Good evening everyone and welcome to the joint meeting of the Chadlin Select Board and the Harvard Select Board June 25th, 2026. Let the record show we started promptly at 6 p.m. I'll read what I need to read. Pursuant to Governor Healey's March 28th, 2025 signing of chapter 2 of the acts of
2025, extending certain COVID 19 measures adopted during the state of emergency suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law general law chapter 38 section 20 until June 30th, 2027. This joint meeting of the Cadam Select Board and the Howard Select Board is being conducted in person and via
remote participation. Every effort will be made to ensure that the public can access the proceedings as provided for in that order. A reminder that persons who would like to listen to this meeting while in progress may do so by calling the phone number 158-9454410
conference ID 38689544 pound or join the meeting online via Microsoft Teams through the link in the posted agenda. While this is a live broadcast and simoccast on Chadam TV, that's Xfinity channel 1072. Despite our best efforts, we may not be able to
provide real time access. We will post a record of this meeting on the town's website as soon as is possible. So, welcome everyone. Our first order of business is to call the meeting to order by each individual party to this meeting. So, I'm going to ask I'm going to poll the Cadam folks for select board
uh as to their presence to to establish a quorum. Uh Mr. Smith >> present. >> Ms. Potass >> present. >> Mr. Meadows >> present. >> And we have Mr. Dean Castro who is online. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to apologize to our Haritch colleagues. I'm
home recuperating from a recent illness but present. >> Okay. Thank you. And that establishes a quorum. Now we turn to Mr. Picowski, the chairman of the Harvard Select Board to please establish a quorum. >> Thank you, Mr. Dykins. Uh I'll call the meeting of the Harvard Select Board from June 25, 2026 to order. And although we
do it somewhat different, I will give the opportunity for folks to declare their presence. Mr. Hannah, >> Jeffrey Handler, present. >> Anita Ducet, present. >> Don Howell, present. >> Mark Keller, present. >> And Pete Picausski, present. >> Thank you. And I will also turn to Brad
Shiff to establish a quorum for his Monoy Regional School Committee. Mr. Schiff, chair. >> Thank Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to call to order for June 25th the meeting of the Monoy Regional School Committee. Uh, and we would like to have a roll call to ensure we have a quorum. So, if you could just uh state your name, say
present. >> Steven Deval, present. >> Richard Roy, present. Brett Bordon, present. >> Katie Carter, present. Luca Quinn, present. Heather Morgan, present. >> Ryan Edwards, present. >> And Brad Schiff, present.
>> Yeah, thank you so much, uh, Brad. So, uh, kind of an unprecedented meeting this evening, and I'm I'm going to have, uh, um, some preliminary remarks, and just bear with me for just a second. And then we have a fairly robust agenda uh up front. I'm going to try to uh make sure we adjourn by about 7:30. I really
think it's important not to drag this into three or four hours, but I think an hour and a half we should be able to get through the presentations this evening and some good question and answers answering. We did have a question as to whether or not there's going to be public comment. There is going to be public comment. I'm going to allow that to happen after we kind of wrap up uh
with our presentations and our and our comments, but there will be uh opportunity for the public to comment both here in the room and online. Okay. So, just bear with me for a second. I just want to say good evening everyone and I just want to take a couple of minutes to share some preliminary
remarks that will hopefully provide some background for and context to this meeting. The Monoy district is built upon a foundation of support from the towns of Haritch, Chadam, and our Monoy Regional School Committee. All three parties are present this evening, which is really most appropriate. Haritch has
made it clear that it's dissatisfied with the financial formula crafted in the original regional agreement, and the Howard Select Board requested this joint meeting some time ago. They believe the rate of increase in the district's budget has become unsustainable, and there may be some agreement there as well. I want folks to know that this is
totally appropriate as we do revisit the agreement every 5 years. It is stated in the agreement. The Monmary Regional School Committee has also requested a formal review. So with the operation of the region starting in 2012, the first review took place in 2017 where change
changes dealt primarily with tweaking some language. Five years later in 2022, the agreement was changed when Chadam agreed with the argument that Haritch was subsidizing Chadam's higher elementary school costs per pupil. Haritch and Chadam then assumed 100% of the costs of running their respective
elementary schools. One might argue that we are indeed premature here in 2026, but not if we anticipate any possible impact on town meeting warrants in 2027 or even beyond in fiscal year 2028. We have all come here to listen and to
be heard. We are not going to renegotiate the regional agreement at this meeting. However, we can highlight those issues and concerns which are at the most pressing for each of the three parties involved and perhaps agree on a process to address them going forward. We now have 14 years of experience as a
regional district. Given the recent change in Monway's administrative leadership, it is timely and appropriate that we review our challenges and opportunities. We also have new members of the regional school committee. I think it's worth noting that the members of this year's graduating class were sharks from day one in kindergarten. So,
it is fitting, I think, indeed, to to to have both a retrospective and prospective review of the district. I would ask, however, that we all take a more strategic view of the future of the district. Such a view may well then impact all assessments going forward in
ways we have yet to anticipate. Working together, we have built we working together, we have we have built a wonderfully vibrant, successful regional school system that is an asset to our two towns and most important an educational asset to the children of our two towns. It is up to us to articulate
the primary concerns of the three parties involved in to craft plans both strategic and tactical to address them as we preserve and enhance the educational foundation of the district for future generations of Monway grads. So, I thank you for your patience and your forbearance, but I wanted to set
some context here for the meeting. And I will turn it over to Mr. Pikarsski, the chair, to introduce uh the Haritch folks that are going to speak to us at the this evening. Thank you very much, >> Mr. Dus. I appreciate the opportunity. And I'll just take a moment um not to reiterate what you had to say, but just
to acknowledge that uh we understand um the significance of this meeting and the significance of the U Mono Regional School District to both communities and uh because of that significance is the reason we requested a meeting with you
folks. Uh because our our goal today and as you alluded to isn't to hammer out a new agreement, not even to get into a lot of detail about what a new agreement could look like. It's really about planning for the future and establishing a group of people that can work to that
common goal and and hopefully in the end um develop something that is acceptable to both communities. Uh because again the the school district is extremely important to all of us for many reasons. It's not just, you know, there's clearly to the school department and the school board, the most significant thing they
have to do is educate our our students and our children. However, there's an impact to every member of every community and and that's the part we want uh to bring to the table as a group and to to share with one another and hopefully again in the near future come to come together with a with a a product
that is potentially uh beneficial to both communities. So, with that said, we're going to begin um tonight with item three. Uh and we're going to turn it over to Jay McRail, our town administrator. Jay uh obviously new to the town of Haritch. However, he jumped right in on this presentation uh because
he understands the importance of it and the impact that it has. Um and what I'm going to the caveat and and it was a conversation we had the other night as a board. This isn't a take it or leave it proposal that Jay's going to present. This is a after the meeting that occurred about a year ago, we felt we
owed you folks a better explanation as to the why and and come to the table with a potential uh option. But it's just it's just that it it as we said the other night, let's not get hung up on the on the option that's presented. It's really just a starting point or or piece to discuss. There there are variety of
options available. There's a variety of things to discuss, not just the formula, right? As we talked about, there there's a there's a variety of things within the agreement that we can discuss. So without any further ado, I turn it over to Mr. Gra, Mr. McGrael. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you very much, Mr. Picarski. And uh thank you very much.
First, I want to thank the Chattam board and everybody in this room for being here this evening. Uh not easy to pull together a meeting in the middle of June when things are starting to get crazy with all of us and our communities. And uh we appreciate the time that everyone's taken to to look at this
important um this important topic and discuss it with us. Uh before I really get into the presentation, I wanted to talk about um you know what we talked about on Monday night at our select board meeting, and that's really that we see the issue uh primarily as a Monoy
school district issue. Uh not a Haritch problem, not a Cadam problem, but a Monoy school district problem. Uh, and when I say that, I, you know, we I don't mean it in a flip way because honestly, Monoy has done nothing wrong, but they've made it clear over the last
number of years with the budgets that they've brought forward in the presentations that that Dr. Carpenters presented that there's a cost to continuing the educational program that they're running right now. uh and they've made substantial efforts over
the last year to make cuts regarding uh where they are with enrollment and they've made it clear through their last budget presentation that to be able to sustain the program moving forward. There's not a lot of cutting opportunities uh you know moving forward cuts from the
six and 7% increases that we've seen over the last few years will mean a change in the program. and they've made a really good case that programmatically uh keeping kids in the district is of the utmost important to the district and I think to both towns. So when I say
it's a monoy pro problem, that's the problem they've presented to us that to be able to maintain the level of programs they need to be able to work around the parameters that they've kind of presented to us the last few years. uh you know really in Harwitch as I'm about to go through you know we've kind
of hit a wall regarding where we're at with levy capacity and we're going to go into that in our overall budget. Uh but it's not it's a shared problem. Uh Chadam's faced the same issues over the last few years and we're both in a situation where it's harder and harder
to absorb these increases into uh our municipal government budgets. And so, uh, we're here for a conversation and we appreciate that everybody's here with us. So, why are we here? Uh, like I said, I mean, really, we're here because of the
constraints of Proposition 2 and a half and how it's affected the town of Haritch. Over the last number of years, we've seen, uh, decreases in what we have in levy capacity in Harwitch. And you're going to hear that from me over and over again tonight. But really, we're at a point right now where
Harwitch pretty much has no levy capacity. Whatever uh people can come to a decision on how Harwitch got there. You know, there's lots of We're not alone in this. A majority of communities in Massachusetts have the same problem that we have, but it's a problem that we have and it is what it is today. U we
have virtually zero fiscal capacity remaining inside the levy. Last year, the assessment increase from Monoy to the town of Harwitch was almost $2 million. uh before we fund a single department or fill a single pothole, we had, you know,
we had to come up with $2 million in additional assessment, additional uh increase from our assessment. So, uh Chadam's assessment has grown 16% over the last number of years or 16 years where Harwitches has grown 62% during
the same period. So, as Pete mentioned, we've we put together a proposal here today uh that we really don't want to spend much time on because we believe pretty strongly that at the end of the day, we're looking to put together a working group and we're hoping that we have the same consideration from the
town of Chadam and the district to do that. Uh but for the sake of uh making a proposal, we we put together what we what we think would work uh and is sustainable for the town of Haritch. That was a real conversation that we had on Monday night with speakers at the podium and around the board is we want
to also put together uh at least an initial proposal that wouldn't put us in the same position next year. So we're not back here after a year or two and saying, "Well, that worked great in FY29, but now we're in the same spot and we can't afford it." So we're trying to be forward- facing and look at growth
and uh long-term planning over the next decade. Uh so we put together a proposal today that would pre really reset the bar from uh where we are today to back when the district was originally formed uh around the 7228 operating. But then we also want to discuss capital and
we're uh looking to at least start the conversation around a 50/50 split on capital. So that's why we're here this evening. Where our fiscal pressures come from in Harwitch. Uh so new revenue for the town of Harwitch and and you Chadam's done a
great job of finding different ways to come up with different revenue that we're exploring now. uh you know, we want to work to be able to bring in the obviously the biggest solution to the the both of our towns is additional revenue outside of Proposition 2 and a half. And when we're able to do that through local receipts and creative
ways, uh it's a win for everybody and and Chadam's been, you know, successful at that. And we're going to try in Haritch to find different ways to do that as well. we have with uh increase in permit fees and uh different costs that we're able to change so that we're
we're able to bring in additional revenue and and we've really the board's really done a great job over the last uh year at identifying new revenue opportunities in Harwitch and we should see some of that come to fruition in the next uh next year here but ultimately we
have 3.4 4 million in in additional revenue in FY27 and that's new growth, local receipts and Proposition 2 and a half. 2 million of that was eaten up by the increase in the assessment from Monoy. Um it eats up about 40% of the
entire town budget. That's more than police and fire combined in in Harwitch. So, uh as I said, we're we're at the wall with our with our levy limit. Uh we're at about 100%. uh were projected in FY27 at about $150,000.
Uh and the reality is, and I know it's not all about the levy limit, but the increase in the assessment from Monoy last year, that $2 million is 26 times more than the levy levy room we have in our levy.
So, uh just real briefly, the two towns, nobody knows these towns better than everybody in this room, but we're about double the size. Our our budgets are what they are. Uh you know, we're almost 90 million. You guys are about 60 million. Our assessments 33 pay 33. Uh
you guys are just about 12. It's uh 37% of our budget. As I said, about 28 or 25% of your budget. Uh assessments per resident. You know, these numbers could be off by a little bit. We did the best we can to pull them together, but basically, you know, we're paying about
2500. Residents are paying about $2,500 and about 2,000 in Chadam. This sets up a situation where you could live on Queen Anne Road, you could be neighbors, you know, and one person on one side of the road is paying significantly more for education than the person on the other side of the road. Um, as as I
said, uh, we're both kind of up against it. You guys have done a great job with building levy capacity. Uh, we're trying to head in that direction, but we don't have it right now. And then finally, I just wanted to take a minute just to look at EQV. So EQV really is a way that
the state determines wealth of the community. Uh some districts do do Sherburn, you've all heard about them and how they look at their assessment and the some districts include EQV and part of it. That's not part of our proposal. Honestly, it just makes it confusing. It's like trying to get into
the chapter 70 funding formula. God help us all. Um but but you know when we look at EQV if we did use that in this district just for the sake of conversation it would dramatically change the conversation uh between Chadam and Haritch and uh Chadam's
assessment would you know on EQV only and I don't think there's any district that does it on EQV only. I want to make that clear but if it was based on EQV it would uh it would dramatically change the the the face and the the whole regional agreement. Uh Chadam's share
would be about $25 million on EQV. So, uh, this next slide kind of just goes into more of the levy capacity issue that we have. Uh, you know, whether it's FY26 or FY27, we fluctuate between 50 and 150,000
in levy capacity. That's basically zero. Um, you know, we haven't har is a community that hasn't historically had much levy capacity. uh you know going back to FY22 we had a little bit that was created and and moving forward that is a focus uh with additional revenue to
try to create more levy capacity but where we don't have it right now uh it presents a situation where we're looking at either in Harwitch um you know very limited options our options when it gets to building FY28
are either going to be to cut services to cut positions or to move forward with an operational override. And none of those are attractive for us. None of those are things we want to get into. So, uh, that's why we're here today. That's why the urgency in the letters, that's why the trying to put together a
meeting in the middle of the summer. We're trying to avoid those hard conversations. And we're also uh it we understand that whatever this hopeful working group that we put together resolves is not going to happen tomorrow either. But it will help us with uh
planning from a planning perspective if we know there's light at the end of the tunnel and we can make some short-term decisions to be able to get to that point because we also don't believe that uh even if we all agree to change the regional agreement probably not going to be able to do it in time for FY28. But
light at the end of the tunnel would help us uh from a planning perspective. Uh you know we we've had a successful year in Harwitch. We settled eight collective bargaining agreements uh which was no small feat. Uh you know thankfully uh the board worked hard at
that over the last 6 to 8 months and we were able to settle all those. We we were able to increase some of the pay for some of our public safety officials and other employees in town that we prioritize but really gets us to a point where uh we're up against it for FY28
because of that. um you know most of the budgets outside of the contractual increases uh that they received in FY27 due to that collective bargaining most of the budgets I would a majority of our budgets were all we're all level funded outside of those contractual increases as a result of the collective bargaining
so uh we really don't have a lot of room in uh departmental budgets to make cuts outside of services and people so as I mentioned earlier uh you know when we started the district. Um, you know, we were at a certain place and
things over the course of the years have changed. Enrollment has declined in both communities. It's declined faster in Chadam. And, uh, the assessment has has kind of shown that. So, uh, you know, it's risen 62% in Haritch and 16% in
Chadam. And, uh, that's turned into real money, uh, significant money that's that's made a huge chunk. As I said, uh, the $2 million increase in the assessment, uh, last year really hit the town of Haritch hard and and that's going off a few years in a row of of
that type of an increase in the assessment. And, um, but this slide kind of dictates where we're at. So, it it has grown pretty significantly on the Haritch side o over the last number of decades or decade.
So reasons why the the formula has drifted from reality. As I mentioned, Chadam's enrollment has declined. Now, our enrollment's declined too. Haritchen enrollment has declined. I think we both face a crisis at an elementary level over the next decade here. Uh and part
of what we're going to propose with the working group is looking at that as well because I highlight that Chadam's enrollments declined, but you know, obviously ours has as well and I think everybody knows that the region uh you know, it's harder and harder. We had I went today to the Cape Cod Commission
where they adopted our local comprehensive plan and we talked a lot in the local comprehensive plan about how it's a plan for the future for the young of our community. And the first comment uh from somebody on the commission was uh you know is are you going to have young in your community in
the next couple of decades? And it's a realistic concern you know and uh that's why we're all working hard to try to expand multifamily housing in our communities. Haritch has really taken on a lion share of that. Uh we're at a point where hopefully uh you know after
a ZBA vote that happened this morning, we'll be have a a 2-year moratorum on from 40B and uh that's a testament to the amount of multif family housing that that Haritch is committed to to build to try to grow our base of families in the region. Uh but it's still trending
towards Harwitch. Uh we're at 7623 right now. It seems like every time I talk to Mike McMillan, it seems like a different number. So, I don't definitely confusing how the enrollment assessment number comes, but you know, right roughly we're at 7623. Uh, Haritch, as I said, you know, the
Queen Road things are real a real you could live you could live next to somebody and paying significantly different as it comes to the cost of education. Uh, and then the capital. Um, we've spent significant Chadam and Haritch have spent significant amounts
of money on capital as it relates to the district over the last number of years and it's gotten tough in Haritch to get them uh get them approved. It's been a battle at the select board to get them uh on the town meeting warrant and supported by the select board. I mean, we've had support, uh, but, you know,
capital is brick and mortar, and we really are having a hard time when we have internal discussions being able to, uh, wrap our heads around enrollment dictating brick and mortar. And so, we'd really like to have a conversation around capital and how that's funded. In
the presentation that we put together today in the proposal that I'm about to make, we talk about debt and capital at 50% each 5050. uh because we see significant capital coming up again in the future, you know, and it may be more on the elementary side, which is going to be a little bit different, but that's
part of what we want to talk about with the working group is looking at elementary education as well, knowing that both Haritch and Chadam have, you know, tens to 20 million worth of investment coming up in the next decade as it relates to elementary education.
Uh so so we think it's important uh to have a conversation because we really feel on the capital side that the 7723 split just really doesn't work for Harwitch. It's harder to sell. That's for sure. So we're not alone. Uh you know uh we're
definitely not alone and this slide just kind of highlights it. I mean Brewster this last year had two overrides. East Ham had two overrides. Dennis had a $2 million override. We absorbed larger increases than those overrides and we
were able to do it without one which really is something that we're proud of in Harwitch but we're uh we're we're concerned moving forward about whether that's sustainable for us and we're concerned about being able to get an override approved if there was even support from the board to be able to do that which honestly I don't believe
there is right now. So um you know we're definitely not alone. this this this fiscal crisis that we're in is really driven a lot by right now health insurance and retirement costs skyrocketing and uh we we've seen that
you've seen that when you go over the bridge it's 10 times worse I think on you know there was in Massachusetts there was 63 overrides proposed this year less than half of them passed u so these are districts and towns that are having to make really tough decisions
and cutting a lot of positions to be able to balance their budgets and we just we just don't want to do that because honestly I think what Dr. Carpenter sold to us about you know people not leaving the district and keeping them in monoy and how that actually saves us money in the long run
we bought into that but to be able to continue that path uh we we need to look at the the regional agreement and try to figure out a way to make it work a little bit better for Haritch. So this slide is uh God help us here. So this is how the assessment's calculated.
This is our current assessment uh today for FY27. And you know for the every I think everybody at the table understands how this works but for people uh working uh looking at it from home uh you know minimum local contribution is set by the state. Uh we can't change that. There's
no regional agreement approach that can change that. That's 100% state set. Haritch is going to pay in FY27 15.5 million and Chadam's going to pay 4.5 million you know at the beginning level based on MLC minimum local contribution
no matter what we try to do or change it's the operating above MLC that we have the opportunity to look at and and that's significant money um that's at 14 million in Harwitch and 6 million in Chadam and then from there we have the capital transportation and debt that is
like I said continued to be based on uh enrollment and is looking, you know, that's why I don't understand how that changes, but these are the numbers I got from Michael, so I believe that they're correct. Um, and the the bottom line is is Haritch is spending 33 million and Chadam is spending just just under 12
million uh for for a total assessment of 44.8 million. And that's not even all the money that Monoy spends. they have offsets that spend millions and millions more to be able to educate our children that we're fortunate enough they're able to do through chapter 70 and other grant
opportunities that that we don't get hit for those assessments and that's a testament to the work that they do. So like uh Mr. Picarski said we're going to make a proposal tonight that we're we're totally uh heading in the wrong direction direction if we spend a lot of
time tonight debating this proposal. We literally put this together. so that we could say this is what we think. You know, we understand this is a conversation that's much larger than the Haritch Select Board and myself. Uh but we didn't want to come tonight and not
say what we think. You know, so from a starting point, this is the reset from the from the original creation of the district. 7228 was the first three-year rolling average uh for the district based on enrollment. Uh so we're we're
proposing to reset the bar at that. The shift in FY27 would have shifted uh about $711,000 to Cadam had that been in place uh when we built FY20 FY27. And then obviously uh the the change to that is capital. We're we're proposing a
50/50 split on capital. uh combined between the 5050 split on capital and resetting the original operating assessment uh would would have been about a 1.71 million shift uh in the FY27 budget.
So this is how it would have looked at the time. Like I said, the $711,000 operating above MLC, I don't know why the 342 is dark, not green, but disregard that. Ultimately, it affects capital, transportation, and debt for a
net shift of the $1.71 million. So, the path forward, what we're proposing this evening, uh, to be able to adopt a 5-year transitional formula, uh, based on what we just talked about, obviously really what we're proposing is
an operating group, so it's not like we're pitching that this evening, but adopt a 5-year transitional formula. uh review elementary education consolidation. Um you know whether or not that's uh worth doing, I have no idea. You know, I' I've listened to Dr.
Carpenter talk about it at the last school committee meeting. I I know that that's a raw subject in both of our communities, but I think this working group probably should look at it and talk about it. I think at a very minimum, it's a discussion that needs to be had. We're both operating full
elementary schools that cost a ton to operate and and you know they it definitely needs to be reviewed. So look at uh preschool elementary education consolidation and and capital planning. uh commit to annual formula review whether it's a formal meeting like this
or or something smaller through the working group and then bring a proposal to the school committee uh and ultimately uh to the state to look at changing the regional agreement. How we propose to do that is I think something that everybody in this room
seems to at some level have a agreement on. And if we're able to all agree, you know, we we we would love to put together a joint regional agreement uh working group. Uh it's a large group, but we really spent we spent a lot of
time on Monday night trying to talk about um how we put this group together. And I think the reason why we ended on a large group is that this is a hard cell for everybody. uh it especially um when it comes to town meeting and potential
changes uh in the regional agreement. So we tried to put a representative group together that would help us with that. Um you know it's not just about the work that they would do as part of the working group. It's about the work that they would do in our communities to sell this these changes to our communities
and explain why. So, uh, Jill and myself, uh, select board member from each each town, uh, representative from the district, uh, either Robin or or whoever she would, uh, designate or, you know, obviously, um, like I I probably
bring Jen Mint with me. I'm sure Joe would bring Carrie and, uh, you know, we'd have other people participate as well. Uh, school committee member from each town, a finance committee member from each town, and then one thing that that Mr. Keller thought was really important was that we had a citizen at large and and that may be specifically
for the reason to help us sell any changes at the end of the day. So, uh the charge for the working group very simple uh look at our potential proposal, look at other regional agreements, look at uh transitional adjustments that have worked in other
communities, explore options and alternatives that address the concerns that we brought up this evening. look at the future of elementary and preschool education and then report back. And that's really it. Um, you know, keep it simple and try to work together to find
a path forward to be able to fund the good work that the people at this table have have done over the last number of years. And they've made it clear uh there's a cost to that moving forward. So, uh, we we would like to be able to fund that and keep that work going. And
to do that, we're just asking for for Chadam's help to put this group together, uh, to move forward. So, uh, with that, uh, that's the last I have. And thank you for your time. >> Okay, Jay. Thank you very much. Uh, I I will I will just take a pause and look
to my my, uh, select board for any feedback, responses, thoughts, uh, on what, uh, what Jay has proposed this evening. I have some, um, but I'll turn it to my my board for their reaction. and um and we'll take it from there. Any questions for Jay or you want to go back
to any slides? >> Just general, no. I mean, this is a this is a very healthy meeting. Uh it's good that we can have all these parties in the same room. Um you know, we're going to have some uh disagreements on some things. We're going to agree on certain things. Um but this is our responsibility to do this collectively
and and and at the end of the day, I think we all agree this is this is for the students. This is for the Monteray kids that we that we've been so proud of putting through the school district and have graduated and moved on. So, um I'm going to keep an open mind. Um have some dialogue tonight. I appreciate you, you
know, um stepping forward and and speaking and and spelling out some highlight points that you guys are concerned about and um you know, we need to process that and um have a healthy dialogue and that's what I look forward to tonight. So, I don't have anything at
this particular moment, but I will hold um my comments maybe for a little bit later. >> Okay. Thank you, Corey. I see Dean Niccastro has his hand up. Dean, I'll recognize you, please. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that presentation from Jay. And um and I also
think it's a good thing that Aharic has actually put a particular proposal on the table. Uh I agree with um chairski as in his comments earlier that the charge of the of the working group which I support um should should be open to
all options and al consideration of all options and alternatives. Uh just a suggestion on the composition. I know we're going to talk about that later. I wonder if um maybe an additional select board member from each town might be considered. You'd have 13 instead of 11. Those are my comments. But thank you.
>> Okay, Dean. Thank you so much. Uh, anybody else on the board? Any comments or thoughts, Randy or Stewart? Okay. All right. Any any comments, uh, reaction? I have a couple. I I think I think the we're just as a general comment, we're we've been very comfortable with the
three-year rolling enroll, you know, three-year average rolling enrollment as as a basis for operating expenses, if you for the allocation of operating expenses. Um, so it, you know, we we we share, you know, it's 33 million 11 million, you know, run And so that's one
third, you know, like one third two/3s and that's what we that's what the split is in the school population. So I can tell you right now it resonates very clearly to Chadam's folks that that's kind of a fair way to allocate costs. It's just it's difficult to kind of get over that hurdle. Um there may be ways
to tweak that and I think we perhaps we'll be open to that but but just up front I'm saying that the enrollment you know split is is what the regional agreement was based on. It's and we're pretty comfortable with that. I think the point about the elementary schools is very important and I agree
wholeheartedly that this working group ought to take a really close look at what can we do for the elementary schools. Haritch is to their credit is doing a great job in terms of of 40b projects and affordable housing and attainable housing doing a great job and that will increase school population going forward but it's going to take
some time and we we're we're we don't have the same set of circumstances that existed when we when we established the region in 2010 11 and 12 exist now in elementary school we don't have kids we don't have kids we have one class we have one you know one class per grade so
I I take a lesson out of the playbook and NSET who have just recently have really taken a deep dive in looking at regionalizing their elementary schools. And I turn, you know, asked Robin to kind of do some research. She sent me stuff. I haven't gone through it yet, but lessons learned.
We we established the region because we didn't have kids. And here we are again. We don't have kids. We would I want to make this very clear. We would love to have kids. We would love to be able to say we're paying 20 our full freight 28% 30 32% 30 of the budget. We would love
to be able to do that. We just have changed marketkedly as as a as a town um drastically. Um anyway, I wanted to make that statement. It's not like we don't want to we don't want to support our schools. We'd love to have the kids and with pay the freight. Um so I think the working group can work through some of
the nuances. I know you weren't making a specific proposal tonight. I'm not responding to that. I am telling you my thoughts about what I feel our community, you know, would kind of buy or not. and and we'll continue with those continue with those thoughts and continue with the feedback as well. All
right. Um, with that being said, I'm going to ask uh uh uh Jill Goldmith to come up and present uh kind of Chadam's concerns and opportunities, if you will, and and some facts and figures that we have as well. I do think it's very important that we're having this conversation and um it's a little late
in coming and and but I'm I think it's very important that we're together having this conversation. Very important. Jill, welcome. And I want to acknowledge Carrie uh who worked hard on these uh along with us. Thanks, Jill. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm
Jill Goldmith, Chadam Town Manager. And as usual, our our chair laid out really our perspective and I'll get into a little more details understanding that the end slide for us is also uh recommending and agreeing with having a working group.
So, I wanted to start by a big picture approach and looking at the select board vision statement, which I think that will resonate with both towns as well as the district. And I'll read it here. Cadam in 2030 will be a forward-looking,
engaged, and inclusive community, a demographically diverse year-round citizens that maintains a unique integration and preservation of its pristine environment, promotion of a healthy economy, encouraging year-round employment using Cadam and Cape Cod
citizens, financially responsible and responsive leadership, and a welcoming environment for all into Chadam. Though there's additional goals set by the select board, I wanted to highlight
the educational excellence goal for us and that's to support uh for the monoy support the monoy regional district uh through funding and capital infrastructure to support the needed and innovative student programs and activities and stimulation of enrollment
over the next three five years. And then I we I presented the objectives below here that are more specific. Again, hoping in this next fiscal year or so, but certainly aiming for 2030 to provide adequate budgetary support to ensure the educational resources, facilities,
programs, and activities to meet the needs of the town student population. Collaborate with the district to ensure the town is supporting enrollment growth. discuss possible school choice for families at Chadam Elementary, particularly East Haritch, and encourage
students to serve the community and schools through civic engagement. So the to focus on the topic of tonight's agenda relating to regional assessment, I just wanted to provide some perspective on Cadam. Our shared
regional costs are allocated by enrollment. Cadam contributes a greater share of the district assessment than the share of the district enrollment. The district assessment growth in FY26 has also consumed about 60% of Chattam's
annual levy growth under Proposition 2 and a half. And Chadam fully funds a higher cost elementary school and absorbed additional costs under the 2022 regional agreement amendment.
So Chattam represents about 22.5% of the foundation enrollment and contributes 26.2% towards the total assessment and this is for FY27 Haritch as Jay had presented again using
Michael's number as I am as well that 73 75.5% of the foundation enrollment and that leads to 73.8 of the total assessment. So the current formula is not producing I'm sorry the current formula is not
producing a result where Chadam pays less than its share of enrollment. In fact Chadam pays more than its share of enrollment. This chart is a comparison of regional districts with similar enrollment government structure and demographics.
And when compared to Monoy, it's a more accurate comp set for us. We believe Monoy's cost per pupil is the second lowest among the comp set serving the largest number of units. And we believe this represents responsible fiscal
budgeting while maintaining student services. This slide looks at educational demand, which is measured by the number of students served, not property values. The purpose of this slide is not to compare the communities, but it's to
illustrate why enrollment has been long has long been considered the fairest measure of how regional education costs are shared. And those numbers are based on foundation enrollment. In this slide, in in FY2023, the regional agreement was amended, as
you know, where both towns would fund their own elementary schools. This change in of the method increased Chattam share of the district assession assessment in 2023 by a little less than 740,000 compared to FY22. But we were in we
absolutely supported this. So TATAM taxpayers fully fund an elementary school with per pupil costs averaging approximately 30% higher than Haritch over the last five years. And as you will see on the slide, Chadam's
5-year average per pupil cost for the elementary school is a little less than 26,000 where Haritch is a little less than 20,000 which is a difference uh rounding up of about 50 I'll just go actual
5,834. Chattan seen increases in the district assessment each fiscal year and since FY25 the district assessment has increased a little more than $2 million which is a growth of an approximately
21% over the last past three fiscal years. So in this slide what is not shown is FY24 because the first year of the impact shows in FY25. So the town of Chadam FY 2026 average
tax bill is about $500 more than Haritch and over the last five years Chadam's tax bill has averaged about $160 more. Property wealth does not equal taxpayer capacity as we know
in FY26 Chadam's property tax levy grew about 1.4 million but nearly 60% or about 810,000 of that increase was absorbed by the district assessment. This left less than 565,000
to fund all other town services and operating costs through the tax levy. However, since 2023, we earmarked 1% of the new hotel motel revenue for the elementary school, but we're also facing
the same budget pressures as other Massachusetts municipalities. So, these are our current conditions in the agreement. Enrollment generates educational demand. Regional assessments have historically been based on enrollment. Overall wealth included is
included in the calculation of the minimum contribution and Chadam funds its elementary school at an average of 30% more than Harditch and contributes according to enrollment. Any
proposed change to the assessment formula should clearly demonstrate why enrollment is no longer the most equitable and appropriate basis for allocating district costs and reflecting educational demand. What was presented tonight was absolutely a great way to
lay the foundation for discussions with the working group. So final thoughts. Uh we too recommend a joint working group be established to discuss Monoyy's strategic plan for the future and its impact on each town's
potential assessments. And that concludes my presentation. Thank you. >> Okay, Jill. Thank you. Jill, could you go back to the slide on the two and a half uh the um two or three slides back? So, so um and Jay had the same slide basically and and you guys ate up you
know pretty much lion share of your of your capacity with with your school with school um costs and we faced the same issue. So my earlier comments I said you know you guys were you know we came to the table or have been to the table and been making comments about you know the rate of increase is not sustainable and
you're up against your levy limit. Well it's it's not it's not um it could be that we'd be up against our levy limit as well. So, we're we're partners in in terms of how we manage the increase in the in in the district's budget. We're partners because we could be up against
our levy limit in short order as well. And we have some headroom. You guys don't happen to have headroom. Um so, I I really think this slide is pretty meaningful and you had the exact same slide. Um we we did the presentations, you know, absent each other looking, you know. So, anyway, I think it's very
interesting that that we came up the same. So 60% of our our our growth does go to Monoy similarly to to you know whatever I forget the very high percentage for you guys as well. Lion share the lion share get it. But I would
also argue you know when we look at new growth what other priority would we be investing in other than students? Yes, fire and safety and police and fire. But pri prioritizing education is extremely important to to Chad just FYI just
extremely important. So, uh, reactions, uh, Pete and, uh, Harwitch, why don't you just comment if you, if you would, and, uh, then we'll go on to Monoy. >> So, real briefly, I I I don't want it to ever be interpreted that we don't believe Chadam supports education. Uh, that's not why we're here. We don't we
don't have that belief at all. And we realize that if your enrollment was greater that you would, you know, happily pay a greater, you know, share of the the the the budget proportionately. Um, again, not for me to sit here tonight and talk about the the the options that
are available, but student population is one calculation that can work in some communities, but there are other options available as far as how an assessment could be um fairly translated to both communities. Um, and
again for a working group to to to work on, not for me to to educate anybody here this evening. Um, but you know, specifically on on the elementary cost, clearly uh you folks are paying significantly more per student at the
elementary school than we are. And and unfortunately, it seems like that number is going to go up for both of us um as we move forward. And and in in the short term, sounds like perhaps uh quicker for you folks than us. But so that that again is a big reason why we need to
create this group. But I appreciate the information presented this evening by Miss Goldsmith. Very enlightening. And I'll ask any of my colleagues here if they have any comments or questions that they'd like to ask this evening. >> Mark. >> Sure. >> Mark Keller. >> Thank you. I've been known to turn it
away from me as well. Anyways, thank you for everybody being here. I just have uh three points. Uh I just want to expand upon the idea of one district, two towns. If we were one town, the mythical chatwitch which we are in now, you know,
the tax rate would be based the school assessment would be based on property valuation as we use now and then the village of Chatwitch or Cadam would therefore pay 55% of the school budget and the remainder of the district would
pay 45%. That's that's not a wealth tax. That's basically how our property tax system is set up. It's very similar to what other regional school systems how they build their regional schools other than New England.
Other uh states you receive two tax bills. One from your municipality, one from your school system and it is based upon your property tax. That's one area. And I do want to emphasize we're not talking about wealth. We're talking about property valuation which is based
upon which we all pay our own property taxes. Second point I'd like to make is the pitfall of not succeeding in this discussion is really manifold uh with school choice and I'm sure the superintendent will bring this up with school choice and if we have a difficulty maintaining quality we have
lighthouse school up the street we have stures we lose $25,000 per students so it's very important during this discussion whatever we come become of this that we maintain the quality of the schools if a two and a half override is
needed in Haritch. One cautionary note is, and this is from a recent UMass study that we had presented to our select board, over 30% uh of the residents of Haritch over the age of 60 have incomes of $50,000 per year. So,
it's not a we've Howitch has been very generous in the past years improving capital improvements. It's not as definite a thing if we have to do a property half override. Final point I'd like to make on capital costs. The middle school building project, which we are going through now,
originally started as just a replacement of trim for $2 million. Then it was found out when we had mold problems that the siding needed to be replaced, the windows needed to be replaced, and as we did that, the
architect has confirmed this is that the flashing around the windows contributed to the mold and the leaks. And this condition existed before the regional school was even established. It was when the school was under the control of Chadam. So that's something to keep in
mind when we talk about capital cost. Final thing, the Modoy School Building Committee is a excellent exemplar of what we can use and we're talking about here of how to settle this problem. uh where we had 10 or 11 people from the community that worked on this
collaboratively and we came up with I think a pretty good solution. Um so we're in this together. We're in this together for our students and we really do want to work together to to solve this. So thank you Mr. Chair. >> Any other members?
>> Mr. Hall just briefly. Thank you Mr. Chair and members of the Cadam Select Board. Um a couple of things come to mind and uh not to get pjorative about anything but the the fact is that the the elementary
school there was a couple uh elements to this the discussion and one of them had to do with the original formation of the uh the district itself. The citizens of Chadam actually were in on asking for that school uh to be absorbed in within the budget in the manner that was
primarily because the discussion was informed by a reallocation of the student body that could potentially have either closed that school or diminished its uh usage into either a K12 or whatever. But the point is is that it
was also beneficial to the folks in Chattam because they believe that was foundational uh to create the district there uh and that actually is a portal to the larger discussion uh without getting involved in what the solutions are. Uh there there's benefit to having
a a sane conversation now uh rather than calling the fire department when the fire is already raging. it's it's too late when we get to the point where either town has to go to an override. There are clearly differences in uh approach that could be taken whether
it's a formula change or a change in the way the uh school operates. But I do want to point out that uh we don't have the benefit in the schools uh scenario that we would in a corporate situation where you can get efficiencies by uh scale. Right now we're at at such a
critical level in some of in the uh funding formula just a few kids from Chadam in each grade can actually flip uh the discussion in terms of the assessment formula in a profound way but there's no way for the school to uh actually address that. If you go from 20
kids to 18 kids they're not cutting a teacher. So I I really am having uh I'm really hopeful that this uh subcommittee or working group, whatever you'd like to call it, uh we'll we'll come up with
some robust ideas because we again there's a number of possibilities, but we haven't actually explored all of those uh here before. And it's not fruitful for either town to start throwing things at each other uh rather than engaging in thoughtful discussions. So I appreciate the fact that you you
folks were willing to hold this meeting with both boards because I think that was that was the missing element last year. The the importance of this really uh is impressed upon everyone by having both boards sitting here as full boards and then we can go into a working group
to come up with something that all the uh citizens could be proud of and come out of it with a educational product that'll keep the future bright for all of our students. Well said, Don. Well said. And I I want
to make the point uh and do so repeatedly that the Chadam really does um appreciate the generosity of the town's people of Harish. We understand that um you kind of belly up to the bar for the middle school. Um I won't go into the long history of of the region.
Um but we've been equally as generous in years past as well with respect to other capital items like the middle school that you guys you know received uh you know when we when we regionalized. Um and uh I I but I I did want to acknowledge I want to make a point that um in my discussions here in town with
everybody in town, they realize that the town of Haritch at town meeting really did uh vote dramatically and positively to support the middle school and we really do appreciate it because it's needed um had to happen and it wasn't inexpensive as Mark noted. Um but I think we'll have a great product when
we're done. That's what I'm hoping. Okay. And I really appreciate your the the the analogy to the fire department, you know. I I mean that's why we're here so we can avoid that. Any comments from from Chadam? Uh any Okay. Uh I'm going to ask Yeah, please Pete. Go ahead.
>> Any comments? >> Sorry, Mr. >> Okay. Okay. Yeah. Don't forget to press your green button when you're talking. Okay. Uh I turn it towards the Monoy uh to Monoy. Scott, I would like to
recognize you and for a comment on on this effort and on and then Robin as well. Please, please turn it over to Robin. >> Go turn it to Robin then. >> Good evening everyone. Dr. Robin Millan uh assistant superintendent of schools, soon to be superintendent of schools. So, thank you Dr. Carpenter for turning
it over to me. I just first want to say I appreciate so much the discussion here tonight. Having everybody in the room collaboration between all of us will be, you know, ideal and key as Monoy moves forward into the future. I do also believe our team here does support a
working group as well. At least the administrative team does. We look forward to having um conversations about what that might look like. I do believe though that I disagree a little bit that this is a Monoy Regional School District problem. This is a community problem. This is a problem that is, you know, all
of us share. And one of the reasons why I say that and I would want to give some context um about the potential for the working group. The context of which we are working within Monoy and you've heard it over and over again really stems from enrollment and that enrollment is really part of the problem
of the community and the housing and the affordability of living here. So I just want to give some numbers that we've come to um find out just this last couple of weeks. So currently at Haritch Elementary School, we have 55 students registered for kindergarten. So with 55
students in kindergarten, that's compared to 76 students this year. So that's a rapid decline in enrollment there. We have 16 students um in uh registered for kindergarten and CES at Chattam Elementary School. That's down from 20 this year. Okay. So if we look
at that and we project those numbers out. So if we look at enrollment and projection, if we stay stagnant at 55 students in Haritch and 16 at Chattam and it doesn't decline anymore, we potentially will have 370 elementary age students across the
district towns in about five years. So me coming on board as a new superintendent, but I've been here since 2014. In 2014, when I took over as assistant principal at Howard Elementary School, we had about 625 students. When I took over Chadam Elementary School as
principal the following year, we had 275 students. So, if you add those numbers up, we had 900 elementary school students across the district. And if again, with the projections, they're true, in about 15 years, we'll have 370. So, that is a community problem. That is
a community thing that we have to talk about. And we have to talk about housing. we have to talk about not only new family housing. So I appreciate all of what Harage is doing and the town both towns doing as far as looking for affordable and attainable housing, but I also think we have to think about the
people that we have here that are moving out as well. So we just spoke with Robera Simmons, our administrative assistant today, and she has sent more letters this year than ever before of current existing families that have moved out of our two towns and are residing in other towns. So again, we
have to not only think about housing for new families, how do we build our enrollment back up, but how do we keep our families here? And again, that's a community expectation and a community um thing to talk about. And I do think the working group should consider that context, not only about for the effect
it has on Monoy, but the fact that it has on the towns as a whole. Um so we also obviously I'm not going to reiterate, everybody said it, we have to consider our capital and our rising cost of educating our children. So, even though we have a lower enrollment and our enrollment goes down, I've heard it
over and over again. It doesn't mean we can cut a teacher. Sometimes um our student needs are rising, we have a large um economically disadvantaged um population, our English learner population is rising, students with disabilities population. So those costs,
I mean transportation, out of district costs, fuel costs, just having a learning environments that are healthy and well are costs that we as a community need to um discuss and consider for Monoy and also both towns. So again, we appreciate the boards that
have come together tonight. Um I love the opportunity to collaborate with you all coming in in the my new position and I think it is an optimal time. I can't remember who said it earlier. Thank you, Mr. Dykins. um you know coming new I it's not only that I'm new but like
Monoy has gone through its infancy and its early childhood I always relate it to schools it's turning 14 15 years old it's in its teenage years and I have a young friend who was doing a um graduation speech at a neighboring district and she's in middle school and she keeps telling me you know it's all about the future when you're in the
teenage years and she's going to send bubbles out and talk about how the bubbles can go anywhere in the future and I really think that for Monamoy Monoy is at the precipice of a time where we need to be thinking what does the teenage years for Monamoy look like? What does the future look like? We need to connect it with our existing
strategic plan and our schoolwide improvement plans here in the districts. But we also need to have some sort of group to come together to collect feedback to know where we moving and where what will the community support and we are not alone. Jay repres you
know referenced it overrides these constraints all across the Cape all across the Commonwealth. But we have a neighboring district that has brought a group together and they have come together with some proposals and some information for their community to gather feedback on and see what their
community will support for their schools. And I do support that and I will work hard and we'll get going with you and the whatever community you put together. And I hope that our our board has the opportunity to have some say as to who is on that board because I also think children as Mr. Morgan's behind me
somewhere. Some child voice on that board would be huge to have because they're our future. Thank you. >> Okay, Robin. Uh Scott, do you have anything to you'd like to say? Uh I I it's your last week or so. Uh >> yeah, I mean I I I think it was I think
some of the things I would say have been touched on by others, but I you know I think over the 13 years that I've been here, I think we've been blessed to see a district sort of, you know, sort of evolve and really put in a strong academic program. I think we've seen
families choose to stick with us because of the program that we've put in place. And and I very deliberately started my budget presentations this past year warning about how fragile that is. You
know that if we get to a point where either town is fiscally stressed and mulling an override, we're going to see families flee. You know that that they they will worry about what will the schools be for
their own children. they're going to need that assurance that, you know, that the schools are going to remain strong and that the programs are going to be there. Um, I also, you know, I also, you know, was sharing with our, you know, our our board and Robins brought it up
that, you know, the concerns I have about how quickly we are becoming smaller, particular at the elementary level. I referred to it as, you know, the canary in the coal mine. Yeah. is that that what we're seeing at the
elementary school is frightening and I think we need to look at it for the two towns. How do we keep young families here? Uh because you know you know when you know when I last talked about a change to the regional agreement. It was
about an economy of scales challenge that Chadam Elementary was having because it was small. We're we're going to be looking at an economy of scales issue for an entire school district. If we extrapolate those those kindergarteners up through middle
school into high school, you know, the smaller the district becomes, the more expensive per child it's going to be, which is what you know, which is what one of the fundamental challenges Chattam had relative to Haritch as we were coming together. Yeah. and you know
so so those are real factors that are you know that are out there. The last thing that uh you know that I've you know I shared with the committee and Robin and others that I I do think you know given you know given this increase that we've seen of our families that
there's you know many more of our families are struggling today than when I started 13 years ago. And I think we have to look at how can we support our young families and and again I am grateful that both of the towns have put
in place a voucher system for our families uh for you know for you know for child care at the early years and I really think you know that that a consideration you know should be you know what is the collective commitment
to you know to uh to uh prek, you know, for, you know, preschool for, you know, a universal preschool for third, you know, for three year olds and four year olds because I think that will inform some of your discussions about what an
elementary school will look like and how many classroom spaces and and what we're clearly seeing is that there's there's a want and need for those supports out there. And that's one way I think to help have young families again find a
way to stay here because it is a huge cost to families. Um but I think it's a it's a lot of things to think about but but those you know the numbers that Robin are bringing up at the elementary school as uh as I found out uh I started
here with a kid at Chadam Elementary School in a blink of an eye. She graduated from college last year, you know. So, in a blink of an eye, the challenge that, you know, Robin's bringing up, it's going to it's going to be there and upon you.
>> Thank you, Scott. I absolutely agree. Um those numbers are alarming. They're arresting. Uh and we're going to have to we're going to have to address them. Uh I think it's clear clear it's a an immediate an immediate issue. Uh yes, Miss Potach. >> Thank you. So, um I just have a question for Robin if I could. Thank you for your
presentation. Um when you said you're getting a bunch of letters that people are moving out of the the um schools, are they moving out of town or are they choosing other schools? And if you know why that would be helpful. >> They're not moving they're moving out of town. So we send letters every year for
people who have moved from the district just to confirm residency and things like that. So they're moving out of town. So and we're actually seeing that with our staff as well. So sometimes when we're hiring our staff, you know, they leave to go off cape. we can keep them maybe a year if they're living in
family homes and things like that. They move off Cape and it's interesting this year we've had like four or five of them actually come back now that they've spent seven or eight years in other districts off Cape or in other you know in other locations and that's the about the time when they can afford the housing here. So that's what we're
seeing and I don't have exact numbers I can get them to you but it just came up today and she's like I've sent more letters out to people who have moved out of our district. You know, we're always concerned with enrollment and projections coming in, but that's alarming, too, that families that were here and were living here and residing
here and bringing their children to our educational system, they're having to move off and towns. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions for Robin? Any other comments? Mr. Schiff, would you like to make a comment? >> Um, thank you, Mr. Chair. Um just
overall uh my philosophy is um when business partner has an issue you listen to them and I think that's very important and I think we've started that that process uh tonight. Um certainly looking forward to the working group and having representatives from the school
committee on there um and as a communications professional I think the most important thing in the world is communications. So, uh I'm really glad that u uh the entire select boards of both uh towns have gotten together tonight. I think what you'll find though
is that and I found the last couple years being on the uh school committee that um the priority of the school committee members regardless of what town they're from um they're all just Monoy and I've been very impressed all
the members that I have worked with the last two years and I have no doubt so many new members we have now too and everybody is just concerned about the the the students, the kids, the faculty, the entire community of the Monoy um
school district. So, looking forward to um going forward. >> Okay, Brad, thank you so much. Uh I I I'm I'm not going to look for a list of shared challenges or opportunities, which is the next item on the agenda. I think we've heard many of them this evening. Um, and I think part of the
conversation that became most salient, I think, was the issue with the elementary schools is what I heard and and and a revisitation of the assessment in any various ways, shapes, or forms, uh, in terms of whether it's enrollment or or capital or whatever. I mean, you put a lot on the table, at least potentially a
lot on the table. I know it wasn't a proposal. I get it. Um, and we get it. But I think it's grist. It's food for thought. It's food for thought. And I I appreciate the effort. Um, I thought it was a good effort. Uh, that being said, um, I'm going to turf it to, uh, public
comment. Uh, we we have about 20 minutes left in this meeting. Um, anybody, uh, here that would like to, uh, comment publicly here in the room in or online. It looks like I know that e that's Ela Gibbs. Elaine, I'll recognize you, Ela.
>> Uh, yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have shared my comments um to with the Statam Select Board about the history of regionalization that got us to this point and I'm glad to hear that no decisions are going to be made tonight.
I have to address the comment regarding the middle school that was made uh I believe by Mr. Petarski uh regarding the fact that we gave them a building with leaks. Um, we gave that school to the
district for $1. Uh, and we did that with 18 acres attached to it and that saved the district about $60 million in building a new middle school. So, I think that that comment, you have to have all the
details surrounding each event to fully understand what's going on. Um, and also Haritch's presentation mostly discussed the fact that they have no uh levy capacity left and that their health insurance costs have gone up,
retirement's gone up, collective bargaining's gone up, and they're only now looking at other ways to generate revenue. Um, we all have those issues. Chadam has the same ones and we've managed them. And uh I think that that's
something that they have to consider that it's not really our job to solve problems that they have at the um the townwide basis. It seems to me every time uh the uh residents and taxpayers
of Haritch are upset with the budget, they come to the the regional school district. Um the fact is Haritch the last time I looked at Harwitch and Chadam had comparable operating and overall budgets of about 85 million but
Haritch has twice as many taxpayers and twice as many residents. So I find it hard to conceive why you're you've decided to instead look at um property values
as uh was said by our town manager. Just because our uh tax base is very high in terms of real estate does not mean that does not translate in the ability to pay of many of our residents. So moving forward, I hope that you will
be open. Haritch will be as open-minded and to question why you're really coming to us. We seem to be in a position where we're asked to bail Harwitch out. And I I don't think that's right. I think we do more than our fair share. We pay more
per student uh than Harwitch does. And um those are my comments for now and I look forward to future meetings. Thank you. Okay, thank you Elaine. Any other public comment in the room here? Uh, Mr. Griska, I believe. Charles, familiar face, familiar voice.
Welcome. Give you a moment. And Brian, did you have your hand up? >> Oh, yeah. >> Okay. Is this the mic I'm going to use? >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. Uh, thank thank you, uh, Mr. Chair, and, uh, thank you for this meeting. Uh, I think the members of the
Haritch select board and many of the veteran members of the school committee realize that there may be fewer happier people in both towns than myself o over this meeting taking place and over the consensus that there seems to be that this is an important issue for both
towns that needs further study and action. Um, because they have heard from me for several years that this time was coming. I my background is uh I worked 34 years in the Wuset Regional School District, 24 as a principal. That was
the first regional school district in the state and it's now is still the largest geographic uh school district in the state. They set the bar. They were the first regional agreement. They set their funding formula by the uh
enrollment, student enrollment. And uh I've always thought that that was a really fair way to assess school costs. I'm realizing though uh one one of the things I want to point out is that that district was formed other districts then followed. That's why you see most of the
school districts in the state following that type of formula with few exceptions. But W choose it regionalized prior to Proposition 2 and a half and what my history has shown me and as I watch the development of what happened
in my district, I can see the writing on the wall happening in other districts and happening in this district. And that's where I started to sound the alarm a few years ago. um the the the enrollment formula doesn't take into the consideration
relative affordability of the towns and most town when they regionalize you get a situation where there is a difference in affordability levels of of the towns and what I've saw happen in my district and other districts to follow and seems to be the pattern for regional districts
is at some point one of the towns in the district hits the wall you you know, hits the limit. You know, that's happening to Haritch right now. And when that happens, what happens is that drives the budget for the entire
district around the towns that has the least level of affordability. Um because now to get your school budget through, you've got to get the agreement of the towns and the voters at the towns. And it's very difficult, as was
said, to get override agreements. So just something to keep in mind, you know, that there are multiple ways that could be considered fair ways to assess. Uh but that's the history of enrollment and that's where we've come. I was trying to sound the alarm, but we're
we're there today. And the important thing is it's very clear from the school district that we can no longer uh have school budgets that avoid overrides in Haritch that are going to maintain level services in in the Monoy district. One
of the things that happened in my district and it's happening actually for in this district for Cadam uh some of the towns could afford more of an assessment for the schools and wanted more of an assessment for the schools
because they saw what was happening to the education of their children and they didn't want those class sizes increasing. They didn't want programs cutting. And I can go down the list of programs that were cut during my time working in that district from art and
music at the elementary level, elementary and middle school libraries, counseling services, middle school athletics, um but transportation, etc. So in the last couple of years, Wusit um Monoy has had to cut its school
budget to meet the le levels of affordability for Harwitch. Well, that cut the Cadam assessment as well, which magnified the amount of school budget cut. And even if you as a town wanted to have a higher assessment, the fund the
funding formula in the region agreement would would prevent that. One town in my district went to went to the state and asked to rate have their assessment voluntarily increased and have those dollars attributed to to the town. and they were rejected because quite clearly
Desessie said, "Nope, you've got a contract, you've got an agreement, you've got to follow it." So, I just just that point of history that I haven't necessarily brought out before. And and secondly, as a taxpayer and I I also share having worked for 34 years in another district and coming to this
district, I've said it to Haritch and the school committee. They say to the people in CH, you have a phenomenal school system and you are you've resourced a phenomenal school system that would be the envy of any educator that I can think of throughout my career
would say we would love to work under the conditions that the Haritch and Cadam have provided for the students of the Monoy district to have. It's worth saving and it's saving us. This year it saved $2 million less than NSET and DY
as Superintendent Carpenter pointed out in charter school uh costs. And we were that much lower than either of those two school districts. We had a million dollars less than when we formed as a district in uh district school choice going out of the district. And we've
brought over a hundred students into the district from the other towns on the Cape. I raised my children prior to school choice and charter schools. I paid tuition through 12th grade for both of my daughters because my school district
could not provide the kind of education that would be required that I to meet my standards. If I had raised my were able to raise my children in the Monoy district, they'd be attending the Monoy schools. And with that, uh, I thank you for your attention and I'm I would hope
that both groups, uh, select boards agree to form a committee and study this issue and bring forth recommendations. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Mr. Riska. Anybody else in the public that would like to speak this evening? Uh, Mr. Brian Phillips. Uh, Brian Phillips, 374 Orleans Road.
Um, seems like the original agreement was pretty fair. The problem is we don't have kids. And I think where we were, you know, kind of bad partners in this is that we allowed unintended consequences of our failures affect you guys. And what what I mean by that is, uh, we basically allowed, you know,
short-term rentals, investment properties, the, you know, the massive development of these McMansions, which people can't live in year round, uh, to price out the local population and local families. And, um, so that's one of the major issues. And what I see with this
agreement, it almost uh you know snowballs. So the more you know families that are priced out, the less kids we have, the lower our tax rate is, and then the more uh desirable it is for, you know, developers and investment properties. So uh you guys have your hands full. That's all I have to say. Thanks.
>> Okay, Brian. Thank you. Uh yes, I see Mr. Troy with his hands up. Peter Troy, >> I just want to support the uh idea of the working group and um and one of the previous speakers spoke to the um what
we have here with the Monoy Regional School System, it is a gem. And I think uh with the affordable housing initiatives going on in our area, be that Haritch, Chadam, even Orleans and Brewster,
that's going to bring people to our area, which will will help with our workforce problem. But I think uh if we market this gem that we have, maybe some of the McMansions will get people living in
them year round and bring their kids with them. And uh that will help the uh the school population. So I think we need to do some out of the box thinking uh on that that we have a gem. Let's uh make sure more people know about it so
we can get some more students in and that will solve some of the other problems that are on the table tonight. Thank you. >> Thank you, Peter. Anybody else public comment? Okay, seeing and hearing none, um I'd like to turn it back to both boards and the regional school committee
for next steps and an action plan. I think we have certainly heard loud and clear a consensus of establishing a working group this evening. It's just a question of its makeup. Mr. Castro did suggest uh perhaps having more than one member of the select board. Um there's also been posited having finance
committee involvement and community member involvement. So I just want to hear some I think we need to have some feedback on the makeup of the committee itself um and what our thoughts are or aren't. And I I would assume I would assume that we would go back to our respective boards, have a discussion, and then meet again, if you will, in
agreement of what's what the what the group's going to be comprised of. I'm fairly comfortable what's with what's been um suggested already. Uh um community members I hadn't thought of. Uh we have some good ones. It does get to be a little large that would make it 13. But those are my initial thoughts
and certainly want to hear from my board. Corey, >> the one thing I wanted to follow up on was suggestion by Dr. Milan about having the students voice >> uh formalized in the committee or um what what was your vision of of that comment? So, we have um by law a student
representative on the school committee. So, I just think it would be great to have some sort of student on this committee as well. You know, we're hopeful that our students are the stu the people who come back, you know, as career, college, whatever, come back to our community and have their own families here. Like, that's the ultimate
goal, right, of a community and an educational system is that our children come back and live and work here. So, I I would like that, but if it just means if that's not, you know, acceptable to the committee, then we would um want to make sure that we collect feedback and send information out to them and collect
feedback back so that we hear their voice in what we're designing for them. >> Perfect. I appreciate that. Thank you. >> Thanks, Corey. Did somebody else have their hand up? Randy, did you have your hand up? Okay. Right, Pete. um thoughts and uh again I think we go back to our
my thought is we go back to our boards and say you know what say you we'll we'll make a suggestion as to who we think uh what might comprise the membership um if you will. >> Yeah, I think that's an excellent plan. We already have it listed on our agenda for this coming Monday uh to have this discussion. Uh of course we wanted to
get the feedback but we didn't want to not be able to have the discussion um on Monday. So, with that said, uh, personally, and I know some of my colleagues may disagree, but personally, I always get leery when the groups start to get too large, right? Because I think the train can easily get off track. However, I'm not opposed to what's been
proposed tonight. I'm not opposed to entertaining a second um, select board member on each uh, from each community. U,, clearly a discussion about a student rep is is in play, but um, again, when when we start to get over that nine or or 11 participants, I think it can uh,
get a little out of out of control. But I'll defer to any of my colleagues. >> Um, you know, in terms of select board members, I can imagine, especially during the summer, it doesn't mean necessarily one select board member all the time, one could alternate with another. I do agree. I don't want to get
I don't think it's a good idea to go larger. I think one of the most important things uh as I brought up to you, Mr. chairs that we have it on our Monday agenda that at least on what uh the the town administrator has proposed we could populate that on Monday and I
do think timeliness is important um you know we're going to be facing come next spring if we don't come to solution an override situ situation if it's at all possible if we can uh populate our committee sooner and meet during the summer the summer is not a bad time to
meet because we don't have a lot of other time-sensitive issues with the town. So, the sooner we can get going, the better. We can lay out the positions. We can investigate it. I I think as I look at the Chattam board, I think you have some very good board members and community members, and I
think we could come up with uh some ideas to bring back to the boards, but I do think timeliness is very important before we get busy with our fall agendas and and and warrants and things like that. >> Nobody Nobody decent on the highway side.
>> No, kidding, Mr. How? Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Picausski. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm going to end where I began. Uh, if you see a crisis coming up, it's a good idea to identify it and try to break it down and see what your possibilities are to avoid it. Talking
is always good. Putting this committee uh working group together is an excellent idea and I have a lot of faith it doesn't matter to me much whether it's 9, 11, 13, uh, a good idea is going to come to the top regardless of what the numbers of people are. but the commitment of both communities to talk
in a resolute way without yelling at each other and understand that it's the kids that are going to get affected not the adults and if we can remember that I think we'll be okay. >> Uh well said Don uh any other feedback from Cadam select board anybody
>> I could just continue Miss Det that's okay Mr. Handler >> thank you Mr. chair and I just want to say thank you to everybody involved here tonight and I have nothing more to add and I look forward to our discussion Monday night. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh Jay, anything you want to
add? Any comments? >> Thank you. >> Yes, Brad, please. >> Mr. Chair, and I I address it to both chairs. Um uh we have not finalized our subcommittees yet. Generally, we were planning on having two members uh from
each town to be on a working group. Understood from the first one to not say you won't want 35 people uh on it. So, uh but we were we were planning on that. Um you know, I think it's important to have the voices of the school committee. Um but you know, certainly leave that up
to you to determine what the right number is going to be. So, >> okay. I appreciate that, Brad. Um, so we're going to get it on our agenda for Tuesday night. So, uh, we haven't published ours yet, so we'll add it. We have a long agenda for Tuesday night,
but we we'll add that. I think it's very important. I do think it's important to be timely, as Mark just noted. Um, Robin. Yes, Robin. >> I understand the idea of being timely. I just want to remind everybody that this type of agreement, if it does change that regional agreement, that is a
process. uh you know obviously and we've gone over this and over this but I just want to remind people who might not know it needs to be done at town meetings you need to have a positive vote from both meetings but you also have to make sure that the commissioner agrees and last time we sat the commissioner uh the proposal and I was not with the district
at the time but they want to change a lot of things like language and legal language and things like that and goes back and forth so I think the working committee should be thinking about having a short-term plan for the immediate future and the concerns that Harri and we've raised today. But we also need to then look at a long-term
plan. And my suggestion would be to do something similar to what some of the other regional districts who have done an efficiency study and a regionalization study is find some outside consultants. So NASA just recently referenced it. Mr. Dikens went out and did a regionalization and an efficiency study. They hired they got a
grant and we have the name of the grant. We're pursuing it. We spoke to um Mr. from McGrill today about possibly them helping us with their grant writer um to see that because if we rush this we're going to be back here and again these are long-term problems but we need short-term solutions. So I that my
recommendation would be yes get the working committee to add a priority thing statement about what happens this year and then look at the long-term tenure goals of the community and the district and you know so NSED had consultants run the working group
outside people you know protocols those type of things they had demographer study they had a projection study they had a capital study with architects and things like that so it will take some time but that would be my recommendation Okay, Robin, well said as well. Um uh
yeah, I I mean I think I agree. Uh the I get the sense though that when I hear the numbers that the elementary school issue is more near-term than not. Um I just I get that sense that those numbers are are were precipitous in terms of their decline and they're they're
alarming in my mind. Yeah. Um, and not and frankly with the exodus of of families that you enumerated, not surprised. We we've and to what Mr. Phillips said, we've been experiencing the same issue with respect to year- round housing, short-term rentals, in
availability of of of housing, boils down to affordable housing, which we don't have. >> Okay. And jobs. Jobs, too. Jobs, too. So, I mean, yes, long-term, short-term, but I feel as though the issues are accelerating rather than de decelerating. That that's all. So,
again, that's that was my point about timeliness. Okay. So, we're going to add we have an agenda item to a long agenda already. And uh any summary comments by anybody that would like to like to speak? Any any summary comments? Yes, please. Yes, Lucia.
>> Lucia, you have to come to a microphone, please. I'm sorry, but I just want to support Robin and others comments about um having students represented. Um they can be the conscience. It's their future
that's being decided and the future of their siblings. Um they are in many cases smarter than we are and they certainly have a view of the future that we do not. Um and they're worried.
They're worried about many things. Um >> we should hear those concerns and not not assume that because we're on a board or we're adults or we're parents or we're grandparents that we know more than they do. uh their wisdom will
embarrass us >> and and we should be embarrassed >> also. Well said. Okay. >> All right. So, >> real briefly, Jeff, if I could, I just want to take a second to to thank the school board and thank administration for being here. And of course, thanks to
to the folks here in Chadam, specifically uh the select board and and town manager Jill Goldmith. We appreciate the hospitality. We appreciate the opportunity to come before or sit with you and have this conversation. And again, truly what it what it signifies is something extremely
important to both communities and and we're appreciative of your your willingness to to form a group form a group, sit at the table and see um if if something can develop that helps both communities support the school system and and de deliver a better product for
all. So, thanks again. >> Well said, Pete. Thank you so much. Yep. Okay. And thank you to the folks from Haritch as well for being here and the folks in the public that spoke. Okay. I'll take a motion to adjurnn. I think we should adjourn your group and then we'll adjourn mine and then have Brad >> a motion >> and a second. All those in favor?
>> I unanimous. >> Okay. A motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. We'll call a role. Mr. Smith >> I. >> Miss Potach. >> Hi. >> Mr. Meadows. >> Hi. >> Mr. Niccastro. >> I. >> And Mr. Dykin says I as well. And Mr. Schiff.
>> Motion to adjurnn. Second. >> That was Brett and second. Second. And it was Rich. All those in favor? >> All those opposed. You guys have it. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you everyone very much for this evening. Thank you very much.