Good evening everyone. Seeing 6 pm on January 14, 2026, I would like to call to order this meeting of the Freetown Lakeville School Committee. Jen Blum >> here. >> Bob Clark >> here. >> Courtney Breitman >> here. >> Belinda Richards >> here. >> Tim Emmery >> here.
>> Becky Cushing >> here. Carolina Hernandez is not here. And Steve Sylvia who said >> he will be here. Yep. >> You could all join me in the pledge of allegiance. >> Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Also joining us at the table tonight is our admin t our admin team, director of student services, Kelly Steele, director of curriculum,
Terry Fleming, director of finance, Jack Higgins, and interimm superintendent Dr. Starky. Karolina has just come in. Is anyone besides Lake Cam, which we appreciate you always being here, thank you very much. Recording this meeting.
>> My name is Sam Tucker from the Nebraska Today newspaper. >> Thank you, Sam. >> Thank you. >> We're going to start this evening with public input. Is there anybody here tonight for public input? Seeing none, we're going to move right
along. Reports and presentations. I'm going to we were supposed to have a pools subcommittee presentation um but after Monday's meeting we're not quite ready for that. So I will entertain a
motion to table the pool subcommittee presentation at this time. So move >> second. Okay hear and a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. >> Any opposed? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions?
>> Seeing none motion passes. Thank you guys. Moving along to our ARHS student representative port. >> Good evening everyone and happy new year. I hope everyone had a great holiday season. The Aonoquit Student
Council is kicking off the new year with an open house meeting next Tuesday, January 20th at 6 to 7:00 p.m. The goal of this meeting is to attract new members. The club will be hosting interactive
activities and games that relate to the various positions we offer on the student council. For instance, I am the community ambassador for the student council eboard and I will be running a mini debate which will require students to
listen to others, construct their own opinions, develop strong reasoning, and collaborate with fellow students. All of these skills are vital to my role as the community ambassador. And then my peers will also be running similar games and activities. Everyone at the high school
is invited to attend as well as current members of the FLMS student government. This event will be a great opportunity to show upcoming students what it is like to be a member of the student council here at Aponquit. And hopefully this engagement will attract more
students to ARHS. It may also motivate non-members from Aonoquit to join the club or at least find interest in the club. >> Um to continue, this past week, Aonquit's DECA chapter showed immense success during the District 8 conference
in Hyannis. Um as Cam is the club's president and myself being a member, we both got to experience this one-of-a-kind educ educational and fun opportunity. At the conference, students either in teams or solo had to prepare and pre present business solutions to
judges through role plays um as well as take their categories designated exam. This turned out extremely well for the Lakers as we had 80 top 10 finishers and 43 students qualify for states. Um DECA states will be held March 12th through
the 14th at the Weston Seapport Hotel and the Convention Center in Boston. Um, and there we look forward to seeing more Laker success. Some other brief updates include the finalization of casting for the spring musical Frozen, um, indoor track and swim team senior nights that
took place on January 6th and January 9th, as well as the end of term 2 closing on the 23rd. Thank you all and we are sure to have a more extensive report next week. >> Congratulations. That's great. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you guys. Okay, on to our interimm superintendence report and I am very quickly going to hand things over to our students and to Terry Fleming uh who will be sharing a spotlight with you tonight about our digital literacy and computer science programming here in the district.
>> So we have quite a few families here and students that represent our K to 12 programming for digital literacy and computer science. And while they are making their way up to the front with their teachers and principles, I'm just going to give you a little bit of information. Um, digital literacy and
computer science knowledge, reasoning, and skills are essential both to prepare students for personal and civic efficacy and to prepare and inspire a much larger and more diverse number of students to pursue pursue innovative and creative careers. Digital literacy and computer
science instruction includes the areas of computing in society, digital tools and collaboration. Good timing. Um computing systems and computational thinking in the district. We have a blended digital literacy and computer science into our media library
specialist time with our students. Um and uh although the teachers share the load of instruction in areas of computing and society and digital tools and collaboration in the general classroom. Um a few of our students have come down with one of the many bugs running around
and so but we are still joined by a good crew of students from our buildings and they are very excited to share their learning. So I am going to actually hand it off to our Freetown Elementary Media Library specialist Jennifer Leovsky. Mrs. Fleming, is it possible? Um, I have
one friend who's going to be showing up a little bit. >> Oh, we can start with >> if we could please go to Absolutely. Another friend comes out. Thank you. >> All right. >> Come right over here.
>> Yep. Come on. You guys got this. Right on the side of him. And if you want to start by saying your names. >> My name is Connor. My name is Oliver. >> All right, let's just pull up some slides. >> Yep.
>> And then we can start. Okay. >> So, this is the school committee >> to talk to you about. >> You have to go to Terry's section. >> What's in the agenda? Oh, >> no sense in being there. Second row. There you go.
>> I apologize. I did not link it in multiple places. Nice and loud. Nice and loud. >> Sorry about that. >> Hi everyone. We are so excited to show you how we use our creativity and technology to bring animals to life. We
used Legos, light boxes, iPads, and app called Doing to create the picker pictures you see here today. >> First, we had to become experts. We used Pebble Go to research an animal of our choice. We learned all about what they
look like and where they live. >> Next came the building phase. We used Legos to create a 3D model of our animal. We had to use lots of black and gray bricks to get the shape just right,
including his strong arms and sturdy chest. When our Lego animals were finished, we moved them to the light box. This made our models look bright and professional. We used our iPads to take pictures from many different angles
to find the perfect shot. After we picked our favorite photo, we uploaded it into the Do Ink app. This is where the magic happened. The app let us crop our own Lego animal, so there was no
background left. Then we layered it onto a brand new background, the animals natural habitat. We hope you enjoy looking at our Lego creations in their wild homes. Um, so every year the the media center
works on projects and so some of the other projects that you see on there, the octopus in the ocean is from grade one and then the eagle prey is from grade two also. And then third grade there's a happy lunar new year project that they did all out of based out of
literacy. It starts with literacy and then goes into the STEM um components in our elementary buildings. We both did wonderful. >> Great job. Thank you for coming. Thank you for sharing with us. >> All right, we're ready for Freetown
Elementary. We learned to code with the Dash robots during the hour of code week in December. We worked with the Dash challenge cards. One example is the task given on the da on the dash the
collector challenge card. We use the bulldozer accessory and pro and program dash to move forward and collect the duplow blocks with the bulldo bulldozer. We had to figure out how many cm dash
had to move forward in order to collect all of the duploss. Then we recorded a woohoo sound with our voices for Dash to say to celebrate that Dash collected the Duplo box.
the courses on code.org. We used a pair programming approach, which means we worked with partners to complete coding puzzles. We completed the lessons around the computer science concept of
sequences, loops, and debugging. In these puzzles, we had to get a character to move a certain location in the puzzle or complete a certain task in the puzzle. One example of this is the
harvester puzzle where we had to have the harvester walk in a certain distance and pick up the corn. We we have also been learning about digital literacy. We have used the
typetastic digital literacy program to learn about topics such as online privacy, passwords and security online digital footprint
realility in information copyright and more. We will also start to work on research projects which will engrade these topics
too. How'd you do? >> He's confounded by the run. All right. Anyway, right. One of the most enjoyable times is to go over to the Freetown Elementary uh media center library because not only is it
set up with a lot of books and tables for collaboration, but they are making the Dash and Dots like dodge a lot of obstacles. Not just go to pick up the Duplo, but there's a lot there's not as much room as you might think in the in the media center there. And they're constantly they bring these out all the
time. Um Kobe and Nora, thank you so much for your time and your um well spoken um information. And now we're going to move to the intermediate building to grays and Miss Grabki is bringing up two of our
students, Owen and Lauren. Hello, I'm I'm Mrs. Grabbkkey, the media li library media specialist at Grace. And at Grace, we continue practicing and building on the digital literacy fun foundations taught at the elementary
schools. Throughout the year, we have projects on dig digital citizenship, green screens, and coding. Two of two of my fifth grade students, uh, Owen Beijian and Lauren Limpoko are
here tonight to tell you about their coding projects that we recently completed in library. >> Good evening. It's nice to be here. In library class, we are learning to code using the site code.org, which we used in elementary school. Each year, the challenges in the program get harder as
we learn new skills. >> In coding, we get to use computer games to learn important life skills. We learned how to solve problems, create algorithms, and to sequence. We also learned creativity, organization, and persistence. Last week, we learned how
to find our way through a maze with a program in code.org. In this lesson, we have to move characters through a maze by creating blocks of code in the correct sequence. >> If they go in the wrong direction, we have to debug the program and problem
solve how to fix the program. It is a lot of fun learning how to program, create games, and learn skills that we will be able to use in real life. Thank you for inviting us to share what we are learning with you guys. So, they mentioned the green screens as well, and I just want to remind everyone
that that is from funding that came from Senator Rodri's um office. Um those shadow boxes and green screens. We're going to get a group picture after we finish. Um, we're taking a jump over the middle school, but I do want to explain a little bit about what middle school is, um, doing. Um, in the middle school,
all students are exposed to digital literacy and computer science. Um, and this is a throughine to the high school as they are using code.org courses. Um, introduction to computer science, CS fundamentals, and CS discoveries. And now, I'm not sure if she made it yet,
but I'm going to introduce uh, Katarina Wano from Miss Kachiko's computer science class. Oh, okay. I'm not I guess she wasn't able to make it. I had not heard um back today. Uh but we had several students at the
high school that were going to um come and speak about what they do in the high school computer science classes. Um as well as um just um continue to um ask for more, right? More computer science
opportunities. uh AP uh computer science is one of our AP courses. Um in the high school, the introduction to computer science does coding animations and they do games using JavaScript and then they use coding apps like add a fruit and circuit board. And then the AP computer
science principles class, they work with algorithms um which is the creation of formulas and equations. They use coding in JavaScript as well to do functions, parameters, um conditional statements, lists, loops, traversals. Uh and then they also extend into the other domains
of cyber security and global impact with privacy, security risks and protecting data. And they use data for data tables, machine learning and algorithmic biases. And then they jump into digital information which represents analog as
digital um information binary data compression. Um if you think of the matrix like that's that section of the learning uh internet networks addressing uh addressing and uh routing information. And I'm so sorry that our high school students were not able to
join us tonight, but I know that Miss Pacico, who also went home with a sick child, um is looking forward to having all of our young computer science students get to the high school so they can join her. And that is our digital literacy
program and I'll just continue to advocate for uh our development and more of these opportunities for our students. >> Thank you, >> Terry. Thank you. Can we get a picture of the kids? Yes, I'll if we can head to the to the to the back panel, we'll get a group picture.
>> That's great. Before we move on, I'll take this opportunity to thank uh Terry Plleming for organizing tonight and to thank our administrators and teachers who accompanied their students for tonight's presentation and certainly a big thank you uh and an acknowledgement of the bravery of our students who are standing up on camera and giving a
presentation about their learning. So, thank you for having them tonight and and thank you to them. Uh, I believe we'll move right along in the agenda if that's okay with the chair. >> Absolutely. >> All right. Uh, which means we are heading back up uh to uh the interim superintendent section and we'll be
moving on to the ARHS program of studies component. Um, Mrs. Dert sent her sends her regrets. She too is ill. Uh, but she sent in herstead our assistant principal, Mr. Galant who is going to present the proposed changes to the
program of studies. Uh in your uh digital packet you have the complete program of studies and you have the separate list of changes and Mr. GL is going to walk you through those salient changes. He'll respond to any questions that you have. Uh and then later on in the evening we'll be looking for a vote
regarding the program of studies. >> Mr. Glatt. >> Good evening everyone. Thank you for having me to present the exciting proposed changes to the Aponica program of studies. Uh before I begin, I do want to take the opportunity to thank those involved in making some of these changes, including our school council,
curriculum leaders, guidance department, of course, our staff, the central office team, and all of your support for all of our offerings. Beyond some grammatical corrections in our program or studies, our first change that we want to talk about is a change to our number of credits required for graduation. We are
increasing the number from 120 credits to 121 credits. Um this is in acknowledgement of our students work in completing the civics's action project during their 11th grade school year. We've also included our new competency determination requirements and to that I
thank Terry for her support and guidance in that process. Uh we have two our next two additions are closely linked and that is our my cap or my career academic plan. It's a student- centered planning process designed to connect students academic
coursework, personal interests, and post-secondary goals. Students will complete self-reflections, career explorations, and academic planning with counselors and their teachers in this process. And closely related, we have our innovative career pathways or ICP. Uh and this is programming which
receives a a desi designation uh which pairs advanced and technical courses along with internship experience in order to give students career experiences and the possibility for industry credentials making them both more marketable for professional and higher learning institutions.
We are currently in our first year of our healthcare pathway and in the process of completing the application for our business pathway. We have three course additions including the AP business and personal finance course which is supporting students in
our business path uh programming our forthcoming business pathway and our many students in our DECA chapter as you just heard of their success. Uh AP business and personal finance is part of the AP kick career kickstart group of courses designed to accelerate high school students in their path to in
demand careers. We have a sports officiating course, an exciting opportunity that came uh to us through Mrs. Dert's connections with other South Coast Conference principles. This course is designed to provide students the opportunity to receive
formal training to become certified officials, helping to address the uh shortage of officials in both the youth, middle, and high school sports. Uh we also have a health careers course that we're adding which provides students with an exploration of the rapidly evolving world of health career uh which
f focuses on specific clinical skills and daily responsibles responsibilities of health care professionals. Uh we have a few course name changes. Um in order to meet that competency determination, our students in our personalized learning track um we have courses that
are name changing to English genres and English survey and in our math side are fun foundations of algebra 1 in foundations of geometry again so that the students are meeting the the distinct ELA and math courses. And one of our last changes is changing our
public speaking course name to communications so that we can hopefully have a course that when a 14-year-old sees public speaking and now communications, they might want to take that course. And I think I covered everything. Sorry
that was fast. Any questions? >> Just before you move on, I'll just point out a few of the things that Mr. Glott highlighted are probably familiar to you. uh the presentation we had last month, we talked about the pending changes to graduation requirements based on the governor's council and tonight
you heard some of the changes in the program of studies to begin to align with that uh things like my cap uh and career planning for with career planning for students, innovation career pathway programming uh and accompanying internships and something like an AP business course. If you recall, that was
a pending requirement that all students take a bit some type of business or finance course. >> Any questions for Mr. Glenn? >> Um, for the uh the AP business uh courses in personal finance, um, do we already have the staff to accommodate
the course learning? >> So, our business teachers is will be receiving the training over the summer to become certified. It's actually a brand new course that's being piloted in piloted in a few schools. So next year will be the first year in its roll out. So our teacher has been uh Mr. Rose has
been right in following along the whole entire way and he's excited for the challenge. >> Right. >> Great. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Good. Any other questions? >> Thank you. >> Thank you. And again, thank you for your
continued support for our programming. >> That's our high school student. Our high school student who is going to make her presentation about coding and digital literacy just arrived. Would you like to entertain her presentation? >> Absolutely. >> Yes. >> Do you want me to go to the podium?
>> Absolutely. >> Sorry. It said 6:30 so >> shut up. >> Okay. I'm Katarina Ivanov for those of you who don't know me. Um I'm a senior at Aonoquit. I'm taking AP computer science right now. So Mrs. Pico asked me
to present a little thing on coding, why it's important, and everything. In a world increasingly reliant on technology, spanning from the algorithms that shape media content to the AI that assists in coursework and drafting curriculum, a fluency in the basics of
computer science and digital literacy becomes more and more essential. While technology can be a valuable resource, it can also serve as a dangerous weapon. In order for students in overall society to use it to their advantage, the utility of such a resource must be defined. Today, so many students find
themselves guilty of plagiarism through the reference of AI, deceived by false content online, and if nothing else, find themselves confronting an inability to adapt their education to the modern world. Personally, as someone planning to pursue a STEM related field in the near future, I want to be confident that
skills I learned in class are applicable and relevant to the tasks at hand. Currently, the education in reference to computer science is mainly concept based and textbook defined. While students can learn the principles of the subject, it is questionable whether they will be able to apply these skills to their
future careers and furthermore their everyday lives. The clear and obvious solution to such a problem lies in the practice of project-based learning. This involves hands-on learning and applying real world problems to all subjects, specifically in regards to the STEM subjects. Students could benefit from an
expansion of the school's robotics, engineering, and CAD resources and potentially a program educating students on the tools, functions, and guidelines of AI to adapt it to their purpose as well as avoid penalty at a later time. While the issue may lie in lack of
interest and consequently a dismissal of funding, the district could begin by exploring options such as field trips such as the girls in STEM summit in April, in school presentations, and schoolwide involvement in STEM, for example, STEM week to invoke the interest. Our generation is at the
forefront of the technological revolution, and it is crucial to become proficient in order to tackle a rapidly changing society. Thank you for your time. Well done. There were some really, really good recommendations in there. Katarina, >> thank you.
>> Sivan, did you have more? >> Sorry. >> Did you have more to add? >> So, Mr. told me just to be here for digital literacy. >> I'm sorry, I didn't I I had not received your name. So, please please come up if
that >> a last minute entry if that's okay. >> Yeah. You know, I'm not going to say that. >> Really sorry about that, but it is why we're all here, right? >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> So, >> while Sullivan is setting up, I'll remind you that Sullivan was our Eagle Scout.
>> Catched all of our posts. >> Yeah. I'm sorry I couldn't make it to that meeting. I had some emergency stuff I had to get to. Um, but I wanted to thank you guys for letting me do that project. >> Well, thank you. >> Thank you. Um, so what I have before you is a
robotic arm. Again, all I was told about this meeting is that it was about digital literacy. And I didn't really prepare much of a presentation per se, but I wanted to explain to you guys how we get to these mechanical systems that build our world, like the entire world
around us for like the cameras, the computers, the microphones. So, this robotic arm, it's already pre-coded with a sequence that I could present to you, but again, I don't want to take up too much of your time. But if I just
plug it into this, it has a sequence of moves that are very specific to what I designed it to do. So after a 3se secondond timer from when it starts at 00 0
moves there to one 0 0 on a coordinate system and there you go. Now this may look simple and it may look easy but you can trust me to make something like this is not very simple and easy. What I had to
do is I had to do the complicated math and the arithmetic to get signals from this computer and send it to this arm so that the motors would go to just the right
position to be able to move in a grid format. And that's what the entire world is based on is based on just simple one and zero signals. And so understanding
just that as a concept as a whole is as a basis of everything that every technology that we understand. That having that understanding really helps
with what we think of as digital literacy. And it gives you an idea of what the world around you looks like to somebody like me or somebody who wants to eventually
become a computer scientist or developer is everything is built around just simple ones and zeros. But with a lot of math and a lot of um electrical components, you can make
something as complicated as this just with the time and effort. And in I didn't learn to make these in any of my classes. I want to also make that clear. I had to spend a lot of time on YouTube and a lot of time spending out spent a
lot of spent time outside of my classes learning how to connect components correctly and learning to understand the signals and libraries and everything about how each one of these components worked. And if there were more programs
that were put towards robotics and engineering and electrical computing, I think we could go infinitely further. Like our stu students like me would be able to get to this place in high school
and we wouldn't have to go outside of school and spend that precious time looking into things that I did for fun. Um, thank you. So, >> thank you. >> And thank you again for sprucing up our
campus. >> No problem. >> Go ahead. I >> I would just say bravo. Your future's bright. You said you didn't prepare a presentation. Your knowledge of digital literacy is outstanding. Combine that with your community service. Your future's bright. >> Thank you. >> And Sullivan's ability to synthesize and
simplify this. >> Yeah. I I had originally I had written like the code I wrote with explanations inside it explaining what each part did, but I thought that would be too boring and too explanative for you guys. Thank you guys. Thank you for having Thank you
for that kindness. >> Um I I I think we're back in the agenda through the chair. Okay. All right. Moving right along. The next uh component of my presentation tonight is uh the examination of the proposed SY 2627 school calendars.
So you have in your packet tonight two different uh options that we're presenting to you for school calendars for next year. We will simply call them option A for a school start after Labor Day and option B for a school start
before Labor Day. Uh, and if you take a look at the the calendar, with the exception of the beginning and the end of the school year, the rest of the calendar is is fairly standard. The after Labor Day option brings our teachers back to school on August 26th and 27th for their new teacher
orientation, but our full staff of teachers back on September 2nd and 3rd for the staff preparation and orientation day. Our student first day would be September 8th. So that's the first available day after Labor Day. And that would bring back our students in
grades one through our 18 plus program here at the high school. And then the first day for preK and K would be September 10th. And then if you would just fast forward your eyes to the end of the school year, if we begin with an after Labor Day start, our last day of
school would be June 23rd without any school cancellations. And as far as June 30th, should we have any daily cancellations of school related to weather or whatnot? Any questions about that calendar?
Okay. And then the other option B, which is the before Labor Day start, that would be uh a variation from what's what's been happening here in the district for I believe some time. Um that would bring our new teachers back for orientation on August 24th and 25th.
It would bring our teaching staff back on August 31st and September 1st for their staff preparation and orientation day. The first day of school for students in grades 1 through 18 plus would be September 2nd, which is before
Labor Day. Uh and then we'd fast forward to our first day for K and PreK on September 8th. And then again, the rest of the st uh the calendar is is fairly standard until you get to the end of the year with a before Labor Day start. The
school year concludes on June 17th, which is a day before the uh relatively newly added holiday of Junth and then going as far as June 25th with any individual school day cancellations. if you have any uh questions regarding
that calendar. I think I do have a question about version B if I can. >> Yeah. >> Is it the first days prek and K? >> Well, that was one of my questions was I know there was some concern last year and I think that gap day, right, is addresses that concern so it won't come
up again, >> right? And then I guess my other question was for version B, why wouldn't we start on the 8:31 Monday? Oh, that's the prep day, >> correct? It would be the teacher, we have a teacher prep day and then a teacher orientation day and then the
students would come back >> on the 2nd and third, grades 1 through 18 plus. Then we typically take that Friday before uh Labor Day for an extended weekend and then everybody else returns on the eth. They prek and K on
the 8th. >> Okay. Because I think in one calendar they were starting on a Tuesday and then the other was a Wednesday and I wasn't sure why we were >> correct. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So, I would encourage you to examine both of the calendars and and feel free to reach out if you have any questions about those calendars. And this would be
your first review. And we would intend to bring them back to you at next month's meeting for a potential vote or to answer any questions you've you have. I'm sorry, at our next meeting next week on the 21st to answer any questions you have, potentially have you vote on the calendar so that we could begin planning
for next year in particular around professional development. uh or it's your purview certainly to wait a little bit longer and uh and take a vote on the calendar at your first meeting in February. >> Go ahead. >> Have you had any input from the staff on
a preference? >> We did share the two uh calendars with the EAFL leadership. I can't speak to their uh to their preference. I'm not sure if they pulled their members. Uh I can tell you that we did speak to uh the district leadership team and the preference of the leadership team is to
have the before Labor Day start. >> Yeah, that's that's late. >> I Labor Day I think that it becomes a concern if we start after Labor Day. I know it's a a it's a bit of a a tradition here to begin after Labor Day and it does feel somewhat uh I don't know maybe a little bit disappointing to
think about starting before Labor Day but when I look at the conclusion of the school year and I I think about potentially ending a school year on June 30th that raises concern >> you know the temperature in the buildings and the stamina of our students and staff. >> Yep. I agree.
>> Okay. Tim >> through the chair. I think Tim, sorry. >> I would just like to note if we start um early and have a snow day, even just one, it
pushes us to the Monday the 22nd, I believe. So, we'd have school on the 17th, Junth, on the 18th, and then we'd still have to show up for Monday the 22nd would be the last day of school. if
we have even just one snow day. Um, so that would be something to look at maybe because five snow days we haven't had in >> sometime >> a long time probably. >> Hey, >> but one but but one one snow day is is
relatively reasonable in our climate recently and that already would push us back five calendar days. So maybe maybe we query some of the community members
as well as the staff and see what their students and um and they're looking at also before we make any >> I don't know if you all were paying attention but there's some students back there and when we heard when I heard you
say June 30th I saw some heads going like this. That's some real time feedback. >> You guys didn't like that, did you? >> No. >> Okay. Any more questions on the calendar? >> I just had a question. Do we always go
through multiple versions or is this just because of the timing, the way it falls? This year, >> I believe it's the way it falls. I I I can't speak to recent history, but I think that the typical presentation of the calendar uh is an after Labor Day start. It's just two versions this year when you think about how Labor Day is.
>> Makes sense. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Go ahead, B. >> I in my tenure here, I don't think I've ever seen a start before Labor Day and uh my concern is that it becomes a a habitual rather than just a a one-time
deal. >> Uh I'd like I'd like to know what the uh what the staff thinks. I think Bob just volunteered to hang out at the schools. >> Wait. >> Yep. >> Maybe there's a breakfast. >> Yeah.
>> Too late. >> Too late. >> Is there a charge from the committee to to seek input from the staff? Is that what I'm hearing? >> That's my preference, but I don't know how the >> Oh, would you like to discuss that and then maybe make a decision about that at the next meeting?
>> Yeah, I think we should go that route. >> And then you could have some time to look at the data in between and maybe vote at a a calendar in the beginning of February. Yep. >> Okay. >> Still early. >> It is still early. So that that works. >> Y So we will bring these calendars back to you at the next meeting. You can have some type of discussion about how you'd
like to as how or if you'd like to ascertain more information and then we'll take a directive from there. >> Okay. >> And then uh you can look at the date and make a decision in February. >> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you for attention to that. Uh my next uh matter for you tonight is uh some surplus. We have two
uh separate schools who are looking for you to assist them by declaring some item surplus. The first is the ARHS athletics department. Uh they have identified some uniforms that are no longer of quality to be worn by the students. Uh on the on the paperwork
that you've been provided and on the slide presentation behind me, it lists the uh the teams who are currently in possession of those uniforms, the year in which the uniforms are required, and the number that would be declared for surplus. So, for example, uh the
softball uniforms are from 2016 and there are 15 uniforms they're looking to declare surplus. >> And what do they do with that? >> Uh the surplus uniforms, I believe they discard. I don't think they're um I don't think they're anything that we could be, you know, passing on to
anybody else because they're they've been worn multiple times and they're not worthy of being worn again. >> Okay. >> So, I think it's a pretty safe bet that they'd be discarded. >> Okay. Okay. Any questions on that? >> All right. And the other items are um
FLMS PE equipment. We have nine archery targets and stands, 25 bows, and 100 arrows that are no longer serviceable uh and are not safe for student use. So, we'd be looking for you to declare those
items uh surplus. And if you're wondering where those would go, I think my question. Yeah, I think given the type of equipment we'll be looking for SRO Bartholomew to help us with disposal in particular of the arrows. >> Okay. There's um readies is that it
>> so I would definitely reach out to them because I know they have practice stations there. >> Sure. >> Um so they might be willing to take them off our hands and utilize them there. >> So yeah. Excellent. Okay. >> Absolutely. >> Questions about those? >> Any questions about that?
Okay. >> Okay. I think we are moving right along to our director of curriculum and assessment Terry Fleming. Great. Um so my report is short and you have the presentation in the folder. Um it is has
to do with the preliminary accountability targets and accountability data that was released in December and as and some of it as late as last week. Uh, Massachusetts State Education Accountability System provides clear, actionable information about school and district performance using
several key indicators. Its purpose is to direct resources and assistance to where they are needed most and to identify successful schools. Um, this year, Freetown Elementary was able to join um a a recognition ceremony for their um performance and their account
accountability score exceeded 80 out of 100. And the district's performance this year is measured against uh well every year is measured against state established annual improvement targets for each indicator. Um these targets are set based on results from the prior year. So those targets do fluctuate
based on performance from the pri prior year. Um and the intention of the state right now as I stated in fall uh is to have schools attain precoid numbers. Um the data the data in front of you shows
our district in 2024 2025 made moderate progress towards target. The slides following that show information is separated out by grades three through eight which is how it's presented and high school for the following areas. Achievement student assist assessment growth which are both reported out in
the fall. Um arts course being taken digital literacy and computer science. Uh and please note that when you look at the digital literacy and computer science that we do not report our K to5 as separate classes. Therefore, we don't show the 100% of our students receiving
that instruction. Um and it's not so it's not isolated out for reporting purpose. And then you'll also see advanced coursework completion and grade nine passing course rates which is also tied to our student opportunity act goals and data.
So, I'm here to answer any questions. You're always feel free to reach out. I always love I have a very long CSV file that was um manipulated and sorted and conditionally formatted so that I could bring you a summarized version there. Um but I love sitting down talking numbers.
So, please don't hesitate to reach out with questions. >> Thank you, Terry. Any questions for Terry tonight? >> None. Thank you. Can we move right along to Mr. Higgins? >> Okay. Um, so I'm going to uh you have
the full detailed uh director's report uh for um this meeting. Uh there's a few highlights that I'd like to u point out. Uh to start off, I'd like to um talk about the business office over the past 6 months. Uh our new payroll supervisor, Lisa Craig, has done uh really an
amazing job as she's improved the efficiency and accuracy of our payroll process. Uh in addition to um increas improving our bi-weekly payroll process and making it more efficient, Lisa's been working closely with MTRS, the Massachusetts teacher retirement uh
system to ensure the historical accuracy of our teacher retirement contributions. Uh and and in some cases she's had to go back several months and couple of years. Um but in that time, in her near record time, she has ensured accuracy for the district going back almost three years
of deductions. Uh so we're very thankful uh for the work that she's done. Um as I shared with you uh while we be small we be mighty in the business office and I'm very happy with um with the new uh faces with herself with Lisa Craig as well as Melissa Nga who's our new benefits and
um uh HR uh assistant. So um moving on from there uh we in FY26 uh we are in heating oil system season as you know uh all of you I'm sure either get a propane bill or a heating oil bill every couple of weeks. Uh so days like today are
excellent when we are dealing with five large buildings and having to heat them uh 55 degrees out today. Uh so we are closely monitoring the use of heating oil across all five buildings. That is obviously a pretty significant expenditure each year for us and we make uh our predictions according to uh
historical uh numbers as well as what our predictions are relative to the climate. Our facilities and maintenance repairs are ongoing. Uh we have three maintenance and grounds uh employees. They have been uh doing a really a fantastic job over the last uh well for
many months but over the last few months we have tried a new pro uh process where we have them uh assigned to specific buildings or areas like the campus and the elementary school each of the elementary schools um to be able to remove some of the backlog of those
smaller maintenance items that sort of build up over time. uh and it, you know, you get to the summertime, you're thinking we catch up on all those things and then you have multiple larger items that come up and you end up working on those instead. So, we're uh now that we're not cutting grass, uh they're
doing uh really a fantastic job of addressing those smaller plumbing issues and and maintenance and facilities issues. Uh our revenue is on track as you can see in the report. Our expenditures report is in your uh meeting folder. all the detail from there and then we are uh embarking as
I've shared with this uh committee uh several times over the last couple of years well last year and a half I guess in this position we have seen an increase in our liability insurance uh pretty significant increase uh so we are looking out in the market speaking with some companies to determine whether or
not we can find some savings um with some we are also speaking with our current insurance company to see if maybe we can get a better um better proposal from them as well. Um with that being said, um FY27,
uh there are a few items as we go into the FY27 budget. Uh believe it or not, you have your budget binders. It is now time to start counting next year's beans. Okay, so um there a few items to keep in mind when we're talking about that. our health insurance uh through
Maya uh in Bluec Cross Blue Shield. They have shared with us to um to to conservatively budget for a 12% increase. As you remember may remember from last year, we received a 10.5% increase in health insurance last year. Uh so we are seeing the potential for a
12% increase. And in tonight's budget, which you we will be talking about later, um or very shortly, you'll see some of those numbers. Our retirey health insurance increased by 12.63%. 63% for Medex and 11.88%
for managed blue as of January 1st of this year. Our retiree insurance, those retirees who are past the age of 65, they engage in health insurance slightly different than our current employees and our retirees under the age of 65. So, our retirees prior to 65 are under the
same plan as a as a teacher or a paraprofessional or custodian who receives health insurance um in their as part of their uh benefits package. The um but once the 65 then there's two options medex or as I said uh manage
blue those are on a calendar year change whereas the increases for um under 65 and current employees is on our fiscal year changing on July 1. our out of district tuition numbers. The state identifies the cost of inflation each
year. The uh the estimated cost of inflation for next year is 3.04%. Um the tuitions are distributed uh will be distributed on the first Wednesday of of this current year, February 26th, and then they'll be effective on July 1st of
this year, barring a freeze from the governor. uh the expected increase for collaborative tuitions which is a little different um in that they are public schools that we collaborate we um as you know we have a collaborative relationship with they're estimated at 5% as we expect each year 5% increase uh
our li um as I mentioned to you our liability insurance we are looking in market going out to market to determine whether we could find some savings yes >> they did they provide a rationale for that increase in liability insurance >> so we've had uh two um large losses over
the last couple of years, not in the last. So, as we're starting to age those out in terms of time, uh, one of which was, as you recall, there was a um a broken pipe and a a flood at the high school on the second floor that leaked onto the first floor. And then we had
there was a roof um issue due to a storm at Grace uh that required a pretty significant repair. This was 5 years ago in that case. Um, and I'm learning some of the some of the terminology. Uh, there is a term called subregation, and
that's when your insurance company sues another insurance company. Our insurance company is going after the insurance company of the of the person who put in the roof to uh to essentially recoup the cost or share the cost, whatever it may be. But it's a pretty lengthy process.
in our conversations with uh out um other liability insurance companies, we're finding that potentially we could be finding some savings in the short, you know, in the near term relative to that. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay, with that being said, you have your budget binders in front of you. Um
we thought it might be a good idea given that in this current budget process, we have um several new faces as well as new people who are going through the budget for the first time. Uh so um if you can
if you don't mind uh I thought it'd be worthwhile to do a little bit of a primmer with you and go over terms and concepts relative to school finance so that when we continue in this from one week to the next and one month to the next the terminology that's being used
um is going to make a little bit more sense. So um we are when we talk about school finance um there's really three primary sources of uh revenue that you can identify. The first one being the town assessments right the towns uh
provide uh funding to the schools for the students who attend the schools and are educated here. In addition to that, the state provides uh funding in the form of chapter 70 and because we're a regional school, chapter 71 transportation funding, which we'll talk
about in a in a couple of slides. And uh they they provide that funding to make up some of the differences. And then u the district has its own funds. Now, in fact, those funds really are funds that have already come from the state. The example, probably the best example is
being school choice. We receive funding from the state as a result of students who've chosen Freetown Lakeville Regional School District, but they live in another district. We receive that those funds and those are funds that can revolve from one year to the next. So, we are able while they're originally
state funds once we become ours, we can then carry them over and use them. The school committee can then make the determination to use them when it seems uh deems fit. Um so to start as I mentioned with the state chapter 70 uh
the it is the primary state aid uh function. It ensures that every district receives a minimum level of funding promoting are we okay? Yes, I'm just trying to over >> Okay. Um, it ensures a minimum level of funding for uh for every district and it
has a uh a pretty complicated formula that it uses to establish what that chapter 70 funding should be. So, um, can we go to the next one? Is it not up? >> No, >> it is up. No, it's up. It is up. >> All right.
>> It's it's in the binders. >> Yeah, it's in our binders. It's fine. Okay, >> I'll change this. It's in the binders. >> You're distracting me. >> I was on a roll. >> All right. So, uh within chapter 70, we
have um the way the way it is, uh calculated is there's three elements that are going into it. It's an identified foundation budget which sets the minimum level of funding necessary to provide adequate education. Then it also establishes the amount that this that the uh school districts must
actually spend of their budget which is called the net school spending. And then it determines the required contributions the minimum required contributions from each of the towns in the case of of a um a regional school district each of the
towns in the region or in a uh municipal district the town itself just all the that the the taxes for that town. So there is a region and and what determines that is a calculation that is based on the district's um wealth uh tax
base as well as assessed real estate value. Uh again not something that I have a whole lot of um experience with in terms of what that calculation is but those are the elements that go into that number. When we talk about our district, we also, as I mentioned, receive additional
funding in the form of regional transportation. The the state um as you may know, um we recently had the chapter 70 listening session here at the Ponica Regional High School. They've gone around to a number of locations uh in
the state where um officials from DESIE as well as the department of revenue have come and asked and and looked for feedback from towns, from community members, from teachers, from administrators regarding the financial
needs and specifically the chapter 70 needs relative to you know moving forward financially for all school districts. Um, one of the things that they certainly mentioned and when they came to our listening session is that
they certainly see regional education as a positive move forward for a number of districts, particularly smaller districts that are struggling with their with their funding. So, they even asked and they asked Dr. Starky who was who
spoke at the at the listening session. What would be some of the um what could be some ways that we could motivate towns or make it to sweeten the pot if you will for towns that are not regionalized to consider regionalization? Um Dr. Stark and I have
spoken on this on a number of occasions and I certainly would recommend in your your thoughts and work through this. If you just would would reach out to uh state officials to talk about these things and and identify how it could be more appealing for school districts to
become regionalized as we are. Uh items could be include would be in the case of regional transportation they provide they are set to provide 100% reimbursement. They don't. It is the the law states 100% reimbursement um subject
to appropriation. So the subject to appropriation often comes out under 100%. So if for example a regional school district a municipal school district was to find out that in fact it's consistently always funded at 100%. That would certainly be very appealing.
It would certainly be very appealing to us if all of our regional transportation costs were covered by the state. Uh and another uh element that we've discussed internally and certainly that's something if if asked again we would share um is to ask that in a larger
percentage of the MSBA re um uh reimbursement for building construction and repairs would um for regional schools they could identify a larger percentage than they might provide for a municipal school district because as you
can imagine as you know it's a little more challenging in a regional school district to uh to secure the capital needs necessary to to do construction projects because you have more than just a single municipality making those decisions. Uh so our regional
transportation is as a regional school we are required to provide transportation um for all students who live greater than 1.5 miles away from the school that they attend. uh as is the case here in most rural communities and most regional school districts
because most regional schools districts go are in fact rural as well. Um we provide transportation for all of our students. That is not part of the calculation that they provide in terms of reimbursement. So when we identify the number of students we have in the
district and then the first thing we have to do is remove those students who in from the the numbers who live within 1.5 miles because the state won't reimburse those numbers. So that would be even another thing that would be certainly a suggestion to identify a full reimbursement for all students down
the road. Um so moving down if you if you don't mind we're going to go to the school choice slide which is the next one. I think I've talked a little bit about this in the past. Um, school choice is the um method within the state of Massachusetts in which uh students
are given the option to um attend schools outside of their own district uh and the what ultimately happens is money is exchanged essentially through the state for um for the tuitions. Um so as
the state makes the determination of the amount of chapter 70 money that's going to be sent they also um will can they'll deliver more in the form of school choice and then they'll hold back some if there for example is the number of students that you have in your district
that are going to other school districts. So we don't you might hear for example we have you know do we actually write a check to the other districts for for our students who are attending no and the other districts don't write checks check checks to us it is all done through how much funding is
ultimately delivered from from the um from the state >> school yes >> sorry can I >> please do >> yeah second step question um when you mentioned uh just a few minutes ago the out of District tuition. >> Yes.
>> Is that the same as the school choice? Would that be the same line item? >> It is not money. >> That's a great question. So, out of district tuition >> is uh for students who are uh have an uh on special education who need to be
educated in a school outside of the regular school setting. Got it. >> So, those tuitions are separate from school choice. >> However, you've just stepped to my next slide because thank you very much. She segueed us right to u the school choice tuition. So regular education students
uh have a $5,000 um tuition rate that goes to the towns for or goes to the school district from the state relative to the number of students for half day kindergarten. We don't have half day kindergarten but it is as a rule half day kindergarten is 2500. There is no school choice for
prek. Um but in the case of special education, there is an increment greater than the 5,000 depending on the specific special education needs of that student. So to the point of uh out of district tuition, uh Mr. Emory, the circuit
breaker um program is the state program that addresses out of district tuitions. Um out of district tuition, as you can imagine, can be pretty significant at times uh due to the needs of students. Um and so the state has identified a way to provide additional funding to school
districts to be able to um provide those needs to pay those tuitions and without not full reimbursement, but a mitigation of those costs. The you're you're receiving a reimbursement for money spent in the prior year. So in the
current year we're receiving reimbursement of circuit breaker money from the tuitions we paid last year. The way that without getting into too much detail the way that the circuit breaker is structured is they identify how it's twofold. It's tuitions as well as
transportation costs because not obviously if you have a student living in your district who is attending and at a district school that could be several miles away. We also provide the transportation as well whether that be internally with our vans or whether we we uh contract out. Sure.
>> Uh so the um with tuitions uh the reimbursement is u first there is a threshold that is established by the state each year as the um threshold tuition number beyond which they'll reimburse. So picking an easy number
like $50,000. If there was a tuition that was $40,000 for the year, you'll receive no reimbursement. If that tuition is, let's say, $150,000, and I say that number because this is going to make the numbers very easy for us. It's $100,000
over the threshold. They will reimburse 75% of that. So, we will re we will be reimbursed of the $150,000 tuition will be reimbured in that case $75,000 in the following year. The other piece to this circuit breaker
is that you can you are uh have the uh ability to spend it in the year you receive it. So we're receiving money from last year. We can use it this year or we can delay and use it next year. After that it has to it it would have to
be returned to the state. That is never happening. But understand we get to the end of that second year the we have to account for those dollars. I believe I sort of jumped over a slide there. So that's the understanding sir.
Thank you for keeping up. Um so uh onward from there as I mentioned we're talking state funding in the form of chapter 70 and 71. We've talked about the town assessments okay and minimum contributions and how the how those are identified. We've talked about how there
are there are dollars in the bank that that you can utilize as a school committee in the form of school choice in the form of cir break circuit breaker in a in a way and in and in fact in excess and deficiency as well which we haven't discussed yet. Um but we'll get into in more detail down the road. I
think it's probably better to expand on that conversation. Uh but there's also uh we receive grants and um Terry Fleming does an an excellent job of bringing uh the grant applications to your attention, applying for those
grants and receiving $15,000, $50,000, $100,000. These are multiple uh smaller grants that we get to to be able to provide additional programming for our students in the form of the career pathways which uh Mr. Glant was talking
about earlier. those those programs start with a grant. However, there's also federal grants, as you know. There's larger ones, things like the IDA grant, the special a grant, the um the title grants, title 1, 2, 3, and four. So, we receive grant funding for the
special ed grant in two forms. we receive it um in the general education ID I shouldn't say it is general educ the larger education special education grant and then for the uh early education special education grant um last year for those of you who were here
if you recall we made a pretty significant change in this district from using the uh uh larger uh sort of allgrade special IDA grant we moved it from using it for salaries to using it
for transportation And as I shared with you, the reason we did that is because when you use federal grants for salary, they also they reduce the amount because it is identified the amount that has to be used for fringe benefits. So when you use it for
transportation, you're getting every dollar. Yeah. You're getting more bang for your buck, >> right? Uh and that's true for all the federal grants, not just not just IDA. However, there are some things that we we do still need to use these grants for relative to salaries. There's no way around it. In this case, it was able we
were able to make a pretty significant savings of 30 $40,000 um in um fringe benefits by using it just for transportation. Uh so in the you'll hear these these terms uh Terry Fleming will talk about the title grants certainly as
we go through the year. Title one is our largest grant in the titles. Uh two, three, and four and correct me at three is the new one. >> Three is the new one. >> Three is the new one and that's the one we have linked with other school districts. So in some of these cases, we actually have situations where the grant they're a little smaller in these cases,
but we receive a grant from this from the feds and we have applied through with a couple of other school districts. Then depending on who is the largest district or has the largest share, they become the pass through for the other
districts. So as the state is the pass through for these federal funds, federal government gives it to the state and then they give it to us. If for example the school district one that we're working with, they make a purchase of a particular piece of curriculum relative
to the application for this grant, they purchase it and then we well we purchase it and we send it over to them. So they make they they send us the order essentially. Um so that's an example of how some of these things um how they
work and how we utilize them for our um process. You will see this year and I really appreciate Dr. Starky's suggestion on this. You'll see this year that we are doing things a little differently in terms of the way you're looking at the whole budget. So, um, in
the past, the whole budget has been, uh, the the, um, what we call the general fund, which is the the largest piece of the puzzle, and then things that we're using for school choice, things we're using for circuit breaker. But we do get these federal grants, and in in the case
of the IDA grant, it's 700 $800,000. It's a pretty significant number. And it it's important that you understand what the larger number is in terms of the budget that we're we're using. Um and in in the case of um title one for example, it's 3 >> 350 >> $350,000. Now title total total title
grants maybe $400,000. So what what we've done this year is combined all these things so you can see what our total expected expenditures are. But so that it's not uh comparing apples to oranges. I did the same thing last year. I I went back into last year's and put
those grant numbers in as well. So you can see that that we're comparing similar um results. Uh when you look through that budget book, you're going to see that there's um down the left hand side of every one
of the the um schools. If you pick a school or you pick a particular department, you'll see the >> spreadsheets. >> Yeah, the spreadsheets, you'll see the itemized um budget proposed budget numbers for each one of the areas. So
>> can I give an example just >> sure >> if you just using a school right so if you turn behind tab six I think you'll see uh a ponicort regional high school you'll see a cover page >> behind that cover page you'll see the first page of a spreadsheet and the numbers Mr. Dr. Higgins is referring to
the codes I believe are over on the left hand column. These are the codes he's about to explain right now. >> Right. So, if you look down the lefth hand column, you'll see you should be seing see a series of numbers and the first set of numbers for every one of them should say O1.
Okay. So, the O1 just so you get a sense of what this is. This is a way for us to categorize the the the accounting in our district. O1 is referring to the general fund. This is the primarily the the form in which you are talking about relative
to what how we uh spend and purchase and and um execute education in this district is through that general fund which is O1. But our other funds the way we track them circuit breaker for example as I mentioned school choice circuit breaker's first three digits is
241. school um school choices 247. They have their own codes. Everything else is similar, but the first three digits are identifying which fund it is coming from. If that makes sense. You'll also see there's a second three
digits in there. And those second three digits might be 100, they might be 110, 110, 200, 300, 400, 500, or 600. Each of those numbers represents a different uh
what we call um DAC but it's a se section within the district for the for the funding uh distribution. 100 is the central office. 110 are things that fall under the region. These are things that
um for example health insurance. The funding for health insurance is in the region section. And the reason it's there is because of course everybody in the district receives the um an expenditure out of there as the district's portion of uh health
insurance. Um whereas anything that's being spent for the students at the high school would be 01 200 and for Freetown Elementary it'll be 01 600. As you count down from the highest from our uh highest grades to our lowest grades, we
go 100, 200, 300, 400, I'm sorry, 200, 300, 400, 500, and 600. Um, with that being said, there is a there are a couple of slides at the end that I also provided as a little bit of a glossery for you as we continue through
this process. Um, certainly, uh, I I I ask for you to ask the questions as they come up. Um this is a um vocabularyheavy process. Um and like anything uh
vocabulary can kind of throw us off and make us feel a little uncomfortable with what we might feel very comfortable with if we just understood the terms that they were referring to. So if I'm using words and and please know as you look around the everyone else at this table,
they probably don't understand the term that you're going to ask a question about. So, you're helping yourself as well as your neighbor when you ask a question about a specific term or a specific process that I've mentioned, >> Jack. >> Yes. >> Six years I've been on this committee. It's never been outlined like this.
>> Well, there you go. >> Thank you. >> This is why I spent 15 years in the classroom. >> This is amazing. I have never ever like >> It's amazing. Nice job. >> Well, I would like to give credit to Dr. Stark whose idea was to provide the primary probably if I may say because
she needed it as well. >> Absolutely. I was waiting for you to finish talking so I could say this was very helpful to me as well. >> Yes. Never. I've never had it explained like this before. It's great. >> Very easy to digest. >> Yes. Good. >> Very. >> Thank you. Go ahead. Um
>> so I echo what Jen said. This is great. And I just wanted to kind of comment too like the town assessments because I think sometimes people you know have the impression it gets voted at the school committee and that's it. >> It goes to the towns. Each town gets has their own number and it gets voted at
the annual town meeting. So this isn't the vote here isn't the last stop. >> Correct. And I think it's important to also note that uh in the way that regional education in the state works. We we have um in the case of Lakeville,
you have Bristol Plymouth regional vocational technical high school. It's a regional district. Old Colony regional vocational technical high school. That is also its own regional district. They too assess the towns for which their
students the students come to them. >> Bristol AI too. >> Uh Bristol Aggie as well. Yes. Bristol AI regional >> agricultural. Thank you. I don't know all of it, but um but in all those cases, so in each one of those cases, the the the when the town receives the
town is receiving the budget that you determine and you vote, they are also each town is receiving the same budget assessments from the town uh from the regional school district other regional school districts with which they are connected. We are not the only one. They
are also connected to a vocational regional program and in the case an agricultural regional school >> questions. >> Go ahead Bob. >> Uh just a comment. I mean my my pet peeve is regional transportation as you
know because it's it's a moving target. It's like a kids piggy bank and the state can go in and take money out of it and uh I've seen it as low as like 70 70%. >> Sure. >> It's been pretty good the last couple of years but uh you just have to keep your
eye on it cuz there's no guarantee and it comes up short. Where's the money come from? >> Right. >> Comes from us. >> It it certainly does. >> So just I want the new people to be aware of that too that it's not a it's not a fixed uh fixed percentage. It's a moving target. Um,
>> can I add, I wanted to add the same with Chapter 70. They have an inflation cap. >> Exactly. >> And it's not keeping up with the rate of inflation. So, it's small towns and small regions like us that get squeezed, >> which is all the more reason communicating with your political higher-ups >> about some of the things that Jack
highlighted tonight. >> Uh, would be really, really important. And you carry weight as school committee members, communicating that information, right? >> And town meetings. We need our folks at town meetings. Very important. So if there are no questions, we'll move on to uh what we're calling an initial
budget overview presentation. So this is uh we're we're in advance of our timeline even that we had established here uh for a budget presentation. So you've had a you know bit of a primer tonight. That's a lot of information to digest. The nice part there is that you've got the presentation in the glossery to keep with you at all times.
So you have any questions uh you can answer them yourselves or as Jack said, reach out to him. Uh so what we're going to walk you through tonight is an overview of the budget and then next week uh we'll get into a little bit more granular detail and that gives you an opportunity to look through your binders before we come back and talk about it
again. Uh but I I'll start you off with this presentation. Uh give you a little break from Mr. Higgins's voice as well. Uh just an acknowledgement here on this slide uh to our school committee members and we thank you uh for being so supportive of our schools. And we'll start right here with a little bit of a
a rationale for the budget. So, I'm pleased to present to you the fiscal 2027 recommended budget for the Freetown Lakeville Regional School District. And I have to let you know uh that the budget that's being recommended has been informed by the district's priorities
and our work began on July 1st of 2025 when the district leadership team started compiling and evaluating and taking inventory of our district resources, something that hadn't been done in some time. uh conducting a review of current and projected enrollment trends which we have shared
with you intermittently at these meetings. Uh we established monthly meetings with our town administrators uh that we have you know held a scheduled meeting with them every month. We endeavored to secure additional revenue sources for the district. Uh and of
note, uh you know, we sought a tuition agreement with a Kushnet. Uh and and although that didn't go in the direction that we wanted, uh I certainly believe that we as a district were demonstrating to the school committee and to the communities that we were looking for ways uh to relieve some of the burden on the taxpayers when it comes to funding
education. Uh and then we also assessed our overall past and present financial environments uh you know that we are keenly aware of. We paid heightened attention to the FY26 budget uh that was approved and that
that move through town meetings that included the reduction of 11 staff members here in the district. So that's going to come up in our conversation regarding budget and some of the decisions that were made at that time also carry forward and and have impact on the budget that's being presented to
you tonight. So just uh I'd like you to know that we gave a lot of consideration to those types of things. Throughout this process, we have engaged in both formal and informal discussions with everyone with every constituent. you know, district leadership, school administrators, parents, whether it be,
you know, sitting on the sitting on the bench at a basketball game or, you know, meeting with the with PTO leadership, uh, with students, you know, through roundt meetings and conversations in classrooms, not specifically saying what do we need for a budget, but, you know, Sullivan Gray did a great job here
tonight talking to you about some of the resources without being prompt, resource needs, right, and pro programmatic needs. Uh so we've spent a lot of time listening and talking and the budget that we're presenting to you tonight aligns with our student needs demonstrates responsible stewardship of
the resources we have here in the district and it's very transparent. The budget reflects our ongoing commitment to providing quality educational opportunities for our students and specifically it ensures that the daily
academic, social, civic and athletic programming that our students deserve remains intact. And that is the academic, social, civic, and athletic experiences that our students have every day that our communities expect when they send their children to the Freetown Leaf Regional
School District. As a district, we committed this year to the theme of recognizing the ripple. And I think tonight is a fitting opportunity before we go down this budget road of taking pause and thinking about how all of our decisions our decisions in putting this budget to putting this budget together
uh the way role that you're going to take and and in verifying a budget and sending it off to the towns and to our community members. We take pause and we think tonight uh as we endeavor here to set a course for our children's experiences and that we deeply consider
the budget choices that we make today and how those will define the strength of our students visa v and the strength of our communities for years to come. So I ask us to take a moment to think about that and I thank you in advance for your continued support and your dedication to
the success of our district and most importantly to ensuring that the daily experience of our students is is one that we can be proud of and one that they will look back on, cherish and have grown from. So with that I'm just going to move
forward. Uh I'm I'm not going to go through everything on this particular slide. Mr. Higgins did an excellent job tonight of walking you through all of the sources of revenue and uh getting you to to think and think about some of the sources where the money comes from. Um and how we could maybe be
a little bit more active politically, whether it's going to town meeting or whether it's reaching out to politicians to try to try to adjust some of these formulas that would benefit us and our taxpayers and be able to uh continue to enable us to offer programming for our
students. The budget that we're presenting to you tonight is a level service budget. In a nutshell, that means if you approve this budget as it's presented tonight, the services that are intact for our students across the district would remain intact. Um, we
would provide that consistent daily experience and access to the consistent programming that our students have. You know, using the AP classes at the high school as an example, uh, we want to ensure that we have consistent staffing. We have included in
this budget a reallocation of two teaching positions from the high school. We have two teachers who we have several teachers who are retiring but two of the retirements at the high school we are looking to reallocate to district maintenance and grounds positions and we feel comfortable in doing so that that
would not change the programming for our students at the high school. We have had, as we know, a decline in enrollment at the high school. Although, I can tell you high school enrollment is going to be a little bit more unpredictable when we when we think about the lottery system that's now being put in place for our vocational schools. We can talk more
about that at the next meeting, but it makes predicting high school enrollment a little more challenging. Um, but two maintenance and grounds positions, a reallocation of resources would help us to continue or would help us to meet our obligation here in the district, right? to continue
to maintain the facilities that we have. Uh Mr. Haynes mentioned to you earlier, taking our three maintenance people and assigning them to buildings has been really productive. We've been able to tick through a list of some of the more minor things that need to happen here in the district. Having two more enables us
to have one person in each building so that some of those things that you know even our students are routinely walking by uh you know that haven't been repaired or haven't been addressed for lack of staffing or resources can be addressed. So that's our rationale for that. Um we are seeking to replace endof
life network switches and Chromebooks here in the district that would uh if we don't address those matters we'll have approximately 250 students with Chromebooks that they can't use and we'll have switches in the district that I'm sure Mr. Blanchard could speak more eloquently to this but they will make
things not work when it comes to technology if we don't replace those. They are beyond end of life from what I understand. This budget will help us to replace uh outofdate history textbooks and replenish world language textbooks that are in uh bad condition if not
replace them. It also replaces uh what I would consider like the fractured execution of a of a writing program in the district to address our students contemporary needs especially those relating to writing. You heard Terry Fleming talk to you earlier this year
about MCCAST and shortfalls in writing and how the district is really concentrating energy on bolstering our writing program for students. Uh and replacing this program would also in the future offset some of the expenses related to the wonders literacy program
that we use because the writing component in that program is not easily accessible to our teachers and to our students. and sometimes that necessitates us buying supplements that go with wonders that we can replace with a one-time purchase for a writing program. Uh it also addresses unfunded
mandates. You heard about those at the last meeting. Changes in special education uh with the tightening of I IEP deadlines and uh changes to oversight of outer district programming. You also heard Terry Fleming talk to you at the last meeting about changes in requirements for English language
learner students. Uh, and those are just a few of those unfunded mandates that have come down. This budget that we're presenting to you tonight, we can address those mandates without any additional resources as long as we are operating at a level service budget.
Anything other than that would make some of those mandates very difficult to meet. And then, excuse me, it addresses the pending changes to Massachusetts graduation requirements. And again, it does so with our current staffing and our current resources. You heard some of
those things proposed to you tonight in the program of studies. Uh and those changes are coming. So, we're able to do that with the provision of level services based on uh what we received for FY26.
Any questions so far? All right. So, I think that that frames out our thinking and it and it lets you know the direction we're going in terms of our budget. I'm going to turn turn things back over to Mr. Higgins uh because he's going to explain all of the number pieces and how we how we derived
at the bottom line that we derived at uh to present to you tonight. >> So, you can see the overview slide here that's behind me. Um we uh for the FY27 recommended budget, this includes uh the federal grants. This also includes the use of circuit breaker. It includes the
use of school choice. It includes the use of a a certain amount of um investment funding that we get back uh in Medicaid. We receive a few dollars each year, 60,000, 70,000, sometimes as much as 150,000 within our budget. Um if
you'll notice, if you were to look at your book from last year, you'd see that the 26 budget, the number is different. And that's because what I've done here is gone back to 26 and included the federal grant money that we have in the current year. So you're now comparing
those two uh numbers, understanding, of course that we're um we're not expecting the school district in any way to make up that federal grant money. It's essentially matching one year to the next. So the increase is 3,734,234,
which for the total budget would be a 7.49% 49% increase from the current year. What are those factors that are influencing the budget? Uh several things. Uh one of probably the first one to to talk about is the school committee
last year voted to uh to utilize uh END in the form of 665,000 and change um to meet the needs of the contractual obligations to the teachers, paras, and secretaries in the current year. um that excess and deficiency uh
would need to carry at some point needs to hit the the general fund budget. This would be the year that it does. So um there's that's a part of it right there 660,000 from END. It is the suggestion from my office that in the while in the
current year we have in FY26 we are utilizing $800,000 of school choice to fund the current year budget. We won't we do not have an unlimited amount of school choice money. We receive approximately $250 to $275,000 a year in
school choice. We had built up some money that was carried over, but we are each year that we use these larger numbers, we're going to get to the place where we're going to run out and all we will have is the is the year the money that we're going to get. So, we're spending in the current year utilizing
800,000. It is the recommendation that we move that to closer to 500,000 in the upcoming year and then in the next year it's going to go down a little bit more till the till we get to the place where we are utilizing just the expectation from the uh income for that year. Um
health insurance um as I mentioned before we have a 12% budgeted estimate within this um within this budget. There are a couple of items that um to we are you know could be um bring that number down. Certainly the number could go up
as well. That's the estimated that we received from Maya to be um at least to start with. We're a couple of weeks away from getting the the number from them. They usually come in about the second week of February. So we'll be getting those numbers and we'll be able to put those in at that time. Uh staffing at
1.2 million. This is an estimate of the effect of the negotiated contractual increases for teachers, par professionals and custodians uh secretaries and custodians, pardon me. Um we are obviously in negotiations with teachers, pair professionals and
secretaries. We are in the second year of a contract with our custodians. Uh understanding of course that each year uh we have a certain amount of increase that is necessary in order to fulfill the staffing salary needs uh for technology as Dr. Stark you mentioned we
have a replacement cycle for student and staff Chromebooks uh is one of the items you can see for the high school it's 66,000 for AES it's 104,000 for fees it's 105,000 we have infrastructure switches uh I think it's more important to note that
it's not just that the switches don't won't work they actually are the they they're in addition to the firewall right they they are protecting our information so as those switches get older and older older, they become more susceptible to outside cyber issues. Um,
and then docking stations. So, the district is looking to save money down the road by removing desktop computers from the classrooms. The way we can do that currently is the teachers would use their Chromebooks, but they can't connect their Chromebooks to the present to their overhead projectors or to the
um um sorry, what's the u >> Prometheian >> to Prometheian boards? Well, they can connect them from these to the overhead projectors. The desktops are connected to them now. Those desktops become expensive over time. They're they're expensive pieces of equipment, but also they do have end of life. So, as we're
getting to that end of life, instead of replacing the docking stations is a much cheaper alternative to be able to just utilize Chromebooks for all functions um relative to uh instructional technology for the teachers. And then, uh facilities, capital. I'll be going
through a list of a number of capital uh items that we have identified that are not that are not in this budget, mind you, but things that we certainly need to identify as we move forward. Um we haven't been addressing many of the capital needs in the district over the last decade or so. These some of these
things are coming to the place where we we need to start looking at them. In this case, there's a facilities capital request of 198,000. and it's out it's se sits separately from the the other funding sources because it is a capital request. It's 198,000 for phase two of
the fire suppression upgrades. As you recall, uh we had phase one of the fire suppression upgrades last summer. U and so it's 198,000 for phase 2. These are for the fire. When I say fire suppression, these are smoke alarms, smoke detectors in some case uh and then
their connections to the fire the the board um which all received upgrades over the last 5 years. So what is creating the budget increase in some ways? I've already mentioned it to you, but to talk about it, the END school choice and circuit breaker moving
into this current year, uh that's creating 26.78%. That's a million dollars. 26.8% of the total increase. Health insurance 716,000. That's nearly 20% of the increase. Staff salaries uh for all all
units 1.2 million at 32% of the increase. Technology 545,000. That number is actually a little bit larger to be quite honest, but these are the number these are the bigger items that are outside of the norm. Uh the the purchase of Chromebooks. I think it's important to understand as I mentioned
chrome I mentioned network switches is the importance of that and I believe um Ryan Blanchard had given a presentation relative to technology last year and again this year regarding those switches and last year in the discussion made it clear this is kind of important but
we're able to delay it another year. So um also understand that we're going to be able to use funding to greatly reduce the cost. the cost that's in this budget already has the - funding included. So the the um $200,000 approximately for
the network switches, this network switches are going to be um about 60% greater than that. There's closer to 350,000, but the -ate program um allows us uh provides us with additional
funding for technology uh through a federal program and so we can bring that number down. That's the the effect on on our budget. Um the facilities capitalized that 198,000 and then inflationary increase for services,
supplies and expenses, $75,000. So the things that cost us a little bit more next year, maybe for oil, maybe for paper is $75,000 of this overall budget, but it does increase. We know that there's obviously as we u there are increases uh from one budget to the next
and that makes up 2% of the overall increase. You when you look at it from a pie chart you can see how it's broken down in terms of their se the how each one uh of those uh categories um
uh makes up the large the the increase in in total uh number. So, um, and you can I think it's important to note that the inclusionary cost for supplies and, uh, expenses is that little tiny green sliver that's at the top.
But these are these are items, um, and important to recognize. These are items that um, are here. They are they are financial needs of the district um, in order to fund, as Dr. Starky mentioned they are the uh to maintain the
experience that our students have from the current year. So as an um yeah so uh as I mentioned before the um oh I'm sorry. So how does that affect our general fund? uh as I mentioned to you the general fund is the fund that is
the combination of the the money that is required from the state that comes from the state in the form of chapter 70. It is the money that comes to us from uh town assessments um and oh sorry and chapter 71. So those are the things that fund the general fund. So the general
fund uh is 49,842,654 and the 26 fund general fund was 46087739 which means an increase you can see then the increases is just about the same. So why is the percentage different right
this is 8.15% the total budget is 7 12%. The difference is that because of the fact that the total budget is now uh expecting that the END and school choice those other items are now being funded by the general fund right the larger
budget went up but then the portion of that larger budget that has to be funded by the general fund increased a little bit more and that's why it's 8.15% and it's greater than the percentage of the overall budget. As you scroll down, you can see that or sorry, as I scroll down,
uh you can see the historical general fund budget increases over the last several years, over the last 12 years. Um and you can see that there's uh an increase in the last two years in 26 and 27. These are the the that 4% that we
had last year, right, should have been probably higher. Should have probably been 6%. That was what I pres what was originally presented to you was a percentage increase in the general fund around that number when we first um presented the
budget. We went back and we made adjustments. We moved things as I mentioned the tech the network switches those kinds of items were moved off of the budget delayed for future future years. So essentially that's part of the
reason why there's such a large increase is because those question those things were delayed a year from the prior year. I'm going to pass back from Oh no I'm not I'm sorry. Uh I'm going to go through as well as a a a review of some of the these are not all the capital
projects that have been identified both through the study that the school committee um um went through the process of getting through um through the outside company. Tell me the name >> Habibian Associates. Thank you very much. Uh so but these are the ones that
we've identified are probably the most pressing and certainly things that are on the minds of uh our minds, your minds as well as the minds of the community within on the campus. We have the fire suppression phases two and three. As I mentioned, the total is 351,000, but phase 2 is 198,000 and that's in this
proposed budget. Nothing else that I'm going to talk to you about in on these digital c or these capital projects is in the budget. But it is important that you see them so that you understand that there are capital needs coming in this district as well as we move forward. We
have a wastewater treatment upgrade that is going to be a future need in the near term. That's 132,830. These are estimates thank thankfully to our facilities director who is continually up updating these estimates so that we have an understanding of what our needs are going to be. Um a campus
red barn replacement. I have more info needed there because there's a wide range of potential estimates there depending on what the school committee would determine they wanted to do in terms of replacing the red barn. Replacing in kind would be one value certainly on the low end, but replacing
maybe with the in in uh also the installation of plumbing so that there could be a bathroom um for people who are using the stadium during games instead of using um um >> portaotties. Thank you. Instead of using portaotties, um there could be a
potential, you know, this would be down the road a discussion about what to do with that that structure. Uh our high school roof um is reaching a need uh for replacement. We are addressing any leaks that we do have now, but we are on the on the path towards a replacement of the
roof. And you can imagine a building this size, replacing the roof is significant in terms of the cost. We have a um a need to replace the stage here at the high school. Uh we are in the process of getting an estimate for that as well. right now. Um, our campus tennis courts, if you will remember
about 12 years ago, those tennis courts, there was a fix done that was expected to be able to last about seven or eight years. That fix lasted about 11 years, which was great, though it is not able to be fixed again in the same way. So, we got two estimates for that. We have
six We have six courts currently. There's the estimate u our athletic director identified that given the uh the size of our tennis teams we could potentially move forward with four replacement uh replacing those tennis courts with four which would be at a re reduce cost or if you were to place them
in kind with six courts it would be four courts is 77,000 and six courts would be a little over a million uh the grace pool the pool subcommittee will be presenting its findings in a future meeting uh so I I I I left that number out I think also there's a a lot of um
elements to that in that discussion to be discussed. Uh and then we do have u a need probably a little bit in the in the near future as well of a replacement van/bus, a mini bus if you will with lift capabilities as one of our um mini buses
is um reaching near end of life. Uh within Freetown at Freetown Elementary, as you know, the capital projects for the campus are the responsibility specifically of the school committee. Whereas in each one of the buildings as a result of the regional um agreement, the larger capital projects are the um
responsibility of the towns as those buildings are owned by the towns. Um in conversations uh and at select board meetings, those of you who have seen the select board meetings, the town of Freetown is in the process for a number of things. They are in the works for replacing the boilers at the Freetown
Elementary and that's a pretty significant cost of a million dollars. they um they're in the looking at a resurfacing or I think they've identified resurfing resurfacing as the option that they would prefer instead of replacing the roof. Um that you can see
the two two values there. And then there was um another thing that is uh likely going to happen in the near term is uh an addition of some fencing at Freetown Elementary to increase the safety of students. So that uh right now um the
pre the kindergarten playground has no fencing. So the f a fence would be put around the free the playground. It's really more to kind of keep the kindergarteners from running away running off. Um and and then there's in the older grades there's no um fencing
that closes off the playground area from from the front of the building. Now it's down the hill, but nonetheless in creating a fence or building a fence as well as a gate there would increase the safety for the students. >> Yes. >> Can I ask a question about the fence? Um because I I'm very familiar with the
fence. I volunteer there a lot. >> Is it also addressing um like in the back parking lot opening it and closing it? It's very difficult. Does it address >> the big the gate? >> Yes. So yes, it does. So the what they what so that's part of this as well. So there's three elements. I'm Thank you
for sharing. I I didn't I had omitted it and I shouldn't have. It's the fence around the kindergarten playground. A a fence connecting essentially the corner of the school to the um uh existing fence that's on the street. So that sort of blocks that area off.
And then the third piece is replacing the gate. Um and in that case, it's going to be replacing it with a slightly better option because it's going to be rolling gate. um which will work better because it's going to be it is so large the as you put a swinging gate you put a
lot of pressure on the hinge. So um those are the three. In the case of uh Lakeville and Asawset Elementary, there is a need um for a replacement of the shingle roof, the section of roof that's the shingle roof. Um and uh at 60
666,000 um the replacement of the driveway and the excuse me and the sidewalks and curbs, we're still looking into that. We don't have a hard estimate on that, but something we've had conversations with the town. Um the building is um there
are a number of unit ventilators that need upgrading or replacement. You can see a value there for the replacement of the unit ventilators. And then um we're looking at the replacing the cafeteria tile uh in the the tile in the cafeteria which has reached end of life. But we
believe we're going to be able to use uh food service uh money that we have that has been compiling. While that money in that fund and you'll see it in your budget book, you can see how much money is there in that food service fund. It is very very specific in terms of how it
can be spent because of the fact that it's federal money specific. What happens is the federal government gives us money for free and reduced meals. That money is is then but what happens of course is students also want to buy a
cookie and they want to buy other things. those dollars come in and they create and they're adding to that fund. Even though that's money like essentially revenue from from students, the federal government is saying you wouldn't have that revenue if we didn't give you the the federal funding to
begin with. So you can't just use it for anything. So there there uh for example in if you were to if we wanted to use it for to to pay part of our custodial salaries uh for cleaning the cafeteria and the servery and so forth, we can do
that. But they have specific methods that you have to use. You have to use the percentage of the custodian's salary has to equal the percentage of the square footage of the cafeteria and servey of the whole bu relative to the whole building. So these are things that you that you know you look you do and
this would be something that would be a capital project that that money potentially could be used for that we're looking into. Um so it would be at no cost to to Lakeville and certainly no cost to the school district. Well, no cost to the to the general fund. Uh so, as I mentioned, uh our recommended
budget is $53,619,217. That includes um federal grants. And the 26 budget, which includes the voted budget as well as the federal grants, is $49,884,983, which is an increase of 3,734,234 and makes up 7.549%.
>> Assessment sheets. >> Thank you very much. You'll notice that your section uh section two, I believe it is, is your assessment sheet. It's empty. There's a reason why the assessment sheets have not been provided to you. We are doing this a full several weeks prior to us receiving the numbers
that we would need in order to be able to complete the assessment sheet. Not only this chapter 70 money uh or number that we would expect to put in at least we would take the governor's budget and put that number in first. That number varies as as you go through the spring but also the minimum contribution
numbers um from prior years. If you will recall last year in the assessment sheet, as a result of the change in that minimum contribution, we saw an increase to Lakeville's budget of a 3/4 of a million dollar and we saw a
reduction in the request to the town of Freetown of $5,000 from the prior year. So that minimum contribution that they identify which as I mentioned to you as a determined by uh essentially what the the state is determining what is town wealth what is real estate taxes and so
forth that minimum contribution number can can greatly affect how the assessment numbers will come out at the end of all this when we're talking about um the effect on the towns >> and then it comes back to me and if you would just bear with me for a few more minutes um I feel very obligated here.
As I as I noted earlier, the budget development process included input from key stakeholders. The budget you're seeing tonight, as I as I told you, is is a level service budget. Um, but we did in the beginning of this process create a list of resources that would uh
augment our services here and in some cases replace services here in the district. Uh, and after taking a good hard look at that list, we we we paired it down to 10 things I really wanted to share with you tonight because they are not reflected in the budget, but they
are district needs and they are things that over the coming years you're going to hear us talk about. Um, four of those needs uh are replacements to things that were previously here in the district that have been cut. The first was a math specialist. You might remember that was a position that was eliminated in last
year's budget. Uh, and that position helps our younger Lakers catch up on their on their math. Uh, we had two math specialists, so we reduced to one. Uh, over time there's been a reduction in custodial services here in the district. I can't give you exact dates on that, but I can speak to you historically from
working in the building. The number of custodians uh, we have now versus then. uh a restoration of two of those custodial positions would enable us to keep the building cleaner and again to contribute uh to some of the projects that need to be completed here. Uh you
know, when I think of things like painting, you take a walk through that middle school, it's our newest building, it is in tremendous need of a paint job. Uh so those are just things that that we've we've talked about uh that custodians would be able to to address. We had a reduction in a speech language
pathologist uh in recent history. Again, it was prior to my arrival, so I can't give you the exact year in this conversation. If you want it, I can get it for you. Uh, but that is a position that would help us to address uh, you know, the growing needs of our students. And then five of the positions on the
screen before you would be additional positions to what we have here in the district and not necessarily replacement of something uh, that was here before. One of those is an assistant principal at the middle school. It is our largest building. Enrollment doesn't always drive the number of staff that you need
in a building. Commonly hear you you have two assistant principles at the high school and one at the middle school. Why not just move one around? Uh and it's it's not that simple, right? The number of students doesn't always reflect the needs of a building. Uh so an assistant principal at the middle
school was something that uh was a need that was removed from this list. An increase in an EL position we have here in the district. We've got one of our EL teachers is a 6 and an increase in that position to a whole position would help us to address uh the needs of our EL
students and help us to meet some of those mandates that we are meeting and will meet with the current budget, but it's something to be mentioned here tonight. Two STEM teachers, you heard tonight about the value of coding and digital literacy and and uh our students
advocated for the needs of that type of program. Again, we did not include that in this budget, but over over time and in coming years, that's something we would be advocating for. Uh, and then the addition of a social studies curriculum leader in particular uh at the elementary level uh to help again
address and prepare our students for something like the civics's action project that you hear about here at the high school, right? So having somebody coordinate the efforts of social studies in the younger grades would uh harness those resources and galvanize our student learning and and help to prepare
them better for when they're obviously moving on. So I just wanted to share those with you tonight. That's a total of $596,300 not reflected in in tonight's budget, but again I felt an obligation to advocate for those positions because they are district needs and they've been
shared with us consistently by administrators, by teachers, and by the students. you heard them tonight. So, thank you for entertaining that part of the presentation. And uh we'll close tonight by asking you to review your budget binders in your spare time. I'm
sure should be plenty of it. Uh but review your budget binders, please. If you have any specific questions in between now and when we meet again next Wednesday, please feel free uh through the chair to forward those questions onto myself and then I can disseminate them to the appropriate person to answer
that question. having the questions in any of those types of questions in advance. We can always read the questions aloud with the responses at next week's meeting in the interest of transparency. But if it's hanging you up from understanding something in the budget book, we implore you to please reach out so that we can we can answer
that. Next week, we will give you a very brief refresher of that overview presentation that you just had. And then we'll get a little bit more granular into each of the buildings and how this money is distributed into each of the buildings and how that impacts the daily service of our students here in the
district. >> Thank you for all of that. If anybody has any questions. No, I'm if I could thank Thank you for setting a goal with a a improved communication, a clear timeline, actually meeting that goal and and
presenting this um very clear thoughtful presentation and all the work that goes into and this is just a reflection of the times to get to level services with almost an 8% increase is is is just evidence to me that students and staff
and and and our resources here with the kids are are at the center of But it certainly reflects challenging times for for the towns but across the Commonwealth. So we have work to do but I appreciate all the work just to get to level services which is sad but the
reality of where we're at. >> Thank you for that acknowledgement. The work that we've done collectively here to to get to this point to present the budget also situates us well for predictive budgeting. Mhm. >> So once we get through this budget cycle and we've made a determination about what happens for the future of the
district, we can start looking to the next 2 and 3 years, right? These capital projects and and uh you know the needs that we've already started to share with you. It makes it a little easier for predictive budgeting. >> And there's a lot of projects. I mean Jack showed me the other day on the
board the list. >> That's a lot of projects. >> You have you have a initial response from the two towns? >> No. Th this presentation is to you to start. >> Go ahead, Tim. >> Oh, go ahead.
>> Courtney was first. >> Um my question was related to the capital project because I noticed um we need a roof at AES and a roof at FES roof market aonquit obviously. Um and actually I just got an email today from
mask saying you know a reminder about the um core program statements of interest and then the accelerated program which I think opens the bannual cycle next year. So do we align these projects and the timing with that grant cycle because I know some things will pop up
>> urgently that we need to take care of and we can't wait but all else being equal we'll try to apply for those grants and work towards that. Yes. Tim. >> Um, my question was about the proposed items not included in the budget. There's a line item for the assistant
principal at the middle school. Um, there is already a slated position in our 26 budget for that. Correct. So, did we cut that in the >> We have one assist we have one assistant principal at FLMS. This would be an addition.
>> Oh, okay. Got it. Thank you. I wasn't Okay, >> any other questions? >> Thank you. And with with that, I I think >> Yeah, I got one more item. >> One more item. >> Uh so um you will also be asked to uh
vote to uh adjust the mileage rate. Uh we have reached the new year. Um and the IRS has identified the new um mileage rate at 72 1.5 cents per mile up from 70 cents per mile. Uh as you recall last
year we we voted or you voted to um to to align it with 70.7 70 cents a mile uh as it had not been voted on in in multiple years is my understanding. So what I'm actually suggesting that is done is that there's a vote not necessar
you can you have two choices. you could vote to just make it 72 1.5 cents and we can do it again next January. There's also an opportunity to just align it with the IRS which changes it each year. So um my suggestion would be obviously to align it so that you can
as tomorrow is promised to no man if should I not be here because I don't make it home tonight you would be taken care of uh from year on and year on. So, um, but in addition to that, um, I would also like to, uh, suggest, and we're going to talk about these things in the future after
we get through budget season, talk about, um, some of our, uh, general financial policies and maybe the policy subcommittee address some of those things that need to be looked at. This would be one of them, for example. Okay,
>> questions. All right, and I will turn things over to Kelly Steel. >> All right, I'm quick tonight. Um, student services, I just like to give an update on um kind of numbers and enrollment in special education um via IEP. So, if you just it's outlined here.
My report is more detailed um that you have copies of in in the drive, but um asit is up 10 students from the beginning of the year. So, my plus numbers are from September's report. Um fees is up 12. Those are the schools I always anticipate to go higher because they are our youngest students. Um and
then FES is up one. FMS the same. The high school I usually anticipate we we usually decline at the high school. Kids um don't qualify. That that's a typical decline. And then out of district I had a student move out of state. So I am down one student in out of district for a total of um plus 17 um from September
to now which gives us 539 students serviced by IEP. And uh my projection at the beginning of this year in September was 563 by the end of the year. And doing the math, I'm kind of right on track for where I think I will hit around that. Never knowing who's going
to qualify and who's not, but looking at trends. Um so that's just a brief numbers overview. And then just a couple um side notes. We did have our um debrief with the Department of Ed uh last week um on uh Thursday afternoon
and um it was an initial report. We can respond. It's not a final report, but I prepare that to be able to respond in February and give you a full report of how we um were evaluated by the state for our three-year cycle and we can give you all that information then. Um but I'm feeling um special ed wise pretty
pretty good about it. Um just as an overview there, >> pretty good is an understatement. >> We'll see. But I feel pretty good about that. Um, and then that's pretty much kind of where we fall at this time. Like I said, I'm just keeping it there and then next month I'll give more of a bigger update on our IMR review. So, any
questions? >> No. Thank you, Kelly. Unless No. Thank you, Kelly. Back to chair to for committee reports. Okay. So, moving on to subcommittee, school committee, subcommittee, and district committee reports. Start with regional finance
committee. >> Mr. Higgins already gave my update. We have a meeting January 29th. >> Great job. Um, intern superintendent's evaluation committee. >> Um, we have a meeting next week to review evidence for uh as we move to the
summitive uh phase of of the evaluation. >> Thank you. Um, wellness committee, we don't have anything, but it has been brought to my attention. Tim, we're going to have to get together on this and um get some dates together so that we can have a meeting for the wellness committee. So, that is up and coming.
Policy committee, >> no updates at this time. >> Capital commit committee. >> No updates. >> Okay. Uh how about the pool subcommittee? >> Um just a quick update. I appreciate your understanding and moving the presentation um that was on the agenda
to um potentially next week or a later date. Uh we are working on a couple of final pieces um to bring back um good and concrete information. Um but I appreciate everyone's effort on the subcommittee um the collaboration um
especially in the recent meetings we've had which have been more frequent. Um I just appreciate everybody's presence and and their diligence in the work that we're doing. So, um, stay tuned, but we're looking to have a full presentation or a an initial
presentation to the full school committee in the very near term. >> Thank you, Tim. Okay, moving on to discussion items. Do we have anything that comes before the committee? Seeing nothing. It's my favorite part, action items.
This is where you guys fire off at me faster than I can say it. Okay, slow and steady. I will entertain a motion to vote to approve the ARHS 2026 2027 program of studies. >> So moved. >> Second.
>> Okay. Hearing a motion and a second. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Oh, any discussion? Sorry, >> no discussion. Okay. Um,
all in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Seeing none, motion passes. Moving on to I will entertain a vote to declare ARHS athletic and presented as surplus. >> So moved.
>> Second. >> Hearing a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Hearing none. Motion passes. I will entertain a vote to declare FMLS
physical education equipment as presented as surplus. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Hearing a motion and a second. Any discussion? >> Yeah, you might you might want to contact Reed's Archery and see if they would they would like them to maybe renovate them and give them to give them
out to kids or something like that. >> We will be sure to do that. >> Thank you. I have some contacts for readies, by the way. Um uh okay. Any discussion? Okay. All in favor say I.
>> I. Any abstensions? >> Any opposition? Hearing none. Motion passes. I'll entertain a vote to align the LFRSD mileage reimbursement rate with the IRS rate. >> So moved. >> Second.
>> Hearing a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? Hearing none. Motion passes. I'll entertain a motion to approve
payroll vendor warrants from 1210 2025 to 12 and 1223 2025. >> So moved. >> Hearing a motion and a second. Any discussion? >> Seeing none, all in favor say I. I >> I
>> Any opposed? Any abstensions? Hearing none. Motion passes. >> Next, I will forgot my word. >> Entertain. >> Entertain. >> I'm tired. This is night three of long meetings. I'll entertain a vote to
approve regular session minutes from 11125 and 1210 2025. >> So moved. >> Second. Okay. Hearing a motion and a second. Any discussion?
>> Um, my only discussion would be I think they're missing the list of exhibits. >> Okay. Once the list of exhibits are added, I think they're good. >> Okay. >> Yep. I'll do that tomorrow. >> Okay. Thank you, Renee. All in favor say I. I.
>> I. Any abstensions? >> Abstain. I'll abstain because I don't think I was here for both of those. Okay. Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion passes. Last but not least, I will entertain a motion to
approve executive session minutes from 1112 2025 and 1210 2025. >> Second. >> Hearing a motion and a second. Any discussion? Um I believe I missed one of those. So
we would have to separate that >> or just >> Okay. So let's do this. >> Um let's first entertain a motion to approve executive >> abstain I guess. Go ahead. >> Okay. We'll entertain a motion to
approve executive session minutes for 112 2025. >> So move second. >> Okay. Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Abstain. >> I.
>> Okay. Any opposed? And two abstensions. >> Okay. Now we will entertain a vote to approve executive session minutes from 1210 2025. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. Hearing a motion and a second. Any discussion on those on that?
>> Seeing none, all in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? >> Abstain. >> Any abstensions? >> And Steve. >> Okay, that being said, it is now >> 87.
>> 07. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> So move. >> Motion passes. All in favor say I. I. >> I. Motion passes.