Jesus Christ. You're good. >> Okay, I'm going to call the meeting to order. Today is Tuesday, April 14th, 2026. This meeting is being video and audio recorded for future cable broadcast. Please silence all cell phones for the duration of the meeting.
Can I have a motion to open the school committee meeting? So move >> second door. >> Mr. Ellis, >> yes. >> Mrs. McGlenn, >> yes. >> Mr. Hogra, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fera, >> yes. >> And Mr. Hood. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Could we stand for the pledge of
>> United States of America for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Okay. So the first uh item is the school choice hearing. Can I have a motion to
open the screen doors here? >> I'll second. >> We'll do a roll call. >> Mr. Ellis, >> yes. >> Mrs. >> Yes. >> Mr. Harbaugh. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Cora? >> Yes. >> And Mr. Hood? >> Yes. Uh, Dr. Bailey, do we have anyone signed
up for public comment? >> We do not. >> Okay. So, I'll turn it over to you. >> Okay. If anybody wants to speak on the school choice hearing, now would be the time. If anybody would like to speak on the school choice hearing, now would be the time.
Okay. I'm going to be recommending tonight that the school committee vote against our school's participation in the school choice program for the upcoming academic year. After thorough consideration and analysis of the various factors, I believe it is in the best interest of our school community to
refrain from participating in this program at this time. You received that in your packet. We'll do the vote later in the agenda, but I just wanted you to know that was the recommendation. >> So, do we need a motion to close the school choice here?
>> Uh, so motion. >> Second. >> Roll call. >> Mr. Ellis, >> yes. >> Mrs. Mlet, >> yes. >> Mr. Agra, >> yes. >> Mrs. Federa, >> yes. And Mr. Hood, >> yes. >> Okay. The next item is the consent agenda. Everything listed in the consent agenda was distributed in advance of the
meeting. Does anyone have any requests for something to be removed from the consent agenda and discussed or voted on separately? U may I have a motion to approve and accept the items listed in the consent agenda, including the minutes for the March 10th, 2026 meeting?
>> I'll make that motion. Second. All those in favor? >> Any oppose? Seeing none, motion passes. I'll oppose. I think we said we have no one signed up for public comment. So, Dr. Bailey, I'm going to turn it over to you for business. >> Okay. Just a very, very quick update.
Um, as you know, we have our contracts executed for OR New Bedford High School. We did meet with Fair Haven. Our negotiations team met with Fair Haven officials and they asked to get back to us with another meeting date to continue the discussion. And that's the only
update I have on that tonight. >> Okay. You want to take uh new business? >> Sure. >> First thing we have tonight is Spotlight on Education and we are going to be spotlighting the Ford Middle School grade 7 probability carnival. And I would ask Miss Principal Sylvia to come
up and I will allow her to do the introductions if we have teachers or students present with us tonight. Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the school committee. Dr. Bailey, can you Yes. seem to be too loud. I have um Miss
Katie Roier and Miss Kelsey Shortlift. They were both the masterminds behind this year's probability carnival. You can take it away. Now, we'll introduce our students. Um so this is a project that uh we
started last year. So this is the second year we have been able to run this event and what we were trying to do is answer that age old question for students is where am I going to use this in real life and they're always saying that's not fun so how can we make it fun so we
developed with our probability unit having them create and design their own games them play these games present these games and show the mathematics behind it so we worked on this project for over a week both in my classroom and the shirtless classroom and they started as
you can see up on the screen drawing out their ideas on the whiteboards. Now some groups stuck with their original ideas, some groups changed their idea three or four times but in the end we were able to create I think we had about 45 different projects this year which was
really incredible to see. Just some pictures of the day. Oh, the best part. Isaiah, Connor, Chase. >> Who do we decides asking this group the questions? >> Okay, come up.
Come out to the party, please. You have your project over here. You want to put it here. >> Who are you talking to? Um, can you explain the probability in your project in your own words? >> Can you explain the probability of your
project in your own words? >> Come on to the microphone. >> It was what? >> 75%. >> How'd you find it? >> Uh, we were uh we found 75% and we used the graph to find it out.
>> Um, did your results match what you predicted? Why are mine off? >> It didn't match because our prediction was 25% but it was 75%. >> Uh, what was the most challenging part
of your project? The most challenging part of our project was probably calculating the probability. >> Where might we see this type of probability in real life? >> Uh, you will mostly see this probability
at a basketball game. >> What was your favorite part of this project and why? Our favorite part of this project was working with our crew members and answering correctly or if other people were not answering correctly.
>> Thank you. >> Who's asking? >> We are asking questions for Hunter group. >> The Hunter group. So we have Hunter, Aiden, and Cameron. come on up with your project. Chase tells me they're asking you questions.
>> Chase, you got this. Chase, you got this. >> Can you explain in your probability probability in your project in your own words? explain the probability in your own words. >> So for the project, we combined like the
50/50 chance of spin uh flipping a coin and spinning the wheel of prime numbers to get the probability of 1/5 or 20%. >> Thank you. >> Well, I'll share. Did your results match what you predicted? Why or why not?
>> Yes. When we did the experiment, it matched the results because we got like around like the 20% that we like guessing. >> What was the most challenging part of your project? >> The most challenging part of the project
was probably figuring out what we should do about the wheel and what the probability should be and how we decide on choosing how you win. >> Okay. Thank you. Where might you see this type of
probability in your in real life? >> Um maybe like a carnival game or like a um board game house. >> Mhm. >> What was your What was your favorite part of this project and why?
>> Favorite part? >> Uh probably seeing the fifth graders faces when they won. How happy they were. >> Yes, there were a lot of winners. Thank you. Thank you. THANK YOU. AND FOR ARE you asking questions? Who's asking questions? Asking questions.
You're asking questions to Chris. >> To who? >> The girls. >> Oh. Oh. To to the ladies. Yes. To Mariah, Charlotte, Ava, and Olivia. >> I would like to point out they put this together and didn't get any glitter anywhere in our classrooms.
>> The prizes for Jolly Mattress. Um, can you explain the probability in your project in your own words? >> Um, so there was 120 outcomes and 24 favorable outcomes. So you did 120
divided by 24 and no you did 24 divided by 120 and that equaled 0 and 210 and then that uh transformed to the 20%. Um, did your result resort results match what you predicted? Why or why not?
>> It didn't match what we predicted because we predicted 20% as the probability and when we tested it, it was 45%. >> What was the most challenging part of your project? The most challenging part of our project was probably the figuring out what game
to do in um setting up the wheel. >> Where might we see this type of probability in real life? >> Um you might see it in like a carnival game or like a good
>> What was your favorite part of this project? Our favorite part of this project was probably painting the wheel and putting the glitter and making the bows. This is it, guys. There's no bottom over >> there.
You good? >> Okay. So, Lucas, in your own words, can you explain the probability of your project? So, um the probability Oh, uh probability comes from the marble bouncing into the uh green cup and then going into the empty spot in the
spinning wheel. >> Did your results match what you predicted? >> Um no, they were like kind of like um they were the results were about 30 to like 70. 30 being a loss and 70 being a win. >> What was your most challenging part of
this project? Um the most challenging part of the project was finding the other um was finding the other part of the compound probability. >> Where might you see this type of probability in real life? >> Um you might see this um type of
probability in arcade games. >> Okay. And then what was your favorite part of this project and why? Um my favorite part of the project was the designing and building because um I like to do a lot of engineering and uh engineering projects.
>> Yes. Thank you, Lucas. Thank you. Questions compliment. I attended that event. So very well done. We always we always like it when our students share their brilliance with us and we thank the teachers too as well. So, thank you for that. Now, I'd like to
call Miss Rogeri to the podium to talk about the 18 Foundation and Investigating History Grant where we're at with that. >> Good evening, Mr. chairperson and members of the school committee. Um just wanted to announce that we are the a
recipient of um a grant through the 18 foundation to expand our investigating history curriculum into grades three and four. So we this year we're in year 1 in grades 5 through 7 of receiving um grant
funding for professional development and teacher materials for investigating history. That program is going really well. Um we had a team from the elementary school who visited um both the middle school and also um an a
Dartmouth public schools. There was a teacher there who was piloting um the curriculum at the fourth grade level. And um we did a lot of research to make sure that we were making a well-informed decision um in applying for the grant. We all agreed it looked like an amazing program. We already know that it is at
the middle school level. um we wanted to just ensure for grades three and four and um everything we saw seemed great. So this grant will support professional development um in a train the trainer model. So we'll have a teacher leader. It's a great opportunity for um teacher
leadership and then they will help um then bring back the professional development to their counterparts and um we'll we'll start with implementation coming up in the next school year. Any
questions? >> Thank you very much. >> Appreciate the hard work and the teachers hard work on this. Next, um I'd like to present the F A E A E A E A E A E A E A E A E A E A Elder and I will present the FY27 budget update.
>> Dr. Bailey. >> Yes. >> SMET classroom. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Did I skip one? I didn't mean to do that. So, the SMMET classroom rental rates have increased by 3%. Is um nothing to vote on, but at the end of the meeting, we'll just have you sign
some paperwork for that. So, and then now at this time, I'd like us to present to you where we're at in terms of the budget. So, this is a continuation from last meeting, and we've had meetings with our budget subcommittee
um to discuss the budget. And as you know everything is aligned to our strategic plan. So our mission of the Accession public schools in partnership with staff, parents and community is to promote student success, growth and
learning in a safe and supportive environment. The vision of the accushion public schools is to be a high performing school district where all students are afforded the opportunities to realize their potential. And we also always say two schools, one district. We
always try to maximize resources between the two schools and be as efficient as possible. Our strategic objectives that are aligned to everything within the budget, achieving academic excellence for all students, creating thriving social and
emotional learning experiences for all students, and strengthening partnerships with parents and the larger community. And it is our responsibility, the superintendent, the school committee
to create a fiscally responsible budget to provide students with an excellent education in a safe and supportive environment. So tonight I will be reviewing four different scenarios regarding budgets. a
needs-driven budget, level service budget, level funded, and a constraintbased budget. In speaking with the budget subcommittee and town officials, we will be recommending a compromise, which was which is the constraintdriven budget
that you'll hear more about this evening. So, where have we been? Back in 2014, we had an audit done by Desessie and we had uh Desessie had cited at the time many challenges in the district back in
2014. There was a lack of coherent planning which meant that there was weak and unclear district and school improvement plans. There was poor alignment between goals, budget, and actions. There was inconsistent curriculum.
It was cited that we don't fully the district didn't fully uh implement a standardsbased or common core curriculum and there was an over reliance on textbooks and unclear expectations. There was cited to be uneven instruction. So there was no shared
vision of effective teaching, limited rigor, differentiation and student engagement. The report also stated that there was weak data use data collected but not consistently analyzed or used. There was
limited collaboration across the grades and schools. There was ineffective professional development not aligned to district goals and little evidence of impact on instruction. There was also inconsistent student supports which means our
response to intervention and special education were unevenly implemented. And as I did my learning to my listening tour when I started in the district in 2018, these were all consistent findings when I met with all the stakeholders.
This was very similar to what I heard in those groups that I met with. And then this just shows, you know, with all of those things, we have to strengthen oops, we have to strengthen planning and leadership so that we
develop clear and measurable improvement plans, aligning the budget and priorities in our actions. We we've implemented a standardsbased curriculum, improved instruction, again established a shared instructional
model, increased the rigor, engagement, and differentiation. Again, we looked at using data effectively. We built consistent systems for data analysis and instructional decision-making. We also revamped and continue to revamp
professional development. We align PD to all of our district goals. and we monitor the impact on teaching and learning. We enhance student support system and expand targeted uh which means expanding targeted interventions.
So this is another way to look at it. Um, back in 2018, I was hired. In 2021, we hired a director of CIA, which is curriculum, instruction, and assessment because basically that report said that the district was not focused on teaching
and learning. So, we also um implemented started to implement in 21 highquality curricula materials in ELA, math, and science. We hire two academic coaching positions and we continue to implement
highquality curriculum materials in social studies and we offer the highquality professional development. And you can see this is 2018. The scores have consistently gone up. Um and these are the percentages above the state meeting and exceeding expectations. So
we're definitely we've gained momentum. We're doing the right things and we want to continue with that. So where we are in uh since 2021, the district has been awarded highly competitive grants. So since 2021, we've
uh been given 1.5 million plus in grant money. We do everything we can to get as many grant grants as we can. In 2022, we received national recognition and we were declared uh the elementary school was declared a distinguished school and
that was based on academic achievement. We have project lead the way. Again, you heard about the 18 foundation today. We also very successfully navigated our co years. You know that we um had our specialists teaching the the lower
grades. We had our K and one students in school full-time which was very different than what many other districts did and we believed in giving them a very strong foundation at that time. We also had the streaming going on in all the other grade levels so the kids had
school every day. US News featured a public schools. We this year we had our eighth grade civics teacher uh become the recipient of the Massachusetts Council for Social Studies for Excellence in Teaching. I'm proud of the
work of our talented leaders and teachers and we've had several accolades over the past years and also our middle school has become a model school for other schools to visit and see the applied learning in action.
So, with all this um recognition and the accomplishments that our district has received, we've had many VIPs who spoke to our staff during important meetings and celebrations to mark the accomplishments. And again, we also work
very closely with community partners that are listed there. So, we we see the former secretary Patrick Tutweiler. We see former commissioner Jeff Riley, Regina Robinson, the deputy commissioner when we uh she came for the visit for
the distinguished schools, and then you see all of the community partners, and these are just some of them um that we do a lot of work with. So, we're really proud of the work that we're doing. So in looking at our budget for our school system, I wanted to show you the
different funding sources that we have because we are limited in where we receive our funding from. The top u top item here is a town appropriation. So chapter 70 gets set by the department of ed and it gives you two figures. What they're going to provide to you in
chapter 70 and what the town has to provide their share. It's different for every community. They base it on the on the earning levels and the wealth of each community as to what they can pay for. So for FY27, the state has determined that from the town we are to
receive at least 9.6 million. That's the base amount that they can provide. And they will provide 7.5 million of chapter 70. In the town's portion of of their cost towards us is what's an item that's called schedule 19. This schedule 19 is
town services they provide for us. A simple example is health insurance. They cover the health insurance but it gets charged against our net school spending. So overall between the two that creates our foundation budget of what we have to spend in our schools. And
each year the state tries to increase the amount the town puts uh the the amount that the town puts in and decrease the amount the state puts in. But again, there's variable factors that that go up and down with that. Aside from the chapter 70, like I said,
we're limited. So, we have federal and state grants. We have the you over you you hear it as title one grant, title two. That's all part of the ESSA grants, Every Student Succeeds Act. This year, we have 131,000 in total in those grants. We were told next year it's being reduced. At first, they told us
was going to be reduced by 50%, but just a few days ago, luckily, they said it's only going to be reduced by $10,000. But it's still $10,000 is is a big cut to us. We'll have 121,000. The idea or the special ed grants, individual individuals with disability
act, we have about 314,000 this year, and so far they haven't come out with the figures for next year yet, but all of my sources have been saying it's going to pretty much be level funded. We were hoping for an increase, but we will go with level funding when we go into our budget and build our budget.
You hear about circuit breaker all the time. circuit breaker reimbursement. Basically, what that is for special ed students, the Department of Ed sets a limit as to how much each district or each each school city and town can put out per student. If you go over that
amount, for example, if the amount you you you're allocated to pay is 40,000, which I think it's 43 this year, if a student cost you 100,000 to go out to the school for the blind or the school for the deaf, the state will pay you back 75% of that portion that you put
out. You get it back the following year. That's called circuit breaker. It's meant so that you don't break your budget. So we receive we'll receive this year $283,000 for last year's expenses and that keeps rolling forward each year. So those are monies that are available to
our special ed department that we put and must be spent on special ed. It's not just general fund. It has to be spent for either out of district tuitions or special ed transportation. So that's another funding source that we have. Again, we have no control over how much we generate. The grants are the
grants the circuit breaks the circuit breaker. That's what we have. We have revolving accounts, one of which is food services. Uh we've produced about a h 100,000, maybe a little more than that a year in excess of our costs. Most of that is reinvested back in equipment. As
you know, our schools are built for 1971. So we're constantly changing and adding equipment to there. Our school rental fund, that's for our fields, that's for our classrooms, that's for our gymnasium. We generate 15, maybe $16,000
a year uh of income in that account. and our preschool tuition fund. We bring in about $50,000 for our preschool tuitions. So, we have some of this available to us. We don't take it all because we don't owe year to year what we'll have. This is all the different
sources of funding that we have. And again, our biggest portion, as you can see, comes from the town. And we have no other real ways of generating our own income. What I want to show you with this graph here is in discussing our budget, I want
you to see our fixed cost, how much we really don't have um any play in. The purple section is our professional salaries, our teachers, our administrators. That's a little more than half. Then as you circle down around by 6:00 p.m., 7:00 p.m., 8:00
p.m. there on the chart, these are clerical salaries, our paras, our custodians, our technicians. Those are their salaries. Again, now we're at about 2/3 of our budget. Contracted services are again services
like our our buses that we have to hire. Certain um services that like maintain our our our maintenance and our equipment. Those are all contracts. Brings us up to almost three quarters. There's very little play in there. You go to out of district tuition and you're
almost at full circle and you finally get the supplies and materials and other expenses. That's the area of the budget that we have some some ability to manipulate, but there's not enough there to save us in the case of say our level funding by the town or any large budget
cuts. A lot of it is contractual. So, we're going back to what the superintendent brought up earlier about our different budgets we worked on. Needs driven is the superintendent and the school committee putting together everything the school district needs to
continue what we're doing and improve. So in looking at this if if we would receive on top of this current year's budget and a million9 we would be able to have no no reductions in staff we actually add three staffs and our services our programs would all continue
and some would be improved to meet the needs of the students. When you come down from the needs driven we have our level service. So level services basically is keeping everything we have right now status quo. So it means no reductions in staff, but
it also means no additions in staff, no additions in our programs and others. This is a point in the budget where we basically maintain where we are. We're not moving forward. Um, as you know, we've made great
progress with our students. So the next step would be constraint, but I want to go to level funded. So we have level service and level funded. double funded means the same money we got for for education in this year which is about $16 uh million is the same amount
next year. The problem with that is it's a 0 increase. No increase to our budget. The impact though because you saw on the previous chart all of our salaries that increase all of our special education costs that increase as you all know you probably filled your oil tank lately
your gas bills they've gone up 354%. Those costs all impact our budget. If we were to have to do a level funded budget, as the town requested us to prepare one, we'd have 21 staff reductions along with
cuts to major operations, maintenance programs, professional development. We would be looking at cutting those extra programs that our students have that we don't want to have to go through. So when looking at all of this, the superintendent, the school committee,
they worked together and said we need something pretty much in the middle here. So the constraint driven budget is what was put together. Now constraint driven, although it looks like it increases a million dollars, that's not enough to meet our level
services. So we still with a constraint driven budget, we still have eight reductions to staff. We still have budget reductions in operations, maintenance, professional development in all areas. It's it's not um it's not going to meet the current needs of our
students. It's not going to be what we want. But where the town is asking us to show a level funded budget and a level service, we felt that this is something that's in between that if they can't meet our level services, this is this is what we want to propose to them that we
come in with a $1 million increase and hopefully they can put together the funding for it. >> Okay. So, a needs driven budget as um Mr. Petronio just discussed this includes full level service everything
we have now with strategic additions. We would uh need currently need of the students is one elementary reading specialist and two behavior technicians and additional investments in professional development and training in reading interventions with a focus on
dyslexia. The purpose would be to strengthen student supports systems, improve literacy outcomes, and address increasing behavioral and academic needs. This builds on maintaining services while making targeted high
impact investments. And it's focused on meeting student needs, the current student needs, and improving outcomes for our students. So to reiterate, the needsdriven budget would be our
current 16.8 million or 16.6 million plus an additional 1.9 million. If we would receive that, we'd have no reduction in staff, no loss in services, and an increase in programs the support for our students. This, of course, is
what the superintendent's job is, is to lead the district towards better scores, better support, and better outcomes for our students >> and to meet their needs. >> Can I ask a question about um needs driven?
>> We we've cut 14 positions in the last two years, six last year, uh eight the year before. We're adding three here, but we're not bringing back the four. We're not saying in the needs driven budget we're bringing back the other 14 positions, are we? >> Nope. >> No, it's a little over a million dollars to bring those positions back.
>> So, I just want to be clear, we're not actually saying that we we don't need those 14 positions. What we're saying is we're going to somehow get by without those 14 positions, but there is there is an impact to losing those 14 positions. >> Correct. >> Correct.
>> So, some of our realities is local revenue is flat. You hear that? You hear all the towns out there uh complaining the same issue. Uh the town is is uh limiting the town's ability to keep up with rising costs. Proposition 2 and a
half means your taxes go up 2 and a half% overall but most costs as you know like I said with heating with gas with other items are going up 30 40%. Transportation is going up over 10%
almost 12%. So the current taxing ability of a town is not able to keep up with those costs. State aid, which cities and towns have relied on for years, is doing the same thing. It's not keeping up with inflation. It's rising at approximately
2% per year, way below what is necessary for all the cities and towns. And that's a big funding source for everybody. So what the state is doing is shifting their burden onto the local communities. And again, as you've seen, all the towns around us all through Massachusetts are
complaining about that. This is not a one-year problem. This is a continual multi-year challenge. The district has been asked to plan level funded budget despite the rising costs. As we said earlier, level services is 1.5 million. Level
funded is 1.9. So again, one is just getting by with what we have and one is providing the needs of our students. Now, although it says it's 9.1%. The reason it's that high, it's really closer to 4%. But what drives it right now are the energy costs, the
transportation costs, and some of the special ed costs. They're driving that number up. Otherwise, you'll see in future slides, we're doing a pretty good job in keeping our costs, the majority of our budget under control under 3%. So, 90 90% of our budget is fixed. As I showed you earlier again, it's it's
salaries, transportation, uh insurance, mandated services. This leaves us very little room for adjustment. Remember from this pie chart that very little two little slivers at the top, that's all we have. That is really variable. The rest is pretty much fixed.
>> Okay. Level service budget. The level service budget maintains current programs and services and it does not add any new initiatives or staff. Everything is status quo. In recent years, we have not received full level
service funding and prior budgets and we're going to talk about that more have required reductions in services. So, we are not asking to restore past cuts. We are asking to maintain with a level service budget current services,
current staff, everything our students have now and avoid further reductions. So this request reflects a fiscally responsible approach and it's focused on preserving what we currently provide for students.
So again as we showed you earlier a level service budget requires a million5 over what we currently receive this year. This would would result in zero staff reductions, no loss of services and programs for students, but it will
not fully meet the needs of all those students. Again, we're just getting by. We're not giving any improvement to our education program. So, I wanted to show you some of the major factors in in our budget as far as the fixed costs and and how the
percentages go up. So, I organized them, you know, greatest to smallest. uh special education costs up 60% although it's $173,000 it's still a 60% increase in that section of the budget energy and utilities again up 35%
special ed out of district tuitions all it takes is one or two students moving in that have to go to out of district placement those placements run anywhere from 60,000 to 300,000 per student depending on who moves in so we had almost a 20% increase there
transportation of students. Again, it's kind of a monopoly. We have one bus company. We have no other biders when they bid. They they they kind of have us there and we're looking at almost a 12% increase. Um and our trans I'm sorry, 17% increase. 12% is our buses. The
other difference that drives that is our special ed vans that do a lot of onetoone pickups. Same thing. Um very limited, very expensive. At some point in the future, maybe we can look at buying a couple vans ourselves, but it also means maintaining staff who are licensed to drive those vehicles. Our
other combined expenses is basically all the other groups that are left about 12%. Our high school tuitions, we've talked a lot about that. We're looking to save uh income on that. Save save the cost of the programs. The first year, we're not going to see too much. Um we
still have uh quite a few students that are at the various high schools but what we have this year is OC limited the number of seats in the lottery. So because of that we have 44 seats overall for the town of a Kushnet not just the Kushner public schools.
>> So you can have students that are in private schools that are on that lottery. But what it did this year is we have 10 more students now that we have to pay tuitions for going to the local schools we have contracts with. So that in turn kept that increase at 10%. Again
going forward we hope that can go down. And like I said earlier the salaries the school committee negotiated all the contracts did a great job kept the total salaries of all employees under 3%. Um which is in line with the districts around us. Um some did a little more
some might have done a little less but um overall they they did a great job of keeping that because that's the biggest portion of our budget. So this million5 again is the cost for level services to maintain what we have. >> I just have a a question on that slide. So with regard to the high school
tuitions, actually your comment about the old colony enrollment is is I think pretty smart. >> A a student enrolled at Old Colony commands a higher rate of tuition for the town by it's what around 16,000 >> right around there give or take.
>> No, I think it's closer to 20. >> Closer to 20. I thought it was I thought it was 165. So we have the same number of students graduating, you know, in any given year, we'll say like we all we know the number of kids that are going to be going to high school. So by Old Colony limiting the number of seats that
we have and those students then enrolling in one of our tuition schools, it's actually a net reduction in tuition cost to the town. Is that a fair point? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Okay. >> So it's just the the cost centers look different. So instead of it getting charged directly to the town because the
school department doesn't pay for all colony tuitions, the the town pays it directly, >> right? >> That cost center is being shifted to the school department budget. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> So bottom line, the the town again recommended um not just to us but to all
town departments to prop propose a level funded budget. We want to see what it is. So for us, it's no increase from the current year that we're in. It's about 1.9 million uh in reductions we would we would need in our current budget to make to meet that level funding. Um rising
costs means that maintaining services actually requires more funding. It's it's it's our costs go up no matter what. We have the fixed pressures of our majority of our budget is fixed as you saw from that pie chart. We continue to have out of district tuition placements
rising. Just you know the out of district um providers they apply to the state to get their annual increase in their budgets and their costs that we have we're mandated to pay. I've never seen it less than 3%. Yet our again our taxing authority only get two and a
half% from our town. So we have those costs. Special education costs just the the students are more needy every year that we have here. those costs continue to rise. Energy and and utility. I'm thinking that once we get our budget set, if the town level funds us, I want
them to know that if our costs come back like they do now where oil is almost $5 a gallon, will be coming back to them in the fall looking for a supplemental appropriation because there's no way to to factor in a 50% increase in your budget for that
and vice versa. So it would be at a line item that if there was a excess we would we would >> and I also think it's a rainy day. It we're having a war right now in this world. It's a rainy day. The prices are up. It's probably time to go to that rainy day fund.
>> Exactly. Transportation costs I talked about earlier the high school tuitions. Yes. And the salaries and contractual services. These are again are all our areas of our fixed costs. That's why I detailed them out in the prior slide. Um, the impact of doing a level funded budget is going to be deep cuts to staff
and programs. I hate to say that, but those are the only areas that we can cut to see any real savings. Can I cut back on uh paper for the coffee machines? Sure, I'll say $1,000. It's nowhere near the 1.9 or even the 1.5 million. The
direct pack direct impact on student services um and their programs. Does it mean we might have to cut specialty programs? It it does. Bottom line is level funding is not level services. This leads to significant reductions despite the fact
you'll see in future slides we've been very responsible with our budgeting. You'll see the per pupil costs and how we've stayed in line. So again, level funed budget would require a million9 to be cut out of the current budget. And to translate that
into FTEES, um, we'd have to reduce 21 positions. That's about 16% of our staff. That's that's unheard of, but that's what it comes out to. These cuts would severely impact the district and the student
services. There's no other way or easy way around it. >> Okay, this was the compromise constraint driven budget that we had mentioned earlier. And this maintains fiscal responsible
approach. It requires reductions to stay within available resources which is what the town provides to us. It includes no new positions, additions or restoration of previous uh staffing positions that were cut.
Required reductions under this constraintdriven budget will mean that eight staffing cuts will happen from current levels. So eight more positions would be cut. It would be also additional reductions in operations,
maintenance and professional development. What is the impact? Fewer resources and diminished student enrichment, reduced capacity for building maintenance and operations as well as reduced capacity
for staff training and growth. And I can tell you that our teaching staff is already stressed this year with the amount of cuts that have happened in pre the previous two years. So cutting eight more positions will increase the strain
and few supports for existing staff and services. So I worry about teacher burnout etc. The bottom line is this preserves more than deeper cuts, but it still results in significant impacts. It
reflects a balance between fis fiscal constraints and student needs. >> So, I know we keep putting these slides up with these numbers on, but we do it for the reason. We want these numbers kind to be, you know, burned into your your memory. So a constraintdriven
budget means we're asking for an increase of $1 million, but that's still a cut to the current staffing levels that we have. Takes a million five to keep us at level services. So this if if we were to get a $1 million increase
from this budget, we'd still have staff reductions, the loss programs for the students, and we will not fully meet the needs of all the students. So, this is just a breakdown of of those cuts that we just talked about. Um, we looked at FTE reductions. We have seven
and roughly it's around $589,000. Uh, with a cut to an administrator of $100,000. And then going through the operation and maintenance accounts, um, right now we can, um, we've added about $240,000. So, we've roughly made a million dollars in
cuts here um to meet that constraint budget. >> This will result in larger class sizes um and learning opportunities for our students. So, just to go over the cuts that have happened in the past, you see the actual
positions from FY25. Two building based subs, a special ed teacher, a grade 8 math teacher, a grade five science teacher, an admin assistant position, a math interventionist, and an ELA position at the middle school. A
total of eight cuts in FY25. Then we added eight more. Spanish teacher, a reading interventionist, a PE teacher at the middle school, an elementary technology teacher, a kindergarten special ed
teacher, a special education par at the middle school, an LPN, and a grade 1 teacher. At the town meeting, the town voted to bring these two positions back. So that was six total cut.
We don't have the positions listed tonight because we will be notifying the teachers this week um of who is cut and you know out of a courtesy common courtesy to them they're going to hear it first from me versus in a public
meeting but you can see that we have a total in the last 3 years if we go with this constraintbased budget we have a total from FY25 to FY27 of 22% positions
if we add in the eight positions and that is really significant in a small district like a cushion of only 130 staff members. So our solution and our budget priority, there's limited
revenue from state aid requires ongoing strategic reductions to maintain a balanced budget decisions aligned with district mission, vision, and core values. Again, we're trying to maintain the overall educational program we have
in place and not simply just cut everything and go back to just math, reading, you know, English. We prioritize minimizing impact on students. That's number one. Academic excellence, social emotional learning, safe and inclusive environments, family
community partnerships. Our approach would be avoided across the board cuts. So, in other words, we're not going to just eliminate um one of the arts programs. We're looking strategically at where we can make our um reductions in
staff without seriously ending all our programs. We're used data-driven staffing and service adjustments for long-term sustainability because it doesn't help to just cut a position this year and then next year need to put it back. Possible relocation of the fifth grade
to the elementary school. We have room there. We've worked out some of the factors in doing it. continued collaboration with the town, families, and staff to advocate for adequate funding and responsible resource use.
And again, your commitment as a school committee, my commitment as a superintendent is to create a fiscally responsible budget to provide students with an excellent education in a safe and supportive environment.
It's like a non-negotiable. So, I created this slide because I want you to see that our budget isn't just one number. Our budget's actually two numbers. We have our net school spending, which is our education dollars 17,313,000. Then we have our non-net, which is
basically our busing budget. It's a million8. That busing budget went up 300,000 from this year to next year. We have no control over that. But overall what the department of ed here is focusing on and looking at is at 17 million3. Now we look at areas that can
help reduce that. Title one grants we've got some reduction because we have a we charge one person. The grants are set up such that you can't just charge whatever you want to them. They have to be approved in certain areas. So we can charge one staff member to title one idea grants. We have funds there that we
can put towards our budget. I had a long meeting with our solar energy um um consultant. We went over the bills. As you know, we receive solar energy credits from the town solar field. That's I'm not sure where, but so
we factored in that looks like over the next coming year we'll receive about $75,000 in credits. That should be a conservative number. We don't know. It all depends on the number of sunny days that you have, but we should receive that. help bring us down the circuit breaker funds. Whatever you get in one
year must be spent the next year. So I put the full amount here and here you have 280,000 and then the slide you saw before this with the 929,000 the proposed reductions that brings us to position of where we need to request from the town a budget of 17691,457.
So keep >> keep in mind this year they give us 16 million um 689,645. So that's that again $1 million increase. >> And I just want to point out this is a reluctant recommendation. We prefer to
have level service obviously. So our funding reality and responsibility. The school department really has limited ability as we have alluded to tonight to bring in revenue sources. We're maximizing everything we can on
any grant we can get and circuit breaker, but beyond that, our school district relies heavily on chapter 70 funding and the town's support. So, our next steps with this constraintdriven budget, we need to
identify and communicate necessary reductions, which we have done. We will do this week with the staff involved. We will plan for a possible relocation of grade 5 back to the elementary school which will bring some efficiencies to the middle school and we have that later
on in the agenda tonight for discussion. Um support staff through transition planning, adjust schedules as needed and continue to monitor class sizes and service levels. So, I I put this slide up here because
I've only been here, as most you know, since July, and I've heard so much about the fact that we returned funds to the town. It's our job to return funds to the town that we don't use. When funds are given to us, usually they have a certain um area they are to be spent in,
and if they're not, they're appropriate for that particular re subject or area. You do not shift them and spend them elsewhere. I'm going to pass by the top line and basically show that um you'll see sped supplemental appropriation FY25
186,000. At at fall town meeting last year, the schools requested 186,000 because they anticipated a special ed cost that was going to happen that needed that funding. >> It ended up over the course of the year they didn't need it. So it wasn't
shifted and used to buy paper or products. It was given to us for a sped supplemental appropriation. So, it was rightfully returned to the town as that. It was not used for that purpose. Next line down, sped stabilization transfer. We're allowed to move any excess funds,
especially uh sped funds into what they call a stabilization account. It's a savings account. In the event that mid year a student moves in and cost you $100,000 you didn't have budget, you can go to this account, you can borrow the money from it, pay it back the next year
is what was what responsible way to budget is without having to go or wait for special town meeting to get the funds. You there's a limit as to how much money can be put in that account. The state um sets that limit, but those are monies that are transferred in there. So that appears when you're
looking at the financial data of the school department, it appears as though we returned it to the town. We returned it to the town, but an account called sped stabilization. It's just as if you put it in the regular stabilization for the town, but it's one reserved for us.
There's an agreement that high school excess tuitions, we budget a certain amount for the high school tuitions. If it ends up students get accepted and go to OC or somewhere else and we don't end up having to pay those funds to the Bedford or Fair Haven, the agreement is we give those funds back to the town. So
in FY25 was $81,000 that was given back to the town. Jumping back up to the top of all of that, we ended up with 108,000 which is less than a h it's about half a percent. Those funds could they have been spent on paper and
pencils at the last minute? you know, the 24th of June, sure, but that's not responsible. So, those are the funds we return back. And in the same respect, you don't want to have nothing there, which means you could put the budget in a position where you've overspent the
school year, which is very bad. You are reasonably supposed to return FY24 was even better. They returned $50,000. That was a very nice, tight budget. uh we try and get all bills paid by the end of June so we know exactly what's available for funds but also in FI24 we are
allowed to prepay tuitions for special education that's allowed by law so if you've got money in your stabilization account already for sped and you can't put any more in it you can use the funds to prepay tuitions you want to do that because you have to meet net school spending
>> you can't turn back so much money to the town that you don't meet net school spending prepaying special ed out of for tuitions helps you get there. Also in FI24, it was discovered that in prior years, Fe Haven had been over billing us. So my predecessor found that and
basically said to Fe Haven, you will pay us back and so Fe Haven paid us back. And last is just a an accounting entry, $900 to balance it. But this is this is the whole thing with funds returned to town. You should be returning some funds.
If the unable to procure were $500,000 in itself, yeah, then maybe you could have um spent it on more staff or whatnot during the year and you might not meet your net school spending. But those numbers 6%.3%
even 1% those are all reasonable. Anything under 2%. >> So point 006 on a 16.8 million budget. Right. Right. >> Correct. >> 0.3 on whatever the budget was that year. So, we're talking about forecasting in most years within a percent or less.
>> Yes. >> And just for clarity sake, that FY23, the top right cell, is that supposed to read 175,000? >> Oh, it is. >> Yeah, I see it down the bottom, but I just wanted to make sure I'm clear. Okay. >> Yeah, we'll fix that. >> You must have good glasses. >> I know, right?
>> Thank you, Elmo. >> Thank you. >> So, Aushet is not alone in facing revenue constraints. Uh the situation is not unique to a cushion and you can see the headlines. Many towns across the
state in our area are facing the same types of revenue issues that a cushion is facing. >> Yeah, I know. Um, I did quite a bit of research over the past couple of weeks just to get a sense of what the financial climate in the rest of the
state looks like and it frankly it's it's pretty dire. Um, I think for fiscal 26, so that would have been last last year. Um, there were 54 towns across the state that requested
Prop 2 and a half overrides. Um, and there were a total, I think, of 74 questions put on the ballot. Some some in some cases they have to put the question on the ballot multiple times. >> Mhm. >> Um, and I mean, there's news coming out every day about additional towns this
year that are requesting Prop 2 and a half overrides. I haven't seen firm numbers cuz I mean, Fair Haven was just talking about it last week. I mean, they haven't I think >> this just came out in officially >> this headline. >> Yeah. But I mean they said that so far for this year um Desi reports I think
record numbers >> of Prop 2 and a half requests. >> Not to say that that's the the solution, but just that kind of paints an overall picture of what finance looks like. I know basically every one of our neighboring towns is facing diff very difficult financial
situations. So, I don't want to go on too long, but I think it's really important to to make it clear that it's not, at least in my opinion, it's not the town or the town administration that's saying the school department, you
know, can't have additional funds or can't have level funding. It it really comes all the way down from the state. And the same thing is happening across the whole, you know, commonwealth. I mean, I know we don't see health insurance as one of the line items on our budget. The town picks up health insurance for all the town employees,
the school department, that kind of thing. But you said that's up what? 30% versus up. >> It's up 18%. >> 18%. 18%. Sorry. Yeah. Yep. >> But it's a $400,000 increase. >> $400,000. That's what I was I was getting the two numbers inflated. Yeah. Huge huge huge increase that I mean,
nobody could really see that coming. And I know, I mean, just myself, when I I had to call uh an oil company to fill my oil tank at home cuz I was down to I was trying to like bleed it out as long as I could, I was probably down to 10% left in my tank. And they said it was $4.99 a
gallon. Well, to fill my tank, that would have been $1,200, right? Insanity. We're seeing that on a municipal level at a much grander scale. Luckily, we don't pay tax on fuel here, but it's still we fill up 10,000 gallons at a time. >> Yeah.
>> Okay. >> So, as we were saying, we're not alone. Many communities across the state, including southeast of Massachusetts, are facing these budget challenges driven by limited revenue growth. Uh a cost rise faster than 2 and a half%, which is a tax limit. Many towns
are considering pursuing overrides to maintain school and municipal services. Statewide data shows that hundreds of Massachusetts communities have brought override questions to voters, reflecting a common response to ongoing fiscal pressure. Like our neighboring towns, we
hope to collaborate with town officials to identify sustainable solutions to support's budget and maintain student uh services for students. So this slide I really want to spend a minute on to show you. So this is FY24 data from the Department of Vet. That's
the most recent data they have. This is at the end of the year when you report all your spending. So it's not what they project. This is the actual figures. So in FY24 the state average per pupil spending was $23,165. Now Kushnet at that same time was
$16,82. Basically we were number 388 out of 395. We were seventh from the bottom meaning we spent the least amount of money of all the other. There's uh I think 321
school districts in the state >> and I believe those six other districts are um virtual. A couple of them are virtual. A couple of them much harder. So we're really low. >> But if you look at how our scores have improved, now this isn't just the first year. It's always been like this. If you
look at the earlier slides of how our scores have improved, we have spent our money very strategically. We've spent it very well. We're getting great um returns, great scores, great improvements for our students with that limited money. Other
communities are spending a lot more than that and not doing as well as us. So for someone to say that we have a spending problem, let's say we do not have a spending problem. We control our funds very very well and we get great results out of our students. As you hear when they graduated high school, they say
that the class validictorian was from a Kushnet. the schools to get into, the great colleges they get into, they're students from Aushna. They've had a great start to their career here, their their educational career here. And it shows it it really shows and the money
is managed very very well here. >> Okay, less support plus fewer opportunities is going to be equivalent to diminished student experience. And unfortunately, this is the reality that we are facing with addition uh with
additional cuts to our budget with this constraintdriven reluctant recommendation. So, just to go over this uh closing remarks, building this budget for FY27 was an all-inclusive process that took
collaboration from our budget subcommittee, our leadership, and our staff members. In the next steps of the budget process, we will continue to collaborate with input from the full school committee, the public, and town officials.
Every item in our budget can be aligned to a strategic objective. And I have those listed right here. We've talked about those already. And again, this constraintdriven budget does not maintain level services.
We strongly encourage staff, parents, and members of the community to engage in the remainder of this budget process. As considerations take place on how to address the needs of the Accession public schools and other town departments, it's important that the
voices of all stakeholders be heard. Please keep in mind that each percentage of our budget represents approximately $191,262 which is the equivalent of two to three teachers, two school buses or chapter 70
aid for about 12 students. All budget decisions have consequences and behind every number is a student or a teacher. And just because a need goes unfunded
does not mean the need has gone away. And that's all I have that at this point. If you have any questions or comments, we will hear from the committee, the whole committee. I just uh commend the staff, you know, the
superintendent and the business manager for the extremely comprehensive >> budget presentation. It's one of the better ones I've seen in my many, many years of serving this town. >> I agree.
>> Thank you. Does anybody else have anybody else? Yeah, I mean I I think the reality of the situation is that this isn't like just like was discussed last year during you know all the different budget meetings that the school committee had and the joint meetings with you know town
administration at town meeting you know it's not it's not a one-year solution and I don't think it's going to be a one-year solution and suddenly coming up with a bal or I shouldn't say a balanced budget suddenly coming up with a a much lower budget
number for the next, you know, 3 to 5 years. I mean, this is not a problem that's going to go away unless we see changes to the way that state funding is uh is assessed and paid down to the towns. Uh we're really seeing significant decreases in unrestricted local aid. I mean, I think, you know,
the governor just proposed adding additional taxing options for municipalities like additional meals taxes and a number of other things essentially to to quote give towns ways to raise more revenue without the state actually handing down any additional aid
either as unrestricted aid or through chapter 70 funding to the school districts. So what we're seeing is is efforts on a statewide level to redistribute the costs of municipal governance and school department funding
to the actual districts and the town's taxpayers. So it unless we see big changes on a state level, I think that we're going to be seeing the same situation next year and the year after and the year after and we're going to continue seeing probably, you know,$1 million, $2 million
budget requirements to maintain that level of service. There's no way for the town to get that money. >> I guess I would want to know what is the plan. >> Right. >> Right. >> Exactly. >> I don't want to be sitting here next year saying the same thing that I said last year. >> Right. >> I want I want the public to still want
to come to a net public schools. >> I don't want to go back to the audit back in 2014 where the district was under the watchful eye of the department of education. We have made a lot of growth since then. We want to continue
with that momentum. Um so I guess I would need to know >> one of my one of my concerns and I have many is um at 14 this is potentially another eight that's 22. >> Mhm. >> If I did the math right. >> We're moving more towards 2014 than we
are in any other direction. This is unsustainable. And I I don't envy the board of selectmen or the fincom because everything we've talked about is right. More more of a burden is being put on the town. That's true across the state. But at the end of the day, in my my
opinion, the school committee is here to fight for kids. And so we have to do what we think is right for the kids in this town. And and we're going to have to figure it out. and we need to put it to our residents to decide what what they're willing to um accept because I personally am never
going to be willing to accept a level funded budget that decimates our school system. So >> I >> I hope we don't have to cut eight positions. I hope we can land in a better spot, but I would also urge everyone to show up and and voice their
support. I would also ask that our elected officials, our appointed officials, you know, whether they're union or non-UN, like these are if we end up with cuts, these are human beings. >> Mhm. >> That deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. And I don't know that we've
always in some instances done a good job with that. So, yeah. >> I was going to add to that. I wanted to add to the creativity and trying to think outside the box has been good with this too. It's been a strong push point for me because we're not just
going into think okay personnel. It's how can we restructure? What can we do to try to make this work for our students and our teachers and our town people? So it isn't something that we're just taking lightly at all. It's it's
serious to all of us. And I I would I would just add, you know, I'm sure this is something that's close to Ebony's heart, but you know, when we're talking about reducing the number of positions that we are, especially a lot of those positions being ones that serve the special education population in town, you know,
you look at, let's say we have to theoretically cut, you know, we'll just make up a number, two special education positions that amount to, we'll say, $140,000 in the budget. Well, by cutting those positions or just any teaching staff for for that matter, uh, anybody
that directly interacts with the kids, that increases the likelihood that we're going to see out of district placements become a reality. And I mean, we talked about out of district placements for high need children. We don't want to see anybody placed out. The kids want to come here. The parents want the kids to
come here. And it's very disruptive when they have to go out of district. And the cost can be astronomical. I mean, we're talking 200, $250, $280,000 for one student in very severe circumstances. So, by maintaining at least a minimum floor of, you know, a
safety net, so to speak, to try try and make sure that we keep as many kids in district as possible, it actually saves the town the significant amount of money in reality. >> That's right. right now. >> Just on your point about the state doing
their part as the budget season began three or four months ago, um the state department of ed and the department of local services did a little tour around the state where they wanted to hear from different school districts. So the superintendent and I wrote them a letter
um basically saying that they want to know about the chapter 70 formula. And in there there's something called the AGI, the aggregate uh growth value of the city or town, what you can pay. So we wrote a letter basically saying that there's a flaw in that and that if you look at a rural town compared to most
other towns, the infrastructure isn't here to go and build a hospital, to go and build a hotel, the sewer, the water's not here, the roads aren't here. >> Um the the traffic pattern is not here. We don't have that ability. They need to change that factor to where more money
goes towards a rural town percentage-wise than it goes to a New Bedford or a Taton or Fall River who have the ability to take old factories and turn them into thriving businesses which in turn bring more tax revenue to the town. So at the time that the rural
communities were farming communities, they did a benefit for the state in not developing. It's time for the state to step in and say, "We need now to take care of you because you provided uh vegetables, fruits, you know, uh uh cattle, animals. You provided all that
for us. Now, it's time to do something back." So, it was a again a letter. I know other communities have sent letters, but hopefully not for this year, but for future years, they can make changes to the formula that will benefit us. >> Yeah. And I think there's some unique impacts to coastal areas as well. Southeast coast, northeast coast. You
know, you talk about a rural community down in this part of the state. That's very different than a rural community in central Mass, Western Mass. We're loaded with essentially undevelopable undevelopable land. We have a lot of wetlands that are not buildable. And even if they were buildable, they're
protected for good reason. Whereas some other parts of the state, they don't lack for buildable land. We literally just don't have it. It's simply not available. So, I know
when I was doing some of my research on the number of about, you know, two and a half requests and budgetary crises that different towns around the state were facing, I kind of looked at the history and it was it was actually really interesting. The number of Prop 2 and a
half override requests that we're seeing this year and last year are the first time that we've seen that level of requests since the the early 1990s. So the early 1990s were when I was in school here. And I know for a fact that
at that time we saw drastic reductions in student services. We lost music programs. We lost library staffing. there were uh we didn't have health teachers for the most part. That was handled by PE teachers. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I'm just
saying we're we're at a point right now all these years later that we're reliving exactly the same situations that I went through as a student growing up in this district and uh now we have much many many many more uncontrollable costs like the transportation piece, the
health insurance piece, etc. It's um sobering to say the least. And we know now with the kids with social emotional learning that they need these programs now more than ever. So I would be strongly against wiping out programs.
Obviously if we level fund I don't think we're going to have a choice. Right? So that's why this compromise this constraintbased budget is a reluctant recommendation. It is not what I want. I would prefer a level service, but I guess I just need to hear from the
committee that it's, you know, we're going to go through with it and let's hope for maybe less than eight cuts when we meet with the town tomorrow. >> Mhm. >> You know, >> yeah. I mean, ultimately, I think it's, you know, we've communicated what the level
service budget looks like, what the constraintbased budget look like looks like, and what the, you know, level funded budgets look like. So, I'm sure there's going to be a lot more discussions about that during the, you know, town budget meeting tomorrow and we'll, I'm sure, have ongoing discussions about it right up until town
meeting right? >> But I I think it's important that we communicate those three levels pretty consistently. Not to say that the town isn't willing to fund, just to say that it's the reality of the situation. I mean, costs are going up by more than 2 and a half% every year, and they're
going to continue to for probably years to come. So, >> yeah. I mean, you're never going to hear me say I'm comfortable with this, but my hope is that we have a discussion with with our partners in the town and we can collaboratively be, >> whatever that word is, we can get to a level services budget and not have to
cut. But, um, that that's what we want to have happen. >> That's right. >> I just want to say that we don't have a turnaround in the direction that we may be headed. Um I and I say this to
the the audience that is here that we have to make this town this town will have to make some very decisive decisions very important
decisions. Shall we? We have certain assets in this town. We're small, you know, and and we we have a choice of high schools where people can go, you know, and you know,
so we have a lot of local assets for our for kids that we we enjoy. We could if it comes down to shall we just if things when we're cutting and strangling
quality education to uh to our youngsters, shall we just throw up our hands and say we're going to regionalize and let another town take over our operations? Well, if that is the case, then we're going to lose a lot of of of of local
input, local decisions, and and what and what an in education really is on a ground level uh with the community, we will have to lose that if in turn if this continue the the direction that that we're headed with. You know, we we
have naysayers that say uh nothing, you just cut. Oh, in fact, cut more, you know, every time. And we and we can't do that, you know, in order and we could in one sense if if we just had
a uh a custodial type of operation in our schools, if you know what I mean by that, just keeping kids keep discipline and that and that would be the end of it. And I've and I've I've been in school system where that has had that occurred. So, so I I think just saying
that we got a a very decisive, very challenging road ahead of us and that we need to everyone uh to join in and say what direction do we want to go? Do we want to keep what we have, improve what
we have, which we're doing? You know, for example, you know, our tu our tuitions, you know, going into other communities or one community we never to tuition before. That means that kids will get a, you know, a a excellent
education at a at a lower cost. And it's all those type of things that we have to put in place with with cooperation of everybody. But I'm just saying uh we're reaching that we're reaching a breaking point. That may not it may be next year.
or maybe the after, but some real decisions have to make and I just say stay tuned. So, >> and our children have one chance at it at first grade, at kindergarten, at third grade, one year. So, we we want to make every year quality education. And
again, it's our responsibility to be fiscally responsible and provide them with that quality education in a safe, supportive environment. >> Agreed. >> Yeah. I think we also have to think about going back to the roots of it like we're all in it for the same purpose.
Our children and our community and our children are the future of a cushion. So I think working together is something that we just have to do for the benefit of the whole town. >> Yeah. It's funny. I'd been thinking about, you know,
obviously we're elected officials in the positions that we're in. And on face, the constituency that we serve is is the town electorate, but to my mind, and this sounds like kind of a, you know, sound bite, but my constitu my constituency is really the kids in the
school. They can't speak for themselves. they they even if they could, they don't necessarily know the ins and the outs of what makes an effective school district, a safe and inclusive place, you know, however you want to term it. And
obviously there's budgetary constraints so that we, you know, as a school department can't necessarily do everything that we'd like, um, including bringing back previously cut positions, adding positions like we discussed. But I mean ultimately a balance needs to be made and I would frankly I'd like to see
the balance beyond level funding or I'm sorry uh level service but reality of the situation is I know that that's going to be very difficult for the town to manage especially given that reduced state aid. So it's it's not an enviable
uh budget no matter what. Can't slice it any way that makes sense. Yeah. Any other questions or comments? So, unless something drastically changes tomorrow evening, my plan will be to
move forward with the eight cuts at this point, hopeful that we bring back more. But I I think we have to stop there. At least that's what I'm recommending to this committee that we can't go further than that. Yeah. >> Foot level funding. I I mean, we're
already stressed out with the cuts from last year. Yeah, I think it makes sense to put both requests on the table, both the level service and the um you know, the constrained budget that you put together and uh notify the folks
that would be impacted by the constrained budget and continue to strive for the bubble service budget if possible. >> Okay. >> And I I agree with that. I I I just think it's really important for for the folks in other whether they're appointed or elected positions and it's incumbent
upon us and I think some of the data we had tonight like there is an impact to this. So it's easy to talk about numbers and cut this or cut that and do it very clinically but there will be an impact to this. There was an impact on the 22 positions that we already lost
or sorry the 14 and there will be an impact from 22. So, it's a choice. It's a choice I don't want to make, but we need to we need to have those conversations. >> Is that meeting public? Tomorrow night? Can anyone come to that meeting? >> Mhm. >> Okay. >> Yep.
>> It's here. >> It's here. Yep. Tomorrow evening at 6:30 >> is the budget discussion and joint meeting with the board of select men and the fincom in the school committee >> and anyone can attend. >> Anyone can attend. >> Yes. believe. >> Anything else further on the budget?
>> Okay. So, next up we have the strategic realignment of grade 5 elementary school integration. And as you know, Miss McGlin kind of alluded to it. You know, we have to get creative. And as we were looking at the budget, um, one of the things we talked
about was looking at grade five and moving it back to the elementary school. Currently, there are two ELA math teachers, two two ELA teachers, two math teachers, and one social science teacher. So, that's an automatic cut by
bringing them back to the elementary school because it's a different model. That would be a position cut. And I can say this publicly because I've met with the fifth grade team already about this because to me, this was one of the more major uh program shifts that we're
talking about here. But more important than the budget, we believe that this recommendation is um a good thing to do for kids. Okay. So, while there's less less staff and we know budgetarily with a hundred less kids in the middle school
moving over to the elementary, we're going to have some efficiencies at the middle school, we still think that our fifth graders need to be in the elementary school. So, historically, they were part of the elementary school model and the environment. Our fifth grade moved to the middle
school more than 20 years ago due to class size and space at that time. Moving the fifth grade back to the elementary school model allows this pre-teen population an additional year to work in a cohort-based environment
focused on social development. And also DESIE classifies them as elementary even though we have them in the middle school space. This will allow our fifth graders the opportunity to ride the school bus, to
have lunch, and to use common space with elementary peers. And this offers one additional year of social and academic growth before they transition to a content focused learning model. Fifth graders going to AES keeps them in
a developmentally appropriate environment. It allows students time to build confidence and readiness before the transition to middle school. Now, again, going back to Mr. Hood's comment, this greatly impacts our
teachers. I will work with them, but the majority of our fifth grade teachers are not licensed at the elementary level. However, we will work with them. If they choose to get licensed, we will work with them to obtain that license. if they choose to uh apply for an opening
at the middle school, they certainly would be encouraged to do that. And I will say given given this meeting and the and the magnitude of what I was saying, I I will say that the fifth grade teachers were extremely professional in listening um to the
conversation. I also met with the president of the ATA. She was present during the meeting. Um but this impacts human beings, all these changes, right? While we think it's good for kids, it's going to help our budget, it impacts human beings and we cannot that is not
lost on me at all. So, at this point in time, I would be looking for a vote to move the ele uh the grade five students for next school year back to the elementary school.
>> I mean, can I just make a comment? Go ahead, please. So >> you should have a mo motion first. Uh >> I I think we can have discussion first. >> Yeah, we can have discussion. Go ahead and make a motion. >> Um I mean, frankly, I've personally been
in favor of moving the fifth grade class back to the elementary school regardless of any financial impact. I mean, I would have been happy to do it even if it caused a cost increase, quite frankly, because I do honestly feel like it's a more appropriate place for those fifth grade students.
>> Um, yeah, there's I mean, there's no question in my mind. I mean, as having had two fourth graders promote to fifth grade and seeing some of the the difficulties that it caused from a a social uh standpoint, never mind changes to the way that the curriculum works. It
that's made me very firmly of the belief that fifth grade really does belong at the elementary schools. So, I know the first time that we even, you know, had any conversations about this was really before the budget impact was really part of that discussion at all. We were just
talking about it from a student services standpoint and I mean when you to when you look at other neighboring districts there are I mean not to say that we could do this but just for comparison's sake there's other neighboring districts that still have sixth graders in elementary school. Um I think m uh
Marian and Rochester u both have sixth grade included in that cohort. So, frankly, I think that this is just a great move for the students. And yes, there will be a financial um savings at the cost of teaching staff, which is still disappointing, but
>> ultimately, I think that it's the right decision. >> All right. So, I I'll entertain a motion to to um approve the integration of grade 5 from the middle school to the elementary school. >> May we have a motion? >> I'll second.
>> Um yeah. So before we take the roll call, I would just say I'm supportive of this because it's the right thing to do for kids and we're going to Dr. Bailey to your comments. We're going to give our teachers every opportunity to to um be part of this. So for that for those reasons, I would support this. I don't know if anyone else
>> agreed. I I just think social emotional you brought that up Dr. really talking about that and the kids that I've worked with that are at the fifth grade that were coming into fifth grade prior to coming here from the elementary school really had a struggle um feeling like they could fit in and feeling confident enough of themselves. So I do think this
is a great room for them and do feel that they belong in the elementary school. >> I agree. You think about it. They're 10-year-olds come into middle school. Like I've had two that have gone through and now my little guy will hopefully have the opportunity to get another year in elementary school which I love so
much. Any further discussion? Let's do a roll call. >> Mr. Alice, >> yes. >> Mrs. McGlin, >> yes. >> Mr. Halcro, >> yes. >> Mrs. Cordera, >> yes. >> And Mr. Hood, >> yes.
>> Motion passes. >> Thank you. >> Next. Next up is the school choice vote. I made the recommendation um to not >> Bailey be uh >> Oh, the reads. the Reeds FY27 appointment of the
superintendent to the Reeds board. Um this is an annual appointment. It's just um procedural. You just need a vote um so that we can send that through to the reads collection. >> Can I can I have a motion to approve the appointment of Dr. Bailey, superintendent, to the Reeds board?
>> So motion >> second. >> Any further discussion? >> All those in favor? I >> Any opposed? Seeing none, motion passes and opposed. >> Okay. Thank you. um school choice, as you know, the recommendation
um has been to not uh to vote against it for the next school year. So, I'd be looking for that motion tonight. >> Okay. Uh let's have a motion to participate uh let's have a motion to not participate in the school choice
program for the upcoming school year. >> So, move. >> Second. I'll second it. >> Any further discussion? >> Yeah, I just had a couple of quick questions. So, I know when we discussed this last year, um just as I had asked
at that time for a little bit of information on why the superintendent and the administration team had recommended against it. My my understanding is that essentially because we tuition out our high school students if school choice students enroll in K
through 8 in our district and then they end up moving on to one of our tuition school districts, we have to of course pay the we have to pay the tuition rate for those students even though they don't reside in this district. But we only get the school the significantly reduced school choice rate from their
home district. Is that accurate? >> That is. >> Okay. So, I mean, while it would increase enrollment in K through 8 potentially based on number of spots, if we were to open those up, we would end up paying potentially significantly more
in tuition uh services for students that gradu go into high school. Right. Okay. Um, not that I not that I think it's appropriate to make any amendments to the proposal at this point, but I'd like to, you know, confer with Desessie and
just see if there's any way that we can restrict school choice to only certain grade levels. I know that other school choice uh en or school choice districts in this area do have restrictions on what grade levels they accept they accept school choice students for. Now,
to my understanding, I in the in the kind of investigation that I did, I didn't see any that restricted high school level enrollment. It was primarily lower grade levels. So, for example, like Marian does not participate in school choice for K through 6. Rochester does not
participate in K through 6, but once they get up to ORR at high school level, OR does have a certain number of school choice slots available to them. Um, if there's any reasonable way that we can put restrictions in place such that we
could only accept school choice students at lower grade levels with the understanding that once they graduate to high school, it is then their home district's responsibility to either educate those students inhouse or they would the students would then have to apply for school choice at these other
high schools and that funding would come directly from their central district. So, we have had meetings with the department of education and that is a no-go. Uh, once a student is a school choice student in our district, they have to follow the students for high
school. Perhaps the tri towns are different districts. So, they do it differently. But for our district, because we're having budgetary fiscal constraints right now, this is not a good time to be taking on more kids when we're making cuts in the adult teaching
staff, right? But I think in the future, should we have a good fiscally sound budget, we can look at taking in students at kindergarten level, perhaps set up a revolving count for school choice, save that money over the years, and that could help pay for high school
tuition later on. That we are not ready for based on the current budget status. >> Yeah. Yeah. I think future discussions would be worthwhile. >> So, I think we could take the roll call, but to Mr. Ellis's point absolutely think it's a conversation and a topic that we can further explore to figure out are there ways that we can utilize
this to to our benefit and the benefit of our kids. So >> yeah, I I think we explored this same position uh a couple years ago on the budget committee the discussion well because I was advocating what Mr. you know Mr. Ellis had been you know missing
and you did a thorough investigation on how it would work and not work. Desi officials are very familiar with me. >> Okay, we'll do a roll call on this. >> Mr. Ellis, >> yes. >> Mrs. Glenn, >> yes. >> Mr. Harker, >> yes.
>> Mrs. Cordera, >> yes. >> And Mr. Hood, >> yes. >> Thank you. Uh, next we have the designation of a Ford Middle School store named after Judith Ford Latit Store. Um, this is a
relative of Albert Ford. Uh, this family has I have this in your packet. There should be a letter in your packet, but this family has come through. Um, they have donated $25,000, as you know, from a previous school committee meeting in scholarship funds. And now they want to
donate $20,000 towards building a school store that would have swag, possible artwork for kids. We could branch out to the community. we could have students involved in the store for financial literacy etc. Um and it stems because
she opened a store um and she was very passionate about shopping. So, we already have plans from the Old Colony School District. Um, and we'd like to move forward with this, but um, basically with our policy, the school
committee would need to take a formal vote to name the school store the Judith Ford Latit Store in her honor. >> Right. So, could I have a motion to name the Ford Middle School store the Judith Judith Ford Latit Store?
>> So, moved. Second. uh any further I would just like to say there can be other discussion but obviously we're very grateful to have folks out there in the community who are so generous to to our school. So we really appreciate that. >> Absolutely. >> I think school store at the middle school level is a fantastic idea. I mean
when I was a student here it was right back in that corner. >> So this was the cafeteria not the library and the school store was right back over there. Yeah. Yeah. >> And it would really be used for the district and we could also branch out at the community as well. >> Mhm. 72. >> Mr. Ellis,
>> yes. >> Mrs. Wiglin, >> yes. >> Mr. Harra, >> yes. >> Mrs. Cordera, >> yes. >> And Mr. Hood, >> yes. >> And that concludes my report for this evening. >> Great. Thank you. >> That's enough, right? >> Business manager. >> Yes.
>> Um, projects up there share with you. >> Yes. What's easy? discussions. So every month I present our budget. So what I do is I compare it to the same period as last year. So this is our
spending from July till now July's period 1, March is period 9. So for the nine months of this school year by 26 compared to the nine months of last year. The most important column here that I review and watch constantly is the percent used. So the right hand
column of both sections. So, as you can see, professional salaries, we spent 63% last year at this time. We spent 61% this year. That's good. I try and be either equal or or a little less. Um, you see the same thing on clerical salaries. We're under um under the
percentage other salaries, which is paras and whatnot. It looks like it's overspent right now, but it's not. We have I have to move those paras out to um the idea grant. There's a number of paras that move out. that'll bring them back in line. And going through the rest
of the budget, we're right in line with where we were last year. Last year, we ended very well. So, at this point, I can see that looks like we're going to be ending very well again this year. As far as when I say very well, I mean on budget. Yeah, >> we won't be um overspent. So, those are the different categories. And again,
each month or each period, I'll bring that forward till we get all the way through June. So, have any questions on that? You'll see out the district has a negative in it. Same thing. I've got some costs there. I'm going to move to circuit breaker. So, I haven't done that yet. Um, the town just set those accounts up
for me a couple weeks ago. So, those will be charged up to there and got them back in line. Um, the rest of my budget is narrative. I just wanted to talk about facilities department. As the weather as the warm
weather's now arrived, uh, the facilities team will be starting new projects both indoors and out. The boilers will be shut down and the annual maintenance of the boilers will begin. Uh the fields will be used daily and notices will go out whether uh whenever there's any pesticide or fertilizer
being applied to the fields and we um Bonnie in my office coordinates that with all the women sporting events that go on outside. Um as far as the boilers being shut down for the summer, we do our maintenance in there at the same thing. I um superintendent and I sent an article to the town yesterday asking for
about $95,000 of maintenance money for our boilers. We'd like to be able to go through one at each school and do a lot of preventative maintenance so that next winter we've got a nice smooth transition. Hopefully this preventive maintenance will get us a few more years out of our boilers before we have to really
consider what we're going to do with them. Um, as you know from the snowstorms this winter, as you see outside, you see damage to grass areas, you see damage to the parking lot, the the curb stones. Um, now that it's spring, we will be working on all of those. Um, fixing,
repairing. We've done some work to the the grass field already. Um, I urge everyone to watch out for the saw horses and the the orange cones. Those are in areas that were uh damaged and we don't want anyone walking or cars driving through there. So, those are the DPW is
um um going to be repairing one of our parking lots for us. We asked for Bender, but they said they can probably do it for us. So, between the two schools, there's an area that's torn up between the two schools. Also, the walkway, but that's the area where the solar array is going to go in. So, I'm
talking to their um their representative to see if that actual spot I feel there's going to be a piling there. So, we don't have to repair it. That piling will probably work to be done. That'll go in. They'll actually repair it for us. Once this school year concludes, we have some major projects. One is a solar
array that'll be going up to in the schools. They'll be starting that um freezer replacements in both schools. Um we either rebuild or replace the freezers in the in the kitchens um for those projects. We are going to be doing
some carpet and some tile work in the schools uh again while there's no one here. And again, you might see engineers or or company representatives out taking pictures of the parking lot, taking pictures of the work to be done. That's to get our bids and everything else in
place for that work to be done. So, thankfully, uh, we got a notice this morning that state senator Mark Montgy, uh, has secured some funding for us, and talk about that. >> Sure. Uh, last week I was contacted by
the senator's office asking for a project idea. they needed to spend down some money. Uh we came up with a bunch of ideas, but he was really looking for a very specific project, a renovation. So, it it appears as though we might be
getting $100,000 or so to renovate this library in terms of the the carpeting, the floor, some new furniture. This is probably all original. Um but that that was what they chose to to do with the money. >> So, why were renovations? library
renovations generally. Yeah. >> Yeah. At the middle school. >> I think there were a number of it was a a number of schools got some money from that particular grant I believe. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Great. >> Yeah. >> We're very thankful. >> So, we're continuing um
we continue we continue to see a consistent demand for breakfast uh food service program and we've been purchasing some new equipment in there. um some warmers to provide I think it's Thursday and Friday providing warm breakfasts. Students like it. The um
Shelley is actually um trying to do some new um items in there. Recently she did um I think a flatbread pizza. Um she's doing some other I think it was a chicken bacon ranch. She's doing other items and she said that of course the students love it. Anytime it's something
different they love it. So that's been going very very well. She continues to work with Project Red. Uh we received $4,000 from them to buy additional equipment for the breakfast the morning that we have. So, um I think that is going very well. Shelley runs a good
operation there. It um our students, we have literally no complaints. Our food is I think they feel it's very good. They love it. Transportation is the same. We continue to work with our vendor. We continue to, you know, monitor, take care of our roots,
accommodate parents who move or change or uh students who want to move and as I said um earlier about the boilers, we're hoping to get some funds to do some renovations to our boilers, but
we're also still waiting, we should hear in May, about two grants we've applied for. One is a $3 million grant to go towards the HVAC system at the elementary school. We're very hopeful on that grant. And along with the solar array, we applied for a $2 million
battery backup system that basically we applied, but becomes part of the asset that Solar Life Energy would have. That battery backup system would allow us to have no loss of power at the schools here. Um, and that grant would fully fund that cost. So, um, we've got a lot
going on. Um, under the CPC, I saw that we were awarded some money to do the tennis courts, the basketball courts over. So, the superintendent has asked me to pull all that back out again, look at the design, meet with some of you on what we can do out there, maybe get some pickle ball courts in. I want to try and
get that started in time for the summer. Not sure what the time lag will be on that. But Patrick McIntyre had left me his files on all of that. He' done some bidding and received some quotes. So hopefully we can pick up and move forward and if need be hopefully reapply to the CPC, the community preservation
act, the committee of the town and apply to get additional funds if we need additional to uh really, you know, redo our fields out there, do new fencing around the fields and make them more user friendly to the whole town. >> Keeping in mind that this is a short summer because we're in school so late.
So we're going to try to get done as much as we can. Um so I know that's something we're going to look at in the future as well. I think it would be, you know, we have great soccer fields out there, but yeah, to the point the tennis court, basketball courts are a bit decimated, and so to refresh those, I
think would be an amazing thing for >> uh the kids and and adults. >> Absolutely. >> You know, in the town. So, >> yeah, >> that's my report. >> Great. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um, although one question, so in
terms of the boiler and the article, are they considering two articles? one to potentially replace the boilers andor one to repair or are we have we landed on a repair at this point? >> I sent the repair. Okay. >> But I noted in my email to the new town administrator
>> the cost for a new one new boiler for each school. Total cost is $325,000. >> Okay. >> So, >> okay. Do we have any uh Thank you. Do we have any school committee member reports? >> Uh yep. I'm fine. So, um after Yeah.
Sorry, you go first. I was still first. >> You can go first. Fine. >> Okay, I'll go. Um, so I just wanted to update on my SMEK, the Southern Massachusetts Education Collaborative meeting summaries that for our meetings that in Jan
January's up here too, but um we went through and approved all the staff actions hires transfers and designations. Approved the fiscal year 26 budget. Um and then approved the policy for SMEC financial manual on the
acceptance of gifts. Approved amendments to employee policies on personal appearance, use of company equipment, salary, salary administration, and rules of conduct. Kathern Cooper notified the board that she'll be retiring August 28th, 2026, which I tried to say she
couldn't, but she didn't listen to me. Um then we did the board we received a DESIE response and we reviewed that um financial audit submission showing compliance with Aldessie audit requirements. The executive director explained potential DESIE guidance
changes. Business manager notified the board of SMEC had requested an extension from the operational services division for the filing of SME's fiscal year 25 UFR and that it would be submitted before the extension expired. the board entered into executive session to talk
about ongoing litigations and then March 31st, 2026, the board conducted final interviews for the two finalists for um executive director. Uh there were 12 applicants. Three were initially interviewed by the search committee and two finalists were subsequently interviewed by the full
board. After discussion, the board voted unanimously to appoint Kimberly Wilmont for SMEK's current director of student services to the role pending successful contract negotiations. The the board approved all staff actions, approved 3% cola for fiscal year 27, approved a 3%
increase for the collaborative classroom lease, which we already talked about, approves plan to gradually assume the operation of the K through5 intensive ASD program, currently operate the New Bedford public schools at Carne Academy.
Um and then the board received the DESIE response from its next fiscal year 25 annual report and the board entered into an executive session again to talk about ongoing litigations. So that's my update for
>> Thank you. >> All all of our members should follow that format, >> Mr. Ellis. Um yeah, so at during our last uh school committee meeting um I got appointed to the wellness committee
within the school district. Um I had the opportunity to attend the wellness committee meeting. It was the last one for the year. Uh but I'll continue on with that committee once they start to meet for next school year. And you know I was kind of jumping into the end of some of the ongoing discussions that they had had throughout the course of of
this school year. But one of the things that really stood out to me was there was a real emphasis on traffic safety around you know pickup drop off time. Um and I towards the end of the meeting I asked officer Cathkart our school
resource officer you know if you could be king of the public schools for a day from a safety and security standpoint what's what would be the change you make? And it actually surprised me. Um he said that it would be 100% bus ridership. that would be in his eyes
probably the single greatest improvement to overall student safety on campus. Um I got to thinking about it afterwards and we had some ongoing discussion just talking about the really large number of pickups and drop offs that go through the shoot at the elementary school and
happen over here at the uh middle school every day. And then you know we hear about some bus routes that simply just don't have enough kids riding on them. So the bus routes end up being very short. The kids have to just sit and wait for a long time before they can be
offloaded in the school and larger bus ridership would actually smooth out those routes and it would also improve safety and security. So I think I would just impress upon the members of the community that if you do pickups, drop offs and next year there's an
opportunity for you to kind of reconsider using the busing services that would be wise. We're not getting charged per student, we're getting charged per vehicle. So there's no extra cost to the school district if a bus is full versus half empty. Um so I just I thought that that was a really good
point and one worth uh mentioning here during the committee meeting. Um the other thing that I would say off of the wellness committee discussion is I just wanted to thank uh Dr. Bailey and the admin team because uh fairly recently when I was leaving one of the school committee meetings, I noticed that the
US flags that we had flying out in front of both buildings were getting pretty tattered. Um I have a long history in the Boy Scouts I did I was involved in scouting right up through 25. So you know stewardship and maintenance and respect for the flag was
always top of mind for me. I saw that and mentioned it to Dr. Bailey and I think within 2 days she told me flags are in, new ones are up. We're working with the local uh scout troop to uh retire the old one. So big thanks to Dr. Bailey for the help on that.
>> All I got. >> Anyone else? >> Okay. Uh so there's a number of communication and other information in the packet. I won't go through all of them, but does anyone have any questions on anything that was in there? No. All right. Before I ask for a motion to
adjourn and to go into executive session, just want to call out our next school committee meeting will be on Wednesday, April 29th, 2026, 6 p.m. in the FMS John Tvaris Library for a budget hearing. But as we talked about earlier, we also have a joint meeting tomorrow here with the board of
selected and fin. So would love to have folks uh attend that as well. So, may I have a motion to adjourn the meeting to enter into executive session pursuant to Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 3A section 21A4 to discuss the deployment of security personnel or devices or
strategies with respect there too because an open session may have a detrimental effect on the security position of the open body. The chair further states that the body will not return to open session following the executive session and will adjourn from executive session.
So >> second do a roll call. >> Mr. Ellis, >> yes. >> Yes. >> Mr. Harra, >> yes. >> Mrs. Mr. >> Yes. meeting is a journal.