Just in time.

Uh good evening all.

You're welcome.

Good evening.

I call to order the special meeting of the committee on administrative finance and law and public services.

The time is 6 30.

Mr.

Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Alderman Santano.

Present.

Alderwoman Maldonado.

Alderwoman Ortiz Luna.

Alderman McNamara.

Here.

Alderman Santiago.

President.

Alderman Barrero.

Alderwoman Delernia.

Alderman Gibson.

Alderman Smedley.

We also have Alderwoman Scott.

Here.

Alderman Malinowski.

Alder Woman Bargas.

And all the women of Barbosa just.

All the women Barbosa.

Did I miss anybody on the Alder people?

Okay.

Now I'm going to try for the board of ed members.

If I mess up your names, forgive me.

Board member Rivera.

Board Member Pazorski?

Board Member Marino?

Board Member Patrusco.

Board Member Rich Reyes.

Board Member Diana Reyes.

Board Member Joan Pina?

Board Member Annie Parker.

Did I miss any board members?

Alderman Ga I mean Superintendent Gaspar.

Present.

And I think there's someone else sitting that I don't know who it is.

Chief Finance Officer in Alfano.

Thank you.

We have a quorum, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you.

May I have a motion to remove item number thirty-seven one thirty-nine-one from the table, please.

Mr.

Chair.

Alderman Santiago.

I'd like to make a motion to remove item number three seven one three nine-one from the table from the table.

Second.

The motion to remove item number uh 37-I mean thirty-seven one thirty-nine-one from the table.

All in favor?

Aye.

Motion passes.

At this time I will call uh Dr.

Gasper to make presentation for discussion.

Good evening.

Good evening, Dr.

Good evening, members of the council, other persons.

Thank you very much for your time tonight.

My first thank you is to quite literally my right hand this evening.

I want to thank Ms.

Alfano for being here.

Ms.

Alfano should be home resting at this moment, but she made the trek in today to make sure that the superintendent could make an informative presentation to you.

So thank you, Ms.

Alfano, for being here.

I want to say thank you to our students, staff, parents, the mayor, and our legislative delegation for all of the advocacy that they have done over the past weeks and months with regard to our need for more support both from the local and the state level for our budget for education.

I want to say thank you, council members, for listening to all of that advocacy for for sitting here for multiple hours over at least those two nights to listen to the advocacy.

Um thank you.

And as I've said publicly, I do not envy your job in this work.

It's very, very difficult.

We know.

I realized just recently that some of you are new to the council since I began here four years ago.

So I thought perhaps a reset might be in order.

I just want to give the brief story about what I said to the faculty on my very first day in front of them, a convocation four years ago.

I'm sorry, Dr.

I Casper, I just want to see uh all the Luna, please.

Of course.

Thank you.

What I said to the faculty at that time, and I still say to this day, and you'll find it in a lot of our publications, is I believe that this school district can become and will become a beacon for urban public education in the region.

And by that what I mean is another conversation we have often.

We often ask ourselves what is the gap between us and world class?

It's a really hard question to ask ourselves, and it's a hard question to answer sometimes.

But we asked that question on purpose because we truly believe that every child from New Britain deserves a world class education.

We're going to start tonight by the story, which is in the numbers, which I truly believe we have begun that transformation.

And that's part of the story why that we ask you to consider when you consider how to fund our schools and our students.

Everybody else who's touching the lives of New Britain's kids.

I do have a vivid memory of about a little more than four years ago when I interviewed for this job.

And when I laid out my plan, the board asked me how long will that take?

And I told them three to five years.

And they all paused and looked at me like, geez, that sounds like a long time.

Well, we're just finishing year four now, and I firmly believe that we are beginning to become that turnaround story that I know is possible for the children of this city.

When I say we're going to be a beacon, that means are we giving world-class service to our kids?

And it's beginning to happen.

What I look for is are people starting to copy us?

Are people starting to come to our district to learn from us?

And that's beginning to come true.

So the American Reading Company who produces our early our uh elementary reading materials uses us as a model.

Sandy Hook Promise, where we use for anonymous reporting system, uses us as a model.

The State Department of Education, when it comes to the school improvement grant, uses us as a model.

These are new developments.

And again, it's the work of the people who are seated behind me and who are in our schools every single day that are making that come true.

It's been a very tumultuous and sometimes vitriolic budget season so far.

And I'm hoping to be as blunt but also courteous and collegial with you tonight as I possibly can be.

But it's important for you to know based on some of the accusations that have been put out in the public that our budget process begins in October, early October, in fact.

So Ms.

Alfano and I begin designing the budget process, and we begin meeting with every budget owner.

And that was that's something new since my arrival.

We involved conservative estimate would be over 200 staff members are involved in composing the budget that's presented to you after it is presented to the board.

Every school principal has a voice in the budget.

And I expect each principal to gather a team of teachers and staff at their school, every department leader, such as facilities or curriculum, they're also expected to work with a team before they present to Ms.

Alfano and me their needs.

So this is not thrown together, it's not a wish list, and it's definitely not a fantasy or a hope.

It's real numbers based on real needs, based on what the people on the ground doing the work are telling us they need to get the job done.

We're asking for resources to continue that state turnaround, that turnaround process.

As I said, we're in the beginning.

And tonight's request is about continuing that momentum.

If we had held this meeting just six days ago, we'd be having a very different conversation tonight.

Every superintendent and every board of education in the state is thankful to our state legislature and the governor for the support that we have so recently received.

I brought up a fact about the timing, though, and the fact that we begin in October to let you know that we had to begin assuming that there would be no state support.

That is in fact published.

Let me say that properly.

I apologize.

No additional state support.

I apologize.

We've been told as superintendents, we've been told that what we call the alliance grant, which is part of ECS, would be flat for fiscal year 2627.

So unfortunately, Ms.

Alfano and I had to base our assumptions on that.

We'll show you in the book later.

In previous years, for example, for the current fiscal year, we received a $9 million bump, a $9 million increase in those alliance dollars.

But we knew about that when we began the budget process.

So it was kind of baked in.

The year before that, I believe it was $8.6 million.

And again, we knew about that when we began the budget process, so it was baked in.

So when that big number arrived on your desk, it was just as scary for us as it was for you: 18.9 million, 14.82%.

That's because when we composed the budget, we had no knowledge that, so thankfully, this $13.3 million was going to be there.

So the back and forth, the the clamoring that we've seen in the community, some accusations lobbed right at me.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, we're about timing.

The timing of this budget year was different than any year we've had recently.

Again, we knew that this additional money, and again, we're very thankful to the legislature who's advocated for this year's 9 million, last year's 8.6 million, that is money that we need just to keep things running in the face of inflation.

We knew about that 8.6 in the previous October, and we knew about that 9 million in the previous October.

What we knew for the budget year that we're talking about right now is we were told that number would be zero additional.

So that's why this has felt different or looked different.

So I'm going to take you through the handout, the separate handout, the one that starts at the top that says January 2006.

You should have found one of those at each of your places.

And again, this is about money tonight, but I'll be frank with you all, it's also about bragging because part of my work here is to convince you and everybody who's watching from home that this is a worthwhile investment.

And I think that the numbers and the work of the people in all of our schools prove that.

So I think if I were a journalist or we were in journalism school, they'd call this burying the lead, which means you're supposed to save the big like punchline till the last, but we're going to start with the punchline first.

So if you look at this book that you all received with our budget, right?

The budget narrative, it's one of the last pages just shows this top part.

So basically, what we've done is we've kept that top part and updated it at the bottom for this very recent infusion of money.

So our total budget request is, and it continues to be, and I'll talk about that in a moment, 146 million, 971,610 dollars over the current budget, which is 128 million for a difference of 18,971.610, or a percentage of 14.82%.

And again, this is a process that began in October and takes months to compose.

We are very, very thankful for the advocacy again from everybody involved students, parents, teachers, our mayor, and the legislative delegation that advocated for the money we've only recently heard about, just in the last six days.

13,292,120, right?

Which, if I'm reading the law that was passed correctly, must go directly to education.

So thankful to see Mayor Sanchez confirm that publicly.

So what we're doing is we're calling that the state contribution at the bottom.

So the difference now between the 18.9 million with the infusion of the 13, too.

What we're calling our local funding request, and and for you, uh President Santiago, I think this is going to be a procedural thing.

Um Superintendents, we have a call with Commissioner, uh, Education Commissioner Russell Tucker tomorrow to really find out exactly how these monies work.

So that means our local funding request of five million six hundred and seventy-nine thousand four hundred and ninety dollars to bridge the gap to our full request.

And I mentioned that procedurally because what I've heard, and I I don't know if the the council or the mayor have received further communications than I have so far.

Again, we're superintendents are on a call with Commissioner Russell Tucker tomorrow.

Is the $13 uh point three million will flow through the municipality.

So I'm not sure if that's going to require a separate vote on your part as a council to apportion that to the board, or it'll be a single amount.

So kind of um stand by for further details.

But what we what I believe I've heard so far is the 13.3 million will not flow directly to the school district as alliance dollars have done in the past.

So I think just from a procedural perspective, that's why we kept the top portion intact.

But at the bottom, I wanted to delineate we believe that the $13.3 million is fund is flowing from the state to the municipality for the use of the schools, and therefore kind of the additional local funding, what what I'm calling here the local funding request is that 5.67 million.

Okay?

Again, that's as much as I know at the moment.

More details to come, but um I wouldn't want the council to um assume that that 13.3 was automatically coming to the school district.

The early information I have about that money is it'll flow to the municipality.

Okay?

I just want to be clear about that.

Also, what is excellent news about the 13.3 million is in my time here, kind of the net request, that 5.6 million, is actually my lowest budget request, the board's lowest budget request by percentage to date.

The first budget request um that I uh uh came forward to you with this board was 8.33% in 2425, it was 4.6%.

And last year, my recommended budget to the board was 12.06%.

So coming in today with you looking at the local portion being a 4.4% request, it's actually as scary as this whole process started.

It's actually the lowest percentage request that I've come forward before this council with.

So it's it's been really a tumultuous time, a scary time, but also the good news of that really strong infusion from the state legislature and the governor makes a huge difference.

I feel like that's a little bit complicated.

Um Mr.

Committee Chair, if you'd like me to pause for questions here, or I'll just continue on at your at your preference.

I have plenty more to talk about, but I didn't know if you wanted to pause here.

I can I can want to recognize Alderman uh Nate Simpson.

Just Parkman.

Thank you.

Alderman Meckman.

Well, it's my understanding uh that 13.2, as far as I'm concerned, is earmarked for the schools, period.

I believe that to be correct as well.

It it's written into the legislation as I understand it, that it can only be spent on the schools.

That's why I said I think it's more of a procedural thing where it has to flow through the municipality and then be a portion to the school.

But again, I don't have that in writing yet.

As soon as I do, I'll share it with with you and with the mayor.

Yeah, we can we can get in.

I just want to uh thank Ms.

Alfano for being here uh under under duress.

Not under and to uh uh appreciate your remarks about you know when a campaign's over, the governing has to begin.

And any questions you can are in in uh goodwill and respect because the priority for all of us are the children uh of New Britain, of course.

So I think we can uh we're not going to raise the temperature, I hope tonight, but we are going to ask uh questions about um how how these cuts are being reduced.

Of course, of course.

Anybody any other all?

Okay.

So on the next page of the handout from tonight, um, just to look at what I would call a remarkable beginning of a turnaround story.

So this is the the page at the top that says district dashboard.

It's a number of of metrics about the school district.

Um and there's a lot of things that that every teacher, every principal, every mom, dad, every staff member should be proud of.

When I began here four years ago, we had five schools in turnaround status.

Turnaround status means you're among the 5% lowest performing schools in the state.

We now have two schools in that status, which is amazing work by our staff at the schools that were removed, and we're confident that the two schools that remain are also headed in the right direction.

I'm not going to go through every line, but student attendance is up.

And again, I came here with a mission to change the reputation, at least the public, the outside reputation of the school district.

People like to say that we were last, and we were.

But I'll I'll point you towards elementary English language arts.

We are no longer last in the state.

Elementary math, no longer last in the state.

Middle school math, no longer math, last in the state.

You've got a lot of different statistics there.

Some of these are duplicated from the big book itself.

Nearly twice as many kids in just three years, nearly twice as many kids earning college credit while still at high school.

Really amazing work by lots and lots of people around the district.

If you want more detail, I kind of uncombined, if if you'll allow me to invent a word, I uncombined the grade levels down below.

And you can see at some grade levels some remarkable growth.

More than double in three years for grade three math, nearly tripled in three years for grade four math.

Are all the metrics going in the way we want them to?

Of course not.

But you can see the page is dominated by green.

It's really, really impressive work by people at every level of our organization, from the Board of Education through every single employee, every mom and dad.

Again, we're gonna keep the temperature low, Mr.

McNamara, but I am going to point out the reality of during my time here, we've actually slid backwards in our ranking for what we spend on our children.

The year before I came, this school district ranked 148th out of 165 for per student spending.

In the most recent, we rank 162nd out of 165 for per student budget.

Now I want to be clear, there are more dollars there.

The dollars went up, but our dollars did not go up as quickly as most other districts.

Even more noteworthy of what our staff, our parents, and really our community partners too, have done to improve the outcomes for New Britain's kids.

And again, I want to say that these are not just my numbers.

I've picked my time here because again, some people chose to attack me personally.

So I chose to show my my time here and the change.

Couple more pages, I'm not gonna read these to you.

Academic accomplishments.

One that stands out, I'm sure you all remember this.

We now have our first ever in the history of the city, Blue Ribbon School at Hales Academy.

Many, many other noteworthy academic accomplishments, co-curricular accomplishments, meaning after school, clubs, and sports, and then other, even things like Mr.

Parker leading kids in how to learn how to ride bikes.

Amazing project for which we were recognized at the state level.

He's right behind you.

So I hope that you follow us on our social media.

I hope you read the district dispatch news monthly magazine.

Really wonderful things are happening here.

It's my job to brag about it just a little bit, so thank you for indulging me in that.

The packet closes with an email that I sent to staff.

I also shared it with Alderman Santiago and Alderman McNamara and asked that they share it with you.

It's here in Hard Copy.

It lays out what I just talked about about kind of the budget timeline and the just the sequence in which things happened, I believe, is what made uh this budget season feel much more anxious and fraught.

So that's just there for you as a reference.

So with that, we'll get right into the numbers if that's okay.

Great.

So again, I'm going to be referencing this book.

Ms.

Alfano here is going to help me with any of the really detailed questions that you have.

I'm not going to go through every page.

I'm just going to pick out some pages to highlight to you.

But of course, we're happy to answer any questions on anything that is here.

It's my goal just to point out the things that I think are most pertinent to your deliberations.

I always like to start with the page label number two that looks like this with all these infographics on it.

And what I've realized, this is my 11th year as a superintendent for Connecticut Public Schools.

It's my 30th year in the profession.

Not a lot of people really understand just how big of an enterprise, just how big of an operation a school district can be.

So when the numbers are here just to let you know just how big of an operation a school district is.

Oftentimes I have a lot of friends who ask me things like, Well, wouldn't schools be better if they were run like private companies?

And then I give them about 90 minutes of my opinions on that.

But if you did that, we would be an operation with well over 1,500 employees, 10,000 clients who get six and a half hours of service a day.

Probably something on the order of a hospital operation.

Just look at the number of meals we serve.

We serve nearly 11,000 meals.

11,000 meals every single day.

We're very, very large operation, a large entity.

So I always like to point that out just so people get can grasp just how big we are.

And again, please let me know if you have questions along the way.

But I'm gonna skip to pages eight and nine in the book, if you could, please.

You might have heard from other districts in the state, other urban districts in the state, Hartford, Stanford, who are seeing significant enrollment declines.

Please don't quote me, but I think Hartford might be down something like 4,000 students over the last seven to eight years.

That is certainly not true in New Britain.

You'll see we're roughly flat.

Some years we're up a couple hundred, some years we're down a couple hundred.

And we don't have the money to hire an outside consultant.

So I used AI to do a 10-year enrollment projection, and to the best of AI's ability, it thinks we're going to continue to be flat.

So that's always a very logical question during budget presentations.

You can see that on the left, both by race and and ethnicity, but also overall.

On the right on page nine, are parts of our population that are really important to know about because these are students who need and deserve some additional services.

On the top right, page nine, you'll see our percentage of multilingual learners.

These are the students who are learning English with us.

You can see our line and the state average.

Now, one in five, one in five students in our schools are in the process of learning English.

They're a multilingual learner.

You can see that's a very easy to find trend line as it trends up both at the state level and for us.

Students with disabilities is below that, one in four.

One in four, a quarter of all of our students have an IEP, an individualized education plan.

So what's important to know about both of these graphs is in one way or another, these students both need and deserve and are required by law some form of extra service, some form of extra staffing, some form of extra materials or uh support.

So as these numbers trend up, our overall population might be staying right around 10,000, but the degree of need within those 10,000 kids is trending up, both when it comes to multilingual learners and students with disabilities.

Um turn one page to page 10 because we know, and this is I'm sure will be one of your questions later, outplacements.

I always like to remind everyone, and I we do have some new members on the council.

What is a special ed out placement?

We're really lucky, and in fact, and it's another way in which we're a model for some other districts that we have excellent and extensive programs in district to serve kids with substantial disabilities.

Those are called pathways, key, and bridges.

These are programs we have in-house.

You can see them, they're demonstrated up top on page 10.

For students who have substantial disabilities of one kind or another, that we can serve here rather than putting them on a bus for an hour each way.

Somewhere around 400 students, more or less, are served by these.

In another district that didn't have these programs, all 400 of those kids would be on buses to places other than our schools.

So key pathways and bridges lets us keep kids close to home with their friends, with kids that they recognize and teachers that they know.

However, when the student has such a substantial disability that we can't serve them even with those in-house programs, they become an outplacement.

For us, those numbers have been hovering somewhere around one between 160 and 180 students total district wide out of 10,000.

These services are quite expensive.

Ms.

Alfano and I actually ran the average for each of those 179 students or between 160 and 180 students that are outplaced.

The average cost is 189,000 per student per year.

Every school district in Connecticut, every school district in the nation has a certain number of outplacements.

So this is not unique to New Britain.

And again, we do everything we can to keep kids here.

However, outplacements are a fact of life for every school district, and they are quite expensive.

A question that I know will come up later that I'll I'll take time to answer here.

Again, we are thankful to the legislature.

In the last session, the legislature enacted a law that will regulate what these private providers can charge.

However, that law does not take effect until the 27-28 school year.

So for the 26-27 school year, most of those providers have told us to expect a 10% increase.

So that 189,000 per student per year number, we are projecting to go up by at least 10%.

Right now, these are private providers that are not regulated until that law kicks in one fiscal year from now, not the coming fiscal year, fiscal year 27-28.

So we're again we're thankful.

Many people, my state association lobbied hard for that law because it's basically the public dollars that you all oversee, we're just a pass through.

Those dollars come to us and then we pass them on, we pay invoices to these private providers.

So we're thankful that they will be regulated.

But unfortunately, some of them seem to really be raising their prices by a lot by 10% before that law takes effect.

So again, outplacements is such a large part of our budget and a large part of the increase that we're proposing tonight.

I always take time to talk about that.

What you'll see in the chart at the bottom of page 10, however, I believe shows just how responsible we are with that.

So we're part of district reference group I, D Derg I, if you hear us say it shorthand.

It's basically all the urban districts in Connecticut.

So when we have comparisons that are available, that's what you'll see in the book.

There's no sense in comparing New Britain to Farmington or Simsbury or Greenwich.

We compare ourselves to districts that have characteristics like we do.

So if you look at that chart on page 10, you can see we're right in the middle.

There are some districts, such as Hartford, whose outplacing basically a third of all their special ed kids.

There's a few districts that have a little bit less than we, but we're right in the middle.

About 16% of all of those students.

So out of quarter, we have around 2,500 special education students in the district.

About 16% of those two thousand five hundred have such a substantial disability that they need to go to an outplacement for their services.

So again, I know that outplacements are such a big part of our budget.

I always like to linger there.

Another question that comes up quite often is how are we staffed?

So, something that I I would like to pause to point out.

You'll say on page 14, right?

It's this is my 11th time presenting a budget to a city government.

This is the 11th time I've had to answer the question.

I heard you're top heavy.

I heard you have too many of those darn administrators.

For us, it's simply not true.

And by the way, this is all public data.

You have the same access to all this data via the state of Connecticut as I do.

You can see at the bottom of page 14 of our group, that district reference group I, we actually have the lowest percentage of school and district administrators of any other district in our group, and by some margin.

Only 2.7% of our total staff are either school or district administrators.

And again, this is all public information.

What I would take you next to, please, and again, I'm I'm purposely kind of giving you what I think are the highlights, but we'll be happy to answer any questions from any of the book or in the thick budget book too.

You go to page 20, I'm gonna brag just a little bit more.

Some of those changes and improvements that I talked about earlier.

I hope when you have a moment, if you haven't already, you'll come to these pages about our results.

So SBA, Smarter Balanced Assessment, is the state mandated test in grades three through eight.

You'll see those on the left.

Really special note to the work that we've done in mathematics.

Going from 7.9% in kids proficient to 19.1 is truly amazing work in just three years' time.

Top right, as I say, not all of our metrics are going in the direction that we want, but that helps us know what the next priority is.

Middle school ELA is not going in the right direction.

However, middle school math on the bottom right is.

It's creeping up, but it's also going in the right direction.

You had more detail on that in the handout, the separate handout that I gave you tonight.

High school results are up and down in ELA, and unfortunately, we follow the statewide trend of high school math scores going down.

That's not an excuse.

Neither Mr.

Pierce nor I accept that, but it is a fact that we are unfortunately on trend, and we're working on ways to change that.

Top right is another really good metric.

We talked about those one in five kids who's a multilingual learner.

Top right is our success at successfully teaching them English and getting them to exit our multilingual program.

For a child to no longer be considered a multilingual learner, they have to pass the last lengths test.

And at the top right of page 23, that's where you'll see those results.

Personal project for me has been to help us get more and more college partnerships, working very closely with Dr.

Toro at CCSU and many others with lots of help from our district administrators.

You'll see we've nearly doubled in my time here, and we've more than doubled the number of kids getting college credit.

The college credit courses being passed since the beginning of the chart here.

So really, really good things happening for our kids.

I would take you next, if you could, to get back to kind of the money.

We'll go to page 30, please.

Actually, no, I'd like to pause at page 29.

I apologize.

Where again I said thank you to our state delegation who's been advocating for us for many years for additional funding.

What you see in the chart here is the total funding that's come to the district.

I'm on the bottom right of page 29.

And I'm gonna have to speak to Mr.

Figat about how small the font is because I really need my cheaters for this one.

So, first thing, you can see the total funding has gone up and dollars have gone up.

What I spoke earlier was ranking compared to other districts, we've fallen further behind.

Dollars have gone up, and I want to be clear about that.

But you can see if you follow the gold band, the state aid is the primary way in which funding has gone up.

And again, thankful to our legislative delegation for that.

Working backwards from right to left from fiscal year 25 to 26, an extra 9 million in state funding.

Backwards one more year from fiscal year 24 to 25, 8.6 million.

3.3, 3.9, $3.9 million.

You can see the dark blue band at the bottom, that's local funding, the funding that you folks oversee.

You can see that's relatively flat, going from $125.7 million to $128 million over the six year span.

I also want to recognize, because I know it's something that I hope that you're considering as a way, it's not our favorite way to be funded, but the very small green band that you see on top of the dark blue band is your special revenue fund.

Again, those are dollars that we're thankful for.

We put them to use.

Basically, this year, the $3.6 million has gone straight to outplacements.

Straight to special at outplacements.

I do want to make one point of uh clarity, please.

Looking at the mayor's budget, I believe the budget page about the board of education is correct with reference to what was budgeted last year.

However, I've shared with the mayor and uh a commitment letter that the district received from Mayor Stewart, and then this council did vote on an additional 1 million, 1.0 million from special revenue.

So I just want to be clear.

In the mayor's budget, it indicates that in the current year we're receiving 2.6 million from special revenue.

That was correct upon passage of your budget, but then at a later date, Ms.

Alfana, do we know when that was passed?

In September.

In September, this council, and again, we're thankful for the support.

I do want to make sure I say that multiple times, apportioned in an extra million.

So the actual that we are receiving from special revenue this year is 3.6 million.

What was what was approved and is is reflected in the mayor's budget book was the 2.6.

It's a case where both are correct.

So I just want to make sure we're clear about that.

And again, we're thankful for the special revenue fund, but as we all know, the the danger, the peril there is those are monies that do not automatically come back next year.

They do not set the new floor, the new MBR.

So getting back to the money on page 30 is a full breakdown of our revenues.

So this is an all funds showing of where the monies are derived.

Everything from general fund, priority school district, the title grants, etc.

On the right is a plot of all the money versus inflation.

So I'm a taxpayer just like you.

Just because I'm here asking you to invest tax money, doesn't mean I'm not also a taxpayer.

And as a superintendent, before I present to the board of education, I always ask myself, Gaspar, are you being reasonable?

Are you asking for something that's unreasonable?

So what you'll find here is plotted across, I'm at the top of page 31, plotted across from left to right, are the funds that were apportioned from 2020 21 through our request in the current year.

What you'll see, and I apologize that the numbers don't quite match up, the green is the general fund, the fund that you have the most direct oversight.

Just above that, you'll find it 136 131.6 million is total local funding.

So that's general fund that you apportion to the board plus the special revenue that you apportion to the board.

That's that 131.6.

So then I ask myself, is that reasonable?

If you see the gray dashed line above that, they all begin at 125.7.

If you go to the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, you can ask it about inflation.

A dollar in 2020 versus a dollar in 2026.

So that gray dashed line that has a little bit of an up-down curve to it, that's inflation.

So in other words, 125.7 million, if that had kept up with inflation, today would be 156.7 million.

And then, just to ask myself if I'm crazy for my budget proposal, the the dotted purple line have been my budget proposals to the board in my time here in my four budgets here.

So it's just a comparison of actual funds versus inflation according to the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

And again, this is all public information, but happy to answer more questions about it.

The top two lines, the light blue and the gold, are the same but for total funding, meaning all the funds, federal, state, and local.

You can see that begins at 177 million and ends at 196 million.

And then the blue dashed line, the light blue dashed line is inflation versus that original number.

Unfortunately, the only time we were above inflation was during COVID with the ESSER relief dollars.

So the special relief dollars we got before during and after COVID are what makes that chart go above inflation.

So just a point of reference as to the degree to which the school district is funded.

Then next on to page 32 and 33.

Again, I think about determining what is reasonable for a level of funding is about comparisons.

So those of you who've been on the council have seen this chart before.

This is an attempt just to show you what all the school districts pay.

And of course, we can't fit all the school districts on one page on the left, so it's a bridged.

But we're sure to include the comparison districts.

And because some districts are big and some districts are small, even those within our our district reference group, we do this per student.

So if you can see here, and again, wherever we show you this, it's whatever is the most recently available data publicly when the document was produced.

The tiny little town of Sharon, way out in the northwest corner of the state, I believe, invests $46,587 per year per child from their local funds.

They spend the most of anybody in the state, tiny little district, they refuse to regionalize, and the voters of that town choose to spend that much.

They choose to invent that invest that much in their schools and children.

Ranging all the way down the bottom of this year's list is Meriden.

Meriden spends the least of any district in the state at $16,350 per kid per year.

As you can see, you can find us just a little bit above that at $17,518.

We rank 162.

And then I ask myself, well, is that reasonable?

So what you'll find next to that, I'm sure this is a statistic that this council reviews often, and that's the Anglican.

Mr.

Ms.

Alfano is going to correct me if I get it wrong.

I believe that stands for adjusted equalized net grand list per capita.

Finally, after 11 years of doing this, I finally got that right.

It's basically ability to pay.

You can see there's not a good correlation between what a district pays and their grand list, their tax base.

Hartford spends at the rank of 61st in the state.

So only 60 towns spend more per child than Hartford, but they rank dead last for what they can afford to pay.

So that's there just for your reference to this again, this is all public data.

And last year that we had a question about, well, it's about taxable property.

So you'll find that in the very right hand column.

Our taxable, what percent of property in a town is tax exempt?

Again, according to the state of Connecticut for us, it's 36.2.

But you'll see some towns like New London or even New Haven, where half of the property is not taxable, they're investing 21,926 per kid.

So there tends not to be a really good correlation between grand list, taxable property, and what a municipal government such as yourselves actually chooses to budget for education.

So again, this is just there for your consideration.

On the top right on page 33 is a comparison I've been doing for many many years.

I asked myself, what would it take?

What would it take for each New Britain child to be funded at the same level as a child in another town?

And again, um, I'm not much of a mathematician.

I invented this math.

If you don't like it, we can get together and nerd out and you can show me a different way to do it.

So what you see at the top is our number, 17,518.90.

And then for each row in the chart, if we just look across the top, Hartford, you'll see Hartford again, the same number, 24,901.20 cents.

So I subtract our number from theirs, and for every single child in Hartford, they spend $7,382 more per kid per year.

You can see that ranges down to Bridgeport that spends $800, $808 more per kid per year.

So I just pick one in the middle.

New London.

It's a city much like ours.

It's a smaller city, it's not a Hartford or a New Haven.

They spend $4,521 more per child per year.

And then I ask myself, what would our budget look like?

What would the New Britain Board of Education budget look like if each New Britain child were funded at the same level as each new London child?

And that comes out to I multiply by our number of kids.

So if you take the difference of 4521 and multiply by 10,034 students, you end up with this sentence.

If each New Britain child were funded at the same level as each new London child, you'd have to add 45 million dollars to our budget.

The chart below, funding mix.

Where does the money come from?

If you compare us and New London, so this is federal, state, local, and some districts have a tiny bit of tuition if they take kids from other districts.

You can see the primary difference between us and New London is the percentage in the local.

And again, let me say what I started with, and I've said multiple times publicly.

I do not envy you as alder people.

You have really, really difficult decisions to make.

You've got lots of other of your departments coming before you besides the Board of Education, and everybody's got a real need for dollars.

And nobody wants taxes to go up.

But what the chart shows is the primary difference between the kids of New London and the kids of New Britain is local contribution.

Federal dollars, state dollars, they tend to all be driven by formulas.

The real difference comes down to local.

I'm not here to shame you, I'm not here to antagonize you, but these are the facts, and they they've been like this for quite some time.

Finishing up, I'm just going to take you through a couple more pages, and then Ms.

Alfano are happy to answer your deeper questions.

I want to go to page 37, if we could, please.

Excuse me, we'll start on page 36, and then we'll go to 37.

If you look at the bottom of page 36, special education cost.

We won't have this for the current year until obviously we finished the fiscal year, but as of last year, for the 2425 school year, and these are local local dollars, correct Ms.

Alfano.

Of the 128 million dollars that this council apportions to the board, nearly $59 million was dedicated just to special education.

Again, these children need and deserve these services.

I'm not saying that we should cut these services, obviously, but it's important for every member of the Board of Education and every member of common council to understand this is the burden.

When you hear it in the news that every district is saying that special education costs are spiraling upward and upward, this is what that means.

Out of, I'll just repeat myself, out of 128 million local budget that this council apportioned to the board, nearly 59 million went to special ed.

And this is not creative accounting.

Ms.

Alfano uses the state approved formula for determining this portion.

I've said this publicly, I'm going to say it here again, because I'm hoping that you all will join us in the coming legislative session.

I say this with a lot of respect to our legislators, especially our local ones.

Everything about how special education is funded is broken.

It is a layer cake of good intentions.

Laws have been enacted with good intentions, but everything about how it's funded right now is broken.

I'm going to give you one example, and Ms.

Alfano again will correct me where I'm wrong.

Part of preparing this budget is we have to anticipate something called excess cost reimbursement.

For those students that are especially costly in their services, those students on outplacements, we do get a reimbursement.

You'll find that in the revenues in this budget.

However, we never know how much.

And it's never as much as state law says it should be.

So we had to, we began, as I said, this budget process began for us in October of 25 for the fiscal year 26-27.

We will not have an estimate about what that reimbursement will be until November.

Until November or December of 26.

So we'll be almost halfway through the fiscal year that's affected before we even know how much money that will be.

State law says that we should receive 91% once you do the formula, correct?

91.

91% reimbursement once we reach a threshold, we've never gotten more than 70.

Again, this is with all due respects to the legislators who've been trying to work on this for a very long time.

Everything about how special education is funded is broken.

So I'm hopeful that Governor Lamont has said he's pulling together a blue ribbon panel to look at how ECS funding is done.

I'm hopeful that they also discuss special education funding.

Because it's not fair to boards of education, and it's not fair to you all as municipal government to have to have this much variability and this much uncertainty for this much cost.

And again, I want to repeat myself.

These students need and deserve these services, they should get high quality services, but the way in which state law lays out the funding for them is very, very broken.

On that note, I'm going to go to page 37 on the right.

I'm going to go to the chart at the bottom, and it's the biggest item.

I'm sure it caught your attention when you looked at our budget.

And this is definitely where I'm going to need more help from Ms.

Alfano.

If you look at line 560 on the chart on the bottom, 560, tuition special at outplace.

That's what we've been discussing.

And you look at a jump from 3.5, about 3.5 million, to 14 million for a difference of 10 million.

Want to explain where that 10 million jump comes from.

First and foremost, and this is why I paused to explain the special revenue fund earlier.

The special revenue fund, city funds that you give to the board for our use, that's exactly where it is, but it's not budgeted for.

So the actual amount in the current year is this 3.5 million plus 3.6 million.

So the reality of that left-hand column, we can't represent it that way because the city actually holds the money.

We don't hold the special revenue money, you do.

It's really about 6.1 million.

So the practical jump is really more about going from 6.1 to 14.

This is the line of our budget.

In a district this big with 10,000 students, this is really the only line in our budget where we actually look at kids by name.

Ms.

Alfano, Mr.

Spaulding, members of their teams actually go kid by kid.

Out of those between 160 and 180 kids, how old is Tony?

Is Tony about ready to graduate?

Did Tony do well on that program?

Does he need more services next year or less?

This is a line that is really highly scrutinized.

On top of that, we're expecting more students, and we're expecting each of those students to have more services.

So we're expecting more students with more severe need.

And these outplacement facilities, they bill a la carte.

Every single individual adult or resource at these facilities gets billed separately, much like when you go to the hospital.

On top of that, it's that 10% that I mentioned earlier.

They're kicking up their rates by 10% before the law goes into effect in the following fiscal year.

So that would be a line I would expect for for you to have noticed.

Ms.

Alfano, is there anything further about that that I forgot to mention about?

Okay.

That doesn't usually happen that she tells me I'm correct.

Almost done and again we're happy to go back to any of the pages that I've skipped over.

I just want to show you of what that looks like graphically.

On page 40 it's just a graphical representation of the increase on the bottom.

And you can see the bright blue, the turquoise bar at the bottom that's just the increase in those outplacements.

And again the first three point six million of that is kind of replacing the 3.6 million that you apportioned to us in special revenue.

But nonetheless you can see of all the increases of the total increase pardon me the special ed tuition the outplacement is more than half of everything that we are requesting as an increase.

So that's the end of my my overview I thank you for your patience Ms.

Alfano and I are happy to uh expand or answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you Dr.

Casper.

Any questions for me?

All the woman to learn yeah.

I'm trying my best to follow there's a lot to take in.

I have a few questions.

I'm going to try and work backwards I guess from my notes.

The last one of the last things you talked about was the reimbursement special ed reimbursement.

Sure.

You mentioned a percentage comes back to us but what is that in dollars?

So it's different for each child.

So some outplacements cost ninety thousand dollars for a child per year.

Some outplacements cost three hundred thousand dollars per child per year.

The way the law works is you have to take what the district already spends on average that's that seventeen thousand eight hundred number and according to state law you take that seventeen thousand and you multiply that by four and a half times so no matter what the school district is responsible for the first four and a half times per child of what we spend typically so we usually guess that that's somewhere around eighty five thousand dollars.

So what is that annually?

So I'm I'm not it's even more complex than that.

So just so I can do the math in my head if we say that um we have an outplaced child that costs two hundred thousand dollars a year and that's all in that includes transportation when we have to bust the child back and forth.

We are responsible no matter what for the first 85 thousand per child per year for that child for that year.

That remain then we have 115 thousand that is technically reimbursable.

We are supposed to receive back from the state ninety one percent of that we have never received more than 70 I think in my time here the lowest we received was somewhere around 62%.

62% up to 70 and this is the thing that we had to guess at back in this past October that we will not know for sure until the coming December while we're already in the middle of the fiscal year that we're talking about tonight.

So again it's always been averaging around sixty two percent but again in dollars what is that annually?

How much is the total revenue?

Yeah I mean you know three million four million what is the 2425 it's 9.9 million total 9.9 million yes for the current year I'm projecting approximately 12.9 million the final report um has just been submitted so we'll have that number the end of May.

And you can that is actually on page 30 in the book.

And is that what we've been averaging for the past few years?

Again it depends on that percentage what that reimbursement rate is.

So it fluctuates.

It doesn't trend in one direction unfortunately in the previous fiscal year, it was 11 million, and the current fiscal year we were told to expect 13, but it could just as easily go back to 11.

Okay.

And again, this is what I mean.

Lots of people with good intentions.

This is what I mean when I say special ed funding is broken.

Um this list here that I have.

Is this um are these the cuts now that you uh we're receiving a 13 point 6 million, is it 13.3 million from the state.

What's the document dated, please?

So potential reductions, potential reductions.

There were two of those documents.

Can you tell me what the date is at the top?

I don't have a date on mine.

Okay.

So I presented two of those documents.

At this point, both of those documents I would say are moot.

They were they were really done before the um the full kind of scope of the 13.3 million.

I would say, um, and again, this is um no disrespect obviously to to Mayor Sanchez.

We are not yet kind of including the the one million proposed by Mayor Sanchez.

And again, we're glad that that's part of the general fund.

We're just kind of going with what we know for sure.

Um the cuts that we would see at this point would really still be spread across multiple areas.

It would involve um some teachers, some administrators, right?

The teachers would be by attrition at this point, except for just three non-renewals, some central office and uh some central office administrators, and lots of other different kinds of reductions.

But again, I'd be I'd hesitate to give a firm number, especially because what's important to remember about anything in that document is those are just recommendations from the superintendent to the board of education.

The board may choose to go along with my recommendations or they may choose to do something different.

So do you know if we have uh many retirements and um resignations coming up?

I know that those have already been factored into the board.

They all have been.

They all have been.

We may get some more between now and the end of the school year, that does typically happen, but we're thankful to retirees who let us know early.

We're and you know, we typically do get um, you know, a typical number of of people who resigned to go to work in other places or other other industries.

Okay.

If if we the city were to add an additional one point six million to your budget, what would be your priorities?

That's incredibly difficult question.

Um, because one point sticks is still a a pretty good way away.

Um, I believe that in what we've talked about so far, what you've probably seen me talk about to the board.

We've I want to make it clear on top of the one million that the mayor has already put.

Okay, so that would get us almost halfway through the five point six um five point six gap.

My recommendations to the board will be to look at school operations, to look at what has helped us get this far.

So, for example, currently some of the reductions have been called coaches, but that's not actually fully accurate because our coaches are actually also giving student-facing services, so we have a lot of people who've helped us move things forward for our kids, improve outcomes for kids, who are not only helping kids remediate when kids fall behind, but also they're helping their fellow teachers be better.

We have uh cuts in custodial, that scares me a little bit, right?

We need to keep our our places clean and safe.

Still on the list for consideration are cuts to extracurriculars for kids.

I don't like that.

A 10% reduction for high school sports.

I don't like that.

So there are things that are student-facing that don't don't always appear student-facing on that list.

So it'll be my job to say to the board really, where is the impact that we can we can best have?

I'm sorry that's not as uh the line by line answer, but it's really um, I guess I guess I mean you can help us by yeah, identifying where your priorities would be if simply stated simply stated.

I'm gonna give you the general answer and then a more specific answer.

We've been among the most poorly funded school districts in the state for a very long time, not just during my time here.

Both myself as a superintendent, former superintendents, former CFOs and former boards.

There's nothing fancy when you compare what we're able to offer to kids compared to some of the other districts like us um we just don't have fluff, right?

I know that you might think every superintendent comes before you and says such things I just hope you'll trust me that the but the school has been funded at such a level for such a long time that my predecessors plural have already taken away the stuff that was easy to take so that's a long way of saying there's really nothing on that potential cut list that doesn't touch kids in some way will be to look the number that the council apportions to the board look at what's remaining on the potential cut list again thanks to first kind of the early discussion we were able to take that non-renewal list from 49 to 15 and then when it was actually confirmed that we were getting 13.3 I felt confident recommending to the board we we rescinded all but three of those 15 and still nobody I don't like having three non-renewals but nonetheless it's my job to present to the board kind of the financial reality.

So then is it fair to say any additional money you would take back those three?

Those three teachers the non-renewals that's a very complicated question.

That's a very complicated question.

I wish I could say yes but the fact of the matter is between now and then we might have resignations that make that non-renewal not necessary.

Um that's fair.

And it's also complex in the way that we may get new numbers for enrollment for next year.

If we have changes in the number of special education students, multilingual students, students in a particular grade over another um we have to adjust and we do adjust adjust every single summer.

So again I'd love to say yes to your question.

That would be the answer that everybody including the superintendent wants to hear but it wouldn't be factual.

Okay.

Um I'm curious because I don't understand how a lot of money is spent but as far as um speech therapists, occupational therapy social workers, are they higher school hires or are they contracted?

For folks like that it's typically a mix.

We hire as many of those as we can find for ourselves but when we can't find enough we do go to contractors.

So and those are services that are very specifically laid out in a student's special education plan.

Okay.

All right I I will for now thank you Mr Chairman um Dr Gasper I I went back to your dark night of April 23rd uh and the uh proposed cuts of 8.7 million uh and almost all of them including 10 coaches uh were proposed and and not cast in stone I understand that uh I'm I'm and I take your point about uh holding administrative costs down but I'm looking at the personnel and talent office.

In your budget that's uh four point eight million dollars um and a good chunk is from the general fund which we're responsible for and trying to close this five point six million dollar gap you're saying uh could it be ris revisited or would it be prudent to take another look at uh non-student facing?

And that includes sports and other other things that enhance the student experience, and also classroom student facing, to uh to look at that those budgets again internally to uh perhaps mitigate any gap we might end up with.

In other words, um I see a custodian, but custodians count for a lot.

Do I see an administration?

I don't see any administrative cuts here.

You certainly do, sir, at the top of the list under district wide.

Oh, correct me, please.

It's near the top of the list.

May I?

Sure, if you find in the third line, central office administrators, three.

So your answer about talent, um, I would very respectfully challenge that.

So this is why I paused at the beginning to reiterate just how big of an entity we are.

So talent is the new word for HR.

If you had a private company of over 1,500 employees, how many people would be working in HR?

Especially in a unionized, highly regulated, highly legislated field like ours.

So I spend a lot of time on our second floor.

I don't see anybody who's not working hard all day, managing certifications, managing FMLA, managing all kinds of uh requests and changes in benefits.

So it would be easy for me to say, yeah, sure, we'll cut there, and that's why I like to remind us that we are a very large entity with over 1,500 employees, and I don't know.

How many employees does a hospital with 1,500 total employees have been working in HR?

Well, I know the city of New Britain has 600 employees and two and a half or three people right now.

So I uh but I understand education is a different animal.

Could I back up and say, are our teacher salaries competitive based on collective parties?

Generally, yes, right, and those are always negotiated in good faith uh as the contract comes comes up for renewal.

And uh I assume this office uh tracks retention rates of our retention rates of our teacher personnel.

Yeah, so you'll find that in the book, Mr.

McNamara.

And it's actually uh quite good news compared to our um compared to our peer districts, you will find that on page 17 of the book.

We're right around 90% retention.

Again, this is official state data.

This you have the same access to this data as I do.

You'll see our data over time at the top of page 17, and at the bottom of page 17, you'll see in our district group we rank second, so nearly the best, the second best uh teacher retention of uh our peer group, and and if thank you for the the those answers, and it and if I hear you correctly, uh the influx of state aid given the short amount of time you have not shared with the board uh um what cuts you rescinded.

I I came late to the meeting Monday night, so I've uh I'll clarify.

Um again, this is why I want to give special kudos to uh Ms.

Alfano, Dr.

Sanders, and members of the of the talent department team.

We spent months building this budget, and then in three weeks we redid it three times.

The first time we did redid the budget was based on the release of the mayor's budget, where I initiated uh cuts of um up to 7 million, and then we redid it with cuts of up to 12 million, and then when the good news of the 13.3 influx was released, we redid it again.

So from the the reason I asked um Alder Woman uh Delernia about which document she was looking at.

So on the most recent document that I released on the 29th, thank you.

Um the difference between my assumptions that were on the 29th and then the 13.3.

Um, an additional uh on the 29th, my assumptions were based on an educated guess of 11 million dollars from the state.

We were glad to see that an extra two point three million came back in addition to that.

So, what came off of that April 29th document were 12 of the 15 non-renewals, all restoring all of the family school liaisons, and restoring special education, excuse me, restoring regular education, transportation for pre-K.

Those three items total the 2.3 million that were not part of my original assumptions.

Thank you for that.

Can I ask Ms.

Alfano?

I noticed the insurance line, and maybe you don't have any control over it.

Wouldn't surprise me with insurance.

Um seems to fluctuate a great deal.

Can you say where we're at?

I know we uh this the city and schools took a new medical insurance carrier, I believe, and I asked about it.

Uh the city if there were supposed to be savings kicked in for both entities, and I was told that that hasn't kicked in yet.

Could you comment roughly on the our our insurance costs?

Sure, I can.

Um currently, unfortunately, we are trending higher than what was projected.

Um we did uh well the city in combination with the city, we did go out to bid, and um the expectation of uh what our claims would be and what they actually are.

Um, there's definitely a variance.

Um, in the beginning of the year, um we do have a runoff with anthem, so those claims have been coming through.

Um I think we're almost done with that, and now um we're starting to see the Cigna claims, um, those are now coming in, correct?

Because all the deductibles, once some someone hits their deductible, then that's when it starts impacting our costs.

So we are currently trending much higher than what we expected.

Um, based on our claims to date, I do expect us to um be approximately between 29 and 30 million dollars in claims by June 30th, which is much higher than what was projected by Lockton in the beginning of the year.

Yeah, we were uh the previous council was informed it'd be six million dollars savings over three years uh that uh uh proof will be in the uh pudding.

Yeah, shared but by both entities, yeah.

Sure, okay, thanks.

And I just want to comment on your your document, you know, your previous of here's the flat line on local aid to education frozen for quite some time at 128 million.

I think foundationally a commitment has been made this year to raise the MBR.

And if 12 years ago, the MBR, not a lot, but given more due consideration, we wouldn't be in this place uh today.

I think I I think I'm rehearing what you're talking about.

So uh it's not part of the handout tonight, but uh thank you for uh showing me one of my own handouts, Mr.

McNamara.

What that handout shows is uh um a what if analysis that Ms.

Alfano did.

I um colloquially refer to that to as the would a shoulda coulda chart, and what it shows is I believe it goes back 10 years, 12.

12, thank you.

Um, if the council had apportioned an increase of 1.5% every year, this year, rather than that fourteen percent, we would be asking for one point oh one percent.

That's why we're trying with you to turn the corner we agree by the MBR.

We agree, and and as I said, I do not envy your job.

You have very, very difficult decisions to make.

Um, I'll say this what the we often speak in round numbers because the numbers are so large.

I think Ms.

Alfano will agree.

Our costs, the district's costs to keep everything the same.

It's reasonable to expect somewhere between five and seven million a year.

Five and seven percent, excuse me.

Five and seven percent a year.

Right?

That's the inflation that we all hit, but also these things like outplacements that go up 10%, bus contracts that go up six percent, between five and seven percent.

Rough numbers, our budget is two hundred million dollars.

So that means to stay the same, it's somewhere between ten and fourteen million dollars a year to stay the same.

So that's incredibly difficult for you folks.

It's incredibly difficult for me to propose to the board and then for the board to move on to you.

But these are facts.

This is you know, tiny little two and a half percent raises for some of our folks, it's it's you know that's not making up it's things like you bring up, Mr.

McNamara.

It's insurance costs that we received a promise from the provider and from the analysts that just isn't coming true.

It's special ed facilities that are currently not regulated that can raise their rates by ten percent at will.

So it's incredibly difficult each and every year to know that if our costs are going up five to seven percent, and unless state aid goes up, the only place we can ask for that is you folks.

We know we're giving you a hard task, but if we don't keep up with that form of inflation, the only other option is to cut staff or services, and and I know that nobody on the council and certainly nobody on the board side wants to do that, but these are the unfortunate um facts of the math.

Although women vargess, thank you.

Um, just reviewing the district dashboard that you shared with us, sure.

Um I see that it says special edge students outplaced.

I see a decrease there from uh from 17.1% to sixteen point two, yes, but you're also projecting that we're gonna get more or we're spending almost ten million more.

Correct.

Is that because of the cost that you're anticipating of the services, or can you explain that a little bit more?

So those are those dipped really in in my first year here, and they've been kind of edging up slightly.

But again, it's each child who is outplaced is such a cost, right?

Just to use round figures, two hundred thousand dollars, hundred and eighty-nine, but that's gonna go up by ten percent next year.

So that ten thousand ten million, excuse me, that's where I said realistically, the current budget is actually six point one, because it's the um the three point.

It's the current budget amount plus the three point six that we received from you all in special revenue.

So the change isn't as big as it looks when you build if you build back in the fact that we have the special revenue, but nonetheless, you were exactly correct.

And that's what I meant when I say we are expecting more students, even if that number goes up by five or seven students, if it goes up from the current 172, I think, to a hundred and eighty, that's eight kids multiplied by two hundred thousand, that's one point six million right there, but what we're also expecting is what we're seeing is kids are are becoming more and more needy.

Their needs are deeper and deeper, which means the a la carte services that these students get at those facilities, they're not just charging us for a teacher, charging us for a teacher and a speech path and a behavior tech and time with the para.

Everything is charged a la carte.

So we have to really look at our current actuals, and yeah, and it's uh it's daunting for us too.

And you proposed, I think the 203rd you've proposed some additional changes.

Um there though it's also says that you're going to remove two special ed teachers in the middle school.

Um, are those part of those specialized programs?

Or um can you explain what those two positions and really that's based on current need, right?

So those are recommendations that would come to me from uh the department leadership.

Again, it's not I would just remind the council that my submitted budget, the board's submitted budget, doesn't have any of those reductions.

This is like if we had to do without, we could.

It's kind of the the right way to look at.

I know, but if we're if we're projecting such a need and we're trying to not have so many children outplaced, like I would think that we wouldn't try to keep those positions, so in the most recent document in the in the uh April 29th, I recommended reinstating those those two middle school special ed teachers in particular.

Hold on, I have a few more questions.

Um other thing that I noticed as one of the proposed, I guess uh removal of staff, um were the non-instructional paireducators, yep.

Um, and I just find that that we would consider those positions, especially with the great progress that was made at the high school.

Can you explain why that was decided or how that was decided?

So we've had vacancies for instructional paras for a very long time.

The um non-instructional paras is actually something that I have never heard of before coming to New Britain.

They're doing important work, but the work they're doing is actually somewhat more secretarial in nature, there but they're members of the para-educator unit.

So if we had to cut, again, I did not propose cutting them, but if we have to cut, it seems logical that we should take people who are already in the para-unit and have them serve students.

We've talked about moving things to where it's student-facing.

I know.

I just I I see that being one of the strengths with the 640 students earning um, you know, those credits, and I would agree.

So I would agree with you.

These these are not cuts that I desire to make.

That's all I have for now.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Marcus.

Can I?

Oh, oh, who did you?

Hi, Dr.

Casper.

I really appreciate the graph.

I love graph and these really call my attention.

But I can tell you that a lot of parents and students might feel different because their experience feels different.

So the questions that I have for you is is there anything not working in the district, and how are you addressing it for those people that feel different with this chart?

Is there anything that's not working?

Ma'am, there are many things that are not working as well as I would like.

So we have, we still have even though these numbers are going in the right direction, we still have very low academic performance, right?

My point here is to say it's getting better.

So none of the staff is satisfied with any of these outcomes yet.

So the fact that we moved elementary math from 7.9% to 19.1 is amazing in three years, but 19.1 isn't anything to celebrate.

So I don't want you to think that we are celebrating this or resting on our laurels.

Everything here continues to be a work in project in progress.

Even some of the numbers that that look really astounding, such as the college credit.

So um, no, I don't I don't find any school administrator, anybody on my team who's satisfied.

So we could talk if you have particular questions about a particular program, I'd be happy to tell you more about how we're working on that, but I don't want this graph to be um a signal that we're done because we're certainly not.

The reason why I asked is because I do a lot of community service and I interact with a lot of parents and students and stuff like that, and I hear the stories, and their story is completely different than what is just showing here, so that's why I asked that question.

But I have another question.

How much has central administrative spending and the number of non-classroom positions increased over the past years compared to direct classroom investment, and what evidence show those actions improve student achievement?

Sure.

So that's in the that's in the book.

So you can find the staffing information in a few places.

So one place you can see that is on page 38.

So page 38 shows by union, and I'll tell you what each of those unions are, and I think that's a good place to start with an answer to your question.

So administrators means non-union administrators, such as myself.

Local 51 are unionized school and district administrators.

871 are mostly classroom teachers, but also people like school counselors.

2407 are paraeducators.

6621 are people like family school liaisons, deans, etc.

So how do we know that it's working?

It's really the chart that you just pointed out, right?

Not every one of our metrics is headed in the right direction, but most of them are.

So for example, when I arrived, I believe there were a total of 19 people working at the central office academic department.

And we've reduced that and moved those people back out to the schools.

We also did things like reformat what used to be called NBU, where previously, in order to start the initiative that was called NBU, uh reading teachers were removed from schools.

We uh three years ago went through an initiative where we restored reading teachers to each of our elementary schools.

Even though I'm not impressed with these numbers, I can assure you and the community that I will do everything in my power to get what they need because they are the future.

And they are the main reason I'm here, but I have to be honest with you.

Thank you.

I just wanted to follow up on Alder Roman Vargas's uh question about the non-instructional pairs.

Uh you mentioned they uh many of their tasks are secret uh secretarial in nature.

Uh my understanding is they do have a lot that they handle for the district, and if you were to eliminate any of the positions, who who's gonna take that on?

How are they gonna handle it?

So that was done in consultation with the high school principal, and he believes that he can do so.

The high school principal is gonna do it?

No.

Perhaps some.

He's a busy guy.

Okay.

My understanding is they do do a lot of work, and I hate to see them lose their principles.

I want to repeat myself.

My budget and the budget put forward by the board doesn't have any of these cuts.

That's why we're advocating so strongly.

The budget increase was not asking you for more services.

And in a way, I know this, and I say this to the board uh almost every year.

The superintendent's proposal to the board was almost a boring budget.

In the way that I would love to propose 5.3 additional millions of dollars so that we could open our own school for kids with autism.

I would love that.

As a profession, as a 30-year public educator, that would be an interesting project that I think would be wonderful for the kids of New Britain.

But I can't, because our fixed costs go up so rapidly that all really this budget is is a maintenance budget.

It's not about making things better.

We're just trying not to make things worse.

So I I repeat myself often to remind you that I know that 18.9 million and 14.82% is a ton of money, but that's just to keep things the same.

Alder Woman Barbosa.

I have a couple questions.

Um, first on pages 20 and 21.

Um I'm baffled because in elementary school, the element the ELA and the math scores show they go up, but then they get to middle school and the scores go down.

What's going on with the middle schools?

We're working on that right now, and if I had an answer, um I would certainly tell you.

What we find is exactly what you just said, Alderwoman, is that we are finding that the transition from a fifth grade classroom where they probably only have one or two teachers into the middle school format where they have five or six or seven teachers, is just not working for so many of our kids.

What we did is we took a look at our data, and what we found out that we're very good at and we're very bad at.

When we looked at our data, we found that we are really good at lifting kids up out of the lower levels of performance.

On the state test, there's four levels one, two, three, four.

When you look at our data district wide, moving kids out of the ones and twos, we're doing really amazing work at that.

The trouble is, while we're working on pulling them up, some of the kids that were up here fall back, and we're seeing that most especially in grade six.

So I want that uh Ms.

Whitehead and Ms.

Major, our two middle school principals are keenly aware, they're working with Mr.

Richardson.

We are looking at every single kid as often as we can.

We're implementing new uh tests, we're using kind of a practice state test called the IAB.

But you're exactly right to notice that, and it's it kind of baffles us too.

It's complicated, but we think we're figuring it out, and part of that is we don't know if we're gonna see results in the first year, but we restructured the middle school schedule so that every kid now has an intervention period during the day.

So what happens during intervention kit uh period is rather than being mixed, kind of a mixed group of class, during intervention, kids go to a classroom with kids who have a similar need to catch up as they do.

We think that's gonna help, but some kids are so far behind, it might take two or three years of help before they really get back up to the professional level.

But you're exactly right to notice that, and and we're doing everything that we can think of to work on it.

Now, my my next question on that, um, why are we moving students along and they're not progressing?

Like, why is a kid who's struggling in the sixth grade and moved on to the seventh grade with those same issues, it's just gonna get worse and worse and worse, and then when they get to the high school, they don't want to go to school anymore.

And it really starts when they're younger, kids are saying little kids are saying, I'm like if I ask a lot of kids how school, you know, do you like school?

School is boring.

I'm not sure what the students are learning what they're being taught, but little kids should not be saying they're bored in school.

I don't know if the kids are not being given the attention that they need because so much attention is being focused elsewhere, but I don't know.

On that note, um, the resources for middle school are they equivalent to what the elementary schools get, or they lack more.

So you see the really strong growth that we see in in elementary school, and uh coaches have been really the talk of the town.

This is perhaps another answer to to Alderwoman Maldonado's question.

We know that where we have more coaches, where we have more teachers intervening with kids, and those same teachers then go help their fellow teachers, that's where we're seeing the most growth.

Now.

So the grades that have the most growth, grades three, four, and five have the most intervention in coaches.

Middle school, not enough coaches.

Really, I think middle schools have I believe it's two coaches per building, um, which in much larger buildings compared to two coaches for each elementary school.

I haven't looked at the chart of on the list of who's getting laid off and who's not who's not returning.

But are coaches being eliminated?

They are on the list currently.

Why is that if we recognize that that need is needed?

Especially in the middle school level.

Ma'am, $18.9 million dollars is a very scary number.

And even when we reduce that, even when the cut was six million, six million, you can't get to six million by just kind of finding things around the edges by finding a person or two in these departments.

We don't have a lot of people who are not already working with kids.

Six million is a huge number.

Huge number.

So I'd love to say that I could easily find the two or three or four million that maybe will end up short after this process.

The fact of the matter is we don't have a ton of people who are not already working directly with kids.

People like to say that.

Again, this is my 11th year as a superintendent, both in a suburban district and this urban district.

People have the same questions and complaints.

You'll have to trust that having been such a a poorly funded district for so long, the fancy stuff went away long ago.

I know that's not a satisfying answer to a lot of people.

People want me to find, oh yeah, we'll just get rid of these people who are just hanging out doing nothing.

We don't have those people.

I have two more questions.

Sure.

What's your um communication spending?

In um the breakdown as to when it comes to the outcomes.

You know, how does the communication spending directly improve student outcomes, classroom support, or academic performance?

It's in the documents you're looking at tonight, ma'am.

Is it which line items?

Which I line items make up the communications.

Sure, Anne can answer that.

So the communications office is on pages 147 and 148 in our budget book.

Um that is 406,000 in staffing and ninety-six thousand dollars in non-personnel expenditures or lines.

406,000 dollars is required for salary in salaries and personnel costs, and $96,700 in non-personnel costs.

Absolutely, it's Spanish Arabic and any other translation services.

Sure, that's because most of our schools we already have Spanish speaking staff.

We do not have as many Arabic speaking staff.

What type of communication is provided?

It's really wide-ranging.

So it's everything from the documents you're looking at tonight.

It's emergency letters when something scary happens at a school or on a bus, the communication officer makes you know helps the principals get those words out quickly.

It's snow days, it's social media to make sure people are well connected.

It's running our website, it's running our app to keep people informed about school events, conferences.

It's there's no downtime now.

If we were to reduce that, it would simply be less communication.

I don't know.

I don't know how much communication I receive, and I'm on the list, I don't get a lot of communication from the schools.

And I have an elementary granddaughter.

That's why I'm asking, because I don't I don't get letters in a mail.

I would check with the school's main office to make sure that they have everything correct for you, ma'd like to follow.

We typically get complaints about too many of those.

Yeah, quite interesting.

Especially in snow days.

And the next question.

How many IT personnel do you have?

Sure.

Ms.

Alfano can answer that.

We have a variety of different kinds of IT.

So they're all by category.

Sure, we could list them all.

So I'll list that's in our budget book on page 156.

So we've got the chief information officer, we have an MIS manager, we have a secretary, we have two software specialists, we have two computer system specialists, we have five computer repair specialists, we have one network specialist, we have an MIS support and project specialist, and we have nine technology assistants.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um I guess I should start by saying thank you first to Dr.

Gasper for taking the needs of our students seriously as a New Britain student who has had superintendents not take our needs seriously, who has had elected officials not make the ask that was needed or rise to the task.

Secondly, I want to thank our state delegation, because 18.9 million, I think was a scary number, it's now smaller.

Thank you.

But I'd like to come back to this uh this reimbursement rate on outplacements, and if I may, I'm I'm I might ask for Miss Alfon Alfano, right?

Miss Alfano's help.

Um so current spending per student is that a hundred and eighty-six thousand, correct?

That's an average, yes.

It's an average, yeah.

We can expect a 10% increase there.

Okay.

So we have 2,500 of our uh 2,500 students in special needs programs, correct?

That's all students who were designated as special needs, yes.

Thank you.

And an outplacement rate of 16%.

More or less, yes.

Okay.

So that's around 400 students.

Just with the numbers that we have here.

So that means adding 18.6k.

I'm sorry, I'm using the metric system here.

Um that brings the average up to an expected 204 uh point six thousand thousands, essentially, which is fancy way of saying millions.

Um correct me if I'm wrong, that is a around a 7.4 million dollar increase in student placements, more or less.

So for this reimbursement rate, we're supposed to see 92%.

Um, we haven't seen more than 70, but our bottom is 62.

Do you remember what year we got that rate?

So in 24-25, what happened was our our rate was um between sixty-two and sixty-four percent, but then that's when we we received that additional um excess cost grant near the end of the year.

So the year started at that lower sixty percent, and then we by the time we ended in June, it brought us to seventy-two percent because they gave us um that excess cost additional funding.

If that makes sense, but we didn't know about that um in the beginning of the year.

Right.

That was right.

Yeah, I'm absolutely not going to bank on that for the budget.

Yeah, so right.

Growing up in New Britain, it is a common theme where we have to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

So I'm I'm actually leading with that in this budget.

With the goal in mind of at least level education.

Um but that 62% rate, what dollar amount did that translate to for the 24 25 year?

So for um so we were at approximately um a total reimbursement amount with about 8.1 million, and then we received that 1.8 million.

I'm I'm rounding.

So 1.8 million in additional funding.

Thank you.

And what would just the eight point one million translate to as um, I'm sorry.

So we're getting reimbursed $8.1 million there, and then we got a little extra.

Right.

So what would the $8.1 million dollars in today's spending categories translate to as a percent of the total of the total outplacement costs?

Right.

So take the take the like bottom tier real life money that we got from the state that we can I don't want to say rely on because we don't actually know the number, right?

But eight point one million dollars out of today's spending for outplacements.

What percent does that translate to?

Yeah, we would have to probably be five, somewhere behind.

I would agree.

Somewhere in the somewhere in the 50, high 50% range.

Yeah.

Again, we haven't seen a r a rate that low.

Yeah.

I mean, it's in the middle.

I'll even go 55% there.

So we have no reason to anticipate that next year's reimbursement will be that low, but um I I'm following your logic.

I see.

Um I feel a little optimistic.

So basically, if we can't expect 55%, but 62% has happened.

There is, I believe, seven percent that we can figure into here.

And to be fair though, uh 70% has also happened.

Um, you know, we don't want to just be worst.

We wouldn't be responsible if all we did was present the worst case scenario.

So it has been as low as 60, it has been as high as 70, except for that quote bonus that we got in in just a single year that nobody knew to expect.

Oh, yeah, and if we get another bonus, it's certainly welcomed.

I'm not gonna question that one.

Of course.

I'm just working with the numbers that we have here, and again, thank you for doing the homework for presenting it here and just laying it out.

So in today's spending, what does seven percent translate to?

Seven, not seventy.

The difference between uh sixty-two and the fifty-five.

We think approximately one point seven million.

Okay.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I'm I'm sorry, uh I had a follow-up uh just after.

Thank you.

Um this one point seven million.

Actually, Mr.

Chair, let me dwell on that.

Thank you.

Ultimate.

Thank you.

I'd appreciate it beyond what's in your books if uh Ms.

Ofano or Dr.

Yas, you could unpack the uh transportation budget a bit, what is for a student do?

What do we do?

I I see there's a one and a half million dollars for bus monitors.

I'm sure you're constantly monitoring or your managers are looking at routes, but believe me, I appreciate bus monitors having driven a school bus in my earlier years with 40 high school students on it.

But can you talk about who controls those costs and we sure will see that?

Um and are these monitors certified and and vetted by the uh the Board of Education?

So the the basics of that, Ms.

Alfine, we'll give the details, obviously, is the the monitors are also employees of the bus company, so all of that falls under the same bus contract that went out to competitive bid.

So um in terms of special education transportation, is that what your question was?

Well, actually the whole bottle of wax, but I I noticed there was a what is it about eight million for special education transportation?

Um it's it's on page 154 in our budget book.

So if we look at um transportation for special education, we would take the eight point one million, which is line five five one oh nine, and five five one one zero, which is outplace transportation.

That's also special education transportation.

So that's approximately nine point five million for special education transportation, and then we would add the bus monitors, which um approximately one point five million.

So for special education transportation, I would say it's approximately eleven million dollars.

And I appreciate you holding the gasoline budget at uh as is.

Alderman and back in the mayor, also for the benefit of the council, I wanted the transportation line items explained.

Yes.

Alderman Simpson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh so Dr.

Gasper, none of this uh outplacement reimbursement is figured into the the ask here.

It is you will find it on the revenues page.

Okay, so it is on the revenues page.

I can direct you to that.

For this upcoming year.

You can find that on page 30.

Again, we're forced to make a very rough guess.

It's currently budgeted at 11 million.

11 million.

Okay.

And what does 11 million dollars represent?

What percentage is that?

How I got to the 11 million is um I I basically used the 2425 percentage with the hopes that they would maintain level uh reimbursement rate and not reduce it.

So what was last year's reimbursement rate?

So yes, last year we were at the 70s for 72.

Without any bonuses, 72, yeah, 72.7.

72.

But it was after the additional funding.

Right.

So what is that percent without the additional funding?

So we we were somewhere between 62 and 64 percent.

Okay.

Thank you.

So that so the state says we're supposed to get ninety-two percent, which an eight percent discount is already not great, right?

But last year we were funded between sixty-two and sixty-four percent of what we actually spent.

Correct.

I see, okay.

Well, it's not what we took what we spent the entire amount, it's what what is considered reimbursable by the state.

Right?

Because it's four and a half times what what the state says is our responsibility or our portion.

Right.

I asked that with the context of like qualifying expenses, right?

Yeah, exactly.

Hmm.

All right, and would you happen to be able to answer any questions on the uh the state aid that we had seen port a portion of it is for I believe just town aid in general?

We would I so I are you referring to the I believe it's four point something million, which is separate from the 13.3 million?

Correct.

So this would be money to my understanding that has some flexibility for the municipality.

I do understand it's a one-time revenue, but with the mayor's budget, the uh MBR shift not actually having a net positive until three years down the line, right?

One time revenues, we're gonna I'm gonna be fully honest.

We're gonna have the same exact conversation next year.

That was actually going to be my closing remarks this evening, Mr.

Simpson.

Right.

So uh the that additional municipal aid certainly is not within our purview.

That that's fully within the purview of the municipality.

Right.

Thank you.

Um would you happen to have the it's I forget the the actual number, but it's like four point something or maybe three in change.

The town aid portion.

The town aid we have smartphones.

Yes.

So it's the four six four point six seven million.

Okay.

According to a social media post from one of our delegations.

My next question was is this going to be an AI transcription or is this a thank you Mr.

Chair I think that's it for now.

Oh I'm sorry.

You also have Mr.

Alderman.

Oh thank you.

Alder Woman Scott.

Yes I'll go.

Thank you guys for coming peace and love.

And um I think thank you for sharing the information on some of the improvements.

I always like the updates every year um compared to others and the work that you're doing.

And I don't want to raise the temperature but I do want to just um say that we all need to be working together as a team.

Um when we vote on the budget the city council you guys delegate where the money goes um and we don't have really any say over it but we're asking questions because we wanna you know be clear about what you guys are doing um and we want to prioritize the funding and it was quite embarrassing when there's all this back and forth when we really just need to be focusing on what the kids need and what our schools need.

And I understand some of the concerns that the parents had that we're here um the positions that are up for elimination are very concerning um and I have notes because I forget I'm so tired we just need to prioritize and um the parents being upset and then um the fact that these schools have not been funded in over a decade needs to be extremely clear.

Um but now like this is a new day and we have a new mayor who really does care about education.

He did put some money originally into the funding which has not been done like let's be clear has not been done at all in over a decade.

Um and also he was at the state and I witnessed it myself he was at the Capitol fighting for us to get money um for this budget and I'm really happy that the delegation pulled through and our governor and we do have some extra funding for our schools now.

Um which has not been funded in so long and raising the taxes is just not an option I don't think um our kids that go to our schools are already struggling in their homes their parents are struggling to put food on the table.

I spoke to two parents that are unhomed right now that have kids in our schools um one of them is an elementary student and so I don't think that that's really an option that we have but I think that we need to be creative um and really think outside of the box a little bit about how we're gonna fix this problem because it is going to take time but at least now we are being proactive with trying to catch up.

There is gonna be extra money consistently with this budget that the money will keep going up for our schools every year.

So I want I hope that people understand that that has not happened it needed to happen and now it's going to start happening.

We will be having the same conversation next year because it's gonna take time to fix the problem just like it's taking time to fix the education.

You come with the updates every year, like our elder woman just said, it's it's not, you know, impressive exactly because it's not perfect, but the same thing is going to happen with this budget.

It's not gonna be perfect.

It's gonna take time to catch up from a disaster that a complete disaster that has occurred over the past decade.

Um, so I have some little ideals I'm gonna ask you if there's anything that we might possibly be able to do.

Um is there a way for I know there's positions that came up about tech or IT.

Is there a way to be creative and possibly have students help out with some of that IT stuff?

I don't know.

I mean these are I'm it's just I'm just going it's a it's a valid question.

It's a valid question for sure.

I I can say all the women that I've I've uh attempted that in two previous districts and it did not go well.

No.

No.

What about like professional trainings for the teachers?

Now, is there a way to possibly I don't know how much money that costs or but is there a way to possibly because I think most people in our community and in our state care about education and professionals care about giving back.

I wonder if there's a way to get people, I don't know if you if there's cost involved with those professional developments with paying people to come in, people might be able to just take a small stipend or volunteer sometimes.

You know, you might be able to get people away.

I I mean I'm just I don't know.

I don't know if I'm just trying to think like if there's ways to maybe cut corners in some areas where we might be able to as a community come together and help because we're, you know, we all need to help out and do our part, not point fingers, but we all need to do our part and step up to the plate.

So I don't know if that's something that we've ever tried to say.

We we have it's certainly something we have really good partnerships with a lot of the the nonprofits in town, for sure.

Okay.

That's good.

And is there a way that are any of the positions that aren't filled?

I know every position is important, um, extremely when it comes to education, but is there are there any that aren't filled that we can use some of the funding?

That's already been considered.

That has, okay.

Absolutely.

The vacancies wherever possible we've we've considered those as um the first reductions whenever possible.

And is there um any salaries of people who are in the higher salary ranking?

Is there any way for them not to have maybe a pair?

That's probably not an option, but maybe not to take a raise this year.

So I've already met with all of the I've already met with all of the leaders of our unions, administrators, paras, teachers, everyone.

And what I know is um that they're all giving it consideration for concessions.

Right.

We hope that it doesn't come to that, but we've already been gonna be on that discussion.

And what I know is that um that would include the senior leadership team and myself that if we would match whatever concessions are are given by by those unions.

Okay.

Yeah, because I really I think like the paraprofessionals, I really wish that we could see them getting paid more over time.

Um I think their job is really hard and the crossing guards, I know they said they need we just they need to some of them can't afford things with the cost of living and their job is extremely important, they keep our kids safe.

Um so I think that's I think that's it.

I think of something oh, and I was gonna ask what your plans for next year, but I know that came up.

We'll be here again.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Most of my questions were um answered already, so it shouldn't be too long.

Um I'm just asking because I I don't know.

Um, but I'm looking at the personnel and talent office.

Um, and I know you did state that compared to other school districts.

We don't have, um, they have more staffing than what New Britain has.

Um, did you compare like the salary?

Because again, I don't know, but th these salaries are pretty high.

So I I wanna actually follow up on a question from Mr.

McNamara earlier.

The the possible reductions list does include a reduction in the talent office.

So that's um the recruitment and placement specialist you'll find listed as district wide.

So there is a consideration of a reduction in that office already.

Okay, and the the recruitment specialists is that just like what is their um like what is it that they have to do is it they go out and try to fill in the vacancies?

Absolutely.

Yeah, okay.

Um, and then uh oh, I had a question about um because I know there are two elementary schools that have different times, which is the Loreto.

Um guessing it's because it's with it's a magnet school and it's with um the middle school.

That's correct.

Um and why is why is SMALLY um the same time as the Loreto?

So that's actually one of our reductions, and it's actually that's quite substantial, almost almost 500,000.

That stems from when Smolly was um a what's called the SIG school, school improvement grant school, and they used that grant money to change their hours to provide extra instruction to kids.

It's an unfortunate fact that as our schools have done better, when you do better and you're removed from the SIG list, you also lose the money.

So with that money going away, we're gonna part of this proposal that half million dollars is to bring Smally back into alignment with the other elementary schools.

It's not really possible to have DeLoretto aligned with the rest because they're so large, right?

Our buses, we say they're in tiers, first tier, second tier, second t uh third tier.

So we need to have enough buses available, right?

Most buses do at least two, if not three runs during the day.

So it's all about m making the best use out of the smallest number of school buses, so it costs us the least money.

Okay.

Um, and then I just wanted to touch up on North End, um, just because there's a lot of stuff on social media about possibly co closing that and um I don't think I was born, um, but I I heard that s uh the school district went through something like that with Pulaski, was that high school and they had to make a decision to close it.

Again, I don't think I was even born.

But anyways, um no, I wasn't.

Well, it's a good thing.

Um, but is that I and I understand we don't want to have these conversations just like right in our world, we don't want polling locations to close.

Um but and I understand it's only approximately according to the to the book a one point one million dollar saving.

So it's um I'll say I've, you know, when we got the confirmation of some additional money kind of at the middle meeting that we've had, I removed that from consideration, at least what would be my proposal to the board.

Instead, what we're going to plan to do is phase out North End.

Currently, we did not purposely uh enroll new kindergartners at North End.

It's been a di uh a part of the town, part of the city that's really been shrinking in enrollment anyway.

Typically it's been what we call a two-track, two grade two classes per grade level.

However, this year there's only one kindergarten classroom because it's just a a neighborhood of the city where the people are getting older and we don't have um elementary age kids there.

What we the reason I changed my recommendation is also to consider the fact that thanks to the Smith reconstruction project, which is going to be beautiful, it's going to have the brand new early childhood building added onto it.

There'll be 22 additional classrooms district wide coming online.

So what that means is I believe it's six or seven classrooms at Gaffney will then be vacant, and all the classrooms at the Roosevelt campus where Relk is right now, will be vacant.

So what that means is two summers from now, uh the board and I are gonna have to talk about restructuring basically the whole city as far as zones.

So what we're looking at is rather than closing um North End right now, my new recommendation again, things have been changing very quickly, is that we would basically phase out North End over the next two years.

Okay.

Um I believe those are all my questions.

Um I'll ask one more question.

Um do you think if we we would have had at l at least a little bit of increase every year, um do you think you would have been asking for this much money this year?

Absolutely not.

That's the chart that Mr.

McNamara has.

So if going back the 10 or 12 years, whatever uh Ms.

Alfano put on that wonderful chart, so when you go to superintendent school, they teach you somewhere between like a three or a four percent increase is a reasonable thing to expect from your municipality, right?

If you look at federal inflation, it's usually three to four percent.

If we had just done half of that every single year, if we had only done one and a half percent every single year, this year the request would be one point oh one percent instead of fourteen point eight.

So I completely agree with Mr.

Simpson, and again, um I I don't like to be kind of the bearer of bad news or the wet blanket, but um none of us, your side of the table nor my side of the table enjoy this conversation.

But it will repeat itself until really meaningful changes are made in the formula at the state level and how municipalities choose to invest each and every year.

Many j it's just like putting money into your savings account or your four oh one K.

Many, many little investments pay off over time, and if you choose not to invest, you end up with these big gaps that we find ourselves with this year.

So your your your question is right on point.

Right.

Um, and hopefully, I mean with the mayor's budget, um, you know, I I think that's uh a step towards the right direction with the one million going towards the MBR.

Um we agree.

Uh it's just, you know, it's it's it is tough.

You have an incredibly difficult job, and I've said that many times tonight.

Right.

The city needs both snow plows and custodians.

We need both police cars and teachers.

And you have the incredibly difficult job of choosing between them.

Right.

Well, it's tougher for people like me.

We have my children go in the school district, right?

But I don't want my property taxes to go up either.

We completely understand.

It's something we definitely have to sit down and talk more about because we've been talking about it.

Um and we definitely have to save the sports.

Um, you know, kids love sports.

Some kids hate going to school doing work, right?

But that's what drives them is being after school, doing all these clubs and and um, yeah, so um we have hard decisions to make, but thank you.

Thank you for everything for the presentation.

Although, checking software.

I just want to say twice.

I watched the video you did on page four, but I just want to watch it to elaborate on some of the uh things that you mentioned.

Sure.

The check is coming now.

The check is coming through now, um, based on that, what specific decisions from prior years community situation, and did you see this coming?

Ma'am, I think it's exactly what we just talked about.

It's that what could have been that one and a half percent each year.

That's what I meant by that.

And you also say that this is the serious budget in 30 years.

I'm sorry, Alderwoman.

Can you just turn your microphone on?

My voice is not loud enough for me.

That's what she said last time.

So that's exactly what I meant.

Uh I meant what I said.

This is my 30th year in public education.

This is my 11th year as a superintendent.

It's my 17th year in executive level leadership in a school district.

And I said those exact words to Mayor Sanchez when I met with him in January about this budget to tell him just how scared I was of it.

It so it's it's those two things together, ma'am.

It's the lack of that one and a half percent investment, what could have been each and every year.

But the other thing was, and I I just want to remind us of the timeline that we were working under.

We're we're we're we don't have ESP, we can't predict the future.

So when we built this budget, we didn't know about the 13.3 million.

What we knew about coming from the state extra was zero.

And that's why that chart showed you the past few years have made your jobs and and our jobs much easier to get 9 million in the current fiscal year extra from the state.

To get, I think it was 8.6 million in the previous year extra from the state.

We might have needed 14 million, but the state took care of 9 million.

So that's what I mean by scary when I know that these costs are going up.

When I know that the bus contract goes up by 6%, insurance goes up by 9%, outplacements by 10%, and no additional state money that we knew of at that time, it's really scary.

And for me to have to present uh a 14.82% budget to my board is not fun, right?

And that's in already wrapping in things like, oh, we know we have these vacancies or we know we have these retirements.

So that's what I meant by scary.

And again, I I said those words to the mayor himself when when I showed him our budget in January, and I've been saying it to the board, I've been saying it publicly as I've uh talked to people around town.

It's scary because I'm the first in my family to go to college.

I don't know if you've seen my license plate.

My license plate says public ed.

I'm publicly educated from kindergarten through my doctorate.

What I opened with is not a bumper sticker to me.

I believe this district can be a model for other districts.

We're not there yet.

I completely agree with Ms.

Maldonado.

But you can't say we're not at least headed in the right direction in a lot of ways.

Do you have any contingency plans in place or working so that maybe in the future in the next couple years, we're out of this issue, we're out of this situation.

Ma'am, we're we're in some in some states, the school district is uh is a taxing authority.

We we don't have the ability to raise our own funds.

So we can be as lean as we possibly can, right?

We can uh put as many resources towards the kids as we can, but contingencies, no.

We don't have a reserve fund such as such as the city does.

The board, two years ago, the board voted to create a reserve fund for us.

We don't have any money to put in it.

We haven't opened it because all we would do is be accruing fees at the bank.

So my contingency, which is not exactly an answer to your question, I'm sorry, is to do everything in my power to convince people that these kids, they can, and these teachers can, and I will meet at every PTO.

I think I was at the state legislature three times this year.

I think I was at the state legislature at least twice last year.

I will talk to anybody who's willing to listen about the fact that we are spending money wisely.

You hear from lots of people at the supermarket, you hear from lots of people at mass.

Well, what about this and what about that?

I'm here to tell you nobody's perfect, but we are spending money as wisely as we can find a way to do so.

So a can my contingency as somebody who believes enough in public education to have it on his license plate is to talk to every single person that'll listen and tell them the way we currently fund our schools, the way we currently fund our children is broken.

I'm I'm I'm sitting on a statewide task force right now about special education costs because the person who runs my statewide association, I think she got sick of hearing me talk about it so much.

So she forced me to be on this this uh committee.

It's it's a shame what's happened, and it's not just in this city, right?

If you look at what my my counterpart in New Haven is going through right now, their gap is even bigger.

The number the number here was 18.9 million.

The number for for level services in Bridgeport was 44 million.

It it's it's a terrible thing all around.

And again, that's not a direct answer to your question about contingency.

Um there are some states where people get a separate tax bill called the the school tax.

Connecticut isn't one of those.

What we can do is come here and advocate with you all, talk to parents who advocate with you all, talk to parents who advocate with our state legislators.

Beyond that, I don't have the ability to create dollars.

Alderman Delarnia and then Alderman Sinsk.

So I I'm glad the state stepped up this year and we've gotten this windfall.

Um they haven't in the past.

Uh my understanding is they're looking at the ECS formula, there's a task force or something that's gonna be working on that.

So let's just hope this is in a one time one time jolt that we get we need to see the same funding again next year and the year after.

I agree.

Um there was one other question I had about staff administrators.

You mentioned two point seven percent of all staff is administrators.

Yep.

Uh what are the layoffs there as far as administrators?

So you have that in uh in the document if you have from April twenty ninth, three.

And again, all three of these people are currently doing work that benefits kids.

What are titles?

Sure.

It's district coordinator of career pathways, assistant coordinator of school pu school culture, and district coordinator of research and development.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Alderman Sims.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, just to speak a little optimism into this budget, I I will absolutely 100% stand by the idea that our students are worth every single teacher that they need.

Um that being said, you know, I I see a a bonus coming in, or not that I see it coming in, but it's been mentioned multiple times.

Do you guys know how often we just get extra money at all?

Like out of the last ten years, how many is how many times has that happened?

So the for example, the excess cost reimbursement bonus that Ms.

Alfano spoke of, nobody knew was coming.

It's I I haven't heard of that happening recently.

Um what I think what's important to know of the the nine million extra in ECS, and and for us ECS and Alliance is the same thing.

The nine million alliance slash ECS this year, the 8.6 last year.

And and the reason why we were supposed to be flat for next year, right?

Is because I think it's six or seven years ago, the state conducted a survey and they found out that some districts like New Britain were underfunded.

So we were put on a very steep catch-up curve to get back to full funding.

But that's the full funding based on the 2013 formula that we've all heard so much about recently.

So it was wonderful to be getting these increases, and again, we know that our state delegation advocated for us in that, but arriving at full funding means we were then scheduled to go flat.

So that was the zero increase that Ms.

Alfano and I were looking at when we built the budget.

I wish we could predict how often we might get a little money here and a little money there.

Again, it hurt to prepare this 18.9 million dollar budget.

We if we could have predicted the future back in October that this 13.3 would arrive, we certainly would have done so.

But it's a great question, but it's I would just say that's it's above my pay grade.

Time to um in terms of phasing out uh North End.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but the city owns the buildings and the land that this uh Board of Ed uses to conduct education operations, right?

In Connecticut, that is true.

So we could say the uh the city of New Britain is the Board of Education's like landlord effectively.

I don't wanna I'm not good enough to cite statute, but I believe that in a very general sorry, we we have space, the board of ed then pays us for that.

Yeah, the board of eds to upkeep to maintain to uh you know to to keep care of in every way until such time as the board takes a vote to turn it back over to city control.

I see.

So that's so for lack of a better term, that lease, right?

Is perpetual until the board decides otherwise.

Or is it is there an extraordinary?

I'm not an attorney, but that's my understanding of the statute.

Interesting.

Okay, thank you.

So I I would just expand upon that just to say that um the board and I have begun conversations about how we should use our buildings, um, and those have been held in in public sessions, so you know they're there these aren't confidential conversations.

Should the city go back to having three middle schools rather than two?

Right.

Right because once um RELC, which is the you know, one of the two big programs at the Roosevelt campus, so then what could be done with the North End school?

Could the North End school become, as I kind of dreamt of earlier in this meeting, could that become a special education school where we can keep even more of these outplacements home?

So the board has begun those conversations.

Um I believe we do not have spare space.

Most especially um we'd love to have a better space for our adult education program, which is currently hosted across the street through the the good graces of the the lead association.

Um we need more space for our special programs, as I said, and we need um more opportunities for alternative high schools such as the current satellite careers academy and or Brookside.

Those are both programs that could expand in the number of kids if we had the space for it.

Okay.

When you say keep them home, do you mean in New Britain or in the New Britain public school system?

Both.

So for example, um, if we had more space and could afford the staff, we could expand our key program and keep more kids with substantial autism here rather than sending them to one of those expensive outplacements.

So in effect, the move here would be to repurpose North End, not simply close it down, close the book and say, Oh, there goes another school.

That's going to be my advice to the board, yes.

Good.

Um that's very pleasing to hear because I had about fifty letters sent to uh my house, not even the council mailbox, my house, right?

The mail person was like, Hey, I don't know what you did, but good luck, right?

Um I I grew up in North End.

I live on the same stretch of road as that school, and being, you know, one of the many of us who goes out and door knocks and ask for people's votes when they reach out, I door knock them back, and the parents are terrified, right?

But in effect, if having this school repurposed to accommodate the special needs students we are otherwise outsourcing, right, that 16% of our population, I'm not gonna say it might shrink, but it could in theory stagnate bringing the services they need while reducing our reliance on these reimbursements, which are partially happening partially.

That would be our hope.

That's one of the one of the plans we've discussed already.

Thank you.

I think Haldeman Alderman.

No, oh, the woman uh bargain is the woman.

Thank you.

Um, do you have an approximation on what that might cost if you've already started uh exploring um repurposing North End for?

No, ma'am, that's that's something that we would only do with the help of an architect.

I just wonder um have they considered um rezoning or allowing for more kids from other areas to come to North End?

Has that been considered at all?

So when we were when we were looking at the most severe cuts when we had 49 people on our non-renewal list, which we do not have anymore.

Um I spoke to the board.

There's if we if we needed to reduce that many teachers at the elementary level, there were really only two possible ways.

One would be the full closure of North End.

The only other option if we had to reduce that many teachers would be to rezone each and every school over this summer, and I think that would have created chaos.

Many people knocking on your doors and my door, because it might be, well, thirty-two families from Smalley need to go to Chamberlain, and twelve families from Vance need to go to North End.

Yeah, I know your kids been here for four years, but I'm sorry, we're moving them now.

So it's definitely something we're aware of.

I believe that's what will need to happen in order to serve the kids well two years from now.

Again, when the new Smith comes online, that's 22 more classrooms in the district that we can repurpose in in a way that that serves people.

So I think the 13 point three million lets us delay the closure of North End for a little bit and lets us make plans for what'll happen in the summer of 2028.

Thank you.

Um for the multilingual learners, um, do you have uh do you know how many languages?

Um, there's Dr.

Maya Mulino behind me.

Well we currently have 43, 300 programs.

Is it forty-three?

Forty-three total languages and bilingual programming is in Spanish, Arabic, and Ukrainian.

Can you explain a little bit about the specifics for supports that um are provided with the multilingual learners?

Can you just elaborate a little because I see that the um it continues to increase and I just wonder.

Don't just have every stand up.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I can hear you.

Yes.

So I I see that the multilingual learners.

Sylvia, can you can you join the microphone over here?

Yeah, come to the mic too.

Thank you, but there's no more.

That might be better because I couldn't hear.

Oh, right.

I don't know if she needs the mic now, but I see some also.

Thank you.

So you said forty-three different languages.

I I do see that the uh the amount of learners continue to increase.

Um, so I was just wondering if there was a budget projection on how much that may cost or how much is involved with teaching um multilingual learning?

Currently we are able to serve all of our students with our current staffing.

We had a bit of a reduction up at the high school um this past year, so when we were asked to look at our current programming to see if any cuts could be made, that's where I saw some reductions.

Do you think that'll impact um their progress?

'Cause I also see that there was some great improvements, and so I would like to see that continue.

Yes, I will to I will ensure that that happens.

I think that with the current programming that we have at the high school, the staff that are there will be able to ensure that that continues to happen.

Thank you.

I think that's all the questions I have for you.

I have a few more questions.

Thank you, Sylvia.

Um I know we keep asking about the same question, but back to um the percentage of staff in administration.

I know that you said that um two point seven point two point seven and compared to the other cities, you're reducing three.

Is there any place that we can see a comparison of salaries compared to the other towns?

Because I I think this is the staffing, but is there a salary comparison with how much we're paying um the staffing?

I have a general a general answer, and that is, you know, we negotiate these contracts in good faith each and every usually three to four years, and those con those contract negotiations are always based on kind of going rape.

Both parties, both the board side and the union side, bring comps comparison.

So they're so everyone's pretty much on the same line, all the cities get about the same four.

For this area for this area, uh well the you know, there's for this geographic area, yes.

So other than that, you would have the same access to these documents as I would that they're and I just wonder where I can find that so I could.

No, they're gonna be on every every board of education's website, but what I can say is the process is union negotiations, just like the city does with its unions, where both sides bring their proposals and we look at who are we overpaying underpaying and the trick is to pay just enough right to keep your best people right because if you don't pay people going rate then they go elsewhere.

True um one more question I we all just discovered that the deputy superintendent is leaving correct and so I wondered um what that position involves and if that's a position that we can kind of combine with something else and see some savings in that area because that's about a big amount of money so I will confidently say that the improvements that we've seen so far would not have been possible without Dr.

Velazquez and a district this size needs a deputy superintendent.

Can you explain the job a little bit more about what they do so first and foremost she serves as my proxy whenever I can't make it to something or