at 700 p.m please note all school committee meetings are recorded and can be found on the BRRSD YouTube channel um welcome to the April 16th 2025 school committee meeting this evening we have Mrs king Mr los
Miss Conrad Lavarto Miss Martelli myself Jessica Davenport of the school committee we also have Mr powers and his his administration in attendance this evening Mr prince Gibbons Mr marino and Melville were unable to attend we do
want to give a special thank you to Mr shenz for live streaming and recording please stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands nation and justice for all
great thank you so now we have public comment for 12 minutes i will now open public comment for a period of 12 minutes speakers must keep comments to no more than do we have anyone here for public comment
hello David Patrick vice president of the REA uh so the BREA would like to address the item on a new business consideration of letter from the town of Rainham um I'm not sure
if the letter will be read uh in open session but in reading through the letter the selectman from uh Raian are requesting that the school committee votes on uh a part of the budget process that's
extremely important which is that if everything doesn't work out you have the option to have a joint town meeting to try pass the budget before it goes to the state now they're asking you to forgo that all right the rights of the
town voters to be able to take care of this problem it's an important part of the process they're asking you to say you won't do it so we highly recommend that you reject a letter from
Ashley Mard um 270 Graange i am also coming up here to second um this very um deceptive request in my opinion because if I have if I have been advocating for the
right of citizens to vote i think it is wrong for Rainham to suggest taking away a right you have to ask i think it needs to be clarified that if there
was a group um town meeting that this doesn't mean you have to ask for the 10 million total i know that Miss King's original ask um on budget B Mr powers the second was
that Ranham and Bridgewwater could give free cash this is an emergency situation we're about to tap into ours more and Rainham and Bridgewwater could cut from their own services but the presentation based off of this letter is an all or nothing ask
that they're asking you to sign away on i don't feel comfortable with that and I don't feel comfortable with the efforts that we are making to be undermined as a group by you um for you additionally I
think it needs to be said um that Mr powers informed us today that there are 76 non-professional status teachers who are going to be receiving slips i'm sure Mr powers is going to get into this but I'm the one that's receiving the phone calls and the texts as well as I know
you are but not not the same way right cuz it's just different and then also professional status staff will be cut into it and then the high school is going to take a huge hit if I just did quickly math I'm uh based on some of the numbers you threw out I will just on my
own be teaching almost 200 students last year I had about a hundred so in a year and a half my case load will doubled i said to my kids and I just I just want this to hit home on you uh tomorrow I'm giving a quiz and I said to my students "We're
going to try something different and we're going to do it on Google Forms tomorrow." And they groaned and I said "No it's terrible taking a quiz on Google Forms it's it's terrible using the computers i haven't had a textbook
for my class in five years i make my own workbooks that I single-handedly typed up which I honestly acknowledge there are typos in and I reward kids if they find them for me but I I haven't had a textbook in 5
years we ran out of the digital in CO and I just shot from the hip i I tried to do the best I could and now I'm going to have double the case load because we want to preserve the learning for young kids what's going to happen to the seniors when they go to apply and they have a whole what classes are left for
the seniors to take what case what do kids have to write to be well-rounded students for their junior year when they go to apply every single kid's going to be writing about how their two towns left them behind is there at least going to have an interesting uh paper to read in Mr hoy's
class over there but you're going to read the same thing over and over again three years ago it was co now it's the towns are going to leave the kids behind and I honestly express to my kids I'm going to try my best tomorrow with
this new strategy because it's the only way I can give you instant feedback it's the only way I can I can land next year on my feet allowing a child to move forward is using technology to the best even though I know in my heart it's not the best
teaching strategy for nth graders um so I urge you to not give up the right to vote thank you thank you patricia Riley member of the ring board selectment and I would just request um madam chair person that you that the
letter from the board of selectment be read into the record in its entirety um I think it's being um misated at this point and I I just want to emphasize that when the board voted out we emphasize our board supports our
schools we want what's best for our students the request to the board of school committee is just that this decision should be made by the voters at the ballot box and it's basically just to ask you that you support whatever the
voters decide when it does go to an override ballot vote that's where the decision should be made not at a joint town meeting which may not reflect what the voters actually it could possibly undermine um the vote of the book of the voters so that's why our request again
not that we don't support the students we just feel that would be an unfair um decision that could possibly um happen at a joint town meeting and I also want to mention just so that this it's very clear to at our at our for this week last night actually we also mentioned
that we wanted to give a shout out to our teachers our administrators and our support staff because even though I know this year you're operating you know with less finances you're just short 24 positions you have higher class sizes
but great things are still happening in our schools i don't want that to be lost and that's because of the great job our teachers and support staff and administrators do so thank you all for that and appreciate your consideration thank you
thank you anyone else all right so we'll move on to correspondence and recognition so the school committee has received multiple emails about the fiscal year 26 budget and one of and one in particular from the town of Rainham that we just um
discussed and we'll discuss that for new business um farewell to school committee members Lou Diamino and Kathy Martelli unfortunately Mr dia Marino could not be here for his last meeting but we would like to thank him for his
commitment to the students and the families of Bridgewater Rainham lou served as our secretary clerk chair of the policy subcommittee and the transportation subcommittee mrs martelli we would like to extend our appreciation of all you have done for our community
in your role on the school committee serving a year as secretary clerk public relations liaison a member of the transportation budget and negotiation subcommittees and I'm sure there are more I've missed the speech do
I no it's been a pleasure um the three years I was honored to serve shot and sweet thank you so much [Applause]
all right so we're gonna move on to the recognition of Jeff Fowler yeah sure all right awesome so cable Access TV is Community Access TV bridgewater and Ringham have been very fortunate to have such great partners in community TV over the years tonight we
want to we want to recognize one such partner we say partner but truly Jeff Fowler is more than a mere partner he's our go-to person for all broadcast issues he's the guy freezing his butt off broadcasting every football game mr
fitzky this he has worked closely with the high school AV club helping to nurture the next generation of broadcasting partners for our communities it is a great honor and with great respect that tonight we recognize Mr to follow for his outstanding dedication to Bridgewwater
Graham and present him with these tokens of our esteem i just want to say thank you to the committee it it's really a two-way street for sure we we benefit greatly from our partnership with Floridaia i know uh Ray can as well and it's a it's
not many communities in the Commonwealth where you really have this kind of partnership and I think you mentioned the media club we're very excited about that to continue to grow and really give a chance to um highlight the many positive uh events that are happening
here every day and trying to get that out to the committee community more so thank you so much for this and we look forward to a strong future awesome thank you yes of course thank you thank you Miss Dport yes I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank Miss Martelli and
obviously Mr dia Marina who's not here i've had the pleasure of working with Kathy my full time here in the district all 10 years as she worked in central office before moving on to retirement and then to school committee um and she really is a true partner and a true champion for our school so I I did want
to just publicly acknowledge her and thank her for everything um along those lines obviously thanking Lou as well for all his support over the years that he served on the committee um I know obviously everybody serves up here for the most part is is uh you know truly invested in in the communities and and
so I appreciate all of you um I I also want to recognize Mr per um you know there's very few people that you can have on speed dial 247 uh and Jeff is always one of those people um we certainly call on him uh for small events for large events um you know as
much as Miss Watson and her staff organized graduation it really is Jeff and his team putting that together and making sure it runs without a hitch and there are so many other things that we call on Jeff um you know certainly if if we run into an issue that Mr sean can't solve uh or we're working with an
outside vendor that we just want to get a second opinion on and quite frankly even the weather on snow days i've reached out to Jeff in the past because he's a uh closet meteorologist and so I said "What do you think about tomorrow?" Um so truly again thank you for your commitment to the district it really is
uh it's it's appreciated um I I did want to just share a couple of things obviously you know not that I'm telling you anything you don't know but our district is full of amazing students and staff um the last week has has certainly been a busy one for our students and and faculty and so just do wanted to
highlight a couple of things that have happened across the district excuse me across the district as you know we have uh started a unified track and field team uh they held their first home meet last week uh it was very well attended many of our administrative t uh staff attended it was against Derky High
School with their unified track and field team where our students competed in several throwing events they did the shot javelin uh they competed in the long jump as well as several sprinting events uh they have they've already gone on the road for a meet they have another home meet uh I believe actually this
afternoon i haven't found out the results of that but I know they had one this afternoon so it really has been great to to see that get up and running um I want to thank Miss Amanda Dari the art teacher at the Mitchell she held an art show this past weekend at the Bridgewater Public Library for some of
the students at the Mitchell three of our uh special education classrooms there are displayed at the library and it'll actually be up there all month so I encourage you it's on the second floor if you have a chance to get over there it was great to I want to thank the star for doing that as you know or you may or
may not know our robotics team TJ Squared has left for Houston they are competing in the world championship uh TJ Squared uh you know year in and year out has great seasons uh but this is another special one for them so they left Miss King 3:00 a.m this morning I
believe uh they they left early today so they uh they will if they haven't arrived already they'll be there soon but we're excited to learn how they did uh down there and then I I do want to recognize two of our students one being one of our student adviserss um Selena Georgopolis and Rachel Corey uh they are
both heading down to Orlando to compete in the international decor competition uh over uh April vacation and a few days afterwards so we're very excited to see how they do uh but again I think this just highlights many of the things that we have going on in our district but
these are just a few I wanted to share thank you awesome thank you Mr so we'll move on to the consent agenda i would like to entertain a motion to accept the consent agenda minus the payroll warrant dated April 3rd do I
have a motion second approve so approval of the So that covers everything i apologize this is one of my first times so I'll move on to the educational reports oh do I have to roll i have to roll call
my bad all in favor thank you any oppose all right so educational reports next on the agenda is a uh the VR student advisory i will turn the floor
over to Mrs king thank you um I would like to introduce Miss Bory to the stand we will have an abbreviated report today as um several of our students Mr daly Miss King and Miss Tjan Cis have other engagements
this is that time of year where everyone has crazy schedules but they should all be here for May for their last um meeting um good evening everyone tonight I'm excited to share with you the impactful work being done by the Bridging Lives Club at our high school
just this past week they participated in enough day at the state house enough stands for ending nicotine for the future their presence at this event was valuable as they engaged with legislators and senators to provide on the current situation of our school community their perspectives and efforts
are instrumental in helping shape and pass legislation that addresses substance abuse concerns at our high school they had the opportunity of speaking directly with two representatives from our district informing them of proactive measures being taken to combat the issues of
substance abuse they had in informative conversations about the implications of peer pressure in vaping especially in the club successfully raised awareness and fostered dialogue that is essential for driving change their commitment to advocating for a positive change is
commendable um thank you for your attention and I hope you have a wonderful spring season like Miss King said unfortunately a lot of our members can't make it so now you On Tuesday April 8th at night from 6 to
8 when they were done with their meals they would show the client get their free raffle which was won by our president's grandmother and we had a raffle for many different prizes including various gift cards and tickets most of which
were very grateful for the prizes donated for helping us out and the customers that was one of our best yet with one of the turnout thank you and that concludes our state
thank you guys so Good luck at your competition next week thank you all right so we're up to administrative and school committee reports report of the superintendent thank you Mr davfor members of the school committee members of our audience
i did want to provide you a update on the status of FY26 budget planning and development um I apologize if I'm being somewhat redundant as many of you serve on budget sub or are heavily involved in in the
budget development uh we are uh currently working in parallel with two different scenarios one uh the thought of if an override is put forward by both towns to the voters uh and it would pass what that would mean for the district you have heard us talk about being able
to add additional staff uh that is obviously the easy path for us to go down uh because we can certainly use additional staff trying to reduce class size making sure that we're in compliance and obviously you know at the upper level making sure we're restoring positions that have been filled over
years and uh increasing elective offerings the more difficult path obviously is that of the what if uh the what if the override doesn't pass and so we've been spending you know a good majority of our time when I say our time uh central office's time business office
time my team's time uh working on those possible scenarios i did have the opportunity to meet with uh our faculty and staff today across the district uh we held three virtual meetings where I gave them an update very similar to what I'm going to provide you this evening but I wanted to be able to hear uh to
have them hear it great for me uh in addition you know we would like to start sharing this information uh with the public now we we kind of have a a good handle on the potential whatifs um so as you know school committee is well aware uh we have presented at this point three
different scenarios the preliminary budget that was presented in January uh the public hearing budget that was presented at the beginning of March and then obviously our third budget that was presented at the end of March uh for approximately $16 million of change i know in speaking with the towns
obviously it' be very difficult and challenging for them to fund any of our budgets that we put forward without the potential of some some type of operational override so we're well aware of what is needed to be able to pass our budgets but if not you know based on
what the towns have communicated to us that they can handle under their revenue sharing model what we received for chapter 70 funding and what we prepared to contribute as as a district it it presents uh a significant
shortfall uh we're looking at even if we were to use say the level services budget that we initially presented at the beginning of March at the public hearing $102 million in change with what the towns the state uh and the district has been able to commit that would uh approximately translate
into a $96 million in change so you can see where $6.4 million off from a level services budget just for us to be able to turn the page what we've been doing at central office is looking to see okay if this becomes a reality which we certainly hope it doesn't but we
obviously know we have to be prepared in the event that it does how can we close that gap uh first and foremost we obviously want to look at things uh additional revenues additional funding sources before we start talking about positions uh
unfortunately you know to close that gap that is our our last step and kind of where we're at but I know we've talked uh budget even at full school committee with with the towns about the potential of using some of our capital funds that would be voted and approved on for
capital expenses uh diverting some of those or redirecting some of those funds back into the operational budget for the year to help close that gap uh should we have an override that doesn't pass so that would approximately be about $1.2 million and again these are you know
estimates based on looking at some of the projects that we still need to get done uh across the district and obviously the funding that um we were you know in discussion with from the towns um so obviously you know that would make a difference and certainly wouldn't uh close the gap but it would
certainly be a step in the right direction obviously health insurance continues to be a struggle for us as you know our anticipated rate increase was raised to 20% um you know that was somewhat of a a blow to to all of us and
certainly our budget thankfully uh Miss Healey and her team uh have been relentless with our insurance broker and uh Robert Pilgrim our our continued to work and so we we don't
have a final number uh still somewhat of a moving target uh but Miss Healey was able to get them a couple weeks ago to initially come down to 19% although a percent doesn't seem like a lot it still does translate into money uh but she didn't stop there uh continue to uh
schedule meetings for for all of us and her individually and was able to get them down to 17% again you know significant savings not enough to close the gap but we're certainly headed in the right direction we have tried to explore the possibility of joining a
municipal purchasing group and I know we've talked about that uh it doesn't seem as though we would be able to make the window for FY26 uh we would potentially be able to make the window for FY27 but we're not going to you know stop exploring that option to see if we
can get into FY26 there's potential for some additional relief if we were to examine uh or re-evaluate our dental plans we currently do not go through Harvard Pilgrim but Harvard Pilgrim is saying that if we were to switch over to their dental plans we may have some additional
savings on our medical costs so those are all things that we're exploring that potentially could get us down to 15% um and again you know as we go from 20 down to 15 that that is you know hundreds of thousands of dollars we're talking about so we are exploring all those options but that is still somewhat of a moving
target for us um and so we look at potential savings there uh it could be a little bit But you know we're counting on you know few hundred,000 there for savings i know school committee uh and budget sub uh has talked about uh the
possibility of if we need to take additional funds out of END excess and efficiency um I would certainly recommend that uh especially if the override doesn't pass that would be an option that school would strongly explore u obviously I know we we've had
some initial conversations about a dollar amount uh and trying to balance and that's money to the staff today we have to try to balance making sure we do have money uh in END should something unexpected happen uh facilitywise boilerwise um some unexpected cost much
like it happens at home uh with we don't want to have too much money in there because we are facing a $6.4 million shortfall so we really need to make sure we're balancing that um and can really our needs on on both fronts um we obviously uh we've had this
conversation and uh should we need to go in this direction you know I think we'll need to as budget sub has already started to really examine all fees uh whether it be you know and I know we raised some fees last year but looking back at you know parking fees extracurricular fees um cost of
preschool cost of base again sure certainly they're not going to make up a $6.4 million shortfall but I think we have to make every effort i know Mr chuck came last time to talk about facility and rental fees increasing those and creating new structure i I think obviously the big one that I've
I've spoken to you about and there's been some discussion is you know athletics and extracurriculars at the middle school and high school level we obviously you know want to make sure our students have every opportunity to have a a positive experience where they have opportunities in front of them uh but
you know those those are expensive to fun we currently We have a user fee for athletics and we also have a user fee for extracurriculars um but I would recommend to you you know if if and when the time comes um you know we need to really explore what that's going to look
like do athletics need to become self-funded um I I think you know we're talking about again $6.4 million shortfall and large numbers of potential u you know reductions in force i think everything has to be on the table again trying to balance the opportunities for
our kids with how do we uh generate some additional revenue so you know there is that possibility we have explored what it would potentially cost per student this is based on you know athletes participating this year certainly can't um you know project 100% what would
happen for next year but if we were to self-fund athletics uh we would be looking at a user fee of of approximately $900 to $1,000 per student per sport so your three sport athletes could be anywhere from 2,700 to
$3,000 obviously that would be you know the max um anything that we were to do underneath that would certainly offset the cost of athletics so I think those are just things that we really need to look at especially once uh you know insurance becomes more clear um you know
obviously we're we're still involved in negotiations with two of our four um unions and so once again we have a better picture of of what that will look like you'll really know plus or minus some some more concrete numbers so that could certainly change but I I do think
we really have to take a a hard look at those fees and how we can become as much self-sufficient as possible or selfunding as possible then we obviously start looking at uh positions because At this point you know we I should say
we've also asked Mr sh Mr chaka Miss Joyce and Miss Richards to really re-evaluate facilities IT teaching and learning to see if there's any additional savings and so we were able to identify by uh you know moving some of our resources that we do have digital
access to um to to digital only and not having print materials there is a savings there and Mr is looking at pushing off some of the IT projects not capital projects but uh you know software behind the scenes projects that he was hoping to accomplish next year mr
chak is doing the same so again you know a couple hundred,000 savings there uh potentially so then we we we do then start taking a look at positions obviously uh as I've shared with staff today uh first and foremost we have to try to do everything we can
to reserve classroom positions uh building based positions and so that forces us to start looking at positions that are are non-classroom uh non-b buildingild based as much as possible so looking at administration because we don't you know every every area of the
organization has to be impacted especially when we're faced with such a shortfall so looking at administrative positions that uh potentially may not be filled uh looking at other departments that may be produced such as facilities such as uh secretarials uh you know
proctors ESPs really looking all positions that we potentially can obviously some of those positions we need to be able to run the district but if there's an opportunity for us to again try to preserve classroom positions we will we then obviously take a look at our retirees we currently have
16 retirees as of today you know I we always have a few more that come in towards the end of the year so that number could change uh but looking at those 16 positions and how many of those you know can we not fill obviously some of them we need because compliance and
you know the committee's commitment to try to keep class size manageable or at least similar to what it is now uh and so looking at some of those positions you know we will have to fill some of those that still presents you know a
still significant shortfall for us again depending on how these things shake out with with insurance and with END and with negotiations uh we could be still looking at about a $2 million shortfall we're at that point where unfortunately we have to stop looking at
positions um I did notify staff today that we will be sending out after vacation and again I know there was some discussion about the timeline of it uh but I I felt strongly that I wanted to make sure that we proceeded cautiously to make sure that we were doing everything correctly uh because
obviously we're talking about even though we're talking about positions there's still a person behind those positions his families behind those positions and so we wanted to make sure we did that due diligence and fact everything incorrectly so that does give us some time for when we return uh we will
be issuing unfortunately letters to our nonprofessional teaching staff uh you did hear we do have 76 nonPTS teachers uh and obviously as you know one of the other um you know dominoes and unintended consequences is as we
potentially have layoffs we have to make sure that we also have enough budget for unemployment costs and so looking to make sure that we can cover that uh we will be uh going into our list as well now you know obviously the big question is how many of those
positions will come back i think some of the factors that I've already talked to you about that are still unknown will play into that what I can share with you is obviously uh looking at those positions there are several positions that we just can't afford to do without you obviously well aware of our
challenges in our our world of student services many of those positions many of our PTS educators and even some of our PTS educators fall under that student services umbrella we have to be able to provide special education services we have to be able to staff our substantially separate programs we have
to be able to provide nursing coverage school psychologist coverage school adjustment counselor coverage uh guidance counselor coverage those are things that you know we we just have to be able to do um to the degree that we we can and so there will be of those numbers positions that return simply
because we have to but we are going to be looking at you know potentially a significant number of positions that are left unfilled unfortunately where those positions fall would be classroom positions we're trying to obviously
again make every effort to at least maintain as close as possible class size at the elementary level to what we have now uh that does mean that the high school and middle school will you know bear the brunt of this Again any level having to to deal
with this is unfortunate the other again domino that may come of this is as we are unable to fill positions we will have to potentially move people internally um so we could have staff moving from building
to building level to level based on certification just to fill gaps that exist because we weren't able to fill positions you know we when we kind of uh you know sketch out again the potential scenarios of what this may look like um
as you can imagine at the high school class size would be depending on the section depending on the content area depending on you know freshman sophomore junior senior class sizes you know you should expect 30 plus um you should
expect even higher we'll have some classes even talking to Miss Watson yesterday that'll be in the 40s and 50s and so we'll have to use rooms like this um and obviously you know it means a reduction in electives uh so again working through some of these
scenarios we may have students that are in multiple study halls per day obviously that's not something that many of us would recommend and it's something that I think we really have to consider depending on how many study halls Miss
Watson reading a mock schedule right now does find that uh our students especially our upper classmen you know if they're in three four five study halls a day can't even imagine that does it make sense to you know have them be here for a full day so those are things
that as she's building that schedule that we will become more obvious and evident i can tell you at the middle school level again what we're looking at projected class size minimum 30 all the way up to
36 what I will say uh to that is this these numbers are only as good as right now obviously they're based on current enrollment moving up to next year so they're projections what it doesn't factor in obviously you've heard us uh
talk about this make sure it's your enrollment data when I've shared the the data with you we have had 100 students over the last few years each year move into the district you add another 100 students to our enrollment for next year and these numbers are obviously already skewed um so we're looking at anywhere
from uh you know 32 to 35 I'm sorry 31 to to 36 at the middle school level and then when we look at K4 again you know especially 2 three four we're looking at 28s to 30s not ideal uh
K1 you know we have somewhat of a conundrum in that right now we kindergarten enrollment is happening um and so although we have some preliminary numbers we don't have concrete numbers as many of our students still enroll over the summer so we typically use this
year's K numbers to project next year's K numbers so when we do that moving up into first grade uh we would have roughly 26.8 students on the Bridgewater side almost 27 and 24.5 almost 25 on the
rain side now you look at those numbers you know and you do the math if we were to say well I'm going to try to take a teacher from Rainham and place them in Bridgewater in some cases not this particular grade level do the opposite it just flips the problem so if we were to go from you know 24 and Rainham
reduce the teacher we'd be up to you know 26 27 to only get rid down to 24 and obviously depending on how this plays out you know it favors one town over the other but these are all numbers that are what we know now so we will continue look at this uh but using those
first grade numbers uh assuming that the same number will come into kindergarten first grade we would be looking at similar numbers uh in kindergarten as well 26.8 24.5 and again those could significantly change from now even to the end of the
year into next year obviously you know class size I know the committee is committed to that these are not numbers that anybody would you know would be or should be satisfied with These could be our realities if an override doesn't pass and we're hoping that again we see
additional savings in other areas such as insurance potentially negotiations potentially um you know through additional END uh increasing fees this will obviously minimize the impact that it has directly on the classroom this is
you know where we're at right now happy to take any questions and again I know this is somewhat redundant for a lot of you you've heard this before but I thought as I shared with staff today when I met with them it's redundant for them as well for some but it's good to
get the picture from the beginning um this is really disheartening to hear this having kids in high school this is very disheartening to hear um my question is because there's a lot here and the community needs to hear
this yes we are going to put you guys my question is how is this information going to get out so what we've we've tried to do um obviously as you know we've created a tab on our website and we have been working to take a lot of that information and try to create what
we refer to as info infographics information that's easy to understand so it's not a lot of words you have to read obviously we want to have our Q&As's and we do need to update uh the FAQ I'm sorry the FAQs we do need to update some of those with uh recent information but we know there's a lot to
read there and a lot to follow so how can we get this information in you know the infographic one pager visually uh appealing and easy to understand and so that's what we're working on now to then be able to get that out to the public and post to our website
do you have any idea on that i I don't as soon as possible we are working on it so I I can tell you as soon as possible anything else does anyone else have any questions for
Mr powers thank you totally unrelated sure and it maybe I was just curious again where I mean I know we're trying to shuffle positions right now or potentially we'll
be shuffling positions but one question I do have is again positions that we need to fill that are vacant is the director of student services and the principal RMS and what is happening with those positions um yes happy to answer
that sure um So we obviously have uh conducted searches for both of those positions um we have a finalist that we are currently in negotiations with for the IMS principal position um we did have a search committee made up of RMS
staff RMS parents faculty and central office staff um that yielded uh really two strong finals and we have entered into negotiations in front of them i'm confident we should have that wrapped up very soon and be able to announce to the
community who our finalist is um and who our you know principal going forward as far as the director of student services we did end up having to repost that position um again I think I shared with the committee apologize if I didn't or
if I'm being redundant um we did uh have an initial search again a made up of uh parents uh st from student services and across the district at various levels and central office administration and building base administration uh we did
have a number of finals that were recommended for an additional round of interviews uh those were conducted um we were cautiously optimistic that we had a potential finalist that we would wanted to move forward with that individual
decided to remain in their district looking at the two finalists are both strong candidates um they're going to be you know great directors of student services at some point uh in the near future it just didn't seem as
though it was a perfect match for us and I felt as though that we really need to find that perfect match so that being the case we have reposted it we actually have another round of interviews tomorrow we did have a few more applicants come in so we'll have another round of interviews tomorrow speaking
with Mr leonard he is again fully committed to us um obviously his his initial commitment was just through the end of the school year we have had uh conversations about what that may look like if we were not able to secure a director of student services and would
he be willing to stay on and for how long and it does it seems as though that we do have a solid backup plan thank you thank you budget subcommittee report thank
you on April 7th 2025 the budget subcommittee met at 5:00 pm in the superintendent's conference room in attendance were Mr fitzgibbons Mrs davenport Mr lo Superintendent Powers Assistant Superintendent Barry Miss Rusho District Treasurer Mr shaka
Director of Facilities Menty Fiscal Assistant Business Services Mr who took our minutes and myself as Miss Deport was running late to work we did take a few items out of order by motion um we did approve the March 24th 2025
budgets subcommittee minutes at that time um we did as Mr powers indicated review fees um within the district um based on the budget scenarios as well as the fiscal year 2025 and 2026 budgets um
Mr regarding FAC shared that he has started reviewing our current fee schedule for facilities as well as researching other districts fees he would like to streamline itemize and update our current fee schedule to ensure we are charging enough and fees
are clear and itemized um I believe the last time we have updated those are 2019 so we want to bring those up to the present um after presentation and discussion um he will prepare and present an updated to be scheduled to be presented at the next budget sub meeting
no action was taken at that time um also regarding the fees schedule for 2025 2026 we reviewed those um we did look at athletic fees club extracurricular parking fees and excel program fees which we discussed mr
is going to prepare further information regarding costs for each to make them sustainable for next year specifically regarding athletic and club fees um which we will discuss at that next budget sub meeting um as parking fees um were increased last year those were at
the same price Mr will also prepare information regarding the Excel program fees and expenses um to be reviewed at that time um no action was taken at that time um fiscal year 2025 budget discussion miss Balola gave
a budget gave budget sub quarterly report which was included in the consent agenda for your review uh regarding fiscal year 2026 budget discussion um as Mr indicated he also gave us an update as to the status of the business office in
preparation for the budget by preparing different scenarios regarding if an override passes and if it does not including ensuring that we are in compliance with special education abiding by current union contracts reviewing class sizes and impacts of both budgets and looking at retirements
he will be he will remain working on the budget FAQ documents on the district website additionally he has been in contact with both towns via email in person meetings and with the ad hoc committee that I believe Mrs davenport um met with
them um further I attended both the April 1st 2025 Brainham selectments meeting and the April 8th Bridgewater Town Council meeting at both meetings the town officials updated their boards on the current status of the budget we had sent to the towns and their current financial situations and potential
override position discussions decisions and timelines the Royal Select had agreed to direct their town administrator to draft a potential warrant article for the Rainham Town Meeting which is scheduled for May 19th 2025 at RMS at 7 p.m if that article
passes at town meeting the Rainham Board of Select will then schedule a special town election for an override vote potentially in June the Bridgewater Town Council after a lengthy public comment and discussion on the budget and potential override referred the matter
to their budget and finance committee and finance committee which met this past Monday evening on April 14th i was not able to attend that meeting but I believe there was some discussion regarding that and I believe they had further put it to their next budget and finance committee and finance committee
agenda which I believe um will be before their next town council meeting on June 22nd 2025 um I believe is their intention if that passes at that June 22nd meeting they potentially also will put that for an override for a special election um
both towns are also still in discuss if they will do the potential special election on the same date or on different dates depending on their own schedules so they're still trying to work that out as well um our next budget subcommittee meeting is tenatively
scheduled for Monday May 12th 2025 at 5:30 following the election of new school committee members on April 26 2025 and school committee reorganization on May 7th 2025 and that concludes my report
all right thank you Mrs king mrs king I know some of the things that have come up over the past couple years is the base program and the cost of base and I'm just wondering if we again given if we do if a override does
not pass um are we considering cancelling and getting rid of base because it has cost us money we are paying for it and not to say I want to cancel it i was a parent that used on the random side park for as long as my kids could um but we should not be
losing teachers to pay for base yeah as we discussed we've been talking about base for the past year trying to make sure that it's not in the red um we have asked and the business office to bring us end of year reports after June to see
where we end up with so all of these fees will be on the table if it's not self sustaining that'll be to talk about because again we can't continue a program that's costing us money i understand so but that was on our agenda
to talk about this summer once we've closed out to see what we have any other questions from all right we'll move on to new business so first we'll declare the last day of school so entertain a motion to
approve Tuesday June 10th 2025 as the last day of school for preK and kindergarten students and Wednesday June 18th 2025 as the last day of school for grades 1 through 12 do I have a motion second
all in favor i unos opposed all right motion passes note that June June 18th is a half day of school and now on to other business that um
came before the school committee after the agenda posted so uh the consideration of a letter of the town from Ringham and her request I will read that letter out loud um this was sent to um Mr fitz Gibbons our chair on April
8th so dear chairman Z given and committee members in spirit of mutual respect and with a desire to work together as a united front with your committee and with our your town partner we respectfully request that you vote at your April 16th meeting to confirm that
your committee will accept the decision of the voters and honor the results whatever they may be of a proposition 2 and a half override vote for such a vote is taken to support the school committee's fiscal year 20 2026 budget as part of that vote we ask that you
also confirm that in the event of a special election override vote does not succeed you will not take the option of calling for a joint town meeting for the district but rather take that option off the table as a possibility please know that we make this request
not likely not likely but rather out of deep concern that such a scenario whereby a joint town meeting could conceivably undermine the decision of the voters would have de devastating effects on both of our communities by forcing them to come up with the funds
either by either by decimating reserves that are needed for other obligations and critical needs and or by causing widespread layoffs including our essential public safety sub public safety providers our police and firefighters as well as possibly by
curtailing services to our citizens we believe that is critically important that our committee take this action and in doing so a clear and important signal that our school district and our towns are united and are working together for the benefit of our schools and the children and young adults who attend
them but also for the benefit of our communities and all of our residents we thank you for your consideration of this request bring him board of selectment um Joseph Pico chair Patricia Riley vice chair and Kenneth Collins all right so at this time I
would like to entertain approval of the following resolution uh resolution we the west uh we the Bridgewater Readingham Regional School Committee hereby resolve on April 16th 2025 to accept the will of the voters on a
Proposition 2 and a half override for support of the fiscal year 26 budget and remove the option of a joint town meeting to force funding should a special election over override not succeed do I have a motion mrs temple
can I discuss yes are we motion to accept this or motion to discuss motion to discuss right and and my question to you is okay i'll just we get to discuss
was that a motion to discuss i'll make a motion to discuss discuss the option yes is there a second um all in favor or do I need an all in favor for that i All right did you want
to discuss yeah one is I just I have one to for us to accept the resolution um we need five yeses accept of what's here or of the committee
of a resolution so we need a who's here okay and I guess my question is and maybe Mrs king you know or someone else here i'm just trying to understand the process that would be helpful for me to understand this process and what this
means and doesn't mean Yes yes if the override does not pass if the voter so if it goes to town meeting council and it fails it fails there if
it passes and it goes to the special election but then fails there at the vote by the town people we do have within our um ability to call as a school district a joint
town meeting of Bridgewater um and at that time you can just as a town meeting you can call a joint town meeting by the school district um if it's approved at that meeting that would mean they would have
to then come up with their operational budgets and could at that joint meeting just I'm trying to understand the process if at that joint town meeting so let's say hyp hypothetically
the override is I don't $10 million off my head but at that joint town meeting could they then put on the table that is more than leveled but not quite what was in the override or does it what what like I'm trying to understand that I
don't know exactly what we can but I think any budget we want so it could be at that point school committee if if the override fails school committee would then have to calculate their budget and present a new budget going forward if they so choose to
present new budget go forward not the same budget so you know again thinking that we talked about the 112 12 possibility to avoid the 112 we obviously want to as a committee revisit a budget um that potentially or that already failed didn't pass and then at
that point back to the town so to even get that level funded we would need to go a joint town meeting to get that level funded budget yes because within Bridgewater and Rain's town budgets they only have
within their budget what they proposed so 3% and 4.67 for Bridgewater that's what they have built into their operational budget for next year so anything over and above that will be so I guess what I'm trying to understand
is why would we why would we even consider this sorry Mr mr right i I I really don't understand why we would do this today i have no idea why there's there's says we couldn't take the vote as it was either
have to do deal with something new so I don't know what the motivation is today other than to relieve a small group of people for making difficult decisions later on if we exactly I
think no go ahead I'm just trying to understand the process right now so whatever if like from my pro like what I took from the joint meeting is that we're that we would undermine the voters like if the voters made a stand
at the ballot box and they did not want the override this is undermining their vote like going now almost like because if if it goes to the town meeting not everybody has to go so then if if it does get passed by everybody who wanted
the override now we're going to possibly deplete our other our other um I appreciate that Mrs davis but I guess my question is if if we need even a level six funded budget how do we get that without going to a joint town meeting i
don't think we needed to go to a joint town meeting for that i thought that we just proposed the budget of the money that they said they can afford that's not going to be that would be our $6.4 million right so Oh so like So but that does that does that level funded
budget have to go to a joint town we would need to get over putting aside a joint town if the override fails we still have to come back as a school committee and certify budget the only budget that they will be
able to fund is their point anything over and above that would have to force a joint hotel and the level funded isn't the three so it would be even more that would be even le it would be even more teachers if we said if we did the three of the
4.6 or whatever it is okay correct not just the 24 last year but an additional 40 it would be the the cuts that I just reviewed with everybody because even though we would put forward a level services budget the town said they could only
afford 96 million we would be $6.4 million i think really the spirit of this letter is for the select of to feel confident that if they're going to support this that they know that we're also going to be on board and support what the voters
want and not for doing that vote that we asked you to do but we're still going to go forward and try again so I don't think it's mean spirited i think it's more of they want to know that we're also on board with
them and that we're going to respect voters with all respect i disagree i don't think it's necessary at this time they haven't even put in for a special election yet and we're already anticipating to you know we're going to relieve you having to make difficult decisions later on and as we just said
we're not even at a level service budget which means we're going to cut more positions and frankly I I can't sit here in this seat in good faith saying that I'm advocating for the students of this district and agree to something like this but it hasn't even been approved
yet it really looks like we're just trying to avoid going down this road okay it's a reality mrs d i I would almost and I don't maybe I I would make a motion to
withdraw and motion to um to table this we can table i mean this is why it was put as a resolution and not a vote can we table it okay motion to table second floor
second second all in favor all right any opposed any discussion sorry about that thank you Ryan any discussion no I just think it's not the right time to do this i mean I think we can come back to this especially if we're missing
three members um and I I don't think this is the time to do this right now it is mr said "I this is putting the cart before a horse it's a very it's premature at this point and I understand where random select men are coming from
i do and I appreciate that but don't we need to first get into a town meeting first before we even do this any other discussion so um do I have a motion to table it
did we just do that okay sorry i'm sorry guys i'm just kidding all All those in favor of tableling it all right any oppos all right motion passes
all right um public comment i will open the floor to public comment for a period of 12 minutes please keep comments to no more than three minutes obviously I'm disappointed that that even got kicked down the road um because
I'm sorry crash 270 range what is happening is that Rainheim is saying only let the schools take the cuts let's be clear that's what the request is don't come back and ask us for
more when have the fire when have the police when have when have any of the other services taken cuts no one has answered to me yet and I've asked the town of Bridgewwater as well and I don't want them to take the cut i'm the one out there advocating for the override do
not undermine the ability for level services you can go back you can make a different budget and you can tell this the towns to dip into their pocket somewhere else somewhere else they feel uncomfortable i understand with um to the chair that you want to respect the
vote of the people but it's your job as a school committee to protect the children it's not your job to defend a taxpayer in the town it's your job to put forth look at what is written on the school committee's website and read what
your job is as a school committee member it is to protect the children 50 kids in a classroom in here that's not protecting the seniors telling them that before they go to college we won't even have classes for them when they're applying that's not protecting the
children that's your obligation anyone else um I'm not sure if we're aware but the district was in a similar situation um but it was early 2000s and uh the process the budget process this process
which is granted to uh voters by state law all right what they're asking you to do is to say "Hey uh we're not going to allow you know the law to take place." All right but this process did take
place and this is how the the budget was final finally approved was at a meeting of this time um and it was I believe it was successful all right the process is if the budget is not
approved which need that's presented down to the towns that is going to need an override then the school committee can go and adjust the budget for a town meeting a joint town meeting all right I
don't see how that is you know not letting the voters decide on the school budget just I I see just the opposite by eliminating their right to to vote for the budget and having it go right to the state oh by the way when that goes the
level funded budget is for is based on this year's budget not the one that's being presented for next year okay uh so look you really need to consider look I think you should reconsider this and vote no on because what you're what
they're trying to do is take the rights away from the voters you know that's clear trisha Riley board select and I apologize for coming up here again but I just have to respond and please know that as a lifelong resident of RainM
graduate of the Bridgewater schools 12th year member of the school committee I would never be part of proposing anything that was not right for our schools this does not say don't vote for the override it's the opposite it says if you want the override vote go to the
voters make your case to the voters let the voters support it but you're talking about something that is going to affect all the taxpayers in Bridgewater in Rainham and they deserve an opportunity to vote on that there has never been a regional joint town meeting when this
came up once before I believe it was approved in Rainham it was not approved in Bridgewwater so Bridgewater went down to back to a Bridgewater town meeting it was Bridgewater Town meeting at the time and they voted to take money from other departments there were layoffs within
the town i believe the library hours were curtailed they made cuts within their budget in order to meet what Rainham had proposed to come up with so this is not intended not being spirited in any sense it is actually send a
message to the voters that that decision has to be made by you at the ballot box get the people out there to vote don't try to do something that could possibly undermine the vote of the vote of the the decision of the voters that's all it's asking for thank you
julie Scaris 47 Red Mill Road um I'm here because um as a taxpayer as a parent of former regional graduates um as a former school committee member as someone that was on the PPC which is the
insurance um group Mr powers referenced that we missed the window to be part of municipal purchasing group that's pretty bothersome to me because it may or may not have saved the taxpayers money so I I guess I question how do we prevent
missing it again um and also what is the contribution that the district pays versus the employees um being the um the staff in all the unions because the last time I was on it was six over six years ago and I don't know if the percentages
have changed but uh we all know that insurance goes up and expenses go up and revenue does not as we've all talked about repeatedly um I also get stuck behind a lot of school buses so I I don't know
where the transportation contract is but is there any way to reduce the number of buses out there um that's another question and as far as the um questions go there's 37 positions out there but I don't even know still what 37 positions
are so maybe 16 of them are the time positions but what are the other 20 positions what are their titles what are their positions how do they affect classroom sizes um and the sustainability happen before you present the budget not after because
that's why we're here again that's why there's all this talk about kicking the can down the road if it's done before not after maybe we wouldn't be here right now maybe it would have been done three years ago pre-COVID you get money more than you normally get you build up
the positions and like you said you're going to be paying unemployment when you lay them off where was the future thinking on that i'm sorry that I had to say this i didn't want to say it in public but I'm I'm losing sleep over this um it's it's disheartening
all of these my kids were in paris centers my children were in affordable classrooms my kids were out of school an hour early when they weren't on specials guess what they went to college they graduated i had a daughter out of district as well in special ed i
understand special ed i understand that we need to be in compliance i understand we're also maybe being out of compliance in his legal fees we need to fix that we need to get them we need to be in compliance so that we're not being having parents knocking down your door
we should take care of that all these questions need to be answered whether it's online or to other people but you have to understand yes small classes are important but how do we get them and there was a particular Monday night there was and it said nobody asked for
0% well there are some industries where you don't get asked you get told you don't get a raise because the money's not there and when you get a step raise there is money there so you can't have everything you can only spend what you have thank
you anyone else do any members have any announcements to share i just want to reiterate um the annual town election in Rainham and Bridgewater is April 26 which is that Saturday at the end of the vacation so please make
sure everyone gets out to vote i don't know the hours at both towns they're different hours for voting um but if you're not going to be here that Saturday please do an early ballot um so everybody please vote we do have school
committee positions on the ballot awesome thank you anyone else just a final I would like to thank the committees past and present that I've worked with um the community members the teachers the
administrators it's it's a timeconsuming job many nights also thank my family for ditching them but I I took this job seriously and I think anybody on the
committee should take it seriously and show up thank you Miss Martelli we'll miss you next year thank you oh I'm not the one i hope to see you that's the other thing i'm have more time to volunteer now
there you go yeah all right and a couple of announcements I have here is Greenwater Plays will be performing Hestown Teen Edition on May 1st 2nd and 3rd get your tickets um we wish TJ Swear the best of luck at their competition right now in Houston Texas and the
school committee reorganization meeting will be held the week after the election on May 7th 2025 in the superintendent's conference room at 166 Mount Prospect Street and our next school committee meeting will be held in the auditorium of
on May 21st 2025 um that brings us to the close of the meeting i'll take an I'll entertain a motion to adjourn motion to adjurnn all right thank you very