We're recording. Hello everyone. Welcome to the May 14th, 2025 finance subcommittee of the Brooklyn School Committee. We will start with our first item on the agenda, which is approval of the April 16th, 2025
finance subcommittee meeting minutes. Do I have a motion? Moved. Okay, Caroline, I saw your hand. I'll take it as a second. Carolyn, how do you vote? Yes. Yes. And I vote yes. Thank you. Then
we're going to defer acceptance of gifts and grants to um the a meeting that we're going to schedule next week. And
um Betsy, will you pull the four members? and I guess Susan for that. Okay. Sure. Thanks. Um I'm hopeful that we can do it. My goal is to get a quorum of the
committee but maybe not all four. Um and to schedule it Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. So hopefully we'll get that. Um next item on the agenda is approval of grant. Oh, go ahead Caroline. So
um just so we can talk about this here and not cumbersomely in email. So what can we expect for the days of gift in terms of background
information? And likewise the um office of educational equity proposal and when do you know does anybody know there was an email from Anthony earlier to
you? I saw that but I haven't had a chance to read it. Yep. Um, and I will say just quickly, I mean, I very quickly glanced through it and part of it seemed to say like something about I don't know
if it was sort of implying, well, it's not really curriculum anyway, but what we the the one Sorry, I'm in a parking lot. The one thing we had received about it previously specifically said for curriculum development. So well given
that the agenda today didn't notice this conversation y and we're going to put it off till early next week these questions until next week and keep going. Okay. But my question is what we're going to get and when we can expect it. So it
sounds like I don't know. I can just say the information we have. We had prepared to send it out for today and we'll just send it out with the agenda. Uh, I think Betsy planned on doing that by Friday. That's my understanding. Once she can figure out
what day we're meeting on, but what information ANF has um is prepared to be shared. Okay. Um, the next item on the agenda is
approval of grant applications. We have one grant application which is to the state for um a literacy program um and there was some information provided to us.
Jody, one question that I had, which I'm sure you will know the answer to, um, is that on the next page, if you don't mind scrolling down, Betsy, there was 120,000 for the purchase of materials. And what I was not sure of
is, are these materials budgeted? Is the $240,000 budgeted in next year's budget and this would free up 120,000 or I don't quite understand the the timing or what this is covering. Great question, Mariah. Um, we
have 178,000 budgeted in the budget next year. We're not sure that that'll be sufficient to cover a full curriculum for K through 8. And this PRISM grant will pay for half of a curriculum. So
we're estimating that 120,000 would be needed to fund the other half of that purchase. So the 240 is for K8, but they will fund even if we are spending money on a broad more broad program, they will fund 50%
of the total curriculum, not just the 6 through8 portion. Right? No, they'll fund just the six through eight portion. Okay. So, the 178 is just for this grades six through eight portion of curriculum. Correct. Okay. And then, could you refresh my memory? Are we Is fish tank only K through five? No, fish
tank does go K through eight. Our middle school teachers are evaluating um a couple of different programs that they may wish um to use that they prefer to fish tank, but right now fish tank is the front runner.
Okay. But that hasn't been decided yet. It has not been decided yet. TBD fairly soon. Okay. Carolyn and Sarah, do you have other questions about this grant application? I do, but Sarah, do you want to go first? No, I don't have any questions.
Okay. Um, and sorry, I need to bring this up. Um, I thought I had everything on my laptop because I knew I was going to be in a parking lot. Um, but I have one sec. So, um, just kind of generally what
can can we get some context? I don't know what this is kind of at all. So, Jody, are you able to just give like a bumper sticker? Yeah, absolutely. So, the state has um these Prism grants and
as the as you know the committee funded our K through5 program um completely and we were moving into six through eight. This is an opportunity for the state to fund half of the purchase of the curriculum as well as all the professional development that goes along
with it. Plus, we get um state support for implementation. And so, how is Prism? So, Prism is the title of the I understand. Okay. Now, Mariah's question I think makes sense. So, Prism is the
title of the grant. Correct. We would use the funds for our Okay. I didn't know if Prism was yet another um I think it's the acronym partnership reading success. Got it. Got it. Got it.
Got it. Yeah. Um and I did have a question when I looked at this. Stipens for educators andor substitute coverage $60,000. Um so with that figure and just sort of your knowledge what's your sense of like
how much time out of the classroom is does that actually the reason that we have the funding in there is so that we're not pulling our teachers out of the classrooms. Um teachers are substitutes is how the grant is written.
Our aim is to do most of the PD after school or in the summer. Okay, awesome. Thank you. That really answers that question. Thank you. Okay, I'm going to make a motion for approval. Do I have a second? Yes. Okay. Um Sarah, how do you
vote? Yes. Carolyn, yes. And I vote yes. Thank you. Thank you, Jody, for coming to talk us through that. Next item on the agenda is review of the position control report. And I think this will be Susan talking to this. Is that right, Susan?
Yes. Um, it's awful tiny, isn't it? Um, yeah. So, since our last meeting, we have had to add uh another pair professional. We had mentioned this at a subsequent meeting. I don't remember which one. Um and so uh it's
for the BEA program for a student in the BEA program and the funding source would be the beat revolving fund. The net cost would be the cost from now until the end of the year next year. Of course this would roll into our budget and the cost
is approximately 44,000. So again when we talk about for next year reserve funds that we had set aside for sections this would be an example of of some of the reserve uh sections that we set aside. Also note that we increased that when uh for some
paraprofessionals when um Dr. Schmuckler was reviewing uh the out of district tuition and we made note that uh some additional resources would be used there. I moved that into the uh the section reserves. So, we have a few more dollars in that account, which is good
because we've added five pairs um since uh the budget was um uh submitted. Susan, legally, given that this is an IEP mandated service, are we allowed to
charge it to the revolving fund? There's no reason we can't. It's a beep related um expense. Okay. I'm not saying it's best practice, but we really have no choice because we don't have any money uh left in the
budget for this year. I see. And the $5,000 is essentially the fraction of the year that remains. Correct. Okay. Other questions from the subcommittee? Okay, thank you very much um
for sharing that information. Next item on the agenda is um reconsideration of prior vote considering beef beep extended day fees. So, um,
I got an email. We've received several emails from the community, the BEAP community about the fee increases for next year. And in one of my exchanges with a parent, it turned out that I got
new information um that we were originally told that the beep extended day costs currently $800 a month, but it actually costs $700 a month. And when we increased it to $1,000, we weren't increasing it by $200 from $800. We were
increasing it by $300 from 700. So that was a a typo in the original memo and the discussion that we had considered. Um and I think that the question in front of the subcommittee is whether to recommend to full school committee that we make an
adjustment in our recommendation um given that change. And Susan, um, do you have want to add anything before we take questions just about any of the financial impact of, um, of reducing the the anticipated
monthly charge from $1,000 to $900? I don't believe so, Margaret. I believe when we um prepared the budget, uh, it was based on a percentage increase,
right? Right. Yeah. So, so it shouldn't shouldn't have any financial implications because we would have done it on the base of the correct number. Okay. So, I'm Yeah, if I may, Maria, so I'm so sorry about that incorrect memo. I think I was telling um before we you
came on, I was chatting with Betsy that um I was so focused on the whole big program. I didn't think about that. I didn't see the actual 800 to 700 um difference, but we have been charging 700 for this past year for the tuition and that's the tuition that we've been
collecting. So, if you're going to go with the vote of the $200 increase and I don't that's not it doesn't align with like the 8% that that it's a bigger increase in terms of like we increase 8% for the morning, but I think from 700 to
900 is even like a what 30% or 20%. I'm not sure. I'm not the math person right in the at this time of day um for that. So um but as Susan had explained to us at the meeting that we were at prior, it was to cover not just the cost of the salary but the above the line or below
the line costs of running that program. Yep. So um and my recollection was on from that conversation that we actually did not even begin to cover the above the line costs. We were approaching it but not it's still even with that increase we did not cover the above the
line costs. So I clear like yeah I do think the salaries for the um for the educators are like the salaries but not the the benefits and stuff if that's what the I think we got very close but maybe like a little bit below the bene
the salaries. That's my recollection. I could be off to the salaries themselves with the increase and it did not actually cover any of the benefits is my recollection with the move from 700 to 900. That's my recollection. Susan, is that yours? We could pull it up again,
but yep, that's my recollection. For the salaries themselves, just the salaries. That's my recollection. We we can pull it up again in a minute, but I I think there might be other questions from the subcommittee. So, why don't we Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Well, that is the question I I had raised my hand for is
just I I didn't know if we were approaching covering costs. Um, and so I I think that I don't need to know it exactly because I don't want to make that big of an increase in after school care. Um, so I'd like to keep it um with
what what you sort of had originally thought of. Are we we're still going to be increasing again towards covering the cost of the program, right? That's still a part of the plan. So, how much would after school care cost after this year?
What would be the increase after this year? Well, I think what you had voted, if my memory serves me, I'm sorry I didn't go back and completely immerse myself in in uh all the material from our prior meeting. Uh but the idea was that this
particular uh program we would try to um raise the tuitions over time to be able to cover those expenses. What Margaret and I had I think proposed was um that we do it through a combination of um reducing the number of um um
uh financial assistance slots as so we wouldn't have to necessarily increase the total fee. Uh but I think in the end we settled on um a percentage for each year, the same percentage increase for each year. That's my recollection. Um in
service to uh getting the uh tuition up to cover the total cost of the program, which of course increases um a bit each year. This but this change this was just a a typo when when we presented it. It will have no bearing on um it'll have
huge impact on families in a positive way, but it won't impact uh us financially in a negative way from what we had originally um anticipated we'd receive for revenue. So, is that helpful? We're only talking about the extended day piece here. Right. Right.
Yeah. Here's the document from last time. So, what I had forgotten was that benefits were almost as big as salaries. Yeah. So when you do this math out, if you take just the 196,000 divided by the 30 and then that's about 6,500 per
student, which is $650ish dollars a month. So the 700 currently actually does cover the salary to your point, Margaret. Yeah. Um but really the benefits are almost an equivalent cost. So, we'd again this sort of we'd come nowhere near covering
the benefits, but we slightly go past the we would we would collect slightly more um than now, right? I'm just going to do a little bit of math in my head here. So, if we were going to collect um $900 a month, I'm doing this math
quickly, but I think we would collect $270,000. Yeah. 270. That's correct. So, it would still be $100,000 off the total program. It would be about a collection of 75% of program costs. So that's that's the rough math here, right? And I think I
think that we'll at some point, you know, we'll have to think we'll have the program for next year and hopefully it will be successful as it has been for this year, but think long term whether or not the costs are too prohibitive in general for the district or for the parents.
Carolyn, thanks. Yeah. So that's what Margaret just spoke to is exactly what I'm thinking about and wanted to ask about. So I mean we're talking about we made a one-time adjustment. Now we're readjusting that adjustment. And I think it would be really important for us to
have some longer term projections in terms of sustainability um of this program at this cost. Are you talking about the program Caroline or the day program or both? I'm talking about I'm I'm talking
about the extended day program. I mean, I suppose I'm talking about both, but I'm only talking about the extended day because that's what we're talking about specifically now. Um and um yeah, I mean
it's rather than sort of coming back year after year and having it be stressful, I think it would be great to sort of flag um the wisdom of of projecting out, especially because and I
don't remember what was left after we used it, but especially because we did um dig I think fairly deeply into the beep reserve fund this year. Um so sort of all told I'm I'm just kind of
flagging that as a as a wish um to look at to clarify it's a revolving fund not a reserve fund just in case any of the casual listeners think that there's a reserve fund. Yeah. Um I guess yes I'm thinking about it in the way that we
used it. Um, and then forgive me for so Margaret are this when we're looking at separate benefits for this program versus the full B program are this is it
a separate set of staff. Yeah. So it's just four people. It's four people and sorry can we see the memo again? So, okay, sorry. This is just going to show my lack of of knowledge here. Okay. So,
why when we say what are the benefits? I think it's just like health insurance and other things. I don't know. But is that not part of their regular beep compensation? Why is why are why is
there $180,000 worth of benefits separate for the extended day program? I think that would be the case for every person in who has benefits like that is a unit unit whatever or not like you have benefits there's a cost to that
that costes costs the school district right I understand that thank you what I mean is if these are the same individuals who are your regular teachers Oh, they're four different people. Yeah, they're four different people. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Sorry, I didn't understand your question. And they are
And how many hours are they? They they working from 10:30 in the morning till 5:30 at night. And they're bridging that time in the morning um to that when we for the for the schedule of the day. That's what they that's what they've been doing. And certainly moving
forward, Caroline, to your point, we could change that model moving forward. like the number of hours they this what time does the extended day program begin? It starts at 2:30. So there's four hours that they are working for
regular. So they're both right and they're doing you know covering being in the classroom. It's actually been a really successful program because they're very integrated into the program this year and this there's a very smooth transition to the extended day part of the day but the benefits are charged to
the extended day. That's right. Yeah. But and then sorry just one more thing from an accounting perspective is extended day sort of like a separate account within beep Susan thank you I think it's part of SE20 Susan I won't
want I don't want to speak for I see Susan's head moving okay thank you so just to clarify if we were to reduce it by $100 a month that's $1,000 less that the parents of the impacted students the adults of the
impacted students Right. Yeah. And I and I would love um and I can say this to the finance subcommittee and you can bring it to the fuller school committee to Carolyn's point to Dr. Given's point like uh a real look and thinking about the program
in general moving forward you know the vision as we move more into like the when we have classrooms at the pierce the spaces that we have. I've talked about this a couple of times to really have like an in-depth look you you and I talked about Ry when we had Clark earlier a lifetime ago and really plan and strategically think forward about
the program so that it is sustainable and manageable for the district and doesn't cause any structural issues and also doesn't bear too much of a burden on the parents that wish to participate as well. I think it'll be a great conversation because I think your your vision for it was really instrumental in
the leadup to the override to talk about we while we ended up not having a beep portion to the override, it helped all of us get on the same page about where we wanted beep to be within the the district as a whole. And so I think it would be valuable as you say, you know,
now questions of cost, now that we're thinking about the leases, the placement, all of these things, it would be great to get that update. Yeah. And I and I and I would like to say to your question um Mariah before you were asked Dr. Given about the the onetoone and charging it to the revolving fund. I
think to I think Dr. given sort of um stated this already usually a onetoone would not be charged through revolving fund right because it's part of the IEP but one of the things that we have been talking about is like to to Caroline's point or member doll's point you're we're using some of the the um revolving
fund for covering the cost overall and you can charge those things because they're special ed early childhood they're early childhood costs to the revolving fund and that sort of gaps I think moving forward that cost would be part of special ed and it would revert back to that piece of of the funding for
the for the program. Yeah. And that's true. So in FY26, yeah, the cost comes out of special education, not the beef revolving fund. It's only because we're in this predicament we're in this year that this is uh where it's being funded. Yeah. And we've Dr. Given and I have met several times to think about how you are
how how she's been doing that so that we are carefully considering all of those needs. So, and I appreciate all of your support and really look forward to a more in-depth conversation so we can be structurally and programmatically sound moving forward. So,
um, but I don't know if we actually answered your question. You did. I think I have a different question now, which is Susan, when you did the calculations, you said you did them on a percentage increase. So, I was mixing it up with the last uh with
the the the beep uh portion the day program. Yeah, Margaret's right. I was I was confusing myself there. Okay. So, did you actually do the calculations based on $200 or did you do them on No. Yeah, we just it went 200 200 and 200.
It wasn't a percentage. Okay. In that case, I'm going to make a motion for the committee to to recommend to the full school committee that it um amend its prior vote to $900 a month instead of $1,000 a month.
And I'll say 200 I'm going to frame this a little bit differently because it's a three-year vote. $200 a month increase over the next three per year over the next three years because the current rate is $700. Second that. Okay.
Um Sarah, how do you vote? Yes. Carolyn, yes. And I vote yes. Margaret, is that something that you can notify the the adults so that they're aware of that change? I absolutely can do that tomorrow first thing. I will send out a notice to
everybody about today. Oh, I'll wait for your official vote at school committee, but I'll wait for that. I don't want to cause any chaos. Yeah, just in case. But I think it'll be help. They'll be pleased to know. Yeah. And I appreciate again I apologize for the mixup and I appreciate your
consideration and and all the support that you've given the program this year. It's been very wonderful and I really appreciate it a lot. Thanks Margaret. Thank you guys so much. Thank you. Bye. Have a good night everyone. You too.
Okay. Next up is FY25 Q3 budget report. Susan. Okay. Doesn't matter. Yeah, that one's fine. So, one of the things you'll see is different um about this quarter than the last is that um the salary projections are included in in the incumbrance for
each. We're still doing some adjusting here. Um, and so in some cases, um, uh, we're still trying to align account codes with the new, um,
uh, uh, accounting design that we have. Um, a lot of it has been cleaned up, but I can still see, you know, some traces where we we need to go back and and make some further adjustments so that again, as we print our reports, that it aligns with the the, you know, the format and
the accounting. um uh line items that you see in the budget. So, but we've made a lot of progress and I thank uh the finance team for all their work this year u making this alignment. So, um the real story so you can look categorically you know we're up we're down um in
different areas uh variety of reasons. Some of them again are are just simply because costs are not lining up with where uh some of the um expenses are. So the budget is includes this, but the expense is not lining up with the same
account code. So I'm going to focus on um the last section which is really where it shows the roll up of of of all the cost centers and um we'll see next year you know as as we get this
tighter then we can provide some more um detail in even in this report. But of course, you remember last year you just had, you know, one table. Um, and I'm I'm trying to get us to transition to a more meaningful report. Um, and so next
year with some of these adjustments being made and better alignment with the accounting system and the codes, we should be able to provide that without making it just completely confusing. Okay. So, overall, um, on the salaries, uh, you know, we're in we're in better
shape, um, but we're still over spent. It it it isn't a typo that we're projecting that on the salary side um we're overspent by a million uh six um and on the expense a million uh 6,712 just happened to be that way. Um
but um some of the reasons for the improvement are because of some of the breakage um also with the reduction of some positions um andor people leaving we have not filled positions
intentionally um that weren't absolutely uh critical so so that we could accumulate um more breakage to cover the overage that that uh we identified early in the year. And again, um it was it was primarily um three components to that.
One was um extra compensation, which we've talked about quite a bit. Um and the second one was the grants that um we had sta, you know, 13 staff members that were on grants that then came off the grants and had to be funded out of our
operating budget. So, we had to, you know, stop hiring in other areas to to pay for those staff. And um uh that was predominantly why um but also some of these new positions that we added as you know um more recently this spring um
I've been assigning new positions to some of these revolving funds because we don't have money in the salary accounts really to pay for additional staff. I have not moved any money off and into the grants. I'm going to wait until the end uh of the year and then move that um
the expense over kind of categorically um so that I can keep an eye um on them all in one place without breaking them out and having um people being um showing up in different places. So for simplicity, I'm waiting till the end of
the year and then I will I will make an adjusting entry to move the expense over to the revolving funds. As I've mentioned previously on the expense side, again, we've had a budget free since January except for essential um uh
supplies and services. Um and um another uh I would say glorious development is that Karen has come on board and has been doing um a tremendous amount of work cleaning up um encumbrances and
refining what our needs are um in the OSS area. And so a lot of work has been done uh between the OSS office and the finance office um getting people recorded and um and funded through the proper accounts and then right sizing
POS so that uh um we're not carrying more money than than we need for the year. So thank you Karen. she's not here, but I I just have to say thank you to her and um and Diane and uh Donna in particular who have spent a lot of time
trying to to do a lot of work in that area. Also, we transferred about $700,000 out of um um Office of Administration and Finance, uh the Superintendent's Office, OEE and OTL
over to student services to help with their budget gap. But of course that means that there were things that we weren't able to do this year that we had all hoped to to be able to do. Um in the end right now it's looking like our total um deficit for the year is about
$2 million. So better than than what we had in the last quarterly report. Um but certainly not what we would like to see. Some of the expenses again um that we have in this year roll into next year as part of the structural deficit. And um and that's 100% of what those costs are.
So the example I used earlier was that it's going to cost us $5,000 for one staff member to complete this year, but that's 44,000 next year. So the structural deficit that hits next year um can be higher than what we're seeing
here. Um so so that's that's good, you know, that's good news. And like I said, we will have to um make these adjustments. On the expense side, in order to make a um issue of a requisition, which turns to a PO, we have to have money. So, I will likely be
um expending directly out of um some of these revolving funds in the next uh month. So, we'll give you another updated report um in June so that we'll have a better sense of how that played out. and um and we'll see what the
impact will be on the uh revolving fund uh fund balances as we get closer to the end of the year. The next any questions about that? I have questions. Sure. So, can you just help
me roll back time to January of 2025? And we were looking at the Q2 report and the Q2 report said, I was just looking at it that we were negative a million, just under a
million on salary, but net positive on by $2 million on expense. And then we took a vote to move some amount from the beep revolving fund and some amount from something else. Sorry, can you just like
refresh your memory? Like how is this better and how does it compare to Q2 report? Sure. So Q2 we didn't take any we I didn't ask you to take any votes to move any money at that time. I just I just shared with you at that time how we
in uh and how we were going to close the gap for this year by using those balances. Okay. Sorry, we didn't vote, but you told us. No, no, no, no, no. But what we shared what our plan was that was so that was after the Q2 report. There was a a a report that uh we shared
with you that got into a deeper dive and we can actually do this next week so you can see those same accounts so we can track. I'm happy to if we're going to have a meeting next week, um provide you with kind of the parallel from that from that time. Um happy to do that. But like
I I said, if your question is how did it what changed between then and now? I guess my question is if I recall correctly, I'm trying to understand how how if we're negative net 2 million, let me ask this a different way. What is
your plan to close the the deficit shown here? To use the uh fund balances in the beep revolving fund um and in the material fee revolving fund. Okay. And is have you do you now need to use less of them than you originally thought?
Yes. By how much? I think it was um at that time it was one and a half million out of beep and 700,000 out of uh I'm going off the top of my head but I'm pretty sure those were the numbers. So sorry I think it
was wasn't it 1.2 and seven maybe I'd have to go back to yeah something like that. So we're about we're about I guess similar. I'd have to go back to that memo. I might be able to pull it up. I think it would be helpful if you don't mind to just like get the update. So,
because I'm having trouble following the bouncing ball and maybe for everyone who's listening's continuity sake, if we could just get an update on what the original plan was to close this year and what this subsequent revised plan is based on Q3. Why don't Why don't I for
next week I'll I'll I'll bring up that and I'll show you it in the same way to make it easier to track. Thank you. That would be No problem. No problem. So on the from the subcommittee on this portion before we move ahead, can I ask one question which is
um at the time I thought that we were going to have that Diane had said if I recall in the last one when we were $2 million up on non- salary expenses that most of the incumbent ES were in at that point. So, how did we go
from 2.3 positive to negative one if most of them were in um settlements? $3.3 million in settlements. Quite quite quite a lot of it came through in settlements and making some adjustments, but I'll I'll I'll give you I'll give
you the detail so you can see it more clearly at a more granular level than this for next week. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Other questions from the subcommittee before I presume we'll go on to the special revenue funds? Yeah, I'm good.
Okay, Carolyn. Okay, go ahead, Susan. Okay, and this one's tiny. Betsy, if you can make it just a tiny bit bigger. Great. Thank you. Uh so these are organized by federal grants, state grants, private grants and
then revolving funds just to remind everyone in the first um category of the federal grants and at the state they they they uh cross multiple years. So grant years um are frequently you know
uh September 1 to August 31st which crosses fiscal years and also the grants um you're allowed to spend over the course of uh uh I think it's 24 months. So um it can actually cross three fiscal years. So that's why you'll see here 23
24 25 um 22 uh we've closed out and so it uh that was that that one was just a you know hung over from from the prior um title 2a uh grant cycle. So what this is
really telling us is that in general it looks like we're we're pretty much on track with spending our federal grants uh for prior fiscal years. So 22, 23, and 24. Um 25 as well. We've done a much
better job um uh really managing the grants um this this year so that uh the expenses are um hitting the proper accounts for one and
um uh that we're getting our uh um requests for reimbursement in um timely. uh and then uh when we have modifications the modifications are done timely so so that there's a much higher
level of management occurring in our special revenue fund area. So I'm I'm pleased about that. Um the title one so I'm just going to give you a couple of little things that you know when I look at it um I say huh in 23 are we going to
spend that uh 4321 and what is that for this late in the year? I would expect that to be zero. Um and in that case it's the mass teachers retirement. There's a contribution um that they take that it isn't an expense against our line that they they will make the
adjustment at the state level. Um but that is a fully expended grant at this point in time. Um when we go under and 24 is tracking to uh be expended um by the end of the uh grant cycle this year and title one also may be done by
September. So that's that's really great news. That means we're we're we're timely. These should line up by your fiscal year in general um because it's part of your spending plan. And so the 25 was part of the 25 spending plan. And so in in general when you get the tighter you get in managing your special
revenue funds um the more that uh your spending will align with with the year in which um the fiscal year in which your spending plan um um it relates correlates with your um your your
operating budget fiscal year. So um nothing much more to say here. Um anything that's in deficit um Those are those are posting adjustments that will be cleaned up. Um so that tells us that something hit the grant. They'll go back
um research what what hit that grant in the title 2 FY24 um and they'll um make an adjusting entry to get that posted to the proper uh fund. So those are just some minor um accounting adjustments that need to be made
there. Any questions about federal grants? No, that's that was really helpful. Thank you. All right, so state grants, uh, circuit breaker is the big one. And, um, so the revenue that's coming in, so I'm just
going to walk you through the fund balance as we entered was 2357. The approved budget was 366449. Our budget is in the current year is is based on having a circuit breaker revenue of the
366. Um the fund balance coming in is a different number. And the reason why normally what you would see is that those two numbers looking the same, right? The amount of money we received in the prior year, we've talked about this is the amount of money that we um
allocate in the budget. Um it the reason why it's different is because a receipt the last um payment we received from the state occurred after the fiscal year ended and so it's one payment off on the fund balance. So the fund balance is as of the 30th of June. Um and so the final
circuit breaker revenue was received in July. So that's why the two numbers don't align. We've talked about this a little bit but maybe helpful to to restate that. So revenue we've received to date. So, this revenue number then includes a receipt from the prior year,
right? The one that's missing um as well as all of the revenue um um for this year except for I think the final payment. So, in the end um we should be getting about $4.2 million worth of uh
new revenue um from circuit breaker and that is what we based our FY26 uh number on. Now, one thing I will say and remind you is that we um we're taking 2 million. We're we're balancing
our budget in FY26 using $2 million worth of revenue that will would have otherwise been allocated um to support our FY27 expenses. So, that's where our structural deficit component is kind of
resting. So, we have some work to do there um to further um address the structural deficit because um there's not uh we're putting a big hole in our FY27 um operating budget as a result of
the uh having to make that um decision recently. Okay. So, under metco, um, again, all of these look to be tracking, um, pretty closely to where I would see. I don't see anything big here to flag
for you. Um, again, there's a there's something that got posted in the civics and teaching and learning FY24 that needs to be moved out. These are minor accounting adjustments. Um, and so this the finance team will be uh doing that work in the next uh week or so.
Um, any questions on state grants? Okay, private grants. Um, again, nothing really new or surprising here. Uh, one thing that I do see is that the METCO grant that you've recently accepted for the REI for 15,000. That should be up under the state, not not
private, but I'll I'll I'll fix that for the for an upcoming report. Um I think we just approved that a couple of weeks ago, right? Or last month. Last month. Month. Yeah. So, nothing really
um newsworthy here. Susan, um I ask this every single quarterly report, I think. What do we do about these old programs that have had balances for many years like um some of
these ones here? Are they going to be spent down so that they can be closed out? Yes. Like the BU Saudi teachers which has been there I think with that same balance for as long as I've been on the committee. I had start to started to do some work um in the winter back in
December when this deficit uh presented itself to um identify any of these uh resources we could use to you know perhaps close the gap. In order for me to be able to know how we can
spend it, I have to go back to uh when it was originally um accepted by the committee and what the terms of the grant were. and I um I I I ran uh short of time on being able to track down uh
when the grants were accepted and the backup documentation to support that. So that's really the work that needs to be done. Um where these were smaller amounts for the time being um uh and and there was you know um other work that had to be done. I just I didn't have the
opportunity to continue with my research there. But that would be the process in order to be able to identify one of two things would happen. Either it's broad enough that we can use it for something um you know in our current spending plan
or it's so restricted that we would have to return the money back to the donor. So won't know that until I can I can uh get the original documents um for each of these. Thank you, Carolyn. Thanks. Um, just quickly while we're
here as a general education for me. So, steps bef and the innovation fund, although I don't know what if the teacher mentoring is
separate. Those are 501c3s. They're not part of the public schools of Brooklyn as I understand it. So how come this and I don't want to take too much time but I'm just curious why this is
shown sort of these amounts flow through PSB in some way primarily these are grants um that are uh awarded to us from those foundations and and when these were set up they were
set up using the name of the various foundations so it's not money we Okay. Yeah. Okay. So, when BEF MA I should know this because I was on the board. When BEF makes it grant its grants, it flows through us because the
teachers need to be paid by PSB. Yeah. If it's a mini grant, I think the mini grants are managed through BEF, but other things like um bigger grants um I
know and Jody can speak probably um um um in a more granular level than I can on it, but um for example, there was a a big grant that was awarded for a number of projects that were district-wide product projects. So um for those grants
uh they would they would send us money and then we would pay that um the expenses out of that directly. So so BEF is a little odd in in the way that I mean they do it in two ways. It's not odd. It's perfectly fine what what they're doing. It's just they do it in
two different um ways depending on what what what kind of a donation it is. So I can speak to your question Carolyn about steps to success. Um there's two sides of steps to success. There's the
PSB side which this grant would flow through and then there's the steps inc side and we have a memorandum of understanding with them. So that's why you see this flowing through here. So when we have so we're paying some of the
tutors, correct? We're paying for the first hour of after school as well as some of the inschool support. Okay. And then they have a whole section that they just do directly for like whatever reason at some point I guess it
just got set up that way. Yeah, that's how it functions. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay, other questions on any of this is the Odyssey Green. I'm trying to remember. That's the one that was like a
ocean a teacher who had applied for something relating to the ocean. Okay. From Noah or whatever it was. Okay. That was recent too. Yes. Also this year. Okay. Um thank you Susan. Very helpful. and we'll look for the the updated memo
next week that ties all the Yeah. on the non salary site and then the last one are just your revolving funds. Oh yes, revolving funds. Thank you. And I had a question on revolving funds. So I'm glad you follow question. Go ahead. Yeah. So, revolving funds are are really funds
that are set up. Um, they can only be set up um there's only certain revolving funds school districts can have. Um, and and the the the law dictates what we can set up a revolving fund for. Um, and so
food service is probably your most common and and they're all feebased programs. So the revolving fund for food service can only be used for food service um expenses. The revolving fund for beep
can only be used for um early childhood expenses. Base only for base you know um adult education expenses. So it's really important um to understand that revolving funds are for a particular
purpose and we cannot um expense things that are not related to that purpose against it. So for food service in other words you cannot charge textbooks to it. You cannot charge curriculum to it. You can't charge anything but costs associated with food
service. And that's true for each of these. Um so I just wanted to you know highlight that um the difference they're different they are special revenue funds but they they have kind of different properties. The other thing about a
revolving fund is that they remain open. So they they they they function um more kind of on a cash basis as opposed to like an ACR an acrruel basis of accounting. So, um, when you're reporting them, they have a fund balance, but they never close, right?
Like, so, so revolving funds revolve, right? They go year over year until the purpose is is no longer in existence, and then you can sunset them. You don't have to keep them forever if there's no um need for them moving forward. So, that is really the difference between
revolving funds um and grants. Can I ask my questions? Sure. Okay. My first one is um why the food services zero waste is here because that was a gift. I was just looking at that too. And the gift accounts should
actually we should separate this and have a separate section for gift accounts. Okay. Gift accounts or something like that. Yeah, we we should have revolving. I don't know. It's like this was set up as a catch-all. This is the way it was set up when I came on board. But yeah, they
are not revolving funds. They're restricted funds and maybe whoever set it up originally um there's different categories of funds and they are restricted but they are not revolving and and moving forward we should separate those out for sure. So everything beneath visual arts material
fees should be in a different um category. Okay, we course correct on that. Even the ELE summer fee program. I don't know what the English language description. I don't know what that is. Okay. Jody, do you The food services one
is definitely was a gift. Is a We're in year two of a what I understand is intended to be a three-year gift. So, it definitely seems like it should be on the gifts part of Yeah. If it's called gift, it also could have been a donation. And I think when we have
brought it forward, it seemed more like a donation. Don and I were having a conversation about this earlier this week about how some some of these um we'll say gifts and donations and grants and and the titling of them doesn't necessarily align with what the
the their properties are from accounting perspective. So that come through that say grant, but they're really not a grant according to the definition of what we would call a grant, right? And so that's one of the things we were talking about earlier this week is like really taking a look at some of these and and kind of really categorizing them
not according to what the language is used when we received them but in fact um based on the properties associated with the type of fund it is but that's that's more work to be done there but yeah we did we did see some of these and
say I don't know you know this this this shouldn't really be in in a grant or this shouldn't be um in revol ving, but we'll we'll continue to um refine what we're doing and until we get it um just right. And does this mean that there was
no money left over in year one of the food services zero waste? Did they spend it down perfectly given it has the dash there? That is what I would say. Yep. Okay. Is
it possible to get that like confirmed? Yeah. Okay. Very good. Any other questions from the subcommittee or other people? I was wondering is um BIC going to deficit this year? Is that could we go back and look at that?
What? I'm sorry. Base. Yes. Is Bass going into deficit this year? Is that something that's about to happen? I I met with Michelle on Monday and we are still working through um what their expenses are going to be between
now and the end of the year. Um and also putting together a budget for just the summer component. And we haven't completed that work yet. I can I can give you an update next week. Oh, andor next um you know in our June meeting on on how base is looking. did not finish
uh the work with Michelle in time for this report. My other question in addition so it's my question is about the big three and Sarah asked about one of them. So um food services I'm presuming that the
revenue that's posted is just because it's lagging in terms of reimbursement from the state. Are you still anticipating will end up at 3.8 8 million roughly in revenue for food services. I can see how we're tracking. So, which
is a good point. One of the things that's challenging and has been challenging up until now is is the lag in the posting of receipts um throughout the year. I will say the good news is is that um any receipts that were received
by the treasury um by the end of April are included in this but we still have you know May and June receipts to come in and the other thing with food service of course it's kind of a year- round program now so we will be getting in more receipts but I can ask um uh Sasha
to provide me with more information about how she thinks uh they would close out as of June 30th. Okay. And then so I can do base. Um I might not be able to get all this done by Monday though. So maybe
I'll do base and uh the revolving fund analysis information um for the June meeting. So base food service. What was the other one? Well, the third one is beep. I mean if you look the budget for BEP was 4.5, but there's less than half of that for the revenue. So where's the
rest of the beep revenue? I think some of this again comes to timing, but I will I will I will focus in on those three revolving funds and get you more information. Okay. Um, other questions from the
subcommittee or other members on the other people on the on this topic? Yeah, on this topic before we move on to the next topic. Okay. Thank you, Susan. And we'll
look for those updates both next week and in June. Um and the next topic on the agenda is the um hourly rates and stipens for extra compensation. Susan, are you going to
talk us? Yes. Sure. the so last um last year the school committee approved these rates um for the current year and we are asking that the same rates be um approved uh for the upcoming
year. There's no changes in what the school committee approved back in June of 2024. But right now um without rates we can't issue contracts and move forward with uh scheduling the summer programming. So um I know and we'll
acknowledge that there's um variety of different questions that um people have about equity and where did the rates come from and all of that. Uh we were hoping to be able to get to that work this year, but um uh we were not able to
[Music] um uh to get there. So we can certainly do some more work uh in the upcoming year to try to better understand, you know, the programs um as well as the
costs and um enrollment information. and and then um rates of pay that go along with them. I totally appreciate not getting not having time to get to that. Um I think that the thing that we're
going to need to look at is um the hours that somebody needs to spend outside of the day in order to prepare. So like is the role a curriculum writing role? that seems to me to be a different, you know,
workload than a supervising role, right? Um I don't know if maybe it's going to take talking to people that are in those programs in order to figure that part of it out. Yeah, I know that. What I can say um is
that when I go back through some of the records that um non-aligned pay was analyzed back in 21 and 22 and Joe Russo who I believe was your HR director and um Jim Marini was the superintendent at
the time and the memo from that era says that they had done some um you know comp work with uh with similar school districts. I haven't seen the seen the comp information, but what
I do have is their memo. Um, and so the reason and that's what you had shared with us last time, I believe, right? And that's how we felt comfortable voting those in like we we felt like we had we had been advised well and so we felt comfortable with voting those in. But I
also appreciate you're saying let's take a deeper dive at this. I understand that there wasn't time this time, but um I I think that what we'll be looking at is, you know, who who writes curriculum for their programs, who you know, Yeah. what we we I think we could figure out the
questions we want to ask. And those questions probably would be to people who are involved in those programs. Yeah. And and and in order to be able to do the work, it's really the three deputies need to be able to have the time together to do those assessments.
Um and u my concern for next year of course is I'm the only deputy left. So I don't know that I'll be able to um spend a significant amount of my time next year with the override six contract negotiations um and um and all of the
changes to be able to be able to focus my attention on this. But um it's it's here. I we are you know I believe you're competitive. I know that um Karen had actually Karen Schmuckler had um taken a quick look at some of the uh districts
around us and for at least the ESY. Um she she told me earlier today that um we're the second uh to the top in terms of what we pay um for the ESY component. Of course, not every school district has the same programs that we have. So, um,
knowing what they pay in some areas might be more difficult to to map out, but certainly there should be a relationship between the amount of time and effort outside of the school um, uh, and area and responsibility and the pay
without question. It's it's just getting to the bottom of of that and and having the time to to uh, have those conversations with with folks uh, in the field doing the work. It has been the struggle. Carolyn, go ahead. And then I've got a
question after you. Thanks. Um, so I'm looking at a recent um, email we received from a community member articulating some of the concerns
that you that you um, articulated, Susan. And this my question is not remotely um, critical of you or your work or your efforts. It's literal questions just to be clear. Um, so Star
Academy is completely funded by the METCO grant. Is that correct? Not entirely. Um, a a piece of it is uh the METCO grant and then it's title four. Is it title four, Jod? That pays
for the staff. Title three. Title three. Sorry. Okay. And um so a question in there when I see TBD for the assistant director and the team leader
um like maybe normally I wouldn't have a huge concern about that but sort of looking at that also through the lens of the valid concern that's been raised about the parody between I mean I'm looking at the
ESY I'm assuming coordinator is basically like a director position and the difference between 12500 and 18,000 and then with those TBDs uh can you speak to those TBDs at all
and also um I guess I just want to acknowledge even though I appreciate that you want to try to sort of dig back and see where these rates came from. Um, it's tricky because I think that the
issues raised um are fair issues of concern. So, two things I'll say. I don't have um tonight what those two were last summer, but I can get that for you. I remember
now that you mentioned this and I if I would have uh been um if it had occurred to me I would have updated this but I remember last year the reason why assistant director and team leader were not moved forward with
an amount was because there there was some work done to look at um the differences um in responsibility associated with them and that at the moment that we had brought this forward um there there that work had not been
completed, but I I believe and Jody can probably answer this um better than I that the assistant director and the team leader um were hired last year and I can look up what they were hired at and then we can then we can give you the information on that because it wouldn't
be any different from what we charged this year. Jody, do you do you remember if they had both a team leader and um they did have both last year. Okay. Do you have any recollection of what what they landed on for the for the Yeah. Yeah. We can look it up though. We can we can get that.
Um I can I can get that next week with with the other Okay. So maybe a better way a different way of asking it is um do you so like if those positions like if a team leader was the same or
more as the ESY coordinator that's just concerning and um I'm going to just throw in another question. So the the aids what is the Paris salary?
It's in the It's in the unit B contract. So, okay. Your head. Well, there's there's a there's a range, right? There's different steps. So, if an employee in the, you know, during the year is at step five and they're on
grade two, then that's what they would be receiving. So, it's it's it's it's pairs um with the unit B unit C contract. You know, I want to I want to say though um because there is a distinction like
in the ESY programs you see coordinators but they are coordinators because we have four directors that work year round. So the coordinators are not the equivalent of a director in the STAR
program. it's a director because there isn't a director that's running this in in the summer that parallels what they do during the year. So, those are two different um scenarios. And I just want to call that out. So, you're not going to have a
coordinator make the same as a director because um there's directors for ESY. There's four directors that work all summer long. Do you see what I'm saying? Yeah. I don't see them as parallel. is the
parallel what the time commitment not parallel and what so that makes sense what you're saying Susan thanks for that explanation is the time commitment which I think Sarah was raising like I guess I just
generally speaking I guess I share the you know concern in terms of retaining best people and best practice that you know if But like if a team leader or assistant
director in Star Academy is making the same as an ESY coordinator, even if that's a similar position, is the time the same? So, and I you're saying Susan that you're not gonna work that's
Yeah. And that's it because like Star Academy is not an ESY program. ESY has run out of OSS and Star Academy and um Discovery are out of OTL and I think these programs were probably developed
not in not in tandem but over time and understood you know and so I I don't I don't know I don't know what the through line between all the programs are and that just is going to take some some time um for those three offices to kind
of sit down and and look at and of course next year we don't have two of those offices filled. So, I um it's we're probably going to have to wait a little bit longer before we can get to that work, but at least um may maybe pockets of the work can be
done in the meantime. Um depending on uh how quickly we're able to fill some of those positions, but I don't have the information. I haven't had any any time to take any deep dive look at it myself. So, I'm a little confused about some of
the comments about ESY coordinators versus directors because as my understanding is, the ESY coordinators are essentially site directors of each one of the three ESY sites. And they're not, you're right, they're not the special education directors, but
they're there to make sure that the ESY program at each one of those sites runs as it's supposed to. Um, and then the director of project of Star Academy, just to give one example, has during the year to develop the program. They are
both the director of the they have their job during the year as a director and then they also have this job during the summer. So I I guess I'm a little I think that they are more parallel in my mind. The person who's on the ground executing for both of these programs. They're essentially equivalent. They're
oversee like managing and executing what's happening. So I guess I don't like I don't understand the saying that they are not parallel when I'm saying I think that they're functions essentially are. Um with that said, the star academy director role seems out of line with the
rest of the roles. It's not that like that one is much higher by almost 50% than any of the other positions. One thing that I would like to get clarity on, two questions I have. One is um for all of the stipended roles, I guess, for
all of these roles, is anyone getting paid for their normal role and then again getting paid for this? like if I'm if I'm whoever one of these whether I'm a nurse or I'm a director or I'm a whatever am I getting
paid my normal hourly rate or daily rate and also claiming a stipend on top of that if I'm working you know July 17th whatever that is a Tuesday is it part of my regular contract and I'm getting stipended or is it I wouldn't have
gotten paid if this wasn't happening I don't know how to really answer that question off the top of my head without having further conversation with people that oversee those programs. I can help a little bit. Mariah, for example, Mindy is the Star Academy director and she's
also our ei director during the year, but her contract isn't a full school year contract. So, she's not double dipping. She's getting paid for summer work that she normally wouldn't be doing. I apologize.
Okay. So, in general, it's it's true that people are not getting double paid as far as we know. As far as I'm aware. Okay. Lisa, I see your hand is up. Do you want to or Liza, do you want to
comment specifically on this question? I would presume so. So, Betsy, do you mind promoting her so that she can comment um specifically on this? Uh, Lisa, you should be able to speak now. Hi. Hi, everyone. I'm sorry I can't
turn my camera on. Um, I'm Liza Cassell. Um, I've worked in ESY for 5 years. Um, I've been the coordinator for three. So, if there's any questions that anybody would like to ask, I'm here. Um, this
meeting is so important to me that I I I'm I'm here. So, thank you. Um, well that's my one question. It sounds like as I would just like maybe Susan, could we put in something that's like an asterisk of people can't get
double paid if that makes sense or can we not do something like that? Yeah, I I don't If Jod believes that nobody's getting double paid, I she would be closer to it. I just don't I just don't have any Okay. I'm not saying it's happening or it's not happening. I
just I I can't answer the question um from a place of knowing. Okay. And then my second question is um the PSB special education teachers and specialists, it lists a whole bunch of areas, but it doesn't necessarily like I just really
rereading it this year, it doesn't list like BCBAS um or and I guess I'm just wondering what is the point of listing the ones that are here? Can we just say it's special education teachers and specialists and either add in the ones that are missing or just remove all of
the things that are listed there? I don't know why they were listed. I don't know what the I again I I wouldn't I wouldn't eliminate I wouldn't make changes right this second without
uh without me being to do able to do some research. And at this particular point, I'm really concerned about our inability to secure the staff for summer programs. Okay. And then on that point, my third question is, do we have any areas last year where these rates were
insufficient to secure staff? No. Can you repeat that? No. No. Okay. Um Okay, Carolyn, I see your hand. The Liza, I presume that's an old hand. So, um if it's a new hand, take it down and then put it back up again so I know.
Okay, Caroline, go ahead. Thanks. So, again, you know, I feel like I'm between a rock and a hard place here because I take the concerns and it's not the first time we've heard these
concerns or even I've heard these concerns even before I was on school committee about the ESY program. I appreciate um Liza being here, Susan. I mean, it it or
Mariah, is there a way to just come up with $5,500 to Oh, but it's so it's three times I mean, is there a $15ish,000 if one was to move to make
the ESY coordinator positions on on par with the star director? Well, I think the issue that we had last year is and what didn't happen this year is we basically said we some of these days are half days, some of them are full days. We don't know how much like
we know that some of these directors have to do prep, you know, so what does their workday look like? How many weeks is it? And could we come up with a reasonable hourly rate that then reflected some of these programs, again I'm making this up, being 3 weeks versus six weeks, being half days versus full
days, so that we would have a much more um nuanced, accurate reflection of the workload that goes into being a director or coordinator or whatever. Um, and that's I think the kind of thing that we
didn't get yet that we would that we would find valuable. Okay. So, yes, that would be valuable. Um, and I think I just heard Susan say that although of course we want,
well, she didn't say this, I'll say. Of course, we want to settle this. Um, but it's frustrating. I think we're probably all frustrated for it to be a sort of ongoing um point of contention and frustration
and like is there something that Liza I is is there a proposal that somebody can can produce within the next two weeks that could give us some guidance to consider? These these rates on the ESY
were raised significantly last time. That's what I can tell you. I I I can the rates that we're paying were increased in this area. So, it's not that it was level. Yeah. The hourly and
the coordinators. Yes. The hourly I don't think was I think we we changed the internal PSB to um perdm. They had a lower hourly rate than externals if I recall. They they did but they were increased also in the year in which you
did not vote for these. So they they have they have gone up not last year. Last year what went up were the coordinators and um I think all teachers in ESY were moved we changed them to PDMs. That's what increased them last
year right for the teachers. That's what I was saying. Yeah. Yes. Exactly. That wasn't they were hourly before two years ago they were hourly. They were changed the year before and last year you codified that you would give this raise uh this amount moving forward. So I'm
just saying ESY is is an area that has has had some modifications pretty significant modifications. Star Academy has has not had a complete overall I don't overhaul I don't think. um and some of the other
programs. But uh you know I think Carolyn the other concern that they need to be able to make offers to people. They need to be able to lock people into the position. So I don't think we want to wait two weeks. Um I think let's go ahead and have Sarah make her comment or yeah let
me have Sarah comment then we'll come back to you Liza and then hopefully we can make a motion at that point. I just wanted to make sure that in our notes we have what you addressed. So, just to be very succinct about it so that we can all look back to it, we're
looking at number of hours worked. We're looking at um outside demand and we're looking at curriculum writing versus not curriculum writing. Is that the full list of how we would like to define these roles? I'm I'm not asking about curriculum writing versus you know there
can be many ways they're spending their time. I was just hours worked outside. Okay. Outside work like um demand beyond the hours of the day. That's one thing, right? And then hours worked. So if you tie it to an hourly, then then you're
all set there. Um are we asking for a different rate of pay for a different level of expertise or education? I don't think we're we're going there. just want to make sure we have our complete list of what it is that we would like to look into and that you know if we have that then in our in our notes from this
meeting that helps us going forward. I don't know if there's going to be multiple times that Susan is going to say to us Susan I don't want to talk about you in the third person you know that I have a lot of respect for you but um she's going to say to us that these are things that can't get done without
people in these roles. So, do we want to try to also keep either a mental list or a separate list of um things that we would like to flag once we do have people in these roles? Like, do you want to start keeping a list of what hasn't
been addressed? I don't understand the question. Do we do we want like is this going to come up again and again because we don't have people in the leadership roles that there's going to be things that we're not getting to that we have to make hard decisions like we have to
make today and um do we want to have it flagged somewhere else other than just in our notes of things that we haven't gotten to. Susan has a running list on her whiteboard. Okay, good. My parking lot. Yeah, she calls it the parking lot.
Yeah. So, we have the parking that that's a teacher term. Good thing we've got the parking lot. Yeah. Liza, go ahead. Oh, I'm proud. Hi, everyone. Um, thank you for giving me time to speak. I just want to say the raise we got last year.
I wrote letters to the school committee and Mariah was the one who heard me. Thank you, Mariah. Um, we got a raise last year because you added an extra week to ESY. We are now working six weeks and this is very emotional for me because I I I love this program. I have
dedicated most of the past five years to this program. Our job starts in February. We are not getting double paid. I work weekends after weekend as do the other two coordinators once summer school starts. Every year I have to fight not only for my employees to
get paid but for them to get equal amount of money. I am getting asked by people. I have six degrees. I am getting asked by people why I continue to work for this program every year when it seems that nobody but Mariah cares about our students, our most vulnerable
students, and everything that we do every year. I promise you, I can staff I can staff an entire ESY program. But do you guys want staff of employees that work with our most vulnerable students all year long, or do you want me to hire
somebody that applies? Because I would like a staff of my teachers that are willing to work, that know my students, that know my their needs, that know what sets off our most vulnerable students or what supports them to have success so that they don't have regression over the
summer. And that has not been acknowledged or honored at all over the past five years that I have been in this program. There are coordinators that work programs that are half the amount of time that are optional programs for
almost over $10,000 than what the coordinators make. Now, I know there's three of us, but we give our heart and soul into this program and it is for over 20% of our most vulnerable population. I'm not even My employees
make more money than I do on a summer basis. If you paid me my hourly rate, I would begin to maybe meet what my employees make. But that doesn't even compute the amount of hours that we spend on making an awesome summer
program work for our most vulnerable students. And I just hope that the school committee and anybody hearing this considers that because it's really hard to fight every year for my employees to get a paycheck or to get paid. I saw us through the deficit when
we didn't get paid and coordinators source zero amount of that money and Aaron Hearnney and I still come back every year because we are dedicated to our students and to what they need to prevent regression and have the summer that they need. and I just hope that
people on this phone call or hearing this consider it. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Liza. So, we have three minutes left in the meeting. Um, scheduled as scheduled. I do think we need to make a vote on
this. Um, I think it is notable to me the point that was just made about, you know, other people are making PDM and these staff aren't. If it is a six week appointment, um, that's about $2,000 a week.
Sorry, Mariah. Can you just I listened to every word Liza just said, but you just sort of translated something or restated something and I'm not f Can you when you're saying who are the one the A and the B here and what
you So if you look for ESY, every other um role gets paid per DM from our current staff. So you can see PDM PDM PSBAs is the PAR salary schedule. Everyone is basically making their
current salary except for the coordinators and um the 12,500 is a flat rate. Um and if they're working six weeks at 5 days, that's again a $2,000 rate. I don't know how that compares to their hourly rate or
their daily rate. Okay. And so you're you are expanding on what Liza just said that her teachers are making more than she does. It's what she said, right? Exactly. I don't I don't know that we have the information to do the math like
right now and understand the impact of that but I want to I was interpreting it um in that way is you know are other people are is in the same way that we had a conversation about salary bands with vice principles and principles and thinking about how to
make sure that people aren't making um that people are making an amount that makes it both worth their leadership role and that extra organization um to do these things. So, how do we make sure that people aren't making less
on an hourly basis or a daily basis than the folks that they're overseeing in that role? Understood. Maybe we could answer that question um in the upcoming year that I think one of the bigger differences at this moment is just that
these rates were used to build the FY26 budget. So, if we're going to start to increase rates, then we don't have, you know, um, we have to be careful. We wouldn't have funding behind it. Is that what you're saying?
No. And we So, I I I think if there's a few targeted areas you want to look at, maybe that is doable. And maybe it just isn't doable right this second. Do we need to Susan if we voted the rest of this
except for the ESY coordinator role? Bear with me here. The exact same thing. And then that way it would allow you to make the rest of the offers. This is only three positions we're talking about. And as far as I know, they're people who are recurring roles. Um and then that would let us do
a very targeted just sort of inquiry into just that position and some looking at the impact. Is that possible? Not not from my perspective. I don't have the capacity and I don't think Karen or anybody else does right
now. We have so much that has to be done right now. I don't know what to say. Okay. I I can I can do this but that means other things will have to go. Okay. I think I think probably someone else could do the math and just have you validate it and it would be okay. And I
know you're making a face, but I think that like I'm saying no. I'm saying no from my perspective. You can do you can take and you do take actions that that don't follow, you know, okay, my recommendations, but
um I don't I'm just saying we don't have capacity. We have six weeks left to go. We're trying to Yeah, I'm going to make the motion to approve all of the document except for that one row. And we will come back to that in the very near future.
I'll second that. Okay, Caroline, how do you vote? Yes. Sarah, yes. And I vote yes. And I should say that the motion was to recommend to full school committee that they accept the entire document less that one line. And we'll take this up tomorrow. It might be helpful next time we speak
about this to have anything else that's defined like do we have um pipins defined for during the years during the year work do we you know it where do we already have let's park that for a little bit and see what we can how we
can streamline this I want actually I want to make one friendly amendment to my emotion which is to add BCBAS which is the one other um category of provider into that special education list if they were of things that were were waiting to approve. No, that they
we would there was a whole category of special education and it listed OT and speech and a whole bunch of other but for whatever reason BCBA wasn't there. You're add Y. So do I have to do I have to sec do I I'm making a friendly amendment. If
you both are okay with that then we will just pursue like if you don't like it then speak up and otherwise we'll include that small amount. I'm good with that. Okay. Okay. That is where we are going to end the meeting. Susan, thank you so much.
Betsy, Jody, everyone else from staff who's here. Thank you very much. And we will be back tomorrow for school committee. and Betsy is going to pull the membership on a quick meeting next week to cover the little bits that we did not get to today.
Thank you both. Thank you. Bye. Thank you all. Good night.