um I did some you for e every February 13th 2025 meeting of the Brookline school committee uh so joining us remotely tonight are Helen tropski and Val Fus um Jesse hefter is absent
and Carolyn suzan Steven uh Sarah and eventually Mariah I think are here at the table um all right so we don't have a consent agenda tonight so our first item is going to be uh the student report from Kieran um okay yeah so this is the February school committee report it's actually
going to be um a fairly shorter report uh February being the shortest month I suppose um but still busy um second semester February is the First full month of our second semester quarter 2 officially ended about two weeks ago on Tuesday January 28th and just this
Friday um so a week from tomorrow uh all our report report cards for the first semester were uploaded to our student portals um which marks the second semester I can say from the perspective of a second semester senior um this is a
milestone um you know I think when I was a freshman I always dreamt of this moment um that I would get to be a second semester senior one day and it's finally happened um you know so that's nice um last week uh BHS or two weeks ago BHS hosted our annual day of racial
reform and solidarity um so it was a day long event sa for um as you can see the first block of the day which was C block um b d and f blocks featured a telling our stories uh portion of the day um from faculty and students uh with B B
Block featured a panel of about seven faculty um of all Races and ethnicities who just shared what their experience was like at the high school um in terms of celebrating race and celebrating their ethnic culture uh well dnf blocks featured pre-recorded student speeches
um about how their race how their ethnicity has affected them and their academic experience uh at the high school um a block BHS was also uh honored to welcome um a guest speaker yasan ker who was the uh ACLU Deputy legal director um and the director of
its trone Center for justice and equality um and so she spoke on you know just the state of sort of um race the state of ethnicity uh in our nation overall what she's observed uh through her work um which now her longtime work
uh at the ACLU um and you know I think I speak for most students when I say that we were um very fortunate to have her um and you know shout out to Mr Roger Grandy um for for coordinating that um and bringing her to speak uh in front of our student
body uh February also marked uh and is currently marking the end of our winter sports season um as you all know the high school athletic season is divided into fall uh winter and spring Sports uh so many teams actually hosted their senior nights um this week um girls
varsity uh basketball um and Brooklyn Boys Hockey among others um I was actually at the uh girls varsity basketball game um and it was a great match uh or great game um unfortunately we didn't get the win but still nonetheless um it was great to see
seniors off um and a shout out to them on a very successful season um the winter season was also pretty successful for both the boys and girls hockey teams basketball team uh the fencing team the squash team um which is actually going to Philadelphia over the break um so you
know many good lucks uh or good luck in Philadelphia um but really just overall a very successful winter sports season um and actually personally my last um so a bit of a Bittersweet moment um and then just looking ahead so tomorrow February 14th um our Asian-American and
Pacific um Club will host its annual lunar new year assembly uh so this is just a full day um you know day of programming um featuring games featuring performances during F block um if you look at that picture um on the slideshow right now that was actually taken um
from the last year's Lunar New Year assembly um you know so there's always a wide variety of performances um that really do leave the student body you know quite impressed and quite satisfied I can speak from personal experience um when I say that you know the Lunar New Year assembly is always one of my favorite events um just because of how
it brings the um School Community together um and really you know a lot of the education that it provides um on you know the history and celebration of Lunar New Year in various cultures um and then of course I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that next week was February vacation um I can speak for I
think most students and certainly all seniors when I say that this is a much needed week of rest and downtime and relaxation um and I think that we're all very much looking forward to having a week off um and a very happy February
vacation to all of you as well um so that was February at the high school all right thanks very much Karen yeah Helen has a question so actually it's a statement thank you for your report about all the sports teams but I happened to be reading the globe
and saw that we had a MIAA Champion cross country skier Hannah Peterson I think it is um who came in you know first place uh in cross country skiing so that's that's really exciting too just wanted to add that to what you said
thank you for your report senioritis has started huh shorter reports shorter everything all right thanks alen thank you all right we go now to Dr gillery for the superintendent update
good evening everyone it's great to be here with you tonight uh first up I want to again thank the F frr Community uh both the interview committee the senior team uh interview committee and the three finalists that participated um in
finalist interviews this week so we had three candidates uh meet in person with the F frr community on Tuesday afternoon that was uh Candace Whitmore s s Yuan and Danielle beten
court and then Wednesday night the finalist also met with the parent Community right now the feedback survey is open so I'm collecting that information and will utilize that in making the final offer to the candidate
um based on that feedback as well as their participation in the interviews I want to update on the OSS Deputy of student services search um so I want to thank the screening committee who had their first meeting today to review
applications select candidates to review as well as select the candidate questions Claire Galloway Jones is serving as the committee chair Christinia Christina for breezio out of Human Resources as a member of the committee we have a BHS uh Sor an
elementary teacher Kath Kathleen Kaine that's serving Brandy Al Al denstein from BHS our two parent uh representatives from CPAC are Emily jaffy and Linda Monarch representing the elementary and then high school we have
Vanessa Bello serving as the principal on the committee Robin Fabiano as the high school U administrator naen mole as um the K8 special education director pre8 special education director Trish Lam our
coordinator of Health Services um Matt du Bo senior director in student services as well as Kristen brop and the targeted time this has actually changed since I put this together they're planning to interview
they selected um a wider range of uh folks to bring in so they're going to do interviews over two days so Thursday uh February 27th and Friday February 28th I believe are the correct dates there professional learning for fish
tank Ela curriculum several of our literacy Specialists gathered Wednesday February 12th to begin planning professional learning to implement the fish tank Ela curriculum they mapped out goals and created a scope and sequence for the professional learning for the
remainder of the school year as you can see from the poster here on the right hand side our literacy Specialists are excited and hope to spread the excitement to all K5 teachers as they co- explore the curriculum together the
OTL wants to thank our beu partners for their feedback collaboration as we can create this impactful professional learning experience for our teachers February vacation week by base Kiran already mentioned the excitement
around February vacation as schools break for the vacation week Bas is offering a week-long program for kids ages 5 through 12 the week um this will be held at the Roland Hayes School the program will feature full day or halfday
sessions of fun and enriching activities including Arts crafts Dance games PE and outdoor activities as well as virtual reality explorations and more our preschool screening the beep
our beep program Brookline Early Education uh will conduct preschool screenings Thursday March 25th at 194 Grove Street in chessnut hill this is a free and optional service offered twice a year for preschool age Brookline
residents ages 2.6 to5 who are not currently attending beep and with that that will conclude the superintendent's report for this evening right Sarah I'd also just like to add on that
um the high school did the curriculum evening um last night and it was a complete pleasure to hear um from the different department heads about um what's taught at Berlin high school and that I just have to say that there was the message that went through was just
like the the joy of teaching it was the love of the students and love of what they what everybody there does so that was a real pleasure so thank you Mariah I have two questions one one is
um more straightforward I think well both are straightforward when you talk about a preschool screening what are they screening for why would someone sign up for that can you help the community understand that so interestingly enough I had the opportunity
um to go and participate or see this um last year uh over at the Ron school one of the things um they're looking at sort of are the gross motor skills of the kids their ability um at a at a very
early age to uh and we used to do this when I was an elementary principal uh this notion of um can they follow instructions um what's their interaction or their in uh to play with peers or like um a similar age group as such so
the idea is to explore sort of their Readiness um so it's not like an early intervention screening to see if they might need additional support it's really like are you ready for preschool screening that's my understanding but I'll I'll double down I'll double check that with uh Margaret okay my next
question is um do you have an update on the interim for office of student services I have a meeting tomorrow um but they potential candidate so I'll know more this is is you last week you had said to us you were going
to talk with the internal pool to see if someone was stepping forward so did that I spoke with I did speak with the internal pool um but their recommendation to me first was talk to this um individual first and then after
that um select uh two intern candidates to possibly serve in the role stepen um sorry just to follow up so the February 28th meetings are for next year's full-time replacement yes okay
thank you y all right thanks Dr gillery and this takes us to our school Committee Action which is a discussion and possible vote on a scope of work for an independent review of PSB budget and management process so recall that um after we' requested a
reserve fund transfer to pay for the proposed audit uh the advisory committee referred the scope of work back to the town School partnership so at this point the Town School partnership and the select board have approved a revised scope of work which is what's in front
of us tonight for our approval um and we have the Town Administrator joining us uh to discuss the process uh so thanks very much Chaz for being here uh would you like to sort of give us some of the background thank you Dr Lou chair and the superintendent and the whole school committee thank you for having me here
um I great I really appreciate you taking the time to review this um at this juncture the select board believing the time is of the essence here has elected to approve uh scope of work for
a broader deficit review um to address three critical questions that have been raised one is the complaint complaint uh by a senior member of PSB administrative staff revolving around um OSS um one the second is cost overruns
in the current fiscal year and the third is the $8.2 million projected deficit for FY 26 um the select board is said they're going to pay for this uh it's probably going to come out of my budget um and that's fine um and given how important
this is um my goal here is to tonight is for you all to review the scope of work identify any questions that you may have um talk through how the process is going to work in practice uh and then hopefully vote to approve it after which point um we will begin um soliciting
quotes from qualified vendors to move on this quickly it is exempt from the traditional 30b procurement process because it's it's um procuring a specialist but in this case I have been speaking to my whole team town council's office the finance director a Human
Resources Director deputy administrator Melissa Goff we've been working together to identify potential respondents that we think would be able to do this work quickly and comprehensively and we were actually already started reaching out to them I had a phone call with a potential firm about half an hour ago um so um we
are going to move quickly on this the target is to be done with this within six weeks of signing a contract um if that's unrealistic if firms come back and tell us that in order to do a good job they need more time obviously the Steering group that will guide this which will include the chair of the
school committee the chair of the Town School partnership a designate from the advisory committee chair of the audit committee and a member of my staff um will be able to um make the determination on whether or not that's in the best interest of the community um
but the real name of the game here is getting answers uh and determining next steps quickly thank you chz for helping to move this forward into the select board for supporting it does anyone have any questions for the Town Administrator suzan it's not a question
it's actually a comment um I'm just noticing as I read through the seven issues here that there's nothing that says and can you highlight what's really working and so I'm wondering if that will happen as well that what we
are doing well it can also be highlighted um it's not just about what we may need to change or we may need to tweak but what are we doing well and can we highlight that as well I'm certainly happy to speak to the
firm about that I think that's you know it's it's not necessarily right by by process of elimination what's identified and everything else is going fine um but I do think it will be important in analyzing the best practices I think the firm will be calling out where we are following best practices uh and where we
are not um so I definitely take your point and I think the Steering group that will help uh will be meeting with this um committee uh meeting with the ultimate firm that accepts this regularly um can pass that along too you know where are the strengths in the organization where do we want to keep
our Focus as opposed to um where the weaknesses thank you Carolyn thanks um thank you Chaz um I don't have a question I just have a comment um Chaz I appreciate
the role that you've stepped into here um I appreciate your research your um reaching out to the town of North Andover that faced a similar um in year
severe deficit um and I just want to acknowledge how remarkable the situation is that we find ourselves in um and Urgent and um and Extraordinary Measures are necessary
so thank you thank you thanks Carn I see Helen's hand up hi CH thank you uh I'm just curious what will be the role of the steering committee or how do you see it
functioning I think the Steering group is basically a way of checking progress you know given the given how fast this is going to move we don't want there to be a six we process where someone then hands us some manag letter that doesn't address what we wanted to address so it's basically an opportunity for them to G check say this is where we're going
is there are there other people we need to talk to do you think that this is going it's not an opportunity for us to try and direct the results it's an opportunity for us to shape and say hey if you're looking at this issue you need to talk to this person so that's that's the aim here so it'll be sort of directing them and helping them to know
who who it is to speak to about different issues building familiarity who is the person from your office or your group that's going to be there I intend to designate Tiffany Oliva who is the Deputy T administrator for operations um the point of having a
staff member there on from my team there is not to direct the work it's to ensure that that things move along right it's to to have someone to operationalize it right so at the end of the meeting when someone you know you have four um elected or appointed officials there they may not be able to then say okay
you know call procurement and get you know get rich on the this is the phone number this is right this is this is the person who can then say okay let's get rich on the phone let's talk let's talk through it sorry the only thought I had since Melissa Goff has been here so long and it's been through other deficits
that we've had in the past I'm wondering if you know she may be somebody who uh could help yeah I think you know Melissa has been very much involved in this process since we we started identifying this
deficit um she really is is dedicated to finding a solution here as are all of us on the town administrator's office um you know she too yes oh no I know we're all you know I keep saying right this is a team effort this impacts all of us and we're all in this together so we need to
get to the bottom of this um so but Melissa is very much involved in the process um I also just think given that it is budget season on the town side um Melissa and Charlie are both really you know overwhelmingly dedicated to um you know they're they're currently burning
the midnight oil getting our budget book ready to go for the 15th so I wanted to give that to someone who has capacity I understand thank you Suzanne go ahead yeah thank you um Chaz I'm just looking over this and I'm not seeing a representative either from
the superintendent or from the senior leadership team or from our financial department is that intentional or that's that's by that's by Design um you know the purpose here is to you know again there's an allegation being made um from
senior leadership so senior leaders ship again I'm not alleging impropriety here I would for the sake of making sure that the the results are um you know um that the public has confidence in the results if there are allegations being given the
scope of the allegations it makes sense for this to be handled outside of senior leadership senior appointed leadership but that's not to that's not you know to try and exclude that's not to speak to any of the veracity of this it's just on the basis of the allegations so that's
why that is how it is and I take it the report though will be shared with uh superintendent certainly and finance department yes the report is to be delivered to both the chair of the Town School partnership who's currently also the chair of the select board Bernard Green and the chair of the
school committee um in the the only thing that might uh delay that somewhat is if there are allegations that for example reveal confidential employee information that has to be redacted and so that will go through town council's office but otherwise the reports will be delivered to both the slight board and
the school committee okay thanks um thanks what how long do you anticipate the procurement will take I hope it will be no more than 10 days um that's usually the turnaround time for a formal request for quotes um
I'm I I really want us to move quickly on this at the end of April is what we're looking at for the delivery of a final report that's probably right okay thank you all right so I'll move that uh we approve the scope of work for review of
Financial and management processes and PSB uh thank you Stephen any more questions or comments before we vote all right Sarah yes Stephen yes Mariah yes Suzanne yes Carolyn yes Helen yes Val
yes and I vote Yes as well right thank you very much again Chaz for joining us and for your work on this thank you to the whole committee thank you yes all right this takes us to um pretty much the rest of our meeting is devoted to the budget um so we start with public
comment and please bear with me while I read out quite a bit of verbiage about this segment um so I'll begin with this the school choice law contained in the education Reform Act of 1993 presumes that each school committee will admit non-resident students under the school choice program unless there's a vote to
the contrary by June 1st of each year the vote must follow a hearing on the issue of whether or not to participate so this evening we're combining the public hearings on the budget and school choice since the proposed FY 2026 budget does not include funds for school choice the school committee plans to vote on
the FY 2026 initial budget this evening after the public hearing and intends to vote on school choice at the first school committee meeting after the May 6th 2025 Town election so this budget public hearing is an opportunity for the public to provide input on the proposed
budget uh the school committee welcomes and we be listening very carefully to your comments but as is our practice we won't be responding to individual comments um so we have uh 20 people signed up uh some in person here in the room and some on Zoom so everyone who
would like to speak now uh we happy to accommodate you now as planned uh but if any of you would prefer to wait until after you've heard the superintendent's present presentation um and have some updated facts to work off of um then you can choose to do that as well so if you're in the room and you'd rather wait
um just when you're called on just indicate that um if you're on Zoom uh and would prefer to be called on later uh could you please raise your hand now on Zoom so that Betsy Can U make sure that you get called on before sorry I got that wrong you prefer to be called on now raise your hand on Zoom so that
Betsy will see you and can make sure to call on you now um okay great so I'll give a few seconds for people to um to do that um and in the meanwhile um there was one small remark I wanted to make which was that I wanted to acknowledge that I think I dropped the ball last week u in not warning the speaker uh
when her remarks strayed um pretty far from the topic of the budget um and I would ask all of our speakers tonight to please do stay focused on the budget um all right with that uh yeah or school choice yes um as far as I can tell everyone who signed up is has
indicated that they plan to speak about the budget um all right uh Betsy if you're uh do I do you need a few moments to catch up on the hands before we move to okay great our first speaker is remote
so oh okay so Miss Hogan isn't here she's coming okay all right so um I think I forgot to mention that we have a three minute time limit um today which we we'll try to enforce because we have so many speakers all right so our first speaker is Joshua Paradise I thought it was
kogan Andy right she's uh she's waiting to get on no oh she is she's in the attendees list okay I'm told that she's coming on in a minute so we're going with the next in the list first Paradise yeah yes thank you can
you hear me yes hi good evening um thank you so much for hearing the comment my name is Joshua Paradise I'm a parent of a ninth grader at BHS he has been in the public schools of Brooklyn since kindergarten all of his time at
RL I'm here tonight because I am disappointed to say I have lost confidence in the PSB Administration over the past few years PSB has continually failed to deliver on its promise of Excellence while the most recent budget
Gap alleged improper use of federal funds and numerous unpaid vendors were the last straws they're not the first signs of problems last year all of the eighth graders at RL had no science teacher for
the first month of school why because PSB prioritized administrative roles over classroom positions moving a great teacher out of the classroom to become assistant principal with no plan for who would teach yes we want to promote our
people but not with disregard for our students the teacher who was hired was so unqualified she needed a waiver from the state we can do better and we deserve better the most recent budget proposal shows a funding gap of $8
million I'm a chartered financial analyst with Decades of experience I have reviewed thousands of budgets and financial statements despite my efforts I am unable to understand what led to such a massive
Gap I SE no evidence that the budget as proposed reflects our priorities as a district or a commitment to Excellence in the classroom instead I see increases in spending outside of the classroom with little to show for it the repeated
pledges to evidence-based approaches provide no evidence of how these Investments are paying off we can do better and we deserve better you will need to address the budget Gap and it will not be easy I urge you to prioritize classroom
teachers teachers in the classroom are the lifeblood of Education a great teacher can change a student's life this budget pays lip service to educational Excellence but budgets are expressions of priorities
please present a budget that prioritizes educational outcomes for all our students we can do better and we deserve better I urge you to present a budget in a way that is clear transparent and understandable Brookline voters have
consistently approved budget overrides but the lack of transparency or expl explanation is not tolerable It feels like no one is holding the steering wheel it is time for the school committee to exercise control you hold the power over the budget please work to
fund the excellent education system that we want to believe we still have please make sure the budget prioritizes classroom excellence and please hold the administration accountable thank you thank you Mr Paradise next up now
has has Miss kogan joined us yes hello and we have Masha kogan's our next speaker hi um sorry for the delay slow internet connection here so I'm Masha kogan and I'm the mother of a BHS nth grader in looking at this
budget and the hard choices that have to be made I'm asking the school committee to prioritize classroom positions and resources and make Sharp Cuts to all areas of central Administration and that includes no salary increases in a fiscal crisis why would we expand a reward an
already bloated Central Administration that has proven incapable of executing the simplest managerial tasks has lost the trust to the town government and the community all at the expense of students and teachers every central office position that's created every salary increase
that's approved every conference that's attended means fewer teachers larger class sizes and fewer course offerings so why would we do this do we need more supervisors do we need more coordinators do we need more assistant Deputy heads or do we need smaller classes and more
advanced score sections parents have been telling you that they prioritize these things for years and I think in danger of losing sight of the purpose of the Brookline schools the schools are not places for adults to test theories launch strategic initiatives exercise
their creativity remake Society or build their careers their purpose is for kids to learn and that happens in classrooms with teachers so let's keep our money there where it can do the most good and bring us the greatest return and finally I'd like to plead with a school
committee to be unafraid to lay blame for this crisis where it belongs which is at the top the school committee and I believe only the school committee has the power to see that the superintendent take responsibility for this please exercise your lawful Authority and do the difficult and right thing we're
counting on you thank you thank you Miss kogan and next up we have Marlene Gonzalez Hi how are you thank you Betsy um as most of you know I teach seventh grade at Pierce it's a hard time for kids they make mistakes and
unfortunately a lot of them freak out of about it we're always clear with the kids that's fine everyone makes mistakes what matters most is that you acknowledge you messed up you learn from what you did wrong and then you work to fix it and also in the grand scheme of things seventh grade doesn't really matter it's cool you the central office
and school committee don't have the luxury that our seventh graders do your decisions impact students educations your decisions impacts fam's confidence in our schools and your decisions impact teachers lives and every year it seems like you don't show there's been
learning there's no acknowledging of mistakes and there's no fixing because yet again we find ourselves in a budget crisis and one of my roles for the school system I Mentor first second and third year teachers we work on developing the values and ethics needed in teaching however as the years go by
I'm struck more and more by the dissonance between what we're trying to cultivate and what we see and experience from our district leaders short-term expediency and box checking is seem seems to be what is valued not long-term planning and not a culture of care for
the members of our community especially those who are most vulnerable and tired I'm tired of seeing kids not getting what they deserve and instead getting what is cheapest I'm tired of seeing qualified wonderful colleagues leave whether through desperation of trying to
find a place that respects them or having their departments cut I'm tired of seeing the light dimming in the eyes of new teachers as they make ethical compromises with themselves in order to keep going and help our kids none of these are new issues for
you you heard it over and over but you don't have to deal with it on a day-to-day issue next year will be year 10 in Brookline I'm on my fifth principal Dr Giller is the fifth superintendent and we have all lost count of how many people have been in
charge of OTL osss Finance HR and every other office this is a Ness district there was the year where all pre-professional teachers got ping SLI the year all elementary language teachers lost their jobs that time our social security
numbers got sent to everyone the missed paychecks that we had to pay triple to fix the different expensive initiatives that are started half completed and then completely disavowed and every single year we end up being like wait what why is the budget a
mess but there is some good news you're not a seventh grader this counts but you do get the grace and opportunity that they all get you have the opportunity to fix this I'm tired I've got like a two-year-old to go chase I don't want to be here at school committee like fix it
thank you bye thank you Miss gonalves uh next up we have Daniel Lipton good evening my name is Daniel Lipton I am a Brookline resident a parent at Driscoll and BHS and I have been teaching second grade at F frr for 23
years we know that there are lots of things up in the air right now and that this is a stressful time for every one with the budget process however I'm coming to you with concern over the proposed budget cuts to reduce a section of second grade ATR second grade is the first year where
students don't have power support full-time if there are over 23 students in a class this would have a significant impact on the educational well-being of the students historically if you look back at the trends F frr always gets 10 to 15 new students over the summer in
second grade because our school has the highest amount of el students we get the highest influx of new students throughout the school year on average we get approximately five new students during the school year in second grade with the potential for 10 to 15 new
students in the summer and five or more new students during the school year this move will put the second grade classes at F frr at risk for being over 25 students please look back at the data before making the section reduction decision some of us have seen Cuts like
this happened before we know how stressful it is on grade levels it has a ripple effect on the school next year they would have to cut a section of third grade and so on it brings morale down as a staff f is the largest K to8 School in Brookline with the largest El
population we have a very diverse socioeconomic community and we are a title one school we house the therapeutic Learning Center it makes sense to keep class size on the smaller side so teachers can build meaningful relationships with students and meet the
diverse needs in our large unique community of Learners please consider keeping frr a five section School in addition I have heard the possibility of cuts to Summer programming if true this would be very disruptive for families and students who rely on these programs
for enrichment and academic support as well as Brookline staff that rely on these programs for supplemental income during the summer please preserve project Discovery Star Academy and Brookline smart summers at Brookline adult and Community Education please
prioritize preserving the dedicated Brookline staff at our schools and Community programs I ask the school committee to Lobby the town of Brookline for more funding all Cuts or bad cuts behind every cut is a person whose livelihood is in danger behind every cut
is a student or family that loses a valuable resource or learning experience I pride myself on being a teacher and one of the best school systems in our country let's continue to fulfill our promise of Excellence for all students please no more Cuts let's find a
creative way around this thank you thank you Mr Lipton next up we have Jorge Aranda hi hi good night um my name is Janda I am the father of a fourthe student in Dre school school and I'm going to tou
on themes that have come up time and time again this night meaning excellence in education the Excellence of our teachers in Brookline and the need to commit to education so first I want to thank Brookline the community for
actually investing in schools opening these wonderful new schools that my son is enjoying now I also want to thank the teachers because he comes back from school so happy so full of reading and learning and talking about math every night that this really shows the effort
that the teachers are doing however one of the issues that we have at Riso is that the fourth uh grade sections they're amongst the largest in the district so there are three sections there between 24 to 25 students and these overcrowd the the classrooms so
now I'm going to start reading because I'm forgetting what I'm going to say so uh so there are amongst the largest uh sections in the districts and this creates several issues the education of our childrens is suffering the teachers work really really hard and are very
creative and they are the core and the Heart of the education effort but because the classes are slow but the classes are slowly changing from a dialogue with the students to a lecture that does little to meet the needs of our kids education needs a continuous feedback you need to make sure you need
to check with your teacher am I writing the right way is this the right way to tell a story is my math correct and they do their best to provide feedback in a timely manner however not all the time this is possible because they just have such a huge amount of students in their
sections over CED classrooms as we have just heard can also create burnout on our wonderful teachers in res School my son has been in rol since kindergarten and I cannot tell you how much he likes the school and how hard the teachers work but asking the teachers day in and
day out to work in crowded rooms knowing that there are an empty classroom just across the hallway that is used for storage is is just way too much to ask from anybody next I would like to talk about safety the class size already exceed
exceeds the fire code allowed capacity my son's classroom is already at 25 persons 25 students the capacity the limit is 25 add to that the staff and their over capacity this will make
evacuation really really difficult in an emergency the despite constant fire and safety drills so I would like to finish by asking you to invest in our children's future and to open an additional section in risol for fifth
grade for a 2025 2026 Academic Year and since I I still have 20 seconds I would also like to say that project Discovery is really important for the community for our family it has made such a huge difference in my son's life that I will
just agree with the person who spoke before me and I will say do your best effort to keep it open it's really important for everyone thank you and thank you bet for coordinating everything thank you Mr Aranda next we have finegan
Aranda hi my name is hi my name is Finn I am a fourth grade student I'm here to talk about the class size in my school I am happy in Drisco and like to visit our school thrs arimus and Apollo I also like to learn we have new smartboards in class thank you for that but there are
so many classmates and tables and chairs that not all of us can see it our teachers in our teachers helping us write nonfiction books man on sea creatures she often works very hard to go over our work but with so many students we often have to wait one or
two days for for her feedback I also worry about safety last year we had a lockdown luckily it was accidental but we did not know it was hard moving to the safety wall the room was like a corn maze and when we got there not all of us
could fit please help my school open a new classroom so we can learn and see this and see this smartboards and have time with our teachers thank you for your time thank you very much Finn we go now to Lauren
Berard good evening uh my name is Lauren Bernard I've been a resident of Brooklyn since 1999 a lot of you know me I know a lot of you um I'm a commissioner on the Parks and Recreation Commission I've been a town meeting member but I'm speaking tonight as not a PSB employee
but somebody who works in a PSB school and think can offer a unique lens and perspective I'm also speaking as a former PSB parent I urge you to prioritize student
facing personnel and services when you are considering the cuts that need to be made to somehow close the Delta on this monstrous deficit our students in this District many of them are suffering especially
since the pandemic student facing teachers staff Paras AIDS Specialists person are what makes a school it's not new windows it's not fancy buildings it's
not any of these extras it's people and I urge you to start with cuts that are not student facing when I attended the last school committee meeting I saw a number of slides that really didn't make a lot of
sense to me especially in light of the communication that was sent today it looks like central office is adding all kinds of full-time employees and yet we're considering cutting teachers I think it has to be the
opposite as you most of you know or some of you know I run a very large after school program at the Ruff and Ridley School we're registering now and in less than 24 hours we have almost 200 students I see these students every day
I see these teachers every day and while I am not a PSV employee I work alongside of these people and this is my 10th year doing this and the burnout is considerable the people come and go and
consistency for students is essential I don't think I have to tell you all of that um we have fifth graders who can't read cutting Personnel is not going to teach fifth graders to read all of the studies show that any
child who is not a fluent reader by the middle of third grade is hampered prot possibly for the rest of her life or his life or their life so please prioritize student facing Personnel when making these
decisions I don't need to go through the list of things that maybe should be considered cutting but we seem to have a lot of Consultants we seem to have a lot of studies we seem to have a lot of coaching for teachers that may be helpful but again isn't student facing
we seem to have a huge investments in technology I don't think any parent feels his first grader needs a laptop or an iPad I know I was very upset when my first grader was introduced to a laptop or
iPad there's way too much investment in technology at these young ages and I would think that over eight schools we could save some real money there um if you good Please wrap it up soon thanks I just want to finish by
saying that you can't put a price on people so please consider your Cuts in face in what's best for our students they need to come first thank you thank you very much Miss Bernard uh our next speaker is Sid
sestava hi there my name is s trasa I'm the parent of three small children in Brooklyn and you might know me I've talked a lot in the past about the need for more rigorous and challenging learning opportunities that engage children of all abilities talked in the
past about my experience gr growing up in Baton Rouge Louisiana and being being the son of parents a son of immigrants who came from India who really touted the value of of Education as a way to escaping um poverty but so I've come
here today though um as we talk about budgets to emphasize that our school district's purpose here is to serve the students all students and uphold a very high standard um when it comes to academic rigor I know that all of the
administration the teachers the school leaders here are dedicated um to our students for that purpose so in light of the budget issues my suggestions here are as follows so number one all all uh
student facing teachers um all student teach all Stu all student facing teacher FTE request in the budget should be approved we can't remove any student facing teachers and and let me repeat that again we cannot remove any student
facing teachers number two um we have to protect against ballooning classroom sizes and we have to protect against cluts to class uh options including AP and other advanced learning opportunities I think this is such a a
vital thing that we must protect against and number three when it comes to non student facing staff I want to fully acknowledge how dedicated these Personnel are and how committed they are to serving the needs of the students sometimes we just have to work a little bit harder and be a little bit
more flexible about tasks that are assigned in other words I would propose a freeze on hiring maybe any more non student facing Administration administrative St and instead of firing Administration admin ad minute staff trying to adjust
the tasks required to fit fit the needs you know it seems that there's a $5.9 million um uh needed more for professional staff than we currently have I think it would be prudent to examine which of these staff will actually be working with our students
whether it's teachers special Educators pairs Etc whom we most desperately need the new staff requested um who have administ ative roles um who are non- student facing could those duties be added or distributed to existing staff
it may be tough however I think our dedication to the to our children in this community should shine through so with that said thank you so much for listening thank you thank you Mr svastova our next speaker is tal
kennet hi so Pierce and BHS parent here and I would like to make two points tonight first I I think we should all make sure to take to heart Steven's parting gift to us all his public comment and he was very brave doing that that he will not
run for re-election due to and I quote the opacity of the administration this comment is painfully per pertinent in light of the current budget situation I have watched Stephen ask central office staff excellent and important questions including about budgets many times I
watched him persevere in trying to get answers longer and harder than anyone else and it was often hard to listen to the winding answers that I too was unable to follow without full transparency from the administration our path forward will only lead
downhill please remember this it is the school committee's job to hold the administration accountable and transparency is a necessary part of accountability including and especially when it comes to budgeting so I hope we
all take this Stevens worked very seriously and immediately adopt a zero tolerance approach to this ongoing lack of transparency which I am sure is not unrelated to the current budget crisis Stephen thank you and while you are still on the committee please do
continue to ask the hard questions second now that we find ourselves in this unfortunate position as you work your way through what to cut please keep in mind that it is the students that matter most in this I urge the school committee to do the hard work of differenti ating accurately between
things that are critical and cutting them would have immediate and detrimental consequences to our students and things that are needed but really can wait for instance research shows that maintaining smaller reclaimed class sizes echoing my fellow speakers is
absolutely critical both in k28 and at BHS as are for instance Sports and under other non-academic Student Activities that are so important to their overall well-being on the other hand an equity audit to the tune of several hundreds of
thousands of dollars isn't quite as critical maybe right now uh nor are some central office and non-student facing positions and parts of efforts allocated to non-student facing duties that we have that have come up in various discussions and lastly as you review
these cuts and hopefully rank them based on what's best for or least bad for our students I would also urge you to be extra mindful of the inherent and unavoidable conflict of interest that arises from Tas asking the central office to propose budget cuts that could
also affect its own staff this is another example of our full transparency about organizational structures roles and responsibilities associated with each position and the costs of that position will be absolutely necessary if we are to achieve the best possible
outcome for our students please ask the hard questions and please don't stop until you have an acceptable answer thank you thank you miss kennet our next speaker is Justin Brown good evening chair Lou members of the school committee superintendent
Giller and your staff and any elected Town leaders who might be watching um and beu Educators who are here and tuning from home I'm Justin Brown I'm the president of the brook line Educators Union representing over 1,200 paraprofessionals teachers and
administrators I rise in support of our members to say that we are tired and frustrated and angry we are tired of finding ourselves here year after year facing budget shortfalls the threats of
layoffs and program eliminations and the anxiety of the ever lurking question will I and my team members have a job next year this evening and in the weeks to come before your vote on March 20th you will hear from Educators and members of the beu about the damage this process
does its cumulative effect on ourselves as Educators on our students and on our schools I also rise to support the proposed budget of $149.97 that's been presented and urge members of the school committee to
advocate for full funding of our school dep Department we say no to any Cuts it's widely said that a budget is a value statement I think we've already heard it tonight and what we see from the town's allocation to the schools $8.2 million less is a budget that
values fiscal austerity over thriving School communities we believe that the money is there and that this crisis is manufactured and are looking very closely at a few things the continuing pattern of prioritizing unnecessary L large Reserve funds at the expense of
our schools and other public goods the pattern of decreased funding in the school department and the expansion of new growth in Brooklyn which of course affects the town's Levy capacity over the next few weeks you'll hear more from me but also from Educators on the ground
who will speak to the effect of these proposed Cuts what it means for them their colleagues their schools and their students all of this is happening at the same time of course that the Trump Administration is waging an allout assault on public education targeting for now our most vulnerable students and
Educators and their families we again urge school committee members and other Town leaders to fully fund our schools and give us all the opportunity to thrive thank you thank you Mr Brown our next speaker is orle bogler
hey sorry for some reason my video isn't working but nonetheless um I'm here so my name is Olie buler and I am a parent INR I have three kids there and it's a wonderful school and I have so many wonderful wonderful things to say
I'm speaking today not because it's easy for me this is actually really hard this is not something I would do easily but I I feel like I really need to address address some concerns um one of my daughters is a first grader currently rising second grader next year as you must have might have seen um there's a
proposal to close one of the classes for the for 2026 and second grade my daughter started two years ago in frr um again wonderful happy great school but um in kindergarten
her teacher left without any explanation middle of the Year this year half a a month ago her teacher also left she's again weathered this and she's a happy child and all that but I am concerned and I am concerned that
next year looking at the numbers that have been shared she will have many kids in her class if you take one class down she will have 23 24 kids and that's not assuming like like Mr Li said the kids that join the middle of the year the an
influx of kids that will come in the summer I mean in this summer 14 kids joined only first grade so I'm concerned I'm very very concerned now hearing the other parents talk hearing about the safety issues which I hadn't even thought about um I I'm even more
concerned obviously so I think there's Rising enrollment that we that we need need to consider and not not take down there's the the the attrition of the teachers and the morale that this hurts and teachers in Fr have been leaving and
doing this I think will will not only we will we will lose a very valuable teacher but it might cause other teachers to leave uh I think we have unpredictable growth that we see throughout the year um I'm concerned about the the ability for the teachers
to give and like very kind fourth graders spoke give the attention to these kids the second grade is the first year they don't have a full-time par they definitely need this um I feel like everyone has said everything already but I didn't realize there would be so many parents talking but I appreciate you I appreciate what
you're doing I thank you for this opportunity to say what I have to say please please please don't cut things for our students don't cut the number of classes let them enjoy these small classes this one-on-one interaction the ability for the teachers and the students to thrive thank you I really
appreciate you guys thank you miss bogler our next speaker is Jen Martin hi everyone um good evening thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight I'm a longtime listener firsttime public commenter uh my name is
Jen Martin I'm a 20-year-old veteran educator in the district I also currently serve as the social studies coordinator at BHS and it's my understanding that um one of the cuts being proposed tonight is eliminating our academic K through 8 coordinators so tonight I just want to share my personal
experiences working with my colleague counterpart Greg Porter who is a k through eight uh curriculum coordinator for social studies and I I just want to help illustrate for families students the school committee the harmful effects that this restructuring will have on our teachers and ultimately our students
which is what's most important so how does a kindergarten teacher figure out what to do in their class when a major world event emerges and the teacher is unsure how to talk to a six-year-old about a big world problem they go to Greg to get subject specific resources to use in their classes and to work through the best way to handle such a
difficult andic situation with six-year-old students how does a fourth grade teacher perhaps Finn's teacher who just spoke um deal with a new state level mandate to change the entire social studies curriculum on top of all of the other subjects that they teach they go to Greg to understand what are
the new guidelines and find out what all of the other fourth grade teachers are doing across eight different schools in this District how does a principal with a million other things to do in a day who finds out about a seventh grade social studies teacher sudden leave of absence how do does he build that
position with a qualified candidate it is Greg who helps to hire that teacher who can step in and make sure that students do not lose valuable learning time what does that same substitute teacher do when they realize they need help understanding where are the students in the curriculum how do I
design high quality social studies experiences well they go to Greg who walks them through the curriculum sits with them designs the lesson for the next day and then Greg shows up to their class and observes them gives them onetoone feedback to make sure that all of the students are getting a high
quality experience what does the office of teaching and learning do when a member or members of this school committee have questions about maybe a topic that was covered in an eighth grade class that they believe needs further analysis well they go to Greg to understand the scope and sequence of our social studies curriculum to find out
more about what we teach in eth grade figure out how it aligns and making sure that all teachers are following the goals and missions of the school district what do I do when an event like October 7th happens and I know that our teachers need help understanding how to talk to students about it well I go to
Greg and he immediately adds me to a genocide education grant that he wrote which has provided two years of highquality professional development to our six through 12 teachers um and his connections with Facing History and while we're at it we do a year and a half of work creating K through 12
protocols for emerging world events so that all of our teachers can walk in on any given day and make sure that they deliver the kind of education Brooklyn parents deserve and that our students deserve this is not the first time that Brooklyn schools have been in a difficult situation and deciding what to
do with the budget in fact in the past what has the district done when our departmental budgets have not been able to sustain the Quality Social Studies education that parents and students deserve you may have guessed what I'm going to say they go to Greg who single-handedly has raised over tens of
thousands and I really mean this over $100,000 worth of grant money that covers when we don't give enough money to different parts of our budget um he is the reason our students who everybody is emphasizing is getting a high quality education so I urge you to reconsider
any budget that would have one person trying to do the job of four and a half curriculum coordinators we're a large school district we need support of these coordinators so that we have unity in approach and it's not something that can simply be recreated with restructuring so thank you so much I know this is a hard decision and I appreciate you
listening to me as you consider how to proceed thank you Miss Martin our next speaker is deorah betron um can everyone hear me yes okay go ahead thank you for uh letting me speak tonight um like many Brookline residents my family is a second
generation Brookline Family my husband came here from Brazil at age four he grew up here and he went to Brooklyn schools and he didn't want to live anywhere else or send our kids to any other school system it's one of the things that I have found so remarkable about Brookline that I constantly meet
second and even third and I've even met fourth generation Brook liners it says a lot about the town but today things look very different as residents deal with property tax increases and requests for millions of dollars in overrides from the town only to learn that the schools
continue not to meet their budget targets the current expected deficit of $8 million is shock and it's four times larger than the budget Gap last year which led the school committee to cut World language classes for students in kindergarten through fifth grade and to
remove literacy coaches from the district and all of this is despite the 2023 override in which voters agreed to raise property taxes to inject nearly 7 million into the school system this projected deficit looks to be a result of increased expenditure and
like other parents I'm deeply concerned that these line items prioritize many non-f faac student position positions things like professional development training central office and other administrative Staffing while these positions seem worthy on their own we all know that we don't live in a fantasy
world where money grows on trees there can be no doubt that the single most impactful Factor on student opportunity engagement and achievement is time spent with teachers the district defines educational Equity as uring every student gets what they need to reach
their potential this means we have to have teachers with students in reasonably sized classes for all students I urge the school committee to make class sizes and classroom teachers the very last thing considered for any cuts and I ask the district to evaluate
overhead Administration and any other unmated unmated discretionary non-student facing programs where Roi is unproven hard questions need to be asked about what can be Consolidated that does not affect classrooms what can be done
more efficiently that does not require teacher layoffs let's continue to make Brookline a town where our own children may want to continue to live in thank you thank you Miss piton and our next speaker is Justin
Abramson hello I'm just gonna read I'm just going to read in the interest of brevity first a big thank you to the committee members who devote their personal time unpaid and often underappreciated thank you and profound appreciation to the many teachers who
are dedicated and passionate and whom I've come to know as a Brookline parent the current budget proposal represents 9.6% increase and it's coming from everywhere central office budgets jumped 15% headline by out of District tuition at 25% and 43% over the past two years
with no change to number of students served mind you the average increase across the schools is 9% with four in double digits and none less than than five these numbers are unsustainable and remain opaque and inexplicable everyone agrees it is prudent to look at the big ticket items
I strongly urge you to look at the seemingly little things many of us can likely attest to surprisingly large cumulative impact of meals out that daily coffee those subscriptions accured because the first six months were free similarly 20K for a training here 100K
study there particularly in the presence of what appears to be a Les a fair approach towards managing expenditures they add up having witnessed how the existence of a grant of any grant funding issues discussion leading to Quick approval I've wondered how many small items are now baked into the
budget and paid out of the general fund because initially they were free and we just forgot about them the salary with with salary the single biggest portion of budget we need to also look at how that money is aligned to our biggest Roi student facing roles for example we should review the practice and current
state of fractional allocation of teachers to non-classroom oncore responsibilities this could reduce incremental FTE burden while preserving our wonderful staff further as pointed out in Dr Bob web's recent oped we've had a proliferation in administrative position since his tenure
and they all make work and spend money to boot we should scrutinize all such positions created within the last decade as to their purpose impact and necessity we previously functioned just fine maybe even better without many of these this is about priorities and making choices
as to where it to allocate our limited resources and cutting back on the luxury items and prioritizing learning is what we need to do I fully expect an override bill this spring and I would not count on the public being so ready to open their wallets this time not without full transparency and accounting for exactly
how the money is being spent and evidence of fiscal responsibility and accountability from the administration finally we're all here today out of a commitment and concern for our public schools and the wonderful faculty staff and students who fill their halls and classrooms with laugh and learning let's
remember that and what I'm sure will be difficult conversations to come thank you everybody thank you Mr Abramson our next speaker is Faith dantowitz hello thank you school committee members for your commitment to our town and to our schools um thank you for giving me
the opportunity to speak my name is fith dtz parent of three one graduating from BHS this year one student out of District previous CPC co-chair secretary special ed Advocate and current CPC liaison to BHS I'm here tonight to speak
in support of our committed office of student service staff and the current budget concerns while District district leadership has at every step sought to blame office of student services for administration and finances incompetence and mismanagement our office of student
services Deputy superintendent directors and staff continue to dedicate ly serve our students and fight for their basic rights to a free and appropriate public education they fight for the funds to pay for their mandated Services they
fight for our families this whole process has become ridiculously untenable the lack of transparency by Administration and finance Susan and deian the offenseive nature when all unpaid invoicing is for students with disabilities is unacceptable and the
lack of Integrity they have demonstrated in school committee meetings after school committee meeting refusing to truthfully answering and finding no simple answers to questions like did Susan the assistant superintendent Administration and finance sign off on
the Ida Grant if not why didn't she why are line items Incorrect and who is responsible when office of student services has zero access and yet continue to be blamed why did only office of student services invoices for students with
disabilities remain unpaid for 2024 none of this should be about blame though it should be about resolution and it should never require an audit to have balances and checks yet for this Administration and finance team it must
too many cek families and I remain disheartened that week after week school committee members ask meaningful questions and are treated to cous non-answers without resolution and without action without Integrity every me meting we are promised that the
administration is working on it or we get back to them and every meeting we are left with nothing but watching the best of our leadership departing and the fear that others will follow we're still every meeting we witness office of student services being undermined and
attacked albeit indirectly this must stop thank you to Val Fus Jesse and Stephen for hearing us for speaking out actively on our behalf and for never remaining silent for calling out the obvious and not standing down when the
lack of integrity and lack of honesty continues I am sure we have all re all read the news newest article about public schools of Brooklyn behind the scenes we've been asking all the right questions behind the scenes they remain
unanswered enough it's time to call out the shocking lack of leadership it's time to scream at the absolute and total disregard for students with disabilities their Stu families and the faculty involved that have W that have
witnessed by the office administration and finance and the superintendent enough thank you thank you miss dtz our next speaker is Miriam Enos hi uh can you guys hear me we can please go ahead thank you so much for your time
and thank you to uh giving me that for the giving me this opportunity to speak and uh uh I guess voice my concern with regards to this uh budget issue so um I'm going to start by saying that I vividly remember attending the last year's Town Hall I was in on site
actually meeting on school budget and listening to several hours of back and forth arguments and examining various spreadsheets and we you know only to arrive at a difficult and really painful decision that we must let go of our world languages program uh we were made
to believe that this is pretty much the only way to balance our school budget uh we're also told that the moment we get any wiggle room World languages program will be brought back uh when I think of uh this time exactly 12 months ago and then fast
forward to now what I cannot grasp is how the budget that was perfectly balanced last year seems to grow by 8 million in span of 12 months so salary raises and adjustments aside it appears that a bulk of this uh deficit is coming from added positions and mostly in a non
student facing rules and I understand I'm repeating the common theme it's been already voiced by other panelists here but uh this rules did not exist now under the current budget but are deemed so important that they supersede word languages that was was removed last year
uh and any other student facing role that arguably is the only role that has any palpable impact on education and well-being of our kids so am I to understand that uh we were forced to say goodbye to the talented and really caring Educators they were our world
language teachers who taught our kids about the world shaped their minds and broadened their perspective and inspired their curiosity just so that we can now expand administrative branch of our local educational system because it seems like this is exactly what's happening
here so setting all this sentiments aside even though I do have a lot of sentiments I strongly believe that uh we can also approach this pragmatically because a school budget should not be differing from any other budget any other way of thinking of any budget
including the one we have for ourselves and our everyday lives and uh when I teach my kids the concept of money and its finite nature I explain it by saying that if you have 100 bucks in your wallet you cannot spend 120 you can only spend what you have now if you have a
fundamental need or an emergency you can ask a parent for that extra cash but you have to demonstrate that is a need and not a want we also talk about the concept of the return on the investment like buying those super expensive basketball shoes is not actually going
to make you a better player even if it looks cool so you'll probably argue here that addressing Equity Gap is a need and not a want and I cannot agree with you more here but this is where alignment actually ends I I believe that Equity is
achieved through having more skilled teachers and uh fewer students per classroom and I think I you know a lot of people spoke about it and this is exactly what I'm also trying to say uh you may be familiar have heard about the star project it stands for student
teacher achievement ratio that was conducted in Tennessee public school system and is published in Journal of educational psychology and 20 years ago 2005 actually and sorry to interrupt MOS if you could please wrap it up soon yes and uh it's a titled small classes in
the early grades academic achievement and um graduating from high school and what it shows is that being in a small class for uh three or more years alone was enough to close an achievement Gap as measured by high school graduation rate and having those years be between kindergarten and third grade was enough
to close or almost close those gaps in math tests and literacy tests So ba based on this data and other published studies Please wrap it up soon I know I believe that most if not all the money should be spent on that if you trust our Educators as much as I do you'll agree that they have more pride in their
students uh than even some parents and if you give them a chance and by chance I mean smaller class size more time to spend with each student they will have more positive impact on closing the Gap than any initiative and this prediction I'm making is based on real world evidence so what I would like to make
very clear here is that when you propose adding anything or anyone other than teachers or student facing professionals to the budget you ow approve that it is a necessity and a true need to have versus nice to have at no point is it obvious to me that the positions you're adding are going to enhance anything
other than the deficit itself just as with the other please grab it up I'm it's a last sentence just as the with the other educational reforms that we're attempting in this town we a community of parents and Educators and local citizens ask you to humor Us with data
so nothing speaks louder than a well wellc controlled study showing positive impact thank you for your time and attention thank you MOS our next speaker is Nicole mcleland hi everyone my name is Nicole mcland I am a Driscoll parent um thank
you for letting me speak tonight I just I know you can't answer questions but if I could just Lodge one for the record that would be will school committee wait to vote on the budget the final budget until the audit is complete present it to you I'm just sort of curious about that um for my comments I emailed all of
you earlier today uh to let you know that um a different parent learned that some of our classes at Driscoll are now so crowded that it seems we are not compliant with fire code maximum capacity for some of our physical spaces um specifically in third and fourth
grade um I wasn't glad to learn this but I did I'll be honest I thought okay maybe this will finally be the line the thing where our school leaders say okay this is really too much this is an actual safety issue for our kids and teachers maybe this will be the line um
that we don't cross because we've been talking about this for a while um and the line hasn't been ensuring that these kids have an equitable learning environment um it hasn't been teacher working conditions it hasn't been um kids being in a classroom where they get
sufficient one-on-one time with their teacher so they get the help they need when they're struggling to understand a new con concept um I hear often from my daughter and her friends um just about how many kids there are and and how hard that is you heard from one of them today
um even just to see the Whiteboard um and that's in spite of the absolutely incredible efforts of her phenomenal teacher um the line hasn't been that these kids are overwhelmed every day by noise and lack of personal space and it hasn't been um that these classrooms at
jiso have been an outlier um and these kids have now dealt with this for all of this year all of last year um for at least for the kids currently in fourth grade and in fact even two years prior um those classes were some of the biggest in the district
um so I hope that if nothing else the line will at least be hey we can't cram even more people into these classrooms because we know it's actually documented um that PSB will then be in violation of uh fire code maybe this will be the line
um but it really shouldn't have to require this um and my personal experience of course is with Driscoll and the impact that's had on my child and and her classmates but of course none of our classes in Brookline should be pushing the upper threshold in this
limit and our teachers stretched this then not at Driscoll not at F frr not at Hayes not at BHS or from any of the parents you've heard from today um related to this I've been raising this issue for a while and I often hear back tell us what you want to cut um but I'll
be honest as I've looked at this I haven't been able to find an actual line item budget to look at it's practically impossible to figure out how our funding is truly allocated what those costs are where we can gain efficiencies I would love to be able to participate in that
discussion but I don't think the transparency is is there if it is I haven't been able to find it um and finally I'll say this I know most of you know me uh you know that I am always one of the first people to defend the
schools the school committee the town I know things are always much more complicated than they seem you all have very hard jobs I appreciate you um but this situation we're in an $8 million
shortfall on the heels of an override no less ha has totally shaken my faith um I don't feel like we've had clear answers about how we got here I don't feel like we've had accountability for that and even as sort of like the champion that I
usually am I am at a loss for how to continue to be that champion um I don't have power over this parents don't this is all we can do but you do so please help restore the faith we' have placed in You by holding firm and insisting
that the district and the budget prioritize the things that have a fundamental and daily impact on the students like class size student facing teacher student and special education services over the things that do not um we're counting on you now more than ever thank
you thank you miss mcland our next speaker is shannan DOA pound hello hello K oh my gosh I had you in fourth grade you've grown a lot um I'm actually not speaking on my own behalf I'm reading comments on behalf of Ali zki a special education
teacher at BHS good evening and thank you for your time I am Ally s bruski and I teach summer school I do plenty of other things in my role as as a BHS English and special education teacher but I would be remiss if I didn't speak up for our summer school program as many
of you know Credit Recovery summer school at the high school is on The Chopping Block due to the budget deficit I find this unacceptable I tell my students on the first day of summer school you are not in this classroom with me right now because you cannot read or write you are here because life
got in the way of your education this year if we do not run summer school these students are not given Grace understanding or the chance to grow and move on from difficult experiences is that what we want to show them we value here in Brookline once you're down
you're out without the chance to recover credits over the summer students are stuck particularly my students as English is a required course for all four years at BHS the only solution for graduating with your class is dual enrollment in what world should we expect students
who struggled with one English class to successfully take on two summer school is not a punishment it is an opportunity and I can say with confidence that our summer students understand that maybe not on day one but by the end of our five weeks together they're appreciative they're grateful
they have a better understanding of themselves as students and perhaps most importantly they understand that there are adults who care for them at their school and that that doesn't end on June 20th and back to me I I'm not speaking on behalf of World Language today but I will say our situation is still just as
dire as ever we're probably the cuts last year of K5 also cut into the FTE we need to staff six to eight so every single issue that we've talked to about at length about not being included in sped consults necessarily or grade level team meetings or being over scheduled class sizes up to 27 students all that
is still happening actually I think at higher levels this year than any past year so I just want to put that on everyone's radar um so thank you thank you Miss pound our next speaker is Kenny Kel good evening my name is Kenny kol I'm a proud graduate of the public
schools of Brookline a PSB parent in the K12 Performing Arts curriculum coordinator for the district where I've worked for 19 years tonight you will discuss a proposed cut cut and restructuring to our Conservatory music program that will have a devastating impact on our students and a negative
domino effect on other areas I oversee our music programs at all schools and our music drama and dance programs at Brookline High high I am incredibly proud of the work we do and you should be too with good reason we are known and admired throughout the state and beyond for the work we do some recent
achievements include having the largest representation of any District in the highly prestigious and competitive mmea District Music Festival where we had students in every group chorus band Orchestra and Jazz Band nine PSB students in first chairs 14 in second chairs and the orchestra concert
Master among others 11 of our students were awarded All State auditions to com compete against the top musicians in the state six of these students were accepted into the festival and will perform this spring at Symphony Hall five in first chairs and one is the orchestra concert Master the highest
role in the orchestra last spring we sent 150 fth through e8th grade graders from every Elementary School in the district to the music and the parks Festival we had four groups perform and each took home first place in the competition with our jazz band and Orchestra receiving Superior ratings in the best overall Orchestra award beating
out even high school groups this wouldn't happen without our Conservatory program which goes back over 30 years and you're considering cutting this now but it's not just these high accolades that we will lose that we should be concerned with it's the 61 lowincome elementary students across the distri
District that receive instruments free of charge through our instrument rental company Partners who support the work we do the 207 elementary students that are currently enrolled in music extension lessons 34 of 34 of whom are low income and receive private instrument lessons
free of charge if you don't see the equity issue here you need to open your eyes and I'd be happy to sit down with you and discuss any time or better yet bring you on a tour of our program which if you are considering cutting can only mean you haven't had the chance to see I assure that if had we would not be
discussing this tonight Conservatory is the area that students have the most choice in their education in fourth grade choosing from nine different instruments in fifth from three different large ensembles in sixth through eighth grade choosing from one of six different class options band Orchestra chorus Guitar ukulele music
production or music exploration that is how we meet diverse needs furthermore our Conservatory program is less expensive to run than if we just offer General music classes as many of our large ensembles have between 60 and 80 students feel free to fact check me our
work is social emotional learning our students develop not only a set of skills but how to work collaboratively in Ensemble how to reflect on analyze and construct critique their own work and the work of others revise it and make it stronger this all carries over into other areas of Education in life
whether our students choose to pursue music or not later in life and of course we are the one discipline where students regularly put on public performances I'm sure over the last month some of you attended our band Orchestra and chorus concerts where well over a thousand students from every school got on stage
to make you proud to feel proud of themselves after weeks and months of developing and refining their work if we gut our 48 music structure we will also be gutting our performing arts program at Brookline High School as it is these formative years that students build the foundation for taking things to the next
level in high school it is through our robust performing arts program that we support every student regardless of income regardless of background regardless of first language regardless of if you are an IEP or neurode Divergent our Conservatory program is structured to truly meet the needs and
interests of every student and we are still always striving to improve and create more Pathways for students if you decide to cut this program the town of Brookline will become about the halves and the have knots our upper middle class and wealthy students will continue to take private lessons and participate in ensembles at New England Conservatory
and Brookline music school both fine but costly institutions and our middle class and low-income students will have will not have access to to any of this in the list of bad ideas that up just about done in the in the list of bad ideas that you will be presented with tonight take conservatory and any cuts to
performing off Arts off the table right away and for good and frankly spend your time working with the town select board to allocate the proper funding that Dr Giller originally requested in his $149 million budget the one that Brookline residents voted on for an uh voted for
an override to fund the correct budget that is what our students need and deserve thank you thank you Mr coel and our last speaker of the night is Laura Baines Walsh hello my name is Laura Baines Walsh and I am the proud parent of a
fourth grader at triso much like Finn and Nicole talked about earlier they are busting at the seams in fourth grade my son's teacher is amazing she does a Herculean effort every single day I feel so lucky that my son is in Miss Ross
class because she is an angel but when you walk in that room all you see are desks crammed together trying to move from one space to the next is almost impossible and as was pointed out we are up against fire code at this point as a
parent that scares me it's not safe as we consider equity which if as a parent I believe is essential but Equity looks like equal opportunity to education Equity is being in similar siiz classes across the district and
Equity is knowing that you can safely leave a room in an emergency because there is space so as you consider our future and our budgets please don't just prioritize saving the jobs of our student facing teachers we need to add
to them those positions in order to make sure that our children have equal access to their teachers and to safety and on another note I want to Echo what our speaker just said about our arts program my daughter is neurode Divergent and one
of the places that is a highlight of her school day is choir it's where she's made friends and it has created a sense of belonging and I was lucky enough to attend the choir concert uh that just took place at BHS where we brought together multiple middle schools and our
high school and it was awe inspiring my fourth grade son looked at me and said I can't I want to do choir these kids are amazing that to me is such a gift so thank you for all that you do and please
in addition to protecting my son and his ability to meet with his teachers protect my daughter's ability to be the star performer that I know she can be thank you thank you Miss main Walsh and to everyone who came to speak to us tonight uh this concludes our public hearing on
the fiscal year 2026 budget and school choice uh so this takes us to a discussion and possible vote on the superintendent's fiscal 26 initial budget request um Dr galleri would you like to give us some updates sure thing I want to thank all
of the speakers who came and spoke tonight um very helpful to have your voice uh at the table as well as your your input and your thinking let's see so I want to start by reading um the letter a portion of the letter that was
sent out to staff uh today our district continues to Grapple with a projected $8.2 million deficit for the upcoming FIS schol year after extensive discussions careful consideration and without increased revenues or funding sources it has become clear that we will
need to make prog programmatic changes that will result in the reduction of Staff our goal with this communication is to be transparent and honest we felt it was important to make you aware of this prior to uh tonight's
presentation when the full magnitude of the deficit was realized in January the school committee asked the ad Administration for recommendations to consider I want to State very clearly this was not easy uh Justin and I uh president of beu had a conversation
today and uh I continue to struggle with uh making recommendations uh to bring forth tonight these recommendations do go against our values they go against our beliefs and they go against everything that we believe should be happening for our children at our February 6 school
committee meeting the Administration was charged with bringing more than 8.2 million in options for consideration this means that more positions of programs or options that are presented then will actually be selected we have also suggested an idea for potentially
increasing revenues again a a difficult um task for us to consider as we move forward I want to reassure you that we are exploring every possible Avenue to minimize the impact on our team but the size of the deficit we have we have to
be prepared for difficult choices so with that I want to walk through um some of the information to ground us and then uh Dr given and Dr Fortuna will join me and uh walking through some of the um
recommendations that we're putting forth so for context we want to look back uh several of our speakers mentioned the operating override so I wanted to give just a back walk there if we look at FY 24 our actual budget um
operating budget was $1 130.7 million in FY 25 with the uh year two of the operating override our projection was $137.1 Million but our actual allocation
was 136.8888855 budget our projection was 142. 6 million and our current um allocation is at 14 1.7 million and that's up uh from our December
allocation by about a million and a million and a half or so our initial allocation was about 139 million um and some change there so again the Gap as we've heard um pretty extensively is a .2
million um our re Revenue allocation again at 141.5 and our current budget build at 149.95 three million extra comp uh grants as well as
positions proposed are put forth in FY 25 uh which contribute to a structural deficit of 2.5 million the new positions proposed in the current budget at $1.9 million and then leaves of absence
returns retirements um steps and Lanes adjustments at three roughly $300,000 and we have a reduction or the um the breakage what we call breakage from positions that may go unfilled throughout the year at
$500,000 bringing our major cost drivers for salary to the tune of 9.5 million did I skip a slide nons salary so our major cost drivers for non-salary we're looking at uh outter District uh tuition expenses settlements um as well
as a structural Gap there about 1.6 million special education Transportation um around 7 100,000 as a structural Gap there um online books and subscriptions this is for our um SC materials mclass
canvas um what is BB Blackboard um is that what that is because it changed to front line so it threw me off BB um our supplemental materials for textbooks and print materials just under 200,000 Legal
Services upcoming contractual negotiation ations as well as a set aside for OSS of 160,000 and other expenses which can include supplies tech services field trips professional development Etc and our non-salary
expenses are at 3.6 million so when we went through the um budget reduction process again I can't tell you how gut-wrenching the the debates that our school leaders had with one another as
to what to put um on the list as such um and so the district school leadership um went through an iterative process to look at um classroom and again not all classroom was untouched or student
facing was untouched as well as mandated support services for targeted populations the team reflected deeply on impacts these changes will have on staff because at each moment um any of our school or District uh Personnel programs
or anything like that they did not want to put or add any of this to the list so I want to be very clear about that consideration was given to our vision and values but again unfortunately a deficit of this magnitude cannot be closed without making those difficult
choices we'll pres present the strategies to close the gap by the office of U by the various office offices oaf will lead us off um as well as um OTL and I will share the teaching
and um the student services pieces so with that U Dr given I think you are up good evening it's hard to stand here and you engage in a dialogue with you
about these kinds of measures um because we know that they impact the lives of of the staff that work here and uh the students and families in the community um nonetheless uh we find ourselves in this situation and um I'm
here to present some strategies that uh on The Oaf uh side of the house um are things we feel are important to look at of course oaf in general provides some
essential Services um to students uh but they're not student facing so um we've taken a hard look at these areas and feel that though they are essential you know there may be um
ways we can optimize some of our services um uh and minimize costs so the first strategy that we're looking at is in the area of custodial services and um
we have a working group um that is evaluating our current model um and we'll presenting be presenting some details of um some cost reduction measures in March it's um a little
complex and we want to make sure that we um maintain uh a four group of our custodial staff which provide services that are not related to cleaning in order to keep our schools um uh running
well and so we have uh two principles um and several operations staff members who are looking very closely at this so that is the first measure um that we're uh looking at the next is in IT services uh
the town has put forth um uh uh position in the upcoming year we're we're suggesting that that be paused for a year um and uh and we don't add additional staff in a
non um instructional area at a time when we're having to consider reducing the number of Staff um uh that are part of our instructional core so that is uh that that strategy
next um recently uh the town public building department presented a uh budget request to the capital subcommittee and it included um increases uh for the FY
26 um budget season and um so we're recommending that um the the request be reduced uh by $400,000 um we understand that that will mean that we need to increase the level of
coordination for repairs and maintenance within our schools and are committed to doing that um we are asking that they postpone adding any new positions and evaluate any unfilled positions this year um to see if uh there's opportunity
to um provide services again in the upcoming year without adding any more um staff and also um asking that they consider level funding all Public public building School accounts so um we're uh
the total um estimated Savings in that area is about $400,000 so just to confirm the 70,000 and the 400,000 are not shown in the PSP budget but they would be essentially transfers back to the PSB side because we would not be giving those to the town
correct correct okay thank you so the those expenses are below the line what we call below the line costs but they're deducted before we get our Revenue uh allocation to the school
so does that I know this is a okay so the next area in uh Administration and finance is transportation and what we're looking at here is ways we can optimize our busing
um and uh as you know or maybe you don't know that Mass General Law chapter 71 um requires that school committees provide uh free public transportation for students in grades uh K through six who live more than two miles away from
their school um the school committee also has a policy that um that states that we provide free transportation for students who live mile and a half away so we're looking at um all of our regular education
Transportation um to identify where we can reduce um uh services or consolidate what we're doing um looking at recommendations to go back to charging fees uh for non-mandated transportation
to offset the cost of those uh transportation services if there's a desire to maintain them so that's what this uh cost savings strategy um is uh looking at Dr given does this and Dr Fortuna is
this the one that includes the language program yes so that's another aspect of this is to look at um uh the the language program where we are currently
transporting students that live um within one zone to another Zone where there is um native language um Hub in that school so some of our schools have a specific language um that when
families move in they can have the option of uh attending a in uh a school outside of their Zone that um offers uh a cohort of of families and students who speak that particular language so for
example um rle is a hub for Spanish it doesn't mean all Spanish um El students and families attend that but that is an option available to them so we're looking at that um aspect as well as we look at what is mandated um and what is
not mandated and is this an opportunity to um again not because any of this is desired but when you have to make these types of budget cuts we're trying to stay away away from um reducing or impacting staff and student facing
services so that's the idea behind uh this strategy Dr given yes is this line currently budgeted in The Oaf Transportation line it is it is okay thank you okay next
um Food Services again um providing high quality meals for students hungry students have have challenges in learning right so we want to make sure that we're able to maintain a quality uh Food Service program what we'll be looking at here is how to optimize
Services while minimizing costs um looking at maybe a hybrid approach um to providing Foods uh Food Service similar to what we're currently doing in um in the custodial area yes um I thought our food service
was funded out of the revolving fund so how does this affect our operating budget or our general fund great question so one of the um um conversations we've had with the town is that if we are reducing staff that the
above the- line costs which we uh which get netted out of our Revenue that we would get um credit for that directly so what this does is look at um minimizing the impact um of the benefit
component um which does not hit the revolving fund so just to be clear so I understand when you're talking about as a staffing model what you mean is some of our food service employees would be third-party contractors as opposed to employees of the district correct but the food itself would still all be
prepared as it is now correct thank you I'm sorry maybe we'll come back to this but I I have to just say thanks Mariah for the question I didn't understand your answer from the words
above the line and on is there a way to translate that yes so let me let me give it a whirl so the way that the revenue model in Brookline is structured is that the town estimates their revenues and
then there's certain expenses that are netted out of the revenues before it's the the net revenue then is allocated to the two uh yeah and so when we say above the line costs it means the expenses
that are that are credited against the gross revenue and that primary expense is um associated with benefits so in other words there's gross revenue then we subtract benefits and then there is a net revenue so you're saying that people
who are currently Food Service employees would no longer be employees of we're not looking we're not looking at at eliminating all Food Service employees rather can we leverage um a
different model where we would have some employees um be PSB employees and some employees uh be provided through a third-party contractor similar to what we're doing currently with the custodial staff which is a hybrid
model Helen well that was my um can you hear me hold on yes we can hear you oh okay um I'm still trying to get my head around the hybrid
model so an outside contractor would hire people who would then come and work in our schools correct just like cleanco does for the janitorial services so we have a Cadre
of employees who work in um our buildings that are employees of PSB and then we have a Cadre of staff that work in our buildings that are clean Co staff so this would be a similar model to that okay thank you does does cleanco
work during the day I thought they worked after hours they they typically work after hours yes okay um do we have experience with other Hybrid models that happen during the day uh some school dist districts go entirely third party okay yeah thank you
well think we've gone entirely third party and it didn't go well but that's a exactly concern the idea here again is to keep the cuts away from the classroom next um and again we don't like this has
been really hard um for all of us to uh bring forward these strategies but uh nonetheless um we're trying to keep the costs away from the classroom and so we have a wonderful program here that's a
materials fee program which allows um staff members to um have their their children attend school here in Brooklyn and uh the the current fee for next year or the fee for next year is scheduled to
be $3,535 uh the per pupil costs and this is a 2023 so that's a little old but it is the per puple cost that you can find on the Desi website at this time is 26528 uh in FY 26 beat full day tuition
is scheduled to be 16740 and that's for Resident um families that need to pay to attend our our um Early Childhood Program um and uh for their extended day program uh families need to pay $ thousand dollar
if they're going to participate in the beep extend to- Day program um we also looked at you know what is the per pupil contribution that we receive for metco students and that is about 8,000 per student and as we looked at that um uh
we felt that you know perhaps the material fees should more closely align to maybe the metco rate of 8,000 which is less than the other two uh tuitions that families um are paying Andor that we receive from Grants so that is what this
uh proposal is um it would then therefore not affect any FTE um uh classroom or otherwise um it would you know with 191 um uh students uh it would generate
about $852,000 next um Dr gillery shared that one of the not yes I'm gonna say something I'm sorry I just want to this is a comment about this and the way it's presented and I feel I have to say this because a
lot of people spoke about transparency tonight I would respectfully suggest that in this context that the respectful and transparent way to communicate this particular item for example would be raise material fee
tuition to $88,000 I know the information is in there but there's a lot of words and it feels it gives people a feeling that it's just not
straightforward and I just have to say that sorry thank you for that feedback okay next so General supplies and services again Dr gillery in a previous slide showed that uh on the non-salary side
there are some increases in um General supplies and services and so this uh measure again would be to um reduce our supply and services Lines by $400,000 the next
yep does that get affect like does that affect the literacy roll out it does not okay thank you can can you speak to what that does affect it would it would be uh bits and pieces across um various programs so in
every Department we would be um reviewing um uh the requests more closely and if some of these um programs get cut you know what supplies are associated with them um as well as uh
reducing some uh requests that were asked for by certain departments but not literacy I I don't um I just want a couple of examples just so I can have a better so for example the finance department asked for um a tool uh that's
$25,000 to um for data synchronization and Analysis and that would be an example of what would be eliminated okay thank you yep okay next um as you know we have set aside uh some sections in a reserve fund
um so that if enrollment um shifts in a way that causes us to um uh hit exceed or come near those guidelines and we need to add a section that we have the ability to do that that has been um pain
point this year it's not just for sections I want to be clear that the money set aside here could also be used for one on one to one pair professionals should a student move in um and so it gives us the ability to um address needs
um in an expeditious way uh by setting aside in a very clear and transparent way money to be able to um address the needs um which inevitably happen every year so um in this uh so we have8 and a half that are in the budget they're
about $9,450 per section and so we were just be reducing it down to seven and a half just so sorry I okay sorry Stephen go ahead thanks how much of this do we
use in fy2 Susan of this Reserve fund section we didn't have a reserve fund section we didn't okay you did set aside I say how much did we spend on um adding teachers to
sections we shifted SE two sections um in the summertime from one school to another school um based on enrollment so we did that and then um the high school I do want to say that the high school you did add sections to the high school so you added seven if you remember
during the budget process last year yeah and those were allocated out so I just want to be clear about that but it wasn't set in a reserve fund seven sections were given to the high school um the budget is done of course pre- scheduling at the high school so they couldn't identify exactly what
departments um and courses uh would be added so I just want to be clear about that but we did not have a centralized um Reserve fund um with with sections in them that then we could allocate out for one: one uh Paris Andor uh this year we
are struggling with meeting the needs of our El population um and without having money set aside to address that need when it presents itself um you know we're we're not able to uh be as as flexible as we would like to be so that
we can focus our our our resources on addressing the needs of the kids I guess I'm a little bit confused then by um not reducing this by more if we're then looking at reducing the high school again by
500,000 and we can that can certainly a topic of conversation on how do we optimize that so that can be part of our dialogue okay thanks yep just a a comment and a question one I I really appreciated that you you had such a clear explanation for this reserve
section fund I think this is a point that may be widely misunderstood right now that this is student facing in fact this is something that's meant to relieve a burden this is meant to improve student teacher ratio it just isn't currently specifically out at to
any particular sections yet but this is intended to be student facing it just currently lives in The Oaf professional section for now it's not it's being perceived I think by many as Central Administration cost I just wanted to just say that clearly right now because I think it's being misperceived my
question for you was just in in the table um the professional staff line item is 1.74 million for what I thought was 8 and a half um FTE which comes just want to go get my book to look sure but but when I calculated that that was um a
much higher per FTE rate than what you have on there so I'm wondering um whether there's something else in that line there is there is okay yes so um there's a couple of things in that line but point me to the page again this is on page 24 in in figure
2b2 this is the professional staff line that contains the 8.4 8.5 in the budget book 8.5 here 7.5 um professional staff reserve section yes happy to answer that thank you so in that line there are a couple of things um so in the contracts um
there are various um aspects of it like um sick leave uh bonuses so when secretarial staff if they um at the end of the year have only used X number of days it's in their contract that we pay um a small bonus to them and so little
components of extra compensation um are reflected there also uh the school committee had U made a An approved um uh raises for for the principles and thejust doesn't include those those benefit costs when you say I'm sorry when you
say one FTE is roughly 90k that doesn't include the the cost of benefits no what I'm trying to say is that in that line there's different items that are in there in addition to the sections I see okay so there's there's
there's three things that are in that dollar amount that are not FTE related got it thank you I was just the only reason I'm asking is because I was trying to get a handle on the rough cost of of an FTE in this budget book so I could be doing those calculations as we
go Gotta thank you yes okay next is there another slide for me nope turn it turn the mic over to you just to be clear on going back one
sorry 90,000 doesn't in does not include benefits correct correct it is just the salary component right so there would be more in our budget we don't budget for benefits in
our in our budget but and you can't acrw above the line because you don't know what those positions would be to be able to calculate the above the line Savings of a fictitious figment person exactly okay and it could be and and the other part of it is that it it's not
necessarily going to be for 1.0 so some staff only work 08 and one of the things that I think principles and um directors have been great at doing is is trying to Leverage The FTE when there's a need to move from like a point 6 to a point
eight or Etc but if we're going to move from a point 6 to a point8 again it wouldn't have any benefit effect it would just be adding FTE in order to meet the need of a student so or students okay hello everyone I want to Echo the
words of Dr Giller and Dr given this is one of the most incredibly hard things that I've had to do in my career and when we we start talking about OTL we no longer have the luxury
of not impacting students so every one of these things that I'm about to discuss with you will have a student impact our first recommended strategy is to level fund Athletics there was
included in this budget is a $100,000 increase for athletics and um to eliminate our inure and extra mural um sports for our middle school students this strategy will limit the
physical after school activities for our students um it will eliminate us being able to expand some great programs that we have with our um integrated Sports um one of Kyle's plans was to add um
integrated Bachi um which is if we make this cut he won't be able to do what it does maintain is students access to after school um clubs and um Performing Arts
things such as the townwide band Orchestra chorus um plays um model un the rainbow clubs the homework clubs Etc um but it would eliminate those things that are very important for our students
physical and emotional growth the next recommendation is reducing our instructional AIDS um in first grade by half this this would allow us to still have
some instructional support for our first grade however it um we'd have to be more strategic in our placement of those instructional AIDS just to be sure I'm clear so um is the 100,000 for athletics this is the
essentially the year three override funding correct okay so would is it correct that this would mean we're not doing the things that um would be described so um there was this supervision of coach coaches students events that's not happening that
happened this year okay so that was so this position would not be needed to do that correct okay thank you can I ask another question on the instruction AIDS is there a way of filling some of that Gap I'm sorry
my sorry about this um with student teachers well that would be an option that we're exploring because we'd like to add more student teachers in order to help our our teachers um many students
aren't going to our local programming any um our local colleges anymore and majoring in education for some reason it's not a desirable Field tonight I can't imagine why um but so while that could be a a mediation
tactic um it's something that we don't have a lot of access to like we would have in years past to thank you I because this sort of extends on what Mariah asked I just want to make sure I
understand on the $100,000 Athletics and co-curricular programming and Mariah asked if that was part of the override so that's a can you this is a are you talking about Kyle's assistant the assistant Athletics director what is
this then now we're talking about expanding um Athletics programs our integrated program um the there was um some other assistant coaches a couple of sports that Kyle um wanted to add this year that's what's
included in this 100,000 and was that part of what was promised in the last override no are you I it was a 1.0 FTE we talked about 115 to 125 I thought for the third year of the override am I
misremembering that was um was that last year might have to get back to you on that I know we hired that position so it's not part of this 100,000 okay while we're on the topic of things that were funded by the override
um Susan when you mentioned earlier the non-mandatory transportation would that mean reintroducing fees for the South Brook Line bus and that was promised in the override is that correct yes you know again um the
revenue wasn't fully realized is that's available to us so um we're looking at ways to stay away from cuts from the classroom um just just to be clear so the athletic and co-curricular cut would not impact any FTE okay this cut would not affect any
FTE this is adding coaches um to expand programs not to reduce existing programs so just to be clear about that it's not it's not going to in Impact personnel
um okay so the next slide is sunset uh base so um Bas is an an awesome program and it has uh been here in in this community for a very long time I understand it's
the oldest um adult and Community Education Program and I uh so I know there there's a lot of feelings that we all have around putting this uh before you tonight um but the last five years since
covid um Bas has had a difficult time um being financially uh sustaining and so uh what we're proposing here is that at this point we Sunset base
meaning um that we eliminate that that program um the above the line cost again the health insurance cost that we would gain back is 23825 so you might say well that doesn't seem like a lot but if you go to the
next slide um I want to show you kind of what's happening there and has been happening so the top line here is the revenue so what you can see if you look across is the revenue has been fairly stagnant over the last four years on the
expense side um we have um uh had more expense than our revenue is supporting which means that um n FY 23 147,50 34 of expenses had to be absorbed in
what they call the fund balance so a fund balance is money that is set aside um and is acred in an account um when you have more Revenue than expense then it grows and when you have more expense than Revenue it shrinks and so um over
the course of of of the last number of years years their fund balance has been shrinking um and at the end and the close of FY 24 the fund balance was down to 123,456 75,000 however the expenses running
about 900,000 which is going to create a deficit of 228,000 and as you can see there's not enough money in the fund balance to um offset that deficit so what that will mean ultimately is um it
will add to our deficit so you cannot the law is that you cannot close a revolving fund at the end of the year in deficit you have to be um with a balance or at least break even and so what happens is that money then has to be raised through our operating expenses
and so um based on the information that was submitted by the director for FY 26 you can see again that the revenue is slightly higher um and even though um expenses have been lowered it still
isn't sufficient to um to run the program and even break even and so we would be in further deficit next year so this measure is to um to sadly um uh eliminate the program at this time
because it just isn't able to sustain itself um me too can I it's not that base necessarily needs to be eliminated it could be spun off from PSB but essentially PSB can no longer financially back it right okay that's
like I just want to distinguish right it does not need to Sunset as a program just it would not be part of PSB right because if it maintains part of PSB then we have to fund it in our operating a portion of it in our operating budget which then means we have to push expense we have to cut some other area in order
to be able to um fund that how much was set aside in last week's initial budget to cover this projected um this was not set aside oh okay so that actually would not change this particular bottom line from from last week it's
just well if if you if you don't Sunset it it will then it will be it would have been worse than it would have been worse than this can I just ask have we talked to um base about this I mean there have been ongoing dialogue
with the director um there for several months uh trying to look at different options ways as Mariah said you know is there a way to partner with the nearby community um is there a way to partner with the rec department Etc so I know
that there has been a lot of uh conversation about whether options might be available but whatever that might be for base um it's not we're not in a place where we can uh begin to set aside money in our operating budget in order
to um pay for adult education when we're struggling to pay for student K12 education um right now I believe base provides the cons the after school Conservatory lessons I'm looking at
Kenny oh did that transition away from them well they facilitate it's only the payments I guess let me say this partially manage okay I guess my question is um is the is there an impact on the performing arts
program of Base um leaving PSP um it's a longer conversation sure imagine yeah they were we were supposed to have built you might want to go to the mic just so people can hear your answer sorry happy to speak and I appreciate
the opportunity um so coming into let's see if we've been through so many stages with this um many years ago when I was started in this role base was had nothing to do with music extension um but there were my predecessors there was a ka8 coordinator and a 912 coordinator
so the ka8 coordinator oversaw that when I began I was the first K12 coordinator and um it was just one too many things on my plate so I did it for many years uh eventually the deputy superintendent of admin and finance at the time suggested moving it to the management of
it so I oversee all of the curricular elements the hiring of um and guidance of teachers in the program the communication with families and whatnot they just took on the part of um well in theory they were supposed to take on the part of um taking in money from families
that pay for it and paying the teachers and um and also do the scheduling piece which which actually never really happened so um we originally had a proposal going into this year to increase lesson cost by $3 um which was going to create I think it was about
$116,000 it was $3 per lesson was going to create about $16,800 exactly $16,800 in Revenue that we were going to use to have someone working scheduling the program um that was our intent it was within the uh amount that the school
committee had already approved for what the amount we could go up to was um however that that got canceled over the summer I'm not sure why exactly um well I was told I couldn't do it I was originally told that I was could do could do it but then I was told that I
couldn't do it so um base has somewhat come to the rescue a little bit this year I mean it's it's been hours and hours and hours and hours of work on my plate that has not been removed however there is a a person who is on based staff named Meredith Force who has been working collaboratively with me and and
she's been stellar in um in helping to do not she's she's helped with setting up computer aspects of it and having enrollment and making sure teachers are paid and our payments come in um that's she's also been working with Michelle on that so it's it's not just meridith but
Meredith has has been very strong in that so without that um you know again we could resolve this with the $3 per lesson increase which didn't feel like it was too much and actually I've sat down and done all the math I can share it with you tonight as a matter of fact if you want we have more than enough
money in music extension to cover um uh to cover um financial assistance as I mentioned earlier tonight when I was talking that we have I can't remember what the number is 34 students with full financial assistance um some of those maybe should be on partial financial
assistance but we we could never really get the numbers of of what people's allocations were of financial assistance through the district um so um but we have more than enough Within the Music extension program to be able to hire someone to do the work of scheduling and
I would continue to do the work of um hiring and supervising the Educators in the program great thank you the next piece is um next recommended strategy is teaching and learning administrator
restructuring um Dr Martin spoke about this um a little earlier tonight in public comment we'd like to restructure the K to8 curriculum coordinators by closing um the four it's currently 4.6
because of World Language um positions and creating two new director level positions um we're still working out if that would be a director of Elementary and a director of middle school or a director of humanities and a director of stem um and as well as create teacher
leadership opportunities and add five um class two stiens um in order to stien lead teachers at the middle school level to help with some of the professional development um needs there and the department um meetings that happen when
we're focused on a particular curriculum sharing this with my team yesterday was very difficult as you can imagine and it's not a reflection on their work or the quality of their work they are all wonderful administrators um but this is something
that when we look across the district um and we think about impact on students that we thought was a necessary recommendation to make sorry just just so I have the numbers right so this is going from
7.6 is that what it is currently 4.6 was it 4.8 or 4.6 4.8 what is it currently at and what would it go to it would go from 4.8 to two oh and and then um some stipended in
positions just to illustrate wait wait I'm I'm still confused so if it goes from 4.8 oh I see so it goes from 4.8 to zero and then you add the two correct okay thank you just to illustrate that a little bit further would you remind us
how many schools we have and how many teachers about we have at each of those schools that now somebody is going to be doubling up on their work I think it's kind of important to say yeah we have eight K to8 schools we have
approximately 27 sections of each grade level um across all eight schools um k through eight so it is a tremendous this amount of work it will definitely have an impact none of these are without impacts on
students could you just say a little bit more about the um lead teachers in the Middle School content areas what that might look like so one of the things we realized if we do the elementary and middle school model is that there
wouldn't be anybody really with the subject area expertise to lead department meetings um so when um they meet as a department there wouldn't be anybody to be the leader in that role so
we'd like to create some Le team leader um teacher leadership opportunities to be able to do that um to help with that work so where did you come up with five and what can you say more about what a
class two stipended is is that a is class two stien is that is is that going to be a set number that's baked into this it's a set amount it's a contractual amount um at step one a step two site stien for next year would be $3,897 um at step five for next year
that amount increases to $ 4,218 um the reason that there'd be five is there'd be one for Math Science Social Studies Ela and World Language oh so not one in each School correct one
total I am thanks so how if let's say a math lead teacher is at a school how does a teacher in B school have access to that Lead Teacher so one of the ways that it actually works now with our curriculum they'd have access through
the Middle School director but for meetings and things um we'd have to leverage Zoom um in order to be able to do this effectively which we do now for some of our department meetings okay so how would these two new
roles be distinct from the um the senior director role that would I presumably still be uh overseeing them the the K the K8 senior director prek question um it would be distinct the K8 senior
director would be doing more strategic data work um with really be focusing continuing to focus on our literacy roll out um and any new initiatives that are happening to get those off the ground
with the support of these two positions Helen's hand is up I'm sorry couldn't get the unmute button so we have a as Kenny said he's K through 12 curriculum coordinator for music was and maybe you've thought about
this and there's not a reason that it would work was there any thought given to having um six through 12 um curriculum coordinators for each of
those five areas so the high school curriculum Coordinator would go down towards the sixth grade there was some thought um given to that the um current thinking around that is it would be very disruptive to the
high school schedule because all of those coordinators at the high school also teach and no I mean instead of teaching oh instead of teaching we didn't want to um pull them out of the high school teaching CAD Helen
um but that's also a model that we could consider um and we could have more dialogue around yeah it may not um may not work I don't know but it was just a thought right now the high school chairs
are point8 chair Point 2 and so they still teach a class okay is that true of our K to 12 uh coordinators our kada 12 coordinators looking at you both you Kenny Kenny does
teach jna sat tanowitz also teaches and Carlin is busy subing four classes a day there you go thanks any other questions on this
okay all right um this one's particularly difficult because it does hit our most vulnerable Learners um and it's a pause on nony summer programming and non credit
recovery so I think we heard from a public comment or that we were thinking of cancelling um putting a pause on our credit recovery program summer program at the high school that's not true we would continue to offer Credit Recovery because we realize that that's necessary for our students to graduate um so that
was a misunderstanding this specifically is talking about project Discovery for $145,000 and Star Academy for $112,000 Star Academy is mostly
grant-funded this does help it is completely Grant funded this program does help give our students a head start for the following year um so we'd have to consider different ways to leverage that Grant throughout the school year um
to help students um some examples that you know we're thinking about are high dosage tutoring um being able to have some room in the grant to do that which really has um some research-based efficacy um behind it with the data so
that is um it's a very difficult recommendation to make it goes against the school committee budget guidelines um I realize that and I want to knowledge that um but we'd continue to offer our esy
programming which Grant is that um Meco and our title three Grant thank you so is the2 that's that's in that would not impact our general budget though by it doesn't if it's fully Grant funded and we're talking about expending it another
way it doesn't actually save 257,000 right it only saves 145 correct okay so and my understanding from previous presentations is that project Discovery um is also saving money in
that it's allowing us to maintain a lot more tier one instruction as opposed to going into higher levels of support during the academic year is that anodot that's true we don't have the quantitative data to back that up is there research is there I'll say is
there evidence Base outside of Brooklyn for literacy programs like this or okay so there is evidence just not here in Brooklyn okay thank you so I think this might touch on a question that I
asked at our meeting last week and I asked an email and I don't know if it is going to be addressed at any point but the document that was presented to us so far I believe added two positions called
metco advisor such that there would be a metco advisor in every building and I had asked how and I believe Susan said that was being would come out of the metco
Grant I asked a few questions about how the metco grant is used whether funding those POs how what would be off set or reduced or eliminated by taking money from the Meco Grant and moving it into two of
something called a metco advisor which I don't know what that is is this what we're talking about here no those two things are completely separate so what amount of Meco Grant has been used here do you know the answer to that
question and where would and since the metco Grant as a grant then where would that those monies go if not to these programs Star Academy is about $112,000 and that comes out of the Meco Grant so if you're cutting this program
where does that money go we could use it for the the tut that um Dr funa was talking about sorry the the tutoring that Dr funa was talking about we would use it for other infrastructure for um support services for students so is that
in a proposal somewhere that that where that money would be shifted to that's what we're talking about using it for but it's not listed but this is just showing you this the the potential savings here okay do you want me to address the
other question in regards to the mecro advisors sure okay can I before you do Claire I just want to add one thing which is um before we started but I was going to say this at the end of the presentation we talked about there's a lot of detailed questions there's like 16 or 17 pages of detailed questions and
staff have because they've been doing this work have not had the time to necessarily go through them all and have the answers so while Claire may want to address this question now just in general I think that we're going to have this presentation we're going to have discussion but we probably won't have the we I know we won't have the time
tonight to go through everybody's detailed questions we need to give time for the staff to come back to those questions and people are still adding questions to that so this is just the first meeting and and like I said Claire can answer the question but I think we just want to be mindful of getting to our discuss question as well afterwards
and making sure we don't get all the way into the that's fine it doesn't have to be answered now either okay I do want to ask in that connection though um since you are the finance chair like what is our timeline here for actually what's served the drop dead date where we have to send
a balanced budget out why don't why don't you pause that question let's keep going and I'll come back to that one okay okay yeah one of the other things that we realize needs to happen is we need to reduce or consolidate High School
sections so that we're only running um Target size classes at 15 to 25 students so there'd be no classes smaller than 15 students um at the high school we're not sure how much um FTE this would be um
because of the complexity of the high school scheduling but we're estimating that it would result in about $500,000 of savings in addition to the reduction already in this book correct so
approximately I'm just going to say I think this was three I'm going to call that five is that fair so we're going from restoring seven last year after a crisis of FTE to now taking that away
and reducing further we're looking at reduction um further reductions there's also um an anticipated decrease in enrollment and in addition um to that one of the things
that we've found out through this itative process that we've been going through is that there's some High School academic classes that are actually running at um a student to teacher ratio than that's smaller than first grade and so really being mindful of how we're SCH
in students and making sure that it's Equitable we have Equitable class size across the district including the high school okay just but so the answer to what I was asking though is yes so going from restoring last year to further
reducing correct I thought that the infusion last year was mainly to avoid s very large classes at the high end whereas what we're talking about here might be uh you know eliminating classes at the whose enrollment is at the low end correct yeah
so this is just one more clarification on Star Academy so my recollection is that Star Academy serves not only Meco students but El students as well so um so with the removal of Star Academy we would be affecting Meco students and then the tutoring would be focused on
Meco students but the elel students would not have access to the tutoring correct because it's coming out of the Meco Grant correct okay thank you Ellen's hand is up Andy Andy sorry I didn't see that go
ahead that's okay can we go back for a second to the previous slide about the high school yeah can you can you hear me oh okay great um so two questions one um does
this 15 minimum appli to all uh programs and classes it applies to some classes where because of the room size the safety
issues um other things that there can't physically be more than 15 students in a class so they have to make a case that you can't have more than 15 okay um because that's really important the other piece I don't want us to cut here
and then next year here we have 28 kids or 30 kids in advanced placement I mean you know that's not going to work so you've taken that into account when you're looking at all of this I'm assuming yes that's why we don't have a definitive FTE for you this evening
because we are still working with the high school team to sure and they know best how they can manage this and they're they're 35% of our budget so uh 500,000 and their budget would be what percentage
Andy I know you can figure that out sorry Helen huh what sorry Helen I started speaking and you were still speaking oh okay well those were my two points on on that one I have one more question on this to understand so the
bullet point says Target high school class size at 15 to 25 students I guess I'm trying to understand is that uh the concept coming from
you or is this um when you have this notion that nothing would have under 15 if you cut this and the three has Mr
Mason confirmed that this target is a reachable target or is that just a concept and an aspiration none of these decisions Carolyn were made by me exclusively and I think we need to be very clear about that that this was an iterative process with the
administrative okay if Mr Mason has been made aware of this um that's actually where I got the lower number of 15 originally this had been 18 but um once he explained to me some of the issues with class size um and safety of
students um that's why the range is now lower to 15 okay we currently have 13 and a half math specialists in the district um this would have a student
impact on um being able to receive some math support in the classroom this would reduce our total FTE in the district to 10 um resulting in having one math specialist at each school and two at our
largest schools which are F frr and Baker did we Skip One P one slide no no okay thank you so apologies um so do the other schools all have one and a half or or what's the what's it depends on the school size this year
it's most of our schools have won in a fraction okay thank you Mr coal this is a very tough one because of shining stars um both on trophies and in our
classrooms um we are recommending that we restructure the um performing arts program it would save us 7 FTE the result would be that we would offer General music k through eight one
time a week to all students and then for the fifth special that students have it would be a library Ed Tech special um where our Librarians and educational technology Specialists would teach that
special and and it would be related to research information literacy um how to use various tools um so that is the recommendation regarding Performing Arts could you just give us a little
background on the thinking is was this a uh something about the program that wasn't working or is it simply a cost eort what what was the thinking behind this it seems pretty drastic so it does seem drastic so maybe if you could share what your what the thought process was
thanks the the discussion behind this was that um the program is excellent It's actually one of the few places that our middle school students have choice and what they can do um one of the
complicating factors for it um from the principal's point of view is scheduling which the entire schedule um is built around Conservatory first um so that was one of their thinking and um
the thought that our schools can't have consistent schedules um for staff sharing was one of the thoughts behind this also the cost savings um estimate um was um substantial from this and we
were trying to give you more options than the um 8.2 million deficit that we currently have can you just put a little more meat on the bones or detail
of what I'm not I'm not asking for names I'm trying to understand positions and programming and grades that would be lost with the s f te so it would be it
would impact grades 4 through eight this um as I said is one of our um few options where our middle school students are given the opportunity of choice um what we have is we have a wonderful
Cadre of talented musicians who kill themselves um every day traveling from school to school um they're just really fantastic and this would some of those positions so what
would what would students still have would we have an orchestra would there be concerts would there be a choir option not during the school day so Kenny you can correct me if I'm wrong but our townwide Orchestra in
courses I know but they run after school was my question run after school by so no Orchestra we can't hear at home Kenny is saying that he starts um the students on instruments in fourth grade
so it's not just Middle School where our students have Choice it starts in fourth grade every student in The District in fourth grade plays an instrument they choose between nine different options we have this group of traveling teachers that go around and they break into flute class brass which is trumpet and
trombone clarinet percussion violin Viola cello and double Bas we combine some of the strings too um and so that's where the choice starts then in fifth grade they choose between orchestra band and chorus the students who continue
with their or their instruments from fourth grade go on to fifth grade in band or orchestra and the ones who would prefer to sing or don't want to continue on the instrument go into course and then it expands to six different classes and six through eight all of our fourth graders meet at the same time within a given school for conservatory and divide
up all of our fifth graders meet for conservatory at a given time and divide up and all of our sixth through eighth grade students three different grade levels meet at the same time and divide up among our teachers and we have a group of nine traveling Conservatory teachers that move from school to school to teach these classes plus our
school-based teachers um we have at least one school-based teacher generally it's the chus teacher um at two schools there's a Guitar ukulele teacher who's also a school-based teacher um so if this program goes I can't I don't see our our
townwide groups continuing for multiple reasons one because nobody's going to teach them too because we're not going to have the students to do it I mean yeah you could keep students in a chorus but forget about Orchestra forget about band we currently have two townwide orchestras an upper level one Brookline
Youth Orchestra and a open level one which is the townwide orchestra we have a townwide band we have a townwide jazz band and we have a townwide chorus so um and and I have um again going back to what I said earlier about
the halves and the have knots it's our program there's no have knots in our program in Brooklyn because we put an instrument in every kid's hand regardless of their finances regardless and you know I'm realistic not every kid
is super psyched about it I mean generally they're psyched to get the instrument once they see how much work it takes they're not all psyched about it but many are psyched about it and you see that in our groups you see that in our 80 person concert or concert band at Brookline High School you see that in
our three orchestras that range from 40 to 60 kids at Brooklyn High School you see that um you know so so none of that that is not going to not going to be sustained it just won't it can't and and there are there are school districts out there
usually not school districts like Brooklyn that you have you know you hire some local person to come in and teach band before school if if that you can manage that and again it's about the halves and the Have Nots and that's something that I've been wholly against since starting in this role I think the
people before me were wholly against it too so um uh Helen and then Sarah yeah so this feels like deja Ru all over again so to speak when I first came on the school committee we cut music in fourth grade I
remember that we had a $4 million deficit out of a $52 million budget fortunately this is much more not much more but easier than that um that being
said is there any reason it what would the savings be I mean just trying to look at it in a different way if we were to maintain our sixth through eighth grade performing arts program and not do it in fourth and fifth
grade you can get back to you I can't do the math in my head because it's such a comp ask asking about is it even feasible yeah it I think it is feasible okay thank you I I would appreciate the model I
wish all my directors were here to Advocate as fiercely as you Kenny I know oh would you mind um actually speaking into the microphone so that um the people at home can hear you if they can't please please ask the question so
that folks listening at home can hear it um I teach Visual Arts so in middle school they students have health twice a week and PE twice a week and art once a week so I'm just wondering when we when they have Conservatory they have Conservatory twice and I think they have
win the other three days so I'm just I'm just trying to understand if that would have Ripple Cuts or like what that looks like each school has a different schedule um around that and so um depending on when they have Conservatory
um so really what we were trying to do with this model is to ensure that that we kept a general music program and that there was a preparation period for teachers every day
s so I I'm wondering how you can even save that many FTE because if you think about the minutes in the day that the students would usually spend in Conservatory um in quite large groups actually are you just going to give more minutes to other teachers if you were to
eliminate students currently have music in Conservatory twice a week it would go down to once a week go down to once a week right but for that those minutes that they're losing in Conservatory there needs to be something else that would happen so would you even be there would either be General music
or um a library media class oh okay so you're adding time to the librarian's schedule are you taking away something else from the librarian our librarians currently don't have scheduled classes during the day this would be a change for them can I ask a followup on this
though so um The Librarians do like they host students and all of that stuff so that this would change that and then I guess I'm confused is the 7.0 a net number like because you'll have to hire more people to teach the
general music program too right correct as Kenny said there are currently nine people that are doing Conservatory so are you saying you would hire 2 FTE to replace the nine but aren't the classes smaller too I guess
I'm confused if the conservatory or these other large programs are holding 40 to 60 students at a time but a music class is 20 right like does the math math the math maths yeah are you sure the math maths no it doesn't I'm sorry to interrupt it doesn't and I don't mean
to put on you can't hear I'm I'm sorry but there there just has to a factual correction in this we have 7.1 FTE in traveling Conservatory teachers okay then we have in chorus we
maybe have a um let's see we have a sorry I got to do some quick math in my head um we have about a 0.1 at every school for chorus that's that's built in with the general music teachers so somewhere about a 0.1 at every school so eight schools let's just call it a 1.0
so there's a 1.0 however if you cut this seven FTE of the the traveling Conservatory teachers that's cutting Conservatory twice a week at 7
FTE and then you only have one but you're cutting it in half you're not cutting it completely so you only have one remaining FTE with the school-based teacher districtwide are you are you following me so okay it's I mean I just don't understand because we're talking
about cutting s 7 f which is correct but that would actually have to cut the two days a week of Conservatory but then how do you if you're put if you're keep putting back General music once a week where is that FTE where's the FTE
putting that's I was it was yeah please because your Conservatory teachers are serving as a specialist That's a planning time for the teachers is that how that works it is a yeah so so the way that we did our math to figure this
out is that if we offered General music we would need the same once a week just like we offer art we would need the same amount of um FTE as art in each school and that's how the math Maths for
this sorry to belabor this where is that plus up in this number if you're if you're taking removing the seven conser the 7.0 is the same 7.1 that that Kenny referred to to where is the additional General music staff that would be art that would be the equivalent to the art
FTS so some of that already exists in buildings not every building just has one FTE for music correct Jody can you what's I we can't hear yeah so because can I make a request that we move on I think the
details of this are actually really important I also know this is not the argument you want to be making I know you don't want to argue against this program and I also don't think that you should have worked out all these details at this point and I think it would be better for us to go through all these options right now so we could start to
have a sense of what are the ugly possible cuts on the table in front of us before we start moving forward with any fine details yet and I say that with respect to everyone in this room thank you Stephen agreed yep so for Susan you want to talk through this
one OSS OT or Jody restructure our reconsolidate beep classrooms um there's still similarly to what you just said Stephen some work to be done here but the notion here is to increase the efficiency of beep Margaret is
suggesting consol validating um some of the prek classrooms um as well as um I think some of the FTE are going to be moving over to kinder to follow students that are moving up there some of the par professionals are going to be moving up
Jody or or Susan yeah some of the par professionals will be moving up to kindergarten to support students that will have one on one oneto one needs um what Margaret is initially talking about is consolidating um two classrooms
um one um moving from Driscoll to one of the center based programs and then another moving from a center based to a center based but because we haven't had the chance to work out all the details that's why this is very similar to the
high school um piece where we don't know what the FTE impact is and we're just um estimating a cost and then um our last OSS OTL is as you know there
were no um we had skipped this one um there was a significant amount of new FTE put into the budget book that you have in front of you um Lisa has worked very carefully with her team to analyze
where um those requests could be reduced and I've taken even though it's a desperately needed service for our students I've taken the five FTE for um English language Learners off the table um again you'll recall that we actually
need 10.5 um but we were only asking for five in this um budget for that so thanks to the OSS team um this was all stamp by Lisa and we are giving back our
five um FTE for English language education Suzanne yeah I have a question um you may not know the answer but what I'm looking at class size for the different schools and grades not yes and and the number in the
grade does that include students that are in substantially separate classrooms where are those students so for instance I think in RL she said I don't remember let's say she said 44 students in third
grade and then there was a and three of those are from a substantially separate class so when I look at the numbers of students in a grade at a school does that include the students um that are in
substantially separate classrooms I'm going to defer to Susan with how she's reporting those numbers you know this might be an opportunity for me to interject another thought is that okay um I just want to point out that a lot of what we've just gone over has all been k to8 um and very little at
high school yeah well I what so when I look at the the sheets on the schools and it has a number of students in a Grade does that include the students in
that grade that are in a substantially separate classroom it's we got this question yeah so like yes yes they don't there's there Sub sub separate classroom does not count in the section count or and they are counted in their um inclusion classroom that was
our previous answer I imagine okay I'm sorry I don't remember that sorry Mar say they're not counted as sections but they're counted for average those student those head counts are counted in their inclusion classroom and the inclusion section so the subpar classroom is not part of the classroom
count it's not part of Cl that's great and those students are in um are counted in their inclusion classroom and not double counted in their subpar classroom I'm still confused say it one more time sorry okay so at rle if you have two gened classrooms with 44
students there might be a third sub separate room with three students students you don't count 47 students you still count 44 students in two sections not in three sections okay yes can I ask my question thank you sure I've lost strike of who had their hand up first I
think Mariah then Stephen um my question is um are these positions needed to require to needed to provide legally required legally mandated services with the it's a complicated question for the El positions the state
recommends and doesn't mandate services so they recommend the service delivery hours there are things that um they now have to do they have to write Student Success plans for all of their students that require two meetings a year with
parents um our El case loads are huge and in order to take on that additional body of work is um very large um Lea looked at um these positions and felt
that these could be reductions I will I will take that answer for what it is okay than can I just follow on that here I can't answer I want to ask about the for English Learners they have levels and so not every student is needs the same amount
of service correct but we are nowhere near meeting the recommended service hour but you've taken into account what the different levels are thank you thank you steart okay okay so so this this is a change from the
previous we were previously shown or the budget book said it was something like 20.9 and 15 it was 20 I have this it was 20.9 FTE in 15 Paras were originally requested by OSS this is a reduction
from those initial numbers correct so the new numbers I could do math right I just subtract thanks so six .5 and the new par number is what that's being requested is the new par number left alone it's still 15 Paras being
requested no because there's um one seven pars up so it's 6.5 and okay so I I guess given that it's such a such a big bless you it's such a big swing
could we get a little more insight into the process that led to the the initial request and then the the the revised request Dr Giller could you add M um ask Miss
oconnell that question sure thing so part of this let me see if I have basically Mariah's question except bigger I think just what was that original request and how did it change into this so the 20 So Lisa responded to
this the 20.9 position requests at the last committee were positions that uh osss wanted to consider further she says during this time of fiscal austerity OSS
os's position requests have been reduced with consideration for potentially completing the rise Continuum at hay so that's some of those are going there uh with the 1.0 special educator and the five PA profession profal
positions uh an additional .5 FTE is a compilation of small FTE increases across programs and schools um programs and schools the rationale for the paraprofessional positions are based on proposed IEPs that we are aware
of and adhering to the state and federal mandates okay so I guess given our difficulties last fall I can we have some assurance that these level I guess this is the position I feel like we were in with DHS and and
how's request to us last year with the crisis over class sizes at the high school I feel like we're in a similar I feel like I'm in a similarly reactive position now with special education I want to make sure that we're adequately Staffing special education not just to
fulfill the IEPs and 504s but to provide a recommended level of Staffing for for special education does this request represent that or is this request represent Lisa's effort to scale
back to the minimum so I think it's I think it's probably a combin a little bit of both is what I would imagine but we'll we'll double check that I mean she went through and looked at some of these um you know for example the the alc
program that was looking at uh growing that but when she Lisa looked at this she said that wasn't a position that was necessarily needed at the time um which is different than hay which um is growing up to have sort of the three grade bands and making sure that you
don't have more than the 48 Monon um Range uh in teaching as such okay I guess that would be really helpful for me just to know that this request represents um something more than the minimum but something that represents leisa's vision of
I would love to say Excellence but somewhere well above the minimum I would feel comfortable with okay thanks and can anybody point to me where that the addition of 20.9 is in the um in our
budget proposal great thank you because it's not on page 32 as I would expect right I I saw it there but why wouldn't it also appear on page 32 I see Helen's hand
up yeah this is a quick question um for to get back to me with um we used to get the numbers of ell students uh over the years to see you know is it going up is it going down and the different language
uh major languages um I would like to request to get um those numbers again I think we have to report him to the state anyway so I don't think it's asking for more work um but I think would be helpful in understanding the additional
five uh FTS I'm not questioning it but I'd like to have the that data please Ellen in the budget book I'm not sure what page it is um there's a table that illustrates um the number of students that we've had move in at various
schools which um it's not our total numbers which I can get for you but it's how many students have moved in uh it's on page 35 of the budget book okay thank you but if you could if we could
get it sort of laid out the other way that would be great certainly thank you all right shall we continue so I think our last uh one here is recommended another recommended strategy from OS
and that's looking at uh Learning Center case loads um so in some of our schools some of the case loads are are extremely small per um per single FTE and so the strategy here will be to
look at ways um to comport with having those numbers um increase slightly but still provide um adequate services so here in total where is my
sheet we're looking at um a reduction in 12.9 FTE from OSS uh part of this is Learning Center teachers I think a reduction of
eight um four posi four positions are uh therapeutic or clinical positions and uh 0.9 are other um service um service positions as well and
so um Lisa has just messaged me Stephen and said that the directors believe that we'll be able to meet our mandates without those proposed positions um so this um this one we can bring back with the with the breakdown because I realize it's not included in
here as well but it's eight uh eight Learning Center teachers four I think clinical um and then 0.9 of um I think a districtwide ETF position that's at beep and I can't remember what the point four
is I have a question oh Dr Giller what are the four clinical that's what I I don't have remember the breakdown V I don't have that sheet with me okay thanks but I will I will get that one to you all thank you I have a so four it was four
for the clinical eight for the The Learning Center and then 0. n and0 five of that is um I know it's a0 five uh ETF I have a question go ahead thanks um so Dr Giller you just linked this to
that some schools have small case loads per teacher so that kind of begs the question which schools what are the differences and with this change what would it look like would there are
you saying that then there would be parity across schools what would the average case load be like I think with a hit this big we need a lot more information but I do want to when you say some schools have small case loads which
schools okay and we'll definitely bring we'll break bring that breakdown for you because I think that's a very valid question around what those case load looks like and we want to make sure that we don't inadvertently Drive something up as well because we know the the
shifting nature of IEPs as well okay but when you said some schools have small case loads or the which which schools have small case loads that sort of drove this can somebody answer that I know um I know rle is one that has uh some
relatively small case loads as well for the The Learning Center um piece but we'll get the we'll get you the number along with the Learning Center numbers as well okay thanks
Mariah can you explain um just how Learning Center Works across the district um because um and also how Learning Center is staffed in terms of the Paras with the teachers because I'm
just I'm wondering too we talk about the teachers but the teachers generally are um working with parents who have been um under um the positions have been underfilled I think and so I'm just wondering how those case loads may or
may not be affected by the uh size of their team yeah I think that's a that's a very fair question so Learning Centers um well let me look at
the so what so part of this is uh and this is a memo that I got from Lisa today um she's looking at sort of what are the instructional grouping size uh and maximum ratios there so she says a
suggest that a group should not exceed eight students so uh right now the way some of the Learning Centers so for example Lincoln uh as an example I know they have a Learning Center teacher for each grade level I don't know that every school has it broken down that much some
will have a learning center for a K2 band a 35 band a 68 band so it's a it's a strong benefit a high service for to have a Learning Center teacher for kindergarten uh in that regard some
Learning Centers um are are staff with Paras uh as well so but we'll I'll ask the OSS team to actually give us the break down of that so it's it's not consistent across okay so then my question is going to be as part of this
change are we creating a sort of more uh consistent model of delivering Learning Center Services I think Lincoln is the only one that I know that has broken down by a single grade level but that was an again it's hard because that was an intentional yeah choice that the
school made to service its students will so Val thanks um I I think we have to be careful here because not all students are made the same not all case loads are made the same um some kids have higher
need and so a number on a case load may look lower but they may in fact have more um kids within with intense intervention needs and you know if if we're not careful this on on the other side of the fiscal equation we could end
up with a few more kids out of District if they're not getting what they need in District so I as we evaluate this I want to make sure that we're looking at it in a um in a layered and textured way and I I I don't think it's something where a one- siiz fits-all actually works
yeah do you feel like you have enough um guidance Dr G on sort of what more information is needed on this item y absolutely all right a few more slides here um this is just a reminder that by February 15th the town bylaws says the
superintendent of schools in the case of school Appropriations and the Town Administrator in the case of all other Appropriations shall submit their request for Appropriations to the committee by February 15th or the next town business day if said date falls on
a weekend or holiday or seven days after the governor submits the annual budget to the general court whichever is later our date to get this in is February 15th hence our need to vote tonight
um PSB budget policy section D um I won't read through all of this but the superintendent of school shall prepare an appropriation request no later than the February 15th by which date it shall be distributed to the school committee members and to the AC the budget hearing
which we held tonight uh the uh schools shall hold a public hearing for the benefit of the general public and then the budget adoption procedures at a public meeting and after all views and hearings have been conducted the school committee shall adopt a budget for the
ensuing fiscal year and submit the confirming appropriation to the ACN select board for approval by town meeting and the vote tonight that we have before you is
um that's actually incorrect so let me change it right now um the superintendent's FY 26 initial budget is 149,90
616 and the town allocation is currently $141 m760 32 which was revised in January of 2025 the school committee will continue working with the superintendent select board and Town Administrator to align
these numbers through identification of additional officient icies and revenues and that concludes um oh no once you do you want to do that and talk through questions now Susan or what do
Andy uh yes Helen so I had a question I'm sorry I'm going backwards but I had a quick question and in the last slide um and you may not know the answer to it so that's fine but I just want to put the question out there the one about the
uh OSS um teachers cers Etc um so we I think just after the pandemic with arpa funds uh put in a social worker in every school and I can't even believe I'm the one that's asking this because I'm a
social worker but in the past we've had a social worker Grant it went away the social workers went away wondering what is happening in this recommendation are social workers part of this recommendation uh that we um find other
ways to service students without having social workers within the schools these are the school adjustment counselors well yeah I guess that's what they're called but they're social workers so Helen are you asking if there's a reduction of those in here yes
in this in this line item and you can let me know next time if you don't know yeah I'll I'll get the breakdown because I like I said I can't remember exactly what's in the four clinical yeah um but it it's not to the number it's not to
the degree of the number that was added during the pandemic for sure right okay all right thank you yeah so at this point let's um let's have that motion on the floor and then we can have our discussion I'll move the
motion and we have a second for the Lang that Dr Giller put up okay thanks Mariah um so before we launch into further discussion maybe this is the time for me to ask again about um how many more meetings do we have to discuss this before we really have to put in a a a
balanced budget that determines how far we need to take things tonight my understanding Susan correct me if I'm wrong or lonus or anyone else is that we need to vote in advance of town meeting
which is in May late May mid to late May so the the the remaining deadlines on our calendar except for that one are self-imposed and we can blow through them if we really have to correct is there's big tradeoffs I mean
I think there's the question of um the longer you wait the longer you draw things out the more stress is imposed on people if decisions aren't made um so there's tradeoffs but that you
asked me the drop dead date and I'm saying it's basically the day before town meeting okay are there other practical considerations here Dr gillery well I also think that when we get the house budget there may be some opportunity for some of the student opportunity funds to increase there
which may throw a little bit our way we have to also remember that Brook line is a minimum Aid community so we don't get much from State Aid in that regard but that's a possibility and also although not overly optimistic the GIC numbers
whenever uh those come out I think mid is it mid March or mon the end of the month okay the first of um March okay so those are our only two sort of other factors that
are out there right now um besides um Our Town finding other resources there but it was mentioned when we were with legislators that it might be smart for
us to talk to other communities and Advocate together for the house budget um but it sounds like you're saying that that wouldn't move the needle it I mean it will move the needle some but I would be surprised if it moves it a lot for us now if they double and give us 150 for
kid that would be you know to the tune of probably another half million or 750,000 or so but right now if we go up I think uh to $104 I think is where we were last year that would generate about another 200
$220,000 I don't know whether to be hopeful or not but it does stand that other municipalities are having these same struggles that we are so and what number are we assuming in our budget 75 right now oh yeah Andy can you
just explain the process here so there's a motion to vote and then we're talking what typically happens so the Motions on the floor and um our discussion can now take place I just like to have a motion any motion on the
floor obviously you know this is not a very substantive vote that we're about to take it merely is a statement of fact okay um but I would I would think the okay so given given what Mariah just told us I would think our goals tonight first of all if there are major areas
where members think that we should be looking for possible savings that have not been mentioned uh now is the time to raise that and we can get a sense of the committee as to whether um whether we would like staff to spend time and um
and teers looking into that um and secondly if if people have already have things to say about the things that have been put on the table now would also be the time always with the caveat that we don't usually talk about um people's positions here openly before they've
been alerted right so of everything we've talked about but he was saying if we're going to go on to to new ideas well I don't really see how else to do it though I mean it's you know if if these are staff generated recommendations then yes but right now
you know we're meeting in in public as a school committee so I I see no choice but to you know if if people think that there are areas that we should be looking at that haven't been looked at yet then they just have to raise them now can I call and then
discussion you'd like to vote before we have the discussion yeah CU I yes and also remember we actually have a couple of answers to questions that the committee asked that coming after this so we could vote hear the questions and then have our conversation because our conversation might be informed by the answers to the questions as well um okay
I mean I I think it doesn't matter whether we vote now or or later the fact that is that this thing that's called a budget has 149 Etc dollars worth of spending in
it and that is not what's available to us that's about it this is this is the language from last year with updated numbers okay sorry to be asking because this is my first time doing this I don't want to make a vote that
supports that number because it's an unrealistic number um um so I'm not sure what how to proceed yeah I I wouldn't read the vote as necessarily supporting that number this is sort of a required step in the process and it's well
understood that these are not the final numbers okay I may I just say it's my interpretation of the language of the motion is that we're acknowledging that the submission of the superintendent is as it's written there and that we intend to proceed until something else is achieved that that's my understanding of
the motion okay sure so we we can just take the vote now and then have our discussion that's that's fine so let's do the roll call uh Sarah yes Steven yes Mariah yes Suzanne
yes Carolyn yes Helen yes Val yes and I vote Yes sure Mariah you want to present some questions that were oh okay great so we had a just a little bit of time um today to look at some of the bigger
questions that were asked and and so uh I wanted to provide you what I could um in response to two of them um and so one of the questions was uh to provide more information on the reason for the
increase in the O OD means out of District tuition and transportation um so what I can share is said according to the OSS staff that the FY 26 projection is based on um the the
current um uh students and agreements that are in place right now and then 3% was added for next year so the majority of the increase you're seeing it's my understanding that it's part of the
deficit we're seeing in the FY 25 year rolling forward so that's how that was calculated I can't can I add so essentially the 25% increase is budget to budget but not
actual to budget correct okay and so this is this the 26 would then be kind of course correcting for an underfunded amount in the 25 budget rather than all of a sudden in 26 we're seeing something
different than what we're exper encing in 25 so it doesn't have to do with the out of District placements is within District No it does have to do with o well I'll let Susan continue I'm confused I'm sorry so the
three three accounts that are represented here are the out of District tuition which also um shows up in settlements um right and Transportation so those three
counts um together really um represent the costs associated with the outed District student population and what I'm sharing is that what we have for out of District tuition
settlements and transportation in the FY 26 budget are reflecting what we have in the FY 25 budget now I me we haven't funded it in FY 25 because we're short but it's based on the students right now
so there's what we budgeted for out of District in fiscal 25 there's what we're spending for out of District in fiscal 25 there's what we're budgeting for out of District in fiscal 26 there's a 3% increase from the second thing to the third thing but there's a 25% increase
from the first thing to the third thing you got it okay but I guess I have a question on on the first thing to the third thing as it relates to Transportation because we went out and and have a new vendor and the thought
was that that would be then cheaper more predictable than our prior vender so I guess I'm wondering on the experience of Transportation what's driving or what I maybe what portion of the 25% that is and what's driving that and and sorry
Val you're talking 25 to 26 you're not talking 24 to 25 because I thought that we did that before 26 25 to 26 okay great thanks which which I think was budgeted at 760k and last year we actually realized savings from that so that's that's my
question as well yes yes um so when the projection was made last year is based on the ridership at that time going to the places that they were currently enrolled in going to um and then there was like a $100,000
that was set aside you know for some changes but in reality this year what we saw last year at the time the projection was done and what we're really experiencing now the costs are higher not because of the
transportation but uh because we were able to contain the costs by going out to bid um but in fact the roots that are are um are now being funded are different than the ones that uh were in
place at the time we did the projection so it's related to the out of District so if out of District student is going let's say from here to I'm just making this up for illustration right so if if the if the out of District placement is in Newton when we do the projection
we're doing the transportation routes to Newton but when you go through the IEP process or if a student is not being successful in the Newton placement now they may be in a placement that's in Worcester I don't know I'm just making up a place right so now we have
to transport not to not to Newton but to Worcester and the cost of sending those students to the other placement is more expensive and that's my understanding of why the special education transportation is running over it's related to the
placements of where students are I guess is what I'm not to the cost of of the of the could I just request a followup on that because I I find that um a little hard to to believe not that anyone's not I'm not accusing anyone of not telling
the truth just that that if we have the same o population it's just that a change of roots can it cost us 760k from one year to the next I I find that I think OSS is going to have to explain the the nuances of it because I'm yeah
that is not because it's the level it's a level o population at a reduced rate from a rebid going up 760k from one year to the next not from one to three but two to three in Andy's handy this was I'll I'll
get it for you yeah this was something that I had flagged I don't I don't the giving an illustrative example but I don't have the details behind can I ask that would have to be provided by the OSS yeah this is a related question but does the mckin vento transportation come
out of the OSS Transportation budget too so there it's not just related to outo District students it's students who are in foster care or homeless or or there's other student populations not reflected in the out of District right okay so just so people know like there's other things happening Beyond out of District
trying to illustrate what would what would cause the projection sure I'm just and I'm just saying there's whole other student populations that are invisible in this town special programs special yeah okay okay that would be actually helpful at some point to have a breakdown of and just just to be clear
I'm referring to in the executive summary in 1 F I'm referring to what's referred to as a structural Gap in transportation costs and I think it's 700k about L okay yeah we can we can come back and get more detailed information it's just
that's not yeah because it's such a big chunk it is it is okay thank and there's a relationship between some of these things but I'm not the one that oversees a component okay was there a second question uh Dr Gib that
yes this is this this is um this will will provide you with um this this separately but I believe the question was there's a chart on page 16 that rolls up all the expenses by office so
if you just go to page 16 with me okay and you see it it rolls up the entire budget into these categories when you go to page 18 these same expenses are broken out by
what we call the cost centers the cost centers um at the building level have both OTL expenses and OSS expenses and so you have to add those together to get to the higher level
rollup that appears on page 16 so my understanding is that the question was you know what is the relationship between what we're seeing on page 18 and what we're pay seeing on page 16 and so
we we can we we'll send this out you don't have to process it here but what this does is it takes it by the office and then breaks it out by the cost center so that you can see how the OSS number or the OTL number relates to the
chart on page 16 which you can't see it's not it's not broken out when it's broken out by cost center then it's not by program so so this kind of gives you the crosswalk between that which is my understanding what people whatever the question was this provides you with with how that breaks out and you can see it
rolls up to the same um total budget amounts in each year and while we're on page 16 it it just that table shows a 20% increase in OSS from 4 from yeah and that's the full story there
isn't an additional story of an no no but in order to be able to see by by um so we're trying to show you the information through different views right you know um starting with the highest level view which is you know um
the overall budget costs um by high level category so you can kind of process at that and then we then in subsequent um views we're we're we're we're um showing it to you in different ways we the reason why we show it to you um by cost center is so that you when
you're going in the me in the back of the detail you can see how that relates to the breakout right and the and the on page 18 when we show it by account description people oftentimes find that more meaningful because cost centers
don't really you know uh tell you what you're spending money on rather it's how much money you're spending at location so that we Tred to Pro provide it in a variety of different um views um different readers you know um view the
information um and and the information resonates with them um in different ways so we're just trying to to slice it in different ways so you can see it likewise when we're looking at how much is Staff costs versus expense you saw that little chart you know um so that
you can kind of get a sense of you know 85% of our costs are coming from salary lines um versus non-salary so I found that very helpful yeah thank you Val you're on mute sorry where do we see circuit breaker
reimbursement Visa something like the transportation that we were just talking about or tuition increases I know it's always a year behind but we have monies right so where does that show up and how does it get
allocated um to these the the high cost programs yeah so that shows up on page um 98 Val so in the back of the uh budget book I provide you with information on those recurring um
special Revenue funds and circuit breaker is one of those and so um in addition to the costs that you're seeing on page 16 there are costs for aod district placements um in the um
circuit breaker okay and so how does that work um the expenses are directly allocated out um to the circuit breaker fund so AO District would be those lines we just talked about plus this if you
want to get a full picture of of total out of district and the good news is is um in 26 actually now that I'm looking at it the number in um that we're relying on for tuitions this year is the
3,606 we're going to get in revenue of uh 42 580 and so therefore that's what we have to spend for next year do you follow the yeah yeah that's important to the story and we don't know what the 26 expected uh amount would be or I didn't
have that so I just said we're going to get the same amount in the following year probably be more because our our out of District costs are higher but I didn't have a way um to be able to calculate that um readily so I just said it would be at least level funded we'll
get more information as this year goes on how much we're receiving for this year and then we can modify that maybe the number will be a little higher which would be great but that's all can I yep go ahead that's all baked into the
revenues that you're starting with right the 141 million or not um the expenses for out a district reimbursement it's separated out into a special Revenue fund is what I'm
saying the expenses and the revenue associated with circuit breaker are separated out in special Revenue fund got it so they've been netted out of the operating side of the equation okay but I'm sorry maybe you answered this and I
still don't get it how if we have the same amount of students in out of District placements how can we have 1.2 million increase they can't raise it that much the cost even if we you know send kids to you know different schools
or whatever it still seems like a huge amount yes maybe you could make sure that Li leel tells us why that is we'll do Helen thank you I I thought I heard and maybe now I misheard Helen
but I thought I heard that was an fy2 budget the FY 26 budget increase is that not so yeah right but I guess what I also heard is that we under budgeted for
fy2 so it's not a real I thought we under budgeted for positions inhouse not the out of District thought I heard Susan just say that we also under budgeted
here yeah so at this time last year we budgeted for the students that we had information for at that time by the end of the year last
year uh the costs for out of District tuitions was higher and that's rolling up into the year of 25 so there isn't sufficient money in the FY 25 budget to cover the fy2 expenses so that's what I'm saying
it is a 25 issue that's rolling into 26 we don't have enough money in the fy2 budget to pay for all of the expenses and that's part of the challenge we're faced with this year for out of only for out of District
tuition well I mean we have deficits in other accounts besides no I understand that but I'm looking at the chart on page 18 that lists as the budget account out of District tuition and I know I shouldn't be asking you this I should be
asking lisel it starts in in FY 23 at 3 million5 I know there were or 3 million 9 I'm sorry AR that good um and every year it goes up by 600,000 a million I mean from
3,9 to 6 million5 with the same amount of students is a huge increase for just out of District placements yes umiss Le Lisa oconnell will need to answer that question yeah
thank you um it might be helpful Helen if you look at the chart on page 31 which shows you the enrollment of out of District over those years and there is a variation on some of those years as well up I
hope um it it goes significantly up from 23 to 24 there's nine additional students so that that may be also that could account for it and from 23 to 24 but we about 24 to 25 well that was if I recall wasn't that the year that that
the state did a a was it a 14% assessment and if you recall um staff at that time had assessed that while this would cost a million dollars they didn't think due to some of the changes in
students that it would actually impact us however it did so we got a big hit on um again the issue is when you look at the table it might not reflect all of the um there's expenses there but also like the budget anyway there was a couple of different things that's
happening and it looks like if you look at page 31 there's also a change in student counts too I thought fy2 24 was the big shift in assessment of for the um that that was the big tuition rise right school year 23 to 2 yes I think
that's right yeah all right thank you Dr giv for um answering these questions so let's move on to the general school committee disc discussion that mentioned earlier so if people have uh other um other areas they want
to they want to raise or comments on what's been presented today by Administration um so Carolyn and Mariah oh okay and I I couldn't see out of both sides of my head so
um so um I have a a lot of comments and I know Andy you're going to try and limit me maybe but we need as much time as it takes to work through all of this this is the job so I'll try and just
cover a few things that I had prepared as well as reactions um so first of all just at the outset I really I find this entire process and this conversation perplexing and I feel and I think we heard this
tonight from a lot of commenters um I think this process is really does a disservice to the public and the schools and the town to come out with something that is a list of things including additions to
programming and services and call it a budget when it's unrelated to the revenue available to us and then talk about cutting things that process I find extremely frustrating and it it sets
everybody up to spend a ton of time just to come back and basically start from square one so I don't understand that um I I resent it I don't think it's a good process be that as it may
um what was presented adds new spending on top of a program and staff and services that was cut last year and we can't even sustain right now so that
whole process of Shifting things out shifting things in shifting things out again and they compound over time year after year after year one of the public commenters described it really well I'd have to find it but it's obviously not
sustainable because here we are with a current over $2 million deficit which we're not even talking about how what kinds of freezes need to happen to dig out of that um before we even talk about next year so that's an
enormous problem in itself so I've watched this happen year after year things that we can't afford new programs new fifth floor staff offices administrative levels have come in while
the whole system becomes more and more strained um and what's happening here with BHS I use that as an example because it's so clear and simple it's in it's out you cut you add back things
disappear and we're getting to a point where and we're hearing this this is not the public schools of Brooklyn that it has been and if the $8 million problem is real nibbling around
edges is not going to work um there needs to be some kind of leadership around structural change consolidation but not of classrooms um I don't know but $8
million it's it's bigger than this um I want to respond to the things that were listed quickly sorry custodial Services
pausing extramural intra extra mural Sports at the middle school level no I won't vote for that um the proposal to gut Performing Arts
no I won't vote for that no now who are we then High School sections hugely problematic Brookline South Brookline bus that was promised in the
override before it was covered it was $400 per student not per household per student I guess I also have to just say and this is a general statement not specific to any of the things proposed here but I have to say it because it's
so upsetting when we look at when I look at these FTE being CAU cut and I'm thinking about the performing arts program in particular because I know some of the individuals and some of those people have students
in our materials fee program so what happens to those kids they just don't you're in you're in seventh grade and now you just don't get to go to Brooklyn schools anymore there was nothing in
here that touch Central Administration I'd like to know what we would save if discretionary raises were paused this
year I'd like to understand why there is a proposal to add metco um sorry I don't have the word in front of me
liaison advisors met co-advisor at every school adding I believe to the spending of equity leads which I don't know what that is and nothing touched in central Administration so we need to see
something that goes there and that doesn't add those things then come back and tell us it's so painful but here's a strategy so that's that's my
starting where you thank you um I was wondering where things like um professional develop vment memberships
travel those things are in the proposed Cuts were they considered and discarded I I saw supplies mentioned but those sound like General supplies and those didn't necessarily sound like travel PD memberships Etc most of the PD um
there's a $100,000 sitting in my office right now that we haven't cut yet um because it's centered around literacy and offering summer programming for literacy um so there's a large increase for my office because we're launching
that program and we haven't cut it yet so are there other areas of PD that we have um elsewhere other than the literacy program we do have um some small increments in Department PD that we can look at and what about like memberships
and travel and those kinds of things things um membership and travel there's not um a lot in OTL um well not just OTL districtwide of course um that I can't answer for you right now but I mean
like I feel a little bit upset thinking we're going to cut classroom supplies and not cut some of this other stuff that like you know so so and so doesn't get to go to a conference so you don't go to a conference like yeah you know that's that's life right like that should be the sort of the first thing overboard even if it's only saving
$50,000 like that's a big you know chunk of money agreed some of the travel money in there Mariah too is in District travel for our curriculum coordinators yeah but that's not the huge dollars that's not the huge dollars I like sign the paperwork every week and not the huge dollars on travel you know nobody's
getting rich no no one's getting their $40 every three months for their you know for their reimbursement on that and then um without speaking specifically about any building or um any specific roles um I think it would be valuable if
um there could be um an evaluation of building administrators and how um as we're there was a lot of discussion of front-facing student um staff and what could be um possibly adjusted in terms of some of the FTE for building
administrators as well Stephen thanks um so I just want to make a proposal to the school committee I obviously I think this conversation sucks I don't want to be having it but I just I want to
propose uh a bit of a Way Forward I'm going to share on the screen just some notes I've been taking as we've been going along I think when we did this last year I remember we we had some like tranches that we were able to agree on
pretty easily I thought in this round there was was like a an what I think was kind of a a few items that felt like no-brainer items because it felt like very little sacrific to PSB and I just wanted to put them on the table right
away as something that I think we might all be able to agree to because I thought one thing we might be able to get done tonight is to at least come to a consensus on on a first round of items that maybe if we came to a consensus around we could have a new number by the
end of tonight if we if we gave an instruction to to the administration saying that we favored these these items as being uh items that we supported cutting is that not something that I
don't know about getting to a new number tonight something I maybe I didn't catch this but um the things that were presented tonight how much do they total 8.9 8.9 okay so no it was it was 8.9
all right yeah okay well even if we don't come to a consensus or make a direction to the administration I just wanted to note what I thought four of them was which I highlighted in green one was um and and I might be wrong I'll just say that right now one was the
custodial Services which was I believe is that not that was just finding efficiencies in custodial Services I was adopting a new model of adopting a new model oh I see it's expanding but we're already
doing I see so it is hybrid so perhaps that's not as obvious as I thought well then there was the two below the line costs which we shared with the town those that was the 05 and IT services in the town public building department budget and then there was the General supplies and services reduction spread
across all offices so that would be lines four five and 10 in this in this chart that I have there I don't know if it's visible at all um so I just wanted to put that on the table as things that I thought would be relatively easy to agree on I'm not saying that we
shouldn't add to what we're considering I'm just proposing what I thought might be um I'm just repeating myself now yeah go ahead Mariah I appreciate what you're doing my
my well just that like last year things really changed and even the night that we did this effort we shifted things around as we went so I I think it is a little premature um and I'm sure that the list that we've been presented tonight we will get a lot of feedback on and we
might I wouldn't want us to cut the feedback off before we've had the opportunity to hear things that's fair okay I I guess for me it's obvious that most of these items um I would not like to support so I it's
easy for me to find a the few items that seem to cost little to PSB identify them and put them on the table that feels like a first stepan well I think that this gives us gives the public an opportunity this is
the first time they've heard so um although they spoke and we've heard so so it does seem a little premature though I I I do feel be feel like a sense of accomplishment if we got something done but I I feel like we probably need to hear again from the
public I need to think about things a little bit so in that sense I I feel like it's a little premature though it's a good effort Stephen I appreciate it I just want to say that as painful as this is um it's important that we have the opportunity to weigh in and hear from
the public on this and so Dr Giller could have come to us with a balanced budget and made all the cuts and that wouldn't feel good either so the process is painful but it's really important
that we weigh in on on where our priorities are where we want to put the money and hear from the public and the staff about this so I know it's painful I I know we're going to have to say make decisions we don't want to make but I do think it's important that we have the
opportunity to hear from people and to weigh in and to think about it so I'm I'm just trying to help us understand Carolyn I understand why it is thank you I understand and I've observed this process for years yeah um this is my well we I we don't need to debate I mean
we can have a differ respond because I do understand what I find disingenuous is to be presented with something that is anything other than the base to preserve our current level
of programming and services in classrooms and then separately here's what we could potentially add and what it would cost instead we get presented with something that actually adds staff
programming that's not necessarily student facing and then get told oh we have to make painful Cuts I'm realistic I understand the difference between the revenue and what we want to do and we probably couldn't even do our base with what we have
but to add things and then present a list of cuts of other things is a flawed process and I resent it so a theme that's come up is um looking for cuts in administration so there are different pieces of
administration Carolyn you mentioned central office um Mariah I think you mentioned K8 building level uh buildings okay yeah because one thing that hasn't been talked about is BHS uh administrative structure so I felt like
I needed to name that because that just hasn't been mentioned uh okay yeah um not yeah so and in general I think as has been pointed out I think we maybe have a little less visibility into the high
school than we have into the k8s um based on this document so y this is about the um 8.5 FTE Reserve sections it was helpful Susan to hear you mention that we added two this year and shifted around I'm wondering if we
could go beyond the 1.0 that was recommended to beyond that given the history um you know and of course it was our goal to grow this over time but could we make it like three or four this year and still based on past practice
that would be well within um or based on history that would be well within like what we needed to accommodate although I guess it wouldn't necessarily accommodate the pair professionals that have been added to okay I'm answering my own question okay but if there is so are you saying
that the 7.5 you think would um cover essentially needed sections plus par of professionals yes I think I'm just saying that based on what we've experienced this year and last year as well that um and with making Cuts
nothing is going to be perfect right now right we're going to plan and then in reality we're going to need a little bit more here or there that we couldn't imagine when we were this early in the process also with the number of PA professionals that were added last year
and this year I want to make sure that there's adequate resources there I mean it's right if we if we maintain all of those sections that means that you know we have to consider other areas uh to reduce
but um I'm you know I kind of agree with Steven's analysis here I I don't know what I don't really know what the implications of reducing that OSS FTE really means so I'm a little nervous about that that's all but also we've added like this budget already
incorporates the pair of professionals that were added this budget also incorporates the 15 minus X that was presented to us earlier so there is a net large increase of Paras for last year and the proposed
year so in some ways I'm asking the question are we double counting new pair of slots if we are holding those spaces yeah okay well and and I think to Caroline's point right we we've got these sections at the high school and how is that going to really play out in
practice right so we've reduced by three um they're also on the list to make some other recommendations for a half a million dollar cut and each time you make these reductions then there's a risk that you're taking right and so you
know one of the ways that we can um um navigate some of those risks we're taking is to make sure that we have a at least some ability to address issues as they arise in practice you know I mean we know that uh to the point of the
parents and teachers speaking that we we're we're really close to the margin on some sections at the school we heard about the the Driscoll section um I can't remember the other school because I'm so tired thank you yes yes exactly and so we already know that we're on the
margins there and now the numbers can go down and they can go up as we saw you know at Hayes last year right um where we're were going through the consternation of oh my gosh the numbers are increasing and then they were reducing each time we looked at it so it's it's hard to know where we sit
right here right now how churn is going to play out in Brookline and and so I just want to make sure that um we we allow ourselves a little bit of flexibility as we go through the process so that's that's not my only caution but so cut there and but then I don't want
to cut an actual program we care about in service to empty yeah empty positions so exactly that would be my preference I'm just stating a personal preference and so that's a choice that we make right I mean I'm just I'm just explaining why why the reserves are
there and the value of them I'm not saying that it's more valuable than um Conservatory I'm not please don't interpret what I said as meaning that Stephen thanks thanks Andy
um um I okay so I wanted to start out on a constructive foot um I recognize the limits of that I guess I I do want to say something in response to what you said Carolyn I guess it's my version of
of the thought that you had um and I'm going to start by saying I just want to thank you Dr given for the work you put into this book this is not a preface to a criticism it's just a genuine thank you I know you working short-handed and and I also know you were working when you weren't feeling so well so thank you for the immense amount of work you put
into this book um I also think the process is is right now it's what it is at this point um I I was reflecting a little bit on the comments that um um Nicole mcleland and Miriam Enos made
about um about our credibility with the public um and about the feeling that after the override and then after last year's cuts of the foreign language program it felt
like we had matters well in hand um first after the override then after the cuss to the foreign language program I certainly felt that way I I certainly didn't think that at this point this year we'd be facing an $8.2 million um projected Gap
um and one thing that uh concerns frustrates me at this point is that however many Cuts we make at this point I I don't have confidence or assurance that we won't be facing a a similar situ well the rest of you won't
be facing a similar situ like this at this time next year um so and I know the the the first question of the audit will help us get a handle on this but I wonder if on page 17 Dr given where we describe the budget drivers if we might
provide a fuller accounting of what we feel that we know at this point about how we landed here that's just candid and honest um and that takes a fuller look at what we a fuller by which I mean more detailed look at what we think the
drivers of this Gap are um even acknowledging what we don't know because when I read it it felt like it was it was um it was as if we were describing like a a natural phenomenon or a hurricane or something like that something that we were simply faced with
rather than something that may have occurred as a series of decisions on our part um and I think we just need to Simply do that given where we are and given comments like Nicole's which I I really take to heart I think people who who participate in public comment are in
large part champions of PSP and um want to um you know want to be champions of PSB and we need to be as as clear and transparent as we can be so I'm I'm saying this with respect and in good
faith I I I I think like the Fuller an accounting we can provide even at this point and before the audit is complete the the more we'll be able to um regain credit ability in this moment that that's a that's just my effort at a
constructive suggestion at this point thanks and and I didn't to be looking at you by while I was saying that I'm I'm talking to you too Dr gillery and to everyone who had a part in building this budget book so I guess relatedly um Susan I
emailed this to you I'm sure you haven't seen it what of this is a true structural deficit so were we to just move forward our fy2 program how how much would we sort of be
in a in a deficit is is that easily broken out have you done that analysis I'm really tired right now and I'm sorry but can you can you yeah so if there was wasn't as Carolyn put it sort
of adding subtracting moving if we just rolled forward our fy2 program what would our deficit be I'm assuming less but by you know sort of how much less I'm just trying to figure out again as we're talking to the public
what our what our actual structural Gap is before we do any addition or things like that so what you're asking is if if we were to provide just the same
exact like same exact breathing costs of is that kind of where you going with it what are the breathing costs yes okay um I have calculated some of that and I've shared some of that with you where I don't have Clarity is on the non-salary
lines I have Clarity on the salary lines I I really struggle with understanding as you do um some of the cost drivers on the non-salary lines I just I don't have the data the Nuance data like I I
have um to be able to um I just don't I don't have the the data are you talking mainly about contracted Services there cont yeah I I don't have the data to um and the
history of the data for like the out of District placements which is why I don't have it if I had it then I could analyze it but I I really don't I don't know the relationship because I'm new here for one and and um is part of it but I I
don't know what was baked into the numbers on 23 I could look at POS but it doesn't really neatly tie into students and even at that I don't know the IEPs I don't I just don't have that data so that's where I I really struggle Val I
don't um I'm not saying it can't be done but I can't do it without um the level of understanding that the folks in OSS have you know I I can't do it without them can I try asking this
slight that's where I struggle with and the other things I I can certainly I can look at supplies and blah blah blah things like that and tease out you know what is a new request to a degree you know what's our literacy program cost some of those things that I can see jod
and I work super closely together so I feel like I can but in the OSS area it is a a bit of a blind spot to me and I don't want to say that and I know it makes everybody think I'm you know um not being transparent but I'm actually just trying to be honest with you what I
what I know and what I I don't and I can't explain personally so even though this is imperfect and sorry I'm if I'm jumping ahead of other people but I'm trying to build on Val's question because I think we're getting at essentially the same thing and this would also be a very imperfect
way of asking the question and I know it would be imprecise but perhaps another way to come at it is at this point where do you project we end
fy2 and that is uh the body of work that Diana is focusing on while I focus on the budget work um and so uh we will have that information um for the next Finance subcommittee the first week of
March but next week I am taking a vacation so a much needed one so I'm not going to be available to be working on this um at that time but the week after that um we should have that and and there's a lot of moving Parts on that we
recently uh Lisa recently shared with us um some information that we didn't have before on settlements and out of district and I've asked Diane to analyze that against what is in the budget proposal here to see if there's any gaps and so she'll be actively working on
that so we hopefully we'll get better insight and can share with you what our learning is yeah so Dr G do you feel like you have guidance on what other where else to be looking at this point I do have some ideas there and
then based on the reaction to some of the other items that are on the list um will require us to I I don't see yet in
what was suggested right now uh based on I don't see um significant dollars in this as as currently suggested so I want to make sure that everybody has had an
opportunity to share their suggestions or either send them to me so that we can continue working through them and I'll look through the questions as well um but if I look at the few items that Stephen had on the screen
um if we call it round math of a million and a half or 2 million and then some of the ideas here about looking at um Central r this central office are looking at um building
Administration I don't see that being several million dollars so I would also like to see the things that were added in that are not student facing taken out can I ask a question about that
because Carol you asserted that this is not a level service budget but I thought I couldn't find it here I thought it was written that that it was a level service but which which doesn't mean it's level funded but that essentially the services are the same so I'm confused about what
was what you're identifying as being added um as opposed to level service right like which is different so I suppose my answer to that includes questions that are yet
unanswered I'm sorry to have to keep saying it but it was added so I have to respond two metco advisors so that there's one metco advisor in every building I don't know
what that job is um but that's added and I want to understand the funding of that I want to understand what's going to be lost from the metco grant that would fund that what it is and it was
added I think there was an expansion of the Equity lead program which I believe includes PD this also speaks to something that I think Nicole mcleland also mentioned which is the complete
lack of clarity of inputs in this budget so we have these you know round numbers of PD like what is it what office for what purpose how much how much does it cost we can't make any assessment of how
much we value that against having 25 26 however many kids in a class if we don't know what it is so the equity lead program I believe it was put in there as
being expanded and I don't know really what that is or what it costs so those are two things that come to mind and I've asked as Stephen mentioned
also many times for transparency around student facing versus non-student facing I don't think it's clear enough to have information that says the big budget
driver is salary or staff because and I've referred to the FY 23 budget book that had tables and charts that broke it down by position and I think that's the kind of information that people want to
see and I do want to say one more thing about the 8.5 floating FTE I like the idea of having that Reserve I don't know what level it should be I guess what concerns me a little bit
based on experience is that I wouldn't want us to believe I wouldn't want the Driscoll parents F frr parents or any parent who's concerned about class size or any building leader who's concerned about class size
to believe that that was some kind of promise for relieving that problem so if we're really going to address those problems that are being expressed if that's something we want to do then we should just expand there so I'm
not sure if when we talk about Reserve whether the implication is oh don't worry about those class sizes we'll fix it because we haven't that's not a guarantee Carolyn are you saying go ahead and place those in those spaces or
or for the reserves are you're saying yes I am I'm saying add a section at Driscoll and probably F frr I'm saying that I think that although we rely on this word guideline I think we hear from building
leaders and parents and students that um are is it 4 three to six that the that
the 24 for younger kids feels big 25 22 25 is the guideline yeah I mean I think what we hear is that that doesn't feel like what people
are here for I think we should probably make sure that we're looking districtwide at um you know at every class that might might be concerning I mean um we've heard tonight from you know about a couple of particular classrooms I don't know
whether that there might be other classrooms in similar shape that we just happen not to have heard about tonight I've also asked since November in several emails and I think in open session for the enrollment to be
shown not by average but by school grade and class and I don't I can't imagine that that's that difficult I think it usually has been part of the standard enrollment
report just on on class sizes looking at the budget I remember last year there was there's some movement around in the budget meetings even on the class sizes in the budget book and and I I think it was Lawrence 4 hay 6 and Driscoll 3 were
the were the were the outlier sections in the budget book I it might just be worth maybe well maybe maybe we can get that validated just to know whether those are the true outliers or whether those are the projected outliers going
forward actually in the budget book it was justo 3 Lawrence 4 and hay 6 those were the those were the sections at 24 and there were a few at the other end at 15 and 16 um just be I would just be really curious to know what the data say
are actually the outliers going forward all right I see no further hands up so maybe that that's it for tonight's discussion all right well thank you you uh Dr given thank you for thank you Dr Giller is this next on our agenda for the
20 what six 2 the March 6th is our next meeting okay thank you all right next agenda item is uh a discussion and possible vote to issue a joint statement with the beu affirming a safe and inclusive School environment so
at our last meeting um Val and had volunteered to Le with the beu about this uh would you like to update us sure um the beu wasn't able to meet in that time frame uh they still expressed interest
in doing so we attached to the meeting materials a statement from 2017 that uh the school committee made uh regarding some similar issues I think primarily focused on um
immigration but also some other uh issues of s Trump um 1.0 okay and um what are we proposing to do with that letter at this point are we um are we
moving forward without the be since right that was for review I mean that that's for the committee to decide whether we want to move forward without the be or want to um attempt to work with the be but it would mean waiting until you know a
while for us for us to go back and forth on a draft and then have it presented here Sarah seems to me to make sense to um forward this to a different meeting and
not for tonight all right yeah I mean I have a how times sensitive is this well you know Linda McMahon had her hearing today so you tell me Well the department may not be here tomorrow
but um I mean I for one would I think it's a a a gesture of Goodwill to work together with the uh to beu I think this is something that we probably have similar interests
um and so I think that would be a good idea but if it's time sensitive then that's another question that's what I was trying to to weigh Carolyn well my understanding was it only came up because the beu
approached us so I don't know I mean this wasn't initiated by us if that speaks to your question of time sensitivity like it wasn't even our idea so I guess somebody I think there have
been certainly if the beu hadn't brought it up I I I think certainly I would have maybe others I think that we haven't made particularly strong statements um from the district and so I would hope that either as a district or as a school
committee we would um or as the school committee the district and the be Al together would make um some statement affirm support for all of our students Educators and um community
members if it needs to be said I'd like to say that I would definitely like to do that and I think that there's very few opportunities for us to um to work with the beu and so because we do all care about students that I would I would
like to say let's do this but I was just saying maybe not tonight so if you feel like you have room in another meeting could we docket it for a different time sure I mean we have until March 6 uh we don't meet again until March 6 and in the meantime um I guess you and Val
could continue to um you know try to work with the beu um failing that come up with something bring it back let's do it that way all right um one last thing which is that um so maybe this is under new
business just wanted to report that the uh select board has appointed a revenues and expenditures study committee um whose purpose is to take a close look at town and school finances um in preparation for a possible override vote in May of 2027 um and that committee uh is going
to have nine voting members six from the community and one each from select board school committee and advisory um and select board school committee and advisory each also have one alternate uh to act in the absence of the voting member uh from their committee and also to provide additional input and knowledge of the process to
carry back to their respective bodies so I just wanted to mention that um so Sarah has been appointed as our voting member to this and Jesse as our alternate um and so yeah so serving on this committee is going to be a very important and timec consuming um role so
thanks to Sarah and Jesse for being willing to take this on all right so with that uh we're adjourned thank you recording St stopped for