##VIDEO ID:whYew1iIQCQ## e e e e e e e good evening everybody hi I would just like to welcome you and thank you for coming to the public budget hearing for the Kingston school committee tonight I'd like to go ahead and open the meeting with a roll call vote Sheila Von here Michael shaane here jeie veman here Genie Coleman thank you I apologize aretta here and Megan Canon I am here this meeting is being recorded by the local scene anyone intending to make an audio or video recording of this meeting should notify the chair at this time okay seeing none we will start our meeting with with the public budget hearing portion this will allow people an opportunity to come up to our Podium and speak to the committee however this is not an opportunity for questions or discussion simply an opportunity for us hear what everybody has to say so would anybody like if anybody would like to speak Carl please feel free Megan can I just add that there will likely not be an opportunity later in the meeting for the public to question our budget when we are discussing it yes thank you good evening ladies and you too Mike I see you're the uh only only one out there thank you I'm Kyle Pike from Shore Drive the finance committee chair and a strong supporter of Education in Kingston and Silver Lake schools I just want to give you a few numbers to start that you know to make sure that the public especially understands the Way Kingston has been funding education for the last 10 years back in fy22 the budget for education and I'm including both the Silver Lake assessment for the high school and the middle school and the uh local school budget was $25.8 Million 23 it was 20 27.2 million that meant that we increased the budget a million4 or 55% for FY 24 the next year we went to 29 million that was an increase of 1.9 million or almost 7% for 25 we went to 31.3 million and that was an increase of 2.3 million or 7.8 % for some of you you're going to remember last year is being 10% plus I give you the benefit of the doubt and I included the extra 650k that the town had provided for the year before so that your growth from year to year was a little bit less than 8% this year and I'll explain where my numbers are coming from in a minute I'm projecting a budget of 33.3 million ion for Education that's an increase of $2 million or over 6% the way I came up with that number is that I think that there's been some um misleading communication out there the border of selectman and the finance committee suggested a target of 4% for all increases for the next fiscal year including the Silver Lake assessment including your local school budgets including fire police Etc the that amount was $583,000 so when we started this process two three months ago we were requesting that the local schools budget be increased by 600k now the state aid numbers the governor's budget has come out and that includes an increase for Chapter 70 state aid to education of $445,000 the budget that the Selectmen voted this past uh the week ago last Tuesday included that 445k addition so that the total education budget for the local schools was increased by or we're recommending the selectman voted it I believe the finance committee will probably support it to an increase of a, 28,000 or 7% the rest of the education budget I told you 33.3 million I'm coming up with probably about 17.5 million as the assessment from Silver Lake assuming somewhere around a 4 to 5% increase so so that right now the budget that we're looking at for next year for Education goes from a budget this year of $ 31.3 million to 33.3 million that's a $2 million increase or 6.2% overall for most people I think you can understand that even for one year 6% is a high increase okay your taxes will be going up another $500,000 just with this kind of an increase so understand that there are funding limitations without taxing us to the max okay that's all the numbers I'm going to bother you with now I would say that we we all need to work together on the town's Financial issues not only schools in education we have a new police chief who has is looking to do things in his Department we have a fire department that's looking to increase things we have to balance things out okay at this meeting last Tuesday night the selectman's meeting I challenged the Selectmen to provide leadership for the town not only management but true leadership I now challenge the school committee and the school administrations to provide leadership and to recognize that there's a major difference between managing functions and leading functions okay I I look for school administrations to provide education budget leadership to the school committees and to the town I find it troubling that an Administration brings forward a first past local school budget with an increase of 16% when they were asked to do somewhere around 4% if they had come in at 8% or 10% I think they're doing a job but when you come in at 16% which is probably I don't care how dedicated you are to schools it's unrealistic the Silver Lake school committee requested a 2% increase for the budget at that level that one came in at 7 a half% okay so I encourage our school administrators our school committees to provide the leadership for the town when it comes to education and education budgets the third thing thing I'd like to talk about is looking for real solutions okay I continue to hear and see people talking about unfunded State mandates homeless families contributing to the problem Apartments being built in Kingston contributing to the problem we all know that these are issues but they're not solving the problem we've got to get past blaming everyone else and find ways to have Solutions among ourselves next item Scare Tactics I hope that as school committees and school administrations we're not throwing things out there to try to panic parents school people that when we and what I'm talking about this type of thing is when I see somebody talking about 15 to 18 actually 20 layoffs okay well that's a major difference if you're talking about laying off 15 full and part-time Paras and five teachers or you talking about laying off 20 teachers those numbers have a real impact on the classroom size so let's make sure that we're putting information out there that in fact isn't distorting what's happening happening another example is having budgets too conservative I'm a conservative Financial guy I want conservative budgets but I do get to the point where the budget can be too conservative that if history has said we're going to have six out placements and we suddenly put in the budget eight or nine out placements well maybe that's going over the limit maybe we're being too conservative okay I hear people talking about all Athletics would have to be stopped okay there are always ways to finance Athletics maybe the fees for the basketball players or the football players have to be increased to a level that none of us want but it's a way of making Athletics work okay administrative reductions okay I I think that the schools the administration the school committees have to look at administrations okay I remember when Kingston had a principal in each school not a principal and an assistant principal okay we may have to take some hard looks at Administration where it doesn't impact the day-to-day teaching of the students but it it's a lot easier to say I'm going to eliminate five teachers and get all parents worked up and upset and say I'm going to eliminate three teachers and one administrator so these are the types of items that I'm talking about that I think we all need to be as upfront as we can and make sure that the correct information is getting out there to the parents and to the people who value education like I do okay if there's going to be two classes of 35 people 35 students let's not put it out there such that residents interpret that to mean that every class in this school is going to have 35 people okay my last item is to keep in mind the future you we should never be doing budgets on a one-year basis okay last year you heard me talk about the concerns I had for the future we took some stop Gap measures last year even the board of Selectmen voted the budget my own finance committee voted the budget but I think we all knew that we were going down the path to where we are right now consider anything you do this year what's the impact next year okay Capital needs are a big item there that I don't think we consider often enough we're going to be putting new roofs on the two local schools here in Kingston off the top of my head it would not surprise me at all if those two roofs cost $ to8 million with the state picking up up less than half of it so that means you're going to see three four five million doar worth of debt on the books to be paid off over probably 20 years okay at this Silver Lake level we talk about a new school administration building okay that will add debt to the books okay um all our buildings it was great when all the buildings in Silver Lake and in Kingston were less than 20 years old those of us that are homeowners know you build a new house you probably don't put any money into it for 15 to 20 years but boy you better be ready once you get to that 20year point that's what's happening in our schools we're going to put more and more money in there so let's let's say Pike's thrwing out all these numbers let's say over the next three years we have to do $10 million worth of debt financing for the schools we'll pay that $10 million off over a 20-year period with interest that'll be a million dollars a year going into the operating budget okay so it's those types of forward thinking that I think we all need to keep in mind I encourage every one of us to do the best we can for financing our schools there is nothing in my humble opinion more important in local budgeting than education but it does get to the point where you have to say uhoh some tough decisions have to be made thank you for listening to me and uh we will go forward trying to find the best solutions for all Town residents for all Town students thank you thank you Mr Pike I appreciate all of your comments and thoughtfulness put into that I'd just like to comment on two things one um everything regarding Athletics is specific to Silver Lake so that does not have any impact on the Kingston El budget and also um to speak to the new roofs that is just the Kingston Elementary School building it's not both buildings okay well currently okay uh would anybody else like to speak do we have anybody online who would like to speak all right Emily no hands Carl I I know that this is kind of off cuff but do you know what the fire and police came in with with their increases and what they were asked for I believe they were five and six did they come in as five and six right now the police the fire budget is around 5% the police budget uh we have found another probably 300K to add to their budget so that they're at around 8 to % but they're still uh like you're looking to find a million dollars plus they're looking to find another 7 to800 000 does somebody want to speak yes hi can you hear me yes hi um I just wanted to speak to something that Mr Pike said about it uh I'm just concerned with him saying it matters if it's you know 10 pairs and two teachers as opposed to 12 teachers um I just think that you know I think school committee understands but I think hopefully parents in the town need to understand too that those pairs make a huge difference as well and cutting any staff from the school is going to extremely affect the outcome of student um success student feeling emotionally supported um I'm just I I think it to say that it's a big difference I think is just I I have to disagree with that and I think any body who's worked in a school or has children in a school would also agree that's all thank you would anybody else online like to speak no okay to close the public budget hearing I'm sorry I kind of missed my slot but is it too for anything nope go ahead thank you sure um my name is Lee Lis I live on Clifton Drive um I have children at K Ki and the Middle School um and I also am a teacher um in a local District um I hear a lot of what Mr Pike was saying and I think that there are some responsibilities that need to be met by a number of stakeholders in the community around bigger picture ballooning costs and all of those kinds of things um I think that there are lots of ways to do that but I think that right now as we look at this budget when I look at my children's experiences in the school when I look at what I know how schools run um there may be some minor opportunities to cut but really we are in a situation where we need level Services um a class size and I know we're not talking about you know every single class but a class size in the low 20s versus a class size in the upper 20s is a huge difference for students it means teachers can differentiate instruction it means they can offer enrichment it means they can relationship build it means that they can see problems earlier and fix them there's the kid cost but even when we look at Financial cost when you start pushing class sizes up higher we as a community are then going to pay for that in other ways we are going to have increased testing costs we are going to be picking up more kids we are going to need more tier two and tier three inter interventions because when teachers have that size of a class things happen um I also think that while um we certainly need to be envisioning classroom teachers Lauren talked about it when we start to think about Specialists reading Specialists other interventionist Paris all of those roles those people are meeting our most vulnerable student needs needs they're allowing teachers to focus on all of our other students um and again we have the kid cost but there's a financial cost these people are making sure that we're in compliance for special education compensatory Services they're making sure that we maybe pick up some kids at tier two so that they don't need tier three um so I just encourage the school committee to consider not just the very difficult choices you're making for this year but the fact that sometimes a cut that seems like it's going to fit right now has just such big costs down the road and I think we keep seeing that with other ballooning costs so thank you thank you we didn't get there yet you can speak now or wait it's up to you okay oh oh yes um Barbara and then Dan hi my name is Barbara G I live on cren street I have kid in the elementary and intermediate schools um I here because I want to reassure the school board that this is a community that values its school system and it believes that our kids deserve a quality education many of us moved here because of the strength of the school system and we're ready to stand up for that I am asking as so many people are for level service in these critical years of inter Elementary and intermediate schooling these are the years where our kids are learning skills that they're going to use for their rest of their lives they're literally learning how to they're learning how to write it is the time of their life where they're going to notice and your kids will be affected if they don't have the right teachers if you don't have the right Paras if they don't have the support that they need you're you're going to be paying these costs down the road forever and ever uh the loss of teachers and Paris as well as increasing numbers of children in a classroom will have adverse effects on our kids for years to come and sure maybe there's only two classes that have 35 kids in them but if your kid is one of those 70 kids is going to fundamentally change their lives to lose out on these essential years of education yes it's more expensive everything is more expensive our kids future should not be the one to pay for that I would say that this school committee is doing their job and providing leadership when you are putting our kids Education First please vote for a budget that allows for level service send it to the town and then the community will show up to make sure we can have those resources for our kids thank you thank you good evening uh D Master Jomo I also live on Clifton Drive um I have experience with the classroom of 38 I was a high school teacher a classroom of 38 was almost impossible at the high school level the fact that we're even talking about classrooms in the high 20s at the kinder Garden level let's think about that for a minute that's unacceptable that's unacceptable this is my first time going through it my daughter's a kindergarten and she's got an amazing teacher an amazing PA professional with her who have helped her get through some really rough transitions my son's 2 and a half and I'm telling you right now I know it's going to be a much different experience for him and I worry about that I grew up in Marshall I've known Kingston my whole life we chose to come to Kingston Kingston was a great place is a great place to live and you know what we all got hit with a 15 to 25% increase on our taxes absolutely but the thought that we're enter maining classroom sizes in the high 20s at the elementary level which is going to fundamentally change the course for the rest of their lives is something I urge every one of you to take into account Mr Pike I know that you hear a lot about unfunded mandates they're real they're real and every day as an educator we are faced with trying to figure out how to make this work how to make that work and the district I'm in we're in the same boat but the thought of a classroom high 20s pushing 30 at the elementary level one of the most developmentally challenging years we have to do better and I urge you I beg you to find a way to make it work work it's a tough time everything's going up but a classroom in the high 20s and low 30s is just folks I have experience granted High School's different than Elementary I had the classroom at 37 38 I can't imagine what that would do to anybody that age thank you thank you okay before we close the public budget hearing would anyone else like to speak or anybody online okay uh we had a motion to close the public budget hearing is there a second all in favor okay all right first up approval of regular minutes from January 6th I make a motion to approve the regular meeting minutes from January 6 2025 second in favor I okay teachers Corner good evening for those of you who don't know me I'm staa levit I'm the Kingston Teachers Association president and my name is Kristen pishkin and I'm the Kingston Teachers Association Vice President we stand here tonight once again to raise concerns about the financial crisis we find ourselves in our core programming and our current Staffing levels for our schools are under threat as we Face severe budget cuts less than a year ago we were in the very same similar financial crisis as a result our growing student population has not been served by the number of Educators recommended to help support their learning needs right now is a Deja Vu moment an exact replay of where we were less than a year ago though with potentially greater Stakes this time the projected increases cost reflected in the preliminary budgets mentioned at the Joint meeting 2.2 million for Silver Lake 2.1 million for Halifax and just under 800,000 for Plimpton while the town and Kingston has increased our budget we still find ourselves facing significant Cuts significant Cuts in the face of last year's Crush crisis both lead both the leadership in this room and at the community level stepped up to offset the budget deficits in Kingston and Silver Lake unfortunately the other supervisory unions towns of Clinton and Halifax did not fair as well as us the effects of these budget cuts have changed the makeup of their schools the loss of the staff that directly work with students are still being felt by both the staff and students in both those towns we do not want to face the same potential changes that could impact both our students and staff with these budget cuts the floodgates are wey and worn and they are no longer holding back the financial crisis it is at our doorsteps how did we get here last year the union leaders asked how do we stop this from happening next year and they were met with the response I don't know our hope is tonight the updated budget report will provide us with some more answers because we know that what has previously been outlined in Kingston's preliminary budget and by extension Halifax Plimpton and Silver Lake was nothing short of catastrophic to our students education and Future as a school Community we can no longer continue this trend every year it is time for us to work together to plan for our future budget needs and avoid deficits so our schools no longer are impacted by these potential Cuts as Miss Coleman stated at the January 16th joint Financial select board and school committee meeting the public has not even had an opportunity to weigh in and ask what to cut or what not to cut that opportunity is now we are calling on all community members to step up and AD advocate for our communities most precious resource our students speak out during the public sessions reach out to your elected officials and school leaders to express your deep concerns that we are in such precarious situation to not be able to fund our schools do not wait we can no longer be silent as a community we worry that without action that creates long-term change we will be here year after year asking the same question of how do we stop this from happening next year will we be a schol school system devoid of full Decay Transportation access larger class size with fewer supports for our Learners at the primary level will our increased class sizes reduced course offerings reduced special needs support compromise quality of instruction and the reduction Andor elimination of sports and extracurriculars be what defines the experience of our Learners at the middle and high school level as well or will we invest in preserving and advancing our school systems quality education to ensure the brightest future for our students in town on behalf of the Kingston Teachers Association please know that we understand the stress of this potential budget and want to work together to come up with long-term solution that is best for our students our schools our community and our staff thank you for your time this evening and please reach out to us so that we can help in any way to change this course of action thank you okay uh next we have a PTO report um I have two fundraisers that are going on right now the PTO um parents work really hard to raise funds so that their kids can go on all kinds of field trips and have all kinds of enriching experiences outside of this budget so I'm just bringing up one that's ongoing right now cupcakes uh guilty Bakery is partnering with us and we'll making a dollar on each cupcake so if you see those forms coming around please please join join into that that effort um the second one is the Harlem Wizards that's another fundraiser that again organized by parents and that is coming in March the tickets go on sale next week thank you very important last year they sold out in about four hours so if you're interested in the Harlem Wizards I know there's a lot of staff that participate in that you'll want to get your tickets thank you all right Dr Whipple would you like to give your principal's report good evening everyone um just to piggy back on Harlem Wizards it is probably one of the most fun nights so highly recommend it and the tickets go fast so um it's a good time uh so just I think the last time we were here we were reopening the playground I just want to report that it's been successfully used by all the students and they love it and they're excited and the teachers are happy they can be out there so um that's been awesome I think uh during parent pickup though they have trouble leaving the school because now they can play on the playground so if you need me to say some rules to them I'm happy to do that um value of the month is caring so students are currently being recognized for showing caring ways in the classroom in the hallways um with peers with responsibilities across the classroom um we had our first our second Multicultural night this last month and it was awesome we had 13 countries that were represented um it was a really engaging evening uh Mr G organized it with all the families and all the staff members participated as well um families got to sample the foods of those count countries and um just see some different artifacts from their countries it was it was pretty amazing um I didn't get to go the year before so I was really impressed by all the families that stepped up to do that uh Lego day was a blast we take Legos very seriously at a k to2 building so the kids work together to show teamwork which was the value of the month last month um I think my favorite creation was they um wrote we build we build each other up as one of the Legos so it was cool they created communities um they built themselves the our Lego Club uh created all the different spaces of Kes and that was on display in the office so all the classrooms came down and looked at that so it was great um been very busy with benchmark assessments so our reading team has been and Title One teachers have been assessing all of our students um Dibbles the students take K through uh two and then star and first and second and this year we also started with the Sabers which is the social emotional um assessment so that data is looking really good I'm excited hopefully we get to report out on that maybe next month um we'll be meeting during our staff meeting grade level meetings grade level me uh data meetings grade level meetings looking at that data seeing how we need to respond and intervene so I get very excited looking at the Midway data to see how we're doing uh Valentine's Day is another big day in a k to2 building so uh just as a reminder we have a wellness policy so we cannot have food come into the building um the kids get to show their way of caring for each other which is really nice and we have a lot of students that are making cards to send a children's hospital for the students who reside there during that time um and just an update on kindergarten enrollment we did open it much earlier this year we currently have about 90 kids in process um which is pretty good place compared to how we've been previously so yeah any questions for me okay thank you how many how many did we have last year for kindergarten compared to at this time at this time last year probably like 10 cuz we opened it late okay it opened late cuz we did electronic enrollment last year but it was actually a later start so we opened it I think I don't know if it was November or December so if you can keep if you can talk about that in the community and I'll push out the message again too but um we're much in a better place than we usually are so on that note how many from the um integrated preschool are we anticip for that class um I don't have actually the number of total Kid K kids I just have number of IEPs I know of that are coming up but yeah they're included in that number any other questions I I'll just say that my daughter did her assessment and got out of reading Mrs levit thank you so very very appreciative so as as you know and the kindergarteners are working on um their 100 Day projects which is coming up is at Wednesday so I have to say it's been really impressive to see the kids walking with the projects I've seen some really new projects I haven't seen before so it's exciting any other questions thank you drle thank you Mr maternal good evening Andy matna principal at kis thanks for having me tonight um I we have received a couple of retirements and I just want to give a shout out to two longstanding members at kis uh Andy kaparis and Don Richardson for they've announced their retirement at the end of this year so congratulations to both of them um it's been a pleasure working with both of them last year and this year and uh I I feel like I have a lot to learn from both of them and I'm trying to gather every moment that I can with them so Andy and Don congratulations and thank you for everything you've done for the Kingston Community um recently Miss curtain our librarian has put together a bookmark contest where all the students in library create bookmarks as part of the Massachusetts School Library Association bookmark design and we have some contest winners that I would like to announce so this is just in inh house we have charlot Hill Mason rerio Lucy Arnold Nina Harish reel Barnes Leticia Crespo Claire Mangan Charlotte Sherman and Annie Sanda are the winners of grades three through six as voted by their peers these students will have their bookmarks made uh will have their designs made into bookmarks that will be distributed in the school library the first place winners from grade levels which there's a couple scattered in that group of names that I just shared will um go on to compete in a Statewide bookmark competition so thanks Emily for putting that together and all the work that you're doing for that um in a collaborative effort with Miss Fitzgerald our school adjustment counselor and our student council um I have approved a love for La um initiative where the student council will be collecting messages and cards and drawings to send out to five La schools that have been destroyed in the LA fires um we're also looking to collect some socks to send up to them as well um so this is something that I'll be sending out some information to parents in a parent Square for the love for La initiative with uh student council uh some upcoming events we have uh February 13th right before the febu the Valentine's Day that's being celebrated over at KES uh the 13th we're having an ADA presentation for grade six on Cyber safety that will be during Library class um it's all about being a digital Citizen and digital citizenship which is part of our standards um in in our grade levels at KES I mean kis uh finally we are busy working with um Harry talked about Benchmark testing and we are now working through with the data Team all the data and analyzing it and looking at classes and looking at improvements and looking at where we're going and what we need to do to make things better I held my first of several data meetings with small groups of grade level teachers um today and and I feel like it went really well so I'm looking forward to collaborating with the staff on what they're doing to improve their education and their teaching in classes and what they're doing to support students and how we can work together collaboratively to um to support our students Improvement moving forward that's all I have for tonight are there any questions not yet thank you je um I just have to say that Mrs Richardson is one of my favorite people in the whole wide world and my my high school senior had her and she is graduating from high school this year and she's the reason why that she did so well from back in the day so I'm just so proud to have to have that and thank you so much for all your hard work over these years and so just have to say that because you're one of my favorite teachers I talk about you all the time and she's a seeing you now but I'm just so sad to see you retiring thank you Mr Mata thank you okay financial report from our director of business Sarah hickey thank you madam chair um if you to start with the financial report that was in your packets um at the page two at the top both Kingston Elementary and Kingston intermediate the long-term sublines are overspent there's about $110,000 left total in all the substitute lines I'll keep an eye on this and update you at the next meeting as to where we're at on page two also contracted Services kis there um there's a deficit because I moved the copy machine rental from the building maintenance line into an instructional line uh page two extended school year um is budgeted for in the tuition line and it's being paid out of an appropriate line at the bottom of page three or top of page four the school adjustment counselors were moved from a special Edline to a regular headline the school psychologists are also on page four they were ALS they were also budgeted for in special ed and we're moved to an appropriate line on page four there's a new line for contracted services for nursing for a onetoone nurse um page five at the bottom contracted services for the kis building there was necessary work on sewer ejector pumps uh that was completed this overage will be filled by utilizing payroll from unfilled staff positions at kis page 7 the special ed contracted services at kis are overspent um it was explained to me that there was an outrageous price increase for otpt services that we were notified about over the summer um we still have to have those services but that's why there's an overage in that line and then um special ed tuition transportation and contracted services are are kind of a tricky thing we have part we pay for part of it out of the operating budget we pay for part of it from the idea Grant and part of it from circuit breaker revolving account and the specialed bookkeeper submitted a summary of those uh three funding sources and where we're at with the tuition transportation and contracted services and there's currently a surplus of approximately $127,000 in those accounts thank you does anyone have any questions s can I ask about the um OTP from over the summer was that something that they had raised the rate after we had already agreed upon an amount with them or was it just because the child re needed higher Services than we were projected sorry or budgeted for I should say sorry we received it's scen we received notice in Late July August of an $8 an hour increase which is substantial but I think that um if you look at KES contracted services and kis contracted Services one is over and one is under and hopefully they will filter out and they'll be okay but yeah that's a huge increase um there is a study that I'm doing right now with regards to the OT and the PT Services because they're all contracted throughout the district district pays over for all of the districts approximately $500,000 for these services and so looking at whether or not we might want to hire our own might lower the cost substantially I guess I guess my question is just rather why did we find out about it in July that they were going to be charging us that much more like aren't they obligated to let us know before the summertime that what what an out of District placement or services will cost that we can properly budget Dr panesi I don't know the answer to that I mean it might be 100% out of our control I'm just trying to figure out again going off what Mr Pike said earlier we can talk about unfunded mandates but if we know that to properly budget for a child this this got us into the situation last year with 14 out of I know that here we didn't approve the budget till July 29th last year that's when she approved the budget that but if this is a dollar amount per hour that's set a specific if there are contracts and I agree with you we shouldn't be hearing about it after the fact okay and so if there are going to be contracts um there has to be a conversation because I can Outsource anywhere um to get those services in an $8 do an hour increase is really it's substantial and that was just on one particular section there were other increases as well um from my understanding there hadn't really been some increases before so this was like one of the first times and it was just $8 an hour and here you go and then it's too late to do anything right to run out the door and try to get more services from or to try to get the child into a different placement so because it's too late at that point right well these are industri costs these are industri cost for contracted services for related Services thank you thanks thank you okay question Mike um s something that Carl said that picked my interest um do we have any debt currently that should be showing up on the budget lines are we paying for anything so these budget lines are just expenditures and the Kingston schools are a department of the town and debt would be held by the town okay and that's not part of our budget that's not part of the operating budget for the two elementary schools okay all right thank you I guess on that note are both of our schools paid off because kis is 25 years old this year thank you so moving on with my report um grants and donations and Awards in the packet there is a summary of the donations grants and awards for what needs approval is a donation from the 18 Foundation which is the uh funding source for the opsed curriculum so that was a donation of $2,920 that's for supplies and materials for Science Education at the elementary level also there were uh Grants awarded by the Cape Cod 5 Bank in a total amount of $466 so the grand total for um grants and and donations is $758 that needs your approval I'll make a motion to approve and accept the total donation of $ 77588 I'll second that all in favor I I um can we make sure that we send a thank you note out especially as I see some of these are local um Partners so uh moving on in my report to the emergency shelter update on January 27th I received an unexpected email from the state announcing a payment of $338,500 ations that I had where I explained that I didn't expect any money in fy2 for the shelter students um can't really uh Express how excited that I am to be wrong um because it's explicitly says in the email that it's the first payment and you can't write it's the first payment to me in an email without having there be something after that so I'm assuming that we're at least going to get a second payment given that this one was for September to December excellent great I'll will make a motion that we accept the $338,500 meeting the select board in Kingston had asked for some information uh about the shelter students I put a summary in your folder I um quite honestly did not have the time to do this work myself we contracted with a consultant who did this study for me um but I can't answer qu any questions about it if you have questions s so the bottom line on this on this is that this is a gain for our school district not a cost to our school district correct SAR why is it say 43 students in this memo but we were reimbursed for 49 or just six six are not considered low income if there are 49 this year okay in fy2 this is an analysis of last year and the payment for last year which is what the select board had asked for okay okay um just in the interest of transparency because this has been something that has come up with us a few times now we have received four payments total for shelter reimbursements three for FY 24 in the amounts of me one second $1,848 that we received in January of 2024 $248,700 that we received in May of 2024 and $251,800 189 that we received in August of 2024 which total out to um 61,000 and I don't have the rest of the number in front of me so what Sarah's memo that has been put together lets us know that of all the costs that have gone out and then the money is come in the town is not incurring debt from having the student population here I know that's people have wondered we were able to obtain this answer to hopefully clear that up for people um do any committee members have any questions or comments nope just a comment um most of these costs are paid before we get the reimbursement so um since we don't know when or if the reimbursements are coming it makes it still very difficult to budg for these anticipated costs yes okay and do we want to actually read that it looks to be about $95,000 um was a net gain since since all of these amounts have been paid and does that include the 338,000 it does not uh no because the stud was done before that surprise pleasant surprise email came in okay okay um all right so Dr Clifford all right I have a few updates uh the first update is about the literacy needs assessment um and the district literacy leadership team met with the hill for literacy on January 23rd to review the results of the needs assessment that was conducted and just a reminder that um as part of the needs um assessment there were inventories that um faculty and staff were asked to fill out focus groups which um faculty and staff attended and surveys that were also completed um teacher staff and administrators there were 116 Elementary faculty and staff which were interviewed and 74 um secondary faculty um and staff there are over 799 Elementary and 388 secondary comments collected during the interviews so there was there were there was a good turnout for um Gathering the um data during those interviews the data collected in all three of the modalities was conducted in effort to support leaders in identifying strengths and literacy goals across five major areas leadership tiered instructional model professional learning assessment and family engagement so those are the five large sort of overarching categories and based on the data collected and the analysis processed three to five recommendations for each of those priority areas um have been made so was part of the needs assessment the report that the hill met with us and talked about they said these five categories and then recommendation three to five recommendations under each one of those areas um the district um lead leadership um team will share additional insight and provide input into which recommendations within each priority goal area are considered the highest priority when creating the literacy plan and additional information from that group may also bring um alternate recommendations and action steps to light on March 6 this group this this dllt um will meet with the facilitators from the hill for literacy at the high school to participate in in drafting the literacy plan and again it'll be five those five areas goals under each one of them and a span probably over 3 to five years with a plan that I'll share when we've had a chance to create that on the six and and get that drafted and get that done the next pie is the mass steering committee so both the K through six core review team and the 7 through2 core review teams continue to meet they're currently reviewing for example I ready mathematics and hmh math at the K through6 level and at the 7 through 12 level specific math curriculum for grades seven and8 which will include um I ready and hmh also and other programs that meet expectations across all criteria on Desi's curate which I've talked a little bit about in the past so they're right now reviewing those curriculums and secondary information U mid midterms are now complete at the high school and the second semester started um one of the highlights was a few weeks ago a few of us were able to be a part of the AP seminar presentations in a sophomore English class um which is a new course this year um the students presented there were usually three to four students that presented projects um where they had to create a presentation they had to do specific things and we were able to give them feedback before they actually needed to um present it um the final presentation so that was a highlight and I've been able to have assistant superintendent entry meetings I've gone to the middle school for half a day the high school for half a day and we going to the other three schools and meeting with faculty and staff to just to find out more about the schools which has been really um informative and and exciting for me and the last piece is social studies um K through six information about social studies we're in the process of applying for a 1 18 Grant opportunity for fifth grade and sixth grade to begin implementing the investigating history curriculum in the 25 26 school year um this grant would include professional learning opportunities for fifth and sixth grade teachers we have been partnering with one 18 team as we've talked about previously on and other social studies programs at the middle school and at the high school and off and also for our open SED curriculum our science curriculum so we're hopeful that the grant will be improved that's it that's all I said Thank You does anybody have any questions or comments for Dr Clifford I just had one question so are these steering how often do these steering committees um meet the math the math yeah um it's generally right now as it started it's anywhere between every two weeks and three weeks so there a regular schedule that they meet um and they meet for generally speaking two hours after school well I just mean more like broadly um so are these are the curriculums kind of evaluated on a ongoing basis or like every two or three years yep um that was something I talked about at the beginning of the year when I talked about the curriculum review cycle so that was the whole piece where every year it's going to be a new curriculum this year it's math so and that will follow math will be this year and next year but in the fall English language arts will start so there's a whole sort of map of each one of the content areas and the two-year cycle that will that will be on to review the curriculum so yes just out of curiosity if you if the steering committee kind of recommends that would you ever opt not to do it on a like cost basis or would you go forward with you know just save the programs that we have now and um not introduce a new curriculum based on costing well that that could be you know that's a piece that's always in consideration it's something that at the Final End you know when we come to present which we'll come to to school committee to present the findings and the why and sort of all those things that could be a conversation but I think it's imperative in particular around the math curriculum because envisions our our contract with them ends this spring so we're in sort of a real need for a math curriculum that really meets the state standards across the board and so when I talk about Desi's Cur rate that's their basically their mechanism for looking at all of the curriculums and saying we we we stand behind these curriculums as being ones that really meet the standards across the board in Massachusetts so that's that's a piece of it we'll we'll present more about that when we get to that to that stage um probably in the spring well thank you that's helpful just to kind of understand that and why that's necessary to look at it appreciate that thank you all right so in your packet there are two um pieces of data for you that um we usually present to you at this time of year the first being students leaving the district using school choice and you'll notice um we have reached our lowest since 2017 with a a total of 17 combined throughout all four of our districts excellent uh in school choice so that is a a decrease and a decrease in Kingston from last year of one student it was um four students five students last year this year four students are taking advantage of school choice in Kingston in terms of parochial and private and Charter Schools um overall we have an increase of five amongst our four distinct districts in Kingston the number has gone up by six so actually in Halifax in Plimpton the number of students attending private and parochial schools and charter schools has declined but in Kingston the number has risen by six the next item in your packet is tonight's budget presentation and you will recall when we met last time we presented a level service budget and we also presented you with uh proposed Cuts in order to meet uh the town's request of a 4% increase and not to exceed a 4% increase this evening we have uh revised our presentation to reflect some changes that have um that were discussed earlier this evening during the the hearing and will be uh present in tonight's presentation but still we'll reflect uh some necessary reductions nonetheless and I want to ask that the chair recognize our business director Megan as as you're recognizing her just just because I think Mike's trying to figure it out and I'm looking at both of them too can you first explain the difference between the updated and the original thank you so the original presentation and line item budget that was in your packet last week um the chair had asked me to make some microne sorry the chair had asked me to make some adjustments as I was going through the adjustments um I found a an error in a formula that I had on my salary spreadsheet okay and the error in the formula was that um half of the par Professionals in one of the buildings weren't captured in the total and I had to adjust that so that was what the increase was um and so that's what why the change and just to clarify it wasn't an increase in the overall budget it was an increase in just what you were showing us in projected cuts and well it was an increase in the budget overall and then in order to meet the town does that yes thank you sorry no that's okay I was literally looking at both screens trying to figure it out all right I I last right the numbers are the same that's what I was trying to do well I understand if you spent the weekend pouring over it and then it changed and I apologize that that's why I asked originally thank you better to find it and fix it now than next March so you go to slide two on Tuesday January 28th 2025 the Kingston select board approved an elementary school budget of 15, 5968 and which was a 7.1% increase over FY 25 the Kingston Elementary preliminary level service budget for FY 26 is 17,395 69 which is a 2, 82189 increase over fy2 next slide please so I apologize that I didn't put this in here on the preliminary uh budget presentation um what this is if you take a look is the uh four quadrants of this chart it's a spreadsheet that I was using with the administrative team on the top leftand corner is the breakdown of the FY 26 budget according to the broad categories from the Department of Education on the leand side Administration instruction student services maintenance benefits fixed costs and tuitions and then across the top are the C categories regular education special education and vocational education so on the top left hand quadrant of this is the breakdown of the level service budget for FY 26 on the bottom leftand quadrant for this is the break down of the approved budget for fy2 using the same categories the top right hand side is the percentage increase from FY 25 to FY 26 and on the bottom right hand quadrant is the amount of increase from fy2 to FY 26 on the next slide so there's an approximately $2.8 million increase over fy2 in the budget there was a $1 million increase in salaries that was uh largely attributed to steps and Lanes um there was 1 . 315 million in tuitions and transportation costs for special education that were paid out of Grants and revolving accounts in fy2 those are now in the budget so that's part of the dramatic increase and then about $185,000 increased in costs of things like utilities and supplies and contractual increases so your elevator inspection costs more each year and so so that's factored in there on the next slide sorry you said the first line should be 1.3 million increase in salaries is that right or is it still 1 million 1 million salaries are the stop one second one tuitions M yeah so how do you get to the 2.8 I guess it doesn't there's other costs in there as well this isn't the total breakdown of the 2 okay all right I'll wait to okay thanks these were just the large drivers okay sorry about that no no so regular education reflects a 12.9% increase of 1,377 special education reflects a 37.8% increase of 1, 3863 $321 the total budget increase 19.4% was 2,821 1829 and of that uh total budget 68% of it is payroll so on the next slide I put together a graphic for you so you could compare FY 25 to FY 26 and fy2 um the the blue is the operating budget the red is the um special education tuition offset which was the 240 Grant and the circuit breaker account and then the yellow in each Grant each graph is the homeless emergency assistance shelter offset and then um next year we're offsetting the budget with $70,000 um of food service I learned we had an audit from the Department of Education of our food service accounts and I learned that we could um charge school lunch aids to the Food Service revolving account and so when we needed to cut school lunch AIDS in the budget we shifted them over to the Food Service revolving account do we have to vote for that money to be moved to revolving or is it okay not voting I'm just thinking of how Silver Lake went about that when we moved it does it have to be voted to move to revolving okay I was talking to the other day and I heard something about maybe using putting the custodians maybe through that budget as well is that something that we could do so you should have been there for the audit with the Department of Ed you would have had great fun um the pro in order to charge custodians to the Food Service revolving account we would have to do a massive study of everything they do in every minute of the day and what you charge now keep in mind your food service is actually a federal your Revol in account that's a Federal Grant and if we charge the custodians to that Federal grant we have to charge them to every Federal grant so we would have to do a study of the title one the title two the title three the title four the 262 the 240 and school lunch and a portion out how much electricity is used in the cafeteria and how much is used in and and um when we have extra staff in the administration building and have the time to do a study such as that we would do a study of the indirect costs to be able to take advantage of that but you can't you can't just say well the custodian sweep the floor it takes them a half an hour so I'll budget a half an hour of their salary into food service you can only do that with things that are um very specifically isolated so on the next slide um part of the discussion with the Administration has been offsetting the budget um so we're offsetting the budget the FY 26 budget with $75,000 from the three retirements um the emergency shelter reimbursement I would suggest we allocate $180,000 to offset from the FY 25 shelter funds to offset elll and an additional ARA um for next year the special ed Department anticipates that there would be $300,000 available in the 240 Grant the individuals with disabilities Education Act grant that could be allocated towards tuitions for next year and our estimated circuit breaker reimbursement is $253,900 so that total $ 88,9 if we subtract ract that from the difference between where the level service budget was and what the town has approved that leaves 9, $984,000 this is from the $338,000 yes that we received why not the full amount we that is uh up to the school committee to how they want to allocate those funds we can talk about it okay thank you so on the next slide these are the tier one Cuts we these were already made in the um prior to the first presentation um again the these are already factored into the budget when we go over to tier two cuts which is on the next slide you can see in the upper right hand corner that we're we have a goal of $984,000 the positions for that are four kindergarten par professional positions these six part-time lunch recess par professionals again these are the ones that will be shifting into the food service but it represents a reduction from the operating budget uh two custodians a point6 math specialist and two paraprofessionals on the next slide tier three again keeping in mind the goal of 98472 in cuts um tier three total $630,000 and the positions that are considered for this are one kindergarten teacher one grade two teacher one grade three teacher one grade five one grade six four reading Specialists and a specialist at kis the next slide please so this is something that was included in the um presentation of Revenue options to consider so bus fees for students that live under two miles there's a potential 8 87,3 in Revenue if you charged the average of What bus fees in the state are and all 180 students that were eligible to be charged Subs you know subscribed to pay for riding can I actually ask you question about that yes um I know that that does not include the low-income students were any special education students that are eligible for free Transportation taken out of that 180 I didn't have that breakdown I can get that for you no I just like so it' be so it's going to be even less okay yes thank um the other thing is considering a move to have to kindergarten and charge tuition for full day um initially this would save $240,000 in salaries because you'd be going from uh cutting the number of kindergarten teachers in half uh the revenue would depend on the number of students enrolled um which we wouldn't know until until we actually made the cuts made the change and had people sign up and commit to this um I would caution you that if we do do move to half day kindergarten those students are then only considered half students as far as our October one enrollment which means we would get less money for them in Chapter 70 funds um sorry one other question before you move on did you hear back from first student about the additional busing costs I did not so I apologize they said they would have it to me by noon that was an email yesterday afternoon so they can email on a Sunday but not on a Monday thank you I will call and get back to you okay so Sarah just doing the math really quick sorry um that would be a cost to the students for like $485 for the school year for busing that is the average of so uh School business managers across the state maintain a spreadsheet of this is what's charged in our district okay and it it goes from $200 per student up to a th000 there are a variety in the family cap some people cap out the family at $500 some cap some districts cap them out at significantly higher and then there's a variety again in in the fees for non-payment okay you just want to get context as far as like what it would cost a user what a family would be charged so thank you so the next two slides are the projected class sizes um if in fact uh tier three Cuts were made so I don't know if uh Carrie and Andy if you want to speak to those two slides So currently we have eight uh sections of each grade level so when looking at um class size numbers we obviously have a large number of kindergarteners right now so that's was our reasoning behind not cutting a first grade teacher um and that being said we don't know what kindergarten enrollment is so if that's a huge increase we'd have to figure out what grade level would make the most sense to cut um but it it keeps our numbers pretty average across the board as you can see by cutting uh two General Ed teachers there any questions have that I I just have one question um I believe it was the previous slide that I apologize if the slide hasn't come up I've been looking at all this the entire meeting um we're discussing cutting for kindergarten teacher pair of professionals would that essentially have shared pars is that is that the intention behind those cuts right now um they would potentially be shared okay and support it but may have to help a lot at recess as well because the part-time lunch recess poers can only be in the C cafeteria and half their job is recess so we need par support at recess as well so right now they do kindergarten lunches but then we would need H sorry recesses and lunches but we would also need first and second grade recess coverage thank you Dr yeah what would the plan be for 26 27 when those 190 students in grade one go to grade two and you only have seven teachers would you move we could just move move yeah yeah y it can be a little tricky based on certification because there's pre there's pre a second grade and then there's uh certification then one through six okay but generally it's not a huge yeah um I don't know if this was already address but I know that we had discussed last time that the loss of the of the the teachers but also the unemployment cost to the town of losing this do we find out how much we would believe that be the unemployment cost $282,000 the cost would be to the town not not from the school budget right okay but it would go the Town would still have to pay $282,000 the number well the numbers were based on the previous cuts before things were added so it actually go up L enough it go up yeah so I'm just saying the town still it still Town's money still the town still has to pay still your tax dollars still your tax dollars for $300,000 so no matter what you still have to pay that okay I just have a question I noticed in tier three two reading Specialists are potential how many would be remaining if we cut two from KES that would be zero I mean that's we only have two reading Specialists so that would bring us down to zero okay we have title one but that funding can change from year to year okay um I think the concern for not knowing the enrollment for kindergarten is a real concern as we've seen that fluctuate and not having a parot in there to the parents point that um five-year-olds have been alive for five years so they're not as independent in their ADL skills um so there's obviously some challenges that I anticipate there any other questions for me not at this time okay next slide please so the kis projected class sizes similarly with this graph on the left- hand side would be with level Services of eight staff in third grade and seven staff teachers in um fourth fifth and sixth grade with the tier three proposed cuts um we would reduce down to seven teachers in grade three seven teachers in grade four and six teachers in grades five and six and the reflected class sizes are as the chart states can I ask a quick question about yes in regards to the grades five and six projections for next year what percentage of those um students are on IEP and why was the determination made that um those two class sizes which are smaller than the other ones can do with less teachers and more students per classroom so the the number of IEPs were were around 20 in each grade level 20 to 25 in each grade level and Dr pesi if uh if you have a more accurate value I'd appreciate that um as far as reducing the numbers having six teachers in grades five and six we I believe that the as the children get older um they're more independent um and so the the younger students require a little bit more adult supervision with smaller class sizes so it's more around student Independence for grades five and six um Mr M I'm going to ask you the same thing how many reading Specialists would be left if we cut two zero reading Specialists okay and then I notice you have just one specialist for kis as a potential cut what would the impact be on your building from that um it would be a loss of one of the specialist um opportunities for students um like student schedule like will that will that now make it difficult like to continue the scheduling would have to change um like Carri stated too even just with the lunch and recess AIDS no longer being able to cover recess um the schedule's going to have to change for when recess happens for all the students um so yes scheduling there would be scheduling implications and impact yes anybody else have any questions for Mr Mata I I'll ask the same question so in two years would you just float down the third and fourth grade teachers that as the numbers go up we would try and balance the the grade levels appropriately with the Staffing that we have yes thank you but in two years two years we have 190 kids coming in so yeah it's we're just kicking the can down the road right and that's all without knowing what kindergarten will end up being for this coming year okay thank you both thank you so this this next slide is the list of additional supports that both principles and our special education director had mentioned early on with regards to their narrative had it been a level service budget and again I not knowing what the will of the committee is I I did speak with the Town Administrator today something you may want to consider um if it is the will of the committee and the will of the town to um try to achieve an override to consider uh these future positions in that in that motion as well um again ultimately it's it's not up to the school committee whether or not to seek an override but um we wanted to give you this list because this is what would have been in the budget had things been different so um our next steps are any questions that you may have also a potential vote of a a school budget this evening and consideration as to how we are going to move forward and engage with our community stakeholders thank you Dr PR also embedded in this is potential um language Sarah has added there in case it's the will of the committee to vote a budget this evening so in the last slide uh she has embedded the language that you would need in order to um support a budget of um um the original amount as approved by the board of Selectmen yes it would need if your amount changed the language obviously would change as well okay um I guess I just wanted to put it out there to the committee that I have no interest in um entertaining bus fees or changing half day kindergarten um Miss Lewis actually spoke about um as we cut things we're just going to continue to um create greater problems for us and I think one of the biggest um positives for Kingston schools has been the full day kindergarten um that is not free it's tax funded but it is um something that has allowed us to capture some of those early um intervention children and um also the ones that are projected for IEPs and stuff at a an earlier um time period than waiting until they're in first grade and trying to learn to read then um that 240,000 I think that that while it's what we asked of our business director I think that that number could fluctuate for a number of reasons number one the amount of students that are on IEPs that will not be charged number two low income families which will include anyone that's living in a shelter um will not be charged um so I think that you're going to be putting that burden on um ultimately the ones who pay the taxes here in town um to charge them for a full day kindergarten and um that cost we're going to see um in Greater needs of our students that are now getting only about three hours of Education a day um and then on that same note in regards to busing although you know first student didn't get back to us I think it's unclear if we'd have to add two additional bus routes during the day for kindergarten students um for both morning and an afternoon you're looking at um quite a bit of money that's going to be paid out for those reasons and um when we look at the bus fees that we could collect for children that live under two miles I would say that many families in Kingston would just opt to drive their kids so not only are we going to have more issues with needing to have crossing guards or potentially police details at our schools because we've been dealing with those issues all year but it's not going to be a revenue generator so you're just going to be upsetting the families that probably can't afford the bus fees that really need the buses so I would like to um ask the committee if we can um consider moving both of these options off the table while we discuss the rest of the um budget not because we're not Crossing off all of our um responsibilities but because for all the reasons I just stated I think that would make it a lot more difficult for families and it's not going to do anything to um fix the budget Fiasco that's in front of us tonight um I would just like to comment on the kindergarten situation because you mentioned busing the estimate given from first student was between three to five buses with the cost of a bus being between 50 and $70,000 so I think when you when you look at the reality I I don't think it would be financially resp it wouldn't make sense for us to really put much time I think into considering making that move to half day kindergarten if if the driving force was financials knowing going into it that that's really not going to put us in a much better place I think all of the negative reasons that Genie has stated you know make the most sense to not spend time having that conversation unless there are any objections to that okay um is just just about the kindergarten instead of moving it to half day I agree half day doesn't make sense but have we explored increasing tuition and keeping it full day we don't charge for kinderart Oh I thought I thought there was cuz I said I'm sorry there's charged tuition for full day that's why the re for the rest of yes okay all right um does anyone else have comments on the the busing Sheila um I mean I feel the same way that I think I I I don't want to go too far in I will say that like I feel I want to be understanding of the talent again I was a selectman for for four years so I understand the town the school was given 4% I think that we we going in with like s or 8% or 9% like like other other ones are are are fine I don't think we should be adding anything else to the budget but I do think if we are going to ask for an override we need to have a specific number for these Selectmen because I'll tell you that that meeting was it's all the schools and it's all off all and there a lot of those Selectmen are not going to say yes to it will provide period end of story and that's how they feel and I think there's a few of them that might be that might have feel feel differently but they don't want an override and so you got to have to come out swinging and and we have to give and take I think with what we're we're given I do not honestly I don't want to cut anybody because I just think we're just increasing and increasing and increasing I'd rather go to the town floor and see what happens with the budget I don't think that we should be adding just because we're going to an override means that we throw everything at everybody I mean I know the police was talking about a middle school officer like I think that that's those things are important but also like we're at a year where I'm not going to be like hey if we're going for an override can we have another million dollars so I think right now I don't think we should be cutting cutting kindergarten or or buses right at this moment but I think we should allow our Town's people to come to the floor and say is it worth it to have a level level service I this is what our administrators are saying we need and I just think that it's it's important and I understand where everybody's coming from but we also are very different than any other school system we have five schools here and we have to pay for out of district and we have to pay for out District vocational and we have to do Silver Lake it's a very different school system than if you live next door in ducksbury and it's one town one thing one thing only we're different and it's a different type of town and people have to understand that when you look at the budgets of other towns and go well it's it why why are they well they have one town if we had one town it' be amazing these guys would probably be so happy they'd never retire but there's five budgets that we have to worry about and we haven't even talked about the Civil Lake budget and how we have to go through our you know that but to me I'm not I don't think we should be taking off anything I think we need to go to the town and say we need this but I don't think we should get anything additional I'd like to make a comment and say I do support the addition of the eel teacher because that can be funded specifically from the emergency shelter funds so that would be cost neutral to our budget and what we're receiving from the schools is they feel that that's necessary and that's not going to take away from anything else so we only used 180,000 that's a recommended amount we have but we could use another 65,000 for the El teer okay I would agree to that okay I just I go ahead I just want to comment um about going to the town on town meeting floor if there's not an override then there's just one bucket of money for the entire town and if you go to the town on town meeting floor and the town says yes we want $20 million for the schools then that takes it from every other department so the purpose of the override is to increase the amount of money in the bucket so I would not recommend just going to the town meeting floor well we have to get the S to AG C Mone I agree that we have to get the selectman to agree to to it and and have conversations but I also think we should go in with a certain amount of money and not just go in with an open bucket of money and say Hey give us whatever we want because now it's it's it's an open bucket and I think that's that's not fiscally right I think we look at what we really need and that's important but I also don't think that we just go and keep adding more and more things that we can't afford right now um our shared cost meeting which we discussed a little bit about um um on the 16th of January with all of our Selectmen and finance committees and that was all of the towns that were inclusive of that meeting but the shared cost budget has not been voted there's currently a $990,000 placeholder that's in our budget that amount could potentially decrease based on the conversations that are had on um the 25th and I say decrease because we're not the only Town that's in this situation right now um I'm sure Halifax and Plimpton would also agree that there are some teaching positions that um could be saved if some of that money was um freed um throughout that discussion and I think that it would be a little bit premature for us tonight to vote our budget because of the fact that the board of Selectmen already voted um a placeholder for our budget last week and the only way that that number is going to change is if we give them a concrete number and then allow them to um um discuss amongst themselves whether or not um they feel that that warrants an override um I'll admit that I think that it was a little bit um premature for them to have voted that number um just because it puts us into a position that we already know that the town is currently um most likely not going to support an override here in Kingston and if we were to um vote a number tonight and they don't agree with it then I think that we've already lost an opportunity to get an override but if we were to um get through that meeting on the 25th and then present them something that's um I don't want to say more reasonable but something that they can work with then um I think that that shows that we've explored every Avenue but as of right now I think it's a little premature where we haven't um even had the shared cost discussions and there's that's almost a million dollars of our budget um I just wanted to weigh in a little bit on the town thing because um our budget 15, 596 is about a million dollar over last year's budget and if you look at where the increases came from a million dollar if it come from salary so between the town's 500,000 and the state's 500,000 basically the town is asking us to eliminate everything that's not inclusive of a salary and I just don't know that that's enough of um you know a school budget to to that's fair to our kids and I don't know that people have looked at it that way because they're saying you have a million dollars to spend but yet these are all contracts and salaries that we're kind of covering with those increases um so I would be in favor of doing the El teacher that's covered by the emergency shelter funds as well as trying to find other ways to spend the last windfall that came in that was the 338 so that we can decrease the budget or the the um difference between where we're at and where we want to be at and see where that leaves us with a gap and I think that that would be something to put forward in front of the Selectmen as far as covering it so that we do get up to the amount that we need for level Services I think it's a bit of a problem that the Joint Committee won't meet to discuss the shared costs until the end of February well that was the scheduling snafu no I'm just right I was going to say that's a no just big picture though because if we if we wait until after that meeting this now puts us put into March which means at this time if we do ask the Selectmen to consider putting an override on the warrant we are now that much closer to town meeting and I I have concern that that would lessen the likelihood that they would agree to that and that's we we that is very unknown right now yes I'll just say that no matter what if we went in with a big number you can adjust that number down on the town floor so there's not any risk of saying we we want this much as an override and then adjusting it down on the town floor because we had a shared cost meeting and you can justify it and say why the number is much less than what it would be just a thought Devil's Advocate if the if the selectman were to put an override on the town meeting warrant and it does not pass then we still have to make these cuts um that's that's just ultimately the situation that we're in right now and um I I think there's going to need to be a lot of I understand Mr Pike's comments about um factual information being out there but fact of the matter is all sports and extracurriculars are currently on the chop blck for Silver Lake um unless it's a pay to participate and those fees could be well over $1,000 dollar per family so um similar to the full day kindergarten charging for full day kindergarten it doesn't I I would imagine that a family that has a four-year-old right now is going to say they'd rather pay an $800 increase in their taxes than to pay $4,000 $5,000 a year for their child to go to kindergarten so those are some of the considerations that um I've made when I when I'm thinking about this or somebody that has um a child that plays hockey that could be paying well over, 1500 to $2,000 instead of the $300 fee that Sil Lake currently charges those fees are going to push people out of these programs so kids kids are kids are going to miss out because families can't afford the cost of full day kindergarten because they do not qualify for low income or they're not on an IEP and I don't think that that's fair to our kids so but I also see the reality of it and I do think that we we should have discussion I I'll be honest I like yesterday's or I shouldn't say yesterday's but I like the weekend presentation better than today's cutting all of our reading specialist does not appeal to me at all um looking at those class sizes I I'll have two sixth graders next year um my um current 10th grader was in a class for fourth and fifth grader that had 25 and 26 kids in it so I get it those are large numbers um but I would entertain you know trying to be um trying to burden some of these cuts um without assuming that the town will pass node I just I don't want to be waiting on our budget until April 26th to see if there's a potential that we could even put an override on the um ballot on May 17th so it's it's already been a Sleepless month if you would just to clarify some of these cuts that are listed in tier two Sarah you said that the part-time lunch and recess can be will be moved to the the school lunch revolving account okay for lunch duty only okay so part of each position or like it's is this is part-time lunch recess par professionals I'm just trying to so part of their salary be funded elsewhere and part of it those positions will be cut representing the Savings in tier I forget what tier we're talking about tier two uh representing Savings in tier two those positions will be cut we can continue to have lunch monitors to assist the children with their lunches and um which is a different position okay um and just and the two paraprofessional positions that are listed under tier two those are currently unfilled is that correct you have two open par positions no just one one okay thank you may I actually ask um in regards to the retirements that Mr matna mentioned tonight are any of those positions um that are in the cuts through the retirement or are those all in addition to the retirement like are those positions not being filled or are they on there as Cuts so are we really I mean I can do the math and see that we're really only only is not the word I'm looking for but losing five classroom teachers but if if we have three retirements which I'm not sure where the third one was that one of the custodians okay all right thank you um but if you can answer to that like where where that plays in I think and SAR correct me if I'm wrong but in our conversations those positions would not be filled so are those the the retirements are not calculated into these Cuts it's not in addition to these cuts savings is so I I apologize Andie and I have had a lot of conversations over the past month um those positions for the retirements are not being cut they are going to be filled and the $775,000 is an estimate that the retirement teachers the teachers retiring will be at a top step and their Replacements will be at a lower step approximately $25,000 less okay then my follow-up question then is if the positions are currently anticipated on being filled but are not filled then those cuts if you would are absorbed through attrition and therefore we're not laying off three additional staff right thank you no that that helps because that's thank you thank you can I do a little bit of math real quick sure so if we were to do the 98472 but we took the whole 338 minus the 180 minus the 65,000 we would have 93,7 still to put through the budget if we wanted to so we still have the reimbursement of 92,000 that we didn't put in because we only put 180 we want to put the 65,000 in right for the yell teacher so we'd be left with 93,7 to still put towards this $984,000 so I have $891,000 is what I'm coming up with that we would need with every with all told if we were to add that other 93,000 that we got from the state so this is what I would say that I would want to go to the town with at first if I was to say that keep in mind that the language of the letter says that these funds are to support instructional services and any other service the district is providing to those students sure so an El teacher a paraprofessional to work with the students in the classroom would be considered an appropriate use so on that note are our current El teachers and I know that we had this discussion a year ago are they being paid for in the budget or are they being paid for those funds because can we move our two current El teachers to that so last during last year's budget process we allocated $130,000 of the shelter money toward their towards their salaries for fy2 I recommend that we continue that for fy2 but that's what I'm saying potentially we could still move that money for those salaries but right now it's part of our FY 26 budget those two positions I subtracted out the shelter funds right in the calculations before we started with the number for the cuts right but those two positions because we filled them last year even though that was filled with correct the grant they are part of the FY 26 budget yes thank you but the number but the salary was backed out of the budget itself so if you take a look at the sample motion their salary is included in that second to last line anticipated FY 26 Grant and involving account funding okay so their salary would be in there got it so there's the total expenditure for the district operating budget circuit breaker grants and revolving but this grants and revolving aren't only emergency shelter funds there's other grants in a correct the 240 grant for uh tuitions for special ed students is in there so that number can be increased if we used more of that yes emergency shelter okay so that's I guess what's the number that we could put in there instead of 480 is the what is the maximum number we could have for that do you anything y the next we have left for I think that what uh Sheila was saying the 95,000 from the shelter for the FY um we allocated the 605 and then just looking at the budget offset it has the estimated idea 240 Grand and circuit breaker but we should still be getting like the 262 and the title grants as well right the 262 is a um uh preschool Grant so we won't get that anymore preschool Grant Silver Lake the preschool is part of Silver Lake okay what about the title the title 1 2 3 and four grants um have all of the federal grants have a provision where they are supposed to supplement not supplant the budget and the district has been using the title 1 two 3 and four in order to supplement um so saying that we're going to take our Title One funds now and have it be a teacher yep um would be supplanting and probably frowned upon okay by the federal government okay um Sarah um I know the house numbers everything that just came out we benefited from the 400 is it 70 or 445,000 increase in circuit breaker more not circuit breaker excuse me Chapter 70 that we did not anticipate what is the current um percentage for circuit breaker that's built into the budget right now for FY 26 I am going to have to ask Dr paneri that she gave do you know what percentage anticipated C circuit breaker funds is built into the budget like I know that in years past we've been very conservative about it whether it's been 70 or 75% um those numbers wouldn't have come out with the um State numbers in January would they so that was a topic of conversation we had found the smaller 65% and then Jason told us that they had approved the 75% both for the reimbursement for circuit breaker as well as Transportation this year so both the um reimbursement rates will be at 75% after you make the foundational you know requirements have has that 10% change in circuit breaker been corrected in our budget yes you you don't have a lot this year though right because it's now at Silver Lake another point I just wanted to make because um Mrs levit and um Miss Mrs bishkin um spoke about Clinton Halifax and that they had made some substantial cuts to their budget last year and um they're in a worse position this year because of those cuts probably and um keeping in mind that we are not a fully regionalized District but we do regionalize 7 through 12 and now preschool so Kingston is now responsible for approximately 57 58 % of the entire District special education so um the cuts to Halifax and Kingston still affect excuse me Halifax and climton still affect Kingston financially um once we get to the um the secondary schools well if I did my math right from last year to this year if I did my $891,000 over the 15 what 15 million I was getting about 5.6% which was about what better than seven anymore 7.1 I'm just saying 77 I mean I feel more comfortable going with something to them I just I do I just I I was on that committee so I'm just telling you that it was not a good I didn't even speak because I I was just I just wanted to hear and if we don't go with something I think tonight and we wait and we kick it down the can it's just going to make them even more aggravated and I don't think that they're going to even come with us even with that I think if we come with it with the bare minimum of what we can get we're taking the 338,000 we can move things around to make it so that it is where it needs to go and legally and we take that take put it all in and we move it around and we have you know 900,000 or 8915 12 is what I had what was the see what they'll do for us what was the number that you got I got 89152 cuz how I was doing it was I took the 338 minus the 180 minus the 65 and got 93 270 and then I took it off the top um 984 yeah so that was the where I came from the 984 and I got 89152 I mean to me are you suggesting that is override I'm suggesting that we go to them and say this is what we need whether or not they can find more money somewhere making can I ask for clarification as to exactly it's not even 6% it's not even 6% because my understanding is that the Border selectman voted 7.7% increase I'm just wondering if anyone has that dollar amount that is the amount in the presentation that's the amount that they voted and that includes all of these Cuts though so if you look at SL if you look at slide two that's the amount that was voted 15 15596 80404 okay Sarah could we reasonably expect another payment of 300,000 338,000 I'm not account chickens before the hatch type but again they did say it's the first payment MH so um cuz that that covers basically most of tier one cuts which I think all of us don't want to do any Cuts yes obviously like last year the thing to keep in mind though is that those funds can only be spent like in yeah specific M they wouldn't even let us huse amount on playground are there are there other areas we could use um that we know will be used for educating these these specific populations supplies well like yes we could I mean even could you use a classroom teacher if you knew there were like a population of students that this applies to like specific like okay we have one Whatever grade two classroom that meets the criteria that we would possibly be able to you know fund a position appropriately yeah yes I mean just to I mean if we have I think we should try to use what we have if we have 60 kids that's arguably three teachers right so why can't we fund Three classroom teachers that money I I understand that you know they're spread throughout grade levels but I know you said like specialist to might be an option too I mean those are still you know unit a teacher positions um to look at I mean admit a kind losing a kindergarten teacher along with four kindergarten par professional that that seems like that would not be advantageous to anybody it's not advantageous I do just want to point out though that for many years they operated with only four and five Paras for seven and eight teachers no and I know it's got yeah I I know it can be done I'm not saying it's ideal but it was done for several years I think it's the loss of that with with the teacher do you like because that's on both ends that's what I meant but I know they have operated with half day in the past um I mean I'm I'm on board with what Sheila was mentioned I think the rest yeah no I think we bring it to the board we bring it to the town meeting yeah um I think we got to go before I think we got to go before that the Selectmen and I think we have to ask I mean the board selectman meet again on February 11th so I believe Keith had said if we can bring us something from tonight that that can get on their agenda for does that sound right yep so that I mean we have the opportunity obviously to go speak to our own budget what did you say I believe the chair is hiding in the bathroom actually can I ask you a question Eric would you mind since you're here he know we did it for 15 years he doesn't know anything no um so to say Ola what ola ola he's getting ready for his next Cruise that's right um just one question I know you had mentioned the possibility of potentially presenting two two different numbers click for an override so that was just my opinion it was not like what would that look like I guess if that's something we wanted to explore so early on during this budget season it looked like obviously between um Local Schools Regional and police there could be a potential override and it was going to be a lot of money um what I had suggested and floated around was using um you know coming up with two different levels of overrides and I have no idea so we talked about it a little bit at the board of selectman meeting but not in great detail because we don't have any final numbers to really even vote and consider but what I was going to say is like let's just throw out a number like you guys had 500 Regional has I don't know say 400 police has 400 you know so it's like one point whatever what I was suggesting is that maybe on the town meeting warrant you have the higher number but then also have the lower number and again I don't know how it would work but maybe you vote on the higher number first if that fails then you go to the lower number and then move on would still need to talk to our town attorney and find out the correct way of doing it I was with on your side the last two times we had overrides and I don't remember exactly one was 2007 and one was 2013 and I don't remember exactly how they did it I I do remember though the first one like that was 2007 there were three separate overrides there was one for I think it was 700,000 for elementary 500,000 or it might have been 500 for elementary 700 for um for region and then like 70,000 for police which failed you know the two School ones passed if that makes sense so again that's really just me talking about two separate overrides no I just want to get your thoughts on what that would be for to consider Megan can I actually ask while Mr Cron's up there um where we at in terms of um the budget that you all voted last week it's my understanding that that's within the tax levy how close to the tax levy is that budget I'm going to refer to Carl but I don't think there there's much of anything and so that's the other problem um actually I didn't introduce myself Eric cron 43 Longwood circum the chair of the board of Selectmen so got that out of the way um as you know there's a moratorium a water moratorium so we don't have building so we don't have growth that's our big problem and for years Carl and and board of Select have done a good job of keeping um the TA some room within the tax levy and it was almost a couple Carl correct me if I'm wrong but it was like 1.9 million available on the tax levy it gotten as high as almost 3 million yeah so that means available that we can tax so last year when we had um a a big tax increase um because the budget was so high we were able to do it but we ate up a lot of that available tax levy we didn't have to go to an override but everybody felt it everyone's complaining that the taxes went up and there was no override because we didn't need it we had plenty in the tax levy this is eating up the tax levy we don't have growth um because of the moratorium um so it's limited like if somebody puts on an addition well that's growth but but that's not limited by the water moratorium so and then if somebody's digging their own well they can they can still build so that's the problem where we've had you know a million or more a year in growth you know we're at like 300,000 or something and next year it doesn't look great either I mean we encourage everybody in town to buy a new car and pay excise tax then that helps just go you know Poli or whatever um that ex and obviously the mall there's stuff going on at the mall but that's probably three or four years out so we're not going to see any revenue for that in a while so the problem basically is next year we're going to be just as deep of trouble I do want to point out though um when we talk about facts technically we are not we're technically not at an override if we were to support these cuts and if um based on what the water selectman just voted last week we are not at an override so last year there were a lot of threats that were thrown out that immediately voting that 10% budget was going to Bean override this year and that did not happen so um well I mean I think it could happen it could and then the region hasn't the the region is aiming for 2% we've allocated 4% in our budget so if they so actually to that point unfortunately I don't think climton Halifax going to be able to afford the 4% yeah so if we were to take that consideration that 2% off of the regional budget if if the regional committee were to vote the lesser of the budgets because of the fact that the other two towns can't support it or at least probably Halifax can't support it that would free up some more education money for Kingston is that correct yeah I mean if if if if they come back with two well it depends on the assessment it's not the overall budget I understand that it's the assessment to Kingston but if if that's um less than 4% then that's available under the tax levy yeah right and either can be left under the leby for for next year um or it can be used by however the town sees fit so I just found the Cherry sheets for next year so right now Chapter 70 is increasing by about 500,000 but our Charter School reimbursement has gone down 50,000 so there you go but that increase has already been allocated the town's already said that we can that's already taken out yeah and not that you ask but we are meeting on the 11th um you guys are welcome to come I mean we would then and and the big push to get the numbers early is because this is an override and there it it's it's a marketing thing that we have to do I mean other towns that are looking at overrides it's already in the papers about how much it is we don't have anything because we don't we don't know the numbers so if we and I know it's hard to come up with a number and you don't want to put out a number and then have something change because of the shared cost budget that kind of thing but the the longer we wait the worse off we are and quite honestly I'm shocked that you only have three people I mean all my years on that board when we were making much smaller Cuts than this we' the library at kis would be full of parents and it there just nobody here I mean there were like two or three people talking it I mean it's it's shocking so I either people don't care which could be the case or um they don't know about it so but Eric it's also with the fact that if we we say yes I think everybody's waiting for us to be like we need this money and then the other department are going to come to be like well if you're doing an override why don't we just add this and I've already heard some of that in your meeting last week and I feel like they're waiting for the schools to make that that like jump so then other departments might make the job so I think the one big thing is police so that was in our meeting so for years police didn't grow like they should have and there were years where we had big school budgets in the police were like they wanted people like no forget it you know we'll go another without it so that's what happened and the new chief that came in a year ago we've had a huge increase I don't want to take over your meeting but the big increase at the mall and at B at at Baymont a lot more activity they need more officers for a wider area a school resource officer so let's be honest it was full yeah but I think that was part of it so yeah and I know it's not going to be absorbed into school budgets but still it's for the school so right so I I think the push from from the town from the board of selectman and the Town Administrator to get a number is so that we can um if we're going to have an override um you know and the board of selectman put the the override on the the town meeting warrant if it passes there then it goes to ballot and needs to pass there as well but the push if it's if it's going to if we're going to put it on there people need to know like ASAP it needs to be really out there people need to understand what it mean how much it's going to go up how much their taxes will go up based on the value of their home um and then what happens if they don't do it what are the what are the cuts so so with with that Megan I I would actually make a suggestion that we go ahead and go with Sheila's recommendation to put all of this towards an override but I will caution that um that's without one right have one was tier one's already been removed from the budget but um what I would caution though is where I feel like we could lose the Public's trust is for instance if we have changes with the shared cost budget or changes between now and town meeting where these numbers are going to be amended or um let's say that third um that next check comes in that we can allocate some of those expenses then we are going to be amending that amount on town meeting floor and it looks as though we're not being transparent when we're basically saying hey there could still be some changes to this budget but I do think that we owe the responsibility to go ahead and vote a number tonight and um ask that the selectman consider it um once the regional um public budget hearing that's not even until the 13th which is actually after the meeting on the 11th and then again the shared cost is not until the 25th so I think I think there's a lot of unknown figures here I there's a lot of unknown figures I on the shared on the AO District placements are there still eight allocated in our budget or or was that is that the vocational you mean the VOC yeah yes okay so and that's in shared cost and we currently have six not in shared cost that's not in shared cost that's in that's in our budget and we currently have six out of the eight eight is that correct but no but we have six that eight budet eight are budgeted but we currently have six right and they have until April 1st I'm just scrolling looking for my Note but in theory if we don't get two more that frees up some money from those two that we because I think if we to town meeting floor and amended the number down to say we've been working to find money like we don't want you know like I think that's a show of good faith if we went and said hey we were going to ask you for this much but now we're lowering the number and that is being transparent you know we we have money come in I'll say this so I don't I don't like going with the school budget that the town approved because that is I think we have to go above she yeah so I think with tier three not taken out you it's you know what though I you can't take tier three I don't want to be the one to say this but I will say this I think we've almost been given a gift by those teachers that are willing to retire or that are retiring this year and I think it would be fiscally responsible for us not to fill those positions next year not that I want to see larger class sizes but we're not cutting positions it's not something that's going to hit the town with unemployment cost um we would be cutting the Staffing position but we're not going to be cutting we're not going would't be handing anyone an unemployment layoff notice um I I think that that that needs to be considered as we look at this like I mean that's that's three teachers they could possibly be picked up um with with an additional check if we if we get one um even if even if we could pick up all of those cuts with the additional check but I do I do think that that those are areas where we need to be fair to the taxpayers and consider that we're not we're not going to be handing anyone a layoff notice we've had retirements that are picked up through attrition um that and also um I guess it would be remiss of us not to consider any of the correspondents that we've received that have asked us to consider the administrative positions over teacher cuts um I don't know exactly which positions um are considered Administration aside from the assistant principles and the principles I don't think that any one else in our um Kingston schools are considered Administration but um I do think that those are things that might need to be considered from the administration that if we could save um a teacher and a pair of professional or a teacher and two pair of professionals by um going back to the one shared um assistant principal I think those are things that we should consider Dr P so the principles did consider administrative cuts and we were advised by legal counil that we must honor our contractual agreements so we're unable to cut administrative positions um does that when we talk about contractual agreements all of our teachers that are part of those contractual agreements like our three years and stuff are those different somehow than Administration and how so when we enter into a contract with an individual administrator it's a three-year contract and we're agreeing they're agreeing to work for this district for that period of time and you're agreeing to pay them for that period of time the collective bargaining Agreements are set up differently in that you're agreeing to certain salaries and scales over a period of time um but those uh same contracts have um reduction in force Clauses and things of that nature that are that are recognized Within um one more um thing just because getting it all out there tonight um the $1 million in salary increases I understand that that represents a 3% um agreed upon salary increase that was negotiated with our staff um if we were to consider asking our staff members to take a take a percentage cut from that um to possibly save some of these positions is that something we're able to do or is that something that we would be able to figure out the savings from that um like if it was a 2% or two and a half percent instead of a three you would have to enter into an agreement with the Union right I'm I'm just throwing it all out there tonight I'm not trying to I'm not trying to say let's open bargaining tonight I'm just throwing out some suggestions to save some positions I think we need to explore all the options J me so thank you just to follow up on what Jor is saying about not filling in those three retirements do we know what the cost savings would be if those 65 time three would would are they 65 time $65,000 each if they are not $65,000 but if you're talking about if you're talking about for example a specific teacher retiring and then moving somebody else into that POS position because you're not going to leave a class uncovered then that's where the $25,000 offset is that we've already calculated okay so you're not so so yeah they already have some of it in there MH okay all right so there's no more savings there um just one question one of the those retirements is a specialist I don't know how that would come into play if we we didn't fill that position and that is still a cut because of the position throwing that up there right I'd imagine the Gym's requirement right so it would need to be a certified gym teacher hired for that position so as I'm looking at it I think for my opinion we we vote the 17 million because we got the 808 93 already so we're still from the from the town then we have we want to add in that $338,000 that we that we got you know and so that's where I got the $ 891 512 it's above and beyond what they were saying because they already gave us the 800,000 so we're look at looking for another $891,000 from them above and beyond so if we vote the 17 million we're really saying we need $891,000 to cover the cost that only be 67 yeah so that's what I'm saying so like it would be that we would vote that budget now if we can find additional cost savings like we were saying I think it's in good faith that we go to them next week and say we are looking for additional cost savings but 891 512 is what we're looking at because you the 800,000 we've already already kind of found maybe we find more savings somewhere else or whatever the wonderful government decides to give us another $300,000 but for me I think our best bet today is to vote the budget just like they did because I do believe that it it is fluid and what we're doing and it's it is fluid up until the town floor uh one thing I would ask the committee to also consider is whether or not we would want to include in that any of these additional positions that would have been asked for and I bring this up as this was Keith's recommendation to dect approve if that's something the committee is interested in I have to add the 65,000 stick with where we're at I'm trying to figure out if I have to add the 65,000 to it because I already put the 338,000 into my I thought you took it out no because that that would be approximately 5 I took it out I took it out from the from that so it still be I did add it so technically I think we have to add that in I'm trying to do my math I I didn't I'm a psychology degree okay I don't I don't do math but I just want to make sure if we add the 65,000 in but we also need to add in the full amount of the 338 that we got total but I guess it doesn't really matter because it's still the same budget so I'm just making sure that I don't mess up because we're adding in the full 338 but it doesn't matter because we're still voting the budget with this 160 with the whatever with the 65,000 El teacher but we're adding the full amount of the 338 reimbursement we just got but we had that that's not on there does everybody understand that no I think so can you explain the 338 so we just got the 338 you put 180 in there yes so technically we but we want to use another another 65,000 to cover the El teacher but we also want to bring in the full amount so that 90 3 270 is what we also want to bring in to cover the cost of whatever else we could cover in that aspect so in total we would still be voting the same budget but we would be adding the $65,000 El teacher because nobody sees the 338,000 that we just put in there so kind of like we're saying we're offsetting it but we're adding but we're adding to how much we have does that make sense um I think what saying is that right now the level service budget is7 mil $92,200 it's 17,1 157 291 that's what you have on the last page and then if you say you back the numbers out about the offsets you're adding an additional 338,000 onto what Sarah's these numbers have changed you printed yours oh no no I'm looking at hers right now you're not looking at on your paper I'm looking I'm looking at this number right here well no cuz she already put 180 in there so well no we still have money left from fiscal year 24 so the 338 should be completely added to this this budget I thought but it could used well I think we can she already used she already used 180 in this budget she was already using 180 not from the 338 we just got that today yeah yeah to right so if you take the level service budget of 17,395 69 and subtract out the $23,988 for circuit breaker and subtract out the $338,000 for the shelter fund and the $300,000 for the 240 Grant it gives you $6,495 186 I think that's the number you're talking about that's the number we're talking about 586 yes and the retirements you mention the retirements are already factored in is is the El teacher factored into that no we have to add the El teacher into that well that included the full 338 it would come out of that it's not right that includes the full 338 I do expect there'll be more money I'm saying does that include the it does not someone's microphone is off Megan I I don't I don't think it would be prudent for us to consider adding anything else um to the budget if we're already going to ask the town for level service override I as much as I think we need to remind the teachers or the um taxpayers that we're not we're not we might be fully funded even with an override but that does not mean that we're I agree um fully staffed but I think that um it would be irresponsible for us to consider another I believe it's $520,000 $519,000 in positions but just to clarify are you in support of the El teacher to be funded from the yeah because it was already okay I don't know if that needs to be voted separately I would have actually said I was against that and I'll argue why um if for instance um these students aren't here um specifically shelter students before the beginning of the school year then we're going to be losing elel population students I understand that that's a current need but if our numbers were to decrease in that then I think that that may not be a need in the fall just one comment on that I actually waiting to hear back on legal counil about whether or not we will still have any obligation to them once they are relocated because with the mckin vento homelessness Act and the obligation to transport the children back into the educating District I don't know if that still applies where this is an extraordinary circumstance so Russ did say that they would research that and get back to us so hopefully some point in the near future we'll at least find out whether they may or may not be in when they but on that note right but on that note we have been advised that there's a potential that we could be losing some students before the fall is that correct I think they said by end of 2025 without more by the end of 2025 yeah so obviously that's broad but if we were to allocate the money for an El teacher and then the students all leave the money could then be reallocated right well if it's still specific to the wouldn't hire the teacher those are not the only El students in in the district right there's still a need okay you ready do we need to take a separate vote about that or we just include it in the number if we decide to vote a number we didn't approve any budget yet no I just like if we want to add the POS that position in I think we should that's my question because it's not included in the budget it's an ask so I think we need to separately vote to add it and then vote the number that includes that position does that sound right okay a motion to to add the additional e teacher for theal year 2026 friendly amendment to be funded by the emergency shelter by the emergency shelter fund there a second reur a second all in favor I I I'm a no just just because because in the event that I I just don't want to be wasteful that's all I'm a yes sorry so that will carry and then so Sarah can I just clarify this number With You Yes actually if you want to run through that do you have this slide printed out I don't have that I that I didn't know it changed I have the older one but I can pull it up okay okay I'm looking at the slide so the first number should be 16,560 3,586 that 53586 that appears twice in the first paragraph yep okay second paragraph should be $891,000 can you repeat that one more time please 891 983 the special ed circuit breaker reimbursement stays the same at $253,950 the Grant and revolving we are increasing to $638,000 and I don't have that total total number at the bottom for you just yet hang on sorry thanks s uh the total approved expenditures for the school would be 17 m4555 69 um that's the new Administration we don't do cents anymore okay would anybody like to make um motion with these new adjusted numbers for the final slide I will make a motion that we move that the Kingston school committee approve 16,563 586 as the fiscal 2026 local education budget the operating budget and further that the total appropriation of where did that number go same number same number excuse me 16,563 586 is in compliance with education reform acts of 1993 and recommended by the superintendent of schools and further that the school committee directs the superintendent to allocate the following additional funding sources which total $891,000 983 excuse me FY 26 anticipated circuit breaker special education reimbursement of $253,950 and anticipated fiscal year 26 Grant revolving account funding totaling 6 $ 38,000 the final approved expenditures for the schools will be 17,45 5,569 th000 is there a second second all right roll call vote Sheila Von yes Michael shaane Yes jeie Coleman yes arota yes and I am a yes Megan can I just make it clear though that that is um well over the amount that was voted by the board of selectman last week and in order for this number to be appropriated towards the schools um we are currently seeking an override from um the board of Selectmen um and that amount will be to be determined 967 967k of $967,000 yes which is a fluid amount I don't all right okay okay um we do have a few more things to get through before we can adjourn tonight so let's just see if we can run through these last couple of things uh report of standing committees admin review ad admin review um has meeting yeah but I don't know what the date is we have an upcoming meeting in perfect okay byla um kilgary collaborative Sheila super okay um Union 31 um there's a meeting on the 25th it's going to be um a very important meeting for anyone that's part of that committee um it's going to be voting the shared cost budgets um to include the float nurse um technology staff members um as well as some other administrative shared positions thank you negotiation we are in active negotiations with Kasper right now budget advisory we were just advised facility oversight nothing okay and policy Mike I know you've got a few things to run by um yes we have 13 policies that we uh went through during our January I believe it was 17th meeting I could uh I could give a quick breakdown of all of them or did everybody have a chance to read these or we could do a we're going to I have a question about two ask if you wanted to wave it can I ask you my question questions uh one question is regarding policy bhe the use of electronic messaging by school committee members my question is can does this or can this allow for the chair to pass along information to committee members with no intent for like discussion like having a quorum or something but just like in the chair disseminate information to the to the committee members yes I think that's in the spirit of the policy I could doesn't say that so that's why it's not explicit in there could you check on that I'll follow up for our next meeting thank you and then my second question was uh policy policies khb and khc khc specifically says distribution of notices by non-school organizations or on or on non-school matters shall not be be permitted does this mean that we will no longer allow for things like sports Flyers Cub scats correct unless it's sanctioned by the school I think that's isn't that KB the one before it where oh that's advertising in school so no we're we're taking a stance where there's no advertisements in or Flyers being sent home in backpacks or anything like that just to do a blanket policy across the board because there's other means that folks could get that information out social like SP like Town Sport boards yes that we don't have to adopt the Poli I know was that considered as an exception maybe like I I mean I see where you're going with it there's there's other districts that follow suit with that I think sich might be one of them okay so all right um those are just my two questions I know you have a bunch so I don't know how um we could talk about in the next meeting I could make a motion to wave the first read okay to give you guys time to over great I think that works all right so I'll uh I'll make a motion to wave the actual first read of these policies have a second Oh I thought was in the second okay get there we go so for the I make a motion to wave the actual first read of the following policies AB I'm sorry b e DB b h e e FC e f d e h a a e HB G d e e i j n d c j i CJ K DC K DCB khb and khc is there a second second all in favor I okay so we will revisit those at our next meeting so any questions next meeting okay and then um is there oh technology no okay any unfinished business any new business approval of the bill schedule s single signature warrants so the meetings are currently out of sync with the town's Bill schedule on December 9th there were 16 vouchers totaling $491,500 67 they went out digitally as a single signature warrant and then were're submitted to the town the next warrant is due to the town on January 10th and will also come out digitally thank you okay any other matters unforeseen at time of posting no okay and before we adjourn just some dates to remember um our next meeting will be here March 3rd the board of Selectmen will be meeting on February 11th where I believe they will be discussing the budget we just voted if anybody would like to go and support that February vacation is coming up the 17th through the 21st and then the joint meeting as jeie mentioned on the 25th is there a motion to adjourn Mo to Second roll call vote um sheilon Michael Chan yes Genie Coleman Trish aretta and I am a yes thank you very much everybody for all of your time and effort that went into everything toight e e e for