to listen. So, it's your opportunity to be heard. Um it's not a back and forth um dialogue or debate with the committee. It's our chance to listen and your chance to speak. Um if there are people that wish to speak, um we will
time the 3 minutes. Uh Amy will get make sure and she'll let you know when there are about 30 seconds left so that you can wrap up. Um all right. Is there anyone in the room that would like to speak? Okay. Um, is there anyone on Zoom who
would like to offer a comment? >> He says no. >> Oh, >> he just I just sent them to a different link. >> Okay. All right. Well, sorry to all of you who are having to listen to all the rules about citizens comments, but All right. Um, all right. At this point, we
will close citizens comments. Um, all right. And next up, oh, I didn't give them out. Who wants to read? Let's see.
>> Oh, thank you. I don't know. Maybe those two. They look like they're ready to read things. >> You don't have anything to do. Yeah. >> Um, next up is a portion of our school committee protocols. That looks like Kristen. >> Yep.
As elected members of the Hamilton Winnham Regional School Committee, we including the superintendent accept the high honor and trust that has been placed in us to ensure that the students of the district receive the best education possible. To that end, we
hereby commit to the following in the conduct of our business. School committee members will vote according to their convictions, will avoid bias, and will uphold and support the decisions of the majority of the committee once the decision has been made. Positions will not be used for
personal or partisan gain. >> Thank you. Next is a portion of the school committee mission statement. The Hamilton Wam Regional School District School Committee's mission is to ensure our schools create graduates with a passion for lifelong learning
together with the critical skills needed to maximize their potential. The Hamilton Wam Regional School Committee will lead and inspire a district that is a source of civic pride and municipal engagement to serve the community for generations to come. >> Thank you. Um, I do not think that
Megan's microphone is working. I think we could hear, but I bet they couldn't at home. Mm- >> Nope. >> Yep. I don't think that microphone is on. >> We can share if you want. >> Nope. >> Yep. I don't think that microphone is on. >> We can share if you want.
>> Can you drop those? >> No, I'm kidding. >> There's one of these. >> There's I think I think I'm going to leave it up to >> the experts. Okay, that one's good. Oh, no. >> This one over here, bro. >> Oh, it's not bad.
>> Lights on, but >> nobody's not. >> We could share. >> Yeah, plug box. Try it now. >> That sounds like it. >> Hello. There we go. Perfect. >> All right.
>> Thank you. >> Turn off. Turn on. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Uh, next up, uh, we have the superintendent report. Eric, >> thank you. M mine's going to be brief cuz I'm going to hand it off to our
student government rep in one second, but I'm going to hit uh one thing. The uh recently on March 7th, we had our Northeast regional history day contests and the results are in. Um four Hamilton and Projects qualified for for the state
history uh day contest, which will be April 11th at uh Winchester High School. some uh pretty interesting projects. I figured I'd showcase some of them. Uh the special pri prize for outstanding project in medical history, Ellanar
Anderson. Uh her project title is Anesthesia and the Civil War. How a revolutionary drug contributed to medical advancements on the battlefield and beyond. Um the next one, special prize, outstanding use of primary sources in a project from history uh from historic
Beverly Cassie Sullivan. Revolution of memory. debas pla de Mayo and the fight to reclaim Argentina's lost children. And then regional contestant uh Tess Bergen, the real border of Ireland isn't a line on a map. It's a a border in the hearts of
minds and people uh uh sor uh group exhibit state finalists Ella Lochner and Nikita Pilai. The SS Havana, a journey through revolution, reaction, and reform. State finalists again, next
team, Viola Fazio and Sam Lenker. The 1982 Tylenol murders, a revolution in consumer safety. Um, some of the other contestants in that group, regional contestant Emma Hughes, Lucy Cronin, Rosie Connell, they there uh was titled Alexander Hamilton and the
National Bank. Uh, another group in that same uh, segment, regional contestant Abby Co., uh, Grace Lojerman and Melody Soua, Revolution in 37 words. And then another regional group, uh, Annie Solommani, Erica Mastercola, Harrison
Esker, and William Kirkman. The foundation of Yellowstone National Park. Regional contestant, Brendan Burke, Ryan Minar, uh, Sterling Stinson, and Zach Seyell. the establishment of the United Nations, how revolution how it revolutionized and reformed the world as
we know it. And then in the website group website section, we had two say finalists. Uh and a third group that was competing, the state finalists are Irene G and uh Lydia Wang 123, China's reaction to the revolutionary one child policy transformed the state forever.
And then the second state final finalist um Juniver Mikey Helen Lee and Calonia Melican uh students to soldiers the origins and impact of red August. And then the final group contestants Lolita
Sarendum Charlotte Monel uh Marin Makagi and uh Sydney Smith did the scandal herd around the world watergate and government concealment. So we had uh six groups in the the three uh segments, individual exhibits and group exhibits
and websites uh that took home finalist awards and they'll be competing in 3 weeks. So really exciting. I just I saw some of these uh set up at the school and and some of the things kids were doing. Amazing amazing work. Um some of
the some of the topics are always fascinating. You like all right my first question is always how did you choose this? why did you go down this road? So, um just an opportunity to showcase some of the work that our kids are doing. Um thank you to Miss Boures, Mr. Bernett and Johan Kates. They are uh involved in
the research and supporting the kids and getting them to uh the competition and helping them to bring home the gold. So, all right. And that's I'm going to pass the rest on to >> Thank you so much for sharing that. I
history fair is our our students always just amaze at history fair it's and just even just the titles are just like oh my god >> mind-blowing right >> um um and thank you for that uh anybody else have any questions or anything
>> that's really cool >> next up we have our student government uh rep uh Anderson Craft >> uh thank you um next week on Tuesday and Wednesday English MCAT is starting for all 10th grade students on March 24th and 25th. Uh along with this, the high
school is having its second annual March Madness spirit week event. This event takes place between February and April break as a way to split up the long stretch for our students. Uh our March Madness is very similar to spirit weeks where students compete in different games for points. The only major difference is that the teams are split
up to mix grade levels creating more collaboration between grades in the high school. Uh last week 118 members of DECA went Boston for states where 11 members qualified for nationals. Then finally on Monday, spring sports uh began for
baseball, softball, track and field, boys and girls lacrosse and boys and girls tennis. Then in the middle school, many clubs and meeting uh many clubs are meeting constantly like the art club, GSA, jazz band, and student government. This week was also the last week of middle school intram murals. They
offered basketball, dodgeball, and pickle ball. uh across the elementary schools. Last Wednesday, Winthrop Elementary School fourth graders hosted a bake for good bake sale. And then on Friday, the Cutler fifth graders are going on a field trip to Beverly Bookstraps. Uh
between March 30th and April 2nd, all of the fourth and fifth graders are taking their English MCATs across the three elementary schools. And lastly, the Winthrop kindergarteners are taking a field trip to the Winnham Museum on April 3rd. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you so much for doing that work.
Um, it's much appreciated and it really means a lot to hear it directly from students. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um, does anyone have questions for Anderson? >> No, >> I do. >> Okay. >> Can you explain March Madness for people? >> Uh, so basically >> probably wondering
>> it's um so Monday through Thursday there's been four like games at the end of the day. So Monday we had um we had basketball between like all the grades. We had five people with members of each grade competing and well the whole
school is split up into four teams and then it's split across all grades. So each event is incorporating like members of each grade working together and then uh like today we had trivia so members of each grade have to work together to answer questions and then it ends off on
Friday with a senior staff basketball game. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> Excellent. >> Have fun and fun. >> Thank you. >> Welcome. >> It's great to have a little glimpse into the >> culture at the high school. So, thank you. >> Great. Um, Anderson, you are welcome to
head out. You're also welcome to stay if you'd like, but thank you. >> Thank you for having me. >> Thank you. You >> um All right. Always great to have the student here. Um, next up we have the cons consent agenda. Does anyone have
any items that they would like to hold from the consent agenda? >> I'd like to hold the m the minutes. >> Okay. Um and actually I want to hold the advertisement. So I guess we don't really have a consent agenda. >> That's all.
>> Okay. So much for that. Um All right. Let us start with uh the minutes. >> I just want to change May to March. March.
>> Oh, you're right. The minutes are are the minutes are actually correct, right? >> The minutes are correct. It's just the header in >> the header is incorrect. You're right. Um Okay.
Um that's funny. Um, >> oh, in the in the >> the actual agenda is wrong, but the minutes themselves actually say March. >> Yeah, that's funny. >> Okay. Yes. No, thank you for that
attention to detail. All right. Um, you will want to make a motion. Um, I move that we change the Thursday, March 19th agenda so that the minutes say March 5th, 2026 and not
May 5th, 2026. >> Second. Second. Um, okay. >> I know it's kind of weird because we're not talking about the minutes themselves, but >> yeah, I wasn't sure where to bring that up.
>> I'm not right. the actual document is fine. It's just the agenda that needs to be changed. >> Right. Okay. >> I think that's the place to do it. >> Yeah, I think that's Yeah, I that's fine. Um All right. I The motion was >> I fixed it.
>> It's already We haven't voted yet. >> It's already been uh motion has been made and seconded. Um all those in favor and that is unanimous of the five members present and the motion passes. Someone's thinking spring. Um, yes,
exactly. Jen, do you feel like we need a separate motion on the minutes? Do you feel like that we didn't really vote on the minutes there or I think we're good. >> That covered it. >> All right. So, the minutes are approved. >> Um, all right. Oh, I said I wanted to had a question about this, but now I
have to remember what it is. Um, oh, so Oh, I just had a question, Eric. that on this memo about the um uh advertising. Is this different where it says potentially place small advertisements
at the concession tables? I felt like >> that was new. >> That is new. >> Is that new? So, I just wanted to >> Yep. Boosters Group runs concession tables. They're just asking to put small ads, same similar ads to what they're putting in their um paper rosters and
the book. So I guess my question would be when we say similar ads like most of the other ads are locally based and all locally based. >> Um >> same rules apply. >> Yep. >> Okay. Um thank you. I'm glad I asked. Um
uh any Well, maybe Jen, do do you have a motion on this? And then >> I move that we accept the game day advertisements and program book advertisements as written. >> Second. >> Second by Amy Kberger. Does anybody else
have any questions or discussion? Okay. Um all those in favor that is unanimous of the five members present and the motion passes. Okay.
Um All right, next up is the FY27 budget book. >> I know you're all excited to see this and read this. Um, this is our annual budget book that we make available
before a town meeting. Um, most of the most of where it is located is um on our website, at the town halls, at the public library, at the COA. We generally try to spread out paper copies around town so that people can see it.
This is everything about our budget and more. It includes uh information about some of the assessment data. Um digs into all the debt. You can see all of the debt. You can see all of the operating budgets by school. Um each
principal writes a descriptor before each of their sections. And each budget holder also does the same thing. There's a note from Dana in the beginning. There's a note from me um kind of introducing the book and just make it available and try to make kind of
one-stop shopping. Everything that we do and everything that's related to the budget is in here. Some of the things that we have to have in here like the OPED trust fund where we are at this particular point in time, the capital stabilization fund. This is where we when the the requirement is to make sure
it's public and it's a publicly available document to show where your spending occurred out of your stabilization fund. This is where that occurs. Um then there's some sa staffing summaries uh MCAST results grade 2025
uh profiles. Some things are complete as of June 2025 because like the the capital stabilization that's when we shut it off for for this book. Even though this is the 2026
book, it's things like capital stabilization end in June 2025 because we don't have a full year to add into it for this year. So, um, we put this out again near and wide and we put, uh, copies around around town and we'll
certainly take suggestions if we feel like there's other places to bring them. Um, we also have them available at town meeting. We'll have a few copies. Um, they don't generally they're not not big draw, so it's uh, it's not uh, most people read online because it's there's
so much information in it. Uh, I just want to thank Vinnie and Janelle and all of our principles and supervisors, uh, everybody that's been involved in putting this together. It's it is an effort that starts back when the budget starts in November. Um, and then just
continues to churn through the process as we make changes. This book gets adjusted in in sync. So, it is a a big undertaking. So, >> all right. Um, and we need to approve it. >> Correct.
>> Okay. Do you want to start us off? >> I move that we accept the um budget book as written. >> Second. >> Second by Megan Benson. Any questions? Discussion.
All right. Looks like we're ready to vote. All those in favor? That is unanimous of the five members present and the motion passes. Thank you to everyone for working on that a lot. >> Yes. Um back to you Eric to talk about
MSBA submissions. >> Sure. The MSBA submissions are for uh on this agenda for three the three elementary schools and as part of the conversation that's been ongoing with the community conversations and some of the connections we've tried to make with
with the results of the community conversations really trying to keep us in the in the ball game if you will. Um, we figured it would be wise to submit uh uh at least the elementary schools on the April deadline. And these are
standard forms by Desi. Uh Curtis Whiteitman went through and updated the things that need to be updated and made the adjustments that need to be adjusted for each of the elementary schools. Um they have to be approved by the committee to be submitted to the state.
the submission deadline, I think, is April 15th, if I remember correctly. If they uh they'll they'll get uploaded into a portal that we work with with the state and as we have in the past, you don't hear anything until October or November if you're accepted or not. I
would guess we may not be the the first year after a failed vote. So, um I think it's a safety to put them in there. There's nothing to lose putting them in there. It doesn't cost us anything. It just keeps the door open in case we do get to the point in time where we have the opportunity to to take advantage of
the MSBA uh funding and process. >> Um, does anyone have any questions? Jen, >> I think I found a typo on page five. >> Of which one? >> Um, of the Buer one. Um, it says school name of the district
priority, SOI, and it says Cutler. Shouldn't that beer? >> Yep. >> Where are we? >> That was the only thing I >> found. >> Oh, yeah. >> Okay. >> Okay.
>> It's got the eagle eye. >> All right. says it >> um >> does it. >> All right. Uh does anyone have anything else? >> We can make those adjust same on Winthre. We'll adjust those. >> Okay.
>> We thought we swapped them all out. >> Right. Because the description there is the same under >> right each one. The descript. >> Correct. >> Right. um
>> what we're asking for is technically identical. It's it's just really >> Yeah. >> Yes. Well, that was kind of going to be my question is that and we I I know in years past before we were admitted, we
had submitted many times before and this is >> kind of this broad request. It's not a narrow specific request. It's this broad request to be considered. They want you to be wide open as possible so that you get considered if you get voted in. Then they they come and actually as you
probably remember they come and do walkthroughs and then determine what options can be. >> So I just my question was sort of just is are these written sort of the way that prior to our be that those SOIs that we would have seen a few years ago
similarly where that got us in in the first place. We we basically said to Curtis, go back and update and do the same exact thing >> because that's that Cutler one got accepted and had things that they needed in it. So we left everything even well
some of the some of the other the checkbox up top are slightly differently written but those are just eligibility criteria. So you're just like did we do this? Did we do this? So we did all those and then um the other things are really selecting of the uh out of the
seven uh eight statutory priorities you have to pick one. So we kept it the same. >> Yep. >> Because we figured if we fiddle around with it it would it would not uh fare as well. >> Uh the same mistakes on the win. >> Yeah, we just noted that one. >> Yep, we said that. Yep. That's good. Um
right. And it does I mean I just I know the committee knows but just so the public knows it does indicate on here like the process that has occurred in the community. >> So the one addition we did add just so people are aware is the capital finance subcommittee is one portion but the
capital um committee that meets outside of the subcommittee is has been added into that. It's kind of a new feature of the district. we didn't have it when we originally. So, we've added that in >> uh just to show that we have a process and that's kind of a thing that they're
looking for to make sure you have a process reviewing annually. So, that is new. >> Okay. Um do these have I think a specific is that what you have the specific wording for?
>> There is a motion that >> Amy Kunberger has that's the usual MSBA length. We ready? >> We're ready. Ready. Okay. >> I move that having convened an open meeting on March 19th, 2026, prior to
the SOI submission closing date, the Hamilton Regional School District School Committee of the Towns of Hamilton and Wam. in accordance with its charter, bylaws, and ordinances has voted to authorize the superintendent to submit to the Massachusetts School Building
Authority the statement of interest form dated March 20th, 2026 for the Buer Elementary School located one located at one school street in Wam, Massachusetts. Winthre Elementary School located at 325
Bay Road, South Hamilton, Massachusetts. and Cutler Elementary School located at 237 Asbury Street, South Hamilton, Massachusetts, which describes and explains the following deficiencies and the priority categories for which an application may be submitted to the
Massachusetts School Building Authority in the future, which is number seven, replacement of or addition to obsolete buildings in order to provide for a full range of programs consistent with state and approved local requirements. and hereby further specifically acknowledges
that by submitting this statement of interest form. The Massachusetts School Building Authority in no way guarantees the acceptance or the approval of an application, the awarding of a grant or any other funding commitment from the Massachusetts School Building Authority or commits the Hamilton Regional School
District to filing an application for funding with the Massachusetts School Building Authority. >> We have a second. >> Second. >> Second by Jen Carr. Thank you for reading that, Amy. >> My pleasure. >> Um, >> uh, is there discussion or questions?
Discussion. >> I don't think so. >> My question is when does the MSBA usually sort of review and kind of process or approve or reject these SOI? >> Yeah, we'll we'll know late October, early November of 2026.
>> Okay. It's generally when they they they'll give you a heads up by email usually in September just to say you'll probably be on the agenda on such and such a meeting in October or November. So we'll have some idea early in the fall, but the actual document comes out
after it gets voted by the board. >> Okay. >> Anybody else have questions or discussion? Okay. Uh all those in favor that is unanimous of the five members present and the motion passes.
Um and thank you to all for the work in getting that done. Yep. That's um All right. Next up we have some budget communication flyers which um I think I'm going to turn it over to Amy, I think.
>> Okay. >> All right. Um, so this committee, um, tasked myself and Kristen to work with Eric on some communications materials about some of
the things we're asking for at town meeting. Uh, they're both linked in tonight's agenda. This will start with okay, >> the one about the roof replacement project. Just if you open it in your browser, you'll see the size looks kind of weird. So this one is a half sheet of
paper. The front is um portrait and the back is landscape. Just so you can >> when I in the browser they look funny. One looks bigger than the other. So I just want to explain. >> Yeah. >> Um so on this one it's just meant to
give some quick FAQs uh some answers about costs and breakdown and location of the project itself. Um, we are planning on adding a um, sorry I'm saying a lot. A QR code
and a unique URL so people can jump right to FAQs for this project. Um, so yeah, I don't know if I left anything out. Um, all right. And >> questions or suggestions? >> Yeah, that was what going to be my ask is that are you looking for and open to
sort of people's suggestions for sure regarding this? I um I know it's wordy. Um but what I tried to do was you know we've all been working on this FAQ document trying to pull out the most I
don't know I yeah I mean I I don't know what other people I think it's fabulous like I think it's great. I did send um Amy which you can choose to accept or not accept. I send literally like taking out five like little words like you know
the here and that you know that to just kind of make it a little teeny bit shorter. >> Um >> I I did have a question that I I well I I mean I don't know whether whether other people want to start with feedback. I did have a sort of a question that we might
>> Yeah. >> Yeah. I have a I have a question. Um this is looks great. Thank you so much, Amy. Um, really looks incredible. Love the schematic with the roof. Love it. Yeah. >> Um,
>> just a question. Do we know So, I know we have the the total share across the two towns. >> Do we have what the impact is to like the average household? We know that was a key question last year when we went
through this. So um >> so that >> that's typically comes from >> that will come from the fincom. >> Y >> so the each of the fincom for each town will determine they'll take this project alone and say this project would be say
uh $3.5 million for Hamilton. It would be this much on your your taxes. >> So they'll do that in the warrant book. >> It'll actually be stated in the warrant book the impacts. >> Okay. They do a full narrative of each of the projects, the budgets. So that would be in there.
>> Yeah. I guess I'm just if this is going to every household, right? >> No, we're just handing it out at the meeting. >> We usually just hand these out, right? >> We email them out. They'll be out in the the weeklies. They'll go out in the weekly, >> right? And it's just sharable. Like it could be this hand.
>> Put it out on Facebook. People could put it, you know, it'll be however people choose to share it. It would be >> right. You could hand it out at the grocery store to your friends. >> Well, if anyone wants to hand them out, >> you could you could decide to mail them
because they're not >> taking a side. >> Just informative. Just informative. >> Just informative. You could put this one in the tube. Now, >> there'll be another one up in a second. You could you could choose to do that. >> Yeah. >> Um >> people may question it. I don't know.
But it's uh one one town males own their uh town meeting stuff and the other does not. So it's >> I know. And so that's and so I guess um is there a reason we couldn't include the figures that the FinComs are going to put out in this document is are we not I'm just saying if we're going to
potentially post this on social media. It's going to get legs. It's going to get out there. >> I don't think we know. >> We don't have those numbers yet. you're waiting for us to finalize tonight and then we'll give them the numbers and then they'll take it from there. >> Um Okay.
>> And just as sorry, Jen, I just want to point out one more thing like if we decide this information is working, I think one of the next steps would be to make smaller social media type posts. So, we could make one with that breakdown, too. >> Okay. >> We also have a website that we're ready
to launch in with all this info plus the next one. We can put um that information on there when we get it from the towns. >> Okay. >> Yeah. It'll come out in the final warrant book and then we'll just steal it from there. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know. I know. I know. We just But um Yep. I think it's Hamilton. We don't get ours in the mail anymore. And so,
>> they don't mail it any Wom mails it. Hamilton does not. >> Yeah. Um >> Jen has a question that >> Okay, go ahead because I have a question too. But go ahead, Jen. Um, the roof area key plan. >> Can we actually put a key there? Because
I know which roof we're replacing, but there's nothing on that figure that says what roof we're replacing. >> What do you mean? >> Well, right. We're replacing all the stuff in green and not the hatch stuff. >> But just looking at that, I would have no idea if I didn't know what was
happening. >> Does the picture behind it help? Not really. Uh, >> no. Oh, >> I think if you put a where it says roof area key plan, if you put a small box with that green >> Yeah, that's that's all I'm asking. >> And then just say area to be replaced. >> Oh, okay.
>> Instead of saying roof area to be replaced with a little green that might make it easier. >> I understand now. >> And we're not doing the middle school roof cuz it's not under the MSBA. >> Correct. >> Not old enough. Not old enough. >> Not old enough. >> Getting there, but not yet.
>> It's in good shape right now. Um >> I just could see somebody looking at that and say, "Hold it, hold it, hold it. Why are we paying this much money doing part of the roof?" >> Right. Right. Cuz it's not old enough. >> What's interesting is uh the area P
which I don't know if you can see where I'm >> that is has not excuse me the area Q was replaced this summer because water was pouring through the middle of it. >> Right. You did that porable like >> over the entrance of the middle school.
So that's been redone. We we we took a shot with the the company that pours the one the liqufied roof that is one piece. So so far so good. It's been there's been no issue. But >> it was pouring through last year. >> I just finding now that I missed the
opportunity to watch the liquid pour. >> Yep. >> I'm devastated. >> Yeah. It's fascinating. >> Um see if we can get a video for you. >> Yeah, thank you. Um, can I just So, are you good, Jen?
>> Um, do we have a guarantee on how long the roof, new roof is going to last? Like, how long is it under warranty? >> They're usually 25 to 30 years depending on what they put down for materials. >> Okay.
Um, so this is I'm not sure whether this is Eric or Amy, but the par second paragraph it says the cost of this project currently totals 10 million and and then the end says reimburseable by the state upon Massachusetts school
building MSBA approval. So, I guess maybe this is to Eric, like I I don't really I mean, we're not really waiting for them at this point. We're in the process,
>> right? >> Do you mean is that MSBA? Like, we're >> waiting for us right at this point. >> Yeah. The um >> Oh, you're saying the word approval, right? waiting for us. >> Yeah, we could take the word approval out of there.
>> Like I read this and I was like, it sounds like we're waiting for them to approve it, but what's really happening is we're they're waiting for us to vote, which tell me. Yeah. >> And then they'll accept the vote, >> right? So, I guess what I'm wondering
about this paragraph is like I'm not sure what I'm not quite quite sure whether we need the word currently because the answer is the cost of this project totals this >> of which you know the 4 million is reimburseable by the state
>> by >> yeah you could take out currently and approval yeah makes sense take the word currently out and approval out >> like the approval is we're not waiting from state for approval from the MSBA we're waiting for approval for the voters. So, >> and this is the max amount the project
can and may come in under that number. >> Exactly. So, no, I while it's we want to be perfectly clear like the current the cost of the project totals this much, I I just don't see any scenario in which a voter is angry if
the project ends up costing less than that. >> Let's hope not. >> Like that seems like that's going to be okay. that like we're saying this is what it costs and if we find a way to make it less that's great but >> perfect. >> Um >> so we wanted to say the cost of this
project totals number of which up to number is reimburseable by MSBA >> by the right by the Massachusetts School Building Authority MSBA. Yeah. >> Y period. >> Y
>> great. Thank you. I had a couple questions. Um Dana, if you're done. >> Yeah. >> Um my question in that same paragraph which says of which up to the 4.269 million um is reimburseable.
That just raised a question in my mind. Is there a likelihood that we're going to get less than that 4.269? >> So the number will change if the cost of the project is less >> comes down. Okay. So it's a >> percentage of the total. >> Okay. >> All right. That's how if you remember
that big long motion we read the same language says up to >> that amount. We we we could >> there incentives along the way for different things and you could get a little bit more but that's the number that MSBA says that's where >> that's the ceiling >> where where the ceiling will be for that
for that 10 million number. >> Okay. >> If it came in at $8 million that number would drop >> uh by the percent. Yeah. All right. Okay. Thank you. Um, and then my second question was that I saw on page two here
that we're paying between 20 and 40,000 a year to repair leaks and we're looking at hopefully energy savings and things like that from a more efficient building envelope. I'm wondering if there is a way to quantify
what the debt service payment is going to be with what we're paying on leaks and the saving to kind of demonstrate like that this is a wash >> or potentially a savings. I don't know cuz I can't do debt calculation in my head but I'm just wondering you know
>> um we have estimates and it it's a lot more than the 40,000. >> Okay. >> To replace the leak. >> Got it. Okay. Yep. I was just curious. Yeah. So, >> yeah. >> Um, and
>> because the debt comes in as one number >> when we go out for debt, we don't go out for 3.9 for Hamilton and two 2.0 for >> we get it all at once. So, we get we carry the full number and then we break it up when we do the assessment for the budget. >> Okay, that's fine. I was just curious to see if it were
>> if another way of communicating about this could be on sort of a sort it's almost like a break even. I mean, I know it's not I know it's different buckets and things like that, but just if the numbers were close. So, yeah. >> Yeah. The bond would probably be more
like 500,000 a year. >> Okay. >> Depending on the length of time, but >> yeah, you can change that number by spreading it out. Yeah. >> You can't go beyond what the state would qualify it as for us usable life. So, you could you can literally play with
the number by how many years you spread it out. Projects like this, you want to try to go in 10, 15 years max to really get the benefit of getting that off the books and still having plenty of life in the roof. >> Yep. Okay.
Thank you. >> Okay. Anybody else have anything else? Amy, are you feeling >> Yeah, I feel like I know what to do. Eric, I'll bug you about what the URL should be. >> Yep. >> And update that. >> I think I sent it to you today. Oh, >> you did? Okay.
>> Yeah, I think I sent it to you today. Y >> um All right. Do Um I guess I'm just thinking about what our I I think we do need a vote. I'm going to just offer up before somebody tries
to make a motion that I do think the vote likely needs to or the wording needs to give Amy a little bit of um leeway to tweak things. I don't think um that's my opinion like we don't want
to lock into this >> um you know word for word there's some word smithing that might happen or >> um so >> okay >> does anyone want to take a stab at a motion here? >> I got it. >> Okay. I move that we accept the budget
communication flyers as written including any and all minor changes that need to be made. >> Second, >> I would say and that maybe we authorize Amy to make them on behalf of the
committee. >> Okay. Well, I heard a motion authorized to I'm amending a motion without for heard a motion in a second. Yeah. I'm going to offer that I think the motion I'm not ready to approve both budget FL both budget communication
flyers. I'm only ready to commun ready other people might be ready to approve both of them. I'm not ready for that. Um we only >> which one do you want approved and which >> we only discussed the roof one. We haven't discussed the >> uh >> budget. Um
>> yes. >> So but other people might be I heard a motion in a second. So, >> friendly amendment. >> Yes, that's what I was going to say. >> Um, do you want to offer a friendly amendment?
>> Maybe should can a motion be withdrawn and a new motion made once it's been seconded or do we have to draw? >> She could withdraw it. Sure. >> I'll pull it back. >> Okay. Oh, try again. >> Sure. Um, I move that we accept the roof
budget communication flyers as written with any necessary changes that need to be made. >> Okay. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Second by Kristen Nune. There is there discussion? >> No. >> All right. All those in favor? And that
is unanimous of the five members present and the motion passes. Thank you so much for that work, Amy. >> Um, all right. Next up, take it away, Amy. >> Well, same deal. This is one is more similar to what we usually make for each
town meeting with just a very quick overview of the operating budget. We have some lines in here about some offsets, revenues, and transfers, and then the total assessment, which is our budget request minus the debt service.
Um, I like looking at it this way to kind of see what the ask is and why we're asking. Um, then the breakdown by town. And then again, we'll have a link to another FAQ
site for just about the budget. And on the back, um, I pulled some sentiments that we've been hearing in the last year via surveys, the community forums,
parent group meetings, um, of all the benefits of our district. That's the column on the left. And, you know, sort of spelling out what this budget pays for. at the bottom. The looking toward the future section is
also based on feedback that we received from the community um about routine and unpl unplanned maintenance and safety upgrades and wanting to put some items in the budget around that. The column on the right are some facts about the
override, the cost, what happens if it doesn't pass, um what we've done up to this point to try to avoid an override, and just why the costs are rising for the running of the district.
Thank you. Um, I just wanted to add before we open it up to discussion that >> um, some of the placeholder in red here is going to be discussed today in the budget discussion. >> Yeah, I should mention that anything that is placeholder I set in magenta, so
why don't forget to >> to replace it. Um, all right, people have discussion questions. Go, Megan. Go ahead. Um I my question was I wonder if on these flyers and I know we already
voted on the roof one but I just thought of it if it's helpful to say the kind of majority that has to approve these things >> because we just went through you know needing a twothirds majority. So people might be wondering um if it's a 2/3 or a simple majority
to approve these. Um, and my only other comment was if and I know there's a lot of text already on the back, so I don't know if it's possible, but >> very wordy >> to put in like a a tiny section somewhere as to what happens if it
>> if the override is not approved. >> I think that's in the little red part that >> Okay. What will be cut if it doesn't pass? Okay. All right. That's okay. >> We'll figure that out. But you mean like what further cuts will happen or like proc? I'm getting a lot
of questions about the process because a lot of my friends are newer to the towns and we haven't had an override here and so we folks don't know. >> Um well, you know, >> I don't know if we can fit that. >> Yeah. No, I wasn't Yeah, I wasn't understanding that to be a process. But that's a good point, too. I Yeah, I
don't know. Yeah. No, I I think this the current my understanding of the current is more about what things will be removed from the budget if it doesn't pass. >> Yeah. >> And so similarly, my I know we have a ton of stuff on here already, but I did jump ahead, you know, to the later our
discussion that we're going to have. Um I and I know it's not meant to be um allincclusive here, right? The cuts were that we've already made. >> Mhm. But I know I saw that the
other late bus is potentially on the table if if everything fails. I just wonder if we want to call that out. Right. We've already eliminated one of two late buses. Um because it does have an impact to families. >> Yeah, I think I mean we can certainly add it. I think
I just trying to gain some economy. I know. But yeah, we can totally um >> I only only because I see that it's on that we would potentially, >> you know, like our later discussion. that that's the only reason I'm >> I think I mean I mean I don't know what
other people I think that line is you know it needs to be concise but the point of that line is to hit home to people about this many staff positions and and then we need to sort of think about what other things we haven't
discussed that list yet but what other things are really impactful to people so that they understand what changes I do agree with you that I don't know what it needs which item it needs to be. But I do agree with you that it's impactful and people need to understand. >> I mean like athletic user fees directly
impacts families. Delaying technology updates, I don't know if that directly impacts families per se. That certainly impacts like students and like in classrooms, right? But >> late bus will definitely impact some families
>> and especially those that probably rely on it the most. >> Yeah. >> Unfortunately. Thank you. Um, so I had a couple things. I first of all, I absolutely loved this
funding schools to be proud of column. I I know we talked about it and that's what we sort of talked about doing and I think it really I felt like that hit the nail on the head. That was what I was really looking for in that column and I was really happy with it like that. It
set a positive tone on a document that is challenging and difficult and I thought that was excellent. Um, I did have a couple areas of questions. If we go back to the first page, >> um, on the first page, Eric, can you go
back to the other page? >> Um, I like the way this is set up. Like this is the this is how I think about the budget, too. and youth just said like you start off with the total and then like here are the offsets and revenues and I I I actually don't think it should
be changed. I think this is more of maybe a question for maybe just personal. I know that uh the if I would struggle to articulately or clearly articulate exactly what all the minus transfers and
excess and deficiencies mean. Okay. >> Um >> which I don't think means you should take them off. What I'm really saying is I think the school committee needs to make sure that they can articulate what those are. I mean, the part about it being returned is like a complicated thing where you have to go back
>> years and say like this is what's been going on and it's um so I I think it's and I'm absolutely positive that you've worked with Vinnie on this to make sure that this is >> correctly articulated the way that it is. Like these things are three
different things and they're all >> bringing that number down from 49 million to 39 million. It's important. Um, I just want to be like, when I looked at that, I was like, okay, well, I'm gonna need to be really get clear so
that when somebody asks me to explain it, I'm not saying, okay, so many years ago like, and you know, >> well, maybe that would be a good thing. I I don't know how to translate that into like a quick >> No, no, I don't think it should be on this. I actually don't think it there's no way to put that on here. I just
>> put in the FAQs. Yeah, it would be good to have that so that we can learn how to explain it better and so people can access it on their own. I agree. >> Um, >> and Vinnie and I can help explain it to >> Yeah. Yeah. No, you >> not that it would help, but what if you just made it one line that just said
excess and deficiency instead of having returned and expenses just >> Yeah. >> Excess and deficiency. >> I think that that I actually think that >> helps >> helps. It would help to just be one line. I will say it probably would have
caused a phone call from me to you to be like, "Wait a minute here. Maybe I don't understand because I think it's that 7:30 like you know." But I think that's that's me. I don't think that's I
think it probably would be clearer just as one line. >> Vinnie, would you would you word it just excess and deficiency? >> Yeah, that's it. >> Okay. The other thing we might have to explain is what interest income? >> What what
>> interest income? I could see people like asking questions about that. Like are we asking people, you know, I could see people saying, "Oh, are they asking us for money and they're putting some in savings?" >> So >> yeah, it's not put into savings. It's
just >> I know that >> money on hand bills, right? >> But I could definitely see some people in the community asking about >> what that interest actually is. >> I think though that I I agree like people might ask that. I would I think I
would be better at answering that like than like um >> but I think it's important for committee members to know we do carry accounts that hold balances where we gain interest. So we do, >> you know, like every other um nonprofit, there there are some
accounts that are perpetual and others that are annual and those perpetual accounts are able to gain interest. I mean, minimal right now, right? >> But two years ago, they were they were gaining some fairly consistent uh interest. Other accounts like the stabilization fund, same thing. It's
it's invested so that we can gain some interest on that while that money is sitting in the account. So there are interest bearing accounts. We also get um I think it was in this budget that was when we do a a uh bond there's often
times we'll get a bond premium back. So we would you know like that's money we try to put back into the budget. >> No I I know where it's coming from. >> Yeah. Make sure everybody else does so that Yeah. >> Well we could put it in the FAQs and kind of like we can just all I'm saying.
>> Yeah. I think that's the where that's where it belongs to that like you know someone and I guess what I'm trying to address is someone who is >> citizen who is genuinely really spending some time with this document and is really interested is and asking those kinds of question is the kind of person
that would like to go to the FAQs and get the detailed answer because you know they're already kind of in the weeds like they're really looking at it. So, I just noticed there's a T missing in reimbursement. And in that similar vein, I maybe this
is just the way that I think about it, which is not maybe the most exact accurate way based upon how we build the budget, but it's sort of for me it's like money that comes from the Hamilton when I'm real estate taxes and money that comes from
other places, >> you know, because I think that's kind of the macro level that we're talking about with >> the offsets, the revenues, the transfers. It's like money that the school district is coming up with or
getting from the state or school choice, not from your taxes. So, I think that is a clearer way to explain it, but I know that when you if you tried to match these numbers to our budget, you could, you know, because that's how Vinnie
builds the budget. But I don't but it's not like plain language, you know. Um, but maybe the FAQs can help with that or maybe we could take a second look at this. The other thing that I didn't think was clear to the average reader was the difference between the 39.6
million as the total net assessment and the total budget request is 41.6 because some people might be like reading into that as is a typo or a mistake and I don't think it is. But, um, maybe that needs to up underneath total
budget request. Maybe it's like net assessment plus debt in another line of text or something like that to, you know, to make it clear how those numbers tie >> that minus debt service. Is that what you mean? >> Yeah. >> Not enough. >> What's that? >> Is that not enough? I think
>> I think what you're >> That's a great like put the number of the the debt service. >> Yeah, cuz I would think that the 39.6 million should be in that blue box if I were a regular person not having >> learned what I've learned in the last six months. That's a really good point
actually >> that line where Sorry D. >> Yeah. No, no, no. >> But would it make sense if in that parenthesis under total net assessment if I had that the debt service amount minus debt service colon amount and you
could see that that number plus that number equals the total budget request. You could do that. My I'm not really a numbers person. I'm more of a words person. So my brain would want to see in that navy blue box total budget request parentheses net assessment plus debt. >> Okay,
>> with the 41. That's how my brain would think about it. But you know >> another way you can do it is continue what you've started where minus offsets minus revenues minus transfers then do plus >> debt >> debt service and then that actually gets you to the 41,69.
>> Right. Yeah. I I think that I might because I to Kristen's point which I did not think about and I think you're really right is that this number that's circled feels like it should be the same number. So I I agree and maybe that's
the way to do it is to show plus the debt. Do you sorry do you think that opens a can of well what is that for and then do we need to put like is it four it's like a four items or three items >> like I know will you have that in a
slide in your >> budget book I mean >> the debt ser like what the debt service is for >> so I guess we wouldn't have to spell it out we could just say what the number is >> I agree adding it to the equation makes sense >> what if you just change that top total
FY27 budget that says 49 million to the number that includes the debt service. >> It it does, right? >> Uh it does not >> 41. >> No, the 49.0. >> Oh, at the top. Sorry, I was on the wrong side.
>> And then the other one will go up to then 41 million. >> Yeah, that'll get then your 39.6 at the bottom would tie to the >> 41.6. Yeah, because >> idea, right? that right because
>> Okay, so we're adding Okay. Okay. >> This is a formatting issue and it >> Wait one second. I just want to make sure I have this clear. So adding the debt service total to the 49 million on the top left. >> It's a 1.9. Yeah, I can give you the exact
>> number. Um >> it would be 50.9 million. >> 50.9. And I think that's why we >> I think that's why >> excluded it. But >> because a number over 50 million feels very different than 49 million. Um
>> well that's does it make sense to just put it in later? Like I think I do think there is a benefit to pulling it out to show cuz there's some there's some um like facilities projects in there, right? Like so I think pulling it out is
kind of useful for the public to see. I don't know. pulling out the debt service. >> Pulling out the debt service. Yeah. >> As a different line. >> I I like that because people don't remember, you know, because some of these debt services go on for many years, right? So, people do not
remember. And I know it's in the budget book in that cover letter in there, but people may not >> Well, and we did buy ourselves one line there by combining the minus transfers, right? >> I can fit it. >> Yeah. So, I'm not >> Well, >> okay. Do we
>> what if the blue blocks blue box you just put total budget request parenthesis including debt service? >> That's kind of what I was saying like you know >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Okay. >> But then they don't tie. >> They don't tie. I I I just think I I
think I think Kristen's initial comment was like the if you're just sitting down at town meeting and you're looking at this and you're like, "Okay, it starts at this, we subtract that, we subtract that, we subtract that. Net assessment 39.6. Got it. Okay. Why is the budget
request 41 mill?" I I think I I think they need to match and like >> the circle gives it priority, >> right? And if you add something then that makes sense to the person like okay we subtract we subtract subtract now we're adding okay and it's 41.6 is the >> I mean what if we get rid of the green
circle and after the 39.6 put a plus >> a a number that is debt and then like an arrow up to the box. >> Does that make sense or something like that? I don't know. >> Yeah. So okay as I'm just like I don't know. >> I think I know we can do it. >> Too many cooks.
>> Yeah. I mean, >> no, this is good. Um, okay. >> He needs a T on reimbursement, too, in transportation. >> Yeah, I noticed that. It's really embarrassing. Left a T off there. See where you're talking. >> It says, "I am sorry for the pain, but I am afraid of the pain." I looked it up
>> cuz I was curious what it >> The Latin. >> The Latin. >> Oh, the Latin. >> I was like, "What? What are we talking about?" >> Um Oh, the uh the the placeholder text. Yes. It 100% could be me and my old old
vision, but the on the second page, the override facts seems to be slightly bigger than the funding schools to be proud of. >> Like the font size is
>> um I can >> I think you're right. >> Could be. >> Okay. It's >> darker. >> I can fix that. That's easy. Yeah. >> Um, >> and my other question is we're changing the font on purpose.
>> We're changing the font on purpose. >> Yeah, I think so. >> The headings are different than everything that comes underneath it. >> Yes. Uh, they're actually the same size, interestingly enough. Um, >> I like I said, it totally could be my
poor vision. >> You mean >> they do look different? What do you mean? >> They do. Yeah. Particularly the the O and override and the F looks a little bigger. >> They are the same size, same font. >> 100% believe you.
>> I could tell you some reasons why they might look bigger, but um yeah. Does it bother anybody that the font headers are different than the body? >> No. >> Okay. >> I feel like I like this type base. I the of the
>> headers. I feel like it's friendly and conversational and then the text itself I because there's so much of it I want it to be really easy to read. That's why um okay I had another couple and I don't I know we don't want to spend forever on
this but um I this is just I'm just going to ask whether anybody else I tripped over unplanned maintenance when I read it. Like I kept thinking unplanned maintenance like >> emergency maintenance maybe.
>> I I just and I and it's fine if nobody else had that reaction like we just you know again too many cooks like I just >> I we can change it. >> Called today to Rotorooer to clear out a drain at the Cutler school is unable.
>> No I know I I just >> I see what you say but >> I don't know. I just like >> it's happened three times water man >> like right it's like emergency like I get it it's routine and then it's unexpected or un you know whatever but I just I don't know why but so I just put
that out there and then the only other thing I had is at the very end why costs are rising so it says there are three areas where costs have risen for our district the same areas where they have for business and personal budgets personal co I just
where wording is so precious on this page. I didn't know and again this is really just me thinking about like there's just so many words like do we need that or should we or could we just say there are three areas where costs have risen for
the district personnel health insurance and price of maintenance supplies and project I >> yeah my only thought was that I think frequently myself included I compare yes what the district is doing to what my own household is doing so that was my
stab at trying to tie those >> Yeah I >> and I I I think it's a good point. It's a point I personally have made to people about these are the same things you're seeing in your own life. I more it was more just about like there we're just
trying to conserve space and if so that might be a place that was my only thought. >> Take a stab at wording that right more conservative. >> Again I didn't think it was bad wording or anything like that. I just was thinking if we're trying to conserve space, like if we feel like we need a
little more space in the placeholder above it and we need to, you know, >> yeah, >> a few lines. >> I haven't built in lots of space here, so about that. But yes, I think I can be more clear about it. So, I will work on that. >> If anyone has suggestions, happy to take
a suggestion. >> All right. Anyway, >> thank you, Amy, for all of the effort on this. It's a lot of work. really appreciate it. >> Um, all right. Um, >> well, can I ask one >> ask permission to do something? >> Yeah.
>> If I need more space after our conversation about that placeholder text, can I do you think it's okay to remove the please vote box from the back? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Cuz we have it on the front. >> I could make I could leave the please vote, but maybe take off the dates and
times just on the because it's repeating >> because it's on the front. Yeah, >> we're handing these out during town meetings. So assuming the people who were going to vote are the ones that are getting them. >> I think this is more to remind people that they also need to vote at the >> at the election.
>> Yeah. >> Um but yes, I think Okay, >> definitely take it off. >> Yeah. >> Um okay, I think we will need a motion. >> I don't mind making it. if you want. >> Sure. Take a stab at it.
>> Okay. I move to approve the Hamilton Winnham Regional School District budget request fact sheet and to authorize Amy to make additional edits following our upcoming
discussion on outcomes should the override not pass. >> Second. >> All right. Um, I heard a motion and a second. Does anyone have any questions? Any further discussion? >> Can I just ask one?
>> Yeah. >> Do you want to mail them? >> Um, >> just cuz we'll need time to get it. >> I >> Yes. >> I think we Well, I don't think that's part of this vote. You could approve it and then we can ask that question
>> because Yeah. Are they even formatted for mailing? Would we have to them in envelopes? I just Yeah, >> I hear you. Sorry. I are they even for like >> is this fact even formatted for mailing? We'd have to stuff them in envelopes, right? >> It would need to be an envelope. Yeah.
>> Or figure out how to build a postcard that could hold. >> If we were Yeah. If we were going to mail them, I would say make it into one document and they would have to be like a booklet and then folded. It would be a little pricey because >> All right. I'm going to just stop us and
keep us within the four corners of the motion. So, we're in a motion right now. Um, the motion was to approve the current document and um and uh task Amy with making edits as needed regarding the discussion today. That was the
motion on the table. Um, does anybody have any questions or discussion on that? Okay. All those in favor? And that is unanimous of the five members present and the motion passes. Um, and now Eric asked a question regarding mailing and I heard you answer
on like >> we could if you wanted to mail it and not have it be super expensive. I could we could distill some of the most important things and format it as a postcard. Um, I can do
whatever we decide to do. I don't know. >> Postcard is the cheapest way to do it. So, you may want to take some of the graphics and put them into a postcard and then use that >> and and push people to the website. limited real estate on on the postcard, >> right? >> I think it would be expensive to mail all of these two pieces as is.
>> Do we know if the Hamilton Winnham News permits like a freestanding insert? Cuz in the past, like the Salem News once upon a time used to let you do that and it was very cost effective. You had to bring everything already printed 8 1/2
by 11 and then they would insert it in the paper. >> Oh, >> you can ask. >> So, I don't know. just it might if it's cheaper and doesn't and then if it saves you redesign time I don't know >> a good idea >> okay so the
question is because any and all of those things would cost money >> right >> yes >> so and we're at a in a time situation where we would need to get that done
>> um So, you know, um, >> thoughts. I mean, I I can put them together. It's just about spending the money. I don't know. I know we've done them
before. We could probably use the same quote to decide, but >> you have a school committee account that you could use to >> do. We have a ballpark from previous mailings. How much? We have done a We did do a postcard.
>> Postcard was 1,700. >> That print and mail. >> What's that? >> Is that for printing and postage? >> Oh, yeah. >> That's not bad. >> The printer The printer takes care of everything and just drops it at >> the uh post office. >> And >> that might be the best option. And
that's uh Vinnie, that's an amount that's in our account. Mhm. >> So if if we were to make that kind of emotion, um we would still want some research
around like I don't know how that would look, but it would need to be, you know, because there still might need to be flexibility around whether it gets mailed or whether it gets puts in the HW news or like like that might be a I don't know whether that's a cheaper option. I'm not
sure. >> Yeah. um or whether that is an option at all. I don't >> I don't remember seeing one ever yet in the Hamiltonum news. >> No, I don't. But >> um >> we can work on it tomorrow.
>> Yeah, I'll check. I'll call them. >> Um do you have one correction? 2,300 with the postage. The postcards themselves are 17. Okay. >> What size were those? >> They were the big ones. >> Big ones. Okay. >> Oh, the big ones. You both made very
different shapes with your hands. >> Fishing. Like fishing. The really big ones >> because you can send out an 8 and 1 half by 11 size. >> No, they were not. I think they were half I think they were half. >> They're like 5 by eight. Yeah, like half leather. Um,
so what I'm concerned about >> the motion >> is that today is March 19th and >> we could get them in probably not in next week's paper, >> right? Like I'm just trying to I'm
thinking about a bunch of things. I'm thinking about >> when this would actually happen in terms of getting it out in a timely manner. I'm also thinking about if when we need to vote on whether to do it because I think it needs to be today, but somebody
can back me up on or check on whether um we would have to we would want it in the April 3rd paper, which is two weeks from tomorrow. That would be the last day before the first town meeting.
>> Right. So, >> and we have I mean we have a school committee meeting on the 2nd, which is the night before that. So, it's >> the turnaround at the printer is three days. That's what it was for. >> I guess I'm just saying that like timewise it appears to me that today
would be need >> Yeah, >> it would need to be today that we made that decision. And so we need to think about, you know, if that's what we want to do and if so, how do we frame that so that Amy and Eric and Vinnie have the freedom to
make decisions about I'm not going to make a motion about myself. Um, anybody have a motion? >> I move that we send out the relevant information
from the school budget handout in a manner that reduces the cost to the school district. I think you need to give us like you need to authorize us to do that. Eric
and I, right? >> I think there I actually I think there needs to be a up to amount. >> Okay. >> Okay. Uh friendly, I guess. >> No, you're not done yet. I don't think
>> up to >> $2500. $2,500. >> Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Uh, so I heard a motion and a second. If I'm understanding the motion, it was to put out this budget fact request
information in some kind of uh either mailing or newspaper distribution, giving uh some flexibility to the administration
and to Amy to determine what's the best one and what Beth method and that it was up to $2,500. Is that correct summary? >> Assuming I read Eric's slips correctly. >> Sounds good. >> All right. Does anyone have any
questions? Discussion. >> Okay. I'm good. >> Yeah. >> Go ahead. >> I mean, well, I just do we is that enough of a budget? Do we think it's gone up since we did that? >> Megan, I'm sorry. I can't hear a word you're saying. I'm just I'm wondering
about the the amount that we're approving. Like do we do we think it's enough? >> The last round of postcards we did which was for the project was that cost 2,300.
>> 1,700 for the printing and >> 500 for the postage. >> Okay. We buffered it a little. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> Want to go 3,000 just in case or >> That's okay. gold foil embossing. >> No,
>> that's a joke. >> Um >> I I feel like if that was the cost last year, then it will probably be the same. >> Yeah. Right. And I I guess I Yeah. I feel like like everything else in this
budget, like it, you know, if it turns out the costs have gone up, then we'll they'll just have to figure out some way to like >> bring it back down. >> Bring it down. Like that's just the way >> do a smaller size card,
>> right? A smaller sized card or a smaller >> printer has been very good with us. They've been very reasonable. >> So, but I just feel like literally that's how everything else in this budget is. It's like that's That's what you have. That's what you get. Um, all right. Does anyone else
have any further? Okay. All those in favor? And that is unanimous of the five members present and the motion passes. >> Thank you everybody for the feedback.
>> Thank you for that work. >> Sure. All right. Um, I can't read my own handwriting. Okay, next up we have some information on the school start time report. Um,
which I'm looking forward to hearing. >> Great. Thank you. Um, as part of the goals, the district goals this year, one of the goals for the that we set uh back at the beginning of the year was related to school start times. committee members asked. Last year, we
really couldn't fit it into all the things that we're doing. This year, it was added in. Um, so we added it as a goal, a district-wide goal, and this report represents the work of the committee. And I I think it's important to thank the members of the committee
because they met six times and went through far too many articles and websites and research papers and brought their own um um personal stories to the to the uh table. So Gwenda Graham who's a parent, Anna
Cedzik who's a parent, former school committee member, uh Mary Beth Ting, uh our middle school nurse, Melissa Seell is a parent, and Arnette a parent, uh Dr. Zachary Best, who's the middle school principal, Ian Morris, uh, high school teacher, Heather Rich, an
elementary school special ed teacher, Jeff Becker, assistant principal at the high school, Leah Tobankin, high school nurse, Colleen Langon, elementary school counselor, and Stephanie Rogal, uh, high school teacher. And this group was great to work with. I was facilitating the conversations and really um
had a an interesting uh time trying to um figure out a good direction and part of the the bigger uh goal if you will that we set in we reminded everybody in meeting number one
was uh deliver comprehensive recommendation by the 31st of of March. So here we are. This is a recommendation that I'm going to leave with the committee. I'm going to ask the committee to review it um uh for ne between now and next meeting. Next
meeting I will bring back some other recommendations uh to to push this forward if you decide to. Um, this is uh really an outline of some of the work that they've done, some of the research they did, uh, groups they've talked to, including the community house, the
athletics department, the recreation department, DHY's bus company. um really looked at other models in the at the end of the report or some not all of the things that the articles that they use and we included them purposefully here
so that people could see uh what we were digging through to try to find uh the rationale and there are a lot of of uh medical and mental health uh realities out there related to uh changing the start time for secondary kids uh to a
later time and some of them include an increase in student grades, a measurable rise in GPA, improved attendance, um improved graduation rates, which ours are pretty high right now anyway. Talks a little bit about the chronotype of of
uh teenagers and uh secondary school children. And then looked at some of the data. There were two surveys done. There was one done several years back and then another one in 2025. uh looked at some of that data. Looked at some of the uh conversations
were around what it looks like with the swap and what it looks like uh for people who are supporting the swap and what it looks like for people who don't support the swap. Uh there were many more people that supported the swap but didn't know enough about it to to say much. So I think the committee really did a great
job digging in. We invited different people uh from the different community groups to come in, talk to the group, ask questions, answer questions and uh we use that information to build this
report and we dropped in the the um impacts and then also made the recommendation. Uh the committee was really uh centered around making a change that
made that counted. So, some of the schools that we uh checked into that changed their SC start time changed them by 30 minutes, which is really not a big change that the committee really came to consensus on the last night last uh last
Monday, two Mondays ago, uh Tuesday, two two Tuesdays ago that to really come down to let's make a change that counts. Um so, they really honed in on 8:30. Uh we had a lot of conversation about 8:30 to 310 on the secondary side because the
number 310 is um it's like the com conversation we just had the difference between 49 and 50 million. Well 3:10 and 3:00 would be different. So there we went back and forth about do we do 8:20 to 3:00 or 8:30 to 3:10 and the committee was really adamant about
saying let's make a change that counts. Um, and that would flip somewhat with the with the elementary school starting them at 7:45. They would get out at 217. People are like, "Okay, what are kids going to do after school?" We have talked to the recck department. We have
talked to the community house. Uh, they are very willing and able to continue to build and grow their programs. Uh, community house has expanded so far into um the Winthre school. They use several rooms at the Winthre school after school now. So, it would just really be uh maybe some additional opportunities
there. And um we've had a great relationship with them. They they've been able to get their licensing and do the things they need to do while also uh managing uh an interesting influx of kids. They come in, some kids come for one day, some kids come for three days, some kids come
for all five. So managing that is something that the business we didn't want to get into in the school department. Um, so we really put the the priority of sleep science at the front of the conversation and and people were were committed to that, stayed with that during the whole process. We had some
good back and forth. Um, we had some really good information that we learned through the process. I have sent this report to the bus company just to make sure everything works. They uh they believe it works. They they'll they're going to double check it for me. Um, so what I'd like to do if the committee is
okay with that is to leave this with you. Um, between now and next meeting, next meeting I'll bring back uh some recommendations because I think as it says in the last sentence, this is probably a one toear one to twoyear rollout plan. There is a lot that needs
to be prepared including the people in the community. Uh it's a big change. there are more parents uh now heading from home back to work in the office. So that those hours are are different for people. Um so just
digest it for now. We'll come back next meeting, have the conversation, decide if you want to move forward with it. And during that conversation, I will add in some suggestions. I think we still need to talk to uh several groups again, circle back and say, "Here's the final
report. Give us your thoughts." Um because before it was if if anybody remembers the survey, it was a whole bunch of questions about what about this, what about that, what about now here's where the committee has has come in to the work. Now how do you feel about this? So I think that's still work
to be done. Um the unions all have contracts with negotiated times already in there. So we'd have to make some adjustments there. Uh which would be negotiations thus the longer timeline for implementation. This would not be something you could start in the fall realistically. Um, but at least we have
the conversation on the table. >> Um, thank you for that. Um, so as Eric said, we're going to take time to digest this, but I think I mean, does anyone have not to debate or discuss, but does anyone have just like any clarifying
questions about the document or any more? Um, Jen, >> on page six under transportation impacts and strategic levers, the DIS, it says in one, the district manages blah blah blah secondary routes
and blah blah blah elementary routes. We're not planning on doing a non-tiered simultaneous start, are we? So, that's irrelevant. >> No. Yeah, it was it was just part of the conversation that when we talked to uh Mike calendar um to say, "Okay, what would happen?" The number of buses would
expand dramatically, that would change the amount of our contract, which would make Vinnie very angry. So, it was just it was put in there as part of the um the challenges. It it was just something that came up in conversation. We felt we should include it. >> Okay. >> But it it is really irrelevant given
what we're recommending. >> Okay. But it was just part of the conversation, >> right? just why you couldn't start everyone at 8:30. >> You could if you want to, >> but it would double >> nine more buses on the road. >> Yeah. >> Um, anybody else? I had a I do have a
question. >> Um, >> that's my only question. >> What is I I and if I missed it, I but I looked for it and I read it twice to figure it out. And the at the end it says the district in the middle of that last paragraph it says the district must
lead by emphasizing the research back benefits proactively launching the credit-based life skills program. And I was like what is the credit based life skills program? >> That's a good question. >> And I was like I I I don't know what that is.
>> I don't either. >> It's on it's up. Yeah. It sounded great. I was like, is that >> No, sorry. That is that is part of it. We were talking about ways to get kids credit to help out with some of the
shifts in time either morning or afternoon. So, >> as near as I can tell, that's not explained in the rest of the document. So, I'm sure that this group did like some work on that. >> Um, >> we just need >> we were trying to figure out how to get
older kids opportunities during the during the day to get credit and build life schools. So, for example, kids that are uh considering teaching as a career. >> Yeah. >> They may go down last block to the elementary schools after school, help
out after school with the um >> the uh TKC program at the community house. >> Got it. >> To help out. So, yeah, that is I can tweak that a little bit. >> Yeah. No, I I was like that sounds great. I want to know more about that.
We were trying to figure out ways to to help kids get credit. >> Yep. >> Um for some of the things we we have internship opportunities so we could take advantage of that because there are kids that in April will choose internships in the district to be in the
classrooms. So something similar but shorter time periods. >> Right. Thank you. We'll look forward to hearing more about that. And anybody else have anything? >> No, that's really >> um and thank you all for that
>> work. That's great. Um all right, back to you, Eric. School trips. >> I don't want to spend a lot of time on this, but I just wanted to make sure the committee was aware as we when we approved field trips months ago, I
always kind of promise say I got bring it back and uh just let you know where we're at. Um, two trips going out in April, both during vacation, one to Spain. Uh, 47 kids are going to Spain
this year. And, um, we do that kind of every other year. And, uh, Spain is a level two. Uh, when you look at the the federal ratings for safety, they're they're a level two. They've been a level two for eight years straight, uh,
for various reasons, and we've been there several times. So there's there's not a lot of concern. Um the second trip is Taiwan. Taiwan has I think 23 students going out. Uh one student uh family did pull their student uh with
concern over everything that's going on in the world. Um there was a meeting held Monday night to see where people stand. So far, everybody that's involved in everybody else involved in the trip is is staying and uh is is willing to go on that trip. Uh I just wanted people to
be aware Taiwan is a level one. They've been a level one for many years as well. We've been we went uh two years ago and very successful trip. Just a very long flight. Um so I just wanted the committee to know in case there were any issues that we have talked with both
World Strides and Explorica, the other groups that run the trips. they have full um safety processes in place so that anything that occurs on the trip, anything that uh is unusual unusual, they have people that will respond
immediately in country. >> Um so whenever there's groups of kids in uh different countries, uh there are safety teams on the ground for those companies. So World Strides, Explorica, EF is another one that does it. They all have uh specific processes. Even if they
had to evacuate a group of kids quickly, they could they have the ability to do that. So, um I just want to give you an update. So far, people everybody except for one one family just withdrew, which is fine. They had the option. They took the insurance. They were covered. Um the
rest are committed to going this April. >> Okay. Anybody have questions? >> No. Thank you. Yep. Thank you for the update. All right. To you, Vinnie.
And some the FY27 uh budget discussion continues. Random. Turn it a little bit. Let's turn up. Okay. Okay, thank you guys for joining us tonight. We are here to review our FY27
budget request as it relates to our uh annual town meetings coming up and review some scenarios that might happen uh as a result of those town meetings. So, just a friendly reminder, Hamilton's town meeting is April 11th. It's at 9:00 a.m.
at their normal location at the regional high school. And I got confused. This is a picture of town hall. It does look like our central office, but it is Hamilton's town hall. Uh so, for a moment, we're going to review both uh town warrants just so you
can get a brief idea of what they look like. Uh they both are in draft form. Uh, excuse me for a second. So, Hamilton's town warrant. U, uh, there is multiple articles. Uh, the first one isn't this one, but this is
the first article that relates to the school involved budget. Um, the first one is the general town and department appropriations. Uh here you can see they are requesting uh an a budget for the town of 15.9 million and for the
Hamilton Winham regional school district combined with the tech uh they are requesting an appropriation of 26.6 million. Uh after that brief thing they have a brief summary here uh and you can see that they are detailing out that the
regional school district is increasing their expenses year-over-year by 2.6 million. um of which 1.58 million represents Hamilton share. Uh this 1.5 million represents the school district's increase to Hamilton for both our
operating budget and our debt service budget. And for our debt, that includes both our included and excluded debt. Uh within the prop within the Prop 2 and a half levy limit, they are funding us $59,063. This amount represents uh the increase
that the town is providing to the schools without a proposition two and a half override. The delta between the 1.5 million that we have assessed them and the $59,000 that is below the levy limit. Uh we have a delta of $1,79,000.
This leads us to our question number two which we call the override amount. Uh here is a draft of their override question. Uh it is a supplemental town department and school appropriation. Uh here you can see they are requesting a total of just over 1.3 million. Uh of
that $1.3 million, $260,000 is for town expenditures and $1,79,000 is for uh school expenditures. Now for a moment just to review Winnham's uh town meeting and their
warrant. They have moved up their town meeting. In case anyone uh hasn't been notified, it is now April 9th at 6 PM at the Bennett Center at Gordon College. Uh their warrants are set up in a similar way to Hamilton. They are just worded a
little different. Uh their first one is our annual appropriation. Again, combining both the school and town expenditures. Again, their wording is a little different. Uh they have stated here their total expenses for FY27 uh to be raised under the levy limit
totals 23 million. Uh that is an increase of $925,000. Of this $925,000 641 is an appropriation for the school district. Uh and the remaining is for the town. This $641,000
is what is below the levy limit. uh based on what we assess them that leaves a variance of 438,000 which leads them to their question number two. Um their override amount which you can see here is the exact difference in the school budget. So for
the town of Wenham their override amount only includes uh school expenditures. Um and this again is the amount that would require a favorable vote of a prop 2 and a half override until uh to fully fund the school district. But as
everyone here is aware, we have two communities. They're two separate entities. We have the town of Hamilton and the town of Wenham. 70 years ago, they came together to form the Hamilton Wam Regional School District. Where we are in this point of the budget process,
for every dollar the school district spends, it's made up of um 66 cents for Hamilton and 34 cents for Wenham. Excuse. So if we were to try to reduce $1 in one
of our communities, I'm going to use Wenom as our example. If we would try to eliminate $1 from Winnham, we would have to turn around and eliminate $1 dollar from Hamilton along with an additional nent. So in total, saying in a different way,
if we try to reduce Hamilton by a dollar, the Hamilton Wenham Regional School District actually has to reduce $2.90 from our budget in total in order to reduce Wenham by that dollar. Looking at it from the other community's point of view, if we were going to reduce uh
the town of Hamilton one by $1, we would have to turn around and reduce the town of Winnham by an additional 53 cents. Looking at it from the school district's point of view, if we had to reduce Hamilton by $1, the Hamilton Regional School District would have to reduce a
total of $153. So, how does this have an effect? What does the override effect have on the school district? Uh, looking at Hamilton's perspective, uh, they're asking for a 1,79,000 override. Hamilton represents 65.51%
of the regional school district. That means in order to meet Hamilton's uh levyonly budget, the regional school district would have to reduce its budget by 1,647,000. Cuz remember, every dollar we reduce in Hamilton, we have to turn around and
reduce 53 cents for WEM. Looking at it from the other point of view, from Winnham, with their override amount of $438,000 and them representing 34.49% 49% of our budget. Uh the school district would have to reduce a total of $1,271,000
in order to uh meet Winnham's um override amount because again every dollar we reduce in Winnham we have to turn around and reduce $1.90 for Hamilton. So what would it look like if we implemented these reductions? Uh to meet
Hamilton's levy budget, the regional school district would reduce the 1.6 million. Uh this would turn around and reduce Hamilton's budget by their $1,79,000. It would then translate into a $568,000 reduction to Winnham, completely wiping
out their need for their override. So if we met Hamilton's levyonly budget, uh Wenham would not need that override. Looking at it from Winnham's point of view, if we were to meet Wenham's levy budget, it would mean a reduction to the school district of $1,271,000.
Uh this translates into a $833,000 reduction to Hamilton, but still requires an override. Their ultimate override was the $1,79,000 number. Meaning Wenham's need for uh meeting Wenham's levy only budget would
only reduce them by $833,000, leaving them with a need for an override of roughly $246,000. And again, it would reduce Winnhams uh by their $438,000. So now I'm going to go through four
scenarios. There are multiple scenarios that obviously could happen after town meeting. I'm really just hitting on the four. Uh before I go through them, I just want to make sure when I say the override passes, I mean it passes both town meeting and the ballot. I'm not When I say it passes, I don't mean it
just passes town meeting. Uh it passes in its entirety. So under our scenario one, we're going to assume Hamilton uh passes its levy only budget as well as its uh over as well as the override passing. Same situation in Winnham. We're going to
assume in scenario one that the levyonly budget passes as well as the override. So what does that mean for the school district? It means we have our approved budget as the school committee uh had requested and we can move on for FY27. Under scenario two, uh we're going to
continue to assume that Hamilton's levy only budget passed as well as their override. Uh but for this scenario, we're going to say that Winnham's levy budget only passed, but their override failed. So what does that mean for the school district? Uh it means we have
been funded at a Hamilton level levy only budget. It's a little bit of a tongue tie, so I'm probably going to trip over it a couple times, but it means we don't have a school committee approved budget. your budget that you requested has not been fully funded by the community. Uh so in fact we have a
failed budget as you has have approved it. So what options do you have at this point? The school committee has 30 days uh to reconvene, reconsider uh possibly amend and resubmit their budget assessment to the towns. What could this
budget look like? Uh you really have three options. You could submit the same exact budget. Don't change it at all. ressubmit the same exact number to the town and try to go after the same amount again. Um there are reasons you could do this. Maybe you thought we weren't um as
active before town meeting and you want to have a second chance and we really want that level of funding. So you could submit the same budget. Uh the town within 45 days has to call a special town meeting to appropriate the funds. Your second option is to resubmit a
different budget somewhere lower than the levy budget uh but somewhere high I'm sorry somewhere lower than the override amount but higher than your levy budget. Uh this would still require a special town meeting in Wenham only as in this example uh Hamilton has already
approved their budget. Um, the last thing you could lo approve a reduced budget that lowers the regional school district's budget down to the Winnham levy only budget. Uh, this would negate the point. This would negate a second
town meeting uh for the town of Wenham. Um, so what would that look like if we were try to meet him uh Wenham's levy only budget? As we stated before, it would be a reduction of $438,000 uh to Winnham, which translates into a
$1.2 million reduction to the school district. Uh this would completely uh wipe out Winnham's need for an override and it would reduce Hamilton by that $833,000 and they would still have needed the override, but it would have passed. They would have appropriated the funds. uh
they would only be assessed at our new reduced number and that additional levy capacity would be available for future town meeting appropriation. Under scenario three, I'm really just flipping the scenario. We're going to assume that Hamilton's levy levy budget
passes, but their override fails. Um and in Winnham, their levy budget passes as well as their override passes. So what does that mean? It's the same thing. We do not have a school committee approved budget. We only have a budget that is funded at the Hamilton levy amount only.
Our options are pretty much exactly the same. You're going to have 30 days uh to resubmit a the assessments to the towns. And again, it's the same situation. It could be the same exact amount. Hamilton would still have to call a new town meeting within 45 days. It could be
something in the middle, which would still require them to have a town meeting. or we could accept the levyonly budget uh and lower our overall budget request and that would uh negate the need for a town uh second town meeting in Hamilton.
Uh what does that mean? It would mean we'd have to reduce Hamilton's overall assessment by that $1,79,000 which for the school district would mean an overall reduction of the $1.6 million. Again, this reduces Hamilton's budget by their override amount and then
would reduce Wam's overall assessment by that $568,000. They would have already passed the override. They would have already increased their levy limit. Their assessment would just be reduced. And again, that future capacity would be available uh for future use uh future
appropriation at a different town meeting. Uh the last scenario, scenario number four, we're going to assume that the levy budget passes in Hamilton, but the override fails. And the same situation in Winnham, their levy budget passes, but their override fails. Um
what does this mean for the school district? Same situation. We have 30 days to uh reconvene and resubmit a new budget. Same situation. It could be the exact same budget. This is going to require a town meeting in both communities. It could be something in the middle. It's
still going to require a special town meeting in both communities or we could lower our overall budget to meet one of the community's levy only budgets. So, which community does that end up being? Uh, since both overrides failed, the school district is really forced into
meeting the levyon budget of the community with the lower available capacity, which is currently Hamilton. So, the same thing occurs. we would have to meet Hamilton's levy only budget which means a reduction of 1.6 million uh to the regional school district um
which again translates into a $568,000 reduction to Winnham uh eliminating uh obviously their need for an override. So what time limits do we have when all these things kick in? Um, so the if the budget fails at town meeting or after
the ballot, the school committee is going to have that 30 days to reconsider and resubmit a budget. After the school committee votes on a budget, um the the time starts starts clicking for the towns. They have 45 days to hold a town
meeting. Um this period could be shortened by either party if we do so. Um there's certain time limits on when they have to post um their town meeting, when we have to post our school committees. Uh but we both could work to shorten this time frame. If however July
1st comes, uh we have to notify DESIE that we do not have an approved budget and we enter into what they call a one2th budget scenario, which is a roll forward budget. So, whatever we received in FY26, we're going to receive in the first uh months of the new fiscal year
until our budget is approved. If after the second town meeting, it fails, uh there is law that states we have to call a district-wide meeting. So, that would be the third goaround. We have to call a district-wide meeting,
which combines both towns. And the only thing on that agenda is the regional school district budget. Uh if the budget passes at that district-wide meeting, it is not contingent on a Prop 2 and a half override and there not contingent on a
Prop 2 and a half override ballot vote in either of the communities, even if that threshold is exceeded at the T at the district-wide meeting. If the school committee's budget is approved at this district-wide meetings, the town must fund it to the level approved at that
meeting. If neither of these these items occur and December 1st comes, um DESIE takes complete fiscal control of the school district. They will be signing all warrants. They will be approving all collective bargaining agreements that are up for adoption after this time
frame. Uh they will be approving all of our purchase orders. They will be coming down every quarter to review all of our um quarterly updates that I give. They will probably have somebody permanently placed in our office overseeing all of
our finances for the rest of the fiscal year or until a budget is approved. We do have the ability to call another district-wide meeting. You are not limited to one, but you are um held to do it on the third time.
So, one thing I would like to go over in a moment, we are going to pull up a list of potential items that may be included if the overrides fail. Um, but some things that might change these numbers as we work through it, uh, is has to do with the personnel. Obviously, personnel
is our biggest uh, expenditure within our budget. When we go to estimate what a reduction would look like, we always use an average teacher salary for the FY27. um reductions that you will see in a moment. We used a non average
nonprofessional status teacher which right now is currently just under $84,000. Uh they would be eligible for unemployment. So we are factoring in full unemployment benefits for those individuals. So that would be the full 30-w week eligibility at $88 per week.
For our ESPs, uh we did the same approach except we did not take um the average salary of the non-professional status ESPs. We just took ESPs in its entirety and came up with an average and then factored in again 30 weeks of unemployment. But what does this happen?
How does this affect what's going to happen when we if we have to implement this? Um, if you looked at our teachers in their entirety and you took the average teacher salary from not just professional status teachers, it's more like $99,000.
Uh, we use the $84,000 number because when it comes to um reduction in force with teachers, there's multiple things that come into play. You have your seniority and you have what license each teacher provides. So, we could have a bumping scenario where we might be eliminating one position, but that
teacher is able to bump out somebody else in a different position or somebody else in an open position if they do not have professional status or do they or if they do not hold um the certain license that we need. So, at the moment, we are estimating that average salary of
$84,000. When we go to actually implement this, it could be something a little bit different. even if you just look at what the actual average teacher salary is. So, currently, like I said, I'm using an $84,000 number and I'm backing out um payments for unemployment. If we were to eliminate
one of these positions and it came in more around our actual average teacher salary of $99,000 and then that teacher luckily was able to receive uh able to find a job relatively quickly and was not on unemployment for the full 30 weeks, we
could be looking at additional savings almost up to $30,000. In this one example, you have nearly a $15,000 additional savings from their salary and another $15,000 from unemployment. If this happens three times, you're already
at your $90,000. That's one less position we may have to eliminate depending on what actually happens if this reduction in force has to come into play. What also could happen if we do imp if this has to be implemented and we
do implement it uh when the year when FY27 comes we could be seeing savings or year-end surpluses in FY27 if items like this happen. I wanted to make sure I warned you about that because this list to me is always changing. It will not be
a permanent list until pretty much we go to implement it and even after we implement it, it could still change. If this happens, if we are realizing higher savings than what we originally planned, we're obviously going to come to you and explain to you how much savings we're
realizing and ask to bring those positions back. Uh when you approve a budget, you're approving the FTE max. So any additional FTEEs, we have to come to you for approval anyways. Um so we would come to you and explain that we are realizing um additional surpluses
because of something like this. So, I wanted to help try to explain that this list is never permanent to me. So, I hope it's not permanent to you guys, but that is this part and I can pull up the list if you need me to >> or I will pull it up. >> Okay, cool. >> Do you have a question?
>> I do if that's okay. I don't Yep. >> Um my I actually have two questions. Is the district set up with DUA on a reimburseable basis? Is that why we're budgeting for unemployment? Because some employ Okay. All right. And then are we also in theory anticipating there would
be savings on health insurance benefits? >> Uh so in the complete list I am factoring savings on health insurance. So I ran an analysis under health insurance. About 48% of all of our active employees are enrolled in some sort of health insurance plan. So I did
not factor in savings for every single position. I did something a little bit less than half. >> I am very conservative on that reduction list. Thank you. >> Anybody else have questions?
>> Thank you. >> Yep. >> Um I will say Vinnie those slides might I don't know but that those the slides regarding the outcomes of the >> Yep. >> potential outcomes might be a great resource. I mean they're on our agenda. I don't know but that's a great resource
for me like to Megan's point that to members of the community about it's complicated and those were helpful so I don't know yeah >> I don't know how they get that out there in the world but at least it's we have it as it you know it's linked to our agenda so
>> okay give me one second I'll pull up the other Okay. Heat. Okay. So, I tried to lay out here, sorry, it's not showing on my screen. Um, I tried to lay out here both the reduction for Hamilton and for Wenham. So, you could see again that we're using
Hamilton's uh level of their override of roughly 1.6 million to uh come to our reduction. So one attempt that I took with the reductions list is when I think of an override I think what or what out of the ordinary happened in FY27 that is
causing this large increase year-over-year. Uh one of the items is obviously maintenance. Uh the maintenance uh funds that we put in for FY27 is new to FY27. I understand that that's what the community wanted. Um you guys talked a lot about wanting to put
money towards maintenance. Um, but to me an override amount really is something abnormal that was added to your budget this year that you are asking for additional funds to cover for. So you can see out of this list it's really broken out into mainly two items. It's the additional maintenance our security
vestibules uh the additional sprinkler systems the boiler uh the burglar alarm at uh Winthrop the Buer ventilation in the nurse's office uh here at Buer. all of those big projects that we included in the additional maintenance request.
What is not included in here is the additional preventative maintenance that we've requested within that overall maintenance request. So, I want to make sure you realize it's not all of it. Uh it's probably roughly half of it is included in this list. So, it's all of the special projects. Uh the reason I
broke out the special projects uh is because a lot of those items, just like we're getting debt exclusions for the high school, this could all be wrapped up in the future with some sort of um debt exclusion. Uh so to me, it's more of a number that belongs in an override number. Ultimately, you guys are the
ones who have to decide what's in our override number. This is what I would consider uh to be placed on it, but ultimately you guys will have that discussion tonight if you agree with this list. Other than the maintenance, um the only other large items other than
health insurance, which we can't put in an override that is going to have to be funded regardless um of an override or not, is staffing. Our staffing salaries have increased larger than the 2.5% levy limit. So the only only other items uh
we could think of to be on the override list is obviously um a reduction in staff. I know it doesn't show it on here. Um, but as the moment we're again using that estimate of roughly um $70,000 per teacher and I
believe roughly $26,000 for an ESP. Um, unfortunately that does calculate into a reduction of approximately 26.6 FTEES. Um, this is um
sad I will say. So I hope that it does not come to this. Obviously we all push forward a budget that does not incorporate this. Um but ultimately this will be decided at town meeting. Uh but we at least wanted to give you a preview of what could potentially uh be included
in the override list and what could potentially be lost uh if it fails. uh we're ultimately looking at looking for your feedback and whether or not you agree with a lot of these maintenance items uh being on there or if I know none of it is perfect and obviously none
of us want anything on here but we have to make the uh difficult decision on what we would include in here. >> Thank you. Yeah, >> just to just to clarify >> this this reduction in FTEES is on top
of the seven we have already reduced in the levy limit budget. >> That is correct. >> So it's a total of 33. >> Yes. >> FTEEs. >> Almost 34. >> Almost 34. 34. Yeah. >> Yeah. And and because some I mean just
for people like because some of those positions are not 1.0 positions. I mean it's a minimum of 26 additional people that are not present and more likely more
right because some of these are >> I take an estimate I would say it's it might it would be less. >> Okay. >> Because I'm being very conservative. >> Yes. No. No. No, that's not I understand. I actually understand that. I What I No, I Yes. What I was saying is
that when we're saying of one FTE might actually represent or I guess we should use a higher number, but five FTEEs for example, because some of those people might work a 6 position or 7 position. You might actually be talking
about seven people. >> Correct. if at I just want people to understand that like that like 12.5 teacher
or like just that from a point of view of like a student in the school there are potentially even more people than there are FTEEs that might be missing from the school. >> Uh correct. Just >> want people to understand that that like
>> yes 12.5 um might not represent 13 bodies. It could represent 15 bodies. Some of them are parttime >> human beings that are in our schools serving our students. I just I
understand that you're conservative in the way that you create these numbers and that the numbers but I just want to make that so people understand that that's like someone in our schools who works a 0.8 position
could be incredibly impactful for a student like that. So, a question um I don't I'm not sure if this is for for Vinnie or for Eric or other people that have had these conversations
before. Do we have an understanding as to where these reductions might be occurring, which approximate buildings, grade levels, and the impact
that it could have on um special ed, on class sizes? Do we have a sense? Because I know this is really difficult because I'm I'm sure there are, you know, faculty and staff watching at home. You know, I know this is a really like hard conversation, but
I also think the public needs to know what the impact for their children could be in the district. >> Sure. And the impacts are across the board. You will see reductions in classes, class sizes. So what I mean reduction in classes, like
what's offered, >> you don't have enough teachers to offer what you want to offer. So generally high school, middle school electives get tackled during those times when those things start to go away and kids have fewer options. Uh reductions in uh
staffing can cause class size changes. Uh can cause uh class size uh supports to go away. Class uh supports, not class size supports, just class supports. Uh when you're looking at the second one with the 14, that's support staff. That
could be cleanliness of your building. That could be stuff that needs to get repaired. That could be thing kids that need interventions, kids that need services, kids that need um specialists in the room. So there's there's lots of impact points when you're taking out um
more than 10% of your staffing like that. You're just really ripping the rug out in a lot of areas. and we try to look at it from the perspective of what's outside the classroom first and
work our way in. Um we are trying to protect class sizes at the elementary level because we're stacked there and um if we got forced into the window it would also make a mess if we had to change some of the classes in elementary
for example there are generally seven sections of uh classes like say I'll use first grade as an example there are seven sections they're not all in the same building >> um so you would end up saying okay I'm going to go to six teachers and take the same amount of kids and divide those up.
Now all of a sudden your class size goes from 20 to 23 or four. Um it's a tough situation when when you're looking at some of the classroom class rooms, the physical rooms themselves don't fit that many kids in there. Um never mind all the things they need to function on a
day-to-day basis. So there are a lot of impact points across the budget and they will hurt. they will they will definitely make it more difficult for us to even deliver some of the services that quote would be required. Um we're looking still at we went through an
exercise Tuesday morning with the leadership team to look at things like efficiencies like what types of efficiencies out of the box can we come up with that might help us to get to this number if the override doesn't pass. And that's a that's a you know that's a whole separate conversation
because some of those efficiencies cost money when you start to say okay I want to be I want to shut down central office and move all those people into school buildings. Well I don't have a place to put everybody. So some people may be working from home but central office saves us maybe a4 million dollars
because it's utilities and you know things like that that are related but it's not something there's nowhere to put everybody. >> Mhm. Um, if you're looking at it from the perspective of programs, it generally reduces the number of options available for kids to choose when it comes time to select their schedule,
which impacts future future of kids because of the things that they will, you know, not experience as they're going through the schools. The idea is to give kids as many experiences as possible as they grow into their college or their, you know,
whatever ch they choose outside of uh high school. So, um I have two follow-up questions. At the elementary level, is there a chance that if your child is presently attending one elementary school that they would need to be moved to another
one due to cuts or changes in service? It was a solution of reducing the number of sections of use first grade again 7 to six. Yes, those kids have to be moved somewhere. And right now uh first grade
is two at Winthre, two at Buer, three at at uh Cutler. When when you look at that, you probably take the Cutler third one and try to disperse some of those kids at Cutler, but they wouldn't all fit in the room. You know, there are lots of different options and scenarios.
There are scenarios that can be as drastic as saying I'm going to put all uh kids in similar grades in one building. So all third and fourth graders will be in one building. All fifth and sixth uh fourth and fifth graders could be somewhere. Second and third could be somewhere. That holds uh
gives you a better opportunity to move the kids around without having to shift every but now everybody could be in a different place come fall. It's messy >> at the high school level. Are we looking at losing
languages, honors classes, advanced classes? I mean, where's when because I don't have high school age children yet, so I don't have really a level of understanding of the kinds of offerings that are at jeopardy through with this kind of change. Yeah, it it's it's hard
to say it's going to be right here right now, but the the idea is it will impact some of the areas that have the lowest class sizes currently. I mean, we go back all the way to November when I gave out the enrollment reports with the class sizes. That's purposeful purposefully done at the beginning of
the budget so that we can look at those and say, "Okay, there are some efficiencies. There are definitely some efficiencies uh that we can build into this that that don't hurt. But when you go 26 plus the seven, >> that's going to hurt. That's support services. That's from every avenue of of
what we have for personnel. >> It's administrators, it's admin assistance, it's it's >> okay. difficult. >> And I I want to stress Vinnie said it once. I want to stress this is a dynamic list.
>> Yeah. >> Um that number could go down to to 20 down by an FTE by something as simple as having a position cut with someone with a high salary that has nowhere to go. there's no way to bump or
no one to replace. They don't hold a cert to go into another open slot or bump somebody. That's a possibility in some cases. So then you would save the whole cost of whatever that top salary is which is you know say 100 110. So those changes could occur as we go
through the process. And just like Vinnie was talking about the people generally in the first, second and third years are impacted first. Mhm. >> Um they make the least amount of money as well. So when you start playing that juggling game, the numbers start to move
around. We could also find some other efficiencies within things like, you know, literally nickel and dimeming ourselves to death, taking out no supplies, no library books, no professional development. Start chipping away at all of that. Then you really lose
>> your school district. really lose the the connectivity and the things that are required to be a quality school district. >> Are early retirements or anything like that ever a possibility for cost savings in this kind of situation?
>> Yeah, so the retirement systems are both run by private agencies. Mass teach retirement run by the state and the um Essex County Retirements run by a board and we don't get to say who can retire early. There is a bill in the state
house uh to give people who did not have uh sign up for retirement plus teachers in the mass teachers retirement who did not sign up for mass uh for retirement plus which was uh back in the '9s I want to say 94
or five I am one of those people so I should know. Um which allows people to retire earlier. So, if you signed up for retirement plus 35 years ago, you're you're eligible to retire right around 58 if you've been in the system since you were since you came
out of college. Uh those who don't have to stay till between 62 and 65 depending on years of service. Um so there's a bill in the state house right now that has legs that may kick in that'll allow people to buy back service under retirement plus. they'll pay the extra
2% times however many number of years uh to let them go early, but that's not anything we control. >> Okay. Um, I guess this is a really difficult list and I I think it's appropriate that we spend
most of our time focusing on the people on this list and the staff and that impacts to our children. I think we all I mean it's been said a thousand times in this district like our teachers are
the key obviously and I don't want to not address that all the other things on this list are really to me personally devastating to
remove in addition like these are really important items >> right >> you know I mean in other words their safety their security their athletic fees which are families,
many of whom it like are going to have to pay and that impacts the real lives of kids and you know and the late bus that Megan was talking about like who's most impacted by eliminating the late bus. It's more than
likely disproportionately the students that are unable to to find other ways of getting home. It's just it's the it I just think it's really important
like the ventilating the nurse's office. Like that's insane that these are I like these are all I just I while I think we definitely need to focus in mostly on the importance of how many staff members there are and it's I just don't want us
to like these are all really important things that which is why we included them in the budget. So just I don't know. >> Um >> this >> Yep. >> This list makes me want to cry. I can't
imagine getting rid of that many teachers. >> How do you think it was making it? >> Yeah. >> What? >> How do you think it was making it? >> Yeah. >> Even worse. >> Yeah. And they're they're really like this is not a light conversation with
leadership team. It makes them all sick to their stomachs when you're sitting here saying good people are going to lose their jobs. Really we are hugely benefited by the quality of our staff and it's you know you can't say oh it's not a loss.
It's a loss. Every person every employee is a loss for us and I think in a lot of different ways. when you're looking at it like there are certain mandates that we need to meet and those are you know really non-negotiables. So that holds some things in play for for us. We looked at it from the core value
perspective to say what are the things that are important to us and we we dug into stuff like even the survey that was just done for strategic planning where where parents outline like class sizes are important that was very clear in that most recent survey and then the
student first lens. So, a lot of districts would choose to cut a program. Um, let's cut music, let's cut foreign language, let's cut let's cut all the JV athletics for, you know what I mean? So, I don't I just don't think that's the
way to go. And when you're looking at it from the perspective of still trying to give kids as many options now, there are ways out. We do, you know, dual enrollment, we do online courses, but that's just not everybody's vibe either when you're looking at it from a kid perspective. So I think the you know
there may be some opportunity for us in here to look differently at the way we do school which is like the one silver lining I I can say okay let's have that difficult conversation about what if we restructured
I'm just going to I'm not saying we're doing this the middle and high school to to be different. What if we matched their schedule so that we could share teachers? what if, you know, you did put like grades in in elementary school buildings? It it would be messy, but it might be a cleaner, more efficient way
to do things. So, we're looking at it from two perspectives. It hurts really badly, and it it's, you know, what opportunities can we can we get out of this? But >> well, and we're really losing the next generation of teachers because it's
going to be the ones that were just hired who tend to be on the younger side who are going to be the ones that are let go. >> A lot of them came in from reductions in communities last year. >> Yeah. >> Both Andover laid off 45. Andover laid
off 36. Woo, I think laid off 22. So some of those teachers that we hired came from those communities which was a huge bone boon for us. It was great. We got quality teachers and you know that's a it's a it's tough. It's tough for me to walk around the building every day
>> right now when you're like >> you can't give anybody any answers. You're trying to you know you're trying to balance that human perspective. >> Well and I guess that part about not giving answers. I mean, in other words, there is an opportunity here for the citizens to vote and and support the
override budget and to to speak to tell us what it is that they want. So, there is an opportunity like it's really important that we have this conversation that we have this up here, but this is not inevitable. this is that
there's an opportunity. we just spent a large part of time explaining the budget and showing that that you know that this doesn't have to happen that that this can pass the override could pass
and I and that but and to Eric's point that you have to explore all the different possibilities and that was why Vinnie did that great chart about all the different possibilities of what could happen >> and we're still exploring we did an exercise the other day with the leadership team I made I took their
computers, made them close their computers, put them away, took out the paper budget books, took out uh paired up people from the elementary with secondary and said, "Look in every other place but your own budget and try to find efficiencies. Try to ask deep
questions about things that are outside the classroom that might be in the maintenance budget, that might be in Vinnie's budget, my budget, your budget, all the other places just to try to get some different perspectives. So we'll still continue to go through that process for the next few weeks.
>> So this is not this is an evolving process. Are you looking to us for I mean I I don't I feel like we've had enough discussions that I don't feel like anybody on the committee is
surprised about what this looks looks like. at least, you know. Um, so I don't know if you're looking for us to >> No, I I just think it's it's this is public. It's time. It's time to get it
out there and put it in front of as many people as we can to say this is what goes away from our schools, you know, and love to be even more explicit, but I'm still dealing with people on my side that, you know, are working every day, come to work every day, work hard, and
do the right things. And, you know, I I don't want to put something out there that's not real like creating a furer. If all of a sudden it passes, it's like, oh, we worried for nothing. But, we really did, you know, we really didn't. So, we're preparing for the worst, which
would be this, but hoping for the best. >> Yeah. >> We also just want to make sure everybody was clear on the 1.6 million. That's that's a bone of contention sometimes when you're looking at saying, "Oh, it's 1 million in Hamilton and 438,000." That doesn't add up to 1.6. So, hopefully
Vinnie's presentation clarified that, but it is a $1.6 6 million hit if it doesn't pass. >> I just have a question about that. I think that was really helpful and just from my own
knowledge and understanding about this that it's the regional agreement that is driving that formulation and the way that this needs to be adjusted because it's not from what I understand from
what Vinnie was saying if the override only fails in one community you don't really get necessarily the benefit of the passing override in the other community. that money like so it's not as though in theory if it fails in Hamilton and passes in 1M we don't get that 438 we
have to make that adjustment because of the regional agreement and the way that that is structured >> correct >> okay and in the middle of it the towns might accept a lower number if that didn't pass they might it's a it's a risk it's a chance you
Yeah. Okay. Are we all good? Anybody have anything else? Thank you. I think we all knew this was going to be a really difficult conversation, so thank you for that.
Okay. Um All right. Um moving on to committee reports. Um capital Finance. >> Um we met on Monday and we went through
everything you guys just saw. >> Thank you for that work. Do you have anything else about that? I think we did it. uh policy. Uh we met this past Monday and we
discussed this um linked policy JICFB bullying prevention and bringing it to you all for the first reading tonight. >> Want me to take it? >> Yes, please.
>> So the this policy is a required policy. Not a lot of changes. There were a few tweaks by the attorney. You'd have to go to the third page bottom where there was a slight language change. Uh again, really attorney preference versus
anything else, but the policy remains uh the same as the previous version outside of the few few uh red line changes on here. There's nothing major. And just within our discussion, I had asked if this covers
um AI usage and altering fellow student likeness and Eric said it does. >> Yep. Cyber bullying covers all of that. >> Um does anyone have any questions,
feedback? Um, under the prohibition of bullying section at the top of page two, >> at functions or programs, whether on or off school grounds, is that on at school
sponsored functions or programs or any Can we clarify that? >> We could. Yep. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. School functions like tournament games at the garden, you know, those types of things. Yep. We can put school functions. Um, anybody else?
I just want to say I think I said it several years ago when this policy came up and Eric has had to have I mean I understand this is a policy that is required. I just from a educational
point of view, like I just do not like the way that this policy is written. I think it's very um like good educators tell students what to do, not what not to do. And it's just listed over and over and over like this. I I just don't
like the way that it the intent of the policy is. I I believe there's lots of good intent behind it. I I it it to me it's a very
punitive and not just I'm not happy with this policy and I know there's nothing I can do about it. So I'm just going to put it out there and >> well I feel like paired with all of our really beautiful inclusion programs and
language like I think this is the like paired with that I think it works. I know what you're saying, but yeah, I I guess it's just right. I like to me that,
you know, students, all people have a lots to learn throughout their normal developmental life and this is just this I I just Anyway, >> you're not reading this. >> No, I know. I just don't I just >> taken straight from the law.
>> Anyway, I get it written in the law. I get it. And it's outside the scope of my but I do I do think that a lot of our internal language and internal ways of
approaching challenging behaviors and social emotional skills are handled better than I or stated better than I see this in this policy. All right, off my soap box.
There's not much I can do. >> Do you want us to look at anything to edit? >> No, I mean my understanding is that this is >> We have one from Jen. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. I just mean to Dana's point about what she feels is missing. That's all. >> Yeah. No, that it's done. I've got it
out there. >> Okay. >> All right. Um Uh >> oh. And then our next meeting is April 27th at 2:30 on Zoom. >> Okay. April 27th. Um, negotiations.
Help me out, Kristen. Our next meeting is I'm sorry I didn't pull it up. >> I have it on the Tuesday the 24th at 3:30. >> Um, yes. Tuesday. Tuesday. Tuesday. Excuse me. I was looking. >> Good. I have it right.
>> Yes. No, that is correct. >> You'll be there. I'll be there. >> Yes. >> I don't know if you all will, but but I'll be there. >> Um continuing to negotiate with um the ESP union having productive conversations. We did have to not this
meeting, but we did realize we had a meeting set so for the date of town meeting. So, we had to re rearrange some things. But yes, we are meeting on Tuesday. So, um, our secretary is not here, so we
don't have a report. Um, Amy, did you have anything in our inboxes? No, I do not. Inboxes have been quiet. Um, I do not have anything further to report
unless anyone has Oh, that's not true. I um I did want to report and maybe anybody else wants to report that um I'm going to the 1MCA to on next Wednesday at 8:30. I guess they have coffee. Um I'm just going to be there and be
available for any questions or discussion around the budget. Um I don't know if anyone else has any outreach to report that they've done. I did have office hours um on Monday um virtually and no one attended. Um I just I added
my office hours to the calendar um starting next Friday at 9:00 a.m. for the three Fridays before. >> So not tomorrow, but the following. >> Not tomorrow. Yeah, the following Fridays. And the link to yours and mine
are on the district calendar. >> Excellent. >> On the website. >> Excellent. Um, I'll just update. The uh Friends of Cutler was supposed to meet this past week, but it is moved to next week. So, >> Okay. And are you going to get to go to that? >> Great. Terrific. >> I went to the Friends of Buer meeting
last night. >> Excellent. And were there any budget questions or an opportunity? >> We talked about the budget for about an hour. >> Oh my gosh. Wow. They were had a lot of really good questions and were very generous with their time. So, >> that's so nice. That's really wonderful. Great.
>> All right. Um, that's all I have for chairs. Does anyone have topics for future meetings? I will bring back that bullying policy. >> Okay. Bullying. And I will
hold my tongue. >> It's okay. Um, right. Anything else? Nope. All right. Sounds like it's time. >> I move to adjourn. >> All right. Uh, do I have a second?
>> Second by Jen. All those in favor? That is unanimous. And we are adjourned at 9:31. >> Thank you all.