uh all right we're moving over to you now Peter to give us an update on your District goals your midyear update [Music] this um we have given you the document
um which is the beginning of the year goals with the midyear update column um for your review prior to the meeting um the goal of this meeting is just to answer any questions you might have about progress we've made based on what's in the document um and if you have any feedback on those District
goals certainly welcome to hear that tonight anybody have feedback or questions on the goals and I just got a message from our secretary that says we're back so welcome back to those who are joining us online we apologize for the
technical difficulties thank you very much to the ab technical staff for coming in and saving the day maybe you can train us on how to fix that later [Music] Peter oh too close to the door
as soon as no as soon as it starts flashing it's gone it's it's on its way out so for those who are watching online we may lose you again and we apologize all right so back to any feedback on the midyear goal update all right thank you seeing
none we're going to move on to our next agenda item which is our FY 26 preliminary budget discussion so as a reminder um we did meet on Saturday February 8th was our budget
Saturday [Music] um on that um the next time we meet uh it will be March 30th is that the recommended budget it's not at our next meeting but it's the following meeting 30th is Sunday which it's not the
30th 27th we 13th is the first uh is the budget hearing um and your first preview as we've gone to the recommended budget um and then on March 20th is your scheduled budget vote for the final
final school committee budget vote right so our next meeting which is March 13th is our budget hearing the following meeting we will have the recommended budget from the superintendent what I was trying to line up here is that there are not significant changes to the budget as it was presented to us on
budget Saturday we'll see the the the next iteration of that in the recommended Budget on the 20th of [Music] March not um so really this is just an opportunity for committee members to provide any additional input any
questions um regarding the budget um we did have a a pretty good discussion at the end of the meeting um regarding some of our next steps and I think that's that's another area that we can discuss um in term so there are no updates to the budget
that we had presented that will come on March 13th when we come back to you um however you did [Music] increase our insurance that had had gone off [Music] Insurance world right now for
individuals and so we had um I think it was six more people over the last week [Music] or ended up placing out of District um and so we we're actually we've been able to make changes within the budget not to reduce any more staff but there are no
there's no flexibility in terms of being able to add anything back from what you had added into the budget um at the last meeting so we're kind of really in a holding pattern right now in terms of you know the overall number is the number um you know but it it's certainly
something our leadership team spent a lot of time talking about and thinking about all the different options that we had about what we might come to you with but um in the end we can't really recommend that you add anything back because we've had the additional expenses that came in that have to be accounted
for thanks Peter um very concerned about the uh special EDG coordinator position at McCarthy town and I think um we've heard a lot about it and I you know I know that we discuss this at budget
Saturday but you know I personally am going to be having more um conversations with folks about that and um so I just want to register my my deep concern I mean obviously Compass is a unique
program and I've heard enough specifics to have deep concern about about cutting that recognizing we don't have a money tree but um that's that's what I want to say thank
you other comments any thoughts on um some of the restructuring um I can share that um like actually I can I can reiterate what Peter said which is we are looking at um getting some outside help on that so there'll be an an RFP that we'll be able to bring to you to
provide some input on um you know one of the things I'd like the committee to start thinking about is the speed at which we do something like this um so we're we're in the position we're in right now for next school year um if we
get proposals and we start the process and we wanted something for e 27 we'd have to have a decision and a plan all done by December of 25 to be able to put in place for 27 um and we're talking about probably some pretty significant
changes what we need to balance with that with is input from the community um the ability for everybody to understand what those options are provide their input versus another year of declining resources and funding so I
think it's something worth considering talking about now talking about at our at our workshop and as we consider proposals um I think that is a really good point I think it behooves us to move as quickly as we can considering you know the unknowns out there um you
know hearing that more people are coming back on the health insurance does not surprise me seeing what I see with my insurance out there in the world um one thing that I would like to see with restructuring that conversation um and you know the idea of hiring another
consultant is um maybe trying something a little bit different um I think historically we have not prioritized teacher and staff input in the way that we should considering they're the ones doing the jobs they're the professionals they're the ones that know best um and
so I think maybe this would be a good opportunity to um you know more heavily utilize their input to make sure any you know big changes that are made are made from a very thoughtful like these are the people that are going to be in the buildings servicing you know these
kids I mean I I agree with that but I think that if I understand this correctly what we're talking about is somebody to evaluate what big structural changes are potentially
available that would come with them a significant enough cost savings to justify deviating from where we are is that incorrect so I think you know as I think about this um you know we're running you know nine
facilities right now right but one is really essentially self-funded when we talk about the preschool uh because it's tuition based or it's covered in special education costs um outside of that we're running eight facilities we have gone down you know 600 students just in eight years but
it's actually more than that if you you go back earlier than Regional ization and we're going to go down in enrollment more I think you know from my perspective looking at it and we you know through the work we did with Nate levenson and
nsk2 his look at the district was how can you be as efficient as possible with resources so that you keep your structures the same um and we heard a lot of feedback from staff about the challenges with efficiency um and why
that may not be the most desirable thing because it would have impact on you know program Services things like that for kids um and we heard that through that budgeting study process um I think we're at a place where to try and operate the number of educational programs we have
and if we keep reducing reducing and reducing from that um we're at a place where we don't have the resources and we're spreading ourselves too thin um I think you know if something doesn't give I.E we get more revenue or you know something breaks in our favor or we get
more kids then trying to go to a smaller District we're able to actually Focus those resources a little bit better there are also structures that could be looked at um where and and you know this is quite honestly why I chose not to say
I think we should close a school um because all that does is pit you know five communities against one and it's not going to be a productive conversation um that could certainly be an outcome of something but there were many many more possible outcomes that the community should explore my own take is we should actually start by bringing
together a stakeholder group that includes our staff families have a huge stake in how we organize our schools um I think there needs to be a lot of family voice a lot of Staff voice get people around the table um and talk about who are the kids we're serving
right now what are the goals we have for our students how do we need to serve them and what are the resources we need what is our overall vision for what an excellent comprehensive educ ation looks like that we want to make sure we preserve um and then have a real
understanding and a reckoning of what are the resources of the community and what are those going to look like um over the next handful of years and then simultaneously looking at what are all the different educational models out there that could be an option and then do a really a matching exercise what are
the options that are out there that are most likely to give us what we want there's no perfect model we don't have one now we've talked about different challenges we have in the model we have but it's what we have for a lot of good reasons but there are other options too and if we don't have the resources to
fully staff our schools the way that we think we need to something has to change for us because we can't just keep cutting every year I mean I think that's that's my bottom line in all of this um it's leading to a lot of frustration people don't feel like they can do their jobs as well as they want we've heard
from Educators that it's one thing to learn you know new literacy and math curriculum but if the next year you know be and quite honestly people are changing grade levels it's not just money it's actually enrollment that we don't have enough enrollment to fully you know section our schools out
the way they were designed to be um but if people are bumping grade levels you know two years after you learned an entire new curriculum you go and feel like a novice again for three years because you have to learn everything all over again at a new grade level that's really taking a toll on Educators as well um at least some of the ones that
I've talked to so I think you know my goal is going through this process that I know is going to be challenging for the community but to come up with something more stable and where what we have as facilities and schools and programs feel like they're better
resourced on the other end so it's not just a cost savings measure it's a consolidation measure designed to better focus the resources that we have sorry for the long-winded explanation and and I think what what I would add and where my concern about some of this friction comes from is the
need to act quickly because we're at such a dire situation but also the lessons we've learned over the past seven years for me Jenny for the time you've been on the committee as well these are changes where a lot of people have a lot of stakeholders have opinions and we need to have an opportunity for
those people to be heard but we also need to be able to act in a way that stems the the bleeding that we have right now um so you know that's that's kind of I I I kind of want to name it now I want everyone to talk about that I want as many people to know and again
hopefully we're we're broadcasting live as many people to know what we're thinking about what we're talking about because we want all the input and we don't want to be called out for acting too quickly but we also can't act so slow that we have to go through another cycle like this so that's that's my concern I think what we're looking at
and we'll see more when we get an RFP is a proposal around Community visioning but in a in a compressed timeline that allows us to get to a decision quickly as possible I'm going to go to Ben I just want to add a little okay I'll go to you
and then I'll go to Ben and then sorry not to interrupt other people but I just want to add to that that you know just to be super specific for people listening you know the idea of just closing Conan keeps coming up and that seems like such an easy solution but other districts structure themselves totally differently some have schools
that are K to2 and then 3 to five so there's there really are other options out there we don't need to just jump to that just because it seems like an easy one so one question I have is we're talking about compressed timelines we're talking
about stemming the bleeding I'm looking out at what's going on nationally and a compressed timeline to stem the bleeding what are the risks for us we've heard we've heard about the risks if we
don't change but what are the risks that we may F uh that we may find if we go too fast or too slow it's a great question and and you know I think what Peter and I were talking about just yesterday in terms of the structure of the RFP is to put out two different
timelines to have those proposals come back with something for FY 27 and something for FY 28 and maybe as part of the evaluation of the proposals we look at potential risks because I mean we we could come up with a whole bunch of those risks um but I think and I think
that that there's an opportunity for us to do that maybe as we Workshop some of the things that we want to get done for next year um but yeah it's it's a great question and and I think it's something that we need to consider as we move the process forward thank you so as I told you after budget
Saturday if you want to just lock everybody in the room with an endless supply of coffee I'm in that's you know we can make that happen we want to turn this thing let's do it um but seriously I think Becca your point is really well taken about the value of having our Educators involved in this process and I
think one of my biggest takeaways from what we did with the elementary budget task force was the ability for everybody in the room to learn from our Educators what school looks like now cuz we all have our own frames of reference right and that's not
necessarily what people are experiencing so I think that's really important and as we talk about timing I know one of the biggest struggles was when we met um and it could make for some really long days for people sometimes it was a conflict and people couldn't make it and I'm wondering you know as we figure out
what this compressed timeline looks like how we can get that sweet spot where we can really get all the people in the room that we want to cuz Educators was one of the places we fall short we couldn't get everyone in there that we wanted to um because there were just people who
couldn't make the time and and place that we were doing it um and I guess my other thought that is out there is expectation management um at the end of the budget task force I felt like we had all really looked at Open Enrollment
as something that you know we could make change and we were going to find savings there and when we didn't it was disappointing it was hard it made what we came up with even more difficult because it was all staff based um and so now you know I hear what we're thinking about big changes there are other ways we could do business they could save us
money operational word there being could they might not and I think the other piece of this discussion has to be if we go through this process and what we come out of this with is we are at the best organization then the follow on is we have to come back to our communities and make sure that they are funding us at
the level we need in order to be providing the education that our communities expect um so it's a big unknown we don't know that answer but we can't promise that by going through this process we are going to find savings we might not thank you thank you it's a great point and I think that's why as we
as we work to do the Outreach to build the the group that's doing this visioning the community at large needs to be a part of that and you know I think part of the part of the out output from the the budget task force this year was at least getting some of you know
what we might have considered budget Skeptics in the room with budget Advocates and with Educators so that there is that experience sharing um and so I think if we can broaden that group and get a bunch of people together to understand so that you know people who say we're topheavy we have too many
administrators can get in the room with someone who said I had to restrain a kid today and it hurt I think that's an important opportunity for the community to hear that as well this the other thing that I want to make sure that we're um keeping in mind
especially when voicing to the community you know we are going to go through this process we are going to take in um you know different ideas and it could very well be that the option that we come up with has a capital expense upfront to be able
to you know if we wound up switching to you know a k through two and you know switching these around there's going to be desks that are needed there's going to be you know structural costs involved with that as well so I just want to make sure that that's something that we're also bearing in
mind it's not going to be like hey we snap our fingers and all of a sudden you know we're saving millions of dollars and we're able to do this much more efficiently it's going to be painful to make the change regardless I agree let's let's be completely honest when this process is
over be it in a year or two years not everyone is going to be happy and in many cases no one is going to be elated and lots of people people are going to be disgruntled and it's the level of displeasure that they'll have that I think we need to manage because we're tasked with the responsibility of
making sure that our district lasts for the long run Leela just a quick comment and then just trying to get clarity um I'm wondering how the vision of a graduate can be a starting point for thinking about like what is the
education that we want to have in this District um and then I've gotten some questions and I I think you spoke to it but just we can be explicit that none of this restructuring is happening in this current in this next school year correct like we're planning for it we're we're planning for it but schools are
not going to look vastly different next year next school year yeah no just to clarify there there are no changes to our current School configuration plan for next school year um the earliest that this would take place would be fall
2026 um for the 2026 27 school year um and you know I think think you know the the comment that there could be some Capital changes that are needed in order to accommodate an educational program is true um and you know depending on what the nature of those changes are that
might also have to play a factor in what the final timeline for anything would be um I think as well you know the as I've been thinking about this more and I mentioned this earlier but I think we need to think of this not only just as a reorganization but this really needs to be the strategy of the district over the
next several years because there's a lot it's one thing to say we're just going to change the school programs but any change to our school programs means massive you know operational changes that actually would need to take place um I'll give you one example right off
the bat is report cards um if we went from six Elementary programs to five Elementary programs they each have their own report card system right now and you know depending on which program closed and which state open it could be possible that a third
of a existing school now has you know a third of another school in it um that didn't select that educational program is their Top Choice and is not used to those report cards and I talk about that from a staff perspective and a student perspective um and you know and family
expectations and I think there could be wild differences in expectations among families and staff going into any type of a change like that that actually need a lot of Runway and need to be well thought out um so you know I I just want to give you that one example but there are dozens of examples that we could
talk about that that would need to get impacted by something um you know we're not alone in this there are other districts that are doing similar work um you know shrewbury has done some work around this um and overs currently doing the same work um and they've been going
through a a fairly extensive but also time constrained process to do this um you know there are districts in other states that I've talked to where you know part of their actual consideration of reconfiguration is an expansion of the district to other communities um and
they've actually found multiple communities that were interested in regionalizing into a larger District to save on the overhead of central office um so you know there's there's lots of different options and quite honestly I think the best decision is going to be made if we're willing to take a step
back and start with a completely fresh slate and examine all of the possible options and then figure out what's best for us Liz um okay so what's next what do we do like tomorrow where can I get a link to have task oriented I love it um so
what's next is we are we are um we let me rephrase that the superintendent's office is Fally working to put together a request for proposals um so that we can go out to Consultants who have experience in this um The Hope is that by our next meeting on the 13th we'll
have a draft of that RFP um that we can provide some feedback back on um in parallel to the process of setting out rfps waiting the requisite amount of time to get those proposals and evaluating those um we're going to have our workshop on April 3rd um and so our
Workshop will spend a bit of time thinking about in addition to restructuring what are some of the other big things that we maybe want to tackle and how do we go about doing that um and then we'll spend some of our time digging a little bit more into how do we go about um putting together the action
plan around the consult in the RFP that's going out H again Depending on time we'll then have proposals come in we'll probably need to put together a group to evaluate those proposals and then we will have finalists potentially come and speak to us at the committee before we we select um a finalist to
then be our consultant for this this program um my hope uh is that by the end of this school year um and sometime between and we'll get to this in a little bit sometime between when our new committee members are seated and the end of the
school year we will know who our consultant is and we will put together whatever sort of Advisory Group from the school committee side is in place for that um so that potentially there can be work done this summer has that tick boox enough for you yes um and what does RFP
stand for RFP is a request for proposals great thank you yes thank you other questions or comments from the committee all right any last comments on sort of
rewind a little bit our budget for next year all right we're going to move on then to subcommittee member reports uh policy subcommittee Liz I prepared a thing I'm going to send it to Beth the policy
subcommittee uh policy subcommittee met Friday February 7th at 7:30 a.m. via Zoom we took a first look at the at a financial ass assistance policy this is a practice that the district has already been participating in but we currently do not have a specific policy around it so we're getting started our next
meeting is tomorrow February 28th at 7:30 a.m. via zoom and we intend to review the feedback on the discipline policy which we heard here tonight and also continue our work on the graduation requirements for the district thank you um questions or comments for Liz on
policy Tori um so I really appreciate that the the uh competency determination thing is moving its way along um it's really complicated it's got a short timeline and I just want to say first off I
appreciate the whole policy crew for working on this and figuring it out um I've been watching this at state level and following other districts and for some it seems like this is an easy thing to figure out um but I don't think they have the complexity of some of the
students we have in our district um between our multilingual Learners and some of our in-house specialed um programs and so I have some questions because I think this is going to be really important for a small group of students um and we need to make sure that whatever we come up with works for
everybody um so I'm hoping that um as you finalize the version that comes to the full school committee you could look at first of all being able to articulate for us are we changing what the graduation standards are so by that I mean if you appli this policy to a set
of graduating classes for whom would it have made a different outcome and how how will we ensure that our students who are seeking to earn a high school diploma either have access to the courses necessary to graduate or have some alternative to demonstrate
competency if they haven't taken a typical course pathway and in this case I'm thinking especially of like our multilingual students who might have a disrupted schooling background um I'm thinking of our special education students who may have been off- ramped from the standard curriculum as early as
7th grade and who may have asked to take some of these classes and may have been told that we're not ready for you to do that yet students who are in the preets the employment transition Services Program who can work towards a diploma until
they're 22 but they're also working internships that go from 9: to 5 and so if they need to take specific classes in the high school to earn a diploma they can't do that with the waterfall schedule so how are we going to think about them if you've read the um article
that was in the masc news summary today you may have noticed there is state level concern about both the long-term and unintended consequences of the policy change for specific cases kind of the things that I've been mentioning um and so my other question is what are what are the unknown unknowns have we
talked to the families who have students that are in these specific cases not just for the ones who'd be eligible to graduate this year but the ones who are in the pipeline to understand where where there are some obstacles that we may not have anticipated And when they see this they'll go wait a minute there's no way my kid could ever meet
this if we have that conversation ahead of time I think we'll probably be a lot happier um datawise I'm hoping that uh when we have the presentation you'll be able to share the number of students who achieved competency in recent years um by passing the mcass alt the portfolio
method or by the High School principal's approval of having met the educational proficiency plan um the number of students who passed mcast test without taking an mcast uh 10th grade course in that subject and then the converse the number of students who've passed a 10th grade class in a subject and not
actually pass the mcast um because I think this highlights that passing a standardized test and taking a year-long course for some students are functionally very different requirements and that's especially true for some of our most vulnerable students so the policies requirements and how we provide
those Pathways to access these courses matter and it's going to impact not only the students we're thinking about graduating this year but students for years to come until we fully addressed access to these necessary courses to graduate we're potentially not only
moving the Finish Line mid race but also rerouting the entire race course behind our Runners and then disqualifying them because they didn't run that route and that just doesn't seem fair so that's my ask those the qu hard questions that I'll have and I just want to make sure you have those ahead of time so that
we're not up against a deadline and everyone's like Tor why didn't you tell me were worried about this ahead of time and I can send those to you if you would like me to okay thanks thanks Tori please um you know Tori I appreciate that and I think one of the the challenging things for us is the
Department of Elementary and secondary education still isn't hasn't even amended their regulations to reflect this and so what's what's happening I mean the the way this all played out is extraordinarily problematic because everyone knew the game um that we all
had to play and then it changed but it's impacting kids in the middle of a school year and so even though the ballot initiative passed in November we didn't get our initial guidance from desie I think until December 17th um and then desie has to actually amend their
regulations for the new requirements take out all the references to mcass as a graduation requirement but now create another set of regulations in parallel to that which you know are remarkably close to what we're proposing um you know I think the we're really sensitive
to that and I think um Joanie and her team and Gabby are working really closely to do an analysis at the student level um for students who might be on that bubble so as to not create a new standard but instead try and reflect
through what we've done what the standard is for students and I think in particular we're sensitive to a couple of things um one is creating a standard that is commen it with what mcass is having an alternate Pathway to being able to reach that
outside of just high school coursework because we recognize that that may not be within everyone's grasp but at the same time what we don't want to do is create a lower standard by which some students get passed along through the system who may not yet actually be ready to
graduate um and so I think trying to consider all of those um it's a slow process um and it requires quite honestly data analysis at the student level I know the high school special education coordinator has been working with Joanie and her team um all the
department leaders with Gabby to really look hard at each individual student case and try and make some determinations and so one of the goals would be that if a student would not have been ready to receive a diploma prior to if mcast was still the
standard they should probably not be receiving that diploma now but if a student would have been able to achieve the diploma by graduation we want to make sure we have a pathway for them to be able to proceed as well and so I think that's the the challenge um that that we're trying to navigate at
this point thanks Peter all right uh budget subcommittee uh it says on here that the budget subcommittee met on uh the 10th as well and we did not we met on uh the
24th this past Monday at 2 p.m. on Zoom um we discussed the upcoming box B finance committee presentation that uh Adam was about to embark on um and then we you know discussed a lot of the same things we've talked about tonight um
sort of next steps in terms of um hiring a consultant and looking into bigger restructuring efforts um how we did not have the ability to add staff back into the budget um and then you know we we've started talking about um discussing with
the town possibly you know uh changing the funding model seeing where that leads us um maybe seeing if we can uh access some more funds here at home as well as the efforts that we're all undertaking and by all I mean I hope all
of us emailing our Representatives bothering the heck out of everybody to say we need more money this funding model does not work um and then we've also discussed you know sort of our relationship with the town in terms of you know support for various projects
they have going on like the DPW building stuff like that um and sort of you know how our collaboration is going to look in the future um our next meeting is March 10th at 2m on Zoom it's also a Monday um and we don't have the agenda
for that yet so I can't give you a preview I bet we'll be talking about the FY 26 budget probably thank you uh Capital subcommittee Ben all right the capital subcommittee met this morning at 7:30 a.m. to discuss uh the f F y25 projects
and the long range Capital plan regarding the 25 projects FY 25 projects they include the Blanchard School uh playground the admin building roof now over 35 years old I might add um which is slated to start repairs during April
vacation along with the Hager well project and the high school chem storage uh project meanwhile at the junior high the controls program is ongoing in the engineering phase how however I do have some good news to report um at the Parker Damon school we
will be replacing the chillers with hybrid air source heat pumps through an existing vendor train uh utilizing the Mass Save program which will uh help defay the cost of the installation of
the units and the estimated cost would only be $500,000 helping to advance our carbon neutral and Net Zero goals lastly uh the subcommittee also reviewed the longrange capital plan which included priorities
for FY 26 27 and Beyond and we voted on posting that plan on the school's website lastly we had a discussion briefly about accelerating our bonding due to some um changes going on on
Capitol Hill based off of some uh meetings I had earlier this week in Washington DC that being said um we will be ad advancing something um in the upcoming school committee meetings but first in order to do so we will be
meeting uh Wednesday March 12th to discuss that bonding issue directly great thank you please um just a couple things to make you aware of and some of these are even late breaking from when Capital subet but um you know one important thing is that we are awaiting
payment on a $2.75 million um IRS tax credit for for the work at the geothermal uh for the boardwalk campus um that from all of the work that Cherry's done to try and chase this down it is in the approved status but we haven't actually gotten the payment in
our account yet so I know sher's checking on that daily that's significant um because one of the really critical projects we have coming up within the next year or so is the replacement of all of the rooftop units on the high school that's probably a three and a half to almost $4 million
project um and we're counting on that money as significant seed money to be able to get us to that um so that's out there um msba reimbursement for the final portion of Boardwalk um we are scheduled for at this point the August msba board meeting so we should be
receiving a million doar um roughly for the final reimbursement payment um from msba for Boardwalk that um has long been targeted to buy down the debt from the the short-term borrowing that you've approved the $5 million borrowing before
we go out for a long-term strategy we actually want to use that msba payment to pay it down but we're also trying to play out timing with some of the changes at the federal level around Municipal Bond rates because they could end up spiking soon um so we're watching that carefully um the other piece that we're
watching over at Boardwalk campus is um several of the um monitoring Wells for the septic system have been returning extremely high levels of nitrogen um and we're monitoring that because it is possible that we might have to install nitrogen treatment plant for that um you
know that's probably 750,000 to a million um somewhere in that range um we do have a million left from the building project sitting in that capital account that can only be used for the building project um we're going to be talking with capital sub about that that would be a very appropriate use of building
project money is to finish the project so that the district itself is not assuming additional liability um it's not going to reduce the bonding that we have to do but you know that that has to happen if if and when that that takes place um we are doing additional uh well
monitoring testing over the course of this spring on a monthly basis for the identified Wells and then Board of Health will probably tell us um late spring early summer what we're going to need to do with that so there's just there's a lot in flux right now that we're watching that you know we want you
to be kind of generally aware of and when something's critical we're certainly going to bring it to you as a need for Action thank you Peter uh any other questions or comments on Capital all right um let's get some
updates from act and select board Ben all right uh the act and select board met on February 24th this past Monday I watched it via Zoom since I was down in DC uh to address a range of town matters including a legislative update from our
state representatives a joint discussion on the housing production plan with the planning board and an update on habitat for all uh initiative and the tree tree clearing bylaw the board also approved several key items including a site plan
permit special permit for 358a and 358b great Road a waiver of building permit fees for the ACT and food pantry renovation and a whole host of other information including the DPW facility that we discussed earlier um a full
recording of This is found on act and TV YouTube page and um also a request for the silver unicorn bookstore Festival was brought up during that too thank you finance committee uh the act and finance
committee most recently met on Tuesday the 25th at 7:30 at the Town Hall um there wasn't a ton uh to report there there's interest in discussing um and making a policy about overrides for the
future especially with all of the unknowns sort of like looming on the horizon it would be nice to know that the process is as transparent as possible people are alerted as early as possible and it becomes a real whole Community um you know uh effort so um
that was sort of the initial discussion of that um and then the ongoing conversation about the DPW building um we did hear from David Martin on the select board about that um and they are going going to meet again uh they don't have it listed yet
but I believe they're going to meet on um the 11th March 11th at 7:30 at the Town Hall thank you uh I'll report out on the boxers Boro select board uh they met this Monday um highlights included
going through countless warrant articles and voting their recommendations on that um I will admit to leaving early because I did not need to hear all of that information but at the beginning of the meeting um we did uh confirm that we are reconvening the boxboro leadership Forum
um which will be a place for the leadership inside boxboro to talk about um pressing topics in town most of which include budget concerns around um a new Firehouse which would be debt excluded and the levy limit that we're getting
pretty close to um that was it for that I'll let Liz report on the boxboro finance committee and our performance there the other evening uh the Box BR finance committee met on Tuesday February 26th at 700 p.m. at the Box BR Town Hall representatives
of our committee as well as Peter and Sherry were in attendance Peter gave a detailed presentation on our budget how we got there and what we expect the future budget drivers to be the committee is also they also voted um warrant articles for annual and special
town meeting uh for May their next meeting is expected to be Tuesday March 11th at 7:00 p.m. in the gr room of town hall and I do think that our our presentation was very well received I would agree uh and good feedback on the conversation we had similar to tonight around our
restructuring ideas y okay also call it our presentation even though I just sat there you did a great job sitting there ALG is next Tori and Yensen so ALG met uh 7:30 a.m. on February 12th at actown
Hall and on Zoom um during the fiscal year 25 update Peter mentioned just what he mentioned to us the friezes on federal funding that could affect opportunities the district is hoping to pursue but that don't affect the fiscal year 25 budget during public comment and ALG discussion members of the select
board and the finance committee expressed appreciation for the district's budget Saturday presentation and support for funding the preliminary budget which resulted in a deficit of $130,000 in the ALG model combined with
a 14.8 in% increase to health insurance rate for Town employees um which is about 160k that led to a total shortfall of 290k ALG members reached consensus that the deficit should be covered from one or more of the options available to the
town such as using some of the end tax levy limit increasing the amount of net net state aid reflected in the model using free cash or reducing the municipal budget Additionally the finance committee continues to advocate for a municipal budget closer to 3% and rais the question of whether there's a
need to discuss future override planning if the town and the school district cannot continue with 3% budgets the pressure Statewide on towns and districts from Chapter 70 funding covering less and less of what is needed to fund education was also a topic of discussion finally the size and scope of the proposed DPW building remains
unresolved with POS possibility that this issue may not reach consensus before town meeting for the first time in alg's 40-year history the next ALG meeting is next Tuesday March 4th at 7:30 a.m. at Acton town hall and on zoom and Yensen and I have questions that
we'd like some inut on um so a couple couple things that came to mind one um should we propose a coordinated school committee select board fincom effort to influence state legislators about revising the Chapter 70 funding formula along with interim measures to support
towns and school districts two should we participate in discussions about future budget modeling limitations and potential need for overrides I think Becca that's along what came up in the fincom meeting and three um how should we respond to consens and building
efforts regarding the DPW building cost all right so I'll I'll step in for just a second so typically um the way the ALG process works and I've only been there as as an observer is that the our representatives to the ALG will have questions and they'll go back to their
representative boards and get some consensus from the board so we're not going to necessarily vote on anything here but we're going to have a conversation we're going to give some guidance back to yens and and Tori when they go back to ALG to say I spoke to my board and this was their sense this was their consensus on that so that's what
you're asking us for let's start with number one which is do we want to work with the town select board and finance committee on advocacy for Chapter 70 funding is that yes yes so I'm I'm first that was the question right Tori yes yes there's a
very loud consensus for those of you on YouTube loud consensus to one side of me Leela you have a comment I would love for us to float that but maybe not say specifics around what that'll look like cuz there are multiple bills with multiple approaches and it's unclear which might have a
better chance of getting somewhere I'm going to I'm going to add to that question considering the advocacies around school funding is it something that our legislatively aison in our committee take the lead on and work with the other two boards in the
town and and I say that volunteering you too but Jenny you you blew out my eardrum saying yes we should work with them so I think he'll support that yeah right so so I think Tori the consensus is yes and we would be happy to sort of act as the focal point for
that and and and support the the other two boards the second was um whether or not we need to work to build consensus around procedures for overrides and debt exclusions is that right yeah the way it was phrased um in
the ALG was future budget modeling limitations and the potential need for overrides um and I think grown a little um since people have had time to think about it any thoughts or comments Peter
actually had a really nice um slide in the presentation that uh you gave to the Box Row finance committee sort of like looking at the next three years and talking about like what budget drivers are going to be important that might be something that could be helpful for you to share the other thing that I think
would be helpful to bring up to ALG is that we're looking to evaluate potential structural changes we're looking to evaluate that soon and that could completely upend the way that the expected modeling is going to look
and to Echo back Liz's point from before there may be Capital expenses involved with that yeah you know one more consideration to think about is that if the complexity of the change exceeds our ability to do it on a fast timeline then
the district is going to need a Runway way because I think in all of this what we don't want to do is decimate all of our existing programs while we wait to be able to do something different good feedback you guys for for the ALG yeah so the third one
that's the Hot Potato um the ALG is looking for some input uh from the committee if the committee has any on the size scale scope of the act in DT DPW so I'll provide my view um which is we
are extremely grateful to the town of Acton for their support last year in our override and being able to fund our budget year-over-year and we understand that the residents and community members in Acton have a need for other facilities um but again this is my view
is that the size and scope and scale of that is kind of outside the realm of our purview other than to say we're just been talking about restr ruring and capital costs and a Runway and all of that so I think what we can share to the ALG is all of the things that we're looking at sort of inside our purview
and hope that through the ALG process there's some consensus around how that DPW fits into that from the community's perspective ability to fund and getting what they need and want um but I per again personally and I'll look for other people to provide their input I don't necessarily know if it's if it's within
our scope to to make a comment on the size of a DPW building um we do obviously have an opinion on the Fuel Depot because we make use of it but that building itself I think is is probably better left to the town to decide knowing what our limitations and our needs will be in the
future I think one of the tricky things and I'm sure they you know this probably came up is because some of us are from boxboro and so they are not really affected by the tpw building and it complicates things if you know they were
to weigh in you know just like if Us action folk were to weigh in on their fire station um that being said personally you know I I am happy to make my opinion known and I feel like I have made it known that I think it's a workers's rights issue I'm deeply
concerned about the people that we expect to work in those conditions and you know for all of our tax money we want Services right we want sidewalks we want somewhere to put our trash somewhere that gives us salt and sand on a snowy day
um but you know we also acknowledge all the budget implications thereof so I don't know if they're going to get the answer that they'd like because we're a mixed group here and that just makes it so much more complicated but I'm interested to know what other people
think anyone else have any input all right I hope we gave you what you needed for your next ALG meeting so basically we will continue to say absolutely nothing on the DPW building because we can't figure this out either I I I think
what I'll repeat myself we're very grateful to the town of Acton yes um all right um moving on from one uncomfortable conversation to another um joint ptso so we did get a letter and I think you all received it
from the The Joint ptso everybody except Tori because tor's email from the the shell isn't working right now um so the join ptso let me just nods everyone else got got the email okay um so we have um had a absence of school committee
members at the Joint ptso meetings um the past few instances and the joint ptso is a little concerned about that rightfully so um what I will put out there is again I recognize that everybody has very busy schedules and commitments and sometimes
maybe even having three people on that committee is even harder because we don't know who owns the ball at that point um is there anything that we want do to change that do we want to appoint one person do we want to change who it is thoughts comments I feel um that the whole year
has been a bit of a mess um I think that we were trying to try to switch to a different structure where the school committee was not in a leadership position um unfortunately nobody was then nominated and I I feel that Amanda Bailey over there has taken the mantle
to really help get things moving um and and I feel really bad for that um extra load that you've had to carry and and everybody you know who participates in this we can't afford to have an issue with communication with parents right
now orever but you know um this is a time to really come together and um I think we dropped the ball from the beginning so I was going to suggest that maybe at our Workshop um we make this because communication has been a priority and this to me is sort of a
keystone in that whole discussion okay black me I mean sorry um I think a couple of week months ago I think I communicated saying I wouldn't be in no I would not be attending ptso
meetings yes okay I see my name there and you said three so was just little concerned no no no the what you see your your name under our briefing notes of at the beginning of the year when we assigned it it's a copy and paste for every agenda okay um yeah so as long as
there's no expectation that I would be there okay that would be fine clear I didn't know that she would be there okay so then it's my bad that I didn't communicate to the rest of you that that La me had withdrawn her name um all right so I think it's I think it's a good point um I think maybe we talk
about it more at the workshop but you know we probably need to reach out to the joint ptso and maybe have some time with them too to sort of discuss what the structure looks like moving forward maybe Monday maybe Monday which is the next joint ptso meeting are you
available on Monday I will absolutely be there this Monday and um yeah I think that would be great to discuss and then I can bring it back to the school committee um and then we can all get on the same page excellent thank you hi
Antion I was trying to preserve my voice is the joint ptso meeting virtual okay so it's 7 p.m. I was looking for the zoom link but I will get it to you okay Amanda when you create the zoom link do you mind sending it to
the school committee shell so everyone on the school committee knows that it's you can't have AUM but we can't have a quorum thank you Peter spreadsheets sign up can I see by show of hands who is planning on attending
the joint ptso meeting do you need a quorum for that no we don't want to have a quorum because then we'd have to post it okay unless we have a quorum and then we could post it but that would be a bit of a nightmare but then even if Andrew goes we' be fine those three all right so at this point
it's yenin and Becca all right thank you all right moving on to the school committee goal update um and I am going to start this um with a reminder that we do have three committee members whose
terms are up this year um and uh we met a candidate earlier this evening uh nomination papers are available in both Acton and boxboro already um papers for Acton are due March 19th and boxboro they're due March 28th and I'm going to
politely request that uh maybe I go around the room and ask those people whose terms are up if you're intending to run again I am I'm going to be here all right Li Liz is eagerly running again Rebecca uh though I had intended to run again and again and probably stay
here because I I do love this work and I I like this group of people especially um I did start working full-time it's been almost a year and it is hard and I have three kids and boy what did I underestimate that transition um so I'm really excited to
hear you know that Glenn is running and some other people I'm excited about I I think you all will be in good hands and and um I intend to continue to work in other capacities in town and volunteer and um you have not seen the last of me
I eagerly look forward to your emails to the school committee shell on topics that you have a great deal of knowledge on and thank you Jenny let's make it official Jenny I I will not be running all right thank you okay so there are two seats available on Acton
there is one seat available in boxboro with an incumbent running for that seat um thank you all uh continuing on on school committee communication update Leela um I hope that all of the members
of the school committee at least have reached out to their electeds uh letting them know that we are in quite the pickle uh funding wise um and if you aren't on the committee um you also can reach out if you're anyone who lives
anywhere in Massachusetts um also just an update to the committee um they finally assigned people to committees at the legislature um and now rep catalo is on the joint committee on education um not our other rep anymore so if you want
if you live in Dan's district and you just want to CC Simon on it just to let him know again feel free to do that thank you um and and I will share that uh I think most of you saw that I did reach out to the our our legislators asking them to renew the remote meeting
options um I've gotten responses from two of the three of them saying that they're aware of it there are a couple bills that are up that they're looking at um but there is a impending deadline I believe it's the end of March where we won't be able to meet remotely anymore unless there's action taken on the State
House Ben I want to piggy back on to Leela's comment not only should you reach out to your State Rep or state senator but let our congresswoman know that we are in dire need for additional
funding and that our congresswoman should reach out to our state senator and State Rep to say hey look my constituents are concerned thank you Peter um I'm going to be sending you an email uh most likely tomorrow I just
have not had time to send it but um I think a lot of you heard of uh it was was Project 211 um which was to bring addition funding to the 2011 now school districts that are in hold harmless status um project 2 211 has now been
rebranded to 11 plus 21 because now there's 233 or 232 school districts that have now been placed into to hold harmless status um and they represent more than half the students population in Massachusetts so um this is really a
significant Statewide issue there is a zoom coming up um to support that on March 4th I'm going to be sending that to our legislators um as well as uh all of you but that is really a significant need um I think you know and and Leela
you talked to this but I think you know right now Senator Lewis has filed bills um he is the chair of That Joint Commission on education um and the ranking member there I think probably what he files has the best chance of passing um I know I talked to representative saa's office earlier in
the year um and they were looking at you know uh Senator Lewis's bill as well to consider coiling in the house I'm not sure if that ever happened or not um but you know really there are bills there to really look hard at the funding formula um Senator Lewis is probably will have the most legs as it gets into the
legislative cycle so um I would encourage you to take a look at that and consider going to the webinar uh for project 211 plus 21 thanks Peter any other communication updates [Music] Outreach I will say that um in the
conversations that I've had with the town of boxboro leadership they're all well aware of the situation that we're in um I think they understand that we've cut as much as we can we were pretty clear to them um both at the select board and the finance committee I'm getting a similar sense from Acton
leadership as well so um we're we're not in need of as as much significant Outreach as we did last year to sort of communicate the the tough spot that we're in um I would encourage any parents residents of Acton and boxboro to come and speak at town
meeting when our budgets do come up there's still a a great deal of advocacy and and um knowledge sharing that needs to happen with the town as a whole so if you're not in the schools if you're not a teacher if you're not a parent um you may not really understand the the
challenge that we're in so during town meeting is a great opportunity when we're presenting our budgets to make some comments on that Jenny I would also encourage all of our Educators and parents to reach out to our State Legislative delegation um the foundation formula has
been out of date it has been studied it has been reviewed there have been reports it has not been meaningfully overhauled um and you know we've we've cut more than we can and we're not in any better shape um despite all of our
Outreach to the legislature over many years now so I would really encourage Educators and and parents to make their concerns about what they're seeing what how this is impacting the jobs that they do and how it is impacting their
children and their families um as you know as often as you possibly can thank you it makes a difference they've told us directly the more Outreach they get the more it makes a difference to them all right we're going to move on to our consent agenda so items on the consent agenda do not
usually require discussion and are approved with vote unless any member would like to hold an item for discussion or separate vote I'll read each item and if a member would like to have it held please say so members do not need to have attended a meeting to vote on the minutes item number one recommendation to appoint Teresa oir
town of act and collector Treasurer as assistant District Treasurer uh Item B approval of the absc meeting minutes of January 30th 2025 and item C approval of warrants as presented in the packet for 227 2025
given that no items were held is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented so second Ben and Leela all those in favor I opposed extensions that is
unanimous um in the FYI is our monthly student enrollment and some election information both town of Acton and boxboro with that is there a motion to adjourn move to adjourn second Tory then Ben all those in favor I opposed extensions unanimous thank you all have
a good evening 9006 Jenny