August 24, 2023 at 7:00 PM - Bethel Board of Education Special Meeting

Rationale:  A motion must be made at a BOE meeting to approve the application to be eligible for the CABE Board of Distinction Award.  

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• Email regarding the change in Kindergarten attendance cut-off age.

Rationale:  (Please note:  The Board welcomes Public Participation and asks that speakers please limit their comments to 2 minutes.  Speakers may offer objective comments of school operations and programs that concern them.  The Board will not permit any expression of personal complaints or defamatory comments about Board of Education personnel and students, nor against any person connected with the Bethel Public School System.)

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• 2023 CABE/CAPSS Convention Early Registration Deadline, August 25, 2023.  
• BPS Convocation, August 23, 2023, at 7:45 AM at BHS Auditorium

Rationale:  Discussion - Change in Age of Kindergarten - Programming for the 1-year transition in the Fall of 2024

Raising the Kindergarten Starting Age - Current law requires children to be at least five years old on or before January 1 of the school year in order to enroll in kindergarten in public schools. Beginning July 1, 2024, Section 3 of Public Act 23-159, as amended by Section 1 of Public Act 23-208, amends Connecticut General Statutes § 10-15c to require that children turn five years old on or before September 1 of the school year in order to enroll in Kindergarten.

The new law also revises the process by which a child who does not meet the law’s age requirements can be admitted to Kindergarten. Under current law, boards of education may, by vote at a duly called meeting, admit children under five years of age. Effective July 1, 2024, a child who is not five years old on or before September 1 of the school year may be admitted (1) upon written request by the child’s parent or guardian to the school principal and (2) after the principal and an appropriate certified staff member conduct an assessment of the child to ensure that admitting the child to Kindergarten is developmentally appropriate.

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First Student has made multiple improvements for the coming school year.  They are currently staffed with exactly enough bus drivers to run all scheduled bus routes.  Optimal staffing would include 2 or 3 spare drivers.  Multiple drivers are in the candidate pipeline and hiring will continue to be prioritized.  Also, the bus routes have been redesigned to be more efficient.  

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Five years ago, and as a result of a competitive bidding process, The Board of Education awarded a five-year contract to Base Technologies Inc. for the lease of Kyocera copier machines and managed print services.  This contract expires in November, 2023.  The change to Base Technologies has resulted in improved services to the schools compared to our prior vendor, because BASE is able to respond to issues more quickly.  

As an authorized Kyocera dealer, Base Technologies Inc. is able to offer a five-year contract renewal with pricing based on the Kyocera NASPO State of Connecticut Contract (#140599) with an additional discount through the OMNIA Kyocera Discounted Educational Program.  The deepest discounts are associated with an August or September start date.  Contract Renewal Options are summarized below.

 

Base Technologies Contract Renewal Options
	Contract Dates	Annual Cost	Five Year Cost
Current Contract	11/1/18 - 10/31/23	$114,997.52	$574,987.60
September Installation	9/1/23 - 8/31/28	$112,260.24	$561,301.20
November Installation	11/1/23 - 10/31/28	$120,118.46	$600,592.30

 

If we select a September Installation for the leased copier machines we will be to maintain our current level of services at a reduced cost compared to our current contracted rate.  Therefore, I am recommending that we renew our five-year contract with Base Technologies with a September start date.

Rationale: 

At the end of June, 2023 we were able to use savings in multiple accounts to pay for needed special education services as well as facilities repairs. The Special Education services overages were primarily driven by increased costs for outplaced students as well as additional services required to support the increase in the number of Special Education Students.   Facilities overages were driven by the replacement of the failed BMS domestic hot water heater, urgent elevator repairs and HVAC repairs.  All transfers were aligned with the memo to the Board of Education in June and subsequently voted on in the regular meeting in June.  

Rationale: 

1. The finance team is working to close out all remaining items from the 2022 - 2023 school year.  Going into the 2023 - 2024 school year we are monitoring Special Education and Facilities spending closely as these are the areas where we anticipate the most risk to our budget. 

2. The 2023 - 2024 operating budget includes an $850,000 reimbursement for excess cost. Based on the updated funding guidelines from CSDE and our current student enrollment, we project that we will receive funding of $1,100,000.  We would like to use the $245,000 in additional funds to pay for 1 special education teacher and 5 para educators that were funded by grants last year.  We have a long-term need for these resources and recommend that they be incorporated into the Board of Education Operating Budget.