[Music] all right it is uh 6 o'cl on the 17th of March call order the meeting of the Halifax finance committee um here present uh at the meeting physically uh Cheryl Burke Frank Johnston Ed Brian
Bill Smith Mike Retta and myself and on video we have Mike Bennett who is on the zoom call uh this meeting is being recorded by area 58 for later Distribution on the Halifax Channel um and with that we can move right into our
agenda pull that up Sor right ladies and gentlemen give me one second um so I believe we have a set of minutes out for approval has everybody had a chance to review those yes yes does
anybody have any adds changes or deletions to those minutes no no no think I have a motion to approve the minutes motion second second thank you so we have a motion and a second
that we will do a roll call votes Cheryl yes Mike Bennett yes Frank yes EJ yes Bill Smith yes Mike Retta yes and I'm a
yes also so the minutes are approved thank you all back to close out that agenda item we'll move on to the next agenda item which will be uh Halifax elementary school budget so I would like to start off by
saying I appreciate everybody coming in I know that this uh discussion has been going on for a while and sometimes subjects are covered that seem to consistently repeat themselves um however I think as we are here as
representing the the residents as part of the finance committee and they are actually our end customer that's there the the diligence that I think we're showing is is warranted at this point um so I know that the school committee the
Halifax Elementary School comme met and they had a reduction in their they did some cuts on their own and I believe and correct me if I'm wrong Lauren you're down to about 1.1 where the this uh was the last meeting that I watched would that be correct or say
mo okay because we were out of one that was the last video meeting that I watched did you what I haven't had an opportunity to look yeah cut IED by
449,000 so it looks like the figure being requested now is 7,648 313 which is $826,000 1175 increase from last year or a 12.11% in the helax Elementry
budget okay 7 million what Cody I'm sorry 7,648 31113 thank you so Lauren the March 10th presentation is the most recent correct okay
there's a little gray button at the bottom and then it should light up yep you're good um what was the question sorry that was the most recent meeting March 10th correct and that's where we made the
additional Cuts so that the difference was less that the increase from last year was less we at 11.4% increase o o over the current year
correct 12.11 the figure being used initially from fy2 um was was inaccurate so the percentage was off a little bit there 12.1 12.11 111 [Music] mhm okay so the tier two
Productions are applicable on this um so what we ended up doing was we have some extra money in our special ed budget that we put somewhat a freeze on to carry over for next year of 200,000 and then we um
there's a retirement that we don't want to fill and then we also reduce down to three grade three classrooms that three of the grade so that we had an additional 210,000 to try to reflect current
enrollment so that so we didn't necessarily get into the tiar and then the other thing we did is we decided to gamble on saying that we would not have more than two um vocational placements
so that we took we also took that money back so it was the 200,000 from um you know what three 200 200 200 210 and then I believe it was n right that was
what we reduced by okay 38 okay oh and the rap Grant also that we found out we had and the so the largest class size with those changes on the teacher count
goes up to is 23 read this correctly yeah which I believe is a current class size with yeah okay so so there an elimination of three teachers is that correct that's correct what grade level is that at I have to double check do you remember the exact
hold [Music] on yeah and that represents that 210 000 in Staffing is that correct sure so um you had asked about the the grade level and which staff would be cut
please keep in mind that the staff has to be cut by least seniority sure and so if a teacher is a sixth grade teacher and we're cutting in the second grade the sixth grade teacher might shift to
second grade if there is a need for that as a classroom teacher sure yeah but you know which levels you're cutting at correct yes so the grades that we would be cutting at are grade levels third fourth and sixth third fourth six four
six or we'd go down to three classrooms and that that was the 210,000 in Staffing is that correct that's correct there's no other Staffing Cuts correct not at the moment no and the the remaining amounts that you got to hit the reductions that you
um that you came up with were from special ed that you're carrying over for next year correct we have an excess at this point of 400,000 so we decided to freeze 200,000 of it with the hope that it won't be used and that is something we can carry over in our
budget to next year so what is the level of confidence that that number will remain available because if I remember correctly at the February meeting there was a very low level of confidence that that money those monies would remain at the end of June so what's changed before
between February and now to give us more Comfort our director of special services said that she felt like that was we literally used the word gamble a good gamble to take okay you said that unless barring something and I I
mean we all who looked into it I can't remember now sorry she had yeah she had spent specialed bookkeeper yeah she had the special ed bookkeeper confirm so the nothing that we saw from February to March would cause us to
start to grow a concern over that money okay correct great and the reason that we didn't want to cut any additional staff is because we're operating pretty Bare Bones already and
um from actually because of the cuts from last year to this year we also lost um some $180,000 of grant money that we could have been potentially awarded next year because we didn't meet
um me maintenance of effort but by cutting this year and holding the circuit breaker funds we could possibly maintain maintenance of effort better next year because we would automatically spending more next
[Music] year and we also had to pay a higher percentage to still relate correct yeah because of not meeting minimum threshold so so you're protecting the um the Moe then correct yeah which unfortunately we
weren't didn't do last year last year bus situation staying the same this year as last as correct we looked into charging for buses but only about 150 students would be even eligible to be charged and then you don't know how many
children are in each family and it felt like we wouldn't be able to offset the costs enough to have it be beneficial and frankly we don't want to I mean at least from my personal standpoint I don't want to make it hard for any students to get to
school what about our contract we have we in the last year of the contract with first student but so we are in year five of a five-year contract and the contract has two option years and I apologize I don't have everything up in front of me but
the increase from year five into the first the six year the sixth year option year is either six or 7% it's not a huge number um com uh school districts that have gone out to bid in the past three years are seeing things increases in
double digit I had sent uh an article to the school committee about uh Dartmouth Massachusetts getting a 26% increase in their bus costs um so you're going to exercise that option yes both School
committees have voted to I'm sorry the Silver Lake school committee and the joint school committee have voted to exercise the year six option and there is a year seven option also and first students going to grant that option to you yes okay
I also wanted to say as part of the regional study that we're having done um that if we were to fully regionalize that that would also enable us to have sorry I forget like more the more money
funds towards busing so while we are okay for this year and the next hopefully we're trying to look at cost-saving options for the future by hopefully fully regionalizing and um giving us access I don't want to call them grants I don't know well it's or it's like
Transportation Regional reimbursement so Silver Lake High School runs 31 buses around the three towns and gets about $775,000 in reimbursement from the state for the buses so that those same 31
buses do all the bus runs in Halifax Kingston and Plimpton and so that is I you would imagine another $775,000 left on the table every year because we're not fully regionalized what's it cost us to
approximately to become regionalized that's what we're having the study done for Halifax was actually awarded the grant to do the study but when we said no to the MBTA act we um Cody thought quickly and got it transferred over to Kingston so that's
part of what we're looking at at hopefully I don't know that there would actually be any cost to fully regionalizing as much as realizing savings because of the redundancies and things that you know for instance if there's a professional development in
Plimpton we can't just send all of the school teachers there because it's a mess with the budget so each school is paying to have this professional development done at each you know Elementary School where if we're regionalized in you know one bill to one system like that's just one example of
redundancy so I'm hoping that the study will uncover some cost savings which already with the regional Bus um transportation I mean that's the hope you know and that's why they're doing the study is to show us the possible cost savings but I can't really think of
a place of how expensive I mean we already have the grant to study it and I think implementing it would not would hopefully reap cost savings but that's why we're having the study done yeah I'm just wondering if there's like a buyin cost you know upfront it's just a matter
of US changing our regional contract like we changed it in order to have the um pre and 7 through 12 be part of the region because that's how we were already somewhat operating so it would just be a matter of
changing the actual um Regional contract or the the district how does the unions play into that um think that's something that the the study will so it's going to be comprehensive not just operationally they're going to look at but also
economic impacts various ways to do it one of the things we've heard is you know uh Kingston has some large Capital needs uh upcoming so you know why would Halifax and Clon want to take those on so there there's things like each Community is still responsible for each of the capit there's those are all the
things that we're going to look at but I think it's just too early at this point to to impacts yeah I'm just trying to get an understanding of that um the longterm picture because we know where the budget's going to be next year again right next couple of years yeah
this the study is you're looking at it probably 18 months for the study um to be completed so it certainly not something that would be able to be implemented next year or probably not I would anticipate the earliest would be fiscal 28 maybe if that's if everything
went great so the study's just gotten started basically we haven't even CH or Kingston hasn't even chosen a vendor at this point oh anything going on nope but there were some interviews going on with vendors um but again it's it's Kingston's Grant now
so we're working with with them to to oversee it okay thank you you're welcome one of the questions I had was obviously the elementary school reduced the request for this year and you talk about using some special education
funds is is is your request if because the reality is if this request goes through it's only if an override is passed is it sustainable in the future year at least next year do you think given a you know 3% increase right an
average percentage increase or is it something where we can anticipate larger than that because we need to make up for let's say that $200,000 Plus other increases well um the 200,000 I don't think will have to be a makeup because
it would be money we didn't specializ and um as far as uh and then if we were also able to get the reap Grant back that would be another I mean I can't totally predict that so we would be a little bit ahead next year we've
certainly asked this question because projecting costs has been challenging and um you know something that we're working on as like a chair of the school committee is asking the state to change the Chapter 70 you know to give more money to the
towns because I mean we're not the only town in this situation and you know we're doing the best we can with the resources we have and it's it's it's a hard thing to predict I know we would all love to forecast I would love to know I would love to know what next year is going to
be because I would like to be able to rest and like not worry about it because I'm worried about our school so I I don't I mean we knew this year was going to be tough and um I don't I don't know I mean we've asked that question but I
guess I can't really give a great answer but I don't think we're setting ourselves up at this point to make up for anything next year I think we're making wise decisions with what we know right now with that special education funding and um also making ourselves re
eligible for the re Grant and things like that um I'll just add to that from our perspective at Silver Lake um constructing the budget for next year we pretty much had to put blinders on and
do it for one year um if you look out and that's why there's a you know $1.2 million end expenditure helping to try to obviate the costs we were fully aware that because of the change in the district um and how it was struct sure
that the individual towns would have kind of fiscal cliffs if you will because of uh the circuit breaker going over to um going over to the district to the big District um the reality is
though the cost of money is just way up and the state did not go with it so you know when you talk to Jason Frasier who is at the top of the Mask organization who is in with with Washington and with
uh the state and things like that and is probably the best um kind of lobbyist so to speak on our behalf at any of those organizations um he will tell you that you know they were hopeful of lobbying for you know s and s% these past two
years and thought it worse they would get three and a half% last year they got 1.7 1.6 something like that and this year was worse it was 0 17 and you know you have a bus contract
that goes up 6% you have health insurance that goes up 8% you have Labor that goes up five to 6% you have special ed that goes up 15% plus and so no that's not sustainable and uh and none
of us are looking at next year or the year after or the year after that and thinking if things continue it will be sustainable now that said there has been an absolute outcry up to the state legislature about that um you know Jason personally helped organize a meeting
between state legislators and uh president or school committee chairs um one that will be a luncheon that's going to be held over at Alden Park in Plymouth in early April there's another uh listening session that's going to be held by Zoom or phone or something like
that um so at least there's attention um you know the problem is kind of what Jason was also saying is the school funding you know before it became kind of Chapter 70 um was really kind of broken as well the state worked really
hard to fix it about fixing more or less work for quite a while but it took four years to get to that point um so some of what we were looking at from a strategic standpoint up at the Silver Lake uh area
was comes off of your of the Town debt loads um this may and then another 700 next May if I got that right sah was it the following May and the following May right so um you do have debt
retiring now also that if you look at our safer committee folders We had a an engineering firm do um an analysis of what would need to be fixed for the school and we have sort of ranges in there that start at something like 3 million and go up to like 50 million so
um you know obviously I don't think we're all ponying up for 50 million but um those are the types of things that would have be H have to be handled through bonds but from our perspective um we tried to buy another year without having to do you know really extensive
brutal things we tried to provide um Tred to at least not make it worse for the towns grappling with their their elementary schools and we're holding on for dear life and hoping for leg change
that a lot of us are involved um kind of begging and pleading for so Lauren the just to jump to the special ed dollars again and Gordon thank you for that that was helpful to hear um and good to hear that there at least there's engagement from the state
that that's happening now that wasn't happening before so that's great news um so the special ed money carryover um we're putting a freeze on 200,000 of the what was a 381 is that what was that's
correct so if for some reason um that has to be touched this year what is the fallback plan because I'm assuming by the time that would come to a reality the budget would have already gone through and we would we would have a a firm graph on what we could afford as a
town so what what is the fallback plan if that number changes between now and the end of the fiscal year um we did not necessarily make a fallback plan because um we were pretty much felt that it was a pretty good I mean I hate to use their
gamble but I mean obviously we'd have to there'd have to be more Cuts or red reductions so but we're hoping given the forecasting till the end of the year it is March you know that we are going to
have that excess yeah yeah I'm just struggling with the the way that that conversation happened in February versus the way it happened in March are very very different and that's concerning to me no I can understand where you're coming from and we're I mean we did have
the bookkeeper look at it and I don't know exactly what the changes were to have them feel comfortable with that but it is a month later which can sometimes just give you more information MH and we wouldn't certainly didn't expect to have
that excess there at this point so okay so do we do we have I just have a couple two questions actually so the first one is just to go back in the conversation we said that we're paying the Halifax Elementary has to pay for Vo
school out of District placements that's correct help me understand that um that is state law that the town the sending town to an outof District
Vocational School pays for the tuition and transportation okay so that doesn't come out of the general Town comes out of the school's budget okay in that's just how it's done here in Halifax my previous District it was part of the Town budget
right right okay and before you go to your second question what is the deadline for those out of District applications to be the application for the students to the out of District vocational schools the applications are due by March 15th and the students that
are making those applications are required to notify Silver Lake or notify the district by April 1st that they have app okay so that too has until April 1st to to fluctuate okay yes so some of what
may have helped that is that the vocational spots at Silver Lake year will be entirely within District so the positive of that is we have a ton of demand within District we
have um I think we actually get more applicants than we can fulfill um for our votch program the downside of that is we are not getting out of District placement dollars from Penbrook or from others now that's probably helping us
keep various Halifax kids home um but we're not seeing um out of District placement money coming our way from other towns so does the does the does the district the administration the superintendent and their staff do they have a
three-year fiveyear like kind of financial plan that we that predicts I understand that there's a lot of things that are at not in anybody's control I I absolutely understand I can answer your question okay um I started in Silver
Lake in November and in November of 2024 there were some forward facing things that had to be dealt with the restructuring of the district and the um enormous task of
unraveling some improper Financial dealings with revolving accounts and all of that was taken care of between when I started and when the budgets were approved last last May I was straight
out the whole time there are some missing tasks that my severely understaffed office is working to um to fix we have an issue from 2016 that
we're working on for the auditor who's working with us on our 2024 audit um I I want you to know that it's the 2024 audit and it's only 2025 and I'm really proud of that
because we finished the 2023 audit uh not even six months ago and the 2022 audit was January of last year so there's a lot of backward facing things that we're trying to catch up on and I understand what it is that you're looking for and as soon as I have the
time and the capacity to do the forward facing things um that will happen but okay in until then we have a lot of backward facing things that need to be worked on sure so a a couple of things on that
point the school district 65% of the uh expense is straight salary when you add in benefits it becomes 79 to 80% and at times it's been as high as 81 or
82% so the contract are you know already written for the next you know I think the teachers just finished year one of three so there's another two years and you know it's an average of 333 it depends on the year
one's 3.25 one's 2.75 or whatever and then you have to factor in their step increases so when they reach certain seniority tenures then certain people jump up and things like that and so the net effect of that is an average of somewhere between 5 and 8% a year so that's known right now and that's the
vast majority of your budget normally the administration can handle that and mitigate it back to below the um the levy threshold by managing retirements managing attrition um you know other
things like that and and you know making technology tradeoffs and and other things so so on and so forth but 80 to you know 80% or so of your budget for the next two years is fixed with within
headcount with known increases um I think what is really difficult is that the other things besides um are variables that you know they feel like they're at the margins but then they add up quickly if you
don't go up in your state funding like we just did um you wind up being short if the state then authorizes um uh special ed to go up by huge amounts then
you end up way short we have had an increasing number of IEPs and uh you can debate we can all debate about why that is and why there has been an overall increase of special education services certainly the hits
that everybody took during the pandemic did not help um but those are are you know difficult things to manage that um the administration is aware of but they have to be very very very careful in how they manage them
so the the vast majority is pretty fixed and it's fairly clear to see um if you want to think about where will the we're just about to start negotiating with Paris we will you know next year start negotiations with the teachers again ahead of the final year of their
contract I mean you could take a look around and ask your attorney and things like that to get an understanding of where uh teacher and Par contracts are landing in terms of overall increases um that's you know some of what we do when we do those negotiations is Benchmark
ourselves against um competitive school districts and Benchmark ourselves against what's happening in the rest of the state so that said the the critical variables are State funding special ed transport
health insurance handful of things like that what's the percentage that IEPs go up every year I'm just curious one% I don't have that information yeah that I we have that data in um we have the number of
students that are receiving Services um I just can't recall it off the top of my head it's definitely in our uh annual information that is published on the Silver Lake site um and it has definitely been growing at say
double digit percentages I want to say that the number of students out of Halifax alone is something like 35 um I might not be recalling that correctly but no I think Gordon I think that's pretty close for the elementary
school 35 anybody have anything else for the elementary school yes ma'am thank you so the percentage of students with disabilities at Halifax Elementary this year is 23.2% Department of Elementary and
secondary education maintains what they call school and District profiles which has a wealth of data so I'm looking at 25 2025 right now in 2024 there were
20.2% of the school had IEPs in 2023 16.6% um so I can send you a link to where you can get this information um there's more information here than anybody would ever yeah I I'm on the
Desi site quite often so yeah thank you for that I think that it is a wealth of information and a lot of stuff that you have to decipher a little bit when you start kind of grinding through it I think it may be helpful to if Sarah
and Gordon run us through you know so Silver Lake you're using about 1.2 million of end Halifax roughly a third right of the Silver Lake budget so well 400,000 off of what our assessment would have been we're still seeing a 5.6%
increase you know 455,000 maybe explain to the committee why that is the finance committee just so they understand why Halifax is a portion in particular is going up a little more so than Plimpton and Kingston so portion of that is minimum
threshold um your number would have been lower um and I think the I think um close to 400,000 of that is because of a failure to make the state mandated minimum and um
hence forth 100,000 that really became Halifax so was something um I think we teased out um in the last you know few days before we had to vote our budget but um if your percentage looks kind of
a skew compared with a negative percent out of plun and a one point something or other percent out of Kingston I think that's a big big part of the reason why we live in a very tough Catch 22 if you don't you can't just easily cut your way
out of it because then you get penalized from the state so Cody this this budget that 10th is assuming an override pass is correct you have two budgets in front
of you yeah the one's labeled override top left and one's labeled balance y so the override is assuming an override passes Balan is with all within the constraints of prop two and a half so I'm just I'm just curious
and if we have this type of information now but what of what we just talked about how does that change on the school side I can tell you one one moment so just to and just to clarify Lauren just so everyone hears it the
same way this now would be the would be the reductions if an override were to not pass correct okay but I will note the it depends on what the finance committee votes but what you have in front of you would not require the school to make all
of the cuts as anticipated we went through and made cuts on the general government side as well to try to lessen the burden on the elementary school so the this would be worst case scenario cuts that you're about to hear from Lauren okay the reality is is in the
budget that I'm proposing to you balanced if the override doesn't pass is less cuts for the elementary school then you're about to hear because we took some Cuts over to the general government side do you know a percentage of that Cody do you know the percentage of dollar amount that would be taken away
from the school Side by those reductions that you made on the on the town side percentage of the like over of the school budget oh no I don't have that no so in the balanced budget without the
override how much of a reduction would we need to do at the school well the finance committee hasn't voted anything yet so I I can only tell you what my recommendation is but it's it's you know the finance committee hasn't voted anything yet um in the recommended
budget it would be a three it would give you guys a 3.5% increase from last year okay Bo so it largely be lot all the tiar that um so if we cut if we reduce to all the
tiers um I'm trying to see if there's an overall so the 1.2 1.2 million correct which would it would start well I'll just I I don't know if this is the easiest way to do it but if
we did another basically 500,000 in addition to the the three teachers it would be another grade three teacher another grade it would be a Grade Three teacher a grade four teacher a grade five teacher a grade six teacher the
tech teacher and a special educator and we put in a bus paid by fees but we decided not to do that but um and then if we had to go another 300,000 so that would be a total of about 830,000 would
be um another ma a math specialist the reading specialist which would leave us without math or reading support and we would also cut library and art um which would leave music and gym and then if we went
to the final tier it would be one kindergarten teacher a grade one teacher a Grade Three teacher a grade four teacher and a grade six teacher which would leave us with three teachers at the K level with a class size of
28 um three teachers at the first grade level with a class size of 27 um two teachers at no wait um it looks hold on that doesn't seem right grade four it says in grade two there'd still
be four teachers but I don't think that's correct well there was no reduction in this there was no reduction in second grade okay yeah um would be four teachers at 23 and then in grades and I assume the idea is because at lower levels keeping smaller class sizes
is more beneficial than you know because of reading and establishing learning which grades three we would have two teachers with 34 students in each class and at grade four we'd have two teachers with
again 34 students in each class and then in grade five it would be three teachers with 26 students and then in grade six two teachers with 35 students so you'd have grades three four and six with um
30 plus students in the classroom so so um two questions uh or maybe three questions actually uh on tier two you have three four and six are all reducing
by one and if I'm reading the numbers correct if you jump to tier four it would be an additional on top of the one that was previously reduced correct okay um the I think my last question is uh
one bus paid by fees is factored into the 49 495 626 but we had talked earlier about sort of that concept was um was put to the side so how does that change the 495 626 reduction on tier
two 457 so so about I of $50,000 okay one L is $38,000 and one thing that's hard is that I don't know that tier two well it did are tier two doesn't take into
account the 210 we already reduced by I think because that was just a suggestion of how we could cut you know and see 10 teach was one request right by one school
committee they're right so in in some respects we've already done the 210,000 in tier two Y and that's also a little bit where we padded in case the we end up needing
that special ed circuit breaker funds you know like if we have to spend it then it would look like the tier two that we would have to so I don't know if that makes sense it does yeah it does thank
you so the well I mean and and there's even the question of whether or not we can even fit 35 students in a classroom at hes so yeah and tier four is where it it jumps off the paper tier four is where class size has become a concern exactly especially in grades three
yeah the ones with 30 plus I mean 20 27 and 28 for kindergarten first grade is not good but at all that's way so many young students okay so these numbers speak to the three and a half% increase yes okay
this is to if an override doesn't pass and um and if an override were to not pass and we have another difficult year we have nowhere to go and as Cody mentioned we would be looking at receivership
which would then mean we have no say in how the school is funded we have to do what it's done so it's kind of I feel like with some of the cuts we made last year we could have preserved grant money
if we didn't do you know like I just feel like if we need to obviously be very thoughtful about our education in our town and I I know it's hard for everyone but you know our school has been a really shining point of our town
and um I know for my own children have excellent educations there and you know I really as a school Committee Member want to keep our school the greatest that we possibly can but I also understand the challenges of how much of
the budget the school takes up and and it's it's hard because the elementary school you know we have to pretty much go with whatever happens at Silver Lake but um you know it's hard we want our kids to be as well prepared when they end up at Silver Lake as the other two
towns and I know it's not an ideal situation and I wish I could say this is it like oh just give us this we'll be good I mean I really really hope the state funding changes but um I mean the thing that concerns me is if
in a much worse situation not even having any control over the decisions that are made in our town because our school went into receivership because they will get the funds they want for the school and I don't you know I I want to have the other services we have in our town as
well so are are our costs in line with other towns with comparable demographics and academic performance um I well actually I know they've talked a lot about our cost per pupil spending and Halifax is one of the lowest yeah
but that's all kind of relative yeah it's I mean I I I I it's hard to tell because like with most towns you're looking at K through 12 and we're just looking I mean our town is similar in cost per student as Kingston and they have much larger class
sizes so um it's so our per pupil spending I mean I could say yes to King to Kingston um Plimpton is kind of an outlier right but um I haven't really looked beyond that so but it's some of the only schools
that I know are only looking at elementary school too as far as the costs for pupil so to compare apples to apples is enrollment down from last year or is it up um enrollment has been going down steadily for the last 10 years
which is why I felt like as I mean I it's been clear that I've said that we should reduce where we can reduce because you know class sizes in the low 20s are really wonderful I think you know but I we have to also acknowledge
what our enrollment is and if it goes up we'll face that but we have to also you know be realistic to what our enrollment is it used to be 600 we're down at about 530 or 540 do you know 531 that's what I
thought distri gone down 10% really [Music] talking too much so
um I know you guys put a lot of work into this and I'm only gonna ask this question because I want to understand how you got to some of the decisions that you made here um but specifically on teacher numbers right um a lot of talk that I've heard
amongst the community relates to the Specialists and if those were to be reduced um if you go to tier three cuts on your spreadsheet that's where the two
Specialists come in but then if you jump to tier four you you still make a reduction on grade one uh what was the yeah maybe it was one there were
there were two there were two classes where if you were to reduce UC this additional staff member at that grade level the number the number of size of that classroom still would have fallen within that 20 range right so is there a
reason why when you were looking at this why you didn't look to do that before touching a specialist honestly as a school committee we vote the total number and the school has line item autonomy last year we voted to do
certain reductions and legally they weren't able to do them so that's and then they had to make other you know they had to do other Provisions according to contracts and whatnot so as a school committee we are been
asked just to give a number with certain reductions reflecting where we think the cuts might be and so and also in the February meeting um the school committee voted
not to reduce at all and go for the full override amount and so that's another thing that you know some you know differing opinions on the school committee and you know if we could get a little bit where I thought you
know which ended up being palatable to the committee but I mean as far as like specific can we say to the principal or superintendent can you do this instead of this we can say that but ultimately they have line item autonomy and have to
go according to contracts and from my understanding that it impacts speal like you if you have a certain number of teachers and it impacts the entire schedule and there's actually not room for certain specialists in the schedule according to what they're trying to do
now and that's why they make the reduction choices in the way that they do because it's according to how they deliver education and the teachers have their prep time and um and other things so that's my understanding of why the Specialists
were which I mean none of the reductions are ever going to be popular there's right for sure and I but I understand what you're saying but also at the end of the day how it's applied is really up to the administration you just need to be able to to trust and feel confident that
decision is being made by best what's best for the kids exactly because I am I will fully admit I do not have a degree in education right so they're there to advocate for what they think is right and we are there to try to advocate for what we can do reasonably within the
town yeah okay thanks leard you're welcome yeah I mean we're all here M anything I'm good sir Cher yeah I'm good okay thank I appreciate all the work that you guys put into this and the third run at reducing some of the costs
so that's that's uhk I know it's hard a lot of people been working really hard together and honestly I well I can't never mind I just hope we can get a budget pass that's great for our schools and the rest of the town thank you for all your efforts it's
tough the whole committee yeah for sure yeah yeah I will yeah I will say school committee worked hard I mean we have difference of opinions but we worked hard to get to yeah hopefully a palatable
solution I enjoy the at times very vigorous discourse during the school committee [Laughter] meetings it is interesting oh boy okay so um if there's nothing else for
the elementary school want to thank everybody for coming in uh and we can close out that agenda item on our meeting so next jent um no we're with the uh the goal at this point um that was something that
that I thought about but it's not on the agenda so we're not going to vote on these tonight uh we'll vote on these probably next Tuesday is my thought before the board of Select meeting um is when we'll put our vote in okay thank you thank you thank
you me [Laughter] all right good night every so the next agenda item is the FY 26 budget feedback open that agenda item at this point Cody has passed out the two
budgets that he has diligently worked on um so I guess we'll just take back H and through if anybody has any questions for him which I'm sure somebody will or i' least I will sure um we will uh we'll
get him over to Cody before next Monday and then he can answer answer everybody but when you ask him a question if you could copy the entire finance committee so we're not just bombarding him with the same question um mark off you making the cuts from the
off there it's not in the spreadsheets in the the share Drive they're both in there so a few things that you'll notice um a few you may recall we were initially talking about a 1.6 million override we've been able to get that down to what I anticipate being
somewhere in the range of 810,000 um a lot of that obviously comes from the Halifax elementary school making some reductions but we've gone through and tightened things up significantly on the general government side uh reductions made in both budgets include
we we have historically funded free cash uh out of the rais and appropriate so out of the our general revenues my proposal would be to fund 50,000 of that out of raising and appropriating and then another 50,000 out of free cash now
we've historically only done a $75,000 Reserve fund I'm proposing we CH move it to 100,000 this year and the reason being budgets are tighter than ever that going into this year with reductions Reserve fund transfers are likely to increase because we're we're not
budgeting for the unexpected anymore you know we're budgeting for what we know and we're really not budgeting for the unknown uh so the reserve fund may need to get utilized at a little bit of a higher level going into fiscal 26 um that's 100 you say 100 110 100,000 the
idea would be 50,000 out of our general revenues raising an appropriating and then 50,000 out of free cash and by doing it that way we're also now creating a fiscal cliff for next year because if we if we needed to go back to the full 75 out of our uh General revenues you're only talking 25,000 so I
think it's a good mix but while also increasing the reserve fund how many dollars do we have in a free cash available um before Capital it was 1.45 Million 1.45 M uh Capital did approve right around one
1.3 um for for Capital request what did they approve yeah I'll be sending that that's that's part of the things that we'll cover at the next meeting so out of the 1.45 we're looking at 1.3 of that being spent and then if
we did 50,000 we're we're pretty pretty much using all would be using most of our free cash the free cash we can't use for anything but Capital you you can but it's onetime money
yeah recommended that you never use a reoccurring that's part of our financial policies as well so that's one of the first things we made that freed up some cash um we then went through red reduced the legal budget request so initially we were looking for
193,000 up quite a bit um given some of our potential litigation we're also going into a bargaining year reduce that down to 165,000 it's still a sizable increase from last year but you know I think as long as things go okay we should be able to um cover it in there be all right
with that I'm optimistic the MBTA and everything MTA is it's just such an unknown at this point I think 165 is still a sizable increase okay um and if something were to happen we would have to make either line item transfer at the end of the year or Reserve fund transfer
yeah we may not even hear from MBTA FY 27 or later right um we reduced overtime in the building maintenance department budget we like I said Halifax Elementary School reduced their requests storm water management uh there was a
request for $180,000 we reduced that by 80,000 by moving it to the capital plan because about $80,000 of that request actually is for Capital related to storm water management that freed up $80,000 in the budget we're level funding our insurance
account and using water's contribution towards our annual premium so that should balance out we're going to have to increase it next year but again to free up some cash for this year we did that and then we also reduced gas and oil all buildings and vehicles um really just looking at the trends for the past
few years and also current economic conditions um at Federal level we anticipate the the price of uh the cost of fuel to to remain somewhat low um going into the balance budget we've made several reductions in
the general government side of things comes to Staffing there would be uh reductions in staff Accounting Office in the building maintenance department in the library and the Board of Health um we would also eliminate the sick in vacation buo item
which is budgeted at $30,000 this year the result of that would be we would have to take it out of the salary account so we wouldn't be able to fill the position for an extended period of time because the M the funds would have to be utilized out of that if it were to occur at the end of a fiscal year we would have to do a line item transfer or
Reserve fund transfer okay um and then the last thing we would doing in the balance budget is we we put in funds to our overlay every year our overl are abatements exemptions cases that end up in theel Tax Board um we've
been averaging about $180,000 a year into the overlay I would propose that we reduce that by 85,000 and only contribute 100,000 to that this year again it's not a long-term thing but we do have a current balance uh in excess of our overlay of 33700
doing this just for a year that um and so that that's what on top of the additional cuts to the school which would be in the amount of $587,500 that makes up the balanced budget within the current constraints
of we use our local receipts budget for this year um so if for some reason the state budget um results in a proposing to us we would have to you know look to make potentially some
additional cuts um and we our local receipts are budgeted at 90% of last year as actual which is pretty pretty typical it's you know somewhat on the conservative side but a little more optimistic than we've been in the past so we like I said we
really went through worked with several departments to cut anywhere possible with as little impact um you know on the general government side of things if the O override does not pass and these positions are cut again they'll certainly be impact um but
we did try to make it so it's as minimal as possible uh on service levels for the community but you know there would be some reductions in hours uh for certain offices um requests that the public make you know we pretty quick with things won't be the case with certain
things as they come in so but it's it's the I think the best case scenario considering you know what we're trying to preserve essential Services okay so what's the cost to the taxpayer on average for the
override 28630 is it but obviously that's based on the value of your home absolutely but according to the DLS website the average single family tax bill impact is $286
and3 based on an $810,000 override what's the average house value on that uh the average single family assess value is $511 243 uh average tax bill current uh is
7295 so add 28630 to that so that's substantially lower than the number in our last meeting 86 no it was number tried to get this down as much as we could like when we first started the budget we were up around $2
million override um yeah you know we like I said really dug deep here some of these things are probably um aren't the best financial decisions for the long term you know but we're we're trying to preserve as many services as we can if the override were to not P
so but if we if selectman go would want to put the override on the warrant we're talking approximately $286,000 per um tax how86 $286 $286 excuse
me P zero to Frank house one important thing is the the figures that we use as estimates for the impact on the taxpayers is based on current year values because we don't
have that information for fiscal 26 we won't have that until we have a budget and then values are all assessed and we set the tax rate sometime in you know uh I think September we usually set the tax rate right so the the information we have the best we can do is based on
fisal 25 numbers which is the current year I don't anticipate it you know drastically changing but it's likely to be different because the value you know values up and down tax rate changes so it's it's based on all those factors but the best we can do is provide you know
if the override were have happened this year this is what the impact would have been which is where that number comes from right but that's the number we have to work with so next Tuesday correct the Selman will make on so you yeah so the the
finance committee will ultimately need to make recommendation or recommendations um on on which way to go forward or or both ways or whatever it may be and then the board will make the final decision on whether to move forward with the override and put it um before town meeting and the ballot yeah so it'll go
to the go to the town meeting and then it goes to the ballot on the on the Saturday after the town meeting correct correct and then that'll be the f y or no right if it passes at time meeting so the way the way that we'll do this
likely if if if the board um moves forward with it is we will we have the Balan budget as our typical article four the budget and then we'll have an article five which would be in a separate appropriation to each of the line items in the amount that would be
if the override were to pass up to the 810,000 so so each we would designate each of the line items where the cuts where reductions were being made in Article Five would basically be increasing those line items if the
passes but if Article 5 does not pass the the vote on on Saturday doesn't matter doesn't matter right d we have do we have time enough to get that as a ballot an issue if the the board that's why the bo needs to decide yeah that's why the
Board needs to decide why wouldn't we decide to have it in November you no because you can't you have to have a budget before July 1 we have to have a July 1 starts the budget year we have to have a budget for July 1 okay all right but it won't be it won't
be deciding at tell me we do an override it will be a bid question after town me so town meeting has to approve the appropriation right and then subject to the ballot question and then the ballot question would then have to pass and it will be voted on but all of the citizens
can vote yeah I mean both both are open to all citizens all you know voting residents right but yes it would need to pass through both the appropriation would need to be made at town meeting and then the ballot question would have to pass on the ballot okay
okay I'm just much better than the last talked about did a lot of work great job agre it really is good one one thing to note too is kind of mentioned it tonight with Silver Lake
um I anticipate we're going to have Financial challenges again next year regardless of an override passing or not because silver Lake's budget right they use $1.2 million of onetime funds which give or take was $400,000 of what would
have been assessed to us so next year going next year we're looking at a $400,000 increase on top of whatever their request is right so if their request is four I mean and you heard Gordon talk about most of you know wages
right so if their request comes in at 5% next year we're looking at 5% plus 400,000 which which puts us over 10% so we have over I and next year and possibly the year after things aren't going to get easier
let the state let the state steps up and then I kind of not right now but I do just want to make sure everyone's aware of that that you know we are trying to plan future plan um and without
definitive figures from the school but we can at least see there's going to be a challenge next year right yeah and that's you know we don't know what health act Elementary will'll be looking at we would hope to to bring these increases back in line of where they've been historically which is in that you
know i2s low 3s um but again just looking at the Outlook of our revenues anything beyond you know 3% is going to be a problem for us our revenues just aren't growing you know two and a half% for our taxes tax levy and then New
Growth this year we're only anticipating $75,000 in New Growth it's it's the lowest it's been in a long time can't do much with that given the 90% were you able to pull out about another 150,000 this year but
as the e changes these are all things we have to consider um and you know we we think of things like right we take we get a meals tax well are people going to be eating out as much given the economic conditions so we're confident going into this year
by increasing our local receipts but I'm not so sure we'll be able to do that um next year you know we'll certainly have a little bit more growth next year but you know we're limited really by prop two and a half do we have any idea what they gonna
what's stopage job building is going any idea any takers I see it says it's the lease or a sale there is no there's been no interest at this point um you know beyond you know the big push is obviously housing throughout the state and it's not currently zoned for
something that would make it worthwhile for a developer so right yeah times are tough all over okay anybody have any further questions for Cody I want to thank Cody for the effort he put in here the last uh seven
days working on this we appreciate it absolutely yeah and the override average is much much better than our last meeting it is which is huge
but it's up to the taxpayers make their decisions and um alifax Elementary made a big they change in their numbers as well to help with that they did and I think you know in
the recommended budget that you all have it it it again it's not significant but it does doesn't um make the elementary school cut quite as much if the override doesn't pass as we initially anticipated the idea was to give education a 3.5%
increase at Max that's that's what our goal was this year obviously Silver Lake ended up taking up more of that than we thought but by freeing things up as much as we could we were still able to give Halifax Elementary School 3.5% increase on top of the 5.6% increase to Silver
Lake which agains much more manageable s right they make no effort sorry okay Mr Bennett any questions no sir all right very good so we'll close out that um that line item on our agenda
we'll move over to any leaz on feedback for the finance committee we have any at this point time so hearing none we'll close out that line item uh we'll move on to public participation so I know there was a number of people on Zoom uh does anyone
on the zoom call have a question for the finance committee or the Town Administrator while we're all here okay anybody have their hand raised Cody on Zoom can you tell one moment no one has their hands up no
nobody okay said nobody all right hearing none we'll close out that line on him we'll move into the next meeting preparation um so next meeting will be on the 25th uh which is where we will meet jointly with the board of Selectmen
and that's what at six o'clock Cody yes let me confirm and get back to though we may have another um an executive session well we have the so actually the timing works out but our state representatives actually coming in at the next meeting so um Kathy latra
and Ken Sweezy so I think we maybe have them on the agenda right for 6 so the finance committee portion may start at 6:30 but I will confirm and get back to you so um I would ask if the committee members can come in you know a little bit early and we can meet and vote on
the budget so I was thinking 5:30 if that works I don't know I don't know if you can get here in time Mike EJ I'll check my C 5:30 next think com at 5:30 it gives us 30 minutes to kind of talk about everything we've listened to over the last couple of weeks um and then vote on
the budgets that are in front of us at this point in time and again if you have any questions for Cody please get them over to them uh before uh before Monday uh so we can get our answers and and kind of come in KN which way we want to go does that make sense
everybody on the 25th Tuesday at all right the budget so closes up the next meeting preparation so can I have a meeting to ajour or a motion to adjourn so move you roll call vote Cheryl yes Mike
Bennett yes Frank Johnson yes to ad please Ed Brian yes Bill Smith yes Mike Bretta yes I a yes as well moving is J thanks everybody for coming and we'll see you next Tuesday thanks Jim thank you all
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