##VIDEO ID:nfJrZyLy9jc## all right um I'm going to call the meeting to order um it's 6:01 and I'm going to announce that I'm announcing that this meeting is recorded being recorded and if anyone wants to make an audio or video recording of this meeting please notify me at this time okay we'll start with the pedge of Allegiance I the to the flag of the United States of America and to theic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right um Welcome to our visitors would anyone like to speak oh uh Gordan 244 Elm Street are you guys going to take any um public comment after you look at the budget what we look at the preliminary budget no we're not going to take any public comment after that okay quiet hi everyone um I'm laori Heeney and I know none of you guys want to make cut so I'm not going to do like a peachy speech I just want you to understand where we are and present evidence that losing even one staff member would be untenable for us at this time um as it stands we're already at a risk of being unable to meet the required special education minutes as a kindergarten teacher we share one parah but that parah has 115 minutes of lunch and recess Duty a day so we really share a halftime paa between four classrooms and when she gets pulled a sub we lose an additional 30 minutes a day the absence of a full-time behaviorist and the loss of a par professional support significantly impact the adjustment counselor's ability to effectively serve her students she's responsible for 19 students with IEPs and around 37 other students who require regular support without the behaviors or par professionals she's left to respond to behaviors develop plans create charts and visuals and collaborate with teachers and the team additionally as the numerous team meetings consume much of her time as a result she's unable to proactively address addess behaviors and crises in a preventable and effective manner first grade has no Mass support kindergarten has no reading or mass support fifth grade lost title one Mass support sorry I am trying to be fast Specialists have already been introduced to the maximum extent possible without compromizing their ability to serve all students any further Cuts would IM no would prevent them from reaching every class hindering their ability to meet the required standards as a result they will likely need to eliminate instrument lessons health class and other special activities such as course and field day uh if a student is identified as needing an intervention through the mtss process at this time there's no staff available to deliver those services and when a specialist teacher is absent and there is no sub we miss prep time so if this happens when I have a duty I only have 20 minutes a day for lunch and prep so that's kind of where we are right now so hopefully we don't have to can you repeat the no the no support grades and and what they are first grade has no math oh first grade has no math support kindergarten has no reading or math fifth grade loss Title One math support thank you welcome anything else anyone else want to make a comment aren will the meeting that um for the public hearing have the budget that's being proposed publish it before the meeting the public interview the line item preliminary budget that's being presented with the school committee tonight will be on the district website tomorrow along with the presentation we're giving thank you and then as the budget progresses the the website will be updated thank you thank you okay um so um now we'll move on to the review and vote the minutes of November 5th I mean sorry 25th 2024 I make a motion to approve the minutes of November 25th 2024 okay I'll second okay um do roll call Katie yep Lori yes Karen it was the last meeting was here okay also was not here okay and I approve them yeah yes vot yes all right and now we'll move on to the full regionalization discussion sure Sarah and I met uh with um Cody uh Cody Town Administrator Keith Keith Town Administrator from Kingston and representatives from the Colin Center to discuss uh the possibility of the Colin center help helping to lead this work that's being paid for from the grant um in addition this topic is going to be on the joint meeting agenda and it's my understanding that the towns will be seeking representation from each of our school committees so one person from each school committee and then representation from central office uh to help Foster communication about the regionalization study so that will be the charge of that Committee in addition um I have uh a meeting set up with the mass Association of Regional Schools and have invited both uh the Town Administrator from Halifax and Kingston to attend if they are available um we may also want to partner with Mars since their specialty their focus is regional school systems in Massachusetts and they have experience with transitioning to uh fully regionalized school systems so um that will be scheduled for this week the opportunity to learn more about it will be on uh our joint committee meeting coming up which will be held at the Kingston Town Hall and the reason for the need to have it at the Kingston Town Hall is because Kingston must have um both in person and online uh access to their meetings because of their bylaw and they have the equipment and facility in order to be able to provide that so the town of Clinton and the town of Halifax have agreed to meet in Kingston okay so I I guess more information is forthcoming so I don't need to ask a million questions right okay do we need to nominate a representative from from Halifax for that committee for the regionalization committee I don't have authority to ask that so that would have to be done after it's brought up by the towns okay and to be clear this is the meeting that that's happening on Thursday yes okay great and also if you're aware we were awarded W the grant for did you know that I did not okay that's so yeah we were awarded the grant so I guess my only question is bringing Collins in is that the people that you were looking at for that gave us the quote or is that no that was nezda okay and the town uh reached out to colins Center um I'm I'm now um looking into Mars and trying to determine whether or not that would be something that we could do additionally or instead of okay so basically all right but again ultimately it will be up to the towns originally it was Halifax that applied on behalf of the two towns that Grant was then uh given over to Kingston um because of um the vote that occurred in Halifax more recently that wouldn't allow them to be eligible for that so the grant is now in the hands of Kingston um but they are working collaborative collaboratively together on that great can you clarify what vote are we talking about that would I believe it was the NBTA vote oh okay thank you so there was impact for our schools there was good to know okay um anything else on questions okay um the approval of Bill schedule thank you um our meetings are out of Sy with the warrant cycle right now there was a warrant that was due to the town on December 2nd that went out as single signature warrant it was for $185,700 6374 the next warrant is due to the town on February 3rd we will continue to be absent with the town so that would also go out as a single signiture bar thank you um I don't have any correspondents or reports um new business or future agenda it well does anyone have a feature agenda item they would like to okay okay all right so we'll do the subcommittees first so the first um one is the policy uh subcommittee met and there's um I would recommend that we make a motion to way the first three of the policies and um I mean I would request that someone make that unless you want to read them all um but um I hope I can give I can give an um short information a summary of each of the what the new policies are um but we can wave the first um read of the policies would anyone like to make that motion do you need us to read you the policies to make that I believe so okay letters yeah yes yes so I would like to like to make a motion that we wave the first reading of policies acab uh handbook language AC a title n b e DB b h e e FC e f d e h a a a e HB g b e e u n d c GB oh thank you I J N DC uh j i CJ K DC kgcb khb and khc that's all of them yeah and I can go over what they are so um the acab handbook language um replaced Dr Clifford as our Title 5 coordinator and it changed it um clarified second first oh sorry second sorry no thank you getting ahead of myself all in favor I I okay um I will now go over um so the acab handbook language replaced Dr Clifford as our Title 5 coordinator and changed the district name if I title title Title 9 sorry title N9 um and then um acab the title n changed distri the district name just you know added and Union 31 and then for bedb we discussed adding a request to have materials um in our folders 48 hours before meeting so that they can be um looked at and if we um before not just like right before the meeting but we didn't it's just a request for it like because we do understand the last minute things will be needed to be added so that's the change for that one and then um bhe is the use of electronic messaging by school committee members which if you're conducting official school committee business or answer you know acting as a member of the school committee you need to make sure you use the slrsd um email that you received that we all received when we became school committee members and see D car and trali because they are all considered public record just so there's a record of that so that's the update for that one and then EFC is about the universal free School meals and so it replaces um policy efd replaces EFC correct here's it the other way around I think efd replaces EFC so um EFC replaces the old EFC oh okay so we have a new EFC to replace the old one and in addition the title changed and then efd uh is a is a new policy in relation to the changes that took place with the universal fre meals okay so they're both they're both replacing former policies actually had a question about that um the universal free lunch program is that something that has been approved continuously or are we is that a year to year from the state guidelines or mandates or it remains in place until we hear otherwise I I can't promise that it will always be in place okay thank you other questions okay and then um EA is District security related to technology which is about protecting the data you know all of our data and then JBE personal use of Technology um the change to it is that social media Pages would need approval and they're talking about social media Pages possibly for like coaches or um some classrooms to can they do that or is it it's just that someone needs to approve any social media page and who's managing the page so um and then J J and DC um acceptable use of digital resources at the district make sure that resources used in our digital um what for what people for what our students and people using our computers have access to is appropriate and um then jic CJ student use of technology in schools that students will use technology responsibly which in they're also they they already signed something every year saying that they will and that's which also the teachers are going to be signing which I assume that's already been happening but and then KD oh here KDC is that basically if you access the wireless of the school you agree to use rules of the district which if you sign in it asks you to agree to that anyway so um and then KD CB is um the open Forum commentary is turned off from the district website because if somebody were to write anything inappropriate or we can't remove it and so just the open form is just completely removed on that so we can't remove it because of free speech not because it's not possible to remove okay that's what I meant I mean it's it is possible but we can't because of free speech so we just so a lot of school districts don't even open up that feature because they don't want to find themselves in a position where they have to keep something on their website that would be inappropriate for a school okay and then khb and khc is um about advertising in schools and distribution of notices someone went actually to some other towns um well actually it was the school um support staff in the office because they're receiving so many requests to distribute materials that it's becoming cumbersome and given how you know everyone's stretched pretty much that so they they went to other schools and found that some schools if it's not related to The District then it's not being sent out and they have um a response you know a response where you say you know we would love to help you out but you know the requests have become overwhelming basically and we can't we un to so that's what the policy is proposing it's not fully written yet but it's just it is okay y it's now in there it's been updated approved by Russ oh yeah that's I was looking at the old one I guess okay I was looking at the one from the meeting okay okay I'm pretty sure it's in there if it's not probably is I think well I was looking okay okay good thank you all right never mind okay so does anyone have any questions or comments about that so can I ask a question about the last one so there's a a flyer for the girl are we talking about things like that but not tonight if this policy were to be passed it would prevent things like that from going out via the school right um any other questions okay um so now we can make a motion to accept the first read of the policies if someone would be interested in that and you know you you can just do the letters you don't even have to read the I'll make a motion to approve the you you say the terminology again yeah a motion to accept the first read policies I'll make a motion to accept to the first read of the policies um a c a b a a b b e DB b h e e FC e f d e h a a e HB GB e e i j n d c j i CJ k d c KD CB KH HB and khc okay all right can you roll call vote Katie yes yes sory Karen yes yes so I'm accepting how they're written now right um no not yet okay and myself as a yes all right um our next subcommittee is negotiations which um I wanted to talk to the whole our whole committee because we've been having trouble scheduling them so I wanted to make sure that you know um every do you do you still want to be on negotiations cuz we've had a hard time scheduling yeah I just can't do it before 4:30 so I guess if I if they're all going to be at 3:30 that's going to be pretty impossible okay um I mean typically that's when they are right like between 3:30 and for the negotiations or they it it doesn't have to be that's when we've had them in the past because we've had committee members who were available at that time again it will if they be pushed a little bit just cuz that is bad that's hard anyway I have three small children are still in the school so it's they're my husband's not home he's not always home by 3:30 so um I could I could make like a 4:30 work I can't always make a 3:30 work but I would like to stay on negotiations if I can I just I can't make that 3:30 work I mean I'm fine with the time changing if that's a possibility like if we could make them later from now on if that works for the other team that we're negotiating with it it should be a nonissue Lor oh sorry I know we have I was going to say Lori does the time work for you so time yeah the I just um I've just accepted a new job that I I'm working till 5 so um C later I can't at 3:30 okay because later work okay all right so we'll keep it like that for now and see if that works for whoever we're negotiating with and if not we'll have to figure some of el out all right okay Pilgrim area collaborative Lor so we did not meet um because of the busy hting season we all didn't have any before okay Youth and wreck Katie um I have no report I was sick that night that they met okay P their meeting would have been this past Tuesday but they canceled okay capital budget didn't meet add been review no updates okay deib subcommittee um we have not met okay and Union 31 is meeting Thursday yes okay all right um well um principal's report Mr bod all right thank you um I have on there in put school council continues to meet each month um one of the requests from last meeting was to have uh the goals for that we had for HS that we worked over the summertime uh um so we had three goals one was a student learning goal um which continues to be our district goal of where we having at least 70% of students achieve meeting or exceeding in each of the mcast subjects by the fall of 2024 which will be fall 2025 cuz we started this one last year the next goal that we have there was a professional practice goal uh this one here is uh along with our multi-tiered systems of support and TSS uh this is to increase student achievement and the social emotional well-being of all students K to 6 and track their progress along the way um and the last goal there is our school goal and this one is focusing on tier one instruction in ela uh and working with the staff to identify strengths and weaknesses and Ela instructional strategies so can I just ask a question on the first one um is this changing to fall of 2025 yes okay yes so was something that we started back in last summer before last and then it continued so that would be all of 2025 do you have the overarching percentage for the fall 2023 to fall 2024 for for mcast scores um off hand I can I can get them for you I don't have them off hand but um would you want them collectively 3 through six I want however you're measuring it like you know like what does it mean 70% and where are you how close are you to 70% basically that's my question you know if that's the goal where are you on your way to reaching it you know does that make sense yes okay so if I at during the mcast presentation I believe that data was shared in addition multiple years data can be found on the um the Desi website as well so I guess for clarification I don't necessarily think we need to go through the mcast presentation again no no I just I was just wondering if we knew the number because I was like okay here's the goal where are we at that's you know what I would like to know okay I think what we did is we took our 3 through six in both Ela and math and that's and we averaged them together to get the the overall score okay and that's what you're saying your measurement is then okay okay so if we could just get that information at some just so we can know where you are okay thanks uh let's see the other piece there we were looking at was our school Improvement plan what we did here is we modeled our school Improvement plan and what we did is we mod modeled it after the district strategy for district Improvement and we called it our strategy for school Improvement so the design is kind of like a one pager that you see here the on page three is the district uh form that has the four strategic objectives and then the initiatives under each of those goals so we have the building relationships is a strategic initiative number one high expect is number two uh Implement and the line and engage curriculum for number three and then improving structures for number four so what we did on that last page there is we designed our school Improvement plan to follow in line with the district one so you can see ours that First Column is relationships and communication the first initiatives there those are bullet points that we're looking at that we can work on here in the building to meet those so that first one is that student survey uh where we have sabes which is similar to what the our Panorama survey that we had previously was a social emotional survey that we used for for students um next one there is classroom walkthroughs learning tours and sharing best practices and third bullet point down on number one there is continue efforts withal curriculum and other initiatives and then the last bullet expanding efforts to to keep our school Community informed about learning activities celebrations and other events uh and again those kind of align not only we just back towards with our district strategy for improvement next one there is high expectations again this Falls in with the first bullet there is about our ncss process just identifying students and making sure our support teams are working collaboratively to make sure our students have the support that they need and our staff also do as well learning tours to guide implementation of effective instructional practices and the last one there is utilizing edgy climber uh it's our new data dashboard that is combining all of our different platforms together so that we can keep the information all all there in one so uh it's a new tool for us we're still working out some of the Kinks of it but uh there's a lot of information in Edy plw where and it it will continue to be a useful tool for us to kind of track student progress along the way and the interventions that we're putting in place the third initiative there is under curriculum um we have actively participate in the K 12 curriculum review for math uh that staring committee we have staff here that are on that staring committee that Dr Clifford is heading up with uh Mr Dan sanis and then we have staff Representatives here from in Halifax and then we're meeting up several times this year to uh with Clinton and Kingston to look at our math curriculum uh the next two bullets are continuing with the ubd units and um that last one there is designing and implementing common Assessments in all grades what does ubd stand for uh understanding by Design okay and and the fourth column there is structures and processes um again that's just kind of using our strategy for district Improvement kind of reverting all everything back through that because that's where the admin Team Works through over the summer to fine-tune each year and then we want it to kind of trickle down to the admin level the building level and then we want our our staff to work on it so in their own classrooms in their great levels in teams um districtwide mtss Team improve BST process again that's something that's always in the works uh just fine-tuning and tweaking that so to make sure that our plans are and our process is clear next one is the the district Tech plan and the last one is the capital budget uh process planning and identifying all building needs sorry for that fast there okay questions okay all right the the handbook is this one's not on the list is no it's not on the agenda okay so if if uh any handbook changes would need to be listed on the agenda with a possible vote as well I would I would also recommend um that it include any TFM expectations um and any Title 9 changes before the committee um okay considers a vote so we should have it on the agenda for next month okay and then I'll send it to Kimberly because Kimberly has it now she's reviewing it yeah because she may have also have recommended changes based upon regulations okay so the next piece there was looking at the students in says star and Dibbles data what I understand this is that the question was about what students are in each tier I is that how we were talking about it last last time is the way I I think we were um asking about how the data translated into the m cast scores you know like cuz you're doing the star and Dibbles more frequently and we wanted to see relationally how it was close it was to the mcast scores like was it an accurate representation of what you know like seeing um you know like if you identified a struggle in Stars I in Star dibles data then it you know or like did do they correlate basically that's the I'm looking for what is it a predictor yeah is it a good predictor because that's what you're using to measure student achievement in between mcast so okay all right all right so I was on so this chart then might not be useful to to anyone um so I that's why I misunderstood because I was putting the students in tears and looking at the percentages both in sorry because uh when we were talking last month we were looking at the percentage of students in tier one tier 2 and tier three for both Ela and math and that's that's where I was going with this spreadsheet okay cuz and we were going off of our star data the the fall Benchmark and then using the mcast data from the springtime the year the year before so that's that's what this kind of smells out it sounds like it still be helpful to look at but yeah it might it might not answer specifically that question that year asking so I apologize for that so I I can pull that together um but what this spreadsheet tells you is what we did is we took our star data from the fall in 3 through 6 and anyone that falls in tier three would be a student that receives special education services or they receive reading or math support services and that could either be in the classroom or outside of the classroom tier two that would be any students that were not meeting or exceeding expectations that were not receiving services from any type of interventionist and that's basically what we're looking at as an intervention from the classroom teacher in the classroom and then tier one we're looking at that would be any student that is meeting or exceeding the expectations on our fall Benchmark and then on compared with also our spring from the previous year can I ask a question about the tier one students so are is it possible that students in tier one are getting support to achieve that meeting expectations or all the students in tier one meeting or exceeding expectations without any additional support no they definitely are they definitely are but based upon star it says that those students it the students should with quality tier one instruction the students should by the end of the year Meet those benchmarks that are set so that's yeah what we hope for that you know given the fact that all all of our classroom teachers are doing teaching the standards and going from there then it's expected that they should be meeting those benchmarks by the end of there okay um but not all it's not a perfect science because then some students will change from tier one to tier two right and I would imagine that once someone has support they may not always need the support they may be able to manage without at some point Y okay definitely but also the stars and dibles data would be able to tell you who's progressing from like tier three to tier two tier two to tier one correct yes okay definitely so we're this week and next week we're actually in our second our winter benchmark right now so for the next meeting I'll definitely be able to have more information to share that because that that is good too I mean this is interesting but you know Lauren just I'm looking back at our minutes from this last meeting and it says it was requested that Mr B break down the star and dibles by the number of students in each category for the January meeting there was a discussion regarding concern about Staffing to support students so I I think it goes back to what Miss Haney brought up earli is if we are determining that students do need more support through mtss are we able to meet their needs based on these numbers so I just wanted to Circle back to why we asked him for that information um trying to think what else there was was that fers you have two Flyers and flyers there all right these flyers spring season Southshore children's course is that one of them mhm and the other one is Girl Scouts fire um I would make a motion to um accept these flyers to send out because I feel like the work's already been done by bringing it to school committee and um I mean we can discuss if someone wants to Second it I guess I'll second okay so my thought process being that we don't have a policy in place yet I think probably the hardest part is bringing these to our school committee for um the secretary so I mean my my personal opinion which obviously you don't have to agree with me but I'm thinking until we change the policy I would figure on sending them out although I do see value in the new policy too because you know they're people are getting a lot of information from the schools but I don't want to be arbitrary I guess so yeah I guess that logic I I think I have questions around like I think it's more than just bringing it to the school committee like I would imagine there's a lot of Labor to print it getting it to all the students getting like well I think it's all electronic thankfully is it mhm okay so paper copies of these flyers don't go home no not unless the family requests it okay which is a good Gap no I mean I see what you're saying like if that was the case I'd be like no I don't want to waste forces can I ask when these flyers were received by the school to be sent out now like I'm just curious like when was this seare children's fire sent to the school some we get in in our office here and some go to central office but it's it's different for all of them because the dates on that one are football was the same way and I know that football sent it in way early as I actually went to their board and yelled at them for that and they said no no no we brought it to the school very very early on your school number distributed it fast enough so I'm just very curious as to when this is so if we receive them um prior to a school committee meeting we bring them to the school committee meeting if if the dates no longer apply but we still bring it to the school committee so we can't some of these based upon the policy um let's say there was no meeting in whenever that football flyer came in you wouldn't see it until the next school committee meeting that information if shared by um if sent to Karen Karen would explain to them when the next school committee meeting was but that we don't call we don't call a meeting to approve a flyer right yeah well and I think too like sorry I was just curious like when we got it like what's the process of like okay we get it are we going to bring it to school committee or like is it automatically okay I got this fly I'm going to bring it to school committee or is it like this actually goes towards our children we should bring this to school for the with the processes on those flyers cuz I'm going to tell you I don't agree with like the not allowing any Flyers going out with that policy just because there's so many things the kids already don't know about if anything I think we need more flyers for extracurricular activities like the flyer we approved for the what was it National Grid or what was that one yeah sure that one I don't think we that one doesn't need to go out to anybody in my opinion but these ones it's getting our kids active I think that our kids do need to get these flyers I don't like that policy so one of the points that we brought up in the policy subcommittee is that this process is actually Antiquated that most people have the ability to send things out on their own so what they're taking advantage of is our staffing and our hours to not only bring it to you to have this discussion but also for them to scan the PDF and then send it out to the community so the other thing that you may want to consider is that not everything that comes to us is nonprofit and so some people do have an issue with some people benefiting from advertising through the school system because they personally will benefit from the events that take place albeit they may be wonderful events for children but nonetheless there's a a financial benefit to the the group or the person who's advertising it through our schools so that's some of the things that we hear um in addition uh we also get concerns about the cost of certain things and things of that nature so and it's it's also questions like when was this received so now that I'm going to say like it makes you know you went to them but they're like sent it you know so then you have like some I don't know and I do think like anything we can do to help reduce work in the schools at this point is a good thing but also anything we can do to get our kids moving more is more important than asking somebody not to print a piece of paper and send it out I just that's just my opinion I mean there's a lot of things I know that are happening in Kingston at that like Kingston lacrosse I had no idea that we had lacrosse in our first towns but they've had it my kids could have played It 2 years ago and I had no idea because it's not getting to us it's not we're we're one district and I had no idea that my halifa student could play Kingston lacrosse I think that we're actually not sending out enough in my personal opinion as somebody with small children in the actual School sorry s go ahead um the printing of the Flyers there is no reason why our district cifax should be print flyers for somebody so if somebody comes with 700 flyers and says please hand these out but the budget cuts and copy or paper and the price that it is we shouldn't be providing that service but it also takes B hours in the office to then distribute those out to the correct number of students in every classroom and then the teacher then to hand those out to every student and then most of them end up on the floor anyhow but if we're sending them electronically the whole discussion is mute so the other thing I would add is that although we like to say that we are one District in spirit the reality is we're actually four separate distinct districts so if a Kingston approves a flyer in Kingston that doesn't mean it gets to go out to Halifax schools because we we are four separate districts can I ask you a question where did the concern on this policy originate like office staff in this building I think all of the build in multiple buildings and again it was brought to me as something to put to bring to the policy subcommittee yeah I mean Jessica I hear your concerns I I don't know that the Kings from lacrosse was just like a example I had in my brain I just the kids aren't doing enough like I see my own kid come home from school and want to play on his Nintendo switch and he's 8 years old get outside um also a lot on the internet like Kingston has a whole like saying I'm saying it shouldn't be on the parent parents are busy when was the last time you saw somebody that had two parents that weren't both working fulltime it doesn't happen because we can't afford to live like that so then to say hey you guys need to now go find your activities for your kids to bring them to things that you it's just to have them print out a flyer and bring it and we hand it out or electronically hand it out I don't think that's a huge deal see I think that's what like Community social media pages are for like I've you know been a part of extracurricular things that I've routinely posted on the Facebook for town or whatever um and I'm not arguing the point I I just think you know it sounds like it's becoming lab orome for um for staff and where we're talking about cut cutting um real staff hours um um I don't know I just think it we should be making more work for people that are well honestly this is more of a discussion for the policy anyway so I mean what's before us right now are these actual Flyers so um I Would S I would redirect us back to that I have the question more we got the fer sure so I'll make a motion to approve both the girl SC there already a motion I is there is there second was second we can just vote all right Katie yep Lori yep Karen yes F yes and myself as yes all right um anything else Mr R okay um Sarah thank you madam chair I'm going to start off with the financial report that was in your Sue committee files on page two um you'll notice that the there's a school adjustment counselor that was moved from a special ed staff line to appropriate line so that shows up as $0 budgeted but uh an expenditure so far this year though the money was budgeted elsewhere but we're paying it out of the appropriate line the same thing on page to the psychologist again it was budgeted elsewhere and moved to an appropriate line on page three there's uh a lot of moving Parts with special education the special education book keeper maintains a separate spreadsheet tracking the specialed contracted services tuitions and transportation so keeping in mind that the special ed we're not just dealing with the operating budget there is circuit breaker revolving account and they anticipated 240 Grant funds so the spreadsheet that the bookkeeper uh updated for this meeting shows an overall surplus of about $375,000 for contracted Services tuition and transportation at this time okay moving on to Grants um we received a grant from the 18 foundation for uh open SED which is an open-source science curriculum so we received a $1,700 grant for science curriculum work from the 18 Foundation I'm seeking your approval for that Grant um I will make a motion to accept the 18 Foundation openai Ed grant for $1,700 second any discussion so is that for the existing sixth grade open curriculum sorry I didn't hear the existing sixth grade open curriculum they already do that would be not a Sarah question thank you um okay um we'll have a vote Katie yep Lori yes Karen yes just yes is yes the next thing is you've had asked me to um calculate a per pupil estimate per pupil expenditure estimate for FY 24 that is stated that's not available from the Department of Elementary and secondary education yet um what I will tell you is there pieces of the formula that the department of Ed uses that I don't have access to so um we use something called the schools interoperability framework which means the computer system for uh with population of students talks to the Department of Education on a nightly basis and so the we always talk about October one enrollments as being us our official enrollment but if if a kid moves in on October 2nd then the Department of Education knows about it that night so when Department of Ed does a c does the calculation for per pupil expenditures they use an average of the um attendance across the year and I don't have access to that information so using my best guestimate um my calculation for our per pupil expenditure for fy4 was $3,829 per student and that keep in mind is the in District is what we talked about I not um desie also calculates a per pupil expenditure for all students in the district but I when I spoke with you at the last meeting we were talking about within the walls of this building any questions questions about that okay um the next thing you had asked me for was Foundation budget percentages so I went I calculated Foundation budget starting and the percent increase and I'm just going to run through the numbers for you uh you had asked for the past 5 years so in fy21 the foundation budget was $ 6,764 N1 that was a 68% increase over the prior year in fy22 it was 6, 88145 is this certain down anywhere I can put it in folder real quick but or I can you can slow down can you slow down so I can write it down or thanks can you start back FY FY 216 m7649 okay and that was a 68 increase and that was a 68 increase over the prior year okay fy22 6,881 $456 and that was a 1.74% increase over the previous year mhm in FY 23 it was 7,179 66 MH which was a 4.33% increase over the previous year okay FY 24 7,849 455 and that was a 99.33% increase over the prior year okay for FY 25 7,500 11,761 for a 4.3% decrease from the prior year okay and can I just to make sure that I'm clear each of these years 21 22 23 and 24 we had level service budgets last year we did not have level service we made budget cuts again without looking at any possible additions in front of me I think that's like a fair statement I I wouldn't hold anyone to it but I think that holds true so these are if that is the case from 21 to 24 those large percentage increases were just based on the cost of services increasing for the most part didn't do a lot of adding I believe in 23 several positions were added I know we added like the instrument teacher and um I can't remember what else we definitely and last year we added a long term sub but that was from the sub line so it was so just to be clear Foundation budget is a number that's given to the town by the Department of Education so the foundation budget is based on on hang on let me look at my notes special education too Foundation budget is um what desie determines as the level of expenditures in the town to provide an adequate in an adequate education for the students and the foundation budget is made up of two different things the local contributions and then state aid so the foundation budget is calculated without any consideration for what we're talking about in the budget process in a couple weeks the foundation numbers will come out from the state along with the chapter 78 thank you for explaining that again I do that from last month that you would explain that go ahead go sorry Christine sorry yes I think that when you see the um costs go down for last year I think we can pretty much assume that that was the special education AO District students you had quite a few out of District students in grades 7 through 12 that um were taken out of your budget and I think that you see the increase of special education at a district because remember those students go till age 22 so as the costs increase and if we one more student can put it over I think last year you probably saw a big decrease because of those students that transitioned over to the high school that helps does thank you any other questions okay but um the next thing you had asked about was bus fees so I had access to a survey of uh from different districts all across the state about bus fees so going through the data um the minimum fee on the on the spreadsheet was $100 the maximum fee was $500 the average for all that charged fees was $258 I almost said thousands because usually I talk about millions and thousands $258 41 um the minimum so along with bus fees uh most districts that have bus fees have a family cap so the FY 25 family cap minimum was $200 per family the maximum was $1,150 per family with an average of $678 and then um the late fees varied and uh ranged from $25 to $300 for the for late fees for non-payment bus fees and any questions about bus fees so the the last piece you asked me for was the cost of water which you'll also see in in pres the budget presentation for tonight um it was approximately $25,000 okay any questions all right Dr Clifford hey everyone hello um I just have a few things tonight first I'll talk about districtwide information and then secondary uh 7 through2 information and then K through6 information so the first piece that I'm going to talk about the districtwide information is really around the um K through2 curriculum review cycle which I spoke about before this year in particular we're focusing on the math steering committee and so we have a math steering committee um that's been formed it's a k through2 committee we have two subsets of that committee one is a k through six core review team and a 7 through 12 core review team the K through six team um is going to be conducting a core program review it's going to be a comprehensive Pro uh process including reviewing and selecting high quality instructional materials so we'll be looking for a new math curriculum K through six and also 7 through 12 one of the main tasks of that group will be to look for a new on math curriculum for grades seven and 8 and the idea being that they align um that it's consistent and the transition from sixth grade to the to the middle school is is a um smooth one so the math steering committee meets three times during the years they've met once already they'll meet two times and the K through6 team met for the first time um last Tuesday and we'll be meeting several times throughout the spring um I along with Brian and DeSantis um head of that committee and we have members from all over the the the districts the three districts um we have a nice representation of of um teachers special needs teachers administrators um so it's a great group and I'm excited to work with them the 7 through 12 group met for the first time last Thursday um with Dan Korea who's the the um 7th through 12th math curriculum uh coordinator at the high school and um I also attended that meeting and so they're underway looking at different curriculums for 78 in particular we have some nice cross um participation meaning like the 7 through 12 committee some members will come down and join us when we have Publishers come in to ask questions about the curriculum and then we'll have some K through six people also join the 78 team to also ask some questions and and kind of have some nice alignment there so that's happening and that'll be happening all spring um we'll look at different curriculums we'll have uh Publishers come in um and then in the spring we'll come to school committees and present sort of all of the work we've done and the findings and the recommendations at that point but I'll keep you up this time goes on the other piece is the liter literacy needs assessment which i' I've talked about all of the focus groups the inventories and surveys have been completed by all four districts our report from the hill for literacy um will be provided at our meeting on January 23rd that's with myself and the district um literacy leadership team and the group from Hill we'll meet with them on the 23rd um they'll go over the report the findings from all those things that they did and then March 6th the larger group will meet again and we'll use the report and the findings to create a literacy plan for the district and I'll come back and talk about that more too we we solidify that for secondary information as you may know student competency determination mcass is not a requirement for graduation anymore students must Meet The Local District graduation requirements so we do have um District graduation requirements at the high school which all students must meet participation on mcast is required by federal and state law some of the scholarships the Adams the cop and the seal by literacy will still continue to use Ms scores for qualify which is important for students to know understand that have some you know um gratifications for them they're interested in those things um Elementary K through6 information writing professional learning community so time was spent in November and early December on looking at the common writing assessments um that teachers were utilizing at the grade levels they came together they calibrated they read all I know different um examples of the writing and um were able to um really use that to inform their their instruction around writing they'll do that again where they'll have the students write uh write to a common prompt they'll collect them they'll score them they'll um spend time um using that information to inform their instruction change it alter it depending on what the results tell them then also another piece is start reading in math and dibles assessments we'll begin here in January again and the grade level dat data meetings after the assessments will happen between January 27th and February 7th um also an important piece to keep in mind the mcast um assessment Windows um have all been created for all of the schools and that information should be going out in um newsletters from the school but um just to keep in mind English language arts will go from March 24th to April 18th math will go from April 28th to May 23rd science technology engineering will go from April 28th to May 23rd and again specific schedules for um Halifax will should be coming out from from the office so I just ask that you know folks take a look at those and and make sure to put those on their calendars um and the last piece was just a a f a state grant that um they received at Kingston and Silver Lake in particular to help fund a multilingual newcomer and homeless support Grant and that's particular to Kingston and Silver Lake so that's it that's all I've got tonight thank you um I have a quick question so now that I'm C is not a requirement um what are we using for competency determinations at the high school so the high school is going to make a um a proposal to the school committee to eliminate the language that requires mcast for comcy determination they will be using the courses that are aligned with the state standards as determining whether or not a student graduates so they have to receive a passing grade or M okay yeah okay just wonder good question about that is that a going forward or if there is someone who previously didn't graduate or didn't meet the graduation requirements because they didn't have the mcast test does that can they now receive a I think it starts in spr I think it's for the students that are graduating in 20 so it's not retrospect that's my understanding yes any other questions okay Dr appr so before we get to the preliminary budget today I'd like to draw your attention to the draft calendar in your packet um I will just go over some of the dates here for your consideration and we are seeking a vote this evening as you know uh the calendar before it can be shared with the community needs to be approved by each of our four School committees so um you will note that we've tried to keep the dates in keeping with uh the where we have placed certain half days or certain start days in the past the 25th and the 26th are in service days for teachers the 27th of August would be the first day of school um I wanted to draw your attention to December of 2025 um the 23rd would be a half day of school and I would recommend that uh we not commit on January 2nd for one day that week uh and just make it a a full week um from the 25th through January 2nd and 24th yes sorry oh that's okay 23rd is the half day right yeah okay and then um the next thing I want to draw your attention to is uh May 29th as graduation date with a rain date of May 30th and then the tenative last day of school if there were no uh cancellations WEA related or emergency related cancellations would be June 12th however we have a calendar with five emergency or cancellation days worked in which would bring our tentative last day of school to June 22nd and we also have an asterisk here on the calendar this year to try to avoid confusion but the last day of school for elementaries is a half day so depending upon where that last day Falls it will be a a half day for our elementary schools and we still will be able to meet time on learning so at this time I am looking for um an approval from the school committee um and a possible motion to approve have any other um school districts or School committees voted uh Silver Lake and Kingston have vot both voted to approve the calendar PL is not until next week they won't have school community meeting until next week the only thing I see that is a little with this calendar is godbody do have the five snow days or whatever the days are it's the 15th 16th 17th 18th then juneth so then we would have to have our kids off for a long weekend and then send them on the 22nd of June yes I don't know is it like possible anywhere in here to shave a day like I know we added the second which is like but then it pushes which I agree with the second but is there anywhere in there that we can be like okay like what about the February 23rd in service for teachers is there like I know this is already like out I just am very we don't want to give up an inservice day it's one of the one of the two days during the school year that we can work with teachers on curriculum instruction assessment data things of that nature so to again if if you were going to take anything it would be from vacation time it wouldn't be an inservice day but this is building in additional days for snow days which which might not happen I know I'm just you know like you know as a mom you're like oh let's just and in June they're checked out right and like the moms and the kids and the dads and the the Aunts Uncles and grandparents everybody's checked out by June 22nd so then to be like oh you can go go on the 18th and then you get a long weekend and then one day for a half day I could work out the opposite but I can guarantee my kids won't be here so like it doesn't matter I you know what I mean I'm just I didn't know if there was any way but now that I'm looking at it for like very closely there really isn't I just I mean you know it doesn't go the other way and get more than five days so oh right and it's been a long time since we've had that many days like I mean I know that doesn't that doesn't translate into the future I'm just like picturing what what that's my concern we got to new snowblower guys don't worry we're not going to have snow for years we are prepared now thank you yeah last two years guys no we last year so um that's my only concern just wanted to like throw that out there but other than that I would make a motion to approve it okay good okay um roll call vote Katie yep Lorie yes Karen yes Jessica yes and I'm a yes okay so our next item is the Halifax Elementary School preliminary budget and uh while Kane is setting us up on the um screen I would um just like to review the process that we used to get to this point uh in the fall we asked our principes to work with their school schools to determine uh what their requests and needs would be to take a look at Trends and expenses from the previous year and when we met with our principles we then um and had begun the conversation with our schools we began talking about um what type of information they would like to see presented so what I'm going to ask the school committee is if we could present in whole and then open it up to questions because there may be answers to your questions that are going to appear elsewhere in the the budget presentation but if we go first to our G you'll notice yep next slide please um that we were asked to present a 10% decrease um by the town for FY um a decrease a 10% decrease on fy2 for FY 26 so there's two things that we created um that you'll see figures for tonight we prepared we first created a level service budget and then we went in and decreased that that by the amount necessary in order to have a 10% decrease on fy2 and so we'll show you what that means to the FY 26 budget in terms of supporting the strategy for district Improvement um there there is absolutely no connection between supporting the strategy for district Improvement and the 10% dist uh decrease in fact the reality is we would anticipate seeing more more gaps in achievement less support for students and things of that nature so while these are typically our goals these cannot be our goals when you're looking at a 10% decrease so the FY 26 budget looks different so when you look at the line item budget in your uh school committee folders um the the line numbers change so I'm in the process of uh redoing the chart of accounts to match the Department of Education chart of accounts so I'm going to start this off by saying that there are only six ways that a school district can spend money we spend money on professional clerical and other salaries you'll notice I put a line right in the middle of the slide the line of the middle of the slide everything above that is paid out of payroll everything below that is paid out of accounts payable so when I met with the principls and started talking about changing the chart of accounts I explained to I met with princip and directors I explained to them that they were going to be budgeting contracted Services supplies and materials and other expenditures so when when their expenses come into the business office they come in through our financial system into accounts payable and that's what goes into the warrants that you see and payroll is a whole separate piece which the principles don't have um too much control over so with this new Halifax chart of accounts um this is a multi-step process so I over the course of October through now I've created the FY 26 budget with a new budget lines in February through May I have to input everything into our financial software upload the approved budget into the financial software in June and then we're going to go live on July 1st so when you look at the budget there are broad categories of accounts um we School business managers refer to them as the 1000s 2000s 3000s so the 1,000 accounts are district leadership and administration the 2000s are instructional Services you'll notice that most of the accounts that you see on the budget or 2,000 accounts it's instruction if we're a school district that's what we do the 3,000 are other school Services 4,000 are operations and maintenance of the physical plant included in that is um technology networking um that's part of you know your wiring and and pieces that connect everything um are part physical plant 5,000 are fixed charges you won't see 5000s in the Halifax budget because that's things like benefits and the benefits are for your staff are paid through the town 6,000 are Community Services that's very rare for any District in Massachusetts to to pay a community services um 7,000 acquisition Improvement and replacement to fixed assets so that those 7,000 accounts you can are generally equipment purchases o non-instructional equipment over $5,000 so um um sometimes technology or uh maintenance of the building falls in that like if you're putting in a a boiler that's more than $5,000 it would go there the 8,000 is debt retirement this district is part of the town the town handles any debt and then 9,000 is programs with other schools that is tuitions for special education schools and for the vocational agricultural School schools that students attend into your presentation I put a grid think of this grid as being four quadrants the top leftand corner is the FY 26 budget broken down by those broad categories the 1,000 through 9,000 and then um across the top regular Ed special ed and then vocational Ed the bottom leftand quadrant is the FY 25 budget broken up in the same fashion the top right hand quadrant is the percent increase in each category from the FY 25 to FY 26 budget and then the bottom rightand quadrant is the amount of increase from FY 25 to FY 26 I would just add that that those numbers reflect a level Services budget yes thank you so the town has requested a 10% decrease on FY 25 Halifax elementary school budget for FY 26 a 10% decrease to the FY 25 budget would be 6,139 1924 the Halifax Elementary level service budget for FY 26 is 8,400,000 $132,700 million that we need to address so the ad Central administrative team and the school administr administrative team met and went through this and these are the oh sorry I'm a slide ahead myself um we met and we created the cuts which were on the next slide um in the level service budget utilities uh were included uh with an increase over a four-year average the shared cost budget is included but it has not been voted the potential reap Grant is not included um we don't have a projection for the reap Grant yet generally that's used for technology purchases and Halifax homeless and Foster Transportation has been adjusted based on prior years expenses there's no known retirements at this time and for out of District vocational Halifax currently has one student that's Grade 9 10 or 11 that's currently in a vocational program and there are three placements budgeted in this budget and again we will know definitely by April 1st that's when students um get their uh acceptance letters to those vocational agricultural schools and have to make a commitment by put in more slides than I thought in fy2 we op it's important to remember this in fy2 we offset the budget by using $787,000 of circuit breaker and 240 Grant funds the 23% increase for level service does not account for this if we Factor those tuitions and services into the FY 25 budget the increase is only 10.4% um net School spending we have concerns about net School spending our fy2 net School spending number was $7.6 Million we also have concerns about maintenance of effort the special education individuals with disabilities Education Act Grant which is a long name which we usually call the 240 Grant the 240 Grant requires what's called a maintenance of effort if you spend a million dollar in FY 23 then you have to spend a million and one in fy2 four and a million and two so the documentation of the maintenance effort is part of the approval process for the next year's Grant and we have concerns that if the amount of money spent on special education is decreased we won't be able to make maintenance of effort for future Grant funds so the tier one cuts um $5 55,1 168 in curriculum $17,500 in supplies and equipment $2,500 in library books and $2,440 in subscriptions for a total of $77,500 these Cuts have already been made and are reflected in the budget spreadsheet so that line item budget that was in your packets um already has the tier one Cuts in it keep in mind that we are shooting for $2.1 million in cuts which is a 90% uh 90% of the FY 25 number tier two cuts four power Professionals for $100,000 12.6 FTE HTA members those are teachers for 97,2 25 for a total in tier 2 cuts of 1,1 17,2 $225 before we go from tier one to tier I'm sorry tier two to tier three it's important that we keep in mind Revenue options we've already talked about bus fees for students that live under two miles from the district um there another idea would be to change to half day kindergarten and charge a tuition for full a kindergarten tier three we be cutting an additional point8 par Professionals for $23,000 another 7.3 uh teachers for $498,000 for a total of $521,000 so we put in your packets in in the presentation the class sizes with the tier one two and three cuts the class sizes would be um what's listed on the right hand side here 43 in kindergarten 41 first grade 45 second 34 third grade 34 4th grade 39 fth grade 35 6th grade so your average class size would be 39 students tier four Cuts would be seven teachers for $560,000 the Tier 1 through 4 brings us to the total of $2.1 million in cuts which is what the town has asked us to do if you take a look at the right hand side um that makes one teacher left per grade level with outrageous class sizes that we don't know we have r that they would fit in K this is your slide thanks s uh so here we were just breaking it down uh in each tier level so tier one when we looked back on it it was we were looking at only reduced supply lines there would not be any impact on staff or students besides the reduced supply lines for subscriptions and curricular materials tier 2 impact uh class sizes will increase increase by eight students per classroom on average and special ed case load will also increase by six students per teacher on average uh we would have reduced special education support in all classrooms reduced specialist offerings for all students and there will be no math or Ela supports offered at all beyond the classroom teacher the tier three impact on students and staff class sizes would increase by 15 students students per classroom on average again reduce special education supports even more reduce specialist offerings for all students and this will also have reduced social emotional supports from guidance reduced main office staff and reduced custodial sta the tier four impact is just not really feasible here and that's why we just indicated that it would be academic Health legal and safety concerns if we get the level keep going the goods yeah all right so this is the level service proposal um we had put in there that we're just bringing back that the fact that we had to make 700,000 in cuts from FY 25 it would be extremely difficult to continue with this with lost services and supervision uh what we lost in 25 five was a reading teacher instrument teacher four par professionals a title one teacher part-time behaviorist part-time custodian parttime office parah and three FTE specialist 2.8 FTE and just to point out as we mentioned last meeting that Halifax is currently the sixth lowest out of 398 um and per pupil expenditures in the state of Massachusetts in an Ideal World this is what we would like to propose uh beyond the level service these positions are not included in the budget but uh we were looking at adding a special ed teacher for $68,000 to reduce the case load for each of our teachers uh four part-time lunch and recess par professionals costing $40,000 this by having lunch and recess Paras that are existing par professionals would not be doing three4 do duties that they're doing now and they would be able to just service students that are on IPS in the grade levels that they service and then we're proposing behaviorist job descript description change from a bcba to an RBT uh we don't anticipate any cost change because uh the bcba is only part time we have not had any success finding anyone to fulfill that position but if we were to change that language to V for for an RBT um we would be able to look at the same cost by having an RBT for full-time instead of a bcda at part-time um and a funding we're proposing a funding source change proposal for our math interventionist right now our math interventionist is covered partly by the title one Grant which then takes away from having an additional title one person so if we were to a able to change that back our ma interventionist wouldn't be reliant on a grant and we would be able to add back a title person to help because as of right now this year we only have one title teacher in the building um and then this might be a bigger discussion OT PT Staffing right now we currently contract OT and PT Services um it might be something that we look into because the the cost that we're paying for OT and PT is much higher uh right now because we are Contracting but if we actually look to hire these people on staff I would imagine that it would be a cost neutral or cost savings if we had done this approach or maybe we could share with plinton or Kingston or have some other type model in that sense um with these positions here the total estimated increase with all of these positions is $134,000 just by adding these we believe that it would have a significant impact on the educational offerings here uh there right now there's not much in terms of the capital needs just based upon the situation that we're in fy2 we the water testing the plumbing was really a hot button um and that as we mentioned was a little under $225,000 for the cost from the end of last year and into this year and for FY 26 we're just continuing to look to uh work with upgrading the student and staff bathrooms and our gym bleachers are something that's always been on the docket that um we're definitely looking to so at this point we ask the school committee to review um both the level service proposals the Beyond level service proposals and the request from the town uh to consider whether or not not the uh school committee will be Pres presting the town with any Capital plan requests because those would be need to be received by the town for their born articles for consideration and um in addition in January we hope to have chapter 7even by the end of January we hope to have Chapter 70 numbers um available we're asking you in terms of what would you like to see for our next meeting if you have next steps for us um in order for us to be prepared for the next meeting what is it that we can provide for you what was the amount remember right after the um town meeting there was an amount of money that we cut a bunch of money and then we gave it back to the town and then we couldn't take it back we already get it what was that amount of money it was like 100,000 but that is what need to use for capital projects like I've talked to the town about that and keep in mind that um we had some unpaid PR year bills that were paid out of that already so it was originally around so it was originally around $43,000 if you look back in your previous school committee meetings you can see that we revised the close out two times at the direction of the town that and it reduced that number that was turned over to the town both times another question half day kindergarten we would have to bust them correct so would that just increase the busing again and that would cause more issues that's my question is how much if we switch to half dayg with midday busing cost and would there be a lottery for these students would it be like a as needed for half day full day like how would that work it would be half day unless people pay to go for full day or if they're low income okay do we have to offer do we have to offer full day in general can we TR like do we have to offer kindergarten kindergarten is not even required exactly so can we Char that's mine do you um can we charge for kindergarten we can charge for kindergarten cover by a grant right it was no under faith I don't believe we we can just charge for kindergarten we have to have some Kindergarten I believe I so I looked this up earlier and I believe that the and I could have read it wrong but I believe that Massachusetts law says that we are required to provide free half day MH but May charge for full day well if they're low income then they would they could still opt for full day so we can reduce to half day can only Char I mean we wouldn't charge for kindergarten unless it was full day but my concern would be the busing like how much would the additional busing cost which is all a bunch of moving Parts but also if we were going to consider these things like I know when I lived in Bridgewater we paid for one of our daughters to go to full day kindergarten and they were already asking for commitments like right now so like is it even a possibility for next year like realistically speaking changing something like that I guess is I mean we'd have to like know by the next meeting if we can actually do it so that we can give you some estimates but until we know who actually is interested you're going to be working with very very shaky numbers in addition I don't think you're going to be talking about the amount of money that you're going to need no I mean but I'm just saying like as far as um a million and it will not be that but I mean it could fund the kindergarten teachers possibly like that's in theory that's what the cost that's so should cover right but again you are going to see an in some potential depending upon the needs of the busing depending upon who's interested it may or may not cover the cost of the full day teachers keep in mind you wouldn't need eight buses running around town to pick up kindergarten it would be like two right or maybe even one depending on the number of kindergarten students um my biggest concern with us going to half day is not having students ready for first grade because if you think about the day of kindergarten having subbed in first grade or kindergarten I can tell you that they would come in unpack they would eat their breakfast you would do some sort of work with them and before you know it they are going back home again you're you're not going to have enough hours to cover enough curriculum so there's going to be some gaps by the time those students get to first grade I know it's not even mandatory to send your kid to kindergarten in the state of Massachusetts well I mean doesn't really I don't know that we have an appetite in this town to eliminate kindergarten though I mean I know that tight our budget people don't kindergarten I'm just saying I feel like some of these ation like I'm really uncomfortable with having a conversation about we don't need to do kindergarten it's well I mean I agree none of this conversation wants to be had 100% like none of it but if we can't get more money from the town we have no choice yeah if we can't and what I mean is from the town's people if people will not vote to support our schools we have no choice the amount of money we have is the amount of money we have we not sitting here wanting to be do any of this we want I want to provide a you know none of us wanted to make the cuts last year I agree and I have a lot of regret over the decisions that last year the butt when we had left over and they though it was that but it was also the fact that this was not the approach that another town in our district took they put it to town meeting and their Town voted it in and I will say today and I probably you're going to do a lot it's going to take a lot to change my mind but I don't really see myself voting for any Cuts I agree I came to this meeting thinking I'm going to say I'm going to propose that we don't make any Cuts until tell the town that we cut way too much last year and it's not fair like these the Halifax Elementary School is the future of our town so let's yeah let's just cut their education and take the let's make a class size of what was that 85 43 to 80 45 to 85 students that they're going to have a great education with that so and then also there's no Paris so one one to 45 is that even legal I'm I'm a little Hing now so just we'll all due respect about all of this um I respect the folks at this table that are trying to put options out there and figure it out because it is untenable and it is a really difficult situation to solve but the bottom line is in the town of Halifax people need to support education they need to fund it and they need to support it and I think we as a school committee need to drive that home and you know leave it up to the town at a certain point if the town doesn't vote for it we run the risk of having the state come in if we don't you know fund a school appropriately so I think we need to take the Band-Aid off a little bit in the way that communicate to taxpayers in this town um and quite frankly our administrator and finance committee and our Board of Selectmen who are all doing Noble work to try to figure us out of this mess but to continue to cut I wasn't comfortable with what we cut last year I mean 10% is just it just doesn't I don't see how we can the point8 back to the one exactly exactly and you know we are creating there's a reason we're talking about full regionalization every month we are creating inequity in our school district each School each Elementary School is is not Equitable in my opinion um if we're cutting more services than kber Clinton or cutting it's not fair no and well and something I do want to take into consideration is there's a limit to how much more our town can even collect tax-wise so we have to keep that in mind with what our budget is I mean a budget that's 23% more than last year which I totally understand the reasons why it was explained great but the reality of that even with a possible override we have to make considerations last year we were able to cut two buses and I don't think it was painful at all I mean so I feel like we need to go through our budget while considering what best for education but also understanding the needs of the town because if we don't have a fire department we have a volunteer fire department all of our all of our home insurance will go up and I want I'm Education First that's why I'm sitting here but I'm also concerned about whether our town will actually vote for an override so there has to be a lot of boots on ground kind of work saying this is what our school could Poss possibly look like right you know which again isn't even legal I you know so and those conversations need to be happening in our community today not in March right so I would like to still leave the conversation for paying for buses out there though I think that that's not a huge ask I'm not saying, family cap but no I mean I think there are things we can do within our budget to meet the town more you know I think there's efficiencies we can have in our budget that um that's my personal opinion there's some efficiencies we can have that don't impact education but also are fiscally responsible I mean a 23% increase like you know we can't I mean I think it won't be that bad next year I hope but you know I mean it's hard to who knows yeah but it's I mean that's not sustainable either so where's like how do we figure out what to because we can't go to the town every year and say I just think it's an unre unrealistic request for the town to come and say cut 10% of your budget for what we did last year yeah I mean and I significantly last year and you know we heard at the beginning of this meeting um the impact of those cuts so I Hon I honestly think if the towns people were presented with these tiered cuts at a town meeting they would be up in arms I mean I'm sad that we don't have more towns people here seeing this today because if they did see it I think that one yes our tax rates are hot we're paying $440 right now and that's the highest on the Southshore I mean Carver is next I actually went through and and looked it's cheaper for someone to move to the cape than it is to live in have effects because our tax rates are so high but only six or the six lowest per student can I say something no no but wait one second on that that's compared to K through 12 in other districts if we were to look at just elementary schools it's it's a little bit of a misleading number because it's it costs less to educate elementary students than it does agre 7 through 12 so while yes that's an alarming number it's not comparing Apples to Apples like we have I mean it's I'm not not saying that we don't need to consider the per pupil expenditure because that's something we have to have but we have to keep in mind that most districts include everyone K through 12 and we're our own little District here K through 6 but if you look at the six that pay less than us they are virtual schools yeah and a charter school two virtual schools one charter school and then no I mean it's it's schools that pay less people Halifax doesn't support education at the taxpayer level but I feel that's when I said let's see what it would look like let's do what the town asked and see what it would look like for the purpose of knowing what what as a school committee we're going to need to ask for from the town and that's the only people that can do it is the town at town meeting so um you know this is what was asked we presented it and I'm going to propose that we ask the town for all of it because we cut everything last year but I also the only fair way to be I mean what this there people in here that there's people in this town that haven't had kids yet do you think like they're not going to vote to have 45 kids in a classroom well the thing is is you have to have people at town meeting that will vote for the school that's the bottom line because that doesn't happen very often can I ask how is there any way to ask the PTO to help pay for some things like bleachers and things like that like if it's like a the bleachers has been on there as long as I've been part of this committee and I know it's been on there because you guys have been saying it from when I joined the committee how much is that costing again but the bleachers is not in our budget that's a but it's part of this whole thing yeah I'm just curious like is there any way to ask the PTO to at least help with that potentially I just feel like that has been an issue with the school for a long time and that town uses it a lot so I guess actually asking the PTO for we should just asked the town for it so maybe I take that that's okay um I mean this is a preliminary budget it's information at this point I appreciate you putting it all together I mean it was what we needed to see and um as far as going forward I um I still feel like we need to address declining enrollment at HS and would like some proposals of what it would look like if we adjusted some of the older grades um personally you know like 3 through six we haven't had declining enrollment we have we've declined by 100 students in the last 10 years yeah but now it's going right back up the kindergarten class with my son two years ago was 90 and then the year after was 82 it's not declining it's actually up the other classes were 67 67 77 it's going up yeah I think we're sh it's not I've been joking about this since I joined this committee that Co babies are coming and I promise you they are coming I know but I'm just upset we never adjusted because um it's too late to adjust it now though in my opinion we have kids coming up but we have to make decisions based on what's in front of us as well we made them last year and I think that we tell the town that we made them all last year I don't I I would I mean you can tell the town but you can't force them to vote a certain way I mean I'm just saying there's reality there's what we want and we have to be able to balance them both last year we we did all of the cuts that they asked and some and Kingston did a bold move and asked for the money at town meeting I mean we they won they did but we're not King they also voted the they also have to make yeah they're making serious Cuts this year as well and their class sizes are much bigger and I mean this is an education problem it is MHM it's a Halifax problem because it affects us but it's also an education problem the thing that bothers me the most is that we all know that there is the cost of inflation and some of these inflation costs we can't avoid because they're mandated or supported by laws for instance some if I remember correctly there was a meeting where it was mentioned some special education cost um the contractors allowed to raise their costs by if I remember correctly 3.8% every year these are contracted people who are out to make a buck right and so of course they're going to raise their fees so to be asked to reduce by 10% when we know there's inflation already involved I think is in for lack of better terms asine it's backwards math 3.8 is the majority but not all of the schools so you have some schools that are being allowed by the state to increase in double digit percentages carinal Cushing but the other thing oh sorry just back to like OT um PT Staffing we take that Contracting line and can we hire enough people in house so so think about the otpt conversation kind of like the decision about when you're going to feed your family for the week do you want to go to a restaurant for seven nights or do you want to cook dinner and so right now we're bringing our OT PT to the restaurant well that's what I'm saying that's a change we can make that I would really like to look at but that would require the investment in additional staff so in the long on would it pay out yes well and but we also have the line that we're paying the contractors out of so we can use that line to hire additional otpg staff and it would be a wash essentially especially if we use your plan to hire the best the best scenario for OT and PT is to have a cost share because if you only need 34 of a week why should you pay for a full week because now I can take that one quarter and share it over to another District so that would have to be looked at by everybody as a cost share that's the way to get the most bang for your buck so to speak if you're going to make that move um preliminary numbers and and please don't quote me although I know it's going to be part of the notes it's it it would be a a savings but again it would be a savings as a cost share and not directly to the school do we know how many OT PT staff would have to be hired in order to I have some preliminary numbers yes for the district I do have that they're going to be double checked okay cuz I would like that for the next meeting and then to know if there's savings there like these are the things that I would like to do regardless because they are good decisions that it's just like bringing things in house you know is always you know better so like anything we can do like that is smart for our budget like and I and also you were saying like you get higher OT assistance oppos yes you can yes and that's in the plan exactly so and Silver Lake has um we calculated up uh almost 20% of students with OT and the national average is 7.5 on students with IEP so we that's something else we have to kind of take a look at as well so those are things like for next time I'd like to see what the difference could be if we hired in house versus our Contracting because like you said the Contracting is always going to be more expensive and plus are also doing our evaluations which makes me a little suspect honestly so so things like that I want to look into and also like I said I would like to see I know the whole I mean we have to put it to a vote but I would still like to see numbers for changing Staffing levels just because we have to examine everything so if I'm hearing correctly for our next meeting we will have a I'll be shaky proposal because we it would be based on certain numbers that we can't guarantee for uh charging tuition for full dayc uh proposal for bus payment and what that could possibly save looking at some of the older grades 3 through six and showing you um what it would mean with the reduction of one teacher in those grades or two teachers in those grades versus what we yes went down to this evening and a proposal for otpt inhouse um and what that could potentially save can I make a motion that we allow principal bodry to change the behavior stop description from bcda to RBT tonight so that he can begin to attempt to fill the position that has not been able to be filled second okay sorry no it's fine you're good all right yeah I went to do that thank you all right R call about Katie yep um glor yes Karen yes Jessica yes myself as yes so I feel like the best thing to do is have as much information scenarios that are possible just because I it we need to be able to educate to the best of our ability and I don't know what the town is going to do but I really would ask people to really talk to people and say you have to come to town meeting and I don't know if we can share I don't know I don't want to like I don't know yes you've mentioned conversations at town meeting several times um in order to have this conversation at town meeting uh there would have to be a warrant article and so that would require communication between the school committee and the select board and the fincom and the town manager okay okay and it's not too late for that nope okay can you help us with that or help me thank you is that okay with everyone that's important okay thank you do we know when the the town meeting is Monday and May so say that we decide to make thats or that we decide not to make that and then we don't they don't vote say where SK and area we have this crazy budget where we have six s what are we going to do if we can I mean I think it brings up a I think it brings up a whole bunch of legal issues that and one of which being I I don't believe we'd meet minimum net School spending I don't believe we'd meet maintenance of effort y we would so we would have some serious ramifications there right so I'm saying so where can we go from there and work backwards against town and say look we we can't cut that because we can't run a school with that much of a cut and start there you mean we'll have a better sense at the end of January when we can at least look at the Chapter 70 funding um so that's that's why School budgets typically aren't excuse me for not KN this answer what is the minimum teacher to student ratio that we're allowed to have like one to there's no minimum ratio however you know that your your rooms aren't going to be able to to hold there's no ratio on like it can't be like 1 to 40 no there's no there's no maximum class size there is a a room capacity yeah so you could have some classes that are large but you only have so many places where you could put large classes the library being one of them the gymnasium being another but again physical education is a state requirement so and the cafeteria is another but it's only available at certain points in the day because children are eating there um I had a question too about the 240 Grant requires the maintenance of effort and I mean it's we can't I mean I'm just sort of confirming we can't decrease bed spending because it's required by law correct like I mean I I I don't want to I'm not saying that but I'm just saying there's depends on what's required anything that's required in a child's plan we have to fund right so there's really there's no way to decrease it then I mean Sor there are there are some exceptions that they allow us right so for example when our 7th grade students in Silver Lake out of District students went over to the high school into Silver Lake budget I could say well the reason why we're not paying all of this money this year and because all of these students now are in silver l so they allow for some exceptions if we have somebody retire who's making aund something thousand right and then we hire somebody for $60,000 that's a big difference in Pay that's considered an exception so there are some exceptions that they allow us however um not not to this level not no no no I know no and I don't want that like I'm not I'm just wondering how it was like scenarios that because I wasn't aware of anything there are a couple they allow so I like I don't think we could ever decrease you know just because they're you know State mandated and well ferally you're so necessary but um does anyone else have any other questions or so say we're at whatever that number is that maybe we can try to get to to start with the town and say this is the least we could be so say that's two teachers per grade and say that's so what would that be 45 students per class that's average so I don't even know if it's possible but can we go back to hybrid learning and then that'll scare everyone to get to town meeting they let vote like then you can guarantee 700 parents when vote yes and no that's about the only thing you probably could afford with that bud that would be safe and responsible the problem is that the state doesn't re recognize Public Public Schools not able to do virtual learning anymore and so when we switched over after the pandemic the state said this is in person learning well I mean I think it's information that people need to know and um I'm curious you know the town asked us to prepare this budget I think it's going to be pretty surprising when it's looked at so and I'm talking about the town like Town Hall so we can see how dire it is and I I don't think I mean I don't know if I I don't think that's where we're going to land obviously but um it is important to have the information as shocking as it is the past few time meetings haven't been like scarce we they've been pretty full right they've been pretty full but the things that have been voted have not been approved the things that we spend money on have pretty much been voted down so that's my concern is that we get in front of the town meeting and there's an appetite to we can't spend any more money we don't have it and what happens and this is everywhere it's not mismanagement it's not cost of education is going up so it's I mean it's a problem everywhere so and the money has to come from somewhere and we don't have any business in town so it has to come from the residents through their taxes if this if they want to have a robust educ ational system that we currently have you know so anyway those virtu schools you mention well you don't if you're a virtual school you don't have to pay for heat you don't have to pay for how how are they still public like how are they getting there are exceptions to the rules we're not one of them and again that's also why I mean just to since we're in a public meeting that's why we want to regionalize because we have redundancies we can better work between schools to share um you know um resources and instead of being four separate districts like we are right now you know we can if I just think overall you know this is why it's part of the discussion at least with two of the school committees and I would anticipate one of your biggest buckets of savings will be your um Regional Transportation so if we became fully regionalized the elementary schools would benefit from that because they would be entitled to that Transportation reimbursement that you're currently not receiving and that's hundreds of thousands I also heard that there's a grant for electric buses I know so um I had a conversation with our bus company for a student and they wanted to know where we stood on um electric buses and electric buses are great for the environment one of the problems with electric buses is it's $400,000 for one bus and when you're paying $180,000 for a diesel bus and 400 for an electric um really the question that first student asked me was if they really the behind the scenes question was would we want to pay for the capital outlay and I basically said at this you know at this point in time I don't think it would be prudent for us to talk about electric buses my understanding is the grant money um is not as plentiful as it used to be so uh if you got on board six seven eight years ago you could have had a fleet um of multiple um electric buses for very little investment but my understanding is that the Buy in now is not as easy uh stupid question what about solar on the school to offset the electric bill so the school is the property of the town and the town would need to um move forward with that so about a year and a half ago if I remember correctly Mr Cel if he's still here can confirm this um I believe the town Selectmen voted to entertain the idea of solar fields that would helped curb the cost yes you speak so so we did we're looking at putting a solar field on H um that would help us be a revenue Source uh unfortunately we have a a landfill cap situation that we have to take care of before any sort of Sol goes on there um and that has just recently been presented to us so unfortunately uh before we can entertain any sort of solar project we need to make sure that our our C bu um the the renovations that we can make sure that's safe and good and then look at a Sol project can we put solar on buildings is that possible or do you already have a contract with electric companies no we can we have an energy consultant um if that's something the board wants the committee wants to look at you can gladly put you guys in touch should we make a vote of that or do we have to it doesn't hurt to investigate I mean do we have to make a vote or can we I don't know I I guess I'm I'm wondering what because it belongs to the town H it's a town building it's a town building right sorry never mind but we pay the bill right what do we pay the electric bill mhm the town gives us the money in the operating budget to pay the electric bill okay all right so it's offset well I mean it's a good idea for the town for the town the electric B is out you the conversation tonight I will bring that up to the thank you all right anything else that's it all right um dates to remember January 16th 2025 is joint meeting at Kingston Town Hall January 20th 2025 is a Martin Luther King Day Junior Day um February 6 2025 is another joint meeting and our next Halifax school committee meeting is February 10th and with that I take a motion to adjourn so Mo all right roll call Katie yep Lori yes Karen Jessica yes and myself is yes thank you everyone than you