##VIDEO ID:2j358sDFwms## okay welcome everybody I will call the meeting school committee meeting for October 23rd um to order and we do have uh several boards with us so I will let you guys call yourselves to order as well call the gr the dun select board meeting call The Dun advisory committee to order no okay all right um well I just want to welcome everybody here tonight um La just one second um so the inadvertently the the grot and select board didn't get posted so Matt and I are here as individuals so just kind of a heads up that any questions or opinions we express are our own and any kind of consensus we reach we'll have to go back to the board so okay that makes I know that'll make a huge difference tonight um well I thought before we get started uh we do have several new faces at the table um so I thought we could just take a quick quick few minutes and just go around the room quickly just say your name and um what board or position you are here representing um so Clint do you want to start uh Clint Keeny I'm here with the dunable Advisory Board Leo totic dpal Advisory Board arol Simmons Vice chair dpal advisory uh Timothy Stewart Advisory Board uh Jake lean chair of The Advisory Board uh Kieran Mi dunable select board Leah bban D select board Jason Silva Town Administrator dun Lori safy CPAC rep Rohit Bine uh school committee Rosanna CIA school committee Sher Cy what I Director of Finance for the school district first D Francisco assistant superintendent of schools uh Jeff Bruno superintendent of schools Acy mcab school committee yasine Chima school committee F rer school committee Katherine Nawa school committee Christina Andreoli school committee B Robertson chairman gron Finance Mary Linsky Gren Finance Alison gr select board Matt B gr select board Mark Hadad gron Town manager Patricia du assistant Finance director Gren all right thank you everybody um so the purpose of tonight's meeting um is to kind of begin our budget process um and have both towns and the school district have the opportunity to provide each other as well as the community if anybody is watching um an overview of where we are at this point in our budget process and provide kind of a forecast of where we're going and kind of our next steps um so we do have um Mark and Jason here and I believe that they are going to start with the town um presentations and then we'll move on to the school presentation and then um I would say that after all of the presentations are complete we can move into a question and discussion period so that sounds okay to everybody all right excellent um Jason would you like to start I'd love to start hi everybody I'm Jason Sila Town Administrator for those I have not met um all right there it is so we went we've gone through a similar process um as last year uh Through The Advisory Board and select board we've created a financial forecast for the next five years again similar to what we did last year I want to we should stress that this is very much a preliminary for for this is not a budget things are definitely going to and will change as the year progresses so I just want to put that out there these are not definite numbers these aren't numbers um in concrete right now but they are educated assumptions based on um past history Trends so our first if you want to move to the next slide so these are this is essenti I'm not going to go through every assumption that we've made but this this is a list of the assumptions we've made um generally speaking we've estimated 2% increase in salaries in 1% in general expenses and it goes on from there but the basis of the um information that I'm going to present are these numbers move to the next slide and we can if anyone has any questions in more detail we can go back after that so our Revenue comes from three major sources um our new Revenue comes from three major sources verus our new growth which is new construction new development annually we assume consistently $110,000 in New Growth um based on history our local receipts we assume 750,000 those are locally um generated revenues through fees permits Etc and then our state aid we assume a 2% increase free cash is not really a revenue stream however the town of dunable uses free cash to balance every year so um I included it on the revenue slide just so everyone understands that free cash is a source of funds that we use to balance in this forecast in FY 26 NE next fiscal and FY 27 we are planning an annual reduction of $100,000 uh of free cash to try to get away from the practice similar to what the school committee and school district is doing to try to get away from the practice of relying on free cash to balance our budget next slide so this is a broad overview um what it really is trying to demonstrate is that our major source of Revenue shockingly I know no one's going to be shocked by this is um real estate taxes in 25 it's 86% of our Revenue 26 it's uh forecasted to be 87% of our Revenue the increase in Reliance is basically because we're reducing our uh a free cash um Reliance annually so can move to the next slide this is just a breakdown of the tax levy we can grow two and a half as everyone knows plus new growth and the excluded debt that um we've that voters have approved for specific capital projects the the high the upper graph um is a comparison between the levy increase and our expenditure increase year-over-year so you'll see in 25 our act our actual expenditure increase was um was less than our Levy increase again the cause for that is because we removed a portion of free cash a significant actually portion of free cash from our Revenue stream this fiscal year to balance so that's the explanation for that but you see in our forecast moving forward there's a significant gap between our expenditure increase in expended in an expected Levy increase next slide this is just a description I'm not going to go in great detail state aid is a very small portion of our Revenue stream it's about 3% annually um and local receipts as I said are between generally between 700 and $750,000 annually go to the next slide this is just to give people a sense of where our local receipts come from the significant portion of our local receipts come from motor vehicle excise the next largest is building permits here's a breakdown of our free cash use in our free cash balance um you'll see on the the left graph um our balance is higher than it's been since 20 uh I think it's 2018 and that's because we were able to reduce on the right side reduce um the usage of free cash in F by 25 by about $250,000 you can go next slide so this is a breakdown of our annual expenses um our major expense is um the schools 65% of our overall um expenses and um the next the next highest is Public Safety at 12 next slide this is the forecast it increases so generally on the town side we're between 3 3 and a half% growth we're seeing in most areas um on the school side we projected initially 7.57 we'll go over the what it Where It's At now but it has been reduced slightly for FY 26 this is a breakdown of our new available Revenue to try to give us a sense on the town of dun side on what we have to um to allocate as new Revenue next year so overall the number is right around 400 it's $43,000 because right now in our forecast we are planning to remove $100,000 of free cash we need to reduce the available Revenue by that amount so it's around $300,000 and if you break it up um 6535 uh School Town you'll see the breakdown of um of the allocation about $197,000 for the schools which um is a 2.36% increase overall in the town um 106 to 2.33% so these are the projected deficits for 26 through 30 um for 26 where the forecast when it was put together um estimated about a $540,000 um deficit and it grows from there just one thing to remember when you're looking at those numbers because it does grow quite a bit over the years is as you address it one year the out years reduce accordingly as well so if you're able to address it in one year you know everything goes down so since since we compiled the forecast there have been two um substantial changes one is our retirement assessment unfortunately we projected a 5% growth in our retirement assessment year-over-year we were just notified by middle sex retirement that we're um expected to to see a almost 31% increase which is wildly more than what we anticipated um they have provided an option to spread that over two years um so we are looking at that option now but it's still a much larger it's about a 20% increase rather than a 31% increase so that's a that's having a significant impact on the town side and then the grant Dunstable Regional School District assessment went from 757 to 7.24 which was a reduction of about $26,000 go the next so this is with all that information taken into account this is these are the projected deficits that um we're carrying right now so for the town side 117,000 and for the grant dville Regional School District 486,000 next SL this is another illustration just to make the point that the expenditure increases that we're seeing just for this isn't like adding on extravagant things these are Level service budgets we're talking about so just the increase in expenditures is um quite a bit more than the revenue increase that we're seeing year over year that's fine so just to give you a quick update on process so we're ahead of where we were last year fortunately so our budget worksheets have gone out we have budgets back Department budgets back we have meetings set up already to start reviewing our department budgets we've had a meeting of the Tricom um and fortunately that work between the town of Gant and town dunable and the school district is continuing and that collaboration and communication is continuing which is um I thought really helpful last year and I expect it to be the same this year also Al Capital requests our Capital requests are in and we have meetings um we're going to review those at the same meetings we do the budget next Slide the select board and Advisory Board have adopted new Financial policies to put some structure in place on how we're dealing with our finances and what some Target goals um we have for reserves free cash financial planning both on Capital and our budget so um um I think the Financial policies put a good stronger framework in place for us to follow to make sure that we're paying attention to things like our stabilization fund to make sure we're paying attention to our capital and funding those things accordingly next slide I just wanted to point some of this stuff out for for um for the masses watching this at home um so we are doing what we can to control costs and um and pursue Revenue sources so one of the things we're in the process of doing now is looking at Municipal aggregation program to help stabilize and potentially lower electricity rates for residents we know we're having a hard time saving their money on the tax bill but we're looking at other ways to save them money and this is hopefully if if not save money at least provide some stability in their electric bills um we did go through a process with the select board to um look at our Municipal fee structures in we did make adjustments um on our Municipal fees um we have a special town meeting on the 18th of November one of the things on the warrant is to um pursue um authorization to locate a cell tower on the water tank we put an RFP out we received one bid to do that and so that is will be a revenue generator for generator for us um We are continuing work with um master plan implementation land use and economic development committees um and so that work continues and I put the school district will talk about this in much greater detail and much greater knowledge but um we have been part of conversations they're calling it project 211 I guess but it's um really really important in critical conversations around the Chapter 70 formula and how districts like um the gr dunsville Regional School District it's called project to 11 because there are 211 20111 districts in the Commonwealth that are going through the exact same scenario as we are every year and so we are not alone and there's really important conversations happening with that group there was a kickoff meeting that we a lot of us here were a part of and um to me that's like if if not the most critical one of the most critical issues that we're facing is the fact that the Chapter 70 formula is not keeping up with just cost of living and inflationary increases that we're all experiencing I think that's it got anything else yeah no okay that's it thank you very much okay thank you Jason um Mark you ready yep thank you I'm G to be a lot shorter uh than Jason gron uh dun is actually ahead of Gren in in the budget planning this year so congratulations Jason great job um the gron select board and finance committee will be meeting together on Tuesday uh October 29th and that's their annual budget kickoff meeting which will will provide the town manager and the finance team with guidance to start the budget process on a positive note the charter amendment that gr and passed last year to give the town 30 more days to put the budget together passed so instead of having to put a budget out on December 31st I now can do it on January 31st so that gives us more time to work with the School District in the town of dunable to um get you know to continue with the collaboration I agree with Jason 100% the collaboration that started last year is continuing this year and I really I'm excited about that as as Jason is so I'm I'm going to just give a brief overview of what's going on in gron right now so these are some of the challenges that gron is facing for next year on the plus side our pension budget's going to be level funded so that's some positive news to to Gren um our health insurance we got together with uh we joined Maya last year for health insurance and they are telling us that we should probably look at about a 7% increase the positive about that is last year at this time we received a 133% increase when we were part of the minute man the Sha health group so that's some positive uh news for the town of Gren so that's about $151,000 increase in health insurance uh a big question mark going into next year is our our Union negotiations all six of our Union contracts are up next year so we'll be sitting down with our unions we've already started meeting with some of them um but that's going to be a challenge with regards to the budget uh for for next year for planning the biggest impact and the and our biggest concern is the closure of the MOBA Valley Medical Center and its impact on the fire department we've gone from 8 minute travel time and a total of a 30 minute uh turnaround trip to nooba Valley Medical Center on a normal am average ambulance run to a 24 minute trip and a 2hour turnaround to get our firefighters back in town that is just that's four times what we're doing right now it is a major problem and is something that we're going to have to address in fiscal year 26 there's no hope that Thea Valley Medical Center is going to open and we need to worry about the way we protect our uh our residents with regards to Emergency Medical Services one of the things we're looking at is expanding our fire department and doubling the Manpower within the fire department or person power within the fire department which would go for from eight full-time firefighters to 16 full-time firefighters that is about a million doll increase or more for the Department that you can't even deal with that in in a regular operating budget anything having to do with that fire department will be in an override situation for the town of gron we're just starting that process but it is something that we're facing next year and it is a major problem and a major challenge for the town of gron the preliminary assessment from the um gr and dun Regional School District is estimated to rise in gron by 6.84% or an increase of $1.8 million you'll see that number is very important when we go to the next slide when you see what we're anticipating for new revenues for next year our tax levy increase we're looking to see about $ 1.2 million increase our estimated receipts we really over budgeted them last year to try to make up extra revenue and so we're being a little bit more conservative with them this year because we missed a couple of them last year we fortunately had a good year on investment income which which softened the blow but that's still a major problem we're only looking at a $54,000 increase and Jason you are much more optimistic with the state at 2% I'm only looking at 1% so our total revenue increase is $1.2 million or anticipated increase about $1.25 million obviously the gr and dunable increase alone exceeds that number which puts us into sort of a difficult position going into next year so the way we look at the distribution dunable does it 6535 gron is 60% school and 40% uh Municipal so that would be if you divided those revenues that would set aside $755,000 for the school district and $53,000 for the municipal budget if we did that straight split on revenues if you go to the next slide currently without considering that Staffing level uh to the um to the fire department we're looking at an increase of about 445,000 that is very rough I haven't gotten guidance from the finance committee I was just in in the select board I just did some preliminary numbers looking at Trends over the last couple of years so the Departments haven't even given me their budgets yet but it's looking like 2.6% increase or about $443,000 that would leave $816,000 for the school district or an increase of 3% it's still a million do less than what the preliminary um estimate from the school district is for fiscal year 26 on the final slide that I have for you um I tried to get away last year and I applaud Jason for doing a fiveyear uh Outlook I think five years is dangerous and I didn't want to put those kind of numbers up there so I sort of shrunk ours back to three years and if you look going into next year we're looking at about a $750,000 overall deficit when you look at the the school district versus the the the the town budget and what we're anticipating for increases and then of course as Jason pointed out it will increase to 2.6 and 27 and 4.6 and 28 the important message that I think the residents and everybody has to have is everything that we said last year relative to the budget impact of not passing an override has come to fruition we still have deficits in the in the town and I know we're going to hear from from Jeff and Sherry right now on the major impacts that lack of override had you know what how bad it hurt the school district nothing has changed a year did not make the problem go away we're still facing the same challenges next year that we faced in fiscal year 25 I look forward to working with the school district and the town of dunable and of course the gr select board and finance committee as we as we grapple with these I'm very excited that the Tricom is continuing and I think we have a we're off to a good start and I think we'll continue to uh to to work collaboratively as we try to address these issues but we we're in tough shape next year thank you Lacy thank you okay um Bruno and Sher guys want to take it from here how's that GNA break the mic okay we're gonna um pingpong this a little bit uh between Sher and myself but I wanted to start um really doing doing two things this evening um first understanding and just providing some slides on the um the budget impact to the district as a whole um in fy2 and then previewing uh FY 26 and where we are snapshot really where we are as of right now in the budget process so um those are those are the three areas as I just mentioned first uh the budget impact of fy2 um and I really split that into kind of three main bullets uh academic uh student support and special education uh and then preliminary budget development so um how are we meeting student needs and then talking uh Jason mentioned it a bit in his uh presentation as well looking at um funding and revenue through Chapter 70 and the impact that that has uh locally and with our uh Town assessments both in gron and bule um and then just outline what's next so um just first uh these were the uh 25 positions that were cut um as we opened the school year this fall um and I kind of listed out the positions and what you can see as you're going through them is is all departments and and all schools all grade levels uh K to2 were affected so um we had special education teachers uh throughout the district counselors um as well as content area and classroom teachers um administrative assistants uh really every every uh curriculum coordinators it was um it was tough and and it's definitely impacted um how we operate and ultimately obviously how we meet uh the needs of our students uh as far as the academic impact um just to outline math intervention was cut so we actually have our uh districtwide math supervisor taking on math intervention duties at swallow Union floro floro has one time full-time math interventionist there uh the groups this is another one I we just just underway in the school year so so um we're continuing to identify groups and students who need interventions so this this will uh the impact of this cut will will I think continue to be felt obviously as we go through the school year um Library technology teachers and uh both floro and swallow Union were cut uh we had high school social studies math and ELA teachers cut at the high school level um which is impacted class size but um more importantly in in my view uh particularly at the high school we really um uh at the edge of not being able to offer a breadth of uh studies that we need uh for a comprehensive High performing High School uh so the class size is I'm going to show in a in a an upcoming um slide was definitely impacted in all buildings uh as far as curriculum coordination uh really stressing the need for all of our Educators um to be part of how we lead and how we evolve as as Educators um we we've worked to partially restore uh some of the stiens for Teacher leaders uh to to particularly at the high school level um department heads and teacher leaders so that we can um maintain our program of studies far as uh Health wellness and social emotional learning uh lost a district social worker and then almost two full uh nursing positions which has most severely impacted um our middle school and also Florence Roach new school additional 120 students at in the new building um and we had to close uh the health center in the north building seven and eight so seventh and eighth grade students uh need to go to um our Mari and Stoddard building fifth and sixth grade um for the nurse and then Middle School counseling as well um losing um the one counselor now means that our eighth grade students have um basically split into three different counselors taking on um basically three additional grade levels and then a third of the eth grade um and just also to point out that there was some significant cuts the year previous at the high school uh both to a guidance counselor and an assistant principal uh which obviously impacted um how we run and manage um and support our students special education services and student support uh the team chair positions that were cut uh impacts all three of our schools um or all of our all four of our schools rather K through 12 uh special education teachers which I had mentioned earlier a district social worker reading interventionist and then a bcba um in terms of supporting our behavioral needs and assessment and supporting our teachers with our students as well um and then this SL slide just kind of outlined through the district kind of looking at class size from last year to this year so Florence roach uh and swallow Union overall if you take all the grade levels in home rooms together uh there hasn't been a huge impact in terms of increasing class size but within each grade level cport there have been some changes uh also recognizing that 120 students uh moved from swallow Union to Florence roach which obviously impacts the number of classrooms that we have and it's a little more challenging to try and balance to BL balance our classrooms to ensure we have appropriate um class sizes I can tell you uh the two kindergarten classrooms at swallow Union 23 and 25 is is very high uh for our kindergarten students um the good news is we have uh such talented teachers and support you know we're we're we're making the best of it but um the class sizes at the elementary level are really at their limits even for the sizes of the rooms um as far as the Middle School averages take into account that um there those are basically averages of all of our sections core academics and then also um IAS so in middle school I mean there's probably over 200 250 sections of of classes that you're averaging from um we have some chorus class sizes that are in the one in particular I was just in today that 72 kids um and you know some PE and IIA classes that are that are in the high 30s low 40s um that's really impacted the overall average at the Middle School uh from last year to this year about just under 22 on average to about a little over 23 uh when you take into account all of the classes as a straight average and the high school is actually um an average of two students per classroom and again there's a much more diverse number of kids across different classes depending on what you're looking at the high school but the averages have gone up um significantly just from last year to this year which is concerning um just some common themes you know the staff is definitely feeling as if they're stretched thin taking on additional responsibilities and tasks outside of the area of expertise uh many are feeling like they're being asked to do more with less um our counseling case flows as I was mentioning have really uh increased and then our nursing coverage particularly at the middle school has been a has been a challenge but it's also been felt throughout the schools our class size is really at its limit um in my estimation K through 12 and again I mentioned you know the the number of electives that we're able to offer our students and then also course offerings in including um some advanced placement classes are we're right on the edge of really um if we were to cut any more or lose any more classroom instruction or teachers qualified to teach um you know advanced placement classes or more advanced coursework it's really going to impact the pathways that we need to have available to all of our high school is um all right so we're going to downshift into FY 26 here and talk about where we are in terms of preliminary budget development we're we're early on um in our process and so I'm going to turn it over to Sherry a little bit we're going to talk about um budget guidance and and where we are for this year okay thank you the school committee has already voted on and given us our marching orders for our budget guidance and these are the points that they wanted us to focus on this year uh we've already started talking about the sport fee with a family cap we talked about that at the last school committee meeting um we will revisit kindergarten fees um and seeing if we can incorporate some of those costs back into the general fund to reduce the uh fee to the families uh looking at a five-year comprehensive 5year Capital plan with the help of getting a facilities ass assment so we can get a real handle on what our building needs are going to be um for the next 5 years um the operational audit that we've talked about uh since we settled this last budget um that is going to be out to bid um and we'll come back with some data on efficiencies uh the re review of the regional agreement which again it is written right in the regional agreement that every five years it will be reviewed this is year so we will be doing that and to continue to reduce our Reliance on end um and I think all of you may have gotten the email that our end did get certified already so we're already ahead of the game on that um so we know how much that we have available and can use now it's I for the general public it's like 1. 226 uh 1, 226,000 uh here's some of the uh drivers that we use to develop our Five-Year Plan um collective bargaining agreements we'll talk about that alone in its next slide um again the health dental life insurance we have a 10% health insurance increase built into the um preliminary numbers uh we'll see how that comes out our middle sex retirement is a little bit higher as well this year or expected in 26 and we're probably going to do the method that Jason was talking about where we're going to smooth the two-year bump evenly over two years um I do have in there opv at $220,000 which again we know that is really a placeholder if the 20,000 is needed and other places that we can discuss that but um all things considered keeping things equal that assumption is in there for contracted Services um most we went up 2% the cleaning contract because it's a bubble year is like 17% um that will be part of the audit for efficiencies to meet see if that is still on track to still be more efficient than having our own um student support in evaluation can range anywhere from 2 to 40% depending on what services are being required of ips um professional development again we either went up 0% or 2% it does not include at this point adding back the um curriculum coordinators um again this is level Services what I was building and at this point that was level uh for substitutes you know that we have been trending higher 10% I kept in there to keep up with that Trend supplies 2% Transportation our contracts were 3.3 our special ed is a 23% increase um it's part of the um increase on that is we have more students going out of District um and more more special ed students so it's kind of a combination of the price and where the students are going and our homeless Transportation doubled um we do as much as we can to cost share with surrounding schools um but that is um an area that that has been growing out of District tuitions um in looking at the placements of what we currently have in the inflation is about 8 and a half to 10% increase utility is going up 2 to 5% um electricity 10% and and some of that is because of the Florence Ro building just having more square footage we're making allowances for that and then $50,000 more expense at the at the high school for water because we're going to be tied into City uh Town water hopefully by 2026 which wasn't a cost that we had before uh an update on our collective bargaining so one of the major things that we talked about last year is this was what we were working on we have come to an agreement with the um teachers union and so the the items that are tied to a financial impact um on on a good note the um the membership agreed over the three-year contract through a 5% um shift and cost on the premium so they'll be picking up not this year but next year they'll pick up an additional 3% and the year after that an additional 2% so that will save theol District over a half a million dollars during um the duration of this agreement the salary increases total 9% over the three uh fiscal years which is a 3% each year um longevity incentive was updated the hourly rate for hours that are beyond their contract um was adjusted and that is applied to like when they do extra PD off hours um or they do SUB coverage and then the substitute rate um the way that they were if a teacher had a a prep period and we needed a substitute they could elect to use their prep time to help substitute in a class and after they accumulated so much time they got their per DM rate now their per DM rate is based on where they fall on the contract for so it could be anywhere from $300 to over $500 for the sub and that was a cost driver and why our substitute rates were going up so high so we were able to um put in instead of going from for per DM it's going to be at the $4 an hour rate so this will save the district uh money as well as a strategy to do that so just wanted to give you that update so what else is included in here um going back to the directive from the school committee we I have Incorporated a third of the kindergarten expenses that are now collected with fees which is $125,000 this year um and then reduced out so that's on the expense side expenses go up reduce the Reliance of v and as a revenue Source from 500,000 to 400,000 so revenues went down so that right there is a $225,000 swing um in a level service in updating the fiveyear um projection calculation so that that was expenses now we're on to revenue um for our state aid I have included $30 a student which has been the typical um I have a spe another slide for that that would show that chapter 71 which is transportation reimbursement going up about 3% the charter reimburse I do a fiveyear average because it fluctuates it goes up and down every year so um hit it at the fiveyear and level funded our Medicaid reimbursement for our local resources um kept the Peter Tumi rent the same interest income it I did again over a fiveyear average miscellaneous Revenue that we get is $10,000 and again end was reduced down to 400,000 um just to show you how much are if giving a dollar value to how um minimal our aid from Chapter 70 increases every year um you can see that in fy19 we got $30 of students the same in fy20 in fy21 it was we didn't get it in Chapter 70 we got s money in instead um and so I I wanted to make sure that I indicated that I again it was $30 a student in 23 and 24 it was 60 when they were developing the 25 budget they went back down to 30 um that is where it was when we were certifying our budget and the towns were passing our budget at um town meeting and then at the end of July when they those State landed on their budget we are getting 101 I'm sorry $104 per student which is great however our budget did was not built using that extra money as a revenue source so there's no way there's no expenses tied to that so that money will roll into end at the end of the year um but again the good a good part of that is the 104 Mark will now become our Baseline for hold harmless so they will see an increase there um so Sherry shared the the recent history and then we decided to go back even further um and so there's a whole lot of data on this slide um and this one and I think the the graph that's next will kind of understand why um we put this together but uh this slide which is uh straight from the desie website really outlines uh the history of Chapter 70 that will actually go back all the way to the beginning beginning of um Ed reform in '93 but the the the numbers that jumped out at me and and this just goes back to fiscal year 08 is um the Chapter 70 amount in fiscal year 08 was 10,757 th000 roughly um our chapter Aid our chapter 78 in fiscal year 24 was 11,261 93 so virtually the same a little there a very slight increase over a period of of um 15 16 years whereas the required local contribution um for br and dunable went from 12 million to roughly 12 million to 22 million over that same time span so um the increase costs associated with education and funding funding schools uh has certainly Fallen a lot more on local sources of revenue than than State subsidy um and then this this graph really I think um drives drives that point home so the orange bars that you can see here and this is going back to fiscal year 1993 so this is a little more than 30 years worth of data um the orange bars represent our our state's subsidy for br and Dunstable um the blue bars represent um the foundation budget um and then the the dotted line there represents required net School spending minimum uh in order to adhere to state law so some of this is uh as as Jason was mentioning as part of his uh this project to1 is really looking at there are actually 229 districts in fy2 that are in this hold harmless state so what that means is is you know the the state subsidy funds is is regardless of your enrollment you will receive the same amount of Aid as you received last year plus x amount of dollars per student which is is what Sherry was referencing so there are there are 200 almost 230 districts across the Commonwealth that have essentially outgrown right the funding formula and and so regardless of how things um occur those those Associated costs as you can see just um are now that burden essentially is being shifted much more onto the local um assessments add anything did I get any of that right good job um okay so looking at our current budget and what percentage of um each Revenue source is of our total budget um you I'm not going to read the numbers you you can see them um just want to make sure that it's noted that the amount that it has here for grotten does not include the $619,000 um gift amount um but Chapter 70 is 23% of our budget and pretty much that percentage goes down every year because the Dunstable and groten um amounts go up and then everything else is is pretty small those are those are our three big Revenue sources so after we updated the fiveyear projection we gave the towns their assessments their preliminary very preliminary assessments um with the increases being to Dunstable 7.24 into grotten 6.84 um that doesn't mean our our budget grew at that same amount our budget is actually increase overall uh 6.9 so what if the towns don't have the funding for the assessment um if no other Revenue can be identified to f the need then we would in order to uh balance a budget we would need to reduce our estimated preliminary budget by $2.1 million I think in the estimates that Laura was giving um last year it was about 1.8 so um I think this is pretty in line where we we thought we were going to fall so if we could if if all we had was a balanced budget what does that look like for increases um you can see that the increase from Dunstable would be about $90,000 or 1.1% they gr an assessment because it's tied by a formula in the regional agreement um would the maximum they would be able to give is 203,000 which is a 75% increase and our our budget at that point would only be increasing by 2.4 and um I don't know if I have this I don't um one other thing I just wanted to share that with us not getting the um override last year our operating budget actually only increased by 0.91% in 25 so where what's next um on Monday we do have our worksheets out to our principes and directors um they're due back to me on Monday we have a meeting with all of us um and Jeff and myself to discuss their um what other goals that they may have that and things sorry resources that we may need in order to reach um goals that are in our district goals are uh District Improvement plans their school Improvement plans um and again we will address like what is happening in the classrooms now and if there's something that they want to swap expenses for if they if they need a different type of teacher or nurse or guidance counselor um but we're going to have that discussion as a group not in each individual so that as a district we're going to be talking about um everybody's going to have um a knowledge of what's going on in every school and um work together to um serve the try to give the best budget we can um so what else is going on is as we've said U many times we're going to have Regional agreement Consulting coming in we'll be working with left field um to do uh an me assessment to help with a 5year capital plan and we have the oper audit that will come with recommendations and we will communicate out those results that's what's happened to date is we had a um a meeting just a preliminary on August 28th so that we knew we were still all going to be supporting one another and and sharing information um the school district has approved its Guidance with a timeline we're meeting tonight um a good thing like Market said the town Charters give us another month so that'll that'll help um because the State numbers usually come out think the third week in July I'm sorry in January or or July um but so hopefully we will have stronger numbers when we have to ask for certification yeah and I would just add on on that meeting on the 29th I mean we're really looking line by line um in every school we're looking at Personnel we're looking at absolutely everything to see make sure that we're meeting our students needs and being very very specific and looking at all different ways that we can make um the best use of the resources that we have okay thank you um Jeff and Sherry and um thank you to Mark and Jason for being here and presenting all that information I think that it's very helpful I think as we start this next budget cycle um that we're all aware of um really what's going on in each of the towns in the district I think that there are some common themes in terms of the challenges that we're facing but there's also unique challenges for each town and the district as well um so with that I would like to open it up for discussion and question can I ask a can I ask a question yeah Sher um what was the fiscal year 24 certif I that it's 1.2 this year do you have what remember off the top of your head what last year's was I can have that in one minute okay so what what I'm thinking is that $104 um that you have which is substantially over what you're budgeted for that's going to flow to free cash would that allow the school committee to reconsider taking or reducing eend this year uh for fiscal year 26 and not weaning off it because you're going to have extra end in that account so we could probably use that um to to help offset the increases to dunable and Gren in terms of the budget next year does that make sense no yes yes even even if there was some thought given to using it for Capital and to obsc our Capital cost to the school district that that helps I'm sorry Jason I going back and forth I apologize that helps dble because you use your operating money oh you use I use I use free cash and stuff like that so that doesn't really help grotten using it to offset the operating helps Gren got it got it thank you so I think I understand your question um and I think it's definitely something that could be looked at um it would some it would be something that I think the school committee would have to take up and and deliberate on and discuss but I certainly understand that suggestion thank you yes Mark the to answer your question the end for um last year was 1,459 455 so went down a little bit okay thank you sh yeah and I will tell you um I think in 23 we we ended the year with a surplus or unspent expenses of 61,000 out of a $47 million budget this year we ended up with 16,000 so every year we're getting like that that's essentially zero understood can I ask a question yeah so you know last year there's a lot of effort put into getting information out and informing residents and such and I think we were pretty clearly told by our colleagues and residents in town that they don't want an override or their taxes to go up substantially and I can't help but appreciate all the hard work we're all putting in but nothing's really changed so what plan is there like that like it's we're in the same we're in the same conversation Circle that we were last year and like I I don't know if you're going to change the minds of Voters and residents and citizens because it's the same page that we they were given last year yep no I totally I hear your point um and you're not wrong this is exactly where we were at this time last year and um so I think you know any of my colleagues can kind of weigh in or anybody from the school side but I think from my perspective I think um you know the school district is doing a few things that we said we would do which is number one the operational audit um that's where we have somebody come in from the outside to kind of do an analysis of everything and make recommendations for where we can save money um I think just a second was I um I think that um you know we're looking at as Jeff mentioned you know he's going to be going line by line and and kind of analyzing our budget to look for any efficiencies that can be found internally um so we are trying to do whatever we can but the reality is with our Chapter 70 funding remaining stagnant um the problem is really larger than making adjustments internally you know it really at some point there is going to need to be some kind of Revenue that's derived from somewhere else because truly this isn't an issue solely with just that we can solve through Cuts if that makes sense so yeah you know anybody can weigh in and and offer their own perspectives there but that's kind of my two cents and I did hear um Mark and Jason kind of share some similar um strategies you know Jason talked about what is going on in dble with respect to the electricity you know trying to save residents of money in other ways as well so you know I think um your point is very well taken and I think it's we have a lot of work to do here um but I think that's sort of like this is the start of it yeah I mean I know I was famous for the meeting last year of the Year prior where I said what's the one page that I can give to somebody at Dunkin Donuts in dun school like give me a onepage piece of paper to tell them why it's so important Y and that type of informational Blitz Greg is the only way to get people to change their mind and show them how valuable the school really is to their property values to their children to their children they don't know in town that they just see given trick or treat candy to like yep it's the only way to change Minds we're all suckers for Instagram and social media so it'd be great to just keep I think marketing I absolutely agree so one thing I think that we're doing this isn't related to the budget but um at our last school committee meeting we approved as a school committee a new communication plan so we are going to be doing I think quite a bit more in the way of like community outreach like we're going to have monthly office hours in both towns um we're going to be doing our regular newsletter we're going to be there's I can actually I'll share the plan with everybody just so you can kind of get a sense of what we're doing but I think the whole point behind it is sort of that just to like let the community know what's going back go going on like the good and the bad and and hopefully shed some light on really what that need is um rosan I think did you have just more of an observation I think um you know I know you're questioning whether or not like override not override but um we were trying to do a threeyear so it was we were looking at doing a three-year override so that you know in itself was really hard for people to swallow so um that you know as we explore the different options and if it is an override like what that would look like you what I mean um so that it's more palatable if that's the case but I don't that were there yet but I think that was a big you know that was a big challenge of people trying to figure out and navigate you know what that all meant to them and even dollarwise at the end the tax you know what what they would be potentially taxed on and yeah and so forth so do what I mean just a lot the vote wasn't even close and I took a real a real it was a harsh lesson because I thought it was going to pass and dul I was fundamentally I thought it it was going to work and it wasn't even close it was even less close so that's a great point you bring up and I what I think now the onepage chair sheet that's a great that was a great way to put it like there was so much information going out give me give me the lowdown I think the difference now is we know how it's been impact how the failed override has been impacted We There are spe there are specific concrete examples keeping privacy in you know in mind maybe that's something we start looking at saying you know what last when we when we said no to the override and you said live within your means you can figure it out I think the big difference now is we know at the building levels like what problems have occurred and how the kids have been affected how the staff has been affected like I think that's probably what we focus on with the communication as well it's like okay last you didn't want to pass the override before because you didn't we didn't there was an unknown well now we know this is the issue this is how the kids are being affected whether you have kids in the district or not there is going to there is an effect there's an there'll be an effect on the towns and how they're looked at from a reputation standing as well when people are thinking about moving in and potentially bringing those those revenues into town the schools aren't strong then they're going to look elsewhere because it's not cheap to live in grotten or Dunstable either right so I think that's what we need to start focusing on too is getting with the building administrators and saying okay what issues What complaints and kind of putting that into a one pager and say this is why we need that this is why we need the money so I think that would be the key difference from before to now we know we know that it's happening in the buildings I would just say with with with that sort of the the mindset of going into it like last year for a threeyear override and that didn't work if we were to proceed forward or at least present to the public that we're going for a single year override I guess that onepage tear sheet would also have to say we're going to cover you for one year how are you going to make this difference so you're not coming back next year and the year after for those similar requests so it has to include some level of of change right I understand we are looking into a lot of different things associated with uh the requests that we heard from last year but if we go to a one year it's not like the problem disappears in year two uh as we look at you know three to five year projections we're going to need this year after year and I think the the voters or they spoke pretty loudly like Karen mentioned uh that uh they want to see something you know uh that lives closer within our means and then how do we do that and then what does that look like and providing that on a one page would be a good thing but it just what does that say right now the one year might work we might be able to get it through one year they're going to know what are we going to do different so you're not coming back next year that's an awesome Point Jake and I think on that operational audit um I think that that I mean I don't know yet because it hasn't come back you know we don't know what what they're going to come back with but I think that that's something that could potentially be exactly what you're talking about that like what we're talking about is is the budget for like the next fiscal year but the any kind of recommendations that an operational audit is going to give would be for more of a long-term savings right so if we went for an override and we're successful it's almost like it it bridges that Gap hopefully and so I think you know thank you for bringing that up because I think that's a really good point that it's not just about how do we address the needs this year but really long term what are we doing but I think it's also important to point out and I somebody somebody at this table made this point last year and I want to say it was Bud um um that we aren't going to be in a good place to be able to make those long-term adjustments and plans if we can't stabilize and if we're consistently having to make reductions year after year after year we never get to a place of feeling like we're stable and now we can make some long-term real concrete plans that sounds like but I think so I want to say it was but Allison yeah so I think it's important for those of us particularly who don't have kids in the district anymore to really translate some of those cuts and and things that you guys are seeing that are maybe intuitive to folks in education into what the community really would understand um and then I'm hoping I don't know whether anyone can do it off the top of their head or if more information can come to us in terms of kind of the three assessments the regional operational audit and then facilities assessment to understand where they're at right now like have they gone out to bid or and then when would we anticipate having kind of um data not that I'm anticipating any one of those to provide you know an answer for us but go ahead so the with the regional agreement I'm talking with a um representative from Mars U Mass Association of Regional Schools um to make sure that we are on the same page with the scope of what we're asking them to do and like how many meetings in in person zoom and whatnot so that that will be shortly that we'll have that finalized um and then we'll get out to see who wants to um be on that board um well not a board but committee um and then the operational audit is going to be out on goods and services in two weeks so um and I believe the um same it'll be uh advertised locally as well but we I have a couple people that uh not people businesses that I could send it to um off the top of my head Sherry on the if I just interrupt right there on the regional agreement piece would the gold be to be before the dunable and gron toown meetings next spring I think it depends if the the initial meetings what when they're going through if there's any piece of it that really needs um more discussion or is um it's meant to be a cleanup but I think that I I'm thinking in one particular piece we might have more discussions on okay um so depending on if we can work that out and come to a cons like yeah thank you but but it sounds like just in a timing perspective none of those will truly be back as the 26 budget is crafted correct right because any change to the regional agreement will have to go to town meetings this year right but it sounds like we won't even have that information to craft next year's budget at this you know by January yeah I think actually once they they come and they start the operational audit I think it takes about two months for the time that they come in and we give them the information that they ask for the data um and work with them that they would have a um a preliminary report back to us probably by February I know we're we're certifying at that point but um yeah I mean I think that that was sort of what I was alluding to a minute ago that that that sort of represents a long-term cost savings not necessarily something that would have an impact on next year's numbers I mean they're depending on what they come back with I mean it's possible that they have something that would be quick and easy to to address but it's also possible that the kinds of recommendations that they would make would take some time to really Implement um because I don't think anybody in the town although everybody wants to see real cost savings I don't think anybody wants major decisions to be rushed or to be done you know what I mean in in a quick just to get it done quickly right we would want to make make take take some time to make sure that it's done responsibly um and so some of those recommendations I would expect would be of that nature right so it would represent a longterm savings but not necessarily something that could be put into place by like next school year right I I think my thinking was more in terms of an attempting to sell a one-year override with the onepage flyer as opposed to the three-year override you know one of the things that we heard over and over and over was that folks wanted to see these done not necessarily that we would be able to implement things next year but we would have some data to look at at least so without that we're still again it's not an update from last year's messaging in any way which is hard no but I I do I mean based on what Sher said you know if we have something in February although it doesn't mean that we can change our numbers for that budget it does mean that the voters are seeing that information and they are aware of the recommendations and they are aware of that discussion that would be having you know going on at school committee like these are things that we can be considering going forward right so it's not as though that information comes in and then nothing happens with it you know that people don't know about it I hope so I can I say something yeah go ahead okay I would just say too um usually initiatives or efforts to reduce spending come with difficult decisions that are most likely going to be unpopular so the the result of the audit which is very important um will probably have a lot of things in there that people aren't going to want to jump up and down about in Embrace immediately so um so really thinking through how it's going to be communicated and even the process to get to a final report I think is going to be important what what is the school committee like so this tonight's goal was an introduction of sort of the situation we're all faced with um what's the takeaway like what was the thought like is it to begin spreading positive energy to try to get a vote pass or is it to begin like discussions about what a one-year override looks like like what's the what was the thought here well I mean I I would expect probably everybody's going to take away something slightly different um what I am hoping to take away from tonight is that we all have a clearer picture of what we're looking at for the next several months of our lives and going forward into next next budget cycle uh that we all have kind of an understanding that the lines of communication are open and will remain open so any questions that any of you have um you know I would encourage you to kind of be reaching out and and asking those so that we can really have a clear picture of like what is everybody looking for from us what are we need maybe from from you guys do we you know we may have questions for you or vice versa right so I I think that as Mark and Jason both alluded to in their presentations um we did a lot in the way of um you know increase in communication and collaboration last year and I would like to continue that um so I think if nothing else happens after tonight if if you anybody takes anything out of this room I would hope that it would be that just that those lines of communications remain open we have a lot of work to do um I know really everybody at the table is is committed to doing the best thing for our communities and for our district and and that may look different and we may have some challenging conversations but um I think we're all in agreement that we're all you know we all have good intentions here and we want to work together so that's my takeaway thank you Mark I just have a quick question for you um regarding with the closing of nooba in your anticipation of um potentially having to hire 16 more um firemen eight more eight I'm sorry eight don't scare the don't scare the residents too much in I like I don't know where I got 16 um eight more um would would you also anticipate needing more Vehicles no no no we have we have two ambulances the problem is when when one of the ambulance is out of town for as long as it as as it is and we don't get call Firefighters to come back we have to depend on full timers to get that second ambulance out the door and that's the problem we're having right now a 30 minut turn around it wasn't a big deal a two-hour turnaround it is a big deal and that's the issue that that we're we're grappling with and so um with regards to information the information that the school is sending out just like BR had suggested and Lacy and anybody else on school committee um this for me was very good information because I don't think that um I shouldn't say that I don't think that but um there may be um uh opportunities for the community to hear these kinds of things to know that potentially if there is discussion around um override do you you mean because you have you the town which um um you know provides the safety of you know the citizens of the Town um this is a big thing do you mean so the impact of the the hospital closing has not just in that capacity but Services you know families traveling farther and so forth so economically for people who live in the community now they're you know they're trying to navigate things differently I making so so when so when the you know if there are discussions around um potential overrides you know we clearly um Dr Bruno um and the rest of the team um identifying like what we've done and the big steps that we've taken um you know as a school committee but um the town as well both towns do I mean are making some really um a a strong commitment to try to figure it out and yet you have your own set of um challenges that you're up against um I I just think that it's really important that the town knows both you know what one of the just to follow up on the question that Karen asked asked before on on what to get out of tonight's meeting I think the the fact that we put the issues back out on the table again so that it it gets regurgitated and it gets out to the public one of the things that that happened year over-ear is in past years the school committee would always somehow rescue the district and they say we need more money and and then the money would somehow appear that did not happen last year and I think everything that was said to the public last year has come to fruition the district made some significant Cuts cut back on the on their operational costs and now we're facing those same challenges for another year and I think we really have to drive that point home and now gron is facing an additional challenge as Rosanna just said within our fire department so I think getting the word out and continuing to get that word out to the residents is important and I want to continue to have the Tricom meet so that we continue to to to keep those lines of communication between gr and dille and the school district together so thank you did I have the last word that usually doesn't happen I like that anyone else have any other questions comments requests thank you uh all right well I want to thank everybody for being here I know it's uh you know busy time of year and a lot going on it's not easy to to get here but I do appreciate this opportunity to kind of be able to sit down in one place at one time and share information and um I hope that that will continue and like I said I think you know should anybody have any questions um you know Dr Bruno's very put you on the spot here but he's very open and willing to to sit down and listen and um answer questions so I wouldn't hesitate to reach out to him or to any of us as well um so the school committee does do have several other agenda items this evening so I will let um the various boards adjourn yourselves and um school committee meeting will continue after a quick break motion to adj thank you motion to adjourn favor every e e e e e e e e e e e Len to I'm still seeing faces of people all right we are back thank you everybody um needed to my laptop recharge a little bit because it was basically about to shut off so um we uh are going to move on to uh the recommendation for the communications subcommittee um we're going to hold the recognition uh until our next meeting on the 6th um so in the packet um um I made a recommendation for the membership on this committee um and this is similar to when we reorganized in May um our policy for subcommittees basically says that um the chair makes recommendations for the membership and then that recommendation is discussed and voted upon among the whole membership so that's why that recommendation is in there it's no different than the recommendations for policy or BNF or CIAA um It's Just Happening Now as opposed to in May because we didn't have the communication subcommittee in May so um I had recommended for membership um R Christina and myself um basically looking at who has what in terms of their other um commitments and responsibilities and assignments I felt that um both row and Christina if they were willing to had the ability to take on an additional liaison um or uh subcommittee assignment um as well as they are the two most recent um recently joined members um of the school committee and therefore they kind of it's freshest in their mind what it is like to kind of just be a a Community member as opposed to a school Committee Member and so they may have some unique perspectives on um you know the style and format and uh so on of our Communications and and how to do that um and then myself um I think that as chair um whoever is sitting um as chair really should be on the communication subcommittee because they are primarily the ones that are um responding to inquiries um or communicating with the public um on behalf of the committee that being said um my expectation for the subcommittee uh would be that they would be managing things um and organizing things but they're not the only ones that are participating in communication um so as we discussed last time we will be having monthly office hours any of us are um able to participate in that um there's other many other opportunities to engage in in Communications um consistently and frequently with the community so I don't want people to take away from this that if you're not on the subcommittee it means you're not part of the communication plan because really all of us have a part to play there in communicating with the um community so with this with that I will open it up for discussion on this um if anybody has questions or comments or wants to make an additional recommendation I think that it's um I mean I I personally support that I think that um you know like you said I think Christina and BR are both um relatively new to the school committee um and I also think that they have the ability to articulate and really communicate effectively with community members so for those reasons you know I support that okay um Lacy yes can I say something yeah course thanks um so I um I would be happy to serve on that subject committee and I feel like um one of the big things that I talked a lot about in the spring uh and one of the reasons I was interested in becoming a school Committee Member was to have more engagement with the community and and really more effectively communicate with our community and I I feel like this would give me an opportunity to to follow through on that and so I appreciate um the the recommendation I would I would do it happily okay um thank you actually that's a good point I really should have checked with you guys so bro how do you feel surpris I couldn't have communicated any better than Christina I'm good I'm great yes uh all right so with that then I would entertain a motion to uh accept the chair's recommendation for the membership on the communication subcommittee so moved second okay Ro yes Rosanna yes myself yes yes me yes Catherine yes and Christina yes okay wonderful thank you um I would ask uh that if the we could try to schedule a meeting we could do it over Zoom um but it would be great if we could get that scheduled maybe for next week because I do think that we have a lot of things that we want to get moving on um not the least of which is what was just discussed meeting last few minutes ago so um I will communicate with you guys on trying to put that together um moving on to Liaison report um CI uh CI um AA met today um this evening actually and um Kristen and Dr berer were present and they did a um beautiful delivery of information this is our second meeting right like second meeting third third um and so uh Christian uh was reviewing um um what the curriculum um review process would be and um looking at um uh piloting um beginning to Pilot information um in January but she it will be coming to school committee um prior to that um one of the nice things too is um she also um she and Dr Bruno have been doing a lot of um Community work um around um AR um architects of belonging and so um at the beginning of the year they emphasize the focus on belonging um of all students and what um what the practices look like and there's eight what do we want to call them priston eight eight best practices thank you um in addition um uh Kristen and her team um every two weeks they've um um every two weeks she's um update updating the principles around um what some of those best practices are looking like and um and how they are materializing real time which is really nice and um I'm we were both all three all of us were very excited um on November 5th they're going to have um professional development and learning um initiative and it's looking at bre best best practices um round taes work life balance for the um for the staff so it's it's really quite comprehensive and um I think there was there was much more but that probably sums it up right now yeah y and um um as far as Council on Aging I have met with um the director um um and met with her um again um recently so we've been looking at some initiatives um some things um I want to say um I'm having a having a moment um thank you we're looking at um doing things like um maybe pen pals um is seeing about maybe um some of the um Cil and aging residents being able to come out to the schools and um read to students try to tie it into curriculum so things that are more focused um and we talked about and Dr Bruno and yourself Lacy about um doing some sort of like um a senior supper or just um some initiative to bring um bring members out and um we were also talking about the possibility of a like a fall cleanup there a lot of um seniors that don't have either the physical stamina or you know the resources to be able to do that so just trying to bring able to get students out to um you know kind of build that repertoire back and forth so we're continuing to kind of develop those ideas and more to come wonderful thank you um just a quick one for me uh we are doing groten office hours tomorrow um Rosanna and I will be at the library uh from 4: to 5:30 um going forward we will be posting um the schedule for office hours so that residents have the opportunity to kind of plan ahead um but they will be in both towns every month and they will alternate uh we'll do like a morning like this week we did a morning in dunable we'll do evening and groten next month it will be the reverse of that um so hopefully uh you know if folks want to you know if they have a question or concern that they want to discuss they will um come on in and see us lcy sorry yes oh Lor I'm hiding over here um tomorrow night uh CPAC is offering a postsecondary transition planning workshop both in person here in the central office conference room and also via Zoom um Jessica Barkley Woods who is a gr and Dunstable special education teacher and transition specialist is offering this Workshop um it's it's not just for families who are in the middle of transition planning approaching age 18 it's also for families of younger stud students who just um to see what different uh things they should be aware of looking ahead um so if anybody's interested you can find information on our website as well as um some of the posts and flyers on Facebook thank you Lacy would you mention the Maran started program on Friday please yeah yeah um so on Friday here uh from 3 to 53 5:30 um there will be an event to honor uh maran's daughter as everyone knows we recently um renamed this building that we're in right now uh after Marian it is now the Marian daughter building um so there will be the opportunity to come in um to see a brief film about Marian's work um there will be several um dignitaries here um Senator Cronin Senator Aldridge uh rep Scarsdale Senator Kennedy will all be in attendance U Mary and herself will be here um and it will be just a really great Community event uh did you want to add anything just you can see the plaque I think the plaque will be yes the plaque uh the plaque I think was installed today um so people can come and and see that it's beautiful um really a great addition to that front hall okay anybody else Catherine yeah we did have a Dei kind of Meet the co-chair might give you more information Christin morning a formative assessment just then nice job uh so yes at our Dei meeting most recently we talked about we didn't end up having a quorum which was unfortunate uh but we were able to talk about not make any decisions about what kinds of groups we would be working in um and I'm happy to say that those groups are going to be concentrating on three different things the first will be initiatives inside of the district what kinds of things are we doing to make sure we're addressing diversity equity and inclusion within the schools there will be a second group uh which will I like to call the cross-pollination group which means they are going to be talking about how the school can partner with areas in the community around University equity and inclusion including the other schools in the community and um the town's different initiatives around Dei and then the third group will be working on being really the liaison to the policy subcommittee the CIAA subcommittee and the budget subcommittee so we look forward to having our next meeting uh around getting those groups up and running and starting to have an agenda around what those groups will work on in addition to that uh the co-chair Brian djani and the vice chair Rael meski and I along with Jessica derling will be meeting um actually on Halloween to plan that next meeting so it's been really a nice flow between a meeting with the whole entire committee and then a Mee a smaller meeting with the with the officers of the committee to make sure we're moving forward at a good Pace I had one more thing L um this is kind of just as an aside um I'm I'm part of the sustainability gron and on um the 2nd of November at the council in aging there will be a um advocacy Meetup um and um looking to kind of bring new Advocates um into um the the sustainability so to come and learn about um what it means to be an advocate in the community and um potentially get a certificate and a flag something that you placed on your your lawn um and more to come great um Kristen on the um de EI do you think that uh at one of the November meetings um we could expect like a reporting some kind of a reporting schedule okay great thank you all right um if there are no other Le on reports is there a new business okay um I will put this out there in case either of our two attendees in the audience have public comment we moved it to the end this evening just because we had the boards here to start the meeting so if anybody has public comment I don't see any so uh with that I will call the meeting adjourned thank you