January 5, 2022
Present: Kristina Gilton, Monica Logan, Donna Nolan, David Peling, Whitney Sanzo (via Zoom), Sarah Thrall, Rosemarie Weber, and Student Representatives Tess Bajek and Jacob Scotto.
Superintendent’s Announcements
The FY23 Plus One Budget will be presented this evening.
The district is still looking for bus drivers and substitute teachers. College students are eligible to be substitute teachers. Substitute teacher pay has been elevated.
The district is also looking for substitute custodians. This is the heart and soul of keeping schools open.
Assistant Superintendent’s Report
Jennifer Parsons provided an update on recently revised COVID protocols. Received guidance from the State Department of Public Health, GPS moved to the revised 5-day quarantine/isolation as well as a 10-day period where staff/students stay masked. Contact tracing is being limited to most at-risk situations. Parsons also stated that the district has moved to an online reporting system, which is very helpful to make sure cases are being reported systemically.
Home kit results are now being accepted and the district has secured some test kits that are available to staff and students. Please contact the school office if one is needed.
Parsons also shared a math update and stated progress has been reviewed with the math consultant who visits once per month and the consultant stated the district is on track and praised the district for continued support of the coaching model. Having conversations about carrying this support into next year and into K-5.
FY23 Plus One Budget
Grossman presented the FY23 Plus One Budget, a process that began in September with the administrative team and he reviewed the upcoming dates for the FY23 Budget. Grossman stated the current Plus One Budget is at 4.26 percent, which includes a 20 percent increase to health insurance premiums. Last year, the Plus One Budget was predicted to be 4.36 percent for FY23 and this year it is at a 4.26 percent. He said it’s clear that the process works. He also presented a budget number that replaces the 20 percent health insurance premium to a normal 7.5 percent increase and said the increase would be 3.07 percent. Grossman stated just to roll over this year’s budget to next year, the increase would be 2.15 percent. Once special education expenses are added in, the increase would be approximately 3 percent.
Addressing staff increases to the budget, Grossman proposed to add a Staff Accountant at Central Services, a grant-funded Board Certified Behavior Analysis, a Family Engagement Specialist to support all Open Choice families (Q and D and Open Choice Academic Support Grant), a part-time custodian to provide coverage for staff outages, a K-2 Literacy Specialist to support teachers and students in developing mastery with early literacy skills, an Art Teacher at Kelly/Wells, a Classroom Teacher at Wells Road to accommodate an additional section, a 0.1 FTE Strings Teacher to expand the Strings Program to Grade 6, a STEM Teacher at the middle school to offer video production and other digital literacy skills, a Wellness Teacher at the high school for graduation requirements, and a Town Technology Technician to provide part-time technology to support the school district and town departments.
Grossman also reviewed items not related to staffing: support for the Granby Equity Team, a consultant and software platform to support the curriculum for the new resources for the Illustrative Math Program, guided reading materials, continued partnership with the Connecticut Teacher in Residence Program and materials for Readers’ and Writers’ Workshop.
Grossman reviewed the out years, which includes an Instructional Techology Specialist K-1, a Reading Interventionist at Kelly Lane, and an Intervention Specialist at Kelly Lane. He also discussed a possible alternative school program in 2023-2024 to provide alternative programming to students assigned to this program as well as the creation and formation of the Granby Public Schools Early Childhood Education Taskforce.
Board Standing Committee Reports
Curriculum/Policy/Technology/Communication
Peling reported this subcommittee met this evening. Ken Mouning attended and gave a public comment on behalf of the Granby Reconciliation Committee and proposed a celebration for Juneteenth on June 19. The district will work with him on this event.
Discussed new Granby graduation requirements for 2023 and beyond, as well as revised performance standards. Policies were also on the agenda but were tabled until the next meeting.
January 19, 2022
Present: Kristina Gilton (via Zoom), Monica Logan, Donna Nolan, David Peling, Whitney Sanzo, Sarah Thrall, Rosemarie Weber, and Student Representatives Tess Bajek and Jacob Scotto.
Student Representative Reports
Tess gave a sports report and said DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) members are committed to the states with competitions to be held in the spring. Thrall recommended that people volunteer to judge for the DECA competition. She has done it in the past and it is a worthwhile endeavor.
NHS is hosting the Empty Bowls Fundraiser, March 18 in the Commons. Proceeds will go to the Granby and Hartland Food Banks.
Business Manager’s Report
Anna Robbins presented the December statement of accounts and said there is a positive forecast of $153K, which is $8K higher than last month. Overall, special education expenditures are projected to be in the black $29K and although there is a significant over-budget condition in out-of-district tuition, it is being offset by out-of-district transportation and salaries.
Regular education expenditures are expected to be favorable $124K and the driving factor is regular education salaries due to the turnover in personnel this year. Q and D continues to be projected favorable and varies slightly from last month. Regarding revenue to the town, it is better than budgeted by $123K but there is a decrease in the positive forecast due to Per Pupil Expenditure (PPE). PPE went up from $17,068 to $18,869 so that PPE affects are positive as well as negative for the excess cost grant because that number determines reimbursement from the state.
Athletic Update: Fall Re-Cap/Winter Preview
Athletic director Brian Maltese provided an update on the fall season and a preview of the winter sports season.
Grossman shared that he has worked with many athletic directors in the state and Maltese is one of the best. It has been a very trying times to be an Athletic Director over past couple of years and Granby has one of the best athletic programs in Connecticut.
Maltese thanked everyone for their support and stated the fall teams had a 104-35-1 record and of the 221 fall athletes, 72 percent made the honor roll in the first quarter. He shared that field hockey and volleyball were NCCC champions and field hockey, girls’ soccer and girls’ volleyball reached the CIAC state semi-finals. The Granby/Canton football Pequot team were division champions. Twenty athletes were selected for All Conference and eight athletes selected for All State. The winter season started on time with full regular season schedules. Boys’ and girls’ basketball are currently in first place in the NCCC. Twenty five of 45 indoor track athletes have qualified for the league indoor meet, and two students have qualified for CIAC state meet for swimming. Unified basketball is practicing after school and ironing out a schedule with other schools. Winter participation numbers were reviewed and there are currently 270 athletes.
There is a new camera installed in the main gym that can be programmed and track the athlete’s speed of play and allows flexibility of scheduling, which eases the burden for the Broadcast Team.
He shared that the CIAC Michael’s Cup Award just received by the high school was also received last year. Thrall inquired about winter sports at the middle school. Maltese said 100 students participated for fall cross country and 30 for field hockey. Winter boys’ and girls’ basketball have 10-11 students on each team and there are five students in cheer. Weber inquired if there were any dips in Open Choice student participation. Maltese stated he did not have those numbers in front of him but would get them to her, but buses run at 4:30 p.m. for students and he was confident that the numbers are close to previous years. Thrall inquired the percentage of Granby students participating in the Granby/Canton Coop for football. Maltese said 29 Granby students and 17 Canton students participated.
FY23 Plus One Budget
The board continued to discuss and considered the approval of the FY23 Plus One Budget.
Grossman reviewed questions received from the board. Thrall said the next step in the process is the Administrative Budget being presented on March 2. A motion was made by Weber and seconded by Peling to approve the Plus One Budget and forward it to the Board of Finance. This motion passed unanimously.
Final Plans for High School Building Project
The board considered approval of the final plans for the high school building project as prepared for bidding. A motion made by Nolan and seconded by Weber that the board certifies the final plans and project manual(s) as prepared for bidding and dated Jan. 7, 2022, and the professional cost estimate, completed in accordance with Level 3 of ASTM International Standard E1557, Standard Classification of Building Elements and Related Sitework-UNIFORMAT II for this project, dated Jan. 7, 2022, have been reviewed and approved for this project.
Nolan stated the Building Committee supports going out to bid on this project. The committee met last week, and the project involves a renovation of the high school commons to add a kitchen, band space and choral space. This is a project the town and school district want. Sanzo inquired if Granby will continue providing lunches with East Granby. Grossman said this collaboration began due to the pandemic, but the district needs to evaluate its continuation federal funds are not available next year. The pandemic helped that collaboration but if we are not going to make money, it will not be worth it. This motion passed unanimously at 7:55 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Donna Nolan, Board Secretary