All right, it's uh 4 pm. I'd like to call the uh the town council financial oversight committee meeting to order. Um and I don't know if you want to do the same for the
Let's see. We have one, two, I guess we have four. Yeah. So, we'll call the special town council meeting to order as well. Uh in attendance and I'll just ask folks to read themselves off from Push for Chiro. Kathy Hill, Town
Council, Don Stark's finance committee. Uh Jim Broadick, uh financial oversight. Connor O'Shea, town council president and ex official on the financial oversight committee. Kim Collins, finance director. Rebecca Lesey, deputy town manager.
Yeah. Ann of Jones, town council and and oversight committee and finance oversight committee. Sorry. Gordon Smith, superintendent of schools. Pamela Blair, assistant superintendent for business. Very good. Um, our normal
agenda would be to review our minutes and approve minutes. Uh, but my recommendation, unless there's any objections, is that we defer that till after our discussion with the uh schools. Um, Anna uh you had volunteer to take minutes. Is that still okay with
you? Okay. Sure. Uh so why don't we dive right in? Uh we had the formulated questions at our last meeting, sent them out to the schools and I know with the holidays and time off and negotiations, it was quite a
crunch uh and uh they exceeded our expectations and sent uh and sent the responses back. Thank you very much for that. Nicely done. Yes. Thank you for uh adjusting your day. we had scheduled negotiations with our custodial group
and um unfortunately it was challenging to get those dates scheduled. So anyway, well it worked out well especi particularly since I forgot to check with Tom Christensen who was the only one who really couldn't have made it. So
I had I had a a loss of uh just forgot all about it. So um uh it it worked out well. but unfortunately when I found out he couldn't that wasn't uh wasn't the greatest but we have Rebecca here filling in. So thank you.
Uh so yes uh before we my first thought would be to just kind of walk through the questions since we had kind of reviewed the budget unless anyone has any other suggestions. Um sounds good. Okay. Um so you had sent
us uh roughly 11 questions. we tried to put them together in a um a Google sheet where we could then attach charts and um other things and we'll we'll go through probably tag team on questions. I think
Pam will start us off with um you know how the chart of accounts is set up and and why certain things are coded specific ways. Okay. So yes, we uh created a Google Google doc and we were both kind of working on it so that we could try to get this information to
you. So um I can understand if you don't know a school department um chart of accounts of why you would ask why is there so many teacher line items. So um when setting up the chart of accounts, we have to comply with the department of elementary and secondaries eds functional classifications on
expenditures, also known as DOE codes. They're my life. I love the DOE codes. I classify everything by DOE codes. When I set up the chart of accounts for the operational accounts, which is what you were all looking at, the DOE code is actually embedded into the um org, which
we call we call an org. It's actually an organizational chart, organiz organizational code. That's what it is in Munice. And so I gave an example here. Um uh Birchland Park 230500, that's the org. And then 51121 is the object code. Together they make
an account. the OR code BP2305 that is a DOE code which actually means uh classroom teacher another example below it 230599 that is um tells me that it's special ed and that n any account any
org that be that has the last two digits that start with a nine means it's some type of special ed account does that make sense okay um I also want to give an example of BP2710 that is an adjustment counselor So for each different coding um
psychologist, librarian, they all have different codes, but yet they're still classified as a teacher. So that's why you see all the different um but I did think it was important to elaborate a little bit about the DOE codes and why they're so important because this ties into the end ofear report that I
complete every September. It's a huge report. Um Desi wants things broken down not only by funding source meaning is it the operational budget um which is the chapter 70 and the local contribution. Is it grants? Is it revolving? Um what
type of grant is it? Is it a private? Is it a state? Is it and also on top of that are the municipal expenditures that are for the school department. So all of those together and then it's broken down I'm sorry there's even more. Then it's broken down by school. So, by location
and then by these DOE codes. So, it's a it's a just a huge report. I get a lot of information um from uh Kim's department on the municipal expenditures. Um you're chuckling. No, I just I know how much collaboration there is September. Exactly. And and they're
very helpful in in coding things just how I need them to help get it into um the end of year report. But so that you understand um as a municipal's budget goes up as well as a school department's the like say you add
another employee or two to the accountant department there's a u an agreement that is between the school and the town and that's where these decisions are made on on what gets allocated back and Desi approves this agreement. So I just I guess I want everyone to understand that net school
spending as that line goes up it's because expenditures are increasing on our side on your side alto together. Um sorry I'm trying to see I wrote it all down probably better than the way I would say it. Um oh I guess that's it. Um it's a big
report. Everything's by the DOE code. So the classification when I um do the quarterly report for the uh school committee I intentionally don't give them all of that because it is very confusing. So I do pivot tables and things behind the scenes. So teachers are just lumped together. It just makes
it just easier and then when we talk about things through the budget process or or as expenditures um change things behind the scenes that's when we talk about more of the details. I hope that makes sense to you. Are there any questions on anything I said? I have one for the chair. Yep. Jim. Yes. Go right
ahead. So Sarah, is that why when I look at the um breakout in um historical breakout that there are line items in the same building which show a decrease in sheet of salary and maybe an increase in in another line. Correct. You say it's all different right positions and
codes. And then we use the first two digits of the account numbers HS surprise high school district Y DW okay park BP. So then they're all broke but then there's continuity and consistency. So, if you look, you're going to see the librarian is coded, you know, it's it's the same. Um, and again, that's that's
DOE chart of accounts. Um, that we are mandated to uh set up our chart of accounts like that. And years ago, just I'm showing my age, but years ago, they used to have us do it by programs also, which is why there's when chart of accounts were set up years ago, um, the business managers working with the
finance departments would set up even more code so that you can break it down. They kind of change that over years, but as a business manager, I find that it's it can be very useful to still have that in there. I can still identify things and even break it down a little more for school committee or superintendent if
they need it to be. Thank you. Just a general comment. Um, unless it gets unwieldy and I'll I'll tell you if if I think it is, go ahead and ask a question. Don't have to ask me to say okay. And if it starts to get a little
confusing, I'll ask you to do that. But thank you for that for the courtesy. I would have is just that that was a great explanation. I figured that there was some benefit to the madness there, but yes, sense that there's that much
level of detail there. Good. I'm glad that it's clearer for everyone and there's a lot of crossover, you know, so that the end of the year report is picking up on DPW provides maintenance not only for the school department but for all the town departments um plowing
and so forth. So there's a percentage of that that then gets caught into what's reported and into that net school spending. just have a quick question and it it's kind of tied to this but it just went in my head and if I don't say it
now I'll forget it. Uh when we talk about say the for lack of a better word cross-pollination of townside and school who makes the determination what is the process is the principal say you know we've noticed
that this gutter is leaky the custodial how does that flow through? So it's probably there maybe two parts depending on how comprehensive your question is there. um the agreement between the town and the school department that then gets reviewed and accepted by DESIE would
govern that process in terms of end of the year reporting. So money spent um you know by DPW that um in accordance with that agreement a certain percentage is going to be attributed to the schools it and so forth. But in terms of um if a
principal is dealing with a a maintenance situation, um your your first line of defense are the building custodians. If the building custodians can handle it, then um and when I say that, I'm not trying to diminish their skills, but we have agreements on
various things. Um they will do that. If not, then the principal will put a work order in and that will go into the DPW system. And they have um DPW obviously has u electrician, a general contractor. Um
I don't do we have a plumber now? N someday we'll have a plumber again and um then those folks come over and we go from there. So it's still in a way because years ago I'm showing my age used to be sightbased very much of the
school. So in a way it kind of is because the principal knows the building and has the authority to put that in and then it all gets collated um and added up and then process through the desi formula. Correct. So the work order
system would be part of where it gets captured on the town side and then becomes part of that endear and there has to be a collaboration between the building principal head custodian as well as the um town's DPW facilities manager. that's his title, right? Um, you know, there there has to be
communication. Sometimes it's um emergency things that you can't really wait. I mean, you could do that help desk thing after, but you got to get on the phone with them and say, "We got, you know, huge issue here." Um, and staying on top of those kind of things. And I think it was back in I came here in 2015. It was before I came here, DPW,
um, uh, and, uh, the custodians, right? there was an agreement and the outside of the initially there was an agreement um around outside maintenance and fields and so forth. I think that goes back to 1998 and then there was another agreement that was done somewhere in the
neighborhood of 2009 maybe 2010 and that was picking up maintenance for um the buildings themselves. Yeah. And when those agreements happened uh as well as when the agreement with it took place, the area of the school department budget
that was designated for maintenance was then transferred over to DPW's budget. Um originally not when I was superintendent but when I was um in 2002 uh to 2004 when I was assistant principal at the
high school um the school department had an IT department of sorts if you will. was nowhere to the level that the town has now, nor was technology to the level technology is now. But um
somewhere between 2004 and um 2010, they came into an agreement and um made it a town department that picked up the schools. Um and so any technology budgets around, you know, networking and
so forth also is transferred over. And does Desessie require like a holistic plan as well for the entire system so that there is kind of a pyramid and then it comes down and you have to present and I imagine project on each school. Um
it pretty much they collect information throughout the year um on where schools are. They um obviously require and look at things like your smart goals and overall plan for the district and then um they have
it has morphed into many different names but right now I think it's tiered focus monitoring in essence it's an audit uh and so it's it can be around special education we're actually experiencing one right now around special education
um but it also could be around finance um it can be around. Uh we had one, it can happen a couple different ways. It can happen um because there's a situation that uh has been Desi's been
alerted on because they have a a section of their uh department called problem resolution and then they'll come in around that specific issue that may be with a family. Um but that could generate into other changes and so
forth. But um and this will be the last point. I know I'm longwinded. Um but we also then report uh three times a year SIMS which is all the student information. We report um I believe two times a year on staff
information and then um at the end of the year we do a um student discipline report and that all is collected electronically. And I was just going to add that um every year that end of year financial report is also audited and one of the um things that they always ask
for is that agreement to look at it and they actually go back and tie in the figures that are going in there um to make sure that it's it's according to the the formula that has been agreed upon between the um the school and the and the city or town because every district can be a little bit different
very very similar but yet different. So it's not a set formula. it. Does that make sense? Okay. And want to just say something about how that ties into net school spending. Sure. Um uh just before we do, I noticed that Marilyn Richards
has joined the meeting. Does that put us into a special town council meeting or we did open? Oh, we did. Okay. Sorry. Right ahead, Gordon. Sorry. Oh, sure. Um, so I think Pam had indicated in her answer, but basically net school
spending is more than just the school department's budget. Um, net school spending looks at uh many different categories. And so based on end of the year reporting um and the percentages that have been attributed to the DPW
budget to IT budget and so forth that all contributes to how they calculate net school spending as well as I think the school uh grants and revolving not the town. Oh no I'm sorry it does not for net school spending. I apologize. Sorry. Um I didn't mean to. And then one
of the other items that um is a big one because I know it drives budgets on all sides is um benefits. Benefits tie into net school spending. So the town um obviously having health benefits, providing that to all employees, that's part of what
goes into net school spending. And so as those costs go up, net school spending will go up. Um right because it's a percentage of net school spending. Yeah, I'm a little confused. So in other words, if the IT department adds an increase Mhm. they add staff, for
example, that affects your school spending. First, we would applaud. Huh? Excited about that. First, they will applaud. Oh, they applaud. Um, but uh ultimately the way it would play out would be in the end of the year report,
certain percentage if their budget has gone up because they've increased staff or done something else is going to be attributed to the schools. Do you mind me just chiming in? So I believe what happens is because when you call it for help they'll say and can you put in a work ticket and can you put in a work
ticket which so the reason is it comes back to tie into how much of their time is going to the school department how much of their time is going to the police department how so they can do it that way so then when Ryan at the end of the fiscal year when we reach out to to ask him I don't remember if if I do or
if Olga Kim but um we get that information um so whatever ever that percentage is of the total help desk. Does that make sense? So if we're 75% of everything, then he takes his expenditures and we
get the 75% whatever that is comes back into the end of year report. Does that make sense? What So it's based on percentage dollar. Sometimes it could be a dollar, but not with that specific like if there's with benefits with like retired uh employees, they know exactly
how many are the school department. So that's a dollar figure. Other things though, it's a percentage. So a percentage of Kim's department, how much and and sometimes it's the breakin what the school department is compared to the t of the town's overall budget. So before it might have been 51%, I think
now it's going to be like 49 50. So it's about 50%. So of her department, 50% of that comes on to comes through the end ofear report and affects net school spending because it's part of the overall expenditures. Does that make sense? Okay. Everything's very
different. It's all detailed out in the agreement. So, you know, the percentages we're giving may not be correct. Yeah. Right. Correct. But everything's done specifically. I think you had provided that to us last year in terms of what the allocations were and the formulas.
Yeah. Any other questions on question number one? It's a little over ahead. You're right. Trying to pick up the pace. All right. Let's move on to question number two. Okay, so that's me as well. Um, so it said, "Provide as previously a printout
which includes grant, current funding, and revolving funds so we could see the full financial picture including a three-year look back." So I did try to give you a three-year look back. I'm not exactly sure what happened because that second chart, it doesn't look accurate to me. So please just cross it out. I
did the best I could on the short. Um, so the very first one here is FY26. I tried to give you a picture of what we are seeing for next year. We have the um operating budget up on the top and that is just the chapter 70 plus the local
contribution which is the school department's um operating budget and then down underneath are other revenue sources that affect our budget. So that you can see and I tried to put them into categories so you could see that summer salary, some are supplies, contracted
services or miscellaneous other things. Um, we have entitlement grants. Well, I was going to say, God willing. I'm not sure. You know, with the federal government, I believe these are going to happen next year. There are some question marks, but I know, knock on wood is where's the um so we have title
one, uh, title 2a, title 4, special ed, uh, early childhood grant, um, special ed grant. Those are all, um, entitlement grants that we typically get from year to year. Uh they typically are pretty close to the previous year. They could
go up a little bit. They could go down a little bit as well. Um if Desi knows, they'll try to give us a heads up ahead of time, such as last year they thought that we were going to have $160,000 uh reduction in title one, which was as you
can um luckily the whole thing didn't come to fruition, but we don't find we don't know those things until after the fact, if that makes sense. So we have to take that into consideration through the budget process. Um other grants we get is the DPH comprehensive school health grant um which you know is is important
for obvious reasons. We have the MECO grant um which is also very very important. Um that's a state grant. Um the East Long Meadow Educational Endowment Fund um you everyone knows about ELA, right? And they were very generous.
$54,188. each of our teachers can put in uh projects that they, you know, are interested in doing to help the the school and uh ELA allocates funds and so they're set up as little kind of like little mini grants um under this umbrella here. But I wanted to make sure that you knew that that that is part of
a you know behind it could be a Prometheium board. It could be some science uh special new science curriculum that enhances what we already have those type of things. Equipment for the drone team which is winning awards. Good point. own team. That's cool. Yeah, it's really cool. It's really cool. And
there are Birland students that are on that team now. So you have Birland through the high school. It's kind of taken over the um robotics team a little bit. Yeah. Um then we have revolving accounts on the on the bottom here. The
athletic revolving account. Um and again this is um why did I put one sales? Say I'm sorry. Say that again. Sales. Yes. That that's exactly what that is. gate receipts and uh user fees. We did school committee voted this year as part of our first phase reduction because I hope you
all realize we had a two-phase reduction at the school department. Um but that'll be another question. Um so we did user um user fees went up from 149 to $199 which equates to approximately
$30,000. Um school committee felt that that was enough to make a difference. that hadn't been increased in quite a number of years. They felt that that was um and we also did surveys of surrounding districts and they felt that that should be voted in. So they So Pam,
if I can the 152,000 is does is that for this year or that's reflecting next year. Okay. Yes, it's approximately I think 122 this year. The athletic budget in the operational budget, right, uh does
not fully cover right. Right. everything that we do in athletics. I think we not nearly. It's about $700,000 to run that program. Program. We probably budget in the operational budget just over five, right? 100,000. And so, yeah, the user fees unfortunately have become a way of
life as well as um you know, gate receipts. Hopefully, we have strong teams to pull in the crowds. Circuit breaker is that you're getting the money after you spend happened last year, correct? Yeah. And but it's not just all the money. So there's a dollar threshold
of $52,419 I believe is the amount. Um and $19. Yes. And $19. And um so what has to happen? They look at every individual each district has to look at when they put the circuit breaker claim in has to take every individual student that's on
an IEP and um add up the services that they're getting. to that we have many I mean 22% of our enrollment are on an IEP um some not significant you know small little but many are very significant and the and the needs have changed as we've
talked about over the last you know couple of years you've heard us say over and over again things have changed they're not the same so I think all districts we're not alone are still trying to figure this out we thought that some of the changes we were seeing in COVID after co were just short little
no change and more severe change in the way we do things. Change Well, it's a combination. I I think you're right. The um prior to COVID, there was um if people were looking at studies, there was a rise in um mental health issues
with teenagers. After COVID, that just exploded exponentially. And so, the the first challenge for us was getting students back back to school, you know, just attendance. Um, and the comprehensive health grant has allowed
us to have a family care coordinator part-time who helps each each building as an attendance team and they pro try to problem solve around individual students that are starting to really accumulate um consecutive absences. Um,
and a lot of it, so the person actually is one of our substitute nurses and she puts on her medical hat almost in every one of those cases because there's always some type of medical piece to the puzzle. And if we can provide some type
of support for that, we have a much better chance of getting that student in on a daily basis. But in addition to the high school, it's it's not just the high schoolers. the little the little tikes we're seeing. Well, I I I've had to had restricted activities. So, one of the
ones that I'm allowed to do is walk. So, where I live, I don't have sidewalks. So, I sometimes now, you know, have on the weekends park at the Meadow Brook and walk down uh Parker Street and there's a little
um sign there talking about absences. Oh, yes. but you know is it bounced through x number of days and it's actually one of our our struggles is working on decreasing absences partnering with families and so forth.
So to finish answering your question on that circuit breaker so there was a dollar threshold and expenditures that go above that dollar threshold nothing below has to be above that dollar threshold and then there's certain expenditures not everything qualifies. So, if it's a qualified expenditure
above that $52,419, it can go on the claim form and um the state will give us back hopefully up to 75%. The last few years, dollar for dollar, it's 75%. No, it's it's up to 75. And I say that because when I
first came here, you know, in 2015, we were it was 72% and that 3% is a big number when you're talking about $1.5 million. So, it has been 75% the last few years, but what I'm a little anxious about and many other districts is
because, and again, we're not alone. Special ed is it it's just it's growing. There's there's a lot going on with it. And um so more districts are putting in the same expenditures, those same claims that we are. So, the pot is getting bigger. The money stays the same. And
that that's a problem, right? Because you can't sustain that 75%. They are um looking at in increasing it. Um, we don't know if that's going to pass or not. It would certainly be helpful if it did, but but we don't know. That's one of the many moving pieces behind the scenes. So, actually, hey K, just I'm
I'm jumping way ahead. You're saying 75%, but didn't I read in one of your answers that we only got 44%. So, transportation. So, two years ago, I think the legislature is trying to help in this situation. and they know that
this is a really challenging situation for districts. Um so two years ago they approved that specialized transportation would be able to be reimbursed um through circuit breaker. However,
it's all around um what the legislature then or in you know the governor's budgets first how much they all lot to that line item in the budget and then by law um the first part of reimbursement
has to be around academics and tuition. So districts who have been reimbursed um last few years at 75% were getting 75% for academic reimbursement that it's above that um 52,000 and change
threshold and then whatever was left over which was not enough for transportation uh was then distributed for the claims for transportation and that ended up being 44%. So you know as you make
projections and charts like this and then you realize that you're losing out on a considerable percentage that becomes challenging that that becomes you know deficits and gaps and fiscal challenges that we deal with throughout the year. This was just one of them yeah
this is in question number five but it is related to the discussion we're having. I I can't I Yeah, it it is it is mindboggling to understand how you put a priority on tuition or whatever when you have to get the kid there. So, because
they just added transportation just two years ago. It's Oh, really? Yes. It wasn't there because it's not really that expense. I don't know. And it's not to my knowledge. I don't know if you've seen anything. It's they they do have some governance over how far the out of
district providers can raise their tuition. I wouldn't say it's tight enough guidance, but that's just a personal opinion. Um they don't have that same guidance with transportation. So, we've had transportation vendors who have started with us and then when they
realize how challenging some of the um situations may be, they then say, "Well, you know what? We have other people who are interested in our services." And they just drop us and and so that's caused some challenging situations as well because you do have to get people
to school. And I know we had talked in the past that you were starting or attempting to bring inhouse and um kind of create your own specialed I don't want to say department because you have that but bring more of them and keep
them more close. Um how is that going? And so we've had the the best luck over time uh with our ASD program. And I I think we need to do some more tweaking to get back. I think we had our last ASD, I'm sorry, is autism spectrum
disorder. Um there's many acronyms and um that was something that was pretty well established when I arrived as uh and became superintendent and it got better as we've gone along. and and so it was well established in all schools K
to 12. Um we also have done a a I think a very good job uh and it's mostly because of the partnership that we developed with our families where we've had um I'll just call it uh intensive
medical needs. Um it's not really a special ed program if you will. There are other elements that would designate it um specialized services but um though we've kept most of our students in district um who have uh needed uh very
specialized care throughout the day. Uh and that's been exceptional. I think it's been a great experience not only for our students who are in the mainstream our staff and for the families because they're in their home school. Uh, and there's a lot to be said
for that. And so, and this is kind of jumping to question 11. Um, one of the things that we've been working on the last few years, and it's taken a few years to get into place is, um, go from
a model in special education where it a lot is placed on the individual special education teacher and liaison and bring in a model where you have educational team leaders. Um, and one of the reasons why it took more than a year to get to
this year of implementation is because there are elements that needed to be negotiated and we were negotiating with the uh, East Long Meadow Education Association last year. And so we worked through that and um, we have roughly 45 to 48 special education teachers
throughout the district. The lion share of their work in addition to their direct teaching was dealing with their case load of special education students, making sure all the paperwork is um current, up todate, and
ready for any annual meeting. Um then if there's any type of amendment or communication that needs to go out, they managed all of that. We did have stipen positions called facilitators um who helped predominantly with um at a
district meetings because they were in positions uh generally they were our school psychologists so they might be going to those meetings anyway um and we still have the facilitator role in this year one of ETLs but um it's reduced
considerably because now we have four individuals servicing our five schools. These are experienced special educators who have either been in the both the special education teaching role or now in um or were in an ETL role in another district um and now they're working with
us and it's given us a chance to really look at thankfully it's been successful to but now have instead of 48 people writing IEPs we have four so they do it better in less time. So there and they
also now have a chance to look at consistency. How are all these supports being in place uh being put in place across the district? And so conversations that we're having, we have every spring, but this year, especially given some of the challenges, we're
really focused in on, okay, we're going to have fewer staff next year. So what does that look like in terms of deploying staff, pair of professionals, special educators across the district? And that's going to be another pretty large change because there may be
switching where and there's always been switching where if a student is transitioning and they happen to have in their IEP a onetoone pair professional which we're trying to reduce because that really um it's not necessarily the
greatest situation for the student because there's a dependency that grows there and so then you're not growing certain skills to become independent and it's um a situation where then one staff member is kind of taken out of your service mix for the entire day. Um, so
we're looking at that and we're starting to think about, okay, what will this look like next year? Where where's the need? How do we deploy this differently? And we're starting to write IEPs differently, but more consistently because everybody has their own style.
everybody was following the law, but how you put certain things in the grid may change how we then have to staff it. Um, so we're looking at that and hopefully that's going to start to have some impact in terms of bringing down some of
the cost, but also there's no guarantee as to when we'll see sort of all this come to fruition. Maybe you have fewer people feeling the need because it's it starts with you know there may be there always going to be students that unfortunately we will not be able to
provide all the supports but it starts sometimes emotionally that oh I think we need uh we need this or we need this and until we've had a chance to really prove that maybe we can support and have success without some of
that that um we're going to be able to make real changes. So you're not going to see all of a sudden $500,000 worth of savings, but you may see 50 to$150,000, you know, and that's your few positions, your effort to try to
think those things through. The motto has been this year and uh I know it's been challenging because you're talking about four people, but um meeting by meeting and it's been a success. And so to answer in a short word, it's a slow process. It's not going to it's you have has to be well thought out and it and it
has been over the past few years coming out of COVID like what is going on and you know and it's not going away and then what do we need to do and but you need to have some um reallocation of FTE people and try to figure out which direction and now I feel like we're
moving in a in a nice slow which I think is wise direction on how because it really has been a success. We're really starting to hear it now from staff maybe that were doubting the the change in the model not not the new staff coming in but existing staff because change is
change is hard right people don't always like 48 liaison love us right now they've been able to focus just on teaching this year which is really which is where they should be focusing so now you can think about deploying their skills differently too I'd like to bring
us back to question two sorry and kind of handle Question 11. Yeah. No, it'll it'll facilitate make us faster going through some of those. Uh Pam, are you saying that probably the FY24 maybe isn't uh that's what I'm saying. I'm not
exactly sure what happened. I'm looking at it the circuit break or the revolving funds or that kind of thing, but I do see the eras was that the last year that that you were able to use that ended on September 30th. Yes. And so, um, we were
able to, um, well, we were able to do a lot of good things with that grant. Um, we, uh, did hire some staffing during, um, the first few years. Well, we we didn't even start using it. It was an FY22 grant. The final SR3 $2.2 million grant, but we didn't start to delve into
it, I think, until was it FY24? I felt like it took us a while to get to that, but we utilized it for things like permanent building subs. They were really struggling. Many people just like students didn't want to come back to work, many people didn't want to come back to work. So we were struggling to
get pair professionals and and some of the teachers back too. So I mean it was real and um so the build uh the principles really expressed their concern and their challenge with that um with getting subs and then calling last minute. It it made it really hard and you're not the only district. Say that
again. It was FY23. 23. Thank you. And um so we gradually started to use that. Um so Gordon will bring me back. so that I don't wander off with my thought process. So, that grant ended September 30th. What we did in addition to adding some of those um temporary bodies to help us, we were also plugging in some
of those holes that we talked about with the services that were needed, contracted services were definitely utilized um by funding. But what I'm very proud to say um is that we did get a beautiful playground, preschool playground over at Metobrook and that is
just finishing up now. we were approved by Desi to have late liquidation. Um, and I know there was some discussion on federal funding out there that people like lost the funding if it we are all set. I have a measly 26,000 still encumbered and that's just for the
seeding that is actually happening. It might have already happened. It's just is happening now. Um, so that will be coming off of the books, but that's the last of the the monies that that we have. So, um, yeah. Very good. questions for um Pam on the No, that's that was
question two, although she provided uh the 25. Um yeah, I tried to just show you I tried to cut and paste from some documents I had and again I was doing it with not a whole lot of time. So, um I apologize that it's but I wanted to give you the idea of what where do these go
and they they do that we have some salary funded um people um not too many but but yes we we do and um and if these go away to to that point around esser we tried to stay away from carrying personnel permanent personnel right and
so what we did with as we we scaled back from building permanent substitutes we kept five however what we looked at was our line item for daily on call subs. Can we utilize the amount we're paying
the building permit subs? Carve a a little bit out of that and pay them and keep them. And the building principles love the idea because you have someone in your building that knows sort of the eb and flow of how your building runs and can um go to any number of
situations and be of help. So, we moved certain folks off of Esser when Esser ended and we kept five permanent subs, but that's paid for through we didn't add money to the budget. We used an existing substitute line item, right?
Questions on on funding sources. Okay, the students. So there's a a little change but not a not a ton. Not a ton. Um you can see in
if you go to um school year 2122 th the year before that and the 2122 school year we were those were the two years one directly impacted that's not on the sheet uh by COVID and even
2122 was still impacted by COVID because we started the year with a mask order and so forth. We did get a lot of families um more than we had had ever in my tenure who opted to homeschool. And then we also had families who went to
parochial schools. Uh we started to get those families back in 22 23. So we had a a nice um bump up. Uh and then 23 24 sort of a leveling off. um 24 25, you
know, we we're not uh dissimilar to unfortunately many districts I think across the Commonwealth where we're either flat or slightly declining. Um the that's a conservative estimate because we did add additional school choice. were still um a pretty desirable
school district. And um the school committee as one of their sort of revenue generating thoughts around dealing with the immediate fiscal challenge was maybe we should add um more school choice slots. And so they
did have um 10 and 10 10 at the nth grade level and 10 at the sixth grade level. Those tend to be grades that are more sought after because it's a transition year. So families may stay, you know, in their elementary school up
until fifth grade and then may look to move to a town, you know, as they're entering middle school, uh, and we had more than enough uh, applicants to fill those slots. So we'll be running a lottery. So, so Gordon, as as you look at and again, thank you for the
outlining the FTEES over the course of the next few years or from 21, there's kind of like a slow and steady increase in FTEES even though the number of students is pretty much flat. Yeah. What's driving what what's So, it's
that's a sort of a national phenomena. Um the as research has gotten better and we were talking about sort of the mental health crisis. We I mean Kathy's probably heard me talk about this for years. We were discussing adjustment counselors
probably back in 2010 and 2011. We were that was um so it's it's it's not new necessarily, but it's better researched and better documented. And so um to support students and make sure they're
they have the full opportunity to learn to their fullest extent and you know reach their potential to use a lot of those um cliches that you hear us use quite often. Um more staff is needed. Uh and so even before COVID we had
partnered with River Valley Counseling because we did have adjustment counselors. We were really excited that not only the school committee but the town supported us in having at least one adjustment counselor at school. Um we still had students that needed more
therapeutic care and River Valley was one of the first um groups that figured out how to do this without necessarily um costing schools more money but partnering with schools because the biggest challenge was when a team
recommends your child may benefit from from more counseling outside than you know the adjustment counselor who's seeing them x number of times per week. River Valley found a way to do it through insurance as long as schools were willing to
partner with them and give them a space. So we since it's Yeah, it was really great. It was a game changer. Can I just add that we were really lucky um Gordon that you partnered with them right before COVID hit, not long before. So when like we already had an established
relationship and so when we came out of it and districts were really struggling to try to get that behavioral support because it was just crazy, we already had that in place. So we were we were very lucky. Um and also there was something else uh town council had
approved something for us that we were very lucky. Um God escaped my mind that helped us so much after co it'll come to my mind. Anyways, I just thought anyway, there's a there was a chart at one of the um So, it's not webinars. It's not primary teaching positions. It's No,
it's it's it's support staff. It's it's other other staff that um but there's a national chart um that I saw earlier in the year. There've been a lot of charts around budget, but um your enrollment nationally flatlining and your staff
over the years is going like this. So there's more staff in most buildings across the country than existed before and these are the reasons why. Um you know I think the reasons are legitimate but we still have to find ways to figure out what's the balance. I
have two quick questions. Sure. So student teacher ratio generally is at the elementary level. Uh Metobrook we're right around 20 and 21. uh second grade I think is our biggest grades. They may be some classes are 22, some classes are
21. Um at the three through five schools it's uh closer to 18 at the moment, 18 and 19. Um and then secondary level it depends a lot on um you know if it's a English course say at the high school
those tend to have more students in them. Um some of the electives are smaller. uh PE has uh usually it's pushing 30. Um um and then also do we know the overall potential student
population in town like the percentage who are not participating at all in we do um it's it's so we have to do a I didn't bring it with me but uh school attending reports every year you know um so I mean you look at what did I have
2519 you probably could add another you know 25 30 students to that um because what we have to do is we send out letters um and emails to the prochial schools. We send out uh to local um
Connecticut and um local independent private schools and also then you have um school choice because we do have students who opt to go to other districts and you have charter schools. Um, and so we try to every year uh
pinpoint, okay, here are all the folks in our grades pre-K to 12. Here are the folks that are in um instate parochial. Here are folks that are in out of state parochial. Here are folks that are in uh instate private, out of state private,
and so forth. uh charter and and you must also um have a a number for uh families that homeschool. We do. Yeah. Yeah. So, back in, you know, when it was starting to double, it was upwards of
close to 60. Now, it's back down to I think high 20s or low 30s. Other questions on number three or number four? If not, we'll move on to number five. So,
start did did we did we skip four? No, we we covered good. Okay. All right. Um so so basically um the students when was the okay got it the uh staff. Okay. when um the school department uh went through, as I think most departments
did, through uh what was considered um your budget request and then a level one uh reduction budget request and then ultimately um a final request. Um, and that was working with Tom and Kim and
Rebecca and um, other folks, members of the town council and so forth, uh, in just trying to figure out what the town can support and afford, um, as well as articulate because that's our job, you know, what the students need.
Um so we had um one of the revenue um ideas was and it's not you know it'd be similar to balancing the budget with free cash. It's not the greatest fiscal practice. Can I just stop you for a second because I feel like so I was going to go back to that. Oh you were
okay. All right. He was asking about the because the question is about supplies right? Yeah. Okay. Um, so one of the elements in the first uh rung of this because uh before the meeting Kathy and I were talking about
that, you know, it's challenging when you get to staff reduction because not only are you sending out letters, but I'm also meeting personally with people and um that's not the uh highlight of anyone's day or career. But
um in looking at how we can reorganize revenue, one of the thought processes was well, we've been in um school choice for a few years. We haven't touched that money because one of the reasons that the school committee has had agreed to
re-enter school choice because they had been in it uh many years prior and then there was a hiatus and now we're back in the um school choice arena so to speak was for unforeseen special education
costs or unforeseen costs that um you know were unanticipated in a given budget year. Certainly we have one of those. So they um not only approved a certain amount of money to cover some deficits this year, but then in
developing the budget for next year, ultimately they're putting in about 550,000 of school choice. Um and that's not going to generate anywhere as quickly as it's going to be expended now. Um so that was one element. Where
to place that in the budget? um funding uh what am I looking at or chart I guess line of account expenditures like where where am I going to reduce the supplies we're we're looked at so we're not going to go without supplies but we're going to be
infusing the um school choice money to do that so it won't show as a as a as an expense in supplies it'll show as you're taking it from eventually it will show as an expense in under school choice revolving account, not under the
operational budget. I just wasn't sure. It just looked like you were going to wind up having to buy supplies. So, has to be taken into consideration that $20. Yeah, that's it. I'm just kidding. Um, but to to Pam's point, because she had
um refocused me on the uh I just think it's an important Yeah. So during that process, we knew when we put together in January level services that we were looking at if we were going to bring everybody back and all programming back, we were looking at
$3 million increase or 8.57% increase. We knew that that was going to be too challenging a request. Um it's not dissimilar to where towns around us started. It doesn't mean that they necessarily got it, but um that's where
they started. So we worked um through that level one process where first we were looking at how do we reorganize funds that exist? How do we possibly create more funds and then unfortunately um in order to just get to 5% and uh
reduce it by about 1.2 million we also had to reduce six positions. So in in January into February, um we had reduced six positions. Uh three of which at the time were retirement and three of which had people
in them. So already we're starting to feel the impact. Uh then unfortunately as we went through February into March um to get to the town manager's uh recommendation of 2.5%. Um we didn't have any more revenue
that we could move around. So now we were looking at cutting about a little less than 900,000 but uh ultimately it became 13 positions in addition to the Yeah. In addition. So you're talking about 19 positions right now. There may
be some additional um hopefully not, but we're we're still working through that. Uh so all of those individuals were notified um last Tuesday uh and then meetings were had uh for anybody who wanted them and they still have that
opportunity uh Wednesday and Thursday. Um so I just want to reiterate that we started at 3 million, we brought it down by 1.2 2 million and then we brought it down by close to another $900,000. So we have $2.1 million in reductions from our
level services budget. I just felt very compelled to make sure that that was clear everyone that we have worked very diligently. Um as Gordon said those how many letters? 19 letters. Um yeah 20 20. The challenging part with all of that as
you send those letters is that we're also governed by contracts and so it's not necessarily this position even though I've listed the positions and we'll do so again in the school committee meeting because we we're trying to be very sensitive to the fact
that until the school committee has voted that we don't list all the position. Other towns have done that and there's you know strategy around that. school committee voted the amount. They knew that we were going to get to 2.5% to match the town manager. We understood
the challenges that the town had um and respectfully they decided to do that. So they voted that that number in the meeting but never specific um positions until executive session. Sorry to interrupt. No, that's fine. Um so last
uh Monday school committee meeting a week ago from this past Monday this week um they did vote specifically around positions. There had been many different discussions and recommendations and so forth but ultimately they had to make a decision uh and they made that decision.
Um but as I was talking about in terms of contracts so as you send those letters you also then have to recognize that um in most of the contracts there's a seniority system and so you have to first look at of the positions you're
reducing who is the most senior and you start there and that person has the most rights if you will. then you look at is there a vacancy for which that person is licensed um and that person immediately goes there. If there's not a vacancy
then that person has the ability to bump someone first who may have not um reached professional status meaning that they haven't been in the district for three full years. Um they would bump that person. If there
is no person with non-professional status, then they can actually bump someone who has professional status, but it's a it's a complicated process. So, more letters than the positions you're reducing need to go out. Um, and then obviously there's understandably
understandably questions and so answering those questions and um dealing with those pieces um yeah are challenging. Don't envy, right? Yeah. So if I so I don't understand to get to this 2.1
million decrease. Yeah, it's very important. You cut staff, you did some work with unit A. We did. Yeah. So I apolog Yeah. Unit A. Um so East Lang Education Association sometimes gets
referred to as unit A. um they worked with us in that first round and were very collaborative and um you know no one wants to necessarily stop professional development um because contractually they have um up to $650
that they can can get reimbursed with approved professional development and we propose freezing that. However, we have to negotiate that. And they ultimately agreed because that was going to save positions. And um then
also we have our counselors work 5 days before the start of the school year and five days after the start of the school uh after the school year ends. We proposed um that we reduce that to five days. And
ultimately that was a little bit harder because now you're focusing it on a smaller group. But um they also agreed to that. Uh so they were very collaborative and helpful in terms of looking at how can we do something to
change revenue sources or create revenue and so forth. So we did do that. Um and once we had sort of exhausted those efforts unfortunately then when your budget is 83% salary that's where you have to go. Rich had more question.
Yeah. Sorry. I just want to make So that was the second creative way. The third I'm guessing is that um use school choice money. Yeah. So that was part of the original revenue. Our recommendation since um they had used school choice
money this year to offset some of the gap in special education especially when you have you're expecting a certain amount to come back for transportation. You're only getting 44% as opposed to 75%. They did infuse some school choice money. So, one of the recommendations
that Pam and I had was let's expand school choice, but let's also if we have some rollover money, let's add some of the rollover money to next year's budget. And um that's what's going into the supply line
item. And the fourth way was um you raised revenue, correct? By with the athletic fees. We did. Yes. Was there any discussion about raising a transportation fee? Uh charging for bubs. Um there was uh there was actually all of that was discussed as a good point. We didn't write them down, but uh
we also talked about fur days too. Yeah. Um yeah, there was a lot talked there. It was we were trying to balance uh because we're still a school department and we're still supposed to be about families. So, we were trying not to sort
of balance our fiscal challenges on the backs of families. And so, to the point um someone made, I think Jim, you made it, we have to get students to school. Um we already charge a transportation fee. And so I think rightfully so, even though we made the recommendation,
school committee said, "We're already charging for athletics. Families have somewhat used to paying for athletics as they come up through rec sports and so forth, and we hadn't raised the athletic user fee for at least 23 years." Yeah.
Um I think it goes back to when I was assistant principal. Um so they were okay with that. They did not want to raise transportation fees and um they also didn't want to diminish um
because we also I threw a few different recommendations up there. I said what if you reduce all 9th grade level sports and a good point was made in those discussions that sometimes that's the only level that a student plays and
so that's their one experience with high school athletics. Um, and so if we charged more, I don't think we've had an activity fee before. If we charge for that, you know, do you lose participation on say the drone team which is growing and winning awards? We
also felt that the school committee felt that had a huge impact on students and that was the last thing we're trying to do as much as we can the lowest impact for the students. Exactly. which is why, so just in case anyone's curious, the transportation fee is 270 uh per
student, which is basically a buck 50 a day for the 180 days and with a family cap of $540. So, school committee wanted to keep that as is and not have that and get our kids to school. Thank you. Other questions? Wonder ask for a clarifying
question. Um Gordon and Pam, was the um freeze in the like I believe was online curriculum. Yes. Is it also falling under the That was under the level one revenue. Um so what? No, that actually so um we have a curriculum renewal
cycle. And so there's $80,000 that are designated uh that's designated each year as departments reach their fourth year in that fiveyear cycle. and they've done a a study looking at one, are we currently aligned with
new standards that may have coming out, may have come out, excuse me. Um, are we using materials that um are the most current? Are there better materials to make sure that we're providing the students the best possible learning
environment and supplying it in the best possible way? So for many years, we really didn't have a line item that allowed for purchasing. And 80,000 goes pretty quickly when you're if you have one or two or three departments in the
cycle ready to purchase. Next year we're free. So anyone who was up on the cycle, they'll just remain on that level and the curriculum is the curriculum at the moment. Um so that 80,000 is going to get designated into other areas. What what is the line item that would fall
under? Um I don't know if we've transferred it to supplies or wait I'm sorry I curriculum renewal multitasking here. Yeah sorry curricular renewal. Yeah. So what supplies in terms of the way you organize the line of in the in the chart of accounts is that what is it
a supplies or material is that? So I think it would fall under supplies and materials. Yes. Um sorry. Yeah. For the character code the way we run the reports. That's your question. Yeah I can give you the more specifics. wondering if that also fell under this category. It's a separate it's it's a
separate it's separate from the other supply that we talked about that that those are at the school level. This is an additional line item that be under educational or instructional materials instructional materials. Thank you. You're welcome. Uh any other questions on number
five? So we'll move to number six. I um yeah I kind of flabbergasted by the increases in the titions but I'm kind of flabbergasted by the increase in the number of students going to LTVEC thanks
to well so there's two different things so uh the district-wide tuition account is LP that's the vulad so after co uh those numbers have been increasing and also because they now allow ninth graders I think you had mentioned that actually more than allow is mandate
mandated. I'm sorry. Mandated is the the better word to use. Um yeah. No, I was just going to say it's yes, it's a a challenge, but it actually once we got by the fiscal piece of it, um it was really great for our
eighth graders to look at because I think one of the things that were happening in the LPVC, you had Long Meadow, Lello, East Long Meadow, and Hampton, Wilberham, uh four of the districts that only sent 10th, 11th, and 12th graders.
But I think the unfortunate thing for some of our students uh was that when they got into the high school and they got into or through their ninth grade year and they were kind of academically set, they figured out where they were going, not as many were willing to take
a look at some of the vocational um programs which are exceptional um at the LPVC. and they um not only have gotten better over time, but I think there was always this stigma that if you go to a
vocational school, you can't go to college. And that's really untrue. And so anyway, that I'm just going to give my plug for that. It is a fiscal challenge, but um I thought it was a good thing for our students in the end
because you see how much they jumped. I think that's so that that wouldn't be the special education. It's not the special district. This would be like machining. Um that's like the 200 construction culinary arts. Culinary
arts. Yep. And this is a national trend. If you look at platinum vocational in Springfield, it's one of the most popular schools now. It's I think it's the most popular. Yep. Definitely is a trend. And so the next question on the special ed uh tuition line items um as I told
you those are broken out I think I told you by Desi DOE code. So if you see miscellaneous tuition line items I wanted you to understand that I have to code things. Is it a special ed day placement instate? Is it a special ed day placement out of state? Is it a residential placement? Is it a summer
program? So there's many line items um you know behind the scenes but they're all the the out of district tuitions. And so what has happened in this current year which has affected obviously next year and why we need to rectify this or
that's why we had the problems this year. We were able to roll over um whichever business manager, school committee, superintendent we tried to do is roll over as much circuit breaker revenue as we can from one year to the other um to the next because we can
legally roll over a full year's amount of revenue. And so that's a nice little safety net for when things happen. We rolled over a million 38,000 I believe is is the amount um from last year. We've expended that which we have to expend in the in the following year. In
addition to that, we received 1.6 million in um the current year's uh circuit breaker uh reimbursement. That is all mostly going to be used. We might be able to have a few. We still have the fourth quarter, right? Yeah, we have the fourth quarter that we're Yes. It's about
$400,000 that we're hoping, but $400,000 instead of $1 million. That's that's one of the problems. In addition to that, this year we we already knew we were going to have a deficit, which is why we did not have to come to town council to ask for um revenue to help us is because
we had that school choice revolving account. why uh the school committee voted to use $496,896 something on that figure um from school choice for the special ed expenditures. In addition to that um the
only things that a school department can prepay for at the end of a a fiscal year are um uh special education tuitions or um uh collaborative um expenditures. That's it. But as I'm sure Kim can
attest to the fact, sometimes you don't know until you're at the end of a year. You don't know until you're at that end of the year, the last stretch as the POS are closing and how much, you know, are these real expenditures? Are these So, we're all working on that and especially in the month of May, trying to not be so
crazy in June, but it is crazy in June, too. And it just is. It's the the beast the way it is. And um so last year I the prior two years I was able to do prepays of approximately $3 to $500,000 which as you can imagine then helped the next
year. This last year I was only able to do like $75,000. So when you put all those different pieces together and when you try to look at next so we we figured out how we're going to get through this year and we and we're doing it. We also just so that you know um in case you're not aware uh the school committee voted to
put a budget freeze on the supply accounts this year. So, we are only expending or buying um essential purchases. Obviously, if the school needs something, we're going to get it for them. But, um we're looking at all of that. So, in order for this now to roll into FY26 when you've got your down
$1.5 million there, we have to increase the operating budget lines um or we're not going to be able to sustain sustain what is happening um behind the scenes with um special ed. I mean, I call it the perfect storm with um ESSER funding going away, with uh inflation
increasing, with special needs um increasing and yet chapter 70 is decreasing that percentage and because of the student opportunity act, they've they've changed the formula and they're putting more um of the burden on
the towns. So, if you notice that spread, um, if you look at any of Desi's, um, things, you're going to see the chapter 70 is kind of leveling off, but they're expecting the towns to to increase. And each town is different, and there's many things behind the formula. I don't want to act like I know
it all because it gets very confusing, but those are all um the different things that have affected why we why you're seeing that increase. Do do you actually have more kids that you're having to send out of district for So it's actually we only u between last
year and this year we've only added two students. Um the the bigger piece to the um and that's fluid. So you know throughout the year it's been two. There may be meetings going on where there may be some people recommended to go out.
But one of the bigger challenges is kind of like a hidden challenge if you will is that um these added district placements are really in high demand. And so they're somewhat in the driver's seat in terms of whether they feel that
they can meet a student's needs. And so you have to have an annual meeting to review an IEP. And so last year in May and June after we put the budget basically to bed, we had three or four meetings where students who were in and
out of district placements, the school said we can't be out of district school. Yeah. So yeah, that we can no longer meet this child's needs, which then forces the team, the district team to look at other
placements. Never have I seen those other placements be less expensive. So, just one example, we went from I want to say it's like a was it $36,000 46,000 to 156,000.
Geez. Um and we had we had three or four of those May and June last year. And um so that's unfortunately ongoing. So that's another area where if I jump to, you know, question
11, we have to prepare our teams to do a better job and that's hard to do in terms of how do you diplomatically work through those kind of settings so that you're not um one possibly referring out
or two so that you're not losing a placement that you have. Um you know, is that more communication? is that um it's just a such a hard dynamic. I mean, when I looked at the two of them together, it's like your entire increase, right,
is is in this is in that category. And even if you take out the the lower Pioneer Valley, you know, the 250 still twothirds of it, right? And and that's not to say that that couldn't happen the next year and the next year and the next year. And that's the and and most of
that's governed by law. Yeah. So once a team decides we don't have anything we those funds need to go there which means you're moving funds from other areas to to meet that. Um two other things which I have spoken to state reps and our state
senator about. Um so the division of the operational services division who governs basically when and how um each October they send out um their decision as to how much these out of district
providers can raise their tuition. So last two years they went up um what did I put four years% yeah but just in just in the la we had esser though uh last year was 4.69% 69% and projected for next year is
3.67. But we're one of those districts that Pam was talking about. I think there are about 233 districts that initially the Student Opportunity Act helped a little bit, but now is we're in this um cycle where we're just getting
the minimum amount per pupil. And so this year in the governor's budget it was $75 per pupil which is roughly $185,000100. That's the increase this year to chapter 70 which is only 1.35% increase. So you're already behind in terms of um can
I add I'm sorry I'm going to put a plug in that the um state way I always say this wrong. the means, thank you, Ways and Means Committee has put out their budget, which is the next one after the governor's and they have increased that minimum aid from 75 to 150. So, if that
comes to fruition, that would be another $185,100. Um, that would increase chapter 70, which would be wonderful if the school department could get because that would be additional revenue that the town was not expecting and we were we are very respectful of their
challenges and just would like Yeah. I just wanted to make mention of that. Absolutely. That's important. So, uh that was House Ways and Means. I think it then goes to the Senate Ways and Means and then they have the conference conference committ. But last year, if I
remember correctly, the increase that the House Ways and Means Committee put in survived Senate and went to the combined and then it became part of the full budget for the state. But we won't know that till which doesn't doesn't actually get approved
until after the town's budget July or yeah it's a little crazy isn't it unfortunately make it uh other questions on question number six other comments
uh Anna Marilyn thank you for that was a pretty thorough discussion I appreciate it uh Number seven was the question about the net school spending. I think we could. Yeah, I feel like we
did. It's that an idea in the chart. Just what you're saying is we're not alone. We're not alone. You go to that next page. There's a nice chart there that shows you the LPC districts that I just went on today. I notice it's 24. Is there is there a That's the last one.
That's it because we're in 25. So yeah, they'll post that next year. They're always a little behind. Is there something about West Springfield and South McDall that they're able to get around get by with 102? We're wondering the same thing.
It's hard to say. You know, each district is different. Southtown's a regional school. Um they may qualify for certain grants because they're also rural. Um Springfield's a bigger school system has some more urban elements to it where they may qualify for right
there. Um also heavy the industry. Yeah. True. I I think part of the question was it seemed like the gap was getting bigger. Yeah. And and I it probably is. I I think there's um both some of the things we've discussed
in terms of staffing and because uh the formula is built on enrollment and they don't count necessarily your school choice students because technically you're getting some money for them. They don't count um preschool students. So,
um, can I also Yeah, I was just going to add I wrote there that, you know, according to Desi's website, required net school spending is the annual, um, minimum that must be spent on schools to provide an adequate educational program. Net school spending includes chapter 70
and appropriated local contribution plus the municipal indirect spending for the schools. Um, these uh, expenditures are reported on the end of year report um, which I do in in the month of September. I guess I what I wanted to really stress was that required is an adequate um and I think
most districts want to go beyond just adequate if they can and that's why you see that trend going up and I think it has to do also do with the um chapter 70 coming down and and different and and again there's a lot of things behind in the formula which you can get on Desi's website and look it all up it's it's all
there for you it can gets a little complex but um you know how wealthy is your district what is your um tax base what is it there there's many things that are tied into it So, um, yeah, it just an observation and it just shows how old I am. I I was on the
appropriations committee and I think actually Marilyn was was on the select board uh when they passed the foundation budget um and our uh budgets. We had to increase arbitrarily increase our school
budgets to get up to the foundation level. And yet at the time it didn't seem like we were underfunding uh the schools. So it was a really wild kind of kind of thing because the uh the the argument was well we'll increase the
quality of education by increasing the funding of the education. But it just seemed the philosophy just seems to have just gotten more complicated uh since then. They've had um probably two reviews of the foundation budget over
the course of that time. Um each one has tried to make it more effective and efficient. The most recent one produced the student opportunity act and it did in the early year um of the seven years help us um just as a municipality, but
uh the last few years it has not. It sounds like it's given that we're one of I think 233 districts that are just getting the minimal increase. I think part of the problem to me is the whole issues of what you're dealing with
with mandated requirements uh that aren't funded uh which the town has mandated requirements that aren't funded. And so you you keep having expenses that you're required to pay, but you're not you're not getting any
Yeah. the the state keeps bumping more things on the the cities and towns. Any um any other questions on that topic? All right. Thank you for for showing us the others. At least we feel like we're not
alone. Yes. Uh number eight, the organizational chart. I I had attached that to the email. It's a separate uh Yeah. Yeah. But but it also if you get the um it's there's there you can get it. Um we we didn't we don't have one for each building, but we
had one for the district. Um I'm happy to answer questions if you have questions. Uh yeah. No, I any questions, comments on the organizational chart. Okay. Uh then we'll move to the uh school choice students and currently how
many have special education needs? Could you tell could you tell type my my print out is too small. I can't read the numbers. Yeah, I can't. So, they are very tiny. Anybody ages getting can't read that. You know what? We'll have to go back onto the document and enlarge it. Basically, Rich is speaking. Rich is
speaking for all of us. Okay. At least when we print it out. We probably could have blown it up online. You looks We need a line item for magnifying glasses. So, this is a chart that you can get from the Desi website. It's hard to find but um through diligent effort you can
find it. Um and it basically looks at um sending students meaning students leaving your district through school choice and receiving students. So if you look at starts with FY16 I believe it we were not a receiving district because we
were not participating in the school choice program. starting in FY20, no, excuse me, FY21, we began um participating and over the years um through FY25
um we have continued to participate and uh the last two years we've finally gone above um our sending students versus receiving students. So we started the year with 38
students coming in and we had 36 students going out via choice. Next year um we'll add another 20 slots to that. So we'll be further above um of the the
students that um of those 38 students because it is a blind lottery. So when they apply, you can't look at discipline, you can't look, all you can confirm is grade level, name, address, and so forth. Um, and then you have to
do a lottery. We do have seven students um with IEPs, none of whom are in the out of district um category. Um and all of whom because based on their services which we report um both through SIMS
information that goes to DESIE three times a year and also then circuit breaker we get additional funding. So you start in school choice with $5,000 per pupil which has not changed in the years that school choice the program has
been introduced. So that might be something the legislature can look at. Um, and then based on the services you're providing, it can go up. I think some of our students, we were getting reimbursed up to like 11,000 12,000. It
varies. It's not just a set amount. It depends on their services and that's worked out with the student services director. But they could be getting speech services, are they getting um uh specialized services
around reading, things of that nature? Yeah. So, is that kind of like a a potential whammy? I mean, you could get 100% um you could, but you could still claim I believe that individual then if you're going above that $52,000
threshold. Now, you can put them into circuit breaker. So you're going to get just initially on would you get reimbur would you get from school choice the 52,000 we wouldn't get the 52,000 well you're not going to get 52,000 back on any
student that only it's only above the 52,000 only those expenses above and and you're only getting 75% of that expenditure up to Yeah, the system has broken. Yes, the state
level it is. Yes, there was a um I don't know if I said this before. I know I've been talking for a while, so I apologize. Um there was a superintendence email that um went out today and um I think most districts
signed on. I signed on asking the legislature to fund circuit breaker not at 75% but 90%. um you know, at least above that $52,000 threshold, you're getting most of that money back where now you're still giving
up 25% of eligible costs. So, we'll see where that goes. Um obviously the state is looking for funding as well, so we're all in that search. Uh other questions on number
nine? Let's move to number 10. So yeah, those are the uh self-explanatory. Yeah. Yeah. And I'll if you want to watch the budget hearing on Monday night, I'll be listing those off and explaining it and
you know some of the things I've already said. Um you asked about impact. I mean the immediate impact is what's going on right now. There's a lot of emotion. There's a lot of um people realizing that I've taught for 10 12 years in one school and I may
be because of my lenture now moving to another school. um in some case there are challenges when you're dealing with bumping rights and contracts because because you're licensed in something doesn't
necessarily make you a content expert in something. Um and so there are some folks that are going to be moving into areas where is it content expert is that's a defined thing. It's just a Gordon Smith term.
Just checking. Yeah, sorry. It's 5:30. Um, someone might use it as well, but I'm using it today. Uh, but anyway, so we're going to have to give some support to folks to get them ready to go
from something they've been teaching for quite a while that now they may be teaching something different that they're licensed for, you know. So, yes, they have a job, but it's not but it's not what they've been doing, and it may be at grade levels that they've never
participated at before. Um, and I'm sure that's scaring some people. I've had some conversations around that. Um, and I know that I judging from how we ended the week prior to vacation, I know I'll have more conversations. Um, and
principles are worried because they're trying to figure out just especially the high school and the middle school where you're trying to run your core academics and then you have electives. It's run a little bit differently at the middle school than it is at the high school.
But, um, at the high school, it's all based on, you know, student interest and choice. And they try to give as many students as possible their first choice. we're reducing some of those options and in some cases so that we're not reducing
some of those options, we're transferring someone in and that may change how that course is run. It will change how the course is run. Um, you talked about class size. You're going to see that, you know, definitely at the fifth grade level.
Um, so if I can jump, my question there was because you're eliminating one at each of the elementaryaries. I naively assumed that it was because you're rising fourth
graders. That whole um cohort was smaller in population. It was a Yeah, it was a combination of factors. The three through five schools definitely had the best class size. Um there were some other elements that uh probably not good for a public
meeting. So help so I'll leave it there. Um the three Meadowbrook reading specialists um obviously uh that's going to have an impact. how compact, you know, I would I'm presuming that those individuals
were giving tier two and three uh interventions predominantly. Yeah, it's in some cases tier three but predominately tier two. Yeah. Um and our hope there is that um there is some
title one funding that continue to exist that we've utilized um as part of at least one of those salaries and we're hoping to utilize it um in getting part-time tutors which
we've had real good success with um for math intervention and because most of the people we've now gotten a chance to hire uh are retired teachers and are um really skilled in providing that
intervention. Uh and and it gives us the opportunity to basically say, you know, here's how we're posting this job. It is what it is. You either want it and you're qualified to do it or you don't. Um, and so we're hoping that that same
type of model will provide the same type of benefit, but it's a risk uh because you're losing licensed teachers that were doing the job. So, does that eliminate all the reading specialists there or or are there other remaining
reading specialists? Uh, we have other reading specialists in the district. So, it doesn't eliminate Oh, I meant that's at Mebrook. So eliminating that whole it does. Yeah. Um and so as we were talking about redeploying services, that might
be one of the discussions this um spring that's upcoming because we're going to need to support students in many different ways. Uh and we're going to have fewer people to do it. Um other questions for Gordon or Pam on
number 10? if not number 11 to a large degree I feel like you've kind of been doing that as we've gone along I have these questions but advertisement uh Rich you had kind of thought this one uh
up do you have any other Yeah I guess I have one question um Mr. Superintendent. Um, when the town manager finished his presentation on his side of the town budget, I asked him a very pointed question. Is this budget going to affect
town services at all? His answer was no. Minimal at best. Going to ask you the same question. How is this going to affect the educational services with this budget? What's the impact? Uh I think there's going to be a number of impacts because there's a lot of
unknown to see how this plays out as we start the next school year. Um you'll have some class size increases. We'll have some untested ways to support students we were just talking about in terms of I mean we have the examples of
math and that's worked. Will that work for reading? Hopefully. Um we're going to uh be redeploying people in areas that maybe they never thought
they were going to be engaging in, you know, as a educational professional. Um and so all of that just because we're all human is change. And so there's going to be a range of emotion that people experience. um some of that, you
know, hopefully will eventually get to enthusiasm and excitement and can bring that to the new position. But there's, you know, unfortunately, having gone through a few of these conversations already, most of it right now is frustration, anger, and confusion. Um
give you one example. um because of bumping um and contractual obligations, one of the meetings that I had um what we're lo we're going to lose a lot of our best newest talent because
they're the least senior. So that's going to also the cheapest too. Yeah. Well, that but in terms of their training in the teaching colleges, yeah, they've had different training. Right. Our veteran staff, they've had training around
training that more dovetales. Correct. My assumption and the the challenge, you know, today that Yeah. American students, you're exactly right. You know, the professional development we've been trying to provide to veteran and
all staff is around how you engage and work with students who are currently in front of you, not how you've done it for 15 years because those students aren't in front of you anymore. Okay. Um but to the point that I was talking about in terms of emotion and
confusion. So one person who will not have a job was asking was it something that was in my evaluation? Did I do something wrong? And I've been in the individual's
room and I said no it has nothing to do unfortunately has nothing to do with that. And I brought the contract over and we went through exactly what it has to do with. And so here's someone who's doing an exceptional job for us for our students who will not be with us next
year. Um the only thing I can offer is you know a recommendation and support and you know asked me you know how do I make myself more employable? One of my answers always is
get a special education license. Um, so that that you know that's going to be that's the impact that's going on right now, but I don't see that necessarily changing um quickly as we start the next year.
We're going to be planning and working at that from now through August. We'll have uh a plan in place and you know I will be more optimistic than I am right now. Um but yeah, it
will have an impact. And if I can jump in again, I I think the impact um won't be as concrete for the public to for any of us to to notice in that first year or two.
No, the the the other element that um you know is challenging I just because I've been here a few years um it seems like I'm dismantling everything we've built. I know. And and so that's hard, especially as I look out my window
and I see that a community has invested in a new high school and I'm just hoping to have the resources to put it in that new high school because obviously the community values education. And the reason that we have students who apply
even when we don't have school choice slots, they call and ask, is because we've always had a a really good reputation as a school system. And um we want we're going to fight hard to continue that, but this will have an impact.
Any uh any final questions for Gordon and Kathy? Yeah. Um you alluded Pam to you know if the chapter 70 monies once it finally gets through the Senate and then the conference committee
and so forth if knock on wood another couple hundred thousand is allocated to East Long Meadow and it flows to the schools. Will you use that to try to recall physicians? Would that
be your It's not totally our decision, but that would be our recommendation. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Cuz I'm g I'm going to disagree. We haven't talked about this, so I feel like I put I don't want to pop on the spot. But I just um but it were were it
to flow I feel the schools it would be in our best interest to try to build up that circuit breaker um reimbursement that we talked about so that you have that safety net. But I feel that that 185 would probably be best to do that because FY27 is not
looking as bright either. Not for the town, not for the school. No. Well, that's kind of I'm trying to think of your picture for money, you know. Yes. Um I were a good team. So, I'm sorry. Okay. No, but we'll have to make a recommendation where that to happen,
right? The school committee would have to endorse, right? What action they want to take with additional funding. Did our legislators um I know that they must feel the hate because they're not
the only district read every day walking disasters in the uh school systems as far as what's going to happen. Poor Jake Olivera doesn't want to hear hear me anymore. We have a longterm relationship. He's a good guy. But uh I just I'm sure he
doesn't want to answer my call. Yeah. Well, I imagine they're getting a lot of calls. No, I think they are. I think Westfield was just in the news uh this week um yesterday yesterday that they're $16 million deficit, 43 layoffs. Yeah.
School school department. Yeah. How do you I don't know how you come back from that. I mean, they're a bigger district, but you know. So, yes, we're we're not alone. Um, and there's a big presence at the Ways and Means Committee meeting at UMass. Yeah, that's was there at the end
of April. I mean, the end of March, was it March 20? Then when he was Yep. And we went to Say that again. I said I almost didn't get in. Oh, yeah. Standing room only. And then I had That's a good I mean, not that you didn't No, it was good. No, it's a good thing that No,
that superintendent group came out and I said, "Oh, they had you with the students." See? Yeah. Well, uh, any final questions, Conor? No, I think that was information. Yeah. Marilyn,
Anna, no. Rich, Kathy, thank you, Don. I think Marilyn's trying to Marilyn, I was just going to say it's very sobering that last piece that we discussed. Um, I have somehow I have faith I have to have faith in the educators in our community
that somehow we'll manage to pull things together. I want to thank Pam and Gordon for spending the time with us. It's been incredibly helpful to hear everything you've had to say. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And uh I wish to echo that a
lot of time, but it's it's been very helpful to kind of put the flesh onto the onto the numbers. M and um I'll echo that. Um it's such a complex story you're trying to explain to people
that don't work with it every day. So that's not lost on the council as well as your circumstances. you you make a good point um in terms of the training that uh some of our most recent hires have had because it's
different training than I've had that you know even someone who's maybe 10 years fewer in education has had and that's important you know any organization gets better you have a balance between you know veterans and newer staff coming on and when you get
into these situations unfortunately when you have seniority and bump ing kind of governing that piece once you've made a decision lose that balance and and that's uh something that we'll have to overcome and and hopefully we will.
Well, thank you for spending so much time with us and being so thorough. I appre we very much appreciate it. Sorry if we overstate our welcome. Oh, no. It's uh we obviously we we we had questions all the way along and so
thank you and please know I guess I just want to say uh for the school committee um on behalf of them that those decisions were not easy decisions. I can only imagine long meetings that um took a lot of time and um angst. Yes. Yeah. There's a lot of lot of angst. Anyway,
thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Bye now. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. So I think uh my only ambition for the rest of this meeting is to cover our minutes
and that kind of go over what we want to get done for next meeting and and maybe just clarify Connor because we did set up a meeting for the following Monday how you want us to provide provide
recommendations to the town council in in what, you know, in what format or or whatever. Um, I think I'm good with whatever format's easiest for this committee. If it's just a, you know, short memo like has done in previous years where it's just, you know, a
couple paragraphs and some bullets on some suggestions are, that's So, we'll do 4:30. We'll try to wrap up if we can, but if we can't, we'll use 55 as our or that Monday. I forget what the date is uh to just finish off and make sure
we're clear on on the on the uh on the recommendations. Uh so let's get to the minutes because we and I what I would say is uh so for for next week my vote would be
first we just have a recap with the school about the school discussion because it's fresh in our minds and anything we want to say about it or and and perhaps any position we might have on the 185,000 in terms of um recommend
commendation to the town council in terms of how they might approach that, you know, if that happens. And then finish off with the enterprise funds, revolving funds, reserve policy and sources and uses. Uh, and that pretty much wraps up. I think we've covered
pretty much everything everything else. Uh, and we still have uh a few votes. We got the revol enterprise funds. Revolving funds vote on enterprise. Yeah. Yeah. We have to vote on the
enterprise. Well, it's 547. Let's let's get through let's do our minutes. Yeah. Uh so Rich uh was very poor Rich. Very fast. A good
job. Thank you. Uh so he sent them out. We've all had it. Uh, is there any corrections that anyone would like to make changes? If there were none, would there be uh I noticed that and Don, I think
that was a good suggestion that we append the questions that uh made it look easy. And I I would say the questions that we've submitted to the school committee would be the ones that we want to attend because I it's
difficult to integrate. Yes. Yes. Poor Rich's fingers. We're probably anyhow. Uh so do I hear a motion to approve? I haven't heard any questions. So moved. All right. Second. Any other discussion? Hearing none. All in favor, please say
I. I. Opposed. Wow. I I tell you that was like a Oh, sorry. It's a We got to do a roll call. Uh Rich, absolutely. Kathy, yes. Don, yes. Jim, yes. Anna,
yes. All right. I think is that all that has to vote? Unanimous. Wow. You really you that was a superstar job, I guess. Nice. Nice going. Did you? Uh, so who would be willing to take minutes for the It's my
It's my turn. It's back around. Okay, Kathy, thank you so [Music] much. Uh, and that really does it except that we
we really reviewed all the enterprise funds. Uh the only question was the was there something about the ambulance? Was there something I got a question about the uh police department in the usage of the detective car? Oh yeah. Wanted an inventory of how many vehicles they had
and Tom was going to get that. So we'll have it by the time next week. I don't no problem. What was that? So I can remind three minutes we were discussing or I raised the question about is the uh the request on the the capital plan for
a detective vehicle um based on no how do I want to say each year we allocate for two additional cruisers and ideally when they arrive the
oldest ones come off the road. And my question was two-part. Could the detective vehicle that they're requesting come out of um one of the retired vehicles or and then that led to the
question, can we get an accurate number of of police cars in the fleet that are on the road act? you know. So, so my recollection is that was a follow-up question to the capital budget. Yes. Which we did vote and approve, but we're
still waiting for that as a followup. Right. But was there some followup on the enterprise as well? We were there was discussion about um but I don't storm water storm water was a fairly
large discussion on right the increases to understand There was quite a discussion on a storm water fund, right? Yeah. The 5% 47% increase. Yes. Was due to co and a lot of talk about the $15 per
Yes, that was Ralph's discussion. I think it was more I don't know that it was a discussion gerine to the FY26 budget, but more so in terms of how to deal with it and how to structure it for
the next year. Right. Yeah, the the rate structure, the way it's set up, if there's a $10 increase to that residential rate, there's only a $10 increase to all the other rates. Right. And the concern that he had that it wasn'tate to like if you have a $200 fee and it's only going up $10 and then you
have a $35 fee that's going up $10. Yeah. Right. And discussion I think the concern was and discussion ensued. Right. I don't know that we're in a position to try to change it. Right. Yeah. It's not under our purview to change it just to understand maybe the
rationale but so yeah a followup. So is are there any lingering questions that we need for the enterprise funds or did we just hold it in case we did have questions after we considered the discussions? I think we just held it in case. All
right. That was my recollection. All right. Do uh does anyone want to make a motion to recommend approval of the enterprise fund budgets as developed by the town
manager? So moved. Second. Any other discussion? I might um just be able to offer that um the detective vehicle is a second detective vehicle because I think they're looking to create um a new
position within the department and I don't think they're in a position to utilize the retiring vehicles because there's a delay in the I'm glad to hear that clarification because that wasn't that didn't come up before. That's that's a new piece of information
though. So good. Thank you. I think due to supply chain there's a delay in getting their new cruisers like fully outfitted with the you know that they need inside and so um I don't think they have even enough like vehicles in
rotation do what they need to do for their for their feet thank you uh any other discussion all right then I think we need a roll call vote uh affirmative yes Kathy this is on the enterprise this
one. Yes, Don. I'm a yes with a strong recommendation that we do. I would hope that the town would look at um perhaps investigating other ways to do the storm water.
And for FY27? Yes. Yeah. Uh do you want to make an amendment to the motion? I understand. I'll just I I I think it's we talked about it and I think that's the awareness had to come.
Okay. Y uh Jim I'm an I uh Anna. Yes. Okay. Uh that Yeah. Who who um made the motion and who seconded it? I made the motion. Kathy seconded.
Okay. Thank you. I would add uh Don's uh part about u recommending that uh the way it's the fee is structured and and developed to be looked at for FY27. It's a good point. Got it.
Great. All right. We got we got something done. Yes, we did. Could I just clarify one thing? You mentioned that it was for the enterprise funds. So, you're referring to water, sewer, elcat, and storm water. Correct. Correct. Okay. So, not ambulance yet.
Well, ambulance is an enterprise fund. It is not. I'm trying to clarify. Yeah. So, that's a receipts reserved for appropriation. Yes. And we'll do that with the uh with the revolving funds. Okay. Yeah. Right. That was quite the
puzzle. Yeah. So, so next uh next week we'll do revolving funds including ambulance and then reserve policy. We'll review the sources and uses and protect projected tax rate. I don't know that there's anything we need to vote on for
that. It's just a review and then we'll just uh discuss uh how we want to approach the uh 55 right meeting or whether we need it. Mr. Chair, do we have to vote on the school committee budget on the town side budget? Do we vote on the school committee's budget? Uh it's it's part of the town manager
budget. It's the overall budget that he's submitting is that. But yes, that'll be part of our 430. I I figure we should let it stew. Oh, no. I agree. I mean, unless unless people are comfortable, unless people are
comfortable doing it now. No. Okay. Uh, in which case I move to the chair. All right. Do I hear a second? Second. Any discussion hearing? None. We'll do a roll call. Mr. Ficero. Absolutely.
Kathy, all in. Yes. Yes. Jim. Yes. Anna. Yes. All right. Uh, the financial oversight committee meeting is adjourned. Motion to close the special town council meeting. So moved.