grade math i would say in other grade levels bob it it's not that it's not comparable they're still getting the same information it's just not quite at the pace as if they were in person because it takes a little bit longer and needs more time to do some checks for understanding to make sure kids are really grasping the knowledge good sounds good any other questions for lindy thank you lindy thank you guys um discussion items whatever valley su audit terry do you just want to give an update on where we're currently at with the audit the auditors are in the process of wrapping up for the first draft of the su and the rud f y 20 audits as of last week we are still on target to have those reports end of this month early january so once i have any further information we'll let you all know they've been here and completed all their work so we're just waiting on the drafts this is done i had thought that when we entered into our last agreement with the auditors we were supposed to get these earlier is that not accurate i believe the original agreement was to have them by december in my miss remembering and we don't have them yet right not quite not quite yet okay the additional news i'll give you don based on speaking with terra and the auditors and is that we shouldn't see multiple drafts this time rose worked really hard um to make certain that the numbers the auditors received were really solid numbers so they don't expect for multiple drafts to be had so that's positive but i agree you know the expectation is as we move forward that we'd have those for december one that would be the goal is that at least go ahead lee say oh i was just going to ask if that december one date was in a contract or in a document in writing somewhere or if that was just a verbal agreement december one was definitely communicated um you know part of it that held this up and why we're about a month behind was us getting our information finalized but you know they were they did receive their information right around december one all the documentation they needed and they were on site like december 10th that week terra maybe it was like was it the 10th they were here in november and then they were here last or two weeks ago doing their the single audit for the federal portion of it so i mean it's ahead of where we were um last year i think they were still in our office auditing at that point so hopefully it moves along quickly now and we get the numbers we're waiting for they indicated that there there won't be they think that the projections that we gave you in august correct me if i'm wrong terra are fairly accurate i asked that question i know terra did so i'm feeling like the numbers you saw are pretty close with that projection deficit of the su okay um anything else on audit guys and in case you were wondering we did the two largest entities first because the rest of them should go fairly quickly right we get the su out of the way part of what held us up last year a bit was is that they did your districts and then they did the su audit and had to adjust or your local district audit so that's why we've tackled the su first okay anything else for audits guys all right we'll move on to 21 22 budget fair you want to roll this out sure so i'm going to start with the the central office budget first and it's a slightly different format than what you saw last year we still that's the sped budget ray there you go thanks so it's still grouped together based on function the top one was a program that was in place back in 1920 that we took out in the 2021 budget and continue to have it out in the 21 22 budget the next section down under curriculum that is the function for currently was mary ellen and will in the future be our chief academic officer i believe i use the right title jaymie correct me if i'm wrong so that section of the budget is based on a projected salary that we think we will be able to hire someone in that position for and then the benefits supply lines and professional development that goes along with the needs of that position the next section down is the technology so this here you're going to see we have a large change in this portion of the budget and the reason for that being i believe we've talked about it a couple times is we are moving rays technology support team to the central office rather than being in your local district budgets and you've all seen that already in your local district budget the difference there for the budgeted funds so that is moving all of them here to us the next section down is the office of the superintendent not any major changes there the preschool coordinator that is for the for jan who is our preschool coordinator she works with all of our preschool programs both internally and externally and also through our wanoski valley association that we are a part of that collaborative for preschools that portion is also offset by title two a funding and then the next section is for my team and the audits for each of the member districts so that's our side and then the big change there you'll see is that increase in the software to cover our lease and the annual maintenance contract that we have to pay for infinite visions the next section down is central office and this is primarily just the entire function of the central office outside of the individual departments within we have added twenty five thousand dollars here for our building consultant um several of you have heard reports from lile and he will continue to work with us and our building and maintenance staff to come up with our maintenance plans identify areas that need to be addressed immediately based on both our visbit security and safety audits and also just general repairs and maintenance and coming up with transition plans for each of our building facilities teams i removed the hra that i discussed earlier that was the original deposit that we no longer need to fund for and then the next section instructional salary this is new to the budget this year this is for our pre-k literacy math intervention this position is fully funded by title one it hadn't been identified in the expenditure budget so we've added it this year but you will see on the revenue side that it is offset by title one revenues the next section was the grant administration section that we have removed moving forward and then lastly the district wide that was the other team members of the curriculum team that jamie discussed with you earlier this year that we have now removed that were also funded by federal funds so overall the total expenditure budget for the su is up 84108 or 4.88 percent seventy seven thousand of that is the addition of the pre-k literacy math interventionist position so overall the supervisory union budget without that position was up just over seven thousand dollars or point four one one percent any questions on the expenditure side of the su budget before we move on to the revenue side any questions i just i just wanted to highlight real quick that we thought it was really important to include all of our intervention staff in here and that su's worked for you for a long time and she is directly supported via the grant but she's a position that we think is important and that should be part of the expenditure if for some reason didn't come through we would still keep her in place and so hence she is at a budgeted expenditure just like we would keep you know the chief academic officer in place we're going to use some title funds for that position but we need that position and so we're budgeting corresponding revenue but i just wanted you to know that's a position you've had for a long time and so i think that that seven thousand dollar figure is something for you to just to think about in regards to what we actually increased dollar for dollar three things like that would it be possible to put notes to oh yeah when we do your packets i mean part of my job ethan just like in all your local district budgets as we recoded things and the idea like moving technology to the su so that we better coordinate those efforts in regards to re which you've seen that line increase significantly but of course it's a good decrease in expenditures locally we're going to communicate all of that in your books and within the su budget that's why that narrative will be so important jenny what's the budget what's that what's the budget figure you're using is that with the cuts this year or without the cuts or what is it this is with the proposed cuts yeah but what's the budget figure that you're using last year's original budget no we built this budget from what we're proposing for next year bob i think i think you bob i think you're looking they they started from scratch they started from yeah i know that but uh what are you comparing what are you comparing to just the the positions that are there right now well we're comparing to what you have budgeted in 2021 to what we're proposing you budget for 21 which has restructuring in it um and we're proposing that you move technology to the su because it'll allow us to better coordinate operations and a reminder that then you'll see those expenditures decrease locally and that will become part of your su assessment i don't know if that helps bob or not and this is just one piece of it we're going to show you the special ed side next i just want to know if you're using if you're using the budget that it was in the town report you know this 2021 budget was what was in the town report okay all right that's all yes sorry yep i i see what you're saying bob you're asking was it the budget that we currently are projecting now this 2021 we were seeing this last year and in the town report okay can you give me that percentage number um again when if you pull out um the positions that are funded by title funds what you had just given the bottom percentage point four one one point four one one okay thank you um i really appreciate that that we're we're i really think that it's it's it's much more transparent to to show all the salaries that we pay whether they're grant funded or locally funded um i i think that's some sometimes where we got bit in the in the backside in the past was you know there were these things that we weren't really reporting because we they were completely off our books in a way they're they're completely grant funded so i'm i i applaud doing that and i also applaud the honesty in saying that you know once we hire someone if their grant funding goes away chances are we're still going to going to keep them in in in some some way way shape or form and i don't know what but what i'd like to see and i think would be helpful and i'm not sure if it should be part of the narrative or part of this document or a standalone document a document that that shows a person their their fte and their percentage of of grant funding because like we have the the the the preschool salary person that's there uh we've added and i'm not sure i i don't remember if that was i want to say i don't think that person's a full fte or not but again having a reference to to understand when i'm looking at at an at an item that says preschool coordinator that it tells me this person is is point six and they're 75 percent grant funded or this person is point one and they're 100% locally funded that would be really kind of helpful to understand all the number one all the players and number two all the funding that is a document that sydnia has actually created for us so that will be easy for us to incorporate carl thank you terry do you want to continue into special end and we'll take additional questions and then show folks the revenue page and what we're projecting for assessments so under the special education again we're comparing it to the f y 2021 budget the top section is for our triple e which is early english i was saying it wrong don very essential education thank you i always use the wrong e's for that uh so we made changes based on current staffing and benefit needs as well as made some adjustments to contracted services based on what we're currently using and what we project to use moving forward in the next fiscal year we took out idea b pre-k because we don't have any students that are utilizing that portion at this time and don't expect to have any next year so you'll see that that's all been removed also along that same lines the triple e s lp which is the speech language that's also been removed because we do not have any current or projected needs for that section of the budget as well as the occupational therapist so those you'll see are all removals in the special education budget based on current and future projections the next section is based on special education direct instruction we've made updates to the teachers and the support staff salaries based on current staffing and projected staffing needs in the future took out any changes that needed to be made as far as fika and benefits as a result of those staffing changes and retirement contributions there's also a reduction in contracted services for that section based on utilization now and in the future and then you'll see there's been some small cuts throughout the travel and supply lines idea b proportionate share we've kept that yep can you scope back up to the top of the document please the proposed budget was 128 for the first for a 2021 and 21 22 is 14 114 that's that's not a difference of 242,000 I don't know mine has negatives so I don't know what happened in that version so I will resend this to you okay thank you and that's going to reflect down below as well yeah the number on the bottom is right the 31 444 is accurate I don't know why the pop section is showing it looks like they add the columns are added but yeah the bottom number is in fact accurate that is what mine shows a reduction of 31,444 and then down below there's a couple of other entries that were added rather than subtracted okay I will go back and double check those down thank you all right I lost my place all right so we are down to idea b tuition we've left that as budgeted previously then the special education psychological services this adjustment here is for our restorative classroom which I believe has been renamed but that is moving the staff from above to here where they'll actually be allocated as far as what their expenditures are and then the next section is the special education speech language so this is for the remaining services that are provided outside of the triple e so just a few small adjustments throughout those that line item and then we made the adjustments under the occupational therapy that needed to be made again they're not substantial changes a few changes here and there and then other support services we made some adjustments based on current usage and projections for the future and same for instructional staff trainings and then the special education admin salaries this is based on the the salaries and benefits of the special education administrative team here at the central office and the big change there that you'll see last year it appears that all of the admin and support salaries were all coded up underneath the admin salaries and this year we've actually broken them out to be reflective of what where they were the admin versus support staff and then the health insurance adjustments FICA adjustments as necessary for changes that were made and then the rest of it is pretty much funded status quo throughout the remainder of the budget with the big exception down here the contracted transportation we did increase that based on current needs so overall the special education budget is up seventy thousand six hundred and thirteen dollars or point eight eight percent so you know we we worked really hard to try to keep both sides under that one percent increase as we told you that we were going to set out to do across the districts in the SU you know Don and I have met with Tara several times now I believe three that makes certain we've worked this out fully we believe that this amount budgets for the expenditures that we're going to incur next year it's conservative and responsible you know what we're not going to want to do is be coming back to you in October saying we're projecting a deficit so we believe this is the resources needed to provide the special education services we need to throughout the SU it also just so you know does take and shift resources to build that time through 12 intensive programming with the idea being that we can start to pull some students back tuition wise but if you look at tuitions we still budgeted tuitions not assuming that those students will come back so know that we were conservative there so I don't want you to think that we camped on tuitions we didn't we knew we were building the program the idea would be that we'll incur additional savings as we go but we didn't budget thinking that we were going to just pull students back ASAP right we knew that would take a little time and the idea would be that too we ensure that we're not having students leave speaking of time what were you thinking of a time frame to build that special ed 912 well there's been planning already occurring and we're going to look to use regular ed staffing the RUD budget supports regular ed staffing to push in to provide instruction for those students 9 through 12 yeah and as you were placed and that type of setting 9 through 12 they will be RUD students because they're our high school right 9 through 12 so the least restrictive environment makes sense to be that program the Wildcat Institute then they would be RUD students so therefore RUD is budgeting appropriately to provide instructional staff to support those students and what we've done is we've taken our staffing in K through 2 and we've transitioned that staffing in the K reach through tour started program to staff the 9 through 12 I thought one of the sticking points was finding space is that spaceman found it has okay and it'll be housed right at the high school campus okay all right questions anyone I don't know when the time is to talk about this but I think it might be now but maybe it's done and then on the next one and that is that one of my concerns about passing the SU and the special ed budget at this point in time is that once they're passed if our budgets don't pass then we we don't have any ability to make any more cuts to you and I know that fbut and strafford were put in that position last year and I I don't feel a whole lot more positive going into annual district meeting this year and you know with the budget and property taxes you know going up and so I just I have a hard time approving these when ours might not get approved and then we then the only place that we can cut from and on our budget is the K through 8 portion of our budget which is 9% of the budget and so you need to help me with that one because I can't I'm having a hard time I'm going to have a hard time voting yes not because I don't think it's fair but because I don't know I the ripple down effect is going to be difficult I think I can I hear that too Sarah especially considering it took us so long to get our budgets to pass and people just received their second tax bill in Tumbridge and the receiving of that has not been very happy Merry Christmas yeah Merry Christmas so I think March is going to be or whenever we have a vote is going to be a very very uphill battle no matter what we do so I but I don't know how I feel about it either but I know we passed this ahead of of even talking to our our boards about it yeah Jamie is there any state requirements that the supervised union budget be passed before the individual district budgets are passed I don't know if it's in statute I mean the practices is that you would adopt this budget so you have real numbers because otherwise you're going to be adjusting your numbers after the voters pass it right and so without the SU budget being passed in theory the SU board could then decide to increase the budget after the voters already passed a budget right and so practice is always that the SU board would adopt a formal budget and then you know what that assessment is so the voters can budget you know the voters can vote accordingly when we adjust can we do we have the ability as the board to reopen the budget if like all our budgets go down or you know the SU I mean I would certainly entertain that I mean I want us to be as interdependent as possible right I mean the idea of you approving this you know the concept to me is to ensure you have real numbers to go to your voters Lisa had a question but the one thing I would say is that because we were not the majority Sarah that didn't get budgets passed so that doesn't help us if the majority of this board is okay with where it's at or can live with it there was no help for us in August so that I would say that would be a tricky thing but go ahead Lisa I just wanted to say we've had a challenging few growarounds I mean two years ago we had to revote our budget it passed but then there was a petition to revote it and passed again so it's not always been easy and we have had deficits for the last few years and that's been a challenge what I really appreciate about this budget cycle is that we're able to see where there are savings it doesn't feel like it's just spending spending spending and I feel like I can defend this budget because we're we're we have a system at the supervisory union I'm sorry I'm not being terribly articulate we have systems at the supervisory union that have an eye toward where we can save money but still provide what we need to for our students and we're finally getting real answers to the questions that I feel like we've been asking for a long time I feel like I've had this gnawing feeling in my stomach that something wasn't right but nobody's been able to tell me what wasn't right until the last few months and I am so incredibly appreciative of that our white river unified district budget is looking pretty conservative and I really appreciate that and I appreciate this budget and how conservative it looks right now too and I also want to build our budget with real numbers I don't want to be building a budget based on I don't know based on something that feels a lot fluffier than what we have right now so that's just my two cents and I know that it's challenging I followed in the news you know how your budgets went and I have a lot of empathy for that too so it's just my my thoughts can I Lisa I would totally agree with everything you said the the point I'm trying you know is that it takes a huge amount of our budget out of our ability to out of our reach basically and it does the same for you too and you know I don't know what I mean I I don't have a crystal ball and I don't I don't know what's going to happen in March or whenever it does happen but I also have a problem that the only kids that get affected in ours in our district anyway when we have to cut the budget is the K through 8 kids that's what that's that's you know that's the only part we can we can we have any effect on at all because we don't have a high school because we tuition out and so I just like to have that door a little bit more open and if there's you know I mean and you know maybe there's no reason to and maybe maybe strafford's will pass and yours won't you know or or maybe everybody will pass and you know I don't know but that's the only thing that that that is in the back of my mind on that and I would totally echo everything you said about the quality of the budgets that are being put forward in the and the transparency and the accuracy and you know at least we're dealing with real numbers and we don't have you know fluff and or whatever you want to call it um so I totally agree with that and this this comment is not around that at all I hope you you hear that it's just around um you know it's eight percent or nine percent of our budget last year was was the only thing that we had any control on and that's not a lot and so if there's a big cut put out um you know if there's a big cut may or if the budget just goes down that's you know anyway I hear and echo what you're saying sir but I also hear what Lisa's saying and I know we need this number to know what to build into our budgets even like we can't build a budget without knowing the number um and I I appreciate the fbud budget that came to us a couple weeks ago it was um a better number than we've seen in a really long time um to to feel like taking to our voters although I don't think zero percent is going to pass this year the way I'm hearing people talking right now but um uh I mean I think you guys did a great job on what you gave us for numbers I'd like to make a motion okay go ahead that of two that of two budgets in the district go down that we open up the supervisor union budget for discussion I can support that second um it's not something we've ever done before how do people do I have a second to that yep I do okay do we have discussion on the motion um I've got a question so let's say let's say a board doesn't approve a budget they're operating on I think was that 85 of what the previously passed budget was does the SU assessment get taken does that affect the SU assessment or do they have to play the full SU assessment and they have 85 percent of what you know whatever their total budget was but they have to pay the full SU assessment yeah correct 87 percent yep um hi whoops hi this is Sue whoops I'm sorry I didn't know you're sorry about that keep going my other comment would be you know as far as our local districts go budgets go like once we've passed a budget you know we're not going to approve raising the budget because you know then we're basically just putting ourselves in a deficit but the SU like I mean this year we're not replacing a couple positions so we have some SU offers and theoretically if you haven't passed your budget yet and we project those savings you can decrease your SU assessment by that much without you know officially changing the budget or whatever because you know that there's going to be some projected savings that you can pass into your local budget you just you know the towns that have already passed the budget would get a surplus from a lower to SU assessment and the towns that didn't wouldn't so you know even if we've passed the budget you can still do this sorts of things I think you can still do this sort of thing in your local SU assessment budget perhaps does that make sense no I don't think we can do anything in our local SU assessment well I mean you basically what you're putting into your budget is what you are projecting your SU assessment to be right and so if we make that number smaller which I don't think there's any reason we couldn't in our local budget make the number smaller than what's past or larger than what's past it just gives you a deficit or a surplus at the end of the year if it's different from what actually comes in correct so we would be definitely spending well it's just a line in your budget I I mean I'd need to verify this but my guess is that there's nothing in statute that says that that number has to match what the past budget is like you can change it in your local budget it's stupid to unless you know that there's going to be savings or you know there's going to be excess spending so what I'm saying is you know let's say we have a past SU budget a whole bunch of deficit our board's going to don't get their board things passed Jamie finds like somebody there's a couple positions we don't fill at the SU office so we're projecting savings you could lower that SU assessment without having to go through voting an approved budget and then if the savings come through you don't wind up with the deficit at the end so that makes sense I mean I don't have any problem with opening if people are you know if if there's a situation where we want to revisit the budget after it's been passed I just don't know how that's going to work you know other than just like because the towns have already passed there the other towns have already passed their budgets and so their lines are fixed like their SU assessment lines are already fixed and if we then change the overall SU well I guess it's the same thing whatever okay well done SU had her hand up and then I'll go to you it's okay are you there SU yeah hi there Kathy sorry okay so my question is like it took us three times to pass the budget but we did so which budget are you referring to because I know Tumbridge is famous for failing the budget but then sometimes coming back and improving even more money than originally asked before so I think your motion has to include there what budget is finally passed I don't think you can just say the budget failed because sometimes it turns around and the next one passes and it's not that much different from the first one so I think it's I think it's a little short-sighted to say just because it fails two of them fail you know we have to go back to the SU I think it needs to have a lot more depth to it fails by a certain percentage the new budget that comes back is is you know lower by a certain percent because I do not think it's fair to say just because it didn't pass the first time good point Don well my point sort of echoes Susan that there could be other reasons that budgets don't pass other than monetary it could be political pressures it could be other assortment of causes that make it go down so I think it's something to question Don I couldn't agree with you more because if you watch the papers the F but a lot of it doesn't have to do with the budget it has to do with the merger and so is it fair to hold the rest of the SU accountable because it may not even be the budget as much as the at the feeling towards this merger and we're holding the whole SU hostage because of it so I've got to say I'm not I'm not in favor of the motion but just my my opinion okay do we want to amend the motion or do we want to vote on it as it is right now Kathy Carl's had his hand up for a few months oh sorry Carl I missed that that's okay um I was going to echo what Don said our budget was voted down um not for dollars um well it was voted down for dollars but it was voted down for dollars because we still had a high school building that that uh we hadn't managed we hadn't managed to uh make magically disappear um so it it really wasn't you know it really wasn't uh a vote because of just the overall cost of spending and as far as Andrew's point goes I'm not sure what kind of teeth there is but I think I mean and and what we're supposed to do in terms of the honesty or the the the the not honesty because I mean to see the sound that we're deliberately lying but the the the fluffing of the numbers so to speak because you know I I don't know what sort of penalties there are around you know I mean no town would ever have to go into the penalty they could just decide that magically their budget uh was below the the the penalty threshold and then just run a deficit and uh uh you know just just constantly avoid pain so I don't know what the what the whether there's any way that that uh you know the the the state or the AOE can can say that your budget's just off base but I'm not sure that you know I I'm not sure that we can really really play fast and loose and the last piece is just in my community I think that if I tried to present a a town budget that didn't have the uh you know a firm you know rock solid SU number in it my town and probably my voters would probably vote it down because they'd say we're we're giving them a blank check we we're just gonna we're gonna write a check and then we'll we'll pay whatever you know we'll pass a budget with just an estimate or a guesstimate or whatever of what the SU costs are rather than something that's fixed and and and you know we we hope the SU doesn't doesn't exceed yeah I I think I see both sides to this I think SU that we're going to be up against it a little more because of budget numbers this year just because of the second tax bill that went out people are really angry about the amount of the budget and it not going down but we do have a good budget that we have to present with F but I would I'm going to support the SU budget because Kathy on that I just wanted to say people are upset with the you know the new tax bill but do they recognize the fact it wasn't last year's taxes that they originally got billed for it was 87% of what the budget would have been so they're I think we need to have a yeah I think we need to have a signed conversation yeah yeah so so there's a lot that yeah and that's why I say I don't support this because there's a lot of stuff in each community that the SU budget should not be affected by all right guys so we have a motion on the table it's been seconded is there any other discussion any amendments to it would you read the amendment would you read the motion back please um bob can you repeat your motion or do you have it written down I don't have it written but um if two schools budget if two schools budgets fail will open up the central office budget for discussion if two sorry bob I'm taking minutes if two districts can I say district budgets instead of school budgets yeah that'll be good sure okay so you got that don I know this has been very hard I've been in districts where this has happened and people are really upset that they can't um you know that their own students in their own schools their budgets get cut and the central office doesn't and I this just gives us an opportunity to open up the budget and discuss it if it's cut and South Royalton Bethel we own 42% of that budget so bob your intent there is that in our budgets in like the the Stratford budget in your South Royalton budget would be a set figure for the SU budget or we'd actually pass the SU budget right and but what we would do is if this budget or if this motion passes is that if two or more towns right don't go then we reopen the budget to look and see if there's places where we can cut in the SU and special ed budget is that understanding I'm just the only interjection I'm going to have the biggest difference of the SU budget versus yours is I don't have a lot of budget lines in regards to supplies or things of that nature that I can cut so I can cut staff but even in special ed a big chunk of your SU budget is salary and benefits and my only worry about this and you can do it just know that my ability to fulfill what you're hoping is much less in the fact that we have two districts that vote in May and contracts will have been out so I just as you're voting I don't want folks to get frustrated come June you know when I'm coming to you saying this is what I can do and it's a bit limited because a big chunk of your SU assessment is salary and benefits and there's not other lines that I can steal things from yeah I think sorry I know we want to vote on this but I think that's part of my concern is that if this is only passed if it's passed then it's passed and allocated if it's passed contingent on everybody's budget passing then we can't allocate anything until everybody's budget pass I mean it feels like this is holding this budget hostage to everybody else past it's just I mean I I understand the principle of it and I like the idea that we are emboldened to reopen it if we need to but I don't know logistically if we can make it work and I do want to just point out that um our side does not vote until May yeah I think that um that our select board is meeting in town and I think if they allow us to I think F but is gonna possibly try to go that route too so um I heard one other district was talking about it so May might be so that being said that's more districts that are are gonna have um a late vote I would call the vote okay all right so I'll go down through the list um all those in favor say aye aye um hold on I'm trying to get my list up I you want me to help you Catherine yeah if you could Erin daughter hi Amy will no Andrew Jones what's that about my car Carl Gromby no Don Shaw no Lisa Floyd no Lisa McCrory Lisa M are you there upstairs yeah Megan Payne day Mika Tucker Michael Gray well my dad said it so I'll I'll say uh I'll support it yeah yeah hi Christmas is coming Michael right I know I know I hope that's new in the minutes okay it's recorded I vote in favor yes Stacey Peters uh May Susan K May Kathy Galuzzo yeah do we tally that folks yes Sarah Sarah didn't vote sorry I apologize Sarah I missed you I vote yes so the nays have one two three four five six the nays have one two three four five six seven eight and we have one abstention so the nays have it yeah I don't think Lisa's abstention counts because Andrew Bob and I are the voting members from why we're unified okay yep so um so eight May six yes so the nays have it so Kathy this is two I'd like to make them a motion to accept the SU budget budget as presented I'll second I'll second that is there any discussion on the motion did we want to uh did we did we get through the revenue piece of it I thought we just jump in and say let's show you guys the revenue okay all right go for it Jamie sorry but this should this motion stay on the table this is the part where I guess we can discuss it okay yeah we'll leave it under discussion was not seconded was it yes it was by by Lisa what okay Ray can you project or are you caught up in our side there he is wrong one right there you want to walk us with that the can you open the attachment that says WRVSU FY 21 22 SU assessment please Ray there we go thank you so the top section shows the historical information on your assessment for 19 2021 and the projected assessment for FY 22 which is based on the chart down below so you'll see the expenditure budget there is the 1,806,927 dollars we expect to receive our indirect rate if our percentage comes in we'll continue to get that at the 24,000 $2,000 in interest we do not have any direct grant revenue so that is zero you'll see the Medicaid revenue as we discussed earlier we have dropped down to 180,000 dollars and then we added in our EPSDT MAC funding which is another pool of money from Medicaid of 25,000 that we get each year which helps offset our expenditure to have the help hub at our schools and then we have our federal title funds of the 95,008 dollars and you'll see there we have and we didn't project it there for 2022 you'll see that we actually broke that down idea B is zero 48,000 dollars will be used from title two to offset the chief academic officer position 25,000 dollars for the pre-k and then a title one pre-k reading math intervention you'll see that's where we talked about that is fully funded by title one for a total assessment out to the districts of that 1,425,927 dollars and then the assessment percentages again are up top above that yeah tear on the figures for the Medicaid yep we originally had 318 in change and that's a negative 180 yep but that's not so that's not in the budget actually should 138 be over in that column we are budgeting 180,000 dollars of Medicaid revenue versus budgeting 318,000 of Medicaid revenue all right so it because it's got parentheses there's a change I guess I don't follow that that denunciate the revenue taking it it's a deduction from the expenditure up top so it's offsetting the 1.8 million so we have to subtract that to get what your assessment is so it's shown as a deduction from your the total budget so you take the 1,806,927 minus the 24,000 minus the 2,000 minus the 180,000 minus the 25,000 minus the 48,000 minus the 25,000 minus 77,000 to get us to that 1.425,927 as your assessment so those are deductions of offsetting revenue to the expenditure budget okay that make more sense Don no I'll have to meet with you okay it doesn't okay so we're subtracting it from the total so the total is the 1.8 right no I hear you I see it and then the formula is subtracting the 24,000 from the 1.8 so that's why it's in parentheses so we're deducting it right same thing for all those other lines the way I see it Don is those deductions are coming out before they come up with what they assess each of the talents for because if you look up at the top the 1.425 is what we're assessed right right right and it's just a formatting in my own head that's all I appreciate that feedback Don this looks a little different so I appreciate it and I can make that different in the future we can change that okay any other discussions on this I had a question aren't there some expenses that the districts pay directly to the SU basically on how they're getting used so you know I thought that the tech like our technology position was originally paid out of our local budget and I thought we moved to the SU budget but we were paying that it was Andrew that's a shift we're presenting right but I thought we were still basically yeah we're being billed back by those just based on what we're you know when we centralized technology we wanted the flexibility to be the maneuver them all around it wasn't going to be a direct bill back okay so that would just be assessed out in your SU assessment okay um we're on the revenue are the direct to bill back things though and then there's a sum that I've seen on the um warrants that come out that you know we're paying that well right because we used to we used to build back directly technology we're we're saying we want to assess it out not build back directly this was part of anything that is built back directly now like I know yes transportation will continue to be so we get the bill from Butler's bus for home to school transportation we pay that at the SU based on the fact that transportation needed to be centralized transportation is however still budgeted locally as an assessment in your local budgets so you will see every month continuing moving forward where you are paying back the supervisory union for your home to school transportation same thing so any of those just don't show up in this budget they're not in the SU that's still on your local budget the transportation assessment one of the other billback line items that you'll continue to see is the canon lease and that's because they write one contract for the canon lease and it comes to the SU the SU pays it and then we bill you back for the specific canon equipments that you have at each of your locations that's budgeted for locally it's built against that local expenditure when the billback is processed so those two are the big ones that you will continue to see on your billbacks on your monthly warrants so it says it's in that from the SU but basically it's only budgeted it's not doesn't show up in these SU budgets no those are locally budgeted items okay thanks that clears it up yeah all right anything else guys anything else for Jamie or Tara that they want to include I want to show you guys the SPED side of the revenue okay Ray if you can put up the one it's titled WRVSU FY 21-22 SPED assessment thank you and then also let's look at this one is actually two separate pages so let's look at the SPED budget first Ray page seven not sure I'm getting that reference um WV WRVSU FY 21-22 SPED budget 12-16-20 and then if you could go to page seven it says special education revenue Tara how is this one allocated back it looks like the percentages are different yep special education is based on usage the ADM average daily membership where your SU assessment is based on an average of the average daily membership and enrollment that was something that was agreed upon by the SU board I believe Don or Kathy correct me if I'm wrong I want to say 2015 I would say yes about that when we merged when we became the new SU I think is when that was agreed upon on how your assessments would be calculated and I thought there's a requirement that we're supposed to re-up that agreement every year but I'm not sure that that's been done I do not know the answer to that Don I think that if I recall um and I think that was uh that was when we were doing that kind of phase in because the percentages uh uh varied for some of the towns you know what they what they were suddenly being assessed changed a bunch um so I think like the first couple years of that we we we revisited it as we tried to as we tried to balance or to ease that that transition for a couple districts I that's how I remember it Carl all right go ahead Tara so on the special education revenue you'll see that we have the expenditure reimbursement which is the special education report that we submit we get 56.35 percent of that for eligible expenses so that number is gone from 3.4 to 3.3 million extraordinary reimbursement is based on the chart that follows on the lower pages we have 340,000 that we can use as offsetting revenue our block grant is the number that's provided to us through the agency of education as well as the local share contribution of the block grant and then we have our idea of the basic flow through as well as the idea of the preschool and then our triple e revenue are all offsetting and then the Medicaid revenue that we discussed when we were looking at the current revenue and expenditure report that we offset for our Medicaid clerks salary so that is total su special education revenues of 5.482079 which leaves the member town assessment of two million six hundred twenty eight thousand six hundred and seventy two dollars which you'll see is a small decrease from last year of a hundred and sixty eight thousand seven hundred and twelve dollars so then that takes us if you want to go to the assessment page now Ray that you originally had open this shows the recalculated special education assessment and what each of your district's assessments will be and then it broken down by the monthly assessment fee so the special that first one the change of fifty nine thousand seven six two and special bad for F bud I don't know what that goes to it sorry that goes to what's in the FY 21 that part of the chart didn't print out this versus what your current assessment is no I I understand that but I'm seeing decreases there is that like the 20.5 percent is that F buds yes so if you look at the chart below you can see sorry I'm pointing at my screen F buds percentage is 20.5 G HUDs is 5.5 our suds is the 10.8 Sharon's is the 17.7 strafford's is 10.3 and reds is 35.2 so the upper chart is just showing the difference between what you're paying today and what your projection is for FY 22 nice so even though the central office assessment has gone up as a result of the difference in revenues the special education assessment is going down as our projection so the net effect is a reduction why is Sharon's not because their percentage changed in the assessment it's based on yes their average daily membership and enrollment so their percentages shifted because they've grown yep okay any more discussion anything else Tara that's sorry I muted myself that's all I have unless you have questions right questions guys all right we do have a motion and a second wait Kathy guys say one thing sure it's Mike sorry the only thing I would say is I don't have any problems with this budget I just like hearing you know from earlier motions and people talking about not possibly passing their budgets so one thing I would say is since I've been in the board the supervisor I know where we are I've heard some complaints about past budgets and I agree with them but I've also been there and watched us pretty blindly I think past budgets in the past so I don't think we can throw all the blame off the boards so one thing I would just say is as you're worried about it like now is the time like I think I've heard people say this is a pretty fair budget and then I agree it is but if you're worried about that stuff like I know you don't want to be on here all night now is the time to tell Jamie to tell the office like if there's something that we want that we if you don't think it's sustainable we need to tell them now and not be here next year complaining if I'm if you guys understand what I'm saying I guess I just I don't know I sat there last year and that budget that went through probably should never and I think Andrew was the only one who had who brought a question about it last year I believe all the rest of us sat there and said and just agreed with everything and passed it so there is some blame on us for why that budget was the log in for last year and so I just I would just caution everybody as you look at it if you feel like you want to support it but you think it needs to be lower it needs to be said tonight who's on saying thank you Mike any other discussion guys are we ready to call the vote okay calling the vote um all those in favor say aye aye aye aye do we want to go down roll call yeah we should do roll call sorry guys I made that a little confusing I'll keep it down Aaron Aaron I Amy I Andrew I I Carl I Don I Lisa I Megan Payne I Mika Tucker I Michael Gray I Robert Gray I Sarah Root I I Stacey Peters I Susan Kay I Kathy Galuzzo I well I thank you but I want to say I really thoroughly appreciate the candid feedback please you forgot Sarah again no I said Sarah we got Sarah so we voted unanimously unanimously yes go ahead Jamie no I just wanted to say thank you and you know I looking for continued feedback on the way we're trying to present stuff like Don your candid feedback is helpful and want to try to make this user friendly for you and the community so the more you can give Tara and the business office feedback on how we're trying to present things the better because we are trying to make certain it's user friendly for you but also our community so thank you you know it would be helpful for me I'm one of those um older people who likes I like it on paper so when you're giving when you're doing a presentation like this it's really it doesn't I like to have it in front of me so I can flip back and forth so if you sent this out before and I could print it then I would have it in this meeting I and I could it could it's easier for me to follow and and you know that maybe they didn't work for everybody but that would really work for me it was in the pack it was sent last Thursday Sarah but maybe we should pdf yeah I didn't I didn't see this part in the packet but that may be my fault too um or that is my fault but yeah okay thanks well I'm wondering if it's easy if we maybe pdf the important pages or something that's helpful it's just me I mean it's who I am it's what I like how I like to it's how I process information can I just make a quick comment please Stacey are you doing the minutes so it's very important that the dollar amounts for the central office and the special education budget are included in the minutes we got dinged in our audit because that was not done in previous years so if you need me to get you numbers or anything let me know because we need to make sure that that's in the actual minutes does that need to be in with the motion it does okay yeah if you can send that to me Tara just so that I can copy and paste and not have to wear that operator error that would be the best I will write that up and send it to you thank you so much another point of subject Kathy um earlier tonight we had a roll call vote and evidently there was a member that wasn't a voting member that we asked to vote is there any way that we can get a differentiation of who has the right to vote and who hasn't is that or is that not germane to these calls um we haven't had I mean normally we haven't had that done um I think Jamie asked her an error one person but yes we should make sure we know who are voting okay um what else do we have different attendance evaluation tool did everybody receive the survey did everybody do the survey well that would be the next question um if if you if somebody on here has not received the survey please let us know um for board members and please get that filled out as everybody working on it or have it completed at this point and you don't have to answer that that can be rhetorical let's just be saying please get them done um they're important and will be helpful for Jamie and us going forward all right um we already approved the budget is there any other business um the only thing I would say is there's is talk I don't know if it's happening in other districts I mentioned it earlier there is talk about possibly holding the votes in towns I know the tumbridge select board is going to have a conversation tomorrow night and decide um I know that in the state they're talking about making it available to vote later hold town meeting day a different day so that you can do it in person um maybe if towns are deciding we can kind of get together and talk about trying to do that in the same time frame um so that that we're not all over the place I know um that having a in-person vote in March would probably likely impossible so for those who want to meet in person it will be helpful if we could push it out the secretary of state is saying you can if you do a march meeting you cannot do it in person you have to do a virtual meeting 10 days prior to within 10 days of the meeting and it has to be or within and then you have to do an Australian ballot and you have to vote to move to Australian ballot on that they also don't think they'll change the date until the 15th when they come into session and the people who want to run for off for for school board need to have their it doesn't have it's a petition but you don't have to have signatures on it it's due into the town clerk on the court team so it's due before that so the times are are uh off good to know I had a that was going to be my one issue of the other Kathy I meant to mention it during my report has the su in the past like what have we done in regards to letting folks know that we had a vacancy on the board has there been a process for that in each district has the su ever communicated that out in the local paper is that anything folks want to think about doing has to be done now because it's well no I know I mean that I would that's what I was going to ask I just and I think there's a different type of year your town clerks and things are reaching out a lot more looking for assistance in education I didn't know if you wanted me to if we wanted to just use local front porch firms like I didn't know what you guys were we could put out a warning um I was just looking for some direction from you on how I could be helpful so Jamie typically it goes on an F bud in Tumbridge and Chelsea it goes on our warning that we have enough that we have an opening that's where we let people know um but that because Kathy I'm going to interrupt you with the warning we have to with Australian ballot let folks know who's running great so that's different what we're used to that's why I'm asking that question we've run an ad before on the Bethel and Royalton pages in the Herald um just to let people know um and to let them know that they can reach out if they need help with the process and they want to run okay um we typically don't because we're a tiny district and don't have the extra budget but I wonder if all of us pooling together might want to post the openings in our respective districts as one um as one ad or as one promotion well and I think that we also have like a Facebook presence we also have from porch forum so there are things that places where people have started looking for information over time um which are free and also um we I think we could use so I agree that that one ad but then also utilizing those social media posts would be helpful and in the past the leaving member has always tried to find someone that was interested so that it wasn't making yeah another point that I'd like to just point just to mention that if everybody's going to be going later in the year voting budgets and things that's going to create a havoc with our contracts in our timing so just wanted to throw that out there I'm going back to the vacancies in strafford we we it's always been a floor vote so we've always recruited people not we but somebody in town has always recruited somebody at the meeting we've never put the onus of the person who's leaving who's who's going off for them to find it and there've been years when board members have actively tried to find people and also years when it was probably inappropriate for board members to try to do it and you let somebody else in the community do that so it didn't look like you were fixing the board strafford will probably put something on the listserv we have a meeting a joint meeting with the select board after christmas where I think we'll make that decision and we'll my guess is it will be something we'll go out onto the strafford listserv to about it so I you know I can let you know after that if we need your help jamie but maybe what we'll leave it as is that you'll reach out to me if you need help I just I don't want you to think that I'm just blanking on it it's on my radar and I'm happy to do whatever you need I'm just looking for some direction that's all I could go ahead and plan on using we could put that under your board tab even on the website I could at least communicate that way if that's helpful in regards to what we know is upcoming but at least there's some information out there so if you just give me some direction on what you need I'm happy to help you with it okay thank you any other business jamie have executive session personnel on here do you need an executive session we do not wait carl's going to hand up yeah no I wanted to just follow up on that superintendent evaluation because there was I remember there being Kerry having said to deadline out about that and so I wanted to let everyone know that the vspca or the Vermont school boards association expects us to have completed that document by the 28th of December so for for all of you that that like me have somewhat procrastinated I wanted to make sure we all heard that hard that hard deadline that the vspas asked us which is to complete that survey by the 28th thank you carl all right all right so um do I have a motion is there anyone on that cannot be we're going to go into it so I just need I need you guys I'd like you to entertain a motion to go into executive session personnel and they'll invite in the so moved second our next meeting is you came out of executive session when no action taken correct at nine yep we're out of executive session no action taken you got that's daisy next meeting day is monday january 25th is that a full board or an executive board we haven't had an executive board I mean you guys have been getting good turnout for your full board but we had a full board business to do I'm fine with an executive board based on what we have on the you know upcoming stuff but that's a new role yeah I we haven't had an executive board it's up to you guys um well the only the only business out of this meeting is to further the superintendent's evaluation I think I don't know of any other business ratification of this of the support staff contract oh yeah possible ratification so thank you yep yep yes good point we should do a full board then jamie it's full board and then just a reminder that we may have to do a special meeting for announced tuition rates for those of you who meet after the 15th of january because that is the deadline for the announced tuition to be set before the january okay okay essentially clear your calendars the month of january's budgets tuition you name it we're doing it in the town books we're all going to be working on those together all right so we can get that motion to adjourn who would like to adjourn second all right thank you everybody and I hope you all have a very happy new year see you on the other side