 Good evening and welcome. I'm Diane Meyerhoff host for tonight's Burlington School budget presentation part of channel 17's ongoing town meeting coverage Tonight show is being aired live on channel 17 and streamed live on YouTube. We welcome your comments and questions Please join the conversation at 8 6 2 3 9 6 6 tonight. I'm joined by the Burlington school superintendent y'all oh bang Thank you so much for coming out. We appreciate it. Thank you. And it's a busy time for you all So tell us what do voters need to know about the school budget this year? Oh, they need to know everything We've got so many fabulous things in store for our community in terms of Bringing enhancements to our system. So I'd love to share that with you But first I want to start off by look at the graphic one of the things that I've been trying to do is thank The people of Burlington. I mean we've had some really good support over the last several years in terms of our budgets and our bonds so people realize that we've got a great system and that they need to invest it to continue to move forward and the most significant thing that's happened most recently was the The bond around the high school big. So I wanted to say a big. Thank you On behalf of our students and our future students around the the high school the high school bond and So I wanted to share that with people and things are in the works a lot of work is happening already a lot of meetings November no, I was almost I wondered if there was much you could report in that short period of time. Yeah, well, we've had we've we've established a number of working committee and oversight committees and in correlation with the city as well, too And we're in a design stage. So there has been consultation with different staffing groups different Community groups and try to gather information terms that they do the final design work So we're well on our way in terms of getting so we're excited about that and we want I kind of wanted to share that with everyone that thank you so much for supporting our students and Look forward to the progress on that and look forward to having that big day when we have the tour if everyone can come in and see 21st century learning happening in Burlington, and that's a few years off. I would imagine that's a couple years. Yeah, yeah So tell us what we need to know about the budget this year. All right, so let me I've got some slides that I'm gonna share. So I'm not gonna go through the entire slide But I'll share a little bit with you, but you know what? Maybe I should start with the what people really want to know first Just about the impact the tax impact the dollars and things like that So maybe if I could have my technicians put up the the budget overview slide document and There it is. Oh perfect Well, so you can see if hopefully you can see that clearly there is There's an outline in terms of what our budget looks like. So we started with the 85 million and General when we had that include general fund cost of 1.8. We had debt service So a debt service is what we pay sort of like a mortgage fees for our capital needs so we had some capital needs in terms of deferred maintenance of our buildings and of course the high school bond So that's already embedded into the budget. So people don't need to worry that okay We're gonna get hit twice for that. It's in our budget already, right already. So a subtotal comes to 87 million dollars We've had some new investments So I'll have an opportunity to share with you some of the new investments and really excited about that And then always every year we do an analysis in terms of trying to be cost effective Like what can we kind of reduce and what can we kind of maybe delay and use those dollars to put into investments to Support schools. So we were able to target non-instructional Areas can we want to ensure that the the direct supports the students in the classrooms were not touched So we were able to find some some areas that we believe that we were able to reduce for this year Which was like point eight million dollars, which is great So we can put that back into the pile for investments. And so that gives us an overall total of 88 million points eighty eight point seven million dollars for our budget so the increase to our budget is just a little over four percent and But the tax impact what people really want to know is a four point eight six percent right and so if you look back the last several years last year actually we came forward and we were gonna have a tax impact of eight percent But in actual reality it came out to be three point three two percent Okay, so what so what happens is even though we've gotten the variables from the agency of education and we put the estimates forward Things happen over the course of time. So the legislature might make some changes some of the variable numbers change So by June July You get a different number and so people that's significantly different. It's significantly different. Yeah So we're thinking oh my goodness We have to kind of let people know that they need to invest for eight percent people did but but in actual reality They didn't have to pay that this year We're getting some added value because of the variable numbers. We're able to increase our budget by the four point three six Which is a good amount, but we're paying less So if I were to do the analysis and show you the increases over the last few years We paid a lot more for a little for a dollar yield for this year because of numbers so we're gonna get some really good value for what we're spending this year and if you if you want to go on to our website or Go on to the budget. You can see some more details some of the things I know people are interested about is the tax impact for a common homestead at 250,000 you'll be paying to 225 $225 of a tax increase over the year and those those who are income sensitive at $50,000 will be $5 $5 that's significantly different. That's significant. Yeah, that's quite significant. So yeah, so that's where we're at and that gives you a little bit of breakdown you can always go to our budget website and get more detail and Before I forget actually we just released Just yesterday a budget document which has details around the budget in more detail And it has a detailed line item budget Which has pages and pages of different line items and and what it correlates to and what we're spending and people can See that and you can look back and see the previous years as well To if you want to spend some time doing that maybe right if you want to do a deep dive I just give folks the the website address. Oh, okay BSDVT.org Right slash district slash budget if you want to go directly there All right, you can go to the site and then just go down the menu and pick budget and you'll get to the budget site Great good. That'll give you access to that. So that gives you a little bit of analysis around the numbers people Want to know about the numbers? so let me switch to the The contextual pieces in terms of what I think it's gonna enhance our district right and if I would I don't know if you can I'll pull up the slides a little bit Okay, now we've got about 50 slides here. We're not gonna go through all them Okay, I'm gonna hide out a few and then we'll she talks really fast. Yeah I'm a quick talker. We're not that quick and we will go to the single sheet that'll give us Some of the pieces so, you know, one of the things when we start with the budget We do look at our mission and vision statement and try to Align the work we do with our mission vision as well as our strategic plan If so every year we do that and we relate the budget to that piece This is just a timeline of when we started, you know Starts in October where we really kind of starts earlier internally because we have to do all the work and Auditors do the work from last year and then kind of gives us information in terms of how we can move forward in terms of the differences there The budget landscape some of the challenges that That we have to consider and develop in the budget so some structural budget challenges Rising wage benefits and costs with labor negotiations on certain legislative environments So the one of the significant things in the last previous years We've had legislation come in that had an impact on our budget So if you recall one year, there was a legislation piece that Restricted us from spending at a certain amount and every time we spend over that certain amount. We paid twice for it So that was really difficult for us, right? And there was a small increase and we and we had needs so those were the challenges in terms of trying to find the balance and cost and then The subsequent year there was the health care piece. So they said, okay, Brownton you you to contribute to the health care We're gonna withdraw another 800, you know thousand dollars and next year we're gonna do fire So we've had some sort of legislative impact this year. We don't So that's what still too early or we know for sure. Yeah, you know, you never know, right? Yeah, you never know but I'm you know, I'm hopeful that nothing's gonna happen We and we've been kind of pushing that if you're gonna have any sort of legislative Budget changes don't do it in midstream once we've ready passed the budget at the school's level At least do it much sooner and we've had that in the past where we have to go back and Make changes, right? So Move on a little bit. So we go through our budget process. It's a bottom-up kind of budget So we start with staff input and our school leaders bring forward information or our system leaders And then we do community consultations and we have some targeted meetings as well too we have group meetings with Special ed parents we have meetings with EL parents and do Multi sort of language groupings and try to get some contextual and then those are really fascinating because you know what you get some Really good feedback from them and you'll find that there's a lot of commonality What parents are saying but yet sometimes there's a few little nuggets that you wouldn't consider you go Oh, wow, we didn't even think about that. That's something that or well, you know I remember one time they were talking about cost savings, right? And often we do that that's supposed the most boring part of usually the consultations because people usually don't have A lot of suggestions around that they usually talk about You know what they want to add sure well, I guess that's the human condition Yeah, but you know my job is to kind of look at okay What do we need to reduce or change and from one of our groups? They said you know what stops? There was some communications that were happening. There was a lot of paper waste So we're saying we don't need to have That paper that communication on paper because we get it from this source and not only that We're compounding because we were translating like 10 different languages. So we're multiplying. So that's a cost, right? So you can take that a little bit of money and use it for something else because they were already saying where we get this Information from this source. You don't need it. So that was something we didn't really think about you thought you're being being helpful, right? We thought we're being helpful, but it was actually taking away resources that we could use so here's some examples of some of our Forms and then so out of the consultations you can look at this slide here. These are some of the themes That came from our community around Things that they wish we could improve on or enhance No, not really, you know if you look by year for year there some of them are pretty consistent You know you get some little detail things but pretty much people kind of relate to what they're experienced in their schools and Consistent mostly like you know, you can see on here teachers and other Social supports and supports to direct direct instruction and those type of things and usually last year and this year when we actually did the raw kind of Calculations of it was like over eight million dollars. We know we can't get there, right? But I mean it's a start, right? It gives us that opportunity to to look at that So I'm gonna flash forward a little bit here This shows some normal breakdowns So I wanted to share this because as I said earlier we we review our mission and vision statement And we look at our strategic plan But another layer that we added on this year is working with our staff and our school board We did a lot of sessions on what the priorities should be and try to cluster it and so through those Analysis these were days of meetings. We came up with these areas around early learning Opportunities for higher achievers restorative practices achievement gaps social motion learning and student centered So everything that we invested in had to align with these These goals so it wasn't just okay the superintendent thinks that's really a great idea Might be a good idea, right? But it had to kind of fit into one of these these pieces right so Yeah, and so this is another review of What we did in terms of aligning and the other piece that I didn't mention often in our budget There are a lot of state and federal mandates and compliance pieces that you know some things we have to do That we don't want to do and some things might want to and some things we do that we really believe in because it's like supportive for For our system, but that that's a piece that you know often people forget that no we have to do that So we have to budget for whether you think it's valuable or not. It's a compliance piece. So So that gives you a little bit and I could share if you like some of the Different items. Yes, please. Yeah, tell us what what what what are our two hundred twenty five dollars potentially a year So probably I'm wondering what's the easiest way to have a list. Yeah, which is easy to go through but I could do it through some of the slides here and that would Give us but you know what in the interest of time? Yeah, why don't I do? the Well, I'll start here and then I'll move to this so one of the areas so strategic plan We have we call them the big rocks inclusive teaching and learning equitable climate culture and sustainable finds facilities Those are the three big rocks. Okay, then we have little priorities underneath under this pebbles Yes, you've been following our work. All right, you know about the pebbles. All right, and then there's little sands and green All right, um inclusive teaching and learning One of the areas we started with is one of our focuses In this year and next year as well, too, is around the achievement gap closing achievement gap by raising the bar so that was a priority so out of that we did some analysis and This is what has come forward around some supports for proficiency based learning advisory coordination EL teachers At our high schools, we wanted to offer more options for our students now We've consistently offered enough staffing to accommodate the courses, but Our students want more options. And so we shifted about two years ago to a student needs base Scheduling we're in the past was just like okay. What courses do we want to offer now? We've kind of start with the eighth graders incoming and say, okay, what are you interested in well? What would engage you definitely feels a little upside down. Yeah, what would you do? Yeah, yeah We're engaged and then try to build the courses from that So this will give the high school a little more flexibility to add some of those courses and that hits both ends, right? So some of it will be around remedial kind of stuff and some will be around enrichment and enhancement pieces and of course We've got a a strategy around interventions, right? Supporting students who might be in the gap and so adding those specialty teachers is gonna be beneficial So that's one of our priorities around the achievement gap and it falls under this in this particular one Here early learning. We know that when you spend one dollar At the early ages gives you ten dollars yields ten dollars at the higher ages. So we've kind of make the shift I would say a couple years ago when we did the analysis we were spending more money at the top end and at the bottom end So we're slowly making that shift. That's nine. Yeah, so you can see the we've heard we've heard lots of conversations around paraprofessionals, but and So we thought you know the best place to kind of invest that and we heard from our kindergartners that you know They're so little but they need lots of many hands, right? You know just putting on those snowsuits that you love to have an exchange So we've come up with a strategy to sort of implement over multi years So that's the other thing we've done now is try to plan our budget over a multi-year approach Even though the budget cycles annually, but I believe if we have a multi-year approach We can kind of look ahead and say this is where we're going and this year We're going to be able to do nine make sure you might be able to do four more and then eventually like every class has it You know, so that's the the strategy without taxing our community too much and have a Gradual increase that supports you said perhaps someone someone helping in every class. How many classes are there? How many classes can take our classes? I believe we have about 15 classes. Okay, so nine is significant. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah Yeah, so we're almost there. We should be able to get it done phonics, that's this professional development that we want to Continue to support our teachers in having those strategies Move along look social emotional learning. This is a part that came up. We did a must survey last year looking at our climate data and social emotional came up as the most singular Critical issue okay from our from our staff and from our community as well, too So we we knew that we needed to invest Into social work and guidance counselors and in these type of things that would support the social emotional So I'm the inclusive teaching learning. We've we've honored that priority as well, too And then there were a couple things that kind of fell off that didn't fit the priority But the board felt that there were sort of intrinsic little pieces that needed support So here's a good example. We've got in one of our middle schools a really robust band Program and there's a lot of attraction to be in there So we wanted to kind of encourage that and to be able to provide some support So we're adding a band paraprofessional in there didn't fit one of our categories But it's the need it's sort of an enrichment in terms of an area that's growing really well And we want to be able to sustain that as well, too And also one of the pieces here you can see it's ultimate frizzy and bowling That wasn't a major priority But in the interest of equity because one of the things we're looking at is that the activity and participation rates, right? So activities like ultimate frizzy and bowling you can have pretty much insurmountable Students participate as opposed to the basketball team where there's only 12 kids whatever so you can have many kids many students Be involved in these activities and for you know, 19,000. That's a great value to get sure engage many any students So can one pick play ultimate Frisbee Frisbee on campus at Burlington High School for instance you can do that Okay, so you can you just need a field you see some space Yeah, they currently play now, so The Ecclidwell climate and culture so under the inclusive teaching and learning that the achievement got party We have a unique program in Burlington called parent University where we offer courses to parents and For the most part is targeted at our new American parents and we've had last year went through graduation I think it was about 50 graduates. Yeah, it's really it's really popular Yeah, so we wanted to kind of support that because we know closing the achievement gap connecting with parents and having parents involved in school Is an indicator of success? So we made some investment tell me what what is the curriculum like? Oh excellent. Well, we Fortunate for us. We get many people in the community that volunteer their time from professors to business people that come in and offer a range of things from Helping understanding things around English or even helping how you help students at home to their own personal You know could be cooking or something But it's all educational in terms of preparing them to be positive citizens and good models for their students In our schools as well too, and it's quite popular I think it's quite a bit of a social thing too, right people like to come because then they get to connect with their friends and talk and and share challenges and successes as well So it's really cool. We'll invite you to the graduation. I would love to come. Please do And I'm sure it's open to any viewers who'd like to open to any viewers. Yes, of course We'd love to have you and we actually get really good representation. We get you know, I Think one year we had the Secretary of Education attend We've got we've got city counselors got all all kinds of people want to place to be seen apparently Then I want my invitation all the cool kids are hanging out there So the other party around the early learning party So we wanted to specifically Add resources at the early ages for round EL so we thought we could put some attention to that And that would be great the yeah, we probably should say what EL is. Yes English language And I would say most people probably know this ELL or ESL Yes, I was a program ELL is the English language learners, but the federal Moniker now is EL English learners English learners. So yeah, just so everybody Case anyone doesn't know yeah, I'm gonna talk about this item quick in north-south bus. This really sort of a Equity of access piece for us. So we had a bus when we have Trying to distribute our students through our elementary schools going from some the south To the north, but we didn't have one go in the north the south So we can only allocate students at certain places or if you could drive your child there then you could But now we're gonna have this bus that gives us an opportunity to balance and have more choice So that's we're looking forward to that as well Um Restorative practices you've met many people in the community might have heard about restorative practices And we're a restorative practice of districts. So we're trying to embed that into everything we do We'll talk a little bit. I know restorative justice. I don't know if that's a similar. Yeah. Yes talk about the difference Excellent. Excellent. Yes restorative justice I like to talk about restorative practices as opposed to Justice because justice is seems more punitive and sort of judicial where practices are series of actions or approaches that Seems to heal harm and be inclusive around restoring community and culture, right? And I know in some of our communities when you hear the word justice, they think just us. Ah Interesting. Okay. So So I said we need to kind of talk about restorative practices, right? So justice is and you'll see in the judicial system and in the In the police areas they use restorative justice because it's through the justice system That's where but it's actually the roots are in Native American Traditions, right? And so we're engaging in those practices and we've seen some some gains for us, right? Just even from our staff and from our students. We've seen our suspension rates go down We've seen more collaboration between students and it's a work in progress So we have to invest in embedding these practices with our with our students in our staff So it's it's it can be an intervention, but it can also be a culture Yeah, it's really a culture that we're trying to build really right there are intervention strategies to it But we're trying to build a restorative practices culture where we can you know sit down and talk about And you go to some of our classrooms there We have some teachers that are really well on their way. They'll have one of the strategies is a circle they have a circle with their students every day and they The person may prompt with a question and they have the and then they start the conversations and then get into the lesson It could be any question. They could be prompting or it could be just be hey It was a snow day yesterday. How did you enjoy that? What happened? And it kind of gets into the different conversations, but it's exciting Another thing we can invite you to come all right I'm just gonna spend all my time Under the social-emotional the special education And behavior management is an area that We're kingly aware of and our administrators have been asking for some supports so we're gonna increase supports around that as well too and then Loss in this area unified sports right for adaptive physical Sports and things like that. We you know, it's really funny. We've never formally kind of invested dollars into Unified sports in the past and we did the last two years to one of our departments We said we need to put it up front and let people know that this is something we value and we're gonna support it All right, and then I won't talk to well I'm actually towards the end because I started with the with the bond stuff and this sustainable finance and facility is about The capital plan that we have that we did a bond two years ago And then we this year we were able to get the bond for the high school So that's embedded in the budget But I did did the thank you to everyone around the high school But the one piece that we did add under this line item besides the the big capital project is security system design So in this day and age in our schools security is a major issue And so we don't want to neglect that we want to be preventive as opposed to proactive So we've been doing some analysis over the last few years in terms of our procedures and processes But one of the things that we want to do is a design System for all our schools so we can be connected and write the right communications in the right Physical equipment features to do that. So that's not a one-time cost to for that for that design piece And then we have to implement it and I'm sure that's another yeah, that sounds like they could get kind of costly Yeah, well, we do have old buildings. That's why we have the capital plan already So we've got that address. So this is good timing to as we do some repairs we can kind of But then what one of the pieces we were sharing a year ago was that the high school our 9-1-1 panel was ineffective And that really yeah, so that's that's a huge safety as if there was a call And we wouldn't know where to go in the building or what to deal with it, right? So those are kinds of things that we're trying to correct So that's it that gives you a quick overview. I know there was a mouthful, but you can see there's a lot of good Investments and one of the things I would say is that what we focused on increase teacher involvement Direct instruction to students around the social-emotional pieces and closing the achievement gap while raising the bar and Feeling pretty good that this year we get to add resources to the system It's more fun. It's more fun. Oh my goodness. It's great. Let's do it every year. Keep doing it. Well, maybe That's Well, it's great that you found some savings as well And I didn't actually ask you where the savings came from but it sounded to me like you were talking about they were is it fair to Say non-instructional It's like stuff through like through transportation and utilities and those kind of areas that we budget over for last three years We can see a trend that hey, I think we can take some dollars off of that And we'll review it again next year right and hopefully if we're off the mark We'll have to adjust but I think we've been pretty good that we've had four consecutive surplus budgets So we've been able to clean up the financial pieces and we're pretty stable So we're pretty confident about the predictions that that we make and we want people to know that When they go out to vote and support what we're trying to deliver Yeah, and I think that is really important because I don't think everyone realizes just how much things change that you start So early you have our vote and then you have the state sort of Reconfigures things according to a larger plan that maybe we don't even understand So so and that does and I think that's really interesting that that the 8% went to 4 or whatever People wouldn't even think about that. No, and how would you know how would you know? This isn't like in July you call everybody. It's a hey by the way, although. I'm sure you would like to do that I would love to change the whole process if I could yeah Yeah Let's do the vote in June and then get all the numbers and they would we would actually have a real number Yeah, but yeah, it's not the way with the work No, it's not gonna work that way. No, but it sounds like you've got it down in terms of predicting Yeah, we're trying to get that yeah, but it sounds better to go down and go up right good point Oh, yeah that they would notice Well, thank you so much for joining me tonight I really enjoyed it and I appreciate all the information and we should just let everybody know what's coming up So they should stay tuned of course to channel 17 because we have candidate forums We have in-depth presentations of school budgets and municipal budgets So we hope you'll stay tuned for that got a couple more weeks left before town meeting And of course to vote on Tuesday March 5th town meeting day and I'm watch our live results show I will be here at 7 o'clock so you can find out if the budget passed and you keep you're keeping your fingers crossed And also the thing I always forget to do is tell people they can vote early They can go down to City Hall and vote anytime that they're open. I believe yeah, they had ballots by now We had this whole discussion, but I believe they have up their ballots ready So you can vote at your own convenience, although I find it particularly fun to come out on time in the day But you know it's an event right it's it is it's a social event Get to see everybody and that's right. That's right. So so we hope that you will indeed vote on either on Tuesday March 5th or in advance And we are so glad you all joined us tonight, and thank you superintendent for joining us as well And we'll see you soon. Good night