Ready? Hamilton. Do you anticipate having a Let's give it a That is I think we'll get started. make salary. >> Okay. Good evening. Can everybody hear me? >> 3%. >> Yep.
>> Yes. Yes. Yes. >> Okay. Um we'll start off. Um I'm going to call us to order and then we can go around. Um, I call to order the meeting of the Hamilton Regional School Committee at uh
6:35 p.m. Wednesday, November 19th, 2025. Um, we'll go this way to Wenham. >> Okay. I'll call the Winnham Select Board to order in present Peter Clay, Dedra Baratti, and Gary Cheeseman for a
>> Yes. Uh I call the Winnham W uh finance and advisory committee here open. >> All right. Um looks like >> not yet. >> Not yet. >> Nope. >> No.
>> Okay. All right. Um we'll get started and we may get back to you at some point. Um All right. Uh thanks everybody. This is a great opportunity for us to I feel like I'm
really loud. That's very loud. Um does it seem super loud to you guys? >> Down a little bit. >> No, I just I don't know. Can you Is it >> Okay, good. All right, that's fine. Um good opportunity for um us all to get together, all the quintuple boards, and
have a really good initial budget conversation. Um so first on the agenda is uh the town of Wenham. >> Yes. Uh thank you. So FY27 budget. We're just
talking general issues and challenges going forward. Obviously we're in the early stages of the budget process. Uh information presented here is preliminary and could very well you can say likely change materially over the next 6 to 8 weeks. Uh the WM select board's goal is to develop a fiscally
responsible budget that supports level or near level service delivery while staying in the confines of Proposition 2 and a half um and anticipated new growth. We estimate uh is estimated to allow for approximately 3%
year-over-year growth in total available revenue for FY27. It should we should note that this presentation only covers operating budgets for FY27 as is the case in most years in Wenham. Uh any capital request will be covered
with certified free cash. Contractual obligations, trash collection, health insurance, and pension costs are the key drivers for the FY27 budget. As we'll talk about, the top three sort of drivers are trash collection, health insurance, and pension. However,
uh we have one con union contract we will be negotiating that is the library. Um it's too early to project any possible impact thus far. We start negotiations in January. So that's another thing I wanted to mention. Great. Thanks Joe. Um so Joe kind of
covered things at a high level. Uh we'll dive a little deeper into some of the details. Uh obviously the biggest driver for us uh half of our budget is uh the Hamilton 1M school district uh which we project to go up uh overall with loss of END extra maintenance and things like
that. Uh 11.52% for the year which is roughly 1.5 million. Um one of the big issues for us uh is is a portionment. Uh we are shifting a little bit uh on a portionment from from Hamilton to Wenham. Uh and while it's a small
number, it's less than half a percent. When you apply a small number to a big budget, uh it equates to a somewhat large number. So in this case, uh we think about $150,000 would shift to Wenham strictly according to to uh aortionment if the budget didn't change
at all. Uh from there uh as most of you are aware there's really the three big drivers uh of the budget that I'll let you know Vinnie get into in more detail but you know it's just the operating budget increase for the for the district the reduction of the available END uh to offset that assessment and then you know
some deferred uh maintenance and safety uh at some of the school buildings. Uh so that's kind of the biggest driver for us. Uh another smaller number but um sort of variable for us is the Essex Tech assessment. Um last year we had 18
students at Essex Tech um at roughly 19,000 a student. Uh we're assuming that it we'll have a similar growth rate or cola on on the per student cost which is about 4.32% um which could drive the budget up $15,000 if we have the same number of
students. With that being said, the overall budget uh could fluctuate up or down maybe $40,000 based on losing or gaining one or two students. Um probably similar to Hamilton, one of the bigger drivers in our budget uh is the proposed
uh change with the trash collection. Um we are working on the there's two parts to that. There's the collection side uh which we think right now based on the negotiations we've had could go up 17% or maybe $75,000. Um there's also the disposal side of
trash management. Uh and we entered into a contract with Wind Waste Solutions uh just a few months ago. Uh and that is uh kicking in about a 19% increase uh or $19,000 for us. Um and while those numbers might seem large, uh just a couple years ago,
uh Hamilton, Wenom, and many other communities were hearing that their trash collection costs could go up, you know, 60 to 80%. Um so, so you know, we're we're actually fairly happy with these higher numbers that you're seeing. Um, a new development uh that we just learned thanks to uh my friend Wendy
over in Hamilton is that the Maya health care premiums could be going up 16 to 22% uh on top of what was a 19 plus% increase last year. Um so that would be a big driver for us. Uh maybe $200,000. Uh but that, you know, is something
we're going to have to look at because, you know, those year-over-year increases, not only for the town but for the employees is is going to be a little bit tough to swallow. Uh so we're hoping uh to to meet with Maya and and and get some better news and and maybe look at some different solutions there. Uh the
final big ticket item for us uh is the pension cost. Uh we are members of the Essex Regional Retirement System. We typically start off budget season assuming a 10% increase in our pension assessment which would work out to about 118,000. Um we'll get firmer numbers on that in
mid um mid December when um we get our aortionment letter uh where they take uh our prora share of all eligible payroll divided by the the eligible payroll for the entire uh Essex regional retirement system to tell us what our actual
increase will be. Uh, a couple of other items. Um, you know, we're sort of projecting some healthy conservative estimates for increases for our joint programs uh with Hamilton, the per the permitting services and the recreation. That's a $33,000 increase at this time.
But, you know, I'll work with Wendy over the next couple of months to to tighten that up. Uh, the remainder of the budget drivers, it's really, you know, contractual obligations and cola. Uh we settled with three of our four unions uh
last year uh DPW call fire and police and I would say on average the colas there are averaging about 3% uh but you also have step increases uh and we've had had some promotions uh within the police department that will sort of shift uh a little bit higher uh based on
folks having higher degrees and things like that. Uh we're planning on 3% uh non-union cola um to sort of match the union members uh at town hall uh and all other non-UN positions. And as Joe mentioned, the library is negotiating.
Uh we'll probably be starting in January. Uh so it's a little too early um to to tell uh what the story will be there. Um final piece for us, it's a small number, but uh several years ago, the town adopted a plan for OPED where
they contributed $10,000 in year 1 and increase that every year by $10,000 with a a plan to be fully funded um which will be um after we fully fund the pension system, we will sort of increase we'll take those resources and apply
them to our OPED to uh OP trust to expedite the funding of that um that that obligation. Everything else at this point pretty much level funded. Um so if you want to go to the last page of my slide there,
Vin, um it just sort of lays out what the um what we project our budget to look like. Um for FY26, ultimately we're about $220,000 under the levy limit. Uh based on all the preliminary numbers we have so far,
uh we are looking at, you know, operating expenses increasing at just over $2.2 million across the town operating budgets, the Hamilton Wum School District and Essex Tech. Um you know, that works out to overall about an
8.8% increase. Um we are assuming um you know, we we'll keep our overlay the same at 200,000. State aid we're assuming will stay level and then we're building in a 5% increase for our local receipts. With all that being said, we would need
to raise uh $24.3 million uh from taxation. Um and we are at a levy limit of about 23.2. Uh so right at as we stand right now uh the town of Winnham would be about 1.15
uh million over the levy limit. Um, this is probably the first round of, you know, somewhat sour news you'll hear tonight. Um, but I will say, you know, it's it we always do start high and and sort of come down over budget season. So, uh, I'm quite sure this number will
be whittleled down, uh, over time as we, you know, continue discussions. That's all we have. >> Great. Thank you. >> People have questions. Okay, thank you for your work.
>> Um, so does Hamilton want to go? >> As well jump into it. >> Okay. >> I can't promise I'll be as quick as Joe and Jeff were, but I'll I'll try. I've only got a few slides. Finn, I'll let
you know when to switch. Um, thank you and good evening everybody. Obviously, we are still at the very beginning of our budget process, but there are a number of concerning signs already. Next slide. This is a quick look at our revenue outlook for FY27. This does not include free cash or potential potential
new revenue related to the proposed zoning change at Gordon Conwell. Uh, you can see from the top line, we are projecting a modest uh 2.53% revenue growth for FY27 over current fiscal year to a little bit more than $42.1 million.
As has been noted, we recently um you know had some discussions and we're we're carrying a number in our budget for the department the school department based on some information that they've shared with us. And uh if we just take the potential school assessment for Hamilton and apply it against our
projected revenues, we're going to start with a $1.4 million deficit on its own. This would create a reduction in town spending of nearly 9 and a half%. That is before considering townside expenses. Next slide. U here we can see some of the known
increases for FY27. I say known, but the only thing that is known is that these items will all be increasing except for the contractual increases for employees. The other increases are presented as a range. Um taken together, they represent about $850,000 of new spending for Hamilton,
not because we're increasing anything, but because costs that are either contractual or beyond our control are going up. Um, in anticipation of these factors, the town has already been working to find new revenues and reduce costs. Slide four, please. Here are some
of the things the town has done or is doing to try and reduce the pressure on our taxpayers. Regul um, next slide. Regionalized emergency operation center. Uh, potential savings of up to $350,000 in the first year. potential special
revenue from Gordon Conwell. That money wouldn't go into the general operating fund budget. It would probably be directed to a special revenue fund as it's one-time money and our financial policies wouldn't allow us to spend it in the budget. And potential increase in tax revenues from Gordon Conwell. The number on the screen is just a guess. Uh
we've heard we've had a range of $150 to $750,000. Until we know, until the until the zoning passes, until the the apartments sell to a private developer, and until we know what kind of rents they're going to charge, we can't really make a an accurate estimate on what that
property could yield for revenue. I will say that the 18 units of brand new construction on Willow Street only gets the town about $63,000 a year. We could assume that per unit you wouldn't get that much from the 50-year-old
apartments out at Gordon Combo. So, we took 350 in here and we're hoping that we could get there, but we'll have to wait and see what what the property sells for. Um, two of these items obviously have a potential to impact the budget positively. Um,
I'm going to cover that stuff. If we can realize $350,000 in revenue from Gordon Conwell Apartments and save $350,000 from regionalizing 911, the town would be within $100,000 of managing our potential $800,000 in increases. But
that still leaves the potential $1.4 million increase on the school side. So after we've already done all these other things, we're still going to be looking at a hole if the budget you're looking at goes through. Um last last one, please. Last slide. In summary, the key takeaways at this early phase are shown
here. The initial projection for school department spending is not supported by local revenues without an override. Hamilton has already taken steps to create new revenue and cut expenses. Based on those efforts, we believe Hamilton could find a way to absorb the townside increase in expenses, but there is no scenario in which the current projected school expenses could be
absorbed without an operational override. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Like Jeff said, more cheer news. >> Do people have questions for >> the number of units in Gordon Carell? >> It's 209.
I >> I guess I just had a question about the trash. Both of you mentioned the trash. Um is that a what how many years is the contract? Do we know like how many years? >> Previous contract was 10 years, but it seems like they're only looking to get
five years now. Um the previous contract was signed uh a little under duress. People, this predates me and Jeff, but people remember Hilts went under and left the towns holding the bag. So the towns Hamilton and went out and were able to get Cassella to come in on a
10-year contract. But that landscape has changed. Like Jeff said, three or four years ago, they were talking about 40 and 50 and 60% increases. Um because it's so volatile, they don't want to do 10-year contracts anymore because it puts them in a bad place for their operating. So, um they're asking for
5-year contract, and as Jeff said, they're looking somewhere in the 16 to 20% increase range at least. >> Thank you. >> I have a question. >> Y um it's just more like word the word semantics. Um, in the key takeaways, it
says the initial projection cannot be supported by the local budgets without a school department override. >> Yeah. >> Does that mean a town override? Cuz we can't override. >> It would be an override to support the schools because >> But the town the voters just I want to
be very clear. We are not able to override anything. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Anybody else? Other questions. Okay, looks like you're up. Vinnie, what about the
>> Hamilton Hamilton Regional School Committee Department uh budget? While Vinnie's setting up, I'll take a second here to say um all these slides will be presented to No kidding. Um he's got a smaller deck that
he'll present, but we wanted to make sure that every everybody had every single thing available to us now. Um so this in this this is a lot of information. Not all of it will be shown in Vinnie's presentation, but we still wanted to make sure that everybody had
everything that is currently available related to the school budgets. And as with the towns, we are still in the process of still modeling out our budget, waiting for things like insurance and retirement deadlines and Medicare payments and things like that.
So, we'll also be shifting the numbers as we go, as we all understand. But uh just wanted to be clear that the presentation will not be all these slides you have before you Sounds like an actual bug in here.
Uh, thank you guys for joining us tonight. Uh, thanks to the two select boards and the two uh, fincoms from both communities. Obviously, the town administrators uh, and town managers, their finance team, both directors. uh
obviously my school committee and a special thanks to Eric Tracy, our superintendent. Uh obviously here to present to you the superintendent's preliminary FY27 budget recommendation. Uh just to go back to that uh main word there, preliminary. Uh
we know there are a lot of uh hard conversations that are going to happen over the next two to two to 3 months and a lot of difficult decisions uh before our final budget is approved in February. So again, this is just our preliminary budget and it will change
between now and that final approval in February. Uh but what do we look at when we go to build our budget? It's mostly the same as what both communities go to look at. Uh our main driver is our collective bargaining agreements. These are agreements with our five unions in the
school committee. Uh that's where we go to look for our colar adjustments, any of our step increases, and our column and lane changes. Again, these three items was is what drives most of our increases in expenditures year-over-year. We also go and look at
our individual administrative agreements. Uh these are agreements with our nonUN personnel. Um so all of our administrators, our central office team, and all of our principles. Uh we also look at any retirements. Uh we are not
notified of retirements until December 1st. Uh so those numbers are not incorporated into these figures but that is one thing we go to look at when we build our budget. We also look at sta staff turnover uh what we budgeted for in FY26 to what actually is occurring
today. Uh usually there's savings year-over-year and we roll those savings forward into the next budget cycle FY27. Just like both communities said we look at our health insurance, our current enrollment and any changes to our premium rate increases. Uh we recently
underwent a 10-year contract for transportation. Uh FY27 will be the second year of that contract. Uh so those increases are already laid out. We would then look at any of our out of district tuition costs. Uh changes
certified by the state and any changes in our enrollment and what students we have coming in and who do we have graduating. Uh next we would look at any requests from our building to principles, I'm sorry, our building principles or department heads. And then lastly, uh
the conditions of our buildings and our grounds. Uh for this year, we have a few unique difficulties. Some of them the same things we see all uh the time every budget cycle. However, there are two unique items this year that are bringing us uh more difficulties. Uh but just
some things that we're seeing. We do have an increase in our resident enrollment. Again, it's up slightly at around 2.3%. We're continuing to see the enrollment shift towards Winnham and away from Hamilton. Uh the biggest difficulty this
year is FY26's decision to use END uh to advo to avoid an operational override at the 2025 annual town meeting. Uh and then how do we adequately fund a base for our maintenance uh and repairs and
projects considering the results of our recent school building vote? And then last, just like everyone here is seeing at home in both communities, the rising cost of everyday items between uh increased inflation uh tariffs and just cost of regular salaries increasing is
driving the cost of everything up. So, just to briefly hit on enrollment, uh you're seeing here in front of you the change for Hamilton year-over-year. Uh they had 1,68 students during the 2024 2025 school year, and they are up
to 1,087 for FY uh for the current school year, which is an addition of 19 students or roughly 1.8% increase for Hamilton's enrollment. Uh in terms of Wenom, they went from 564 students in the 2024 2025 school year to
582, an increase of 18 or 3.2% for them. Um so combined for the district's resident enrollment, we went from 1632 to I'm sorry, uh 1,632 to 1,669,
an increase of 37 students or roughly the 2.3%. But that's not all the students we educate. We educate 72 more students, 54 of them being school choice in uh 17 preK tuition in and one specialed
tuition in student. Uh between those two populations, we're seeing a decrease of four students year-over-year or roughly a drop a drop of 5.6% in that category. So, when you layer in the new enrollment
on October 1st, 2025, and apply that to the prior 2-year average, uh, we're coming up with a new, uh, 3-year rolling average of 65.51% Hamilton and 34.49%
Wenom. That's a shift of 152,000. Uh what that means if we just rolled forward our FY26 operating assessment at a levelfunded approach, meaning we didn't change anything in terms of our expenditures, we would still see an increase to
Winnham right out of the gate of 1.2% and a drop in Hamilton of 0.62%. Just to give you a point of reference, last year we saw $130,000 swing going towards Hamilton, I'm sorry, going towards Winnham. The year before that,
we saw a $24,000 swing going towards Hamilton. So, it is larger than the prior three years and is something we've had to deal with during this budget process. Um, just to jump into some of our expenditures for our operating uh budget expenditure summary, you see here broken
down by Desi category. Uh, we are recommending an increase year-over-year of approximately $3.1 million or 6.84%. Uh you can see our main drivers are our mainten uh operations and maintenance and our benefits and fixed charges.
Uh so this $3.1 million does incorporate an additional maintenance request of approximately uh $550,000. I'm going to briefly go through uh each of the individual schools. Some of it's repetitive, so I'll try not to repeat it during all of them, but just to give you
a brief idea of where these additional requests are coming from. Uh at the Buer Elementary School, we have a special project scenario of approximately $37,000 in total. At this time, we're estimating $20,000 for a security vestibule. Now, you will see this at all
five of the schools in a moment. Um we are hoping to secure funding to upgrade our um security infrastructure at all of the five all of the five schools uh and install security vestibules. Uh each school has a different layout in their
front entrance. So each school has a different price tag on what we anticipate that's going to cost. Out of the five schools, four of them, this funding would go to install the security vestibule. At one of the schools, the middle school, it is funding for a study
to find out how we can install a proper security vestibule. because of the way that front entrance is laid out, uh it will not fall into our current plan and we really need an expert to come in and design how we can lay that out um to
beef up our security at the middle school. In addition to the security vestibules uh at the Buer School, we have a new kitchen floor uh behind this door over here. It is very wavy uh and has um has had some upheavalss in the past few years. uh it really needs to be
ripped out and reinstalled. Uh we also have a request to install ventilation in the nurse's office. Uh down the hall over here, we have an increase in our maintenance repairs of approximately 27,000 and an increase to our custodial and maintenance supplies of just under
10,000. Now, depending on whether we do these uh maintenance projects inhouse or whether we contract them out would fall into one of those two buckets. If our own maintenance department does it, it would fall under the bottom. If we outsource it, it would obviously fall under the maintenance and repairs. This
type of scenario is uh how all five elementary schools follow. So again, I will try not to be too repetitive. Uh at Cutler, we have the security vestibules. Again, uh we also have sprinkler repairs. So at every building except the Buer, we have a sprinkler system. There
is not a sprinkler system in this building. Uh so there's no repairs obviously needed here. However, all of our schools are past their 5-year inspection period uh which we will undergo in FY27 which is very costly and
we anticipate needing uh repairs all across the district in order to maintain uh the sprinkler system. We also have a request at Cutler to replace uh one of the door systems over there. The reason for the price tag, it is a set of four
doors that needs magnetic locks installed and needs the electronic um key cards put in. Uh and that comes becomes costly when you start adding in the the security that our doors now need at um the school level. Again, we have
our maintenance and repairs and our custodian supplies. At the Winthr Elementary School, uh it's the same with the security vestibules. Uh here we are. We also have the need to install a burglar alarm. All of our schools
currently have a burglar system except the Winthrop Elementary School. Uh with the way the world is today, we would really like to install a burglar alarm system at the Winthrop school. Uh we also have the same thing, the sprinkler repairs at Winthrop.
Uh moving on to Myers River. Um it's really only the security vestibules there. And as I said, this is a study, not the actual install. Uh, moving on to the high school, uh, the price moves up a little bit. We have our security vestibules, but the big ticket is our sprinkler head replacement
and repair. So, a few decades back, the all of the sprinkler heads that were installed at the high school were recalled. We did not replace them. And now that we are up for our five-year inspection, we are
predicting that most of them will fail. Uh once you have one of them fail during your testing, uh you're forced to test all of them and go through a replacement project. So right now, I believe there are over 70 I think it was 70 sprinkler
heads that are passed uh that were recalled that we are hoping uh to replace during the next budget cycle. We also have the massive gym divider curtain that broke last month. Uh it divides the middle school portion of the
gym to the high school portion and also separates the gym courts. Uh that is no longer operable and needs to be replaced. Again, we have our maintenance repairs and our custodial supplies um like the other buildings. So again, that $550,000 we are requesting in
maintenance is included in that $3.1 million number on the previous slide. >> Hey Vinnie. >> Yes, you can stop me so I can breathe. >> Or or Eric, what do you get for the security vestibule? Like what is it? Just another sort of
set of glass doors in addition to the door that's already there and that then becomes a vestibule. Is that >> basically >> is that kind of what it is? Basically, it depends on the school. You know, the the Winthrop would probably be an L-shaped glass vestibule with locked doors that would have to be buzzed in.
So, there's some electrical that has to be done. And um they generally don't go floor to ceiling because if you walk in the winter, the ceiling is gym height. It's it's really high. So, they're high enough to keep somebody contained. Uh here at the Buer, if you walk in the front door, it would really be one panel
across uh with a door that has a buzz in buzz out feature as well. Well, while the whole price tag is seems expensive, it 50,000 or 30,000 doesn't really seem to me
like you're going to get much for it. Like, is it really going to add a layer of security? It it will absolutely add a layer because you can't just walk right in. Right now, somebody can walk into any of our elementary schools and you're in the building. Yeah. You can bypass the
office at the Cutler because the office can see you out the window but may not know which direction you go. Um Winthrop, same thing. You can walk right in and just keep walking. Uh same with same with the Buer. So, it will add uh some containment which is what's an important piece of slowing things down.
Uh if you look at it from a perspective of gunfire, no it's it's not something that would be designed for that. That would be cumulatively be much more expensive. >> But is it part of the inspection that we would need to have advanced security
protocols? >> Part of the >> like when we have our inspections, is that something they're going to look at the security? Uh, no, not not generally, but if they depending on what direction you decide to go with a building, if you're doing a renovation, you would get a much greater depth of
>> Yeah. >> design because you really want to be able to speak to someone face to face. >> Uh, keeping that person in the office safe as well while you're interacting with someone who's coming in. You don't know who. Generally, a lot of times we know, oh, that's so and so's mom or dad
or grandparent, but there are people that come to the buildings and and pe our people don't know. So this way they have that layer of face tof face security. They can still identify them, get their credentials >> and then still contain them in the building. They can't they can't go any
further than those vestibules. >> Yeah. So so my question is should we be spending more on the security, not less. >> Yeah. I think the the reality is trying to figure out what what to do with our buildings. >> Yeah. Once we figure out what to do with
the buildings that would be incorporated in in some type of a design, whether it's a renovation and renovation addition, whether it's rebuild, it's it's really going to come down to what we decide as communities to to do with our buildings. >> Yeah.
>> Thanks. >> Because essentially what you're going to put in, you're going to take out over time. If you put in a vestibule, that vestibule may not be part of a renovation, for example. It may be something more substantial. Uh it they may, you know, a renovation could
relocate the front door in some cases. So you're really putting in for 150 grand, you're you're covering four out of your five schools um for now having the containment ability because when you look down the road,
say you start with one school, pick any school, start there, do some renovations. The other schools are still waiting. So they'll we can this is the fastest way to get something in place for what's a reasonable price. >> Yeah. >> Thanks. >> Yep. >> Hey Vinnie. >> Yes.
>> Um why is the uh maintenance and repairs for Miles River so so much higher than all the other schools? >> Um there is more. Um I can certainly look into that. But I would probably have to ask our maintenance director what what he listed
in there that is higher than the other schools. >> Okay. >> Thanks, Benny. >> Yes. >> I I have a question. Um, talking about the Buer Elementary, the $10,000 for the
new kitchen floor. Is that something that's done inhouse by the maintenance crew here or is that something that would need to be um contracted? >> Something at that level would probably have to be contracted. It's not just tile replacement. If it was just
replacing the tile, our in-house staff could do it. Um, we're probably gonna have to jackhammer up the floor, which we will not get into ourselves. >> Okay. But you do try to do as much in-house as possible.
>> Uh, yes, we currently only have two maintenance staff members. Um, they're not licensed in any specific trades, so we are limited on what they can perform, but as much as they can we can do in house, we try to do. >> Okay. Thank you. Yeah.
keep going. Um, so just to hit on some other major expenses other than our additional maintenance requests, uh, obviously it's our staffing. Um, year-over-year, we are seeing an increase of approximately $2.1 million. Uh, if you compare this to our
26 budget, our total uh, payroll budget for FY26 was approximately $27.5 million. Uh if you factor in those that staff turnover that I mentioned before and some other staffing changes that occurred in FY26, we're actually seeing
a reduction of $360,000. So this year uh we saw a large uh turnover in staff that ultimately turned into salary savings uh that we are saving in FY26 and rolling that forward into FY27's budget. Uh we have a minor
swap out for FTEES. Uh this is simply swapping out um a half an FTE of a uh special ed teacher uh to half an FTE psychologist. Usually psychologists come with higher degrees, higher um experience and are a little more costly
on the teacher salary schedule. Uh we also have some additional changes to our stipens for approximately 29,000. Uh the only new staffing request is for a 0.4 uh special ed administrator for a portion of the year uh which is coming
in at an estimate of 57,000. Uh we have a an ex I call it an extreme uptick in long-term substitutes. Uh our long-term substitute uh expenditure line last year was overexpended by over $120,000.
uh we are utilizing long-term subs for maternity leaves at a higher rate than we have seen in the past uh and therefore need to uh substantially increase that line. Uh the next two items are around our collective bargaining agreements. Our column and
step advancements are coming in at just under $300,000. Again, for this line item though, the deadline for column advancement is not till December 1st. So I do anticipate that number will grow uh by the tenative budget in January. Uh
but without a doubt the biggest item on here is our colas coming in at just under a million dollars. This is um extremely large if you compare to other budget cycles. Uh this represents alone almost a 3% assessment uh to the towns
from our cola alone. So, our new FY27 uh budgeted payroll comes in at two uh 28.7 million up around 4.2%. Uh we are not alone just like the towns are seeing but not to the extent the town saw. Our health insurance is
growing at a rapid rate. Personally, I do not understand how health insurance can continue to rise at this rate without something else giving, not only in a small school district's budget, but for everyone at home. I really don't
understand how everyone can continue to take portion larger portions of their paycheck towards their health insurance. Uh, but nonetheless, this isn't a, you know, Hamilton problem. It's probably more of a society problem. But nonetheless, uh I don't know how it's
going to continue to do this. But to build our health insurance budget, we just simply look at how many people are enrolled in our plan as of a certain date for our preliminary budget. Uh that was who did we have enrolled on October 1st, 2025. We just multiply that out by
exactly what our cost of each plan is currently. That total gross amount comes out to $4.1 million. If you from there simply add in our premium rate increase, which we have a 9.9% rate increase for
our Medicare plans and a 12% increase for our regular premium rate adds $477,000 into our health insurance alone just from our premium rate increase, which is um substantial nonetheless. In addition
to that though, the district is moving from a 63% contribution to a 65% contribution. That then adds an additional $123,000 to our health insurance line. Just those two moves alone comes up with your
approximately $600,000 increase to health insurance. That makes our FY27 preliminary health insurance budget of $4.7 million, which is up 15.5%, which again is probably the largest
increase in any one category within our budget. And I'll say it again, it is not sustainable. Um, just to >> the the Yep. >> 63 to 65. Was that part of the
negotiations the contract? Yeah. Um, and how does that compare to other? >> We are low schools. >> Most people are between 70 and 80. Most school district contribute between 70 and 80%.
So we were 60 uh two years ago and we've been 60 for as long as I've known. >> So that speaks to your ability to attract good. It hurts us. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. It's hurt us over and over through
the years. And the the reality is there there are two pain points. The cost. You know, if I have a new teacher coming in at $62,000 who needs a family plan, they just lost their first $15,000 to their health insurance. >> If they if they take the the HMO uh excuse me, PO plan, some people have to
do that um and try to figure it out. But there are um a number of people in the districts who work for their healthcare. they they we we've had instances where people have paid us at the end of the week uh to keep their healthcare. >> So you think we're probably low by 5%.
>> Approximately. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> The average is generally in this area about 70. Um some of the bigger cities go a little bit higher. >> Two questions. I think I know what a step advancement is, but I don't know what a column advance Oh, I think I know
what a step advancement is. I don't know what a column advance is. >> Um, so I could certainly pull up the salary schedule, but just to make it easy, if you're looking horizontally on our salary schedule, it would be like a bachelor's degree, a master's degree, or
if you have additional credits, you move over columns. So, as a teacher uh goes through their career and takes more college credit courses, they can move columns and earn a higher salary. Second question, where are the pension costs for the school staff?
Where do those show up in the budget? >> Um, so there within the detail, I'm sorry, within the detail in your packet. Uh, you can find that specific number. Uh, we have two pension systems for our employees, the Mass Teachers Retirement System, which the district does not
contribute to. That is a statef funded pension system. So your everyone's income tax money helps fund that pension system. Uh the other one is the Essex County just like uh both towns are members in uh that we do contribute to and I believe the number off the top of
my head is about 1.4 million but I can >> Yeah, it is. >> Give give you an exact number in a second. Is is that 1.4? I think it is. But is is there a line it rolls up to? I'm just >> uh in the detailed packet there is the a
line that it rolls up to. Uh I only told you the difference year-over-year which is about 143. Let me just find it so I'm not giving you the wrong numbers. Uh so it's on page 24 of uh one of your handouts which is the account detail. It
lists out all 600 of our accounts that we use. It's the benefits and fixed charges. >> I can bring it up on the screen if you need me to. >> Again, it's page 24. >> It's 24 of the last packet. >> Last packet. Not the packet you have in
your hand right now. the one that looks like an Excel spreadsheet. >> Oh, okay. >> Uh, so for FY27, we have budgeted 1,478,000.
That's up about 11% which is the exact percent increase from the prior year. >> Thank you. >> Yep. Um so did I finish this one? I did. So we are up 14 and a half% on health insurance. Okay. Uh moving on to our
revenue sources. So this chart here is excluding excess and deficiency which I'll talk about in the next chart. But if you completely remove our excess and deficiency amounts uh year-over-year, we are seeing strong revenue growth uh at a bigger percent than I believe we've ever
seen in the past at around 7 12%. Uh the two main drivers you can clearly see here is the funding we get from the state uh both through circuit breaker and through our chapter 78 aid uh where combined we're seeing almost an increase of $600,000 when you add the two of them
together. So again outside of excess and deficiency we are sh seeing a lot of revenue growth um year-over-year which is obviously a good thing to help lower assessments. However the biggest difficulty we are facing this year is our reduction in END. Uh,
as many of you were here last year, uh, it was decided to fund our FY to offset our FY26 operating budget with one-time revenue funds through our excess and deficiency account. In FY26,
we offset a total of $2,88,000. Right now, an uncertified END amount I am estimating at 830,000, which is a reduction of approximately 1.2 2 million. Um, which really is the exact
reason you don't want to use END to offset your operating budget. You should always use END uh just like the communities use free cash to purchase capital items, one-time expenditures, not things that reoccur every year like salaries, which is what we did last year
in order to avoid an operational override at the April 2025 town meeting. Um, so now we are faced with how do we deal with that $1.2 million deficit. Uh, just to go back, I do believe this number will increase slightly. Again,
this is an uncertified amount from the state. I do anticipate it'll probably move up to about $900,000, but uh, you know, just to mention that. But nonetheless, we are still short about $1.2 million, which completely flips our
revenue year-over-year. You saw in the prior chart revenue growth of 7 12% when you factor in END it's a reduction of 7 12%. If we don't do anything else that funding there's no other place the
school district generates funds that funding would fall upon taxpayers if nothing else is to budge within the budget process. Um so again that is without a doubt the biggest difficulty we are facing for our 27 budget. So, just to roll up all our operating uh
information here, we had our FY26 starting point of about $46.5 million. Uh you add in our increases, which in includes that additional request for maintenance of 3.1 million,
get you to our new um FY27 total operating budget of 49.7 million. Um reduce our revenues if you held END flat. gives you our operating budget after offsets of 39.7. But then again, we have to factor in that shortfall in
END, which adds back that 1.2 million, which brings our net assessment to just under $41 million. When you apply that uh the new enrollment shift, it's an increase to Hamilton of 2.4 million or roughly 9.81%.
an increase to Wenham of just under uh 1.5 million or roughly 11.83%. So that was the operating side. Very briefly, I'm going to hit on the debt service side. Uh for FY27, we have three
less projects. in FY26, the current year we're in, it was the last payment for this Winthrop sprinkler system, the FY221 capital projects and the first authorization of $250,000 for the Cutler
feasibility study. Those all ended in FY26, leaving only our four remaining projects that you see here. Um, which again, you apply the same split as our operating budget. Add these two numbers together, the end result for our
preliminary FY27 budget recommendation um combined for Hamilton is an increase of 2.4 million or the 9.63% excuse me and for Wam 1.5 million or 11.6 and the district as a total um just
over $4 million or 10.32%. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? Thank you, Vinnie. >> Let it soak for a minute. >> We'll hire it to prepare this five minutes.
Anybody have any questions? I want to talk about the high school roof if you have the ability to do that. >> Sure. >> When you're ready. >> Sure. >> So, I think everybody here knows we've been working, we were accepted into the uh MSBA program ARP side this time to
repair the roof for the high school. We've been trying to do that for a number of years. We've been doing repairs and repairs and repairs. Now, this is for full replacement. Um actually was in a meeting yesterday afternoon where they finalized some of the numbers. Uh full replacement of the
high school roof portion only is $10.2 million and the um allin possibility for a grant from MSBA is about $4.4 million. I don't have the exact round numbers, but that's roughly where we are now. So
the MSBA would contribute $4.4 million um of that 10.2 2 million to replace the high school roof only. >> So 5.8 was on the town >> 5.6 approximately. Yeah. >> Yeah.
>> So that would come to town meeting as a override. >> Right. Once we get we we still we haven't been fully approved by the state yet. In December they have their board meeting for the MSBA board meeting. They will take the numbers that we finalized yesterday, bring it to the board. the board will approve it, then we would
process it as a request uh for debt exclusion at the town meeting in April. >> So, we would make the April meeting. >> We we we are on schedule to make the April meeting so that we can start the project in July. The the the project's so large it will not be finished in
summer, >> right? >> It's it's it'll overlap into the school year. So, our target would be to start it as soon as we could in July. So, the only thing that's certain tonight is that we're going to have a $5.6 billion bill
>> just doing that >> to float some bonds to fix the roof to be split between two towns. So, that's >> pretty 5.8, right? >> 58 5.8. Yeah. So, that's a definite come into town meeting. >> Uh, no, it's not. It It has to be approved by the MSBA still. So, in their
December board meeting, if they approve it, then then it would come to the committee >> to determine whether to bring it. committee would still have to make that determination and vote the right >> the authorization. >> So if they do all the positive votes will >> the intention is to have it on the
warrant for town meeting. >> Okay. >> So that's a pretty solid number right now. >> Right. Yesterday I had one of the last meetings to to finalize the numbers with them. Okay, thanks.
>> Can I ask everyone a question? >> So, my school committee has not seen this budget presentation. They don't see it till tomorrow. Usually, the way our budget calendar falls. A few years ago, we agreed that this meeting would be the meeting before Thanksgiving. Um, but the
way the calendar falls, they haven't even seen it yet, and I'm presenting to you guys before I present to them. Do you guys have a standing meeting the first Wednesday in December? If not, I would like to change this meeting from the meeting before the week before
Thanksgiving to just the first Wednesday in December. So, at least they get a chance to have it presented to them, ask questions before they have to come in here. >> I mean, if I was on the school committee, I would be giving you some
grief. Exactly why I'm at >> the capital finance committee. >> The capital finance has seen it. Yes. But not the not the full committee. >> Right. No, it logistically it's a little bit challenging because we we're seeing it at the same time.
>> Yeah. So, you know, obviously we'll we will probably have more in-depth conversation about it tomorrow, but that's after this meeting, which is >> So, it seems like nobody has like a standing meeting the first Wednesday of
the month. So, if it's okay next year, probably just going to recommend it's the first Wednesday in December. >> Well, that that works so long as it's before the first Saturday in December. How long is this before? >> Because the first Saturday is the budget
town budget Saturday morning meeting. So looking at the calendar, the Wednesday for Saturday works fine. >> Okay. >> And even that's tight because we're um you almost want that budget packet in hand on Wednesday. But >> but the flip side of that is our budget is much more fully formed
>> by that first this year, but it might not always. >> Yeah. The second is the first one. So that works. I mean that works for 2026, but it's a that's a really important >> leap years away. For the next two years, it will work. >> Next two years, it'll work.
>> Right. But if we were I mean, in other words, sounds like you're saying like if we were to think about rewarding how we do it. It's the first you're you're saying, Gary, if I'm getting you right, you're saying what would work would be the first.
It needs to be the first Wednesday >> before the first Saturday. >> Before the first Saturday. So if there is no such thing, then it would need to be in November. >> Yes. >> Let's keep an eye on that, >> right? We just go ahead. >> It mainly answers my question. Comfortable with moving it.
>> Yeah. >> For next year. Yes. >> Thank you guys. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. Thank you. Question over here. Oh. So any update on uh solar work at the high school or middle school?
>> So we have come out of this just for people this is I think three years running now three years uh been going on. We signed an agreement three years ago the school committee with uh our solar company to install a solar canopy
on the middle school parking lot side. So to the left side where the middle school is part of that parking lot, not the whole entire thing. Um, the solar canopy went through several years of study through the state house. Um, our our HW CAT group has been pushing hard
to get it out of study. It looks like it's out of study now and moving forward possibly in January to be able to start to say we're getting closer. We have authorizations, but we don't have a an actual target line when we can say it's
going to happen. Um, if it does come into play, it it saves a lot of money because we end up si signing a 25-year contract with a locked rate for electricity off of that off of that solar canopy. Um, the other piece of the
high school roof project is the state now requires all roof projects of school buildings to be to have some level of solar readiness. Mhm. >> Um, so built into the cost that's fully covered by the MSBA is the the uh actual
wiring and uh tubing runs for solar readiness. So that if we decided to add solar panels to portions on the roof that could hold solar panels, uh, we would move forward that it would already be kind of plug and play. They would put them up on the roof and plug them back
in. So I don't have a definite timeline, but we are out of study, which is the hardest part of the process trying to get out of a a study through with National Grid. So does that help? >> Thank you for the update. >> Yep. >> It is possible we could see something in
January. I just we're just we we're really at the the whim of national grid. >> Did you have something else you wanted to >> like I'd like to add if there aren't any other questions about the school budget? >> Yeah. Uh I had a question about um you know we've there's been a lot of
listening sessions that the the school district has been doing related to the the new building or uh kind of dealing with the the school buildings and their their state and what the uh process might be going forward. Does the school committee have uh any plan to kind of
formalize what that is? I know that the towns have funded studies to the tunes of millions of dollars in the past. um and uh to to kind of analyze these buildings. Are we anticipating to uh something like that again um for this or
or when might that be uh addressed by the school committee? >> No. >> So last committee meeting I was tasked with uh by the committee to come up with a plan to to put those things together. We'll see that on at the December 4th meeting of of kind of our plan of moving
it forward. um really trying to lay the groundwork for what to do next is a study is one of a number of options on the table. I don't know um if you could if you go back I can actually send it to everybody if you go back to the last school committee meeting there was a
memo in there multi four-page memo about some of the the thoughts about the process and some of the things that we need to to look at and just trying to keep that ball moving forward. So after that presentation, the committee tasked me with putting together a process to bring back to them to start uh moving in
some direction. We we'd ultimately like to have something ready for uh the April town meeting for some level of discussion or some level of vote. We're just not sure what that is yet. >> Thank you. uh question. Uh do we have statistics on
the uh total school age population in the two towns? Uh so we can determine the number of kids that go to private schools. >> So the answer to that is yes. Uh we do that in January though we finalize the numbers with the state. The process for
the state is called the October one report for public schools which we get our our numbers. Um our enrollment this year is up a little over 2 point I think 2.1%. I might be off by a percent but 2.1% is is where we're at. We're up to 176
students. So when you factor in all of the children that live in the community, our job between that October 1 and January is reaching out to any school that we can find a connection with to see where kids are going to school. So we know where the majority of them go.
Uh it's called the school reporting report. We we have to submit it by law. So we will do that in January. And I can give you pretty pretty solid numbers. you have, you know, between 300 and 375 kids that are in the community who don't go to public schools. And that doesn't
mean they go to private schools either. They could go to the tech. They could they could go out of state to schools. There are kids that school choice in into other places as well. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Can you give a sense of what those trends look like over time? Has it been pretty stable? Are people coming back
towards the schools? >> So, I I have right up on the front screen now. I can just look at this enrollment chart. This covers 2013 to 2024. Um to the left of the chart in in blue
is our prek to 5. In 2013 we had 88 students prek to 5. 201920. So that co year we had 867. It dropped immediately down to 773 and is now up in at 853 right now as of
October 1st of this year. uh you're seeing smaller uh bumps at the middle and high school level. So the middle school is in red and the high school is in gold, but you'll see the you'll see just a little bit smaller jump. >> But what's your sense of how much of
that is just general demographics versus people actually coming back to the public schools? >> So it's it's hard to say. I can say from home schools, we've we've brought in about a dozen kids off of the homeschool roles. There's usually approximately 40 kids that are homeschooled in our two
communities. And this year we brought in a dozen kids. We brought about a half dozen kids back from private schools this year as well. So it's it's I wouldn't call it a trend uh only because it's it's we're in a community that has
lots of options and people who who can afford some of those options. So often times it's just a choice of I want my child to go to a private school or or you know or or a uh a school outside of Hamilton. >> Yep. >> You finish
one. >> Yeah. Sure. Okay. Sorry. I just want to ask uh for the assistance of all five boards. Uh we are in the middle of a uh study being done by the department of education requested by uh members of the
state house to examine the chapter 70 funding for way that's the way schools are funded um from for state funding and the the if you looked at the last school committee uh meeting I you may have seen
this chart that's up front this is the chart of Hamilton Wenham regional school districts uh school chapter 78 versus what's actual spending. Actual spending is the top blue line way up here. You can see where my cursor is. And the
chapter 70 state funding is this low low red line that doesn't change very much. uh districts under 2500 that are small like ours and regional are um really being penalized in the way that they
develop and process the chapter 70 funding. As you can see, it has not really changed for our school district where some of the bigger school districts will get multi-million dollar increases every single year, year-over-year. uh we just don't have the the the demographics that you need
to drive the formula in your in a positive direction for the district. They include um a whole number of statistical factors like how many L students do you have? How many students are low income? What is your uh
what is your equalized housing value in your communities? So when you start to look at some of the ways they calculate the numbers, communities that are perceived to be wealthy get penalized over and over again. You could have a community of families who bought their houses 30 years ago um and have been on
a fairly steady income. The house may have gone up, you know, five $500,000 in in 30 years, but their salary did not go up that much, yet their taxes continued to grow and grow and grow. So, our community is one of many around this
area, especially on the Northshore where the actual net school spending for our communities is far outpacing. It's getting even more dramatic as you can see by this chart. If you just focus on that top line versus the the bottom red graphs, I would ask you if you have the
opportunity to submit a letter to the state and I can send out the email that really outlines and you can use some of the the information that's in my letter that outlines some of the problems that we run into as a small school district,
two small communities that are pursu perceived to be wealthy enough to just pay their own way. Um, as you can see here, the reality is not what what it's perceived to be. So, just asking if I I'll send out the information to everybody directly. You can take it and
but I would just ask if you can take 45 minutes to submit something to the state. They're they're asking for stuff for another uh few weeks. I went to the listening session at Masco, kind of gathered some info, and then wrote the um my own position paper from the the
position of superintendent schools, but it certainly fits each of you in your position. And so feel free to use any of that information. Um, so I'm just requesting that people take time, even if it's one from each board. It's a good opportunity for for us to get this on the table so they can make some substantial changes to chapter 70
funding on behalf of districts like ours that are penalized year after year after year after year. >> Thank you. Sorry, >> Eric. Is it multiple factors that drive it or is it one that stands out? >> No, it it's multiple. It's multiple
factors and it and it really uh we haven't been able to figure out how they calculate it. We literally have sat down come close there I think the 30 30 something factors that this formula is derived from but it it is really complex which is a whole separate problem
because you should be able to calculate what you're what you're going to receive in chapter 8 fair uh chapter 78 fairly easily. Um they do publish the numbers but it's hard to follow. It's really hard. It's extremely complex formula. I
can send you out the whole this is how they calculate chapter 70. It's a booklet. So >> yeah send send it over. >> I will I'll send out to everybody. >> I just have a a question about um the reimbursement rate. Um I believe the
number I heard for chapter 90 um money that comes back to the towns in general is about 26% of our tax revenue. Is there a percentage of what comes back in the form of chapter 70?
>> So it it it's approximately right now 10% of net school. It's yeah, it's >> that's >> it's the highest it's been that I tracked back was about 15%, but that's when your budgets were much much smaller, much more manageable. You you
know 15% of of you know 8 million is a different number than 15 than 10% of 50 million. So it's right now just slightly above 10%. Yep. So, just a commercial to ask for help.
>> Is there an active um committee working on that? >> There is. They have a committee that's been going around the state doing listening sessions, but you can also submit online that they they did one online yesterday. Uh but you can use their email and send them your thoughts
via email. I will send everybody three things tomorrow. my paper, the email address, and how they calculate chapter 70. >> It's fairly extensive and fascinating, too. But, um, I think it's just as many people as we can get to submit and make
the point because we're really these small districts around here are suffering. >> Do you know if they've gotten to the point of drafting legislation? Is there an HR number yet or not? >> No. Nope. They just asked um this committee to start doing the kind of the sessions around town to around the
state. I mean uh DLR I just found out is also uh looking at transportation which is new. That's a that's something new as well. Uh to see about the fairness of transportation and transportation contracts. Up until this past year we
didn't have any comp uh competitive biders. We had one bidder and they got the bid. Uh that happened in many many many school districts being controlled from a larger scale conglomerate that is a national that bought up the local school district uh school busing
companies and said okay we're going to put this company on these two schools this company on these four. So they were basically just divvying it up. So there is um look into that as well because transportation costs are also not reimbursed at the rate that's required
by state law. It's underfunded every single year. Thank you. Sorry. >> Okay. No. Anybody have anything else? All right. Looks like we're done. Okay. Um so you guys are not
>> Yeah, we're not official meeting over here. So, I guess we'll need to um adjourn one at a time. >> Can I get a motion from the fincom to uh close here at uh what time is it? >> 7:45. >> 7:45. >> 7:45. >> So, moved.
>> So, move looking for second vote. >> Second. >> Vote. I on our side. Thank you. >> The one select board to adjourn at 7:45. Vote. I move that the Hamilton Wum School Committee adjourn at 7:45 p.m. Do
>> I have a second? Second by Julia. All those in favor? That is unanimous of the six members present and we are adjourned. >> Thank you. >> Thank you all. >> Thanks.