e um hi Val it's Betsy can you hear me I can hear you it's loud here so I can't hear you but I know we can hear you yeah e
e e e e e e e e e you recording in
progress good evening everyone mean good evening to all of those watching U watching elsewhere welcome to the March 20th 2025 meeting of the Brooklin school committee so tonight we'll be continuing our discussion of uh strategies to increase
revenues and reduce expenses for fiscal 2026 um let me just say what the order of the or what I'm expecting uh the order of topics to be tonight um so we've got public comment first and we have 16 speakers tonight which is far fewer than we've had um for the last two
meetings I think we should be able to accommodate everybody at the beginning of the meeting this time um after that we'll be discussing custodial Services first and then the Adaptive Learning Center Brookline High School uh it and computers um transportation excluding special education and the building
department um and next week I expect we'll take up the Brookline Early Education Program office of student services and Brookline adult and Community Education uh that last item uh have we've been expecting to talk about that today but it's going to need more staff work all
right uh base so that had been on the list for today but it will it will need more time uh for for staff to be able to present to us on that um okay so let us start start with uh with our public comment so um we'll be accommodating everybody in the order
in which they signed up we have 16 speakers um as always uh three minutes per speaker um and yeah we listen attentively but um our policy is not to respond in the moment to uh comments that we get during meetings so our first speaker is Emily jaffy floor is yours
good evening my name is Emily jaffy and I the chair of the Brookline CPAC the special education parent advisory Council I appreciate the opportunity to speak here tonight CPAC firmly opposes any student facing Cuts including the proposed reduction of eight Learning
Center teachers across our schools we stand with the parents and teachers who have spoken out about how harmful these Cuts will be tonight however I want to highlight an equally critical but less discussed issue that impacts our most vulnerable Learners the proposed new position reduction of a special educator
of of the Adaptive Learning Center or the ALC at the Lincoln School there are currently two ALC class class room servicing students across eight grades and a third classroom is absolutely necessary the alc program was designed to keep our most vulnerable students in
the district and connected to the Brookline Community ALC students typically have complex academic and medical profiles with multiple developmental physical and cognitive disabilities many students are non-verbal and require alternative devices for communication most of these
students have onetoone power support throughout the day the responsibilities of the ALC teachers and Par professionals are extensive they ensure student safety relating to feeding and swallowing seizures severe food allergies bolting and eloping they
follow feeding work programs and behavior plans all of which require frequent training with Specialists they modify inclusion classwork for each student for every lesson every day and they collect data on daily work social behavior food intake toileting play and
transitions in short our ALC teachers create individualized schedules accommodations and modifications to ensure Equitable access to education and compliance with the law as this is a guaranteed tenant under the individuals with disabilities and Education Act keeping class sizes
manageable ensures that teachers can provide the one-on-one support instruction and interventions that these students need to succeed this year the lower ALC has six students and the upper ALC has five ALC teachers are already stretched to Capac
with two new students set to join the program this fall a third middle classroom is critical eliminating the planned middle classroom leaves two possible scenarios both of which are unacceptable the first scenario is a lower grade cohort Group by age that will include eight students doubling the
typical class size for ALC classrooms and making it impossible for students to receive the necessary support from their special Educators with some students not seeing their teacher even once on any given day the second scenario requires the district to obtain a Desy waiver to
bypass the 48-month age Gap rule a special education mandate that ensures instructional groups remain developmentally appropriate this would result in a classroom with third graders and seventh graders learning together would you be okay for this with this if it was your own child I assure you this
would never happen in a general education setting and to allow for this in the alc is unconscionable and inequitable a third middle classroom where students are grouped with with appropriate peers in smaller class sizes is needed to ensure compliance with the free and appropriate public education
mandate the budgeted amount for a new hire is 95,5 but we believe a solution could be accomplished for Less a graduate student teacher in the alc who know who already knows the students and is eager to take on the role could step in as the third
as the third ALC teacher at a first year teacher salary thus contributing to a smaller budget Gap without compromising the quality of education for our most vulnerable children given the high level of need and complexity there is no place less safe in which to cut funding in our
district and no place more likely for a violation of special educa education rights to occur in our schools please support the creation of a third ALC classroom thank you all right Andy
Andy Andy thank you Miss jaffy um yeah so uh can't respond but I'm going to ask Dr gillery if um if he'd like to just say something for informational purposes sure thing thank you Dr Lou um we did um Dr schmuckler is somewhere in the room I
think still um she met with the Lincoln team this week and um based on the information that they have shared uh is recommending adding back that third ALC um and you'll see that in the presentation tonight so ALC is back um
um but but Dr schmuckler will we'll talk about that when it comes up in the presentation as well thanks Dr gillery um our second speaker is Shirley shei oh they merged okay so Emily has already spoken for her all right um so
then our next speaker is mave Kelly [Applause] can I make this a little taller thank you oh I can yeah holding it good hello yes hi everyone um my name is mave Kelly and I'm a graduate of
Brookline High School class of 2016 I was lucky enough to attend Brookline High School because of my father George Kelly who was a custodian at Baker School at the time first I I know Round of Applause first I want I want to take a moment to thank the town for not raising the
material fee this will continue for students like me to have opportunities to go to incredible high schools so thank you for doing that I also want to thank you for the actions you took last week in regards to the Food Service [Applause]
workers and I am looking forward to seeing the same results tonight for the custodians [Applause] I left Boston Latin School in 2012 and started at Brooklyn high school as a freshman I remember being terrified on
my first day I didn't know a single person and I was walking into a school where kids had known each other since they were 5 years old but what I didn't know was when I walked through the doors of Brookline High School that I already had friends countless classmates sought me out because they knew I was George
Kelly's daughter my dad had already made friends for me while working at Baker he had become a fixture in so many students lives whether he met them during the school musical a basketball practice in the gym or simply a friendly face in the hallway when they needed a moment to breathe my father even had a student who
took breaks in the hallway with him spending time sweeping to decompress my dad built this into his schedule not because it's in his job description but because he cares and that's the kind of person my dad is sorry and that's the kind of person that the town is now
considering replacing and I'm sure and I know that my dad's story is just one of many many stories of all these people in this room custodians are not just nameless faces to teachers and students they are an integral part of the school Community they make sure teachers have their classroom set up the way they like
they learn which kids might need a little extra support or a friendly face in the hallway these workers are not just doing a job they are building relationships and creating a safe supportive environment for our students as we sit here tonight discussing whether to keep these crucial crucial jobs it is so important to consider the
custodians going to sleep every night wondering if they'll have a job when they wake up in the morning these custodians have the backs of students and teachers every single day in ways that we may never know now it's time for the town of Brookline to have their backs the relationships custodians have
built with their school communities cannot be replaced or replicated the town needs to support them the way they support our schools keeping our students safe and happy Means keeping those familiar faces in our school I'd like to I'd like to end by asking everyone on the board to take a moment to think
about the peoples whose jobs are currently on the line whether they are here in this room currently getting our schools ready for tomorrow or at home with their families trying to maintain some sense of normaly I urge the board to take all of this into consideration thank you
[Applause] thank you Miss Kelly our next speaker is Matthew [Applause] Rosenthal thank you great good evening my name is Matthew Rosenthal I'm the k math
curriculum coordinator a position I've held for The Last 5 Years prior to that I was the ECS coordinator enrichment and challenge support for an additional five years so I know all about budget cuts next year will be my 30th as an educator I have a doctorate in leadership and management I'm speaking tonight to ask
you the school committee to maintain the K8 curriculum coordinator positions as they are currently constituted K8 math K8 English K8 science K8 social studies throughout K8 we have outstanding Elementary Middle School Math teachers and math Specialists and of course hardworking students our e8th grade had among the highest math mcast scores in
the entire state I'm always giving credit to teachers and students for this success as they deserve it but tonight I'm going out of character to praise the work from our coordinator's office as ka8 we have specialized knowledge of how students learn our subject from elementary to middle school we are in classes almost daily firsthand observers
of how students respond to curriculum this fall I sat in on 75 K through five elementary math classes and all 20 Middle School Math teachers classes my records aren't as polished this winter when I had to ensure continuity of learning and a solid curriculum were in place following the tragic passing of
one teacher plus another one out on matern uh on medical leave and I also spent the last three days this week directly assisting seventh graders with their math project I am consulted when we have a sth grader new to Brookline who has already completed our entire middle school math curriculum what do we do we have a fifth grader who comes from
another country with limited interrupted schooling and is operating at a first grade level what do we do and every other student in between special education English Learners students at above and below grade level we can track student progress across K8 because our schools are set up that way K8 I can see
how stand developed from year to year from first graders answering how many more pencils are needed to make 11 when we have six to middle schoolers solving 3x + 2al 14 I can trace the development of algebra from kindergarteners making arrangements of six green tiles to eighth graders tesselating the plane
with rigid shapes I can see the development of geometry this allows me to help teachers to help students and use our curriculum to support this journey when I'm not in classrooms I maintain student data I structure collect analyze and disseminate data and use it to drive instru instuctional
practices I set up the rosters preferences and training modules for standardized assessments that Span Elementary and Middle Schools I oversee accounts and supplementary materials for math intervention in both elementary and middle schools Nobody Knows the K8 math
budget like I do from the half million doll curriculum renewal in elementary to the digital and print options for Middle School down to the three different Siz lincol cubes that have the same serial number I am uniquely and intimately aware all the knowledge of which will go away if the these positions are altered
as math coordinator I already sacrificed over $100,000 in materials under the premise that I'd be in this role because I can maintain level Services even with a dramatically reduced budget finally all of the above can be said about my K8 coordinator colleagues as well I ask
that you maintain our current positions all our students and teachers deserve content expertise in our K8 schools thank you for your time and consideration [Applause]
thank you Mr Rosenthal our next speaker is Lucy [Applause] mcneel hello okay all right hi I'm Lucy mcneel I'm a sixth grade science teacher at Pier school um
I'm here to talk about two of the proposed cuts um the first one being for the custodial St staff and the second one being for k38 curriculum coordinators um since matcha spoke I'll first speak for um k38 curriculum coordinators um as a science educator these two roles that I'm going to talk
about are essential for me completing my job and doing it effectively um for curriculum coordinators I started in Brookline five years ago and without the role of Emily spec who trained me to be a science educator I would not be the teacher I am today and the curriculum
would not look at all like it does today when I joined uh teacher did not have collaboration there was no uh like work for a new sub in the district she fully created a curriculum where schools can collaborate with each other we have
meetings weekly because of her I have a whole uh team that I can turn to on any day that I'm out that will have sub plans ready for me she has personally come in into my room to sub for me um and she just if you have um coordinators that are working across grade levels
instead of content specialist they won't have the knowledge that Matt was talking about where they know from kindergarten to eth grade how a child develops a science mindset how they develop a mathematical mindset so that is essential for me in keeping that role she gets all of our materials for us
without her coordinating that I would be doing that on my own which would be detrimental to me in terms of actually having teaching time for students um next I want to speak to uh our custodial staff um I've worked at both Baker F frr
and at Pierce and I can say that as a science educator having relationships with the cons staff is essential right now we're working at Pierce with no running sinks so literally just the other day Unice and I were hauling water to up to my room without like having the
amazing hardworking staff that we have there I would not be able to teach science and I just want to speak to like Safety and Security in school starts with custodial staff that you can trust they come in they are the first ones in they're the
last ones out they know students teachers classrooms if you just look at the Pierce School move Unice Maddie Matt Bo Elizabeth single-handedly moved an entire school right if I had people that I didn't know moving those buildings and
I know I speak for Pierce teachers right we would not have trusted everything to get back right to where it was right they single-handedly helped us rearrange our whole rooms we were working like minutes before the first day of school to get classrooms ready for students so I just cannot understate how hardworking
the people in this room are and how critical it is that you have a relationship with the custodial staff in your building um I have other things if you walk into our building you can literally see Unice Elizabeth greeting kids immediately they're running to them
they're giving them hugs Unice has known the students and the families at this school better than anyone and so I really encourage you to think about what you're [Applause]
do thank you miss mcneel our next speaker is Faith dantowitz okay and speaking also on behalf of Linda monik thank you good evening thank you to the school committee for your time and commitment I'm speaking on behalf of myself and Linda mon okay Faith do you mind standing a bit closer
to the mic yes can you hear me better now that's better thank you thank you um I've three critical issues to address tonight one of them is the alc which we just heard was is no longer an issue but I'm still going to mention it because as
CPC leader Emily jasse highlighted merging ALC students across wide age gaps is unacceptable there's a reason reason it requires a Desy waiver if you wouldn't place a third grader in a class with seventh graders why would we do this for our most vulnerable students
there is an effortless solution that was designed by liisa oconnell the alc was registered as a DAT program allowing it to accept students from other districts for a fee this Revenue could fully fund more than the one full-time special educator needed additionally the
internate ALC is exceptional her salary is well below the original cost estimated there is no reason to not add the third classroom winr house is another missed opportunity Another Day program winr house was also set up under
Le okano and Sarah Ladner Apollo there was significant demand for both of these programs yet instead of leveraging them as Revenue generators the office of administration and finance continued to undermine student services why not strengthen these programs increase pure
cohorts and position Brookline as a leader in special education cuts the final issue is cuts to the Ace Program they create another Equity issue imagine a program where 42% of students are on IEPs 60% are students
of color 11% identify as lgbtqia 45% qualify for free or reduced lunches that's the Ace Program now imagine this program consistently succeeds year after year disproportionately benefiting students
of color students who are economically disadvantaged and students on IEPs Ace is a competency based program alternative for grades 10 to 12 designed for small class sizes with specialized Educators the partnership of Carol Lopez
and Amy bear is critical to its success despite being cut to halftime Cara manages both Ace and a general general education case load her impact is immeasurable yet Anthony Meyer threatened to remove
her in increased class sizes by 25 to 35% a move that would destabilize at least 42% of students in the program fun facts about Ace 33% of Ace's students graduating this year will be the first
generation to attend college Ace was awarded an Exemplar and then just last year recognized Again by the renie center the Headmaster of Brooklyn High who recommending these Cuts has never spent a class nor a day in the Ace
Program nor has he spoken with their Student Government despite his recommendation that we will hear later today increasing Ace sizes does not equate to one full-time educator it is destructive Ace servant Ace serves
students who don't fit into the general education lens if the program can no longer meet their needs we risk sending students to outof District placements costing between 80,000 and $170,000 per year this is not a cost
savings measure it is financial and educational negligence a final reminder out in this community I continue to hear that students with disabilities are too expensive thanks to the chronic criticism we have heard from
the office of administration and finance yet even their office understands that students have a legal right to a free and appropriate public educ ation in their least restrictive environment and a like cohort as mandated mandated by Ida and desie despite these legal
obligations obligations remain unpaid and critical programs to Student Success are being unjustly targeted if these Cuts continue Brooklyn will face higher costs whether in legal batter battles or an outof District
placements Jesse Val Andy Helen and Carolyn you voted to eliminate office of educational Equity here is your opportunity to support building based Equity I urge the school
committee to stop these damaging changes to equity and to our students with disabilities demand demand accountability from Administration and finance and invest and profit from the programs that serve our most vulnerable students thank you
[Applause] thank you miss dtz our next speaker is Cassandra parowski [Applause] thank you yeah I think that's good thank you dear school committee my name is
Cassandra parowski and I am currently a fifth grade teacher at Hayes and I've taught in three Learning Centers across the district I could not do my job without my team this team includes but is not limited to adjustment counselors psychologists and the Learning Center teachers on March 13th a mock K to2
Learning Center schedule was presented there are many reasons why we cannot base decisions off of this schedule some are learning center case loads grow and shift to accommodate the various needs of learner classroom teacher requests testing and students added to a case
load the schedule needs to be flexible One schedule presented or case load looked into cannot show Insight on the complexity and realities of a Learning Center teacher schedule at the same meeting it was stated that the onetoone time shown on again a mock schedule was a gift I will tell you as a learning
center teacher it does not feel like a gift to write separate curriculum for a student who is developmentally different from their peers making it not possible to work within their grade level it is not feeling like a gift when a student's behaviors are so severe they need to work in a onetoone environment to prevent them from being unsafe to
themselves or others and it is certainly not a gift that a student has so much anxiety around taking risks looking different from others and having difficulties that they cannot gain the skills they need with a room full of peers the gift is the students and the gift is the glow in the room when a
concept sticks but the the gift is not a one-o-one time because of factors that are beyond the child's control the complexity of the schedule or the only way we can meet a child where they are this is a requirement these Cuts would also affect specialized programs across our district every child on an IEP has a
team who works together to ensure the whole child has their needs met from the classroom to the playground and everywhere in between we are currently out of compliance in some of these programs across the district each day par professionals Learning Center teachers psychologists adjustment counsel are relied on to jump in and
fill gaps in spare minutes if you vote to cut or eliminate any Learning Center teachers or members of the team you will without a doubt put more stress and strain on already understaffed programs I would like to shine light I'm the team I rely on every day currently
in my classroom 1/4th of my students receive Learning Center services and I value and seek out support from The Learning Center all day from one of the P for one of the person service times The Learning Center teacher and I co-teach and run centers in the room to Target underdeveloped skills provide extensions or extra practice on the
current concept without having a Learning Center teacher with me this differentiated time would not be possible logistically take mcast less learning C teachers means students could not receive their testing accommodations including a small group familiar facilitator human read aloud Etc and two
classrooms could not test at once I find it extremely important to reiterate I could not do my current job as a fifth grade teacher without a fully funded school and my team my teacher team my Special Education team and my counseling team together we know every part of the student and together we are able to give
an individualized education there is not a day I don't collaborate on something to try with someone and by considering a cut to any of these roles there will be an impact that cannot be undone thank
[Applause] you thank you Miss Kowski our next speaker is Daniel Lipton good evening my name is Daniel Lipton I'm a second grade teacher at f
frr a parent at Drisco and BHS a Brookline resident and a staff member at Brookline adult on Community Education as you know last week I came and sang my plea around the budget since the budget hasn't been fixed since last week you guys are stuck hearing my terrible singing one more time but this time it's
not a Whitney Houston song at first I was afraid I was petrified thinking the schools need 8.5 Million by our side and after spending nights thinking about staff and student rights I grew strong and I learned we
must all get along now I'm back in this same place hoping you will get the town to use their funds and give us Grace we shouldn't have to lose our staff we shouldn't be in misery we've got to do this so please join me go on now go walk
out the door turn around now tell the town we won't take it anymore you've got the power you've got the key Advocate to the select board and change our destiny we will survive no large class size will
show loyalty to our community and rationalize the town's got 8.5 million to give our schools have got to live and we survive will survive hey hey I keep coming back to this mic with the same old plea I'm
thinking all of you are getting tired of me but I can't give up on this town no we're not going down we'll survive we'll survive hey hey please remember kids need programs in the summer ending smart
summers at Adult Ed would be a bummer and for our emotional success we need social workers and guidance to help us with student stress and I will keep going on until we fix this mess I must confess I will Advocate five sections of
all grades at F frr would be so great and though my focus is on Paras and on unit a cutting from Unit B isn't the way we need all our programs kid get kids get only one chance at their education let's be an example for our nation
please listen to what I said no cuts to beu custodians or Adult Ed please do what you got to do to see our community through so we survive all cuts are bad cuts please help us find another way thank you
[Applause] thank you very much Mr Lipton our next speaker is Morgan [Applause] weight I think so can everyone hear me is that okay okay um good evening my
name is Morgan we and I'm a seventh and eighth grade learning center teacher at the r and ha school um I'm here to protest the potential cut to any of the special education programs or positions in the Brooklyn schools um as a learning center teacher I serve some of our most vulnerable students I provide the middle
school students with interventions mandated by their individualized education program this can include specialized instruction in Reading Writing math executive functioning skills and social skills I also provide support for social emotional interventions and share goals
with occupational therapist and speech and language pathologist I am the team liaison for my students families when it comes to information about their students they come to me and I help them connect with the people they need to connect with my students rely on me not only to provide their interventions but to work with their teachers to ensure
that their accommodations and modifications are followed with Fidelity allowing them equal access to the curriculum what my students don't see is the hours I put into paperwork such as writing their individualized education plans their academic evaluation reports
academic testing consultations with their teachers and other service providers as well as creating all of the modified and accommodated materials that they need I provide these services to 18 students I know that we were talking about how measuring by student number
isn't the best way to do this I did the calculations today that's over 2 THS of 2,000 minutes for all of my students outside of the classroom as well as about an additional 3,000 minutes of support inside the classroom for all my students um I know my fellow special
Educators in this District face similar case load sizes already there is not enough time in the day to complete everything that I would like to complete much stuff much less the things that need to happen so what would happen if the special educator positions were cut what would happen if we didn't have enough special Educators
in our district maybe we could you might think that we could change what we write in the IPS to match what we can currently provide however Services by law are required to be written as students need them we can't say maybe they won't have a perah next year because we don't have
a perah if they need a perah we have to say that they need a par in their classroom with them so even if we cut our providers the student service numbers will stay the same if Services aren't delivered due to too large case load sizes in not enough time then our parents will use their right to due
process to ensure their students receive the services they are entitled to what does the outcome of due process look like it looks like more meetings which requir staff presence which causes other students to miss out on Services it looks like compensatory Services which could look like weekend tutoring
additional service time or additionally hired staff it could even look like the district providing funding to send students out a district where often times the tuition for one student costs more than my yearly salary not only will having fewer special educ Educators cost
the district more money in the long run it has the a disastrous immediate impact on the students we serve as group sizes go up research so shows that the effects of special education decrease large case load sizes for Ed Educators translate to minimal to no progress on IEP goals and
students staying in the incorrect settings given all of this information I urge the school board to protect our most vulnerable students and make the smart choice in protecting our budget from unnecessary special education costs thank you for your
[Applause] time thank you Miss wait and our next speaker is James Durkin [Applause] what's that all
right thank you uh Mr chairman Jim Durkin here tonight on behalf of the ask me school custodians and to speak on the administration's latest plan which we were told yesterday is to cut 17 Union custodians and replace them with five to seven contract cleaners they claim they
can save 400 15 to 599,000 through this proposal here's some more figures to consider 174 to $348,000 that range is a conservative estimate of the cost to Brook line taxpayers in the first half of next
fiscal year if you approve this proposal about 80% of that range would be for unemployment compensation with the remaining amount representing your contractual obligations to pay laid off workers for unused paid leave time that range is based on how long the workers would be unemployed how much unused time
they have on the books as well as their current wages based on many years of experience my estimate is you'll land somewhere right in the middle around 260,000 so we respectfully ask you to consider the cost of unemployment and payouts for unused acrude time and ask
the administration if they factored that into the amount of savings they claim they can achieve by kicking these trusted custodians to the curb perhaps more importantly please also ask yourselves if you can trust the administration's estimated savings
numbers which seem to change as often as Trump's tariff policies uh after all it's no secret that in addition to the exploding 43% growth in the administration's budget over the past few years there's also been some serious problems keeping the
books straight around here but I don't have to tell the committee this you're the ones who asked the town to pay at least $45,000 to have an outside group out of their books if this plan is approved would also like to know the timeline for requesting competitive bids for all the work that is outsourc outsourced both
current and perspective since this is about saving money we assume the administration and you would want a competitive bidding process would would also like to know how much they're paying the current contractor now we don't know because they refused to give us the contract or any of the other information we
requested but look let's be honest this isn't about closing an immediate deficit the proponents of privatization are playing a long game here they're using a budget crisis that they played a big role in creating to convince you to permanently eliminate the cost of providing decent health insurance
coverage for these workers and their families and eliminating their responsibility to contribute their share of the Workers pension Bland cost and they're doing it while still posting High six figure management jobs and making sure their pensions and Health Care coverage are safe and sound not to
mention their existing High six figure salaries finally they're doing it without giving any real consideration to all the pitfall walls associated with replacing trusted experienced custodians with a cleaning crew of strangers with no connection to our school communities I hope you all took the time to read the
packet of articles I gave you at the last meeting regarding the chaos that ensued when the trit schools were LED down this path and as you weigh this matter I hope you realize that's the kind of problems you will be bringing to your schools if you support this
Reckless and shortsighted plan thank you [Applause] Mr chairman I also I I want to acknowledge Betsy here who uh did some back flips to get all the public speakers in first tonight and not wait
till the end thank you very much thank you Betsy for your help as always all right thank you Mr Durkin and our next speaker is Justin [Applause] Brown can you hear me all right good evening chair Lou and
members of the school committee maybe stand closer to the mic actually you're quite tall so all right how's this that's better uh good evening chair L and members of the school committee superint attendent gillery and your team fellow Educators and union
members and other school stakeholders who are present or watching from home I'm Justin Brown the president of the Brooklyn Educators Union and I'd like to touch on three things first as president of a union representing almost 1300 Educators in Brooklyn I wanted to be clear that we stand alongside our Union
siblings in asme who are here tonight pushing against the further privatization of their jobs and any further loss of custodian jobs would be a significant loss for our schools our students and for Brook line there is a material difference between
what the custodial staff offers our schools and what can be offered by a private company all teaching and learning has to happen in physical space and physical space needs to be cared for these people know the buildings have relationships with Educators students and the public and must possess an
increasingly wide body of knowledge to care for buildings as old as Baker and as new as Driscoll vote to save these jobs second I'd like to remind everyone of our position we think that through a one-time movement of funds by the select
board from certified free cash to the school dep Department the multi-million dollar budget Gap can be bridged right now no further proposals and a restoration of the positions and programs already cut to be clear we are not advocating for reckless fiscal management or something that would put
the town's AAA Bond rating at risk our analysis shows that such a move would not jeopardize these things this is a crisis an emergency in need of both a short-term fix and a long-term structural solution so that the pattern of underfunding can stop you've heard
and will hear from Educators that rainy day fund should be used when it's raining and it is poor third I want to talk about Educators being injured on the job as the result of aggressive disregulated student Behavior at half of our prek to8 schools
this year I have talked with teams of Educators who are impacted by injuries educators are being bitten kicked assaulted with objects strangled punched and having their hair pulled out this is happening to PA professionals to
teachers and to administrators these emergency situations pull Educators away from their other duties and responsibilities starting a cascading impact on entire School communities no one should go to work expecting to be hurt this is not the fault of students
this is the result of underfunding under trining under Staffing the lack of resources in a plan the lack of time for educators to meet and other things all of which have budgetary implications We are failing to meet the moment and our Educators and students are are paying the price do the right
[Applause] thing thank you Mr Brown our next speaker is Jamie [Music] [Applause] Rondo good evening my name is Jamie
Rondo and I'm A 3 to five Learning Center teacher at Hayes any budget cut is like playing Jenga every piece removed weakens the structure but cutting special ed teachers isn't just pulling a block it's yanking the foundation out from our most vulnerable students special education is not just
about teaching it's about proving students need help before they receive services this process is called an evaluation which is very timec consuming each evaluation requires multiple legally mandated tests taking at least six hours per student at least all
during the school every 3 years students must be re-evaluated so even without new students evaluations remain consistent some districts hire outside evaluators we do not all specialed teachers in the district do evaluations including those
from private schools the year I started with eight students I conducted seven evaluations 42 hours lost from my students instruction one fewer teacher means picking up extra evaluations costing students at at least 54 hours of
missed instruction evaluations also increase case loads I started with eight students and gained four if I started at 12 I would have ended the year with 17 or more evaluations determine who needs help but once they qualify the question
is how we meet their needs in Brookline Learning Center teachers run two programs at once students working close to grade level instruction and students who require life skills instruction that do not qualify for rise or ALC this means I might be spending one period
teaching dividing fractions but the next teaching my student how to walk to class independently individual sessions happen because there are no peers in their grade working on the same thing it is not a gift I've seen more NE neurotypical students grow four grade
levels in just two years but this was when they had G they were given individualized instruction but this kind of progress is only possible when case loads remain manageable when case loads increase students are placed in groups that don't meet their needs not everyone
benefits and eventually everyone loses our district is already facing very serious allegations and families are even more Furious cutting Learning Center teachers only make things worse more students per teacher equals less individualized instruction more
evaluations per teacher means fewer direct service hours more compliance complaints means that there's more lawsuits and costly outof District placements our enrollment will keep dropping and with the Learning Center will'll be paying for far more than it
would have ever saved if we cut Learning Center teachers just like my proposed case load we could turn this 8 million crisis into 12 million more right now we're pulling too many Jenga blocks with every Learning Center teacher cut or
cuts to Educators we weaken the foundation holding up our most vulnerable students if we keep removing the support our entire school system will collapse the question is will we stop pulling blocks before it's too
[Applause] late thank you Miss Rondo our next speaker is Rachel Keegan mlin [Applause] is this okay I'm a different height thank you very much perfect thank
you good my name is Rachel Keegan mlin um thank you very much all of you for tonight I was a special educator at the Lawrence School and I'm currently the Hayes educational team facilitator which is a building level special education administrator I'm speaking to you
tonight regarding the proposed cuts of eight special educator positions I've heard this question are we currently meeting the legally mandated requirements for services in students IEPs and what is the allowable size for Learning Center groups the answer to
those questions don't necessarily provide much information the legal limit is one thing but to use these guidelines would in most cases lead to special education and name only we can call something a service but it doesn't make it true a
more informative question would be what what are the criteria for Effective instructional groupings the answers would vary across groups depending on the individual student needs in that group which is why in the model schedule you saw last week there are different group sizes to suggest that we could cut
special Educators and spread their case loads across the building by just plugging in additional students to existing groups is completely erroneous what are the criteria for Effective instructional groupings you need groups that are of a functional
size to be clear it is very rare to have a group above four maybe five students who require specialized instruction in which their needs could be met it would require all students to be working on the same skills at compatible levels have schedules across classrooms that
would allow them to be seen at the same time and to have skills in place that would support engaging with learning with minimal individual redirection from the special educator otherwise we're just putting out fires and students are frustrated because we're wasting their time special
Educators don't want to see children individually it's not generally supported by research it's a more restrictive setting for students and it means less time for the many other aspects of our roles when special Educators do schedule students individually it very likely means that
there's no other way often it's due to high level of need and a lack of viable learning peers it's a professional decision we don't make lightly increasing group sizes without regard to student needs will place Us in the position of Fielding caregivers very
Justified concerns that their children are not receiving the services they require in order to make effective progress and what will we say it is our moral obligation to advocate for the needs of our students not to make excus excuses for Town bodies that don't
prioritize their learning we will continue to articulate the necessary conditions for their progress and that absolutely starts with adequate Staffing level I've spoken to the select board about the interconnectedness of our work to support students all of us and I stand
by that don't ask which positions to be cut ask why we're not adequately funding schools to meet students needs I urge you to transfer the needed funds to the school department to fix the budget Gap thank you thank you Miss Keegan mlin our next
speaker is Emily Manning [Applause] mingle can you help me thank you okay hello my name is Emily Manning mingle this is my 13th year working as a
visual arts teacher in Brooklyn and my 10th year as a middle school girls basketball coach I'm here to thank you for agreeing to continue funding the inal sports program though an increase of $300 per student feels Pro prohibited for some and I urge you to remove the reduction in custodial staff from your
proposals when I was in graduate school a key piece of advice that one of my professors gave was to per befriend the custodians because of the part-time nature of my position I have worked at five of our K8 schools during my time in PSB at every school I seen firsthand the
amazing work our custodians do each day they make me feel respected cared for and safe the members of the custodial team at f include Mike Drew Jesse Jimmy Brenda and Byron I'm highlighting their names to recognize the incredible work they do on a daily basis a few examples
of the on call jobs my colleagues and I have called our custodians for include when one of my first grade students got sick and vomited on my rug when I temporarily worked in a foring former nursing home during Reconstruction and the custodians helped move our entire
School of materials there and back and when my ceiling began leaking I called the cust custodians when I needed help putting together a shelving unit and didn't have the right tool when one of my kindergarten students had an accident on one of my stools when the sink in my room started leaking and wouldn't stop
dripping for days when I needed help mixing clay slip for a sixth grade art lesson and realized again that I didn't have the right tool when a student smeared feces on the bathroom wall when a student rot a profanity measuring two feet tall with Sharpie on one of the
walls in the hallway when a colleague pet chinchilla went missing this but don't worry Jesse found the chinella this list this m this list is much longer but I only have three minutes after the school day ends Jesse empties along with
other custodians but for me Jesse empties my trash can and recycling bin sweeps the floors mops and vacuums my room mopping is essential when I work with Clay I teach approximately 500 students and Clay lessons happened over the course of several weeks and at various times throughout the year one of
the ingredients in Clay is silica repeated exposure to silica dust can cause lung damage if cleaned properly by sponging tables and mopping floors the potential damage is greatly reduced each spring we organize an all school art show on opening night our custodians help set up the library hallways and
multipurpose room for visitors and after they help clean up to give you an idea of the magnitude of this event F has approximately 900 students we display one to two pieces of art for each student and each student who attends brings one to two people with them if you've never seen one of our art shows I
highly recommend you come our opening is May 15th I'll also quickly mention the co pandemic though I was on a plan leave during that time from what my visual arts colleagues told me they prepared individual materials for students to use as they clean down tables pencils and other materials in between every class
our custodial staff also put in extra time and energy to make sure all shared spaces were cleaned thoroughly please do not cut or reduce our custodial team Mike Drew Jesse Jimmy Brenda and Byron are incredibly valuable members of our staff they know us and they know the students personally and help our
building run smoothly on March 6th an f parent suggested a philosophy of making Cuts one reduced non-personnel things two free salaries and proposed pay cuts for Central admin three central office roles that are furthest from staff and students I would argue the office of
equity provides key staff and student facing support I would add this list the possibility of removing Chromebooks from K to2 classrooms as this technology is not de V mentally appropriate increases screen time and reduces creative and social learning opportunities I urge you
to use your power to P persuade the select board to increase our school budget so we can continue to provide a high quality education for our town I'm you'll um discuss that during the meeting because I'm sure many people would like to know if that is on the
table thank you [Applause] thank you Miss Manning mingle and our last speaker of the night is Lauren
Bernard good evening Emily is a tough act to follow but I will do my best um I work right down the hall from her uh to our friends on the school committee first thank you for your service during this very difficult time I do not envy the incredible responsibility that you
all bear at this very trying moment for as heavily as it weighs on us parents it surely weighs tenfold on you I am speaking before you today and I wish I could be there in person with the call the parents have made in Prior budget Cycles please keep budget cuts
far away from our students let's take our time gather and consider important information like the upcoming audit and find ways not to cut the staff that our schools absolutely need in order to function our custodians are part of this truly essential staff and I implore you
not to Outsource any more of their work not only do they do a far better job at cleaning and I have photos to prove it than the outside cleaning company our custodians are also the most dependable and important source of safety in our schools in fact one person's just coming
to try to dump my trash right now they are the first people in the door in the morning and the last ones out late at night they make sure that the outside groups that rent our school spaces use the spaces safely and get in and out do you really want unvetted personnel with
master keys and alarm codes to our schools they also support our students thank you they also support our students throughout the day and before considering a vote to further Outsource custodial staff I urge you school
committee members and staff at PSB administrative staff to visit the ruffen Ridley School and other K to8 schools to observe lunch periods and see how essential our custodians really are to this seemingly everyday process
of note psv's last Outsourcing attempt was the whiton toac debacco for Food Services yet still retaining our cafeteria staff after that ill- fated experiment how is it the PSB is now proposing to reduce or eliminate many of
our custodians if this experiment goes poorly and I expect that it will how would PSB ever build back the incredible team that we have now and how would Brookline earn back their trust with already bent if not broken thank you for doing right by our
food service workers but our custodial staff now finds itself in this terrible limbo unless we hear differently tonight that a million $1 million of savings seems to be a speculative number if site visits and bids have never even been
sought or vetted for the replacement of custodial services like how did you come up with this number yet the administration sees no wrong in toying with people's livelihoods and lives over unsure projections how can PSV hope to retain
amazing people like the head custodian at F frr who himself attended BHS through the materials fee program because his mother was a food service worker if senior Administration treats them and their jobs with utter disrespect as someone like myself who
deals frequently with outside vendors as an after school program director I have a good insight into this I predict that any savings you may see at the onset will quickly evaporate as every ask that wasn't thought of at the very beginning in the contract that comes up will mean
an additional cost it is a quintessential example of the old adage Pennywise and pound foolish mark my words moreover I speak as a member of the park and recre I have three more lines I speak as a member of the Park and Recreation Commission I'm a
commissioner a couple of years ago and under very exigent circumstances we were forced to Outsource a beloved program and essential service that R staff had always run ask our rec department director and and assistant director and parents how well that program is going
you will not get a very positive reply our custodians are essential and highly competent staff and beloved members of our community who do excellent work please do right by them thank you [Applause] all right that brings our public comment
uh to an end for the night thank you Miss Bernard and to all of those who came to speak with us um before we move on to presentations and discussions I forgot to mention at the beginning of the meeting that in addition to the seven of us at the table tonight we have two members joining remotely Mariah noga
and Val Fus oh I will wait for Dr Giller to come back before we move to him for the next segment all right we're going on to presentations and discussions related to uh strategies to increase revenues and reduce expenses and we'll be starting
with custodial services tonight Dr gillery Andy can you just tell us the order of the presentations tonight again sure what I Vision uh is custodial Services um a very brief slide I think about the Adaptive Learning Center which Dr Giller already talked about uh
Brookline High School it and computers Transportation excluding special education and the building department all right good evening everyone so great to have all of you with us tonight um and is given the agenda so we'll get give a quick status
as to where we currently stand with our budget Gap as of May 13th the Gap was just north of I'm sorry I've already jumped March 13th the Gap was just north of $5 million at the March 13th um
meeting there were 600 uh nearly $700,000 in reductions um or cost saving measures that were approved and so that puts our revised Gap at approximately $4.3 million so
tonight what sorry does that include the 96,000 that Dr schmuckler referenced that will be added back thank you as we go through tonight all right so with that I'm going to turn the microphone over to Dr given
who will take us through the uh custodial um Services strategies Dr GI well can you hear me good uh so tonight we will review with
you uh the work that has been done to try to um uh optimize our custodial Services while minimizing costs you know before we begin I do want to uh reaffirm you know that we're grateful and
appreciative of all the work that is done in order to keep our facilities um clean and in good repair uh so this uh strategy is not about whether we believe these services to be essential we do um
the question really is under these Current financial circumstances um is there a more costeffective way to be able to deliver our services in this area so
I'm not sure who's turning slides but um so one of the things that um we have heard um that maybe is a misnomer is that there was some um effort to privatize privatized
means that we Outsource all of our uh services that was never the intention I mentioned that again last week but I want to reiterate that we do have a hybrid model now um and so again it's about optimizing not um not privatizing
so when we say hybrid uh what that means is that some services are provided by in-house staff and some services are provided by a contractor um for a hybrid model to work in a school environment uh the work of
the contractor must be managed by in-house staff when you look at when these models are most successful it's when they have adequate supervision um of the contract um by in-house staff so
um that is that's I think an important thing to um call out in-house staff you know uh are our best at uh attending to the Daily needs of staff and students um and the public as well as clean um and
maintain our buildings um it requires kind of a higher level of knowledge of our facil in our programs in order to be able to support the daily needs in our buildings um contractors are often used to perform more routine or quantifiable
tasks um or to provide expertise in an area that requires special training so whenever it's a hybrid model um it's it's really having a solid understanding of of what your in-house staff will do
for work and and what your cont contractor will be required to do so I just wanted to take a moment and and be clear about you know hybrid not being privatized and um you know the value of having your in-house staff and I think
many people have spoken to that here uh this evening so there was a there was a a group of staff that um work together to review different models um and I'd like to take a moment to thank them so we had
two principls uh Anthony Meyers our high school principal uh David Driscoll uh one of our K8 principals um Ed Clancy who is our custodial manager and he's been um here in Brooklyn his entire career our
operations director uh Joe um Albuquerque um and uh Jim Mallet um also joined the team to review various options and and put a few few ideas out there that we costed out as well um I
joined them um uh and provided some some support to Joe while while working on on other projects on behalf of the school committee so uh thank you very much for for the time and effort that was put into looking at the various models so
the goals you know when reviewing them um were were the following so no matter what model is used we need to maintain a consistent level of clean cleanliness in all buildings um that we need to provide
daily coverage from like five about 5 o'clock in the morning until 10 o'clock at night uh we need to be able to support and manage our extended day programs um in all of our schools those are our renters the folks that um uh rent our
facilities on off hours uh we also need to be able to support our own after school events um and have adequate uh support for those and then uh of course we need to supervise the activities um uh our staff and and the contractor so
whatever model we were looking at um in addition to of course trying to optimize and see if we could achieve some savings we wanted to make sure that the model uh presented would be able to achieve um uh these these important
goals so consistent level of cleaning that's you know obviously uh important and we've had some challenges um uh with this in this area uh not because of effort but we've had um and we've talked about this you know uh uh chronically
under underst staffed um in in this area Food Services another area you know we see this in in many areas um and in many fields so chronic under Staffing um between two to four open position itions for the most part over the last 6 to8
years I was told by uh Mr CL uh Clancy supervision um and so one of the the you know we have evening and cleaning that occurs after school hours and so um making sure that we have uh
you know adequate supervision of the work that's taking place not only you know during the day but also uh during the evening for events and our renters um another challenge is uh uh being clear and concise about what our
cleaning expectations are and um likewise the assignments um we need to make sure those are well documented so when you have a cleaning contractor that comes in being really clear about what areas you're expecting them to clean um
the frequency um that that the work is distributed so that uh you can ensure that you have a certain uh level of cleanliness um and you're able to meet the other demands um associated with doing this work so we are lacking a
little bit in documentation in that area and some is that you know uh the model we have today um has been in place quite some time and periodically it makes sense to um re-evaluate um we also have uh different
configuration of schools uh with building projects over the last several years so taking a good look at that is um an important piece of work that uh we need to do so other responsibilities um that our facility team um is Like
Instrumental in in performing is that um and we've heard this right they maintain a welcoming and a well-maintained building you know we need to have uh clean spaces that are in good repair so that when teachers and and students are in those spaces that uh they can focus
on learning and so um they help to create those conditions for students to thrive and um you know by attending to the day-to-day kinds of issues that that crop up um event setup and rearranging Furniture is another you know that's not
cleaning but it certainly is something that happens routinely in schools we have shipping and receiving so things need to be moved around and you know vendors come to the back door and deliver things and somebody needs to be there to check those things in and then of course uh their Liaisons with the
public and and other facility uh and operations staff so as you know we we have a hybrid hybrid model here where the school department does not um is not responsible for maintenance per se though our our staff do some first Echelon repairs but in fact the building
department takes care of those and then when it comes to you know plowing and and providing like Public Public Works uh um uh I you know work such as maintaining our parks and maintaining some of our our grounds that is not done
by our staff and so but that takes coordination then so if we're not going to be the ones that are ultimately performing those it there still needs to be coordination between that so this role of uh liaison with um our facilities departments uh in the town is
also important for for our team so after reviewing uh seven different models um the strategy that uh were um moving forward for your consideration tonight um the model would
look something like this of course there's many details we you know we'll need to to iron out but we would have um uh 13 uh PSB custodians and the building manager working from 5: until 2 um
during that time there are um operations coordinator and other support systems in place for um for whatever May crop up during the day of course operations includes Transportation um and other facility UH
responsibilities that uh are not uh done at the school level but um uh then you'd also have uh the director of operations and all of our public service department staff all of those are available during the daytime time hours um and are very
accessible um again I'm not sure who's thank you so then in the afternoon and evening um what we would be looking at is um you know coverage Again by PSB staff we'd
have 18 FTE that work um somewhere in the vicinity of you know uh one to 10 and then the cleaning contractor we'd have approximately 22 that would work between 3: and 9 what this would model would allow us to do is have an in-house
um person open our buildings every day and close our buildings every day we would have coverage for when folks are in our facilities for uh purposes other than um uh teaching and learning that that occurs during the regular daytime
hours um it would also provide um some additional Supervision in the evening hours when the custodial staff um and the cleaning staff would be in the buildings you know to make sure that the UH responsibilities are being fulfilled and if something comes up that there's
somebody uh that isn't you know responsible um and a touch point you know for anyone in the building um to be able to um make adjustments or shifts uh should the need arise so that um is in essence what the
what the concept is there's work to be done it's not fully baked but uh when we look at this and we compare it that's a very small and I apologize um but the bottom line is that uh the difference in the two models would result in about a
$350,000 um reduction in costs so that is that is um to those who are in the audience please give Dr given the courtesy of Silence while she's presenting thank you
so that is uh the work that has been done so far there certainly is more work that can be done but we believe um that we'd be able to maintain our buildings um and achieve the goals uh that I had highlighted earlier uh with this um uh
this model before you sorry so Dr G could you give us a little bit of background on the Outsourcing so we currently have 10 outsourc positions it's being proposed to have 22 instead so um what what are those positions currently and when were when did we move
to the the current model so the the current staff right now we have 10 that has vacillated over the year it you know not every year it's been the same number of FTE um but currently right now we have
10 that are uh from cleanco um they're the contractor that is uh um the town has a contract with so be piggyback on that we have yeah I'm not um I'm not clear on that perhaps Joe can I think I have Joe
online he can speak more or Ed if either okay um so this uh yeah so yeah sorry I went let me clarify it's not this the slide doesn't say that we currently have 10 that would be that would be if we
carried our well okay so it says current hybrid model FY 26 budget right um so what does that mean if it's not the we don't have a fiscal 26 budget yet and staff is recommending
22 uh Outsource positions so what is the 10 so the 10 is is the number that has been funded in next year's budget so when we look at the FY 26 budget it's presented to you um in the initial
request okay this ties to the budget proposal that is in your budget book okay that's the initial request got it yeah Caroline thank you so I guess because it's not here we
can't see fy2 I didn't I didn't come prepared to talk about f 25 no and um just to make sure I understand sick leave bonuses is that like unused sick
time that is part of the current contract so they get a bonus uh there's language in the contract that allows them to be paid uh a bonus you know based on number of sick days not used thank
you sorry I have another question can you just explain revolving facilities there's a revolving facilities fund yes so we so we charge uh rent to some of our um uh groups our
user groups and um the revenue that we take in is approximately 300,000 and so we charge off against that expenses okay so that's part of this and so sorry then why would what's
the the tiny difference between the hybrid model and the recommended model revolving facilities if that's Revenue at the time that we prepared the budget again I I felt that it would be
important to tie it to the budget document in front of you um we anticipated that we'd have just slightly less but um one of the tasks that uh that were performed over the course of the last several weeks was to look you
know closely at what anticipated the revenue numbers would be in the use of facilities fund not much more but we figured um it was worthwhile to increase it slightly given the information provided um by the operations team okay
I'm sorry one more question sure since we don't have the fy2 up do you know off the top of your head or does Joe know for the senior custodians and PSB custodians are 13 and and 35 the same as
fy2 uh the number of seniors I know is and I know under the proposal right now that we have three openings so it wouldn't be reduction in people but if Joe's online um maybe he could answer that question for
us I'm hello can you hear me yes we can Joe go ahead can you just repeat the question again one more time I apologize I can although I think somebody answered it my question is
essentially since we don't have current Staffing on this slide I just want to make sure that the FY 26 the First Column that the FTD is the same FTE is the same
as current F yes fiscal year 25 and 26 are the same and just uh and I just want to mention the Outsourcing it's actually current uh fiscal year 25 budget it's 14
Andy okay um so Mariah then Helen then Stephen thank you um did I understand correctly a moment ago that currently there are build positions for 32 of the 35
custodial spots that's correct okay um so because I'm looking at this and the savings are not a lot of money in my opinion for the amount of disruption
that this causes so um I'm just wondering sorry [Applause] well I guess my question is would there
be a savings such that if we chose not to fill those three positions even as a pause for next year is that possible um and would there be savings accured by retaining the positions we have but pausing three positions for
next year and I'm sorry Susan to put you on the spot with that math but I'm just sort of wondering um my recollection but Joe Joe has the the data but I believe it was like 175 that would be saved so we could save almost half of
this just by not filling those three positions for a year is that correct just to make sure IOD that's that's correct okay thank you you're welcome all right uh Helen then stepen so that was actually my exact same
question because I think I I agree with um Mariah that it the savings are really low and I'm just wondering if there's other ways to manage some of this that might help us to get to the the 350 that
we need I mean we need to find money in places but it seems to me that's not the best idea especially I mean we will have to pay unemployment compensation it's for a period of time but we will that'll come out of U money too that we're going to
need next year's budget so I would I would like to look at that very closely and see what what's possible there could I just ask a follow up on that exact point sorry Val to cut in line um has have those calculations been made on the
impact of the unemployment insurance as well and is that already netted out or would that reduce the savings further it would not reduce the savings that doesn't come out of our direct costs and in conversation uh with the town they're
aware that this would have an impact and that we try to do what we can to mitigate it but for this analysis is and what would impact um a reduction on our side of uh the budget this is the number that would be uh used and again you know
I just want to be clear we're not sitting here saying that anybody wants to do do anything that we're proposing you know anything that we do whether it's to custodians or anyone else is going to be disruptive the issue is not whether it's disruptive or whether we think you know
programming here is you know is not something that's valuable the issue is really that we're trying to present proposals that could generate some savings given that we have such a huge financial deficit so I just you know it
it isn't a matter of you know there's some kind of uh you know desire to do a lot of this it's just a matter of how are we going to close the gap and so this is a strategy and if it's not a strategy that feels comfortable then
that is your that's totally within your purview and if you'd like to do the three you know the idea was to maximize the savings and optimize and if that it does not feel comfortable then you know certainly that's that's the choice that
that you're here to make Steven then Val thanks Susan for this presentation so I just I want to make sure I understand something so the senior custodian custodian and benefits line
those are all part of the staffed positions right and the benefits line does not pertain to the outsourced line correct okay so what I don't understand is the actual
savings so the 53 sorry the in the recommended model there's 53 FTE as opposed to the 58 FTE so if we had hired five more FTE from the PSB
custodians it looks to me like it's about 80k for a PSP custodian including benefits roughly versus an outsourced custodian that looks like it's about 72 73k so the total difference in what
would be actually saved if we had level set FTE seems minimal even according to this chart am I am I misunderstanding something if we had level FTE it depends um yes I would agree that
on the Outsourcing side it's it's approximately 72 um and no benefits are involved for sure on the salary side it varies depending on the benefits as well as on the pay depending on whether it's senior custodians or regular custodians the
step that they're on um whether they have longevity how long they've been here Etc so it's it's not as simple as um in I guess what I'm saying is that it seems to me that from this the bulk of the savings comes from moving from 58 to 53 FTE not from savings relating to
Outsourcing versus having staffed custodians it's not not a shift in models that's getting a savings but a change in the profile that that seems to be more than the the bulk of the savings is coming from that
shift some of it is certainly coming from that shift some of the shift in the model is to be able to address some of the challenges that we have uh that I listed earlier okay I I guess it seems to me that if the bulk of the savings is
coming from a shift in moving from 58 to 53 f it's given all the other considerations it's certainly not worth making a change in the the model [Applause]
of now thank you I'd like to move that we pause on the three open positions and otherwise move on from this and keep our current model [Applause]
is there a second I'll second it thanks Ellen is there any further discussion before we move to a vote my hand is a new hand oh sorry oh okay Mariah then then Caroline um so so I I am GNA vote Yes on the
motion but before I do what I want to say is that I'm very appreciative of all of the work that the committee together um all of the different people that Susan mentioned have all been thinking about um how to make a model for um
custodial um and Building Services that really um addresses some of the issues that everyone and I mean everyone from the custodians themselves to the external users to the day you know the students and and um faculty and staff that everyone that that thinking about
through the challenges and think about ways we can um improve everybody's experience is a really really important thing and so even if we don't accept the model and and we do the motion on the table which I will vote to support I really do hope that some of the um
learnings or or creative ideas that were presented to us tonight can be translated um into the Staffing and everyone can use that the opportunity that they spent working together and brainstorming ideas to really um continue to optimize the services provided and and I appreciate that
collaboration and that that spirit that has come to this um so thank you very much for that work thanks Maria Carolyn just quickly and I'm sure I speak for everyone I just want to thank everybody who who took time after
working or before working um to be here and um express your dignity and um and remind us of of the work you do and George if you're here it was great to see mave Helen I sort of want to reiterate
what Mariah said that you know Susan had a thankless job to try and find ways to save money no matter where it is in the system and so I want to thank her for at least trying and I'm sorry that you know I don't think it's going to work but but
at least being trying to do it was important yes thank you um Susanne yeah I also want to thank Susan for the work um Susan you really listen to people I think you came in with thinking there' be a million dollars worth of savings we're now down to something that is is
uh probably not that much and it's probably not worth the um the disruption but that was a big task to come down from what we thought was a lot of savings at really understanding what that would mean and so um I certainly will vote for this I just want to make
sure we're talking about 13 senior custodians and now we're talking about 32 uh PBS PSB custodians is that right and we'll still have 10 Outsourcing so I just I just want to be clear about what still is happening and
um yeah and I just I mean I I'm sure those three are needed but at this point we we've got an agreement that we're going to make we're going to cover and we're going to make it work is my understanding okay thank you the other thing that we so actually
I want to ask about that so this agreement so I'm in the dark what's been agreed and by whom I'm just going with the motion that Mariah made my motion Andy was to pause spending on the the three open
positions and otherwise reject this model and move on from yeah I understand what the motion says but now I'm hearing from you Suzanne that there's been an agreement like or that I don't understand no it's not a formal
agreement it's just I I'm just making sure that I understand that it's 133210 and that everything I'm asking Susan I'm asking head of the of the Union just you know that um this is going to work that's all so have there
been these discussions in the like before today's presentation okay thanks do you want formal you want them to say it at the microphone um sure that sounds like a great idea if you wouldn't mind just saying that so that folks can hear [Music]
[Applause] yeah all right so what's your question um well I just heard some reference to an agreement um and I was just wondering what what was the nature of the discussions that happen with uh with askme before uh before this
presentation yeah no it wasn't it wasn't with asme it was with just a small committee that Susan put together and Joe um just trying to come up with several different models on how to try to save a million dollars a half a million $350,000 um most models I didn't think
would work I was in the minority in that group um I thought we needed to keep everything where it's at to keep the school safe we uh we wouldn't be able to do it with 53 the current model that she posed today there was no way I said that outright and a lot of people few people
agree with me silently at the meeting um but right now if we keep the 45 custodians we're currently budgeted for 48 down to 45 keep clean CO as a hybrid as they've been this this model should work and we'll keep the buildings clean and everybody
working [Applause] okay okay well thank you very much for you know being part of these discussions y Helen so just so people
are aware I think the savings that we can deduct from the 4.3 million at this point would be 182 million not I do the math wrong 82 sorry two Zer here and there um
182,000 because there's also the 7000 can can we take the vote and then go over that number yes okay sure thank you yes yes all right any further discussion before we vote can you just clarify what the motion is because I just want to make sure I understand
since I think the motion just got changed oh I don't think so Helen was trying to clarify but Val would you mind restating it again sure uh my motion is to pause filling the vacant custodial positions and otherwise um reject this
model and and continue with our current model but there was also additional savings just claimed which I presume is the increase in the revolver yes yes okay so you're claiming the 6,200 in addition to the
175 the 6,19 4 correct okay I don't understand the difference in that the difference in the um in the two in the two numbers for revolving
facilities can we do what we did last time with the with uh with food service and split this into two separate motions one to resend Val would you be amenable to splitting this into two separate motions one to resend the proposed cut and then another to um to change the
funding mechanism for this or to change how we're uh funding this going forward I don't think we need to divide it in two and we we don't have we don't have anything to resend right now because we haven't taken any action on this up to now all we're doing is as Val said um to not to not fill the three un
currently unfilled positions and no other action but but Steven's right that last time it makes more sense that we reject the proposal and then add a new one to reduce um to pause three
custodial positions which is what we did last time okay um well I'm we already have the motion on the floor I'll make a friendly amendment to my own motion which is to um take no
action on this proposal or or even to remove it as a proposal under consideration right it's turning it's turning red yes it's not and it's not going to back right correct any anyone like to second that I'll second it thanks Jesse let's vote then
Jesse yes Sarah yes Steven yes Suzanne yes Helen yes Carolyn yes Mariah yes Val yes and I vote Yes so now Val do you want to make your original motion I think Sarah has a
comment um I was going to move to pause filling the three vacant positions for FY 26 Helen would you like the second again yes all right Sarah you had did you have a comment no I'll do it later okay can
you just State again what savings that represents to the district 181,000 my math wasn't so good close I said 182 I was looking at 7,000 okay thank you Jesse yes sarra yes Steven yes
Suzanne yes Helen yes Carolyn yes Val yes Mariah yes and I vote Yes as well
[Applause] the only thing that I wanted to say it's okay to speak now right one of the things I wanted to say was
how uh we're going to take a very short pause just as uh the room clears when I say Union you say power Union Union when I say justice you say for [Music]
thank you sir see you Jessie I'll see you I app all good work it's a pleasure to meet you all right we need to uh we need to resume our meeting so if people could please lower the noise level so that we can uh we can go on with our
meeting hey have yourself a good night thank you for everything all right Sarah um no comment okay yeah
sure all right this brings us to our uh next item which was the Adaptive Learning Center at Lincoln Dr giler I think you had a something to present on that Dr schmuckler will talk us walk us
through the alc on justification go ahead okay good evening I'll be very very brief um so I think as I shared last week I began officially last Monday I had the opportunity to visit the alc on Tuesday meet with the
administrative team there and then we did a kind of a deep dive into looking at current IEP needs in the alc we looked at the incoming uh Cas students of which there two joining the the alc you've heard from people we looked at
the spread of students K7 um and identified that um the addition of the alc teacher for next year is in need uh for all of those reasons and as you can see in terms of next year there will be
11 students in the alc K to1 is five uh 2 to3 will have three students and 67 will have three students any questions okay oh Caroline yeah I I have sort of a question comment but
it might not be the right time because it's not really specific to this decision um um I had a chance to visit the alc last week which was amazing Sarah is amazing um the principal is
great so I guess I just want to throw out there picking up on something that I think Faith or Emily was talking about um one can't but wonder when we see that we have this amazing director of a
program serving in Brookline um such vulnerable students and doing such amazing work um I am curious about the idea of of being a I don't know what the right terminology is but being a tuition
destination um so not looking to get deep in the weeds but that and my sense was that that's a possibility so and actually we're looking at that both with the alc program and with our Winthrop house middle school program as we speak um so
that is definitely something in terms of the revenue side and I'll just say too to reiterate clearly like the work that appears to be happening there is phenomenal and I I think um
we should be really proud and honored to to be um to running that program and and being able to serve um these students and families it it is a phenomenal program with phenomenal staff and many of whom have been there for a very long time
which I think is why you see sort of the deep expertise in their program thanks Dr schler so Dr Galli is asking whether we need to make a motion to add this back because it was one of the original reductions I'll make that motion yeah
so um well I'm not sure we haven't acted on it right we did this was one of the ones this was one of the ninepoint whatever that Finance removed at the beginning so we have acted on it it's
yes so we do need the motion thanks Dr Gill Ellen not to split hairs here but um the 95,000 I mean if this is a the person that might be hired would be at the Master's plus one is that the right
amount can we take a few dollars out of it I mean it may be just it may not be worth it but do you understand what I'm saying yes and I don't know you also have to consider the benefit
piece I think okay best to leave it all right I'll second Mariah's motion okay I guess I think Suzanne actually spoke up first so sorry I didn't the honor all right any further comment
before we vote I'll start at the other end of the table Carolyn yes ellenor yes Suzanne yes Steven yes Sarah yes Jesse yes B yes
Mariah yes and I also endorse um looking at what we could do for bringing outo District placements in thanks and I vote Yes all right well um that was a happy vote to be able to take um all right so
next we have Brookline High School good evening uh can you hear me okay uh my name is Anthony Meyer it's my pleasure to be the head of school of Brooklyn high school and I am joined by Hal Mason assistant head of school and Robin Fabiano our director of special
education um so we appreciate the opportunity tonight to present to you our school committee to District leaders and staff and to our larger PSB community Community we do so knowing that within this awful budget scenario we must have hard conversations make
difficult decisions and Center as much as we can our common Humanity I say this acknowledging I and we have critical roles in this budget process and school system and we are all just human beings trying to do our best work in the support of young people the young people
for whom we are responsible this evening Robin Hal and I are going to talk to you about three areas of potential Cuts uh to Brookline High School 2 2.4 FTE in office of student service uh reductions
that wholly impact the high school 3.0 FTE in Cuts due to projected enrollment Decline and thirdly approximately 3.0 FTE in additional reductions this is the
$250,000 slide that you've seen most recently uh I want to say that my high school team and I appreciate the clarity we have on these F 8.4 FTE worth of reductions for FY 26 so thank you Dr gillery Dr Fortuna Dr given and Dr
schmookler we also appreciate having the time and space to make these decisions as leaders of the high school with our various High School leaders and teams we will do so in collaboration with our district leadership team we have made some of these difficult budgetary
decisions and in doing so have tried to communicate to affected staff members as you will hear shortly some of our decisions will me need to be made over the next several weeks um as we continue um working on sectioning and Staffing we are confident that we can make these
cuts and pledge to be thoughtful in doing so finally it is important to our larger BHS team and me that we work hard to tonight to avoid talking about individual staff members I'm warning myself more than anyone I tend to want to name people and I think in a context
like this I want to be super careful uh about doing that um as some staff members uh have been or might be directly impacted by these cuts and now turn it over to Robin um she'll discuss the 2.4 in office of student services
reductions um plus some additional potential reductions Robin thank you so I'm here tonight to describe how the 2.4 of the proposed OSS reductions will impact Brooklyn High School um all reductions have an impact
as all members of the OSS um staff and Department are student facing and we would not be normally proposing reductions in these areas where we're not facing you know this circumstance um I'll also say that while overall the
numbers of Brooklyn High School are um are um decreasing the overall number of nth graders on IEPs will be increasing by approxim o imely 30 students I'll also say that over the past two years we've brought back seven out of District
students and we are considering additional students this year to return back to Brookline High School and we do that without increasing our um staff in we can absorb those students um so I'll start with the
social worker so it's a one point um FTE this reduction comes via attrition leaving eight social workers so four are attached to special education therapeutic programs and four would be considered generalist social workers that serve the need of the rest of
Brooklyn high school we have 206 students and IEPs with IEP Counseling Services 63% of those students are seen by um special education staff so social workers and psychologists generalist social workers provide IEP counseling
for 36% of those students um there are approximately 20 general education students receiving counseling every week um the generalist case load of social workers are approximately 28 students for weekly counseling and additional six like as
needed um I would say that the the reduction would cause a small increase in the number of students on the generalist social worker case load in that the special education student social workers attached to specialized programs would be assigned to students
outside of their program we would likely find some crisis management being impacted as people are are more stretched and um we would anticipate at some point there being a weight list of general education students um as they
would be seen by the general social worker right now we're working in that model because we had a vacancy this spring that wasn't filled due to the hiring freeze so we are we are experiencing this now and we've been adjusting people's case loads to see how
this feels um and been able to reassign all of the students to one of those eight social workers okay so the next one is um a 1.0 social worker assigned to the bright program so for those of you who are unfamiliar with the bright program it's a nationally recognized program for
students returning from a variety of hospitalizations and long-standing absences um this program in comparable districts is staffed by one clinician and one academic support staff depending on how they do it a teacher or par
professional Brookline High School has had a contract with the Brookline Center and has staffed that program with two clinicians and one one PA professional who's in academic support um that we are proposing to um to not have the contract
but move that clinician inhouse and hire one clinician um um so that would be one clinician and one um par professional and right now we are serving um seven active students and last year at this
time um we had 21 we had this year we had we've served 21 students so far we have seven right now last year in comparison we've had 15 students and seven active at this time also so we're a comparable um number of students right now I would say the the impact the
impact would be that um the model also when we had two clinicians allows us to do some preventative work and put some students at risk students under their care and we would likely not be able to do that with one
clinician we are in that model now also we have one clinician and one academic support staff so we're already feeling what that looks like this year could you repeat that last comment I'm sorry yep so right now we have one clinician and one academic support staff right now
we've been we've been using that model this year because we haven't filled the second social worker so um just a quick way the um in front of the FTE for bright is it is it like a Tilda or something is there approximate or a minus or what is that versus the
other oh a tlda okay yes got it thank you I just had a quick question so you have one opening now and why is that I mean did you you can't fill it or you we chose not to fill it you chose not to
fill it thank you y okay so the third um the third line item is a reduction of 1.0 FTE this is part of the um overarching
Learning Center reduction that was proposed by OSS and um just a context of the high school we have um nine specialized programs in Ace so 10 programs we have a outside of that we
have 22 special education teachers and they act in three roles they're learning center teachers they provide academic Support classes they co- te in one of the four core content areas and they provide small group content um content classes for students on diploma
tracks um almost all of our teachers are dual certified in special education and the content area in which they teach which is very hard to do all of these classes are represented on the IEP as four times 55 so four times a week for 55 minutes which is the same rate and
the same amount of time as a typical course so any student would take all of their four content areas they might take them all within um provided by special education right and so when we run our sectioning we run sections of caps of eight so we have a little movement
throughout the year for students to add in drop um and we've done that already as like a mock schedule this year to see where what our sections look like and what our projections look like um an example case load because we can't take the 22 staff and divide it by the number
of students that we serve to get a a liaison list um I would say that a a mock schedule would be a teacher might have a quod of one Learning Center two co- talk classes a small group and then support in one of our specialized programs
and if you think about a cap of eight give or take they're servicing about 30 students and that looks like providing core academics progress monitoring progress reports writing IEP objectives um and goals for those students I'd love to hear a little bit
about how Staffing works from the k8s to you so do people show up with their hours that are written in their IEPs and you just respond to it as it is or what's the type of communication that happens that you give the guidance you give to the E you know those eighth
grade students that are are are having theirs Rewritten or you know how do you help yeah that's a great question so we have um we typically start in in September and October we have a spreadsheet that tracks all of the
incoming um eighth graders we meet with all of the ETFs um in all of the school teams so Jed Miller one of our special education coordinators and Laura Albert is one of our uh ETFs and they work on the ninth grade visit every single um school and look at each
student and help to translate those minutes into what a ninth grade schedule might look like this year we had um rotations of eighth grade ETF and staff from all of the buildings come to the high school to tour all of our programs and sit in classes so they had a better
understanding of what the difference was between a CO talk class and a small group class and then just a standard multi-level class class to help them make good recommendations and then we're here for consult so when they have questions we specifically look at certain students in certain cases will
attend the meeting and be able to hear from the team and help make those recommendations okay I'm sorry I need something foundational underneath this there are three lines in the proposed cuts and I'm not sure what this is part of there is a new position reduction
line that was proposed by OSS that refers to 20.9 FTE there is a a reduction of HS sections referring to 5.5 and and then there's also the reduction of sped teachers which we haven't voted on I thought we were
talking originally about the reduction of HS sections and then I thought we were talking about the sped teacher reduction and then you referenced the OSS proposal now I'm confused as to where this is coming from this 1.0 is part of
the which one. this special education teacher is part of the 8.0 Learning Center overall OSS cut so these are coming from different places this is the how the OSS
recommendations are impa in the high school that makes sense that you're looking at it through that lens I'm looking at it through really specific rows would you mind just saying which is it possible for you to say which line each of these is coming from I wouldn't
I don't have that I'm not sure she that they've been this is all line 17 Stephen this is all line 17 it's all the 12.9 except we were never discussing the two special education right we've never discussed the two PA Paras that are listed at the
end that's a new thing okay thanks Mariah and then the followup question can you also say which of these positions are currently unfilled um right now we the so the social the two social workers are unfilled the top two lines are currently
okay thank you very much well well we have one that's unfilled well and the the nurse we I haven't even said the nurse so we're talk the next the next line item is the point4 nurse and that is also um a
reduction by attrition we had a retirement um so the high school had 3.4 nurses split between the two buildings um the point 4 nurse um retired and that has not been filled and the impact of
that would be that the floating nurse would spend more time at the high school and that the uh the three other nurses would cover for each other between the two buildings can I request a clarification too oh sorry can't hear if people are
talking you have one nurse at tap the tap building one nurse at two nurses at two nurses at 115 and one nurse at tapen thank you Helen I think folks are having trouble hearing you because you're far
from your mic Mariah um could you confirm Robin my understanding but I need this confirmed is that the social worker position here was a new request for this year so it's
so empty in that it's a new position that would just no longer continue correct which no Which social worker are you talking about I'm talking about the Top Line there was a new social worker line in the budget this year for the high school
no that that was not it it was the bright social worker and that was um moving from the contract with the Brookline Center to an in-house social worker okay and the and the the decision was made not to fill that position like at
the beginning of this year this current year it is it's filled by One Brookline centered social worker I think slight correction I'd make is my understanding is that the second clinician or social worker in bright we
have had difficulty filling that position in part due to the low salary so by choice is based on the candidates we have or lack of candidates we have is just what I would clarify can I also ask a clarification though the bright social workers would not appear in our FTE so
I'm confused by the assertion that the bright social worker is the one that is empty there was a new social worker requested in your budget this year Anthony no it's in the budget book If I recall I can go there was there was a
line we talked about this the other day I I had the same question the other day Mariah and maybe it's an errant line in the budget here's what I'm guessing but I'm guessing is the key word I believe the original proposal was
one the Brookline Center has been an amazing partner with the public schools of brookln in helping us create bright they are pulling back from Bright and not wanting to contract with us any longer and not wanting to run the high
school bright program we believe that their two clinicians in theory Theory how the program started and was run for many years that as good as that is we believe a single social worker within our organizational structure makes great
uh better sense so we would go from two bright clinicians serving Brookline High School to One Brookline High School Clin clinician serving um Brookline High School in bright does that make sense doesn't look like it makes complete
sense it doesn't make sense and from my perspective because you're essentially converting a contract to an FTE but counting a reduction the contracted the contracted Service as an FTE reduction and it's not if you're talking I can't hear you
until they comes in that's saying that it's approximate okay I understand but it's not a true FTE reduction I agree so when the budget was prep uh prepared for FY
26 a social worker for bright was requested the contract that it's replacing was not included in the FY 26 budget it's in the fy2 budget so when we put the budget together and the budget before you it never had the bright
contracted service provider in it so all that came before you was one new social worker at the high school it's confusing because there was a contract for the services in the 25 school year but in the actual budget proposal in 26 there's
one new employee for the bright program which is a social worker and that's why it appears that way but so then if we take this reduction there are now zero bright social workers as opposed to one because this sorry I think Mariah go ahead sorry well I mean
I think I've said what I need to say the math is not mathing for me on this so why don't I clarify we write on the top of the slide 2.4 FTE the true 2.4 OSS cuts that impact the high school are the
first social worker retirement and not filling that position so that first item skip the bright social worker we're just sharing that there is we're not counting that FTE towards the 8.4 we owe nor are we trying to to be very clear um uh that
the special ed education teacher is also part of the 2.4 so now you have 2.0 the first item and the third item um and now the fourth item is the part-time nurse at 04 1+ 1 plus point4 is 2.4 I agree
with Stephen that it's confusing to present it this way we are trying to offer an overall picture in some of the Staffing Dynamics and impacts um to OSS reductions and Frank L we favor the bright model with a single clinician um
working within the public schools of Brooklyn it still feels a little bit like it's a A plus one though so it's really 1.4 FTE reduction because you're adding the bright social worker that position wasn't there
before the position well there were we were paying 197,000 for the bright program that item has been removed um and instead we have a worker so there is a net of savings that we're not capturing we hope that teal day or the
approximation sign um so with that contract we were paying them for the two social workers correct that's where the savings come in the savings is because we're now only going to have one it but we it's our inhouse right but we've already taken that Savings in the
budget right yeah that was in that was in the superintendent's initial budget proposal that's why um Mr Meer saying it's not part of 8.2 million that we're trying to assemble right now in Cuts so just so people understand can
you hear me am I okay um so people understand the bright program began in Brooklyn and at that time it made sense because the Brookline Center was part of it to have the uh social workers under the Brookline Center as it's grown the
bright program across the C this Massachusetts sets the model nobody else has a social worker from the Brookline Center they all have their own social workers and usually it's one like you were saying before so this makes
sense uh overall if it's okay I'm going to tr I'm going to transition um to the next slide um which is the 3.0 Cuts sorry um due to enrollment decline so I want to be super clear that when when um Dr given Hal and
I met I forget if it was late fall or early winter we understood there was an enrollment Decline and so agreed off the bat as we began to enter the budget process that we would have a 3.0 FTE reduction due to enrollment decline um
so um it makes sense given the decline in in students obviously it's of concern that um our U there's a a strong increase in um ninth graders um uh who need various special ed supports um but
um I just want to say we have made excellent progress towards the 3.0 in reductions through clear communication and close collaboration with our curriculum coordinators so shout out to our coordinators many of whom are watching from home and one who's
watching right here live Kenny coel um so we are trying to make as many of these reductions uh through attrition so as to retain staff partic particularly the new teachers we hired last spring um
our BH team BHS team believes we can absorb these reductions as we work through our sectioning process and plan Staffing for next year I am not going to list all of the Departments but did share this detailed information with my curriculum coordinators in advance of
tonight um and Dr Fortuna um joined us for that meeting just trying to be very clear about the direction we're moving uh with each department so I'm not going to lay out all of those specifics but I want to just tell you generally a couple
General examples so a 1.0 teacher retires the department needs to pick up the FP FTE for two teachers who are returning from The Innovation fund so one minus point4 yields a0 6 um the
ability to reduce 6 in that department another example would be the incoming nth grade class is going to be smaller we'll need fewer sections in certain ninth grade courses and we'll try to um see what kind of reduction we can have and how we'll get into some of the
complicating factors around Staffing and planning for how we absorb um these reductions do you have a question I thought you might have a question okay great I I have one question Anthony so
thanks are you think that all of this will be through attrition or do you think that there'll be riffs uh not not riffs um in all likelihood mostly through attrition um
and perhaps the reduction of some FTE um but that as I think of it almost all of it is attrition and right now we're somewhere around 2.5 or 2.7 and that's while holding on four departments
where we said we need to look at our sectioning numbers to see how the splits are and so we will engage in that process shortly um through April 7th beginning April 7th boy can wish um but so that is part of those will be part of
those conversations where we again engage with curriculum coordinators look at our numbers look at the courses number of courses we need the courses we need um and how to staff those um so I'm going to turn it over to Hal
to talk about some of the our enrollment formulas the sectioning process and Personnel shifts you hi everyone uh I do want to give some historical context I did this in finance I think or one of the Committees but I haven't done it with the full committee I just want to remind
everybody if you look at the high school enrollment now we are still at 108% of our pre-pandemic numbers we are still very large compared to what we had been as opposed to the rest of the district which is down about 15% if you just look at the k8s so just keep that in mind for context as we're looking at this you
know uh 8.4 FTE cut that we're facing the high school is at 108% of its pre-pandemic I could the fiveyear average of the years leading up to the 1920 school year before March uh
for the high school compared to the 8 k8s so the high school is at 108% of that and the k8s are an 85% of that of the number that they had and it's all just part of that wave the demographic wave that came through of course and
this is The Big Year this was of course as some of you will remember this was the year that we were building for this is the year that we had the high school building project for because this was the year we were going to have 2500 plus students at BHS we have
2172 I think today or 2176 today uh so the formula we we agree with uh the idea is that four Stu 40 students the 40 student decline which we are relatively confident as confident as one could be in demographics that 40
students is about the right number it's based on how many kids are in eighth grade and based on our typical increase off of that every year we do get an increase kids come back kids come back from private school kids come in from move in for the high school uh and that varies but we generally find that it's
between one and one and a half percent some and the three-year trend on that is a little bit higher but the one year to year it's about uh between one and one and a half percent uh so the formula we're comfortable with three 40 kids should equal 3 FTE the formula uh is
it's it seems like it's awfully complicated but it's really not it's really just if I'll give you a concrete way of thinking about it if I have 40 more kids and they're taking seven classes each that means I have to have 2.5 four teachers to cover all the
classes that they're going to sit in assuming that I have 20 kids in a class you'd have to have there's a whole lot of assumptions that go in and then I have to have a nurse that covers that so if a nurse is 1 to 500 then I have 40
over 500 that's how many more nurses I need so I would need 0 five more of a nurse and or I'm sorry 0 eight more of a nurse and if I have or or if I need a librarian and a librarian we say should be one librarian for every 500 students
40 more students again it's 08 08 more of a nurse so you take all of those different um areas of the school all those different uh pieces that make up the school from custodians to cafeteria workers to nurses to power professionals
you add all that up and it comes to about 14 15 that I'm confident that number is good I'm confident of that because I was told it by Peter row and I have learned in Long experience that everything Peter Ro told me works and is correct um does anybody want me to go
further down the road of formula smart so the the the the cuts to get to this as Anthony was already describing so I'll be super quick come from really two places and most of its course requests course requests are just beginning now we just opened up the
student portal yesterday in advisory so students are just now entering their course requests for next year they're looking at the recommendations that they've received from their teachers which were uh posted and they saw for the first time on Wednesday they're entering their course requests over the next two weeks April 1st will close that
course request that's really how we do sectioning at the high school it's very different from a from a K8 uh so 40 students we whatever every year is different so I'm going to give you a couple of examples on the next page not yet and you'll see that it has some speculative examples and we don't know
if these are going to be anywhere if they're going to be the same we know that this is what this is what we see this year and so when you look at these examples these are the types of changes that we would be looking at when Anthony and I are sitting with the coordinators uh but it's super
complicated just to give you a some idea it's not just the 10 departments in the high school because the World Language department is really five separate departments if I have a decline in request or an increase in requests in Japanese I don't simply move a teacher
over from Spanish to teach Japanese I only have people available to teach in that subject if anybody knows somebody who teaches Spanish French Japanese Chinese and Latin I don't care if they speak English you can send them to us that would be the most useful person
we've ever had at the high school uh it it's science is exactly the same my biology teachers generally are not teaching chemistry and certainly are not teaching physics those are three separate departments and so when a wave goes through I'm going to have a very large 11th grade next year I have
additional demand for biology teachers and I'll have reduced demand for my chemistry teachers next year and slightly reduced demand for my physics teachers that's just part of the complication and that's again what we're going to look at in course requests so someone like Kenny comes into the room he says this is what I have I have this many requests and this is how I'm
planning to fill those requests and this is how I'm planning to staff to fill those to fulfill all of those requests and sometimes we have hard conversations with the coordinators about just that about numbers and about all the different ways that these things can
break more about that in a second the more complicated part is about personnel and that's the really complicated part because that's the part where we're trying to bend what we have in order to work with the changes that we foresee or that we as we learn about them at the
high school I don't know yet how that's going to work it's different every year I just know that we will it's a very large school obviously somebody's going to move somebody's going to get a new job offer somebody's going to change careers somebody all these things happen every year we're confident that they
will and we are going to do our best to maneuver uh our cuts into those areas to have the least impact on the people that are in the school we're not just going in and saying we're cutting the the last people in we have wonderful people a lot
of this goes to what happened last year uh bet you can go the next slide now a lot of this is what happened uh from last year when we brought in uh the new teachers to accommodate to to accomplish the class siiz goals that you set for us
uh this made a huge difference for us and I will say parenthetically the budget process that we went through last year was the best one that we've had because of the timing and we're going to be severely handicapped this year because we are going to be hiring some new people there will be some leaves
that we you know some people that leave that we will need to hire and in all likelihood we're going to be waiting for a town meeting vote that's going to happen at sometime in May and so since we're going to be waiting we are unable as we this year we didn't have that this year we were able to in advance help
interview people select people offer them contracts hire them this year we're going to be provisionally hiring people we're going to be telling them well it's on hold until this vote happens later assuming that that's where eventually we wind up hopefully you everybody will
come up with a better way to do that but this is what we're this is what we're a little fearful of but when we go back to last year then the that's the end of the parenthetical remark when we go back to last year those uh numbers and the Seven FTE that you uh voted for us made a huge
difference in going into the um numbers and we'll talk about that in a minute but Anthony's first going to talk about some of the other areas so this is um the third bucket or third area of reduction um so it write um balance of cuts um so
uh my team and I are working hard to keep as many of these reductions as possible away from the classroom and while I appreciate the recent focus on avoiding student facing Cuts I'd argue that almost all um folks uh at Brookline High School and in our schools interact
with and support students nonetheless um classroom teachers obviously are very very important do the most critical work so um we have had some level of discussion on each of these items uh that are under consideration we will
need more discussion as well as concrete plans for how we will handle the various impacts um there may also be other positions we would consider uh reducing uh or cutting I am not trying to fear Monger here rather I want to be
transparent that we are committed to reducing the high school by an additional $250,000 and have more work uh to do in order to meet that goal so um the first position I would talk about is the associate Dean position and I can't say
that um without acknowledging that uh I began in administration at Brooklyn high school as an associate Dean um it's a near and dear position to my heart um they are key leaders on our student support teams they generally as I think you know have a point A administrative
assignment as a Dean um and they have point2 assignment generally teaching but in a couple of cases our associate Deans are counselors um their background is in counseling and so they carry a load that is a 20% load um of a typical counselor
um so associate Deans carry loads of 250 students and and upwards and serve a variety of roles for and with kids they support academic and socio emotional growth they monitor and intervene on attendance they supervise our large
complex campus they often focus rightly on our most vulnerable and or struggling students they investigate offer due process discipline educate and often engage students in restorative practices they Lia with families um with other
student support Personnel um and most of all I think um in terms of our teachers they support them with information insight and action um so if we reduced an associate Dean it would necessitate a change to our current administrative
structure and I don't want to go too far down this rabbit rabbit hole but we essentially in our model have two deans per grade not all associate Deans so our ninth grade team has an on aign Dean and a and an Unit A associate Dean they
oversee the ninth grade our 10th grade um has an unaligned Dean and an associate Dean and then both 11th and 12th grade are led by two associate Deans at both those grade levels um so
we would certainly need to distribute the student case load um and um we would this is obvious but these are beu protected position so we would be engaging with the Union on any move uh
like that rightly so um so another thing we need to consider is an on aign Dean so I have a senior leadership team team Robin and Hal are a part of it um key parts of it as are my three uh on align
Deans um they oversee our student support structures so very similar I won't repeat all the things that associate Deans do because they do um those things they lead uh weekly meetings with um all the student support
uh Personnel both with Deans teams um and with uh all of the Deans and program coordinators from SWS and Ace uh and in the past winr house as well um they also um supervise evaluate and assist
associate Deans and the Deans clerical staff in addition and I'm I'm grouping the three together to not identify individuals um the uh one of our Deans runs our student intervention team takes the lead on planning our um year-long
professional learning offer offerings and supports fellow Deans of all types and program coordinators in investigations related to bullying title 6 Title 9 and so much more and while I'd love to say otherwise we have many of those investigations uh and they're
incredibly timec consuming and oftentimes complex um so the impact of reducing one of these on align Deans would likely Fall on the remaining Deans um and to other members of the Le senior leadership team um their case load would
need to be distributed and we would likely alter our administrative structure as you heard this is true for the associate Dean reduction also and there is no subtext to that about how hard it will be to re redesign our associate or our administrative
structure it's just a fact of what we will need to do and and need some time to do that um and those conversations um have just uh begun um and I mentioned before they help supervise the campus and our our on align Deans also oversee
and supervise and support our security Personnel so just making sure that we're moving about the large complex campus I'm going to have Hal speak to the mcast coordinator and we're super close to being finished besides your questions thanks uh so the MC
coordinator position is one that used to be super important uh and it grew from along with the mcast and and the the um importance of the mcast uh there was a wonderful woman Lisa Gaffney who was running it when I came to the high school and she uh retired a few years
ago and Uh I that coincided with about the time when we went to almost completely computerized exams which changed the nature of that job quite a bit uh I was managing that job for a while uh and then the with the uh
um with the with the change in the status of the mcast we are confident that we don't need to have a standalone person doing that uh Kenny said that I was not working hard enough so I will continue to do work on the mcass and uh
manage that mcass yes thank you Kenny um the uh class size adjustments are are really the balance of how we're going to look at scheduling again based going back to that 7.0 you gave us when when
you did that with with us last year um we uh we tended to uh air on the side of Let's Make sure these classes don't get too big right there was a clear directive from you guys that we don't want to be we don't want to see those on
those advanced classes those AP classes over 30 we want those honors classes back at 2425 we want those standard level classes 18 to 20 and so when we're in that that se ing process we were very careful to say on and I went over this in much more detail with some of the
with members in a couple of different contexts and I'm happy to go into more detail if you want and happy not to uh but we when we were doing those complicated sectioning questions and having those things we were airing on the side of staying down and in some cases that worked fine and in some cases
we wound up with too many sections in some cases it was obvious that we made a mistake and we should have had one fewer section for example that would have hit the numbers that we wanted so this year in those conversations we won't be as generous with that and that's going to make you know it sounds like it's
nothing but a section here a section there over the side over the something as large as the high school makes a huge difference the other thing that you'll notice uh well by the way so you have the class sizes there as I mentioned and of course there are exceptions something like wood shop we're not we're never
going to put we're not never going to put more than 15 kids in a wood shop a metal shop uh and then I've got some of Kenny's classes uh uh concert choir the orchestra that could be up to 70 kids at a time uh so obviously those are exceptions to it but we all know what
those are and again if you have any questions I know a lot of you now have that full sheet that has all of the sizes if you any questions about that just shoot me an email I'll be happy to talk about that uh Betsy next slide please so yes as I said uh this is really what I just said um the other
thing that I didn't put up there is that we have begun a new method of collecting requests for second classes requested within a given discipline so a kid requesting two science classes a kid requesting two math classes it could requesting Two Social Studies classes of
which we have a lot so we're collecting the ex our Aspen system does not do a very good job it doesn't guarantee me that it's going to seat every single kid in a math class before it begins to seat kids in their second math class it's
just not a strong point of the of the way the program of the the way the scheduling uh software works and so I worked with a team and we came up with a different method of trying to assemble that separately and it will allow us to use that data to better build sections
so it'll allow us to know that I've got this pile of kids who are requesting their for example uh AP stats class as a second math class and therefore it will allow me to know which way I might want to tilt certain numbers and sections and
I'm also collecting from kids and again this is something new this year I'm collecting from them if I don't get AP stats I'd be happy to take this instead which is information that again that the there's a very Arcane way some of you have been in Aspen X2 you know it's
pretty terrible from the user interface point of view it's even more complicated for kids to use and it's even more complicated trying to navigate how you would indicate alternate choices in subjects and prioritize those we we've dispensed with doing that all together this year as an experiment and we think
it's going to I think it's going to help with class sizes it's going to make the difference in two or three classes that I have a separate the the separate buckets of kids in uh those second that request in those second classes and then I can deploy them where I see I have spaces and and make the O make better
decisions about which how I size classes Steve just a clarification question are you describing is this like a sneak peek into your methodology for how your handling class sizes as they relate to the enrollment decline or is this on top
of the enrollment decline are you talking about additional savings this would be on top of yeah this is on top of that this is what the our lesson from last year and and how we Staff last year and looking closely at those numbers and saying oh well here's places and seeing a bunch of different discret places
where we would be able to to section better using this information so how does this roll up into your estimate of what savings you can project for us because so it's all going to add up to that total of 8.4 8.4 yeah so everything
gets to that 8.4 the 2.4 of OSS cut and then even those other things that we had up on that slide again that's probably my fault for the confusion I was just trying to make a slide uh that Robin would have all of her items up on there at once but now I see that that served as to be more confusing rather less
confusing I apologize uh but yes this all goes toward the total uh of 8.4 um so then we have some ideas about how we want to we want to increase sizes in two of our important programs we have an
average currently of 20.8 students in my SWS honors classes primarily English classes a few biology classes a few Social Studies classes but straight down the line the average of those is 20.8 in the S SWS honors classes in my Ace
honors classes an average of 13.7 students per class uh with a range between six and 19 the and we also have some very small classes and there's a lot of good reasons to try to keep these swimming
for example we trained one of our Wellness Educators to be a swim teacher she's great we we we uh we have a good relationship with the pool we think it's a really important thing uh but I have very I don't have enough kids taking
that so we have held on to classes like that this year next year we're thinking we will not hold on to a class that doesn't meet the threshold swimming class might be a bad example because it's I don't want a lot of kids in a swimming class I don't want even want 15 kids in the pool with one person
watching them I'll get you in one second uh the uh there's a couple of classes in drama and Kenny and I know Kenny knows I've been working with him saying this is a type of class that I can't run if you bring me the same numbers this year so Kenny's working with his teachers and we're trying to figure out creative ways
to make uh to to get the right number into those classes Kenny and I are also working on a separate scheme to figure out that drama is also especially complicated because so much of the value of the drama program comes after school outside of the regular uh concept of FTE
and comes through all the kids the hundreds of kids how many hundred Kenny 300 I think it's more than that it's a lot of kids it's a lot of kids who are outside and it's a really valuable part of the the kids who are involved in it's a really valuable part
of the day so we're trying to figure out how we can manage that it's complicated APR again this is just an example and Donna art tanowitz and I have been talking about this and I've told her I can't run this class this way we tried to do something a little creative this year and we think if we sell it better at the beginning at the at this time of
year when kids are doing their requests we'll get sufficient requests but I can't run an AP art class that's not going to have 15 kids in it and and so that's going to be one of those tough decisions that's going to ultimately add to might add to this Sarah I'm sorry would you ever be able to offer swimming
once every three years or AP once every other year for sure yes art sorry yeah it uh that is exactly what we would look to do yeah we we we we almost never want to pull a class out of the catalog and so we would leave the class in the
catalog and again then hope that the following year uh and or then hopefully get it on to maybe an alternate year cycle because certainly swimming is something kids might take in any of three years after freshman year question Andy um could you speak a little more to
the um Ace range that you refer to so Ace has six to 19 per class you said that was your average yes well the average is 13.7 the range is 6 to 19 this and so so given the specialized way
in which Ace Works how do we know that we can change the class size without delet ious effects on the outcomes um we've been we've been talking with Amy and uh we feel
confident that we can move this to 60 students in the program from 55 students in the program 60 an increase of five students that will bring the average class size to 15 so 13.7 which is the number it's actually 13.67%
13.75 it's right about there 50 60 kids should lead very cleanly to an average of 15 students per class we think that's the right number so with no changes in Staffing no change in Staffing no continued you know the continued four
teachers full-time administrator for those 60 kids halftime guidance counselor and a full-time special educator uh embedded in the program and the guidance counselor is the existing guidance coun correct a 0. five guidance counsel embedded in the
Ace Program and we discussed with the Ace Program Coordinator a few possibilities incl including a range in the increase uh in the program and she rightly uh advocated and and disagreed with us where she felt um like we
weren't understanding um what her needs were or the program's needs given the small size need for personalization question then yeah we think there seems to be seems to be a difference still existing between Ace and the
administration team I guess is what I'm hearing I think it's that's fair to say I we we had a a discussion today that I thought we had some agreement um but I think in the spirit of continuing those conversations I would I would like to we
will will do that with Dr Byer but what we specified today was the lower end of that range um so to go from 50 55 to 60 you know one one kid per academic classroom Mariah
then thanks thank you um can I just get a little bit of clarity so um I guess I'm not quite understanding what the benefit is of
increasing the class size ratio in Ace I appreciate adding more students into the I understand why we would want to make Ace more available to other students um I guess we've heard a lot about the high needs of the population in Ace
and particularly I was struck today by one email um and from a member of the community whose child studies in the program who um feels very strongly that this program has enabled their child to remain in District and so given that
we're only talking about 3.0 FTE for these over the entire high school I guess I'm just wondering why these five students are so important with the same staff ratio and why we can't make adjustments elsewhere given you know
what you talked about about not running swimming for example or some of these other changes I guess I'm just confused why we keep coming back to Ace so it's not just ace we're also looking at s SWS and you know this is a way that we
change the need for our FTE by moving uh seven kids seven seven more kids into uh s SWS by moving five more kids into Ace that is almost the equivalent of an FTE sort of it's a little more complicated in this case but
again we're trying to make the room in the schedule so that we can make these changes elsewhere in the building but again I just those numbers are yeah we understand Mariah the the yes is a 13.7
average better than a 15 average yes but so at a 12.7 average or a nine student average we these are the types of decisions that we have to make you know when we're looking at class sizes we have honors classes at 24 25 they'd be better at
2021 so across the board this is the type of number change that we are always looking at and saying is this right is a is this program right with at 13.7 average is SWS right at 20.8 and we say No it should be a little bit higher that
number in SWS we want to see higher we're not only are we going to add more students to SWS but we're going to make it easier for some of my seniors especially to take some of those English classes within s SWS and again that's helping us you know have a better class
siiz uh ratio in those classes I appreciate that I just think in a school of 2,000 students that taking 05 of the FTE which is more or less what this five students is out of a very small program just feels like
um a very large portion of the 3.0 to take out of a very small program and there's No.5 FTE being taken out Mar you've misunderstood I must not have been clear I don't know where but my point I'm saying of the 3.0 you're saying that by adding five students to
it you're and there's 12 students per FTE that's a little bit left you said you're going to add seven to S SWS and five to Ace and that allows you to free up uh one FTE elsewhere in the high school so poor way so then I did confuse you because maybe that's a poor way to
describe it it's not anywhere near that because we're only talking about in a few classes so it would only the the the increase would be it would be harder to measure exactly what the number is but it will certainly help it will certainly help my English classes
if I move kids out of some of those Senior English classes if I can move another nine kids out of those Senior English classes it makes my uh Senior English classes easier to staff and the same across the board in Ace and where the ace kids are coming from it's going
to give me room in some of those other classes where I'd be able to put kids in and it will somewhere down the line make differences in nfty but at nowhere near a 05 um given the I want I want to make one last we have
quite a cue of people who have say Andy that I have a serious concern about this particular portion of the proposal we have Val and suzan and Carolyn's hands I saw yeah I mean I I just want to sort of second I guess
everything that Mariah said this is a population that we we heard from Faith earlier and we've heard in many many many EMS from families and students and um parents of former students this has an
extraordinarily significant impact on kids who um are at risk of dropping out who are uh who who are um struggling with Hunger who uh are are students of color and
disabilities it makes no sense to me that we would in any way Tinker with a successful program it's a lose lose lose it's a lose for the program it's a lose for the students and it if one student goes out of District it's a lose for the
budget and you know the sort of trickle down economics of sectioning with Ace makes no sense to me and and you know equal doesn't mean Equitable Val just saying thank you for your feedback and as we make these
decisions we'll certainly consider your feedback and public comment uh and the emails we receive and continue to work with Amy and her staff I think I'd emphasize where Mariah began which is we want a small number of students to have
a more students to have access to this excellent program and it often carries a weit list and Ace has done incredible things to try to keep their numbers at the max meaning they've added over the last couple of years a mid-year entry point which is something that they were
very concerned about originally and so if kids leave the program and there are spaces available um we make them available so just wanted to emphasize that so that was my first question is is
there a wait list on uh for Ace is there a wait list for students who want to get in yes they are right now in the process and I don't know all of those details but they are in the they often have had waiting lists and I want to Amy would
know better and I want to be mindful well and that's true of s SWS as well I don't know if they have a weit list but there are more students that want to get in and that's going been going on for decades yes yeah true so Amber my clarifying question is you're saying
8.4 FTE uh that you're going to cut is that what you're saying it is it can be a range of reductions and cuts but that is what the FTE the 2.4 plus two buckets of
3.0 um which have been uh represented in different ways um we knew the 3.0 for enrollment decline you saw on the slide in school committee $250,000 which were approximate you know approximating to um to 3.0
FTE so we're just talking about 3.0 no I thought we were talking a lot more I'm confused because that would be a lot more than I think what's complicated okay is that there was an original cut I think that we already took is what you're saying for OSS that
was a high school cut they are incorporating that into the 8.4 correct correct I think we're just trying to be as transparent as we can about the the types of cuts that impact the high school and also I hope projecting the
confidence that we can make these reductions so so let's just go back to that again that would help me so taking out OSS what are the cuts to the high school 3.0 6.0 6.0 and so what kind of
money are we talking about that's like 600,000 yeah um I would say more like f what's it 550 with Benefits no that's too low not if you
have administrators I'm just saying 500 first not everyone has benefits but um the cuts for 3.0 were due to the enrollment we knew that ahead of time so those never got into the budget in the first right so that is not
part of the 8.2 million so but it is a cut that was sustained the high school but it's not in the in the FY 26 budget right that was cut before it was already omitted from the superintendent's initial budget so that that is not going to be part
of right closing the Gap now I missed that the the three for the student decline is not part of the that's what we're hearing now yes that that was made that adjustment was made just like the social worker was made before we presented the budget yeah
enrollment adjustments were made before the budget was uh presented and so of the so the .4 trying to give you the the the breadth of change between 25 and 26 so that people are aware that
could you just net out for us what we might be voting for if someone were to make a motion it would be the 250 250,000 which is 2.4 or something think 3. 3.0 so of the 8.4 FTE
that we're discussing tonight um 1.0 in OSS was already omitted from the superintendent's initial budget 3.0 for enrollment decline was already omitted from the superintendent's initial budget that leaves 4 .4 which is partly unspecified right now that could that we
could think of as helping us to close the gap right and the 2.4 component is part of the package of the OSS that has been presented Anthony is just trying to say these are the pieces that impacted the high school and their thinking as they approached the
$250,000 cut that's before you tonight I'm sorry I I need to go through that again so of the 8. four that was discussed 3.3 of that is not real so we're now down to 5.4 right
then sorry by not real you mean uh it's already been it's not in the budget not in the budget to I'm now looking at I'm sorry it's all real from the school committee's point of view we're looking at that of a proposed Cuts
so the proposed cut on the table is $250,000 yes can we itemize that right now what exactly is included in a $250,000 cut so no we cannot itemize that right now that's our point we we have
confidence that we can do it we don't know exactly how it's going to work out no I I understand that and I appreciate the no no fine-tune details right now can we have broad Strokes details about what's included in the 250,000 because some things we know are
not included like the three this is not an assignment for you here because you you did your job of figuring out what's changing from school year 24 to school year 25 now we have to do our job about figuring out what's the cost difference from school year 25 to school year school year 24 to school year 25 or 25
to 26 I'm getting lost so now I need Susan I need your help in figuring out what are the cost drivers in this difference does that make sense I think Stephen I think the thing that you want to know is on one of is on one of slides it's the slide where they
talked about the8 mcass the 1.0 um Dean and 1.0 associate Dean or whatever it was that is the relevant bits and pieces that they will be pulling from for the 250 can we pull that up again so we could see what is included at the on the
250 it's the balance it's the second to the last slide I the one area I would just caution us I want to provide the clarity and transparency that we can this is perhaps not my place I'm not asking you to vote on I mean you can
vote on the $250,000 but what I can't do is tell you right now what exactly that will be I can tell you what we're considering it would have just been helpful any that when we got to this slide that we spend so much time explaining that we should have just
known in advance that it's not even part of the discussion it's like historical information and I for one was very confused about why we were going through all these pieces and what we're doing with sectioning and all that stuff if the cuts already budget can I I just
want so the the cuts to special education that were discussed in the beginning of this presentation are not part of what's proposed here those are part of the 12.9 Stephen those are part of row 17 which is the
12.9 we're looking at right now that is is there anything Rel related to the special education cuts no this is the Cuts represented in the 250 no no okay so that's all I'm trying to clarify right now that the beginning
of the presentation those proposed cuts are not included on the 250 and the 250 is fully represented on the current slide I just want to be totally clear in my mind about what might be included in this motion forgive me for my my slow pace of grasping this I'm not sure there's any motion coming up but but
being formulated I guess so what we've heard about tonight some of that sits in line 17 some of it sits in line 20 and some of it is not on our spreadsheet at all because it was never in any budget the the two Paras for example which were on that sheet which are not part of that
what you have is line 12 I Andy I have a motion to make um okay Mar I'm gonna move hand is up okay I'm gonna move 250,000 taken I'm sorry you I'm just having so much
trouble keeping track of everybody's hands because I have two ends of the table to look at and two people remote and I just apologize to anyone whose hand I'm not seeing and I know I'm missing a lot of people I'm doing my best should I keep going right okay I'm going to move
250,000 taken um strictly out of administrative positions second I don't I me yeah Mariah so it's been made and seconded so it's on the floor I'm not second no Val seconded I seconded
it I I that is not our proposal with all due respect our proposal is to make the cuts of $250,000 what I would far prefer is that if you want to vote tonight that you vote that we have $250,000 in um and you have hired
administrators to run your schools and make budget decisions and I ask that you respect that thank you Helen then Carolyn well so then I'll make a an amendment to the the motion
that we um take the three FTE that you're talking about uh which I question if it's 250,000 but if it's more you'll let us know um and do that as our our cut from the high
school at this point f f that's where they from about it doesn't matter they're going to figure out where they're going to get the three those are already in the budget that we got Helen in January that's already Yes an additional three
FTE of 250,000 I I don't understand your Amendment but can if we're voting on amendment can we vote or reject it do others understand the amendment hasn't been seconded and I don't understand it okay well out of respect
for the process I will second Helen's thank you Amendment what I'm trying to say Let Me Explain we heard a presentation there were a number of FTE in it the one piece that we need we could vote on that would be additional
to what we've already taken is the 3.0 FTE in whatever way that they feel is most appropriate hopefully through attrition and things like that that would happen at the high school at this
point the question is in my mind is much more is it 250 is it 300,000 because I think the 250 is on the low side but that's that's neither here nor there you don't understand so no I I do I I think
again forgive me if this is misunderstanding it's my understanding that this slide and the next Slide comprises the $250,000 cut not the 3.0 FTE it may they may determine that I don't know the
mcast coordinator is part of this but they will put it together in the best way that they can with that knowledge that they're trying to cut I'm gonna say 300,000 okay I'm gonna push a little well I may I may I propose
an an alternate version perhaps go for it I I would I would put a motion forward that we would consider the cuts on this slide and this slide alone as as what they're
asking I don't think we need a motion right now at all um we wouldn't know what we were voting on and I think we have several more weeks in this process at least before the thing leaves the hands of the school committee um I I would like the administration to have more time to work on this that's my
personal view I cannot stop the committee from voting on a motion if it's been made in seconded Caroline thanks I'm just gonna back up to some clarifying questions
um sorry any my glasses um that are going to just sound super boring and basic now um so you guys are talking about an expectation of a um overall decline in the high school of about 40
um so when I do the math I'm getting 78 and maybe I heard somewhere you're not seeing the high school hasn't been seeing as many coming back anymore um so just oh the math was like March
enrollment report 8th grade totaled do you want me to just wondering where the 40 comes from um so you can't just do straight line with the high school it's not going to just roll straight along into the
high school like seventh grade rolls into eth grade when eighth goes to 9th we always have increase I can give you the year-by-year increase um in 2025 the class of 2025 which would have entered during covid uh or the tail end
of covid was a 0% change that year we had straight line the following year we had one 1.2% increase the next year the current class of the current Soph um sophomores 1.6% increase from 8th grade to 9th grade this year's class 2.2%
increase from 8th grade to nth grade so I'm comfortable as Susan and I talked about this when we were going through these numbers 1.5 growth puts us at about almost exactly 40 about 44 kids okay so I think that the number is good
assuming the demographics are good and you know it I've seen I've seen this vary between you know it could vary in any direction and then um thank you so last year class sizes were
challenging this year much better for you it sounds like and then in the initial budget proposal that we got on page 80 there was already a 3.0
reduction no that's okay it's and I actually wanted to say as Hal was talking all along just always want to acknowledge the complexity I mean it's it's harder than a college right because colleges can control their enrollment
you have no control over your enrollment so such appr appreciation and I hope that someday AI will be your friend how Maybe should design an AI I mean it's
enormous task so and then this is just super random but one thing I don't know a lot about when you're talking about the bright program is that a counseling program that's not a separate program in the high school no it's a temporary good
it's um Robin described it it is um it's mainstream can be accessed by anyone it's generally people who have been hospitalized or out for a significant significant period of time for some other uh reason or in some cases we work
with some students uh who are struggling with school avoidance and they receive for a short period of time it could be a week it could be two weeks it could be a little longer than that giving them counseling support as well as um tutoring support and liasing with their
teachers so what's really helpful if kid has had some Mental Health challenges and a hospitalization they're not always ready or not often ready to waltz right into their seven classes having somebody who can liaz with the teachers to say hey what's the pith here what do we what
work does she need to do what work can we set aside um so so there's counseling there's communicating with home communicating with teachers and it is a temporary not a permanent program and it's an incredible model yeah that we're
young wom at the at the women in the at the center talked about it last year yeah no absolutely it's a fantastic concussion protocol kids in concussion protocol is also a very large part of what they do and then one more thing sorry in so and I don't know that you
have the same thing we have but we have this budget book so under School the line item called School counseling in what's prepared by Susan has um
for 25 26 23.1 FTE so what does the school counseling line comprise social workers adjustment and guidance counselors so social workers yes psychologists are a different
line so there's so there's that many so social workers okay you looking at I am yeah I'm looking at the high school page 80 Susan we can enumerate that for you
tomorrow it's not that big of a deal I'm just well um College I'm sorry 0.5 college counselor um somewhere around 12 counselors and then as Robin said um eight social workers four generalists
and four program specific ones okay we're happy to share those detail I mean that I want to make sure my count is right on at the end of the day like I trust your judgment for what for what works and and Robins I'm just trying to
contextualize when we're talking about like when you're talking about um mari's hand has been up for a very long time I'd like to call in her unless I'm done with my question thanks yeah
Maria thank you um I am I am would offer to withdraw my motion but um I just want to say um that I and I understand what you said Andy about you know you want to wait for couple weeks and and just to say that I in a couple of weeks if this
comes before us I would not plan on voting for a proposal um that looks at classroom cuts um and cuts that affect the most vulnerable students and and further I would just say that like all of the proposals we've been seeing have been quite specific and we've made quite
specific votes so I would again say that the high school is not immune from offering us um specificity which is something that we have really we have delved into the details across this entire process and and I I I think that needs to happen
here Samurai are you offering are you asking for leave to withdraw your motion yeah okay so if there's no objection from the committee then we don't have to vote on it I see no objection anyone else want to comment on
this before we move on Sarah well then to be clear are we making request the high school to come back to us with with what they're interested inut
is that implied in what is saying do you think that in about two weeks time uh you would be able to be more specific about this no no we're going to start our sectioning meetings April 7th that'll take at least that full week so at the beginning of that following week
we could have a much better idea okay there just no way to make any type of intelligent decision without having without having the the the um the talles knowing how many kids have requested each specific class and working with all
the coordinators and that's going to happen that week of the 7th and and probably until the beginning of the next week okay so um Jesse and then Suzanne um just to clarify then um the cohort size in Ace of like 55 would not be really
affected by the sectioning process right they're different things that are going on so one option is that just ace doesn't get touched when you come back with your proposal maybe that the cohort that that seems to work very successfully at around the 55 range that
would well we don't know we'd have to know whether if we brought it up to 6061 whether that would tip it to be less successful ful just because of the community so we you know so this would not really be related to the sectioning process or that I wanted to
clarify since it's by application and an enrollment drop or increase wouldn't really affect this the current cohort size or the cohort size moving forward yes we have not overseen we sometimes section with Amy looking at
numbers and looking at Staffing um but I I generally agree with you just a quick thank you some your thank you um I know that I'm not available on Thursday the 17th I have I know that I have a personal obligation but we're happy to
come back before you I mean I would leave I would leave this open 18th so officially that's kind of break we currently have no idea where the school committee will be you know in early April this is Uncharted Territory I think so yeah I wouldn't pin us down
right now to a calendar nor you um suzan I just want to go back to what I think Anthony said earlier and perhaps hell is that you don't know at this point we it's nothing like kada eight where you have classes and a teacher and and you
have your specialist and you've got that figured out you you simply don't know where the sections are going to fall in the class enrollments and so I don't know that you'll going to be able to tell us even on April 17th you know
exactly who it is that you may be with attrition and everything you may not even know that so there is something to be said I know we're not going to do it tonight but there's something to be said for just voting that yes you know we you will you will cut 250 to
300,000 and we trust that you will do that well and and will serve the students well so I'm just I'm just saying I understand that this is really going to be difficult I think to come up with particular position by April
17th stepen um so the original proposed cut that we saw was a half a million dollars and and now we're hearing it's 8.4 FTE and then $250,000 I'm not advocating for any
particular number I'm just wondering what targets were given Dr gillery and how are they determined because I it's not clear to me I I I certainly wouldn't give a recommendation for what you should look
to achieve I just want to know what recommendations were given so initially the high school um was tasked with reducing a half million dollars and taking into consideration
and this is what the high school team is showing the totality of their reductions or their impact for next year is the is the equivalent of 8.4 FTE that was the reason they threaded all of these pieces
together um the task that you all were hoping to discuss tonight was the $250,000 so when we looked at the fact that they were impacted by the 3.0 FTE from their enrollment dip um as well as
the OSS reductions that were proposed centrally by the previous Deputy but those positions were realized at the high school we then said to then put 500,000 on top of that would be um too
much so we reduce that 500,000 to $250,000 for those reasons that makes a lot of sense to me I I guess I just want to make my own comment here that if uh if the 20 $50,000 Target pushes you into
trying to increase the size of a and SWS classrooms I would want to Advocate against trying to meet that number because I I agree with uh with Mariah and with Val that um those programs are valuable not on a teacher at a student
ratio basis but because they well serve the populations that they they currently serve so rather than trying to meet a $250,000 Target Target it's my preference that you um you leave the programs untouched and not meet that
Target I I'm only speaking for myself obviously but that's my preference thank you oh yes Val's hand is up thank you um can we just go back to the administration positions approximately
what savings are those 2.8 FTE Administration yeah what what is the savings on that 2.8 FTE if you combined um we haven't figured that exact number out
um we're in communication with Dr given an associate Dean you know a un a salary they tend to be veteran um so somewhere around I mean I am being intentionally
General here somewhere around $100,000 any stien for um a small stipend with some additional days of employment that add another six or so thousand uh an unaligned administrator
probably has a salary ranging um between say 130 and um 50,000 or an on aign Dean um so those are those two numbers and mcast
coordinator I didn't hear what Hal said but sorry about that my bad math is that we could probably make the entire High School reduction with two out of the three is that about right no probably not and we probably couldn't run a high school if we just
took the the acts in that way we we that's we're presenting to you the the total of the things that we are considering to give you the confidence that we can make the cut of between 250 and Helen's math of
300,000 how we're going to do that we're not prepared to say and you know just look at that one bullet is not an efficient way for us to do this Jesse just a question maybe I missed it at some point at somewhere in
our original set of questions that we um put in maybe was it five weeks ago or something like that was a um detailed or chart of BHS did we get that in one of the FAQ sections I don't think it was in answer booklet one or answer booklet two I think it you all presented your Arc
chart at the finance subcommittee right yeah the joint right finance subcommittee that you all docket it is a joint um meeting so I'm honestly losing track of March but I want to say it was early March
um yes we we shared an organizational outline that had different Deans associate Deans uh departments number of FTE and departments happy to reshare that
uh there were a few errors in that that we heard from our coordinators and so we'd like to tighten that up before we reshare that it would be great to get it after you re after after it's retightened that would be great thank you how thinks he rehar it we're happy
to re reshare it Al did send it by email um and I thought Betsy was on that email and posted it on the committee materials but maybe I'm misremembering uh ER and then I think we might wrap this up can you speak to anything about timeline for us is there
I think we're assuming that it's better for everybody if we wait on this is there any reason why it would be better tonight to make this decision to allow you to decide for yourselves where the 250,000 came because you could be you could have staff that were more secure
in their jobs and you could um know what you're posting for next year or because it takes a while to figure it out anyway is there no advantage to deing this short of coming back here for another meeting there is not much of an advantage spending
time all right so I think we might have to leave it here for tonight I mean we're all hearing I think the very deep discomfort on the committee with the idea that you know in order to get to 250 we might have to raise class sizes in Ace that's pretty
unmistakable I think there were two or three people who raised that concern not the committee I said it on the committee I'm not saying I'm not speaking for the committee but we we all heard that and we all understand it all right thank you very much thank
you have a good evening I mean this was this was certainly clarifying if nothing else like we're we're now I think on the same page about you know yeah I'm sorry about the confusion with the budget book and and this um okay thank you yeah thanks all right so our remaining items for
tonight were um it and computers Transportation excluding special education and the building department uh if we're you know once we get to around 10 I'd be open to um ending the meeting uh regardless of where we are but um Dr Galler are we ready to move on to computers and it right now we are and
this should be hopefully pretty straightforward so what you see um in in front of you that is an IT test and I'll make it bigger a little bit after I um give the language here so I consulted with fun the Chief Information officer
for the town um regarding our computer leases because there was quite a bit of discussion or um concern about that what was presented in the budget book and so my question to Fang was what can actually be shifted or impacted for next
year there was quite a bit of discussion about um or questions around the K2 Chromebooks and could we impact those or shift away from those so you see three categories of computers or computer type
the green uh grouping are the teacher computers the tan colored are the student computers in leases and then the blue are the um administrative staff uh
computers so to make a long story short here the and the question was asked also asked about are there lease obligations that we could not take on for next year and
so Fun's General answer to that is no because there we are in different periods of those payments and we have the equipment and so we would essentially be defaulting on agreements that we have if we chose not to to pay
um those so in the teacher category there are two uh groups are or two line items that can be pushed out one year and those two yellow items add up or total to
$4,997 61 she says those are the only two that can be pushed out to FY 27 and um and the line that I'm circling here for the Chromebooks this is a new
lease uh that's starting that took a reduction this year there these part of this these units will start being delivered around April break the rest will be delivered during the summer to get ready for um next school year and that difference is
28,2 691 so in total from our computer leases what we have available to us uh for savings for next year would be $1 183,184
192 is what we could save so um the big lease here that you see this uh FY 26 is the I believe the fourth year of that lease payment and so an FY 27 would be the next opportunity to look at
restructuring that lease to reduce uh those numbers down so the available funds that um Our IT department our Chief Information officer has reviewed looked at our leases and said what we
have available to us um is 183,184 now what this does what you note here for example this $28,000 again that's the Delta between some student Chromebooks a lease that's ending a new lease that started or
signed on as started um that Delta what tends to happen is if there are um items that break or projectors that need replacing sometimes
those differences are used uh to cover those types of things but we would essentially be removing any and all slack from our it um department for issues that may
come up so that's the the caveat there so 100 8 3,183 is available to us um as a savings from it computers and I will pause this and make it bigger so folks can actually see it
for questions is our Helen and Carolyn oh you're you weren't okay so Caroline go ahead thanks Dr Giller um so part of the conversation that I've heard um about this in addition to just
the financial question of whether there's any savings to be realized is connected as I've sometimes heard to a sort of like ideological or programmatic question about do we want our kindergarteners
through third graders having Chromebooks in the classroom I don't know operationally you know what that looks like what the desire is on the part of teachers right now um um but I'm wondering when when you talk about that
slack which I recognize um having been the occasional parent of a a 12-year-old boy who knocked off chrome Chromebooks over and
whatnot if there if there was some openness and I don't even know how that conversation happens to having fewer Chromebooks in class rooms younger classrooms would that help with that sort of
like availability of devices definitely I think be retooled and um it's the notion of the the K classrooms or the K through2 classrooms that may use them as centers and those types of things so but
if the decision is to scale them back and pull them back I I think you know some staff are going to say they they have they feel they have a need for them or purpose need um certainly our second grade uh teachers talk about a need
there as well um especially as they start prepping them to learn how to type in those types of things as well as as maneuver but there could be some opportunity in terms of restructuring what we currently have to make it available um without wanting to um stray
too far from the fiscal question at hand Jody could could I put you on the spot a little bit just to talk about where Chromebooks are in our in our classrooms would that be appropriate to help us understand this
thanks so as Dr gillery was saying in our younger classrooms they're primarily used as centers um students would have the opportunity to work on programs such as Lexia um during a center we do need them for third grade um because the
mcast test is online and so that is another important reason to have them in second grade to get students used to the functionality of using the com the Chromebook in order to be able to take the third grade mcast test um but in K
to one we could um definitely work with our staff to find out how they're using them to further educational goals I think one thing we all agree on and that I've heard heard from teachers is they don't just want to use technology for
the sake of Technology they want to use it to further learning all right uh is there anything oh Mariah okay sorry I didn't see you go ahead um I I have a fundamental problem with the idea of meeting second graders to use
computers so they can be ready for mcast in third grade but putting that aside I'm going to make the motion for $1 183,184 for savings I'll second it thank you Helen so just to be clear this this
discussion has been entirely about Hardware okay so uh we we software come up separately because I had thought that this would be part of today's okay oh Jody's coming up to address
this here I am again um we were preparing ing to talk about software tonight and Scott Moore and I have been having discussions that have changed the tenure of that so we're not prepared to do that tonight we'll be able um to be
more prepared to do that next week okay and U many thanks to Scott for writing the the memo uh that that is giving us all some background on this thanks so we have a motion on the floor Stephen you have a comment can um sorry
I didn't realize that was all Hardware I thought I'm I thought you were saying Dr Giller that part of that was support for the hardware on the slide but I'm sorry so so this slide is just the least the leasing
costs which represents a potential of 28k and then where's the rest of the hardware potential savings I'm sorry so the yellow lines are um that we could push out another year so
you have 103,000 here you have 525,000 here and then you have the 28,000 here sorry so that's the 183 183 thank you Sarah
so pushing out costs doesn't really solve problems right because then we have to address them in the following year so I would think that this is part of the discussion right is um what we can push out in costs and then the other part of the discussion
is based on the leases is there s it's hard to hear you because you're not talking into the mic thank you based on the leases is their point at which we can decide to not have as many students have their hands on computers and I do think that we need to push that because
just pushing costs to a different year doesn't get us to what we need to be doing here yes so the the largest student lease is here in the middle the 319,000 that lease will be uh up for FY
27 so this is the opportunity to effectuate the largest change to our computer purchases um when this lease expires I stepped out so I think I might have missed that so that that's great so when we push out these costs then we could
make a different choice to offset those costs in the following year okay all right are we ready to vote on this one so Jesse yes Sarah yes Steven yes Suzanne yes Helen
yes Carolyn yes Val yes Mariah yes and I vote Yes all right uh our two remaining items were transportation and the building department it's now 9:30 um Helen do you want to do building department first I'm
happy to if if that's the committee's pleasure um who um can I ask who would be um talking about Transportation yeah if you want to go first no okay okay um so I've been in
discussions with um Mr Simmons and the building department and what I feel comfortable with today proposing to the committee is the increase on the uh 3 six million that was uh giving to the
building department to maintain and repair our buildings um So within that the increase was $162,450 and I would like to propose that we not do the increase for this next year just for context we have been
going up almost every year in terms of increases for the building department um and this was I think a 4.5% increase if I remember correctly um and I think we just we just don't have
it to give this year so we have a little bit less painting we'll have a little bit less painting this year and more the following year hopefully um but I think that this is a reasonable piece the other piece that when I talked to you
earlier about I talked to you about a possible $400,000 cut and that we're still discussing because Mr Simmons rightfully so wants to look at the Savings in electricity over this
time that's what I was was gas and electricity actually to look at both of those and we'll have a better idea in April uh of what those are um so I'm at this point I'd like to hold off on that
um uh to give him time to get those numbers tou us to do it appropriately but I would like us to at least vote the 100 so that we start more movement towards getting our um our gap down can you cling our Gap can you just
review the where the 6.3 million down to what not 6 that's what I heard you say 3.6 million is what we transfer to the building department okay um this is in this year I think last year was 3 .4
million approximately don't quote me on it but it was around that amount um we had some substantial increases over the years because they weren't able to accomplish the things that we needed to have happen in the repair and maintenance budget
this money is above the line okay it's before the Town School partnership they take it from our piece of the partnership um so rather than it going into that bucket it would come then down
below the line into our bucket the 162,000 is that you're looking at me sort of no don't get it maybe uh yeah I'm not getting it right away so it's above the line but uh under this it will come below the line well it's similar to
if you think about benefits you know we pay for they take the benefits out of our part of the the above the line costs I thought the point of the being above the line with that it wasn't really our part or or the town's part
it's just one thing above the line and well the line a little more maybe you can explain it better than I I don't want to uh oh my good I think it's kind of like there's two above the lines so the above the line that we talk about typically is
there's the gross revenue and then there's a few items that are netted out before the allocation comes into play the the because the building department um uh is representing the maintenance
costs for us they get kind of lopped off of our allocation afterwards and so by making this reduction because it's not above the big line um it would come directly into uh our
coffers and just to be clear I mean some school systems the build maintenance is done within the school department correct some places like here we used to do that and there was some problems with that and so we many years
ago probably 20 years ago or more decided that we would take money from our budget we used to vote that amount from our budget into that budget that's changed over the years where it's figured out ahead of time and then sort
of given to us so the school allocation goes against the school side the town allocation for buildings goes to the town side and we're about 75% of the building so by yeah so by reducing the amount on the school side budget of the
public building department it comes to us if they had reduced it on the town side then it would go directly to the town side of the uh if you want to hold off on this we're having a capital subcommittee meeting we can do the whole explanation if that makes it easier
any what what matters for us at this moment is that U you're proposing to level fund uh this this item and that relative to the initial budget that the superintendent presented is a savings of
how much 16299 okay thanks uh Carolyn so Helen if I'm understanding you correctly you're saying that we would just be taking our own money $162,000
less into our budget more more it reduce I'm sorry it reduces our Gap yeah more comes into our budget to in order to it's a revenue that understood thank you yes I was I meant
four buildings and do you have a sense is this going to be just like you said like less painting carpet weights be window wash there weren't very specific things and it would just be r&m we're not
talking about jobs no yeah no no just talking about any positions we're not talking about um you know the there are certain things that are in the CIP that are in Charlie's budget it's it's a complicated piece the building part um
you know it but this is just the increase that he's assuming there might be with some okay and you are comfortable with this I am very comfortable with this and and more importantly Charlie was able to come to be comfortable okay was he happy no I
won't say he was really happy but he was comfortable with this piece is there any recent precedent for sort of level funding this item actually no we've gone up we've always G every year yeah um and so that's the other reason that I feel
so much comfortable um you know it's it's a small part of the total budget and I think that it can be managed just like we're trying to manage our budget okay let's see Jesse and then Suzanne yeah uh just a clarification
maybe then Helen um to Sarah's Point earlier um are we just kicking something down the road here in other words this is maintenance that we think we need to have done and we're saying no we'll give it another year so our buildings get a year older and I was going to say paint
but whatever it was that had to get done is now further aged uh labor prices materials prices may go up and as a result the money we're saving right now becomes 12 and 15% yeah more expensive next year and then we've got to find
that money again not I don't think that's the case because we have inhouse painters Charlie has that that we pay for 75% of their budget so it would be the paint suppli you know possibly um I don't think that's where he would cut um there's I'm
trying there's in-house electricians there's in-house plumbers so and we're not cutting any of that this is an assumption that that there's a need for more and I mean I think that it's fair to level fund it I
don't 162,000 out of 3.6 million is not a lot of money no uh they didn't spend their entire allocation last year right I was yeah and there's I I was just going to ask what the Delta was so okay and do you
know about how much or I think it was like 2% something 2% yeah yeah they spent 98 and I think the year before was it tends to be like 98 one was 94 May yeah that's
the other piece you know you never know what what can happen and there's you know sometimes circumstances Beyond anyone's control and there's millions of dollars worth of deferred maintenance on our buildings unfortunately but I would I
mean this we've got to tighten our belts so it's a it's a tight beling year belt tightening suzan yeah I mean I actually I was going to ask if they spent it all last year and they did not
and so I don't know I don't think 162 is that much out of a $3.6 million budget I and we are desperate for money so I would push much harder for something like your original idea of 400,000 well and that's what we're going to work on I don't I don't I me I don't want to make
Charlie mad at me I feel yeah I mean we have to pay our bills we have to pay our gas bill we have to pay our electricity bills we can't you know not pay them and we don't want to go to the advisory committee for any and is that in this is that in that 3.6
million no it's a separate bucket okay well I just you know there's a lot of bad choices we have to make and this might be a place where I would suggest taking more money Sorry Charlie I know he's not going to like that I I definitely will work on it you know that
if there's any possibility that's certainly my goal well then we better not vote now right why but can't we vote now and then vote again later oh yeah back okay this is not this is for now for now for now I
recommend I would like to make a motion to um uh reduce the cost of hold on where is it 162 4.99 of the allocation to the building
department that's the increased cost above um level funding okay but be it understood that uh this may not be the last last time we revisit this itct okay any second to that I second it thanks
Stephen let Carolyn do it I got beat your hand she can Jesse I was just going to say that we need to be proactive to make sure it comes around again onto our docket so that we don't yeah consider it finished all right any further comment
before we vote I'll start with our remote members this time Mariah uh yes Val yes Carolyn yes Helen yes Suzanne yes Steven yes Sarah yes Jesse
yes and I vote Yes as well all right this brings us to our last item of the night which was Transportation excluding special education Dr given okay so the original um proposal was to consider um reducing costs um by
300,000 and potentially either um cutting the high school transportation or raising uh fees again um the feedback we received was that uh from from the committee was that you know your override campaign promised
that we would eliminate fees for the South Brook Line bus for the high school um and so uh it's my understanding that you wanted to leave the BHS transportation and not charge fees so
so uh the the revised um proposal before you tonight for your consideration is that we reduce regular education K8 uh buses from 4 until to two uh for an estimated Savings of about
$200,000 it would have no impact on Pierce and obviously it would maintain the Brookline High buses what we would be doing in essence um through this proposal is Right sizing The Roots based on school committee policy requirements
so your policy states that we would transport uh students um um in in grades K through six who live greater than a mile and a half from their assigned school that's more generous than the state law which is two miles um but so
we're going by your policy and then your policy also states that we would transport um students who are eligible on the free and reduced lunch program regardless of distance including those students who um are part of the mckenny
vento population who reside within Brook line and um we would transport native language support students um who live 2 miles from their assigned school so that is what your policy says so our
recommendation would be to um write size Our Roots and by doing so we'd be able to reduce from four until two so that's in essence what what the uh proposal is Dr gillery can you move to the next slide Okay so
potential impacts um that we would no longer provide transportation to the optional Riders so in the policy talks about optional if we have capacity and so really we would be um we' we'd no longer be um providing students that live less than a mile and a half from
their Science school um and there's not um a ton of those um and then we would not be providing services for the PM Recreation program and the PM Recreation program Rec departments for our rec Department um is aware of that so that's
really um the potential impacts that whatever the shuttles are that the rec program would have to you know think differently about how their programs are working in that way and provide shuttles themselves or
um or modify their program in some way so if I can it the rec department program is there after school program yes okay so and so it makes sense that they would provide and they didn't before that's my understanding I
don't know how long we've been doing it but I know we're doing it now you mean there's a program at Elliot at Elliot not Elliot at the other one at Su there's an after school program I think at Su maybe it's OT Joe's on on the call so
um he can answer where they're um transporting them the location specific spefically Joe that they're transporting students toids I I don't have to look at the uh the bus bus stops but I I thought it was Elliott I I can definitely confirm that
may be Elliot may be Elliott I may be wrong and um I'll double I'll double check and I'll get back to the group tomorrow can somebody put a number on on that the the shuttle service
specifically I think it was 20 is it 23 Joe or 28 but um students living oh the rec uh 28 students sorry I mean the a cost specifically what what has PSB been
spending on that shuttle service we we do that because we have four buses that are running to go down to two we wouldn't be able to accomodate that and the required Transportation component and can you please go back to the other
slide so this is I know this is always confusing so we contract buses and then they get allocated hither and tither bus routes are developed based on
the ridership okay and so you're saying you by going down to two you would cut that wreck by right sizing these roots between all of these those
changes you feel confident or Joe does or whoever's doing the roots who does the roots now the operations team so Joe's team does that okay so you feel comfortable you could eliminate two
buses and are the are all of the Pierce this is from this is Pier students going up to Fisher Hill Newbury Fisher Hill correct and going from fiser Hill to OS
for sports isn't there a van in there or that was a that was going to be a maybe that was we had um put some cushion in in case the ridership was greater than the bus bus capacity so we
could add that but we have not exceeded the capacity of the existing buses so we haven't needed any additional uh vans so it's two runs there and two runs back
actually I think it's three right Jo it's three there's an early and then two lates in the morning and then two two on time and then a late bus uh from fish home okay and then sorry because Helen's mic isn't on and mine is so I'll keep
going so this is on the slide but Helen is saying that the cost of those four runs is part of the Pierce building project it's not part of P
SBS that's correct that's correct that's correct so you're just having on here to say it's not going to be impacted exactly wanted people to be clear okay that you know figured if we didn't say then people would be asking you know what's happening to the pi so okay
perfect just trying to be clear nothing's happening to pierce nothing's happening with the high school runs really what it amounts to now is that we would be right sizing um based on your policy for required transportation Sarah and then
Mariah so for those of you who are on policy um I don't think it represents enough savings to talk about right now but I'd just like you to mark for discussion later that that native language support students that might be something that we should address at some point in policy and my reasoning for
that is that I have such a strong value at students being in their um local school so they you know play basketball and the basketball courts after school with their friends um and I'm not sure that our native language support students are really being transported to
classrooms where the teacher speaks the language anymore um that you know their home language so I just thought that maybe we could Mark that as something to discuss at a later date for policy for the buses um yes for the way that our school committee policy
is written right now that includes um the that we would put this into our our transportation um I would just like to ask that question at a later date uh the question being that do we need to still provide transportation
for native language support students because I'm not sure that our students are being transported to schools where they have classroom teachers that speak that language so I think that you know so like rle is our Spanish-speaking um
you know school right and and it it's great to bring students together with other students who have the same home language I love that part of it but we might have a policy here that's a little bit outdated because I'm not sure that they're being placed into classrooms
where the teacher speaks that language got it so they're in a cohort of kids with the same native language but disc not the teacher got it thanks Jesse you had your hand up yes sorry um I forgot that Mariah was Mar go thank you um I'm a little
confused so what happens to students who are native language support students who live 1.51 miles away from their assigned school I don't understand how the third bullet and the first bullet there work in tandem that's something that
Jo okay I I was just going to say that's something that our enrollment team noticed as well and it's something definitely to reconsider and amending so it obviously it applies to the you the
right sizing perspective 1.5 miles from a SED School rather than two miles right now right now the the information in Aspen in it it indicates it's only um if I bear with me I just
looking at the data entitled by school committee policy of two miles of uh we actually uh required uh for student population just four students right now I see um I would also make the
motion to accept the $200,000 in reductions we have a second okay uh Suzanne spoke first uh Jesse you had your hand up it's not my night yes I had a question on the other slide about optional Riders
maybe it's just a clarification uh can we switch to the other one I don't know who's running the slide so yeah what is um optional Riders mean do we have buses that have no capacity so we can't take an additional student
on it or is this kids who um live less than the one and a half miles but there's a bus stop that takes them somewhere anywhere what is is that there's a few things that are listed as optional so let's say we had capacity uh parents could then say is there space on
the bus and we can run it but as we consolidate and we are transporting more students on fewer buses then the ability to offer um opportunities for optional Riders um diminishes significantly so
that's an example so would be anything like in your policy at list what what's optional yes yeah okay like if we have space we can do this well I mean given that given that um Direction you're explaining this dropping the number of buses by 50%
either means that most of our buses to be full at half are only half full now correct and is that the case yes oh okay so that's important information to know that we're running buses that are maybe half full or less all the time so this is really something we shouldn't be
looking at for FY 26 the question would be why are we still running 40% loaded buses today and why aren't we changing it for Monday you know I mean we're the money's draining out because you have optional Riders now and you're doing you
already in the middle of you know a year with transporting the PM Recreation program and it would be incredibly disruptive understand right now to to make the shift but informing parents and you know working with the rec department and all that gives people lead time um
as we consolidate I I'm talking about like oh why wasn't it done before this year yeah like a year ago when when the when I was wasn't on the committee you know so the the Russ bus ridership must be a um a a metric that's watched by
somebody some group within the school department as the year progresses you know so there points how are we doing and all that what's our writers ship look like so why wouldn't we have known about this significantly earlier I think part of the reason why we don't have
that information tonight is because the the the person that was coordinating our transportation left oh okay and yes yes so we don't have access to the tacit organizational knowledge there okay um we also didn't have a director of operations last year no we didn't so he
had me and Ed we did our best we did our best all right I think we might be ready to vote now so Jesse yes Sarah yes stevenh yes Suzanne yes Helen yes
Carolyn yes B yes Mariah yes and I vote Yes all right that concludes that giant agenda item just a question is has Mari have you been keeping track of what the total have been yes I have I knew you
would been over here yeah so I need to like double check my formulas but let me say that um uh hold on let me add in what we just did sorry it should be 4 it's a critical yeah 4382 that we have um cut so far which
would leave us with a gap of 3.67 five thank you sure but again like let me let me double check all the formulas tomorrow and such Andy we have one more thing on the agenda right yes we do so well two more and so sub committee and leaz on reports
would anyone have a problem if we don't do those tonight all right and then new business any new business are we going to discuss the letter from BCF I thought that that was on the agenda for um tonight I don't know about any agenda
but if you wanted to mention it uh it would be now I think Jody was gonna speak to itely um would you like to Jody okay it's just more in the nature of an update so very exciting update sorry this is
new business this is new business a coalition of groups in town being coordinated by the Brookline Community Foundation has come together and is working to raise funds to fund the
position of assistant director of The Office of educational Equity the equity leads and the um supplies for the office so um they've so far we just got an
email have raised another 20,000 so they've raised $85,000 towards their total of $25 um ,000 approximately 205 $5,000 um I just wanted the community to
be aware that this was um ongoing work that members of our community are taking on because of something that they value so any school committee action on this would be I suppose it would be a grant acceptance eventually if it if it
came through my understanding is that um this is going head in the expectation that we would eventually take over funding the positions through the Medco Grant yes and the reason this is an allowable expense on the metco grant is
because the metco grant um is for funding anything that has to do with equity and our Meco students so this of course would be an equity measure um given the professional development and work that christe is doing um with her
her her teams at the schools any questions on this I don't think we can have a substantive discussion on it right now but uh this is just so that the community is aware of these efforts okay thank you very much Jody
and so that leads us to adjournment we're adjourned thank you all recording stopped