hit record um and I will turn it over to you um chair green okay great thank you well welcome to the uh meeting of the Town School partnership always an exciting
and interesting uh experience for us um let's start off with approval of the minutes um for February 6 20124 April 23rd June 26th and November 13 all 20 24 does anyone have any uh
Corrections or um comments to the minutes I'm going to abstain um because I don't know I don't trust my memory of what happened almost a year ago but I just would highlight that as far as I can tell the June and um and November
ones don't have um attendance records in them either okay can you fix that uh Charlie I will that yeah so um maybe we just vote the two that don't have it or that do have it I'm sorry so the uh I think that's the just
to be um correct absolutely yep I we we can we can correct that thank you for raising that Mariah so the the February 6th and the April 23rd are the ones that do have it right and that's the two recent ones that don't right and and you know n none of us can remember back a
year but uh you know the point is making sure that uh to the extent that you remember and are familiar with what we do that you know they they uh uh seem to make sense and and are not inaccurate but isn't there some timeline that we're
supposed to approve these by by law yeah absolutely Mariah and I I think that they should have been brought forward sooner it's it just is what it is so okay with that unless anyone has any further uh comments regarding the um minute and thank you for uh um noticing
that Mariah uh I call for approval of February 6 and April 23 2024 minutes uh who can take role Charlie do you see everyone on the screen I can do that yep okay um so they they're all here all all
voting members are present um will you call the role Charlie for the votes sure I can do that do I I should I I'll start with I'll start with advisory um Dennis dowy yes uh Harry fredman um I have to
abstain I did not participate in either of those meetings sure um Ryan OA stain uh Andy L I need to abstain as well yeah um and then uh we'll do Michael
sammon if you could uh let us know if you're voting y or nay on this Mike is here Mike you were muted when you spoke so you're still muted give us a use use your hand yeah give us a one uh hold on
yes thank you Mike and chair green yeah thank you um so motion passes uh three yes three extensions okay okay um let's start off with the next item cisal year 25 budget
updates is that going to be um Melissa so I think that we put that item on the agenda to talk about the um the status of the current school budget I would say that for um on the town side the two areas that we're looking at are Public Safety related and these are areas that we've been discussing with
advisory over the past couple of years the fire budget um and then just looking at the implementation of the Police Department collective bargaining um so that that's kind of where we are with fiscal 25 okay so I'm sorry maybe I I didn't understand so we gonna um fold the
discussion of fiscal year 25 and 26 into the discussion of the schools so well no it's it's it's a discussion more broadly of of both where we are where we both are town and schools are in our um in our fy2
um okay well let's hear it can I ask a quick question is there any updates on the budget I'm sorry when you say the budget what do you mean that's the you're talking about FY 26 Helen as opposed to
25 or do you mean they talking about current year budget that's what this item is sorry yeah 26 is the next item on the agenda so Melissa say what do you have so for for fiscal 25 we're um you know
continuing to monitor the public safety budgets like we have over the past couple of years um advisory will remember that we added uh $300,000 to the fire department to address some of the overtime issues that we were seeing we are still projecting a deficit for fire um less than we um went to the
reserve fund for last year um and seeing slight relief from adding the deputies to the count uh are current projections Charlie you can correct me if we're wrong if I'm wrong um around 600,000 for fire um maybe a little bit less um and
that that's been you know uh an ongoing effort that we've been monitoring around um the lead utilization and um the the current Staffing of the department okay any questions no uh you want to go to fiscal
year 26 well I think also we've been talking um internally with the school department about um their uh projected deficit in fiscal 25 I know that um the school administration has been talking about that with the with the school committee um but I don't think that that
discussion has been um talked about with this with this group so it would be good to kind of keep everyone informed um the current status of the fiscal 25 budget are you asking Susan or who are you asking to give update um a representative from the school
department it would be um good to get an update on on the current status talking but she's on mute Susan we can't hear you again like earlier yeah how about can you hear me now y sorry about that no problem
s uh yeah so we um are experiencing some pressure points in our budget um in particular uh salaries um are are running hot and um in the first quarter
report we had identified about 1.2 million in um salaries that were running over what our projection was or our our budget was uh that that component of of our deficit is is closing because we
have breakage um meaning that we have positions that are open that have gone unfilled and so as a result of that we gain um money back into in into our budget because we haven't filled the positions so that that has improved a
bit um on the other hand we have um some challenges around Grant allocation and so we have about $1.2 Million worth of expenses that were written into grants that are now having to bleed back into the operating budget and that has
nothing to do with the recent activity from Washington so we have a group together and then we also have some areas um in the in contracted services that are um higher than what was in the budget along with some out of District
placement costs that are running higher uh so we're actively managing that um and we'll be giving our committee report next week on the status of our budget so that's where we're at at this point okay any
[Music] questions hello yeah um I I have a question okay sorry thank you um so um uh Susan you mentioned $2 million in Grants uh and um tell I wonder if you can tell us a little bit about what's
going on are these grants that were anticipated haven't been received or grants have been withdrawn or what's where's that come from so when we developed the budget it's developed um with an all funds approach and when we
went through the budget process uh our our grants were allocated out uh but when the grants were when at least one of the grants were written wasn't written consistent with our spending plan um and as a result of that it's uh
caused expenses that were previously allocated to that Grant to now have to be uh funded through the operating budget okay and um out of District uh placements that was an issue in 24 as well and that was mostly we were told
mostly related to Transportation as opposed to tuition uh but it is what's going on now with uh with that yeah I don't have a lot of the um intimate details of the OSS but what I can say is that um yeah out of
District placement cost in its totality is running couple hundred thousand dollar higher as well as settlements um are running higher than what we had set aside in our budget um contracted services for special educ a are also
running over um and so it's you know there services that uh support the needs of kids and they're just running um higher than what was set aside in the budget and and you'll say of course you know we we we we did increase those
lines by um globally by about 21% but it but as we look at it now uh we needed a 29% increase in order to cover the cost that we're seeing right now of course we couldn't see that at the time we put the budget together but um that's kind of where it how it's playing out right now
so there's things we're doing of course uh we're not just allowing um the deficit to accumulate um and so we're looking at other special Revenue funds to see how we can leverage those we're looking at the grant that was written um without some of those
expenses included in them ways that we can uh modify those grants and in order to account for the staff that had uh been been historically on that Grant um right now today we're we're putting a soft freeze on meaning that um we've
asked all staff to uh issue uh requisitions for anything that's essential uh for from now until the end of the year and so I'm hoping that uh you know early next week we'll be able
to see um non-salary expenses that we can use to offset uh some of these salary overruns Andor um some of the special education cost overruns for this year so so I can appreciate that you you won't have your full your budget report
until next week but can you give us a sense of how far uh all of this adds up to I know you've got some there must be some salary deficit left left from the beginning of your remarks and the grants and out District placements and so forth so what does that all up yes more or
less that's a great question so right now we're we're trying to address about a $3 million challenge okay thank you uh Dennis Dennis your hands up yes um so uh I I realized there's another
agenda item later in this particular um meeting but since you were talking about um cost overruns as it related to OSS um and um some of the questions uh
uh uh uh about costs there um I was curious whether um any of the uh items that have been reported in the Press uh you know the allegations of you know
financial mismanagement and the like um have entered into the um uh the discussion around uh the the $3 million for 2025 uh and whether you have any comments or or or sort of preliminary um
um information that you can share well I can't speak to what um the specific allegations are related to financial mismanagement that has uh that's a that's a big statement to make
and um I I I'm not aware of uh the specifics around why that person believes that what I can um say is that many of the issues that I highlighted for you last year that were problematic we're still having some problems in
those areas um the issues of cost overruns uh with contracted services and many of these other things were things I identified last year and and uh though we've made some progress um in actually
most all other departments um we've still continued to struggle um in in the OSS Department with um um um financial management issues I will
say uh so I I guess that's if you have a specific question or or an interest I'm happy to speak directly but I don't uh have any what I would consider to be mismanagement issues but I'm I'm I'm interested very much in in having this
audit done because I can say whatever I say at this particular point I'm sure that uh people will view that as being defensive I I know what you're going to find and um I'm looking forward to the Auditors um clarifying that for everybody um I think we'll all learn a
lot and um I think it's long overdue and I wish it had been done before I arrived well I mean yeah mean since you do mention specific questions I do have um specific questions about um the Mike
mentioned the transportation services um in uh in his in his in his question and and your answer was that you weren't sure whether um you know where exactly the cost overruns within the OSS
Department Department were when when you came to advisory back in uh the summer for the reserve fund transfer you had told us about a number of um changes that have been made within within munus for uh uh changing um both accounting um
uh coding standards and some of the practices around how con how contracts would be executed and you also indicated that you'd come back and share all that with us in terms of what the updates had been and so you could take us through
how the process had improved and as I'm sure you're aware that hasn't happened yet and so I could just you know ask for that summary right now but I I've been expecting an update on that for quite some time yes I had reached out to schedule a
meeting um to see when we could come and give you an update on that but with town meeting I think that that that kind of got uh uh delayed a bit uh but yeah so we we have had great progress so um position control numbers are in place
one of the reasons why we're seeing this early is because of the internal controls that were put in place um and so uh uh position control numbers um were implemented back in July at the beginning of the year uh and I think
that's going quite well I have a good sense of um when uh positions are being requested um uh they're signed off by deputies um with a funding source associated with it if we're going to add a new position one of the things that
we've run into is uh that some of the positions that are coming forward to us from OSS don't have a funding source and so that's kind of um been a bit of a challenge uh but in general all other departments have adjusted quite well um
the contract uh process has been implemented we've had a little bit of a a challenge with that in that um the person that was the primary uh person to prep compare those documents on my behalf for my review uh took ill and uh
ultimately wound up leaving but uh there was a period uh there's been a long period of time where I have not had an executive assistant which kind of delayed some of the the work on the contracts being issued but um but the process was put into place we had
trainings all summer long we had four trainings um Al the aless administration attended those trainings so they were well aware of um what the protocols are and and mostly by and large a lot of this is is uh
reinstituting uh procedures that uh had previously been in place um but I think in general overall uh that's it's going um quite well uh it's just this one um area that we continue to have
difficulties with um uh the implementation of those uh internal controls and um but overall you know um I think the changes have been
uh have been showing great promise so why can we see earlier so what do internal controls do they allow you to detect fraud uh misuse of money Andor um detect when you're um running um you know cost overruns and so we're able to
see this this you know since since November December right so it so it tells me that um these internal controls are are uh benefiting us uh right now um like I said there's been a number of
unanticipated developments like writing of Grants inconsistent with the spending P plan that was approved by the school committee that is not something that could be foreseen and we've been struggling internally to reconcile that um and so if if that's related to
mismanagement I don't know I don't know how to make the connection between those things but I can say that um uh the spending plan was uh developed collaboratively internally and uh I I I
don't have a good explanation for why um why it's played out in this way but yeah so I would say that's what I would say Dennis I think um we're seeing great results from from our efforts but we're not um as far along as I had hope we'd
be thank you uh any I don't see Hands Up me look okay any any further discussion I don't see any hands up if not we'll we'll move on school department audit well no we're
going to talk about FY 26 sorry I thought I thought that no we were on 25 and then we kind of um went a little off course um for fiscal 26 just have two items to cover with the group obviously the B the governor's budget came out
that is the thing that we wait for before the um before finalizing the financial plan um so let me just share my screen here uh this just shows the difference between um the final fiscal 25 cherry sheet the uh estimate that we
had in the forecast and the governor's budget and how that plays out so um we were very conservative in the forecast admittedly so um that we were assuming level funding for most of our state aid accounts um and so obviously we did see
the benefit of a 3.1% increase in our Chapter 70 fund uh and then overall uh an increase in unrestricted General government Aid AA um one of the things that I was worried about were the charges because our Northfork County
assessment usually um you know surpasses some of the uh the gains that we see in revenue and um I was very surprised to see that our nor County assessment went down um especially hearing that they had made some changes to the retirement system I was um expecting that to go up
so that was good news on our end hopefully that the charges will hold through the rest of the budget cycle um and then you can see a a small increase in our uh MBTA assessment a larger increase in the R&B assessment smaller increase in libraries so overall
um you know we're seeing you know about 4.3% over the forecast um just under 3% uh for um Bud final cherry sheet to the current uh cherry sheet iteration um you know obviously the governor's budget is
the first pass and we're hopeful that that we might see some growth uh as a goes through the rest of the budget cycle I believe that the Chapter 70 number is based on $75 per student um I think last year we saw that get to 100 um so we're hopeful
that there might be some additional growth in that area as well um any questions about that before I jump into the um I'll just stop sharing uh we'll go into the the split sheeet after that Berard do you want me to call on
people or do you want um uh I'm sorry um I'm Miss oh Harry fredman's hand is up um Melissa I'm not sure this is Chapter 70 or something else the charter school reimbursements
plummeted what exactly is that and why sure so I actually called this up on the in the budget section just so I could read it because I think we talk about this a lot so it's part of M general laws that the state assesses a municipality or Regional School District for the cost associated with pupils
attending a charter school and the way that the assessment works is in in year one it's 100% of the assessment in year two 60% and then in year three it's 40% so there's there's um it's on both sides of the Ledger there's a there's a charges side and then a uh receipt side
so it really is about um the number of children that are in charter schools and the level of assessment that the state provide um and happy to defer to any um school department person who has any additional information on th on those
charges um about how many people how many Brookline students are in charter schools and uh where where are those charter schools so I don't have the numbers behind what the assessments are I don't know if there's data that the school
department has that um talks about um children that are not currently in their system and Harry I reached out to our Enrollment Office earlier when I saw that as well so as soon as I get that information I'll share it out thank you so
much okay um I don't see any members marah Mariah has her hand raised it's just her um background is a little hard to see apologize Mariah that's okay I I think you're gonna talk about this on the next slide Melissa are you just gonna give the breakdown of the what the
impact also of the cherry sheet changes okay that's all I wanted to know is thanks all right so um given that let's jump into the nitty-gritty what and the probably the most interesting part of the meeting so um essentially this is uh now
that we have our final Revenue numbers in place um we are showing what that means for the Town School split um so you can see um property taxes the growth is 19.5 million um I will say that um about 7 million of that growth is
directly associated with the increase in the debt exclusion um Debt Service uh totals so really when you're looking at the property tax growth when you're thinking about it for operating budget you should have a $12 million number in your head um local receipts we really
scrubbed our local receipts and I I think that we've pushed them about as far as we feel comfortable with at this point especially given current year activity um and uh I think that they're um we're still continuing to monitor um there are a couple of accounts um that I
still am concerned about but we we do feel that this is a um a to acknowledge some of the activity that we've seen over the past year um but still trying to be cautious and still trying to provide um the the uh yearend Surplus that we need to carry into our Capital
plan um state aid that just um translates to the numbers that you saw on the previous sheet we are still not certified yet from for free cash we're hoping that that will happen this week uh we are currently working with an estimate that we also used in the
preliminary CIP other available funds are charges that are coming from the Enterprise funds and the cemetery trust to support the operations and benefits of employees within those funds um the reason why you see a rather large drop is that last year we were able to bring
in some money through the overlay to support the capital Improvement plan that's onetime funding um to support that plan um so then you see the other areas that kind of come off the top and so our you General budget is um unclassified items that are carried like
property insurance and um our audit and things like that Debt Service most of the growth that you're seeing in The Debt Service budget corresponds to the increase that you're seeing in debt service for the debt exclusions um The Reserve fund uh there's a formula that grows that by the
percentage of Revenue special Appropriations I'll note that one of the major changes that we made since the forecast came out is that we uh made the decision to reduce the level of operating funds that support the capital Improvement plan um as you recall the um
the CIP policies were just recently amended to allow for 6.6% of Prior year net revenue to support the CIP um some of that funding was coming from the override um we talked with the board during the forecast about um holding a
level of uh funding in the CIP in order for us to uh reduce that to 6% of pre net revenue which was what the previous policy was based on um so that did provide a little bit of relief both town and School uh not appropriated are a
result of the items that you saw on the cherry sheet and then um made some changes in our benefit line item as well we um basically are still holding our 12% Group Health assumption although we have seen um GIC announce range
somewhere from 10.5 to 12% in checking with our health insurance consultant on whether or not we could lower our assumptions we are still being told to hold 12% if not higher a lot of our employees are in the higher cost plan uh as an example with that 12% assumption
an employee that's in the family plan of our most popular plan it would be a 20 thou $29,000 cost to support that plan so that's that's really kind of illustrates the impact of just Group Insurance um on this particular budget
assuming um 30 enroles added for schools and 10 I reduced that down from 15 um the other thing that we also did was level fund our contribution to the uh other post employment benefit our OPB trust um and we we did that during covid
and and given the the needs that have been Illustrated through the course of this budget cycle uh we felt it was appropriate to to level fund that uh this year so what that does essentially is once you have your revenue and your fixed costs um you have a certain amount available for Town and School
departments which is $8.4 million we uh take that am amount and apply the prior years split town and school to that number and then we make assessments for shared services so we have growth in our building department related to utility costs uh repair and maintenance costs um
there's small growth for um Unice in it we are adding a cyber security position that was previously funded on arpa um and then there's also software growth as well um and then there's a small increase in our general insurance as well um this is year three of an
override cycle so the $624,000 adjustment um provides the schools portion of the override that doesn't naturally come through the split to the schools um and then we've also been talking about um with with us
privatizing sanitation and increasing fees to support the new contract cost um we are looking to direct the entirety of the new fee increase to support the cost of the program and then also um an assumption of reduced group Health um
headcount related to um reduced FTE um having that also uh fully borne by the town um so given all of these adjustments um what that essentially translates to is a a town allocation of about 98 just shy of $99 million and
then the schools would be 141 760 um and then I just put down here um the amount that we originally had in the forecast which was 139 million so we've been able to bring that number up by just a little over $2 million from what we had originally projected in the
forecast and happy to I know I talked very quickly about a lot of things but I'm happy to answer any questions I'm going to stop screen share before I do that Harry um Melissa you'll have to excuse me I have new computer glasses
and can't actually see anything but on that chart the the last column called total wasn't that differential or change from I should relabel it it's really the variance sorry yep y okay thank you can
you pull it back up just so I can see what Harry's talking about sure thanks my question's also um this this should be variance not total ah okay can I ask a question about if is it okay Bernard if I ask a question okay um can
you just explain the revenue adjustment relating to Group Health for sanitation I can understand the sanitation fee because the prior discussion was about how those revenues would go directly to sanitation but I'm confused about the what I would assume is an above the line for health insurance for sanitation then
resulting in a net reduction to school re to school um allocation yep so we we discussed with the school administration um that as we are going through this budget and are making cost-saving measures that as we reduce um FTE beyond
the Assumption of of enrollment changes that those savings would be directed to the department that is essentially making those changes so if the school department had an FTE reduction resulting from a program change you would take the full benefit of those
reduced FTE okay so we will also acrew that once we start to do that as well okay got it thank you that's very helpful yeah okay um I'm just on people on the town School partnership any
other questions from that body of people okay um let's see um we have uh one hand up off the committee and I guess before we move into the um uh next uh item on
the agenda maybe we should take that well I do I do think um okay I mean if you want to take initial questions that's fine I want to talk about where based on those projections where we see our current shortfalls and talk about that on the school side as well okay
um um and Andy first and then Helen and and then um Chaz yeah a fairly quick question I think so at last week's school committee meeting um I think Susan had indicated that we were probably looking at 1.5
million more in um in allocation than we've been expecting as of December 11th so um Melissa this 2.1 million figure is sort of it's that number it's not added on top of the 1.5 that we heard about it's the it's it's that number but but a
bit larger yeah thanks yeah and I think before we didn't have final state aid numbers and then we also didn't make the decision on the OPB so that's part of the reason why there's a shift and I also further tweaked local receipts so those are kind of three additional
changes from the last time I uh shared our current status with Susan okay thanks yep okay Helen why don't you ask your question quickly and we'll go on to Chaz okay thank you so much for allowing me
to ask I'm I'm interested in the free cash um I actually asked Melissa for the last uh I think 7 to 10 years of preach uh numbers and it's been very interesting to me that they're in the double digits for
the last seven years and for the last three years it's been over 20 million um including this year in the estimates and I'm wondering why we can't use the the the larger numbers that we have a small
portion to try and help with our deficits on both sides sure so um I think that we've talked about um the drivers of free cash and a lot of the drivers that we've seen over the past few years have been things that have been one time in nature so as
an example we have a high interest rate environment um that essentially our interest income numbers were we're seeing unprecedented numbers for interest income um we don't think that that is something that is going to be consistent um we think that that is
something that will change with the changing um economic conditions uh especially with the change in administration um we could see some changes uh so that you know a lot of the activity that you do that does gen help generate free cash um is what we view as
one time in nature another thing that also um generates free cash is level of vacancies and so as you fill positions um you you'll see that that will also um take up the funding that you previously had um that provided free cash um so
that's you know we did we have been looking at Trends across the state and we we do feel that we are in the norm in terms of what the experience has been in other communities um do does try and recommend that communities try and generate somewhere around 5% of priye
operating budgets um in free cash but we also have an additional um threshold of trying to um meet the CIP requirements uh in order to have um our CIP go above the 6% funding and get to 7 and a half%
funding um so that's part of the reason why our local local receipts have been conservative um I will say that given the reduction that we made to the CIP this year and the push that we are making in local receipts um I am concerned about trying to make that that
7 and a half% happen in fiscal 27 um but I think that we're you know we're going to continue to monitor the situation as well yeah I just to add to that right you know in all years except the last three we have been bang on the state estimates and in these three years where
we've been above where the state's estimate of three or State's recommendation of three to five the Statewide the the free cash percentage of all the municipalities that report it have been similar to ours and one big reason for that is arpa right we had this arpa money was delivered to us by
the federal government they just kind of dropped in our lap in two different installments and then we put it in the bank and so we had more money and then we generated interest on that money um and so that's a big portion of why the fre Cash numbers during the pandemic
have been higher um because of those arpa dollars so I understand when people see the free cash numbers they think well we're above we can we can do something on that but it really it really is one time in nature and when we look at some of these things like
parking meter receipts like you know traffic tickets and so forth and building even building permits you know which has historically been a cash cow right the music is stopping um we're not seeing those numbers where they need to be so I would it would be a I think
mismanagement for us to go after to to allocate free cash at this time under the expectation that things will continue as they are because they won't yeah as an example on building permits I looked at where we are year-to date on building permits our estimates around $3
million for fiscal 25 um year-to date we are $2 million um in collected building permit Revenue last year at this time we were already at 3.2 so that's area in local receipts that has me a little nervous I think at its high we brought in $8 million um but we are definitely
seeing a change uh in the activity under that account okay thank you guys explanation okay chz did you want to add more so just to talk a little bit about where you know you see these Revenue numbers and then the question is where are expenditures um and at present on the
town side um given those re numbers in the governor's budget the sanit implentation of Sanitation we are currently projecting a townside deficit of around $630,000 um it's down from 1.3 million in the forecast in December which is good but it's still a deficit
that we're going to need to close um we had discussion can you repeat that number $630,000 sorry so that is a deficit that we are going to have to close through reductions um we have made we've endeavored to propose those reduction across departments our our primary goal
in keeping with the select board's objectives has been to preserve the functions of town government including those uh presented as part of the 2022 override um and also to preserve Staffing um to avoid layoffs um and so
we have successfully done that um we are reducing budgets that were already in some cases reduced significantly to pay for the Police contract last year um so the town is moving increasingly close to the Bone here in terms of what we have
available to us to cut without starting to look at more serious measures like reduction in services or layoffs um so I do want to say and I want to be clear that we view the $630,000 that we we
know what that includes but we also know what that doesn't include and what it doesn't include is the possibility that Groth health comes in higher than 12% which is a possibility it doesn't include the possibility of settling a fire contract whether that's by reaching an agreement or through be
arbitration um you know you may recall that the uh when the Police contract was settled through arbitration it was a bit of a budget Buster that year um I would have no reason to think that it wouldn't be similar this time around um so and that is something that would come to
roost um both in terms of retroactive payments and ongoing payments in FY 26 um and it doesn't include any you know an additional discussion about you know where we are in terms of closing the Gap in 25 um or on the school side
of things so all of that is to say right now we're going to be able to move through we're going to be able to move through town meeting in the spring we hope again barring a group health increase or some other unknown you know Black Swan event um on the town side but
I would anticipate either in the fall town meeting or in the Spring Town Meeting needing to make further cuts to this budget um we are going to do our best to avoid that outcome um but I just want to set expectations accordingly um that we can see things coming down the
pike um and especially in this political environment um we're not you know we're we're not we're we're we're preparing for the eventuality that we are going to need to make additional Cuts in order to balance the budget any further questions or discussion from
the uh partnership and I will just add that we're going to um the Town School split sheeet will add to the packet after this meeting great thanks and we give that opportunity on the school side to discuss on their
end well we're in the heat of uh developing our budget right now and we'll be presenting um an initial budget proposal to the school committee next week um we've been actively uh
discussing um what types of strategies we would potentially need to employ in order to get our budget back into balance but we're not going to be um presenting a balanced budget when the budget proposal is uh uh submitted to
the school committee we recognize that we have to get that number down um uh to the number that the town has allocated to us but we aren't going to have that work done because the number is so enormous on our side that it it
requires uh a lot of deep thinking about the implications it has for um our services and um programming for kids there's no way to make the kind of cuts we need to make and keep all of the services and programming that we have so
um more to come on that okay um I guess somewhat related to that uh why don't we move on to the next item on our agenda uh that is the school department
audit uh review possible vote on a recommended school department audit scope of work um I think we also need to talk about a couple other things um you know why are we doing the audit I mean is it just because of uh issues within student
services or are we looking at broader issues uh related to the schools um I think also who is the audit client and this this is maybe a little more controversial than it should be um I know that the audit committee has
proposed that uh in effect that the um uh School Town School partnership be the client uh in that you know we are the it's a strange body not by bylaw but we're the only body that really has the
um Staffing from schools and uh the town and of course the legislative branch through the advisory committee so um it makes sense that you know we be involved in you know PR preparation of the scope of Services of the audit and um you know
be brought in when the audit is ready to to make sure that uh we can oversee uh the implementation of any recommendations um and uh you know I think the other thing that is is not clear maybe that's
uh this is also implicit in the first thing I mentioned is is the scope of the audit uh just oaf and OSS or is that the public schools of Brookline and I guess you that's not clear to me um but it's
not clear clear that there's agreement on that um so and I would just note to the chair that um the um the chair of the audit committee who brought this item forward for your consideration is here um so
yeah and is he U Charlie can you admit Paul Healey he's been Charlie's promoted him thank you Charlie okay so where do we start here Bernard I have my hand up to comment on some of the things you raised oh I'm sorry um that's okay it's the
background you can't see it and I don't know I couldn't figure out how to change the any of this in on in real time um in terms of the wording of the audit um I I just would give a little bit of background first off the school
committee is meeting tomorrow night to um uh we scheduled a special meeting to discuss the wording um that was presented audit by I believe Paul Warren Dennis dowy and Paul Healey um but that
was that's not something that school committee has been in committee yet to to be able to discuss as a body um and in terms of the um of the client of the
um of the the audit um I think personally I can only speak for myself personally but you know the my general sense is that um just like school committee was partnering with audit and I think school committee has been open
to um and and enthusiastic to receive additional questions and comments on the statement of work from other partners that we would be um I and again I'm projecting I don't know what the committee will do but I think that adding other committees as partners with school committee would be um a welcome
approach I think that statutorily school committee has oversight over the schools um and so it makes sense to me that school committee is the client in partnership with audit with perhaps even the constituent bodies of um Town School Partnership if not Town School
partnership itself given Town School partnership is not even in the town bylaws so it's not even necessarily an entity um that has a a strong structure but that could be another way to go about this um but again for reasons of statutory author I feel like it should
go to school committee and um in terms of the content of the um the document we aren't reviewing it until tomorrow as a body uh I see Paul Healey's hand up and then Andy
Lou I think Paul was first thanks uh thanks Bernard so um let me just give a little background on this so uh after Lisa or Connell resigned and alleged uh that there were problems in the in the
with the financial management um and practices within the school department um I received a call from Mariah asking me to to chat with her about how we might respond and one of the things that we talked about was creating an independent review to dig
into the allegations and make recommendations on any changes that were needed to respond to that um so we discussed asking the audit committee the audit firm of the town to do that uh they were in the process of conducting an audit we have a relationship with them and it would seem like that will be
a way to respond quickly um we talked with Lincoln about this and and uh Lincoln talked to the uh the Auditors um Mariah went back to the school committee they decided it make sense made sense to do this and so um the audit partner
introduced us to two of them two people from The Firm who are not part of the audit and had experience with such reviews at and at math schools and uh and then we decided that that actually the review should not come just from the school committee but should be the
school committee and the audit committee um at that point the uh the Seas the our auditor came back or audit firm came back with a with a proposal that picked up on the scope that was discussed by the um by the the school committee um
the school committee sent a request for a reserve fund uh Reserve fund request um to the uh to the town and uh that led uh Dennis stey and Paul warrant to talk to me about whether it would make sense first
of all to how we want to determine the scope and we decided that we the scope we we recommended the scope should respond to the allegations that Lisa o colell had made which were around OSS and oaf but not necessarily the school
more more broadly and so we we we rewrote the scope um to combine the school the school district's proposal and the audit Partners proposal to sort of reflect that um we the the audit committee met on Monday it reviewed what
we'd done and in a straw vote um it agreed that first of all that um it made sense for a broader group than the school committee and the audit committee to review this that someone should be from the town as well given the impact on both the town's reputation as well as
the schools school districts and so that was that was what led to the um recommendation a straw vote from the audit committee that recommended that the Town School partnership be the overseer of this um of this review and
that's so that's where we are today um I'm happy to take any other questions that you have on this um let's let's go to Andy you may have a question um not exactly a question I just a couple of
quick things to add to what Mariah and Paul have have said I think uh it's not completely clear to me and maybe not to you Bernard either because I know this is a bit gray like what does it mean to be the client of an audit um like we've been talking about who who gets reported
to who sort of ultimately oversees it um whoever regardless of who that is I do think the school committee is probably best place to uh be in regular contact with the audit firm and also best place to if needed direct our staff to cooperate um so you know there's I don't
know whether the client is always necessarily the the body that's kind of in most direct contact with with the firm doing the audit I mean I think in in government audits you know there is a distinction made between the audit client which you
know may be the you know body that is being audited um but may also mean the body a body that's over that or affiliate with that that body and the I guess you'd call the audity the the the
entity that's being audited and you know the audit client you know you know and and uh the you know audited entity you know do have some overlap but I mean in terms of setting the terms of the audit
the scope of services I mean it's the audit client that really you know has to play a key role and also at the end of the process is is going to uh ensure that um uh Implement that that the recommendations are implemented um I
mean you know in a certain sense if if the school committee is both the client and the uh audited body um you know you don't have you know that sort of oversight that takes in the interest of the Town gu I don't think of the school
committee here as being the body that's being audited I mean it is our as Mariah pointed out forite of the body being audited is our statutory role I'm sorry say that the last sentence again U so I'm not sure that uh
the school committee is the body being audited here in fact it is our statutory role to oversee the body that is being audited here which is the public schools of Brookline I mean yeah the public schools would be the audited audited by right we're the school committee that oversees
the schools the school committee is not being audited yeah F I would just add to that the Town School partnership is not over school committee Bernard you implied there's a hierarchy but school committee is is there is no body overseeing school committee no it's not overseeing school
committee was the only body in town that includes schools the town and the advisory committee and I'm just clarifying what you said which was that there's bodies over them there's not well okay then then take take out the word over
um Dennis I think had his hand pardon me I think I was next Mike this is M Mike Mike was next yeah okay so um a couple of things one thing I will say is I think it's very important to have a third party an outsider um look at the
kinds of things that the school uh Department the the school district seems to be struggling with which are largely management management and control issues it's not a financial audit I'm not questioning whether um money has been
you know leaking out the door or there are unpaid um invoices or anything of that nature but um what I think we're all concerned about is what we've heard from Susan that um she's been working very hard to
put controls in place but I mean this is a quote from something she said and I don't want to use her words against her but nonetheless it's troubling I don't have an explanation for why it's played out this way it's just not you know this is a multi-year thing that has that has been growing um and I think it's really
important for an outsider U to have a look and provide some help uh I spent uh uh 25 plus years as a consultant and and the reason that people paid me was that I could see things coming in from the outside that they couldn't see internally and so I I I strongly endorse
the idea that an outside firm has to do this um I think the broader issue of management controls is uh it's not just OSS it's let's look at the whole control system or or have someone look at the whole control system and that's you know that's money that we're going to have to
spend to get that done but um the broader the look uh the more the more satisfactory I think and the more integrated a view um that we're uh uh that we're going to get and as far as who the client is I mean client is a
town of Brooklyn um and uh uh who is it who is the report going to go to um initially I was not very happy with the idea uh of involving the Town School partnership uh as the you know as the as the group to whom the report went uh but
um if the audit committee is involved uh I think it's fine for the report to go to the AUD audit committee plus the Town School partnership so that we can work with the audit committee which is a overall Town body uh that uh and has expertise to
understand the uh uh the issues that a report is likely to turn up uh and uh provide some as a group provide some um some balance because we do have representation from each uh uh from each side of things so uh as long as the
audit committee is involved uh as the um uh the organization to whom the report should go that's uh that's is I think appropriate okay I think um uh Chaz you had your hand up why
don't you go no I'm sorry I take take folks in order I'm sorry Dennis and Susan were before me okay it's not clear on my screen who's in order uh Dennis then yeah so I I um I don't want to repeat things that have been said
already and I apologize if I end up doing that um one of the one of the things that I think was left out of Paul Healey summary of the conversation that happened um over the weekend um was
touched on a little bit by by what Michael just said which had to do with ensuring that the statement of work in addition to including the um addressing uh the you know being triggered
initially by the by the concerns that have been raised um by Miss o connell's uh departure and her allegations um but but at to Mike's Point uh there's I think there's been more concern around uh you know the
management controls the the mechanisms by which those controls are are enforced and reported on and less around the specific financials um and whether every dollar has can be accounted for and so that was making sure that the the you
know the manage the line about I don't remember I don't have the the statement directly in front of me right now but there was a there was a line in that in that combined statement of work that referred to um uh deliverables around management
practices um and so to that end I don't think that uh what Paul said that uh the scope of the audit would be limited solely to um you know Communications between uh OSS and oaf
those controls that are put in place affect all aspects of the school budget as I understand it and I and and that was that was my understanding of the the conversations that that that we were having um I would also like to say that
um with with respect to the to the quote unquote ownership uh concerns um there is a political question you know the the any report that comes from um result of
this audit is going to be made public to the members of the community my constituents people who were very curious as to what this audit has turned up and what the recommendations that will be made and I have I have received comments as a you know town meeting
member from constituents who who have essentially said we can't let you know the school uh write uh uh a um a statement of work and then oversee the Auditors and I realize that that's a gross
oversimplification of what's actually happening here but anything that we can do to ensure that the process appears to be uh uh managed by a broader uh neutral
dispassionate town-based oversight will go a long ways towards ratcheting down those concerns and for that reason um that was one of the reasons why um in the conversations with the two Pauls um the idea of combining you know the
school committee the audit committee and the advisory committee which are all represented on the town School partnership seemed like a a you know the least bad of all possible options thank you uh Dennis pardon me I think Dennis oh I'm
sorry um Susan yes thank you yeah so I'd like to further clarify uh since um I don't want folks to walk away and think that I have no idea what's happening here I have a pretty good idea what's happening here
um so there's technical um measures that we put into place called internal controls this summer and the issue is for me is less about technical as it is about adaptive um so we can put all the controls in
place but if Behavior doesn't change then the the issues continue to uh present themselves so um I think a lot of what we're seeing here is more adaptive uh the technical changes have been made and they help us to identify
where um things are going Ary so from an internal control perspective I think the the the control piece is working pretty well the implementation and the change in behaviors have not fully been
realized um so I want to say that uh what I really like about um the group development of a scope of work is The credibility issue that everyone has described here I think it's important that the community feel confident in the
internal controls that are are largely the same on the town side as they are in the school side um and I think people need to feel confident that those uh controls are in place and that the Assets in this community are safeguarded
I think the management aspect of it is really where um The Challenge lies so by getting this type of a review I think it will not only help the community but it will also help uh PSB um uh staff to to
better understand the interplay between um internal controls regulations around um Municipal Finance um um Municipal budgeting appropriation all of that and other regulations that come into play
around special education I can tell you that I have been designing systems and schools for 30 plus years and you can have those work symbiotically they don't hear and some of this is uh communication some of it is adaptive and I think getting to the bottom of that
will be important the workflows in OSS are different um in terms of approval and budgeting than in any other area within the school district and I um believe that that is where we are going to um
learn the most about how um things are approved within the OSS Department um and where the decision making is happening and that is where I have the least amount of clarity um what I can tell you is that what I see is
that there's a there's a distance between the people that are making decisions on IEPs and those that are managing the resources and so um having a better understanding of that will allow us to be able to modify uh
practices here that will allow the Adaptive change and the levels of communication you would see normally present in school districts to be so here as well so I I just want to be clear about that I think this is um excellent um and
helpful both internally for for the public schools of Brookline as well as for the community so that we can move forward and do the good work that needs to take place here to move forward CH thank you um I just wanted to Echo
hold on Mariah no Mariah's first yeah go ahead go ahead wait is your go ahead Chaz it is but go ahead as and I'll go after you okay yeah um just want to Echo some of what Susan said there you know the importance of this work and the you know
willingness to cast as brought in that as possible um the other thing I'll just add to this is that time is of the essence um I would really encourage us to book to wherever possible find consensus on the scope of the the scope
of work um not haggle over sentences when we get to that point but you know agree that the that the substance of it is where it it needs to be um I do want to say I think it's it's important to recognize the concerns raised by both Mariah and Andy about school committee's
oversight and Authority um which they're absolutely correct about the school committee has the sole authority over the school department um they control you know the town sets the Topline budget and the school committee sets everything else um and so that's important to respect
um and I think um I also but I hear what um Paul Healey has said with regards to the and what Mike sammon has said in regards to the the message gaining you know po you know gaining support and Credence when I was at the MMA conference on Friday I sat through a
presentation the subject of which was quote why are school budgets So High um you know is not solely um a brook line problem and the problems that we are seeing in terms of increased costs of Transportation special education and of other things and of um uh collective
bargaining contracts or things that are happening across Massachusetts um there are some systemic issues there um and one of the one of the communities that uh uh talked about us how they've handled that was Mansfield and uh
Mansfield has a town School partnership just like we do and they made their Town School partnership more active uh and gave the public more confidence that everyone was dedicated to the problem that this was not a zero some game um
that it did not and it's not Town against school or anything like that uh that all of us are coming together to try and address this issue um and so I think the um I think it's possible for the
town to Define our terms uh it's possible for the Town School partnership even though it doesn't you know it's not a con body constituted by the bylaws to be someone who either holds a contract or holds a contract in conjunction with the school committee uh and the purpose
of that would just be I would assume would just be oversight but at the end of the day the Town School partnership still can't direct the school committee to implement the results of the audit can't direct the school committee to do anything um all it can do is to give the public confidence hey during the process of this the Auditors came and talked to
us too uh and there's no there was no there's no hiding the ball this document is what it means what says it is um so it gives the public confidence but it doesn't gum up the works um because the Town School partnership is not in the business of directing the school
committee and in fact because its constituent parts are different it can't um school committee has two votes on here um and the select board and advisory committee I don't necessarily think are always in alignment on these issues um so I want I think when you think about
balancing the the balancing the the concerns here um being able to say the auditor talked to the town School partnership during the process uh the Town School partnership was able to say yep we're all in agreement that you know the scope the scope is being followed nothing is
being swept under the rug this is what it is um and to give that confidence to the public that when the results are presented to the school committee who is also a client uh that the school committee can say yep we've got you know we've we've had this we've been in in touch with the with the broader aspects
of the town we have this document and here's what we plan to do about it um that balances it out balances out the Optics without implicating control issues um because I do think it is important to preserve the school committee's Independence on these issues so um that's kind of as I that's where I
see the audit committee's proposal winding up um I would just say that to the community the time to do this is now um this is to Mike's Point a townwide problem um and on the the town side of the budget will suffer if the schools
are not able to close their deficit so I don't know how much more clearly to say that um it it is our problem too and we need to we need to help address it however we can because it's about to come to roost across the budget uh and
it's not just a town or School problem okay Mariah your hand up thank you um without being able to predict in the future where exactly the lands my request would be that to the extent Town School partnership is involved that the
committee be run more more similarly to the other committees that are constituent Parts as we experienced earlier today you know the part where we don't have meeting minutes until a year after we're having our meeting um the minutes aren't complete I think that the
you know the sort of the to me this agenda has felt somewhat disconnected and and not managed and I know every single subcommittee or every single constituent committee has run more tightly and I think that if Town School partnership is to be named as a you know a member or a somehow a body of this it
needs to really reflect the Excellence that each of these subcommittees um brings to the table in terms of um showing the type of management and structure and governance that we each do so that is my request is that this be just run much more tightly than it's
being okay we hear that um Paul so I just wanted to clarify um one point that was question that was raised and then reiterate a point that several other people have made and and the the point I wanted to make about the scope
was that the document that um that Dennis and Paul Warren and I worked on brought in the school committee's um scope recommendation or design as well as the as well as SAS the audit firm and
uh and try to and that included looking at both uh OSS and oaf but also at the school budget or the school processes more broadly with an eye eye to looking at uh how they compare to other school
districts in terms of best practices so it was it was intended to be um focused on the problems that that have been alleged in the by um Mr Connell but also to to to take the opportunity to look more a little more more expansively at
at the uh processes and and the management underlying and financial management on at this at the school dist School District the second point I wanted to make and by the way that was voted um for in favor for that scope and the audit committee and a straw poll and
there was one abstain the second point I just wanted to reiterate was um was around why uh the the Town School uh partnership be involved the original proposal we'd had was for the school committee and the audit committee to
oversee this um and the the feeling that Paul and Dennis both represented which I think everyone on the audit committee agreed with was that this does involve the town uh pretty significantly and so might just reiterating the point that several others have made as a result of
that um the audit committee was convinced that if I was I The Proposal was that I be included on the town School uh partnership to represent the audit committee but that that would bring together a broader set of folk
than um was currently proposed to ensure that the um review has uh full credibility throughout the town with all with all the um citizens in the town as well as as well as people that work here
okay thank you Michael than fam thanks one thing I think important to say here is while this may have um the sort of in the the the proximate cause of our uh wanting to do this um may be a matter of
maybe related to an employee or former employee um making accusations but uh when I look at this that's not the issue the issue is repeating uh deficits uh halfway or a quarter of the way or two-thirds of the way through the year that are found that relate to people
apparently not following procedures and Susan said something very powerful um Susan you said the problem is is adaptive it's not procedural uh and I bet that's true and that some people are just not paying attention or not caring to pay attention uh about the procedures
they're supposed to follow uh in the corporate world that some of us come from I know what would happen to those people uh and I'm not suggesting a Draconian step but I am suggesting that uh people have if we if we find that
people are not following procedures something further than just saying well you have to follow procedures uh is the appropriate uh measure here um so it it's really important to um focus on that adaptive side as well as on on the
you know to what extent are people following procedures as well as whether there are proper procedures in place and hopefully the scope will include that right Andy I mean I think this is why it's so that one of the ways in
which the scope got broadened over the last few days why I think it's so important which is to pull in the compar the comparisons with other other districts right because this is a problem that every school district somehow has to solve or fail to solve and um I I would love to understand
better how you know other districts manage this issue because special education is different right if an IEP gets written it has to be serviced that day or the next day um and somehow you know everybody has to find a way to deal with that and how are other districts managing
it and does that you know how do they do so like in Conformity with procedures that probably in most places are uniform throughout throughout the school department a good point so what happens next any other discussion pardon me what happens next
Where Do We Go From Here we need we need to finish a scope work we have to finalize the um the scope of services y okay and and um I think that requires um you know a
group people sitting down and doing it I we have a number of um at least three so far as I can tell um you verions um s what are the three just so I'm clear as far as I know there was the school committee one from last week that
was built upon by audit the other day that school committee has not had the chance to to ratify or edit yet my understanding is that there are two right the one yeah just two the one that came to the advisory committee
yeah but the one from ciz is not being is not under consideration anymore is it they ultimately have to agree to it right so the last thing we have from cbiz is the is the relatively stripped down thing and then added to it and then
I believe um advisory and audit um added more to that and the school committee was going to meet tomorrow to review those additions right I just meant and I'm sorry to to to to take over for a second but we were sent a a letter from
by way of Melissa that came from Susan which was a request for actual fund you know funding Authority and that was the document that came out of the as I understand it was what came out of the school committee last last week that did not contain a reference to the cbiz um
Pro you know proposal so I'm not sure how the cbiz proposal is relevant anymore you know in some sense but it's one of it's one it's one of the Scopes of services that we either have to um you know use pieces of it uh or or or not right and that's what Paul and Paul
and I did over the weekend was to take the thing that came from from um from the school committee the the um the feedback that all of us had gotten from our constituents including members of the advisory committee and um and the
cbis document to try to produce something that at least to a lay person looks like it tries to incorporate all of that feedback now maybe we failed at that but I had assumed that there would be at least some um you know you know re
you know review of that um by this by this body if it chose to to take an interest I don't care you how many versions there are the point is you know we have you know we're supposed to come up with a scope of services um and and it's
either which you've already done or something that we uh Revis uh well question is who does it I guess well can I can I jump in here yeah sorry um thank you um so I think your question about what happens next right so the school committee to Mariah's point is
meeting tomorrow on this um I think you know with the the guidance provided here which I think has been based on the scope of work that's in the packet for this meeting um I think the additional guidance that's been provided here is a
structure in which the auditor reports equally to the school committee and the Town School partnership I believe at some point there was a proposal that the chair of the audit committee be serve as a as an ex official member as a seventh member of the Town School partnership for those purposes um so I think that's
that's an idea that's been floating out there and the idea that Dennis raised about benchmarking with other communities that Andy seconded um so you know adding those or discussing those with the full school committee so the school committee has Buy in whatever the
school committee then decides on in terms of a revised scope of work tomorrow night is transmitted to the advisory committee as part of a reserve fund transfer request the advisory committee takes that up as part of you
know in in in you know what I would hope would be an expedited course um talking through it mindful that again the the name of the game here is to get started and to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good um yeah Chaz we're we're currently planning to meet on Tuesday
night to take up whatever there is can I can I add on to what Chaz is saying a little bit Bernard sure okay so personally I feel comfortable with the document that was generated by audit yesterday I or whenever that was I
abstained from the vote because it was a position but personally I because I'm in a school committee rep on that board but um but but I do feel comfortable with it and I feel like tomorrow night I will um basically Express that opinion to to the other members of school committee I
think that what would be helpful is if anybody else here has any other tweaks they want to make to that document or that they suggest those tweaks that we get those before tomorrow because to chaz's point I want to be done with the NeverEnding like uh wordsmithing of this
I want us to reach a conclusion on that so that school committee can see it tomorrow and then we essentially proceed with chaz's uh plan as basically send the revised one then then advisory can hopefully we can also get a revised quote from cbiz in the intervening days
and furthermore there is a question that was raised by school committee last week and audit committee this week of when school committee sent its original statement of work to CZ CZ sent something back that was vaguely similar but not identical and it wasn't clear whether that was a simple rephrasing of
the statement of work or if it actually had significance in terms of a different of opinion of what their work would be so we want to be very clear that the statement of work that's going to them if there is anything that they see that is not the same or if if they don't accept it in its entirety the way it was
drafted why and what that means so so I think we need to get that that sorted out before it goes to advisory so I guess My Hope Is Right Andy's nodding so I hope that like I think we have all have a process and now it's just the like speak now or forever hold your peace on this group for any other tweaks
to audit committees or the document that was presented at audit committee okay good so who who should those tweaks that um go to I think it would be helpful if you all talk about them now and I'm sorry because I have to hang up in a minute to
deal with some family stuff but if there is a document that can come back to perhaps and I don't I assume Andy's staying but if whatever the suggested changes are someone here can um work on those and then it can get back to school committee for consideration tomorrow we
we in our packet included a version of the document that does not it's the audit document but we removed all the cbiz um headers and Footers because it was very confusing to people that people have been thinking that that's coming from cbiz so we have removed all of those markings in ours so we could
update ours with um whatever your suggested changes are but so I'll let you I'm going to step away at this moment with apologies this is a great moment and I would love to be here but I can't stay this long but hopefully Andy can stay and we'll get the and maybe Susan and lusm will
get that Clarity for school committee to pick it up tomorrow okay so so what why don't you say that that if that I'm happy to be the repository for any uh suggested changes if you'd like okay thank you everybody I'm sorry I
have to go okay any other discussion so I think the two proposed changes that I've I've heard um were the proposal about benchmarking to other communities that's in the document that we sent already thank you so that doesn't need to be changed and then
there there's just a question of you know to wh to whom is the auditor reporting progress um and I guess the answer if if the answer there is the auditor will be updating and Reporting progress to both the Town School partnership plus the chair of the audit committee and the school committee then
I guess that just needs to be clear yeah okay by the way one other thing that was um omitted was uh in the deliverables section um what was deleted is report on management practices and
any recommendation for improvements I thought we discussed that as something that was important isn't that in there Paul well maybe I got the wrong version but the version I got that's the last that's the last uh recommendation it should be the last sentence of this
statement work that came from Paul if it's not that's a then something got cut off okay well just just you know Paul check make sure that's in there it is it's the last the last Point okay
good um okay anything else and I do I do think you want to be on record as having a vote on this um so that you have you're you're transmitting it to the school committee okay um how do we phrase the vote I think you
you'd phrase it as you know uh a recommended uh revised scope of work for the proposed audit um as voted on by the town school with with um with suggestions from the Town School partnership you know a vote to transmit
to the school committee recommended changes to the yeah I I I um I Mo of that we approved the uh um transmission to the school committee of a revised a recommended revised scope of services
incorporating uh suggestions that uh were made at today's meeting um uh sorry to be clear what were the suggestions made at today's meeting I so far haven't heard anything that requires revising the wording that's in the document in our
packet had enthusiastic agreement mostly with the changes that occurred in the last few days okay I don't think if there are no changes in the document it's just a matter I think it was the the only thing that was outstanding was the reporting was the reporting structure if that doesn't need to be in the scope of work okay then the scope of
work stands but the recommendation of the reporting structure is the one thing that's changed it might make sense Chaz then to have two votes one on the statement of work and the other on the reporting structure I mean okay just it would be easy you know what so I
would move that we trans that we that you know we send to the school committee the report that came um uh uh from the audit committee with a recommendation from this body affirmative recommendation from this
body okay it's been moved any second I'll second on in favor um Charlie do you see everyone I can read the role um starting again with uh
advisory committee um uh Dennis dowy yes yes uh Harry Friedman yes um Mariah is um absent um Andy I'll abstain because I'm on the school committee but like Mariah I will argue
for for this when we meet tomorrow great uh thank you um and then Mike sammon hi and Bernard Green uh chair hi thank you so that passes with four yes and one
absent one Obion right uh okay Paul um so Dennis the second motion the second motion is basically and I don't know what the language would be for this but it would basically be uh a vote on whether it's the sense of this body that
the reporting structure be which has outlined and maybe Chaz can make the uh the sentence structure correct sure so I think it would be um uh a motion to recommend to the school committee uh that the audit repor that
the Auditors report on progress and updates to both the school committee and the Town School partnership including the chair of the audit committee as an ex official member during the progress of the
audit okay good um whose hand is oh that's chz okay okay um Charlie can you help me with the vote absolutely um Dennis dowy yes Harry freedan yes Mariah
is absent Andy L I'll OB stand again but again I will support this when we discuss tomorrow Mike sammon hi and chair green yeah uh passes the same four yes and two
extensions or one one absent okay so that uh we finished that um next item is discussion on revenue and expenditures committee um Chaz what do we have what are we doing there I just want to update
the body um we've had IND we've had discussions um with individual members of all the constituent bodies um and uh we're approaching putting together a um uh a final um slate uh the chair and the
vice chair are of the select board who are charged with putting that together are in the process of finalizing that slate and uh asking members uh we hope to have that before the select board next week uh but we will Circle back with uh the constituent bodies
beforehand just to make sure everyone is uh online in um in agreement on that front yeah um yeah John Ben and I last night worked on putting together preliminary um membership list um we do
not have uh um acceptance by a couple people so I don't want to mention um what that list is but it should be ready by uh the next meeting of the select board okay anything else in that school building projects
update well Helen right yes uh this will be the good news piece of the the meeting today um as many of you probably already know some might not we have gotten the final GMP from the contractor
the original construction budget was 168 million the final GM came in at 164 million without the add alternates um and included in that number was some added scope from the
fire department um from the mitigation efforts over because of article 9 s uh and a protest by one of the um sub uh the sub bids for the contractors the
electrical sub bid um they took the higher number and put that in the um 164 million um the school building committee uh voted to accept the first add
alternate And Delay the U photovoltaics uh resulting in a um GMP of 165 million still substantially underneath the original construction budget uh we are looking into
photovoltaics uh with the town sustainability um department and Alexander Veo and we'll be uh working on the best financial um way to look at how to access this both for this project and
for the Driscoll school project um overall I'm really pleased with the way the the the different teams have worked together the architect the construction company um the
um the um School building committee this uh vote the GMP will be voted tomorrow by the building commission hopefully and then be forwarded to the select board for your meeting on Tuesday I think that's will be docketed uh after
tomorrow and uh then the school committee would do the final vote uh on Thursday this is part of the way we do business in town that all three bodies need to vote the contract um I'm really excited I think
it's also really important to note that there has been no change orders on the first GMP which is huge um that we're on budget and on time with that and um I think if there's any questions I'm happy
to answer I think people also know though that uh we are going to be receiving 45 million in reimbursement um hopefully from the um Mass School building authority uh for this
project so things are going well great thank you any questions see none last item on the agenda so with that I will end the meeting thank you
everyone actually can I say one thing very really really really quickly um that last conversation that we had about um you know figuring out the terms for the audit I mean you commented on it on it uh earlier Helen um you know that
could have been very very tense and I just want to I just want to thank all the participants who were involved particularly uh Andy U Mariah and and and Susan this is a diff this can this could be a difficult time and that turned out not to be a difficult
conversation and I I I really appreciate the seriousness and attention with which everyone is engaged in what could be a very very difficult topic right I agree thank you for mentioning that Den okay with that the
meeting is over