##VIDEO ID:29Bg5YIa1V0## [Music] all right so I think we have everybody here so thanks everyone for joining we will uh call this meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. um just a couple of housekeeping items this meeting is being recorded by area 58 committee members that are in attendance uh Cheryl uh Cheryl Burke Mike Bennett William Smith Frank Johnston EJ Brian and myself um Jen Walters so uh this uh as as I said the meeting is being recorded and will be broadcast on YouTube uh by area 58 once we are concluded so thanks everybody for joining um we'll just kind of dive right into the agenda um so I think and one of the one of the things we wanted to to start off this year with was just chatting with their school team about the budget for next year and the budget that and how the budget is going this year so we certainly do appreciate everybody jumping on uh this early on I know it's not um something that is uh has been a normal practice from a school perspective uh to start talking next year's budget already but I think uh with kind of where we're at and where we ended up it's uh probably good to have start having these conversations now okay thank you for joining uh Cody anything you want to add in throw in no I don't think so I I had sent over uh the couple of items that you had uh said that you wanted to discuss with the school committee over to Jill uh and Sarah so that you know they had an idea of what the topics we looking at yep um so yeah we can take it however kind of however you'd like it Jim so sure thank you so um actually uh Jill we'll uh we'll start off with you comments questions about uh kind of where we're at where we want to go um we appreciate uh you providing us with some kind of uh bulleted points about what you would like included tonight and Sarah has um a lot of information to share with you one of the things that I would um remind the finance committee about is the role of the school committee in terms of setting the school budget and um in terms of timelines the regulation that the school committee follows with regards to um the public budget hearing which occurs in February of each year um and meeting the deadline for town meeting and our school committees typically vote in March of each year in January we begin our presentations to each of our school committies another thing that that leads to the complexity of our budget timeline is the creation and uh support in a joint meeting of both the Silver Lake and Union 31 of the assessments so that also uh is an added feature that a lot of school districts um do not have as part of their timeline but I'm GNA if the chair so chooses I'm going to turn it over to Sarah because she has a lot of specific information about different points and um I'm happy to answer questions as well so thank you for having us no I appreciate you joining so over to you Sarah do you want me just to run through the list of questions that Cody had sent yeah that's that would be a good place to start I think yes over or do you want to ask questions well let let's go with what was submitted uh because they you know we sent them over so that we could have the the prepared answers and you had a chance to look at it you know we don't want to you know just throw something out there and have to come back again at some point okay very good thank you um so the first topic that was sent over was one mon month of expenses report to the town how are we looking for the FY 25 budget to actual and so what I wanted to point out is that the school budget over the course of the Year works very differently from all the other departments in town so uh you know you have your firefighters working in the month of July but our teachers aren't and the firefighters work in August but the teachers don't come back to work until the end of August so I ran a report of the FY 25 budget um through July and we had spent $4,420 58 um and we had encumbered $4.9 million so one of the things we do is UPF front we encumber all of the payroll and then as they get added in the tuitions for um for out of District placements so so when I run a budget report it tells me that we're 33% spent for fy2 but also keep in mind that the budget reports that I'm running are from our financial system so even though we've encumbered $2.9 million in teacher salaries that hasn't come over to Halifax to be paid yet it's just us setting the money aside in the operating budget M okay so are there any questions about that and and one of the things that I do for school committee meetings on our monthly school committee meetings is I present a budget report to them and one of the numbers it gives us in the bottom right hand corner of the budget report they get that is the um amount of money remaining for the year so again in the in the report that I ran today it has $2.5 million approximately remaining for the rest of the year but keep in mind that the large portion of the budget is salaries and that has been encumbered already so it's been subtracted out in this report okay so there any questions on that or should I move to the next topic are there any planned changes to Staffing levels or salaries as it stands currently the school committee voted a budget which was then approved at Town meetings and so there are no planned changes um over what was voted and approved at town meeting okay that now the key word you used was planned right if we have a special ed student with a certain uh classification of disability that moves in and attends Halifax Elementary and um requires a certain support then we're required by law to provide that support but as this as of this point today I don't know of any child that meets that is there contingency built into the numbers for any additional over the course of the year or is it just uh status quo is what we've got there was no contingency built in the budget was so tight last year that we um we budgeted for what school business managers eloquently refer to as butts in seats so if the student was a student at Halifax Elementary or a student at it um uh out of District placement during the budget season then we accommodated for that in the budget but we didn't set aside an additional $200,000 just in case okay because there there wasn't anything to set aside just in case yep understood thank you any other I guess just one follow-up question again I appreciate all the answers so you know hypothetically if a if a um special needs student arrives in Halifax and we you know agreed that we have to by law provide you know services to that to that individual where does that money come from if it's not in the budget already do you go to the towns and ask for everybody to kind of pony up more do you take it out of like books do you take it out of race I apologize my I'm I have covid and I'm unable to be at work and my network is not doing well and you cut out on me okay could you repeat what you just said sure absolutely um so the question was if if there's no contingency line item for these types of you know incoming or potentially incoming students if one does arrive in Halifax and you know agree we need to pay we need to provide the services where does the funding come from if it's not already in the budget that would be something that the school department would come to town meeting for so you would run in a deficit until town meeting or yes because so actually there there are two different things I want to touch on uh the first is that there is in Massachusetts what we refer to as the movein law so if a student were to say um have an expensive and extraordinarily expensive outof District placement and move in tomorrow we don't have that budgeted for and so the move in law knows that the previous district has that budgeted and they would pay for the placement um so there are certain out of District placements that we wouldn't be legally responsible for so when we're talking about students moving in we're only talking about the ones that are in the category of like a a collaborative or um or an IND District student that may require support so that was the first thing I wanted to touch on the second thing is um this this is something that as soon as we know about it we would bring to Cody this isn't something that the first time the conversation with the town would be in March to put a warrant on town meeting so this is something we would in the event that if something like this were to happen we would communicate about it right but but in the interim the previous school would fund the tuition fees right for certain types of placements okay okay that's that's all I thank you for the answer I appreciate it so the if there's no other questions I want to go on to the SE second topic that was sent it's the status of the bus contract so um I need to share with you that we are in currently in year five of a five-year contract there is an option for year six and an option for year seven the option for year six is a 4.5% increase over year five the option for year seven is a 4.5% increase over year six that is considered a very low% increase in the world of bus contracts so the conversations that have been surrounding bus contracts that have been agreed upon in the last year or so is 789 sometimes double digit percent increases year-over-year one of the peculiarities in Massachusetts is when we go out to bid for a contract you're not getting 6 s89 um vendors coming in and saying I want to do the transportation for this District uh when I go to my Professional Organization the mass Association of school business officials one of the things that we talk about at the at the table is you know how many how many bids did you get and generally you only get one bid when I was in middleb three years ago we went out to bid and received two bids it was an anomaly so keeping in mind that I wouldn't expect there to be two three four competing bids for this contract and the fact that we have an option for only a 4.5% increase at this point I would recommend to the Joint school committee that we exercise our option our year six option with first student what which is What's the total value of that contract uh 2,967 th000 is that just for Halifax Elementary or all the schools so interestingly enough even though we're not a fully regionalized School District the bus contract is Bid out um as as a group as if we were a fully regionalized School so um that is the total cost of all buses to all four entities now is every town put in a specific amount I mean Halifax doesn't have as many students as Kingston so it it's not broken up by number of students it's number of buses so for example Halifax chose to reduce the number of buses by two in order to save money in the fy2 budget and so um we're just paying for two two less buses if Halifax were to add two buses we would add the cost of two buses Miss Sarah um does the bus current contractor would the two options have the right to opt out and not take the option I don't that is an excellent question I apologize that I don't know the answer to that so I will have to go back and read the bid language I don't believe they do even if they did it wouldn't be wise for them to you know they're not going to pick up 31 buses and bring them halfway across the state to go to another District when they have a relationship with us and a um and a potential contract yeah but I look at it like they opt out and then you have to go out to bid and then they rebid at a higher rate right um because I'm sure the option is not a one-way option I'm sure it's a two-way option right typically option years are based on number of days in advanced notification right we're saying are we saying that the school is going to ask the school committees to just accept the new rate and not go out to bid that's what we're saying here so the one of my professional colleagues who is the school business manager in Old Rochester Regional School District is kind of the guru on bus contracts he actually runs seminars at the National Association for school business managers at the annual conferences and when he went out to bid with the contract for old Rochester Regional which is set up exactly like us uh not fully regionalized three towns in a Regional Middle School and High School he saw double digit increases so I would at this point recommend not going out to bid and going with the 4. 5% increase and that that would be my recommendation to the school committee Sarah when do they need to have if they if they do want to exercise their right on the option when do they have to notify for that um I don't know the exact date for that but I was planning on having that conversation with them in January okay again Jill has her hand up no I'm sorry Dr PLO so I I would just say that I I do think we have to look back at the language of the contract I believe that when um Christine first presented it it was an opt out for the school district that it wasn't necessarily the the bus company in in that particular language but we will double check the language it was presented as if it was the the school district's decision whether or not they wanted to continue for year six and year seven thank you is there is there consideration to have some conversations with that provider in regards to the extensions whereas maybe the the school district would opt into both years if they're willing to negotiate the year-over-year increase or is it just the school the school will look at it or can only look at it from the sense that we can only go Year bye and there's no negotiations with them the that are allowed within the contract my understanding of the way the bid process works is we went out to bid and the option years are built in to the bid so we would either vote for the option year for next year for FY 26 or I would have to go out to bid even even if it's looked at from a savings perspective I I would understand that from a from an increase standpoint if the services were going to be charge more but if the if the overall fees to us are coming down wouldn't wouldn't that not fit it to within that category where it can't be entertained I'm sorry could you could you clarify what you mean by this yeah so like I know at my place of employment there's been circumstances where a contract has been up for extension and there were multi-year options on that extension and there were conversations that were had that sort of renegotiated that extension year-over-year where we said okay we'll do the full two years right now if instead of doing two and four% you you do two and three or something to that effect so the we are required by law by Mass General law 30b to go out to bid for transportation contract so I I believe I understand what you're saying is can we have a coners ation with first student about those two option years and I would have to talk to the office of the Inspector General to see if that's allowable okay yeah it would it would be a dialogue more as like we're in other words we're not saying we're not going to do the extension unless this happens we're saying are you willing to sit at the table again and renegotiate their numbers because of where we are from a budget standpoint and a lot of times relationship alone will allow that to happen so it's it's really less about the contractual piece where it's just going to the table and having a dialogue as to whether people are willing to do that and I hear what you're saying from from an I um an IG standpoint I get all that but it's I just know that it has been successful elsewhere in other school districts I don't know about school districts that's what I'm I'm I'm equating other experiences to the situation that we're in and I do I do recognize that they're unique in a lot of different ways um so the comparison May not be able to be drawn that's why I'm bringing it up as a question I again I would have to reach out to the office of the inspector well first of all I have to go back and reread the bid documents um to see if there's any particular language in there that would allow or not allow that and then I would have to talk to the office the inspector General's attorney of the day um about how to approach something such as that yeah within the confines of the 30b laws that we have to follow yeah no I I understand that and I you know I I I don't mean to be pressing you on it s to be honest I'm just I'm thinking about where we are from a fiscal standpoint and any opportunity for savings is just coming front of mine that's all so I I don't want you to think I'm grilling you right now for information it's this is just more back and forth conversation just drum up some ideas so are there any other questions that about that part of just I just have one final one and and if you have this information grade uh so how many total buses are we utilizing through first student 31 31 buses so there are 31 buses in all and then they're split up among the three towns and and it's $2.9 million for the total contract right for this year it's $2.8 million I have a a spreadsheet with all of the information the $2.8 million is the total um cost for all of the transportation for all of Silver Lake and Union 31 so that's the home to school transportation which is big yellow buses that includes late buses that includes um the high school pays an extra fee because they have buses that run in the middle of the day during midyear exams and final exams there is a late bus for the middle school and the high school so the students can stay for extra help after school so that um I I don't want you to think it's it's $2.9 million divided by 31 buses because there's um a lot of different pieces built into it but it's 31 buses I am fairly certain yes okay s does that include Athletics too yes that that includes the athletic buses Athletics field trips all that all the stuff that a bus would be utilized for yes okay so if there's no further questions on that there the next part of this question was how did the removal of the Halifax elementary school buses go I had a meeting this afternoon with first student they are going to be getting me the Halifax runs and I'm going to be reviewing them um but I can't really so the question of how did it go because we actually haven't sent the buses out and done the first two weeks of school yet where the first two weeks of school are always um there are always adjustments sure so I I'm going to be getting the bus stops this week from first student I have another meeting scheduled with them on Friday to go over um anything but um I was very specific and what I asked I wanted the turn-by-turn directions and all the stops for Halifax I wanted the um the list of students at each bus stop uh they're sending me a map of the town with all the roots in different colors on it and then separate maps for each individual route and once and I don't know if you all know but I I'm sitting here in Halifax right now as we speak so I live here in town I'm familiar with the roads and so I'm going to be going out and driving around and checking out the anything that I have questions on and then um and then the next step once I I don't want to say it this way but once I'm happy with the roots I would give them to the principal because he knows the kids all right so as far as that's concerned how did the removal of buses Halifax buses go um it's in progress and we'll know more a month from now okay um the next topic was special ed Transportation so I think anyone who pays attention to um municipal government and finances in the state knows that special ed Transportation has been an extreme Challenge ever since covid one of the things that I have been working on um with first student our bus company is to put um into place some mini buses so we have two programs in Silver Lake one of them is the Silver Lake integrated preschool one of them is the transition program forer students and I have made arrangements with first student actually let me let me Backtrack on that um special ed transportation is a related service for special education and because it's a related service for special education it's not governed by procurement laws in MA it's it's an exception to Mass General law 30b so we can and what the district has been doing is just going with any vendor that was available and willing to do the work I went to First Student back in the spring and said we have all of these students on individual vehicles from a multitude of vendors and one of the goals of special education is to move the students towards what is referred to as the least restri rcve environment yes we can put every student on a minivan and bring them into school but some students are working towards getting on the big yellow bus the 72 passenger bus so for those students maybe part of the step along the way is to ride a 29 passenger bus or a 20 passenger bus or a 10 passenger bus and so what I worked on with first student was for them to get some of those smaller buses and they will be doing transportation for a select number of students for the integrated pre school and for a select number of students at the those transition students at the high school and because we're moving to this model in September of this year we'll have some cost savings there and a plan of mine is to transition all in District transportation to this model as um as first student builds capacity so this was um first student had an opportunity to get some vehicles from Rhode Island I asked them about them they got the vehicles the bus the vehicles are being um retrofitted to meet Massachusetts standards for school buses and we'll be going out to pick up students with four of the smaller buses this coming September the smaller bus less costly or is it the same cost so are there any questions about special education I'm sorry does a smaller bus is there a cost differential between the 72 passenger bus and a 10 passenger bus or is it all the same it's there is a cost so there is a cost savings over the 72 passenger bus and there's a cost savings over how the as you drive around town you might see vehicles um purple lady transport or you know you drive all over the Southshore during the day and you'll see all sorts of minivans with a logo on the side and a school bus um Right light system on the roof so those companies with will um are willing to do work and right now what I'm trying to do is have routs where the students that can ride the minib buus picked up at their home and brought to school just like all the other students get picked up in the big yellow bus and brought to school so it would save us money on special education yeah transportation which has been a challenge for this district and all other school districts over the past four years it's a very good idea s yeah I like that idea now keep in mind I'm I'm referring to IND District transportation so that would be students in Halifax going to Hal to to the preschool or to the pathways program and my hope is to build this relationship and have a similar um transportation for students that are going to Halifax Elementary School it's very good idea are there other questions on special ed transportation so the last thing on the list that we were given was a general timeline for the FY 26 budget I want you to know that I have an eight hour session with our software company that does um for our financial system I have an eight- hour training on uh position budgeting on Wednesday so that means I'm starting the budget process on Wednesday other than that um you can as superintendent PR said earlier you can expect a preliminary PR preliminary budget to be presented to school committee in January a public budget hearing in February and school committee approval of the budget in March that's um school committee timelines that's Sarah and and Dr appr has there been any discussion with the school committees and particularly Halifax I'm more than happy to attend a meeting but you know we're we're looking at a very very very challenging FY 26 um you know without projections from the schools it it can be challenging but you know just looking at it from a current year budget anticipated Silver Lake um budget right you guys as you 750,000 I think it was of end while some of that will be made up with the circuit breaker funds we're also going to lose that right from the elementary school so we're going to see a hit there um you know with the kind of increase we're expecting there and then just our general increases right that we're going to face on the town side I don't foresee us being able to present a balanced budget um I've been you know I've been saying this for you know two going on almost two years so has there been discussion with the school committee on maybe just some projections a little bit earlier uh I know you know final budget I I recognize that timeline and I know it can be challenging with you know the the state aid figures not coming out um but my concern is is we may get into a situation like we did right this past fiscal year and we you the schools had to make some really challenging decisions but we able to you know make it through I don't know if we're going to have that ability this year with the extent of the challenges that we're looking at facing so I just I don't want to end up in a situation like we did last year or or potentially worse where we're trying to scramble kind of at last minute and I I think from when I've talked to um Liz and Plimpton and Keith and Kingston they're they are seeing they're a little bit concerned as well on that so if I can I just add to that because what I wanted to say exactly ties into what Cody just mentioned um the the question that I would have would be the timeline that you just presented how does that differ if at all from what was followed last year um because last year there was a lot of last minute that needed to happen for a variety of reasons um so to similar to what Cody is saying well I'm just curious as to making sure the timeline is right so that we don't run up into the same situations where we're getting a a budget you know that the night of town meeting it's it's trying to avoid that sitation that's most important um and if we have a lot to shuffle to what Cody was talking about um more than we had last year and we know that's going to be the case what are we going to do to try to mitigate that upfront I guess would be what my direct question would be on it so I'm going to mention three things um so first of all keep in mind that I started in this position on November 27th here we are in August and I'm talking to you so um I came in and I inherited a budget process that was already partway going but hadn't uh the so the second piece is there was the disentangling of um the revolving accounts and some uh pretending to be a fully regionalized School District when we're not and so I I started on November 27th and I had a budget for halif a preliminary budget for Halifax on January 1 2nd I think was our school committee meeting date so that timeline was one thing you know it was a a very tight timeline the other thing I wanted to mention is the moving the shifting of things around moving students that are seventh eth n9th and tth grade moving them in their tuitions from Halifax to Silver Lake moving teachers um that was quite a quite an undertaking and won't have to happen this year the third thing I wanted to point out is there were adjustments to the budget for some special ed costs that were under budgeted prior years so all of this was uh people like to use the phrase bill the airplane as you're flying it that's where I was at that's where the district was at last year I was creating you know the Silver Lake school committee mentioned to me that they'd really like to get some things in advance of school committee meetings and I pointed out to them you know I was creating account numbers for the out of District tuitions that didn't exist in order to budget for them an hour before the meeting started so um so I I expect this to be a much smoother budget process because again here we are having this conversation in August and and I'm starting working on the budget this week and then the second piece is we're not doing the shuffling of staff and students and programs from place to place to place and then um the adjustments for special education that we had to make to appropriately budget for them I don't expect that we're going to see a substantial increase next year like we saw this year Dr Jill thank you um Sarah did such a good job I have very little to add the only thing I would the only thing I I would add to the discussion and I I recognize that it's still an unknown but in terms of circuit breaker so um this year you'll be looking at circuit breaker for your special education expenses from this year so next year's circuit breaker will um will be more like this year's than it will be the following year and what I mean is the following year you won't be getting reimbursed for all the students that are now their tuitions are being paid at the the the High School Middle School Silver Lake level so the the reality is is that you're going to get circuit breaker next year but you're going to have fewer students that will qualify for those expenses so the hope is is that that money will actually go a little if not a lot further we hope because there's fewer students that Halifax can spend that money on whereas in the past you would have had to spend that money not only on your elementary students but all of your high school students and middle school students so it it may not it where're the the hope is is that it will be more of a a a gradual change and not a a tremendous loss all at once right uh so that will be for fiscal 25 right this upcoming school year yeah and then next year fiscal 26 is right that we're going to it'll more accurately represent um what actually is taking place right because you get from the year before so the the only concern that I have there and I get what you're saying about the the gradual um um increase there the concern is right in an Ideal World we would have seen a shift right to from Silver like so our we would have seen an increase or the decrease in the in the circuit breaker uh that we were getting but then we would have seen a decrease at Silver Lake because they were that money was being rerouted but we're likely not going to see it or at least to the extent of equal value because Silver Lake used 750,000 of end with this in mind that they were going to get that additional circuit breaker Revenue right for fiscal 26 I just want to make sure that's that's accurate yes so it helps it it certainly will help us this year because the cost for us shouldn't be as high because a lot of those students are um being absorbed by the regional level um and then next year we will it'll kind of hit us because that money will be going to Silver Lake but we won't see a decrease because they you guys silver lake is kind of already accounted for that you will have a decrease in your assessment well will we so if there are if if there's $500,000 in circuit breaker to pay tuition we wouldn't budget $500,000 and have circuit breaker money sitting there but you've already accounted for basically 750,000 right of that for next year because you're not going to use e and D again for FY 26 I mean for the following year okay yeah so in fy2 Silver Lake is paying for so Halifax had 19 out of District students of which 14 of them are transitioning to to Silver Lake so Silver Lake is paying the complete amount for those and then will receive reimbursement in FY 26 for those students and I believe my understanding of the conversation the school committee had was the end would offset the one year where there was no circuit breaker and then we would use circuit breaker to offset future years because that's the purpose of circuit breaker yeah absolutely anyone else have any questions for our guests Jim I I just a comment before before we separate um Sarah I I know and and Dr PR you as well I know you guys worked tirelessly last year on putting everything together for us and and the intent of this conversation is for us to try to read our hand across the table as well and just start the communication process earlier on so that we can try to get ahead of things the situation we were in so we appreciate you guys taking the time to join us um and we look forward to you know the next 12 months and trying to or nine months actually trying to get everything pushed through but yeah you you guys were fantastic last year we know you were up against it you did a great job and we look forward to doing an even better job this year with you thank you thank you we really appreciate your support and assistance and we will certainly U make ourselves available um to meet with you as needed um but also to keep um the Town Administrator uh apprised of any potential issues or changes um and we've met with Jim before as well so we appreciate that we we thank you for that no think again I I just want to Echo basically what uh what EJ had said we appreciate you coming on and having a chat and we look forward to more conversations as the year progresses just that way nobody is surprised when we get to May thank you thank you thank you ladies thank you thanks very much thanks everybody thanks feel better Sarah better Sarah yeah yeah better all right so that was a good conversation I think um anybody have any further comments before we move on with the agenda all right so next item on the agenda is the approval of finance committee meeting minutes um I believe we have the minutes from uh the 15th of July uh that have been circulated uh has does anybody have any ads changes or deletions that they would like to have committed to the document okay hearing none can I have a motion to approve the minutes from July 15 so move second thank you roll call vote Cheryl yes Mike Bennett yeah yes Mr Smith I'm going to estain I didn't attend the meeting very good sir prank yes for the July 15th uh minutes thank you sir EJ yes sir and I am a yes also uh so the motion passes uh six with one exstension okay all right thanks gentlemen uh and ladies the next uh item on our agenda is we have a uh Finance Committee Member application uh that came through the talent Bank uh by Mr Mike Retta uh Mike has joined us here on the call so uh I will open it up Mike if you would like to tell us a little bit about yourself please uh please go ahead hi everyone thanks for taking a few minutes and adding me to your uh to your agenda um simply uh you can ask me whatever questions you like when I get through I guess my little background moved here by almost five years ago and Thanksgiving will be five years this year we found a house on Pawn Street uh moved in uh Thanksgiving of 19 just prior to covid which was interesting um came from Abington married uh 37 years this year two kids my daughter has four grand four kids so I had four grandchildren so we bought the house that we bought actually had a um a house with an in-law so they live with us or next to us and we watch them pretty regular uh business-wise LifeWise uh when I was younger I owned my own Bakery I'm originally from deester in quiny I owned a bakery there my family business I took over when I was 18 uh skipped the college route to get married and take over that business had my two children young ran that till I was my mid 20s from there went on to become a professional soccer coach and referee for years uh at the same time became a manager at a local uh Sports Complex called for kicks we have three locations if you're familiar I'm not sure one in Taunton one in norol and one in Malo I managed the one in nor fork and work with the executive team the owner and two other people to manage all of the buildings um since moving to Halifax knew I want to get involved right away because I will live here until uh I either get thrown out or I get buried in the pond in front of my house one of the other but I have no plans on ever leaving this place I wish I had found it earlier um we found a piece of property that was just very fortunate for us and I can't wait to I'm excited about raising my my grandkids here two of them are seven four and two and they have the best lives ever they have still yet to figure out what iPads are for the most part which is kind of neat uh because we play outside all day long and they play soccer um so I got involved right away I almost went out to the parks department when I first came in I met a gentleman at the time who was on the parks department and knew I want to get involved in town uh that didn't seem like the right fit so I joined up with the uh the COA so I've been on the Council on Aging since January of 21 um they are probably tired of me talking about my Affinity for older people even though I am now an older person um ever since I was a kid though I S had these Foster grandparents when I was a kid and just have always made a life of uh of working with older people just to to be around them so Council aging was a good fit for me for a few years uh and my quest to get more involved in town um talking with a few people in town finance committee seemed like something that would help me get educated more about the inner workings of the town and all the different departments that go on um I do want to be able to offer whatever value I can bring to whatever program or or board or committee that I do work with um so you know through my background from owning my own Bakery years ago to managing now four kicks and and working it's a obviously a smaller company than than Halifax is where youd have about A10 million budget every year uh between our three facilities but I do work with those guys um on the budgeting and the and the finances as well so finance committee in Halifax seemed like something that might be worthwhile to me uh an opening came up and here I am sorry if that was long no well I'll just go ahead and start Mike so you know um you know the finance I I've always liked the finance committee uh because it you know it touches a lot of parts of the Town it really helps you understand people who work for the town it also helps you understand what happens uh um you know when it comes time to talk about you know budgets and how people are managing things and where where monies are at where monies are allocated um so this is this is probably one of the it's probably the only committee that I can think of that really has the expanse of contact uh where other boards and committees are specifically directed as you know with the COA is just with the COA and that's that's kind of that focus of that group this this gets you out as you as you heard earlier when you were on um it's you know we're talking to the school about their budget and you know that's going to impact a lot of people the 500 students that we have in Halifax that go you know between the Silver Lake and and the Halifax elementary schools so it's um it goes a lot of different places I think the only thing uh one of the things so from a budget perspective can you just kind of expand on your exposure to that um are you is it budgets that you were handed budgets that you created how did you work with others to meet that budget what happens when you were hitting budget overruns and you recognize that I I've been uh so I've been fortunate with four kicks um you know we we there's an owner couple that owns a company right a small business so a couple that I became friendly with years ago through soccer uh brought me in to help with the company and when we open up our second place at the time they only had northw I open helped them up in malor um so the owner as a small business owner has is pretty Hands-On even though he's not in the buildings these days he's sort of um enjoying his life which he should be so our budgets are you know if I get hand the program you know it's like okay here's x amount of money here's an idea if I go to him with an idea he'll give me x amount of money and then we get to uh you know fund that program it's definitely different budgetary concerns than than you than you guys go through I mean I learned more just now in that 35 40 minutes with the school committee than I have learned in five years uh going to every town meeting about the finances that go on behind the scenes so you know clearly I would be playing catchup for a little while I have a feeling especially learning about the different all the state programs and the grants and the monies and where they come from um that would take me a little while to catch up for sure I don't I don't have an accounting background specifically at all okay anybody else have any questions for Mr Retta Frank hi Mike thanks for joining our meeting tonight um I like Jim you know kind of got in here a couple years ago and uh wanted to see what's going on around town and landed over here and it's been a good place to work as they volunteer we work with many different departments and department heads managers and you get a very good understanding of each Department's wants needs issues personalities budgets and you know it takes a little bit of time um you got to put put your time in and and that's a big question that I have for you since you're working a couple of different things here do you have time to do these meetings uh we typically most of our meetings are Zoom meetings occasionally we have to have joint meetings with the board of Selectmen inperson meetings um but most of them are are Zoom type meetings which were afforded that luxury by the state which is nice my question to you is do you have the time to commit to that for the next um three years uh I do so my schedule is changing a bit I have retired from coaching soccer for the most part I am now uh only coaching my seven-year-old Grand sons in town in hellofax soccer I'm actually on that yeah sort of on that board as well but it's a very minimal very minimal role as a age group coordinator so I just only coach them in town right now I I've given up refereeing years ago retired as a professional referee my work at four kicks is full-time and and demanding at times now my schedule and uh what am I say my my need to be there in person will be changing later on this year I'm going to be adressing my schedule at even more flexibility you know right now I watch uh my grandkids at home so they don't have to go to daycare so I work my schedule I four kicks around watching them uh at at the same time three of them will be in school this fall which makes my time free up even more and then with my freeing up my time as of December 31st at four kicks I'll be on you know I would say less than a full-time in office job and even my work at four kicks my schedule is a bit different than most schedules I I mean there's some morning some evening even some afternoons some weekends it's it's kind of all over the place based on my needs of my personal life which is why I work there to be honest I love what I do but the flexibility that's given me to do other other things in life and other Pursuits has been a big plus about my my work with four kicks understood yeah because typically we meet on Monday nights at 6 PM for zooms um now we're going in a budget season so we'll be a little bit busier with the meetings a little longer and then our meetings with typically with the board of Selectmen are on two Tuesday in person is at 5:30 6:00 at night yeah and then we have uh Town meetings we have to attend um and that can be a little long at times it could be really long at times so I could tell you this that I've never and I've lived in doorchester quiny me and my wife found us around the South Shore a little bit Abington and she's from Rockland we raised our our two kids in Rockland they went to Rockland schools I've never ever in my life been to a town meeting until I moved here and I have not missed one since the day I got here so um and you and this board specifically being at those meetings has been I'm not gonna say fun to watch but certainly entertaining at times and interesting given the uh the the town meetings yes it's been fun yes and that's a whole another element that you have to uh adjust to and not take it personal and um so really that's all I have you know sounds like you've got a a little bit of skin in the game with your budgeting and stuff where you work on probably profit and loss and operating budgets yeah which here it's mostly all operating budgets um which took me a little bit to get used to just managing an operating budget versus a a p&l statement but it kind of is operating a p&l statement at the same time so as Cody stated we're going into a tough year um tough couple of years coming up for Halifax so we've got to really work hard together and uh and get everybody through this you know so thanks for taking the time with me I appreciate it Mike no my pleasure if I thought this would be easy I wouldn't be here this was easy there'd be 15 guys here next to me vying for this volunteer role um along with you guys so no I I I love the challenge thanks thank you I would would just Mike thanks for um thanks for reaching out to to jump on board um it seems like you've got a lot of passion around being involved what goes on into in the community and that's um that's what this group needs is people that are that are interested that want us remain active and um supportive of what needs to happen so I appreciate you taking the time to join us um I'll tell you as the Newbie I so I just joined uh this P end of last year I think it might have been January actually that I jumped on board and um the the team is fantastic they they've been extremely supportive Cody has been great Caesar has been great across the board um so as far as like having to learn and catch up and and all that I can tell you that they'll they'll do whatever they can to help you along the way um as will I now as well if if everything um moves forward here um but thank you and and um hopefully working working with you soon yeah no thanks I appreciate that I mean the people that I've talked to in town uh you know including some of the Selectmen along the way just about what I should do next in town and how I can be more involved they everybody that I talked to could not speak more highly of your group as a group um and how well you guys work together which Peak Maness even more right it like to be part of something bigger and contribute to whatever extent that can contribute uh but when you get a group of people that looking to make something bigger than themselves better that's that's a fun process for me agreed anyone else comments questions okay so uh Cody help me out with this do we vote now do we vote later or what do we want to do here so uh as long as you guys are in agreement you can make a motion to recommend appointing uh Mike ragn to the finance committee um to Phil Todd dar's uh previous term Mike I believe is out of town or unavailable to attend the selectum meeting tomorrow so we will look to have him on the um next meeting as long as you guys vote to recommend okay okay all right thank you Cody appreciate that Mike you go by Mike or Michael uh either one is fine my growing up I was Michael work on Mike so yeah I'm fine with you I appreciate you asking though thank you well we got Michael Bennett on here so and you mik you go by Michael I go by Mike mostly Mike mostly okay that I'm happy to go by Michael on the FL if that helps with uh if I if I end up being put on that that would help distinguish us I'm fine with that either one okay one one other thing I just want to knowe is so our bylaws right now say that anyone on the finance committee um is not supposed to be on other boards or committees particularly you know ones that oversee finan it's like a COA board so just just I think you're aware Mike but um if you were to be appointed this you would have to give up the Council on Aging uh gig I am which is it's a bit bitter Street for me with all that's going on with the COA right now and and the new you know the new building coming up hopefully in the years and and the pickle ball courts you know we do a lot of pickle ball at four kick so that's kind of exciting um but again this is helping on a hopefully a a higher level in town and obviously still involved with the COA on on a personal level with all the people that are there and um you know I'll keep my hand in that from a just a toy perspective going forward if this works out the right way yeah but yeah I would have to resign okay so Jim I'll I'll make a motion to to appoint Michael rugnetta to the um finance committee uh effective we going effective when Cody you can just put you can say effective upon the board of selectman's approval okay upon the board of selectman's approval second okay Bill thank you sir all right roll call vote Cheryl yes Frank yes for Michael rug netti to join our lustrious um board here of Finance pcom thank you sir EJ yes Bill yes Mike yes and I'm a yes also so the motion passes welcome to the committee Mike uh I think Cody will get you on the schedule with the selectman uh and when that happens uh I'll meet you there and we'll get you in front of them so they'll probably have the same types of questions that we had uh and uh they will make the final uh the final appointment at that time fantastic that's that's pretty good I'm not gonna lie I was got nervous there for a second ago I been voted on in front of me so that was could have been really ugly or really pretty so thank you for your F of confidence all right you're more than welcome um to attend the meetings in the meantime you know if the finance committee ends up meeting before again before the selectman meet um you can attend you just won't you know be able to vote but I'm sure that they' have no problem including you in the discussion and then uh Pam from my office will reach out to you to get you scheduled with the selectman um at the next meeting yeah she ask me tomorrow and we actually leave I'm gonna jump off this meeting and I would St the rest of them but we leave for Florida at 4:00 in the morning uh with my grandkids and my daughter so seven of us flying will be very interesting good luck with that okay well thank you very much I appreciate everyone and look forward to getting to know you on a much more personal level and working with you all thank you thanks have a great night thank you guys and girls all right thanks all right so uh including that line item to the next one we had a space for Steve to come and chat about the highway budget he was unfortunately not able to make it um hopefully we can get him in here uh on our next meeting um because I think it is uh you know imperative that we kind of work through the the the budget items that he has under his perview um so we will put that on to the next meeting um line item transfer requests Cody anything any final ones all cleared up for FY 204 yeah we are good uh you guys approved everything we need to so hopefully next year we cut down even more yeah yeah yep yeah was lot better this year right okay thank you sir so uh correspondence and as may arise um I don't have anything that has come my way um Cody I don't know if you've had anything that would need the finance committee to comment on or look at um as may arise I do have Cody I was trying to locate emails or phone numbers for The Plimpton finance committee chair and the Kingston finance committee chair is that something you would have because it's not on their websites so yes and no um interestingly enough uh I don't know if I may have updated you this last meeting so if I did stop me uh but I met with The Plimpton Town Administrator do I feel you guys in on this I don't think so okay so I met so I met with the pimpon Town Administrator just general we try to get together um and touch base on things and we you know budget was obviously a big topic so one of the things um and I'm trying to get together with uh Kingston and and have a a meeting of the three of us one of the things that she brought up that um had been done in the past I guess years ago was they put a little um team together and what they did was um so the town administrators from each community and then one or two finance committee uh members from each Comm uh community and then had some of those meetings with the school department um you know kind of behind the scenes and similar like we did Jim you know ear earlier in the year but you know include the that the other communities in with that as well so she had that idea she said it worked well in the past so we're going to you know see if the other communities are up to it and try to uh organize that but in my uh hopefully soon meeting with both of them I can get the contact information for the finance committee chairs that'd be great because I just want to shoot him a quick email because I I think from the per from from the perspective of the school budget you know if we approach it as you know all towns approaching it at the same time I think we can have much more efficient communication with the school and they don't have to couch things specifically for you know uh plinton or for Halifax or for Kingston you know we can all get in the same room and have the same conversation everybody hears the same thing I just think it's probably a better a better way to work I think and if you're going to do the team thing I would certainly like to be a part of that EJ I think would also probably want to be you know in on that when it comes to the schools also so yeah sure yeah as we um hopefully get something scheduled we'll we'll bring it up at a meeting and see who wants to uh take part um the other thing I'd say you recommend is you know we have a little bit less uh overlight oversight or control with Silver Lake but you know the elementary school is is a department of the town that that's all the elementary school is I mean they have a school committee but they are a department of the town so you may want to consider even um maybe September or October having a joint meeting with the with the whole school committee the the admin's great and you know you see Jill and Sarah you know diligently always working on it but um sometimes the things that are they're presenting to the school committee you know the school committee may vote one way or the the other so having a joint meeting with them may not be a bad idea um because you know the elementary school makes up a large portion of our budget as well so and just kind of and lay out some groundwork too you know this this is what we're thinking for the year and try to stay in constant communication um whoever is the school maybe maybe an idea would be to have a specific liaison for the elementary school this year for finance committee and then have a specific Silver Lake liaison uh and then maybe we could ask the elementary school committee to do the same right maybe they have a finance committee liaison on their school committee and so between everybody trying to communicate and work together hopefully we're we're able to better collaborate yeah it sounds like a sounds like a great idea great yeah all right thank you sir appreciate the feedback and input on that um so that closes out that line item uh next one we have is public participation uh I don't see anyone else on the on the call here other than the committee members um so hearing none we'll move on to the final item which is next meeting planning um I think we already have something on the calendar for September 16th um does that work for everybody or do we need to change that or move that around works good for me no it's good for me good for me Jim we had um September 3D it's a Tuesday on there oh oh we do yeah that's the meeting I asked Steve if he wanted to come to but I haven't heard back from him yet okay so I personally would love to move that away from that date only because the kids are just getting back into school and that's probably the first day that they'll get hit with homework okay because after Labor Day so I don't know that my house will [Laughter] be um that's fine uh so why don't we do this so and we'll have have the why don't we schedule just the one meeting in September with everybody's kids getting back to school and all that stuff ramping up because then we do move into two meetings a month uh back on to our regular schedule in October does that work out for everybody yeah that works fine so uh Katie if you could just reach back out to Steve and see if he would be able to attend the meeting on the 16th uh we'll bring him in at that point in time yep absolutely thank other um on that agenda if you can put a um a year-to-date budget review U we'll have budget statuses updated through at least August at that point um to you guys and then we can start you know you guys wanted to review those so we can review that absolutely and thank you for sending that out today Cody so appreciate that no problem oh that was Lindsay our assistant Town accountant has been doing an excellent job um very pleasant she prepared that yes she is excellent so haven't had a chance to chew through it yet but I'm I will be getting on it okay so I think that is all that we have for this meeting specifically uh anyone else have anything they want to chat about comments no all right so can I have a motion to adjourn so move second good thank you Mike thank you Cheryl roll call vote Cheryl yes Frank yes to adjourn please thank you sir EJ yes Bill yes and Mike yes and I'm a yes also so the meeting has adjourned at 6:42 p.m. so thank you all for joining and we'll talk on the 16th right good night everybody thank you you guys too take careks everyone thanks everybody [Music]