##VIDEO ID:WFeSjl2wIhs## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e am Gordon laws I'm the chair of the Silver Lake Regional school committee um next to me is Jean Coleman who is the chair of Union 31 we are going to uh open with a roll call of the Silver Lake Regional committee so let me see um Amy here Mike here Mark here Jason here uh Paula all right I don't see Jen Caroll I don't see Lucas is there anybody else that I'd be missing I am here and right okay and I am here okay I will open with the roll call vote of Union 31 um Megan Cannon here Trisha aretta here Lori costline here Lauren L here Jason Fraser here and I believe and John willamson here is this Robert Montgomery here thank you all right so we are open okay um Karen did you yeah I was about to say that um so a few items of housekeeping and business uh number one as Karen noted this meeting is being recorded um it is also um there are various participants who are here via Zoom if you are up at the table and you need to speak you need to lean into the microphone you can see kind of how I'm doing it um it's not per se broadcasting so much in the room as it is over uh zoom and over the uh uh audiovisual facilities if you have do not have a green light on you are not being broadcast so you need to make sure that you tap the push button if you want to speak um this is a public meeting but it is not for public discussion from the regular general public we will be taking questions and comments from public officials we have a number of those here tonight so we will uh at times open the floor for uh comments and questions Lucas I'm going to just acknowledge Lucas coming in for the Silver Lake committee so he is here also um so we will uh open the floor at times for questions and comments from public officials but not from the uh regular standing public we will have a public budget hearing um which is open to the public and for questions at that time and so forth um but we will not be conducting similarly here um does anybody have any and and uh for the town officials who are sitting in the audience who are not up here or for the school officials who are sitting in the audience or not up here if you are going to make a comment we ask that you go to the podium over here and that you speak clearly into the microphone and that you ensure that the microphone is on um so that that can be uh broadcast appropriately um over the audio visual um and then if we have any officials that are online um I believe we get a signal or some sort to let us know that they're going to ask a question or make a comment I think with that we're going to open with a town budget update which is um I think U meant to be given by towns if I understand that correctly I think um go ahead Eric I was just going to say we need to open our meeting for the select and um is it okay if I do that right now yeah please okay um I'm going to call to order the um Board of selectman meeting for January 16th and the time is um 603 and we're going to do a roll call um Eric here here Don Al right here and I think Kim is going to be late but she will be online thank thank you okay um does Halifax want to open their meeting Halifax Board of Select meeting oh sorry I got my green light now unfortunately our chair John Bruno can't be here this evening um I'll do a roll call vote uh Thomas Pratt here Jonathan seing myself here okay uh do we need to do similarly for Plimpton or do we not not do not okay all right I think with that my understanding is that the towns wanted to express where they presently stand in their budget and budget processes um and then uh give uh the schools a chance to respond and give an update on where they stand so um Mr Crome do you want to start sure I can start I may ask um Keith to chime in we just saw our budget uh for the first time this week um we saw um two two different versions of the budget we had originally asked for a 4% across the town um budget and that's what um the Town Administrator did uh present to us um but we also had additional um uh requests from police and fire that are beyond that some of our departments are one and a half others are F I think fire was 5% and police were 7% we just had a new police chief come in this past year um and and trying to make some adjustments to where we should be for town our size um we have our next meeting we have another uh uh Workshop next week where we're going to further discuss some of the additional um asks beyond the 4% um and then obviously we're waiting for the the schools I know you guys both Kingston schools and the regional schools are are um a little bit more than the original Target goals for percentages which is why we're here tonight um did I miss anything Keith thank you Mr chair excuse me so uh just to further uh what chairman cron mentioned the uh the um budget advisory committee met in October to identify what their goals were for the fiscal year 26 uh overall they were they asked to have a uh a 4% spending increase or no more than and the and the the the real reason for that the primary reason for that was what is our what would our budget look like if we didn't have to go and ask for a proposition two and a half override so right now our our spending can only increase by that 4% anything over and above that and it's just it's 4.12% just to get exact um so what I was the direction I was given was to to work with the department heads to try to come up with a budget that that um the board of selectman the finance committee and ultimately the public would understand what the levels of service would be uh with a 4% increase so if a proposition two and a half discussion were to occur um the public would understand if it were uh to occur and fail what the L level of service would be for the town of Kingston departments um as the chair mentioned uh you know most of the Departments came in a little bit more than 4% some uh a little bit more than a little more than 4% uh but we worked together as a group to try to modify the budget request to have as little impact on Town Services as we could obviously um you know the school department came in um and made a presentation to the the Kingston school committee last Tuesday I think and then Silver Lake last Thursday those increases um haven't been included in the in the budget I presented last Tuesday night I just included a 4% increase for both the local school and the Regional School um knowing that the um level service budget that schools had talked about was was was uh greater than that amount um so the as as Eric mentioned we're going to have a a budget work session next week the the board's going to be reviewing the budget putting together whatever questions they have um to me and and we'll try to get a lot of those questions answered because our timeline is pretty tight the board is supposed to uh discuss and vote on a final budget to present to the fincom at their um January 28th meeting uh 12 days from now so um that's kind of where we stand at this point uh I know there'll be a lot of discussion over the next couple of months with the school department to uh to try to address is the needs as best we can uh so the quicker we can get that information very candidly the better off I think everybody's going to be thank you um so we go to Halifax next sure first I just want to thank everybody for coming out tonight I think this shows great progress kind of in in the relationships of the communities but also just the preparation going into this so thank you for everyone for being here um Halifax is in a very similar situation as Kingston to give you an idea our our new revenue is less than 3% uh compared to last year primarily driven by we have a lack of new growth in Halifax um so our primary new revenue is 2 and a half% prop two and a half our total new Revenue with local receipts for fiscal year 26 we anticipate about $800,000 in new Revenue um if you look at what our our departments have been instructed including the elementary school to submit a level service request so keep your service levels the same what would that cost and then also submit a 10% reduction uh budget scenario where you have to reduce 10% of your fiscal year 25 budget and what does that impact on service levels for the community um all of our departments in Halifax have done an excellent job of doing that um with that we are likely looking at only $180,000 increase from our operational departments on the general fund side we do have some fixed Co fixed cost increase that go beyond that but really anything beyond 3 and a half% um for our education Halifax would be looking at an override uh for the upcoming year so we know that um the administrative team's done an excellent job in preparing preliminary budgets Halifax's preliminary budget is a 23% uh increase compared to fiscal year 25 so that is uh over a million and a half increase dollar-wise as you can see we have 800,000 in new Revenue the elementary school in itself is asking for a million and a half it doesn't it just doesn't pan out unfortunately so um we are in the similar boat where if it's beyond three and a half we would be looking at an override in Halifax or would be looking at significant cuts um in my department head meeting recently I gave the analogy if we were to eliminate half of our Police Department half of our fire department we still would not be able to fund the level service request from our schools this year so we are certainly looking at a challenging year ahead okay Plimpton thank you for having us this evening um Plimpton is in the same boat as um anything more than roughly % in the um total cost of Education will likely result in an override situation for the town of Plimpton um we did a dry run um increasing our overall operating budget inclusive of the schools by 3% and when we put everything in and it is using some conservative figures for New Growth but similar to Halifax we don't have a lot of new growth um really to speak of and it already puts us over our Levy limit so we're going to have to get creative regardless but we certainly look forward to working with the school department and coming up with an arrangement that works for everyone and um similar to what Keith indicated for Kingston um I've already gone back to my department heads and asked them to sharpen their pencils and see what other items might be able to be um cut from the fiscal 26 requests okay um anybody working in the back she was not able to turn her microphone on she tried a couple of times so if you were not getting her that's why um should we do an update from the school committees or did the administration want to handle all the schools the committee all right um I will give an overview and then um I'll give an overview for Silver Lake and then uh Jean if you would want to speak for Union 31 or turn over to any of the um local committees to give their overview and then um we could take any uh um Town Council questions or any other public official questions on those and uh hear from our Administration so um the administration at our last school committee meeting at Silver Lake presented um a budget we had preliminarily instructed them to prepare a budget that came in at a 2% increase that had been the committee instruction they um brought in a budget to show level services and then brought in uh three tiers of um suggested headcount and other um adjustments reductions in order to achieve the 2% um level services at Silver Lake would have constituted a 133% increase or thereabouts um from 39 million to about 45 million um we anticipate uh receiving a circuit breaker in support of special ed that would have closed that Gap um and brought the uh difference between the 2% increase and where we were to about $2.1 million um $2.1 million is nevertheless a substantive amount of money to take out um to get to it uh again the administration prepared three different levels it we would take all three in order to hit the 2.1 million um the first level was mostly uh softwares and equipment and uh delaying um some other purchases and things like that the second level was the elimination of most extracurriculars including all sports and the third level was um both of the first two levels Plus in elimination if I recall correctly was n or 10 uh um active teachers along with uh Paris support um Paris support and other staff personnel which would have been another four or so people um which would have brought uh classroom sizes to uh 30 plus and would have likely eliminated um some of the diversity of school offerings that we have inclusive of um inclusive of some of the AP courses um we would have had a lot more uh cp1 courses we were looking at a change to block scheduling in order to personalize instruction better and give more focused attention to students and um we have uh delayed that already so um I think that is the overview um I need to emphasize a few things about that overview the state has not yet released its Chapter 70 funding um so we're not entirely certain um we had to make that projection with what we think that where we think the state will come in um so there are some variables like that but um Sarah Jill anything else you would want to add to what I've just stated the only I want the only thing I want to add is that we used one-time Revenue last year to offset the Silver Lake budget so a portion of the increase for from FY 25 to FY 26 in all four of the budgets is due to no longer having that onetime Revenue right um and then to the point of the uh other kind of differentials um a a huge chunk of it roughly close to half of um The Gap is uh in special ed um related to both the um you know double digit increases in the uh per unit costs associated with special ed but also with uh some anomalous um uh placements that have to be made at certain grade levels that are likely to greatly increase uh out of District placements and so forth so um that are not necessarily typical so um I think that pretty well comprises um the present view Jill would you like me to give an exact number of the uh Staffing Cuts so at tier three in order to meet the 2.1 million in cuts it would require four uh full-time slea support service staff three full-time equivalency Silver Lake AIDS 16 Unit A Faculty so those are your uh your teachers primarily and two FTE uh administrators yeah so I apologize I I low counted those in my memory so um all right Jean you want to uh will thank you um I'm giving an unofficial Union 31 update as we have not yet met um regarding the shared cost budget um for those that don't know the shared cost budget is all of our Administration contracts and any of the um cost throughout the district um that are all voted on um by the union 31 committee um we have current placeholders that our business director has built into each individual contract that not contract but budget that's already been presented to each committee um those um numbers may or may not fluctuate based on what is eventually um voted by the committee so again those are unknown figures um we are planning to meet on February 25th to further discuss those cont contracts and that budget um in regards to kingon Kingston on behalf of Megan Cannon um Kingston was presented with a level service budget last week um totaling 17.7 um 57% increase um or um1 um7 million above the recommended targeted goal of 4% um those increases um we were also presented with the tiers for um Kingston let me just pull those up real and um tier one which was already removed from the budget for $57,000 um was supplies um teachers desks theming um things of that nature the tier 2 um cuts for $799,000 totaled 8.6 um Unit E staffing which is our pair of professionals um three um part-time Unit E which is also our prayer of professionals two Unit D which is our custodians and five full-time teachers from Unit A that's our tier two cuts tier three presented for $975,000 um would be an additional 13 um teachers um some of the um impacts to the Kingston schools would be um class siiz as well into the 30s um probably loss of multiple Specialists and um not being able to meet any of the goals for Education um in our town so um did I miss anything for King okay um just as an update we have been presented with um options prior to tier three but those options are still being explored um which include adding bus fees for um students less than two miles um to school um but keeping in mind that if we go to the next one which would be charging for full day kindergarten we would be looking at expanding bus routes um to bus the children for half day kindergarten so there's lots of unknown costs um to be explored with those potential options but either way we're looking at substantial staff um cuts thank you um sorry Lauren would you like to present for Al sure you might want to state your name and uh your position Lauren law Halifax Elementary um chair school committee chair um we had our meeting on Monday and we were presented with a level service budget in the amount of 8,400 8,400,000 140 which was an increase of 23% um which as Cody spoke earlier is 1.5 million increase than last year and we were also presented with um tier one two and three Cuts tier one was also similar to Kingston Elementary School and then tier two um if and correct me if I'm misstating anything um tier two was uh more of our HTA staff the teachers and Par professionals which would um largely increase our class sizes and we also were presented with the idea of possibly charging bus fees and also um looking into half day kindergarten or um charging for full day kindergarten and um so uh that's pretty much is there anything else I would add that uh to get to the 10% decrease we would be looking at only one classroom teacher per grade in Halifax which would not allow us um to effectively run the school as we do not have spaces enough spaces that would accommodate class sizes up to 90 students per teacher um so if you look at the the tiered reductions for Halifax uh you're looking at8 FTE Paris 7.3 FTE from the teachers um unit in tier three and in tier 2 it was four Paris in 12. six from uh Unit A or the the Halifax Teachers Association so um I just wanted to give you those numbers since they were listed for the other towns no absolutely thank you I didn't remember them off the top of my head Mr chair do you mind if I just comment for a moment go I just want to make it clear the 10% reduction on fiscal year 25 budget was an exercise we have no anticipation from the board of Select of the finance committee of asking the school to reduce their budget by 10% from their fiscal 25 budget we requested that all of our Departments of which HS is a department of the town to go through that exercise recognizing that this was going to be a tough Financial Year and that we wanted departments to be prepared to present Cuts in all different forms so that so it was simply an exercise so we have no intention to actually ask the school to cut 10% based on fisal 25 okay understood anything else no that's all okay Plumpton good evening I'm Jason Frasier I'm the chair of The Plimpton school committee um we have not had our meeting yet for the FY 26 school budget I have received preliminary numbers from the administration and it looks like we're anticipating about a 20% increase for a level service budget just want to bring into perspective all four of the school committees cut their budgets quite dramatically last year to try and meet um the financial realities that the towns could hand handle unfortunately for Plimpton it wasn't very far into the school year where we ran into a budget deficit um trimming so close to the Bone there was nowhere for us to pull from so we're currently addressing a fiscal deficit in this fy2 school year um we have worked with the administration the teachers um and the town to try and get that hole as small as we can U but we're looking still at at least a $50,000 budget deficit at this point um just to put things in perspective my budget for the Plimpton school committee is $4 million um a 20% increase of that $4 million would be about an $800,000 increase just for the denant itself and again we haven't had our preliminary discussion we've not given instruction to the administration as how we'd like to proceed that's all the information I have for you this evening okay all right so um I think we can take uh comments or questions from um our towns Mr Crown I have a couple questions if you don't mind um first off I know um moving the special education from um the towns to um the district the circuit breaker remained with the towns for this year although the students in the cost went to the region which is why you were talking about the um the the one time correct me if I'm wrong but the onetime revenue for this fiscal year was to plug up a hole that the circuit breaker would normally handle is that right no last year we pulled from end right um and that was not really a circuit breaker it was really just trying to cover the overall G okay um but Sarah or Jason if either of you want to talk to that I just want to add to because the Breakers coming into Kingston this year no but that for the it's com to Silver Lake it's going to Silver Lake and that's for the kids who move to because special ad is under the district now but because we're a year behind that 1.3 million that we in a typical year if we were not restructured would have gone to Kingston is now going to Silver Lake so Kingston isn't losing they're not getting circuit breaker this year for students last year that they will lose next year so that I thought that we were to be in the hole in Kingston about 400 I don't know where I got that number but so circuit breaker is a reimbursement for uh tuitions or or cost special ed costs and so uh Kingston received approximately $1 million in reimbursements for students that are now at Silver Lake and the Department of Education said no that money can't go towards tuitions at Silver Lake it has to stay in Kingson so there was an excess of circuit breaker money in Kingston last year and the budget um the budget was difficult and we used that money to offset tuitions in order to relieve the budget so you are losing that money and so that but so that's one that's the onetime revenue that I said so it was there it won't that makes sense it won't be in Kingston again and then my next question is probably obvious that everybody's asked but um the state I'm going to make some comments that I'm sure everybody knows the state had instituted this millionaires tax to help education it's not really it it's helping with the free lunch free breakfast free college and whatnot it doesn't seem I haven't seen any increases in Regional Transportation circuit breaker or other things that directly affect education and then we're also looking at at special education it seems like Kingston I'm talking about Kingston specifically has a very high cost doesn't seem like we have a high cost for regular education it's special ed that has grown over many many years and I know that there are programs with from the state um I forget what the words were but but basically disasters where they will come and and help fund but it's not in an individual level it doesn't seem it's just that there's a lot of them going out which is costing a lot of money so what I'm wondering is is our state rep and state senators have they been looped in and is there anything that they're doing and I know Jason walked towards the the podium which I knew he would know the answer um but that's my question our State Rep state senator are they involved what is there anything they can do yes Eric before I recognize Jason if I can just speak to the um special education piece for the district um and keep in mind that when we restructured last year one of the biggest hits that Kingston um absorbed was $500,000 increase because we are now responsible for the special education costs for 7 through2 as well as preschool um in the Silver Lake budget um Kingston is responsible for K through six so if Halifax respectfully has children in special education Kingston's going to be absorbing some of that cost now which that used to be um the elementary budgets handled all special education ages 3 through 22 that's now moved into a regional structure which is based off of the um Town um populations so approximately 57 58% goes is charged to Kingston um no matter how many children that Kingston personally has in the schools that are special education so the entire formula has changed and it it just means that we are that much more of a region whether we want to be fully regionalized we'll have that discussion later on or not so um can we recognize Jason Fraser who is our legislature agent so um Eric the the answer to the question is yes our state reps and Senators have been actively engaged in twoa communication with the school district um and us back up to Beacon Hill on this exact matter the prices of recognized special L schools in Massachusetts is actually governed by the governor's board um it's the operational Services Division and in the past 3 years um the operation services division has allowed private special education schools in Massachusetts to increase costs close to 23% um and that's because of inflationary pressures they have to go through a approving ground with that board to get those increases but in addition to that schools can also apply in individually for increases and one such school is Cardinal Cushing Center Cardinal Cushing Center and fy2 is $121,000 per year for a student to attend they have received approval for FY 26 to increase to $163,000 it's a tremendous increase what we need to understand here is that circuit breaker has been fully funded at 75% % for the last decade but let's just take for an example a student placement of $156,000 you have to spend $56,000 before you qualify for the 75% reimbursement so that would leave a $100,000 that we could then apply for reimbursement we would get in theory $775,000 the following school year for that student but that still means that we had to pay the 56,000 plus the 25,000 for that individual so there are some bills that are being put forth to increase circuit breaker all the way up to 100% there's some looking at 90% And there's some looking at lowering the threshold for towns to qualify we are not unique this is happening across the state thank you thank you other uh questions or comments from the towns uh again Halifax Echoes those Sentiments of Kingston where special ed uh is a a crushing weight for our school district I just have a question have we considered and I know it would be an additional cost uh of bringing in faculty so that we we don't have to send a student out to a school uh I know transportation is a huge part of the burden that the schools carry and I know children have different levels of needs but as we have as a district looked into trying to keep uh kids in house for cost savings and not sacrificing their level of Education Dr so one of the things that you have to consider when you have something like that is you have to invest first so we need money to invest first and you did see that on my proposal when I put that through so that we could not only bring students back but we could actually take other students from other districts not as a money maker as a revenue piece but it's almost like a community service because somebody would rather pay our district for our expertise to be able to meet the needs of students that are um neurodiverse or that are are difficult to to teach in the actual general education classroom or even one of our sub separates it Transportation wise and tuition wise it would be better for borne it would be better for sandwich rather than going all the way to Boston so unless we have the funds to invest first to set the program up and structure it the right way with the expertise that we need that's not going to happen but what can happen is that we can start small I did make a list of every single student's profile that is out of District and I've highlighted certain students that I feel like if we had just a little bit more support or if we had the structures in school we could bring these students back we have a quasi um medically fragile program that is going on at KES right now and I've had two districts contact me already asking me if we would take their student but I can't take their student unless I have a full-time nurse in that classroom two Pars in that classroom and a teacher who is severely licensed otherwise I can't you know I can't give a quality program so yes we want to save money and yes we want to be efficient but we also have to be willing to invest the funds first I I appreciate your answer and I know at this time we shouldn't be thinking about adding to our budget given our situations but unless as Jason says something changes at the state level I feel like this is just going to perpetually be a problem for our district so something to think about for all three towns and and not to to say that a of District schools there's nothing other than the most severe students that have complex disabilities that is being done in some of our a district schools that cannot be accomplished inside the school system that that I can tell you right off the bat thank you Tyler hi Tyler Bard King B slman um green light now Tyler Bard Kingston B slman I used to be on this side of things um one of the questions we had we just got um numbers about the shelter program in Kingston um and as of right now I think it was as of what we got emailed yesterday or today we have 60 children in the Kingston between Kingston and Silver Lake School committees I I mean Kingston and Silver Lake schools I believe um the one of the things that we want to do that we were requesting um and I think it has been requested but I just want to make it known to the public too in Kingston um is that we want to have those numbers of what that what those costs are so we can have those you know in our spreadsheet and and be able to dive into and then be able to petition the state to be able to get as much money as we can back from the situation that we're in and without those numbers um you know now we're going on two years um going to our third year and so those would be really really crucial to come from the administration however we can get them um and I know if we can get them in the next few weeks that'd be really really helpful um as we have to vote on the 28th for our budget but to be able to know what those light atems are and to be able to see where the money's going and then to be able to go petition to the state and be able to go to our state reps and state senators and say listen in the governor's office and say it's you know and we're all all three towns here clearly tonight are in a very difficult situation this one's specifically unique not just to us because it's we're all taking the burden at start as Silver Lake goes and then the Kingston side as well so we're all dealing with it even it's in it's within our town it just be nice to have the metrics and the numbers to be able to go with it so we can then petition the state Dr PR Sarah thank you um so there's there are some difficult answers to your questions uh one of the answers to the question is that the students that were placed in the shelter uh in Kingston arrived after the October 1 enrollment date so the school district sends uh the population of all the different students in different grades to the dep uh to the Department of Education to be certified on October 1st and these students arrived after that so those students weren't counted as part of October 1 enrollment and therefore weren't part of the Chapter 70 funding for FY 24 which was last year and the state knew that uh Department of Ed gave uh three different payments to both Silver Lake and Kingston of $104 and change I can't remember exactly $104 a day per students so it was something along the lines of $600,000 to Kingston and Le there were fewer students at Silver Lake I just can't remember the number off the top of my head um to to support those students in their education in Kingston those students were in our count for the October 1 enrollment in the fall of f of 2023 and so the Chapter 70 funding that was received for this current year included those students and so the way Chapter 70 funding works is you get a certain amount of money per student and then there are I'm I'm just going to say bonus amounts there's bonus amounts you get extra money if the student has an ed plan or extra money if they're English language learner or extra money if they are lowincome status and so these students were included in the funding that Kingston received from the state along with those bonus amounts as part of our Chapter 70 funding that we're using this year so that's the first piece of what I wanted to say the second piece is that um we don't generally track the per dollar per kid there are some costs that I looked um Town manager hickey asked for the counts of the kids and I sent that that's fairly easy but then when the further question comes in we get into issues of we're dealing with very small numbers and when you have small numbers that makes the students identifiable and we can't release information that I specifically identifies so I can't give you information about these three students and those seven students so broad broad categories yes but in and and we're dealing with small numbers of students I just want to add to that I think what we just to be blunt we need to know like how much like if they're sent out of District that's what we need to know we need to know the dollars that are spent because I I don't unless we're getting the same back from the state and you can say that 100% it yeah then then that's what we need we need to know total dollars on on out of distri placement any sped costs and how much of that is the state covering and the even getting Chapter 70 does not cover the the cost of the education so and it's not your fault no I but just to be clear these students are students of Kingston and you're asking me just for a certain group of students not for all students correct yes I am I I mean yeah I mean with respect I know this is very difficult I know we're in a unique situation so absolutely with respect but yeah we are asking for that even if that's in executive order closed I mean we have to go and prepare a budget and then prepare and then present that to our taxpayers people that pay for this stuff um I am definitely as an elected official allowed to see those numbers yeah I mean there's no way there's no way about that whether that's an executive session or an open session session we have a right to see numbers from something that's I I know this is not I'm not this is not you're not the governor you're not the you know you're not the person making this legislation you're following the rules that are set before you we need to find a way to make those rules work because or or that the state is paying 100% of it yeah that's I mean either one I don't need to know the numbers but and don't yell at me Board of Selectmen I was on school committee forever so I understand a lot of the laws with special educ a but this is a very unique situation where um the state is not doing right by us we're we're in Blunt terms we're getting screwed so um our budgets have gone up way more last year in this year than I have ever seen in my 25 years living in Kingston percentage wise and everything else and at the same time this has been happening and we need to know that the state is paying for it so in my from my point of view I don't need to know the exact number but I need to know that the state is paying for it and the town of Kingston is not I would sorry I would agree on that if I knew that 100% was being reimbursed I wouldn't be asking for specific numbers I'm asking for specific numbers because we don't believe the numbers have being re reimbursed and so therefore we have to audit it and we have to audit for the vot for the voters of Kingston the state doesn't pay 100% of any of your students it's they're not but they're placed here by the state and by the feds so they're not this is where the language gets a little wonky they're not they didn't choose to move here they were placed here by the feds in the state and without our knowledge and this is why we need to push back on the state so if you're telling me that they do not pay cover the costs for these students that's what we need to know and we have the right to know it and and what was the date that you needed these numbers by two weeks if would be I mean we would like it before the next before the 28th when we when we meet uh for our final budget we're voting on the budget things will change but we have to have that's by our bylaws we're voting on the 28th soin the next it just can't be black box and right now it's black box we have no idea all we see is budgets have gone absurd we're we've been cutting regular day all the time and that's what we're going to end up doing here this year we're going to be cutting regular day because we can't cut special ed but what we can do is push back on the feds and the state to reimburse the costs that shouldn't be borne by our taxpayers yeah and I'm not yelling at you because I know you're restricted in terms of what you can do what you can't what you can't do but we need help with this and if you can't help us then we need our State Rep and our state senator or somebody to help us because we're drowning yeah and I'll sit down after this uh I'm sure everybody be happy with that but um it's CU it's not just a one onee thing either this is we're looking at you know two three years looking at we know this is even even if everybody magically passes a prop two and half override everybody gets funded and every teacher has a job and everything goes great we're still in the situation next year and then you're after that for a bit right and so for this piece we just need the metrics so we can go to our we can go to our voters and we can go to our town and and be very transparent this is the year of overcommunication for Kingston in in transparency because we have to we have to account for every single penny that's happening because there's increases everywhere so everybody feels it everybody sitting at the table feels it but I'm just asking formally so um fire on meeting on the 28th we could have those numbers thank you um let me recognize Dr PR I think she had a few things to just respond to on that so um we plan on putting together the figures that we are able to share uh for the next Kingston school committee meeting and anything that um we're able to share before that we're certainly going to share with the town the um one thing I just want to point out is to be careful not to assume that the reason why your budget has increased so much is because of one particular group of students it's a much bigger complicated uh puzzle absolutely and my my concern about this this last particular comment pertains to the community and obviously it's one that you feel strongly about but it's not the only issue that Kingston needs to examine with regards to the the increases in education I think it's just been black box and not transparent I know why but if it if we could be more transparent and we knew the numbers then I think it would be resolved yeah just in response um it's the one area where we don't have a budget we don't have the numbers that's why we're asking for it so like we have in all of our budgets and everything like that we have areas we have spreadsheets we have we're working through it's the one area we don't so I understand it's sensitive but that's why we're requesting it so it's we understand there's this isn't I'm not sitting up here saying this is 100% of this is I don't know if it's 10% 5% I don't know because I just don't know that's why we're requesting we don't know we don't know um and I think it'll be very helpful for the public to know that it's not 100% or it's not 50% because I don't think it is but we need to know that in order to move forward with that that's the whole point of it I'm not up here saying that 100% of the issues is because of the migrant issue of course it's not but how can we speak to it if we don't know so thank you thanks Tyler Mr just just a quick um comment maybe to to make things a little more simple um you know we we know right now based on the information that the um superintendent's office gave us is there are 60 students uh currently in the Baymont that um at some point will be um relocated more permanently uh hopefully for them um you know can we take a per the average per pupil cost for example multiply that by 60 and then we know what our regular costs are if there are special education costs that we can generally uh add to that if there are any uh and and then subtract out what may have be coming what may be coming back from the state I think we'd have a better sense um we know that to your point Sarah the first year that the Baymont was used as a shelter the children came in after October so that we weren't counted that following year we will in all likelihood get some additional revenues because they may be here in October of 2025 but by December 31st what we been what we we're all hearing from the governor's office is that temporary shelters will be closed and those students will no longer be coming to the Kingston school or Silver Lake schools uh after December 31st of this year so I don't know that we need to get into the Nitty Gritty every last dime that we're spending on the kids I think very generally if we said the average cost per student is X special Li costs are why we've been reimbursed a certain amount of money it's costing us on average right now uh whether it be per fiscal year or some other metric here's what our costs are because I've heard way back in my office you know about people being concerned and that concern rising in Kingston because there's been more and more of a discussion about increases in budgets we had tax bills all go out in the last week and a half that was a bit of a shock I think for some um and I think there's more and more questions being raised how much much money is the town of Kingston right now um funding for uh kids temporarily housed in Kingston and what can we do as a community to try to work with the state to have that amount of money increase you know one of the things that happened early on that I don't think anybody recognized or or kept in mind is when we the town of Kingston received our first our first rooms tax revenue uh you know after the Baymont Hotel had been at least at that point partially rented by the state what we learned was we Lo we we lost a significant amount of money in that first quarter because if a person lives in a room for more than either 30 or 60 days the hotel no longer has to pay a rooms tax we made we made representative latra uh and our Senator at that time aware uh fortunately they were able to secure um additional funding that that uh we should have received from the hotel recognizing that um I don't think there was an intent to to harm a community for housing residents for more than uh the the time period that would allow for a a room STX to be collected in in Fr in in Kingston in that situation was made whole if we can work with our state representative and our state senator to try to address some of the other things that the state may not be aware of or have recognized when they approved the legislation they did to fund these programs we might be fortunate enough uh to have uh to work with our our state representative and Senator and and um elected board members in Kingston to uh to potentially receive some additional revenues to help offset the expenses we're incurring and and try to balance a budget uh so I I think I don't want to speak for for SLE buard but I don't I don't think we need to get into the the Weeds on this calculation I think can be a pretty pretty easy calculation it should take a ton of time um just my thoughts Dr and just to reiterate we did explain to the Kingston school committee that that is what we will be providing the um average per pupil cost to give them a sense of what was actually reimbursed and included in that the average per pupil cost in special education in Kingston um based upon the number of pupils receiving specialed tion Services who are part of that subgroup Mr Pike I would only caution that I often hear people talk about the average cost to educate a student at a very top level let's pick a number $188,000 a year however we need to remember that it's not $118,000 per additional student that comes in an awful lot of of that $118,000 is fixed we don't go out and get a second superintendent we don't go out and get a lot more administrators we have buildings facilities that the cost don't change so I would hate to see us come up with 60 students times an average cost of $118,000 and having people in the public screaming and hollering looks what it's costing us because it's it's costing us the variable cost so that if you have to go out and hire a new English teacher okay I will give that $90,000 divided by 60 if you have to go out and hire another behavior analyst you probably have some supplies but the whole key to understanding a cost structure in this type of environment is to recognize fixed cost versus variable costs if you get two new students in variable costs are probably almost nothing if you get 102 new students in variable costs will add up thank you Lori I I have a green light so I think you can hear me um so I'm a representative of the Halifax school committee and I'm hearing a lot of the conversation happening amongst Kingston residents and officials and I appreciate the concerns you have um but I I thought it was important to note a couple things from what I've heard tonight every single town in our district is experiencing really abnormal increases um when we went through the budget season last year one of our newly elected Board of Selectmen before he was elected asked how did we get here um and Dr PR gave a very complicated and comprehensive answer that it wasn't any one thing it was a multitude of things um I appreciate the concerns of the town of Kingston but 60 students in a shelter doesn't explain why Plimpton and Halifax have these outrageous increases we have just come out of a pandemic everything is more expensive I just want to underscore that in the interest of level setting I appreciate Mr Pike's comments because I think they are valid and for all the years that I've attended school committee meetings long before I was a school committee representative special education has always been volatile it's always been a not volatile but it's always been a variable I can recall similar conversations happening on the Halifax board looking for more specific information about why specialist education had increased that year it is for privacy and Humanity reasons it is inappropriate for us to get at a granular level for special education there are reasons why our schools um administrators are bound um to give limited information and I think that the arguments that Kingston and the information Kingston's looking for really your argument needs to be at a state level not here so that's all I have to say if I can just add last statement what we're trying to do is save positions in Kingston so if we can get four if it turns out that the state owes us $400,000 how many teachers is that that's a lot because an override and we've had I've been here for overrides we had them in 2008 and 13 for the schools they passed an '08 500,000 for Elementry 700,000 for the region and then later about 390,000 um I'm I don't see it passing this year I mean everything is going through the roof we need to be we need to be aggressive and find out where we can get additional money and if and this is just one of those things I mean I know it's uncomfortable but our our residents are are yelling but it's because they don't know it's the unknown so if we knew then it's no longer an issue and if it comes up like you said this is 10% of the issue or 5% of the issue then people can stop talking about it with fear and whatnot it just be put to bed um but that that's what's driving me okay um obviously what we have for um preliminary budgets uh there's still a lot of work to do there will be a lot of work um between the school district and the schools and the school committees um with each other and with the towns um I unless we have any more questions or comments I think we're about I think we just about hit most of what we could cover but there will be more meetings both uh public meetings and then meetings you know between the different constituencies before we reach final budgets um Cody you wanted to say something yeah just to kind of wrap it up on this topic I don't want to speak for Keith and Liz but you know in for jaill and Sarah but there's this there's a lot of work to be done we recognize these are preliminary budgets but what you're seeing from all three towns is they we're not close right to be able to afford that so I would encourage that each of the communities work together with your local school districts and also with Silver Lake because we need a plan um at a high level how are we going to approach this I think we need to be all on the same page all three communities we are we're working together which is great we're here tonight but this isn't something where we can and I it's great we want to continue to Lobby the state legislature um to try to make up these funding gaps but we also need to come up with a plan on the local level whether that means each of the towns investiga an override which you know I want to point out that's something only the board of selectman can put on the ballot town meeting passes the budget but it goes on the ballot from the board of selectman um and we would hope to do that in a try Town approach we don't want to do that where only one or two towns does it and then the other Town gets left out but we got to start that conversation now because this is not something that we can do in March or April where you know we say okay now we want to look at an override or there's no interest in overriding of the communities and we have to cut you know 20% from our budgets not just the schools but the the general government side as well so I think you know Halifax we're looking to put together a subcommittee we're going to start meeting on this with the school administrative team I really would encourage each to the other communities to do it and then myself Keith Liz you know we're always in constant communication but I really am just we got a lobby at the state I agree but we also need to come up with a plan at the local level because we can't we all have to go to town meeting here the spring we all need to present a balanced budget or an override or a combination of you know cuts and an override so I I really just want to encourage that we have a plan and and move forward with with continuing this and not just saying let's Lobby the state let's Lobby the state we should but we also need to work towards a plan here yes you're right Mr hickey yeah thank you my last comment is going to piggyback on Cody you know respectfully I understand the challenges that we're facing trying to present a budget to each each of the three communities one of the some of the information I've gathered over my over the last month or so uh about an override in the timeline and to be successful in presenting one if in fact one is brought forward is it's got to be done early you have to in you have to make the public aware of what the need is and why so respectfully you know the Kingston school department is meeting I think February 8th to have a second what third February 3rd to have a second discussion on the budget is the budget going to be finalized and be presented to the board of Select at that point every time every week that goes by that the town of Kingston Board of selectman and finance committee don't have a budget from the school department the risk of the of the override gets of of not having an override pass increases so I can't urge the Kingston school department and the Silver Lake School school committee to meet as often as you need to as quickly as you have to to get a budget to us as quickly as you can because March doesn't work you told us last year it wouldn't be in March again again and we're looking at March at least and that's not that that is that is potentially a disaster for the opportunity to have a proposition two and a half override approved I've spoken to other Town managers I've spoken to other school school business administrator Duxbury for example had to have their school budget into the town manager a recommended final budget into their Town manager by December their town meeting is in 60 days they estimate revenues just like Cody Liz and I do for our state revenues I don't know what I don't know what my state revenue is going to be I don't know my health insurance is going to be I don't know what my property liability insurance is going to be I estimate based on experience and I would urge the school department to do the same thing so if I may uh we don't have Chapter 70 funds A a clear picture until the end of January we have four School committees and we have an assessment budget and we have Staffing for a single District so we could probably do the same as duxberry if in fact we were a single District but we still wouldn't have the Chapter 70 information nor would we have all the other information that goes into a school budget perhaps duxberry has other measures that they can compensate if in fact those numbers don't materialize but from what I'm hearing tonight we don't have those kinds of Reserve funds that could Overlook or give best guess estimates and I understand that and respect that I'm not trying to be disrespectful to the school committees at all but it's not just Duxbury that's presenting budgets far before March and I don't have any of my State numbers none of them um but I estimate on a very conservative basis to try to bring a budget to the board of Selectmen in the time period that The Bu the budget bylaw requires in the town of Kingston and I I it's important when in my humble opinion when the board of selectman tries to meet on the 28th of January how do they approve a budget if they don't know what the school budget is it's it's over 50% of our budget and I and I I think it's challenging to the board and the fincom to have to weigh in on what they're willing to reduce in Services potential in the town side of things if we don't have over half of the budget uh in front of them to have them make a decision I understand there's no Chapter 70 numbers I understand there's no other information but just like everybody else you estimate and often times those estimates are uh within a a narrow parameter of what the actuals are the state the governor has already indicated 2.2% is what this is what the increase in revenue is going to be this year to me that's what I'd use and move forward okay uh let's move on to the uh regionalization study and um you want to take that sure for the last uh two years both Halifax and Kingston have um applied for a grant to examine the possibility the costs and possible um expenses of full regionalization and tonight uh they are going to be asking um for uh School committees to send one represent one representative to this committee to serve with the board of Selectmen and the finance committee so that they may look into to the pros and cons of that type of uh Arrangement so I I'll turn it over I don't know if Keith wants to speak so I I I want to just give credit I guess to Cody first um you know I applied for a community compact Grant last year unfortunately wasn't successful Cody uh obviously did a much better job and and was we were awarded uh $150,000 Grant this year uh he was generous enough to uh to to send it over to Kingston because uh Halifax unfortunately did not pass their um and BTA zoning uh so at the risk of of losing that Grant um the state and the town of Halifax generally uh sent it over to the town of Kingston and um um we'll work with the School departments to um identify a vendor identify a scope and um have them get to work we we and I when I say we Cody um Jill and I um uh participated in a in a in a call with the University of Massachusetts calling center uh they're a an organization that does a number of um papers research papers on a number of different topics they've done regionalization studies uh like we're asking for uh in the past um Jill invited me to go to another um vendor call with uh that I couldn't attend earlier this week but again they do the some something similar uh from from I think and speaking of the the Cody and Jill um and I don't uh and certainly myself we aren't here and this study isn't isn't being proposed to advocate for regionalization um what what I've heard in conversations with the superintendent's office is there are redundancies there and and potential cost Savings in eliminating those redundancies that that the that the three communities two maybe now I'm not sure um could could entertain some sort of savings from eliminating some of these redundancies so what we'd like to do with the with the study and I think the way we would ask the committee to to present the scope of work is is to uh provide research and recommendations on um what could potentially be streamlined whether that streamlining could save money uh overall and then what what cons would there be and and uh and and present this report on a very factual basis without any bias as to whether or not regionalization should be um supported by each of the three communities or not um it's a it's an information gathering session to give the residents of each Community the opportunity to vote on whether or not they think that what I assume to be the results of being saving some amount of money by eliminating some of the duplications and and losing your autonomy as a as a single Town school department rather than a regional school and that's where I think this is going to come down to and I think every household and every voter in every household is going to have a different opinion of what that threshold is we just want to present the information and let the voters decide whether they think regionalizing at this point is something that's in the best interest of the communities and the children or not so that's at least from I think from from my conversations with Cody and Jill it's we aren't advocating one way or another we just want to gather the information present it to the residents and let them make a decision thank you um if I may just I think you hit the nail on the head Keith um it's wise of us to do this right it's not costing us anything we got a grant from the state we Ser we have some budgetary concerns right in all all the communities here so let's get the information together and provide the facts uh and also determine what the parameters of a fully regionalized District could be right we've heard some concerns where maybe Kingston has some larger Capital cost upcoming with their schools and Clinton and Halifax don't want to be on the hook on the hook for that there's things that can go into a regional agreement that say Okay each Community is still responsible for their buildings or um we've heard concerns that we you know I don't want a Plimpton student going to Kingston or a Kingston student coming into Plimpton that's something that could be looked at in the in this study just what those parameters are of what could be put in place as measures to protect those things I don't know what they are but we're going to bring in someone who does who's a professional and does this and just share that with the community that that's all this is um you know Halifax and Kingston representation will be there like Jill said we're looking to put together just a communication group uh member of the board of selectman a member of the finance committee and a member of each of the school committees throughout this process so we're communic back I know Plimpton has had some hesitation with this um I would we'd love to have Plimpton on the committee again just for a communicative process being part of that and and do what we want with it at the end each of the communities will like Keith said will have that threshold if you save 500,000 is that worth giving up autonomy maybe it is maybe it isn't but at least we're presenting that um and Halifax and Kingston will will be on at the table but we really would for this to be as beneficial as possible it would be great to have Plimpton there so that's kind of my my plea to Plimpton to at least you know take part in the study of this which really there's there's nothing other than that just a study which is costing us nothing and maybe just to jump on what Cody said uh timeline what we're looking at probably 12 months is what they said so again you're we're sitting here a year from now maybe a little bit longer with the results of that study so whether that can be implemented as part of the fiscal 27 budget who knows uh a b again I I Echo Cody's Cody's feeling we would love to have Clon sitting at the table with us um it's unfortunate they decide to walk away tonight um that being said what we've learned so far is is if two of the three towns are interested in regionalizing that can move forward uh and and and the town who chooses not to regionalize would would have to decide how they want to educate their kids um so we'd love to have all three people communities at the table I think it be it make for a a better uh a better discussion a better end result in report um but I think it's important for all three communities to know that if two of the three communities think it makes sense to regionalize that that it having that third Community not doesn't stop the process is that something that needs to be voted or is this just a discussion point I I think if you um the the chairs can decide who they like to send as part of this committee and then let us know um whether it be Keith Cody or me Gord could I have yeah and and just to Echo what Keith and and Cody are saying we're here tonight because we're trying to survive a a financial tital wave essentially so what harm is it to investigate a possibility not even go down the road but I feel like we owe it to our residents to at least explore things that might help us right there's no harm in that so Clon isn't here so I guess I'm pleading to our Plimpton Folks at least come to the table and see what shakes out there's no harm in that and I would argue you have a responsibility to your residents to at least look at what cost savings might be there do we need to about something tonight or no I don't think so I think if you if if each of the Comm if each of the communities fincom School committees and and uh Boards of selectman put it on onping agenda vote a member to participate in the in the study committee uh I think that's all we need timing you've got we've got a little bit of time we've got to choose a vendor first and foremost so um okay with that then uh we'll take that up with our uh School committees um I would like to come back to Mr hickey's last point on the budget discussion if that's all right um is that a point of order problem or am I okay go all right um Sarah if I'm correct we have provided preliminary budget numbers that's inclusive of our best estimates of the Chapter 70 and everything like that no the chapter I'm sorry the the Chapter 70 goes into the assessment formula and I have not calculated assessments yet okay we nevertheless have a budget of how much we expenditures of expenditures for the next year we haven't carved that up for the towns but correct we already know right now what we think approximately with estimates um we're going to have to spend next year we couldn't say whether it's going going to go from 39 to 45 without having that is that accurate that is accurate but it doesn't take into consideration revenues at all so last year uh one of the things I did is I put together a total cost of education for the towns if I were to do that now just expenditures without revenues the fire department would be busy taking care of people having heart attacks so um I haven't calculated the assessments where we offset the Silver Lake budget with Chapter 70 money and CTE tuition and and preschool tuition and Regal trans Regional trans so but you wouldn't be able I mean we we wouldn't be able to give the guidance on what we think might have to be cut without some baseline understanding of what we think those numbers would be is that accurate or not it's all it's it's before the assess okay Mr hickey is asking for an estimate and what I'm saying is we have already created an estimate we've created an estimate that has an assumption of a certain size of budget the estimate he's looking for is after the revenues am I correct in that Keith yeah I think what what the Kingston school committee what the Kingston school I'm sorry what the Kingston Board of selectman is looking for is the recommended appropriation for Silver Lake and Kingston schools that's what we're looking for okay Eric I was just going to say what what we really need what we have from the other departments what we will have by the end of this month is we're going to know what we're recommending because we need to kind of work things out with police and fire we'll have that done in a week or two and we'll we'll know I mean we know what the the Chiefs want we're going to come up with some number that's in between so we're going to know what kind of override we're going to need for Public Safety if we do and the the other departments I don't think we do I think what we're looking for is are we looking for a million doll override for Silver Lake or a 1.5 and your initial one is my recollection I didn't see your meeting but we always saw just level service everything's in there then the next meeting it's like okay you went through tier one and tier two cuts and so on and you get down we need to in this particular year because we know we're looking for an override we need something as fast as possible which sucks for all of you because you're going to have to go through and and come up with what's an acceptable and maybe even a couple of different tiers of override your wish list is a million from Kingston so two two million over overall over budget um or over what the town's can afford um and then come up with another one that's a little bit lower because I have a feeling that in Kingston we're going to have to give our residents options because if we're looking at um 1.7 million override in Kingston and a 1 million override that Silver Lake it's not going to pass you know and then it maybe a million for Public Safety I don't know it's just not going to pass so we have to be more realistic there's going to have to be cuts that are made unless there's Revenue changes that offset this stuff okay um so so we just need a realistic not a first round so to be fair I understand exactly what it is that you're looking for please understand I only have 24 hours in a day I do like to sleep I like to but if you drive by the school central office building on a Saturday or a Sunday you'll see me there so I took Christmas day off I took New Year's Day off I took a half a Saturday off recently it's it so again it's not it's not a lack of effort trust me I I know how much Sarah Sarah and Jill are working to try to pull us together I get it I'm not trying to be I'm not trying to be uh disrespectful or or unappreciative of the efforts you're making I I I I get it my concern is very honestly is the longer we H we have to wait less of a chance that we have an override pass in the less of a chance we were able to save some of the jobs we would be able to save if the override were to pass that's just reality and I would say that a lot of it is not on Sarah's back as much as on the two School committees that you know Sarah and the administration have presented to the local school committee a number that um is a $1.7 million problem for the town of Kingston so it it we really as a finance committee guy I'm not going to do much of anything except assume that the budget increase for the schools Local Schools Kingston is 4% and the 1.7 million is off here somewhere so I think it's it's the school committees that have to come up and say okay our final budget for Kingston is a problem of 1.7 million or a problem of 1.0 million and yes Sarah gets involved because she has to do the assessment well I did an assumption on the assessment for Silver Lake and I'm projecting about a million5 increase year over-year 9% okay and so if we don't have anything else on the assessment that's that's something that we can use okay um Mr Pike just to respond um to your I guess um duty to ask the school committee members um you're correct it is our duty to um come to a reasonable budget and responsible budget but um our public budget hearing which was published a year ago is February 3rd the public has not even had an opportunity respectfully to weigh in on our budget um to ask us what to cut or not to cut or um what what to prioritize in our budget that's something that we occasionally we have zero people at our public budget hearing um the last several years we've had upwards of 30 um members of the public every one of them with maybe the exception of two or three asking for us to um retain these positions um so it's as an elected official who represents my constituents if 90% of the room is asking me to retain these positions that's what I'm going to bring to town meeting and then at town meeting we all know what happened in Kingston you know it was you know overwhelmingly passed now that was a 10.6% overall um increase for Kingston last year for Kingston schools it was it was a high amount um I didn't want to look like a fool this year when these budgets came in um at 17 a. half% just for the elementary um however I think at this point you know it's worth stating that a few years ago it was actually in 2020 um the Kingston school committee approved our budget I believe it was the first um meeting that the budget was presented um it was also the or it was it was in February it was the public budget hearing and I made a motion and we presented our budget and at the time we were told hold up don't don't rush into this you can always look at these numbers again and then next month come back and cut something else and for a number of reasons we approved our budget we all know what happened less than a month later that's when covid hit and that's why took the pandemic so personally because that was as close to fully funded as we were ever going to get we had even increased one position in Kingston after that it's been all downhill arguably the schools are the only Department in the town that took a hit from covid the only Department police and fire you know they still have their staff they they may have worked additional hours during covid but they still have their staff intact the schools are responsible for the students and the students they lost two years of education and so now we're paying for those costs I sound the alarm I remember saying we're going to be paying for this 5 years ago we're paying for it we're asking for the town to support it and unfortunately these costs are through the roof so I hate to say I told you so but we knew that these costs were coming we knew that the increase in special education costs were coming um we knew um the effects that um the pandemic is going to have not just in our district but in several districts um so I think at this point we owe it to our kids to not continue to take from them they've already lost multiple things because of the pandemic and now they're we're looking at cutting all high school sports that's all high school sports who moves to a town with no high school sports probably not anybody with kids in high school you know I mean those are those are the realities of the situation we're looking at I think people think we're bluffing I honestly think people are waiting for the we're just kidding everything's going to be fine I hope to God that happens until then I'm I'm sick looking at these numbers right now and the considerations that these effects are going to have on our kids who do not deserve to have more taken from them than that has been for the last five years Jason thank you so I think we've had an incredible conversation this evening about very difficult topics and we've been very amenable to one another I think the request of a regional budget coming out prior to house one is something you really need to Conta plate the variables for Regional School with State funding is immense over 25% of Silver Lakes budget is state funded and that can vary quite a bit we were shocked last year when chapter 70's inflation index was only a 1.7 we were expecting a 4.5 and the only reason we were expecting a 4.5 is because that's what's written into the statute the true number would have been closer to a 7.8 and that wouldn't have made up for the inflation we missed the two previous years so I sit on the local governance council with lieutenant governor Driscoll we have the ear of the governor we have been trying to release Eric some of the fair share Amendment dollars to go into operation budget for this fiscal year to address the 3 years of inflationary underpayment chapter 70 has received we also receive as Silver Lake Regional School rural Aid fund funding um but we fell off this year by something like 0.5 residents per square mile and we're looking into that at the state level recently had a conversation with repat Chief of who's here with us this evening listening to our concerns we also have to look at the fluctuations of regional trans Transportation as you sit here today talking about fully regionalizing the carrot to fully regionalize was 100% reimbursement for transportation we're lucky when we get 70% we had a year where it was 80 the next year it went down to 70 there's no Rhyme or Reason to it both MMA and masc argue for 100% year in and year out and even with those two strong groups of City councilors Select boards and school committee members we do not get 100% and believe it or not I know yesterday was the end of the filing deadline at the state house there was a bill put forth for non-regional schools now to get Transportation reimbursement are they going to make the P bigger or are they going to S slice the pie smaller there are ramifications that we need to have our due diligence we need house one we're lucky it's not an election year house one or it would be 2 weeks later we expect the cherry sheet to come out from the do next Thursday and that's when we'll be able to sit down and Sarah can actually use her time wisely to run the numbers for you that's the quickest we can do it and give you something that's real that we can walk away with and that's before the Ways and Means Committee the house the Senate the Senate Ways and Means and conference committee we do try and plan a budget with the first piece of information we get from the state thank you all right um let's go to um the final Lem on the agenda the Kingston Middle School school resource officer do we have TS here Gordon one thing does it make sense to try to get together again I know this is a big effort I know this is a big group but I think we really need to know are towns even amendable to an override right because I know I've talked to my board of selectman a while ago in sound of the alarm and at that time they had no interest in a in a override whatsoever that may change I haven't had that conversation with them but but it would be good to know is Clinton amendable to an override is Kingston amendable to an override not that we have exact numbers we know there's a problem though and I think that's really the where we got to start cuz not that was kind of my central point in raising the question as school committees we have told you the Gap at Silver Lake is at least 2.1 million the Gap at Halifax is at least whatever it was um the gap Plimpton is whatever it was the element so you have enough information to say we're going to have to override we'll need to we'll need to talk about that or to say we are not going Beyond this threshold and so get ready like right I think a collaborative process is really important I agree I'm just saying that from our perspective with all the information we can have in hand that's what we that's this is the size of the gap so I will happily participate in anything that you want to have with Halifax I will happily participate in anything that any of the other towns want to have but with all the known that we know this is the size of the Gap and that you know I don't there's not money raining from Heaven I don't think that there's going to be you know $10 million that suddenly shows up and solves the problem so there are probably going to be and I also doubt that the town are going to All Go full boore for the whole thing so they're probably going to have to be some really miserable decisions Chief Holmes please thanks Mr chairman Brian Holmes police chief I apologize I haven't met this entire side of the room over here kind of new in town still just want to clear up something that was brought up uh recently uh by The Gentle lady up here uh about things that were lost during the pandemic uh my predecessor ended up forgoing the entire training budget and it was until uh special time meeting we just cut that back I don't want to speak on behalf of what Chief Douglas may have lost uh so there were sacrifices made by everybody I wanted to clear that up um you know I'm not suggesting uh something that we'll be asking for uh in the face of layoffs if this town is faced with layoffs for the school department this is not something I'm even U asking the School departments to consider um this is something that's been brought up before it's been asked and the answer was no at the time um I've been in the town since about April um I've been brought in as an Agent of Change uh I can tell you that the Staffing of the police department uh has not grown since 1997 um and I can tell you that um I have have a strong interest in creating a safe environment for the students of the uh Cil League Regional School District and Kingston Public Schools so I broached the issue with superintendent Peru about uh the school funding uh a full-time SRO at the Silver Lake uh like if you come on over at the Silver Lake Middle School uh right now it's currently staff with the partime position he's there about three days a week um for anybody that's been in education for a while and taught in the Middle School System uh you would know that um a lot of the problems start in middle school and make their way into the uh the high school so uh I think it's important now more than ever to have that presence there again I just want to be clear this is um all roads are like they're leading to a two and a half override so um if that is the case then the ask from the police department uh through partnership with the school district is to fund at least maybe a08 FTE or or partially fund a full-time SRO at the middle we have a great working relationship with the schools uh officer Allen the full-time SRO at the high school uh he's he's loved by the kids there uh the students he works well with the administration um and again I I I I want to emphasize this that you know U this is only under the condition U the possib ility of an override so I just I'd like to ask that you recognize Lieutenant SC Mr chairman to talk briefly about other justifications for the position okay Lieutenant SCA is the detective lieutenant and he oversees the SRO so good thanks Chief yeah just briefly for those who aren't familiar so um currently our school resource officer at the middle school there's two sro's that are full-time patrolman for the town of Kingston uh they work full-time 40 hours a week roughly on patrol and various shifts and then on overtime they're at the middle school there're certified to school resource officers they go through additional training to get that uh that additional training uh is usually out of the Kingston Police Department's budget uh but currently the town of Halifax and town of Plimpton through separate warrant articles fund that overtime at the middle school so Kingston Police Department budget covers SRO Allen at the high school and we also have an SRO assigned to the kingst elementary school kingster immediate school and then essentially Halifax and Plimpton fund the SRO at the middle school through these separate warant articles I think it's about $55,000 that they contribute for that overtime for the SRO over the last several years it's come out why are we paying a Kingston patrolman to work overtime when we could maybe pay somebody's straight time to work at the middle school so uh this was just something that was brought up as a possibility there's also the considerations if we're going to hire fulltime position that's somebody that's assigned there as their regular schedule and then what do we do with that guy during the summer right so why would Halifax or plimp to pay for that so we tried to come to a fair resolution as to how can we fund this position full-time get somebody up at the middle school full time uh from what I've seen anecdotally I approve the reports for the sro's the number of offense reports crimes that are occurring at the Middle School uh has increased over the last several years uh the middle school sro's and the high school SRO are extremely busy even compared to a lot of our patrolman um so the need is definitely there to have someone there every day uh there's offenses that are occurring say on a Tuesday it's reported to an SRO he's not back at the school maybe until Thursday or Friday the investigation They delayed sometimes that can impact theity quality of service that are occurring right but so if there is this desire from the school Community to have an SRO at the middle school fulltime not at the overtime cost essentially instead of that $55,000 that CL and Halifax are already contributing through separate warant articles maybe there can be some arrangement made that that money is going to the school budget and the school is paying essentially 08 the cost of the officer and then the town of Kingston could potentially pay2 of the cost that officer to essentially offset the cost or the amount of his salary is for the summer so he would Patrol Kingston in the summer do community outreach type things in the summer that's the point2 cost that Kingston is paying and the majority of his job being the middle school but I'm happy to answer any questions if anyone has anything and candidly we recognize that the timing is terrible I I think you should put him on um or her on um National Night Out Duty for the summer you know they can plan that so uh Dr PR if I may I just want to add that um our SRO are a valuable um part of our school communities and I know that they're they're work is well appreciated by our school administrations our students uh they are a valuable part of our community so um we we certainly support should it be possible uh the um the creation of a full-time resource officer at the middle school and I also know that at least one of our communities uh in the past would have preferred that it be part of the over Lake budget and not a separate War warrant article so for that reason we all felt it was important for the towns to consider as part of the bigger picture regardless of the the budgetary issues that we're currently facing well to that point if it had then we would not be in this situation where we're paying overtime for our the idea behind this was really that we are the host Community uh I understand there's partnership between Halifax and plinton obviously uh in agreements but with the host Community we need to do this right okay Gordon we do have this on as a possible vote but um would the possible vote be for us to entertain the possibility of Are We what exactly are we voting are we voting to make it part of the regional agreement or are we voting to make it part of the regional agreement plus the position because those are two separate issues we have it right now it goes a warrant article um in Halifax and in plinton um so I think we would have to move to see it become part of the regional agreement right would that be part of the shared cost right yes that's that's that's what the vote that's at least one of the things the vote would be Cody first and then uh John I just think if we had figures or estimates that would be helpful because I know Halifax is very supportive of having the SRO but one of the things that's come up in the past is it doesn't sit well with our finance committee um that it's a it's an overtime rate right so what's the difference because if it's straight time it may be a very small increase if you're spaying paying straight time at a08 level because Kingston covering point to but that's important I think for us to see what is that difference just in an estimate we recognize you know collective bargaining agreements may change but what is that difference and now if you're getting from part-time to full-time for an extra you know $5,000 for Halifax I don't see why there wouldn't be support for that just to clarify it's not actually a shared cost it's a it's a part of the assessment it's part of the Silver Lake assessment to be born by the Silver Lake District and this this is just a a ballpark number that we actually ran today so the SRO are typically at the middle school approximately 3 days a week get them there 5 days a week full-time uh the cost that we anticipate Halifax and plimp did take or the school budget taking be all three towns uh is approximately $80,000 so 55,000 now $80,000 total uh if we were to turn into a full-time employee 5 days a week up there plus the cost that the town of kingst would have to do which would be approximately $20,000 Plus benefits John yeah John willson Plimpton school committee um I would think we should talk about this at our next uh Union 31 Silver Lake meeting when we're talking about all the other contracts and all the money together I don't think we should take any sort of vote tonight because I don't think I think we need to put it all together and figure out that picture and that's going to be a hard up meeting as it is yeah that was kind of my inclination so if that happens we'll happy to be there for that meeting okay um February 25th thank you all right so we will table that until thank you CH all right I think with that that brings our uh meeting to a conclusion thank you so thank you Chief Holmes thanks for coming out and thanks for the work that you all are doing and thanks the work you're doing within our schools so I know my own son gets a big bang out of the SRO so not sure that that's great that he has such a relationship with the SRO but maybe he'll be a police officer he practices all his scam so all right um we will take a roll call for Silver Lake to adjourn um let's see Jason yes Amy yes Mike yes uh Lucas Mark yes Paula Jean yes and I'm a yes um roll call vote to adjourn for Union 31 Megan yes Trisha yes Lori yes Lauren yes John yes Robert yes and I'm a yes we adjourned all right we're we need to do it as well do I have a motion to adjourn motion to Second all right all those in favor Eric I don I think we got Don and Kim saying I all right I'll entertain a motion to adjourn the Halifax Board of Select meeting do I have one all right I'll second uh roll call vote Tom I yes we are uh adjourned at 7:40 e e e