**Board of Education Regular Meeting 9/14/2026 — Transcript & Summary | SozAI**
Source: https://sozai.app/transcript/board-education-regular-meeting-2026/

RPS Board of Education meeting covers summer programs, volunteer recognition, ESY services, and school year start updates.

## Key Takeaways

- Summer programs and volunteer efforts are vital to student success and community engagement.
- Special education services through ESY are well-coordinated and provide comprehensive support.
- The district embraces a unified approach under the 'One RPS' theme to overcome challenges.
- Board retreat outcomes aim to enhance meeting efficiency and respect stakeholders' time.
- Transparency and accountability remain priorities in district governance and budgeting.

## What the video covers

- The meeting opened with the pledge of allegiance and a welcome to the new school year.
- Corey Gillette highlighted the summer programs including Bridge, Jumpstart, and RHS Summer Academy.
- Recognition was given to exceptional volunteers supporting the Forever Summerbridge program.
- Extended School Year (ESY) special education services were praised for their organization and impact.
- The theme 'One RPS' was emphasized, highlighting district-wide collaboration during a power outage.
- Board members reflected on a productive retreat aimed at improving meeting efficiency.
- Updates on budget, athletics, and operational matters were discussed in later parts of the meeting.
- The meeting included public comment opportunities and reports from board members.
- Focus on transparency, accountability, and student-centered discussions was reiterated.
- Capital expenditure and facilities improvements were reviewed with a holistic approach.

## Chapters

1. 00:00 Meeting Opening and Pledge of Allegiance
2. 11:47 Student Showcase and Summer Programs Overview
3. 22:28 Volunteer Recognition for Forever Summerbridge
4. 29:00 Extended School Year Program Highlights
5. 35:00 One RPS Theme and District Collaboration
6. 42:15 Board Retreat Reflections and Meeting Efficiency
7. 50:08 Board Reports and Public Comment Introduction
8. 62:16 Budget, Athletics, and Operational Updates
9. 73:58 Transparency, Accountability, and Student Focus
10. 80:15 Capital Expenditure and Facilities Planning

Answers

## Questions about this video

What summer programs were highlighted during the meeting?

The meeting highlighted the Bridge and Jumpstart summer programs, RHS Summer Academy, and the parent-funded Forever Summerbridge program, emphasizing their growth and impact on students.

How does the district support special education during the summer?

The district offers an Extended School Year (ESY) program providing special education and related services beyond the regular school year, coordinated at multiple sites with a focus on academics, vocational experiences, and social inclusion.

What is the 'One RPS' theme mentioned in the meeting?

'One RPS' represents the district's unified approach to education, emphasizing collaboration across schools and departments, demonstrated by their quick response to a power outage affecting Farmingville by relocating programs seamlessly.

## Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

11:47

Speaker A

Good evening, everyone. I call to order the Board of Education meeting today, Monday, September 14th. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance.

11:55

Speaker A

[clears throat] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

12:16

Speaker A

[clears throat] Good evening again. Welcome to the first meeting of the school year. The first item on the agenda is the student showcase.

12:28

Speaker A

Um, I know that Miss Gillette is prepared to highlight our summer program Bridge and Jumpstart and many other things that are happening at all three of our levels of schools here. And I just want to take a moment

12:47

Speaker A

because it's been maybe about five years, no, six years, oops, since Miss Gillette has taken on what I might call a special project or a special job or an extra job. And there is no one more

13:04

Speaker A

devoted to the summer program that, again, is not a part of the operating budget of the Board of Ed but truly facilitated by Mr. and I know many of her colleagues that are here in their orange t-shirts in support of what really makes a

13:21

Speaker A

difference for RPS, and that is all about kids and being creative around what their needs are. So nothing, I know, matters more than Corey doing it right.

13:32

Speaker A

Um, and despite some of the challenges we had early on, this program has really evolved into something so much bigger. And you should be really proud of yourself, Corey, as I know you're here to highlight your team.

13:44

Speaker A

Yes. Yes, I am. Good evening, everybody. So, in your packet tonight, there's a memo with an update on our summer programs. So, I'm going to begin by introducing the programs that I'm responsible for and the directors of those programs. So, Jumpstart to middle

14:01

Speaker A

school. I want to recognize Liz Van Dyne, the director from Eastridge, and Amanda Johnson, the director from Scotts.

14:10

Speaker A

And then the RHS Summer Academy, formerly known as Course Recovery. I want to highlight our director, Mary Ellen Foley.

14:21

Speaker A

Thank you. Still so quiet, but we're all cheering. We're cheering. Um, and then for Forever Summerbridge, which is our parent-funded program, I would like to highlight the following directors: Ryan Dunn, Liz Van Dyne, and Kathleen Granger. Thank you. Thank you.

14:41

Speaker A

I couldn't do any of this without any of these people. Um, a new position, we have our Forever Summerbridge volunteer coordinator, Dr. Ashley Brooksbank. And then last but not least, my CFO Christine Melano right here.

14:59

Speaker A

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So, I could go on, but I tried to put a lot of it in the memo and they were all co-authors with me. So, there's something special because we have other people in the audience today, not just

15:16

Speaker A

our directors. So this summer we decided to expand our volunteer program at Forever Summerbridge both for the lower and the upper school programs. Our RHS volunteers have been with us since the very first year six years ago. But we

15:32

Speaker A

wanted to level up the opportunity both for the volunteers and for the Bridge students that they serve. So with the support of Dr. Greenwood and under the leadership of our RPS RPS Teacher of the Year, Dr. Ashley Brooksbank, the program

15:49

Speaker A

has been transformed to include training and leadership opportunities. So tonight, we are really here to celebrate and recognize the exceptional volunteers from this summer. They were nominated by their teachers and by their directors for their representation of the RHS core values and really bringing

16:10

Speaker A

everything that embodies Forever Summerbridge to life and making it an amazing experience for our young people because young people love to be with other young people. So, I'm going to call up my directors and we're going to call off

16:24

Speaker A

your names, volunteers, and we're just going to ask you to come up and receive them. So, we're going to start with lower Bridge first.

16:33

Speaker A

All right. So, we have six volunteers that were recognized in the lower program. The first one is Angelina. Our second volunteer is Caitlyn Hill.

16:54

Speaker A

Congrats. Our third volunteer is Caitlyn Burn. Our fourth volunteer is Carolina Dato Chavez. Our fifth volunteer is Charlie Tanana.

17:25

Speaker A

Congratulations. And our last volunteer is Ryan Skate. Okay, so for our upper Bridge program, Kathleen's going to read off the names of our people. Okay, we also have six people to recognize for the upper program. Riley Donovan.

18:00

Speaker A

Um, Devin Mari Cuckus, Shay Merrill, Trisha Sharma, and Von Patal and Trisha, sorry, and Amelia Shyley I don't think are here, so two others, but congratulations. So, just a big congratulations to all our teams and to our exceptional

18:35

Speaker A

volunteers. So, one more round of applause. All right, so we have a couple other directors that we want to highlight. So, my partner here is going to highlight her team.

18:52

Speaker A

Hello. So this summer, our extended school year program convened at two different sites. I would love to have the coordinator stand while I talk about you. Please stand up. Extended school year refers, um, we call it ESY and it

19:07

Speaker A

refers to special education and related services that are provided beyond the length of the regular school year. The success is completely due to our two coordinators, Carrie Tai, who coordinated the pre-K through elementary program at Branchville, and Nicole Guri coordinated our

19:29

Speaker A

secondary program, which this year was located at Scotsridge. Um, I'd like to say about these two: I arrived in Ridgefield on July 20th and the program was fully in swing, probably halfway over. And I was really impressed with how well organized and

19:50

Speaker A

coordinated the program was. There are over 300 students in Ridgefield who qualify for ESY services, and to keep those complicated schedules going and make sure students still have access to community trips, vocational experiences, really strong academics, and also social

20:06

Speaker A

experiences because there are really strong social and inclusion opportunities that happen over the summer. Um, these two were working quite hard to make sure that that happened.

20:15

Speaker A

So, I'm really happy to be able to recognize you today and all of your hard work. I was so impressed with the program when I saw it immediately.

20:24

Speaker A

[applause] And before we transition to the next phase of the board agenda, I just want to take a moment because as you can see across this room, we are filled with our new theme, One RPS. And as per

20:42

Speaker A

tradition here in Ridgefield, Farmingville went without power one day. And I just feel like it's important to take a moment to recognize that in the blink of an eye, these folks, these leaders were on a Google Doc and on the

21:00

Speaker A

phone with Corey and the rest of her team to transition in the blink of an eye from Farmingville over to East Ridge and communicate with all of the families because it is a very big program, and they did it because they're

21:15

Speaker A

One RPS and really just emulate what we believe is so important for this school district is that there aren't separate entities but rather one collective, and whether it's in special education or in general education, we're one team. So

21:29

Speaker A

congratulations to everyone and many, many, many thanks. [applause] Thank you. You can go quietly.

21:43

Speaker A

[laughter] Thank you, Dr. D Silva. Moving on to public comment. There's opportunity at the end of the meeting for public comment as well.

22:09

Speaker A

Reports first is me. I'm going to be brief. Um, I hope everyone's start to the school year has been great. Um, I, along with other Board of Education members, had the chance to attend the new teachers welcome and the convocation, and

22:25

Speaker A

it was wonderful to welcome everybody and returning staff for what I know will be a great year. I also want to thank the board for a genuinely really productive retreat we had. We made a number of changes we believe will help

22:37

Speaker A

our meetings run more efficiently. And I want to be very clear about why we did that. We recognize that we have work to do. And part of the work is respecting everyone's time, including our superintendent, who is running a

22:48

Speaker A

district, its staff, and its teachers, and also support.

23:04

Speaker A

more of anyone's time that this work requires. We are the governing body. A few specifics. While people are thinking about that, we are undertaking a review of our bylaws with the Cape Policy Services. We've changed how we will

23:16

Speaker A

receive updates from PTA council, the NEA, and the student rep. These reports will be now part of the outreach committee meetings. They will be held monthly before our regular meetings. We are working on that calendar. We will share that. Those meetings will be

23:29

Speaker A

livereamed so the community can still hear directly from our partners just in a format that allows for more direct conversation. We value that partnership.

23:37

Speaker A

I want to emphasize that. Uh so it's just a change in structure. We've streamlined our committee structure. We will be taking uh we will discussing that later on in the evening. We're setting a board governance calendar which we'll bring to you at our next

23:50

Speaker A

meeting. Um and tonight we're will we'll vote on a set of board values which I hope will anchor us as a board of education and hopefully our community in a shared commitment to the work especially when this work gets tough.

24:06

Speaker A

Also a brief note on the board's calendar is discussed at retreat. We'll establishing a board calendar that will outline regular meetings, our retreats, our evaluations, our budget planning discussions and other key items throughout the year. We will bring that

24:18

Speaker A

at the next meeting. And additionally, I want to be very clear, the superintendent's contract requires the board to adapt an evaluation format within 90 days of the start of each contract. For the current year, the deadline is September 29th. So the board

24:31

Speaker A

will meet in executive session in the coming days to review that and we'll take a public vote just in case anybody wonders why we're doing that. Again, I wanted to be very clear on that. I also want to remind every board member how we

24:44

Speaker A

will do these meetings. I want to remind everybody you will please wait to be recognized before I ask you to speak. I want to ensure that everybody is allowed to share their opinion. Secondly, it's very important. It's in our shared board

24:56

Speaker A

values. We stay on the item we're discussing there. I will I would ask the board not to make it personal. We can debate the disc we can debate the topic at hand, but we will try not to make it

25:06

Speaker A

personal. It's also in our shade values. If there's something that's already been said, I request the board to say I agree and move on. That will keep us concise and to the point. Anything that is administrative, please, it goes to the

25:19

Speaker A

superintendent. I want to keep reminding us we're the governance board. So if you have any concerns about teachers, staff, anything that goes to the superintendent that is not asked to discuss and share and repair at this point. Um after we

25:31

Speaker A

have a discussion, I will summarize the vote so that we can have a clear vote at any time. And I will once we go into this, I want to be very clear if anytime if the discussion has gone sideways or

25:41

Speaker A

it's too long, anyone can call to question. That basically means you call to question that means we're going into a vote and we shut down debate. There's a whole process for that. If anybody does that, I'm happy to explain how that

25:52

Speaker A

go, but I won't go into too much details. Um, and I want to just again remind I will apply these rules to everyone. I'm not going to be disrespectful, but I'm going to be very, very cognizant of the time. The retreat,

26:04

Speaker A

we were very clear in the retreat. We want to do good work. We want to do it in a timely manner. So, I hope we can respect each other as we get into that.

26:12

Speaker A

Again, thank you so much. I look forward to an amazing year. And Dr. Dilla, all yours.

26:18

Speaker A

Thank you, Miss Maholtra. In the spirit of efficiency, my message too will be short. I would like to officially welcome Dr. Sapala, who's not there, to her first board of education meeting and Dr. Taylor Weir, who's joined us in the

26:32

Speaker A

back and checking in to see how this uh goes on technology on its first official board meeting. So, thank you. Um, we're welcoming back everyone. We're incredibly excited to have our schools in full swing. I'd like to thank each

26:48

Speaker A

and every member of RPS in support of the opening of school. Whether it's our teachers, our custodians, our par educators, transportation director, every team member makes a difference and we're lucky to call them one RPS.

27:02

Speaker A

This past Friday, we learned of bargaining unit negotiations involving for student our bus company and our company and our bus drivers. And we also learned that it could this negotiations could impact student transportation.

27:16

Speaker A

It's important to clarify because we recognize that there might be some confusion that the union negotiations are taking place directly with first student and its employees. They're the first student employees are not our direct employees. So while we're not a

27:31

Speaker A

party to the negotiations and we don't have therefore we don't have a role in determining the outcome. That said, we are in regular communication with our first student first student representative and are closely monitoring the developments and if we

27:47

Speaker A

need to adjust or identify any potential impacts, we will do so as quickly as we can so that our students and their families can plan accordingly. Dr.

27:56

Speaker A

Sapala, I introduced you and welcomed you and you weren't here, but here we are. Welcome to Dr. Sapala on our first meeting. Um, hot off the press, a special congratulations. Ridgefield High School has been accepted to the Special

28:10

Speaker A

Olympics Unified Champion Schools. This is a national recognition program which has been approved by Special Olympics of North America. So, that's pretty exciting for them and congratulations.

28:21

Speaker A

Not a small task in terms of the application process. So, we thank them. That's it.

28:29

Speaker A

Thank you, Dr. Dilva. Um, we mo move on to the motion for the approval of the minutes. Miss Moore, I move that the board of education approve the minutes from their retreat held on August 24th, 2026.

28:42

Speaker A

Thank you. Do I have a second, Miss Rice? Any edits? Yes Miss Um, yes. on the back of the page, page two, um where it discusses the strategic planning process that was presented. Um I just wanted to add there was I felt there was

29:05

Speaker A

um one thing left out that your so um on page two um where it's dis noted um paragraph two and three it's noted um the strategic planning process.

29:20

Speaker A

There was a discussion at the retreat regarding the collaborative structure of the strategic plan and one member cited RPS policy 200.1 um and highlighted that the plan should be developed jointly with the superintendent and the board of education and then the superintendent

29:38

Speaker A

asked for further questions and comments regarding the strategic plan process. Um she asked for those comments to be emailed to her. So I just wanted to add that aspect because that was part of the retreat.

29:52

Speaker A

Mr. Paradisa, thank you. Yeah, uh I agree with everything you said. I think it's just it's regulation 20.1, not not policy.

30:00

Speaker A

Thank you. [laughter] That's a good point. Yeah, that's a good clarification. Um you can send that to Miss Cook, right?

30:08

Speaker A

Your Yes. Or you can read that again. Sure. Miss Callahan. Mike. Hi Um there's uh one of the first bullet points. Um the board suggested non-binding items for the administration to consider. Um we didn't distinguish between one and two. We just had a list

30:29

Speaker A

of the eight items or whatever it was that u Miss Graph collected for us.

30:33

Speaker A

Whereas this separates um two items pulled out as facilities master plan up above um and uh the budget. And then it says the extra non-binding binding items are the bell-to-bell, cell phone, website enhancements, etc., etc. We did not have any sort of vote or straw vote

30:51

Speaker A

or anything that indicated some were more important than the others. Sorry, I'm Oh, you mean the bullet points. Okay, I found them. Sorry, I was trying to find them with their So, how would you like to suggest an edit to

31:04

Speaker A

them? Uh, that structure Should it be the board suggested items for the administration to consider or the board suggested following items?

31:18

Speaker A

The board s the board [sighs and gasps] the board suggested items to consider for fiscal year 27 priorities.

31:28

Speaker A

It wasn't suggested to administration necessarily. So I don't know how to we were going to talk about it at the next meeting. So, Miss Royce, I was just wondering if it was possible that that distinction was made because

31:41

Speaker A

the first items board focus areas are actually board like things that the board has perview over whether whereas the others are operational and these were items that we had mentioned, you know, like we would appreciate if the administration would give some

31:58

Speaker A

attention to, but there is I was just wondering if that was perhaps why that distinction was made or I I interpreted it as being why the distinction was made.

32:06

Speaker A

Yeah, that's a good point. How would the board want this to read, Miss Mo?

32:12

Speaker A

Yeah, I just wanted to add and this not to put another caveat in this, but I do not remember a bell-to-bell student cell phone policy being discussed at all.

32:19

Speaker A

That was another thing I wanted to Am I Oh, it was mentioned. Okay, sorry.

32:24

Speaker A

Thank you, Miss Grav. If I may, since I took the notes, thank I was going to it was really to distinguish I think the opening to this saying the board reach a consensus. It was maybe not a stravo but

32:36

Speaker A

it was items that when I read back I understood the the board to have general direction to. Um so those were how I took the notes versus items brought up I did document as such and those were those notes were passed along to Miss

32:51

Speaker A

Cook. All [clears throat] right I'm going to bring us back. How would the board like this to read?

32:58

Speaker A

Does anybody have the Yeah, that the board discussed short-term focus items and list them all for fiscal year 27. That's exactly what happened.

33:09

Speaker A

The board So instead of saying non-binding items, no, the board suggested on the first bullet committee structure. Okay. Any Does anybody have any more comments on that?

33:36

Speaker A

Um I just to clarify. So we're suggesting that that they're all be listed in that first bullet point.

33:44

Speaker A

Yes. The board she what if I'm reading this correct? The board suggested short-term focus items a bell to bell what all that list. Okay.

33:52

Speaker A

Website enhancement districtwide. Um, your point, I understand your point, Miss Rice, because it's more operational, but the reality is it is the board suggested it. That's the true trans like the board did.

34:04

Speaker A

Can you clarify then for me? Suggested to do what? Suggested like it was just a board discussion.

34:10

Speaker A

Okay. Not suggesting for the superintendent to take action on that. No, we did not take a straw vote on that.

34:17

Speaker A

That is why I think just saying the board suggested means this. And then when we go into the short-term focus.

34:23

Speaker A

Yes Mr. Paris. [clears throat] I maybe maybe the word suggested also Yeah. could be changed. Yeah.

34:28

Speaker A

That's what I was thinking. I don't recall it being like, hey, here's a list to think about. I recall it being things we're interested in.

34:35

Speaker A

The board discussed among different topics. I think that should be the board discussed different topics including but not limited to and then we can list that. Does that seem fair?

34:46

Speaker A

Yeah. Yes. Sorry. Discuss. We did. We did discuss. No. See, the board we Yes, Miss We were a I remember it was um we were asked what are some areas of focus that we'd like to focus on?

35:09

Speaker A

We did not discuss to Miss Cook's point. We we didn't discuss the the content, but we listed them. And the only other one I would add is an SEAL review which was mine. That is not there.

35:20

Speaker A

Miss Royce, maybe just use the word identified. That's better. Thank you. I Okay. So, the board identified the following topics but not limited to does that that captures even if we miss something in that.

35:35

Speaker A

Perfect. And it's not discussed. Okay. Miss for fiscal year 27 priorities, right? Since that was the exercise, the homework task that we had for the retreat. I just want to make sure that that's identified or identified.

35:49

Speaker A

That was our task and that's how we were talking about them. I'm looking at your notes, Miss Rice.

36:00

Speaker A

Pardon me. I just think that whether or not we were talking about them that way, some of them are not our decision whether to be prioritized or not. So it's it's hard to say like I think it's hard to use the word prioritize with

36:15

Speaker A

reference to things that wouldn't be our decision. So it's it's more it's more that we we were asked to identify areas of focus that we were interested in more than what the board should be prioritizing. I think since it wasn't as

36:29

Speaker A

Miss Cook said a discussion it was just us going around and talking about what was sort of on our mind as as focus areas. We identified, it's true, we talked about field trip equity and some and international techn um intentional

36:42

Speaker A

sorry international intentional technology use. So we did identify different topics. They were individualized as I individualized and they were decisions.

36:53

Speaker A

I think want to make sure we're not expecting action. That's [laughter] I think leaving. So the board discussed and then as a board when we come back next week or the 28th to discuss what our deliverables are that can be a more

37:05

Speaker A

focused discussion. Does that seem correct? Okay. Okay, so the board identified these topics with these things.

37:16

Speaker A

BOE website enhancement, district-wide field trip equity, intentional technology use, alignment with states art standards and a review of handwriting literacy programs. Uh, and some of them are operational in nature automatically means it's Dr. Dilva, some is on the governance and we can have

37:32

Speaker A

this discussion when we come back on the 28th to identify what it is and hopefully when we go through the strategic planning process, this could be This could be an identified mode. All right. So, it is Miss Cook the board

37:45

Speaker A

identified. That's the word. So, all right. With those two edits, including what Miss Moore suggested, are there any more edits? Yes, Miss Gallahan.

37:56

Speaker A

Um, further bullet, um, formally vote to establish the outreach committee. It was voted in last year. We don't need to formally vote to establish it. It's already established.

38:07

Speaker A

We take that. Thank you. Okay, we um the way the outreach committee was established is according to our bylaws, we could uh put a new committee and that was in December of I forgot the year.

38:23

Speaker A

2025 was this 2024, right? Maybe I can't keep up, but it was there. I'll look for the minutes and I'll send them to you.

38:30

Speaker A

Uh any other edits? All right, we have a motion. We have a second suggested edit. So all in favor of approing approving these minutes with the suggested edits, please raise your hand.

38:44

Speaker A

Any abstensions? You weren't there. All right, the motion carries. Thank you so much. Moving on to discussion and possible action items.

38:54

Speaker A

Um Miss Mahalra. Yes, I would like to make a motion. Um I would like to make a motion to um to the agenda. I'd like to move um suggest moving items of information letter A letter to board of select

39:09

Speaker A

persons. I'd like to make a motion to move that up to discussion and possible action items.

39:17

Speaker A

So letter F. Yeah. Uh move letter A under items of information and move it up to discussion and possible action items. Make it letter F.

39:26

Speaker A

That's what I meant. All right. If we have to amend an agenda, we need a second and we need twothird of the vote. Is there a second?

39:37

Speaker A

Miss Galham, would you need Well, we don't need a discussion. We can have a vote and then when we come to it, we can do it. All those in favor of moving this item of information to a possible action item, letter F, please

39:53

Speaker A

raise your hand. Any abstensions? A no. One. No. Okay. Motion carries. All right. Now, fiscal year 26 26 year end financial report. I almost said 27.

40:13

Speaker A

Sorry. That's all right. So, this evening we are formally closing out the fiscal year 26 operating budget. The important headline here is that we ended the year essentially on budget. We leave a positive balance of just under $20,000.

40:32

Speaker A

What you're going to notice is that there are certainly individual lines that have finished over or under budget.

40:38

Speaker A

And Jill's presentation tonight will walk the board through those areas. In particular, there were pressures on professional services, special education, and pupil personnel, as well as electricity.

40:51

Speaker A

As part of the retreat, you might remember that the goal was to have the administration try to get the board packets as even if in draft form to the board by Thursday. And in response, the board would get us your questions on

41:07

Speaker A

those packets by Monday on or around 9:00 am. So that way, as much as possible, we would be prepared for this evening to be as efficient as possible with matters that you're thinking about relative to the presentations. While

41:22

Speaker A

Jill does have a presentation tonight, we were asked to try to minimize presentations and instead give you the materials, which you notice both Miss Gillette and Dr. Sapala did with the summer programs where in the past we actually had presentations here on both

41:38

Speaker A

of those programs. So this year we did that a little bit differently and it is the same here except in this case uh Miss Brown is going to walk us through the fiscal year expenditure report for 2526.

41:52

Speaker A

I think what would be helpful is if we um waited till the end of the presentation for questions. Many of the questions that the board sent along are already part of what Jill had prepared in terms of her presentation.

42:06

Speaker A

Obviously, the notes section, but there may be some questions that were not part of the presentation. And if you gave those to us, I'd ask that at the end you ask us those questions so that the public can hear them just in case they

42:17

Speaker A

weren't part of just organically a part of the presentation. Okay. In that case, I will turn it over to Miss Brown.

42:24

Speaker A

Alrighty. Hopefully, this reaches Miss Brown. Sorry. I just want to make sure the community knows that this is because our policy um this is in accordance with our bylaw no policy 3100 that you have to give timely reports because when we come to

42:39

Speaker A

committees and everybody will ask why we did that. I just want to say that this is in accordance with our policy 3100, right? We have to give quarterly.

42:46

Speaker A

So to clarify that policy has always that I can remember has been in effect.

42:52

Speaker A

Yes. Since I've been here and it says minimally quarter reports, but this is this is a little bit different here because this is our fiscal year end report. In terms of the quarterly reports that will shift a little bit, right? Because as you

43:08

Speaker A

remember, we were going to the board of finance monthly. So now that will change to quarterly as a result of um we reached out to you Miss Mhaltra and just wanted to be sure that we were following the policy which is has already been

43:20

Speaker A

here. Um it doesn't mean that you can't do more. It just means minimum. Sure.

43:25

Speaker A

Okay. So now I will turn it over to Miss Brown. So essentially the quarter 4 report from the 2526 school year.

43:32

Speaker A

Um so good evening everyone. It's nice to see you all. Um here you see the required supplementary information or what's known what we call the RSI report that's provided to the town of Ridgefield and this is to prepare for

43:47

Speaker A

the year-end audit. The format of this report follows the state's uniform chart of accounts and it's the same information that's provided to the board of education monthly but this is at a little bit higher level detail. Um, what

44:02

Speaker A

you see highlighted in yellow shares our original budget figure, displays any transfers, and then sums those two columns to a final budget amount.

44:13

Speaker A

Moving to the right, highlighted in blue, you see our actual expenditures and any incumbrances that are remaining and our total expenditures for the 2526 fiscal year. You'll see and you can note there that we have no incumbrances remaining in any category as all

44:30

Speaker A

purchase orders have been finalized and closed for fiscal year 26. Lastly, at the far right highlighted in green, you'll see the variance with the final budget amount essentially showing either a surplus or a deficit in each category.

44:46

Speaker A

When summing the variance column in green, the board of education has completed 2526 fiscal year with a surplus amount of $19,725.

44:58

Speaker A

In the years past, the budget for the athletics program was kept separately from the general operating budget, and I've continued just to show that. That's what you see in orange down the bottom, just for anyone on this board or other

45:10

Speaker A

governing boards in town that may have interest in that. Over the next few slides, I'm going to break down this RSI report into the components that you all are more accustomed to seeing um and essentially try to merge those two types

45:26

Speaker A

of reports. Um I feel very strongly it's important that we all have the same information, all three boards in town.

45:33

Speaker A

Um it's best for a full complete understanding of our operational expenditures. I'll do the overview as quickly as I can. I'm sensitive to time and everything that you mentioned. I'll try not to go over um but I don't want

45:46

Speaker A

you not to ask questions. So um first uh those three first or those three top lines we're going to dive into certified salaries, non-certified salaries and fringe benefits. And I want to remind you that those three things are approximately 80% of our entire

46:05

Speaker A

operating budget. So here you can see that the components of certified salaries contain budget lines for teachers, administrators, certified substitutes, and athletic coaches. This is exactly what you see on that monthly breakdown um each month that that we have been uh reviewing. So

46:25

Speaker A

first let's look to the teacher and certified sublines. So that's the first and third. Um, some teachers have had extended leaves which were covered by long-term substitute teachers and in some cases we had budgeted for a position at a higher salary than what we

46:42

Speaker A

actually ended up hiring for due to a retirement or a separation. Overall, between the teacher certified sub and um certified sublines, we are in the black $27,525.

46:56

Speaker A

And you might also note there that $277,900 was transferred out of our certified staff lines. At the very beginning of the year after that horrible cyber attack, we transferred out $200,000. We had fewer elementary sections than what we had um estimated and we transferred

47:17

Speaker A

that over to professional services technology. And then throughout the year, a sum of 77,900 was transferred into professional services for equipment repairs in music and also for middle school instructional supplies. So that's where those sums came from. And I also want you to recall

47:36

Speaker A

when we're budgeting in the um certified staffing lines, we include an offset of $450,000 assuming staff turnover. that is also within that teacher certified staff line.

47:51

Speaker A

That same offset was estimated for our current 2627 budget. When we build 2728, we can see that our um our staff is not of retirement age nor years of service.

48:06

Speaker A

And we're not going to be able to include an offset quite that high for 2728. Just a little reminder of what's to come.

48:15

Speaker A

Uh you're also going to note a deficit balance in our administrator line. And again, likely you'll recall that we had several administrators leave us for other positions or other districts at the end of June. They were paid out

48:28

Speaker A

their contractual vacation banks and that's what's caused the negative balance um in that line. And lastly, our athletic coaches ran very close to what we planned within 1% of that budget.

48:40

Speaker A

There's a small surplus there, 4807. So in total for certified salaries, we ran over budget by $45,550.

48:50

Speaker A

We if we um focus out that lens, that's within 8100s of a percent. Pretty good where we landed the plane. And if we didn't have that transfer, we would have come in within budget.

49:05

Speaker A

We did not fare as well with our noncertified staff. Um, the $14 million figure supports our parah educators, our custodian and maintenance staff, our nurses, our drivers for our in-house vans, our athletic trainers, our OT and PT professionals, all of our IT

49:24

Speaker A

department staff, our administrative assistants, and our security personnel. Um the driver um for our non-certified staff overage was um our itinerant services paraprofessionals and overtime paraprofessionals and in the non-certified subs where we are over budget by quite a bit 328 646

49:49

Speaker A

definitely the driver there was our custodial and maintenance overtime. Our custodial maintenance overtime appears in that non-certified sub section. Um we do not call in subs for uh our custodial coverage and when someone is out they assign an overage. Um we're taking a

50:09

Speaker A

hard look at that because that I think coupled with our very long and challenging winter and snow removal caused uh a little bit more overtime than what was usual.

50:22

Speaker A

And lastly, the supplemental non-certified coaches line ran below budget 4860. So all told, we exceeded budget there by 393.

50:34

Speaker A

And for our employee fringe benefits, this is the final portion of our compensation package for our employees.

50:40

Speaker A

You'll note we have a surplus balance in our medical insurance of 267,863. That's actually um quite a bit less than what we have run in prior years. Um for those of you that were here um a couple years ago when we had that simple refund

50:59

Speaker A

directly due to our claims experience um for two years running we had over a million dollars to give back to the town. Um and when we are developing the budget we're developing budget in the months of October, November, December for the

51:15

Speaker A

following school year. Now, we just had all of our new teachers join. I think we had 401 41 retirements and 40 new um join. We don't know if they're coming on as a single, a double, a family coverage, or perhaps they're a new

51:30

Speaker A

graduate, still on the parents coverage. That's what I hope for. Um so, the best we can do here is estimate. We know that approximately 80% of our staff participate with our medical benefits program. We have a weighted average for

51:43

Speaker A

what the employer cost is. And we have to balance. I mean, we're not allowed to budget contingency. Yet, we never want to see that line be in the negative because that's a almost $18 million line. So, we fell pretty close there and

51:59

Speaker A

pretty proud of that. Um, but it was, if you ask me, a little too close for comfort, but that uh that surplus will help us mitigate other areas where we are in deficit. Um, for other employee benefits, that's our life disability

52:14

Speaker A

insurance lines and our unemployment lines. We had a surplus there, 72,708. Um, our FICA and Medicare slightly over budget. Um, $3,500 with that unanticipated overtime. That's what caused the FICA and Medicare estimate to go over. And then in general

52:32

Speaker A

services, um, our budget for workers compensation and some annuities for some of our non-bargaining staff surplus balance there of almost 52,000. So our total fridge benefits show a surplus of $388,931.

52:50

Speaker A

So I just want to back up quickly. those three first lines, almost 80% of our budget. If we put those together, we exceeded budget by $49,780 in a $94 million budget, right? Because just those three nines is 94,154,000.

53:10

Speaker A

That's within 5100s of a percent. So again, very, very close to budget. So now we're going to move those lines down and look at professional services, utilities, equipment repair, maintenance, building repairs, and transportation. The utilities is just the sewer and water.

53:35

Speaker A

First here we'll take a highle overview and then a deeper dive into what areas really drove um where we see greater surpluses or greater deficits.

53:49

Speaker A

So the first line here it's very clear that the deficit balance in professional services um that our expenditures here this is a significant driver to the budget throughout the year um especially in the latter half of the year as we had

54:03

Speaker A

reported to you where we really saw a deficit balance continue to grow. The drivers within that category were our special education cost center where we're looking at evaluations and consultation services and also in pupil personnel cost center. Um those lines

54:21

Speaker A

special education professional services and pupil personnel they ran deficits of 236,000 and 575,000 respectively. And those are two areas where we will take a closer look in just a bit. The utility lines for water and sewer ran favorably as did the equipment

54:39

Speaker A

and repair lines. Of note, about half the surplus balance that you see in the equipment and repairs came from rubbish services and the budget for our SRO's.

54:51

Speaker A

Um if we have staffing changes, then what we are build by the PD uh fluctuates with staffing changes. So that um ended up favorable for us. We also had another 46,000 in surplus from our copier lease line. So staff did a

55:07

Speaker A

great job of cutting down on paper and also cutting down on their color printing um which were charged for overages on color printing. There were smaller balances and equipment repair lines that are across all departments in the district and together that was a sum

55:21

Speaker A

of 162522 um surplus in that line. You'll note a smaller surplus balance in the building repairs projects line, a little over $4,700. And we finished transportation services with a surplus balance of 95,44.

55:40

Speaker A

So within that transportation line, we exceeded budget for in town special education runs, but we were under budget for our ESY program and our out of town special education runs, as well as runs for vocational and technical schools. Um

55:58

Speaker A

the AMM contract number was under budget and we finished there with that $95,000 surplus.

56:08

Speaker A

So moving on, we're now reviewing um insurance, meaning property and liability, our communications line, advertising, printing services, and food services.

56:22

Speaker A

So here you note a surplus balance in the property and liability insurance line. And you might recall during budget we took a look back at the last three years where we showed similar surplus numbers ever since the town rem um moved

56:36

Speaker A

over to Kerma for its um liability coverage and we actually made budget reductions for the current um school year in that line. Um we were able to reduce that by about $148,000.

56:50

Speaker A

You'll also see we had surplus balance in the communications or telephone service line. There's an $86,000 surplus there. That was the delay in the fiber that was run to the new building. So that's why we had that surplus balance.

57:04

Speaker A

And then there's nominal balances in our advertising, printing, and food service lines. Moving down a little more, reviewing travel, mileage, and training. Um other purchase services, tuitions to out of district facilities, supplies, materials, and energy.

57:28

Speaker A

So travel, mileage and training. Um this supports professional development, conferences and training for faculty and staff and the cost of travel associated with not only growth opportunities but um some of our staff that go building to building across the district and also

57:47

Speaker A

our maintenance vehicles that fill up at the fuel station um down by the bus depot. Here there's a collective surplus balance of $33,000.

57:58

Speaker A

In other purchase services, we had a small balance, a little over $5,400. Those are services for school climate training and graduation at the high school. Also, microfilm, yes, that's still in the budget. It's only $250, but we spent 177 of our 250. Um, the bulk of

58:18

Speaker A

the budget is purchase services for athletic programming. That's our umpires, our referees, the police, ambulance, and security for those athletic contests and events.

58:29

Speaker A

So then we move down to tuition. Tuition to outof district facilities. We exceeded budget by 77,320.

58:38

Speaker A

So there are several lines within that tuition line. Um, sorry, I just lost my place here. Bless you. Bless you. Um, within that tuition line, there is tuition for any students who have experienced expulsion. There's tuition for regular education online.

59:02

Speaker A

There's tuition for magnet schools. There's tuition for Connecticut public schools for special education. There's a settlement line in there um for special education services if required. There is tuition to Connecticut private schools for special education, outofstate private schools for special education,

59:24

Speaker A

and then um excess cost reimbursement is in there as well. We exceeded budget in our special education tuition to public schools, private schools, and outofstate schools.

59:39

Speaker A

we were able to mitigate that to the degree that we did because we had surplus in all other areas and additional excess cost reimbursement. Um we had an additional 456,000 you might recall in in excess cost.

59:58

Speaker A

Um and in supplies and materials lines across the district we completed the year with a surplus balance of just under 110,000.

60:06

Speaker A

That was in part to limiting our year-end spending. As we recognized that we were facing budget deficit, very very close to budget, we asked our larger departments to limit spending to the degree that they could and they did so.

60:22

Speaker A

Uh so that that ended up with a surplus balance in our supplies and materials.

60:30

Speaker A

under energy. Um the highle view includes electricity and heating gas and oil. Um you can see here that electricity ran over budget $273,61 and heating fuel helped to balance that out with a surplus balance of 235798.

60:51

Speaker A

So here we had a deficit balance of 37,263 collectively. and we'll take a deeper look at electricity because I know there was a lot of questions as we as we came to year end.

61:04

Speaker A

So now our brackets are in the last part of the RSI report, books, equipment, dues and fees for our uh professional memberships. Um a section that's actually called miscellaneous, which is mostly cleaning supplies for our custodians and our athletic fees and

61:20

Speaker A

gate receipts. So, textbook budgets across the school locations, also literacy programming, library curriculum departments. Um, that's what makes up that line um that says books. Um, they finished with a surplus balance just under 13,000.

61:38

Speaker A

Um, the lion share of the surplus balance in our equipment lines comes from the district-wide equipment within the facilities cost center and [snorts] the district-wide computer equipment line in the technology cost center.

61:54

Speaker A

There were other small surplus balances across departments at the high school and in special education cost centers that summed to a surplus balance of 217,600.

62:06

Speaker A

Our lines for dues and fees finished under budget by 25,827. Those budget lines support subject area professional group memberships, our athletic conference memberships and student awards, student productions and musical support, our student assemblies, our parent meeting lines, and our staff

62:27

Speaker A

uniforms. That's our custodial shirts and our SSO uniforms. Again, the line that's titled miscellaneous supports cleaning supplies for maintenance and custodial. It supports security supplies and HVAC and electrical supplies. They finished with a surplus balance a little over 14,000.

62:48

Speaker A

And our last category, our athletic fees and gate receipts, we didn't quite collect what we had um entered into a budget as the anticipated revenue amount. We finished with a deficit balance a little over 15,000.

63:04

Speaker A

So in total our budget allocation was 119,796,000. The transfers balance out to zero. Um our expenditures were $119,776,275 leaving us with a final variance of 19,725.

63:27

Speaker A

So, here's a deeper look at electricity. I was able to add what you didn't have in your packet because I didn't know if I would have the kilowatt hour information. Um, when Eversource has what they call a large account, it's a

63:44

Speaker A

it's a special inquiry. So, Barllo, because of the pool, the middle schools and the high school, it took them some time to get me that information. I was able to get the small schools pretty pretty easily. But if we're going to

63:55

Speaker A

compare year-to-year cost, I think you need context of consumption, right? So, as I look at the kilowatt hours from the 2021 school year, right, this giving you a five-year glance, there's there's some um disparity between the years, but not

64:15

Speaker A

what I would say is a lot with our kilowatt hours. We're a little higher in the 25 26 school year. We also added RTP for the last four months, right? Um that was only a little under 21,000 kilowatt

64:28

Speaker A

hours by itself. We had a very long and cold winter, so there's always, you know, extenduating circumstances.

64:36

Speaker A

What stood out to me was the original budget number. Look how much the 2526 budget number 1 million4 versus the prior year 1 million8 or 2 million the year before that million8 a million8.

64:50

Speaker A

It's the budget number that was low which is why we ran over budget. So why do we make the budget number so low? Um well there's a there's a few different reasons I I think. Um first again when

65:06

Speaker A

we plan this budget we are in October November time frame planning for almost a year and a half out and we've seen some real shocking growth in the delivery fees for electricity. Um I looked at one of the bills for the high

65:20

Speaker A

school and 48% of it is delivery fees. 48% of $48,000 bill is delivery fees. Um and Eversource right now has the best price going which is frightening to say the least. Um so that's one reason because we can't really predict those. I

65:37

Speaker A

mean the best that we can do is estimate. Some years like in the 21 22 22 23 23 24 estimating is going to favor us and other years it's not.

65:48

Speaker A

Um we also I think had really high hopes for the return that we would see on that solar canopy at the high school. It has not um returned what we had hoped and expected. Um, so that was another reason

66:00

Speaker A

why we lowered the budget number. And then of course we had a delay in reinstalling the solar panels on the two schools, Ridgeberry and Scotland. And that hurt a little bit. Ridgeberry was over budget by 34,000, Scotland by 30.

66:14

Speaker A

Um, I think they would have been overbudget a little bit anyway, but maybe not to that extent. and those four larger schools, the last invoice we had to put into the 2027 fiscal year so that we would not run over budget.

66:31

Speaker A

So that's why we finished where we did electricity. Almost everybody asked that question. It's a great question and I think they'll ask us tomorrow night also. Um but that's my that's what I see when I look at that. I'd be happy to take more

66:46

Speaker A

questions in just a moment. We just have a couple more slides to go. This is a deeper look at our special education services and we can see that professional services just in special education, right? So, not taking out

67:01

Speaker A

professional services that run across district cost centers, just special education. We had an original budget of 895,000. We transferred in another 38,000 and we still came in at 216,000.

67:18

Speaker A

So what's in that line? That pays for um tutoring, purchase services and tutoring. Um our ESY services that actually ran very well. Um high school student services was a little over budget, 30,000. Uh professional education services and consultations,

67:37

Speaker A

right? So those are evaluations and consultations. That was the driver there. The professional um consultations um were 61,000. The professional ed services, so um just our psychology services and what have you. Um and I know that there were um professionals

67:55

Speaker A

brought in to cover um extended maternity leaves and so forth. So we had to reach out um and also paraprofessional services. we had to reach out to outside services. Um, CRE is there. That's our um our RESK or our

68:11

Speaker A

regional educational support center. Um, CRE was on budget. Legal services within special education were on budget. This is one other area where the final invoice went into 2027. So, it shows that we're on budget.

68:27

Speaker A

We wouldn't have been. Um, and then our equipment, our equipment repairs for speech. That's what's within that professional services. Um, then we move into the tuitions and settlements. And again, I want to share with you these numbers because sometimes it gets masked by the

68:46

Speaker A

excess cost reimbursement, but you need to know how much these outplacements truly cost. um our tuition for Connecticut public schools again within that tuition line of 5.3 million. We ran on over budget in our public school tuition by 178,000.

69:06

Speaker A

Our settlements were on budget. We had a a surplus of 32,000. Our private schools within Connecticut overbudget by 234 almost 235,000 and our tuition to outofstate schools almost 180,000.

69:22

Speaker A

So again, thank goodness for the excess cost, the additional excess cost, but when I say additional, we [snorts] had lowered that number. Remember during the budget build, we had such a came in at like 59% and and we were very

69:38

Speaker A

transparent and we put on the brakes the day of that budget presentation. I'll never forget that day. Um, and we lowered that to 900,000. There was special legislation that brought that back up and we benefited from that. And

69:51

Speaker A

that that helped to offset what you see is 745,654. Really, that's about 289,000 when you roll in excess cost.

70:06

Speaker A

When we look at pupil personnel, again, professional services are the driver here. We are over budget in our professional services by $665,000.

70:17

Speaker A

So, what's in that line? This is our kids in crisis partnership that was on budget. Our evaluations and consultations for psychologists is over budget by 575,000. Right? That has to do with um student support.

70:35

Speaker A

Um hospitalized tutoring that was necessary for students this year was over budget by 95,000. That's an anomaly that doesn't always run over budget that much, but those were the drivers there.

70:47

Speaker A

We also have our medical advisor in that line. That was fine. Immunizations, student physicals, and medical waste uh removal. All of that was fine. The drivers were the evaluations, consultations, and the hospitalized tutoring.

71:04

Speaker A

Um, and then I just wanted to give you the larger cost centers. Again, as we approached the end of the year and we could see that we had numbers that looked threatening, um we asked our larger uh cost centers

71:30

Speaker A

where it was possible to limit spending and they were able to do so and have a surplus balance and curriculum 46,000 facilities in total 271.

71:42

Speaker A

General services, most of that was our liability coverage, uh, 287. Technology 262. Technology didn't spend, um, um, the greater portion of the transfer, that $200,000 transfer. We went back and forth with our insurance carrier. They were very good to us. Um, and so we

72:02

Speaker A

ended up spending um, about threequarters of that. So that was a large part of the surplus there. And then again in transportation, 95,000.

72:11

Speaker A

All of that helped to mitigate those other deficits. I know that was a lot. I hope that I answered most of your questions. From what I saw, I think it did, but if you have others, I'm happy to take them.

72:27

Speaker A

Thank you, Miss Brown. Of course, Miss Rice, I just have two really small questions.

72:32

Speaker A

Uh, that was very informative. Thank you so much. Um, for everyone's understanding, when you break down certified subs and non-certified subs, do you want me to go back up?

72:41

Speaker A

No, it's okay. Um, unless somebody else needs it. I I think I just wanted to clarify that when you call somebody a certified sub, it means they're subbing for a certified staff member, right? So, it so in other words, the regular day

72:53

Speaker A

subs that are coming in for teachers, those are certified subs and non-certified subs, as you said, are custodial staff or other things like that.

73:00

Speaker A

Correct. Okay. I just wanted to make that. And then also, and maybe this is a question for Dr. Sapala, but without obviously going into any detail, um I'm familiar with how it works when a student needs to be outplaced into a private school.

73:15

Speaker A

Is somebody able to explain out placement into a public school? Like just as a general overview of how that how how that would be ruled something that So that actually includes programs that risks run. So that might be CES, that

73:30

Speaker A

might be crack or something like that. And um those are considered Connecticut public schools. Um sometimes there are also programs, you know, we may have we may have a student who attends um Western Connections, which is actually a

73:43

Speaker A

Danbury public school program. So there are different programs that our students may may access that are actually public school, but the cost is quite high. They have a tuition bill. Um, in addition, and there's there's not too many, but

73:59

Speaker A

sometimes there are students who due to DCF placements or other circumstances, we are financially responsible for, however, they attend school in another district.

74:08

Speaker A

Thank you. Super helpful. That's it for me. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions?

74:14

Speaker A

Mr. Marty, thank you. That was very helpful. Uh, two questions on the solar. it uh appears that we're not getting the savings that we thought we were going to get. Do we have any anticipated solar installations going forward? And if so,

74:31

Speaker A

should we be re be rethinking those in terms of the benefit we might be getting from them?

74:37

Speaker A

So, looking into the future, we have one more roofing project to do over at VP.

74:45

Speaker A

So, um, the idea was that we would add solar to VP at that time when the new roof came. Um, I've talked with Jake Mueller about, you know, why aren't we getting this return that we thought we were going to get. He believes that we

74:58

Speaker A

will see it, but it's not going to be until three or four years out. Um, so we might have been maybe chomping at the bit a little bit and seeing that return too early. Um um so you know solar is uh definitely a

75:14

Speaker A

benefit. We've seen um there are months where um Farmingville is off the grid and Scotland is off the grid completely.

75:23

Speaker A

Um so it has definitely benefit us. It's it's very hard to quantify. um you really have to dig into the invoices monthtomonth and then reconcile that with what you're still paying on the panel. So, it's complicated. Um it's

75:41

Speaker A

arithmetic. It's not it's just it's a lot, you know, to try to put it all together and and get you a uh return on investment true accurate number.

75:50

Speaker A

Yeah. Well, that's what I was just trying to get at. I mean, yeah, obviously it cost for us to put it in and are we getting the benefit? So that was that was really my only point. Uh the other is on legal expenses.

76:02

Speaker A

So um I didn't quite pick up what did we actually spend on legal expenses and budget and do you have a sense of what that breakdown is?

76:11

Speaker A

I do. Um, [clears throat] let me just check one number before I answer that because this doesn't look correct to me. Give me one minute.

76:32

Speaker A

Um, and again, we we did put our last invoice for the month um into fiscal year 27. we had to um we we looked to be strategic what we were putting into the next fiscal year. Um we had budgeted an

76:49

Speaker A

additional 464,000 differently than last year in electricity. So we felt um and knowing that the solar panels are up and running right now at Ridgeberry in Scotland um we felt that uh that would be a responsible uh area. And then the last

77:06

Speaker A

invoice, they come so late anyway. Um the last invoice from Shipment and Goodwin uh was $76,000 for our last month. That was quite high. It would have put us over budget. Um we did have um a budget balance in special education

77:21

Speaker A

in legal of 36,000. That was surplus balance. We had a surplus balance in general legal of 22,000. Both of those lines would have been over if we had included that last invoice.

77:35

Speaker A

If you could just send me what the total is and then kind of what a breakdown is.

77:39

Speaker A

I'd appreciate that. Okay. Thanks. Happy to do that. Miss Brown, just as a reminder, it goes to the full board.

77:46

Speaker A

Any document. Yeah, you know that. Thank you. Are there any additional questions? Miss Moore.

77:53

Speaker A

Thank you, Jill, for this comprehensive uh presentation. I appreciate it and all of your hard work. Um I have two questions. Um the first one is about the professional services line. when you did the deeper look into uh PPS, people

78:07

Speaker A

personnel services and the variance was um minus 664 947 and I I tried to write down the things um you mentioned evals and psych uh psychologists and it was $575,000.

78:25

Speaker A

Can you are is that um those are those are outside evals versus doing in you know we have psychologists that do evals in house I assume. So what if someone could kind of explain a little bit more about those outside evals that would be

78:42

Speaker A

helpful. Sure. So outside evaluations may be neurosychological evaluations. We don't employ neuroscychologists or um other specialized evaluations where we might not have the expertise. Um parents can request an independent evaluation.

78:58

Speaker A

That's a right that they have. Um our choice when a parent requests an independent evaluation is either to file for due process or to grant that evaluation. Filing for due process can sometimes be expensive. um it it's it's

79:12

Speaker A

a risky um decision. So um often we grant independent evaluations for parents because it is their right to ask for it and we would review those subsequently at meetings.

79:25

Speaker A

Okay, thank that's very helpful. I wasn't aware of that because it's a little different where I used to work.

79:31

Speaker A

So thank you. That's that makes a lot of sense and I appreciate it. Um my other question is more of a general one. I really tried to take notes as you were writing and I was trying to write down what each variance,

79:42

Speaker A

especially the bigger ones and I I would ask if we could get those explanations of those drivers on a in a document. It would be very helpful for the board rather I mean I appreciate the verbal but it's very hard to write everything

79:56

Speaker A

down and I think it would be helpful visually if that would be possible. That's fine.

80:01

Speaker A

Thank you. Any other questions? Miss Rice, wait. Uh, is first let me make sure if there's no one else who's not had a chance to ask a question.

80:12

Speaker A

Okay. Oh, Miss Graph, I want to make sure you No, thank you. Um, just a point of clarification. Um, Miss Brown, you mentioned a couple times about receiving an invoice and putting it into FY27 versus 26. Can you walk me through or

80:26

Speaker A

the board through the process of what helps you determine the cutoff of that? Sure.

80:33

Speaker A

Um we tried to be strategic where we felt we had room with the exception of legal. Um and as we're getting closer and closer to year end because truly our year ends in the last weeks of August just before we're getting set to do that

80:52

Speaker A

expenditure report and we have some invoices that really really come in very late. Um so when we were looking at the last um invoice from Shipment and Goodwin um that's how we made that decision. But as we were approaching

81:06

Speaker A

year end and we could see um how far off we were finishing within the electricity budget and then gauging that that chart that I showed you. Okay. This is this is our you know expenditure year-over-year and we've got budget that is 464,000

81:26

Speaker A

more than this year which was about where we you know thought we would end.

81:32

Speaker A

We thought okay that's that's probably a safer place to take and put into the the next fiscal year. Hate doing that. I never want to do that. Um because you're starting off behind the eightball it feels like. Um but we also cannot

81:47

Speaker A

overspend our budget allocation. So we were our hands were tied and I think it's important to understand we really we exceeded our budget allocation.

81:59

Speaker A

Um but but we can't right so you know the the town has afforded us 119,796,000.

82:08

Speaker A

We can't spend 120 million. to add some color on to legal just because we had two questions that came up with it came up about it. So, for example, we had a due process hearing that I think was well into June this

82:24

Speaker A

year. The legal bill I think was over $85,000. So, that bill probably won't hit us until um it's probably I don't think we have it yet. So, it's probably going to be coming, you know, in the next month or so.

82:39

Speaker A

That's one hearing miss. Yes. So just to make sure I understand it sounds like we're not we're for cuto off purposes we're not acrewing based on what's incurred in the fiscal year we're putting it based on if we have remaining

82:56

Speaker A

budget if we had a surplus a higher surplus this year uh FY26 do I understand correctly that you would have because we received services in FY26 for such legal you would have put it in there but now we're starting

83:09

Speaker A

That's very I would like to digest that. Thanks, Miss Galahoo. Hey, um Miss Brown, thank you for that.

83:20

Speaker A

Um I did have a question regarding the substitutes, though. Um you were talking about the difference between the certified and the uncertified, but I wanted to see since we had a $500,000 unfavorable um in those categories. I wanted to know if we have an indicator

83:35

Speaker A

of how we budget for it for fiscal year 27 or 28, you know, how we do it the next time around. Sure. Um, as far as do we know what those drivers were from why so many substitutes, is it different

83:46

Speaker A

than prior years, you know, how for the outages that we need to account for and get.

83:50

Speaker A

Sure. I think Karen is maybe looking Karen, did you want to add something? Oh, no. I'll let I will let Miss Brown answer first and then I'm here to supplement if needed.

84:00

Speaker A

Sure. Sure. So um what you were seeing happen this year is not untypical or atypical. Um that's usually how it happens. We have uh over you know how however many 500 and some odd certified staff members um teachers within the

84:20

Speaker A

school and um some will have unforeseen medical leaves. Um some will uh leave us after emergencies. some, you know, whether it's a personnel issue or what have you. Um, if we did the exercise of taking from the salary line that was not

84:41

Speaker A

expended and put the substitute in there, it it would even out a not totally, but you you could see that, you know, with our certified non-certified, I think we came within $27,000.

84:55

Speaker A

So, it it does one pretty much covers the other. Um, but it's so typical that it's not worth doing the exercise because it would be so cumbersome and take up so much time, right? So, I might have um, you know, a a mathematics

85:12

Speaker A

teacher out at one school on a leave and and have a elementary teacher out on an extended leave and there are substitutes coming in now paid from this line, but their salary lines are not being expended. once their acred leave is

85:27

Speaker A

exhausted, right? We now they're on a no pay status and a lot of our new moms decide to do that. They do an extended leave through the end of the school year. It's also something that's pretty typical.

85:38

Speaker A

So, Miss Callahan, I think for myself, the easiest way that I always look to the easiest way to see if we're balanced or as close to being balanced is look at the teachers line and see if that line

85:49

Speaker A

is over or under and then look at the certified subs and see if they get close. And so if you look at those two numbers, you're off by about $30,000.

85:57

Speaker A

So, you know, you're pretty close. Okay, that feels better to me. Thank you. Because um I figure if we know we're always like that, then why do we keep using a different number?

86:06

Speaker A

But that makes sense. I understand. Thank you both. Of course. Anyone else who's not had a chance?

86:13

Speaker A

Okay, Miss Rice, this was just a super small thing because Rob brought up the solar, Mr.

86:18

Speaker A

Martier, sorry, brought up the solar and I remembered, so I just thought I'd mention in case anybody else forgot that Um, I remember Mr. Meritz talking about how the snow this year had a huge impact on the panels

86:30

Speaker A

at the high school because being that they're not over a building, the heat doesn't like melt. Like I have solar panels on my house and like within 24 hours they're uncovered because of the heat inside the house. So, I feel like I

86:43

Speaker A

remember us [clears throat] talking about the solar panels on the schools maybe being a little bit more reliable in terms of their what their um sort of the output return. Thank you. Yeah. Um versus those actual the canopies. So, I just want I

87:00

Speaker A

just thought I'd mention Thank you. Anyone else who's not had a chance? All right, Miss Moore.

87:10

Speaker A

Um, I forgot to ask this one, so thank you. Um, so if I'm looking at the the final budget, it looks like we have a surplus of $19,725.

87:21

Speaker A

And but what I'm understanding from the conversation is that we actually don't have a surplus. You push we push some of our expenses to next year. Is that correct?

87:31

Speaker A

Had we not done that, we would be in deficit. Okay. So where is that? Is that in here?

87:37

Speaker A

The amounts like do you know what I'm saying? So, we actually have an a a an an um an authentic view of every dollar. And if if you weren't to do that, in other words, where would where would we be? I

87:52

Speaker A

would like to know because I know we have to vote on this um accepting this financial report. I just want to make sure I understand everything correctly. Where can we find out how much we went over? Um, I would

88:06

Speaker A

have to follow up with that number. Okay. I I don't know. I I just wanted to put it out there. I wasn't sure how other people felt. I feel a little uncomfortable not knowing that number.

88:17

Speaker A

Well, I was instructed that from from the board of finance that we're not allowed to exceed the budget allocation.

88:25

Speaker A

We can't we can't come in and say, "Sorry, we're $200,000 over budget." Oh, no. I I understand that, but I feel like we should we should know how much Sure. h how far over we would have been or and perhaps I'm misspeaking.

88:39

Speaker A

No, thank you. Okay. Um there are other people. Yes, Miss Mr. Paradis. I'll give you Yeah, I just wanted to engage Miss Moore in a conversation about this because I think maybe to refine the point that you're making is

88:52

Speaker A

knowing the amount I think is extremely valuable and whatever the instruction may be. I think I I come from uh as with some others at this table the world of sort of like corporate private accounting where if we tried to do that

89:06

Speaker A

we would have had our hand slapped right where if we said hey this is a 2026 expense we're moving it into the next fiscal year people would be a little unhappy with that. So um and I I I just

89:16

Speaker A

take issue with one thing that you said is the way to fix that I'm quoting you poorly here was to move it into the next year. I mean, that's not entirely true, right? Statutoily, the way to fix that

89:28

Speaker A

is to go to the town and say, "Hey, we spent $100,000 more than we asked for, and we need you to I I would think that's actually the the process by which it is is clearly contemplated under state law that we should address it." uh

89:44

Speaker A

the approach that we've taken regardless of how it was treated in private accounting. I'm not sure how it's treated in governmental accounting, but I don't want to position as this is the way we do it because that that I take

89:54

Speaker A

issue with. Uh I don't know if this is the way we do it. Wait, Mr. Mati had his hand up.

90:04

Speaker A

It's just not consistent with uh generally accepted accounting principles to do that. So, um, to Miss Moore's point, um, I don't think we could accept the budget as it's proposed or the report.

90:21

Speaker A

Miss Graph, I've digested. Um, [laughter] I I would very much like to see it quantified just so that we have an understanding um, of what that looks like so that we can make an informed decision and vote um, tonight or not

90:34

Speaker A

tonight. Um and one other knit uh just to make you informed just to take a closer look um on slide 16. It's a PDF slide. It's um supplies and materials on the other purchase services. I don't think that agrees to the I'll call it

90:52

Speaker A

colorful schedule. Which slide, Miss Graph? Um this one here. Yep. That 1450858. If you can just take a closer look at that versus the colorful slide before it. And then also the next slide, energy, electricity, gas, and fuel. So go two slides further.

91:12

Speaker A

Yep. On those two, if you could triple check those before we go to board of finance tomorrow, that would be appreciated.

91:18

Speaker A

I don't think they're substantial. They're not a huge dollar amount different, but I did see a discrepancy between those numbers.

91:24

Speaker A

Can you clarify the just to clarify? Sure. So, let's just go like supplies and materials. I see on this slide the the pretty this slide is uh sorry I'm looking supplies and material on this uh on slide 13 I think we're looking at no not

91:39

Speaker A

slide 13. No no it's 15 or 16. Okay. Do you have the numbers? I have the numbers actually.

91:47

Speaker A

Sure. If you have them right in front of you. Okay. We're in slide 10. Is that accurate? And what's the line?

91:55

Speaker A

Supplies and materials. Yes. 1 million 511. Yes, I see it there. But then the next slide says 1450. Yeah. Under the original budget.

92:05

Speaker A

Oh, with the same transfer. I see it. Yeah, I'll double check that. Yeah, just double check that and do the same for this the slide thereafter.

92:12

Speaker A

Electricity and heating the total energy. Something looks immaterally off, but just to ensure consistency before I assume this is going to go to board of finance tomorrow.

92:23

Speaker A

Okay. Thank you. Thanks. We'll take this graph. I will say the word ditto. I was gonna I did see that.

92:30

Speaker A

Thank you, Miss Gallah. Um, just to piggy back off of because I too would like to know what that number is. But what for those of us who are not normally mathematically inclined with budgets, what would normally happen with

92:41

Speaker A

a number like that if you if we do carry it over because we don't aren't allowed to have it if that's the way we do it.

92:47

Speaker A

What does that mean? We start off with a deficit when we do our next budget for the year. We automatically are in a deficit of some sort.

92:54

Speaker A

Yeses and nos. Well, actually, yeah, Mr. So you can I know you No, my my understanding is that in governmental accounting differing from what we experienced with GAAP is you're not allowed to carry forward balances.

93:06

Speaker A

So if we spent $100,000 more than we were allotted by the town, we need to go to the town and ask for $100,000. We can't say, "Oh, we'll just take $100,000 off the next year." That's my understanding. that might not be you

93:21

Speaker A

know fully informed and and I I will await sort of more technical guidance on that but uh my rudimentary understanding is that there's no roll forwards you end the year you end the year and you start the year at zero for the next year

93:34

Speaker A

so then what were we typically doing then like I as far as I just I'm curious were we starting with the deficit or would we get that money paid off at some point in between we as Mr. So I Mr. Paradiser have the same

93:46

Speaker A

understanding. I believe we have to go to the town and say we have overspent x amount of money and then the town takes a vote and awards us that money or lets us do that. So that's the way it is. I

93:57

Speaker A

Yes, that's my understanding too. I we could be wrong. Um that's where I am with you on that, Miss Craft. Yes.

94:05

Speaker A

Um if we're going to go through the exercise of understanding what that looked like from FY26, I think it'd be prudent to also do that for FY25. uh from a just where are we on a net FY26 basis if others agree that would be

94:19

Speaker A

we had surplus balances that were significant for fiscal year 25 24 23 22 that's what I thought directly but that's good to know so there was nothing that I'll say spilled over into 26 there were 100,000 surpluses and that's

94:32

Speaker A

and when we have surplus it goes back to the town too so that's to that yeah so when we have a surplus it goes back so I think that's the important distinction here too may I just ask a clar question to Jill.

94:43

Speaker A

So Jill, let's just say that um we don't get a a legal bill or an electric bill for a year. Someone forgets to send that bill to us.

94:54

Speaker A

Do we post it against the year in which we have to because the books are closed on the other year.

94:59

Speaker A

So it would be the new the new year, right? So that legal bill that I just described earlier to Miss Graph, that's about $85,000.

95:08

Speaker A

If our books for fiscal year 26 are closed, we would be posting that legal bill against fiscal year 27.

95:15

Speaker A

Correct? Okay. Um I because I'm wondering and this is to my colleagues in the business world, right? And that how that different that that example I just gave lines up to the thinking is just a more of a wonder.

95:33

Speaker A

Okay, Mr. Muri. I [clears throat] I could help with that. Um what's supposed to happen is if we have um bills that we haven't paid and they haven't come in yet, we're supposed to acrew for them.

95:47

Speaker A

So if we have a bill that's out there from legal for 80,000, which they haven't build us yet, but it's services that were performed in this year, we're supposed to acrew for that. So it would be reflected in this budget.

96:02

Speaker A

Mr. Mr. Parad I just want to be careful with that advice. That advice I know is true for private companies. Uh generally accepted accounting principles don't necessarily always apply to governmental accounting.

96:16

Speaker A

There's two different entirely different accounting technical regimes. So I I I think your answer is spot on. If we were on a private board and we're having a conversation about our acrruels, I I hesitate for the board to give any

96:29

Speaker A

technical advice on governmental accounting. I don't believe anybody at this table has a background in governmental accounting. So I would recommend to the point that I was making earlier that we get the appropriate guidance from the technical uh

96:40

Speaker A

professionals uh who understand how to so we'll come back with that here in a communication to the board. So rather than absolutely circling back on Thank you. Thank you. So it seems that the board is not ready to vote till we

96:52

Speaker A

have a clean number on that. Is that fair? So all right we will defer that vote. But thank you Miss Brown for all your work. really appreciate you taking the time um and Dr. Silva also taking you took

97:04

Speaker A

time to answer all the questions. So, thank you so much for all your work on that.

97:08

Speaker A

Thank you. Moving on to board values. Um thank you Miss Cook for printing them out. You all have a hard copy in front of you if you did not have a digital copy which I had sent. Um can we have a

97:23

Speaker A

motion first? Um I excuse me. I move that the board of education adopt the proposed core values as the board's guiding principles for decision-making and communication.

97:35

Speaker A

Thank you. Do we have a second? Thank you, Mr. Paradiso. Um just as a quick summary, thank you to all board members who sent me their thoughts and idea for the core board values. Um the idea was this will be our anchor and as

97:48

Speaker A

we go through as I said in the beginning of the when I gave my report this will be an anchor as we have the discussions and we have this and I think just can keep us guided and as you can see I took

97:57

Speaker A

a synthesis I took everybody's response and I made this whole graph it kind of reflects to everything that everybody said and the core values that come up are students focus that was the first thing we lead with a student focused

98:09

Speaker A

lens we keep the need success and well-being and long-term future of students at the center of our decisions Second value was integrity. We act honestly, ethically and independently with the best interests of our students and district guiding our work. Third was

98:23

Speaker A

respect and collaboration. We value different perspectives, engage in open and respectful dialogue and work towards shared goals. Fourth was transparency and accountability. We conduct the public's business openly, seek and provide clear information, follow through on commitments, and take

98:38

Speaker A

responsibility for results. Fourth was financial stewardship. We are responsible stewards of public resources, making thoughtful, informed decisions about taxpayer dollars are allocated and used to support students and the long-term needs of the district.

98:52

Speaker A

Fourth, uh the la the other I've lost count at this point. Innovation [snorts] and continuous improvement. We remain open to new ideas, use evidence and reflection to evaluate our work, and continu continually seek better ways to serve students. And the last one was one

99:07

Speaker A

RPS. Keeping the theme in mind, we recognize that we are one school district and community. We're working towards a shared purpose and building trust and connection among students, family, staff, and the broader community.

99:21

Speaker A

This was a synthesis of everything shared. Are there any anybody has any edits, questions about this or can we take a vote?

99:30

Speaker A

Miss Callahan. Yes, thank you. Um, I like that we go beyond the norms for how we might treat one another and include principles that can actually guide our decisions. I see that we have like our first three on top

99:45

Speaker A

were decision principles and then we have governance conduct for the next three or four three I guess and then our identity principle. Um, what I'm curious about though is how do we envision using them? Like how are they applied? Um, for

99:58

Speaker A

example, when we're weighing competing priorities or making budget decisions, are these intended to function as a decision-making framework? I I just want to know how we're using values.

100:07

Speaker A

I would use this as an anchor. There are a lot of boards who use board values as an anchor document. So, when we're looking at decisions that we're making or I think this can be like a document that you look and say, is this any of

100:18

Speaker A

this thing fall under this okay item if you will or bucket. I I don't know what the correct word is, but you can see if it's is it student focused?

100:27

Speaker A

What is integrity? And I think it's important we talk about trans. We are fiscal stewards and identifying for the community. This is something we've value towards. We don't have this bylaw, but I'm hoping to bring this bylaw. I think

100:39

Speaker A

it's I forgot the number. It's in the 9,000 series. Uh a lot of boards also adapt board values as like one of a bylaw. So that could be something. And again, this is not meant to be every like we're every year this can

100:53

Speaker A

change. Yes, it is not all consuming. this can be changed, tweaked as the times go. So there could be another board that can come in in two years and say these are not the values we think lead us and we want to make it different

101:03

Speaker A

and that's absolutely okay on their perview. So this is just something to kind of guide us especially having the last year we did making sure we can when we have these discussions I have no problem asking out of all our

101:15

Speaker A

values where does this line up or is this something independent because I think what we have to recognize as a board we are one governing body collectively we have a voice individually I want something Mr. Mr.

101:26

Speaker A

Paradisa wants something, Miss Marino might want something. However, how do we function as a board that is collectively and I think when I look at this, this is the starting of that collective board governance piece and I hope the

101:38

Speaker A

community can see we're committed to that work too. So when we go into our bylaws, I hope to propose this into our bylaws like a board value and again when we develop the board deliverables calendar again it could be every year we can look

101:52

Speaker A

at this we can tweak if you want to. If you don't want to tweak it, we don't tweak it. Depends on every board that comes after us.

101:58

Speaker A

Thank you. Are there any other questions? All right. Hearing none, there's a motion. There's a second. If there are no edits to this, all those in favor adopting these board values as our guiding principles at least for this

102:10

Speaker A

year, please raise your hand. Unanimous. The motion carries. Thank you again everyone. The board of ed committee structures.

102:19

Speaker A

I'll be very quick about that. Uh we had at the retreat a really good discussion.

102:25

Speaker A

Um we recognize and this is when we do the bylaws. I will share some language that the committee shall provide a written and or oral progress report to the board of education each month while its work is underway. Report shall

102:38

Speaker A

summarize activities, findings, options under consideration, financial implications, unresolved questions and next steps. The committee chair or designate shall be available to answer board questions. And that is one of the structures we've shifted. Committee reports are now discussion items for

102:52

Speaker A

feedback from a lot of the board members. Um that kind of goes back to the transparency, the um accountability and student focus making sure we all have this discussion. So at the retreat we were working with seven committees.

103:08

Speaker A

We will the decision was made and we have motions for that. We will dissolve the budget finance and operation committees because it failed duplicative. It was just the board. No committee can take a vote. That's the bottom line. Our bylaws are very clear

103:21

Speaker A

of it. Uh the board collectively makes the decision. So the budget finance committee just had those questions and they would come to the board table. So the suggestion was to remove that and it becomes so it becomes the full it comes

103:33

Speaker A

to the full board. Therefore, Miss Brown was presenting to us. Uh the bylaws committee was again also dissolved. It comes to the full board simply because it is bylaws govern us. So it's very important that we have these

103:44

Speaker A

discussions. As I've already shared before, K will start this work. uh we will it is a stipen we don't have a motion but I believe we do not need to take a motion from that miss Cook did check and once Cape tells us and goes

103:57

Speaker A

through a review will audit our pol bylaws rip replace rip edit or rip uh ad and then I will ask the person who leads the cape um by the policy and the bylaws committees um Jodi I forgot his last

104:13

Speaker A

name Mr. ity. So maybe you remember I'm sorry I apologize in the last name. They will come and answer questions why they're adding something. Now remember bylaws are our reflection. You can add words to it. You can add clarification

104:25

Speaker A

um documents to it, subtext to it, but there's a broad core or model bylaws that Cape does and we are partners with Cape. So I thought it was a good idea.

104:34

Speaker A

So bylaws has all come to us the strategic planning and advocacy committee because it was so confusing and people were getting and Dr. Silva is already starting on the strategic planning process. We are we renamed it to the facilities

104:49

Speaker A

was it facilities and operations? Yes. Okay. Yes. Yeah. Thank you. U the curriculum committee was named teaching and learning committee because it's more broad-based. The policy committee stays as is. Negotiation stays as is and outreach stays as it. So we had seven

105:05

Speaker A

committees were gone down to five. Um one of the few things that were also mentioned that things like safety security student assessment uh will come to the full board pupil personal services and all that will go to the teaching and learning s

105:19

Speaker A

uh committee and that was the committee structure. Are there any questions about this? Thank you Miss Moore.

105:29

Speaker A

Can we have we have individual motions. Is that okay? Okay. Um, so the first one, I move that the board of education rename the curriculum committee to the teaching and learning committee.

105:41

Speaker A

Thank you. Do we have a second? Right. All those in favor, please raise your hand.

105:47

Speaker A

Unanimous. Thank you, Miss Mo. I move that the board of education rename the strategic planning committee to the facilities and operations committee.

105:58

Speaker A

Thank you. Do we have a motel? All those in favor, please raise your hand. Thank you.

106:07

Speaker A

Oh, okay. Sorry. All those in favor, raise your hand. Any nos? One abstension. Well, no abstensions.

106:16

Speaker A

Motion carries. Thank you. Um, I move that the board of education establish the board of education outreach committee.

106:24

Speaker A

We already have that. Sorry. Yeah. Next. I move that the board of education dissolve the budget, finance, and operations committee. Thank you, Miss Mo. Do we have a second? Miss Craft. All those in favor, please raise your hand.

106:38

Speaker A

Thank you. Motion carries. And I move that the board of education dissolve the bylaws subcommittee.

106:45

Speaker A

Thank you. Do we have a second? Mr. Paradiso. All those in favor, please raise your hand. Motion carries. Thank you so much. Um as of now according to our bylaws the committee structure says the committee members stay as is and our

106:59

Speaker A

bylaws said that this changes in the first meeting in December. Oh and the calendar for all that will be shared. The outreach committee is working on the calendar. I know that's a question we uh we've received twice. Um

107:14

Speaker A

thank you. Now your new structured committee reports. Mr. Seagull, you're the only one who met over summer. say this one's a doozy, so get comfortable. Uh, all right.

107:28

Speaker A

So, this summer, uh, what do we call the artist formerly known as the strategic planning committee, now the facilities and operations committee, met four times, uh, twice in June, once July, and once in August. We spent this time with

107:41

Speaker A

our outside vendors, uh, MP planning in Studio Jade specifically, who presented us with a facilities condition assessment. So that's FCA. You'll probably hear that acronym a few times.

107:52

Speaker A

This report is an overview on the state of our facilities, including conditions of aging infrastructure, maintenance needs, utilization of space, and more.

108:02

Speaker A

It's a resource that the board of education and administration can leverage as we think about prioritization of annual capital expenditure.

108:10

Speaker A

In our summer meetings with the district's vendor, we reviewed multiple facility scenarios ranging from maintaining all existing schools to consolidation options at the elementary level, including scenarios that propose construction of a new elementary school.

108:24

Speaker A

I will emphasize no decisions have been made, but simply an assessment of conditions. Within the next month, the board and community who are listening can expect a presentation on those potential investment scenarios that allow us all collectively to address long-term

108:42

Speaker A

capital needs, potentially take advantage of state funding or reimbursements in certain scenarios, and ultimately best align with the district's educational vision.

108:51

Speaker A

The desired outcome here is a strategic fiscally responsible master plan aligned at the full table here to address our district facility needs implemented ideally in practical stages and coordinating with our town partners at the board of select persons and board of

109:07

Speaker A

finance. Taking a quick step back, why are we doing this important context? First of all, aging facilities and resources.

109:16

Speaker A

We've talked about water leaks. We talk about air quality, appropriate heat and cooling systems, electrical systems which came up earlier.

109:23

Speaker A

Second, as many of us saw during site visits last year and many members in the committee who are listening are aware um so both uh members of this board as well as members from the board of select persons, board of finance saw instances

109:35

Speaker A

of learning spaces and hallways, rooms subdivided to accommodate special programs and closets converted to office space. Simply, we need to as a board and a town reassess the adequacy of our educational spaces and improvements to staff space to maintain our stated goal

109:52

Speaker A

to be a district of choice. Finally, while this is newer to some of us, there has been discussion over many years around increasing prek capacity for years that predate many of us uh here on this board, myself included. we

110:08

Speaker A

need to make real progress on increasing the scope of the program and now is as good a time as any to move that forward.

110:15

Speaker A

So in context of uh making facilities improvements as we look at capital expenditure year-over-year rather than addressing each one in a vacuum this process takes a holistic look at the total cost per building useful life timelines etc.

110:30

Speaker A

As an immediate step the committee recommends to the board chair and board of education that Dr. Dr. Dilva submit a letter to the board of select persons requesting additional space to support the district's prek program for the board. That letter can be found in

110:44

Speaker A

today's packet. That letter communicates that based on our vendor's assessment, Cadence Academy within Barlo Mountain Elementary is the most practical, appropriate, and cost-effective option for meeting a portion of the district's space needs.

111:00

Speaker A

Again, I emphasize nothing has been decided. We're simply coordinating on district needs based on what's already been discussed in past public meetings and actually resurfaces an ask that came back from 2024 around prek.

111:13

Speaker A

Furthermore, and thanks for staying with me on this, we developed a set of guiding principles to be used throughout the facilities decision-making process.

111:21

Speaker A

And thank you to Cheryl for printing out a copy. Hopefully everybody has a copy of that in front of them. I won't go through all of that just for sake of some brevity here. What's next in the process? Um, in other districts,

111:33

Speaker A

committees may make a single specific recommendation to the full board. We're not doing that, but rather working with our vendor to present the board uh the broad facilities conditions findings with a narrowed set of recommendations to the full board within the next month.

111:47

Speaker A

Hopefully, the intention is an opportunity for everyone at this table to ask their questions and work towards alignment on a preferred path. There is a lot to digest and I work with both our vendors and Dr. Silva to make materials

111:59

Speaker A

available after our next FOC meeting uh likely next week hopefully. Uh I would encourage us to invite the board of finance and board of select persons as guests to that board meeting as this is ultimately a townwide investment. We

112:14

Speaker A

want our partners to have as much understanding of our facility conditions, the manners of which we can approach this practically and responsibly with empathy from those other boards who we will work with on alignment. Uh, one last item just to cap

112:27

Speaker A

it off. Miss Brown, thank you. Uh, has, uh, been working to build a website link to all things master plan and facilities related so the community can easily access uh, access and review all work done in this area. So, look for a link

112:40

Speaker A

to that website soon. Thank you, Miss Brown. That covers it. Thank you, Mr. Seagull. That was really comprehensive and really appreciate it.

112:51

Speaker A

Um, I will say thank you to the committee's work over this summer. That's been a lot. Any questions for Mr.

112:58

Speaker A

Se. Great. Um, I think if it's okay with the board because Mr. Seagull did mention the letter. Um, is it okay if we move it before Dr. Dilva starts that because it kind of lines up? Yeah. Is that okay?

113:20

Speaker A

So, I guess we make a motion now again to move it to letter E.

113:27

Speaker A

Can you um No, let's make a motion. Let's do it correct. Okay. Um I move that the um letter to the board of selectmen be that the letter to the board of selectmen be moved from item F under

113:40

Speaker A

discussion and possible action items up to letter E. Thank you. Do we have a second? Thank you. All those in favor? Motion carries.

113:48

Speaker A

All right. Can I take this one? Yes, Mr. Seagull. Okay. So, um the letter that you have attached in your agenda is very similar to the the letter that was sent to the first select persons in February of 2024.

114:09

Speaker A

I'm pausing for a moment because I know Miss Mahaltra, perhaps other board members were here as well. There were a number of meetings that were taking place relative to the needs at that time were more specific to preschool and the

114:26

Speaker A

alternative high school. And then as you know we added the transition program on as well. So the letter is quite similar.

114:35

Speaker A

The difference in this letter is that I added language to the first select person that represented what our vendor would be would be recommending. Again, this is a short term, right? If we were looking at this long term, it might

114:54

Speaker A

potentially be different. But in terms of short-term responding to in this particular case, the problem that we're looking to solve for is the expansion of preschool that Cadence Academy would be likely the most coste effective option if we needed to short-term expand

115:18

Speaker A

preschool. Couple couple pieces that are really important. Ultimately, we request by way of the charter, and we've reviewed this with legal counsel the last time we sent the letter that we request space. Ultimately, the town helps determine that space within within

115:36

Speaker A

the educational specifications that we need. We have not physically gone into cadence and I don't think it's appropriate for us to be opining on whether it's the right space, the wrong space. It is what the vendor has said in

115:50

Speaker A

terms of its location. It's already serving preschool. All the reasons that you could imagine and it's not a new conversation, but from our perspective, that would be a determination that would be discussed with the town. So, this letter is prepared with the um addition

116:11

Speaker A

of what our vendor is saying would be likely the most coste effective. But you'll also notice that I included in our letter that we have not visited the facility. So we cannot determine that that is the right facility etc etc. But

116:26

Speaker A

based on the square footage and all those things our vendor is saying that that's likely the path that is um most costefficient. That's a determination that would come with the town. And I personally the board can do whatever you believe is appropriate. I

116:42

Speaker A

don't think that we should be opining necessarily on contracts and all of those other elements because that's not really our role. Our role is to let them know that we need the preschool space and this is what our vendor has shared

116:56

Speaker A

which has been publicly presented in many many facilities and operation committee meetings um over the past you know few months. It's not a surprise because this is a conversation that we have had uh across time with the board

117:13

Speaker A

of finance, the board of select people and the board of ed in terms of our needs at preschool.

117:18

Speaker A

To that end, later while not moved up on the agenda, later you also see a memo that was written by Dr. Sapala and supported by Miss Salvastrini, our preschool director on the history of preschool and presentations that have

117:33

Speaker A

been shared over time because the board of finance, as you know, had asked us some questions to be prepared to answer.

117:40

Speaker A

And our goal is to always have our board of ed um have the same information that any other board might see or hear. And because many of our members u may have not seen this information, we included it in the memo attached in the items of

117:55

Speaker A

information. This letter has not gone out to the board of select people at all. It is ready to go. I would believe that Mr. Maronei is expecting this letter. He has watched our meetings.

118:09

Speaker A

That said, it's not gone. If the board chooses to vote on the letter, that is up to you. Um, typically when I communicate to another CEO of an organization, it's not been a concern, but if the board prefers to write uh

118:24

Speaker A

approve or not approve or vote on the letter, that is up to you. In terms of the um facilities and operations committee, that was one of the areas that you noted in Mr. Seagull's report that was clear in terms of a next step

118:43

Speaker A

shortterm. Um this conversation has happened around preschool predates myself. I know Dr. Han Hanoway had presented several times around the growth of the population of preschool which you can see in the data that Dr. Sapala shared. Um it is not new

119:01

Speaker A

to anyone in terms of the need and what we're seeing across time in our preschool program.

119:08

Speaker A

Thank you Dr. Dilva. Mr. Paradisa. Yes. Thank you very much. Uh I so in particular the the second paragraph on the second page uh that begins of particular note. Um I have a lot of uh concerns about this. You you just said

119:28

Speaker A

in your statements that you did not believe the board should opine on the space, but we're doing exactly that.

119:34

Speaker A

Furthermore, you're you're presupposing that the full board agrees with the work of the facilities master planning process, which we have not had the opportunity to discuss at the full board table. So, I you know, I think that that

119:47

Speaker A

it one surefire way for us to enter into this conversation with the board of select persons in a contentious manner is to include this paragraph specifically. I think it disrespects their authority with regards to identifying the space. uh as you said

120:04

Speaker A

they've hopefully all watched the facility's master planning process uh and I don't think we should presuppose that uh one we have either the authority or even the consensus to uh label Cadence Academy as the preferred space at this board. So I don't believe this

120:21

Speaker A

should be sent uh and um if it is uh you know I will make it clear uh as publicly as possible that I do not necessarily agree with what is presupposed as uh that that it has been identified. You know

120:38

Speaker A

maybe you put in something that says the canes academy has been identified by the vendors but it is certainly not been identified by the full board.

120:48

Speaker A

Miss Rice. Oh, sorry. I didn't. That's okay. Thank you. Um, and thank you, uh, Mr. Paradiso for that. I actually wanted to kind of, uh, I appreciate that we moved this up on the agenda. Um, and I didn't have a chance

121:03

Speaker A

to explain, but that is the exact reason why I wanted to move it up on the agenda. I think um I had concerns about um the letter stating that I respectfully request on behalf of the board and the full board had not had a

121:17

Speaker A

discussion yet. Um I was here in 2024. I remember that conversation and it was a discussion at the full board table. So I appreciate the the full board discussion, but um I too have a concern.

121:30

Speaker A

Um I I agree with Mr. Paradiso about including the Cadence Academy. uh it's not something that we have discussed here. Um and I'm I'm concerned about it.

121:41

Speaker A

So I I agree. I wanted to share that. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Rice.

121:46

Speaker A

Um [clears throat] I just I I I think I'm just going to say that I don't actually interpret this paragraph the same way that Miss Moore and Mr. Paradiso do. However, um I I interpret it as saying that, you know,

122:01

Speaker A

that is that it's being suggested by MMP Planning in Studio Jade, not by us.

122:06

Speaker A

However, I think that the letter does what it needs to do without that paragraph. So, if people feel strongly about it, um you know, I that's not how I interpret the paragraph. However, I I don't think that it's uh the letter

122:21

Speaker A

still gets the point across without that paragraph. Miss Gellahan. Um, as a member of that formerly known as strategic planning committee, um, I thought that we were agreeing to just understand if cadence was even on the table just so that we knew yes or no,

122:41

Speaker A

should this even be talked about. Um, not to yes, we want to use it or can we get other locations or that the board has decided just let's stop talking about it in theoreticals and just know yes or no. was an option because it kept

122:56

Speaker A

coming up in our discussion. So that's what I thought. But we also have that second paragraph that says in furtherance it says I'm writing on behalf of the board and it struck me the wrong way too because that I know how

123:06

Speaker A

important it's been that these things be brought to the full board and a committee is only doing its due diligence to help make the work a little less for the full board but still everybody gets consensus on. Yeah.

123:18

Speaker A

Thank you Miss Galahan. Mr. Mercury, I recall being at a number of meetings that saying that we needed to expand prek. And there's nobody on the board that said we didn't. And I remember being in a number of meetings where we

123:35

Speaker A

said we needed additional space for prek of and above of and above what we had today.

123:42

Speaker A

Isn't that what this letter is saying? The board is saying that we need more space.

123:49

Speaker A

I don't want to speak, but if I'm understanding this correctly, I think it's the language that the say the says that the board is asking where the board has not had the discussion. The committee has had the discussion and as

123:59

Speaker A

Miss Callahan said, yes, we've had the discussion prek, but it's a determination that the board has agreed that cadence is that place. I think maybe rewarding it to your point, Miss Rice, we can probably take edit some of

124:11

Speaker A

the parts and says we should look I take that very I understand what Miss Calhman saying, Mr. Seagull can say. We just need to know if cadence is part of this conversation. If it's not, we move to another. We have to look at other

124:22

Speaker A

options. Miss Marina, um to to go back to what you said, Mr. Mati, I think that there have been discussions about needing space, but nothing has ever been agreed upon. Um so we've we've heard um people give presentations, we've heard requests from

124:42

Speaker A

Dr. to Silva and other people, but we ourselves as a board have not had that discussion.

124:49

Speaker A

I think for me, you know, what you recommend is what you recommend and you probably would know best. I think for me it's a protocol thing. May I ask a clarifying question?

124:59

Speaker A

Yes, Mr. Seagull's been waiting. Oh, okay. Um because I think this is important. This same letter. So, regardless of the components, whether you want to remove this or that, understood. Whatever the board chooses, I'm com comfortable with.

125:13

Speaker A

I work on behalf of the board. However, I think for myself, I need to have clarification.

125:19

Speaker A

So, as boards change, do then agreed upon needs also change. So, preschool, that letter that was sent um was agreed upon by the board. Whether it was a vote or not, I can't tell you that. I'd have to

125:36

Speaker A

go look that up. But it was a letter that was agreed upon. on behalf of the board in 2024. Are we now saying if there's a need and this is to your point about protocol are we now saying

125:47

Speaker A

anything that happens when a board changes is now not so that because I could have just resubmitted the same letter of 2024 we've now removed the prospect ridge component but it is essentially conceptually the same now if the board says we don't want cadence in

126:05

Speaker A

there at all just send the same letter understood whatever the board wants but I I think that's important Because otherwise are we just disregarding decisions of the past was just two years ago. The need hasn't changed. We've spoken about the need at every meeting.

126:21

Speaker A

We gave a timeline actually at the past strategic planning committee of when we absolutely should be moving forward with a preschool. I just want to understand that for myself with respect to the um the board of ed and cadence and that

126:37

Speaker A

conversation. The board may discuss cadence. From what I understand in terms of authority, we really have no authority over the location. So, Miss Callahan, to your question, we could say to the the board to select people, we need space for preschool. And

126:56

Speaker A

we could also say you can watch meeting X where a vendor is saying this might be the most cost-effective way which I'm sure the town knows what is or what isn't.

127:08

Speaker A

But from from what I understand we have no authority no different than at Prospect Ridge. It's the same concept.

127:14

Speaker A

We didn't get to pick the spot. We said we need space and then Mr. Maronei said here are all the different spaces. Come Susie see if this would work educationally with the specifications.

127:25

Speaker A

So, I just want to make sure I understand what our role is and what it's not and most specifically me because this was a letter that was I basically took the same template.

127:36

Speaker A

Mr. Paradis, first sorry, sir, Mr. Seagull, did you have to say something? I forgot.

127:43

Speaker A

I want Okay, listen. Okay, you will digest and then Yes. Just to be responsive to Dr. Silva, I I think your role is within uh the confines of uh the operational uh authority that we give you in this

128:00

Speaker A

district to make a formal request for the additional space and anything beyond that seems to uh exceed both what this board has directed. We we may want to vote to give you the authority to communicate that we want a specific

128:17

Speaker A

space, but until we do, I don't think you can communicate that in writing and say on behalf of the board, I'm doing something. So, your your authority, in my understanding, is limited to requesting the space.

128:32

Speaker A

I believe that's what the paragraph on this um page two says. The top this the middle paragraph is simply saying and from what I'm reading I respectfully request on behalf of the board that the board of select persons take the

128:45

Speaker A

necessary steps to acquire and make available addition additional property for use by the Ridgefield Board of Education to accommodate its pre kindergarten program subjects etc. Any approval that's what was in the past letter I believe similar language. The

128:57

Speaker A

next piece was simply what our rep our vendor shared. But if again if um Mr.

129:04

Speaker A

Podiso if that's something that you all want to remove you don't want to send the letter at all just give me the direction and glad to do it. So if I can summarize and maybe this is the way I think the word

129:17

Speaker A

on we haven't discussed this this was discussed at the committee level I think the fact if we want as a board to support this I think that is important we talk because when we Dr. Dr. Silva when I use I see the word the board I I

129:31

Speaker A

I think the two things I'm I think we definitely have a need that is not in my mind that is not at all the debate here it's the nuance of the word the board and the board requesting so when I look

129:42

Speaker A

at it I look at it publicly and the board of select people and Mr. Maronei and the board of finance sees that the board have this discussion and the board is behind this because the committee cannot do this. So for me it's just a

129:53

Speaker A

nuance of this the board supporting collectively this yes and then we can use the word and to be clear it's on the agenda it has not gone to anyone and the board is discussing it and it's the exact same letter that we sent

130:06

Speaker A

that's why and that was at a board table and whoever the board wants to handle.

130:08

Speaker A

Yeah that's the nuance that the way I see it I I don't think we're debating the space. Yes Mr. SA if I can suggest a path forward here is that if there's uncomfort from some folks at the table represent and and I

130:20

Speaker A

don't just I don't disagree with the take of if people feel that this is representing a board resolution that has not come to fruition yet that we simply want to approach the town to advance the discussion to remove if it's the entire

130:33

Speaker A

paragraph or certain lines. The reality is we are going to bring the vendors to the table. they are going the vendors are in a position to be more prescriptive where we don't even have to necessarily come to a resolution

130:44

Speaker A

ourselves today but it does allow for the to advance the discussion bring the context that I'm sure they have from listening to the meetings but without the board resolving to say we are being prescriptive towards Kaden specifically I agree with that actually because it's

130:58

Speaker A

just the removing of certain words and it gives it the broad enough base and it's not the board so that is not something we've discussed right to to be fair to everybody everybody's point. Um, and I also want to reiterate that the

131:10

Speaker A

board is not debating the space or the need of the space to to Dr. Dilva's point. Absolutely not. It's the nuance and the governance piece and I want to keep reinforcing that we have a role as a board and when community looks at it,

131:21

Speaker A

we should be able to have one of our values is transparency and fiscal responsibility. So, I just want to anchor us on that.

131:28

Speaker A

Miss Moore, thank you. Um, I just want to follow up. Um, I agree about the governance aspect of this and I think anytime the superintendent writes a letter and makes any request formally on behalf of the board of education, we should discuss it

131:43

Speaker A

as a full board and we should have a vote because we're authorizing her to speak for us. So, I'm not comfortable authorizing her to speak for us without voting to allow that to happen. I was present for the 2024 and I'm I I I seem

131:57

Speaker A

to remember we did vote. I could be wrong. If we didn't, we absolutely came to a consensus and we had a discussion about the superintendent speaking for us. That's where this came for me. It needed to be a discussion and we need to

132:11

Speaker A

vote in my opinion to authorize you to speak for us. Thank you, Miss Callahan.

132:18

Speaker A

Um, please educate me. Is she able to just ask on behalf of the committee so that we can just understand for the work of the committee? I'm just it's just to move something forward. I mean Jed Studio Jed and MP planning available

132:31

Speaker A

because the committee cannot speak for the board, right? They're not ask for the board. They're just asking in general is this space and available. That's not an option.

132:37

Speaker A

Miss Rice. Okay. Is that Hang on a minute. [clears throat] Is that not an option? The superintendent can't ask.

132:42

Speaker A

No, you can ask, but we don't have to add a committee or [snorts] board. We can just say Dr. Dilva is asking.

132:49

Speaker A

Yeah. Can I just suggest and see just in case see if anybody if everyone's okay with it? Could we take out the problem or the the pro the paragraph uh third second second from the bottom that gives people some pause and then also take out

133:03

Speaker A

the language on behalf of the board. And now this is a letter from the superintendent to the board the first selectman accomplishing the same thing which we all seem comfortable with which is just the asking for more space. Just

133:15

Speaker A

wondering if people are comfortable with that. Mr. Paradiso, I'm actually not comfortable with that.

133:19

Speaker A

I want the superintendent to request space formally and to begin a discussion with the board of select persons about what space is most appropriate.

133:29

Speaker A

Sorry, that's what I meant. Uh, Mr. Paradizo, I meant taking out the No, no. I I want it to be on behalf of the board as is in her rem. So, you're hoping for us to vote for space.

133:39

Speaker A

So, you're hoping for us to vote so that she can then do that. I think that as I said earlier, I think it is within her purview to ask for space. that is she we mentioned the charter in this that's the past practice

133:51

Speaker A

uh so I'm I'm okay with asking for space I'm really I just have a concern about cadence academy okay the longer we wait to ask for space it's kind of shame on us in that regard yeah I totally understand now thank you

134:04

Speaker A

for clarifying so would you like to make a motion to vote but take the word away based on this work cadence academy or that paragraph I would remove the paragraph completely I Starting with of particular note and ending at acquisition

134:21

Speaker A

removing the whole paragraph the second to last paragraph I need to read so give me one minute. So yes, starting with a particular note all the way to acquisition acquisition. More correct.

134:31

Speaker A

Uh yes. So that whole this the whole paragraph middle paragraph all gone. And then you have everything else. You have you're allow you're asking for space. Correct.

134:40

Speaker A

Um you're asking for the statue. Yes. You're asking for I'm refreshing them from the last letter.

134:46

Speaker A

Yes. Everything else stays. Yes. and and I'll make I can make a we can still move forward with and Dr. Dilva can reach out and we can move forward in this process instead of just holding on.

135:00

Speaker A

Okay. However, the board wants to handle it. Is that okay? So, so do we have a motion now?

135:05

Speaker A

Sure. I move that the board of education um grant Dr. Dilva, our superintendent. Um, the ability to write a letter to our first selectman, Mr. Rudy Maronei, requesting space, addition of select people, the board of select people, excuse me.

135:25

Speaker A

Um, requesting additional space for uh, kindergarten preschool. Preschool, excuse me. You come for preschool. Let me start over. I move that the board of education approve the sending of the draft letter in front of us to Mr. Rudy Maronei, our first select

135:44

Speaker A

person, requesting additional space for prek with the edit of removing the second to last paragraph on page two.

135:57

Speaker A

Okay, thank you. Select people. Select people for select person and the select people, right, Dr. Just I I typically will send it to the first appropriate. There's a motion. Do we have a second? Miss Rice. All those in

136:11

Speaker A

favor of approving this, supporting this motion, please raise your hand. Unanimous. Thank you. Motion carries.

136:21

Speaker A

Last item on the discussion and possible action items, and I thought we would be out by 9:00, is the introduction of the 2026 27 district plan. Introduction to the annual theme.

136:33

Speaker A

Okay, give me one moment to pop this up. Okay, so in your packet, um, you have some updated material. So, as everyone knows, at our August retreat, I introduced our intention to engage in a year-long strategic planning process, not a strategic plan. Tonight's

136:57

Speaker A

intention is to really be sure that the board has greater clarity around how that process will work. Since our time together in that retreat, we developed a strategic planning playbook to provide a structure to that work. It's intentionally not static. Instead, we

137:15

Speaker A

want a clear process, but also want the ability to respond to what we learn as we engage our community, study our data, and ultimately identify the priorities that should guide RPS over the next three to five years. Dr. Annie Tucci,

137:32

Speaker A

who has graciously come out tonight, will serve as our district coordinator for the process, helping us maintain momentum, coordinate the different parts of the work, and to ensure communication across teams.

137:45

Speaker A

As I noted in my memo, I wanted to clarify some of the questions that came up either at the retreat or after the retreat. Those are included in your packet.

137:55

Speaker A

This is shared work, but as the board knows, um shared work does not necessarily mean identical roles. The board and the superintendent will of course share responsibility for ensuring that a meaningful strategic planning process occurs and ultimately establishing the long-term vision and

138:12

Speaker A

goals. The administration will manage the process, stakeholder engagement, information gathering and analysis. And the board will engage at the appropriate times providing governance level perspective feedback asking us to consider other things if that's what you see and ultimately acting on the

138:29

Speaker A

strategic plan. You notice in your packet you have legal guidance that gives you um more context around the regulation that was brought up at the retreat. And the board of course through its typical process will have opportunities to engage in addition to

138:45

Speaker A

having a member on the steering committee with the hopes of course that there'll be a final adoption of a strategic plan anticipated in June and then the administration would have the summer to create those action action steps.

138:59

Speaker A

Um in terms of questions that the board might have. So you have links within your document. And hopefully you've had an opportunity to look at them and I am here to answer any questions and I know there's a lot of documents so hopefully

139:16

Speaker A

thank you Dr. Dilva. Are there questions for Dr. Dilva while I find my miss?

139:25

Speaker A

Thank you Dr. Dilva. I um I see my questions um here that were that were included. Thank you. And I just wanted to talk a little bit about the idea of having um possibly four members of the board of education as

139:47

Speaker A

I'm sorry, Miss Mark. No, no, no. Was my ears not? Oh, I was like, am I on?

139:51

Speaker A

Um I see my questions here. I didn't know if you received any others from anyone. I see mine um in this document.

139:59

Speaker A

No, no, just feedback, I think, or no feedback. Okay. I just wanted to have a little bit of a discussion about s you know um the collaboration aspect between the board of education and the superintendent on this and I had suggested that perhaps

140:12

Speaker A

four board members participate in the process rather than one or two and I wanted to get a feel for how other board members felt about that how you felt about that you want to go to the board yes miss graph

140:27

Speaker A

is there a rationale for the four is it for quorum purposes or just yes okay so we don't go for that.

140:32

Speaker A

I like the idea. Yeah. But I I Yeah, that was my thought process. Anyone else? Mr. Paradisa, I also like the idea.

140:43

Speaker A

Okay, Dr. Dilva. Um, so two pieces. One piece that I neglected to mention. Also in the memo, you have some examples of strategic plans, not necessarily processes per se, although I think there may have been one um that may have included the process

141:00

Speaker A

that was intentionally there so that you could see that, you know, they're not all the same, and that can be confusing when people are looking at one strategic plan from one community versus another. With respect to the number of individuals on uh the

141:19

Speaker A

strategic planning process, the intent is to come back to the board as in their governance role four times a year for feedback. By having one or two members on the steering committee, right? you're having some guidance alongside administrators teachers parents

141:38

Speaker A

students, keeping a manageable group around 14 because at the end of the day the work has to happen. You have representatives on the steering committee and then ultimately the board is is giving us feedback as well as we

141:52

Speaker A

come back in particular as the steering committee which has two board members sharing out our progress along the way.

142:01

Speaker A

Should the board want to add additional board members, that's up to the board. It's not typical to have in any of the planning processes that I know. That doesn't mean that it can't happen. So, I want to be clear about that. But in the

142:18

Speaker A

processes that I know and understand, the work is operational in general and it should be given to the people that are operational. Doesn't mean that the board doesn't have insight or feedback.

142:29

Speaker A

and coming back almost seems like if you're going to have four members, why are we coming back to the board four times to collect more feedback? And being able to really manage a a size group that doesn't isn't heavy in one

142:42

Speaker A

particular space over the other. Myself included, I'm involved just like the board is at that steering committee level, but allowing the other people to do that work and processing it through uh Dr. Tucci who will be making sure

142:56

Speaker A

that there's a coordination. And again, it's intended to be nimble so we can make changes over the course of time, culminating obviously in a strategic plan that allows the administration and I go do the heavy lifting in the summer

143:11

Speaker A

in terms of action steps by the end of the year. Thank you, Dr. Dilva. Mr. Paradisa, yeah, I just wanted to further uh Ms.

143:21

Speaker A

Moore's point and and to clarify because I think Dr. Dilva, I completely understand the point. I've been on large committees trying to do things and it's hard. It's like uh hurting cats and I I and in some ways I think that's exactly

143:34

Speaker A

why we need more BOE members on this board because at the end of the day if we're only going to see this at intervals where we're sort of taking a litmus test of the process. My concern is that months could go by where a

143:48

Speaker A

direction could be followed that would eventually come back to this board where we would have a concern about or an issue about. So I I think you know I don't know if four is the right number.

144:00

Speaker A

I think one is a lot for one person and I think somewhere between one and four uh we could ensure that on a week-to-eek basis uh the board's perspective is represented in the process uh not lead the process obviously be team players

144:19

Speaker A

but uh it guards against the risk of us finding ourselves in January and saying hey this is not what we thought was going to happen and I I I that timing to me, especially since this is now partnered with a change to how we are

144:34

Speaker A

going to comply with the general statute that requires this board uh to create annual um student priorities.

144:42

Speaker A

I I'm I'm just very concerned that this committee could go in a direction that we might not agree with and we could end up not being able to actually agree on priorities for the district uh by the deadline that's required of us. So that

144:55

Speaker A

that's that's my case uh for agreeing with Miss Moore. Anyone else? Miss Rice, I don't um I don't feel strongly I the the only sort of um other sort of devil's advocate point of view. I I agree. Not one uh for sure, but is like

145:18

Speaker A

I just wouldn't want our our presence to like greatly outweigh the presence of other stakeholders on the steering committee to where it feels une like it seems like it should be a fairly fairly equal representation on on the steering committee. Maybe like

145:34

Speaker A

a little bit more, you know, like a two or three or something like that. But I just, you know, uh that's all.

145:42

Speaker A

Mr. Muri, I have a different view. I mean, it seems like what the committee is doing is operational and our role is oversight. And since this committee is going to be coming to us four times a year, why wouldn't that give the board

145:59

Speaker A

enough information, enough insight to change direction if we didn't agree? Miss Marino, I actually disagree. I don't believe.

146:12

Speaker A

And and so when I was looking at a lot of this stuff, I was thinking and when I heard you speak, it's part operational, but it's really mostly the vision of our board of ed and what we want our

146:28

Speaker A

district to be and continue to be in the future. So I think the voice of the board of ed is very important and the voice of the community is really important and that's why there are so many stakeholders in a strategic plan

146:41

Speaker A

and I think that not having that representation and relying on just operations only I'm not comfortable with. Um, so when we were talking my my big problem, and no offense to the summer work, um, with master planning is when you're talking

147:01

Speaker A

about school closures, when you don't have a strategic plan in place and a vision in place for your students and if we are really talking about being student first or students first, you're not going to close a neighborhood

147:15

Speaker A

school. You know, you might say, "No, all kids are entitled to that school five minutes from their house, not on a bus 20 minutes from their house." And that is part of strategic planning.

147:25

Speaker A

That's part of the vision we have for our students in this community. So, I think for balance, I would like to see more board of ed members on the strategic planning committee because we are the elected officials for our

147:38

Speaker A

district. Miss Gallah, I'm basically just going to say ditto to what you said, Miss Marino. Um, and I'm in in line with that um with wanting more board of ed representation on there because I do think it's a shared process

147:55

Speaker A

um for sure and it's going to shape the direction of how we're we're leading this this district. But for the same um purpose I'm curious how the stakeholders are selected for this because how do we get act uh adequate representation of

148:11

Speaker A

parents for instance as one group if we have say two or three parents is that a working parent and a non-working? Is it a mom and a dad? Is it an older and a younger with kids younger and old? I

148:21

Speaker A

just don't know how we get an adequate representation to encapsulate a community of 25,000 people.

148:29

Speaker A

So yeah, please. Anyone else? Anyone else first? Miss Mor, let Dr. Dilva answer. Yes. No, I said no. Can you I was like, anyone else? Let Dr. Dilva answer and then I'll come to you. That's what I meant. I didn't see that.

148:42

Speaker A

No, that's okay. No problem. Um so at the end of the day, strategic plans are typically created and supported by the people that are working in the community with the board alongside. So that when you speak about facilities, right, and what that might

149:07

Speaker A

look like, if the intent is that the board is going to drive the strategic plan and that's your goal, let's say, you know, Matt closing schools or not, that's not typically what this type of process looks like. This type of process

149:20

Speaker A

does much of what you've just described in that it the design team designs how you're you're des you're questioning Miss Callahan is who's going to be asked? How are we going to collect this feedback? Which stakeholders are we

149:33

Speaker A

going to speak to? We're not going to be able to speak to 25,000 people. That's not reasonable. And how do we collect some feedback from perhaps students that are at the secondary level, students at their at the elementary, lower levels,

149:46

Speaker A

parents from upper, parents from lower, perhaps even alumni, um community stakeholders. How can we collect some feedback from dipsticks? We're not collecting feedback from the entire community. If that's what this board wants, I'm not sure how to run a

150:03

Speaker A

strategic planning committee like that. And if you have four board members on the strategic planning let's I'm sorry the steering committee then you're going to have more than let's say teachers or so we could perhaps look at designing something so

150:19

Speaker A

we could find membership let's say three members however the board feels feels suitable on different aspects of the process so that voice I think is important but in many ways it's it's less our voice it's the collection ction of information. It's

150:36

Speaker A

left my less my voice. We're collecting information from our stakeholder groups so that then we can come to the board ultimately and say this is what your stakeholder groups are saying is what they value as their pillars. And then

150:50

Speaker A

the board ultimately makes says okay yeah this represents dot dot dot dot groups that have communicated in all these different ways again with the steering committee pushing pushing pushing. What have who have we missed? Who have we not spoken

151:05

Speaker A

to? What other information do we need? Is did that survey really ask the questions that we were really thinking we should be asking? Do we need to have a focus group for this? That's that steering committee's group that has

151:15

Speaker A

representatives from the board alongside a lot of other folks, but not it's not intended to be driven by let's say even Susie, right, your superintendent. It's intended to be collective and saying what's the next level of work and what

151:28

Speaker A

do we value? So, I would just look to balance where those representatives are. If the board feels strongly that two or three members, three members let's say have to be on in this process and I we balance that and then Miss Kalan I think

151:42

Speaker A

it's really important that we understand where we are right now in this process and where we're going to go. We haven't designed so if you look at that playbook it gives you a sense of what's happening in stage one, what's happening in stage

151:54

Speaker A

two and on because if we jump too far ahead then here it is again Susie deciding what should happen with XYZ.

152:01

Speaker A

That's now what a planning process looks like. At least the ones that I know that happen in schools. If folks want to share other types, I'm glad to research them and come back to you at another time.

152:13

Speaker A

Oh, sorry. Anyone else who's not asked a question first? I'm looking at you. Okay. All right. Miss Moore.

152:21

Speaker A

Um, yeah. I just uh I just wanted to follow up with um I I firmly believe that the board should be along for the process as well as getting the feedback at the table and Dr. Dr. Dilla, you did

152:35

Speaker A

mention something. You know, if four board members are part of the process, what's the point of coming back to report? And that gave me pause because four members are on committees and they always we always come back to report. We

152:45

Speaker A

have nine members on the board of education. So, I just wanted to reiterate that I do think um partnership looks like allowing us or inviting us along and I agree with Miss Marino wholeheartedly that this is really a

153:01

Speaker A

shared a shared um uh project and our our vision should you know we we we collaborate with you and share our vision as well. So I I feel strongly about four board members. So I just wanted to I wanted to

153:18

Speaker A

express that and I agree with you know those at the table who have said that I I respectfully if this is what the board wants then we'll we'll find a place where everybody has their voice. This is not there's many of of decisions where

153:30

Speaker A

there's a push pull. This isn't doesn't need to be won. If the board feels strongly that they would like however many members to join the strategic planning process in some capacity, right, where their voice is spread because you want to make sure that

153:43

Speaker A

that's there if you're going to spread us just like you would spread any one of us, then I think that that's how we move forward. I don't it's not I don't think anyone is feeling like this has to be

153:52

Speaker A

one particular way. This is the way that that most school districts handle it. Like I said from the beginning, we could handle it a different way.

154:01

Speaker A

Thank you, Dr. So, Mr. Paradis, so yeah, just not necessarily on the points that were made and I I generally agree with uh everything that's been said thus far about board participation. Uh the only thing I wanted to say is, you know,

154:15

Speaker A

on some of the documents that were shared, Dr. Dilva, you know, one of them was some examples of of strategic plans.

154:22

Speaker A

Uh you know, there there there are private schools on this list. There there are schools, you know, from the west coast primarily. You know, I I'm and one of the reasons I think it's important to have the board along for the ride, as M.

154:37

Speaker A

Moore said, is that Connecticut is very unique and Ridgefield is even more unique in Connecticut. And so I think, you know, when I see the Singapore American School as an example of the kind of thing we're trying to achieve, I

154:52

Speaker A

think the Singapore American school can probably do many different things and will want to do very many different things than the board of education. So, so that also gives me pause that we even in the standpoint of the examples, I I

155:06

Speaker A

don't see an example that's Greenwich or Hartford or somewhere that's a neighboring district where I would feel like, okay, this is this is a game plan.

155:16

Speaker A

I I I see some things on this list that uh I would I would question whether or not we should be even reflecting on uh frankly. So, that's one. Uh two, I I had mentioned this during the retreat. Uh I'

155:30

Speaker A

I'd really like to have an understanding of what portion of the budget that we voted on uh is related to this. Uh you know, this was not something we discussed uh last year when we discussed the budget. So if it's uh really any

155:44

Speaker A

number, you know, it's to me this is new. Uh and so I think we need to be really deliberate uh about agreeing to the amount of money we're going to spend on this uh this year because that's not

155:56

Speaker A

something that uh we've discussed uh previously. Uh and then uh lastly uh just there there was a there was quite a bit of information uh in the memo that you had shared uh I think trying to refute uh point that I made at

156:15

Speaker A

our retreat with regards to the interpretation of regulation 200.1 and I you know honestly it's uh I I'm concerned if this came from our legal council frankly um because nowhere in the there there's there's an identification of what the regulation

156:34

Speaker A

says and then there's a jump into uh an interpretation of that regulation uh that seems to be presented in this memo as a stated fact which I I personally disagree with. Um the regulation specifies that it is the joint

156:50

Speaker A

responsibility uh to devise the long-term strategic planning of this district and I I'm all for uh having a committee I I believe which will be chaired by you uh in this instance you know execute that but I I

157:09

Speaker A

disagree with the interpretation that's listed here that it is not the responsibility in joint form of the board of education to be a part of that.

157:18

Speaker A

So I'm not contemplating that we need to vote for it. I am concerned that in a public document we are interpreting a regulation in a way that uh there there's no text in that regulation that says that the devel that the developing

157:34

Speaker A

a process for strategic planning seems to be primarily a superintendent operational function. That does not exist anywhere in our policy book. I if it does I I will say may a copa and and please read it to me but um I I do

157:48

Speaker A

object to the characterization uh both the words that you've written it sounds like and in the words from our lawyer that characterize it otherwise I would just like to point to the board our bylaw 9000 that says this is our

158:03

Speaker A

board's own governing bylaw that we adopted by the board that boards it says that the board has the authority to annually establish with the superintendent educational priorities and goals that the board and superintendent intended to work together to establish those priorities and goals.

158:17

Speaker A

So, it kind of is parallel to what the regulation is saying. So, I think it is a joint partnership. We've repeated that multiple times. Dr. Silva, I do um thank you for your flexibility in the fact that you will look at multiple board

158:32

Speaker A

members, how they're placed, whether they're steering committee or not, that is your ultimate decision. I do also want to recognize that it's the superintendent's job to do the operational to execute it. Eventually, the board will own this document, this

158:44

Speaker A

plan, whatever this plan is. And I think having multiple inputs and conversations with the board will help us guide this because I will go back to something I said in the beginning. We are the governing body. We were elected by the

158:56

Speaker A

community to do a job. Um, and we will do the job till they choose till we're, you know, our terms end and if we choose not to run again. So I think it's a partnership. It's a shared partnership.

159:08

Speaker A

Uh I don't think the board will drive this. I don't as Dr. Silva said, Dr.

159:13

Speaker A

Silva won't be. There will be different stakeholders. But I do think of it as a shared partnership. Again, recognizing that the operational part is absolutely Dr. D Silva's to Mr. Mati's point. It is the governance part and the governance

159:24

Speaker A

part is that we have a stake in that and our bylaws and our regulation certain points share talk about a shared partnership. So trusting the superintendent to the job with the partnership of the board and having these conversations at the board level

159:37

Speaker A

so that we can have our input and I think that goes back to I'll go back to our values the shared the transparency and all our fiscal and fiduciary fiduciary responsibilities. I think that's where I anchor this having this I

159:52

Speaker A

keep using the word partnership because I think it's very important. I will incidentally we've only had four board four members who reached out to join this. I will leave to Dr. Dilva how that best works. Nobody else has. So, which

160:04

Speaker A

is great. Please don't now email me and say you want to join. [laughter] Uh but Dr. Dilva will make that decision. I appreciate everybody who has reached out. Thank you for listening to that deadline for that. Miss Callahan,

160:17

Speaker A

um may I also recommend that often the language was used of three to fiveyear plan? Um, can we just keep it with like the master planning as far as can we do a five-year rolling plan or something just so we can for the purpose of of

160:29

Speaker A

putting together these priorities for our strategic plan? I just think it it looks at long-term vision because some of these goals that might be come up that we might come up with as a as a group or as a board and and as a as

160:40

Speaker A

yourself as well, all our partners, um, they might be things that we can't hit within a three year or it might be something I just feel like a rolling five would make sense.

160:47

Speaker A

Yeah. So Miss Kelly and I I generally speaking they're three to five years but as you see in this playbook the intent is to be nimble and if something in a I we attempted to land to to uh narrate that that while it is a

161:05

Speaker A

generally speaking however many years you want to identify strategic plans are typically three to five years but if you're going back into something and all of a sudden the landscape has changed you're naturally going to you're not going to keep going in that direction.

161:19

Speaker A

But but even still, what I'd say is ultimately if if through the through the committee works or the tiger teams, they will design and make a recommendation. The board can then say, "We'd like to see something a little bit

161:33

Speaker A

different. Can you go out a little bit further?" That will be for the board to discuss and as you see the progress as we move forward. Um thought you there was another part to your question.

161:45

Speaker A

Uh that was the main part was just um rolling as well. I mean just how we do the master plan where the first year is the main thing that we're looking at.

161:51

Speaker A

Everything else is up to change. It it can happen that we change it and that's like you said you take another look at it.

161:56

Speaker A

Well, but you're you're essentially creating a plan for the future, not one year. And to Dr. Dilva's thing, I think this is something that the board will own. If this is the word smithing we want to do when it comes to the board table,

162:06

Speaker A

absolutely. But I think we should let the committee start the work um to start this conversation when it comes and we talk about it. If this is the way we want it and this is what makes sense collectively as a board we can I just

162:19

Speaker A

last question if we can move on I just want to keep us cognizant of the time just to follow up with that um because I did in my head have a second part to that that I didn't articulate that you

162:27

Speaker A

must have read um Dr. Silva, but uh since this is going to be a full year's planning process, am I to understand that maybe at the next board meeting we're going to talk about what what we're going to do for the fiscal year

162:39

Speaker A

2627 so that this year does not become a loss and only involved in planning and we actually accomplish stuff as well.

162:45

Speaker A

Yes. Come up. Wait. Well, we'll talk offline when you mean about that. Just keeping so that we have clarifi clarity for Dr. Right? Because we have our focus areas that we included in the additional in the original play uh presentation. If

163:00

Speaker A

that's something different than the board wants, then we can I will send you the local plans. Mr.

163:05

Speaker A

Periso, I I believe that during our retreat we were asked to look at outside of our local, but I'll send these right now to you so you have examples of those as well.

163:14

Speaker A

Thank you, Dr. Dil. Is there any more discussion on this? Miss Callum, I'll reach out to build on that. I see the confusion on your face.

163:25

Speaker A

We'll build on that. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. If there's no more discussion, I think we have had a good discussion. Dr. Silva again, thank you and thank you to each every board member for your thoughtful suggestions and to the four only board members who reached

163:37

Speaker A

out. I think it'll come to the board and then we'll discuss. Um, keeping in our efficiencies, we have items of information. The first one's already done. Dr. Dilva, preschool history and background. You have that. Dr. Anything you want to quickly run through? Uh well

163:50

Speaker A

I just the second part of the memo just rem highlights the theme for the year.

163:55

Speaker A

So I we don't need to spend Oh yes time on that. I recognize we're 33 minutes over and just wanted to reiterate that um you know as we transition away from the strategic planning process that our theme this

164:09

Speaker A

year is one RPS. We've had a number of themes over the past few years. Many of you know them. um you were here with us and I think that many of those themes lead beautifully to where we are this

164:20

Speaker A

year which is one RPS doesn't mean every every school or every person is the same rather quite the opposite that each um of our identities matter and yet collectively that's how we make one organization some to be a part of

164:33

Speaker A

something larger that's it thank you and it's in our sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh

164:36

Speaker A

sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh shared values. Thank you. All right, moving on to items of information. Dr. Silva, would you like to quickly?

164:43

Speaker A

Sure. I believe only one more item of information on the Oh, no, there's not.

164:49

Speaker A

Hang on, there's two. Oh, there's two. Um, the preschool uh history and background. I had shared with you all an earlier draft of that letter just so that the board understood what questions were being asked of us by our board of

165:03

Speaker A

finance. We'll be there tomorrow night answering those questions and others that may come up connected to preschool.

165:10

Speaker A

Um, both Dr. Sapala and Miss Salvastrini will be joining me. So, that's really it there. There's nothing that hasn't been shared with a board that um wasn't linked in the document, but if you have any questions, just reach out to us

165:22

Speaker A

directly. And the minimum wage increase is just an item of information. I don't think we need to do anything there.

165:28

Speaker A

That's self-explanatory. And the other two programs you have memos for as opposed to presentations per request of the board. And that's all I have.

165:36

Speaker A

Um, just thank you so much, Corey, to you and your team again for the incredible work you do over summer to every single one of you that make that possible for all our students. So, thank you so much.

165:48

Speaker A

All right, moving on to correspondence to the board. Public comment. All right, correspondence report.

165:57

Speaker A

Um, you'll have to bear with me because the last correspondence report was June 8th of 2025, 2026. That would be worse. That would be worse. Um, so that was our last. So, um, so since our last regular meeting held

166:13

Speaker A

on June 8th, 2026, the board has received emails regarding the following topics. RHS PTSA technology use in classrooms. Board of Education vacancy support expressed for Dr. Dilva.

166:27

Speaker A

Concerns expressed regarding Dr. Dilva. RAA cabinet NEA expressing support for Dr. Dilva. safety event at Eastridge Middle School, school climate survey, gratitude for Dr. Elizabeth Hanoway RPS policy 3100 communication residency decision information regarding start school later upcoming events parental

166:51

Speaker A

engagement public comment use of AI in schools opt out of ed tech master plan request for the superintendent's contract transportation concerns medical testing in school inquiry about a potential staff position information regarding regarding an upcoming compassionate Ridgefield event and

167:13

Speaker A

possible bus strike and 29 emails soliciting business. Well, thank you for thank you for counting that. Um, we're at the end of the meeting. We did well very well. We're not 10 o'clock, so I'm really glad. Do we have a motion to

167:31

Speaker A

adjurnn? Second. All those in favor? Meeting adjourned. Thank you everyone. Have a great day.

Topics: RPS Board of Education summer programs volunteer recognition Extended School Year special education One RPS school year start board retreat budget updates public comment

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